Howl (19 page)

Robin knew that the moment she disappeared, the sheriff would take the animals. But what could she do? There was no way she could put her brother at risk, even for the animals. She nodded gravely and took Squirm’s hand.

“No!” Squirm yanked away from her grasp.

“You’re not well,” she said, trying to sound firm. “Let’s go up to the house and —”

He reached back, gripped the bike chain, wrapped it around his wrist and held on tight.

The deputy took his hat off as if to let the steam out the top of his head. “This is going from bad to worse.” Hearing a sound, he turned and looked down the lane. A bike appeared with another kid on it.

Robin and Zo-Zo cried out at the same time.

“Brodie!”

Robin clapped her hands and grinned.

Behind him rode another boy and a girl from their class. They all stood by their bikes, staring at the scene in front of them.

The sheriff spat. “Get out of here. This is none of your business.”

No one moved. The sheriff waved his arms. “Go! Or I’ll arrest the lot of you.”

Brodie put his bike down and moved to Robin’s side. “Go ahead. Arrest me too!”

One by one, the other kids put down their bikes and stood beside Robin.

The sheriff scratched his head. “Well, I’ll be —”

The deputy spat. “Fired. And we’ll be the laughingstock of the department when they find out about this!”

The sheriff shrugged. “We’re going to need reinforcements.” He trudged back to his truck, calling behind him. “We’ll be back. Maybe not today, but we’ll be back.” His deputy followed, fuming.

When the truck pulled away, the kids cheered and whacked each other on the back. Robin and Zo-Zo gave each other a high five, then she and Brodie did the same.

It wasn’t until Robin had unchained herself that she remembered.

“Relentless!”

But the truck was gone. And so was Relentless.

Robin let her spinning head fall against the back of the wooden deck chair as she watched the flames from the bonfire leap into the darkness. White and gold sparks danced up into the black night as if trying to join the stars overhead. Beside her, Griff sat in the circle wearing a red paper birthday hat. The rest of the family sat around her, their faces glowing from the blaze of the fire.

Robin snuck a look at her dad. Even he looked relaxed tonight. Thank goodness. Was he ever going to talk to her again?

In her lap, Snooze was licking her fingers, and Tugger was trying to chew on her sleeve. Three of the puppies had gone to other families earlier that day and Robin missed them already. But she missed Relentless more. Not having Relentless with her was like not having one of her hands — she was aware of her loss every moment.

At least she still had some puppies to comfort her. What about poor Relentless? She was probably cooped up in some cage somewhere without anyone to pet her. She must be missing her puppies terribly. That thought made Robin’s chest ache. Was she ever going to get her dog back?

The booming sound of music thudded across the field from the Kingshots’ house. Robin could feel it pulse in the small of her back. She grimaced. All of her class except Zo-Zo would be there, dancing and having a good time at Brittany’s birthday party. Was Brodie there? Not if Mr. Kingshot had found out about Brodie chaining himself to the barn. But maybe he hadn’t found out. The article in the paper had only given her and her brother’s names, referring to the rest as “other young people.” They probably had Zo-Zo’s dad to thank for that.

For all Robin knew, Brodie might be dancing with Brittany right now. In her mind she saw Brittany wearing something tight and sexy and saw Brodie holding Brittany close.

She wished she could get her brain to stop thinking all these terrible things. But ever since her mother’s illness, that just seemed to be what her mind did. Things had become even worse, however, since the sheriff had been there. Now there didn’t seem to be a moment when her mind wasn’t churning out some worst-case scenario. It was exhausting.

Griff banged her knee against Robin’s, and Robin passed her granddaughter a stick, then the bag of marshmallows.

Robin put the puppies back on the leash she had them attached to, shoved a soft, white marshmallow on to the sharp end of the stick and positioned it near the flames.

“You want to toast it, not ignite it,” Griff said, edging her stick further from the fire. “Like your brother is about to do.”

As if on cue, Squirm’s marshmallow burst into a ball of flames.

“Cool!” He blew on it, but so hard that the marshmallow dropped into the fire. “Whoops!”

“Oh, well,” Griff said. “The fire deserves some marshmallows too.”

Something bright appeared in the darkness, and Robin looked up to see Ari approaching with a cake, its top full of lit candles. Ari had been sucking up to Griff and their dad all day. Robin knew why. She wanted to see Conner and soon. She’d been grounded for leaving Squirm and Robin alone, but since her father had believed Ari’s lie about her only having been gone while she made a quick trip to the library, she’d only been grounded for a night.

Squirm started singing “Happy Birthday,” and they all joined in. Griff grinned and held her hands to her heart.

“Quick, call the fire department,” she said, laughing at the blaze.

“We’ve had enough government officials here, thank you very much,” her son said.

Robin groaned. Uh-oh. Was another lecture on its way? She and her brother had heard several in the last few days.

Griff pulled in a big breath and blew until all the candles went out. She looked tenderly at Ari. “I knew something was up when you wouldn’t let me in the kitchen.” She cut the cake into brick-sized pieces and passed them around.

Her dad took a big bite. “Scrummy.” He smiled at Ari. His eyes moved to Robin, and his smile disappeared. He hadn’t smiled at her since he’d found out about the sheriff. They’d had to tell him. And when they did, he’d looked at her and Squirm as if they were teasing. He had been deeply shocked to find out they weren’t.

“You locked yourself to the barn with
bike chains
?”

“We stopped them, Dad,” Squirm had said, his voice swollen with pride.

Griff had suppressed a smile.

Her father’s voice landed hard, like a gavel. “You could have been hurt.”

How
? Robin had wanted to ask, but if there was one thing she’d learned, it was not to ask questions when her father was angry.

She and Squirm then got lecture #1, which was about laws being there for a reason, which led to lecture #2, about having respect for those laws even if you didn’t agree with them.

“But what if a law isn’t right?” Robin had asked Griff.

Her father jumped in. “If a law isn’t right, you work to change it. Through proper channels.”

Griff looked at him questioningly. “Aren’t we already doing that? We’ve had our wildlife application in for a while now.”

Her father sighed. “I guess a wildlife license is like a driver’s license. You either have one or you don’t. There’s no in-betweens.”

Robin felt a question press up into her throat. “Dad — would you have let the sheriff take the animals?” She couldn’t believe he would have. Not if that risked them being put to sleep.

Her father said nothing.

“I don’t think your dad knows what he would have done,” Griff said. “I guess we’ll have to wait until the sheriff comes back to find out.”

Squirm snapped to attention. “Will he come back?”

“Of course he will,” Griff said. “You can bet your bottom dollar.”

Robin cringed. That scared her, but there was something that scared her even more. “What about Relentless? Are we going to get her back?” Even saying her dog’s name made her chest tighten.

Griff frowned. “You can bet the sheriff isn’t going to make getting her back easy — he’s probably being kidded blue in the face down at the station for being outsmarted by a couple of kids. I wouldn’t put it past him to make us wait awhile.”

Robin’s heart lurched. “But they can’t keep her, can they?”

Griff shook her head. “No, but they’ll take their sweet time returning her. Just to make sure we understand who’s running the show.”

That talk had been well over a week ago now, and Relentless still wasn’t back. Griff had phoned the authorities every day but hadn’t been able to find out anything. She told Robin repeatedly that there was nothing to worry about, that they would get Relentless back, that it was just a matter of time, but Robin worried anyway. What if they forgot to feed Relentless? What if her dog got sick? Even died? Robin yanked her mind away from this last thought as if she might pull herself back from the edge of a fifty storey building.

Now, at the party, Robin ate her cake and watched as Griff clicked on a small camper’s headlight and picked up the paper. She went straight to the editorial page.

“Two more letters to the editor.” She scanned them quickly. “Both
supporting
us! That’s good news. Now let’s see what’s happening with the campaign.” She flipped some pages and continued reading. A huge smile blossomed on her face. “Ed Goodings has publicly come out in favour of the animal shelter! Says here that if he’s elected, he’ll even fund it.” She patted Robin’s leg hard. “What a great birthday present that is.” She returned to the article. “He even gives some stats about the number of animals we’ve helped.”

“Stats you probably fed him,” her son said.

“Of course!” Griff reached for a large chunk of cake and ate it quickly. “We’re finally on the political map.” She licked her lips. “Get us animal lovers stirred up, and look out.”

They all sat quietly for a while, then their father spoke. “I ran into Tom at the hardware store today. He said the sheriff’s been organizing reinforcements from other towns.” His hand moved up to the cell phone he was now keeping, fully charged and switched on, in his front pocket.

“Sounds like he’s going to come with an army,” Griff said, sucking icing sugar from the tips of her fingers. “We better prepare for battle.”

Her son lurched himself straight up in his chair. “There will be no battle here.” He eyed Robin and Squirm. “I have your word, right?”

Squirm nodded dolefully. Robin did as well. Was it lying if you broke a promise you didn’t say out loud?

They all stared into the fire. The silence was broken by the sound of car doors slamming.

Their dad’s head jolted up. He and Griff exchanged alarmed glances. Robin felt herself tense. Would the sheriff come this late at night?

Ari jumped up. “Conner —”

Conner appeared with two other friends.

“What a surprise,” Ari said, moving towards them.

“But you said to —” Conner stopped. “Oh, yeah, well, um, we were just going by and we saw the fire and …”

“Well, Conner, you won’t get an Emmy for that bit of acting, but here, have some cake anyway!” Griff held the platter of cake towards him and his friends.

“I made it,” Ari said proudly. She introduced everyone then took her friends down to the dock. Soon there were shrieks and splashing sounds.

Griff shivered. “Isn’t it a little early in the season for swimming?”

Squirm nudged Robin. “I want to go swimming too. Let’s go.”

Robin shook her head.

Squirm’s smile collapsed.

“You go anyway, Squirm,” his dad said. “Just don’t let yourself get too cold.”

Squirm leapt up and ran off.

Robin sank down in her chair. She didn’t want to swim with Ari and her friends, but soon her own friends would be asking her to go. What was she going to do then?

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Griff said, cutting another small piece of cake. “I’ve had lots of fears in my life, but I got over them. You will too.”

Robin looked at her doubtfully.

Griff handed her a small bag. “Maybe this will help.”

Robin looked at her with confusion. “But this is
your
birthday.
You’re
the one who’s supposed to get presents.”

“I know, but I’ve had this for a while. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to give it to you.”

Robin pulled the drawstring apart and pulled out a silver pendant of a dog. A dog that looked just like Relentless. A well of yearning flooded into her throat.

“Remember our talk about totems?” Griff asked.

“Those animal spirit things? The ones that protect you?” Robin ran her fingers along the glossy surface of the charm. She liked how solid it felt. And warm.

Griff smiled. “I got you this so you’d remember that you have help. It’s not just you against your fear of water. It’s you and me and your dad and brother and Relentless, when she comes back. And this wonderful totem, this dog spirit. All together we’re
way
bigger than your fear. You’ll see. You
will
learn to swim again. And it won’t be anywhere near as scary as you think.”

Robin wanted to believe that, wished she could, but somehow she didn’t.

When Squirm appeared, shaking with cold from his swim, Griff wrapped a beach towel around him and pulled him onto her lap.

Car lights flashed again.

“Grand central station,” Griff said.