Page 76

"Why don't you just ask your spirits to put the worm on the hook for you?" I threw back at her. He had said that. I remembered it well,

"I told you. They don't do things like that. and Mommy's told you, too. Someday when you see them, you'll understand."

Someday... someday...

someday... Promises drifting like white ribbons through the darkness of my sleep, leading me into the light of morning.

Mommy was jubilant in the morning. She was singing one of her happier old songs. She had prepared Noble's favorite breakfast blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and little sausages. The aroma was tantalizing, which surprised me. I was never that fond of the sausages. Sometimes they upset my stomach, but this morning. I had a big appetite.

"Now, I'm holding you to your prediction today. Noble, she told me as she put out the breakfast arid poured my orange juice. "You're bringing home our dinner. And I don't want to hear about any arguments between you and your sister. You two behave. I have fixed you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and there's chocolate milk in the thermos. Share it evenly. I don't want to hear. He drank it all and didn't give me any. I'm warning you," she said, wagging her finger at me.

I ate as much as I could, surprised at how much I did eat, and then I rose, took the lunch pail, and walked to the front door. The fishing rod, which was really Celeste's, was in the foyer with the can of fresh worms. Mommy kissed me in the doorway and told us to be careful.

"I love you both!" she cried as I walked toward the woods.

My heart was thumping hard and fast. I hadn't been back to the creek since that day, of course. I feared the sight of it, the sound of it. As I stepped through the bushes and pushed aside any branches that grew over the pathway we always followed. I heard Mommy telling the story again, how she had prepared a wonderful breakfast for us, how we had gone out together, excited, full of energy, Celeste looking particularly bright and beautiful, her hair gleaming in the sunlight.

Ill never forget the way it danced around her face, that sunlight, my precious little Mommy said with tearful eyes. I cried myself,

As I listened to her speak in my mind. I could hear a second set of footsteps just behind me. I paused.

"Catch up," I cried. "I don't want to take all day to get to the creek."

He had said that, so many times before, he had said that.

I walked on and found the spot from which Daddy and Mr. Kotes had shown us how to fish. I set down the lunch box and reached into the can of worms. A small pool of revulsion started at the base of my stomach and then quickly disappeared. I had a thick nightcrawler between my fingers. It squirmed slightly, nearly dead already.

Carefully, with more expertise than I imagined I had. I threaded the hook through it until it was perfectly secure, and then I tossed the fish line into the creek and sat on a rock. Celeste was bored quickly, of course, and drove me mad until I chased her downstream. She was happy to go,

"Ill call you when I'm hungry," I shouted.

Across the way a crow stared at me and moved very slightly on a thick oak tree branch. I could see its beak open and close as if it was talking to itself.

"Yaaa." I shouted at it the way Noble used to, and it lifted and flew downstream, screaming a complaint. I laughed, sat back, and grew mesmerized by the sound of the water rushing by, the breeze fanning the leaves and small branches, and the distant roar of a jet plane.

Maybe I dozed off. I don't know, but I realized that I was hungry. Nothing had taken my hook and worm yet. The string remained limp. I reeled it back and then looked at the hook. Something had nibbled on the worm. It was gone nearly to the edge of the hook.

Smart fish. I thought, and then I did something that surprised me.

I shouted for Celeste just the way Mommy told me I did. I shouted and shouted. Disgusted with no response. I threw down my pole and walked downstream, shouting. Something caught my attention across the way. Was it the movement of branches, the sound of someone running, and then, was that a scream?

I walked a little farther and then I stopped, true waves of shock and fear rushing at and over me.

There before me near the edge of the water was a shoe. A girl's pink and white shoe. Mommy. I thought. Mommy!

I turned and ran through the woods, pushing bushes and branches out of my way until I broke out to the meadow. where I shouted louder and harder. Mommy was squatting by her tomato plants. She rose and looked out at me.

"What is it. Noble?" she cried.

I ran toward her. and I told her. As if she had planned it, the postman came and saw me screaming and running. He got out of his vehicle and walked toward us.

"What's wrong. Mrs. Atwell?" he asked.

"MY little girl." she shouted back. "She's missing!"

He walked faster, and then he stood and listened to me.

"That doesn't sound so good," he muttered. He looked at his watch. "Is that creek far?"