NO ORDINARY OWL (5 page)

“Now how did you know I would say that?” he murmured to no one in particular.

“Because you always do!” Esther and Toby chorused.

All eyes were on him—Esther’s mom, whose eyes looked more tired than usual, Toby, Esther’s younger brother by two years, and Sidney, the youngest at just over three.

“Masked Man!” Sidney shouted, and Esther sighed. She never should have called Mr. Beake that. Now Sidney would shout “Masked Man” for days until another phrase caught his attention. It would be majorly embarrassing if Byron Beake ever heard it. Of course, “Byron Beake” might set Siddy off as well. Sidney loved sounds, although at more than three years old, he didn’t talk correctly. Mom and Dad had been taking him to a lot of doctors the last few months. Esther had noted more than one set of looks traded back and forth between them when Siddy shouted the same thing endlessly. Never in a whisper. Ever.

“Dad! We need to help the owls. We found them.” Maybe if she raised her voice like Sidney, they would listen to her.

“Esther!” Her mother’s voice cut sharply into Esther’s volume.

Her face flushing, she shot a glance at her father and muttered, “Sorry for yelling, Dad.”

He winked at her.

“Why do you call him Masked Man?” Toby, who always finished first, was done. He reached for the last spoonful of chicken, rice, and chicken soup. His mom slapped his hand away.

“Not until your father’s done.”

Always that. It didn’t matter how hungry they were, Mom never let them have seconds until Dad had what he wanted. Usually there wasn’t enough to go around a full second time. Toby and Esther ate a lot of bread with peanut butter and honey right after dinner.

“We never even got to ask him how he was going to help them.” Important questions like, “What animals have you helped before?” Mr. Beake had simply told them to never come back and left the room. Miss Beake had sighed and, looking like a sad turkey buzzard wearing a poncho, herded the girls back into the Bug and driven them to Uncle Dave’s. There, phone calls with parents followed, and the S.A.V.E. Squad girls found themselves each back at home with no sleepover and lots of questions from parents. “He sure was grouchy.”

“Masked Man!” Sidney shouted, attempting to stand in his booster seat set in the dining room chair.

“Down boy,” Esther’s dad said, patting the seat. “Cheeks in the seat, please.”

“Cheeks in the seat!” Sidney bellowed.

Esther’s mom sighed and picked at her dinner.

“Does it look like a robber mask?” Toby persisted.

“No.” She frowned, trying to describe it. “It was clear and, like, squished right against his face.” Now that she thought about it—now that she wasn’t sopping wet and her teeth weren’t chattering—parts of his scalp held only wispy hairs. No wonder he’d looked like a monster when he looked in the window. It had been the mask she’d seen and not him pressing his face against the window.
He wasn’t trying to scare us
.

Esther’s mom nodded. “A burn mask.” She looked at her husband. “I’ve seen people wearing those when we do hospital visits.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I love those visits.”

“Jessica.” Dad’s voice was gentle.

What was
with
everyone tonight? She and the girls had nearly been killed by the storm, kidnapped, and had their owls stolen. Nobody seemed to care. Now, if it had been
Sidney
in trouble…
Trouble
reminded her that she hadn’t told the Squad the Melissa news.

Toby and Esther fell quiet. Although Toby could be a spectacular pain sometimes, Esther knew he was a softie about people being hurt.

“Cheeks in the seat!” Sidney shouted.

Esther sighed. She bet the S.A.V.E. Squad girls never had meals like the Martins.

No More Rescues?

O
n Monday, the first day of Spring Break, Nadine, the Squad’s friend and children’s librarian, swiveled in her big leather chair to face the four girls who sprawled behind the oversized wooden desk. It was a Squad thing to do, Esther thought, rolling over onto her stomach and dropping her head onto her two fists. Meet with Nadine at the library. Solve a mystery. Get ideas. It was kind of like their clubhouse. Especially when they were fresh out of ideas. Maybe whatever was puttering around at the back of Esther’s mind would come out and say, “Hey!” Like something she was supposed to tell the girls.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you four be so quiet. What’s up?” Nadine pushed long, dark bangs out of her eyes.

“Not
what
so much as a ‘whoooooo’ from Beake Man.” Sunny let out a snort and then explained the whole sorry owl mess to Nadine. “He hasn’t called any of us back.”

Nadine nodded, her head tipped to the side. “Hmm. I know Beverly a little. She’s been coming to the Arts Council meetings.” The library, the senior center, and the community center all shared different sides of the big community center building by the lake. “She’s quite a bird expert. So is her brother.”

“Byron Beake.” Vee sniffed when Sunny let out another snort. “Can you believe that’s his real name?”

Esther hoped Sidney never heard it. She had been pretty careful keeping the Squad away from her house, giving one excuse after another why they should meet at Aneta’s (“…but we can swim and play with Wink!”), or Vee’s (“…but your little kitty is so much fun to play with”), or Sunny’s Uncle Dave’s ranch (“…but the animals! We can play with the animals!”). There’d be no telling what Sidney would think he’d heard and then start yelling. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her little brother, she simply didn’t know how to
explain
him.

Sunny, never one to sit still for long, shifted to her back and began to pedal her legs in the air. “My parents said it was better that we didn’t get attached to the owls like we always do to the animals we save.”

With a familiar move, Vee pulled the small notebook out of her back jeans pocket. “My mom and stepmom both said they’d heard about the Beakes”—another chortle from Sunny and a smothered one from Aneta—“and that Byron is like an important person in the bird world. He has a license to help wild raptors.” She fished around her hair band that held back the shiny hair and pulled out the tiny pen. She began to doodle.

Aneta chimed in with her story that Sunny’s Uncle Dave said he’d met Byron soon after he’d moved in. “He likes him. He says he’s different, but in a good way.”

“Different, but in a good way,” Esther repeated under her breath. Hmm.

“So we do not have a rescue anymore. That was much faster than the last one.” Aneta looked like she regretted it.

“Well, I guess we go back to our other projects.” Esther knew they had to do something to help animals. It wasn’t like the Squad to sit around.

“You girls did such a good job with your projects that other people now want to help.” Nadine swung back around and began sifting through books, checking each one off on a list in front of her.

“What?” A general cry sprang from four outraged throats.

Nadine ticked off each project on three fingers as she explained. The pickleball ladies and the senior center wanted to do the Basset Waddle in August. Two older citizens the girls had befriended were working with the community cats after the girls had completed their Great Cat Caper.

“That brings us to Major the mini horse and the zoo.” Sunny stopped pedaling and let her legs flop to the floor. “Whew! My family does that as a family outreach.”

A long silence followed Sunny’s statement. Esther felt a little sad. No rescues.

Then Aneta spoke up. “I have an idea.” She unfolded her long legs and stood, stretching her arms over her head—first one side then the other.

Esther waited on her stomach, waving her legs, holding her head in her fists. When Aneta didn’t continue, Esther flopped to the side and peered up at her taller friend.

Aneta had frozen like a statue in a park, arms still high. Her mouth hung open, and then, ever so slowly as though the statue were melting, she pointed. Esther scrambled to her feet, following the finger. Vee and Sunny were standing as well.

Their blond friend’s mouth closed then opened, trying to form words.
“Melissa!”
It was a single word of panic.

Oh.
That’s
what Esther had forgotten to tell the girls. As Aneta collapsed behind Nadine’s desk, Esther filled them in with Melissa news.

“So what’s her unfortunate accident?” Vee watched Melissa direct C.P. as he steered a loaded book cart. “Must be her hands. C.P. is pushing the cart.”

“I bet she told C.P. that she had to do the important work of putting the books back on the shelf.” Sunny turned to Esther. “Is she coming back to Aneta’s school after break?”

A whimper floated up from the floor. “Nooooooo!”

Sunny reached down and patted Aneta on the head.

Esther lifted her shoulders in a shrug. Melissa, C.P., and the cart disappeared, and moments later C.P. scared the daylights out of them, appearing from behind in the stacks and whispering, “Yah!”

“No fair, C.P.” Vee shot him the Vee Stare. “So what accident is Melissa recovering from?”

C.P. didn’t know and didn’t care. He only cared that he got roped into being Melissa’s servant with the cart, and now he was hiding. “I get to go to my aunt’s for Spring Break tomorrow, so I only have to hide for the rest of today.”

“That bunch of girls doesn’t hang out with her now that she’s back,” Esther observed. “Usually they are everywhere she is.” She remembered what Melissa had said about the S.A.V.E. Squad. “You guys, she told me she was moving on from those girls because things change. I told her the Squad didn’t change.” Licking her lips nervously at the memory, she repeated Melissa’s words.

“Nothing to worry about.” Vee lifted one shoulder in dismissal. “Nothing is going to change the S.A.V.E. Squad.”

“Can’t happen.” Sunny walked to the end of the aisle on her toes and then skipped back.

Aneta uttered another moan.

Esther felt better. No change. Just the way she liked it.

Now they needed to focus on helping those hurt owls, even if Beake Man thought they were trouble.

Everything Changes

T
hat evening Esther snuggled into the floral swing cushions next to her dad. Her mom leaned against him on the other side. “When I saw the smaller owl, his big round eyes looked up at me, and they were so scared. At least I think they looked scared. Birds can get scared like humans, can’t they?” With her ear pressed to his side, she could hear her dad’s heart thump-thumping.

Her dad said, “Mmm.”

Right foot tucked under, her mother pushed the swing with her other foot.

Creak, creak
crunched the chain in the wood roof over the deck. Toby and Siddy were inside watching TV. The rain pattered gently with no wind to get them wet on the back deck. Esther breathed in the fresh dirt smell, liking it.

Maybe she should give up thinking about the owls. Esther slid a little bit farther down. Dad was such a nice leaning post. She thought of those two little-ish birds with the Beake Man. After all, he had training and a license to help wild birds.

Creak, creak
. A sigh from her mother.

Esther’s thoughts ran along. He might know how to take care of them, but would he love them like the Squad would? Could you love wild things? Perhaps Beake Man would change his mind when he learned what the S.A.V.E. Squad was all about. Really.
There isn’t anything like the Squad
.

“I’m so glad I’m part of the S.A.V.E. Squad,” she said, her voice slipping into sleepy. She was so tired. “I want us to be the Squad forever.”

Nudging her, her dad said in his medium voice, “Stay awake, kiddo. Mom and I need to talk with you, since you’re the oldest.”

All the warm, comfy feelings vanished as though spring had
poofed!
and the cold winds of winter had returned to blast through the back deck.
Since you’re the oldest
had been what her parents had said when her grandmother had died. They had told her first.
Since you’re the oldest
, the year the long-awaited vacation in Hawaii fell through.

After the first words, she was aware her dad talked on. However, only certain phrases stabbed through the suffocating haze of
oh no
. Words and phrases like: “Meet new friends,” “Know this is hard,” “Best for getting help for Siddy…” She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. The icy fingers of dread had clutched her heart and flash frozen it as what Dad was
not
saying hit her.