Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli

Author:Donna Jo Napoli [Napoli, Donna Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 1999-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

COLD

Roberto drank from the snow-fed water in the stream and shivered. He had left the wolf behind more than an hour ago, but the image of its maddened face lingered and kept him from thinking straight. He had to shake it off. He couldn’t afford not to think straight.

He wore Samuele’s blanket—now his only blanket—draped across his back and around his arms. He used the rope as a belt. It had been terrible luck that the wolf had fallen right on his blanket. No. No, it wasn’t a matter of luck. It was Roberto’s stupidity. He should have tied the blanket around his abdomen when he first climbed down the tree. He should have taken good care of it all the time—if he had, he’d still have two blankets.

Roberto straightened the blanket and took stock of his situation. The stream promised a steady, if poor, food supply. The problem was that it headed southeast. Warmth was due south—and with only one blanket, he needed to get to a warm place fast. Winter was upon him; last night’s snow was the start of the inevitable. It would get worse. Much worse. Everyone knew about Eastern European winters. He left the stream and walked south.

Roberto hoped the sun would warm up the land at least a little as the day went on. But it didn’t. The wind was bitter behind him, and the snow stayed.

The land was much more sloping now, and stands of trees were rare. Roberto climbed from one hill to the next, always on the lookout for anything that moved. He saw a lone white rabbit, but he had no way to kill it. He thought of the hamster burrow back in the woods. It was a pity he hadn’t gotten the chance to raid it for nuts. His lips were cracked and his teeth felt fuzzy and he was hungry, always hungry. He saw the tracks of deer. He ate snow in little bits to quench his thirst. He walked and as he walked, he talked to himself. After a while, his stomach actually hurt less somehow.

Then he saw them. They came over the crest of a hill. Tanks. Jeeps. Troops of soldiers. Mules. From this distance he couldn’t tell whether they were Soviets or Germans. He stared for a moment, unbelieving. This was only his third day of being alone, but he’d come to think of the world as empty of humans. Of course it wasn’t. The war was going on. People were killing each other.

Those soldiers might kill him.

He looked around for a place to hide. But he was already well past the last stand of trees, and if he tried to run back to them, he was almost sure to be seen. There was no vegetation whatsoever between him and the soldiers. Nothing to hide behind. Nothing to hide under. Except snow.

Snow.

He took the blanket off his shoulders and spread it on the ground. He covered it with snow. Then he snaked himself under it and peeked out the other side.

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