"The teacher helped her put the cap back on, then we finished the spelling test and did some fingerpainting, and after school that day Nick Veenhof and I walked her home." -pg. 223
Nick picks on Linda's cap until he pulls it off and realizes she is sick. Only then does he treat her kindly, after he's already hurt her. Why can't we just start out treating people with kindness? Everyone has some kind of battle that they are fighting, emotional or physical. It seems almost like a human instinct to put people down to make ourselves look better. Nick didn't know she had cancer, only that she wore a funny looking hat. If he would have asked her about it, he could have walked her home earlier and maybe made a new friend. My friend's neice was only a year younger than us and liked to hang out. She had a reputation for stealing, so we never wanted to go shopping with her and we always guarded our purses like our lives depended on it. After she died of leukemia this summer, I regretted everytime I turned down an offer to go with her somewhere. I thought of how maybe she would have never stolen anything with me. Now, I wish I would have had the opportunity to "walk her home" earlier, as I'm sure Nick did.
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