Klickitat Read Online Free Page B

said.
    People were getting on and off the bus, pulling the cord to ring the bell, pushing their way down the aisle. I was thinking of all that Audra had said, how she’d been, lately. I tried to guess what she was going to do—it had something to do with this girl, and living in a way that wasn’t our parents’ way. Our parents had told Audra that once she graduated from high school she could live at home only if she got a job or registered at Portland State, for college. I didn’t think she was going to take either of those choices.
    Out the window, strips of pale blue showed between the clouds, sliding quickly through the sky. I tried topull my hand back from Audra, but she held tight and I stopped pulling.
    The closer we got to the girl, the less eager I was to arrive, to meet her. Was I jealous? Audra had changed so much, had moved so much further away from me since she met her. The books in Audra’s room, I realized, they belonged to the girl. It was like Audra wanted another sister, a girl who knew all about the wilderness and how to live inside it. Those were things I did not know.

FIVE
    The bus kept going, taking us out of the city. There were fields, and barbed-wire fences, and groups of cows and horses out in the fields. I watched, feeling Audra next to me and not wanting to share her. I tried to imagine how it would feel if there were three of us.
    â€œHere.” Audra pulled the cord that rang the bell and the bus slowed down. “We’re getting off here.”
    We walked on the side of the road, the dirty gravel. Audra took off her black Chuck Taylors; she tied the laces together and put them around her neck, her socks pushed inside.
    â€œIs that the Fox Walk?” I said.
    â€œYou know,” she said, “people never wore shoes until there were roads and sidewalks.”
    â€œWhat are we doing with this girl?” I said. “What do you have planned?”
    She didn’t answer, like she didn’t hear me.
    â€œAudra,” I said. “What are we going to do?”
    â€œI don’t know that, yet.” She walked so balanced, like the sharp rocks didn’t hurt her. She was always the fastest person in her class, even faster than the boys. When she got to high school she stopped running. She said it was boring, that it was showing off.
    After a little while we came to a yellow house with a peeling fence in front. The house had cardboard in one window. One of the rain gutters was broken and hanging down toward the ground. A dog started barking.
    â€œChainsaw!” a boy said, coming out the front door.
    Another boy with the same white blond hair was behind him. The dog was still barking, running along the other side of the fence like it was trying to find a place to get through, to get at us.
    â€œShe’s old,” the boy said. “She can’t hear anythingat all.” Now he had a hold of the dog’s collar, and was watching us. “Who are you?” he said.
    â€œTravelers,” Audra said.
    The boy was maybe ten or eleven. His brother was younger, and wasn’t wearing a shirt.
    â€œShe’s friendly,” the first boy said. “Don’t worry.”
    â€œWe’re not,” I said.
    â€œWhere are you guys going?” the boy said, but we were already walking away, farther down the road.
    Horses came toward us, following along the fence line, on the other side. Their long necks stretched over, with white stripes down their faces. Behind them were cows, and I couldn’t tell if they were all separated by a fence or if the cows just stayed with the cows and the horses with the horses.
    â€œEverything will be fine,” Audra said.
    â€œI didn’t say anything,” I said.
    We came to a gate where there was a dented gray mailbox on top of a post. Gold stickers on the mailbox said 323.
    â€œHere we are,” Audra said.
    She opened the mailbox; it was empty; she slappedit shut. I followed her