A Human Element Read Online Free PDF

a soft glow. They licked with hungry abandon through the old bedspread until Frank's image blurred. Why didn't Frank wake up? But he looked so serene, so harmless. Ben felt free and safe seeing him like that.
    And he knew. He had to live. He wanted to live.
    He ran.

CHAPTER 5: 1991
     
    Laura pumped her bicycle so fast her legs burned like the rising sun along the empty road. Summer spilled all around her as the sky grew lighter, casting long shadows across her path. She had slipped out of the house just as the birds woke up. They called to her as she sped along. Hurry, hurry, Laura ! She chugged up and down hills.
    She spun down the narrow entrance road to the grassy parking area and bumped along the uneven ruts that had been there as long as she could remember. Once she reached the birch logs that stretched across the grass marking the parking area, she threw her bicycle down and pulled off her backpack.
    She unzipped the sagging, worn bag and brought out the knotty old blanket she always carried with her. She never knew when she might need it. She could find herself drawn through thick woods to where a window opened onto a glorious field of soft blowing grasses. Then, she would glide through the golden rushes and rest amongst nature's soft noise to stare at blue skies.
    It was magical how a field came to be in the middle of the woods, a bare, open plain encased by uneven and roaming rock walls. Maybe it was a magical meadow that appeared just as she came upon it and disappeared when she left. She loved the movie Brigadoon about a town in Scotland appearing one day every one-hundred years. The town stayed the same while the world changed around it in a flash.
    She spread out her blanket on the grass and sat cross-legged, facing the lake with her notebook and pen in hand, waiting for the sun to hit the water. She wanted to capture in words the beauty of the summer morning all around her. The sun burst out of the treetops and shot shimmering jewels across the water. Laura shielded her eyes and her heart leaped with a thrill. She had made it just in time.
    The cool morning air blew off the water and embraced her. She closed her eyes for just a second to feel the warmth of the sun on her face, but instead a slobbery snout nudged her cheeks and hair.
    "Hey," she shouted in surprise and scrambled up to find an old, chocolate Labrador sniffing her legs. He had white whiskers around his jaw and a pleading, sad look. He instantly became her friend. She fell back down on her knees and wiggled his ears.
    "Where'd you come from?" Laura scratched his head. "You're so cute!"
    She laughed as he tickled her with his nose.
    "Scooter," a gruff voice called. "Come here, boy."
    Laura looked up to see a trim, old man whacking through the brush in the woods. It had to be the hermit people talked about. She had seen him from afar, with his gray cap, but never up close. The old man twitched, startled to see her there with his dog. He stopped a few feet away from her. He didn't look like a hermit but a nice, normal grandpa dressed in jeans and a green plaid shirt. He leaned on a crooked, black walking stick. He looked in good shape for an old geezer.
    "Scooter, come here, boy," he called again, but the dog remained entranced by Laura.
    "He's so sweet." She nuzzled the dog's head and smiled at the old man.
    He scrunched his eyebrows down as if to get a better look at her. "He took off on me."
    "Maybe he knew I would be here and wanted to make friends."
    Scooter jumped up with a woof and put his paws on her as if in agreement.
    "See?" Laura laughed. "Scooter. What a cool name. Are you fast like a scooter?"
    " Hmph , not anymore." The old man moved toward her and whistled to get the dog's attention. "Well, come on Scooter, leave the girl alone. Let's get home."
    Laura stood up. "But you didn't ask me my name and I don't know yours either."
    The old man frowned, taken off guard by her directness. "It's Jim Barrens."
    "I'm Laura Armstrong. I'm eleven."