Sea Change Read Free

plate into the frying pan, pours water in from a blue jerry can and covers the pan with a lid. She points to the top bunk. “You sleep there. Shitter’s out back. Don’t wake me up in the night.”
    â€œWhoa, you’re sleeping here too?” I know it’s a stupid question, but I can’t believe she’d stay in the same cabin as a guy.
    She says, “I’ve got a tent if you don’t want to sleep in here. I use it when Denny’s here.”
    â€œIt’s a nice tent,” Sumi says, and then she looks at me. “I’m sure the bear is long gone.”
    Bear? “No, I mean, if it’s okay with you, then I’m fine sleeping together.” My face gets red hot. “In the same cabin.”
    She waves her hand as if to erase my stupid comment. “Whatever,” she says, and she turns toward her bunk.
    So much for happy hour. I go outside but it is dark, pitch-black dark. Water and land and trees all look the same: pitch-black dark. There’s no way I’m going looking for a shitter, not with a big bear around. I shiver. Inside, in the light of the lantern, I can see Sumi cleaning her teeth into the dishpan. Nice. I step off the porch and piss on the grass. Then I wait for a while, long enough that she might think I went to the outhouse, and then I go back in. She’s already in bed.
    I avoid looking at her as I climb into my bed. The sleeping bag feels a bit damp but it’s warm. “Sumi?”
    She grunts.
    â€œSo, my dad keeps the deer here for the guests? Like an attraction or something?”
    I hear her roll over, and then she snuffs the lantern. “It’s not like there’s a fence. He plants grass. The deer eat the grass.”
    â€œSo the deer don’t belong to him?”
    â€œI didn’t say that.”
    â€œSo they do belong to him?”
    She lets out a huge sigh.
    I know I should let it go, but I say, “He thinks they belong to him?”
    There’s a long pause, and then she says, “If you haven’t figured out your father by now, Lucas, I’m not sure why you’re trying.”

Chapter Three
    As soon as I leave the sleeping bag, the coldness of the morning nails me. Wind rattles the windows. Sumi motions to a pot of coffee like I should help myself. I pour a mug, grateful for the warmth. She’s eating Wonder bread and peanut butter, and she’s left her knife stuck deep in the jar.
    â€œDid my dad bring some food?” I’m thinking bacon and eggs, maybe some fried potatoes.
    Sumi tongues a wad of bread and peanut butter from her front teeth. “If he did, he took it with him.”
    Well, I hope he’s having a nice breakfast. I smear peanut butter on bread and sit down at the table. “So, the coho are running?”
    She nods. “Most are already in the streams, but there are some still out there. They’re nice fish, fat from feeding all summer.” She looks out the window. The bay is covered with whitecaps, and rain slants hard against the glass. “I’m going hunting though. It snowed up on the ridge, so the game will be easy to track.”
    â€œSumi the Slayer strikes again.” I say it with a laugh, but she just shrugs.
    â€œThe deer I got yesterday has to hang for a week or so,” she says. “My grandmother might like a rabbit or something in the meantime.”
    â€œI guess I knew that. Beef has to age too.”
    â€œAt home we’ve got a shed for game. Hopefully Denny will get back, and then I’ll be able to take it home today.”
    I try to keep my voice level. “You don’t have to wait for him. You don’t have to keep me company.”
    â€œOh, I know that.” She looks out to the bay. “I’m not going anywhere in a boat, not until it clears.”
    That probably means the old man isn’t getting back either, which means I’m not going fishing.
    She must see my expression because she