Howl

by Karen Hood-Caddy

  Zo-Zo tapped her pen against her lips. “The Kingshots act like they own everything.”

  “Kingshots? My neighbour is Rick Kingshot.”

  “That’s Brittany’s dad,” Zo-Zo said, raising her eyes to the heavens. “Whoa. Random. I wouldn’t want Brittany as my neighbour. It’s bad enough being in the same class. But her brother’s sort of cool. Good-looking, anyway. Conner. My sister’s got a thing for him. She says all the girls in high school do.”

  Robin stared at Zo-Zo. Brittany must have been the girl on the back of the snowmobile the other day. Robin tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry.

  “Rick Kingshot is running for mayor. My dad says if the guy wins, he’s going to shoot himself.” Zo-Zo pulled a digital camera from her desk. “And now you’re his neighbour. I’ve got to put this in my column.” She snapped Robin’s picture before Robin could stop her. “I have a column in the Cottage Country News! My dad’s the editor. I’ll put it on my blog too. It’s called ‘Kids Biz.’ Check it out.” She slipped the camera back into her backpack and led Robin into the cafeteria.

  They stood in the food line. Brittany and Brodie were a few people ahead of them. Robin watched as Brittany blew large gum bubbles into Brodie’s neck. Brodie pulled away every time Brittany lunged towards him, but he was laughing.

  “Brittany’s only at her dad’s on weekends,” Zo-Zo said. “So at least you won’t have to put up with her all the time. She stays with her mom during the week.” She sighed. “I wish I could stay with my mom.”

  Robin wondered whether to ask Zo-Zo where her mom was. But what if Zo-Zo then asked about her mom?

  “My mom lives in another town,” Zo-Zo said. “I don’t get to see her much.”

  At least you can visit her, Robin thought. Or phone her. She’d amputate a hand to be able to do either of those things.

  The line moved slowly, and Robin kept finding herself staring at Brodie. Then Brittany caught her looking at him and gave her another nasty look.

  “Be careful,” Zo-Zo warned. “She’s got a mean streak. So does her brother, Conner. Someone told me he kills raccoons just to get their tails.”

  Robin pulled her eyes away and began examining the various lunch options behind the counter.

  “I’m getting fries,” Zo-Zo said, pulling some money from her pocket.

  Robin sniffed the sandwich Griff had given her. It smelled funny. Deer meat? She tossed the sandwich into the nearest bin and searched her pockets for spare change. Finding some coins, she ordered fries too. When their orders came, she followed Zo-Zo to the condiments table and loaded the fries with ketchup. She lifted her plate and turned.

  Brittany loomed in front of her. She seemed so much bigger up close. Robin stared into her thick neck and tried to step around her. But Brittany moved as she moved. Their arms jostled each other, and Robin lost her balance. Her plate of fries skated across the tray, spilled down her front, then clattered to the concrete floor. The cafeteria hushed and dozens of eyes stared at her chest. She gazed down at herself. Drools of ketchup were splattered across her favourite top.

  Humiliation flooded through her. As she looked up from her shirt, she heard a soft click and saw Zo-Zo holding her camera. That night, a photo of Robin and her ketchup-stained clothes was posted on the Internet for all the school to see.

  Chapter

  Seven

  Robin sat with Griff on the straw floor of the barn. The puppies had their eyes open now and were crawling all over each other, stepping on each other’s backs and heads and anything else that was in the way.

  “You’d think someone gave them beer for breakfast,” Griff said, chuckling at the drunken way the puppies lost their balance and continually fell over.

  Robin laughed. Here in the barn with the puppies was where she was happiest. She loved watching them wiggle and wag their way around, yipping at each other’s tails, ears, and noses and biting anything they could get into their mouths. At the moment, one of them was biting Griff’s finger.

  “Yikes,” Griff said, pulling her hand away. “They’re getting teeth!”

  Robin laughed. “I know!”

  It was good to sit down. She and Griff and Squirm had spent the morning moving Relentless and the puppies from Griff’s to the barn so they could have more room. Ari was supposed to help, too, but so far she hadn’t shown up. Neither had her father. But then he had work as an excuse.

  “You sure the puppies will be warm enough out here?” Robin rubbed a puppy’s stomach. The skin there was as soft as velvet.

  “We’ll put the heater on at night,” Griff said. “If we need it. Last night it was so warm, it rained instead of snowed. Did you hear it?”

  Robin nodded. She remembered waking up to the sound of it drumming on the tin roof of the shed. She looked around the barn. Something inside her still felt uneasy about the puppies being out here. “What if wolves get in?”

  “We’ll keep the barn door latched. Besides,” Griff said, pointing up at the rafters, “don’t forget, we’ve got the protection of our killer owl up there.”

  Robin tilted her head back and looked at Owlie. She didn’t understand how a stuffed bird could keep an eye on anything, but she didn’t say that. Besides, she had to admit, she kind of liked the idea of Owlie keeping watch.

  Relentless nudged her sleek head against Robin’s shoulder.

  “I know, you’ll take care of them too,” Robin said, running her palm along her dog’s back. She did this over and over until Relentless shivered with pleasure.

  “Where’s your sister?” Griff asked. “Wasn’t she supposed to help?”

  Robin shrugged. “On the phone. With one of her five million new friends.”

  Griff nodded pensively. “I never made friends easily. Always took me awhile. She got a boyfriend yet?”

  “Nope. But there’s tons interested — so she says!” Robin sighed. “I guess all that make-up is paying off.”

  Griff raised an eyebrow but did not speak.

  “No!” Griff pulled a puppy they’d nicknamed Tugger away from her bootlaces.

  They’d given some of the puppies names. Tugger because he was always pulling on things, Snooze because he fell asleep so easily, and Greedy Guts because she bullied others at the food tray.

  “I’m going to get some more clean straw,” Griff said. “Be right back.”

  Robin watched as Tugger yanked Snooze’s tail. “Hey!” she said, prodding him away, but he simply turned his attentions to the frayed bottoms of her jeans. She picked him up and tapped his nose with her finger. “Stop being such a troublemaker. I have enough of those in my life as it is.”

  Of course, she was thinking about Brittany. The incident in the cafeteria had been a while ago now, but, like a broken DVD, it kept replaying on the screen of her mind. Had Brittany meant to flip her lunch tray like that? Robin was convinced she had. She just wished she’d smacked Brittany, right there on the spot. Or at least told her off. But had she? Oh no! She’d just stood there and done nothing. Like some pathetic wuss.

  Since then, she’d washed her green shirt five times but hadn’t been able to get out the ketchup stains. She couldn’t get the sound of the kids laughing out of her mind either. Or stop that stupid photo Zo-Zo had taken from flashing in her memory. Despite her every attempt to leave the event behind, the humiliating images kept chasing after her and swarming her like a gang of thugs.

  She had another worry too: Brodie. She kept imagining conversations with him, even fantasies about him walking her home, and the two of them doing homework together. Which was stupid. Beyond stupid. A good-looking guy like Brodie would never be interested in someone like her. Boys wanted real girls. Girls who actually had fingernails. And long, silky hair like her sister. But spending time with Brodie would be dangerous. Brittany had made it punch-in-the-face clear that Brodie was her property, property she intended to protect violently if necessary.

  So, every day, Robin resolved before going to school that she wouldn’t look a
t Brodie, and every day she broke that resolve a dozen times. At least. Besides, she couldn’t not look at him now that they were paired in this environmental project. It wasn’t her fault if life was throwing them together. There was a weird feeling of inevitability about it all. That’s how it had felt with her mother too.

  When Robin had first found out that her mother was sick, she and everyone in her family had done everything they could to help her get better. Her father had taken over the cooking so her mom could rest, and Robin, Ari, and Squirm had made their own lunches and cleaned their rooms. They had even stopped fighting, at least in front of her.

  Their mother had gone on a special diet, taken vitamins, gotten massages and did what she called “visualizations,” where she pictured herself being healthy. She lost weight anyway, then she lost her hair, and, finally, she lost her ability to move. At the end, she couldn’t even speak.

  Throughout it all, Robin had prayed until she got bruises on her knees. One day, despite all her pleading, the worst thing Robin ever could have imagined had happened. “What will be, will be,” Aunt Lizzie had said, uncurling Robin’s fingers from her mother’s hand.

  Robin wished she could spit those words right out of her body.

  “Hey!” Squirm climbed into the pen. He dropped some old blankets on the floor over the straw. “This will keep them warm,” he said. He sat down beside Robin and picked up the smallest puppy. “I’m calling this guy Einstein. He’s way smarter than the others.” He snuggled the puppy into his neck.

  Ari appeared behind him.

  “Now you show up,” Robin said. “We’re all done.”

  “It’s not my fault that you guys did it so fast.” Ari extended one of her long slender fingers and rubbed a puppy’s ear.

  When Griff returned, Squirm said to her, “Did you see that guy in the ATV out in the field?”

  “Probably Mr. Big Shot on one of his toys.”

  They all went to the barn door, where they stood watching an ATV crossing the field. After the previous night’s rain, the ground was now covered in slushy snow and the ATV was leaving big muddy tracks in its wake.

  “That man’s not tall enough to be Rick Kingshot,” Griff said, tracking the ATV with her eyes. She crossed her arms. “Must be Conner, his sixteen-year-old. The one who thinks he’s a big time hunter. Like his dad.”

  Ari stepped forward. “That’s Conner?” She sounded breathless. “He’s like the hottest guy in school.”

  Griff gave a loud sigh.

  Squirm scrunched up his face as he watched the ATV. “What’s he doing?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Griff said. “Usually, Conner’s going like a bat out of hell.” But the ATV was moving slowly, as if in search of something.

  Robin saw it first. Something round and black was running ahead of the ATV. A raccoon? But raccoons didn’t get that big, did they? She stared harder. When she realized what it was, she tried to say the word, but it caught in her throat. Squirm said it for her. Except he said it with excitement. She would have said it with fear.

  “Bear!” Squirm shouted. “It’s a bear!”

  She reached out and grabbed the back of his jacket, but he wrenched himself free and was off. She lurched after him, caught his arm, and dragged him to a halt.

  Squirm yanked his arm away furiously. His face was flushed. “I’ve never seen a bear, not a real one.” He raced across the muddy field. “It’s so little … it must be just a baby —”

  A baby? An alarm bell went off in Robin’s body. If there was a baby bear, there would be a mother nearby. Even she’d heard how vicious mother bears were when it came to protecting their young.

  A gun fired. Robin almost jumped out of her boots.

  “He’s trying to kill it!” Squirm broke into a run.

  Robin sped after him, slipping in the mud. The slushy snow soaked the legs of her jeans, but she kept running anyway, jerking her head around every few moments to make sure the mother bear wasn’t coming from behind to attack them.

  The baby bear was running fast now. Robin was trying to keep her eye on it as she ran, when suddenly it dropped out of sight. What? She stood still, her eyes riveted on the spot where she’d last seen it. How could the bear just disappear? Had the boy shot it? She hadn’t heard the gun go off again. She ran forward, not stopping until she reached Squirm. He was looking down into a pile of rocks. She stepped forward to see better. In the middle of the rocks was a deep cylindrical hole.

  Robin leaned over and peered into what she realized must be an old well. It smelled of stale water, but there was another smell too. The smell of something wild.

  Squirm leaned as far as he could into the hole. Robin, afraid he might fall in, gripped his jeans tightly.

  “He’s in there all right,” Squirm said, pulling himself back. “Way at the bottom. Look at him! Isn’t he cool? We’ve got to help him out.”

  The ATV pulled up, and Robin straightened.

  Conner set his gun into a rack at the side of the ATV and got off. Standing, he looked huge. He was big-boned like his sister, Brittany, and had the same thick blondish hair.

  Ari and Griff were approaching, and hearing them, Conner turned. Robin watched as Conner’s eyes travelled the length of Ari’s body. One side of his mouth rose in a smile.

  “Hey,” he said. “Haven’t I seen you around school?”

  Ari’s tongue poked out and wet her lips. She smiled.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Ari.” Her eyes were bright.

  Conner drew himself up taller. He strode over to the well.

  Robin watched him carefully. She could see why Zo-Zo had said all the high school girls thought he was good-looking. Not only was he muscular, with big, wide shoulders, but he had a soft, almost angelic-looking face. Despite that, however, there was something about his eyes that didn’t look innocent at all.

  “That’ll be an easy shot with my crossbow,” he said glancing down the well.

  Squirm paled. “You’re going to kill it?”

  “No choice. He hasn’t got a hope of getting out.”

  “We’ll go down and get him,” Squirm said.

  Conner laughed. “And get the skin clawed right off of you?” He glanced at Ari as he grabbed a large metal bow from the side of his ATV. “If I put a rope on this crossbow, I’ll be able to pull his body out after I shoot him.” He turned his attention to the woods across the field. “His mom will be watching. If I can skunk her out of hiding, I’ll get myself two bear rugs instead of one.” He turned to Ari with warm confidence. “I’ll give you one if you like.”

  Griff stepped forward. “Put that thing away! There’s going to be no killing here.”

  “No?” Conner readied the crossbow.

  Griff pushed it aside. “I think you best get back on to your own property. Now! Robin? Squirm? Go get the ladder.”

  Conner shook his head. “You city people! You don’t know squat about nature. That bear has claws like razor blades! They’ll shred you to ribbons.”

  Griff straightened her shoulders and looked at Robin. “The ladder’s inside the barn. To the right of the door. The two of you should be able to manage it.”

  Conner turned to Ari. “Is she crazy?” He put the bow back into its stirrup and patted the seat. “Come on, Ari. I’ll take you for a ride.”

  Griff’s eyebrows arched as high as an alarmed cat’s back.

  Ari tossed her hair over her shoulders and climbed into the passenger seat.

  Griff’s hand gripped her jaw. “Don’t be long.”

  If Conner heard, he made no sign. He gunned the ATV and charged off, leaving a cloud of blue smoke in its wake.

  Squirm waved the smoke away and set off across the field with Robin. He scrunched up his nose. “Wow, those ATVs sure can fart.”

  Chapter

  Eight

  Robin and Squirm trudged through the snowy ruts. It wasn’t far to the barn, but Roimbin kept staring into the trees. A clump of blac
k caught her eye.

  “It’s the bear! The mother bear! Look!”

  Her breath stopped and she stood still, waiting for it to charge from the woods.

  “Where?” Squirm challenged. “I don’t see anything.”

  When the clump didn’t move, Robin exhaled and started walking again. She slipped but kept staring behind her. Every patch of black seemed to have eyes and fur. What would she do if it attacked? Run? She’d heard somewhere that you were supposed to lie down and play dead if a bear attacked. She couldn’t imagine doing that. She’d be too afraid. But she’d probably be too afraid to run, so she’d be doomed.

  When they finally reached the barn, she hefted one end of the old wooden ladder and Squirm took the other, and they started back across the field. They hadn’t gone far when their dad called to them from the porch of the farmhouse.

  “What’s going on?”

  “A bear, Dad, a bear!” Squirm shouted. “Conner, the boy next door, he was chasing it, then it fell down the well.”

  Robin watched her dad disappear into the house. She scowled. Didn’t he care? Then he reappeared with his medical bag.

  “You sure?” he asked, catching up with them. “It should still be hibernating.”

  “It’s tiny,” Squirm said.

  “It must be.”

  When they got to the well where Griff was waiting, their dad peered down it for several moments, frowning. Robin could hear the bear whimpering.

  “It’s only a few weeks old, for Pete’s sake!” He looked up and stared into the woods. Creases formed on his forehead. “The mother won’t be far.”

  “Conner wanted to kill it. And the mom!” Squirm’s face was full of anguish. “Can we save him, Dad? Can we?”

  “Maybe, now that we have a ladder. I’ll go down and pull him up. He can’t be more than ten pounds —”

  “But what about his claws?” Robin asked. She’d picked up a stray cat once, and it had ripped long red scratch lines down her bare arm. From what Conner had said, the bear’s claws would be a thousand times more dangerous.