A Good Animal – Sara Maurer

“It’s no excuse. I don’t know what that was about.” She patted the claybaby dry and flipped it in her hands, looking at it from different angles. “My singing bird.” Katie pretended I was invisible all through dinner and she huddled in her room the rest of the night. “You shouldn’t have been like that to Mary,” I said to her bedroom door. “It was rude.”

“Good!” I tried the knob. “Open the door.” “No!” I’d never been so angry with her before. And never before had there been a locked door between us. “We’re not even going out or anything. She’s just a friend.” “You showed her the claybabies! I saw you! That’s our thing!” “Will you just open up?” I leaned my head against the door. “Please.” No sound came from inside.

I bunched the rabbit drawing through the gap under her door, a peace offering, and waited. I heard her unfold it, imagined her looking at the floppy face. Two seconds later, she pushed it back out. I went downstairs, where Dad was watching TV. “What’s wrong with Kate?” “No clue,” I said. I settled on the couch but didn’t pay attention to the show. I could still feel Mary hiding in my Carhartt; I could feel the weight of her hand as she balanced along the old foundation.

She’d been in this very house. The night felt open and wide. I couldn’t wait to see her the next day, and I was annoyed with Katie, and maybe that was why I forgot to tell Dad how Fluff had been walking. I drove Mary the next day and the next. On Thursday morning, I showed up without asking because by then chauffeuring her was routine. After school, with the leaves just starting to thin and change, I asked if she’d ever seen Lake Superior.

“There’s a nice spot twenty minutes from here. You want to check it out?” “It’s not like anyone’s dying for me to get home.” Whitefish Bay flashed through the trunks of the maple trees that crowded the north side of the highway. Their sleepy branches showered the road in our wake, dropping leaves like snow onto the ground behind us. I pulled off where the maples gave way to red pines—tall, thick trees with peeling, sunburned skin for bark.

The ground was covered in their tiny orange needles and our footsteps made no sound.

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Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillan.com/piracy. 1kitap1.com/en Because of Ryan 1kitap1.com/en Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. —William Stafford, “Ask Me” 1kitap1.com/en Prologue SAULT STE. MARIE When I walk these fields, I feel generations beside me. All those Lindts, bending over this wet clay soil, putting their hands in it, their shovels and seeds, their sweat.

They pulled stones from the land to set the foundations for the house I live in now. They saw these same rose-colored skies glowing over the St. Marys River in the morning; the same June grass poking up bleached and dry through the crusted snow. They walk beside me, and I tell them what’s on my mind. I tell them my plans for the farm, the price of hay and show lambs.

I tell them about my wife and daughter. But mostly, I talk to them about Mary. I tell them about those nine months we had, screwing to beat hell, driving my piece-of-shit Ford with roads and roads before us, gravel jumping up and biting the undercarriage, dust flying up behind. I tell them about that cold May night, when Mary stared out my truck window, far away and unreachable, with the St. Marys churning behind her like it’s done for ten thousand years.

They were there that night. They saw everything. And they’re the only ones I can tell it to.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 0840f59330562eed
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 5,231,787 bytes (4.989 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 244
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 401.62 minutes
• Total Words: 80,323
• Total Characters: 429,937
• Average Words per Page: 329.19
• Average Characters per Page: 1762.04

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