It was three years ago when my dad lost it. When the liquor made him meaner than he’d ever been. Every other night he would become a different person, like he’d morph into someone crazy, but this one night my mother decided to finally fight back. This one night everything went worse. I had my head sandwiched between the mattress and my pillow, something I got used to doing whenever they were going at it, when my mom crashed into my bedroom.
“We gotta go,” she said, yanking the covers off the bed. And when I didn’t move fast enough, she yelled, “Come on!”
Although Reynolds begins the book by introducing the reader to the casual, joking voice of narrator Castle Cranshaw, it isn't long before the tone switches and Castle relates the harrowing experience that resulted in his father's imprisonment. In this passage, Castle explains how one of the usual fights between his mother and his alcoholic father became especially heated. Unable to simply put his head under his pillow and ignore the shouting, Castle and his mother had to flee the house to escape Castle's father, who begins shooting in their direction. This traumatic event is significant because Castle considers it to be, for all its negative emotional and psychological consequences, the genesis of his talent for sprinting, as he had no choice but to run for his life.
“Castle Cranshaw,” I said, then quickly clarified, “But everybody calls me Ghost.” By everybody, I meant nobody except me. That was my self-given nickname. Well, halfway self-given. The night me and Ma busted into Mr. Charles’s store, Mr. Charles looked at us like he was looking at two ghosts. Like he didn’t recognize us, probably because of how scared we both must’ve looked. So I just started calling myself that.
When introducing himself to the Defenders, Castle dubs himself "Ghost," the nickname he has chosen for himself. While the name conjures images of ethereal forms traveling quickly and beyond the bounds of reality, the speedy-sounding nickname actually has its origins in the traumatic night Castle and his mother had to run for their lives to escape Castle's violent father. Upon seeking refuge with Mr. Charles, Castle was told he looked like a ghost, a result of the shock and dissociation of the domestic crisis. Significantly, Castle doesn't deny Mr. Charles's assessment, choosing instead to embrace it as a new component of his identity.
Where I live. Where I live. When anyone ever asks about where I live, I get weird because people always treat you funny when they find out you stay in a certain kind of neighborhood. But I was used to people treating me funny. When your clothes are two sizes too big, and you got on no-name sneakers, and your mother cuts your hair and it looks like your mother cuts your hair, you get used to people treating you funny. So what’s one more person?
The day Castle shows off his sprinting talent by matching Lu's performance in a race, Coach Brody drives him home, hoping to speak with Castle's mother about Castle joining the team. In this passage, Castle comments on the awkwardness of telling people he lives in Glass Manor. By "certain kind of neighborhood," Castle euphemistically refers to the neighborhood's reputation as low-income and high-crime. Alongside the fact of where he lives there are his ill-fitting clothing and home haircuts, all of which people use as ammunition to judge or tease Castle for being poor—treating him "funny." With no power to change these facts of his life, Castle must resign himself to who he is, and figures there's no harm in one more person knowing where he comes from. However, Castle is unaware at this point in the novel that Coach Brody happens to have grown up on the same block as Castle.
Either way, one thing is for sure: that was the night I learned how to run. So when I was done sitting at the bus stop in front of the gym, and came across all those kids on the track at the park, practicing, I had to go see what was going on, because running ain’t nothing I ever had to practice. It’s just something I knew how to do.
After detailing the harrowing episode when his father "lost it" and shot at him and his mother, Castle concludes the story by saying that he learned how to run out of a need to run for his life. This natural proficiency for running makes Castle skeptical of the kids who "practice" running as members of a track team. To Castle, running is just something he does, and he finds it ridiculous that people would try to train at it. However, Castle will soon learn that the discipline of training—along with some humility—is necessary for true athletes to hone their talents and achieve greater success.
“What were you thinking telling those people I’m your uncle? Do you know that’s probably against the law? I’m not sure if it is or isn’t but it probably is, and if it is, you got me out here committing crimes. I’ve known you for one day. One day! And I just kidnapped you!”
The day after they meet, Castle gets Coach Brody to pose as his uncle and pick him up from school for a one-day suspension. In this passage, the coach scolds Castle for being so bold as to put him in a position where he has likely broken the law. Significantly, however, the coach doesn't tell Castle's mother about the suspension or the fake-uncle business, as the coach is invested in developing Castle's natural talent as a sprinter. Instead of snitching on him, the coach punishes Castle by making him spend the afternoon running drills that will both make him a better athlete and make him think twice before asking the coach to collect him from school.
“I ain’t saying that. I’ve definitely been scared of somebody before. Real scared,” I added, thinking about how loud a gun sounds when it’s fired in a small room. “That’s how come I know how to run so fast. But now, the only person I’m scared of, other than my mother . . . I mean, like, I do things I know ain’t cool, but even though I know they ain’t cool, like beating on Brandon, all of a sudden I’m doing it anyway, y’know? So I guess . . . I guess the only other person I’m really scared of, maybe . . . is me.”
Besides making Castle run drills all afternoon, Coach Brody uses their one-on-one time during Castle's suspension to get to know his new runner better. In this exchange, Reynolds shows how a sense of trust is building. Although Castle isn't ready to share the full story of his father's violent episode, he hints at it by saying there was a time he was "real scared" of somebody. Significantly, the coach's prompting leads Castle to consider how the person he is most afraid of is himself. By this, Castle means he fears his own tendency to lose his cool and erupt in anger and violence, just as his father used to do.
“What did you think it would do for me?” I asked, realizing that he never thought it could help me dunk by next year. Realizing I didn’t even really want to play basketball anymore. He faced me again, looking straight in my eyes.
“Show you that you can’t run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.”
Toward the end of the novel, after Coach Brody discovers that Castle stole his running shoes from Everything Sports, the two argue about the coach's real interest in developing Castle's talent. The coach initially convinced Castle that track could help him become a better basketball player, but now Castle realizes he was lying: he never intended for Castle to return to basketball. Referring back to an earlier statement, the coach explains that he was invested in Castle's track running because he knows the sport can help him become a more disciplined, confident, and whole person. Having come from similarly dysfunctional circumstances, the coach understands better than anyone the power of track to put at-risk kids such as Castle on a path toward self-fulfillment.
What do they call criminal records? Not criminal records. They call them something else. Rap sheets? Yeah, that’s it, rap sheets, which is such a dumb name because it makes me think of rap music, like maybe a rap sheet is what rappers write their rhymes down on. But yeah, rap sheets. I got one of those. Not a real one, though, one that real criminals have, nah. I got a school rap sheet, but in school they call it a “file.” I got a file. And even though I’ve never actually seen it, it has to be pretty big, because I’m always being sent down to the principal’s office, or put in detention, or suspended for shutting people down for talking smack.
After joining the Defenders, Castle starts Chapter 2 by explaining his record of misbehavior at school. As a condition of staying on the track team, Castle must do his homework and stay out of trouble at school. However, as much as he would like to be well-behaved, Castle tends to lose control and act out, sometimes violently, getting into scraps with other students who "push him" to the edge. This passage is significant because it introduces the major conflict facing Castle: in order to be part of a team, he has to reform his behavior.
“That’s you smelling like flowers?” Coach asked Patty.
“Nope, that’s pretty boy back there,” she said.
“Who, Lu?” Coach adjusted his mirror.
“No, the other one,” Patty said, talking about me. I couldn’t even believe she called me pretty boy. I squeezed my cheeks to crush my smile. And before Coach or Lu could say something slick, Patty added, “I like it. Smells good.”
On their way to the newbie dinner, the coach and Patty discuss the perfume of his mother's that Castle has put on. When Patty calls Castle "pretty boy," Castle is caught off-guard and needs to suppress his inclination to smile. With this minor exchange, Reynolds sows the seeds for a crush or romance between Castle and Patty that may grow in the subsequent novels that comprise the Track series.
And the conversation for the rest of the night was pretty much all about the Olympics. Coach didn’t really say too much more about it. It was mainly just us talking about what it must’ve been like and all that. But I was glad that we were off my secret—it was like I had never even said anything about what happened with my dad, even though I did. I did. And it seemed like everybody at the table cared and didn’t care at the same time. And that made me feel, for the first time, like I was one of them. ... And it felt good to feel like one of the teammates. Like I was there—really, really there—as me, but without as much scream inside.
Following the trust exercise the coach makes the newbies take part in, Castle is surprised to find that revealing the secret of his father's dysfunction has left him feeling at peace. Rather than have the others treat him differently, they treat him as though he hasn't even said anything, and yet he nonetheless senses that they care about him and what he has been through. This passage is significant because it shows Castle using many words to explain something simple: he feels he can trust his teammates. With this new camaraderie, Castle feels less isolated within himself. With a foundation of trust and respect among each other, the athletes can perform better on the track, knowing they are supported and encouraged by their teammates.
