Chances of Survival

Abstract

CALVIN WAS AGAINST MOVING to Arizona from the start. In Idaho, he made his father stop the car, got out, and announced he was walking back to Montana. Dad let him go. He let Cal walk one, maybe two miles, gave him time to think and get hungry, time to figure out that if he kept a steady pace and didn't sleep, he could be home in two and a half days. Cal had the opportunity to review his resources: after rooting through all four pockets and fingering every fold, he came up with half a ticket to a movie, a key to a metal box he no longer had, a stick of gum that had gone through the washer, and twenty-seven cents. That might be enough for six candy bars if some lady behind the counter of a family gro cery store in Sandpoint felt sorry for him and gave him two for seven. But even six candy bars wouldn't get him home. He knew he'd end up trying to steal a can of sardines or a package of hot dogs, and the fat lady would step in front of him as he tried to dart through the doorway. He saw the woman, just like she was somebody he already knew. He saw her flabby arms quiver as she put her hands on her hips, and he saw the outline of her huge thighs through her dress as she stood with her back to the sun. No way she was going to take pity on a kid she didn't know who claimed he was walking to Montana. By the time Calvin heard the car slow down behind him, he felt he didn't have a chance. Arms swinging, he kept pumping like he meant to march all the way. His pants worked their way down his butt, and every twenty steps or so, he had to reach back and give them a yank. Cal wished his parents would make him get in the car. He imagined his mother sitting there saying, Why won't that boy wear a belt? Finally, Dad pulled up beside him and Mom rolled down her window. In the back seat, his two sisters pressed their faces to the window, flatten ing their lips and noses against the glass. Mom said, Cal, it's almost two hundred miles to Bigfork, and once you get there you're going to find an other family living in our house. Cal squinted to keep from blinking and said, know that. Don't you think I know that? When he got back in the car, he made himself a cave on the floor by wedging a suitcase between the front and back seats. That's where he rode