The Bear: A Novel Read Online Free Page B

and tries to hook. And Stick screams and I can’t stand the noise and the stink and my foot is there so I kick.
    I hit the tooth and my foot is ouch and I put my foot back in a ball. There is a yelp. A low growl. The stink gets less. We hear sniff sniff sniff and less sniffs. I keep listening and the tooth is not in the crack. The nose isn’t either. I hear a scrape and a smacking of lips. The dog is chewing on something. Not Coleman but food that is closer to the lake. Like when I chew on chicken I hear scrape pop smack. The black dog is eating breakfast. It looks like Stick is listening too because his head is up nearer the crack and he turns and looks at me and lifts the front of his shirt up to wipe his nose.

6.
    I want to get out of Coleman. We are not allowed to get out of Coleman. Daddy said. I sit still for as long as I can. I can’t anymore. Stick is wiggling.
    “I get out,” he says.
    “Daddy said stay,” I say in my Daddy grown-up voice.
    “Get out.”
    “Stay.”
    I turn my shoulder and I want to get out. “Daddy!”
    “Get out.”
    “DADDY.”
    “Dada.”
    “DAAAAAAAAAAAAADY!”
    Stick and I both yell. And I guess our throats hurt with splinters and after a while we stop. Then there are no sounds. The sky through the crack looks empty of everything. Only blue and one branch with fur. Even the black dog has gone away.
    We are quiet, listening. Then a stink comes and I think the black dog has come back. I wave my hand to put the air back outside the crack. It’s like the air has stopped coming in. Or Stick has hogged it all. I can’t get the air in my nose—it is too thick and full of stink. The air has trouble getting down my throat and I pull up my pj top to try and breathe its air. I put Gwen to my nose to sniff but she is getting clogged too.
    “Stick?”
    He doesn’t answer. He never does.
    “Did you poop?”
    “Yep.”
    “DADDY!”
    Daddy is gone again.
    I kick at Coleman’s metal tooth that hangs down the middle of his mouth. He is biting hard and he won’t let go. Coleman’s metal tooth is pointing to the sky because he is lying on his back when the black dog pushed. I wiggle around to put my mouth up to it and try and bite like the black dog. It is hard to reach and I have to put my knee on Stick’s stomach that squishes. Coleman’s tooth tastes like metal yuck and I can’t even hook my tooth because it is too short. I punch up with my hand and it gives me a red line on my knuckle. Daddy will be mad if I try to get out but the stink is too bad. I punch with my shoulder up and that hurts. Coleman’s tooth hooks around a metal thing that looks like his nose on the outside. I put my fingers outside the crack and try to reach the nose and it feels like I am trying to pick it. I hope Coleman doesn’t have snot and I laugh. But I can’t reach the nose and it hangs on to the metal tooth very tight.
    I need to get out of the stink. Gwen will get it on her and she will not smell right. I squint my eyes to make my brain see if Coleman has any other teeth or noses but I can’t think of any. Stick starts to kick me away from his stomach and I tell him to move.
    “Stop,” he says and pushes me.
    “I want to get out of your stink.”
    “Get out,” he says.
    “I’m trying.”
    I push and try to smoosh him right against the side of Coleman to get as far away from his stink as I can. He bunches up his thigh and kicks out with his foot. My chest is already sore and achy and he hits right at my heart. My breath goes whoosh out of my stomach and I hit the top of Coleman and fall to the side. My shoulder hits the back and there is a sharp tooth in it.
    “Ow,” I scream at Stick.
    I punch out and kick him and he screams and I don’t care. I kick more because that will make Daddy come. I kick and punch and Sticky is screaming so loud and it stinks and I am crying and the salt drips into my mouth. And my shoulder hurts a lot each time I move so I stop and lift my arm up so I can see.