Bridge to Terabithia

by Katherine Paterson

The coldness inside of him had moved upward into his throat constricting it. He swallowed several times. It occurred to him that he probably had cancer of the throat. Wasn’t that one of the seven deadly signs? Difficulty in swallowing. He began to sweat. He didn’t want to die. Lord, he was just ten years old. He had hardly begun to live.