The Bear

Prequel

        The nose of our canoe scrapes on the sand.

        Momma says, “This is our home for the night.”

        And I think no because our home is in Toronto and we are only camping for three sleeps. This is dirt and trees and rocks on an island in a lake. This is not our house. I have Gwen with me because she is my teddy and I need her to sleep. Except here I will sleep in a tent and not my house. The tent is blue and sniffs like dust.

        “Anna, can you move to the front of the canoe so I can get out?”

        Momma has her long paddle. She used it to steer the canoe and she wants me to move and Gwen so that she can go on the campsite on the island of dirt in the lake.

        But Gwen doesn’t want to move. We are sitting on Coleman. He is holding all of our food in his mouth and likes me to sit on him because he is warm metal and green. He is so big that he has to be put in the long way to fit in the canoe.

        Momma thought Coleman would fit side-to-side but no. Daddy had to lift him so his handle faces the front. And then Momma said bringing Coleman was a bad idea and got mad.

        Except she is the one who packed all our food inside his mouth. When he shuts his mouth the food stays colder inside of him. That is good because then our cheese doesn’t get hot. When it gets hot it goes crumbly and yuck. I don’t like cheese that looks sweaty like in the gym at school. Cheesy sweat is so so gross. That’s why Gwen and I like sitting on Coleman and knowing about cheese being right. Momma is waiting and gives me a little huffy smile.

        “I’ll just hop out here.”

        Momma gets out of the canoe by climbing right into the water because Gwen and I won’t move. So her shoes get wet and that is okay because they are special shoes that have rubber so they don’t slip on rocks.

        I watch her legs dip in the water up to her shorts. Her legs are brown because of summer. She walks up to the island and leaves me and Gwen and Coleman. We are facing the other way and I hear Daddy and my brother, Stick. They are looking at the campsite and saying, ‘Oooh’. They want to show our new home to Momma except it’s not our house.

        So I am quiet and I sit alone. Only with Gwen and Coleman. I sit on him with my legs dangling into the back of the canoe. The voices of my family get smaller. It is quiet and the wind says ssssh. I see something move maybe. In the very corner of my eye. Did I see?

        But then I don’t know. I look again. Maybe it was only a wiggly bush by the water. I wait and say a very soft, ‘Hello?’ I don’t know if something is there or who. I turn Gwen’s head so she can look with her eyes too.

        “Did you see?” I whisper in her fuzzy ear.

        And there is a small smell that I don’t know and only a little. Maybe like when my Daddy forgot a hamburger on the barbecue for a long time and I looked. It was shriveled up to a smaller circle and stinky. I look. I don’t see anything. Maybe it was a new friend. Maybe I scared it away because I am alone.

**

        I stand with my feet on the island on the campsite and it still doesn’t look like our home. Not even for one sleep. There is a ring of rock that doesn’t have a fire inside. So when I need to put a marshmallow on fire there isn’t any. Daddy and Momma have spread all our stuff on the ground to cover up the pine needles.

        “Watch your brother, Anna,” says Momma.

        “Oink,” I say.

        I can tell by Momma’s face that she thinks I am rude. She thinks ‘manners’. But my mouth said ‘oink’ just because of my brother, Stick. He has a piggy nose because he doesn’t talk very many English words. His nose is small and round like a pig and he is so small. He is not even three years old. He has fat little feet and a round nose that is turned up like a pig.