Chasing the Bear Read Online Free PDF

me,” I said.
    “My father is so awful,” she said.
    “Yes,” I said.
    “When I said ‘help’ to you in the car, I was thinking maybe you’d get your father or one of your uncles.”
    “Wish I had,” I said.
    “Why didn’t you?”
    “No time,” I said. “If I lost contact with you, I wouldn’t have known where to look.”
    She nodded.
    “I think you are very brave,” she said.
    “I’d feel braver if I wasn’t so scared,” I said.
    “Maybe he won’t follow us,” Jeannie said. “Maybe he’ll wake up and find me gone and say to hell with it. Or maybe he won’t even remember I was with him. He forgets stuff a lot.”
    “Or maybe he’ll come after us like a bat out of hell. My uncle Cash always says that you can hope for the best, but you need to be ready for the worst, you know?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    I felt my eyes blink shut for a moment and my head drop. I jerked my head up and opened my eyes.
    “We gotta sleep,” I said.
    “Okay,” she said.
    I worked us over to the shore with my broken oar and pulled the boat into a little cove.
    “Can you carry the stuff?” I said.
    Jeannie nodded and gathered the blanket roll into a kind of a sack. I bumped the rowboat against the bank. Pearl hopped out and began to sniff around. Jeannie climbed out carrying the blankets and stuff. I tied the rowboat to a bush that hung over the water. Then I climbed out and followed Pearl and Jeannie up the bank. It was dark under the trees. I could hear Pearl snuffling around in the darkness. We were in a small clearing under some high pine trees. I was so tired I could barely stand.
    Jeannie took the food from the blankets. I gave Pearl some peanut butter and crackers. Then I took a blanket and gave the other one to Jeannie.
    “Will you be able to sleep?” I asked.
    “Maybe. What if he comes and spots the boat?” Jeannie said.
    I took the rope and strung it about a foot off the ground across the area between us and the river.
    “He won’t see this in the dark, maybe trip on it. Might wake us up, or at least Pearl, and maybe we can get away. Right now, I gotta sleep.”
    The ground was covered with pine needles. I got rid of a couple of sticks and a rock and lay down with the blanket around me. The blanket didn’t smell so good. But I was too tired to care. Jeannie lay down beside me, and Pearl burrowed between us.
    “My father is afraid of dogs,” Jeannie said. “Always was. Says it’s ’cause somebody set their dogs on him when he was a kid.”
    “Good,” I said, and fell asleep.

Chapter 19
    “Do you happen to have a jackknife on you, as we speak?” Susan said.
    I grinned and took a small buck knife out of my pants pocket.
    “Surprise, surprise,” Susan said. “Same knife?”
    “No,” I said, “but same kind.”
    “And has it been useful?”
    “Very,” I said. “My father used to trim his nails with his.”
    “With a knife?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Egad,” Susan said.
    “What’s wrong with that?” I said.
    “I grew up a nice Jewish girl in Swampscott, Massachusetts. I know nothing of the world of bears and buck knives.”
    “I’ve done what I can to educate you.”
    Susan nodded.
    “And I’m grateful,” she said. “So did her father show up in the night?”
    “No,” I said. “I slept like we used to sometimes, when we were kids. Close your eyes for a moment at night and open them a second later and it’s morning.”
    “I remember,” Susan said.
    “When I opened my eyes, I was looking up through the trees and seeing blue sky. There were a few white clouds, and the birds were singing. I didn’t know where I was for a minute. Pearl was sleeping beside me on her back with her feet in the air, and Jeannie was beyond her. And I sat up and looked around and remembered.”
    “What did you do about the bathroom?” Susan said.
    I smiled.
    “I was embarrassed to death thinking about it. But Jeannie just got up and said to me, ‘I have to go to the bathroom,’ and strolled off