Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Author:Alan Gratz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Owen almost jumped out of his skin at the sight of the big polar bear sneaking up on them against the white of the snow.

“Go away, Nanuq! Back!” George cried.

PAKOW!

The sound of the cracker shell going off was deafening at close range, and Owen threw his hands up over his ears. Nanuq didn’t like it either, and he loped off behind a low hill.

“How could something that big sneak up on us so quietly?” George asked.

“Arctic ninja,” said Owen. “And I think he’s going to keep stalking us.”

“Don’t polar bears prefer easier meals?” George asked. “He’s burning up a lot of calories chasing us around.”

“I think we are easy meals. Or at least I am,” said Owen. He nodded at the ground, where his boot left a trail of blood.

“Holy crap, Owen,” George said, immediately moving to support him. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“You’re hurt too,” Owen said.

“Come on,” George said. He slung the shotgun strap over his shoulder and let Owen lean on him to take pressure off his injured foot.

Owen and George had to turn their backs on Nanuq to keep heading home. That was a polar bear no-no, but they didn’t have a choice. The sun was getting low, and they hadn’t even caught a whiff of the bay.

“We’re quite a pair,” Owen said as they hobbled along. “Between us we only have three legs and two good arms.”

“And one brain,” George said.

It felt like something of an apology for their argument of a few moments before, and Owen chuckled.

“You know, it might not be the blood that Nanuq is following,” Owen said. “How long has it been since you had a shower?”

It was a snowball insult. The kind they used to throw at each other in their insult contests, before things had gotten real. It was Owen’s way of saying he was sorry too, and that he hoped they could go back to the way things had been between them before. George was his best friend in the whole world, and he didn’t want to lose him. Not to Newfoundland, and not to his own thoughtlessness.

“It’s true, I don’t shower,” said George. “I just roll around in the snow to stay clean, like a polar bear.”

“Hey, that’s a real polar bear fact!” said Owen.

“You’re not the only one in Churchill who knows things about polar bears,” George told him.

Owen smiled. They were good. At least with each other. He still didn’t know how George was going to get out of moving away from Churchill though.

And he sure as heck didn’t know how he was going to fix what was wrong with himself.

I’m not totally oblivious, Owen thought as they walked. He saw the permafrost walls of ponds and lakes crumble and flood. He smelled the wildfires on the tundra. He laughed at the Weather Lady lighting lake farts on fire. Pointed out to the tourists all the red foxes and orcas and grizzly bears that were pushing out native species because it was warm enough for the new animals to live here now.

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