Something Stinks!

Something Stinks! — page 5 — To Blue Ridge Mountains Back Mine O U Danville Newtonville Downtown Cart Green Emily's House Farleigh Middle School Ray CAYENNE JN Crayton High School

Something Stinks! — page 6 — Something Stinks Chapter 1 Summer no more The moment I stepped out of Mom’s car I knew something was terribly wrong I gasped as a horrible smell streamed up my nose It was like that awful mix of odors that drift out of a dumpster behind a bad restaurant The only problem was I was not behind a bad restaurant I was at my aunt and uncle’s apple orchard This is nasty I blurted out and I pinched my nostrils shut Aunt Sylvie came bustling out the back door of their little wood-sided cottage with a handkerchief over her mouth and nose Hello Emily Best keep holding your breath She blinked her eyes several times Sylvie what is it Mom hauled my little brother Ben out of his seat 1

Something Stinks! — page 7 — Gail E Hedrick You’ll see it’s the worst one yet Aunt Sylvie beck oned Come on We followed her around the house past tidy ﬂower beds ﬁlled with late-summer daylilies and mums and down the grass-covered hill toward the Higdon River Dead ﬁsh with their bodies bloated and eyes bulging lay scattered everywhere Catﬁsh perch bluegills and bass were strewn along the bank and in the water Some bobbed silently un der the wooden dock Gosh Aunt Sylvie I said choking How many are there Hundreds said Uncle Joe coming up the riverbank carrying a shovel He wiped his forehead with a red ban danna I’m trying to bury em to keep the smell down here Aunt Sylvie bit her lip We don’t know but it’s hap pened before I think the last time was early in the summer right after y’all left We’d just returned home to Southwest Virginia from spending the entire summer over in Tennessee It wasn’t the way I would have picked to spend my time before start ing seventh grade but no one asked me My dad’s a project manager for a regional utility company and since he’d had to go he was sure my mom little brother and I would love to tag along I didn’t get to sleep in my own bed for months Mommy stinky ﬁsh said Ben wrinkling his nose I know said Mom nodding What’s going on 2

Something Stinks! — page 8 — Something Stinks had to spend endless hours of quality time with a three year-old and constantly wondered what my friends were doing back home Now this What would kill so many ﬁsh in this perfect little river Aunt Sylvie patted Ben on the head and went on We reported that ﬁrst one to the county back then but nobody seemed too concerned Later we heard someone in the of ﬁce had accidentally deleted the call log for that day Uncle Joe grumbled We called again yesterday when we started seeing a few dead ones here and there This time some inspector came out and tromped all around He glanced at the water but didn’t test it He said every one always wants to blame the big companies upstream for these sorts of things but the factories have state regula tions they have to follow Unlike the farmers He jammed the shovel into the squishy red clay That was when the guy seemed to turn on me asking what kind of pesticides I used I told him we’re organic growers I use soap and water and nothing else He laughed and said it must be some kind of potent suds to get this result That’s when I showed him the door to do about it Uncle Joe shook his head They just sent us a status report stamped Incident submitted necessity for further action inconclusive He sounds like a jerk I said What are they going What does that mean I asked 3

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