The Bear: A Novel Read Online Free

of fish. I don’t like fish to eat. The crack goes dark and there is hair coming in the crack. It is not like Snoopy’s. It is more prickly hair and fills up the crack and turns out the lights and I can’t see. And Stick starts to cry because it is dark and we get jerked. Stick pushes into me and I grab Gwen and Coleman shakes and it is still dark and I call Daddy. We shake harder and I hear huff and it stinks. I cover my mouth because I don’t want to breathe in the smell and Stick is crying and then I am too and we shake more and we flip. I roll back and my head goes clunk on Coleman. There is growling and a sound like Momma is making lunch and using the top of Coleman to cut apples with a knife. But it is not Momma because her hair is yellow and she always gives me a piece of apple first. It is louder and more like there are ten Mommas cutting apples but that is too many and they wouldn’t fit. And it is dark flashing on and off and I can see Stick on his side crying and I need Daddy because it isn’t Snoopy and I am not supposed to talk to strange dogs because we don’t know them. I’m on my back and Stick gets shoved into me but I don’t mind and I grab his arm and pull him and Gwen in and we cry and scrape scrape scrape. I see the fur and hear too much breath and squeeze Stick and Gwen and my eyes shut tight and we cry.
    My tears are gone when the scraping stops. Coleman stays on his back with the rock in his mouth. The black dog is not scratching Coleman. He goes back to his sniffing and huffing and then he starts cracking his bone. Stick and I are huddled in tight. Stick’s head is heavy like a bowling ball and it makes my arm go fuzzed and he snuggles in. It is so dark outside Coleman and no Daddy or Mommy and after a while I watch the lids of my eyes close down like jaws.

5.
    I open my eyes and it is light outside Coleman now and I can see Stick’s crying face all red and squishy. He cries for Momma. I tell him to shush. He keeps crying. His belly is squishy too. It looks like a ball and is round like his cheeks. His face is like a bad tomato because he is crying so much. It is wet and he has snots all over his nose. It is very noisy inside Coleman because of Sticky and I’d like to get out.
    I call Daddy and Momma and no one comes. I try to have a peek outside. I can see a line of sky that is blue. The trees reach out and they don’t look like claws anymore. I put my hands over my ears because it is so loud from Stick crying and I squint my eyes too. It is still loud but I can see darker lines down my eyes. I open them and the lines are gone. I shut them and they come back. The lines are attached to my eyes. I touch and they are my eyelashes. I thought they were skinnier but they look furry. In the mirror there are a lot of eyelashes but with my squinty eyes there are gaps in between. I can still see out. The tree branches look furry not like claws. Like the needles are the eyelashes of a tree. And they are furry in the same way. When I squint. It is too loud and my hands on my ears barely block all the noise.
    After a while Stick’s crying stops and I take my hands off. Stick is only breathing through his spit. He is curled up on his side of Coleman and just staring at the blank wall. It is hard to lift my head so I put it back down and listen. I hear nothing except then I do. I hear a sniff.
    The sniffing is closer. I think of the black dog I saw through the crack. I don’t think Snoopy is here. Snoopy would listen and be nice. Mrs. Buchanan would call Snoopy because she doesn’t like him to be very far away. I hear more sniffs and I don’t hear Mrs. Buchanan. I think it is the black dog and I feel scared. I was scared of Snoopy too. The black dog might not be bad. I keep my fingers away from the crack because you are not supposed to make your fingers look like carrots.
    The sniffing is close and something bumps Coleman. He wiggles and then stops. Sniffing and another bump. The black dog’s nose