Page 1 of The Boy Who Cried Bear
PROLOGUE
Max
“We’re being stalked,” Max whispers to his big brother. “I think it’s a bear.”
Carson scowls and waves for Max to be quiet.
“I’m serious,” Max whispers, loud enough to attract the attention of Kendra, leading the group hike.
“Everything okay back there, buddy?” Kendra calls over her shoulder.
“It’ll be better when you turn around and take us back to civilization,” Carson says. “This is even more boring than last week’s hike.”
Kendra raises her middle finger, and Max can’t suppress a smile. Mom says Kendra is a social worker, but Carson says that she’s too cool for that. Max thinks Mom’s right, though. They’ve mostly only had social workers who are, well, kinda boring. Kendra’s fun, and she knows how to handle thirteen-year-olds like Carson when they’re being jerks.
Carson might respect Kendra, but that doesn’t keep him from grumbling and kicking the dirt the moment she turns away. Max knows his brother doesn’t want to be here. Carson hates the forest. He’s scared of it, though he’d never admit that. Max wishes he’d admit it. He wishes Carson would admit all the things that scare him, because then Max could admit them, too.
Carson is scared that the bad men will find them here. Max shouldn’t call them “bad men.” That makes Carson roll his eyes. Max is ten, and “bad men” is little-kid talk, which was fine when they were little kids, and Mom and Dad explained about the bad men and why they had to play a hiding game. Witness protection—Max knows the proper words now.
Their parents saw something bad, and they’d done the right thing by telling the police. The “bad man” went to jail, only he had friends who were angry, and that meant witness protection.
Max didn’t used to be afraid of these people. His family always had their “Captain America shield,” as Dad called witness protection. Then the shield broke. Now Dad is dead, and Mom is injured, and they’re hiding in the wilderness and Carson is so mad. Mad and scared, and being scared only makes him more mad.
These days, Carson hates everything. Mom calls it “a phase.” She also says he has a reason to be angry, and he needs to “work through his trauma.” Carson’s seeing Mathias for that. Mathias is a psychiatrist and also the town butcher, just like Kendra is a social worker but also the town plumber and the hike leader. Max is doing therapy, too, only he talks to Isabel, who’s a psychologist but also runs the town bar, which everyone calls the saloon, like in the Wild West, which is really cool.
To Max, everything about Haven’s Rock is cool. It’s like being at summer camp, except it’s for grown-ups, and he and Carson are the only kids, and that’s kinda awesome.
“Stupid hikes,” Carson mutters, kicking his feet. “I don’t know why you like them so much. There’s nothing to see but trees.”
Max could point out what Carson is missing. So many things that he’d run out of breath listing them. Look at that orange mushroom—it’s edible, but that one’s old and will taste bitter. Over there is fox scat—it’s pointy at the end and has fur in it. See that ground squirrel—when they hibernate, their bodies go below freezing.
He could say all that. He has said all that and more, and Carson only grumbles that he’s starting to sound like Sheriff Eric, which Max considers a compliment—the sheriff knows everything about the forest—but Carson doesn’t mean it that way.
Max also doesn’t say that Carson could have stayed behind. Mom insists Carson come on the hikes to look after Max. She can’t because of her bad leg, after she was shot by the men who killed their father.
Max is allowed to go on his own with Sheriff Eric or Detective Casey, but Mom thinks Kendra is “a bit young” to look after Max. Kendra is twenty-three, which is older than Max’s last teacher, but he knows not to say that. Just like he knows not to speak to Carson until he has to.
If there’s a predator stalking them, he has to say something.
“I really do think it’s a bear,” Max whispers.
“Good. A bear attack might be the only thing that’ll make this hike interesting.”
Max scowls at him.
“There’s no bear, Max. Don’t do this again. You embarrassed us enough the last time.”
Carson stalks off ahead.
Max glances to the left. There’s nothing there now, but he’d definitely heard an animal earlier. A big animal.
Ever since Max told Isabel he had nightmares about people sneaking up on him, Sheriff Eric has been teaching him how to track sounds in the forest. One day, after a really bad nightmare, they’d sat in the woods all morning, listening for animals.
The crack of a twig. The rustle of undergrowth. A grouse, startled from its hiding place. And sometimes, there’s no sound at all, which says there’s a predator nearby.
Earlier, there’d been three noises. A crackle. A rustle. Another crackle. Each had come at least thirty seconds after the last, meaning the creature is following them.
Stalking them.
