The Dark Pond by Joseph Bruchac

Author:Joseph Bruchac
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2004-11-19T06:00:00+00:00

11

HIDING OUT

YOU KNOW HOW crazy it gets in a boarding school when you are getting close to vacation? Imagine being in a herd of caribou at the start of migration time. Or maybe in one of those holding pens just before they open the gates to let the maddened bulls go rumbling down the streets of some little Spanish town. No matter what you do or say, every conversation, every thought, every impulse keeps coming back to one thing—lemme outta here!

When you leaving? Who you riding with? Where you going? When does your mother/father/stepparent/guardian/chauffeur get here to pick you up?

To avoid that irritatingly mindless litany I had taken sanctuary in one of the places I knew I wouldn’t be bothered the night before the week and a half of spring break. Tomorrow was Thursday. Break Day. Or as Devo called it, Bugout Day. I never have much to say to people, and in these last few hours before vacation break I felt even less talkative than usual. I guess it was because of the phone call from Dad.

He apologized. Of course. They would make it up to me. They couldn’t help it. They both had to go to Geneva (in Switzerland, no less!) for this unexpected conference. They knew I understood how important their work was. Some things just couldn’t wait. (But, of course, I always could.) I could come home if I wanted. But wouldn’t I be happier just staying up there at the school over the break? It was already worked out with the headmaster if that was okay by me. Dad knew how I loved hiking in the mountains. He’d heard from my counselor, Mr. Grayson, that I’d been getting out into the woods. Now I’d have plenty of time for that. We’d have other times together. Quality time. (He actually said that!) They’d see me this summer.

I used up more than my quota of Unhs and Yups and Yeah, sures in that conversation. Nothing else I could say. I almost varied my menu of responses by asking “Summer in what year?” at the end. But I didn’t. I really did understand. I really was proud of what they were doing. I really knew how unimportant my life was compared to the lives of the people they were trying to help. I also knew, trying not to feel too self-pitying, that they both really loved me.

So when Dad said, “You know how much we love you, don’t you son?” I just added one final round of my all-time parent replies. “Yeah, Dad. Yeah. Sure.”

And that was it. And now I was here, all by myself, in the one building I knew no other kid would venture into the night before B-Day. The school library.

Even though I seem as well suited to them as a bull in a china shop, I love libraries. Next to being out in the woods, reading is my favorite thing to do. I’ve been that way ever since I was really little.

Mom says it is because she’s always read to me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.