Howl

by Karen Hood-Caddy

Robin was considering this when Griff spoke again.

  “You did the exact right thing, letting Mukwa go.”

  “Brodie let him out of the cage, not me.”

  “He told me he just helped you,” Griff said. She blew on her tea. “By the way, I like that boy. He obviously thinks you’re pretty special too.”

  Robin searched Griff’s eyes. Did he?

  “I don’t say things I don’t mean,” Griff said.

  Robin blushed. When it came to Brodie, she felt so uncertain. Sure, he was hanging around the animal shelter a lot lately, but that was because of the bear, wasn’t it? Besides, at the moment, both Brittany and her father were mad at him. That would change, wouldn’t it? What would happen then?

  Robin put her head in her hands. As usual, her thoughts were driving her crazy! They swarmed around her like insects. If it wasn’t worries about Brodie, it was worries about Relentless. Or the sheriff. What were they going to do when he came back? Should she stay inside the house as she had promised her father or call Zo-Zo and her gang of kids for a big battle? There were so many things she had to decide, but she had no idea how to decide.

  She collapsed down onto the edge of Griff’s chair.

  Griff refilled the small thermos cup again and passed it to Robin. “Well, all I can say is that it must be wonderful for Mukwa to be back with his mother. I bet he’d just about given up hope of ever seeing her again. Every kid needs their mother.”

  A wave of despair washed into Robin’s chest and throat. She tensed and tried to push the feelings down, but they wouldn’t go. With a little more time, she would have been able to gather the energy required to hold them off, but Griff reached forward and pulled Robin gently back so she was leaning against her. The warmth of Griff’s body shocked her. Robin hadn’t been this close to someone since —

  She yanked herself forward, but Griff eased her close once again. Weakened by the comfort, Robin let herself fall against her grandmother. Tears started to drip down her face. Then, before she could stop them, sounds erupted from her mouth, awful, sobbing sounds.

  “It’s all right,” Griff whispered. “It’s all right.” She stroked Robin’s shoulders. “Just let it go, my sweet girl. Let it all go.”

  Robin couldn’t have stopped the emotions now if she’d tried. They were too strong, and she felt too frail. She cried and cried while Griff held her. She hated crying like this, but in a way, it was a relief to let go.

  Griff rubbed her back. “That’s right, cry those tears right out of you. Till there’s no more left.”

  After a few more minutes, she pulled out a hankie and wiped Robin’s face. Out on the lake, a loon called. Another answered.

  They both listened for a long moment. “I don’t know what it is about wilderness,” Griff said. “Maybe it’s just so big that it makes everything else seem small, but it settles me somehow. Gets me feeling really quiet. That’s when I feel your mom. It’s like she’s right here. Or her spirit is — in the wind and the water and the call of the loons.”

  Robin liked that thought, but it made her want to cry again.

  Griff poured the last of the tea into the tiny cup. “It’s all such a mystery. A mystery so big I can’t really understand it, but so wonderful I don’t even want to try.”

  Robin reached for the cup at the same time as her grandmother and the two of them jostled for it. Griff laughed then Robin laughed, and the tea spilled a bit, and they both laughed more.

  Robin was shooting back the last of the tea when she heard the farmhouse door fwap. Her father called down to Griff.

  “Be up in a minute!” Griff called then turned to Robin. “I’m going to do some canvassing for Ed Goodings this morning. I keep telling all the animal lovers, a vote for Ed is a vote for The Wild Place.”

  Robin shrugged. “Brittany’s telling everyone her father’s victory is a done deal. She says he’s hardly even campaigning, he’s so sure.”

  Griff made a hooting sound. “Good. It’s just that kind of arrogance that might bring him down.” She stood up.

  “Brodie says Kingshot wants to put a hog farm on this property.”

  “Wouldn’t that just be the ticket! That should make him feel right at home!”

  Robin looked at Griff. “If he gets elected, will he be able to take this place away?”

  “Over my dead body.”

  Robin frowned. She didn’t want to think about her gran as a dead body.

  “Mom!” Robin’s dad called down to the dock. “Come on. I’ve got a rescue to do on the way back. Let’s go.”

  “Music to my ears,” Griff said, gathering her things. “Music to my ears.” She planted a warm kiss on Robin’s forehead and made her way up the steps.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Two

  That night, Ari announced she wasn’t feeling well and was going to bed early.

  Their father rushed around getting her Aspirin and making her a hot drink. When he gave it to her, he felt her forehead. “You’re not hot,” he said.

  She’s not hot because she’s not sick! Robin wanted to scream. She’s going to bed early so she can get up in the middle of the night and sneak out!

  Robin glared at her sister and was surprised to see how flushed Ari’s face was. Her eyes looked glassy too. Could she actually be sick? Robin doubted it, but in a way, she hoped her sister was. If she was too sick to sneak out to the bush party, Robin wouldn’t have to worry.

  Robin went upstairs about an hour after Ari and found her sister in bed, her eyes closed. Was she asleep or just pretending? At the bottom of the bed, on a stool, was a pile of clothes: jeans, a thick jacket, warm socks.

  The words were out before she could stop herself. “Those look like bush party clothes to me.”

  Ari turned quickly. Her eyes were huge. And pleading. “Don’t tell. Please.”

  Robin couldn’t remember the last time her sister had asked her to do anything, let alone said the word “please.” She looked away and got into her pajamas. When she turned out the light, she whispered. “Be careful, okay? Just be careful.”

  The next thing she knew, something red was swirling around the room. It was a light, a bright neon light. She was at a carnival, on the Ferris wheel and —

  She opened her eyes, pulling herself from the dream. She wasn’t at a carnival at all, but at home. In her room. What confused her was the fact that the red light was still there, circling the ceiling. It was weird. She lay there for a moment, feeling totally disoriented. Then she heard voices, men’s voices, and realized that the red light was flashing through the window from outside. She jerked her head around. Ari was there, in her bed. Or was she? Robin leaned forward and pushed her fingers gently into the heap of blankets. The pile was nothing but pillows!

  She sat up. The clock on the bureau said five a.m. She peeled away the covers and crawled over to the window. There, parked in her driveway, was a police car with a flashing red light.

  Robin whirled around and tip-toed along the hallway until she could hear what was going on downstairs.

  “Thank you for bringing her home, officer,” Griff said. Her voice sounded flat and very tired.

  “She was passed out when I found her,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “I couldn’t rouse her at first, and I was worried about alcohol poisoning, so I thought I’d better find her parents.”

  “We appreciate that,” her father said gravely.

  Robin could hear retching sounds coming from the downstairs toilet, followed by low, agonized groaning.

  “She won’t feel like drinking again for a while, I’m sure,” the officer said. There was the sound of a chair scraping across the floor. “I’d best be on my way. Now all I have to do is deal with the other hundred and fifty drunken kids out there.”

  “Is that how many were at the party?” Griff asked.

  “I’m guessing,” he answered. “Most of them scattered when we showed up. The ones that could still move.”

  “Any sign of a boy named Conner?” Ro
bin heard her father ask.

  “Conner? The organizer? Yeah, we pulled him away from some lipstick-smeared redhead. He wasn’t too coherent either. One of the other officers is taking the girl home.”

  There were scraping sounds as more chairs were pushed away from the table. Robin stumbled quickly back to bed. In a few moments, she heard her father coming upstairs.

  “Steady. That’s it. Three more and you’re there.”

  When they came into the bedroom, Robin kept her eyes shut. She didn’t want either of them to know she was awake. Through squinted eyes, she watched as her father eased Ari into bed. Gently he tucked the covers over her and stood near, pushing his fingers through his hair, and staring at her. Hurriedly, he planted a kiss on her forehead and left.

  Robin listened to her sister whimpering and groaning in her sleep for the rest of the night.

  In the morning, Robin put on her robe and went into the kitchen. No one was there. She wandered down to Griff’s.

  “What happened to Ari?”

  Griff yawned tiredly. “Why are you asking me? I saw you peeking from the top of the stairs.”

  Robin shrugged. There was no point in denying it. “Sounds like she got completely wasted. I can hardly believe it.”

  “Wasted. That’s the exact right word. Wasted.” Griff shook her head. “Which, I’m guessing, is probably what Conner wanted.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m not saying that to let Ari off the hook. Bottom line, it’s still her responsibility to stay sober. Or at least coherent. But I’m guessing Conner really loaded up her drinks with alcohol.” She rubbed her open palms up and down her thighs. “Problem was, sounds like Ari passed out and spoiled his fun. So he dumped her and headed off with another girl.”

  Robin felt sick. Her poor sister.

  “Your dad’s pretty upset, but I’m looking on the bright side.”

  Robin stared at Griff. What bright side?

  “Hopefully, when Ari finds out what kind of guy Conner really is, she’ll drop him. Not that I’m going to say that to her. I want her to reach that conclusion herself.”

  Griff gathered her things. “Anyways, I’m heading into town to do some more canvassing for Ed Goodings. With the election so close, we’ve got to pour on the pressure.” She headed towards the door. “You be kind to Ari today, okay? She’s really suffering. But keep your distance. My guess is she’s going to be prickly as a porcupine.”

  It wasn’t hard to keep her distance from Ari, because her sister stayed in bed all that day. She didn’t get up for dinner either. The day after that was a school day, but when the alarm went off, Ari did not rouse herself. A few minutes later, her father came into the bedroom and shook her.

  “Ari get up. It’s a school day.”

  Ari groaned. When she spoke, her voice was whining and weak. “Dad, I can’t go. I’m sick, I —”

  Her father cleared his throat. “Ari, you’re not staying home because you’re still getting over a hangover!”

  Ari started to plead. “But school’s almost over, it doesn’t matter, we —”

  “You’re going!”

  Ari yanked on some jeans and an old T-shirt. Without even putting on her make-up, she stomped down the stairs and sat at the kitchen table, her arms folded, her red and watery eyes to the floor.

  Griff put her hand on Ari’s shoulder, but she pulled away.

  For days, Ari didn’t speak. When she wasn’t in school, she stayed in her room, only coming out for meals, something their father insisted she do. At the table, she didn’t speak and no one spoke to her. Even Squirm stayed out of her way.

  On the weekend, when the local paper came out, the headline on the front page read Bush Party Bust! Below the headline was a photo of a gang of kids by a huge fire. Standing at the centre was Conner with his arm around a red-headed girl who looked as if she was about to fall over.

  Griff sighed and set the paper in the middle of the breakfast table. “Well, if this doesn’t wake Ari up, nothing will.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see,” she said, standing up. “What are you up to today?”

  “Zo-Zo is coming over later,” Robin said. “We’re going to clean out some cages. Brodie might come too.”

  “Squirm’s at Tom’s?”

  “Yup.”

  “If that boy Josh comes to see the baby owl today, see if you can get Ari to come out and see him, okay? I think he likes her. Don’t you?”

  Robin rolled her eyes. All boys liked Ari.

  “She just might need some cheering up,” Griff said.

  Robin nodded. “I’ve never seen her this way. She’s like, depressed. She doesn’t even answer the phone.” Ari wasn’t eating either. Her sister’s already model-thin body was turning stick-thin. And she had dark bags under her eyes. She looked terrible. But what was even scarier was that Ari didn’t care.

  “Oh, well,” Griff sighed. “She’ll come around. Just like your father did.”

  Suddenly she clapped her hands together. “Oh, guess what?” She grinned. “I think I know where they’re keeping Relentless!” Her eyes flashed. “Your dad and I are going to go there after we do some canvassing and see if we can bust her out. If they won’t listen to your dad, maybe they’ll listen to a frail, little old lady like me.” She winked at Robin and went off.

  When Griff and her dad had gone, Robin got herself a bowl of cereal. Since no one was around, she added a handful of chocolate chips and took the comic section of the newspaper out to the porch. She couldn’t stop thinking about Relentless. Would Griff and her dad be able to bring the dog home? Excitement bubbled through her body. “Please, please, please, please,” she whispered.

  When she was done reading the comics, she went inside to get more cereal. The newspaper with the headline about the bush party was shredded into a pile of ripped up bits of paper. Ari’s work, obviously.

  Robin listened quietly for a few moments. Had Ari gone back to their room? Or was she on her way to Conner’s place to beat him up? Robin looked out the window to make sure Ari wasn’t tromping across the field to the Kingshots’, but there was no sign of her.

  Strange as it felt, Robin was sad for Ari. As Griff said, her sister was suffering and Robin couldn’t help but feel bad for her. So bad that she went upstairs to look for her. Ari was not in their bedroom. Robin spent a few minutes cleaning up her side of the room. She even unpacked the last of her boxes. Maybe that would make Ari feel better.

  When she was done, she stood back and surveyed the room. For the first time ever, her side looked cleaner than Ari’s. But that wasn’t saying much, because Ari’s side was strewn with discarded clothes, old shoes, and scattered magazines. Even her make-up case, which was usually kept in pristine condition, sat overturned, its guts spilling out over the floor.

  Robin went back downstairs, poured more cereal into her bowl, added more chocolate chips and went back outside. Listlessly, she picked the chocolate chips out of her cereal. She felt nervous, like something bad was going to happen. Her stomach felt wobbly and tense all at the same time. Was Griff going to come back and tell her Relentless was dead? Wanting some distraction, she picked up the binoculars on the table and scanned the lake. It was weird the way the binoculars made things so big and close. Using them made her feel like Super Girl with X-ray eyes.

  She scrutinized the cottages down in the bay then scanned the shore all the way along to Berry Island. Even though the island was a distance away, in the binoculars it looked close enough to touch. She searched it from one end to the other and was just about to put the binoculars aside when she saw two bears lumbering along the far shore, behind Berry Island. Robin stood. It was Mukwa! Mukwa and her mom!

  Robin stood up, happiness surging through her as she watched them slip into the water and begin swimming towards the island. Robin smiled. Once upon a time, she’d been able to swim effortlessly like that. But that was before. Before she’d almost drowned. Before her mother. Before fear had go
tten into her body and immobilized her. That was the crazy thing. She knew how to swim. Fear just made it impossible to do it.

  She turned her attention back to the bears. They were moving steadily across the large expanse of water. The bears were about halfway to the island when there was a loud, machine-like roar.

  Robin’s body went rigid. She knew what that sound meant.

  Two Jet Skis zoomed out on to the lake. They were black with yellow flames licking along the sides.

  At first, Robin thought maybe Conner and Brittany hadn’t seen the bears. She waited for them to catch sight of them then veer away. But they didn’t. In fact, the bears seemed to be the bullseye they were targeting.

  Robin ran down to the dock, shouting as loud as she could. “Leave them! Leave them alone!”

  There was no way they could hear her. Not that they would listen anyway.

  She paced furiously, moving the binoculars back and forth between the bears and the boats. As the boats sped closer, the bears sensed the danger and turned, swimming back the way they’d come. But the Jet Skis were closing in.

  When Conner was close to Mukwa, he cut the forward motion of the Jet Ski and stood. Robin watched with horror as he swirled a long rope over his head like a cowboy. When he had the lasso spinning, he propelled it through the air. On the third try, he made it land around Mukwa’s neck. Conner put the Jet Ski in forward. The rope tightened, jolting Mukwa forward. Slowly, Conner began dragging his captive behind him.

  Mukwa went under. Robin gasped. She wanted to jump in the canoe and paddle over, but her body was frozen with fear, making it impossible to move.

  Helplessly, she watched Mukwa struggling, splashing to get away, but he couldn’t. He was no match for Conner and the power of his Jet Ski.

  A hot wave of outrage flooded over her, and she forced herself into the canoe. It was tippy and lurched as she got into it. She grabbed the sides and held on, fear immobilizing her once again. She hated her fear, hated it more than anything ever.

  A paddle clattered to the floor of the canoe just in front of her knees. Robin looked up as Ari tossed two life jackets into the boat and scrambled in behind her, paddle in hand.