Nature Girl by Jane Kelley

Author:Jane Kelley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375893261
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2010-04-26T21:00:00+00:00

11

Starving to Death

When I wake up the next morning, the fire is out.

I poke around in the ashes with a stick. They look exactly the way I feel. Cold and gray. They look so pathetic I want to light the fire again. But I don’t. I only have nine matches left. Besides, what good will a fire do? Even if I get one started (which is doubtful, because for some reason everything is all wet), I don’t think I’d feel as wonderful as I did last night. I’d still be hungry—and lonely.

I haven’t seen my family in two days and two really long nights.

It’s breakfast time. I wonder what they’re doing. Is Dad looking for his glasses? Does anybody tell him they’re on top of his head and laugh when he puts them on upside down? Is Ginia using the side of the toaster for a mirror? Does anybody tease her so she’ll stop being so vain? Is Mom making oatmeal? Does anybody tell her to stop talking about the different kinds of perspective and stir so it won’t burn on the bottom again? Are there four blue bowls on the table? Or did Mom only put out three?

I hope someone gave them the note I left for them along the Trail. They must have been really surprised to see that picture I drew of Arp and me hiking. I hope they know we’re absolutely fine—except for being hungry.

Arp comes over, wagging his tail like he’s glad to see me. Only I know that to him, I’m not a unique human being with special ideas and powerful feelings. To him, I’m a food dispenser. Or I’m supposed to be.

This is the food we have left: two carrots, a package of slimy tofu, a bag of mushed grapes, two granola bars, and the weird bits of dried fruit from the trail mix. I refuse to count the potato chip crumbs that cling to the empty bag—that would be totally depressing. I give us each a carrot and a granola bar. Arp gobbles his up quickly. That reminds me of Ginia’s fast-food diet. She believed that if she ate fattening food fast enough, it couldn’t stick to her thighs.

But dogs aren’t supposed to be on diets. After Arp eats, he looks at me and wags his tail. He cocks his head to one side. His ears perk up. He puts his paw on my knee. He’s so cute. Or he would be cute if I could walk over to the cupboard and get him a dog biscuit.

“Sorry, Arp. But this is my breakfast. You had yours already.”

He cocks his head the other way and barks while I eat my carrot and my granola bar. It isn’t a vicious bark. Still I wonder what he would do if he got really, truly hungry. After all, he’s an animal that used to be a wolf.

“We better get going.”

I don’t even want to think about how many more miles to Mount Greylock and how many steps my poor aching legs have to take before we get there.

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