Vision Quest, Part 1

Vision Quest, Part 1

Vision Quest, Part 1
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	2.98

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		black-green, chasm, clumsy, dishonor, do-overs, dripping, forearm, horsewoman, immoveable, iron-grey, phantom, prosthesis, raptor, rawhide, reality, secretive
	content words:		For Gram, Nez Perce, Sometimes Cory, Normal American

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Vision Quest, Part 1
By Toni Lee Robinson

¹     Cory sat high on a rim of rock. He picked up shards of stone and threw them down into the water. Below him the river flowed through the black-green rock canyon. The water was secretive, dark, and heavy. The sunlight made no path through its gloomy depths. It was the same with the dark places in Cory's heart.

²     It had been a year since he'd lost his arm. The accident replayed over and over in his memory. Sometimes, still, his mind screamed. "Wait! Time out. I want that moment back. Do-overs! I claim do-overs." But it was done. It was as real and immoveable as the black rock, once and for all time. There were no do-overs. He'd spent a year trying to get his brain to grasp the truth. Part of him was gone.

³     Images of his grandparents floated through his head. He sighed. He didn't want to deal with the reality of his lost arm. He didn't want to face another day of pain. For Gram and Pop, though, he had to try. Anything else would dishonor them.

⁴     In a crumbling log house, at the foot of the Rockies, they'd raised him. The house was over a hundred years old. It had no running water. It didn't even have rooms. Still, with his grandparents, he'd had all he needed. He thought of Gram. At night, her long, iron-grey hair fell loose on her shoulders. Gram was Nez Perce. She was a skilled horsewoman. Cory liked to imagine her as a young girl. In his mind he could see her, horseback, racing over the prairie, her black hair streaming in the wind.

⁵     Then there was Pop. The old man's wizened smile was Cory's earliest memory. In the little house, Pop's corner was Cory's favorite place. It was littered with wood chips and scraps of rawhide. Since he could remember, Cory had helped Pop make leather and rawhide. From it, the old man handcrafted bridles, pack saddles, and other horse gear.

Paragraphs 6 to 13:
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