Runner

Fiction by Carl Deuker
Reviewed by Hillahn S.
Not in the NVHS Collection as of this post


Chance Taylor worries about things kids his age don’t usually worry about. He worries about the mortgage fees, the food bills, the gas bills, the rent, and with a dad who’s a drunk and can’t hold a job for over a week these things just wont go away with wishful thinking. Chance’s dad also has a reputation for being the biggest coward alive. He got kicked out of the army and for most of the time he is smoking or dead drunk. Chance’s mom and dad got a divorce and legally Chance was supposed to live with his mom and stay with his dad over the weekends, but one day when his mom was supposed to come pick him up after a long boring weekend she never came. His dad took him to the flat that she used to live in and found it empty. She had left without warning and the only thing left of her was a note that said “it will only be for a little while” (Runner pg 27).

Chance didn’t know how he would survive. He got a job washing dishes for a restaurant but the pay is not enough to keep them afloat. One day when he was finishing one of his daily runs and had just gotten out of the shower a fat man came up to him, asking him if he would like to make some easy cash. At first Chance denied the offer of the money because it was too easy, all he had to do was run by a bunch of trees and search for packages that someone would drop off for him. He would then take them to his locker and leave them there. Chance knew that his new job was illegal but what could he do? He needed the money and his dad seemed to be finally starting to pick up his pace. Then one day the fat man came up to him and told him about another twist that would be added to his job. Whenever there was a package that felt weird or different he had to take it to his boat and store it in a safe place until further notice. Things seemed to be going well for a while until someone began to discover that smuggling was going on near the dock. They told the police and the police came and began to check the boats. That was the last straw for Chance. He made up his mind to tell the fat man that he was going to quit, that he did not want to feel like everyone was looking for him and that everywhere he turned he was being watched. However the fat man had other ideas for Chance. He refused to let him go and threatened him that he would be hunted down and things would happen to both of them that were not good. Then one day there was a huge car crash and the newspaper came out with a story about a fat man who had apparently committed suicide by driving his car over the barriers around the harbor. Chance was off the hook. There was no one who knew about him and his job except for the fat man and nobody would ever expect him. All except for his dad. The safe place where he had stored all his packages was also his dads army cupboard where he kept all his medals and awards. One day Chance came home from school and found all fourteen packages laid out on the table. His dad asked him what they were and he told him that he had no clue which was true because the fat man had told him next to nothing. Chances dad figured out that in the packages were explosives that terrorist were going to use to blow up nearby cities. Chance was told to run and tell the police and then to come right back. After Chance told the police they got into a helicopter and flew over the bay to find the Chances boat which had suddenly disappeared. When they saw it, it was too late. Chance’s dad had run full tilt into the trade boat that had smuggled the explosives into the country killing both himself and all the packages that would have killed thousands of people if they had not been disposed of.

I loved this book because it shows that there are more ways of being a hero then joining the army and leaving the country to fight in Iraq and other foreign places. You don’t need to be all important with a lot of military training and information; you can just be like Chance’s dad who was willing to sacrifice himself to save thousand of people in his home country. I would recommend this book to any age group or to any personality. It fits just about everyone and makes people realize that they can all be heroes and stand up for their freedom and rights.