63 THE JOURNEY

CHAPTER 63 THE JOURNEY After months of separation, Roz and Brightbill, mother and son, were together again. And they had so much catching up to do. They went into the Nest, and the robot built a fire. Then the goose gazed into the flames and told the story of his winter. This is what he said. "We spent the whole first day of our migration flying over the ocean. It seemed like the ocean would go on forever, but just when the flock was getting tired, Longneck pointed to some tiny islands on the horizon. We flew down to one of the islands and ate dune grass and rested our wings. After a few days of hopping from island to island, we reached the mainland and continued over fields and forests. And then the snow began to fall. "I'd never seen snow before, and at first I thought it was beautiful! But it just kept coming. The others explained that the snow was early, that we were never

supposed to see it, but there it was, piling up around us as we tried to sleep at night. Longneck worried that the weakest geese wouldn't survive, and he was right. We lost old Widefoot to that very first snowstorm. "We tried to fly around the snowy weather, but we got completely lost and the weather became even worse. Lakes and ponds and rivers began freezing over. We couldn't find food or water, so we ate snow, and that only made us colder. We had trouble cleaning ourselves, and our feathers became dirty and heavy. The flock was in bad shape. But Longneck kept us moving. 'We are geese,' he squawked, 'and geese keep going!' "One day, we were struggling through a snow shower when we saw something called a farm. It had perfectly square fields and enormous buildings. And stomping her way through the farm was a robot! She looked just like you, Ma! "Longneck sent me over to speak to the robot, but I couldn't understand anything she said, so I just followed her through the farm and around a corner, and then I saw something I never expected.

"Plants! Bright, colorful plants! I didn't understand how plants could live in such cold weather, but then I saw that they were actually inside a building. I learned later that the building was called a greenhouse, and it had clear walls made of something called glass. The robot pressed a button on the wall, and a door slid open and warm air came rushing out. I hadn't felt warmth in so long that I just had to follow her inside. "Ma, it was like summer in there! The air was warm and sweet and sticky. And there were rows and rows of different plants. The robot didn't pay any attention to me, so I wandered around the greenhouse, nibbling on leaves and drinking from puddles. Then I heard a scratchy voice behind me. "'If I were younger, I woulda killed you by now.' "I spun around, and there was an old cat! She walked on stiff legs, and her fur was gray and clumpy. The cat's name was Snooks, and she didn't

seem very nice. But then she saw the other geese out in the cold with their faces pressed against the glass, and she told me how to open the door. "'You can rest here,' said Snooks as the flock hurried in. 'But stay outta sight! The humans aren't as friendly as me.' "None of us knew what 'humans' were, but we didn't care. We were just happy to be out of the cold. Loudwing was so happy she cried. The flock drank and ate and bathed and slept and stayed out of the way. Snooks showed us where to leave our droppings so they wouldn't be noticed. And for a few days, the greenhouse was our home. "Once or twice a day, the robot would go outside and return with a box or a bag, but most of the time she stayed inside and quietly worked on the plants. "There was a barn that I just had to explore. It was

filled with animals and machines and piles of straw, and two robots. One robot was fixing a broken door when I walked in. She was using a loud spinning tool called a saw. She pushed the saw through a long piece of wood, and dust shot into the air. Everything was going smoothly until the saw suddenly lurched forward and sliced right through three of the robot's fingers! But she was fine. A minute later there was a thwip sound as she popped on a new hand. Then she went right back to using the saw again! The other robot worked with the animals. Chickens, sheep, pigs, and cows. They were all in cages. The chickens kept asking me how I'd gotten out of my cage. I was explaining that I'd never had a cage when I heard panicked squawks coming from the greenhouse. "I ran back and found that a human had discovered the flock. We didn't know what he was saying, but he looked really angry. Longneck tried to defend us. He got in front and spread his wings and honked, but the human wasn't afraid. He pulled out a shiny stick and pointed it right at Longneck. Snooks hissed, 'Look out, he's got a rifle!' Suddenly, a bright beam of light shot out from the rifle, and Longneck slumped to the floor. He was dead, Ma!

"The flock was so scared. We fluttered around and honked and knocked over plants. But the human kept moving toward us, pointing his rifle. So I pecked the button to open the door, and we ran outside, into the cold, and flew away from there as fast as we could. "Without Longneck, the flock needed a new leader. Everyone wanted me to lead. I didn't know what to do, so I started by repeating Longneck's words. I squawked, 'We are geese, and geese keep going!' Then I took the point, and the flock spread out behind me. "The weather had us all turned around, and nobody knew which way to go, so I just led us straight south. We saw more robots and humans and buildings, but we didn't stop. We knew we were way off course when we saw the ocean again. But at least it was a