by Jon Scieszka
A small stream crossed our path, and Sacagawea hopped across nimbly—pack, baby, and all. Then it was my turn. I did my best jump, but landed right in the water. Typical.
“Well,” Samantha said, smiling, “at least your shoes are clean.”
Leave it to Samantha to find something funny about my completely soaked, absolutely ruined, formerly adorable shoes.
We hiked on, following Sacagawea and the group farther up the mountain. As the sun sank lower in the sky, I couldn’t help thinking of Mr. Lewis’s warning. If we didn’t make it to the top by sundown, we’d all be…dead.
CHAPTER 6
After several hours, we stumbled into camp. Literally. My feet were throbbing and swollen.
“I am through with walking,” I announced. “When I get back home I am disking everywhere.”
Samantha and I sat down to rub our aching feet, while Freddi fed sticks into the campfire.
“Want to hear the good news?” Freddi asked. “Sacagawea is bringing us some food.”
Samantha’s eyes lit up at the mention of food. “Great,” she said. “We’ll eat until we’re full, then use the leftovers as bear bait.”
Sacagawea arrived carrying three tin plates. “Here. I hope you will like this,” she said, handing a plate to each of us.
We were ready for serious feasting. But looking down at our plates, we saw only one tiny blob of who-knows-what. Some sort of corn mush with grayish meaty bits on top.
“It is the last of our food,” Sacagawea explained. “But when we cross the mountain, we will find the Nez Perce and then we can trade with them for more.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. But that’s why I’m friends with Samantha.
“The Nez Perce is another tribe of Native Americans. They traveled across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho,” Samantha whispered to me.
“I also made a place for you to sleep,” Sacagawea said.
Ahh, sleep. At least that would be good.
Sacagawea pointed to a shabby canvas tent covering a few blankets on the cold, hard ground. My heart sank. I looked at Samantha. Apparently even she had stopped looking on the bright side.
“Um…thank you,” Freddi said. “Thanks for everything.”
Good old Freddi.
“You are welcome,” Sacagawea said. “Oh, there’s one more thing.”
Sacagawea pulled a small tin from her pocket. In a flash, she was spreading nasty goo all over my head.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
“This is bear grease,” she said. “It will take all of the emergencies out of your hair.”
Emergencies? Now my hair was in a grease-covered state of total trauma!
Sacagawea added one final glob of goo, then turned to go. “Now I must feed the men and attend to Little Pomp,” she said. “Good night.”
Freddi and Samantha stared over at my slimy new do.
“Not a word. Not one word,” I said.
I was tired, greasy, and starving. I actually thought about eating the mouthful of mystery mush on my plate. But one sniff quickly changed my mind. Time for Plan B. I moved the tin plate aside and grabbed my backpack.
“I wonder what that bear left?” I said. Rooting through the pockets, I found something. “Oooh! A Mondo Chocko bar.”
Success.
But before I had one sweet Chocko-licious bite, Samantha snatched the candy away.
“The bear will love this,” she said. “As soon as he comes close enough, we’ll grab The Book, go home, and you can get another Mondo bar. Okay?”
Okay? I was supposed to give my last piece of food to a bear that had tried to kill me. Not okay, but, as much as I hated to admit it, Samantha did have a point. If we were ever going to get out of here, we had to get The Book back.
The sky turned from purple to black, and the moon peeked out from behind some pine trees. One by one, stars began to twinkle in the sky.
“Hey, Freddi,” I said. “Here come your stars.”
Within minutes, the whole sky was filled with them. Real twinkling stars. I had to admit, it was kind of pretty. Freddi, Samantha, and I sat quietly.
The silence was broken, suddenly, by a blood-curdling coyote howl. Samantha, Freddi, and I dove into the tent faster than you can say “Big Dipper.”
Never mind going to bed without dinner. Now we just wanted to go to bed without becoming dinner.
But in the middle of the night, Freddi and I were still wide awake. Between our less-than-cozy tent and Samantha snoring like a lumberjack, sleeping was impossible.
“If only she came with an off switch,” I whispered to Freddi.
A moment later, we heard a noise outside our tent. Something was out there.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
Then we heard a wrapper crinkling.
“It’s the bear,” Freddi said. “He’s found the Mondo bar.”
Sleeping Beauty Samantha heard the commotion and suddenly awoke. Energized by news of the bear, she threw off her blanket and leapt out of the tent.
“Is that you, bear?” she said. “You can have the candy, just give me The…”
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
The bear let out a deafening roar. He must not have appreciated Samantha interrupting his midnight snack. Samantha came flying back into the tent and dove under a blanket. Finally, she poked her head out.
“He didn’t want to give it back,” she said.
A disgusting smell hit my nose. “What’s going on?” I said to Samantha. “You stink.”
“Oh, yeah,” Samantha said, sniffing her arm. “There was a skunk out there, too.”
“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!” I screamed, diving under a different blanket.
Huddled in the smelly tent in the freezing cold, I could only imagine what the next day would bring. Only one thing was certain—I was afraid to find out.
CHAPTER 7
The next morning, I awoke to the sounds of Samantha snoring and Freddi chattering on about something.
“Wake up!” she cried. “It’s the most beautiful thing you ever saw.”
After my night of terrible sleep, the only thing I wanted to see was my therma-spa, full of hot water and lots of bubbles.
Freddi threw open the tent so I could get a peek outside.
“You have got to be kidding,” I said. “Snow?”
Sure enough, there was a fresh coating of the cold white stuff covering every inch of ground.
“Look at the treetops,” Freddi gushed. “They look like lace.”
“I am not trudging through snow,” I said. “No way, no how.” Trekking up a mountain weighed down like a mule was bad enough. Trekking up a mountain weighed down like a mule in snow was simply out of the question.
I felt a nervous breakdown coming on. Mr. Clark approached the tent and looked to Freddi and a very groggy Samantha.
“Is your friend okay?” he asked, sensing my distress.
“Yeah, she’s fine,” Samantha said. “She’s just not too thrilled about the snow.”
“I thought the grizzlies were givin’ us a hard time,” Clark replied. “But this snow beats all. We have got to get to the other side of this mountain. Today.”
The mountain he was talking about was: (a) enormous, (b) far away, and (c) covered in—you guessed it—SNOW.
“Isn’t there some shortcut we could take?” Samantha suggested. “I mean—did you check a map?”
“Map?” Clark said with a laugh. “There is no map. I’m drawing it as we go.”
He pulled out a large piece of rolled-up paper and opened it. The right and left sides of the map were filled in with the names of states, major landforms, and bodies of water. But the middle part of the map was practically empty, except for some recent sketches. Clark was filling in the map as the group traveled.
“See,” Clark said, pointing to a river on the filled-in part of the map. “If we can just get to the Columbia River, we’ll be Yankee doodle dandy. It’s a trading route, so we can grab ourselves a couple
of canoes and paddle to the Pacific. And then, that’s it—we’re done.”
“Except for the gettin’-back-home part,” he added as he rolled up the map.
The scary news was starting to sink in: We were in totally uncharted territory.
CHAPTER 8
“Hey guys, look what I got,” I said proudly, showing Samantha and Freddi my newest find—a horse. If we were going to trek through this silly snow, we might as well ride in style.
Samantha and Freddi were thrilled to see the horse and scrambled up onto his back. We fell in line with the rest of the Corps of Discovery, who had begun to climb a steep cliff.
Samantha was enjoying the ride. “How’d you get this horse anyway?” she asked.
“Well,” I said, “I just explained to Mr. Lewis that I couldn’t walk another step, and voila—instant horse.”
“Jodie,” Samantha said. “Sometimes I’m glad you’re you.”
As we climbed higher, the mountain got steeper and the path grew narrower. Freddi peered over the sharp ledge and a queasy look came over her.
“Why do mountains have to be so high?” she whimpered.
Then suddenly we heard a deep growl.
“Did you hear that?” I asked. The horse must have heard it, too. He started to neigh nervously.
“It’s the bear! It’s gotta be,” Samantha said. “Go back. I think I can see him.”
I tried to wheel the horse around, but he was scared and didn’t want to go.
“Does the bear still have The Book?” I asked Samantha, staring up at the mountain where she was looking.
“Uh, guys…guys!” Freddi cried.
The horse’s back foot had slipped over the edge of the cliff. Suddenly the horse started to slide farther down.
“We’re goin’ down!” Samantha screamed.
The horse’s front feet were still on the path, but his back feet were scrambling over the ledge. To make matters worse, the path was beginning to crumble.
The horse jolted, and Freddi fell off the front. She landed with a thud on the ground. But Samantha and I were stuck, clinging desperately to the scared, unsteady horse. More path crumbled and the horse’s hooves fell farther down the ledge.
It looked like Freddi was going to be warping solo from now on.
CHAPTER 9
In a flash, Sacagawea was racing to our rescue. She placed Little Pomp down in a safe spot and grabbed our horse’s reins.
“Deche…deche…,” she whispered softly to the frightened horse.
I hoped her horse whispering was better than her hairstyling.
But no luck! The horse was too scared to calm down. His feet scrambled farther down the ledge—sending Samantha and I lurching a few feet closer to doom.
“The saddle,” Sacagawea said to Freddi. “Grab the saddle.”
They pulled with all their might. Freddi struggled as she threw her puny body into it. Tugging steadily, Sacagawea continued to soothe the horse. “Deche…dee-daga…quiet…friend…”
Slowly the horse calmed down and began to regain his footing. Guided by Freddi and Sacagawea, he made his way carefully back onto solid ground.
Samantha and I let out the deep breaths we’d been holding. The entire Corps, who had gathered around us, let out a cheer.
“Thank you, Sacagawea,” Mr. Lewis said.
“This is not the first time you have proven your worth.”
“But you must thank Freddi, too,” Sacagawea said modestly. Then she turned to Samantha and me. “I am sorry, for my horse is not usually so clumsy.”
“Your horse?” Freddi cried. “We took your horse?”
“Yes, well, you seemed to need the help,” Sacagawea replied.
Freddi glared at me. I felt my cheeks go warm and red.
“Thanks,” I said to Sacagawea. “But we’re all rested now, so you should definitely have your horse back. You’ve been carrying all your stuff, and a baby, and…” I gulped. I saw my pink backpack strapped to the huge mound Sacagawea had been carrying on her back. “And all of our stuff, too.”
“Here, give us some of that,” Freddi said.
Samantha, Freddi, and I divided up Sacagawea’s huge load. I heaved my share onto my back.
“Okay, that’s a bit heavier than it looks,” I said.
Sacagawea made a move to help me.
“But it’s totally fine,” I said. “I’m never going to complain again. If you can do it, so can I.”
Sacagawea picked up Little Pomp and mounted her horse. “Thank you,” she said. “I will scout ahead for food.”
She rode off, and Samantha, Freddi, and I began to trudge up the snowy path.
The slippery ground and the heavy packs quickly grew tiresome.
“We have got to get The Book,” I said, “because there is no way I can do this without complaining.”
But Samantha and Freddi didn’t seem to be listening. They were too busy thinking about the stupid bear.
“I wonder if we could call to him?” Samantha said.
“You know bear calls?” Freddi asked.
“No,” Samantha admitted. “But I’m great at yelling. Let’s see, if I were a bear, I’d make a sound like…”
Samantha cleared her throat. I knew we were in for something.
“SNEEEERRROOOOOOOOOO! BWAAAAAEEEEEEEEE! SNAR-HUNKA-HUNKA-RRRRRR!” Samantha bellowed.
A noise like that probably scared every creature for one hundred miles.
“You are insane. You know that?” I said.
“Well,” a voice said, “she wouldn’t be the first explorer to go off her rocker.” It was York.
“No really, I’m fine,” Samantha explained. “I was just doing bear calls.”
“Bears don’t answer calls,” York said. “The only thing that’ll bring a bear is food.”
“Which we don’t have,” Freddi pointed out.
“No,” said York. “But we will…just as soon as we make it over this mountain.”
The mountain. I wish people would stop reminding me.
Picking up the pace, York walked on ahead of us.
“Lewis and Clark did make it over the mountain…right?” Freddi asked nervously.
“Right,” Samantha said. “But that was before we joined them.”
CHAPTER 10
I’m not complaining, I’m not complaining, I thought with each painful step. But if I were complaining, I might say that this was the most annoying day of my entire life. We’d been hiking straight up a mountain for hours in the blinding, freezing snow, and we still hadn’t reached…
“The top!” Clark yelled. “We’ve reached the top!”
The top? Could it really be?
Samantha, Freddi, and I raced the rest of the way until we reached the ledge where Clark was standing.
“Welcome to the new America, girls,” he said, gesturing to the view.
“It’s so beautiful,” Freddi said.
“It’s so magnificent,” Samantha added.
“Isn’t there a road somewhere?” I asked. “Or a truck stop? A rest area? A picnic table?”
Freddi and Samantha gave me a look.
Clark made a final scribble on his map. “Now all we have to do is find that river,” Clark said. “Ok, men…and ladies. Move on.”
Finally we staggered into camp. Dumping our packs, we warmed up by the campfire.
“Oh, thank you, Corps, for stopping,” Samantha said.
“I’m going to lie right here, on my back, for the rest of my life,” I said.
“Who are those guys?” Freddi asked.
I raised my head to see what she was looking at. Lewis and Clark were talking with two Native American men who were pointing to a canoe filled with bags.
Sacagawea joined us by the fire.
“What’s going on?” Freddi asked her.
“That’s Chief Twisted Hair of the Nez Perce,” Sacagawea explained. “We’re trading for canoes…and food.”
“Food?” Samantha said. “Hot dog!”
&nb
sp; “No,” Sacagawea said. “We will not be serving dog, but fish and roots. And berries, if we can find some. Would you girls like to go look around with me?”
“I would,” I said. “I really would, but I can’t.” I was taking my promise to lie there forever very seriously.
Samantha didn’t seem too eager to move, either. “Now that there’s food,” she said, “maybe we should stay here. That bear might show up.”
“I’ll come,” Freddi said.
Good old Freddi.
Samantha and I rested around the fire until we regained our strength. Soon the smell of food began to fill the camp. Lewis and Clark’s trading must have been a success. My stomach started to growl.
“Speaking of growling,” Samantha said, “where is that bear? Shouldn’t he be here by now? There’s food all over the place.”
I decided to eat something before Samantha made me give my next meal to the bear. There were some berries on a bush nearby. I couldn’t believe Sacagawea had missed them. I popped a few into my mouth.
“Are you sure you should be eating those?” Samantha asked.
“Why not? They’re delicious,” I said, and gobbled down another handful.
Just then Sacagawea and Freddi returned.
“What are you doing?” Sacagawea cried. “Those berries will make you sick.”
Sick? I spit chewed-up berries in every direction. But I already feared the worst. Was that a fever I felt coming on? Hives? A coma?
“I’m sick,” I cried. “I’m extremely ill!”
Freddi took my hand. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go see Mr. Lewis. He must have some medicine.”
It took all my strength to follow Freddi over to where Mr. Lewis and Mr. Clark were seated. Mr. Clark was busy working on his map, while Mr. Lewis was sketching a new type of plant he’d found.
“Excuse me,” Freddi said. “Mr. Lewis? Do you have anything for a stomachache? Jodie doesn’t feel well.”
