The Summer We Saved the Bees Read Online Free Page A

us around. Even if I’d just been at school for the day, when I came in the door she always gave me a big hug and said she’d missed me.
    For a moment, I even felt a tiny bit sorry for Violet.

    On Sunday, we painted the van. It didn’t turn out quite like I’d imagined. The black was kind of patchy and uneven—I guess maybe we should have sanded more or used a glossier paint—and the stripes were more neon-lime than honeybee-yellow. Still, it was done, and the twins seemed happy enough about it.
    And then we started packing. Even though Curtis had said there was lots of storage, the van filled up fast. There was the tool box, the tent, sleeping bags, dishes and cooking stuff, cans of food, boxes of pasta, toilet paper, Whisper’s night-time diapers, jugs of water…It all disappeared into the space beneath the mattress. Mom said Violet and I could pack a small bag each. I packed a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, underwear and a couple of T-shirts, a hoodie and my toothbrush. I managed to cram in my ancient iPod and a couple of graphic novels, plus a few pens and a blank notebook in case I had time to do any drawing.
    Mom and Curtis were packing up the rest of the house. Most of the furniture wasn’t ours anyway, since we’d rented the place furnished. Stuff we wanted to keep—like our photos and clothes and books and the twins’ toys—we packed into boxes for Curtis to put in our new storage locker. We’d rented it for a whole year with the money we would’ve used for June’s rent. Which was pretty awesome, when you thought about it. If we were ever really broke, we could just live in that storage locker, no problem.
    I wandered through the house, looking at each room, silently saying goodbye. We’d only lived here for three years, but it felt like home. It was weird to be leaving. I wondered if we’d ever live somewhere again, or if we’d just drive from place to place forever. Mom wouldn’t talk about what we’d do once we arrived on the east coast. We’ll take it as it comes , she’d said. One day at a time. We’ll be free, Wolf. Not tied down to any place. We can follow our hearts.
    You could tell it made her happy, the idea of all that freedom. Not me. I liked being tied down to a place. I liked our house, the park behind us, the potholed tarmac of our dead-end road. I liked the huge Garry oak trees and the deer that ate our cedar hedge. I liked my friends. I got a lump in my throat imagining going to school in the morning and telling everyone that it was my last day. My teacher Katie, my friend Duncan…even Ginger, the fat grumpy school cat who spent his days curled up on the wide window ledge in the main classroom. Even Caitlin , who made a point of saying at least one mean thing to me every day.
    I sat down on my bedroom floor, unpacked my notebook, tore out a blank sheet of paper and wrote down my email address over and over. In the morning, I’d give it to everyone at school. Mom was bringing her laptop on the trip because she had to keep the blog updated and post videos to YouTube and stuff. I didn’t know how often we’d have Wi-Fi, but hopefully I’d be able to stay in touch.
    From downstairs, I heard the sound of the front door opening and then slamming closed. Then I heard Curtis, loud and angry: “So you decided to show up after all, did you? Decided you didn’t want to get left behind?”
    Violet was home. I’d been kind of hoping we’d have to leave without her.

Four
    THE NEXT MORNING I told my friend Duncan about the change in plans. “So you know how we’re doing this trip? This summer?”
    Duncan didn’t take his eyes off his computer screen. “Yeah. The save-the-bees thing.”
    I logged into the computer beside his. “We’re going to leave sooner than I thought.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    I moved the mouse in circles and watched the cursor dance around the desktop icons. “So, this is my last day, probably,” I said.
    Duncan swiveled his chair toward me and studied me