“Tell me how you survived the avalanche,” the reporter said. He placed his phone on the kitchen table between us, then pressed Record. With his pen poised over his notepad, he looked at me expectantly. He smelled like grass and ink and summer tomatoes from the garden.
Without thinking, I glanced around for my brother, but he wasn’t in sight.
“You sure you don’t want to talk to Ryan, too?” Dad asked the reporter, filling his cup with coffee. “He’s got a good eye for detail.”
“Maybe later.” The reporter smiled at me. One tooth along the top was slightly crooked and stuck out. “I want to hear it from Ashley first.”
“The avalanche wasn’t even the worst part,” I began. “But I’ll never forget the roar. How fast it all happened. One minute we were skiing, the next we were being swept down the mountain at lightning speed. It just grabbed us and I couldn’t stop myself from falling. I couldn’t breathe. The snow was everywhere, a choking white blizzard in the air. Couldn’t see—”
“Wait.” The reporter stopped recording. “I explained to your parents, Ashley. I’m writing a series about brave kids like you who have survived in the wilderness. Readers will want to know everything you were thinking, everything you did, so they can learn what to do if it happens to them. Where were you? How did it happen? And why were you there? Try to tell me everything you remember.”
He didn’t look at Dad or anyone else. Only me.
I felt suddenly anxious about being part of a series about brave kids. I was used to just being Ashley Hilder, twelve years old, twin sister to the awesome Ryan Hilder. I had never been anything special before compared to him.
The reporter pressed the red Record button again. “Tell me your story.”
I sat back in my chair, trying to conjure up the memory of that day. “It all started with the wolverines.”
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