Read Speak to the Earth for Free Online Page B

stone in his stomach.
    “Which flick do you want to see?” he asked Ellen.
    “How about the spooky one?” she said, pointing to a poster that showed a man with bear claws on his fingersand a face like melted plastic.
    “Sure.”
    They bought their tickets and went inside, after Ellen had studied the poster for the other movie, a Disney about some animals. She wanted to be able to describe it to her parents when she got home. They didn’t allow her to see horror movies, Bryan knew, because they believed stories with witches or ghosts in them were sacrilegious.
    “Damn,” Bryan said after he counted his change.
    “What’s the matter?”
    “The woman short-changed me a buck.”
    “Let’s go back.”
    “Never mind. I don’t want to make an issue out of it. It doesn’t matter.”
    “Sure it does,” Ellen said. “Here, I’ll do it.” And she grabbed the change from his hand and went outside to the ticket booth. In a minute she returned and handed him the money.
    “So what’s bugging you today?” she said as they took their seats in the dark, almost deserted theatre.
    “Nothing.”
    “You seem mad about something.”
    Bryan didn’t answer. If he told her, he’d look stupid.
    “Aren’t you having fun?”
    “You think I’m a wimp, don’t you?” he blurted. “Because I wouldn’t go back for my change.”
    “What? No, of course not.”
    “You and Elias seemed to be having a lot of fun,” he said after a moment.
    “What’s wrong with that?” Ellen tried to read Bryan’s face in the dark. “I like kidding around with him.”
    “I’m not, though.”
    “Not what?”
    “Funny. Lots of laughs,” said Bryan, knowing he was whining and angry at himself for it. “Why don’t you go out with Elias if you like being with him so much?”
    “I could. He’s asked me enough times.”
    “What?
He —”
    “Shhhhhh. Not lately, Bryan. Take it easy, will you? Before you and I started going together.”
    They sat in silence. A corny Frank Sinatra tune leaked insipidly from the speakers overhead.
    “So why didn’t you?” Bryn asked.
    “Because I didn’t want to. Elias is nice and all, but he isn’t really my type.”
    “Sure didn’t seem like that today.”
    “Come on, Bry, you’re not going to give me that jealous boyfriend routine, are you? The possessive male and all that revolting stuff? You don’t need to feel that way. For one thing, I’m with you, right? For another, Elias is your best friend.”
    I thought he was, Bryan mused. “The movie’s starting,” he said as the lights dropped and Sinatra was cut off in mid-lament.
    “Listen,” Ellen whispered, drawing close. Her hair smelled clean and fresh. “You’re my boyfriend. Now stop worrying.” She leaned close and kissed him.
    Bryan held her hand as he watched the movie.
    Bryan and Ellen emerged from the theatre, blinking and squinting against the bright afternoon sun.
    “Thank goodness,” Ellen exclaimed. “The rain’s gone.”
    Bryan sniffed. The odour of sulphur was almost physical. “So has the breeze. That stink is horrible. How can anyone live here?”
    “You get used to it,” Ellen said. “Sort of. In Nanaimo we smelled it a lot. But it was never this bad.”
    Just then they heard the clatter of the Wilsons’ van and the beep of its horn. On the way back to Nootka Harbour, Ellen gave Elias and his mother a comic rendition of the horror movie, aided occasionally by Bryan, now in a much better mood. They laughed and joked all the way home. Even Mrs Wilson got in on the act, doing her Boris Karloff imitation, which was, Bryan thought, so bad it was extra-funny.
    When they dropped Ellen off, she gave Bryan a big noisy kiss. He felt his face go as red as a strawberry. Elias smirked and Mrs Wilson pretended not to see.
    When Bryan got home, his mother and Uncle Jimmy were sitting down to dinner. The radio on the counter blared country-western tunes, so Bryan knew his uncle had won the music war that day. Iris liked