Avalanche Dance Read Online Free PDF

stump chairs at the table. The bag of chips is open. They’re taking chips out of the bag one at a time, holding them up to the candlelight, turning them this way and that, with looks of wonder on their faces as if they’ve never seen a chip before.
    “So yellow … like really, really yellow …” Tony says.
    “And pebbly,” Nikki adds, running her fingers over the surface of the one in her hand.
    “Should we eat one?” Tony says, and Nikki nods. They each stuff a chip into their mouths and chew slowly, eyes wide asthey stare at each other. It seems to take them forever to finish chewing. Finally Tony says, “Crunchy!”
    “Salty.”
    They reach into the bag for more chips and hold them up to the candlelight again.
    I laugh out loud.
    Nikki and Tony look at me in surprise. Then they grin and start laughing with me. I twirl around, flinging out my arms to take everyone in. “You guys are the greatest!”
    “You too,” Crystal says, still doing her seaweed dance. “Especially for getting us this cabin.”
    Zach looks up. “Yeah,” he agrees with a grin.
    “You can get it anytime, right?” Tony asks.
    I drop my arms. “And if not, am I out of the club?” There’s a bit of edge in my voice.
    A second of silence, and then Zach laughs. “Of course not, don’t be stupid.”
    I laugh too. “I knew that. I was just kidding.”
    “Hey, why don’t we make it a club for real?” Gretchen asks. “The … the Party Club.”
    “Lame,” Tony says. “The Pot and Booze Club.”
    “And mushrooms,” Crystal puts in. “Don’t forget the mushrooms.”
    “The ZNCMGT Club,” Nikki says, mashing our initials together in one guttural sound.
    “Gesundheit,” Tony says, and we all shriek with laughter.
    Zach opens the second mickey. Even Crystal indulges and weaves around tipsily. Tony changes the CD, putting on the Puff Adders, another screeching metal band with hammering drumbeats.
    “You really like that scorching guitar, don’t you?” I shout.
    In response, Tony plays air guitar, jumping up and down like a crazed metalhead, nodding his head furiously, his black hair flying up and down. This makes me laugh so hard I nearly pee. I run outside and squat in the snow. I stay outside for a few minutes, looking at the shadow of that tall hemlock and remembering when it was Gwen’s and my tepee.
    When I come back inside, things are quieter. Everybody’s reached that point where you feel too dazed and slow to do or say much of anything. Everybody sits or sways or stands for a minute, and then Nikki says, “I’m cold.”
    “Me too,” Crystal says. “Let’s start a fire.”
    “Yeah, let’s,” Gretchen says.
    I’m cold too – the sweat I built up earlier is drying, and it really is chilly in the cabin – and I’m about to join the chorus, but a memory stops me. Gwen and I must have been nine or ten. We’d smuggled a bag of marshmallows out to the cabin – even though I was usually the ringleader, this was
her
idea; marshmallows were a forbidden treat since her mom was such a health-food freak. We’d started a fire in the woodstove, speared marshmallows on long sticks, and managed to roast a couple of them to perfectly charred blobs in the open firebox, when Bridget burst into the cabin.
    “What do you girls think you’re doing!” she shrieked.
    Gwen blanched, trying to hide her sticky mouth, thinking she was in trouble over the marshmallows. Instead, Bridget poked the flaming chunks of wood apart and slammed the firebox door shut.
    “You must never, ever start a fire in here without a grown-up!” she yelled. “It’s not safe. This old woodstove was worn-out when we got it.” She grabbed each of us by the arm. “Do you hear me?”
    “Yes,” we both said, lips trembling.
    She hugged us to her, then sat with us until the fire was completely out.
    Now, I say, “I don’t know, guys. I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”
    “But I’m really cold,” Nikki says. “Look at me, my teeth