The Bear: A Novel by Claire Cameron Page A

one day. At Jessica’s house there is one man Barbie. His name is Ken. Jessica says he counts as nine but I say no because he has a beard that you can stick on his face and take off. Ken has shorts like Jessica’s dad Steven. I really like Barbies.
    I asked Momma for a Barbie and she said no. I cried and stomped my leg and she still said no because Barbie only has lumps for boobs and they are too big for her waist. I cried for a whole week and even Grandpa came for dinner to help me feel better. He had a piece of lettuce in his hand. I thought Grandpa’s skin was nice and thick like the lettuce except not green. Momma told Grandpa that she wouldn’t buy me a Barbie. Momma said she didn’t like Barbie because she didn’t have a good job. Grandpa laughed. But then the next day Momma said all the Barbie talk made her feel bad and she said Jessica has lots so we can just go to her house. And we went all the time to Jessica’s so I could play with them and it was really special and nice. Jessica and I got to shut the door of her room and make it into Barbie land and we built a castle and made wings and a wand and played and played. I want to go to Jessica’s house now.
    Between my fingers is itchy. I go to the edge of the water so I bend down to swish my hand in the water and I can see my skin again. Stick does it too because he never stops copying. There is a lot of sand on the ground even though we took so much for our bodies. I take my arm and move the sand from the skinny part of the water to outside the water. It stays in a big pile and Stick sees that it’s a good idea. We both take our hands and pull sand up until we have a huge pile of it. I am the boss because I am better at sand castles so I tell Stick what to do and mostly he does. We make it like a volcano and pat the top into a point. The volcano needs a place for lava so I stick my hand in the top and Stick gets mad because he thinks I am busting it down and wants to be the one who busts. He is about to jump on the volcano but I stop him and show him how the lava will come out. He stands by and waits. I build it perfectly at the top so there is a hole for the lava that is smooth down the sides and there is a path at the top for the scientists to walk around and look in and nearly die if the volcano explodes. I need a small stick to be the scientist and he will have a dog so I need that too.
    I tell Stick to look for small sticks to be on the top of the volcano. He is bad at finding sticks in the sand. He doesn’t find them. He needs to get me to look and put them in his hand and he gets all happy and yells “I found it!” and holds it up like he is the king. He didn’t find it and he doesn’t care when I tell him again. And then I am getting tired of watching Stick and doing sand castles and of finding sticks and Stick. I am bored I don’t know what we should do.
    And then I am getting more tired of watching Stick because he tries to put sand in his mouth like it is lunch. I tell him no and I don’t know what we should do even more and why Momma and Daddy are taking too long. We work on training Stick’s inside dog like we practice all summer. I say sit and he sits. I say paw and he gives me a paw and does a really good job because he puts his tongue outside of his mouth and lets it hang down and even a little bit of spit drips from his tongue. I need a leash and a piece of grass is long enough but it is hard to tie around the dog’s neck and my fingers won’t. Stick won’t stay still for long enough.
    “Sit, Stick!”
    He gets up and runs with his fat legs away.
    “No.” I need to punish him. I catch him and push hard. He falls back into the sand and his mouth is like an O.
    I say “No! Bad dog.”
    Sticky cries for a minute again but then I don’t care because maybe he is so bad and he makes all the bad things happen not me. When I don’t care if he cries Stick usually stops so he stops. He goes onto all fours and squeals and hangs his