Kindle Edition
Wild Blackberry Books
Category:
Children
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN-10: 1456496247
Type: Fiction
Pages: 130
Copyright: April 9, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781456496241
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Tracy's first meeting with Mischief leaves her frightened. Never having had experience with the things in nature, she was pretty much a greenhorn when it came to wild animals.
When Tracy is sent to stay with her aunt on a ranch in Northern Arizona, she has no idea what is in store for her. Being a city girl who has never been in the country, much less in the woods, the entire time on the ranch becomes an adventure, beginning with her chance encounter with Mischief.
Excerpt
With her head bowed and her eyes downcast to the ground, she went along the path engrossed, investigating the mysterious miniature handprints. She was paying little attention to the squirrel that was now chattering loudly and scolding her from the tree under which she had stopped in order to more closely scrutinize the trail. It wasn’t until she glanced up that she noticed a gray-brown creature was ambling toward her with a ringed tail and the black mask of a bandit. At first she thought it was a bear. But she realized it was too small for a bear, when the animal stopped and stood in the dimness of the forest shadows.
There was no time to think about what the animal might be. Tracy instinctively turned with a scream and began running in the opposite direction. But every time she stopped to catch her breath, she turned to see the creature standing in the path a short distance behind her. When she stopped, the creature stopped.
Soon her throat was becoming so parched from running that she desperately needed a drink. But she was worried that if she stopped long enough to take a drink, the creature would advance and pounce on her. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that she couldn’t hear anything else. She kept running, although the animal didn’t seem to be interested in coming much closer to her than a few feet.
After running farther down the path, Tracy finally stopped and leaned against a tree to catch her breath. Looking down the trail, she could see the animal slowly ambling toward her from the shadows. It seemed harmless enough. If it was indeed a small bear, it was possibly a cub. She reasoned that if the animal had intended to attack her, it would have already done so. Her thirst was getting the best of her at that point. She took a chance and slowly reached toward the bottle of lemonade, removing it from its loop and uncapping it.
While taking a long drink, she kept her eyes trained on the creature that had stopped to watch her from about twenty feet away. She realized that not only was she thirsty, but she was beginning to feel hungry as well. She unzipped the fanny pack with caution, still keeping her eyes trained on the animal. Removing a rice crispy treat, she began to raise it to her mouth when suddenly the creature ran toward her.
When Tracy turned to run, the creature chased after her from behind. It quickly scampered up the back of her leg to sit on the fanny pack strapped to the girl’s waist. The animal promptly grabbed the sweet marshmallow treat Tracy clutched in her hand. The frisky fellow then dropped quickly to the ground.
Terrified, Tracy faced the creature. She stood frozen and perfectly still, holding her breath. The chubby little beast sat on the ground at her feet noisily eating the crunchy delicacy, holding it in its human-like hands. Suddenly realizing from its mask that the animal was a raccoon, and a seemingly harmless one at that, she felt enormously foolish, having assumed a raccoon to be something so fierce as a bear. When she finally ventured to turn back down the path toward the ranch, the raccoon followed. It waddled along behind her with its fur swaying from side to side like a loosely fitting, oversized fur coat.
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