Howl (17 page)

Ari smiled sweetly.

Squirm groaned loudly. Robin groaned inwardly.

Robin stayed up and played a few more rounds of cards with Squirm. Finally, when she couldn’t stop yawning, she went upstairs. Ari was sitting on her bed with a large magnifying mirror propped on her knees and a pair of tweezers in her hand. She was plucking her eyebrows.

Robin changed into her pajamas and pulled out her book. As she read, Ari applied whitening strips on her teeth. After that, she gave herself a pedicure. What was she up to? There was no way a person primped like that before a day of hitting the books.

Robin turned out her light and pulled her pillow over her head to block out Ari’s light. She could hear scribbling. Her sister was writing in her diary, something she often did before going to sleep. Robin was almost asleep when she heard the rustle of covers and finally the light was turned off.

Sometime in the night, the dream grabbed her. It always started the same way. She was plunging down and down into the cold water. No matter how much she kicked and tried to thrust herself up, she could do nothing to stop herself from plummeting into the lake’s murky depths.

When she broke into wakefulness, she was panting. Her heart pounding, she fumbled for the light and clicked it on. Ari grumbled in her sleep then turned away, her back to Robin and the night table between them. Too shaken to go back to sleep, Robin dug her arms through the sleeves of a ratty terrycloth robe and crept downstairs. She made herself a cup of hot chocolate, putting two heaping spoons of the chocolate powder into the cup instead of one, and ate digestive cookies while she waited for the milk to heat up. The kitchen clock said four thirty.

Hot chocolate in hand, she went back to bed and propped herself up against the pillows. She sipped her hot chocolate and looked around the room, still feeling unsettled.

Her eyes landed on the diary. It had slipped out from under the pillow and was lying inches from Ari’s back. Before Robin could stop herself, she had it in her hand. It was about the size of a thick paperback book. The cover was made of some shiny pink material. In the middle was a small brass lock. Ari wore the key on a chain around her neck, so there was never any possibility of sneaking a look at what was inside.

But there was something funny looking about the lock. Something was off kilter. As Robin stared at it, she realized that the two parts of the lock were not fully fitted into each other. She gave the clasp a slight tug and was amazed when the strap fell open.

Alarmed, Robin looked over at her sister to make sure she was asleep. If Robin was caught doing what she was doing, she would be dead meat.

She opened the book to the most recent entry.

He can’t stop me. I’ll sneak out. I won’t miss the party! I WON’T!

The words were written in large, bold letters. What was she talking about? The bush party?

“Turn out the light,” Ari said, still facing the wall.

Robin eased the diary shut and clicked off the light. She waited until she could hear the rhythmic sound of Ari’s breathing again then slipped the diary back under her sister’s pillow.

She lay in the dark, her eyes wide. Was Ari really going to sneak out and go to the bush party? Should she tell her dad? Or Griff? But if she did tell, Ari would know she’d read the diary. And Ari would make her life miserable.

Robin closed her eyes and let sleep take her.

The next thing she knew, Griff was sitting on the end of her bed. Robin yawned and looked outside. The sky was pink as the day dawned.

“You sure you kids are going to be all right, here by yourselves?” Griff rubbed her jaw with her large palm. She shook her head. “I’ve just got this skittery feeling….”

“Ready when you are, Mom!” Robin’s dad called from downstairs.

Robin shut her eyes. The word “mom” still took her breath away.

“Coming.” Griff pulled herself up as if her body weighed a thousand pounds. “Be careful, okay? No shenanigans. No wandering around in the woods — that mother bear’s still around. And don’t let Squirm either. And do what your sister says.” She kissed Robin’s forehead. “I’ll make sure your dad takes his cell phone. See you tonight.”

When she was gone, Robin slipped down under the covers. What good was her father’s cell phone when he never had it charged?

Robin’s room was bright with sunshine when she woke up for the second time. Knowing the animals would be clamouring for food, she dressed quickly, had some cereal, and went to the barn. The puppies were bigger now, and their hungry yapping was so noisy she decided to feed them first, just to get some quiet. Then she set the food out for Mukwa, who was playing on his swinging tire. As soon as the bowl touched the ground, he gobbled it up quickly. Did animals taste things? Here in the shelter, all the animals got the same thing, meal after meal, yet they always acted as if that particular food was their favourite delicacy.

When Mukwa was finished eating, he kept nudging her.

“Oh, I know what you want,” she said, pulling a small ball from one of her coat pockets. She’d brought it in yesterday for Mukwa to play with, and he’d remembered. It was true what Griff said about bears having great memories.

“Bright boy,” she said, rolling it to him.

Even in the short time they’d had him, Mukwa had grown bigger. And smarter. He knew his name and lots of other words, Robin was sure of it. She tossed the ball to him over and over, and even though his arm was still in a cast, he caught the ball easily. She loved being with him. It felt like a kind of privilege. After all, how many people ever got to be close to a baby bear? Besides, he was due to be released any day now, and she wanted as much time with him as she could get.

After a good long play with Mukwa, she went on to feed the others. The goose was gone now, its neck completely healed, but they still had raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, and skunks. As always with the adult birds and animals, she kept her distance.

“We want to keep wild things wild,” her father had told her over and over again. “If they get friendly with you in here, they’ll be friendly with others humans once they’re released. People aren’t used to wild animals being friendly. They might think the animal has rabies and shoot it.”

That thought made Robin keep her distance from all the adult animals and birds. The babies, however, were a different matter. As Griff always said, “Babies are babies. They need love. Lots of love. So give them all you’ve got.”

Robin did. She found there was nothing more satisfying than holding a tiny baby in her arms and feeding it. She didn’t know why it made everything else all right, but it did.

She had just finished feeding the rabbits and was putting fresh straw in their enclosure when Squirm appeared. He was still in his pajamas, the ones with the dragonflies all over.

“You ever going to take those off?” Robin asked.

Griff had given him the pajamas a few weeks ago, and Robin didn’t think he’d taken them off since. He even wore them under his jeans when he went to school.

“Want me to help with the pup —” He sneezed then sneezed again.

Robin stopped what she was doing and listened to his breathing. There was a faint wheezing sound, she was certain. What if he had a full-blown asthma attack today when her dad and Griff weren’t there? She’d already checked to make sure his inhaler was on the fridge, but still, once he’d had such a bad attack they’d had to take him to the hospital. But that was when they’d lived in the city. He hadn’t had one attack here in the country. She should have been comforted by that thought, but then another one knocked that one right out of the ball park. What if that meant a huge one was on its way?

Deciding that she’d better get Squirm to stay in the house and be quiet, she said, “Isn’t that Spider Boy movie on this afternoon?”

“You’d let me watch that?” Usually they weren’t allowed to watch television in the middle of the day.

“Just this once.”

“But what about Ari? She’ll want that stupid show of hers.”

Ari came up to them from behind. “I won’t tell Dad about the Spider Boy movie if you don’t tell him I’m going to study at the library.”

Squirm nodded eagerly, but Robin said nothing.
Yeah, the library. Sure
.

Ari shrugged. “Okay, tell. I don’t care. Dad will believe me anyway. He always does.”

Conner’s car roared up the driveway.

Squirm covered his ears. “When’s that stupid boyfriend of yours going to get his muffler fixed?”

“What about your exam?” Robin shouted over the noise. Once upon a time getting good marks had been important to Ari. But obviously not to this girl who was acting like a drop-in from another planet.

Ari shrugged.

Conner was beside them now, a cigarillo in his mouth.

Robin tensed. All she wanted was to get him out of there before he started a fire and burned the place down.

“Hey,” he said, standing in front of Mukwa’s cage. “How’s my little bear rug?”

Robin hissed at Ari, “If you want me to keep my mouth shut, get Conner out of here. Now!”

Ari stiffened her back and turned. “Come on, Conner. Let’s go.”

Squirm waved the air and started coughing.

“He’s allergic,” Ari said as she left the barn. Conner followed.

Squirm watched the car race down the driveway, then scampered up to the house. Robin went back to her chores. She finished putting fresh straw in two enclosures and had just started mucking out the raccoon cage when Josh and Ben rode up on their bikes to see the baby owl. Owlie the Second, as he’d been nicknamed, was able to fly but only very short distances. Robin’s dad was still hoping he’d heal enough to be released and soar into the skies as nature intended.

Josh and Ben visited with the owl for a while then helped take all the puppies out for a walk. When they were putting the puppies back in their enclosure, Josh looked towards the farmhouse.

“Is Ari around?”

Robin sighed. She knew that look. It was the same look so many boys got when they liked her sister.

“No. She’s off with her idiot boyfriend.”

Josh looked disappointed. “Tell her I said hi.”

“I will,” Robin said as she waved goodbye. Now why wasn’t Ari interested in a boy like that, she wondered as she returned to her cleaning.

It was a hot day and very still. The animals seemed unusually quiet. In the heat of the afternoon, Robin took a short break and sat in the barn on a bale of hay. She was wiping the sweat from her forehead when she heard a strange sound. She tensed and grabbed the pitchfork. The mother bear? She craned her head around the barn door.

“Brodie!” She dropped the pitchfork, hoping he hadn’t seen it.

Brodie set his bike down and ran towards her. “They’re coming!” he shouted, his arms flailing.

She could tell from his agitation that something was wrong, very wrong. “Who? Who’s coming?”

“To close the place, you’ve got to —”

This time, she blasted the word at him. “
Who?
”

“The sheriff!” Brodie was standing in front of her now, his hands moving like startled birds. “Mr. Kingshot had the sheriff in his office — I had to press my ear to the door, but I heard them talking.” He took a hurried breath and carried on. “The sheriff, he’s coming to clear the animals out —
today!
I ran here to tell you, if Mr. Kingshot finds out, I’ll be fired but —”

Robin cut him off. “But we’ve got our application for a license in and —”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have one
now
. I heard the sheriff say that.”

“But there’s no place to take them!” Robin started to pace. “That means they’re going to put them to sleep. Euthanize them!”

Brodie stared at her with astonishment. “Mukwa?
No!
” He smashed his fist into the side of the barn. “Ow!” He jumped up and down, holding his hand.

Robin straightened her back. “We have to stop them.”

“But we
can’t!
It’s the
sheriff
, he’s like the police, he’s —”

“I don’t care!”

“He’ll have a gun!”

Robin felt her whole body start to freeze up. Soon she wouldn’t be able to move at all. She forced herself to pace. She needed to keep moving.

Brodie’s eyes were wild. “Let’s open the cages. Let them go. Let them make a run for it.”

Robin’s mind raced through this possibility. The animals were there because they needed care. It would hurt them to be without that care. Some of them might survive, but others wouldn’t. They had to keep them here and protect them. But how? She jammed her thumb between her teeth and tried to think.

Brodie’s eyes were desperate. “There’s nothing we can do!”

Robin pounced on his words. “We have to try! It’s just like the eco thing. Remember, I wanted to give up and you told me that we had to keep trying. And we did. And we figured out what we could do, we —”

Brodie cut her off. “But Kingshot is powerful, he’s —”

“I don’t care! I have to
do
something!” She pulled herself up straighter. Saying those words made her feel stronger somehow.