Page 22 of The Boy Who Cried Bear
Max sits near the edge. He doesn’t dangle his legs. If he did, someone would definitely see him and maybe tell his mom, and if Mom saw him with Gunnar, she’d come running. If he stays near the edge, he’s not hiding—anyone can look up and see him—but he’s not making it easy either.
Max looks out, spots Gunnar, and lifts a hand. Gunnar jogs around to the door. A couple of minutes later, he plunks down a few feet from Max and leans back against a post.
“You get cold, grab a blanket,” Gunnar says. “You get thirsty, don’t grab a beer.”
Max shakes his head, and they sit there, looking out over the town. It’s late afternoon and everyone’s finishing up work or trying to get to the coffee shop before it closes.
He plays a memory game, where he tries to remember everybody’s name. It’s easy for people like Kendra and Dr. April, who he sees all the time. But then there are new residents he’s never spoken to. They’re like teachers in other grades, where they’re just faces that pass in the halls and he only knows that they’re teachers.
He can name all but two of the people below, so that’s good. Then he turns his attention to the forest. Mom keeps saying how beautiful it is up here, but she can’t really see it when she’s stuck in the town surrounded by trees, with the mountains just peeking over the top. From up here, the forest seems to go on forever, and Max can make out the lake just past the town, and then the mountains in the background. It’s like something out of a painting.
Seeing those endless trees scares Carson. Oh, he pretends he thinks the forest is boring, but Max can tell it scares him. It scares Max a little, but in a good way, if that makes sense.
The men who broke into their house, killed their dad, and shot their mom were the worst kind of scary. A Halloween haunted corn maze is fun and scary. This is more like riding his bike down Devil’s Curve, as fast as he can. It feels scary and good at the same time. The forest is full of adventure, but who knows what lurks out there. That can be bad, but it’s also interesting.
“You want to compare stories?” Gunnar asks.
Max pulls from his thoughts. They’ve been up in the loft long enough that people are all heading back to the residences or to the saloon.
“Compare stories about what?” Max asks.
“That thing in the woods. I’m not sure it’s a bear. I said that, but I think Casey just figured I was being nice to you. Which is bullshit. I’m never nice.”
Gunnar flashes a grin, but Max only rolls his eyes. Sometimes Gunnar really seems like he’s Max’s age. Right now, he’s that kid who doesn’t want to be “nice,” thinks it’s not cool, except he is nice, in his way. Not that he’s all nice, but he can be, more than he probably likes.
“Something about that critter was wrong,” Gunnar says. “The way it moved. It wasn’t like a bear.”
“You’ve seen bears?”
“Nah, which is the problem, right? I can’t tell Sheriff Nature Boy that it moved wrong based on stuff I’ve seen on TV.”
“You don’t like Sheriff Eric much, do you?”
Gunnar shrugs. “Don’t know him well enough to like him. Don’t particularly want to know him better either. He’s not my type of guy, and I’m not his type, so whatever. About the bear-man, though, I’ve been thinking—”
A voice from below calls up, “Max? You letting Gunnar lure you up to his lair with candy? Better watch out, or he’ll talk your ear off.”
It’s Yolanda. Max likes Yolanda more than most people here do. She doesn’t take anyone’s shit, as Carson would say.
Max waves to Yolanda, and she smiles, and it’s her real smile, not one of the tight-lipped ones she gives to others.
“Get your butt down here, Gunnar,” she says. “You were supposed to help Kendra with those bolts at five.”
“You mean she wants my biceps,” he calls back. “It’s not about me. It’s about my body. I feel so used.”
Yolanda starts to say something, and then glances at Max and stops, which only makes him really want to know what she was going to say.
“I’m borrowing your tree-house buddy for ten minutes, Max,” she says. “If you want to hang up there a little longer, I’ll have him bring you back a blackmail cookie.”
“Blackmail cookie?” Gunnar says to Max as he stands.
Max only smiles. It’s a secret between him and Yolanda. Detective Casey really likes cookies, but so does everyone else, and sometimes, Detective Casey is too busy to pick up cookies before they sell out. Devon always puts some aside for her at the bakery. Yolanda found out, and Devon—like most people in town—is kinda scared of Yolanda, so if she wants some of Detective Casey’s private stash, he gives her a couple.
Max once saw Yolanda eating them and figured out they were Detective Casey’s, so now if he’s around, she gives him one to keep him quiet. That’s why they’re blackmail cookies. Not that Max would ever have tattled on Yolanda. It’s a private joke between them, and he likes that.
Gunnar leaves, and Max stays where he is, looking out over the town. After he’s sure Gunnar’s gone, he peeks into the cooler and checks the beer. He wouldn’t take one—he’s just looking, and maybe trying to see whether there’s enough in there that he could take one sometime and not be noticed. He would give it to Carson. That might make his brother happy. Or it might make him scowl and call Max a little kid who thinks beer is cool.
There are only three bottles in there anyway. Gunnar would notice one missing.
