Crackback by John Coy

stands and haul your ass out of there.”
    â€œOkay.” I look at the laces of my shoes. Please let this end.
    â€œDon’t forget.” Dad storms into the house.

chapter thirteen
    I don’t want to be around when Dad’s like this, so I walk downtown. He’s always exploding. He takes something small and makes it huge. Why do I just stand there and take it? I cross over to Crescent to avoid going by the paint store. I don’t want to see it.
    Not much is happening downtown. Not much ever does. A woman in a flowery hat looks at romance novels outside the used bookstore. Drivers of matching PT Cruisers honk at the bank drive-through. Who’d drive a PT Cruiser? They look stupid.
    The library overlooks the spot where the rivers come together. The AC will feel good, and I’ve got something to look up.
    At the computer, I type my library card number and Google “Dianaball.” Sounds like a girl’s name.
    It is. Diana Ball’s a wrestler from Finland who’s into weight lifting. That’s not what I want.
    I scroll down and click on Dianabol, the steroid. Up pops a picture of the pink pills. “Dianabol is an anabolic steroid used to produce rapid weight gain.”
    â€œG ET H UGE AND S HREDDED IN N O T IME ” flashes the banner. “Guaranteed to add fifteen pounds of pure muscle inthree weeks.” What football player wouldn’t want that? It takes months of weight lifting to gain muscle. I’d love to speed it up. I’d look better for girls, too.
    A box pops up for a free issue of the magazine
Testosterone Extra
. I type in my name and address and click the send button.
    Another site describes “stacking,” using multiple steroids for maximum growth. Charts show recommended dosages and schedules. “C LICK H ERE FOR H OME D ELIVERY .” It’s that easy?
    When I go to sites that are not selling steroids, though, the information is different. “Steroids, which are artificial means to increase testosterone, may cause health problems. These include liver damage, cancer, shrinking testicles, reduced sperm count, severe acne, and impotence.”
    Zach didn’t mention any of this. With that list of side effects, it’s odd that the one I focus on is severe acne. Maybe because I’ve got bad skin. Impotence sounds bad, too. I don’t want that.
    When my computer time’s up, I log off. Then I remember my homework for Halloran’s class. The librarian at the reference desk looks helpful. “Do you have information on the Middle Passage?”
    â€œThat’s not a request we get often.” She glances up from her screen. “You’re the second person to ask today.”Silver flashes in her mouth as she talks. She’s got a tongue stud. “Is this for a class?”
    â€œYes. Who else asked?”
    â€œA tall girl with dark curly hair, green eyes.”
    Sounds like Lucia.
    â€œHere’s the section number for books.” The librarian hands me a slip. Does a stud like that hurt? “You can also check the Internet and the holdings of other libraries on the combined catalog. We can have books sent from any library in the state.”
    â€œThanks.”
    I search the library, but Lucia’s not here. I sit down at a table and begin looking at books. “The crossing between Africa and the Americas was called the Middle Passage. Over four centuries, millions of Africans were captured and shipped to North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Exact numbers are not known, but estimates are that thirty to sixty million Africans were taken from their homeland. As many as twenty to forty million people died on the way to ships or crossing the ocean. Only one-third, approximately ten to twenty million, reached the New World.”
    Thirty to sixty million people taken as slaves is so overwhelming that it’s impossible for me to get my mind around the number. But then I read something