Wildfire! by Elizabeth Starr Hill Page A

all-day celebration in Bending Creek Park —a parade, then the picnic, then games and contests and a speech by Mayor Jolson. It was the same speech every year, about how this was a day to remember, the day America became a free country. Then a band concert and more eating.
    Usually the day ended with fireworks over the lake. Grandpa had bought a box a month ago so he and Ben could set off some just for fun, before the official display. But fireworks were banned this
year because of the fire danger. Still, there would be plenty of other things to do.
    At the grocery, Mr. Meehan weighed out cornmeal and beans. He chose a perfect avocado. He wedged in a jar of molasses. With the two cabbages, the food almost filled up a big brown paper bag.
    â€œGot room in there for a few caramels?” he asked Ben.
    â€œSure do!” Ben said eagerly. Mr. Meehan threw them in without charge.
    Ben thanked him and left the grocery. He turned onto a side road for Cindy’s Craft Shop, happy about the caramels.
    As he came around the corner, he saw Elliot Lorton outside Cindy’s. Elliot called to him, “Hi, Ben! How you folks doing, off there in the backwoods?” He sounded friendly, but Ben heard an edge of scorn in his voice.
    Ben’s spirits sank. Elliot and his parents had recently moved to Bending Creek from a northern city. Elliot seemed to think his city ways made him better than the people of Bending Creek—
and especially better than Ben, who was, as Elliot kept reminding him, only a boy living on a dirt road in the backwoods.
    Ben hurried into Cindy’s shop without responding and tried to slam the door shut, but Elliot followed right behind him.
    Now, Ben realized, he would have to buy two tiny lamps. That made him feel foolish. He hoped Elliot wouldn’t notice what he was buying.
    â€œWhy, hello, Ben,” Cindy said cordially from behind the counter. She had a loud voice. “Looking for something for the dollhouse?”

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    Ben’s cheeks flushed. He mumbled, “Lamps.”
    Cindy brought some out from the rear of the store. Elliot grinned, but he didn’t say anything.
    Ben muttered an explanation about Goomby’s project. “I’ll take those two.” He thrust the money at Cindy, longing to get out of there. She put the lamps in a little box and gave him his change. He stuffed it all in with the groceries and bolted from the shop.
    Elliot came with him. “You and your folks going to move into a dollhouse?” He chuckled. “Not much of a change for you, I guess.”

    Elliot never missed a chance to remind Ben that their home was only a wooden bungalow in a clearing in the woods, while the Lortons—Elliot and his mother and father—lived in a nice big house in town.
    Ben didn’t answer this. He said, “Well, so long,” and sprinted around the corner.
    But Elliot was right there with him. “What’s the rush? It’s too hot to hurry.”
    It was. The withering heat, laced with smoke from the fires, made the air feel hard to breathe, and carrying the big grocery bag didn’t help. Ben slowed down. They trudged along silently, kicking up dust from the dry dirt road.
    As they neared Ben’s bungalow, Elliot asked, “Do animals live in the woods?”
    â€œSure. Millions of ’em.”
    Elliot glanced at the trees beside the road. “You see them much?”
    A squirrel chittered in a pine. An armadillo rustled through some fallen palm fronds, right beside the road. Ben said, “There’s a couple right there.”
    â€œI meant bigger animals.”

    â€œWe see deer a lot, mostly when it’s getting dark. Foxes sometimes. There’s bears and bobcats too, but they don’t come out as much. And where the creek goes through the trees, there’s alligators, and—”
    â€œSnakes?” Elliot broke in.
    â€œWell, yeah. Sure.”
    Elliot shied away from the woods. “What a