Jeannie read the first paragraph aloud. “In an event that went largely unnoticed, Keelor Construction arranged for the poisoning of 1,500 prairie dogs in Longview yesterday at the site of the soon-to-be-built business park. Some of the animals crawled outside. Most of the prairie dogs died in a few hours in their underground tunnels.”
Jeannie lowered the paper and looked at her mother and father. Her chin trembled. “They’re all dead,” she said. “How could Keelor Construction do a thing like that? How could they?”
“It’s awful,” her mother said.
“And next they’ll be coming to Willow Creek,” Jeannie said. She glanced across the room at the photograph of the prairie dog pinned to their kitchen corkboard. “Whistler will be just another victim unless I can stop them.”
“What can you do that you haven’t already done?” her father asked.
“I’m going to call Betsy Keasley right now.” Jeannie jumped up.
“But your breakfast,” her mother protested. Then she must have seen Jeannie’s stricken face and said, “Okay. But do hurry, Jeannie. Remember you’re accompanying the youth choir at the eleven o’clock church service today.”
“I’ll be ready in time for church,” Jeannie said. She dashed upstairs to her bedroom and called Betsy.
Betsy was home. She thanked Jeannie for her courage and for getting so much good publicity for the prairie dog cause. And she honestly admitted that she knew of no way to stop Keelor Construction from doing exactly the same thing at Willow Creek.
“A petition drive might convince the County Commissioners,” Betsy said. “But you could never get a petition drive off the ground in a couple of days. The City Council meets on Thursday night at seven o’clock.”
Jeannie jumped up off the bed and began pacing back and forth. “Sure we could!” she said. “We had a petition drive at school to get the cafeteria to serve chocolate milk, and it worked. What if kids carried petitions to their neighborhoods? I know we could get enough names. I just know it!”
“That’s the spirit!” Betsy said. “I could go to the office this morning and type and print the petitions asking them to stop Keelor Construction from poisoning and to choose open space land where we could relocate the prairie dogs. I can bring the petitions to you to give students, but you’ll have to act fast.”
Jeannie remembered Mary Jo telling her only last week that she couldn’t single-handedly move mountains overnight. But this time, Jeannie would have a lot of help. “That’s enough time,” Jeannie insisted, “if everyone will do just a little bit.”
“Okay,” Betsy said. “It’s worth a shot. But to make an impression on politicians, you’ll need the signatures of registered voters, at least a couple hundred of adults. I’ll phone the City Council secretary first thing tomorrow morning and ask to have your name put on their agenda.”
“I’ll be there,” Jeannie said. “And I’ll bring a thousand signatures with me! Could you print a hundred petitions with room for just ten signatures on each page? I’ll bet a lot of kids would be able to get ten names.”
“Sure,” Betsy said. “I’ll go to the office right now and print them, and I’ll bring them to your house. I’ll print plenty of extras, and I’ll hand some out to Animal Defense members, too.” Jeannie caught the note of excitement in Betsy’s voice.
“Great,” Jeannie said. “The sooner, the better. I’ll see kids in the church choir today. Then I’ll take the rest of the petitions with me to school tomorrow. Thanks, Betsy.”
Jeannie bounded back downstairs and into the kitchen. A plan of action was exactly what she needed to drive away the gloom.
“It just might work,” her father said thoughtfully after Jeannie told him about the idea. “Sort of a kid led crusade.”
“We can do it,” Jeannie said confidently. She gave her mom a kiss. “I’m hungry now,” she added. “Any pancake batter left?”
By the time Jeannie had finished eating, the phone started ringing. Mary Jo was first, followed by Chester and Geoff.
All three were excited about the idea of circulating petitions and said they’d come over and get a petition and start gathering names that afternoon.
News spread faster than sniffles in a kindergarten. Jeannie talked to the youth church choir. Many had seen the pictures in the newspaper and were indignant about the prairie dogs’ deaths. At least a dozen wanted to help. By three o’clock that afternoon, Jeannie had given out twenty-five petitions.
“Our goal is a thousand names,” she told each of the kids who picked them up. “Names of adult voters who the City Council and the County Commissioners will pay attention to. And you’ve got to get your petition back to me by five o’clock on Thursday so I can take it with me to the City Council meeting that night. Otherwise it won’t count.”
Catching the spirit, Jeannie’s dad took a petition with him to his law offices on Monday morning, and her mother took three petitions with her to the bookstore.
At school, kids that she knew, as well as absolute strangers, approached Jeannie all day long. A few gave her a hard time and said that prairie dogs were nothing but pests. But most wanted to try to save the little animals. Jeannie cheerfully passed out petitions right and left. Mrs. Woodley encouraged her to give a little speech about the plight of the prairie dogs and the purpose of the petitions in her social studies class.
In science class, Mr. Donelson called on Jeannie and Mary Jo to give their report. Even the kids who had seemed bored about it earlier seemed to be interested now. Jeannie took advantage of this and handed out a few more petitions, reminding everyone that ten signatures were needed on each petition.
Mr. Donelson said, “There’s one way I can help. Students can drop off their signed petitions here in my room so they won’t have to hunt all over school trying to find you.”
“Thanks!” Jeannie said. “That’s great!”
He put a cardboard box labeled “Signed Prairie Dog Petitions” on top of the bookshelf in his room and announced in each class that completed petitions could be dropped off there.
Jeannie and Mary Jo hurried to Jeannie’s house after school on Monday. Jeannie called the newspaper office and spoke with Mr. Collier. She thanked him for sending a reporter to the protest and told him about the petition drive.
“Good for you!” he said. “Young lady, you sure do know how to make waves. When my reporter came back here on Saturday and told me you’d been carted off to jail, at first I couldn’t believe it. And then I could! Of course, we’ll have someone at the Council meeting Thursday night to cover what happens there.”
Their homework that night took some time. Each of them had to write a short book report for language arts. Then the math assignment was tougher than usual, even for Jeannie. Once all their work was done, they went in the family room where Jeannie sat down at the piano to accompany Mary Jo while she practiced her solo. With Karen’s help, Mary Jo had decided to sing “Memories” from the musical Cats.
“You sound super!” Jeannie said, after their third run-through.
“My audition is right after school on Wednesday,” Mary Jo said.
“They’ll pick you,” Jeannie said confidently.
__________
After school on Tuesday, Jeannie thumbed through the petitions in the box. “Forty-one!” she said to Mary Jo, “with ten signatures each.”
“Should we take them home?” Mary Jo asked.
“No, I think it encourages others to see that so many kids have already turned theirs in. I bet there’ll be twice that many tomorrow. The Council can’t ignore a thousand signatures. They wouldn’t dare.”
That night, Betsy called Jeannie to ask how the petition drive was going. “I’ve got a dozen petitions to give you filled with signatures collected by Animal Defense members,” Betsy said. “I’ll bring them with me on Thursday night.”
“I’ve got fifteen he
re at home,” Jeannie said. “Ones that Mary Jo and I have collected and others that choir members and my mom and dad brought to me. And there are forty-one petitions in the box at school. That’s over 600 names. We’re going to make it!” Jeannie said. “A thousand signatures!”
“If you do, they’ll be impressed,” Betsy said. “And I will be, too.”
__________
Wednesday after school, a very nervous Mary Jo and Jeannie waited outside the music room to audition. Every few minutes, students came and went. Finally it was Mary Jo’s turn.
As they entered the back of the room, Jeannie looked toward the judges. Sitting in the front row, before the raised platform and piano, sat the music teacher, Mrs. Green; the drama teacher, Miss Rafferty; and four students. Each held a clipboard. Jeannie’s heart sank when she saw Ryan Watson among them. As the girls walked in, he looked back over his shoulder and glared at Jeannie.
She met his glare calmly and even managed a smile as she sat down at the piano and turned to look at Mary Jo. That jerk was not going to spoil things! When Mary Jo gave a little nod, Jeannie began the piano introduction.
She’d no sooner started than there was a terrible clatter as a clipboard crashed to the floor. Jeannie stopped playing and turned in time to see Ryan pretend to be horrified at what he had “accidentally” done as he scrambled to pick up the clipboard.
Jeannie waited a moment, smiled reassuringly at Mary Jo, and started the introduction again. Soon Mary Jo began to sing the sad, lilting melody, and filled the room with her rich voice. Jeannie felt tiny prickles run across her shoulder blades.
When the song ended, Jeannie stood and joined Mary Jo. Jeannie noticed that all the judges except Ryan were smiling. The girls gave a short bow and left looking calm and confident.
But once outside Jeannie exploded. “Ryan deliberately dropped that clipboard to throw us off. I know he did!”
Mary Jo groaned. “He’ll give me a thumbs down. I know it. And they’re sure to pick him to be the emcee. Him and his dumb jokes.”
“Mary Jo, you were great!” Jeannie said. “That’s the best I’ve ever heard you sing.”
“Thanks, and thanks for accompanying me, too,” Mary Jo said, giving her friend a hug. “I feel comfortable when you play.”
“It’s going to be a long wait until noon Friday when they post the names of those who made it into the show,” Jeannie said. “But I know they’re going to pick you. They just have to.”
__________
On Thursday morning, Jeannie pounced on an article appearing in the newspaper under the headline, “Keelor Construction Supports Boulder Mayor’s Campaign.” The article stated that Keelor Construction was the biggest contributor to the political campaign of Boulder mayor, Jarrod Brust, who was finishing his term as mayor and was a candidate for one of the three County Commissioner seats.
The incumbent County Commissioner, Maria Mendoza, who was running for re-election, accused the mayor of ignoring the plight of prairie dogs to help Keelor Construction move forward quickly with its building plans. She pointed out that in contrast, she was busy looking for places on county land where the prairie dogs could be relocated.
“Is this good news or bad news?” Jeannie asked her father.
“I’m not sure,” her father said, “but I think it’s good news. On the one hand it means that the mayor has every reason to favor Keeler Construction because they’re supporting his campaign with big bucks. But it also means the mayor will be very careful in what he says and does tonight. He doesn’t dare act in a way that will make it look as if he owes Keelor Construction a vote against the prairie dogs.”
“Maybe the County Commissioners will already have found a place where Whistler and all the others could be relocated by the time the City Council meets,” Jeannie said.
“It will make Maria Mendoza look good if she can pull it off,” Jeannie’s father said. “And with the election only a few weeks away, you can bet she’s moving on this.”
“It should be quite a meeting,” her mother said. “I hope prairie dogs are early on their agenda, or we’ll be there until midnight.”
Jeannie was glad that even though it was a school night, she, Mary Jo, Geoff, and Chester, all had permission to go to the council meeting.
__________
Thursday morning at school, almost everyone Jeannie saw stopped her to talk about the petition drive or gave her a thumb’s up as they passed.
During science class, Jeannie checked the petition box. She thumbed through quickly without taking time to actually count them, but she could tell there were several dozen pages of signatures. She felt flushed with excitement and hope that maybe they could make a difference.
Just before the period ended, Mr. Donelson said, “I’m sure we all wish Jeannie well at the City Council meeting tonight. Maybe we’ll read about it in tomorrow’s paper. Remember if you have a petition, it needs to be in the box by the end of the day.”
During lunch in the cafeteria, Mary Jo said, “Oh, Jeannie. I’m worried sick.
“About the Council meeting?” Jeannie asked.
“No. I’m sure the Council meeting will go fine. It’s the auditions I’m worried about.”
“Hey, you’re a shoo-in,” Jeannie insisted. “You’ll be in the Extravaganza. It’s the Council meeting tonight I’m worried about.”
Each girl tried to bolster the other’s spirits.
Right after school, they met at their locker. “Come on. Let’s pick up the petitions and count them.” They hurried down the hall to Mr. Donelson’s room. “Geoff and Chester are going to meet us.” Jeannie was almost breathless as they walked. “They want to be there for the name count.”
“How many do you have at home?” Mary Jo asked.
“I’ve got twenty petitions at home, and Betsy is bringing a dozen more to the meeting tonight. That makes 320 signatures. I’ve already worked it out. If we have sixty-eight petitions in the box, we’ll have our thousand names.”
When the girls entered the room, Mr. Donelson was sitting at his desk grading papers. He greeted them. “I can guess what you’re here for. Let me know how many names you got.”
As Jeannie and Mary Jo bee-lined it to the petition box, Geoff and Chester came rushing in to join them.
But when they looked in the box, it was empty.
Chapter Nine
Jeannie looked first at Mary Jo and next at Chester and Geoff. Then she walked over to Mr. Donelson’s desk. “Do you have them?” she asked him. “The petitions, I mean.”
For a moment, he looked puzzled. “No. They’re in the box.”
“But the box is empty,” Jeannie said.
“Where are they?” Geoff asked. He hurried back to the bookcase and looked around on the floor to make sure the petitions hadn’t fallen out or down behind.
Mr. Donelson searched the top of his messy desk, but there were no petitions there.
“Someone stole them,” Chester finally said, voicing what the others were thinking but afraid to say.
“I can’t believe anyone would do that,” Mr. Donelson said. But Jeannie felt his voice lacked conviction. “Now think for a minute. Who else at school is in your group helping with thins campaign? Could one of your other friends have come in right after school when I wasn’t paying attention and picked them up for you? Maybe they’re planning on bringing them to you at home?”
Jeannie shook her head. “There is no one else in our group,” she said. “Just the four of us. But there are at least two people who would like to destroy these petitions, Bobby and Ryan Watson! I’d like to get my hands on them right now. I’m sure they took the petitions.”
Mr. Donelson said, “You’re not sure of that, Jeannie. You didn’t see them take the petitions. And you can’t go around making accusations like that without proof. It could have been anybody.”
Jeannie�
�s eyes flashed and she looked at Mr. Donelson defiantly. In normal times, she wouldn’t have spoken back to one of her teachers, but these weren’t normal times. “It wasn’t just anybody,” she insisted. “It was the Watsons. I’m sure of it.”
“Why would they do that?” Mr. Donelson asked.
“Because they didn’t want to see a thousand names go to the City Council tonight,” Geoff said.
Jeannie and Mary Jo exchanged glances. Then they looked at Geoff and Chester. It was clear that in spite of Mr. Donelson’s protests, they all suspected Bobby and Ryan Watson.
“You have no proof,” Mr. Donelson repeated.
“You’re right. We have no proof. But they’re sure likely suspects. Could we search their lockers?” Mary Jo asked.
“No. It’s against school policy to search student lockers,” Mr. Donelson said. “People have a right to privacy.”
“They wouldn’t be stupid enough to hide the petitions in their desks or lockers anyway,” Geoff said. “And they probably wouldn’t carry them around with them, either, not any longer than they had to. They’d dump them. Fast. But where?”
Jeannie’s numbed brain began humming again. A sense of urgency replaced shock. They’d come so close! Now they might never know how many signatures they’d collected. Were there enough to really impress the Council? Somehow, someway they had to get those petitions back.
“We’ve got to find those petitions,” Jeannie said. “I’ll bet whoever stole them took them during lunch.” She emphasized the word “whoever” to point out to her teacher that she was trying hard to be open minded. “Mr. Donelson, did you notice if there were petitions in the box during fifth and sixth periods?”
Stand Up and Whistle Page 7