Free Beholding Bee by Kimberly Newton Fusco

howls. “Stop it, Peabody. Ellis will hear.”
    We are just dozing off when there is a banging on the outside of our hauling truck.
    “You left the hot dog grill on, you little idiot.”
    Peabody barks before Ellis gets all the words out. I grab Peabody’s nose and hold his mouth shut. He shakes until I let go. He barks again.
    Ellis climbs up the ladder and flings open the curtain. He whips his flashlight all over the inside of the hauling truck. I try and hide me and Peabody in the bedroll. But Peabody is growling like he is a bear.
    Ellis comes right over to my bedroll. “Get up and get that food cart cleaned up now. And let me tell you one thing, missy. You have two minutes to get rid of that dog. If I ever see it again, I will toss it in the next river we come to.”
    He glares at me and the flashlight makes his eyes yellow. I shake and wait for him to leave. He looks all around the truck, at my bedroll, at Peabody, at the empty place where Pauline used to be.
    “Two minutes,” he says again. He stomps off and something inside of me cracks and something inside of me snaps and I know right then and there that I need a new plan for my life.

36
    It is heartbreaking to say goodbye to a pig, especially one as fine as Cordelia. She nuzzles your neck and looks you in the eye all soft, like she just knows what you are thinking, and she does not like it at all.
    I scratch her backside for a long time and rub her neck and itch the places on her head she likes itched so well. I look in her eyes. I do not fib and tell her I will be back soon. I tell her the truth.
    “It is not safe here for Peabody. That’s why we are leaving.” I pick up the stick Bobby kept for back scratching and find all her itchy spots. She likes it especially well. She keeps coming back for more.
    “If leaving is a bad idea, I will know it pretty quick and then I will think of another plan.” I tell Cordelia this in between kisses on her face.
    I cut a piece of rope and tie it to Peabody’s collar. We have never run on the road but if we are going to find a home, it’s the only way. Already Peabody is squirming and pulling at the rope because if there’s one thing about him, he does not like getting tied up.
    Cordelia is sticking her head through the slats in the pen, watching. I go over and scratch her one more time and bend down and kiss her on the face. “I will find you when I get settled.” I look her in the eye and feel my tears well up.
    At the last minute I tucked a dozen hot dogs in my socksand Pauline’s little notebook in the pocket of my overalls. My heart told me it would not let me leave those pages flopped upside down on the floor of the truck, even if I am never going to read a word. A heart is like that. If you listen, it will give you marching orders.
    This is also the reason I climb up the boards of the pen and jump inside and wrap my arms one last time around Cordelia and let her crawl into my lap and nibble my ear. Soon they are all piling on top of me: LaVerne, Vivian, and Big Ben, all grunting, all pushing to get to the bits of corn hiding in my pocket. Then I climb out of the pen. I reach back through the fence and give Cordelia one last hug. The only thing that pulls me away is the thought that Ellis will soon be up.
    Our traveling show is quiet this early in the morning. Only the crows fighting over specks of popcorn and bits of taffy make any noise. I look past Eldora’s Museum of Mystery to the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Ridee-O and the Ferris wheel.
    Without Bobby to say get ready, set, go, Peabody and I just look at each other. I turn and see Cordelia’s sweet piglet face poking through the fence. I know her tail is wiggling on the other side. My heart throbs. You can only take so many goodbyes in life. So I do the only thing a twelve-year-old girl with love in her heart can do. I go over and lift Cordelia out of the pen and set her on the ground.
    “Ready, Peabody?” I whisper.
    He wags his stumpy tail. That is my