The Boy Next Door

Chapter Nine

...

The trees sway softly in the light winds and clouds blackened threatening to pour any minute. Ever since the men on black horses came a few days ago, nothing had been going right. We had to move again, the boy has been sleeping a lot, and a bear took half of our food last night.

I can't believe that a few men on horses could bring such bad luck. I walk over to our food supply and look. We have a weeks worth of food left. We need to start scavenging for anything edible.

I nudge the boy and point to the woods. I put my hands to my mouth like I'm eating. He gets it. He nods and waves me away, "You go find something to eat okay? I'm going to stay here and guard. Oh take Jamie with ya, she can help."

I take Jamie and walk into the bare woods. I hate winter. I hate snow. I shiver and hold her closer for warmth. She has an extra layer of fur now that I always pet and admire. She looks around and sees something. She hops down and starts picking some kind of berry. I kneel down and almost eat one when she stops me.

She puts her hand to her mouth then falls to the ground. It'll kill me. I guess we can use them still, for enemies. I grab a few and put them in one of the bowls he gave me. I put it in my pocket and continue on to find edible food. I show her that I want food we can eat, she walks toward some fruits. She eats one to show me it's good. We put some into another bowl and walk on.

We found many fruits and types of bark we can eat. Some taste very good. Others like ear wax, but they are still food so I put them in a bowl. Once all ten of the bowls are filled we walk back to camp. The boy was boiling water and muttering. I ask him what he's saying.

"Its a song I like. Wanna hear?" I nod. He sings a very angry song. I don't like it at all. He sees my frightened face and stops. "I like the song. It explains everythin' that goes wrong. Sorry if I scare't you." I nod and show him the food. I show him the poison berries and pretend to die. "Ah, so ya found them red berries. Did she tell ya they bad? Yeah I guess she did. Want to make bombs outa them? We can make a gas outa them and use them as bombs." I nod, excited to make 'bombs'.

While he plans the bomb making, I walk around with Jamie on my back. She plays with my hair and coos. I take her to the creek, bath day. She sees and jumps in. I slowly put my legs in. I stand in knee high water washing her. She loves it, but I'm freezing. I take her out and get a shirt to dry her off. I dry her and put her back on my back. As we walk to camp I see a brown figure. Jamie sees it too and cowers, I know she can see better than me so I cower too. The figure stomps his way toward us.

As he nears, I see its a bear. I try my best to blend in with the dead grass and snow. It doesn't work, he sees or smells me and turns my way completely. He roars and charges. I don't even know why he is up toward the end of winter. I run to a tree and put Jamie on as high as I can reach. She climbs while I run to . . . anywhere but with the bear.

He keeps charging and roarimg while I dodge and smack. Yes, I smack the bear, he keeps getting too near. Finally I hear a whoop and a whoosh of air as an arrow flies toward the bear. It hits him in the shoulder. I grunt loudly and jump on him once he turns away from me. I take my knife out and stab his throat. He rears and falls back almost on me. I twist away and stab his neck again. He gurgles and dies. I look at his body, many arrows stick out of his sides at odd angles. I hadn't even noticed that the boy kept shooting. I just knew about that first arrow. He's a good shot too is he missed my body. I look down and see an arrow sticking out of my stomach area. I don't feel it, but the sight makes me lay down, panting. Jamie runs to me and screeches. The boy comes over and gasps.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean t'. I promise. I'll get you fix't up, okay? Come on." He lifts me up and carries me to the camp. I am set down on my bed and examined. The boy starts to pull the arrow out but stops.

"I don't know how deep in it is, I'm scare't t' be honest. I don't wanna hurt ya. You mind if i take ya a hospital?" I shake my head and mouth no. I don't want to go to a hospital. It'll be scary. I reach down and tug on the arrow. It doesnt hurt. Jamie forces a berry in my mouth along with some leaf. I'm instantly numb. I nod at the boy to pull it out.

He slowly pulls it out and makes a sour face. He holds it up and I see blood half way up it. It was half way in me, that's almost my whole body. He covers up the wound with the wet shirt I dried Jamie off with. She gives me another berry and leaf, the effects were wearing off. The boy cleans the wound and ties the shirt tight around my body. He ties another larger shirt around my arm. I was scratched pretty badly.

"Stay here okay. You should be fine. I'm just gonna skin the bear so you can use the fur as a blanket. Its only fair since he wanted to attack for no reason." The boy left, but Jamie stays and starts cooing again. I drift off to sleep just as the winds howl and the rain thunders.