Moo Read Free Page A

legs
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  fingers clenched like claws.
    Luke wrenched himself away from Mrs. Falala
    with the practiced skill of an escape artist.
    I know he wanted to say
    Don’t you touch me!
    but he didn’t.
    That night in his yellow notebook
    Luke’s drawings included a skeletal
    towering figure with a snake braid
    and sharp metal claws
    surrounded by a posse
    of enormous hogs and menacing cats.

BEAT AND ZEP
    I was leaning over the fence at the farm
    watching a sturdy dark-skinned girl
    maneuver a rope halter over the wide head
    of a wide cow that protested
    Moo! Mooooo!
    The girl planted her boots in the muck
    and angled her hip against the cow’s neck
    urging the animal toward the rope loop
    Moo-ooo!
    The girl wore orange canvas overalls
    and tall black rubber boots
    and spoke to the cow all the while:
    Come on, there you go,
    don’t be so stubborn, over here,
    back it up, this way, you know how.
    Nearby another teen
    a tall, lanky redheaded boy
    urged another cow out of a stall
    coaxing it into a rope halter as well.
    The boy called to the girl
    Hey, Beat, I’ve got this one—
    and she called back
    Okay, Zep, that’s good—
    and it made me smile
    those names
    Beat and Zep
    Zep and Beat
    but when they looked up
    and saw me watching
    I turned away
    embarrassed
    I don’t know why
    and rode off down the hill
    down Twitch Street
    and past Mrs. Falala’s house
    where the flute music
    drifted from the window
    and the parrot squawked on the porch
    and somewhere behind or beyond
    was that soft moo, mooooo
    but no hog and no cat that day.

EMPLOYMENT
    Before we moved to Maine, my parents sent out piles of job applications to the coastal towns in which they most hoped to live. One of those applications resulted in a job offer for my mother, teaching English at a private school near this harbor town. Her job would start in September.
    That is perfect! she said. It gives us a couple months to get settled first.
    Dad was still looking for a job. He’d been to lots of interviews and was hopeful that one of them would lead to work. He said he wanted to change direction and do something completely different, maybe something outdoors, maybe something with landscaping (he was good at that) or animals (Really? I knew he liked dogs, but that was about it) or painting (houses). He said he was open to anything, though.
    If I can find something even part-time , he said, we’ll be okay. We’ll have enough to pay the rent and put food in our mouths.
    Luke said, But if you don’t find a job, does that mean we won’t eat?
    Hmm . He turned to Mom. Honey, we can always eat the children, I guess.
    Luke went white. Whaa—? Whaa—? Whaat?
    Dad had to spend the next half hour reassuring Luke that he’d been kidding.

MISTY MORNING
    One misty morning Luke and I rode
    along a cobbled wall
    past a cemetery with tilting headstones
    circling around the back side
    of Birchmere Farm
    with its pond and grass meadows
    and graying, mossy fences
    and clumps of cows grazing.
    What are they thinking?
    Luke asked.
    Are they happy?
    Why do they just stand there?
    Don’t their legs hurt
    standing up all day like that?
    Moo, mooooo.
    First one, then several in unison.
    Moo, mooooo.
    What do you think they’re saying, Reena?
    Are they talking to themselves or to us?
    Maybe , I said, they’re talking about us .
    Maybe they’re saying
    â€˜Look at those two over there
    staring at us like that.
    What are they staring at?’
    Mooooo.
    In the area by the barn stalls
    three cows in halters were tied
    to the fence
    their heads held high
    their necks outstretched.
    The redheaded boy named Zep
    came up behind us as Luke asked me
    Why are they tied funny like that?
    Doesn’t it hurt their necks?
    Naw , Zep said, startling us both.
    It’s stretching them
    getting those muscles