The Boy Who Gave Up the Race to Save His Rival

through the soles.

One lace had snapped months earlier, and Marcus had replaced it with a strip of gray cord from a broken window blind.

The shoes looked like they had survived a small war with the sidewalk.

But when Marcus ran, something changed.

His shoulders dropped.

His face loosened.

The world, for a little while, stopped pressing on him.

He did not continue reading …