Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Sharing the Sweetness of Blackberries with the Bear

"Mother!" He woke up screaming, not sure if it was the screaming or the stomach pain that woke him up.There was a severe cramping pain in his abdomen, and the cramping became more and more intense, hitting him like an overwhelming sea, causing him to toss and turn in the dark small hut, and finally had to lie on the sand with his face pressed against the cold sand, He moaned repeatedly in his mouth: "Mom, mom, mom..." Never hurt like this, ever.It was all the berries' fault, as if the swallowed kernels had exploded in his stomach, ripping and tearing at him.He struggled to climb out of the door, and felt sick for a while on the sandy ground. After climbing a little further, the nausea returned.It felt like a year to him, until his stomach was almost emptied and drained of his last breath.

Then he crawled into the shed again, collapsed on the sand, and couldn't sleep again.But there was nothing to be done except to lie there dumbfounded.Then he thought, Hey, I can't sleep anyway, so let's think about something. Every detail in the mall is reproduced.Mom was in the station wagon with the man, and she leaned over and kissed him.Kiss the damn short-haired guy with the blond curls.That was not a polite beak, but a real kiss!She turned her head, put her mouth to the mouth of the blond man who was not his father, and kissed him shamelessly, mouth to mouth, and rubbed his cheek and forehead with her hand !And these, Brian sees in the eyes.

He'd seen the nasty things Mom did with the blond man!Saw their kisses!And this has become a big secret, a secret that even his father doesn't know, but it can't escape his eyes. The memory is so vivid that he can still feel the heat in the shopping mall that day, and he can also remember the worry and fear that day, for fear that Terry would turn around and see his mother, and he can deeply understand the feeling of that day. The humiliation, and then, the memory gradually blurred, and he fell asleep again... wake up. For a moment, he didn't know where he was, and thought he was still in a dream.But when he saw the sunlight pouring in through the open entrance of the shed, and the vicious buzzing of mosquitoes sounded in his ears, he woke up at once.He touched his face covered with bumps and stings after two days of mosquito bites, and was surprised to find that the swelling on his forehead had subsided a lot and almost disappeared.

Ugh, it stinks!He didn't know what was wrong for a moment, and then he saw the pile of berries behind the shed, and remembered how he had vomited last night. "Too many," he said aloud, "too many 'disgusting' berries yesterday..." He climbed out of the hut, found the sand that he had vomited into a mess, cleaned it up as much as possible with a small stick, covered the dirt with clean sand, and then went to the lake to wash his hands and drink water along the way. It was still early, just after dawn.The water was so calm that he could see his own reflection in the water.God, the shadow frightened him--a scarred, bloody, swollen face, dirty, matted hair, a cut on the forehead that was healed, but bloody and bruised. But the hard scabs are stuck together with the hair; the eyes are swollen with only two small slits due to mosquito bites; for some reason, the whole body is covered with dust.He was so angry that he reached out and slapped the water, destroying the mirror.

Ugly as hell, he thought, so ugly. At that moment, he was nearly overwhelmed by self-pity.Dirty, hungry, bitten, wounded, alone, ugly, frightened, miserable, as if falling into a bottomless abyss, dark and deep around him, with nowhere to escape. He sat on the shore blankly, doing nothing, trying to restrain himself from crying.Finally, I couldn't bear it anymore, and wept loudly, crying "Wow" for three or four minutes.After thinking about it, what's the use of crying like this all the time, feeling sorry for yourself? He stood up, went back to the water, and drank some water.As soon as the cold lake water entered his stomach, he felt his hunger intensify again, and as before, he had to stand up and hold down his stomach until the cramps caused by hunger subsided.

He has to eat.He was so hungry that he could hardly stand up, he was devastated by hunger, and he must have something to eat. Back in the shed, the berries were in a little pile - and then he remembered dumping them on the ground as he grabbed his windbreaker to fight the mosquitos - "disgusting" berries, as he called them in his heart - But he still thought about eating some berries.Instead of eating and stuffing like before, it would make him vomit like last night again.As long as you eat a small amount, it is enough to satisfy your hunger. He climbed into the shed and took a look: Damn it!Some flies were sitting on the berries without knowing it, and he hurried over and flicked them away.He only picks those that are firm and ripe—never the light red ones, but the deep red ones, or the dark purple ones that are almost black, plump due to ripeness, and when he picks up a handful, he leaves. Go to the lake, soak in the water and wash--with the splash of water, the small fish scatter, and at this moment he wished he could hold the line and hook in his hand; berries, carefully spit out the pits.Alas, they were still quite sour, but with a touch of sweetness, though it still made his lips tingle a little.

After eating, he still felt hungry, but the strong hunger was gone, and his legs were no longer weak. He went back to the shed and spent half an hour carefully sifting through the remaining berries, sorting them, putting the big ripe ones in a heap and covering them with leaves, and putting the rest in another pile.When he was done, he pulled grass from the edge of the lake, covered the two piles to keep the flies away, and went outside again. Yes, they suck, these "disgusting" berries, he thought.But they are food anyway!At least he was hungry enough, and if necessary, he could eat more in the middle of the night.

Now, before him is a brand new day.He looked up at the sky through the bushes, the clouds were scattered, and it seemed that it would not rain; a breeze blew by, and it seemed that even the mosquitoes were much calmer.As he walked along the shore, he looked forward from time to time. Could there be another kind of berry, sweeter? If you keep keeping the lake in sight like yesterday, then you should be fine and find home again—wait a minute, home.He stopped thinking, at this moment, he actually thought of home. Home.Three days, no, two days—or was it three?By the way, this is already the third day, and he has long regarded the small shed as his home.

He turned his head, looked at it, and looked at this simple building.The cut branches were woven into a good wall, although it could not be said to be impervious to wind and rain, but it could still block most of the wind outside, and his craftsmanship was not bad.It may be very simple, but it is still satisfactory, and now all he has is this one shed. Good, he thought, so I'll just call it "home." He turned and set off, walking up the edge of the lake, aiming for Nausea's berry bushes, windbreaker bag in hand.It's not good, he thought, but maybe it's not so bad.

Maybe he'll find better berries. He stopped when he reached the Nauseous berry bush.There was not even a bird on the branches, but there were still many berries hanging on them.It was only slightly red yesterday, but now it is dark red, almost black—more ripe.Maybe he should stay here and pick some to save. But the terrible attack at night was still fresh in his memory, so he decided to move on. "Disgusting" berries are food, but they're bad, and he needs better food. A hundred yards further on, the wind tore another way.He thought, it must be the strong wind that made this place like this. This is what he saw when the plane crashed.The trees here didn't all fall in one direction, but twisted, snapped in the middle, rotted, and disappeared, leaving stumps like broken teeth piercing the sky.This created a lot of dead wood, and again he wished he could start a fire.It's kind of like a glade here: much of the treetops are gone, allowing the sun to pour right down to the ground.Here are small, prickly bushes, and the bushes are covered with--berries.

blackberries! Brian knew it because it was also in the park, and he and Terry used to pick it and eat it when they biked through the park. Well, these blackberries are big and ripe.He picked one and put it in his mouth, well, it's sweet and delicious.Absolutely no problem with "disgusting" berries.Although they do not grow in clusters, they are plentiful and easy to pick.Brian was overjoyed and couldn't help eating. Sweet juice, he thought, sweet with a special taste.He picked it and ate it, and he ate it again, feeling that he had never tasted such delicious food.After a while, it was the same as before, filling my stomach.But this time he was quite sensible, instead of wolfing down the food, he picked a lot and put it in his windbreaker.Brian felt the warm sun on his back, and his heart was filled with happiness. Now he became a rich man!No, now that he has so much food, he is really rich!Just when he was happy, he suddenly heard movement behind him, a slight sound, he turned around and saw - a bear! He couldn't move, his mind went blank.His berry-juice-stained tongue was pressed against the palate, and his eyes were on the bear.It's a black bear!Has a yellow-brown nose.Less than twenty feet from him, huge.No, it's simply huge.A giant bear with black fur all over its body.He had seen one, a black bear, at the city zoo, but it had been brought in from India or somewhere else.And now this one is a wild bear, much bigger than the bear in the zoo, and it's still close in sight. right in front of you. The sun shone on the fur on its back, black and shiny, and the bear stood up on its hind legs, half upright, looking at Brian, just looking.Then it lowered itself and walked slowly to the left, swaggering and munching on blackberries.Look at it, it slowly pouted its mouth and put blackberries into its mouth one by one from the stem, and in an instant, it disappeared without a trace.gone?Brian still stood there, not daring to move; his tongue was still pressed against the roof of his mouth, the tip of his tongue sticking out, his eyes were wide open, and his hands that were about to pick blackberries were still hanging in the air. Then he made a humming sound, low and meaningless, just out of fear, unable to believe that such a huge beast was so close, and he didn't realize it beforehand.The bear approached him thus, and should have devoured him, but there was nothing he could do to catch him.But just in the middle of the cry, strength came from his legs, and he couldn't help Brian at all. His legs were blown by the wind, he turned around and ran away, towards the shed. He panicked and ran all the way, but after running about fifty yards, he came to his senses, so he slowed down and finally stopped. He said in his heart, "If it really wanted to eat you, you would have died long ago." This matter has to be carefully considered, and running away is not a good idea, he thought, the bear is eating blackberries. not human. That bear didn't hurt or threaten you in the slightest.He stood up just to get a better look at you, to study you, and then he just ate the blackberries on his own?Yes, it's big, but it doesn't mean to hurt you, and that's the thing to figure out. He turned and looked back at the blackberry bush: the bear was gone, the birds were singing.Nothing can hurt him.He sensed, felt, but saw no danger.The night in the city is dangerous, and there is always danger in the dark, so you can't wander in the park after dark.But here, after the bear met him face to face, he left on his own.Besides, his mind was full--the blackberries tasted so good! It was delicious, sweet and juicy, and he was so hungry right now. Besides, the bear made it clear that he didn't mind sharing—that's why he walked away leisurely. Oh, and that blackberry flavor is beyond words! He thought it over, and finally, it occurred to him that if he didn't go back to pick blackberries, he'd have to eat Nausea berries for dinner tonight. And this strengthened his confidence even more. He walked slowly back to the blackberry bushes and picked them all morning, though he was extremely vigilant.There was even a time when a mischievous squirrel rustled the pine needles and almost scared him out of his wits. Near noon, the sun was shining almost directly overhead, the clouds began to thicken, the sky darkened, and it began to rain in an instant.He picked up the blackberries he picked, and ran all the way to hide in the shed.He thought about it, and estimated that he ate nearly two pounds of blackberries there, and returned three pounds in his coat. He rushed into the shed with the Blackberry in his arms just as the clouds opened up and the rain poured down.Soon, the outside of the sand was completely soaked, and the rainwater merged into thousands of streams and rushed into the lake.But inside the house was a different scene: warm and dry.He began to put the picked blackberries into the sorted berries.At the same time he noticed that blackberry juice was oozing through his coat.They were softer than the "nasty" berries, so some split from being pressed against each other. Brian lifted his coat, looked from below, and found a stream of red liquid flowing out.He stretched out his fingers to pick up a little bit and put it in his mouth, oh, it's so sweet!The taste was strong, like soda without bubbles, and he grinned, lying on his back in the sand, holding the bag over his face, letting the oozing berry juice drip into his mouth. It was pouring rain outside, but Brian lay inside, drinking blackberry juice. It was dry and refreshing, and the pain in his whole body was almost gone, and he no longer felt stiff.His stomach is full and his mouth is sweet. For the first time since the crash, Brian forgot about himself, about his situation, wondering if the bear had been as surprised as he was when they found each other among the blackberry bushes. As night fell, he went to the lake to wash the sticky blackberry juice off his face and hands, then went back to the shed to get ready for the night. Even though he had accepted and understood that the bear had no intention of harming him, it still lingered in his mind for a long time.As night fell over the shed, he took the handle ax from his belt and put it by his head, holding the handle with one hand.After a tiring day, he finally fell asleep.