Girlwood Read Online Free PDF Page B

"Forty-five years ago, he was out here cutting down everything in sight. He nearly took a saw to me, he was that intent on getting his lumber. Couldn't tell a woman from a tree! Imagine that."
    She laughed, not like an old woman, but like a girl so beautiful and bewitching a man gave up his fortune to please her. Polly wished she'd met her grandfather and seen the way he looked at Baba, but he had died before she was born.
    Baba wandered through the grove, lightly tapping every trunk, greeting each knot and branch as if they were old friends. But Polly felt exhausted now, disappointed even though the sight of the glowing larches was reason enough to have come.
    "We'd better go," Polly said. "Mom'll be worried."
    She turned to go and almost tripped over a ring of stones. Polly had been so dazzled by the trees, she'd missed the campfire still glowing and giving off heat. Her heart raced when she noticed a lock of charred blond hair on top of the red coals, as if the vainest girl in the world had cut it off for fuel.
    Polly looked up at her grandmother, who stood by her favorite tree and smiled.
    "Hmmm," Baba said.

6 BURDOCK
(Arctium minus)
Burdock abounds across North America, thanks to its hitchhiking Velcro-like seed burrs, which catch on clothes and animal fur Rich in vitamins and iron, the whole plant, from roots to stems to leaves, is edible. The plant has been used as a powerful blood purifier for thousands of years, while its oils are a popular scalp treatment.
    Polly ran into the kitchen, where her mother still sat with her hand on the phone. She stood when she saw Polly's face, her legs a bit wobbly beneath her.
    "You found her?"
    Polly reached for the hair in her pocket and placed it on the table.
    "No, but we found this."
    Her mother stared at the charred strands. Baba's drugs must have been strong, because she didn't move.
    "It's Bree's, Mom," Polly went on. "I know it is."
    Her mom looked up, her eyes brimming with tears again. But it was fury that was causing them this time, not despair.
    "Baba said that?" her mom asked.
    "Well, not ex—"
    "I can't believe this! I've never denied you time with your grandmother, Polly, but this is over the line. I won't have her raising false hopes. People
die
in the woods."
    "You could have it checked," Polly said. "Like in
CSI.
Have the DNA tested."
    Her mom swiped angrily at her tears. "Right now, it's all I can do just to survive this."
    "Can't you at least tell the searchers we found it?" Polly asked. "It was in this amazing larch grove. The trees there are nearly two hundred feet high, but you don't see them. That's the weird thing. You've got to go through this thorny patch of devil's club, and there was this fire ring. It was still warm, Mom. Bree could have been there an hour before! After that I noticed the burdock roots someone had peeled the way Bree used to. Burdock's the only wild plant she ever liked."
    Her mom turned away from Polly slowly. Her gaze fell on the lock of hair whether she wanted it to or not.
    "Go on up now," her mother said. "I'll handle this."
    ***
    It was well after midnight when Polly's dad came in with the search party. Polly sprang out of bed but stopped halfway down the stairs at the sound of him weeping. The others in the group hurried their goodbyes and left.
    "...everywhere," he was saying. "Covered twenty square miles at least. No sign of her."
    Except for the rare sound of his sobbing, it was silent. At last her mom said, "I know it's far-fetched, but Polly and my mother found this hair..."
    Polly listened to her mother's almost embarrassed voice explaining about the fire and burdock roots. Polly's dad stopped crying. "That hair could belong to anyone, Faith," he said, his voice hoarse. "Even if it is Bree's, what does that prove? That she was in the woods once?" He paused, and Polly curled up on the step, her knees to her chest. "I'll talk to the police," he went on, "but I don't know if they'll test it."
    Polly's mother was the one