Never Too Far Read Online Free PDF Page A

been thinking the same thing because he walked up behind her and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. As soon as he did it, she whirled on him like he was trying to grab her. Her hair slashed through the air and slapped Frank’s arm. Then she vanished for a moment, as if she really were a ghost, until Joe saw her streaking through the doorway. She lay huddled in a corner of the living room for the rest of the day.
    “I didn’t mean to scare you,” Joe said to her now. “I just wanted to tell you about the fish and how I’m going to catch some for dinner. How’s that sound? You like fried fish?”
    The girl remained hidden beneath her floppy hat, totally unresponsive. And now he wished he hadn’t touched her.
    There wasn’t much he could do at that point, so he got the fishing pole out of the wagon, grabbed the can of earthworms, and walked to the creek. After he poked a worm on the hook, he lowered it into the yellowish water and held it there. Soon enough, a fish struck and he reeled it in with the rusty reel. He wrenched the hook out and scooped up the fish. But he nearly dropped it when he saw the pregnant girl standing in front of him.
    The fish wiggled.
    “I caught one,” he said.
    The pregnant girl stood motionless, her head down, her hat pulled low. He didn’t care how she was standing, though. He was simply glad she was standing at all and not hiding in the cab where he thought she might stay for the rest of the night. He held the shiny fish up to her, hoping she might look . She lifted her head slightly. He saw the point of her chin and the under-curve of her pink lower lip. She shuffled forward, maybe a couple of inches, but she didn’t raise her head anymore or move her arms, which hung like sticks at her sides.
    “How about you keep an eye on this one while I catch some more?” Joe said.
    He laid the fish in the grass and it flopped and gasped for air. It had a few red lesions on it but it didn’t look too bad. Joe had seen worse.
    “Don’t let him get away now.”
    Joe stood up and went toward the creek. He poked another worm on the hook and dropped it in. When he glanced behind him to see if the pregnant girl had moved, he found her sitting on the ground. He stepped back to see what she was doing. What he saw amazed him. She sat with her thin bony legs spread out in a V around the fish while she gently stroked and petted it, as if she were trying to soothe and comfort the poor thing in its slow gasping death. He felt a tug on his line and spun his head back to the creek. He jerked on the pole and reeled in another fish that he brought to the girl.
    “Watch this one, too,” he said, and set it in the girl’s outstretched hands.
    Later on, she helped clean the fish. After he gutted them with his pocketknife and cut out the lesions, he handed the fish to the girl. She took them to the creek to wash. Joe did his best to act like nothing unusual was going on and they’d cleaned fish together countless times. However, his insides were all abuzz. He even smiled a few times without even realizing it. As they worked, the sun sat bleeding away on the horizon.
    Joe fried the fish, heads and tails and all, in the cast iron skillet. He set it on a rusty grill in the fire. The fish sizzled and steamed until their skin blackened and cracked and their eyes crusted brown. Joe pulled them out by their stiff tails and placed them on two tin plates. After Joe said a prayer, the pregnant girl tore at her fish. She ripped back the skin and sank her teeth into the white meat. Joe was hungry, too, but not that hungry. He was surprised at how ravenous she was, especially since she seemed so shy when they ate at home. You didn’t even know she’d eaten until you noticed her plate was clean.
    When they finished, Joe got out the bag of pinole. It was a mixture of ground corn, dried and ground tepary beans, crushed squash seeds, and sage. He barely got the bag open before the pregnant girl snatched it out of his hands.