Read Online Anybody Shining by Frances O'Roark Dowell - Free Book Online

rocks.”
    The color rose up in Tom’s cheeks. “I can climb. I can do just about anything except run.”
    I nodded, figuring that Tom knew best about what he could and could not do. “That’s fine then. Let’s mail our letters and I’ll show you the creek.”
    Now, Cane Creek is a well-traveled area, and mostly what there is to look at is birds and fishes and a snake or two swimming through the water. If you hear something crunching down the path, why, it’s almost always someone on their way down to the post office or the settlement school. But I figured to Tom, whogrowed up in a city, Cane Creek would be high adventure.
    I had no idea how much adventure we was about to have.
    Tom, as it turned out, was an admirer of rocks. “Look at that one,” he said, pointing to a craggy piece of quartz crystal sticking out from the water. “I wonder how old it is? A thousand years? A hundred thousand?”
    I’d not ever wondered about the age of rocks. They seemed like forever things to me, not items with their very own birthdays. “How can you tell?”
    â€œThere’s a scientific method,” Tom assured me. “But I don’t know much about it. It has something to do with looking at the layers, I think.”
    I started examining the rocks along the creek bed. There was quartz crystal and limestone and lots of shiny mica. I reached down to pick up a piece of mica to show Tom how you could peel its layers off one by one, and when I looked back up, well, that’s when I seen the bear.
    It was actually a black bear cub, and it wasstanding on the other side of the creek, looking over at us.
    â€œTom,” I said, keeping my voice low. “If I was you, I wouldn’t make any sudden moves. We’re just going to back up real slow.”
    Tom, to his credit, did not startle or shout or even say a word. He just did exactly what I did, which was one slow step backwards, then another slow step backwards. Still talking soft and low, I said, “Now, you may not have noticed this, but there is a bear cub across the creek from us, and I can tell by the look in his eye he finds us a right interesting sight.”
    Tom stopped in his tracks. “I see him!” he said in an excited whisper. “Is he going to come after us?”
    My experience with bears is fairly limited, but I have heard the stories from others, so I knowed what the possibilities was. “He ain’t going to attack us, if that’s what you mean, but if his mama is around, she just might. So the best thing is for us to move away real slow like we’re doing.”
    But Tom had no interest in moving, it would appear. At least his feet had no interest. His hand was heading to his back pocket, where he kept that little book for writing things down.
    â€œYou can write about it later!” I hissed. “Right now ain’t the time!”
    Tom was already scribbling notes. “Right now is the only time! When am I ever going to find myself face-to-face with a bear again?”
    â€œI’d say never, if his mama comes and eats you alive.”
    â€œJust give me one minute. Anyway, he’s just standing there.”
    â€œIt ain’t him I’m worried about!”
    I was in a pickle. I knowed the smartest thing to do was to get out of there as fast as we could without causing a commotion. And nobody was stopping me from doing just that. But I couldn’t leave Tom, now could I? Who leaves their own true friend to get eat up by a bear?
    â€œWhat’s the difference between a black bear and a brown bear?” Tom asked. To his credit, he was still whispering, not that I thoughtwhispering would keep us alive in the long run.
    â€œThere ain’t no brown bears around here, so that’s one difference. Can we go now?”
    Tom held up a finger. “Just one more second. I want to describe how intelligent his eyes are.”
    I was starting to think