The Truth of Me (5 page)

The fire smells good. The woods smell good.

The light fades. Soon we'll see a sunset.

Ellie stands by the woods looking at something. Her ears go up.

“Ellie,” I say quietly, the way Maddy has taught me.

Ellie sits and watches three deer—two does and a fawn—come out of the woods. They look at us. They look at Ellie. Then they walk about, eating leaves. Ellie sits down, watching them. She shakes a bit and whines.

“It's all right, Ellie,” I say.

“She's not scared,” says Maddy. “She's excited.”

Maddy turns to look at the deer. But suddenly, as I watch, she loses her balance and falls over the log.

“Maddy!”

Maddy is lying cheekdown in the dirt and twigs. The log has rolled onto her leg. She doesn't move. I shake her arm.

“Maddy? Are you all right?”

Maddy makes a groaning sound. She tries to turn over.

“My foot,” she says. “Can you lift the log off me, Robbie?”

I kneel next to her and lift the log away.

Maddy cries out.

“I'm sorry, Maddy,” I say.

“It's okay. There's a pillow in the tent,” she says. “Can you get it, and I can sit up against the log?”

I run into the tent and find a pillow.

I put it behind her, and I put my arms under her arms to pull her so she can lean against it.

Her face is pale.

“Can you take off my boot, Robbie?”

“Maddy, I should go get help. I should get Henry!”

“Just take off my boot,” says Maddy, her voice sounding shaky. I've never heard her voice shaky before. “My sock, too, if you can.”

I undo her shoelaces. I loosen them. I pull off the boot. I try to be gentle, but Maddy cries out again. It hurts her more when I take off her sock.

And then I look up. And behind Maddy I see a black bear standing there, watching us.

I look quickly at Ellie. Her ears have gone up again. She whimpers.

“Ellie. Come. Good girl,” I say as softly as I can.

Ellie growls.

“Come,” I say again.

Ellie comes over to me. I hold her collar.

“Maddy,” I whisper.

“I'm all right, Robbie,” she says. “We'll figure this out.”

“Maddy,” I whisper again. “There's a bear behind you.”

Maddy can't turn around to look.

“Get the corn bread,” she says softly. “In the basket. Wrapped in foil.”

“Can you hold Ellie's collar?” I ask.

“Yes,” says Maddy.

Very slowly I go over to the basket and look inside. There is a foil package.

I carry it to Maddy.

“Unwrap it,” says Maddy, her voice sounding weaker. “Put half of it away from us, where the bear can see it.”

I unwrap the bread.

“Stay, Ellie,” says Maddy.

“You can take the corn bread near the bear now,” says Maddy.

I've never done anything in my whole life harder than what I'm doing now. I move over slowly, the bear watching me with small eyes. Such small eyes for such a bear. I put the corn bread on the ground.

I move back to Maddy. I can feel my heart beating.

“What is the bear doing?” asks Maddy.

“Sniffing,” I say.

Maddy smiles a bit.

“My friend.”

The bear moves in a kind of lumbering walk over to the corn bread. He lies down and eats.

I see Ellie shaking, and I reach over and hold on to her collar again.

“Ellie's shaking,” I say.

“Excited,” says Maddy.

“The bear is eating,” I say to Maddy.

“Robbie. I can't walk. My whole leg hurts. My head hurts, too. We'll have to get Henry. You'll have to go.”

It's still light out. I think of leaving Maddy, and I know I can't do that.

“No. I won't leave you.”

“We have to get Henry,” says Maddy.

“I know.”

Maddy is sweating now.

“I'm feeling dizzy, Robbie,” says Maddy.

I go into the tent and get her sleeping bag and cover her.

“Thank you, Robbie,” she says, her voice low.

And then I know what to do.

“Maddy?”

“What?”

“I'm sending Ellie,” I say.

Maddy's eyes are closed.

“Ellie can do it,” I say. “She knows Henry and knows how to get there.”

I take a notebook and pen out of my pocket.

I write a note.

“Ellie,” I whisper. “Come.”

Ellie looks at me. With a small sigh, she gets up and comes over.

I take one of Maddy's shoelaces and tie the note to Ellie's collar.

I give Ellie a snack.

“Ellie. Henry. Go to Henry,” I say.

Ellie looks at me. Then she looks at the bear.

“Ellie. Henry. Go now. Go!”

My voice is sounding as shaky as Maddy's voice.

But Ellie goes.

She runs down the hill a ways and turns and looks at me.

“Go. Good girl. Find Henry!” I call.

Ellie turns and runs farther down the hill, not looking back.

Soon she's out of sight.

“Henry will come,” I say to Maddy.

Her eyes are closed, and she doesn't answer.

I don't like that. I want her to talk to me.

I go into the tent and get my sleeping bag.

I lie down next to Maddy and watch the bear.

I'm scared.

But it isn't the bear that scares me.

What scares me is that Maddy is hurt, and she is not talking to me.

“Maddy,” I say softly.

“Yes,” she says, her eyes still closed.

I'm so happy to hear her voice that I can hardly speak.

“Henry will come.”

“Yes,” she says, her voice faint.

I look over at the bear, still eating happily.

And then there is a movement right next to me. I turn.

It is a bobcat.

“Maddy?”

“Yes?”

“There's a bobcat. This can't be real.”

“It is real, Robbie. Touch him,” Maddy says in a soft voice. “He trusts me. He trusts you.”

Suddenly, for a reason I don't know, I'm not scared anymore. I reach out and touch the silver side of the bobcat. I can feel his body ripple with my touch.

I lie back down next to Maddy.

“Has he ever been touched before?” I ask.

“No,” says Maddy. “You're the first.”

I grin.
The first! Maybe I have gifts like Maddy
.

The rabbits come as we lie there. The raccoons come and sit on the log near us.

“Friends,” says Maddy softly.

Night is coming. I light the lantern, but the fire still burns.

We wait.

T
he air is cool now. But the animals are still there. Maddy is sleeping. She has no color in her face. I hear the rustling of rabbits and chipmunks. I hear the chatter of raccoons.

The sun has set.

“Maddy,” I whisper.

No answer.

I hear a new sound.

Something coming.

I stand up to look.

Ellie!

Ellie stops at the clearing, waiting. She looks at the animals.

“Come, Ellie,” I call to her.

She walks into the clearing.

Behind her is Henry. He carries his medical bag and a sleeping bag. He's wearing a backpack, too.

He stops, staring at the sight: the bear, the deer, the rabbits, the raccoons on a log, the bobcat.

“It's all right, Henry,” I say to him.

I start to cry then.

Henry comes over and puts his arms around me. Ellie licks my hand.

The animals don't move away.

“Maddy fell over the log and hurt her foot. I took off her boot and sock.”

“That's good,” says Henry.

He becomes the doctor, not Henry, touching Maddy's face, putting his hand on her forehead.

“Henry?” says Maddy in a soft voice.

“I'm here,” he says.

He smooths her hair.

“You came camping,” she whispers.

Henry smiles at me.

“It's the pain,” he says.

“She hasn't been talking. She said she felt dizzy,” I say.

“Did she hit her head?”

“I think so. She said her head hurt.”

He looks at the bear, who looks back at him.

Then he looks behind me.

“Is that a bobcat?” he says in a voice so soft I can hardly hear him.

“Yes.”

Henry shakes his head.

“This isn't real,” he says.

“That's what I said,” I tell him. “But I touched him. He's real.”

Henry takes a small light out of his bag.

He shines it in Maddy's eyes.

Maddy tries to brush his hands away.

He feels her head.

“She's got a bump here,” he says. “But I don't think she has a concussion.”

Very gently, Henry feels Maddy's foot. He moves it, and she moans.

“Can you bring the lantern closer?” he says.

I put the lantern close to Maddy's foot.

Henry feels her foot and ankle again. He sits back.

“She has a broken ankle,” he says.

“Bad?”

“Bad enough. She'll have to stay off her feet for a while. I can put a temporary splint on now to keep her from moving it, but we'll have to get her off the hill to fix it properly.”

“Can you wait until morning?”

“We'll have to. It's too hard to move her in the dark. Has she had water?”

I shake my head.

Henry touches my face.

“Scary, right?”

“Yes.”

“We'll take care of her.”

Henry takes a syringe out of his bag and pushes up Maddy's shirtsleeve. He gives Maddy a shot.

“Maddy? You'll feel better soon. I'm here. Could you get some water, Kiddo? And is there any ice? We need to keep the ankle from swelling more.”

I go over to the food basket for water. I grab the ice pack.

The bear has gone now. The deer move into the woods. The bobcat still sits by the log.

His eyes shine in the dusk.

Henry builds up the fire again.

“Did you eat dinner?” he asks.

I shake my head.

“Maddy fell before we ate. You used the ice pack for Maddy, so I threw the hamburger into the woods for the animals. Maddy made baked beans.”

“The beans will keep,” says Henry. “I have nachos in my backpack for dinner. And cheese to melt over the fire.”

Henry and I sit next to each other on the ground, leaning against one of the logs. The bobcat has gone. Maddy's eyes are closed. Her foot is propped up on the pillow I use for sleeping. Henry has made a splint.

Ellie comes over to lie down next to Henry.

“Eleanor,” says Henry softly. “She found me. She pushed my front door open, and there she was.”

Henry strokes Ellie's head.

“And when I didn't get up from the kitchen table, she pulled my shirt with her teeth and tore it.”

“Ellie did that?”

“She wanted to let me know she hadn't just come for a visit.”

“And you found the note tied to her collar?” I ask.

Henry shakes his head.

“It had fallen off,” he says. “She picked it up by the front door and brought it to me.”

Henry looks at me.

“That was very smart of you to send Ellie,” he said.

“I couldn't leave Maddy alone. Or Ellie with . . .” I wave my hands, and Henry knows what I meant.

“With the raccoons, the rabbits, the bear, the deer, and the bobcat?”

I laugh. Henry laughs, too.

“I'm hungry,” says Maddy suddenly. “And I don't think nachos are very healthy.”

“The painkiller shot is working,” says Henry. “And this from a woman who once served the Kiddo doughnuts for dinner,” he says louder so Maddy can hear him.

He gets up and goes over to Maddy. He hands her a water bottle.

“A few sips, Maddy. You can eat in a bit, but not too much. I don't want you to get sick.”

“I already feel terrible,” says Maddy. “A little sicker won't hurt.”

“It will, believe me,” says Henry. “I'm your doctor. And a very good doctor. Listen to me.”

“How will we get down the hill?” she asks.

“I'll carry you,” says Henry. “It will be quite romantic.”

Maddy blushes.

“I'm glad to see color in your cheeks,” says Henry with a smile.

“Look!” says Maddy suddenly. “A shooting star!”

We turn and see the star cross the sky. Then another.

“I told you,” says Maddy. “Didn't I say you'd see that?”

Henry sighs.

“Maddy's better,” he says.

Henry melts cheese over the fire, and we spread it on nachos on paper plates. He gives Maddy a small plate.

The lantern light falls over the clearing, and the fire flickers on our faces.