Jean and Johnny by Beverly Cleary Read Free Book Online Page B

threatening when we got there—the wind was blowing and the clouds were getting lower all the time—so we decided to get in some skiing before we took time to unload our food or our sleeping bags. Well, I was up on the mountain when the storm broke. The wind must have been blowing sixty miles an hour when I came down that mountain, and the snow was so thick it seemed to be coming from all directions at once. I didn’t know whether I was going to make it back to the cabinwithout hitting a tree or a boulder, or not. And I wasn’t sure where the other fellows were.”
    â€œWeren’t you scared?” asked Jean.
    â€œSome, but I knew that if I kept going downhill I would come to the cabin,” said Johnny, his gestures suggesting skiing.
    Jean could see him, slim and handsome in his ski clothes, skiing through the blizzard. “What happened? Did you make it all right?”
    â€œIt took some doing, but I finally got down that mountain,” said Johnny. “I could hardly see the cabin. Well, the way the snow was drifting I thought we might get snowed in before the weekend was over. Then I remembered the sleeping bags and all the food in the car, and I thought I better get it unloaded before the car got buried. So I left my skis on the porch and sort of felt my way over to the car. I had just opened the door to take out a box of groceries from the floor of the backseat when I happened to look up and there was the biggest bear I have ever seen. He was so close I could have shaken hands with him.”
    â€œJohnny!” exclaimed Jean. “What did you do?”
    â€œI can tell you I didn’t waste any time getting into that car and slamming the door,” Johnny went on.
    â€œWell, that bear went prowling around the car—I guess he must have smelled the bacon. Bears like bacon, you know. Well, there I was shut in the car with the bear snuffling around. Sometimes the car would shake and I knew he was trying to break in. I was really caught in a trap. I couldn’t chase the bear away, and I didn’t dare get out.” Johnny paused dramatically.
    Jean waited in suspense for Johnny to go on with the story. He smiled down at his eager audience, enjoying the suspense he had created.
    Then Homer spoke. “Except that bears hibernate in the winter,” he said seriously.
    Jean and Johnny stared at Homer and then shouted with laughter. His statement of fact was such an anticlimax.
    â€œHomer, I have never had the rug pulled out from under me quite so fast,” said Johnny, slapping Homer on the back. “Oh, well. It was a good story while it lasted.”
    Earnest, earthbound Homer, with no imagination at all, thought Jean. How like him to spoil a good story. “But maybe this bear had insomnia,” suggested Jean. “Maybe he couldn’t sleep, so he got up to fix himself a snack.”
    â€œThanks, Jean. You’re my pal,” said Johnny,smiling down at her as they stood on the sidewalk. “Well, so long.”
    â€œSo long,” said Homer.
    â€œGood-bye,” said Jean, and stood a moment watching Johnny as he walked toward the parking lot with Homer. Johnny was everything she had hoped he would be—interesting, full of fun, the kind of boy who would make up for a girl’s shyness. Jean chose to walk home along a street lined with cherry trees flowering like pink clouds in the sharp breeze. That was one of the nice things about Northgate. In the flat part of town the streets were lined with different kinds of flowering trees. Jean could walk to school on a plum street and walk home on a cherry street. Jean reached out and caught a pink petal as it drifted to the ground. Johnny had walked down the hall with her!
    After that Jean took to lingering in the sewing room after school, so that she could leave at the time Johnny might be coming down the hall. At first Jean made up excuses for not being able to leave when Elaine came for her,