Reading Response 2

     In the book I am reading, The Ring of Sky, there is a boy named Benkei who is helping Jack and his group to Nagasaki. Since Jack is a fugitive, this is a big deal. If they are caught, Benkei would almost certainly be killed along with the group. Here's my point: the only original fugitive was Jack. His friends got into trouble by HELPING him. It seems like, in almost every book in this series, there is someone like Benkei who is willing to help a complete stranger, who also happens to be an outlaw.
     I think that in the real world, there are far fewer people like Benkei than we think. We all want to be able to say that if one of our friends was in trouble, we would be brave and courageous and help them get along to safety. They might not even have to be a friend. Well, I have a second-degree black belt in Tae-Kwon-Doe, and access to a samurai sword, but that doesn't mean that I'll aid and abed fugitives, whoever they are, when DEATH is the punishment for getting caught.  Did I mention that the Emperor has pretty much the entire army out looking for these people? So there's a pretty high chance of that. What I'm trying to say is that the likely-hood of Jack running into someone like this, who is willing to risk life and limb, in almost every book, is just unrealistic.