Brave in the Woods by Tracy Holczer

Author:Tracy Holczer [Holczer, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2021-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

THE INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM

AS THE SUMMER-DRY pines closed in on the highway and then opened into fields of honey-colored grass, Juni’s thoughts about her quest took a similar path. The idea that this was wishful thinking—a dream pressing in, keeping her from seeing the truth—would give way to hope and the wide-open fields of possibility.

Mr. Wilcox, Juni’s pre-algebra teacher from last year, had once told the class about the infinite monkey theorem. How a bunch of monkeys hitting typewriter keys at random for infinity would almost surely, eventually, type an actual story. Like My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, or The One and Only Ivan. When everyone laughed, he said the trick was in the term almost surely. Because really, the probability that all the monkeys in all the world for all of time would type Captain Underpants was so tiny, the chance of it happening was next to impossible.

But technically, not zero.

So technically, even though Juni had absolutely no proof she could break the Grimm family curse, that didn’t mean she shouldn’t try. Even Mr. Wilcox would tell her that although the probability of breaking the curse was extremely low, it was not zero. It was almost surely possible.

Bing!

“That’s a Facebook notification,” Luca said, pointing to Gabby’s lap.

Gabby tapped the screen of Luca’s phone a few times, then quickly turned around and gave it to Juni. “Captain Wilder accepted the Facebook request!”

“What do I do?”

“Click on his picture and it will open his profile. You should be able to scroll down and see his posts and pictures,” Mason said.

Captain Wilder had an American flag as his background image, and the profile picture was of his family, Juni assumed. Three smiling daughters and a wife.

And there, in the very first photo Juni scrolled to, was Elsie, sitting on a blue blanket, her golden fur brushed and shining.

Juni held the phone to her chest and steadied herself.

The photo was one of three Captain Wilder had posted. In the second photo, Elsie looked across the smooth water of a lake from the bow of a boat, her longish hair blowing in the wind. The last photo showed Elsie posed with three girls near Juni’s age: one younger, one older, and one who looked to be her age exactly. Each of them sat on a wide stretch of green, green grass and leaned into Elsie like she was the best thing ever.

And Elsie. The way she gazed at the oldest. As though she was her very best friend in all the world. The same way she’d looked at Connor.

Juni’s heart broke a little bit, which surprised her. She thought it had already broken clean through and would stay in two pieces until Connor came home.

Those girls loved Elsie, and Elsie clearly loved them back.

Juni must have made a small sound because Mason took her hand, and Gabby turned around. She reached for Luca’s phone.

“How about we read more from Anya’s story?” Gabby said.

“In a couple of minutes,” Juni said.

Charley Pride’s “Did You

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