The Bear: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

Stick kicks me more but stops when I don’t kick back and then just cries. I don’t care because I can see there is a red bang on the side of my arm and it is big. I can show that to Daddy when he wants to know who started it. This is Sticky’s fault. I look and there is a red mark from the rock in the side of Coleman’s mouth. Coleman is on his back and the rock on the side is pushing on my arm.
    Every time I wiggle the rock pushes me in the shoulder now. I try to move away from it because I feel really tired but the rock keeps kicking me too. But then I get closer to Stick’s poo so I wiggle back again. I don’t like the rock and it’s Daddy’s fault for putting it there. Daddy made a big red hole in my arm. I start to cry but I don’t do it out loud. That way Stick won’t think he won. I hate the rock and I bang it with my arm. Daddy is bad and Momma should come and snuggle because that’s what happens next. Momma yells almost not ever except maybe one time and another and she says she tries so hard not to. I know and so I give her a hug and put my fingers on her cheek where it is soft. Sticky looks asleep because he is so small and he doesn’t care. He’s almost not a baby anymore but he still is and bugging me. Where is my snuggle from Momma if Daddy didn’t leave for a long time just short? That’s what I get a snuggle for because I am older than Stick and I know and it is sometimes my job to make Momma feel okay. And she says “I have you, Anna. You are so strong” and we stay in my bed and in the morning she is still snuggled in. Maybe Daddy isn’t gone. He will come soon if I just go to sleep. He doesn’t hate me. Momma said Daddy will come.
    I can’t wait so long. I don’t know if Daddy is coming this time. This time he isn’t coming back. The rock tooth just sits in Coleman’s mouth looking stupid and bugging me in the arm. I see that the rock is more inside Coleman than outside so I put my finger under it. I can wiggle the rock. Coleman is biting hard trying to hang on to the rock but his edges are grindy and a white piece of his lip comes off when I push. I wiggle around all the way and that is hard and I put all my fingers under the rock and lift up as hard as I can. One second I am lifting and I give a hard pull and I blink and I open my eyes and there is a loud snap and it is suddenly dark.
    It is dark but my eyes are open. Coleman has snapped his jaws shut.
    “Nana?” says Stick.
    Outside I hear a piece of metal fall and jingle bells on a rock.
    “Nana?”
    He says my name the wrong way round every time and no air and no crack and the stink is so bad my head is swimming because there is no extra room to breathe. I lean over to the side and then I fall down. The crack opens up and I turn to see blue. Stick and I are the eggs and someone whacked our shell against the edge and it got a line that split into more lines and now it broke. Coleman is cracked. We fall out.
    Cold air hits my nose and I am so so glad to have more air in my nose. The stink is less already. I try to straighten my legs and they are all fuzzy. It feels like my legs are stumps that got tied to my body. I straighten one out and then the other and I roll out from Coleman into the pine needles that are prickles. It is warm and the sun is hitting the pine needles and they make a nice place. I lie on my back and get the air back in my nose.
    I sit up and look over at Stick. He is sitting like a stump beside Coleman. I get worried that we are out of Coleman and we were supposed to stay in. That might make Daddy mad and he will stay away more. It wasn’t my fault because Coleman opened his mouth. I wonder if I should get back in. Coleman’s metal tooth has dropped off his head and is near a rock on the ground. He won’t be able to bite us back in. I feel glad because that’s not a good place to be. And I am still feeling glad that Daddy can’t be mad but then I see that Stick has a red bang on his cheek from when I