Flickering Hope Read Free

strong.
    “Promise, or I’ll tell my dad the bears are near here.”
    Her narrowed eyes and fierce grip told me this wasn’t an empty threat. Without meaning to, we had led her straight to Patch’s den. The girl shook my arm again, demanding a response.
    The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I promise.”
    The girl took off through the snow, as fast as she could in her worn boots. Long, tangled brown hair swung across her back.
    “Hey!” Andrew called out behind me.
    The girl turned back, saw Andrew and Ruth, and glared at me, a warning clear in her eyes. But what warning? Haze filled my mind, as though I’d woken from a deep sleep. Broken bits of our conversation ricocheted off one another, making less sense the more I thought about them.
    “What did she say to you?” Andrew put his hand on my shoulder. “Sadie?”
    I realized I was cradling my arm, staring down at the muddy stains the girl’s fingers had left behind. The girl had almost disappeared into the trees.
    “We have to follow her,” I said.
    Our snowshoes made it almost impossible to run, but we stumbled forward as fast as we could, managing to keep the girl in sight, though just barely. When we stepped through the thick bushes into a clearing, Andrew held out his hand to stop us. A wooden shack slumped in the distance. Smoke rose from a metal pipe stuck at an angle in the roof.
    We leapt behind the bushes as the shack door swung open, and a man in a flannel shirt, orange hunting vest, and knee-high boots stepped out into the snow. Behind him, a woman stood, concern clear on her face. She cradled a baby against her shoulder.
    “Where’ve you been?” the man asked. “You left for the outhouse fifteen minutes ago.”
    The baby whimpered, and the woman stepped back as the man laid his arm protectively across the little girl’s shoulders and led her inside. He closed the door, rattling the shotgun that leaned up against the cabin steps.

Chapter 3

Shut Out
    “T hat’s Old Man Mueller’s shack,” Andrew whispered.“Well, it’s the shack he squats in during the summer. But I’ve never seen those people before. I’m sure Old Man Mueller doesn’t have family. The shack isn’t really his, but no one stops him from staying there. The company that owns this land gave up on ever selling it and basically ignores the old man.”
    Ruth bit her lip. “A baby shouldn’t be out in the forest like this. She’ll freeze.”
    Andrew brushed snowflakes off his jacket. “Let’s head out. We’re too exposed here.”
    As we circled around toward the research cabin, I thought about the girl, my promise, and Patch. Patch had been in danger even before shewent into hibernation. After she had nuzzled Jim Paulson’s hand last September, he decided she was dangerous. At the community meeting people from the area defended the bears, but Jim wouldn’t listen. To him, Patch was a problem only a gun could fix.
    Andrew and I had thought until a few weeks ago that hibernation would protect Patch. We were sitting in our favorite pair of cushy chairs behind the bookshelves at Black Bear Java. Jim and Mack had come in, talking loudly, not knowing we were there.
    “How could you possibly find that bear’s den?”
    Hearing Mack’s voice, I caught Andrew’s eye, and we both grew still, listening.
    Jim said, “Helen’s boy said it denned on that empty plot of land, the one that’s been for sale for ages, out past the research cabin. Remember? At the trial? Two coffees, black please.”
    The cash register dinged and change rattled as the two men paid for their coffee. I shrank down in my chair, even though I knew they couldn’t see me through the solid bookshelf.
    Mack continued. “That plot is over a hundred acres. You’re gonna find a bear den on a hundred acres? It’s not worth it, Jim.”
    Jim made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a growl. “That bear charged me. What’ll it take for people to see the danger — a kid getting