The Hidden Worlds by Sandra Ingerman

Author:Sandra Ingerman [Ingerman, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78535-821-0
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2018-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Organizing

It was after three when Isaiah got home. He got right to work on his research about grizzly bears. His mom would be home at 5:30 p.m. and the pizza would be there at 6. He had to hurry with his homework. He had spent the morning doing his chores and the research on journeying, skipping his video games. He was surprised that he didn’t really miss his usual ritual. Maybe this is what growing up felt like. Making different choices. But he also hadn’t done his homework. He hoped he had enough time now.

For his research, he was looking for causes and effects of the environment on grizzlies and of grizzlies on the environment. He found out that the San Juan Mountains of Colorado used to have a large grizzly population but killing by ranchers and the government depleted the population. The last grizzly was found in 1979. There were reports that another was sighted in 1989, but without proof, the grizzly is still listed as extinct in Colorado. He learned that grizzlies are important to the ecosystem because they excrete the seeds from the fruit they eat which plants more fruit. Also, they stir up the soil when foraging for bulbs, tree roots and squirrels which brings up nitrogen for the environment. Hadn’t his science teacher talked about nitrogen being essential to life but that too much of it in the water was bad? And they had used ammonium nitrate to make those cold packs. He guessed what grizzlies did was a good thing. He kept going until he had twenty cause-effect details. Just as he finished, he heard his mom’s car pulling into the garage. Whew!

In the middle of a heated Monopoly game on Sunday afternoon, the phone rang. Isaiah’s mother looked at him as she handed him the phone. He knew she was thinking something was up. He’d had so few calls from friends in his life.

“Isaiah!” George yelled. “We’ve got trouble.”

“What’s up?” Isaiah asked, moving away from his mom, worried she might be able to hear George.

“Remember Tuesday when my foot slipped into the pond?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, I got worried that whatever was in that fish-killing water might be bad for my foot, so I didn’t want to take any chances. I threw my shoes away. And my mom figured out my shoes are missing!”

“What’d she say?” Isaiah asked. His mother came around the corner when he said ‘she’. He shrugged at her like it was no big deal.

“She was really mad and yelled about how they were new for school this year and how I don’t appreciate the money they cost and how she spent hours searching for them when she hadn’t seen me wearing them and blah, blah, blah. I told her I accidently slipped into a stream with dead fish, and it was disgusting. All true. I just skipped the part about toxic poisons. Anyway, I’m grounded for two weeks. And I have to pay her back for the shoes. That part is no problem, but if we need to meet anywhere other than school or dream time, I’m out.

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