I am Todd Hewitt, I think to myself with my eyes closed. I am twelve years and twelve months old. I live in Prentisstown on New World. I will be a man in one month’s time exactly.
So who are you then, Todd Hewitt?" he says. "What makes you so special?" Now that, I think, is a very good asking.
A monster, I think, remembering what Ben told me once. War makes Monsters of Men.
Here's what I think," I say and my voice is stronger and thoughts are coming, thoughts that trickle into my noise like whispers of truth. "I think maybe everybody falls," I say. "I think maybe we all do. And I don't think that's the asking." I pull on her arms gently to make sure she's listening. "I think the asking is whether we get back up again.
No," I say firmly. "If you ever doubt anything here, if you ever not know what to think or who to trust, you trust Todd, okay? You remember that.
Men do monstrous things but if you call a man a monster you have absolved yourself of blame. You don't have to think that you might ever do these things. I don't think that's true
Don't think you haven't lived long enough to have a story to tell.
"No," he says, taking us both in. "No, no, no. You've come farther than most people on this planet will in their lifetimes. You've overcome obstacles and dangers and things that should've killed you. You've outrun an army and a madman and deadly illness and seen things most people will never see. How do you think you could have possibly come this far if you didn't have hope?"
But,' he thinks, 'it's possible to die before you die.
You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.
I think maybe everyone falls... I think the asking is whether we get back up again.