Janice and the Big Pig

Blueberries

Plip plip plop

Plip plip

scrunch crack

Plip tink plop pip

puff scrunch crack

Iggy stops picking. What's that sound?

She pricks up her ears, hearing only the leaves rustling in the light breeze and many songbirds; one being her mom.

“Come on, take another little piece of my heart now baby...” 

She always sings to keep the bears away but how she'd be inspired to sing Janice Joplin in the middle of a blueberry patch is beyond Iggy’s understanding. She is wired differently than most moms.

Plip plip plop

Plip plip

Plop tink tink

scrunch puff whine

What is that?

“...never, never, never, never hear me when I cry...”

Deserting her metal pail, she hops up and stretches her arms above her head. Her back cracks. This has been a good patch so far.

Scrunch crack grunt

She swivels around. A black bear's nose rises from the bush it had been munching. If it wasn’t for the four foot tall boulder between them they could have been picking side by side. She freezes, unsure what to do. Her mom is behind her somewhere but from the sound of her voice she is too far to sweep in and save her tween.

“...each time I tell myself that, well I can’t stand the pain...”

The bear stops picking. Its eyes slide up Iggy’s body and their eyes lock. Pain is not what Iggy wants to be thinking about right now but that’s where she goes. It puffs out a wet breath.

“...come on, come on, come on and take it...”

It rolls forward and rests its chin on the boulder. Its long thick eyelashes flutter as it holds her gaze.

“...break another little bit of my heart now, darling...”

Razor-sharp claws scrape up the rock as the bear raises one huge paw up and over its head. Iggy flinches, ready for her end. It comes down quickly, swatting a deerfly off its shiny black nose. Its gaze flicks after the fly which takes refuge on the brim of her hat. She can't breath. The bear shakes its head.

“...have another little piece of my heart now baby...”

What can she do?

She opens her mouth to cry out with a tongue as dry as a juniper berry but the bear shakes its head again, releasing a long whine without dropping her gaze. 

“...you know you got it child, if it makes you feel good...”

The bear's expression changes, clearly disturbed. A fat tear slips down Iggy’s clenched jaw. Sharp claws whip past her nose. The hat flies off and lands beside her blueberry pail. The bear’s eyes follow the fly as it dives away.

“...come on, come on, come on, come on and take it...”

With both clawed paws at its side, the bear slides over the boulder, clearly interested in her blueberry pail. It waves its nose towards the berries and whines. She doesn’t move, petrified in place. It puffs out a wet breath that lands on her cheek. She jumps. The bear shakes its head and drops its nose to her berries that are just out of its reach.

“...take another little piece of my heart now, baby...”

She squats as slow as molasses running uphill in the winter, never taking her eyes off the bear’s black glistening nose. Her clammy fingers clasp the metal handle.

“...break another little piece of my heart, now baby...”

She rises, unsure what to do. The bear rests its nose on the boulder which has the perfect curvature of a bowl along the top. She nods and dumps half the berries into the stone bowl.

“...have another little piece of my heart now, baby...”

The bear waves its nose towards her pail and she dumps the rest. It puffs out another wet breath and she tumbles backwards onto her bottom. The berries are inhaled within two seconds. The bear shakes its head again before disappearing to the other side of the boulder.

“...You know you got it, whoa...”

The sounds of the forest fades out, including her mom's song. Her head swims and her dry tongue tastes of iron. When the bear doesn’t return she creeps away crablike, the tin of the pail clanging on each and every stone.

scrunch crunch crack

Iggy vaults up.

“What’s wrong Iggy? You look like you saw a ghost.”

Her mom pulls her into her shoulder and gives her a squeeze.

“Did you eat all your berries again?”

“I...I...”

“It’s okay. I filled my pail. The berries are amazing here,” she gushes. “Hey, you dropped your hat.”

Her mom abandons her ice cream pail and hops over to Iggy’s patch.

“No...Mom!”

“What is it?” her mom asks as she scoops up the hat.

“Th...there's a bear.”

“Oh ya? I guess you scared it away, Sweets.”

Iggy peeks over the boulder. There is no bear munching away on the plants heavily laden with plump berries. It had all this to eat and it had to bully Iggy for hers?

“Oooo...what a big lazy piggy.” Iggy mumbles under her breath as she scans for the pesky bear who is nowhere to be seen. The smart beast dined and dashed.

“Who’s lazy? Don’t worry about it. We can hit this patch tomorrow. There are oodles of chubby ones.”

Her mom plops her hat back on her head and pulls her along the path.

“Let’s get going so we can bake some muffins before it gets too hot.”

It’s already too hot.

A song floats over the wind as Iggy follows her mom back to the road. She turns to see where it is coming from and her gaze falls on a wide black shape leaning against an old jack pine. She scowls as she waves her fist in the air and the bear shakes off her angst like a wet dog and disappears into the brush. The song fades away.