Chapter 53

Mom asked me to get some sweet corn from the freezer in the barn. Now that I knew we had.

But I was wrong. It was gone. And so was everything else.

I walked slowly back inside, staring at the red rocks behind our house. Sam had warned us not to climb them without the right gear, that the holes in the rocks made perfect places for animals. Bryce and I had driven around them, and we’d climbed a few feet, but we’d never really explored the rocks.

I opened the kitchen freezer and pulled out a dwindling bag of peas. “Mom, we must have used the corn already.”

“You hate peas,” she said.

She was right. “All I am saying is give peas a chance,” I said.

She shook her head.

During dinner I asked if Bryce and I could take a quick ride out to the red rocks.

Sam looked at the setting sun. The days were getting longer and warmer. “For a few minutes,” he said. “But be back by dark.”