Voyageur by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143168119
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP (CANADA)

CHAPTER NINE

“THESE ARE SO GOOD,” Jennie said as she popped another blueberry into her mouth.

“You’re supposed to be picking, not eating,” I said.

“I think she can do both,” my mother said. She was picking berries a few bushes over.

“Besides, we’re just picking them so we can eat them,” Jennie said. “What did you think we were going to do, make jewellery with them?”

“We’re supposed to save some, too,” I told her. “This is not all about feeding your greedy face right now.” I turned away so she couldn’t see and popped a couple of berries in my mouth. They were good—ripe and juicy and sweet, and they practically melted in your mouth.

The berry patch was gigantic. I couldn’t believe how big it was. It occupied the whole clearing. It was like a big bowl, surrounded by hills and hemmed in by the forest on all sides. You couldn’t see it from the lake, and if Pierre hadn’t known it was there, there was no way we would have found it. He’d told us that there had been a forest fire a few years ago, which had cleared the way for the blueberries and smaller bushes and saplings to grow. He said that forest fires could help regenerate a forest, that they were natural. All I knew about the subject was that Smokey the Bear always told us, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Living in New York City, that didn’t really mean much to me. I believed Pierre over the talking cartoon bear, anyway.

Stopping to pick berries wasn’t getting us any closer to where we needed to go, but we needed the berries to make up for the food we didn’t have. We hadn’t packed enough supplies to begin with, and then we’d lost half of them when my canoe had tipped going over the rapids.

Pierre was working his way through a stretch on the hill. He said that we didn’t have to worry about food because the forest was filled with it. I hoped he wasn’t being overly optimistic, because other than the berries, I hadn’t yet seen anything I’d be willing to put in my mouth. I would have loved to have stumbled on a supermarket, fast-food restaurant, or deli—actually, a New York deli would have been really fantastic, a nice corned beef sandwich with mustard …

“What was that?” Jennie said.

I stopped picking and looked at her. She was wide-eyed and standing straight up.

“What was what?”

“I thought I saw something in the bushes,” she said.

“Berries and maybe a bunny or—”

A black blur brushed by her leg and Jennie screamed! It was an animal—a bear—a tiny little bear cub! It disappeared into the bushes, but as it ran we could see the bushes twitching and moving as it rushed through them. We caught another quick glimpse of black fur as it reached the edge of the berry patch before disappearing into the forest.

“That was a bear!” Jennie gasped.

“Not a bear—a bear cub, and I think you scared it,” I said.

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