Getting Air by Dan Gutman

Author:Dan Gutman [Gutman, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2008-07-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12:

Democracy in Action

“Fire! We have fire!”

It was so cool! The Vaseline ignited. That set the cotton ball on fire, which set the shredded money on fire, which set the little twigs on fire. It was beautiful.

Mrs. Herschel and Arcadia started dancing around like a couple of cavewomen who had discovered the secret of fire. Henry and I jumped up to join them.

Julia didn’t join in the fun. She grabbed more skinny sticks and made a little tepee over the flame. When that caught fire, she took some of the thicker sticks and crisscrossed them on top. Then she took the biggest sticks and put them on. With each layer of sticks, the fire grew bigger.

“We have to make sure to leave a little room for air to get in,” Julia said as she added wood to the fire and poked a stick into it to arrange it the way she wanted.

“Julia, you are The Man!” I said, so proud of my little sister. Everybody except David clapped her on the back.

The smoke rising off the fire wasn’t all that visible as it snaked up through the trees. It didn’t look like anyone would be able to see the signal. But Julia said we would build the fire bigger and that if another plane came by, we could throw some green leaves on the blaze to make the smoke darker. Until then, we had a nice little fire going that we could use for cooking, heat, light, and to keep bugs or animals away.

For the time being, there was something comforting about just staring into it. I always loved staring at a fire.

“I wish we had marshmallows,” Henry said, “and some hamburgers and hot dogs.”

I had been feeling hungry for a while, but it wasn’t until Henry said the word “hamburger” that I started to get that feeling in my stomach. It wanted to be filled. A hamburger would taste so good.

I tried to figure out how long it had been since my last meal. A day, at least. And that was just a bowl of corn flakes. I wished I had stuffed myself with food back then.

Maybe it would be better not to think about it, I decided. Just think about something else.

“Now that we’ve got a fire,” David said, “we have to get something to cook. Something to eat.”

“What are you going to do,” Arcadia asked. “Catch a bear?”

I shivered, imagining in my head a bear chasing us around and devouring us one at a time. What if there were bears in these woods? Or something more dangerous?

“Maybe we should sit down as a group and figure out what to do next,” Henry suggested.

Sounded like a good idea. David snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Do we have to debate everything?” he asked. “Next you’ll be telling me we need a Congress and a House of Representatives. You know, sometimes you just have to act and not sit around deciding what to do next. We waste so much time. It would be so much faster if one person made a decision.

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