NO ORDINARY OWL

by Lauraine Snelling

“Bill would love that garage,” Vee said, increasing her pace. “It’s huge!”

  Tall and white with black-iron latches on rolling doors that slid left and right to open, it reminded Esther of the carriage houses in the public television shows her family watched. Fancy and plain carriages stayed in carriage houses until the groom was instructed to bring one or another out for the rich people. She couldn’t wait to see inside.

  Beake Man slid the towering door to the right, wheels rumbling.

  Eagerly, the girls hustled in after Byron, blinking their eyes to adjust to the semidarkness. As Byron flipped a switch near the door, the interior brightened. Before them were covered, tall, upright rectangles. A refrigerator, a steel table, and a large two-section sink stood on the left wall. Byron had quietly passed three rectangles, and as he passed, one let out a squawk.

  The girls traded looks. Birds in those cages!

  “So girls, tell me what you do know about raptors,” Beake Man said over his shoulder, having reached the steel table and leaned upon it to face them. Again that smile.

  “I don’t like his smile,” Esther hissed to Vee. “Why was he so mean to us and kicked us out and now he’s showing us around?”

  “Isn’t that what you wanted?” Vee’s dark brows slammed together. “I don’t get you sometimes, Esther.”

  That hurt. Especially when the Squad was on their last mission together. If she’d told the girls she had to move, would Vee have said that? Or was that how Vee really felt about her? Her stomach began to hurt.

  “But see? I was right we’d need to know about owls and stuff.” She’d done her research.

  Vee grunted.

  The pinch of bitterness nipped. Hunching her shoulders, she increased her pace to catch up with Aneta, who smiled at her. In front of them, and just behind Beake Man, Sunny repeated the information Esther had passed on to the Squad. “We know they are called raptors—”

  “And are birds of prey.” Aneta recited what she’d memorized from her paper Esther provided the girls.

  “Owl pellets, which is their—” Vee hesitated.

  “You can say ‘poop,’ Vee. It’s their poop, and if you cut it open, you can see what they ate.” Sunny bounced on her toes.

  Leave it to Sunny to just spit it all out. Esther frowned then told herself to stop being grumpy. Their plan had been to make sure Beake Man knew they weren’t just stupid kids.

  Whatever his tests were, they had to pass them.

  “Oh, good to know,” Beake Man said.

  Esther narrowed her eyes. Were his shoulders shaking like his sister’s did when she was silently laughing?

  Pointing to one of the cages, he said, “The two juveniles you found are in here because it’s quiet.” He spun around so he was facing the girls. “Quiet.”

  The four nodded. Esther thought about letting him know nicely that they weren’t kindergarten babies. Scared animals needed quiet. They learned that with the community cats. Sheesh.

  Beake Man moved to one of the tall beams supporting the building and flipped another switch. The rest of the interior brightened like sunrise. Not too bright. It was kind of cool. That wouldn’t scare the owls like the fluorescent lights at school. Those lights made her eyes tired sometimes.

  A tall cage, completely shrouded in canvas tarp, stood off to the left.

  He gestured. “Here they are.”

  The girls waited. When he made no move to take off the canvas walls hiding the owls, Sunny bounced and said, “Aren’t you going to take off the canvas thingies?”

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “No.”

  Sunny looked at Vee. Vee looked at Aneta. Aneta looked at Esther.

  What?

  Vee was chewing on the inside of her bottom lip. “Why not?”

  “I want to see how they’re doing. Are they okay? Did the one owl stop bleeding? Was the other one hurt badly?” Sunny was still hopping up and down.

  Beake Man finally looked happy, which Esther couldn’t figure out. At. All.

  “Because wild birds being around people isn’t good for them. They need to not trust people. People hurt them.” The look he gave them was one that shouted, PEOPLE LIKE YOU KIDS.

  “But we didn’t hurt them,” Aneta said. “We helped them. Can’t we just see them?”

  “No.”

  Esther straightened up from her slump. “So if nobody is supposed to see them, how come you can see them?”

  “I used gloves to clean the wounds.”

  “Are they okay?” Sunny stopped bouncing.

  Beake Man told the girls that it would be touch and go for the smaller owl. The other owl hadn’t been shot, but there was something wrong with one of his wings that Beake Man had yet to figure out.

  “And how do you feed them if you’re not supposed to see them?” Vee was giving him the Vee Stare. If anything bugged Vee, it was being told she couldn’t do something and then knowing someone else had.

  He jerked a hand to another covered table. “I feed them with a robotic arm, watch through a camera, and use an owl puppet to simulate the mother owl.”

  “A puppet!” Aneta smiled for the first time since Byron had ignored her question.

  So there was no way to help. Esther’s heart clutched. No last mission for the S.A.V.E. Squad. The weeks would go by, everyone would get busy, and the Squad would never be together. She would leave and that would be that.

  “Unless,” Beake Man said, looking up at the open rafters where smaller birds could be seen flitting around their nests. “You could help in a different way.”

  “We’ll do it!” Vee pounced on the possibility.

  Sunny spun, remembered, hunched her shoulders, and stopped. “Yayness!” she whispered.

  Aneta beamed.

  Esther blew out a big breath. That had been a close call. The knot in her stomach loosened. “Sure. We can help. What do you want us to do?”

  Beake Man led them over to the kitchen. “Stand here.” He pointed to the long, stainless-steel counter. The girls walked over and stood obediently. Esther wondered what was in the drawers below the counter. Probably bowls and spoons?

  Beake Man eyed them for a moment, like he was going to say something, then he shrugged and turned away to the fridge. He took out a large plastic container with a red lid like Esther’s mom used after she made a lot of pea soup. She recognized it because she hated pea soup and groaned inside when she saw the container come out. It meant a lot of days of pea soup for lunch and pea soup for snacks.

  Beake Man placed the container on the counter. “You have to prepare what they would eat in the wild. Since they can’t fly yet, they can’t catch their food.”

  Pulling the lid off the container, he pushed the bottom toward the girls and continued, “Cut each one in half, and then I’ll show you how the robotic arm works.”

  Four heads leaned over the container and then jerked back.

  “But, but—,” Aneta said, backing away.

  “It’s—” Sunny gulped.

  “They’re dead mice!” Esther’s voice sounded like it was squeezing out of a tiny space.

  So that’s why he was smiling. Sure they could help the owls. With cutting up dead mice.

  The big door rolled open, and everyone turned to look. Outlined with the brightness outside, the silhouette stood small in the doorway, but the tilt of the head and a toss of the hair told Esther helping the owls was about to get worse.

  “Ms. Beake told me I could find you all here. I hope I haven’t come too late to help.”

  Aneta’s gasp was loud enough to echo off the wide beams.

  Chapter 11

  Epic Fail

  Melissa stepped through the doorway, made her way to Beake Man, and extended her hand. “Thank you so much for allowing me to help you here with your amazing service to animals.”

  Beake Man just stood there. Esther was sure the word was “goggling.” He stood there goggling at Melissa’s big speech.

  What was going on? How did Melissa get
in? A quick peek at S.A.V.E. Squad faces told Esther they were wondering the same thing.

  “How did you get in?” Vee sounded like she did the very first time Sunny, Vee, Aneta, and Esther had ever seen each other. The very unfriendly voice Vee was so very good at.

  “Oh, my dad called his friend the mayor to see what type of volunteering I could do while I’m”—did she hesitate the tiniest bit?— “recovering from my accident.”

  Vee muttered an ugly sound, Sunny said “hunh,” and Aneta didn’t say anything.

  The mayor, thought Esther as Melissa pushed past her. The mayor thought the S.A.V.E. Squad a fine example to the city and its children. Esther sighed. But the mayor also thought all kids got along as long as they were kept busy on “worthy service projects.”

  The S.A.V.E. Squad could have told her that didn’t happen.

  Now Melissa had busted herself into a S.A.V.E. Squad rescue. Anybody who’d ever talked to the rich girl for more than two minutes knew Melissa didn’t care about anything but herself. She was up to something. She’d been mad at the Squad since their first adventure.

  Esther would be watching very carefully.

  “Oh, for the love of mud.” Beake Man shook his head and stopped goggling. Rummaging in a drawer below the counter in front of him, he pulled out five knives. Esther’s stomach pitched a half flip and hung there. Uh-oh. That halfway stomach flip usually meant she was going to throw up. Unless she distracted herself.

  “Cut the mice in half and put the pieces in this bowl.” He produced a medium-sized silver bowl from another larger drawer.

  Sunny and Vee were shooting side looks at each other. They were closest to the counter with Esther behind them. Aneta was behind Esther. Melissa, of course, pushed Sunny aside so she was right smack in front of Beake Man.

  “O–kay.” Sunny’s voice quavered.

  “Just cut it in half. Sure. No problem,” Vee said, not moving to do so.

  “If you’re not going to do it, you’re just in the way.” Melissa grabbed one of the knives and looked at Beake Man. “Might I have an apron and gloves? I wouldn’t want mice guts on the pashmina jacket that I got in Paris, and I just had a mani today.”

  Esther heard a soft thud on the hard floor behind her.

  Sunny turned. “Aneta? Aneta!”

  The next sound was a grunt from Melissa and then the snick of a knife cutting through to the steel counter. Urp. The second flip of Esther’s stomach dove deep and landed, squirming, then began to bounce upward. Turning, she tripped over Aneta on the floor. Staggering until she regained her balance, she sprinted to the carriage house door, hand over her mouth, shoulders jerking.

  Melissa’s words grated behind her. “Esther’s just not cut out for this work, is she?”

  Esther made it to the outside and right of the carriage house.

  “Oh dear, I was afraid of this.” The Bird Lady’s voice penetrated Esther’s emptying of her stomach. She patted Esther on the back, helping her ease back to a cross-legged position on the damp grass when it was over. “When people want to help wild birds, they often forget what wild birds eat.”

  Esther focused on breathing in and out through her nose. When she became aware of the mud on her shoes, she made a note she’d have to be sure to take them off in the garage. Her mother would scream for sure if she tracked that much mud in the house.

  Aneta. Aneta on the ground. She tried to stand up, but her legs wouldn’t hold her. Collapsing, she stammered, “A–A–neta fainted. On the floor. I’m such a bad friend. I jumped over her to get out and puke.”

  “Yes.” The Bird Lady hunkered down so she was eye level with Esther. “I was just entering the carriage house when I saw her faint and you take off running. You ran past me. She’s fine. Feeling a little light-headed, but fine. It doesn’t make you a bad friend. Would you like to go back in now?”

  No. Esther shuddered. Now, not only were frozen mice in there, but top halves and bottom halves of frozen dead mice. Had Sunny and Vee been able to pass the test? What did they think of her running out and abandoning them?

  “I—I…” If she went back in, Melissa would make fun of her as sure as Esther’s peanut butter and honey sandwich was spewed out on the grass. If she didn’t go back in, though, Melissa might somehow, some way, take her place. Melissa’s clipped words came back to her. “Not up to the work.” This final project of the S.A.V.E. Squad. At least the S.A.V.E. Squad with Esther in it.

  “I have to go back in. I have to see what’s going on.” She wiped her mouth once more with the small towel the Bird Lady had produced from her many-pocketed barn coat. “Melissa…”

  “I get the notion that Melissa is not a friend to you four, then?”

  Esther nodded. She remembered where her arms and legs were. In another moment, she had wriggled to her feet, and it seemed she would stay upright. Her stomach felt like she’d been punched. Maybe she’d never eat again.

  The Bird Lady was eyeing her sort of like the buzzard in the nearby flight cage, with her head cocked to the side and tipped, looking at Esther with one eye. “There’s more here you’re not telling, isn’t there?”

  Esther nodded again. Should she tell her secret to the Bird Lady? Blurt out that she had to move when school was out? Had to make sure the S.A.V.E. Squad had one last project to save something so they wouldn’t forget her? Would Melissa take her place now since Esther couldn’t chop up a mouse?

  She felt miserable.

  The Bird Lady sat back with a thump on the ground, crossing her legs and wrapping her long arms around her knees. For an old lady, she seemed pretty flexible.

  “I—I have—to move.” The first words jerked out. “I wanted to be in the S.A.V.E. Squad forever. I’m afraid the girls will forget me when I leave. They won’t like me anymore.” The moment the last word was out, she panicked. Backing away from Beverly Beake, she whispered, “You can’t tell anyone. It will ruin everything.”

  “My dear girl, when are you planning to tell them?” Beverly’s long face grew longer with her opened mouth.

  When? Never? Today? It was all so confusing. “I don’t know, but I will,” she replied, staring at the ground.

  “Come. Let’s walk back in and see what’s going on.” The Bird Lady extended her hand to Esther then tucked her and Esther’s hands into one of the bellows pockets. With the chilly air outside, the pocket felt like a hug.

  Following a few moments of friendly silence, Beverly moved the subject away from Esther, for which Esther was grateful. “I know Byron is really bothered by the birds being shot,” Bird Lady said as they walked. “No evidence they were shot with a gun.”

  Esther didn’t hear anyone shrieking or yelling. Had Sunny and Vee passed the test? Or had they also fainted, and Melissa had stepped over them to do the work and show Beake Man that she was the best?

  “Then hit with what? Who does he think did it?” Esther swallowed a lump in her throat as they stepped nearer and nearer to the big sliding door. She wished she hadn’t left Aneta. About as much as she also wished she hadn’t thrown up. Her mouth tasted yucky.

  “Oh, he has no idea, poor darling.” Her face looked worried. “I don’t like him to worry. I’m afraid it will affect his recovery.”

  This was a perfect time to find out more about what happened to Beake Man. As Esther opened her mouth to ask, the doors rolled apart and Sunny, Vee, and Melissa spilled out, talking excitedly. Aneta dragged behind, looking pale.

  “I would never have thought either of you had the guts to do it,” Melissa was saying, bumping shoulders between Vee and Sunny like they were now BFFs.

  Uh-oh. The knot of ick tightening inside Esther this time had nothing to do with cutting up mice and everything to do with losing her spot on the S.A.V.E. Squad.

  “Hey, Esther!” Sunny darted ahead and threw her arms around Esther. “Are you okay? Aneta’s okay. Vee and I did it!” She twirled around and around.

  “Not that it was so great.” Vee was not smiling, and her glance ov
er at Melissa made Esther feel better. So. Vee didn’t trust Melissa saying nice things. Good. They would have to tell Sunny to watch out. Sunny probably thought Melissa had changed while she was living in Paris. No way, Esther thought.

  Byron Beake was the last to exit the carriage house. The doors rolled smoothly and only made the littlest thud when they connected. He turned to slide the iron bolt into the ground hole. She was beginning to like the Beake Man, even with his test. He didn’t want the doors to slam because it would frighten the owls and the other birds.

  “You girls did all right,” he said gruffly as he passed them all. His gaze flickered over Esther. “You okay then?”

  Heat exploded up from the base of Esther’s neck. She nodded, too curious to stare at his face to drop her gaze in embarrassment. What would it be like to be so different from everyone?

  The afternoon light was fading with the trees around the carriage house taking on a mysterious-house-in-a creepy-forest look. Once the group passed, she turned to fall in step with Aneta and the Bird Lady.

  Aneta had yet to utter a word. Esther reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  Aneta nodded and turned toward her, big tears perched on the rim of her blue eyes. “I was not brave. A Jasper is brave.”

  “I puked,” Esther said. “As in majorly emptied my guts. How brave is that?”

  Aneta’s shoulders twitched, followed by a tiny gulpy chuckle. Then a bigger snort, then she was laughing.

  With Esther’s own chuckles, the sick knot untied. The Bird Lady was laughing. She stepped between the girls and clasped their hands. Her hand was warm and dry and had hard spots on them like she worked hard with her birds. While laughing, the idea popped into Esther’s head. She would find that—that Awful Person. She—and Aneta—would find the one who tried to hurt the yellow-eyed birds. That would be as important or, as a sneaky voice inserted, more important than cutting up mice.

  “I will tell you a secret those other girls do not know,” Beverly Beake said in a lowered voice.

  The girls leaned in to hear.

  “I can’t feed the raptors either.”