It was my tenth birthday and I would have the biggest party ever. The guest list, which I kept at the back of my homework assignment folder, began with a few close friends. But in the two weeks before that special Friday night, it had quickly grown from seven girls to a total of seventeen. Nearly every girl in my fifth grade class had been invited to sleep over at my house for a big celebration. I was especially happy when each guest I invited excitedly accepted the invitation. It would be a night of scary stories, pizza and lots of presents. But as I later realized, I would truly treasure only one gift I received that night.

The family room was a flurry of shouts and bursts of laughter. We had just finished a game of Twister and were lining up for the limbo when the doorbell rang. I hardly paid attention to who might be at the door. What did it matter, really? Everyone I liked from school was there, in my family room, preparing to lean under the stick held by my two sisters.

“Judy, come here for a minute,” Mom called from the front door.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged to my friends as if to say, “Now who would dare bother me at a time like this?” What I really wanted to say was: It's tough being popular!

I rounded the bend toward the front door, then stopped. I knew my mouth dropped open and I could feel my face turning red, for there on the front porch stood Sarah Westley-the quiet girl who sat next to me in music class and she was holding a gift.

I thought about the growing list in the back of my assignment folder. How had I forgotten to invite Sarah?

I remembered that I only added a name to the list when someone had shown an interest in me. But Sarah had never done that. Never once had she asked me about my birthday party. Never once did she squeeze into the circle of kids surrounding me at lunch time. And once she even helped me carry my backpack while I dragged my science project to our third floor classroom.

I guess I had forgotten to invite her simply because she wasn’t pushing to be invited.

I stood there with Sarah’s gift in my hands and an empty feeling in my heart.

The Cupboard (橱柜)

Jack stood next to his tall silent grandmother and watched his parents drive off, leaving him behind. The dusty car disappeared down the dark road into a mass of trees, mostly pines. The pine trees, in Jack’s eyes, looked so strange, like huge green teeth.

He looked up at his grandmother. Her skin was the color of the tree trunk (树干), dark and rough. Her hair was black and white, as if it couldn’t decide which color it wanted to be.

“You don’t talk much, Grandma, ” Jack said.

“You don’t visit much, Jack, ” Grandma replied.

They stood staring at each other for a while until Grandma said, “Come with me. ” Jack followed her to a shed(小屋) behind her home. Jack remembered it was where he and his sister Sissy played for days during their last visit to Grandma. But now Sissy needed an operation in hospital, and Jack had to stay here alone for a few days.

They went inside. The shed was filled with all sorts of odds and ends. Grandma pointed to a small wooden cupboard with “Jack” painted on it in bright-green letters.

“Yours, ”she said.

Jack knelt down. He opened the two drawers of it. Empty. He opened the two doors and saw two empty shelves. The whole cupboard was empty. He looked up at Grandma, not understanding.

“It’s yours to fill, ” she said. “The cupboard stays here, but it belongs to you. No one else. Come along, now. ”

Jack closed the cupboard doors and followed Grandma, wondering what would happen next. She took him down a path that wound through the woods. The path led to a small stream (小溪). She looked at Jack.

“Look and listen, ” she said, then closed her eyes and smiled. Her smile reminded Jack of his mother.

Jack walked around slowly, looking and listening. His nose felt something sweet, and he started sniffing (嗅). The smell was fresh, and was from the pine trees. There were lovely pinecones (松果) and tiny rocks of different shapes on the ground. The wind coming through the trees brought the sound of the running water in the stream, sounding like music. The pine trees no longer looked like dark-green teeth. Jack felt his face stretch into a smile.

“Maybe it’s time to start filling your cupboard?” Grandma opened her eyes and asked.

From the day Tony was born, Jeff refused to let his son’s disabilities hold him back. Tony has cerebral palsy (脑瘫), making it difficult for him to walk. Determined to show Tony that he could pursue his dream of being an athlete, when he was 15 years old, Jeff signed him up with Team Triumph, an organization that helps kids with disabilities engage in endurance sports.

“It gave me a new perspective on life, Tony said. He even dreamed of walking marathon one day. From then on, Tony became addicted to racing, and Jeff also wanted to be a part of it. Though Jeff had been a minor league baseball player, endurance (耐力) sports were new to him. He made up his mind to achieve Tony’s dream and started doing things he never dreamed about. He began waking up at 4 a. m. So he could run in the silent street while pushing Tony in a special wheelchair called a racing chair. Every morning, he drove himself to run increasingly longer distances. Soon, he and Tony were entering 5K races, then on to Iron-man triathlons.

Finishing the Iron-man competition in under 16 hours would be another dream for Jeff and Tony. The big day came. The race began with a 2.4-mile swim in the river. Jeff helped Tony into a kayak (皮船). With one end of a rope tied to a belt around his back and the other end to the kayak, Jeff eased himself into the water. Swimming while dragging another person is quite tough. The pair completed the swim in 90 minutes, and then it was on to the next leg; a 112-mile bicycle ride. Their custom-built bike had an additional seat in the back for Tony that faced backward.

After completing the demanding bike part in roughly nine hours, they set their sights on the final leg of the race-a 26.2-mile marathon with Jeff pushing Tony in the racing chair. They’d been competing for 10 hours, with only 6 hours left for the race. The first 7 miles went smoothly.

But at mile 19, Jeff began to worry they were going too slow.

Jeff handed Tony his rolling walker (助行器).