Read Online Surviving Summer Vacation by Willo Davis Roberts - Free Book Online

as she got down the tuna andput some on a paper plate. I knew Alison would have given almost anything to have a cat of her own, but if she’d brought home one that belonged to someone else—even if Mom and Dad had allowed her to have one—they would have insisted the owners be notified at once, until it could be returned.
    When we got up the next morning, eager to go on to Yellowstone National Park, I couldn’t find my glasses.
    â€œWhere did you put them?” Alison asked, popping frozen waffles into the toaster for ­Ariadne.
    â€œThe same place I’ve been keeping them every night since we left home. In my left shoe, under the edge of the couch where nobody could step on them.”
    Alison’s eyes turned toward Billy. He was sitting at the table opposite his little sister, stroking the cat, who seemed perfectly content in his lap.
    â€œBilly, did you take Lewis’s glasses?”
    His smile was innocent but I knew he was guilty. “Where did you put them? I have to have them, Billy. I can’t see without them.”
    â€œWilliam wants some more tuna fish,” Billy said.
    His folks were sitting up front, drinking coffee, and they heard all this. Neither of them turned around or said a word. I felt rage rising up inside of me, and I thought Alison was feeling the same thing, even if they weren’t her glasses. I reached over and took hold of Billy’s ear, pinching it a little.
    â€œWhat did you do with them, Billy?”
    He pretended he didn’t hear me, stroking the cat more vigorously until I applied a little more pressure and then began to twist his ear.
    When I was in the third grade, we had a teacher named Mrs. Stott. I heard her once telling the sixth-grade teacher that twisting an ear was how she controlled an unruly pupil. It leaves no marks,” she’d said, “but it’s usually effective.”
    It was effective on Billy, too. The angelic smile slid off his face, and he muttered under his breath, “They’re in the pocket behind ­Daddy’s seat.”
    There was a pouch there where the maps were kept. Mr. Rupe kept right on reading themorning paper while I dug out my glasses and inspected them to see if they’d been scratched. I settled them on my nose and felt relieved when everything around me sprang back into sharp focus.
    Some fun it would have been riding through Yellowstone without my glasses, I thought, glaring at the back of Billy’s head. A moose could have stuck his nose right on the window and I wouldn’t have recognized it.
    I wasn’t disgusted with Billy as much as I was with the rest of the Rupes. They all knew Billy had taken my glasses—my eyes practically—and nobody said a word about it.
    I didn’t think about it very long, though. A lot of the other people from the campground were also going into the park, and the cars, trailers, and motor homes stretched out in a long line, getting tickets.
    The woman in the ranger’s uniform handed Mr. Rupe a bunch of maps and papers, and he tossed most of them over his shoulder into Harry’s lap. “There, educate yourself,” he said.
    Harry tossed them to me. “You read this,Lewis,” he said. “I just want to get to the good stuff. Where’re the bears?”
    â€œI don’t like bears,” Ariadne said nervously. “They will eat me.”
    â€œNo, they won’t,” Alison assured her. “We’ll just look at them through the windows, and we’ll be perfectly safe.”
    We crossed the border between Montana and Wyoming—the boundary was inside the park—and I looked down at the top paper of the things the ranger had given us.
    It was a bright yellow flyer with big letters across the top. “Warning,” it said. “Many visitors have been gored by buffalo. Buffalo can weigh two thousand pounds and can sprint at thirty miles per hour. These animals may appear tame, but are