Four Three Two One by Courtney Stevens recounts the story of four young adults, all unique in their idiosyncrasies as they board Charter Bus 21 in New York City on June 15 bound for Ellis Island: Chandler Clayton is allergic to sudden changes but artistic with a sketch pad or a chain saw and logs; 金 Jennings is eager to explore the world beyond the towering oaks and billowing blue grass of Kentucky with her vintage No. 3柯达; 鲁迪 Guthrie is a talented soccer athlete and a writer who has just won a scholarship to Emerson College in Boston; 和卡洛琳 Ascott from a wealthy wine-making family has goals to attend college and to write a book but is trapped in a toxic relationship with Simon Westwood. These four teens are also survivors of strange atrocities who now measure their lives with Before the Explosion of Bus 21 and After, hoping to keep living a full life with a damaged past rather than living a bomb-damaged life.
When the four are invited to the opening of a memorial by Carter Stockton—a New York medic who decided to craft the remnants of Charter Bus #21 into a life-size art installment called Accelerant Orange and to start a college fund for the survivors—the invitation sets in motion a plethora of mixed feelings, 问题, 和混乱.
Just as the explosion forever changed the lives of Chandler, 鲁迪, 金, 和卡洛琳, the story of the bus—its twenty dead and four survivors—climbs inside Carter Stockton and starts telling itself in the form of Accelerant Orange. Through Stockton’s efforts, readers understand that although a stranger can rob us of something precious, another half million will try to give it back.
On their individual journeys to healing, the damaged teens learn that while stories can heal, they are also thieves—stealing perspective, 和平, 和勇气. 金 declares that “part of [her] brain from June 15 is an Andy Warhol painting and part is spray painted black” (169) because of lost memories. Chandler refuses to speak about the event, Caroline is considering suicide, and 鲁迪 is learning to navigate in a wheelchair. All four are consumed with guilt, wondering about the butterfly effect and whether their individual actions may have contributed to the ultimate chain of events. 玩 如果 and focusing on what has been lost not only has immobilizing effects but keeps their wounds bleeding. Perhaps making the trip back to New York for the ceremonial opening of Accelerant Orange will enable them not only to confront their fears and release their anger but to find closure and 宽恕.
This poignant story about a tragic 汽车炸弹袭击, the relative 弹性 of youth, and the need for 宽恕 and 希望 also shares other valuable human truths about this “wicked, 疯狂的, wonderful world” (40) in which we live:
- In dissecting anger, one often finds fear.
- Although being grounded provides a certain sense of security, it also prevents exploration and possible fulfillment.
- “When a hobby is tied to your heart, part of you is hooked in that space forever” (61).
- “There’s no way to Xerox a feeling. There was only telling someone the story and letting them apply their lens” (71).
- “Your role will always be. . . the role you tell yourself. So, please, dear God, tell yourself a better story” (358).
- “Sometimes weird people are more normal than you’d think” (367).
- Posted by 唐娜