Read Online Case of the Glacier Park Swallow by Dina Anastasio - Free Book Online Page A

resent her, but when he turned she saw that he didn’t. It was something else.
    â€œIt’s pretty bad, isn’t it?” he said. “I wonder how many drugged birds there were?”
    â€œToo many,” Juliet said. “But it’s over now. And it wouldn’t have worked anyway, not really. Birds were flying south long before man arrived on the planet, and they aren’t going to alter their course that easily.”
    Cam came back and sat beside her and said, “I think I said that I’d tell you when I couldn’t do without you, remember?”
    Juliet shrugged, and nodded, and turned away. Suddenly she felt shy, and a little afraid. She knew what he was going to say.
    â€œWell, I can’t do without you any more,” Cam said. “I missed having you around, and so did the animals.”
    â€œI’m not going anywhere,” she said. “I’ll be here until the spring. But I’d like to go back to Yellowstone in May.”
    Cam nodded, and they went to work. They worked side by side for the rest of the day, giving injections, examining teeth, removing splinters, and cutting toenails. It was a pleasant day, and for the first time Juliet felt like they were partners.
    Katie was waiting by the door when she came home. “Max is sick,” she said. “He won’t eat, and he just stays there on your bed and sleeps. I’ve been thinking that he might have eaten one of those tranquilizer implants.”
    Juliet ran upstairs and examined him. Katie was right. He seemed sleepy and lethargic.
    â€œI told you,” Katie said.
    Juliet took his temperature and looked into his eyes and his ears, and when she was finished she said, “He hasn’t been drugged, Katie.”
    Katie seemed annoyed. “How do you know that?” she asked.
    â€œLook at his eyes. They’re clear.”
    Katie studied them, and then she looked up at Juliet and shrugged and walked away.
    â€œHe’s sick,” Juliet said. “His temperature’s up.”
    She looked him over again, and found a raw cut in his back right paw. When she touched it, Max whimpered.
    â€œIt’s infected,” Juliet said. “He needs an antibiotic.”
    But Katie didn’t appear to be listening. She was standing by the bookcase flipping through one of Juliet’s books.
    She has become just like I used to be, Juliet thought. She would rather be right than do a good job. How very strange.
    She went to Katie then, and put her arm around her and said, “Will you go over to Cam’s and ask him for an antibiotic while I stay with Max?”
    Katie put the book away and wiggled out from under her arm and waited until Juliet had written the name of the antibiotic on a piece of paper.
    She left then, without saying a word, which made Juliet feel both sad and a little angry. When Katie was gone, she went over to the bed and sat beside Max.
    â€œYou’ll be all right in a few days,” she whispered. “But I’m afraid that it will take Katie a whole lot longer than that.”

15. SPRING
    S ophie was still there by the bank of the river when Juliet returned in the spring.
    Juliet heard her harmonica as she came through the woods with Max, and when she heard the swan’s reply, she knew that everything was all right.
    It was the same whistling swan. The X was still on his band and his G-note was loud and mellow and perfect.
    Juliet came and sat beside Sophie and said, “He came back.” Sophie noticed her then for the first time, and she hugged her tightly and Juliet could see that there were tears in her eyes.
    â€œYou see,” Sophie said, “everybody comes back in the spring.”
    Juliet laughed, and said, “Any sign of the swallow?” and when Sophie shook her head and said “No” she felt sad.
    â€œDon’t worry too much about it,” Sophie told her. “It wouldn’t have stopped on its way home anyway.