Bluefish Read Free Page B

shelve books and do whatever else she says. Five bucks an hour. Four hours on Saturdays and two hours Wednesdays after school.
    She said since I'm not fourteen yet, it'd have to be under the table, and she'd pay me in cash and was that okay?
    Ha. Is that okay? Now, THAT is funny.
    Thirty dollars a week for whatever I want. Maybe I can get the electricity turned back on in your trailer so I can watch movies. Do you know how much torture it's been to not watch movies? I even watched reality TV with the madre last night. That is desperate. That should be a reality show.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Today we start individual conferences," said Mr. McQueen in reading. "When I call your name, bring your book into my office and we'll discuss."
    He called Heather first. Travis glanced over at Velveeta. She was staring at the cover of a book and playing with the end of her scarf. This one was an October maple blast of red, orange, and yellow.
    Travis traced his finger around the black paw of the fox on the cover of his book. They made such small, neat tracks, those fox paws. One day last winter, he'd followed fox tracks in a new snow and spent all morning tromping circles around the woods and swamp, over brush and under barbwire, until he ended up in a sweat more than three miles from home. He never did find a fox hole.
    He opened his notebook and drew fox prints from the upper left to lower right corner of the paper. Then he made some rabbit tracks on the other side of the page.
    "Mr. Roberts."
    Travis grabbed the fox book and walked to the front of the classroom. He stepped through the office doorway.
    Stacks and gangs of books and magazines leaned in from every wall, shrinking the small room down to nothing.
    "Have a seat." McQueen settled behind the desk.
    The pile of books at Travis's feet crowded his legs, making him sit slightly sideways. If all the books in the room jumped him at once, they'd bury him. It would take days to punch his way up through the covers and the pages.

    "Let's see the book."
    Travis handed him the fox.
    "Why'd you choose this one?"
    Travis shrugged.
    "You like foxes?" McQueen held the book up, tapping the cover.
    Travis nodded. The cover of that book was the most open space in the room.
    Rolling snowy fields and distant pines against a gray winter sky.
    "You ever see one in the wild?"
    Travis nodded again, remembering the fox pups he'd watched in June. The way they'd rolled and dodged as they wrestled, and that one who'd jumped straight up like a lit furry firecracker.
    "What was it like? Did you see it up close?"
    "Pups last summer," Travis said. "They were cute."
    "Lucky!" McQueen popped his eyes wide. "Not many people get to see that - but you're good at being quiet, blending in. Do you spend a lot of time in the woods?"
    "Used to, at our old place."
    "Miss it?" McQueen flipped through the pages.
    "Yeah."
    "Well, if it's woods you like, you picked the right book. Kjelgaard is terrific with outdoor and animal stories, beautiful. I mean, listen to this:
    "Chapter One. The Raider. It was a night so dark that only the unwise, the very young, or the desperately hungry ventured far from the thickets, swamps, and burrows where wild things find shelter in times of stress."
    McQueen continued to read in his deep, rumbly voice, and Travis sat back in his chair. McQueen's voice brought a starless winter swamp night to life, with rattling leaves and the movement of a fox through the snow. Travis closed his eyes, shutting out the crowd of books, breathing in the cold, clean air.
    McQueen stopped reading, and Travis opened his eyes. The swamp disappeared.
    "Nice writing, isn't it?"
    The mass of books leaned in from the shelves again, waiting to hear what Travis would say.
    "How far have you gotten?" McQueen tapped the cover.
    "Not very."
    "Anytime you want to talk about it, let me know. Or if you need help with anything."
    "Okay." Travis stood and reached for the doorknob.
    "Some nice line drawings at the start of each