Melody Crumbley's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

The paw tracks led Melody past the crushed crates and out into the flat yellow scrub. She held Mr. Boots by one ear. Her sandals kicked up dust. She could not see the coyote anymore, only the little dents its feet had left in the dirt. She followed them because the eye was inside the coyote and the coyote was somewhere ahead. She cried while she walked. Not the loud kind now. A hiccupping, wet kind that shook her shoulders and made her nose run onto the rabbit's fur. She wiped it. She kept walking. The sun pressed down on the top of her head. Then she heard something that was not her. A dry buzz. Fast. Close. Melody stopped with one sandal in the air. The snake sat coiled in the dirt three steps ahead of her. Its body was thick and patterned brown and black, stacked in tight rings. Its head was lifted. Its tongue flicked. The tail at the back shook so fast it blurred, and the rattling sound came out of the blur like a broken toy. She put her foot down slow, behind her, not forward. The snake watched. She sobbed once and clapped her free hand over her mouth. The rattle went louder. She froze. Behind her, gravel crunched. "Whoa," Dexter said. Her brother stood ten feet back in his striped shirt, pockets bulging, grinning the grin he wore right before something broke. He had followed her. Of course he had followed her. He would not miss this. "Don't move," he whispered, too loud. "That thing'll bite your face off." Melody's shoulders shook. A new sob climbed up her throat. The rattle answered it, faster. "Stop crying," Dexter hissed. "Stop crying, stop crying —" She couldn't. Her mouth opened. The wail was coming. Dexter bent down and grabbed a rock the size of a plum. He hefted it. His tongue poked out the side of his mouth. "Dexter," Melody whispered. "Don't." He threw it. The rock missed the snake. It smacked the dirt beside its coils and bounced. The snake struck at the rock, missed, and whipped sideways into the low brush. The rattle kept going for a second, then stopped. The scrub swallowed the sound. Melody stood there with her mouth open and no noise coming out. Dexter laughed. "I saved your life." He picked up another rock and tossed it in his palm. "You owe me forever." Melody looked down. The snake was gone. The paw tracks were gone too. The scuffle had churned the dirt where the coyote's trail had been, and the trail past that point ran into hard-baked ground where nothing pressed in. She turned in a slow circle. Scrub in every direction. No tracks. No store behind her that she could find. She hugged Mr. Boots against her chest and did not cry. She had nothing to follow now, and her brother was smiling.