“He looks hungry,” Rose said. “And abandoned.” She walked toward the dog. “Here boy.” The dog took off running in the opposite direction. Rose sat back down.
Magda said, “I don’t think my Uncle Robb’s involved, but okay. We could do a letter writing campaign.”
“Right!” Rose said. “We could do it anonymously. We could even put a letter in the paper.”
“We could make posters about possible toxic waste in our town,” Magda said. “I make them for my soccer team all the time.”
“Easy for you to say. You aren’t the one the man saw. We have to be really careful. What if he sees us hanging the posters?” Rose asked. “And what if he figures out the posters are about the warehouse? It won’t take him long to figure out where the information came from. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.”
Isaiah gave her a reassuring pat. “We won’t choose any ideas that’ll put any of us in danger. We’re just brainstorming right now.”
“Okay,” Rose said.
Isaiah continued, “My mom said the radio station at the college did the piece on this new business. We could send the radio station a bunch of questions and ask them to do a follow up.”
“My oldest sister goes to the college. I bet she has friends at the radio station,” George said. “Hey! Wait! Cause and Effect. What if we ask the teachers to set up a field trip so we can learn how this company disposes of poison waste so it doesn’t have a lasting effect on the environment? They couldn’t just lie to a bunch of teachers and the parent sponsors and the whole seventh grade.”
“And we could invite my mom to be a sponsor on the field trip so she’d hear what they say. Maybe she or my dad could set up the field trip with Uncle Robb,” Magda said.
“Isaiah, your mom works at the college, doesn’t she? Maybe she knows someone there who could test the birds and fish for poison,” Rose said.
“I don’t want to worry her. She worries a lot,” Isaiah said. He thought about how upset his mother would be if she knew what he was involved in. “Maybe we could do all the other ideas.”
“With help, we’ve done some temporary stops. I think now we need to find an agency to help us,” George said, “so the correct adults can handle this with the laws that are in place.” He wiped his glasses. “And that way we won’t be outrunning mad men anymore.” He nodded at Rose. “Hey, the dog is back.” They all watched the dog, tail between its legs, moving carefully toward them. Isaiah began making kissing sounds. The dog lay down. He moved toward the dog. The dog watched but didn’t move. He put out his hand, talking quietly to the dog. The dog lifted its head and sniffed. Then he began petting it. The others gathered around.
“It’s a female, and she’s recently had a litter of pups. Probably still nursing them,” George said. “Are you hungry, girl?”
“She looks half starved,” Magda said.
“Where are your puppies?” Rose asked. She sat down and put the dog’s head in her lap. “George, if I give you money, will you go and get some dog food for her? I’ll wait with her here.”
“I have to get home,” Magda said. “Don’t forget to do your PowerPoint homework. Isaiah, do you need a ride?”
They left Rose talking softly to the dog while George headed for the store.
Chapter 16
Organizing
It was after three when Isaiah got home. He got right to work on his research about grizzly bears. His mom would be home at 5:30 p.m. and the pizza would be there at 6. He had to hurry with his homework. He had spent the morning doing his chores and the research on journeying, skipping his video games. He was surprised that he didn’t really miss his usual ritual. Maybe this is what growing up felt like. Making different choices. But he also hadn’t done his homework. He hoped he had enough time now.
For his research, he was looking for causes and effects of the environment on grizzlies and of grizzlies on the environment. He found out that the San Juan Mountains of Colorado used to have a large grizzly population but killing by ranchers and the government depleted the population. The last grizzly was found in 1979. There were reports that another was sighted in 1989, but without proof, the grizzly is still listed as extinct in Colorado. He learned that grizzlies are important to the ecosystem because they excrete the seeds from the fruit they eat which plants more fruit. Also, they stir up the soil when foraging for bulbs, tree roots and squirrels which brings up nitrogen for the environment. Hadn’t his science teacher talked about nitrogen being essential to life but that too much of it in the water was bad? And they had used ammonium nitrate to make those cold packs. He guessed what grizzlies did was a good thing. He kept going until he had twenty cause-effect details. Just as he finished, he heard his mom’s car pulling into the garage. Whew!
In the middle of a heated Monopoly game on Sunday afternoon, the phone rang. Isaiah’s mother looked at him as she handed him the phone. He knew she was thinking something was up. He’d had so few calls from friends in his life.
“Isaiah!” George yelled. “We’ve got trouble.”
“What’s up?” Isaiah asked, moving away from his mom, worried she might be able to hear George.
“Remember Tuesday when my foot slipped into the pond?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, I got worried that whatever was in that fish-killing water might be bad for my foot, so I didn’t want to take any chances. I threw my shoes away. And my mom figured out my shoes are missing!”
“What’d she say?” Isaiah asked. His mother came around the corner when he said ‘she’. He shrugged at her like it was no big deal.
“She was really mad and yelled about how they were new for school this year and how I don’t appreciate the money they cost and how she spent hours searching for them when she hadn’t seen me wearing them and blah, blah, blah. I told her I accidently slipped into a stream with dead fish, and it was disgusting. All true. I just skipped the part about toxic poisons. Anyway, I’m grounded for two weeks. And I have to pay her back for the shoes. That part is no problem, but if we need to meet anywhere other than school or dream time, I’m out.”
“That stinks,” Isaiah said. “But we’ll work it out.” He didn’t want to say anything more that might tip off his mother. “Did you get the groceries?”
“Oh, dog food? Yes, we fed her. She was really hungry. After she ate, she headed back toward the field behind the warehouse. We think she must be living there. We tried to follow but lost her. I just hope she and the puppies are safe.”
“Me too. Thanks for letting me know.” They disconnected.
“George. From school. From my group project,” Isaiah said to his mother as he headed back to the game. “He handled a problem we ran into.”
His mother followed. The less he said, the better.
At lunch on Monday, George brought a flow chart in his log book. “Rose helped me do this before school.”
Rose showed the group, her purple nails tracing along the boxes. Box one said: “109 dead red-winged blackbirds by the pond. Many dead fish in the stream that feeds the pond and in the pond too.”
There was an arrow from box 1 to box 2. “Barrels draining into the stream (skull and crossbones on barrels),” with an arrow to box 3: “Valve closed so draining can’t happen but we did it during lunch=trespassing!”
The second row of boxes and arrows followed this sequence: “Overheard 3 men talking about 6 barrels per week and plowing under the pond.” Next: “We were trespassing during lunch when we were off school grounds!” The final box in this row said, “We are so busted if we tell about this!”
Row 3 went from “Bag of pellets beside a smoking fire pit with ‘Avi’ on the side. Also said ‘proved to cull blackbirds’. Caution sign.” to “The birds were eating the pellets and dying.” to “Trespassing again!”
“I think we have some dead ends to deal with,” she said. “But I’m ready to channel my anger like Volcano said and do something about this.”
Isaiah had brought a
list of their ideas from the campfire. He’d made it into a chart as well which he shared with the group and then handed to George to paste into his log book. The list was in three columns. The first column was the idea. Column two said, “Should we do it? Yes or No.” The third column was the person in charge.
• Water test sent to professional lab—done—George
• Talk to Magda’s mom so she can tell the city council—maybe—Magda
• Talk to the city council—?—Magda
• Get more facts/do research—yes—?
• Make a plan—Yes—?
• Talk to George’s sister and the youth council for advice—?—George
• Talk to Magda’s Uncle Robb—No—Magda
• Do an anonymous letter writing campaign—?—?
• Write an anonymous letter to the newspaper—?—?
• Make posters and put them up at night—maybe—Magda
• Send questions to the college radio station—maybe—George
• Take a field trip to the new company and invite Magda’s mom to be a sponsor—maybe—Magda
• Ask Isaiah’s mom if she knows someone at the college who could test the birds—Absolutely not!—Isaiah
• Find an agency—yes—?
“We talked about a lot of things, but George suggested we find an agency and that sounds to me like the best way to go about this,” Isaiah said.
“What kind of agency, George?” Rose asked.
“Maybe there’s an agency in charge of water, air and hazardous waste,” George suggested. “Towns usually have them.”
“I wonder if we have one or if we’re too small?” Rose said.
“We have time in the computer lab this afternoon,” Magda reminded them. “If we get our PowerPoint done really fast, we can research it.”
Rose looked at George. “I’ll help you so you get your work done faster.”
George smiled at her. “Thank you.”
“You should ask Octopus to help too. With all of her fingers, you would get done really fast!” Magda laughed.
“Let’s do a quick journey to get ideas for what kind of agency,” Isaiah said. He smiled at the thought that already it seemed normal to journey to these Hidden Worlds.
Chapter 17
The Agency
They looked at each other and closed their eyes. Isaiah noticed that the pine needles beneath him were fragrant as he took in deep breaths of air. The sun warmed and comforted him. He felt his heartbeat merging with the beating in the ground. What an incredible feeling, he thought. He found his reflection in the pond, saw Grizzly beside him, and Dove.
When they were all in the meadow, Magda said, “I think we were linked telepathically. I felt all of you becoming the earth. I could feel all of us being warmed by the sun. I could smell the pine needles and felt like everyone was smelling them at the same time. It was so peaceful. It was like I was inside of all of you!”
The others nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. A black stallion came out of the meadow. Eagle was riding on him. The horse came right up to the group and stood whinnying. He did not speak, but his actions said, “Welcome!” He started swaying his head and body in such a way that it showed he wanted everyone to follow him.
The kids jumped on their power animals so that they could keep up with the stallion who took off at a fast speed.
They ran through the meadow to a circle of trees. Once there, the stallion stopped and stood there like he would wait for them on the outside of the trees. Eagle flew into the circle, and the kids followed with their power animals. Each sat down with his/her back against a tree. George said, “I can see the roots of this tree and the roots of all of your trees.”
“It must be the web,” Rose said. “I can see roots shooting out of the bottom of my feet and down into the earth!”
“Me too,” Magda said smiling. “I hope they won’t slow down my running!”
Isaiah cleared his throat. “Let’s connect roots and ask what kind of agency we need to find.”
While they hooked roots, the trees began to sway and hum. They wove their branches in and through each other. Isaiah noticed that they were forming a large ball that extended beneath and above them. He felt rocked, as if their humming were a lullaby.
Isaiah felt water washing over him. He felt refreshed, recharged. He looked at the others. There was water dripping from Magda’s hair. Rose’s fluorescent pink hair was washed backwards and George was wiping his face. Everyone had been washed.
He closed his eyes and focused on their question again. What do we need to know about an agency? A breeze came out of the trees, drying Isaiah off. And then he saw in his mind row after row of barrels, lines and lines of barrels. Each barrel was vibrating, the skull and crossbones gyrating.
And just like that the journey was over. The trees pulled back, unwinding their roots and branches. Eagle left the clearing. The stallion pawed the ground and shook his head. Grizzly picked up Isaiah and carried him from the clearing. George, flying on the back of Octopus, came behind him. Rose and Giraffe followed George, and Magda, on the back of Panther, brought up the end. Once again they flew behind the stallion to the meadow.
At the pond, Isaiah sat up and looked around him. “So what did that mean?” he asked the others. “We got wet and then I felt wind and saw lines of dancing barrels.”
“That’s what I saw!” the other three said in unison.
“Okay,” said Isaiah. “We all got the same information. What is the answer? What agency?”
George started to laugh. “Really?!?” he said and slapped his thigh.
“What?” Rose demanded.
“Don’t you get it?” George asked still laughing.
“Get what?” Isaiah asked.
“Water. Air. Toxic wastes.” George counted off on three fingers.
“Yes, I got that,” Rose said. “We all did. What does it mean?”
“Oh!” Isaiah started laughing as well. “We asked what agency? The agency of water, air and toxic wastes,” he said.
“OH!” Magda and Rose said in unison.
George said, “Like I said before we journeyed.”
Isaiah said, “Magda’s idea is good—we use our computer lab time to find out if that agency is here in town and if so, where. Hopefully we’ll find out what their rules are. Maybe we can go there and tell them what we know. And we can show them the pictures and George’s log book.”
“And let them know they have to keep it a secret about how we know. I’ve told you before, I don’t want to get in trouble for going off the school grounds and for trespassing. My parents would ground me for the rest of my life. And I hate being home alone,” Rose said. She looked at them one by one and added, “Although lately I haven’t felt so lonely.”
George looked at Isaiah. “I know what you mean about getting grounded.”
“Remember: This is the week the pond gets plowed under!” Magda warned. “Hash tag: Pond Going Under.”
“Let’s take it one step at a time,” Isaiah said. “Let’s pass any information we get around to each other in the lab.”
Chapter 18
The Law
Magda finished with typing her cause-effect information on panther first and started the note in the computer lab. She wrote: I found lots of boards and commissions and stuff I don’t understand listed for our town, but it doesn’t look like we have one agency for air, water, and hazardous materials.
Isaiah added, I found the same thing. There’s some 234-page booklet, but it looks complicated. I clicked on something else that took me to the State of Colorado.
George is almost done. I’m helping him. Then we’ll start looking. Rose wrote back.
Awhile later, Magda got up and went to the printer and then to the stapler. She gave the thumbs up to the group. A few minutes passed and then two pages came around from the State of Colorado website. The top said, ‘Reporting Environmental Spills’. Under a section about clean water, she underlined ‘a releas
e of any toxic substance entering Colorado water must be reported immediately’. She had double underlined immediately. What do we do now? Are we in trouble because we’ve known a whole, entire week? Magda had written.
Isaiah read her notations and then looked at the section about clean air. He wrote: We don’t know for sure if what they’re putting in the water is hazardous, and we don’t know what they’re burning, and we don’t know what kind of permit they have or what they are allowed to do by law since they are a company that disposes hazardous waste.
George wrote: Right, but we still need to tell someone who can look at what they’re doing and see if it’s okay. I don’t think the fish and the birds would die if they were doing things the right way.
Magda added: I found a 24-Hour Reporting Hotline. It’s an 800 number. Should we make an anonymous call?
Rose wrote: OMG! What if they find out who is calling? They’re going to know we were trespassing. During lunch. Off of school grounds. And this could destroy their business. They’ll be mad. The man saw what I looked like and not everyone in this school puts wild colors in their hair, may I remind you? I am the target here. OMG!
What if my Uncle Robb is somehow involved? Magda wrote. What if he’s our target?
The teacher announced, “Five minutes, folks. Start to shut down.”
Isaiah’s heart was racing. He took some deep breaths. Rose had a good point. But they had to do something. The fish and birds were dying. The water and air were being polluted. Other animals and humans would be affected. The group was waiting for him to make a decision. How had he become the leader anyway? Grizzly, help! What should I tell them? He thought with desperation.
He heard Grizzly whisper, “The agency will help. You can trust them. The birds are buried by the cottonwood trees which is on school property.”
Isaiah signaled to the others to meet him by the copy machine as the class began lining up. “Grizzly said the agency can be trusted to help us, and Rose, the birds are buried on school grounds.”
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