Free April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier

I sometimes felt they stopped long enough to plot against Cheryl and me.
    Left to ourselves in our room, Cheryl and I did our homework and read a lot. Sometimes, she would read my geography book and day-dream. But mostly, she’d read about animals and adventure stories. I was into Nancy Drew books and other mystery books, and occasionally I would read some of Cheryl’s animals books. So far, I had not read the book on Louis Riel. Whenever Cheryl wanted to talk about him, I would change the subject. I guess she got the hint because she began staying away from such topics.
    On Saturdays, Mrs. DeRosier would take her eggs in, do her visiting and her shopping and usually her kids would go with her. Mr. DeRosier, Raymond and Gilbert went to work at the barns or in the springtime they would work the fields all day. Cheryl and I would have Saturdays to ourselves. Since I was good at doing the floors, I’d let Cheryl go rambling outside with Rebel.
    One Saturday morning, in late spring, Ricky and Maggie didn’t go to town with their mother. Later that day, Cheryl and I would know why.
    Cheryl was outside looking for Rebel. I was cleaning the kitchen. Ricky had already gotten ahold of Rebel and he had brought the dog close to the house for Maggie to watch. Then, making sure Cheryl didn’t see him, he slipped out to the pasture where the bull was kept. When he saw Cheryl nearing the pasture, he climbed back through the fence as if he had just come through the pasture. He yelled to Cheryl that Rebel had been hurt and that the dog was on the other side of the pasture. He said he was going for help.
    Thinking that Ricky had just come across the pasture, Cheryl climbed through the fence and started running. She didn’t notice the bull raising its head to watch her. She didn’t see it start moving towards her, either. Her mind was only on Rebel.
    I saw them from the kitchen window. I flew out the door, saw Maggie giggling to herself, and ran horrifed toward the pasture. The bull was now charging across the field, straight at Cheryl. I called Rebel and raced toward Cheryl. I climbed though the fence and yelled to Cheryl to run.
    Cheryl heard the pounding of the bull’s hoofbeats and at the same time she heard me. She stopped to look around and when she saw the bull coming directly at her, she froze in terror. I was screaming all the while for her to run and at the last minute, she did move. The bull narrowly missed her. It slowed to stop and turned around. Cheryl heard Rebel barking but she didn’t know that he had streaked behind her and was now preoccupying the bull. I was running towards her and when I reached her, I grabbed her hand and we ran back to the safety of the fence. We turned to see how Rebel was doing. The dog was prancing around the bull, easily avoiding the short charges. Cheryl called him and he came happily loping back to her.
    Ricky and Maggie had stopped laughing and they glared defiantly at me as I walked up to them. Without saying a thing, I hauled back and punched Maggie right in the face. Her nose started bleeding as she landed on the ground. Ricky jumped on me from behind and his weight knocked me off-balance. Cheryl, who was still shaking, walked over to him and kicked him hard. I motioned for Cheryl to leave things to me. Ricky and Maggie fought back and screamed bloody murder. I was silent as I ploughed into them. The fury in me wouldn’t let their punches and their scratches hurt me. When my anger had subsided. I stepped back and looked at them with contempt. They were bloody and crying. As I turned to ask Cheryl if she was all right, I noticed Mr. DeRosier and the two foster boys in the distance. The boys who were standing just behind him had big grins on their faces, the first time I had ever seen that. The expression of Mr. DeRosier’s face was unreadable. He didn’t say or do anything. He just turned and continued towards the garage.
    At suppertime, Ricky and