90% Human

by M. C. Berkhousen

  “Megan! Are you there?”

  “Help!” called a weak voice. “Over here! Help!”

  Swooping downward, I circled the area around the bathhouse. “Megan!” I shouted again. “Jake!”

  “Here!” It was Megan’s voice. “Is that Luke? Where are you?”

  “Yes, it’s me,” I yelled. “Look outside.”

  “I can’t see through the smoke,” called Megan.

  “I’m in eagle form,” I said. “Get down on the ground and crawl. Follow my voice. I’ll lead you to safety.”

  I watched the ground near the bathhouse. The smoke was getting thicker. If we didn’t get out of here soon, none of us would survive.

  Megan crawled out of the bathhouse and looked up into the air. She saw me and waved.

  “It’s Jake,” she cried, looking back. “He’s in the bathhouse and I can’t get him to come out!”

  Flying lower, I saw him. Jake stood like a statue in the door of the bathhouse, staring straight ahead. Why wasn’t he moving?

  “Jake,” I called. “Let’s go.”

  “It’s my fault,” said Jake. He spoke like a robot, with no expression in his voice. “I didn’t mean to do this. I might go to prison. I might have killed someone.”

  “No one’s dead so far,” I yelled. “But if we don’t get moving, we’ll all die.”

  Megan grabbed Jake’s hand and pulled him. “Let’s go. I’m not turning into a pile of ash because of you!”

  She turned to me in desperation. “I saw him running from the woods near the girls’ side toward the fire. I followed him into the bathhouse, but I can’t get him to morph.”

  Jake stared into the smoke. The fire was getting closer and closer, but he still didn’t move. It was time for me to take over.

  Two downward swoops brought me a couple of yards above Jake’s head. I landed on his shoulders and gripped with my talons. If I could just budge him a little, maybe he’d start moving on his own. Holding tight, I flapped my wings and pulled as hard as I could. It was like pulling a six-foot bag of rocks. Wings flapping, talons gripping, towing with all my might, I managed to drag Jake about twelve inches.

  Then the miracle happened. I began to rise slowly into the air. Jake’s feet hung just a few inches from the ground, but at least we were moving. Megan stayed with me, hopping around the streams of fire that were invading the last part of the island as we headed toward the water. I glanced at our campsite. There was nothing left but little piles of burnt fabric where there used to be sleeping bags and a tent.

  The smoke grew thicker. I dipped lower, trying to find fresh air. Jake hung limply from my talons as if he had gone into a coma.

  Then I smelled something different. It smelled like burning feathers. Burning feathers? Shrieking, I dove to the sand, dropping Jake as I landed. “Megan, throw sand on me. Hurry! My tail feathers are burning!”

  Megan scooped sand with her hands and tossed it on me until the fire was out. I rose into the air again, dragging Jake with me. The air grew clearer. A few seconds later we saw the water lapping up against the shore. I flew out a few feet and dropped Jake into it. He stood up, gasping and wiping water from his face.

  “You’ll have to swim to the boat,” I called. Jake stayed where he was, dripping water.

  “He won’t move,” cried Megan. “You won’t be able to carry him across the lake. If you drop him out there, he could drown. I’ll have to change forms.”

  She waded into the water. When she was about chest deep, she dove in. A few seconds later a beach-ball-sized turtle head broke through the water and stretched its neck to look back at the shore. A shell as big as a dining room table surfaced in the moonlit water, propelled by giant legs and claws. “Get aboard, Jake,” the turtle growled. “Do it!”

  “Get moving, Jake,” I yelled.

  Jake climbed onto the shell and sat there quietly. His face and hands were black with soot; only the whites of his eyes showed up in the darkness. He stared straight ahead, his eyes glazed in the light of the fire. He didn’t speak.

  The lake was calm, reflecting the orange and red flames that blazed on the island. A kind of peace surrounded us. The turtle slid through the water, making lapping sounds as the waves hit her shell. I flew ahead, leading the way toward the powerboat. I could see it several yards ahead, coming slowly toward us.

  Jim slowed the boat and turned the engine down to idle. When the turtle’s shell touched the boat, Austin reached over and pulled Jake across. Jake clambered awkwardly to the rear of the boat and sat down. His face was black on one side. The other side reflected the orange firelight from the island.

  The turtle’s head sank. Water washed over the huge shell and the turtle disappeared beneath the waves.

  “I’ll get Megan,” I said, as my talons touched down on the boat.

  “No, you won’t,” said Austin. “You aren’t a certified lifeguard. I don’t want to have to rescue both of you. I’ll go.”

  Austin lowered himself into the water, then dove in the direction the turtle had gone. He came up several seconds later, towing Megan in a firm side grip. She was struggling against him, and she coughed and sputtered as we hauled her into the boat.

  Jim patted her on the back. “If you’re going to do this turtle thing very often, you should probably learn how to swim.”

  “I learned how to swim,” Megan snapped, shaking water off her hair like a wet dog. “That’s why I was trying to get away. Austin didn’t give me a chance.”

  Jim turned the boat so we were headed back toward camp. The wind blew into our faces, drying us off as we sped over the waves. Megan huddled in the stern, next to Jake. She was shivering. When she looked at me, her eyes widened. Her mouth opened as if she was going to speak, but she didn’t say anything.

  I leaned my head toward Austin and whispered, “Why is she looking at me like that?”

  “Dude,” Austin said in a low voice. “You still have a lot of feathers. Focus and see if you can get rid of them.

  I closed my eyes again and pictured myself as a human. Red hair. A little taller than last year. Nothing spectacular. I was just an ordinary kid. Except for the feathers.

  I turned to Austin. “How do I look?”

  Austin licked his lips. “Try a little harder.”

  I closed my eyes and tried again. After several seconds, I checked my hands. The feathers were gone. My feet looked like human feet, too, but I could still see feathers on my ankles. Maybe by the time we got to shore I’d be rid of most of them.

  In the powerboat, it only took us a couple of minutes to get back to camp. Jim let the boat drift to the pier, then turned off the motor. Austin hopped out and tied the mooring rope to a metal cleat on the side of the pier. Megan stepped out onto the pier, but Jake sat still. He looked straight ahead, as though he hadn’t noticed we had stopped.

  “You can’t stay there all night, Jake. Let’s go.” I pulled on his arm, and he stood up. He climbed out of the boat and started slowly up the long stairway that led up the hill. I followed him, pausing on the landing to turn all of our tags to white.

  “Luke,” whispered Austin. “Put this over your head.” He handed me an old towel he’d found in the storage section of the boat.

  “Why?”

  “You still have some feathers that show.”

  “Great.” I draped the towel over my head like a hood.

  A sheriff’s cruiser and a State Police car were parked at the top of the hill. Bill was talking to Mrs. Harris. A couple of uniformed officers stood by. When Jake appeared at the top of the stairs, the sheriff walked over and took his arm. Jake went with him quietly, still staring at the ground.

  “Come on, before they see us,” said Austin. “Let’s hope there’s no one in the bathhouse.”

  Luckily, the boys’ bathhouse was empty. I took the towel off my head. When I looked in the mirror, I gasped with horror. Feathers covered the top of my head and the sides of my face. I couldn’t see my ears. It looked like I was wearing a fe
ather helmet. My head had gone totally eagle. I had feathers on my arms down to my wrists. Feathers covered my legs to my ankles. Was I ten percent human and ninety percent eagle now? I stared at myself in the mirror until Austin took my arm.

  “Stay in the toilet stall,” he said. “I’ll run to my cabin and get you a hoodie.”

  “You don’t have a hoodie that will fit me.” I could barely get the words out. Nothing was going to cover my eagle head. It had finally happened. I was officially a freak.

  It was my own fault, though. I’d used all my eagle traits to rescue Megan and Jake. If I’d taken a boat over there and tried to help them as a human, the feathers wouldn’t have grown like this. But I needed the speed and the eagle vision to rescue them in time. Looking like an eagle was the price I had to pay.

  Hiding in the toilet stall, I tried to think. How was I going to go home like this? Would Mom faint when she saw me? No, probably not. But she’d be very surprised. So would my dad. Maybe they’d take me to some big medical center for therapy. That wouldn’t work, though. There was no medicine or treatment that would get rid of these feathers. There was only one way to get rid of them. Somehow we had to undo the curse that changed us into animals in the first place.

  According to Gramps, the only way to do that was to replace the pink Komodo he’d shot to protect Dunn Nikowski. That meant we had to find a way to get to Komodo Island. Then we had to find one of the rare pink Komodo dragons. How would we do that? The medicine woman was probably dead by now. She wouldn’t be able to help us. At least we had the shell necklace. Then I remembered something. Megan didn’t have the shell necklace. Someone had taken it. We had to get it back. I had to make sure it was safely returned to Megan before Austin and I left camp.

  Austin came back carrying a gray sweatshirt with a hood. It was exactly my size. The camp’s logo was printed on the front.

  “Thanks, Austin.” I put it on, pulling the hood down to my eyebrows so my feathers were covered. “Where did you get this?”

  “At the camp store. I bought it for you yesterday, as a souvenir. I didn’t think you’d want a purple poncho.”

  “That was really nice of you. Thank you, Austin.” I slung my arm around his shoulders and gave him a hug.

  He smiled at me. For a few seconds he looked younger, like the boy who was trapped in the body of a bear last fall during those dreadful days at the zoo. He’d looked up to me then, and counted on me to help him. Things were different now. For the past week, I’d been the one needing help.

  “We have to go home.” I pointed to my feathered head. “There’s no way I can keep people from seeing these feathers.”

  “I know. I’ve already made a call. I’ll get my stuff and meet you by the road. When you’ve packed your suitcase, cut through Tracker camp and go down the hill. That way the crowd by the mess hall won’t see you. I’ve talked to Megan. She knows we’re leaving.”

  Jim was waiting for me at the cabin. “I’ve packed up your stuff.” He nodded toward my suitcase.

  “There’s one more thing,” I said. “I have to find a necklace made of beads with a shell pendant hanging from it. Jake has hidden it somewhere.” I hoped he hadn’t taken it with him to the island. If he had, it would be totally destroyed by now.

  I went to Jake’s bunk and picked up his pillow. There was nothing under it. I looked under his bunk and felt under his mattress. No necklace. Then I happened to look at the underside of the upper bunk. Something white, carefully folded, was tucked between the upper bunk’s mattress and bed springs. A faint pink glow showed through the white fabric. I reached between the mattress and the springs and carefully removed the white packet. The pink light began to blink when I touched it. Carefully, I unfolded the fabric. The necklace was there, safe in one piece. Breathing a sigh of relief, I showed it to Jim.

  “So that’s the shell necklace.” He spoke softly, as if the necklace was something holy. Maybe in a way, it was.

  “Will you tell Megan I have it?”

  Jim nodded.

  After wrapping it in one of my own shirts, I stuffed it carefully into my backpack. “I guess that’s everything.” I stood up to face Jim. Leaving him was going to be hard. We’d gotten to be good friends. I was going to miss him. And now I was leaving him at camp without a buddy.

  “I’ll keep an eye on that little redhead for you,” said Jim. “I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

  “Tell her I said goodbye. You have my cell number?”

  “Yup. I’ll walk partway with you. I should be in the mess hall anyway. I don’t want them sending out a search party for me.”

  We walked together toward the place where the path split. “What do you want me to tell the counselors?” asked Jim.

  “Just tell them our dad picked up the two of us,” I said. “Tell them he’ll call Mrs. Harris in the morning.”

  “Will do, said Jim. “By the way, that’s a great hoodie you have on.” He plucked at my sleeve. “I don’t remember seeing this before.”

  “Austin got it for me.”

  “He’s a big spender, all right,” said Jim. “Those purple ponchos are twenty bucks each. Where does he get the money?”

  I took a deep breath and shook my head. “He learned how to invest online a couple of years ago. He could be worth maybe a half-million by now.”

  Jim laughed out loud. “You’re kidding.”

  “I wish.”

  “A twelve-year-old kid worth half a million,” said Jim. “I’ve never hear of such a thing.” He stared at me, his eyebrows furrowed. “How much are you worth?”

  I thought about my last bank deposit. “Two hundred seven dollars and fifty cents.” We both laughed.

  We had arrived at the split. We stopped there, looking awkwardly at each other. It was hard to say goodbye. I punched him in the arm and he punched me back. Grinning at each other, we shook hands. “Let’s try to stay in touch,” I said. Jim nodded, still smiling.

  I picked up my suitcase and backpack and headed for the camp road, cutting behind the Tracker cabins to avoid the crowd near the mess hall.

  “Wait, Luke,” called a female voice. Megan came running down the path from her cabin. “I was watching for you,” she said. “Austin told me you were leaving. I wanted to give you this before you left.” She handed me a woven bracelet with leather ties on the ends. “I made it for you.”

  I turned it over in my hand. “Thanks, Megan. This was nice of you.”

  She stood there in the moonlight, smiling at me. The soot was gone from her face and her hair was wet. She looked kind of pretty. My mouth went dry. I cleared my throat, unsure what to say or do. She glanced at the bracelet in my hand, and then her eyes met mine. Did she expect me to put it on? Over my feathers? Besides, I didn’t really like wearing bracelets, and I didn’t want anyone asking me where I got it. I liked Megan a lot, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. But I wasn’t sure what it meant if I wore the bracelet, and I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea. I didn’t want other kids to get the wrong idea either. Especially Austin.

  “It’s really nice,” I said. Even to me it sounded lame. I put the bracelet in my pocket and took the necklace out of my backpack. “I found this above Jake’s bunk.” I handed her the string of beads with the shell pendant. The shell glowed pink and blinked on and off when I touched it. As soon as Megan took the necklace from my hand, the blinking stopped.

  “Oh, Luke! Thank you so much. I was afraid I’d never see it again.” She threw both arms around my neck and gave me a hug. I patted her shoulders awkwardly and stepped away.

  “Take good care of that necklace, Megan. We can’t find a pink Komodo without it. And without the pink Komodo—”

  “I know,” she said, interrupting me. “If you can’t find the Komodo, you could have those feathers for the rest of your life.” She turned the necklace over and carefully touched the shell. Then she handed it back to me. “You’d better keep it then.”

  My whole body sagged with relief. “I’
ll keep it safe. I promise. I know how much this necklace means to you.” I wrapped it carefully and replaced the necklace in my backpack. “I just remembered. I wanted to ask you something before I left.”

  Megan’s eyes widened. “What do you want to ask me?”

  “Did you put that snake in Jake’s bed?”

  “You mean that garter snake?”

  I tried not to grin. “I thought it was you.”

  “He deserved it,” said Megan. She took a deep breath and held out her hand. “So it’s goodbye for now.”

  I took her hand. “I’m sure we’ll see each other in town, at that ice cream place. We’ll get Austin to buy us banana splits.” We both laughed. I let go of her hand, then turned and trudged down the path. After a few steps, I looked back to see if she was still there. She was. We waved again and went our separate ways.

  Austin had told me to meet him on the road, down the hill about a hundred yards, so no one would notice the car picking us up. He was there, standing on the roadside.

  I dropped my heavy suitcase in a dark place under a tree. “Is Mom coming for us?”

  “No. She and Dad will be asleep. We’ve got another ride. He’ll be here soon.”

  We sat on the ground next to our suitcases. My stomach growled. It had been a long time since supper. A long, wild, terrible time.

  “Want a snack?” Austin sorted through a pocket of his backpack and took out two peanut bars. He tossed one to me. Leather strings from a woven bracelet dangled from his wrist. I blinked. It looked exactly like mine. Maybe Megan’s bracelet didn’t mean anything except friendship after all. Of course Austin would be thrilled to wear it. He was crazy about her. He’d probably want one for each wrist. And maybe a headband, too. A lump grew in my throat, though I didn’t know why. I definitely wasn’t looking for a girlfriend.

  “Thanks,” I said hoarsely. “Do you have anything to drink in there?”

  “Shh,” whispered Austin. “Someone’s coming down the hill. It looks like Jake and some man.” We watched, keeping well out of sight.

  An older man yanked Jake by the arm, dragging him to the edge of the road near the main entrance to the camp. They stopped between us and the sheriff’s cruiser at the top of the hill.