Everything’s Coming Up Josey Read Online Free PDF Page A

English degree.”
    â€œTeaching ESL takes more than a degree. You need training.”
    Training? To speak my own language? “Well, I um, sorta thought…well, you made it sound like you just needed willing bodies.”
    He frowns at me, one eyebrow squished tight, the other high, and I squirm. Maybe I’ve overestimated my abilities here.
    â€œI can get training.”
    He relaxes, smiles. “We offer excellent classes, and I am sure the first year we could team you with an experienced partner.”
    The first year?
    I take a long sip of my coffee.
    â€œI’ll leave you an application. Fill it out, send it in with your picture and we’ll be in touch.”
    He reaches into his briefcase and pulls out folder. I’m thinking he’ll take out one of those sheets. He hands me the entire folder. “I know it looks big, but we just like to get to know our applicants.”
    Now I do the one-eyebrow-up move. Get to know me? I flip through the wad of papers. Biography. Spiritual history. Psychological profile. Medical form. Theology quiz. Dental exam. Waiver. Waiver?
    I scan it and every hair stands on end.
    RELEASE AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY
    The undersigned is an adult 18 years of age or older who desires to volunteer his/her services for a mission trip to Russia. The undersigned understands and acknowledges that there may be risks of bodily injury, illness or security (including death) inherent in travel to Russia, and that he/she voluntarily assumes all such risks and releases Moscow Bible College, or any of its directors from all liability for these and any other risks in connection with his/her activities.
    The undersigned acknowledges and affirms that he/she has carefully read this release and has asked for and obtained a satisfactory explanation to any questions he/she has and has signed it voluntarily.
    Signature of Volunteer
    Date
    Â 
    My mouth is full of cotton as I mumble goodbye. He lets me buy lunch and drives off in a 1988 Ford Escort.
    I stand on the street, feeling the cool air brush off the lake, smelling freshly cut grass and tasting my future sour in my mouth.
    Including death?
    Killing Off The Gypsy Moth by Josey Berglund
    They ravage our birch trees; strip the heart from our aspen. In large droves, the gypsy moths are one of the most destructive insect tree defoliators in North America.
    Gull Lake, do not despair. Mother Nature is on our side.
    The gypsy moth life cycle is short, desperate and focused. After emerging from the pupal stage, the male moth has ten days to find a female moth to begin the reproduction cycle. It isn’t too difficult—the female gypsy moths don’t fly. They stay by their cocoon and wait for their man.
    However, a gypsy moth male can only complete the instinctual life cycle under warm conditions, and only during late August and early September.
    Be thankful for the cold north. Because of our cooler climate, the male moth develops more slowly. His prime reproductive activity occurs during the fall. The cold snaps of last August and September have rendered the Gull Lake gypsy male ineffective.
    Maybe Mother Nature has a sense of humor.
    Finally, a woman getting even.
    Â 
    â€œFeeling testy this morning?” My editor Myrtle’s breath streams over my shoulder. I smell garlic—her egg-salad secret ingredient. Ew.
    I stare at her blankly. She smiles and points to the screen. “Opinion, not fact. No editorializing.” She pats my shoulder and winks, like, oh, honey, someday you’ll get it.
    Excuse me, but last time I looked this wasn’t the New York Times or the Washington Post. We are not breaking open a conspiracy or unearthing CIA files, and frankly the gypsy moth article needs a little spice.
    And I did not, did not, compare the gypsy moth to Chase, wondering if his engagement to Buffy was a rash swoop-and-mate decision made during a warm spell. Nor did I wish upon him a cold front.
    Shake it off, Josey.
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