Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston Read Free Book Online Page B

in.
    One of Da’s wool shirts is hanging on the back of the driver’s seat. I wrap it around me. The sleeves are way long, nice and cozy against the early morning cold.
    I push the lever that opens the door of the bus and the doors flap open. I step out into the nearly dark world. Something happens to light when it bounces off the grey mirror of the moon: all the color bleeds out of it. It’s a world of grey-and-dark, grey-and-light that the moon shows me. There is a pair of night-visions if I want to get them. Da always made sure the bus was stocked with essentials, everything we would need. I don’t bother with the night-visions though, because keeping watch at night is more about listening than seeing. Even though my ears aren’t as good as Bo’s, I know paying attention is what matters. What I can hear now is the air moving through the needles on the trees and the squeak of one branch against another. I tuck my nose into the collar of the shirt. I can smell my Da. He’s as close as the smell of wood smoke, sweat, and wool.
    The computer is charged, but we wait until the sun is up so we plug it into the solar collector for a trickle charge before we turn it on. Never waste an opportunity to conserve resources.
    Bo and I sit shoulder to shoulder sharing the screen. We open the file named TROUBLE/SEPTEMBER . Da is talking to us. He recorded all the things we didn’t need to know until now. Five minutes later we have the intel we need for the next month. Now we just start counting off the days. Checking things off the list. When Da gets here, everything will be exactly as it ought to be. If he doesn’t get here when the month is up, we come back for the intel in the file named ACTION/OCTOBER .
    Today’s list is a short one: Settle in, scout for wood, play chess, be good to each other.
    It is very comforting having our Da with us this way.

It’s crowded in the back seat. The helicopter shark thing is still there — so are Corbin’s school backpack and his sweatshirt and a load of other crap. Now we add Corbin and his bag full of drinks and snacks. The fat dog goes in the back seat too. The dog is coming along because Hey! Why not?
    I perch forward on my seat in the front. The vest is starting to rub the skin off the side of my neck, and it is hot. I tug the zipper on my hoodie, just a little, just enough to be a little cooler. Once the car starts moving, the air will circulate and I’ll be able to forget about my body and where it hurts and where it stings.
    Eric turns the key in the ignition and says, “Where are we going?”
    “Does this car have a computer that tells you which way to turn?”
    “This car doesn’t have a
radio
that works,” says Corbin. “Mom says a radio is a distraction, and Eric should pay attention to the road.”
    “Your mom is totally right,” I say. It would be handy to know what the cops are thinking, but Those People probably wouldn’t say the truth on the radio. Radio reports would be a distraction, lies and distraction. I need to trust what I know, not what they want me to know. “That’s OK about the car computer thingee, too.
I’ll
be the car computer thingee. I’ll say where to turn, how fast to go. I’ll say everything. That’ll be fun, huh, Eric? ‘Turn right when leaving the driveway.’”
    My pawn Eric does what he is told. Perfect.

It is time to open file: ACTION/OCTOBER .
    “You can’t stay in the mountains for the winter.” Da is talking to us through the screen. “If it hasn’t snowed already, it will soon, and you need to leave before you get caught. The bus is roadworthy. I always kept her roadworthy. Bo, you can drive her down. She’s bigger than the truck, steers a little harder, but you can handle it. Both of you, these are the things you got to do before you hit the road. Valley, write them down.”
    It’s a long list, very specific. There are jobs for both of us.
    “Once you get these done. It’s time to come back. Open the file named