NO ORDINARY OWL (19 page)

Case Solved

U
nbelievable.”

In the sitting room off Uncle Dave’s kitchen, lying on the couch, Esther heard Byron Beake’s single word amid the confusion. The paramedics wanted to shine a light in her eyes. Her mom and dad kept repeating, “Esther, honey, can you hear us?” The Squad chirped various sentences like, “Tell me you’re not dead, Esther,” “That was so brave,” and “That was pretty stupid, Esther.” A less-familiar voice filtered in as well. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea she would…” But now the back of her neck was freezing, and wetness was slipping down her back.
Ick
.

She tried to sit up, reaching back to push away the coolness, but hands pressed her down. “I’m not dead,” she snapped.

Finally, they let her sit up.

“Who’s ‘she’?” she demanded, leaning back against the cushions with her hands fisted on her hips. A paramedic squatted in front of her, leaning forward to keep the ice pack on the back of her neck.

“You were shot!” Aneta said, eyes wide.

“With a Lemon Bomb!” Sunny said. “Who knew candy could make such a bump!”

The paramedic removed the ice pack so Esther could feel where the sting had started. A nasty welt that felt three inches high, but probably wasn’t, raised from her skin. She knew Lemon Bombs. They were a marble-shaped hard lemon candy.
Hard
candy. They were too sour for her. But how did she get hit with candy?

She moved her head.
Ow
.

Her mother smoothed the hair away from her forehead.

“I got hit with
candy?”

“I thought you were dead when you fell over!” Aneta was kneeling next to the couch, patting Esther’s knee.

“I fell over?”

“The paramedics think you might have passed out for a minute.”

“Passed out?” She sounded like a parrot, not like the magnificent Bubo, who was high in the sky or a tree right about now.

“Yeah, and you missed Cat’s launch!” Vee spread her arms out like wings and lifted them to the ceiling.

Not necessarily
. Vee would argue with her that she couldn’t have seen it if she’d been knocked out.
But I know I did
.

Someone brought her a glass of water. Taking a few thirsty gulps—getting hit with a Lemon Bomb made a person thirsty—the pieces began to fall into place. All except for one. The voice saying,
“I had no idea she would…”

The paramedics packed up, reassured Esther’s parents that she did not have a concussion but would have a nasty bruise for quite a while, and departed in their truck. The parents walked outside with Byron and Beverly, leaving the girls in the sitting room. With the girls circled on the floor in front of her, Esther felt special. They
cared
about her.

“Who was that voice that said something about ‘she’?” she asked, reaching back and touching the welt again. “Why did Byron say, ‘Unbelievable’?”

“Crazy.” Sunny shook her head. “It was crazy.”

“She didn’t mean to hit either of them,” Aneta jumped in. “It was because of the bird show we went to.”

“She only meant to scare them away from her uncle’s chicken farm,” Vee added. “And her uncle loves Lemon Bombs, so she had plenty to use.”

Sunny took over. “Except they weren’t the ones bugging the chickens.”

“I heard Todd Hudson tell your dad, Esther, that she’s ‘fifteen, but. . ,’ whatever that means.” Aneta shrugged.

The candy knot on Esther’s neck must have swizzled her brain. “What?” she asked, widening her eyes and shaking her head as if to clear it from incoherence. “Who?”

The three talked at once, until Esther yelled, “Hey!” Sunny and Aneta told Vee to give the details in her direct way.

The facts were, Esther at last was able to determine, that Todd Hudson the chicken farmer had a sister who lived in Eugene. Her husband was serving in Afghanistan, and their daughter was struggling with her dad away. So Todd suggested the girl visit him for a while. Her “special” school gave permission, Aneta put in.

“She went to the same bird show we did then heard her uncle complaining about ‘those birds’ hitting on his chickens.”

“She thought it must be the Beake birds because they lived near the chicken farm.” Sunny couldn’t stand not to participate.

“That’s the sabotage. She thought Byron was letting them out and
sending
them to the chicken farmer. So she was going to let them out to fly away.”

“Okay. Last question then. What about the night-vision goggles and the slingshot?”

“Her dad and she used to play in their backyard with the night-vision goggles. She wouldn’t leave home without them. They would shoot cans off picnic tables with their slingshots.”

Esther rolled her eyes. “And I thought it was Melissa. It was a whole
story.”
She gingerly touched the back of her neck.

What an adventure
. Living the yayness.

Launching Esther

A
week later, since Beverly said she needed time to make it “grand,” a tent like people used for weddings stood covering a great deal of the backyard between the mansion and the carriage house. The dining room table was outside, too, covered in a heavy white tablecloth. China and silverware and fresh flowers in crystal vases. Additional tables were at right angles to the main table, so it made a U shape.

Esther couldn’t wait until Beverly gave the signal. Then she would give the girls her gift for their bracelets. To remember her. Her throat tightened.
It’s not like you’re leaving tomorrow
.

“Wow.” Esther’s dad stopped just outside the back door of the mansion. He shifted Siddy to his other arm. “Lots of breakable things.”

“Lots of breakable things!” Siddy shouted back.

“Dad would like Siddy to be careful,” her dad said, setting the three-year-old down, retaining a grip on Siddy’s hand. Toby wandered off to see C.P., who was wearing a button-up shirt and a tie. Unbelievable.

“DAD WOULD LIKE SIDDY TO BE CAREFUL!”

Esther spotted the Squad over by the food table where—she gasped—an ice sculpture of a great horned owl in flight stood in the center. A punch bowl flanked the owl on either side, and tiny cups encircled them. She raced over to the girls, feeling her new green dress flitter around her knees. She’d never much liked dresses, but when Beverly Beake asked if it were all right if they had a dress-up celebration of Esther’s daring rescue of Bubo/Cat/Legs/Socko, the girls had clapped their hands and shrieked yes! Esther clutched a small brown paper bag.

“For pizza sake, can you believe this?” Sunny spun in a soft, sky-blue dress with a lace shrug. Esther had never seen her in a dress. She looked, well, like Sunny in a dress. Her unruly hair was piled on top of her head, with a few tendrils floating down. Sunny would always be Sunny no matter what she wore and where she went. Esther hoped this was true of herself, too.

“An ice sculpture that looks like Legs!” Aneta reached up and stroked the line of the outstretched wing. Her scarlet satin dress, with a short-sleeved black jacket over it, made her look old enough to be a seventh grader. Esther paused before telling her this. In a few short months, they
were
going to be seventh graders. Just not together. She squared her shoulders. She had told herself in the mirror in her bedroom that she was
not
going to cry.

“I wonder if the wings will fall off if the shoulders melt first.” Vee squinted at the owl. “It could happen.” She wore a black dress that hung straight from her shoulders to above her knees with black velvet flats with red bows. Her hair was held back by a pearl headband. She looked smart and pretty, Esther thought. Behind her back, Vee was holding something that looked like a brown paper bag.

“This is so exciting,” Esther remarked as Beverly called them all to their place cards at the three tables. It was a full backyard. Sunny’s family was there, and C.P. had ridden with them. Frank and Nadine smiled at them. Vee’s mom and Bill were there as well as the Twin Terrors and Vee’s stepmom. Vee’s dad was in Tokyo on business. Vee’s mom looked so happy. Vee would make a great big sister. Esther knew these things.

The girls muffled their shrieks again when black-suited servers came out with covered plates—like a fancy restaurant—and the dinner began. Esther caught Byron’s eye. Wearing a suit and pulling at his tie, he was across the table and down a couple of chairs. He winked. At least she thought he did, but maybe it was the light from the glowing white paper lanterns strung around the interior of the tent.

After dinner was over, the dessert of strawberries and Devon cream served and enjoyed, and dishes removed, Byron Beake rose.

“Beake Man!” the girls chorused.

He bowed. Tugging at his dress shirt collar, he thanked everyone for coming. “I would like to thank the S.A.V.E. Squad for being who they are—loud, determined, and thinkers of good ideas.”

That is us!
thought Esther, trading grins with the other Squaders. Parents groaned then clapped heartily.

“The girls helped me see that being angry at all people for what a few did to me and to the animals is not wise. So, thank you, girls.” He motioned to his sister who sat across the table from him.

Beverly Beake stood and walked around the table until she was standing next to her brother. “We saw the owl with many names very early this morning.” She turned to smile at the girls, each of whom turned bright red.

“I still can’t believe we all named the same owl!” Sunny muttered into her white cloth napkin.

“Yes, and that we were wrong about who would stay,” Aneta whispered.

“He appears to be settling in the far meadow of Dave’s ranch.” The older woman slipped her arm around her brother. “And now the S.A.V.E. Squad would like to make some presentations.” Beverly waved to the girls and strode back to her seat.

It was only her, Esther thought, but that must be the signal. She stood up. So did Sunny, Aneta, and Vee. They tipped their heads, surveyed the brown paper bags, and giggled. Squaders thinking alike.

“Who goes first?” Vee asked.

“I will.” Esther pulled three small tissue-paper-wrapped parcels from the bag and handed one to each girl. “Okay, I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, so I’m going to talk fast. I love being in the Squad”—
Could she get through this?—“and
now I know that wherever I go, I will still be a Squader. So, Sunny, Aneta, and Vee, this is to remind you of our final mission.”

“Ready—,” Vee began.

“Set.” Sunny spun in her excitement.

“Go!” Aneta shouted.

They ripped off the paper and began jumping up and down. Even Vee. A bead with the front of the great horned owl for each of them. Esther had even bought one for herself. Just to keep it Squadish.

“We love it!” they shouted and smothered Esther with hugs. The four sat down and hurriedly untied their Squad leather string bracelets, sliding on the new owl bead. Esther began to tie up hers again.

“Wait, Esther.” Sunny nudged her with an elbow.

“Now it’s our turn.” Sunny motioned to Vee. “One for each of us.”

Vee removed four boxes from the paper bag.

Aneta and Sunny passed them around.

“Ready…go!” Esther could wait no longer. Holding her breath, she opened the box. On the cotton lay four red heart beads, each with the name of one of the S.A.V.E. Squad in white. The tears gushed out even as she reminded herself not to break her rule.
I’m going to miss them so much
. Again, she was surrounded.

“You’re taking our hearts with you.” Sunny’s voice wobbled. “We each have all four hearts.”

“So we will have your heart here with us.” Aneta was weeping.

“So we are the S.A.V.E. Squad—f–forever!” Vee swallowed hard and began to slide the beads onto her bracelet. The other three scrambled to do the same.

Clenching her fist, Vee raised her arm. “S.A.V.E. Squad forever?”

Sunny, Aneta, and Esther met her fist with theirs, four bracelets touching. Strong.
Forever
.

Four strong voices that quavered at the end. “S.A.V.E. Squad
forever!”

The one who has to go will go
. Esther smiled through blurry eyes.
To live the yayness
.