Heartbeat

In “Infinitely Joey,” Annie reflects on her new brother Joey’s birth. She wonders how this baby will become a person, and who they will become, and how she and everyone she knows started the same way. Annie watches her grandfather sleeping while holding Joey and feels sad that he is at the end of his life. When Max meets her on a run, he is clearly upset about his race. Annie excitedly shares the news of her new brother, to which Max responds dismissively.

Annie manages to convince a reluctant Max to come meet her baby brother. She leaves Max with the baby and her grandfather. When she returns, she sees that her grandfather has gifted Max his old running shoes. As he leaves, Max tells her that her grandfather had told him a secret about running. Annie asks her grandpa what the secret was, and he tells her that she already knows it: “Run for the pleasure of running” (180). Annie finds an anonymous gift in her locker: colored pencils and drawing pencils. Knowing it must be from Max, she casually brings up the gift on their run, but Max pretends not to know anything about it.