Part of Me by Kimberly Willis Holt Read Free Book Online Page B

bed. His own clothes were in a pile on the floor.
    Gordie turned off the lamp on the nightstand and for a while the sounds of crickets filled the quiet between them. A moment later, Gordie asked, “How’s that ear?”
    *   *   *
    An hour before dawn, Merle Henry decided he wouldn’t have to tell his parents why he was leaving the house. Like most mornings, they’d assume he was running his trap line. “If nothing is in the traps, I’m going straight to school,” he told them. “Coach Burns said he could use some help in the gym this morning.”
    It was almost the truth. He’d be going to the gym and he was certain Coach Burns would put him to work. Only the part about checking the traps had been a lie.
    He hadn’t counted on Blue following him. And when they got to where they entered the woods, Blue stopped and Merle Henry walked on. He turned and discovered Blue still sitting there, waiting.
    â€œGo home, Blue. Go on home.”
    Blue tilted his head, looking confused. Merle Henry decided not to look back again. Blue would return home when he figured it out. Merle Henry took a few more steps. Then Blue barked. He knew Blue was trying to tell him to come on, let’s go check the traps. And Merle Henry wanted to. Lord how he wanted to.
    Thirty minutes later he was Coach Burns’s prisoner, mopping the gym, touching up the paint in the girls’ locker room. By the time the first bell rang, the gym floor sparkled and the girls’ locker room walls were spotless. Every inch of Merle Henry’s body ached.
    â€œI’m not too funny now, am I, boy?” Coach Burns’s furry eyebrows moved up and down like caterpillars doing push-ups.
    â€œNo, sir.”
    â€œRemember that the next time your backwoods ass wants to make fun of Marcus Burns, you hear?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œYou’re darn right.”
    *   *   *
    Merle Henry couldn’t wait for the day to end. On the bus, he slept with his cheek pressed against the window. He awoke when Gordie lightly shook his shoulder. “We’re home.”
    Blue didn’t meet the bus like usual, and it wasn’t until Merle Henry reached the house that he remembered the last time he saw him that morning. His mother was stirring something on the stove that smelled like onions and roux. “Gumbo tomorrow night,” she said. “It always tastes better the second day.”
    â€œHave you seen Blue?”
    She wiped her hands on her apron. “Haven’t seen hide nor hair of him all day. I was afraid he’d followed you to school.”
    Merle Henry dropped his books on the couch and grabbed his hatchet before taking off for the woods. He needed to check his traps anyway. Maybe Blue was still out there, waiting for him. He ran to the spot on the road where Blue had been that morning, then quickly tore into the woods. He passed the first trap. It was empty. He felt dizzy and his breathing became shallow. Then he passed the second one even though there was a possum between the trap’s jaws. Today it could have been a mink and he would have still left it behind, because now he was in the woods for one reason only.
    As he approached the trap by the foot log he heard a whining sound. Merle Henry froze when he saw the familiar blue-gray hair. A sour taste filled his mouth, and he heard his father’s warning playing over in his head. Better move those traps off the foot logs. Better move those traps. Better move those traps.
    Blue’s left hind leg was trapped and his upper body was caught between two narrow limbs branching off the thick log. He was grateful for those limbs. They kept Blue from drowning.
    Blue looked weakly over at Merle Henry, but he didn’t bark, he just whined. Merle Henry raced toward the log. When he reached it, he walked slowly across until he got to Blue. Then he sat, his legs straddling the log, and tried to open