with nine-year-old Jasmin to her right and her seven-year-old brother Hunter to her left The family dog Brody was in the very back Every other available space was full of groceries and supplies I just don’t recognize anything Jasmin said It’s so different her mother agreed The familiar trees and landscapes had all been wiped away All that remained were blackened stumps and trunks and an occasional tree that had somehow survived the forest fire But why is the road so bad Jasmin asked The big rains put out the fire but with the vegetation gone there was flooding It caused erosion and washouts washouts her mother explained 2
And speaking of washouts hold on their father warned I’m going to have to go off-road The Jeep bounced into the ditch He carefully drove around some fallen and burnt trees and then maneuvered back up onto the road The drive home from town usually took about forty-five minutes Town was where they went grocery shopping where they went to school where most of their friends lived and where both Jasmin and Hunter were on soccer teams It was also where their grandparents lived For the last two weeks they’d been living at their grandparents home Their grandparents were nice and they loved them but everyone wanted to get back home Assuming their home was still there and hadn’t been destroyed by the 4
forest fire The closer they got the more they worried because they could see the fire had swept right across the land Brody kept leaning over the back seat and putting his head over Jasmin’s She could feel his hot bad breath and he drooled a little bit onto her shoulder Brody she said as she pushed his head to the side and wiped away the drool with the back of her hand Brody leaned down and gave her a lick on the face She wanted to be mad at him but she couldn’t He was such a good dog Brody had been around longer than the kids Her parents often joked that he was their original child When she was little Jasmin had often taken her naps snuggled around Brody in his big dog bed 5
