Howl (14 page)

“Come on,” Zo-Zo said. “Let’s get back to our project.” She picked up the next questionnaire. “So, by now, thanks to us, every kid in our school has answered our questionnaire. Twice. Once before reading the ‘Green Extreme Factsheet’ and once after. Our job today is to see if they made any improvements!”

“Bet they have,” Brodie said.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Zo-Zo shoved an envelope into Robin’s hands.

“What’s this?”

“It came with a letter to the editor supporting the animal shelter,” Zo-Zo said.

Robin opened the envelope. Three twenty dollar bills fell out. “Great. Food for the animals.” So far, Griff had been paying for all the supplies. Robin liked the idea of being able to help with that.

Brodie looked concerned. “You need money for the animals?” He took a few bills from his pocket. “For the bear … I don’t want him to go hungry.”

Robin smiled and tucked the bills into a special pocket.

Zo-Zo tapped her pen on the table. “Okay, let’s get marking!”

An hour later, they had scored the last questionnaire.

Zo-Zo clicked the pen against her lips. “Now, let’s record the second scores and compare them to the first — see if there’s a difference.”

Brodie beat a drum roll, and they began reading out the score differences for each person.

“Todd Smith, up two points. Courtney Lee, up six — wow! Josh Robbins, up three. Stacie LaFleur up ten! Rachael Conners up eight.”

When they were done, Brodie raised his arm in victory. “Wow, every single student got a better score but one.”

Zo-Zo cheered. “And some were better by ten or twelve points! That’s amazing!”

Brodie grinned triumphantly. “See? We
have
made people change.”

Robin smiled despite herself.

“So, who’s our winner?” Brodie sounded another drum roll.

Zo-Zo reviewed the list. “It’s a tie between Josh Eagan and Christie Parlett.”

“But we’ve only got one grand prize!” Brodie said. “That hundred dollar gift certificate.”

“Maybe they can split it,” Robin suggested.

The others nodded.

Zo-Zo flipped her notebook to a new page. “Now we’d better make some decisions about the awards assembly. Like who we should get to make the presentation to the winners! My dad says if we get someone important, we’ll get more press coverage.”

“How about the mayor?” Robin said. “Ed Goodings?”

Brodie frowned. “That’s not fair. We’re in the middle of an election. If we’re going to invite one candidate, we should invite the other.”

“Rick Kingshot?” Zo-Zo challenged. “You just refuse to see what a creep that guy is, don’t you? Even my dad says he’s a slimeball. But then he thinks all lawyers are slimeballs.”

Brodie’s face hardened. “That’s because your mother ran off with one.”

Zo-Zo’s face spun to one side as if she’d been slapped. When she turned back to them, her face was red. Slowly, loudly, she pushed her chair back and grabbing on to the sides of the desk with both hands, pulled herself up, and strode from the room.

Brodie closed his eyes. He blew air out his mouth so hard, the hair on his forehead shot up. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Robin stood up. What was with this boy? He said things when he shouldn’t and didn’t say things when he should. She picked up her books and stood.

“Wait, I —”

Robin turned towards him. “Wait? Why? So I can listen to you defend Brittany and her dad? I don’t think so!” Briskly, she went off in search of Zo-Zo.

All the way home, Robin thought about her two friends. She didn’t blame Zo-Zo for running out of the library. What Brodie had said had been mean. Really mean. Was Brodie mean like that because his dad was drunk all the time? Or was he just mad because Zo-Zo had called Rick Kingshot a slimeball. He obviously felt he needed to defend Kingshot. But why? Just because the guy had bought him a bike? People were so complicated.

As she walked up the lane to her house, she heard shouting and stopped.

“It’s not fair,” Ari was shouting.

Robin edged closer.

“It’s got nothing to do with fair,” her father shouted back.

“
All
the other kids are going!”

“Ari, it’s a
bush
party!” Her father’s voice was calmer now. She could hear him restraining himself. “There’ll be drinking. And who knows what else. And no parental supervision. You’re only fourteen!”

“But I’ll be with Conner. He’ll —”

“Conner is sixteen, Ari. Sixteen! And from what I’ve heard, he’s not very responsible.”

“That’s not true. He’s the captain of the football team, he’s —”

“I don’t care of if he’s the class president, you’re not going!”

Ari made an infuriated huffing sound. “
I hate you!
”

Robin heard her stomping loudly up the stairs. After that, the screen door to the front porch slammed, and Robin knew her father had stormed out to the lakeside porch to get back to his staring place.

She sighed and went inside. Quietly, she went upstairs to change. As she came into the bedroom, she could hear Ari sobbing.

Ari was lying on the bed. She turned quickly so she was facing the wall, but not before Robin had seen the agony on her sister’s tear-streaked face.

Robin changed quickly into her barn clothes. Rarely had she seen Ari cry like this. Griff’s words about her sister hurting came back to her. Should she say something? She wanted to, but she was scared to as well. What should she say?

She thought about it for a moment, then whispered, “Ari, are you —”

Ari moved closer to the wall, her shoulders hunched high. Just then the phone rang.

Robin turned and bounded for the phone. Her father, however, beat her to it.

His voice was still loaded with anger from his fight with Ari. Robin pitied the person at the other end of the phone.

“No, we are
not
a wild animal shelter.”

Robin crept into the kitchen on her way out. Her father was drumming his fingers against the wall. She could tell he was trying to calm himself.

“I know what the article said.… No, we aren’t rehabilitating wild animals. No. It was a mistake. No, I don’t know where else you can take it.” His voice got louder. “Listen, mister, there’s nothing I can do.”

His face reddened as he listened for a short moment. Then he shouted, “If they euthanize it, it’s
not
my problem!”

Robin ran from the house, letting the screen door flap. She let herself into Mukwa’s enclosure and sat down. Her heart was pounding.

Griff, who was changing the straw in the puppy enclosure, came towards her. She gazed at her granddaughter through the slats. “You look like you’re about to blow a gasket.”

“Dad’s screaming at someone on the phone again.”

“Someone calling about an animal?”

Robin nodded. “Yes.”

“He hates turning them down. That’s the real problem. He
loves
animals, and I think it’s just about killing him not to help,” Griff said.

“Then why
doesn’t
he help? I mean, the worst has already happened, he’s been fired. He can do what he wants now.”

Griff took in a big breath, her nostrils flaring. “Beats me. I think he’s just so angry about everything, he’s like a big inferno. You can’t think straight when you’ve got that much anger inside.”

“Before that, he and Ari had a screamer too. You should have heard it.”

“I think I did. Part of it, anyways.”

“Ari said she hated him.”

Griff rubbed her jaw with her hand. “Oh, my!”

“She wants to go to some bush party! He said no.”

“Can’t blame him. Those parties usually get pretty drunk and disorderly. Besides, Conner is two years older than Ari. His hormones are pushing him hard. I don’t know if Ari’s old enough to withstand that yet.”

Robin wished she understood more about hormones. And why did they blast through teenagers, causing such havoc?

“You should have heard him on the phone. He yelled at the guy.”

Griff frowned. “Not good.”

“That’s all he does lately, scream at people or stare into space.”

Griff’s frown deepened. “He’ll get over it. He’ll get back on track. You’ll see.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

Griff smiled gently. “Don’t those ‘what ifs’ drive you crazy? They drive
me
crazy!”

Robin shrugged. It was just what her mind did.

Griff’s eyes were soft. “Mukwa will be going back to the wild soon. Then we can all relax. I don’t like the way his mom’s been prowling around. Makes me nervous. I know it makes your dad nervous too.”

Robin stroked Mukwa’s ears. “Once he’s free, will we ever see him again?”

“Hard to say. But if you do, he’ll remember. Bears have great memories.”

Robin thought about the mother bear. “What about the mother? What if she remembers? Won’t she want to kill me for taking her baby away?”

Griff swatted the air. “Nah! Bears have an uncanny sense of who to trust and who not to trust. I think she’ll just be glad to have Mukwa back.” She shook her head at the tattered state of Mukwa’s cast. “He’s sure shredded this thing.”

“Why do they put a cast on a broken bone anyway?”

“To keep the bones from moving around. They heal better when they’re still. That’s what your dad needs, some ‘still’ time. He’s had a lot happen this year.” She looked into Robin’s eyes. “He’ll pull himself together.” She broke into a grin. “I’ll get Owlie on the case.”

Robin scrunched her face doubtfully.

“You think ’cause Owlie’s dead, he can’t help? He may not have a body, but he has a spirit. A strong spirit.”

Robin didn’t know what to say, so she remained quiet.

“The Aboriginals say we each have an animal spirit, or what they call a ‘totem.’ That totem guides us, reminding us who we are.” Griff patted her heart. “Not ‘who we are’ like what your name is, but who you are
inside
.”

“Do I have a totem?”

Griff laughed. “I don’t think we’d have much trouble figuring that out! I’ll give you a clue. Yours is black and has a tail and is trying to teach you about water.”

“Relentless?”

“She and I have been chatting about how to get you feeling safe in the water again this summer, haven’t we, girl?” Relentless barked from a few enclosures over.

Robin groaned. She couldn’t learn to swim if she wasn’t willing to go near water, and she wasn’t. It was just too scary.

“I can see you’re loving that idea,” Griff said, tousling Robin’s hair. “We’ll see when the weather warms up. Meanwhile, don’t worry about your dad. He’s just pulled in two different directions right now. That logical mind of his is telling him to clear the animals out — after all, we are breaking the law. But there’s another part of him that truly wants to help them.”

“Last week we had calls about two abandoned birds, a hurt fox, then there was that loon that had a fishing lure wrapped around its leg.”

“You’re keeping a record of the number of calls, right?”

“Trying to,” Robin said. “I’ve counted thirteen so far! Nobody out there cares about whether we’re legal or not, they just want us to help.”

“Oh, did you see the paper?” Griff beamed. “There’s a letter to the editor actually
supporting
the idea of a wild animal shelter.”

“Yeah, Zo-Zo told me. Whoever wrote it sent in a donation.”

Griff’s eyebrows shot up. “Just goes to show that people
do
support us.” She made a thumbs-up sign. “Maybe that’ll make your dad feel easier.”

“I doubt it,” Robin said.

“Like the rest of us, he just doesn’t want any more bad stuff to happen. ’Cause when bad stuff happens, it kind of makes you nervous. You know that as well as anybody. I mean, you weren’t always afraid of water. Then something happened to get you scared. Want to tell me about it yet?”

Robin nodded. She felt ready now. “I almost drowned.”

“When? Not here —”

“In the city. At the pool. Ari and I were fooling around. She pushed me in and I swallowed a bunch of water. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t get myself to the surface, I —” Her palms started to sweat. Remembering was bringing back the panic. “Some lifeguard had to rescue me. They had to give me mouth-to-mouth re … resus …”

“Resuscitation?”

“Yeah.”

“Sounds awful,” Griff said.

Robin pumped her head up and down.

Griff was quiet for a long while. “Bad things happen sometimes. I think that’s why your dad’s being so careful these days. He just doesn’t want any more awfulness.”

Robin felt sympathy for her dad. She didn’t want any more awfulness either.

“Problem is, once you’ve had some bad things happen, it’s easy to be scared that other bad things are on their way.”

“Do you get scared?” Robin asked.

“Sure do. Right now I’m scared this situation with the animals is going to blow up in our faces! Which it could do so fast it would make your head spin. Think about it. We have wild animals without a permit — that’s against the law. The town officials aren’t going to let us do that forever. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the sheriff shows up on our doorstep one day.”

Robin felt her stomach do a cartwheel. “What would happen to the animals?”

The lines on Griff’s face tugged at each other, creating deep gashes in her face. Robin had never seen her grandmother look so old and battered. “I’m scared to think.”