Read Hatchet (9781442403321) for Free Online Page A

stranded at the airport in some small town and have to buy food,” his mother had said—and some odd pieces of paper.
    And on his belt, somehow still there, the hatchet his mother had given him. He had forgotten it and now reached around and took it out and put it in the grass. There was a touch of rust already forming on the cutting edge of the blade and he rubbed it off with his thumbs.
    That was it.
    He frowned. No, wait—if he was going to play the game, might as well play it right. Perpich would tell him to quit messing around. Get motivated. Look at all of it, Robeson.
    He had on a pair of good tennis shoes, now almost dry. And socks. And jeans and underwear and a thin leather belt and a T-shirt with a windbreaker so torn it hung on him in tatters.
    And a watch. He had a digital watch still on his wrist but it was broken from the crash—the little screen blank—and he took it off and almost threw it away but stopped the hand motion and lay the watch on the grass with the rest of it.
    There. That was it.
    No, wait. One other thing. Those were all the things he had, but he also had himself. Perpich used to drum that into them—“You are your most valuable asset. Don’t forget that. You are the best thing you have.”
    Brian looked around again. I wish you were here, Perpich. I’m hungry and I’d trade everything I have for a hamburger.
    â€œI’m hungry.” He said it aloud. In normal tones at first, then louder and louder until he was yelling it. “I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I’m hungry.”
    When he stopped there was a sudden silence, not just from him but the clicks and blurps and bird sounds of the forest as well. The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet. He looked around, listened with his mouth open, and realized that in all his life he had never heard silence before. Complete silence. There had always been some sound, some kind of sound.
    It lasted only a few seconds, but it was so intense that it seemed to become part of him. Nothing. There was no sound. Then the bird started again, and some kind of buzzing insect, and then a chattering and a cawing, and soon there was the same background of sound.
    Which left him still hungry.
    Of course, he thought, putting the coins and the rest back in his pocket and the hatchet in his belt—of course if they come tonight or even if they take as long as tomorrow the hunger is no big thing. People have gone for many days without food as long as they’ve got water. Even if they don’t come until late tomorrow I’ll be all right. Lose a little weight maybe, but the first hamburger and a malt and fries will bring it right back.
    A mental picture of hamburger, the way they showed it in the television commercials, thundered into his thoughts. Rich colors, the meat juicy and hot . . .
    He pushed the picture away. So even if they didn’t find him until tomorrow, he thought, he would be all right. He had plenty of water, although he wasn’t sure if it was good and clean or not.
    He sat again by the tree, his back against it. There was a thing bothering him. He wasn’t quite sure what it was but it kept chewing at the edge of his thoughts. Something about the plane and the pilot that would change things . . .
    Ahh, there it was—the moment when the pilot had hisheart attack his right foot had jerked down on the rudder pedal and the plane had slewed sideways. What did that mean? Why did that keep coming into his thinking that way, nudging and pushing?
    It means, a voice in his thoughts said, that they might not be coming for you tonight or even tomorrow. When the pilot pushed the rudder pedal the plane had jerked to the side and assumed a new course. Brian could not remember how much it had pulled around, but it wouldn’t have had to be much because after that, with the pilot dead, Brian had flown for hour after hour on the new course.
    Well away from