The Bear: A Novel by Claire Cameron

the other end of the canoe I can see that Stick would do better with hands like a raccoon’s. His hands look fat and like they can’t do anything.
    “Open,” he says.
    I just sit there because the canoe is long and tippy and it doesn’t seem like I have energy to get all that way.
    “Open now.”
    Stick is trying to pretend he is the boss but he isn’t. He is using his Daddy voice and making his eyebrows push up in the middle like that is going to make me move. I want a cookie too maybe but I am tired and there is some wind that makes my hair blow and it feels a little bit like Momma’s fingers so I don’t want to move from my spot.
    “Nana. Open, Nana.”
    I look over the edge. The canoe is made of metal and it is the color of a money if the money wasn’t a shiny one but older and with a beaver. Or like the one that my grandpa gave me with the head of a guy that I don’t know him. The edge of the canoe moves up and down a little or the water is moving up and down like a rocking and that feels nice too. The sun is smiling down and the water twinkles hello when they touch. My eyes twinkle back and that is nice and I ignore Stick who is huffy at the other end of the canoe. I stare at the water and it ripples all over like the skin of a fish except more like a sandbar except not the color of sand but smooth glitters like a fish. And maybe a hundred fish are swimming just under the top of the water and they are all having their backs up against the top so I can see them moving along the water and flowing under the canoe and Stick and I will be picked up in the canoe and we will ride on the backs of the fish. And they will take us to their fish castle that has a queen fish who is bigger than everyone else and she will welcome us and give us chocolate to say hi and after that maybe some chocolate milk too.
    But in the fish land we can’t breathe in water so there are bubbles all around and a fish puts a bubble on my lips with its nose and when that bubble is done another fish comes and brings a new bubble. I say thank you and I’m not sure if it’s the same fish that brought the bubble before so it is a good idea to say thank you anyway when you aren’t sure because it never hurts anyone. The fish says you are welcome and dips his fish nose at me and I think that the fish seem to want manners so saying thank you might get me more treats. Fish don’t like bubble gum.
    A big grape bubble goes flying out my mouth and the fish gets whacked on the nose and all of a sudden all the fish turn to look at me so I pull out my magic wand and whack whack whack. The battle of the fish means I have to keep fighting and magic-wanding the fish. And the battle gets bigger and an octopus that is my friend comes to help and he has many arms and they all start going whack whack whack so many times and it’s enough that the canoe starts to wiggle because all the fish are growing big teeth to get us and opening their mouths. The edge of the canoe goes dip and I see the fish are trying to tip us into the water so there will not be bubbles to breathe so I must magic-wand more! I yell “Charge” and say the spell that is the strongest magic spell and I hear a big clang and it is electric from my magic spell but I hear a roll and look across the canoe and that’s when I see Stick is standing up.
    Stick is picking up the cookie tin after he dropped it and it went clank. He tucks it under his arm and he has moved on his bum like he is supposed to but now he is at the bar and is standing and trying to get a leg over it and hold onto the tin both at the same time.
    “Sit, Stick,” I say because I trained his inside dog with tricks.
    He doesn’t care. He won’t listen with the inside dog and just wants to get over the bar so I can open the cookies and he can eat them all. I don’t want him to eat them all and that is not fair. He gets one leg over the bar but it is hard to stand with holding the cookies too. He falls back a little and