It took Mama by surprise. She looked at Ian. She knew he wasn't fond of me tagging along on his nature expeditions. "What does Ian have to say about that?"
Ian shrugged. "She should meet some kids, too," he replied.
"I don't know if I want her wandering about just yet," Mama said.
"Oh, let them be, Carol. They're kids. Wandering about, meeting other kids, makes it fun for them to be here."
Mama looked worried, but Ian promised not to wander ten feet from me and not to go terribly far from the property, whatever that meant.
"You're always saying he's more responsible than I am," Daddy told her. "So what are you worried about?"
"Being more responsible than you. Christopher, isn't very much," Mama told him. He laughed.
"Do you hear how your mother constantly tears me down, kids?"
"I have a good tutor," Mama said. Daddy shook his head at her, sipped some coffee, and then went up to dress for his boat ride.
"You two better promise you don't get into any trouble," Mama told us. "I'll be back for lunch." She followed Daddy upstairs.
"If we see the bear, don't mention it to them," Ian told me. "They wouldn't understand. Okay?"
"Okay," I said. Secrets were being wound around me like rope. Soon I wouldn't be able to move.
"Put on your oldest shoes. We might step through some mud and water."
Excited. I ran upstairs to finish dressing, too. We left before Mama and Daddy went to the boat. She called her warnings after us as we walked around the cabin and headed for the woods.
"If the weather changes, come right home,'" she added.
Ian said there was no chance of that. It was going, to be a very sunny day with barely a ribbon of clouds in the distant horigon.
As we traipsed through the forest. Ian pointed out things, insects, plants, and a rabbit, which he called a herbivorous mammal. "'There's a difference between rabbits and hares," he said.
"Hairs?"
"Hares, H-A-R-E-S. Hares are larger with longer ears and legs and their young are born furred and open-eyed. Rabbits are born blind. They are mainly nocturnal, which means they're out and about in the dark more Both rabbits and hares excrete soft pellets.'"
"Excrete?"
He stopped. 'Make, Jordan. Go to the bathroom,"
"Oh."
"Then they eat it."
"Oh, poo," I said, grimacing.
"And then they drop it out of them again in a dry pellet. Both rabbits and hares are famous for how quicky they breed new rabbits. They do it in about thirty days. People take nine months. Rabbits usually drop about five to eight in a litter."
"Babies?"
"That's right." He paused and looked at me. "I wonder if instances of precoc
ious puberty occur in lower animals, like rabbits. I'll have to do some research on that."
We walked on with me trailing behind him and occasionally hearing him throw off some information. I was back to thinking about myself, however. I remembered Daddy asking Mama if I could have a baby. She wouldn't talk about it. Could I? Would I have one or many more like a rabbit? Did precocious puberty mean it could happen in less than nine months? Every day there seemed to be more and more questions to be answered about myself.
"Hurry up," Ian called. Because I was in such deep thought. I fell too far behind him.