Howl (12 page)

“I hope you told him to keep his mouth shut.”

Squirm tensed. “I’ll tell him when he comes over later to see them.”

“He’s coming? Here? But he’ll see the bear and —”

“So?
Your
friends are coming over. We’ll just swear everyone to secrecy.”

Robin frowned. Keeping the animals secret was turning out to be as hard as keeping ants in a pocket.

The baby squirrels were mewing for food, so Robin arranged a place for them and helped Squirm feed them. After they’d finished, she ran to the house for a shower. She tried on three different outfits and combed her hair several different ways. Finally, she threw the hairbrush into the sink. Enough. She was starting to act like her sister.

A few minutes later, she heard Relentless barking and went outside to wave at Zo-Zo’s dad as he pulled away, leaving Zo-Zo standing there with a big pile of papers.

“The eco-contests?” Robin asked.

“Yup. All twenty-five of them,” Zo-Zo said. “I can’t wait to see how people did.”

Brodie rode up just then on a new bike.

Zo-Zo ran a finger along the shiny chrome. “Wow, your dad buy you this?”

Brodie rolled his eyes. “You kidding? My dad only spends money on beer.” He rubbed the mirror with his sleeve. “Brittany’s dad got it for me.”

Zo-Zo threw a glance at Robin. “You got this from Mr. Kingshot?”

Brodie looked away. “I work for him on weekends. He gets me stuff sometimes.”

He positioned the bike on its stand and followed them into the barn. “So, where’s this bear?”

Zo-Zo whispered to Robin. “Maybe that’s why he hangs out with Brittany. To get stuff!”

Robin stood still for a moment, considering this. Would Brodie do something like that? She followed Zo-Zo into the barn.

Brodie stood in front of the bear cub’s cage. “Whoa.” His tone was hushed. “What happened to his arm?”

Robin explained about the bear’s fall into the well.

“Conner Kingshot wanted to kill him!” Zo-Zo said. “Isn’t that right, Robin?”

Brodie looked troubled. “My dad hunts. He’s got a deer’s head in the garage. Freaks me out every time I go out there. This big animal head with glassy eyes, staring at me. My dad even bought me a gun. Wanted me to practice on rabbits in the backyard, but I couldn’t do it. I mean, how do you kill something as big and beautiful as a deer?” He shivered. “Or a bear? I’m probably just a gutless chicken, but —”

A warm feeling of sympathy washed into Robin’s chest. She handed Brodie a piece of apple. “Here, give him an apple. He loves apples. But put this on first.” She handed him the oven mitt.

Brodie edged towards the cage. “Hey there, beautiful bear. Want this apple? Come on, come and take it. You’ll like it.”

Mukwa reached out and took the apple. Brodie grinned, and before Robin could stop her, Zo-Zo took a picture.

“It’s okay,” Zo-Zo said, eyeing Robin. “I’ll just take a few for the three of us.”

Suddenly, Griff arrived back from her long walk with the dogs, and the puppies swarmed them, yipping at their legs, vying for attention. Robin began herding them back into their enclosure. Brodie reached down and grabbed one as it raced by. Relentless barked, nervous about a stranger holding one of her brood. Brodie knelt down and spoke to her quietly until Relentless leaned into him and let him rub her ears. Robin noticed that he did it just the way Relentless liked.

When they had all the puppies rounded up, Griff went back to her cabin, and Robin, Brodie, and Zo-Zo sat on the straw and played with them. Brodie lay back. “I can’t believe you have a bear. I even dream about bears.” He let the puppies crawl all over him. “But I love dogs, too.” He picked one up.

“That’s Snooze,” Robin told him.

“I wonder if my mom would let me have a puppy,” he said.

Zo-Zo snapped a close-up of Snooze. “Show her this and she’ll melt. I’m going to ask my dad if I can have one, too.”

“I hope you both take one,” Robin said. “Then I can still see them.”

“Maybe Brittany can have one too,” Brodie said. He pointed to Greedy Guts. “Maybe that one.”

Robin and Zo-Zo laughed.

“What?”

Robin tried to explain. “That one has some particular characteristics —”

“That would match Brittany’s perfectly.” Zo-Zo suppressed a grin.

“Know what we could do?” Brodie said. “When you need to find homes for them, we could take them to the market, maybe even pick out people we think would be good dog owners.”

Robin noticed the “we” word. It sailed through her like a kite.

“Let’s show him the skunks,” Zo-Zo said.

“We’ve got some squirrels, too,” Robin said. “They just came in.” She led them down to the far end of the barn.

Brodie grinned. “You’ve got a regular animal shelter here.”

Robin winced. “Don’t say that. If my dad finds out, I’ll get
killed!
”

Brodie nodded solemnly. Zo-Zo took pictures of the skunks, and the three of them were laughing at their antics when Squirm appeared.

“Dad’s coming.” He sounded breathless. “He just called.”

“He’s coming here? Now?” Robin felt her shoulders leap to her ears. Why was he coming home?

Squirm read the question on her face. “He’s driving Ari somewhere.”

Robin looked at her friends. “Let’s go up to the house.” Hopefully, she’d have everyone working away at the kitchen table by the time her father arrived, and he’d never suspect a thing.

Zo-Zo led the way. “We have to start marking the contest anyway.”

At the house, they cleared a space for themselves and laid the pile of completed questionnaires on the table.

Robin’s stomach churned.
He’s just coming to pick up Ari
, she told herself over and over. Her stomach, however, kept churning. It wouldn’t believe her.

Zo-Zo divided the answered questionnaires into three piles. She handed them each a pencil, and they started marking.

“Jeez, I thought I was bad,” Zo-Zo said. “Most of these kids in my pile here are going to need an entire universe to stay alive.”

Brodie laughed. “The guy I’m marking needs fourteen other planets already.”

Robin grimaced. “Mine are pathetic, too.”

“Don’t worry,” Brodie said. “Their total points
are
going to be bad the first time around. Just like mine were. But then we’re giving them our Green Extreme Fact Sheet, and they’re all going to turn into
Green Machines
!”

“We wish,” Robin said.

Brodie was undaunted. “People
want
to be green, they just need to be told how to do it. You’ll see.”

Robin looked at Brodie. How did he always manage to be so positive?

A car door shut. Robin tensed. Her father. She wanted him to come in, pick up Ari, and go.

Squirm called from the living room. “Ari, Dad’s here.”

Ari came down the stairs just as their father opened the kitchen door.

“Hi, everyone,” he said pleasantly.

Phew
, Robin thought. She could feel her shoulders dropping down from her ears.

Her father nodded at Ari. “Meet you in the car.” He went back out, and Ari followed.

Robin waited for the sound of the car starting, but it didn’t come. She dug the side of her thumbnail into her mouth. She hated chewing her nails in front of people, but she couldn’t stop herself. What was her father doing? Her thumb started to bleed.

Zo-Zo waved her hand in front of Robin’s face. “Robin to earth. Robin to earth.”

Robin looked up and forced herself to concentrate.

Zo-Zo carried on. “I was just saying that —”

The screen door slapped against the house. Robin didn’t want to turn around and face her father, but she made herself.

He stood in the doorway, his hands bunched into fists. “What are those skunks doing in the barn? And the squirrels?’

Zo-Zo looked stricken. “I brought the skunks, Mr. Green. It’s my fault. My dad and I —”

Her father’s stern eyes didn’t leave Robin’s face. “And you told her it was okay?”

“I didn’t know what to do, I —”

“I expressly told you ‘no more animals’!” His eyes moved to Zo-Zo. “We don’t have the proper enclosures, or food. We aren’t licensed.”

“There was no place else to take them, Dad, I —”

He looked sternly at Brodie and Zo-Zo. “You two will have to go.”

Robin reddened. She
hated
being reprimanded in front of her friends. “But we’re working on a school pro —”

His face darkened. “No ‘buts’!” His voice was harsh.

Zo-Zo gathered up the contest pages quickly and stuffed them into a bag. She kept her eyes down. Brodie stood as well, his chair scraping across the floor.

“Get into the car,” Robin’s father said. “I’ll drive you both home.”

Zo-Zo gave a slow, sad wave to Robin and moved towards the door. Brodie followed, his head down.

“Tell Ari I’ll be out in a minute,” her father said.

Robin and her father stared at each other. Robin could hardly breathe.

“You disobeyed me.”

She nodded. The anguish on his face wrenched her. “I’m sorry, Dad.” She hoped her apology would soften him, but it didn’t.

“Get in here, Squirm,” her dad called into the living room. “I know you’re part of this, too.”

Squirm crept in, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his baggy jeans.

“Sorry, Dad.”

“Both those kids know about the bear now — that’s what I’m most worried about. If this gets out, we’re going to have the authorities breathing down our necks. We don’t need that.”

“They won’t tell,” Robin cried. “We made them promise!”

“And it’s only until Mukwa’s arm heals,” Squirm said. “Then we’ll be letting him go.”

Their father let out a long breath through his mouth. “All right, but we have to keep this to ourselves. As I said, my boss at the clinic is a real stickler. I don’t want to lose my job. We’d have to move again and —”

He swallowed hard, and Robin jumped into the silence, speaking quickly and fiercely “No one’s going to find out! I promise. Double promise.”

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” their dad shouted.

Squirm’s friend Tommy stepped into the kitchen. He looked at them innocently.

“Wow, I went to see the squirrels. Cool bear. Where’d you get
that
?”

“I’m in hot water too,” Griff said when she and Robin were talking over, once again, what had happened.

“Why?” Robin asked.

“Because I knew what you were doing and didn’t blow the whistle.” She set out a plate of oatmeal cookies and settled back with her tea. “I should have fessed up right at the start and battled it out with your father instead of just not saying anything.”

Robin took a cookie and ate all around the edge. She watched it get smaller and smaller. “I don’t think he would have given in, no matter what you said.”

“Maybe not, but it would have been more honest.” Griff looked at Robin. “What about you? Do
you
think what we did was right?”

It felt strange to be asked. Most adults were so busy
telling
you what was right that this wasn’t a question she’d ever considered.

“I don’t know,” she finally said. “It’s weird, because it felt right to keep the skunks, but it didn’t feel right to hide them. But if I didn’t hide them, I wouldn’t have been able to keep them.”

“Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.” Griff took a cookie and ate half of it in one bite.

“I don’t think I could have turned the skunks away,” Robin said. “But I sure hate it when Dad’s mad at me.” With her mother gone, his anger felt even worse.

Griff chewed the rest of her cookie slowly then pushed the plate away. “Don’t let me have any more, even if I beg.”

Robin smiled.

Griff brushed the cookie crumbs off her hands. “There was a story on the radio the other day about this kid who got arrested for skateboarding down the main street of his town. The mayor had just announced that the town needed to be more environmental, so the boy was trying to help by propelling himself with his own power instead of going by car or bus. Anyways, the police gave the boy a ticket!”

“Really?”

“Wait, that’s not all. The boy refused to pay it, and the police, if you can believe it, threw him in jail!”

Robin felt a rocket of indignation go through her. “Jail? They put him in jail? Is there a jail for kids?”

Griff nodded emphatically. “They have special ones for young people.” She stood, took an apple from the bowl on the table, and cut it in half. She wiped the knife on her sleeve. “It gets even better.” Her eyes glinted. “When the townspeople found out the kid was in detention, they all started skateboarding down the main streets, too. In protest.” She bit into the apple and laughed. “So many people that the town had to change the silly law.” She slapped her leg in delight. “Just goes to show you that anyone, even a kid, can make a difference.” Her expression changed. “Sad though — when they interviewed the kid on the radio, he said his mom still wasn’t talking to him.”

“How come?”

“Guess she was worried he was becoming a troublemaker. Other people can get awfully squirmy when you go against the rules.” Griff nodded towards the photograph of Emmeline Pankhurst. “You think Emmeline’s father supported what she did?”