Runaways (Orphans 5)

before something looked promising to all of us. We

nearly missed it because the entrance was hidden by

lush maple trees-, their branches forming a natural

arch of rich green leaves and branches. The road had

once been blacktopped, but now it was mostly gravel. "Perfect," Crystal remarked.

"Aren't there bears in there?" Butterfly asked

worriedly.

"Bears are not normally aggressive

unless

they're threatened or a mother bear's cubs are in

danger," Crystal replied.

"Normally?" Raven said raising her eyebrows.

"We'll probably frighten most of the wildlife away

anyhow," Crystal concluded.

I turned in and drove very slowly until we

found a place that looked safe beside the road. "Now what?" Raven asked.

"Now, we can clean up the car and make it as

comfortable as possible," Crystal said. "I think we're

all tired enough to sleep on the roof."

She was right about that. It took a while to get

the back seat down. The latches were rusted and

jammed Under the seats we not only found candy

wrappers, hamburger trays and empty bottles of beer

and wine, but a tray that once had some Chinese food,

now hardened and moldy.

"Let's sleep with the windows wide open," Raven said.

"The bugs might get in," I said. Crystal nodded. We worked it out where she, Raven and

Butterfly could spread out fairly comfortably in the

back and I stretched out on the front seat. I didn't

expect more than ten minutes to pass before we were