As I entered my home, I had noticed that my father's pick-up was parked outside when he should still be in Washington. However, I had not taken it in until I was all the way into the kitchen. I found my whole family seated at the dining table and on the couch staring at me, neither eating nor watching television. All of a sudden, my mother started crying and my father put his arm awkwardly around her. May Belle then said, "I tolja he just gone off somewhere." She said it quietly and stubbornly as though she had repeated often and no one had believed her.

Then, Brenda told me the weirdest and most nonsensical thing I had ever heard in my life in her pouting voice-that Leslie was dead. My father then explained to me that the rope we had been swinging on broke as Leslie was trying to enter Terabithia, causing Leslie to suffer a concussion as she fell and hit her head. Thus, she drowned in the creek. As nonsensical it may seem, I admit that I was quite shocked at the news and told my family that it could not be true. My father apologised to me but I looked straight at May Belle who was the only one looking up that Leslie was not dead and ran out of the house. My father chased after me in his pick-up and carried me home. I went straight to my bed and must have fallen asleep.

In the middle of the night, I jerked awake. I thought about the news I had just received and my reaction to it. I felt that what I did after receiving the news was quite silly. I should not have overreacted. Leslie could not die any more than I myself could die. If I went to look for Leslie at her house, she would answer the door with Prince Terrien beside her and they would enter Terabithia at night for the first time. I thought of how I would apologise about not inviting her to Washington this morning and how she would answer. Strange enough, my stomach could not help feeling cold. Maybe it is just my imagination but I had better not think about Leslie for now and go down to apologise to her first thing in the morning.