Chapter 2

While Gene and Finny were out on the limb, Gene lost his balance, and Finny helped him regain it.

We were standing on a limb, I a little farther out than Finny. I turned to say something else, some stalling remark, something to delay even a few seconds more, and then I realized that in turning I had begun to lose my balance. There was a moment of total, impersonal panic, and then Finny’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm, and with my balance restored, the panic immediately disappeared.

Later in the evening, Gene realized that he might have broken his back..... that Finny might just have saved his life.

It was only after dinner, when I was on my way alone to the library, that the full danger I had brushed on the limb shook me again. If Finny hadn’t come up right behind me … if he hadn’t been there … I could have fallen on the bank and broken my back! if I had fallen awkwardly enough I could have been killed. Finny had practically saved my life.