Ghost of Spirit Bear (5 page)

Carefully Peter balanced his ball in the broken window. “We have to remember we’re getting rid of our anger,” he said, then shoved hard.

Cole looked out in time to see the impact, and then he gave his own ball a heave. As he watched it plummet down, his anger at Keith still smoldered.

Chapter 4

C
OLE AND PETER
circled quickly down the steps, floor after floor, until they reached the lobby. Peter headed straight for the broken doors, but Cole stopped him with a loud whisper, “Hey, Peter, look!”

A grocery cart piled high with junk was parked in the hallway. “Isn’t that the cart the old homeless guy was pushing?” Peter whispered.

“It wasn’t here when we came in,” Cole said. “He must live in the basement!”

“I told you I heard something.”

Both boys rushed from the building and across the overgrown lawn toward the street. “Forget the bowling balls,” Cole said.

“Do you think he lives there?” Peter asked, hobbling.

“It’s probably where he stores his victims.”

“Quit it! I’m being serious.”

When they reached a stoplight and paused to catch their breaths, Peter said, “Cole, maybe that old g-g-guy is scared of us, too.”

“We haven’t done anything to him.”

“He hasn’t hurt us either. I wonder what happened to make him homeless?”

“Who knows. What happened to make Keith a bully?” Cole said.

“If we run into those guys again, you should just run,” Peter said. “Then only one of us gets beat up.”

“That’s dumb,” Cole said sharply. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Peter scratched his chin in thought and then broke into a smile. “I think I have a secret weapon.”

“It’s not a gun or a knife, is it?” Cole asked.

“No, I’ll bring my cell phone to school.”

“So you can call the ambulance after we get beat up?”

“Don’t be a jerk. Listen—we’re not allowed to use cell phones in school, but it’s not illegal to
carry
them. I’ll get the principal’s number somewhere, then I’ll program it in so all I have to do is push the Send button and it will dial automatically. I won’t even have to take the phone out of my pocket. I have one of those little microphones that I’ll clip inside my shirt. If we get attacked, I’ll reach in my pocket and push the button. The principal will hear everything that happens.”

“I don’t think it’ll work,” Cole said.

“You have a better idea?”

Cole had to admit that he didn’t.

* * *

Wednesday morning, Cole struggled with his thoughts and emotions as he sat in the freezer. What if his time on the island had been a waste? Every day his anger seemed to come back stronger. What if he
was
nothing more than a big screwup?

Peter stood and opened the freezer door. “I’m about done,” he said casually, trying not to show his shivering.

Cole followed him out.

Betty was whistling merrily as they walked from the back of the grocery store. She waved to them. “So are you both happy now?” she called.

“It’s not something that happens overnight,” Cole said, irritated by her cheerfulness.

Peter seemed annoyed, too. “How come you’re always happy?” he asked suddenly, stopping at the counter. “You must not have much bad stuff in your life.”

Betty allowed a sad smile. “I’ve had plenty of bad things in my life,” she said. “I’m not always happy. But would it make things better if I let myself get down all the time?”

Cole walked to the counter beside Peter. “It’s not that easy—you can’t just decide not to be mad.”

“Says who?” she asked.

“I spent more than a year on an island figuring out how not to be mad all the time.”

“Maybe you’re a slow learner,” she kidded with an easy laugh. “Mostly I sort things out raising my plants. Ever try growing orchids?”

The boys shook their heads.

“I suspect there’s really only one way to find happiness.”

“What’s that?” Peter asked.

“You have to
want
to be happy—some people don’t.”

Because they were in different classes, Cole didn’t see Peter again until after school.

“The secret weapon is locked and loaded,” Peter announced when they met. He patted the cell phone in his pocket and opened a button to show off the little microphone hidden inside his shirt. “I found the principal’s cell number on my science teacher’s desk.”

“Have you told the principal about your idea?”

“Maybe that w-w-wouldn’t be smart.”

Cole smiled. The idea was crazy, but at least it gave Peter a sense of confidence.

As they left the school grounds together, they passed the bulldog statue. “I hate that thing,” Cole said.

Peter agreed. “Everywhere you look at school there’s a picture of that ugly mutt.”

“Hey, I’ve been thinking,” Peter continued. “You’re right. It’s not smart dropping the bowling balls. It’s going to get us in trouble if we get caught. Besides, I’m kind of spooked by that old guy, too.”

Cole nodded as they walked. “What if the bowling ball hit him? He could really get hurt.”

“Uh,
hurt?
It would kill him!” Peter exclaimed. “He would look like roadkill—like he’d been run over by a semi. It would crush his skull like a smashed watermelon. All his brains would—”

“Okay, okay, I get the picture,” Cole said. “So do you have to head home right away?”

“Not if I call my mom. Why?”

“Maybe we could just hang out.”

Peter smiled. “Maybe we can try being invisible.”

After Peter called his mother, they walked aimlessly for several blocks. Both were in their own worlds, lost in thought, when suddenly they heard footsteps and turned. Keith and his friends had crept up behind them. “Hey, bear bait!” Keith said, a cocky smirk on his face. “Are you two deaf?”

Cole wanted to kick himself for not paying attention.

“Time for the secret weapon,” Peter whispered, sliding his hand inside the pocket of his baggy pants to activate the cell phone.

“What did you say, gimp?” asked Keith.

Peter spoke loudly, his words slow and deliberate. “I a-a-asked you what you’re going to do to us now that y-y-you caught us two blocks away from school?”

“We’re g-g-going to do what we should have d-d-done yesterday,” Keith mocked.

“What have we done to you guys?” Cole asked. But he knew they didn’t need a reason. He had never needed a reason himself when he used to beat kids up. He knew exactly how Keith and his friends thought, and it scared him.

“Maybe I don’t like you,” said Alex, a skinny blond kid from Cole’s math class.

Cole glanced around. Peter’s saying they were two blocks away from the school didn’t help the principal much if she was listening. Cole pointed to a yellow house nearby. “You better leave us alone—the principal lives in that house,” he said loudly. “Two forty-six Elm Street.”

Peter looked quizzically at Cole and then grinned. “Oh, yeah, she l-l-lives at two forty-six Elm Street,” he repeated slowly.

“What a crock of bull—,” Keith said. “You think we’re stupid?” He shoved Peter. “If the principal lives there, my mother lives in an igloo.”

Peter was scared, but the cell phone gave him confidence and he smiled. “Where did your mom get an igloo?” he asked.

Keith slapped Peter hard. “Get that grin off your face, retard,” he said, “or I’ll wipe it off.”

Cole saw the group smirking and knew they were the most dangerous when they were showing off to one another. Quickly he sat down on the sidewalk and pulled Peter down beside him. “Don’t say anything more,” he whispered. “Be invisible.”

“What are you doing now?” Keith asked.

“We’re not going to fight you,” Cole said. “If it makes you feel big and strong to hurt somebody who’s sitting down, go ahead.”

“I don’t care if you’re sleeping,” Keith said, kicking Cole in the ribs.

Raw fear showed in Peter’s eyes as Keith turned and kicked him, too. Eddy stepped forward and kicked Peter in the back. Cole was desperate to stop Peter from getting hurt. “Hey, dog breath!” he shouted. “Why don’t you kick somebody your own size?”

Eddy and Keith laughed as they both kicked Cole at the same time.

Lying on his side, grimacing, Cole could see cars passing on the street. Drivers turned to look, but none stopped to help. Another hard kick in the chest took Cole’s breath away, then he heard Peter grunt from being kicked again. Cole looked up at Keith. “Five against two isn’t exactly fighting like a man.”

“Okay, then get up and fight just me,” Keith said.

“Yeah, right,” Cole said. “And if I whup you, your friends are going to just sit back and watch. I don’t think so. I’m not
that
stupid.”

“You sure talk a lot for somebody who is getting his butt kicked.” Keith kicked Cole again.

Suddenly a blue station wagon swerved to a stop beside the curb, and Ms. Kennedy stepped out.

The group started to run.

“Stop, or I call the police,” the principal shouted. “I recognize every one of you. Line up, now!”

Reluctantly, the gang returned and shuffled into position. Cole and Peter stood, clutching their bruised ribs. Peter’s nose was bleeding, and Ms. Kennedy handed him a tissue. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Peter nodded.

“What are you doing here?” Keith asked the principal timidly.

“I want to know what
you’re
doing here,” she replied.

“We didn’t do nothing to them!” exclaimed Eddy.

“Oh, let me guess,” the principal said. “Peter and Cole just walked up to you again, and this time they sat down on the sidewalk in front of you so they could relax and enjoy your company.”

“We weren’t really hurting them,” Alex said.

“We were just messing with their heads a little,” said Keith.

“Yeah, we were just joking,” the others agreed.

“Maybe we should joke with you a little,” Peter said.

Ms. Kennedy’s voice grew cold. “You five are the biggest cowards in our school. Instead of these two, why don’t you pick on the football team?”

The group remained silent, smirking.

Ms. Kennedy moved slowly, looking into the boys’ eyes until each looked away, then she shouted, “You do
not
have the right to destroy someone else’s dignity because you have none yourself!”

Cole was surprised by how the principal was acting. It took a lot of guts, but he still doubted anything would come of it. There weren’t consequences in this school, not like on the island. There, if he chopped wood and covered it, he had dry wood for the winter. If not, he didn’t. If he attacked a bear, it mauled him. If he gave it space, it trusted him. He wished Keith had to face consequences for his actions, but he knew that wasn’t how it was at this school.

“Cole, you and Peter go on home, but stop by my office in the morning,” Ms. Kennedy said. “I’ll meet the rest of you back in my office in five minutes. Anybody that gets there after me pays the fiddler double.”

Keith started toward the school, sauntering casually to prove he wasn’t intimidated.

Chapter 5

A
S COLE AND
Peter headed down the sidewalk, Cole elbowed his friend. “Hey, your secret weapon worked.”

“Yeah,” Peter said with a grin. Then he grimaced.

“Are you okay?”

Peter wiped blood from his face. “The principal can’t stop Keith and his friends.”

“Seeing Keith slap you this afternoon made me want to pound his head against a sidewalk,” Cole said. “I want to see
him
stutter and stammer the rest of his life. Maybe I should just beat him up and let the Circle send me to jail.”

Tears filled Peter’s eyes. “You going to jail won’t make anything better. You’re my only real friend.”

“Sitting in a dumb freezer and carrying bowling balls isn’t helping.”

“I agree,” Peter said, “but please don’t go to jail.”

* * *

Cole didn’t tell his mother about Keith and the bullies or having to go see the principal, just that they weren’t going to sit in the freezer anymore. He felt like he needed to work things out for himself. Weary, he went to bed early.

All that night, he tossed and turned, his dreams confused, his body aching. One moment the Spirit Bear was mauling him, and the next instant his dad was whipping him with the buckle end of the belt. Then the Circle was sending him back to jail. Finally, in his last dream, his totem pole had become a monster, threatening to attack him. When Cole’s alarm went off, he felt like a zombie. He hugged his bruised ribs and grimaced as he crawled from his bed to get ready for school.