90% Human

by M. C. Berkhousen

  “Cougars are shy. They aren’t going to attack kids in a big noisy group,” I explained.

  “Mrs. Harris wants to know exactly where everyone is,” said Levi. “If we left the kids in the cabins, they might get up during the night to go to the bathroom. Wandering alone out there, they’d be easy prey for a cat.”

  “So would counselors sleeping in tents,” I added. “It was a good thing we found the tracks before the cougar found you guys.”

  Chapter Ten—Pandemonium

  Beams of light waved and flickered from four different directions as kids trooped through the dark night, balancing rolled-up sleeping bags, shower bags, and flashlights in their arms. Nervous giggles, laughter tinny with sleep, and incoherent muttering blended with the loud chirp of crickets. The campers clustered in large groups, making as much noise as possible. Warriors section B, all three cabins, walked together. Levi strode in front of us and Terry behind, both of them directing beams of light from right to left, watching for any sign of the cougar. It wasn’t going to come out of hiding with all these noisy kids around. But a lone camper, going out to the bathhouse, might not be so lucky.

  We hadn’t had time to check that big tree hole to see if Jake had stowed the packages there. When we saw those tracks, Jim and I took off. A mountain lion will attack humans, and the experts weren’t sure what people should do if they met one. If you ran, the lion might chase you. If you stood still, it might kill you more easily. It was probably best to stay in a group and not walk around alone in a wooded area where they lived. But who knew for sure where they lived? They weren’t supposed to live here, in Lower Michigan, but I’d seen one with my own eyes. And where there was one, there might be another.

  I felt a lot safer when we arrived at the mess hall. The outside lights were on, creating a wide, welcoming space of warmth. The director, Mrs. Harris, stood outside the front door, checking off names on her clipboard. Levi stood next to her, counting us as we passed him. Another staff member showed Levi and Terry which section of the gym-sized room was ours.

  All the tables had been pushed against the wall except for one row that stood end to end through the center of the room. Two counselors were covering these tables with blankets, making a kind of privacy barrier between the boys and the girls. On top of the divider tables were two large signs: GIRLS ONLY with an arrow pointing left, and BOYS ONLY with an arrow pointing right. On both sides, chalk lines divided the Warriors’ space from the Trackers.

  Austin was already there, rolling out his sleeping bag. He did not look happy. If there was anything Austin hated worse than camping, it was sleeping on a hard floor. If he’d had time, he probably would have ordered an air mattress to put under his sleeping bag. Maybe a drone would deliver one to the camp any minute, straight to Austin Brockway from Amazon.

  I waved to him, and he looked up and smiled. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with his pajama bottoms. If we could find a minute to talk, I’d tell him about the packages Jake had smuggled in. Maybe Austin would have some ideas about what was in them.

  Mrs. Harris held up her hands, saying “Quiet, please. Quiet, please, campers.”

  Eighty campers can make a lot of noise. The blanket-covered table barrier was only waist high, so I could still see what was happening on the other side. Girls in short pajamas tippy-toed around, giggling, squealing, complaining, and whining as they tried to get settled in their allotted space. On the boys’ side there were other kinds of noises: snorting, coughing, rolling, farting, laughing, and shoving each other’s sleeping bags across the tile floor. Three Tracker boys crawled under the divider table and tried to peek at the Tracker girls, making them shriek.

  Mrs. Harris blew her whistle. “Quiet down! Right now! In thirty seconds I’m going to start taking away swim privileges. Counselors, get ready to take down names of anyone in your section who is still talking.” The noise dimmed and faded away.

  “Campers, please do not go outside to the restrooms during the night. Use the ones in each corner of this room.” She pointed to them, using two fingers like a flight attendant.

  A girl in Warrior section A raised her hand. “Mrs. Harris, they won’t shoot the cougar, will they?”

  “I don’t know,” said Mrs. Harris. “If it keeps coming back here they might not have a choice. We can’t have a mountain lion on our campground. It could attack someone. The local farmers don’t want it around either. Mountain lions will eat their cattle.”

  “They could catch it and take it away,” said another girl. “Take it somewhere far away, where there aren’t any humans.”

  “Yeah, they could catch it and let it go in Warriors section A. No humans there,” yelled one of the boys. The rest of the boys laughed. The girls glared at them.

  “Enough talking,” said Mrs. Harris. “Now try to get some sleep.”

  The lights dimmed and then went off. I knelt down and untied the strings around my sleeping bag. My eyes felt gritty. I was tired all the way down to my bones. I stretched out on my sleeping bag, ready to doze off as the rustlings and murmurs grew quiet.

  “A snake!” shrieked a girl. “There! Next to that sleeping bag!”

  The peaceful calm was shattered. The lights went back on. The girls screamed and scampered, trampling kids still in their sleeping bags as they ran to the front of the room. Yelling boys bolted over, under, and around the barricade to invade the girls’ section.

  Mrs. Harris blew her whistle again. “Boys! Back to your sleeping bags, now! Girls, stop all that screaming!” The director walked to the middle of the room, stepping carefully around sleeping bags. Her face was flushed and her fists were clenched. “Now!” She pointed to the boys’ side of the barricade.

  Suddenly it was very quiet. Five or six boys walked slowly back to their sleeping bags, tiptoeing with exaggerated care.

  Three of the girls’ counselors and Levi went to the girls’ section and began to look for the snake. One by one, they unzipped each sleeping bag and shook it out.

  “Here it is,” said Levi, as he lifted a flowered duffle bag. “It’s a garter snake.” He beckoned to me. “Brockway, you want to take this snake outside? Jim, go with him.”

  “I’d like to go too,” said Jake.

  “I don’t think so,” said Levi. “You and I need to talk about how that snake got in here.”

  “Why do you always blame me?” asked Jake.

  “Because you’re usually the one who did it,” I muttered.

  Ignoring him, Levi spoke to me. “Put the snake down outside the door and get back here immediately.”

  “My brother isn’t going out there without me,” said Austin.

  Levi nodded, and Austin waited by the door.

  I picked up the snake, holding it firmly with both hands so it would feel secure. Jim opened the side door and I went through it, carrying the snake carefully. The poor thing was probably totally stressed from being kidnapped and dropped in a room with forty screaming girls.

  Levi stood next to the door, watching us. “Hurry up, you guys. Let the snake go and get back in here.”

  The smell of cat was stronger than it had been before. The cougar must be very close. I put the snake down, and it slithered away. Austin and Jim moved their flashlight beams across the ground and then up into the trees. We didn’t see the cat, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. In the doorway, Levi was talking to one of the girls’ counselors. He waved for us to come inside. We went in, and Levi closed the door behind us.

  Jake was sitting up. When we appeared, he smiled and sank back onto his sleeping bag.

  The two counselors were still talking, so the three of us went into the empty kitchen. If we kept our voices low, we could talk without being heard.

  “Jake was definitely watching for us to come in. Do you think he knows we’re on to him?” I asked.

  Jim shrugged. “Why would he? We were both in bed with our eyes closed when he came into the cabin.”

  “I’m guessing those packages are in the hole
in that tree.” I yawned. “He’ll probably try to sneak out and find them.”

  Jim yawned too. “Probably. I don’t think I can stay awake to follow him.”

  “Where did the packages come from?” asked Austin.

  We told him about following Jake to the road and seeing him receive two packages from someone in a dark car.

  The kitchen door opened and Levi came in. “What are you guys doing out here?”

  “Just talking,” I said. “We didn’t want to keep the others awake.”

  “Talking about what?” Levi stood with his hands on his hips, watching us. “What took so long outside?”

  I just shook my head, trying to look innocent. “I put the snake down in the grass.”

  “That’s all?” Levi looked from Jim to Austin.

  “That’s all,” said Jim. “We didn’t want to hang around out there.”

  “The cat smell is really strong,” I added. “The cougar isn’t very far away. I’d make sure everyone uses the bathrooms inside.”

  Levi nodded. “We’ll remind them again in the morning. You guys better get to bed. Thanks for taking care of the snake.”

  Austin went back to his section, and Jim and I slid into our sleeping bags. I rolled over, trying to get comfortable on the hard, tile-covered floor. It smelled like the pine-scented cleaner my mother washed our kitchen and bathroom floors with at home. The smell made me feel homesick, not for home, but for the life I’d enjoyed before we were first changed into animals. I didn’t know how good I had it back then. I didn’t have to worry about sprouting eagle feathers or getting bullied by Jake Parma. I didn’t have to worry about getting eaten by a cougar or having that cougar shot by the sheriff. I didn’t have to worry about how to tell Megan I just wanted to be friends.

  The noise began to fade. Around me, most of the guys had actually gone to sleep. I let out a long breath and closed my eyes. My ears stayed open, listening.

  “Gifford,” said one of the girls’ counselors. “Put out the flashlight.”

  I sat up and looked over the barrier. Megan was sitting up, pulling something over her head. Something glowed pink at the end of it. The shell necklace. She even wore it to bed. The shell part of it was glowing like a flashlight! Austin said it glowed because I was nearby and I had once been a Komodo. Megan was at least twenty yards from me, and the necklace still knew I was there. She stuffed it under her pillow and stretched out on her sleeping bag.

  One of the girls stood up and walked carefully around the sleeping bags to the area where the counselors were sleeping. A counselor sat up, and I heard the rasping sound of whispers. She stood up and walked with the camper to the girls’ bathroom. Some kind of girls’ emergency. I didn’t even want to think about that. I snuggled back into my sleeping bag and put a pillow over my head.

  I tossed and turned on the hard floor and then fell into an uneasy sleep. In my dreams, I saw the tree with the big hole on one side near the bottom. The cougar was there, her head inside the hole. The tawny tail flicked and then went still. She pulled her head out of the tree and turned. Between her teeth, held by the loose skin on the back of its neck, was a tiny cub. It was blond, with dark marks over its eyes and around its mouth. There were markings on its back, too.

  I opened my eyes. The huge room was dark and quiet. Everyone seemed to be asleep. The dream had seemed so real. I could almost feel the cougar’s presence, the way I felt prickling on the back of my neck when someone was watching me from behind.

  I got up and crept to the door. If the cougar was near, I had to try to warn her. I would try to send her a message with my thoughts, the way I had with the wolves and the turtle. Tomorrow the sheriff would be here, and he’d bring his gun. She had to go far away.

  Making as little noise as possible, I slipped outside, keeping one hand on the doorknob. What I saw took my breath away. The cougar was there.

  She stood like a queen, about fifty yards from me, under the tree with the big hole. She held the back of a tiny cub’s neck between her teeth, just as she had in my dream. The moonlight coated her pelt with gold. Her eyes held mine as if she was waiting for something. I tried to reach her with my thoughts.

  Go. Take your babies far away. Tomorrow the sheriff will come. He’ll have a gun. I pictured the sheriff with his gun in my mind, so the cougar would know who I meant and what a gun looked like. If he sees you, he’ll kill you. Go far away. Stay away from humans. Be happy.

  She stayed very still, her golden eyes still fixed on mine as though she was listening. Then, as I watched, the cougar turned and loped away. I eased back through the door, closed it quietly behind me, and then crawled into my sleeping bag.

  The next time I awoke, the clock on the wall read six-thirty. The cook was in the kitchen, clattering pots and pans. The smell of coffee wafted out into the big hall. Campers weren’t allowed to have coffee, but it sure smelled good.

  “What’s Austin doing on the girls’ side?” Jim stared over the barrier. “He’s sitting in the middle of a bunch of girls, talking.”

  “Probably taking orders for purple ponchos,” I muttered.

  My eyes felt sticky. I forced them open and sat up. Jake’s sleeping bag was empty. He wasn’t in the line that was forming in front of the corner bathrooms. Jim and I hadn’t found the packages. Maybe Jake had gone after them, even though he wasn’t supposed to leave the mess hall. I slid on my sneakers and hurried outside.

  The cat smell was almost gone. Jake was nowhere in sight. I hoped I wouldn’t find him somewhere, half eaten. I hurried to the tree with the big hole and peeked inside. The hole was empty. I’d seen the cougar leave with her baby last night, but I had to be sure I wasn’t dreaming.

  Squatting down, I pushed leaves and twigs around and searched the area for fresh tracks. They were easy to see. Two front tracks and two back ones, right in front of the tree. That was where the cougar had stood to pick up her cub, grasping it carefully by the neck, the way cats do. Checking the surrounding area, I found more tracks. These were far apart, as though she was running. It wasn’t a dream. I had really seen the cougar standing there with her cub. I hoped she’d gotten my telepathic message about the sheriff and was now safely far away.

  I brushed away some leaves in front of the tree and found some different tracks. Shoe prints. Rippled soles. Sneakers.

  “Looking for something?” said a voice from behind me.

  I stood up and turned around. Jake stood there with his hands on his hips, watching me.

  “Just looking for cougar tracks.”

  “You were looking for my packages.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “What packages?”

  He glared at me, then walked away.

  Back in the mess hall, I told Levi, Terry, and Mrs. Harris about the packages and the tracks I’d seen this morning.

  “You should have told us about this before,” said Mrs. Harris.

  “We couldn’t have confiscated the packages anyway,” said Levi.

  “We could have made him open them in front of us,” said Mrs. Harris. “Campers aren’t allowed to receive packages unless they are checked by the counselor or the director. That’s right in the consent form that parents have to sign. Please tell Mr. Parma I want to see him in my office.”

  The sheriff came, and I showed him the prints that led deep into the forest. “She was running. That’s why the tracks are so far apart. I think she only came back for her cub.”

  The sheriff sighed. “And you know this because…?”

  “It’s just a guess. The tracks show that she stood there for some reason.” I wasn’t going to tell him about seeing the cougar and sending her a mental message. He barely believed there was really a cougar.

  “Okay, young man. Back to the mess hall. We’ll check out the woods and let your director know if it’s clear.”

  When I went back inside, breakfast was out on the counter. The assigned campers were taking platters of scrambled egg and sausages to the tables. I asked Levi if I could talk
to him. He gestured to the seat next to him.

  “I just wondered what’s going to happen to Jake.” I sat down next to him. “I felt bad, snitching on him.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to him,” said Levi. “Mrs. Harris and I took him to your cabin in the Jeep. Jake showed us the boxes. Four pairs of socks, one jacket, and a book.”

  “What was the book?” I asked.

  “Divergent,” said Levi.

  “That was already here, Levi.”

  The counselor sighed, then picked up his fork. “I know. We’ll take care of it.”

  “Luke, can I talk to you a minute?” Megan followed me back to my table.

  “Sure.” I stopped to wait for her. Austin, who had just rolled up his sleeping bag, joined us.

  “My necklace is gone,” said Megan. Her voice quivered as if she was going to cry.

  “You had it on last night,” I said. “I saw it glowing in the dark.”

  “Mrs. Harris told me to put it away. So I had to take it off. Now it’s gone.” She wrung her hands together.

  “Did you look through your sleeping bag?” asked Austin. “Maybe it fell down inside it.”

  “I unzipped it and turned it inside out. I took my pillow out of the pillowcase and dumped my gear bag on the blanket. I went through everything.”

  “Where could it go?” asked Austin.

  “Three guesses.” Megan stared off toward the Warrior cabins. “And they all begin with the letter J.”

  “How could he?” I asked. “We’d have seen him going through your stuff, wouldn’t we? There were people around all the time.”

  “Jake took it,” said Megan. “I don’t know how or when, but he took it. He wanted to look at it and I wouldn’t let him. He’s jealous because my grandmother sent it to me.”

  “You’re probably right, but I’d tell your counselors it’s missing,” said Austin. “Tell them it’s a valuable keepsake. Meanwhile, Luke and I will look for it.”

  Megan went back to her table. None of us were supposed to leave the mess hall until the sheriff told us it was safe. Austin and I weren’t worried about the cougar. I’d watched her leave with her baby during the night. By now she should be safely back in her home territory, wherever that was. Right now we had a much bigger problem. We had to find that shell necklace.