The Distance From Me to You by Marina Gessner

Author:Marina Gessner [Gessner, Marina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children's Books, Action & Adventure, Science; Nature & How It Works, Nature, Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction, Survival Stories, Romance, Contemporary, Children's eBooks
ISBN: 9780698184787
Google: tDfbBQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00R3GAPGI
Goodreads: 23846040
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2015-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

They stayed like that for most of the day, hunkered in out of the rain. At one point, McKenna opened her pack and they ate what dry food she had left—PowerBars and dried apricots. They didn’t kiss, they barely even talked, just clung to each other and listened to the rain.

The next morning when McKenna woke up alone, her heart seized up.

“Morning, Mack,” Sam said when she crawled out of the tent.

The rain had cleared but the world around them dripped with leftover rainwater and dew. The air felt sodden when she breathed it in, and everything smelled rife with mulch. Sam had built a fire; it crackled cozily against the autumnal chill that had snuck into the air. A skillet was balanced in the flames, and Sam moved something in it around with a stick.

“What’s that?” McKenna asked.

“Breakfast.”

He pulled the pan out of the fire. It was filled with mushrooms and brook trout fried in the fat of the fish skin. McKenna sat down next to him and he leaned over and kissed her. Then they ate the mushrooms and fish with their fingers. For a second McKenna thought about asking him where he learned to identify mushrooms, if he was sure they were safe. But she decided to just trust him.

They sat close enough that their elbows bumped every time they moved. There was a particular feeling she had in Sam’s presence, something she couldn’t exactly name. It was part happiness, part excitement—as if despite the dampness hanging over the day, everything was clearer, sharper. She felt alive, so much so that no toadstool on earth could kill her.

It was the best meal she’d eaten since she started hiking; it may have been the best meal she’d eaten in her life.

“Want to see how the other half lives out here?” Sam asked her.

• • •

On the way off the trail and down the road, McKenna smiled as she walked. She had been so curious about how Sam had managed to survive, it was exciting to finally be getting the inside scoop.

Along the trail, McKenna was constantly amazed by the way you could be in total wilderness one moment, nothing but dirt and trees, and then suddenly there would be a tunnel under a busy road, and you’d find yourself on a farm that seemed like it came from a different country or century—old stone walls, and cattle grazing.

Sam led McKenna across a field of sheep and down a country side road until they came to an orchard. There was a little shop out front that sold cheddar cheese and slices of fresh-baked apple pie that smelled amazing, but Sam told her she wasn’t allowed to buy anything.

The woman at the desk remembered Sam right away. “Sure,” she said, handing them each a deep bucket. “The ladders are out there. You remember the drill.”

They left their packs at the back of the store and spent the day picking, climbing up into the trees and filling bucket after bucket, which they emptied into a large container.

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