Readers
Despite what my math teacher might think, I'm not stupid.
I'm not mean either. At least I try not to be.
So that's not how I got into this mess.
I got into it because I was bored.
I know that's a dumb excuse, but I bet I'm not the first person to use it. My guess is boredom's the reason lots of people get into trouble. It can drive you nuts. It can make you do stuff you'd never do in a million years.
For me, that meant hanging out with Richard.
That sounds cruel, but what can I say? If you knew the guy, you'd probably feel the same way.
I sucked down the icy air, but all too soon my lungs grew ragged from the cold. It felt like I was breathing in air from a red-hot furnace. My broken fingers throbbed, but that was the least of my worries. The bulldozer stayed directly behind me. It wouldn't get tired. There was no way I could stay ahead of it, not with all the miles between me and where the Mackenzie entered the Arctic Ocean.
Last year a fisherman shot a sea otter farther up the coast. He said it was destroying the catch. That's what happens to animals that eat fish around here. No one has time for them.
