NO ORDINARY OWL (3 page)

That was it. Now Esther remembered.

I mean, that’s not it
.

Weather camp:
Never, never lie down in a ditch when there’s lightning
. That scrap of memory ejected itself from the past into the now. The wind was picking up. She had to shout to be heard. “No, don’t lie down!” They were supposed to get into a car, roll up the windows, and not touch the sides of the car.

Except they didn’t have a car.

The girls were looking at her, expecting her to have a better idea. After all, she was the Internet expert.

Squeezing her brakes, Esther stopped so suddenly her back tire skittered a bit. With a big wobble of the handlebars, she managed to get her feet down and keep the rest of her standing up.
Away from trees?
There was nothing
but
trees. Trees on either side of the road. Trees over that creepy black fence. Trees as far as she could see across the road.

“No, don’t lie down in the ditch!” Her breath came in gasps. Uncle Dave’s ranch was still out of sight on the road that began at the community center and wound its way as a country road. About the only ones who drove it were the people who lived in the sparsely dotted homes, farms, and ranches. Boy, did they need help now. “Help, Lord!”

The first rumble of thunder sounded like a giant’s stomach had just decided it was lunchtime. Heavy drops screamed for a few more of their fat friends, and in the time it took Esther to scan for a spot with no trees, the girls’ legs and feet were sopping. If they hadn’t quickly tied the hoods of the many-colored raincoats, they would look like they’d just washed their hair.

“We look like M&M heads,” Sunny said.

Flash!
One–two–three–four—BOOM!

Aneta screamed.

Vee jumped.

Sunny laughed. “I think my ribs rattled!”

Esther needed a plan to help her friends.

In the next moment, while they crouched near the side of the road away from the big bare tree that leaned over the black fence, the air stilled. Solitary still. Scary still. Like nature had sucked in a bottomless breath and held the planet hostage. A tingle shivered through Esther.
Whoa. What was that?

Thwaaack!
Not a pop, not a thud.
Something hit by something else
.

“My cousin’s car!” Sunny shouted, looking around.

“It’s a gun!” Vee flattened herself on the ground.

Aneta and Sunny joined her. “Esther, get down!”

Esther dropped so fast dirt went up her nose.

A rustle in the overarching branches of the big tree made them look up in time to see two objects, one larger than the other, dropping fast in front of their faces.

Two pairs of round yellow eyes; wings spread awkwardly; wideopen, sharply curved beaks hissing; and a strange sound that could not be mistaken for anything other than pain.

And blood. Blood on the feathers. Blood on the ground.

The Man with the Mask

A
neta screamed.

Vee pulled her hood up until it covered her eyes. “What is that?”

“Blood. There’s blood!” Sunny scooted back from the two owls.

“Are they dead?” Esther watched. One wasn’t. It twitched and flopped. The other was still, raindrops denting the feathers. Dead?

Aneta crawled forward on her elbows toward the two big-eyed owls. Yellow eyes the size of dimes. “Oh, the poor things are hurt!”

The sharp-looking beak opened farther. Another hiss. Another flop with the brown, white, and gray feathers.

Vee threw back her hood and crouched by the two birds. While the storm continued to jolt and pour, Esther didn’t know what to do. But she did know if they didn’t get somewhere safe, both the girls and the owls would be dead. She cast another look back down the road.

The truck! It had stopped at the big black fence. Peering through the sheets of rain that pelted her raincoat so loudly she couldn’t tell what the other Squaders were talking about, she gauged the distance between the tree and the truck. Could they dodge the lightning if they sprinted? Was a moving target harder for lightning to hit? She turned back to the other three who were circled around the birds.

“Should we pick them up and take them for help?” Aneta reached out a hand toward the less-bloody bird. The beak stretched open. Even though they were small, their wingspread was easily as long as Esther’s arm. Maybe longer.

“I say we go get help.” Vee’s dark, wet bangs stuck to her forehead. She pulled up the hood again. She looked ready to run wherever.

Esther surveyed the two birds, the one still unmoving. If they left them here, they’d drown in the rain. She shivered. The temperature had dropped again, and suddenly her school sweatshirt under the raincoat wasn’t warm enough. Maybe the owls would freeze. Those little bodies couldn’t take the cold, wet ground.

The gate hadn’t opened yet. Someone must still be in the truck. That someone had just been named a helper to the S.A.V.E. Squad. “We’ll get the people in the truck to help. The birds are too big for us.”

“This would have been a great time for the Anti-Trouble Phone,” Vee grumbled, looking disgusted. “I wish I hadn’t left it at home.”

They agreed. Esther shot a glance at the truck and then up at the gray sky that delivered a never-ending supply of water. Her teeth began to chatter. Oh, she was cold. And wet. And, well, all kinds of scared.

Cr-rrr-ack!

The thunder banged in the sky, and her lungs rattled again. She pulled off her raincoat, threw it over the owls, and ran for the truck.

Vee and Sunny reached the truck first. Esther expected one of them to pound on the driver’s side window and scream for help, but that was not what redheaded Sunny did. Reaching the side of the vehicle, she yanked open the passenger side and launched herself into the backseat.

“Sunny!” Vee screeched and stopped short. “What are you doing?”

Another vicious crack of lightning, and Vee joined Sunny.

“Where’s the driver?” Esther heard Vee say.

Bang!
More lightning. Aneta dove into the truck on top of Vee.

Her teeth chattering, Esther remained outside, unsure. Where was the driver? They were crazy.
We’re talking major stranger danger here
. Everything she’d ever learned about safety flashed through her head along with the booms of thunder and flashes of lightning.

Yow!
This had to be a special case. She flung open the driver’s door and leaped in, slamming it behind her.

Nobody said a word. In seconds, their gasping had steamed up the windows so the truck’s interior felt like a sweaty cave.

Outside, the lightning flashed, the thunder boomed, and the pounding sheets of rain fell.

“If the gate’s not open, where’s the driver?” Vee wanted to know, pulling herself out from under Aneta and squishing Sunny into the door in the process.

“Maybe this is a ghost truck, and the driver is a ghost.” Aneta’s voice trembled.

Sunny grunted and gasped, “Okay, I think this is the worst trouble the S.A.V.E. Squad has ever been in.”

Vee eventually wriggled herself upright as the others straightened themselves. Staring straight ahead at the fence and headlights, Vee nodded. “We’ve just jumped into some strange truck where nobody is driving during a killer rainstorm, leaving two hurt owls.”

The raincoat by the tree hadn’t moved. “Lord, we’re in big trouble,” Esther said. “If the truck is running and the lights are on, someone has to be
somewhere
to help us help those little owls.”

A small voice said from the backseat, “We look like we took a shower with our clothes on.” It was Aneta. Twisting around to see her, Esther watched her friend’s face tremble, and for a moment, Esther thought she was going to cry. Instead her blue eyes crinkled, and her mouth followed with a quivering smile then a choking laugh.

Sunny bent her head as her shoulders shook. “Bahahaha! I feel like a
dog
in a shower!” Shaking like a dog, her tangled mess of curls flung raindrops on the front and back seat, her laughter gaining speed and volume until she was seriously hooting.

“Hey!” Vee frowned. “Getting help for the owls is—” Her stern look wobbled, and she pitched off into a silent fit of hilarity.

This is crazy
. Esther felt a bubble of laughter beginning. Why were they laughing? The bubbles were beginning to hurt. She was going to laugh. No she wasn’t. Somebody had to be in charge here.

Each of the other three was now soundlessly shaking with mirth. In another second she would join them. It was that kind of laughter after something so scary happened you couldn’t deal. She leaned against the cool, fogged-up window, trying to make herself take a breath. Someone had to have a plan. Her face felt like it was on fire, so she turned her face to the glass.

Esther screamed.

The door fell away from her face, and she scrabbled with the steering wheel to stay in the truck. A hard clamp on her arm made her scream again.

“Esther!” the girls were shouting. “What’s wrong?” Vee was climbing to the front until her bent right knee locked, leaving her stuck between the two front seats. “Let her alone!” If the Vee Stare could be a voice, Vee was using it now.

A green military slicker yanked Esther out of the truck. The rain had slacked off to mist. She was so cold, so wet.

“What do you want? Why are you in my truck?”

Esther looked in the face of her assailant. A mask. He was wearing a mask. Her voice dried up.

Tears gushed from Esther’s eyes, and she began to gulp, feeling more scared than she’d been in her life. “H–h–help the baby owls…over—” Deeper sobs took over. She couldn’t finish. Vee had untangled her legs now, made the front seat, and in another second shot from the truck, aiming her helmeted head toward the tall, skinny man’s stomach.

Attempts to Escape

T
hey’d blown their first chance for escape. Except, had they really, wondered Esther, since they didn’t know they would need to escape? Everything happened so
fast
.

Never had she seen someone move as quickly as that man. Vee made full contact, and while her helmet remained embedded in the masked man’s slickered front, he’d grabbed her by the shoulder of her raincoat and Esther by the arm. He’d shoved them in the back with Sunny and Aneta, who had gone deathly silent. Vee was still dizzy from the head butt and complied. Esther’s legs quivered like jelly. She obeyed.

They watched the man grab a dog crate from the covered back of the truck and gently scoop up the owls in towels that he pulled from the crates. Then the crate went into the back. The man got in, and there they were.

Kidnapped.

As the truckload of unhappy girls, unhappy owls, and unhappy masked man bounced through the water-filled potholes leading away from safety and toward the haunted mansion, Esther, behind the driver, wanted another look at his face. It was a strange kind of mask. It was clear and kind of smeared his face a little. Openings showed his nose and lips. She also wanted to memorize it so once they escaped, she could tell the sheriff. For, if she knew her S.A.V.E. Squad girls, Vee was plotting and Sunny was plotting. Aneta was hoping that the other three would do something brave.
Now
.