Add on to the story i’m not like most girls. by that i mean, i don’t clean, run errands, or stand around with somebody in my face doing a lot of talking. i much rather just knock you down and take my chances even if i am a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, which is how i got the name squeaky. and if things get too rough, i run. and as anybody can tell you, i’m the fastest thing on two feet. there is no track meet that i don’t win the first-place medal. i used to win the twenty-yard dash when i was a little kid in kindergarten. nowadays, it’s the fiftyyard dash. and tomorrow i’m subject to run the quarter-meter relay all by myself and come in first, second, and third. the big kids call me mercury cause i’m the swiftest thing in the neighborhood. everybody knows that—except two people who know better, my father and me. he can beat me to amsterdam avenue with me having a two-fire-hydrant headstart and him running with his hands in his pockets and whistling. but that’s private information. so as far as everyone’s concerned, i’m the fastest and that goes for gretchen, too, who has put out the tale that she is going to win the first-place medal this year. ridiculous. in the second place, she’s got short legs. in the third place, she’s got freckles. in the first place, no one can beat me and that’s all there is to it. the day of the race, gretchen stared at me from across the starting line.