The Bear: A Novel by Claire Cameron Read Free Book Online Page A

and my toe hits something. Ow. It’s the tin. And I pick it up and know that it’s the cookie tin and it now has a bunch of holes in the top and it has a bang and it must have been Stick trying to get a cookie. I look up and he is watching me and I know that he really wants a cookie because his little tongue pokes out of his mouth and he licks his lips. I shake the tin.
    “Cookie?”
    He nods his head yes.
    “Come on.” I hold the tin out and shake it and start walking back to the water. I am calling him like I call Snoopy, holding the treat out and making my voice squeaky because it sounds not like me and more like a girl who is nice. “Come here.”
    Stick stands up and puts one foot in the mess. He has to step to get around some eggs that are broken and a jar of jam that has the top on. Lucky. If the top was off Stick would have stopped to stick his fingers in it and lick. He likes the wax part that is on the top and he and I get to trade who gets to lick it when it comes off a new jar that is opened up for the first time. He knows he can’t get the jar open so I see him look at the jam but I shake the cookies again.
    “Here, Sticky.” I call him like Snoopy.
    He knows it is my Snoopy voice because he sticks his tongue out and puts his hands up near his chest and curls them like paws. Stick likes Snoopy and got jealous because Snoopy and I play and so Stick made an inside dog that lives in his head.
    “Woof,” he barks.
    “Good boy, Stick. Come on.”
    He keeps walking and I go backwards and then my heel hits the canoe and it makes thump on the metal. Ow.
    I look at the canoe. It is half in the water floating and half on a piece of dirt that turns into the water. There is also Daddy’s paddle lying in the dirt. I think eek because I see that it is broken. The long handle part is cracked in half and he will be so so mad. Momma gave him the paddle from Santa and a man made it exactly right. So so mad. I didn’t break it and I will need a paddle and I grab the side of the canoe to push it in with one hand. The canoe won’t move. It feels like when I put my hands on our car when it is in the driveway and try to push. I can’t lift or push the car and Daddy says that most people can’t. Even a big man. He says that sometimes small people have moved cars when they want to save someone like Superman. He gets special powers and can move things that they couldn’t before. I close my eyes and think about a laser beam coming to my forehead and the special powers flow into my head and they laser down to my chest and out my arms and legs and I take a big breath and I push.
    Nothing happens. The canoe is too stuck for special powers even. Daddy pulled it up enough so that it won’t float away. He should come and help.
    “Daddy!” I say.
    He doesn’t call back to tell me one minute and he doesn’t come. I have to ask Momma to do most things and I look up and am about to tell her to come and get the canoe out and I see a foot. Stick starts barking in my face and he has his hands on the tin and he pulls it. I tell him to go away and I try and push the canoe with my leg but it is stuck. I push Stick back and try again but no. It is stuck and I need Daddy. When I push with Daddy it slips on the sand. Stick falls and goes plop on the sand on his bum and then he looks mad. Like when he got stung by a bee and his face went all red and twisty. He yells and stands up again and tackles me. He wants the tin. I throw Gwen in the canoe so she won’t get ripped. He grabs the tin and turns to run away. His legs take many steps but I only have to take two and I have my arms around him and my chin over his head. His foot sticks out the back and he gets it tangled between mine and we fall. The tin is the hot potato except that we both want it and it’s under Sticky’s belly on the ground so I have to flip him and grab it back. I get it in my hands and go back to the canoe and he comes and tries to grab it again. He is mad and not