Today is the big day. Today I'll make my stand. I never cared about ribbons or any of that before, but now it's like the biggest thing in my life. It's like my mission. I'll state my case in a way that people will understand. Once I point things out to them, once I show them how I'm thinking, they'll get it. They'll come around. They'll see what I see. It won't be a big deal anymore that I took those ribbons off my car, because people will understand my point of view. Last night, Flip made it sound like I would need an alibi for whatever he and the Council had planned. And now, on the way to school, I see why. About a jillion years ago, Brookdale started building a bridge on the outskirts of town. No one can tell me what the bridge was for, but it was never finished. There are still two giant iron supports out in the middle of a field, though, like tombstones for the idea of the bridge. You grow up in Brookdale and you hear "Don't you go playing around the bridge" (even though it's not a bridge) a million times, and then you go and do it anyway.
