Forager (9781771275606) by Ron Scheer Read Free Book Online Page A

packed it away in his
saddlebags. “Your LED isn’t really bright enough for a dark night
like this. If you get me some cups, I’ll make a few more
lights.”
    I half-filled three coffee mugs with water and brought them to
Sawyer.
    He reached into another of his saddlebags and took out a box
of salt, galvanized nails, some old copper house wiring, some
connector wires with alligator heads, and an LED bulb.
    It took him less than five minutes to assemble the battery. A
few minutes later, the LED began to glow.
    “ Do you know why it works?” I asked.
    “ No idea, but I remember doing it as a project for a science
fair when I was a kid. I remember how to build it, but not the
science behind it.”
    We built two more batteries with more cups from the kitchen.
The small LEDs didn’t put out a lot of extra light, but adding them
to mine was a big improvement.
    Now that there was more light, I thought it was time for some
answers. The questions, of course, were all about the mayor. How
did he and Sawyer know one another? Why didn’t they like each
other? And most importantly, what was it that Sawyer knew about the
mayor that the rest of us didn’t? Why had he made it illegal to
hunt?
    It didn’t seem right
to just up
and ask Sawyer. So I started small, hoping to build up to it.
“Could you tell me more about the Collapse?”
    Sawyer leaned back on the sofa and put a hand on his injured
leg. He made sure to keep the hand high enough on his thigh so that
he wouldn’t disturb the bandage. “What do you want to
know?”
    I thought for a moment. My limited knowledge came from school.
We learned how the bottom fell out of the dollar and inflation
soared. People all over the country began to starve because the job
market had dried up and people couldn’t buy food for their
families. We’d learned how the government itself went bankrupt and
could no longer help those that needed it. I knew what I wanted to
ask. “Why? Why did everything fail?”
    “ That’s a complicated question. I’m not sure I can answer it
for you fully, but I’ll tell you what I think.” He put a hand to
his chin and let the silence fill the room. “Greed—that’s the best
answer I can come up with. It went something like this. Someone,
somewhere, say the owner of a farm-implement factory, wanted more
money. He raised the price on his machines. Now the farmer had to
pay more for those machines. Instead of losing money to the
increase, the farmer charged more for his grain. That led to higher
food prices. Higher food prices led the worker in the implement
factory to want more money. Now we’re back to the owner—who’s in
worse shape now than when he first raised the prices on his
equipment because it isn’t just one worker that needs more money.
It’s a vicious outward spiral. Once started, it’s very difficult to
stop.”
    “ So the economy collapsed because people wanted more
money?”
    “ There’s more to it than that, but in the end, yeah, I think it
all comes back to greed. Everyone wanted more, and more, and more.
Now there’s almost nothing.”
    Interesting thoughts, but not the ones I really wanted.
Steering the conversation back toward the mayor, I asked, “So how’d
you get to be a Forager?”
    “ The only way a person can. Another Forager who thought I had the right…stuff
took me to the governor. After listening to Finn, the other Forager, the
governor agreed.”
    “ How long have you been doing it?” I asked.
    “ What do you really want to know?” He
lifted an eyebrow and gave me an I know what you’re thinking look. “Just ask,
kid.”
    I feigned ignorance. “What?”
    “ Don’t ‘what’ me. Quit beating around the bush and ask me
what’s really on your mind.”
    Was I an open book to him? He sure could read me like one. I
hesitated and struggled with how the questions should come out.
Even if prying for secrets was exactly what I was doing, I didn’t
want my question to sound that way. Finally, I just