Death by Exposure by Eric Walters Page B

to use it
this
year.”
    â€œWell, let’s hope for some snow,” their mother said. “Just not too much and not today.”
    â€œThen you
are
going shopping today?” Ben asked.
    â€œYes, I think I will.” Ben’s mother studied her son warily. “You seem awfully anxious to get me out of the house.”
    â€œI’m just anxious to get some
real
food into the house—that’s all!”
    Their mother cocked an eyebrow and gazed at Ben intently. Her son had a habit of glancing at the floor when he was lying or had a scheme up his sleeve. But this time he was looking her straight in the eye. Ben had realized recently that his mother knew he was up to something when he stared at the floor. He wasn’t going to make that mistake anymore.
    â€œOkay, then, tell you what,” their mother finally said. “I’ll just make sure the Thompsons are going to be home so you have somebody to call if there are any problems.”
    â€œMom, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson must be ninety-nine years old!” Ben objected. “What problem do you think could come up that they could help me with?”
    â€œI just like to know there’s somebody you can call on if you need help.”
    â€œFine,” Ben said which, of course, meant it wasn’t fine but there was no point in arguing.

    Ben and Julia stood at the big front window of their house and waved as their mother honked the horn of their red four-wheel-drive and drove off. They watched the vehicle hurry along the unpaved road, dip down, then reappear, only to cross the bridge over the river and vanish. There wasn’t another living soul in sight. No people, no houses, no cars, no stores or malls or apartment buildings, just the green of the trees, the brilliant blue sky, and the mountains.
    Ben remembered when they first moved here how he’d open the curtains each day and think,
Wow,
as he looked out the window at the mountains. This was certainly different than Calgary. But now it was no different than the day before or the day before that. Now they were just mountains. The only difference this year was that the mountains were brown and bare except for a rim of snowy white at the very top. He’d never seen them this brown in the three years his family had lived here.
    Sometimes he still missed Calgary and all the friends he’d left behind. True, he liked the country, but he still wished for some of the things the city had to offer-movies, malls, video arcades, a place to roller-blade, and friends who lived just down the street. And when the friends he did have here weren’t able to come out and play-like today because they were away for the weekend-that didn’t leave him much to do or anybody to hang around with. That was the only reason he’d offered to baby-sit his little sister. Maybe there wasn’t much to do, but at least he’d get paid for not doing anything. Besides, he did have an idea what they could do. He just had to set his plan in motion.
    â€œYou know,” he said to Julia, “I was going to let you come with me on my toboggan the very first time I went down a hill. That is...if you wouldn’t get scared.”
    â€œI wouldn’t be scared,” she insisted, and he knew she wasn’t lying. Juliawasn’t afraid of much. His mother said that growing up with a big brother made little sisters tough.
    â€œAre you sure you wouldn’t be afraid?” Ben asked as he went over and touched his toboggan. “This won’t be so much a trip on a sled as it will be a ride on a rocket.”
    â€œI won’t be afraid.”
    â€œSo you’d be willing to ride on it?” he asked.
    â€œAny time, any day!”
    â€œHow about anywhere?”
    She gave him a quizzical glance.
    â€œWe could go tobogganing...today.”
    â€œToday? There’s no snow.”
    â€œThere’s no snow
here,
but there is snow not far from here.”
    Instantly