Taking Sides

SPRING PUSSYFOOTED INTO the neighborhood. Daffodils nodded on long stems, and new grass edged sun-warmed sidewalks. Winter held on tighter among the trees, though. Seth didn’t mind. Everything that mattered to him was in the woods.

His boots slipped on lichen-covered rocks as Seth scrambled over a stone wall. He’d grown over the winter, and his longer arms and legs seemed sometimes to get in his way. As he entered the woods, musty air chilled him, and newly sprouted oak leaves made shadows flicker. He tugged at a rotten log. Did the beetles and centipedes underneath it sense spring? The log, still frozen to the ground, didn’t budge.

He took up a stick and poked at a decayed stump. “Carpenter ants! But where’s the queen?” Here by himself, Seth spoke out loud, as if to someone walking alongside. He would have liked a companion. But no one who knew him would have expected him to say more than three words in succession. Being alone was easier.

Still, he wondered what it would be like to share these woods with someone. He pictured wandering there with different classmates and shook his head over