Read Online Over the Edge by Gloria Skurzynski - Free Book Online Page A

of the men’s room.
    â€œHey, where’ve you been?”
    â€œYou checking up on me?” Morgan demanded.
    â€œNo. I just wanted to talk.”
    Eyeing him warily, Morgan asked, “About what?”
    â€œAbout…I don’t know. Nothing, I guess.”
    â€œGood!” Morgan broke into the beginnings of a smile. “I’ve had enough moralizing to last me awhile. I mean, your mom was out of control back there. I hope Snipe doesn’t see that report—he would freak if he thought the hunt was going to get banned.”
    â€œShe’s pretty intense when it comes to animals. But everyone in my family is. I think that hunt is gross.”
    â€œExcept no one mentioned that Cash-for-Carcasses shoots mostly coyotes, which reproduce even faster when they’re killed off.”
    â€œIf they’re dead, they can’t have babies.”
    â€œReally?” Morgan asked sarcastically. “I’m talking about when they’re thinned out they’re fewer of them competing for food, so the survivors’ litters get bigger, which means there’s no way hunters can ever wipe them out.” Nodding with satisfaction, he added, “Snipe told me.”
    â€œSo? That’s still no excuse to use animals for target practice.”
    Beneath lowered lids, Morgan stared down at Jack. “Everything dies. It’s only a matter of when.”
    â€œThat’s the same as saying one human can kill another human because ‘they all die anyway.’” Jack could feel the color rising in his cheeks, until he saw the amused grin bending the corners of Morgan’s mouth.
    â€œPoint taken,” Morgan said, giving a slight bow.
    Â 
    â€œBut before we leave this subject, I’d like you to consider that if your mom and all her tree-hugging friends are right, then people are just animals on the food chain, which means we shouldn’t be held accountable for acting like them since that’s all we are. Animals kill each other all the time, right? So we as humans should be entitled to the same privilege. You lose the argument.”
    â€œI can not follow your logic. You’re so weird,” Jack answered, shaking his head.
    â€œYou just noticed? How unobservant. I’m hungry.”
    â€œMe, too. Let’s find Ashley and see if we can get my dad to buy us some pizza.”
    â€œDeal,” Morgan said. “You know, Jack, you’re all right. Most people can’t take me, but you hang in.”
    â€œI guess that makes me weird.”
    â€œMost definitely,” Morgan nodded. “You might even be a geek. That’s the next level past weird.”
    â€œPlease, you’re scaring me.”
    When they begged for pizza, Steven gave in almost immediately. “Let’s head for the cafeteria. I could go for a bit of high-carbo, high-fat myself.”
    In the cafeteria, Olivia began to relax. She talked a bit to Morgan, and this time he answered without a hint of sarcasm. Jack could tell his mother was pleased. Even Ashley seemed to be warming up, especially when Morgan accidentally dropped a slice of pizza down the front of his shirt, leaving a tomato-red smear.
    â€œYou certainly have trouble with your food,” she snickered. “Orange juice, pizza—maybe you need a bib.”
    Morgan took the teasing good-naturedly, without even a word of verbal retaliation.
    After pizza, back at the Yavapai Lodge, Steven invited the two boys into the room he shared with Olivia and Ashley, saying, “Come on in—Olivia’s just going online to check her e-mail. Then we’ll head over to Grandeur Point and try to spot the condor.”
    They waited, Ashley sitting on the cot that had been brought into the room for her, Jack looking at a Grand Canyon map to see where they’d been, Olivia calling up her e-mail on the laptop.
    â€œOh my! Steven, come look at this,” Olivia gasped.
    In an instant both Steven and