Exodus Chapter One

Part One
The Golden Calf

Chapter One
Owl at Night

So that’s the story. I’m going to start before we had heard that story though. So let me tell you about Owl, my friend and buddy now standing in front of me- five foot nine and one hundred pounds of swagger and cool. Owl was hungry lion skinny and always grinning like he knew something. He grinned at me. And I looked back at him.

"What?"

Owl didn't say anything. He did that.

"You know something that you think I want to know. So what is it?"

"They're going to close school for the rest of the school year." Owl said. He tipped his cowboy hat back from hair that was almost too long and pushed his rolled up sleeves back before crossing his arms. I always thought he looked kind of weird- twelve years old and still wearing a cowboy hat.

Owl could pull it off though. He was smart and his Mom let him carry a sheath knife and even taught him how to shoot real hunting rifles. So I stayed friends with him, even though I was in eighth grade now and got funny looks from my classmates when we met after school.

Owl grinned and stared at me, "I was stalking deer last night over by the school. The deer like to sneak out of the trees and graze on the sports field. And when I was there, I saw something crazy."

"Wait, what do you mean you were stalking?"

"I was practising sneaking up on them, getting as close as I could without startling them. I do it with people too. I could tap some teachers on the back and they wouldn't see me until I let them. Do you want to hear my story or don't you care about the school closing down?"

"Have you ever stalked me?"

Owl grinned, "If I have, I guess you haven't been sharp enough to see me. Now do you want to know about what I saw, and why I know the school will close down or not?"

"Yeah, of course I want to know. You're just creeping me out a little."

"Cool. So anyway, I was down at the sports field at the school. It was past midnight, and all of a sudden Frisk gets nervous. I couldn't hear it right away, but then I heard cars and trucks on the road. I figured there were just going to pass by, so I did what I do and hid so they wouldn't see me when they passed."

"I can't believe your Mom lets you out past midnight."

"She thinks it's good practise. So as I was saying, these cars are coming. The thing is that they don't go past the school, they drive right up to the school gates and some men in suits get out and unlock the gate and turn on the lights in the parking lot and on the outside of the Gym building."

"And?"

"Well, you know how the gym is build from a barn frame?"

"Yeah."

"So they actually opened the big barn door. I didn't know that thing even could open! An then these guys in orange construction worker type vests started unloading boxes from the trucks into the gym. They were at this for over an hour! They filled up the gym! There's no room to play dodge ball. There's no room to play anything. They left little rows between the boxes to walk up and down, but that's it. And then they closed up the gym and started loading stuff into the school, into the classrooms. I had to go home to get enough sleep for today, but isn't going to be much room left in the school at this point. They're going to have to close it down!"

"That doesn't mean they'll close it down."

"I think it does, and you know what else I saw?"

"What?"

"Wolf's dad was there! And he was in charge of the whole thing!"

“Have you told Wolf yet?”

“Are you crazy? You can tell Wolf. He won’t hit you for talking about his dad.”

“And what if Wolf's dad finds out, and Wolf gets in trouble for it?” I countered.

Wolf and I have known each other since we were five and our mothers introduced us as a way of keeping us both occupied while they had coffee and talked about world politics and gardening. This was back when Wolf's mother was still alive.

At thirteen Wolf was was already nearly six feet tall and had muscles like a sixteen year old football player. He greased his hair out like Wolverine from the X-Men, and people would have teased him for it, but then he would have hurt them.

Wolf looked like he wanted to eat everyone he met, the kind of kid who even scared most adults. The only person Wolf was afraid of was his father.

Wolf's dad ran the old Pulp and Paper Worker's Union. The old Mill no longer operated, and so I don't know what the Pulp and Paper Worker's Union did after the mill closed, but Wolf's Dad took his job deadly serious. they lived in a dull grey one story house with small windows and a lawn covered in dead grass, moss and dandelions.

Wolf's house didn't have a TV, it had a radio- one radio. Wolf's house did have a garage and a carport and a tool shed. Inside the garage Wolf's dad kept his black pickup truck and his weight room. They had a punching bag and barbells and a bench press and a big machine that lets you do all sorts of other weight lifting.

In the Carport Wolf's dad kept the Camperized Van they used when he took Wolf fishing, and a padded ring where he taught Wolf to box and wrestle and fight like a man.

Wolf and were friends, and Wolf was part of the gang- but he was always more my friend that everyone’s friend. And I was afraid of his father too. Wolf's Dad was big all over and tougher than any adult in the town that I could name. He had cold matter of fact eyes and hands that could pry nails from two by fours.

If Wolf's Dad ever got mad, he would give Wolf training. He would drag Wolf to the boxing ring in the  Carport- even if it were October and cold like it was now- and he would box with Wolf until he decided Wolf was done. Wolf had bruises after training. I think the other adults disapproved, but there were all afraid of Wolf's Dad. I could see it on their faces when I was with Wolf and his dad. He was a scary man.

“This will make his Dad furious,” I continued, “I don't know what happened at the school, but you shouldn't tell anyone else that you saw it. If it's important, we'll find out when we need to.”

Owl shook his head.

“Wow, you sound like a wuss. What did you do to Rabbit? Where did you hide him?”

“Last time Wolf's Dad got mad, Wolf had to stay home for three days before he could walk well enough to go to school. You see how Wolf is after stuff like that. Somebody finds out you saw Wolf's Dad doing something you weren't supposed to see, and Wolf will be the one you pays for it.”

“Oh come on!” Owl threw up his hands.

“Wow, you sound like a jerk. What did you do to Owl? The Owl I know actually cares about his friends. You tell anyone else and I'm done talking to you.” I crossed my arms to show Owl I was serious.

Owl turned around and kicked a tree, “Fine. We'll do it your way. But something big is happening. Don't say I didn't warn you.”

Owl had a dog, an Airdale Terrier named Frisk. Frisk was short for Frisky, which is what Owl had name the dog when they both were little and the busy little dog was given to Owl by his father as an apology for the divorce.

Frisk was loyal and true and full of energy just like every dog in every old Western Film. Frisk was smart and curious and had a way of finding secrets people wanted hidden.

Frisk had been sitting calmly at Owl's feet during our argument. Suddenly though, Frisk's ears twisted like radar dishes and his nose wrinkled with intense interest. Owl noticed the change; but before he had time to do anything, Frisk was a black and brown blur as he charged at a white rabbit sitting at the edge of Owl's yard by the blackberry bushes.

Owl lived in a big log house in South End surrounded by blackberry bushes. The Log House was really nice and looked out of place in South End, like it had been built in the wrong place. The yard was big and filled with trees and bird houses. Owl lived with his Mother, his dad lived in the South End Trailer park with a girlfriend who wore short skirts and Iron Maiden t-shirts.

Owl didn't like his Dad, but he did like his mother. Owl had a cool Mom. She taught him how to shoot a rifle, and how to hunt squirrels and ducks, and how to go camping and start a fire with flint and steel. Owl was cool, and so was his Mom.

The rabbit vanished in between the blackberries and the thorns and Frisk circled the prickly obstacle barking like a maniac.

"Frisk! Here!" Owl called- not loudly, but with the authority and finality of a pack leader.

Frisk froze and looked back at Owl unhappily, as though confirming that this activity really was forbidden today. I could see the dog searching Owl's eyes, looking for some wiggle room. Finally, finding no give, Frisk trotted back to Owl and dropped to the ground at his master's feet. Owl knelt and scratched behind the dog's ears.

"Don't worry boy, you'll get to hunt later. We don't need the meat right now, and it's not right to hunt when you aren't going to eat it. It's mean, and it's not fair to the prey."

I shook my head.

"Sympathy for the rabbit?"

"The rabbit is clever," Owl said, "He's a survivor. But if we take more than we need, the rabbit might not be there when we do. That's what Mom, and even Dad, always taught me."

The rabbit wasn't my namesake yet, but looking back- I wonder if this influenced my choice of name.

"The girls are late," Owl observed, looking at his watch, "If they don't hurry, we're going to be late for school. And I want to be there when we find out that school really is going to close."

"You don't know its going to close," I said.

"No. You don't know it's going to close. I do." Owl answered.

"Do you want to go and meet them?" I asked, "They have to be somewhere between here and Raven's house, probably on Grace Street. They always walk that way."

Owl nodded, "Let me check the Birdhouse first, then we'll hunt."

All the birdhouses in Owl's yard were painted, all but one of them were painted yellow, green or blue.

The single red birdhouse was fake.

The hole for bird's to enter was blocked by a black painted piece of wood nailed on the inside of the house- so that the birdhouse looked real from the outside.

Owl opened the clasp hidden on the underside and opened the hinged door on the bottom of the birdhouse. Inside the birdhouse was a small slip of paper. It was a note from his mother. This was how the two of them traded messages when Owl's mother had to work at odd hours. Notes on the fridge would be easier, but not nearly as cool.

And so we set off to find the two female members of our group- Raven and Viper.

We lived in a town that was named to make kids my age barf: Safehope Bluff. The town was on a bluff, so that part worked, but safe and hope, together, sounded like somebody was writing a really bad fairy tale set in a happy town with happy people. Safehope Bluff was just as weird as every other little town that thought it was a fairy tale. And I hated it.

Safehope Bluff wasn't a village like Sumpter's Ridge down the road. The people there were creepy and had bad breath. Safehope Bluff had a McDonalds, and it had a Dairy Queen. Safehope Bluff had two movie theatres and one of them had four screens. Safehope Bluff had a hockey rink and a swimming pool at its Community Center. So we weren't really little, just sort of little.

Safehope Bluff was pretty. The town looked like how towns looked in the old TV shows that showed on basic cable- white picket fences and light blue or canary yellow on the houses. The town smelled of blackberries from the wild bushes all over town, and lavender from the gardens everyone used to keep the deer from chewing on their yard.

Because the town was on a bluff facing east, the town had great sunrises. I liked sunrises, because the town was quiet and nobody was around to call me Rose's son- instead of my name.

I hated Safehope Bluff. Everything was fake. Adults thought we didn't notice, but we saw.

Mr. and Mrs. Pinchen would argue most nights. Some night they would yell loud enough that we could hear it across the street- even with the windows closed. After those fights, Mrs. Pinchen always wore big, dark sunglasses and heavy make up. Adults thought we didn't notice.

We walked along Grace Street, enjoying the crisp October air. The air was cold and dry like an old man's skin. Snow hadn't started falling yet, but that was just us kids getting lucky. Snow could and did fall before Halloween in Safehope Bluff. And parents could and did stuff us into snow pants and winter jackets over top of carefully built costumes until we looked like Batman on an expedition to the North Pole.

The trees were in winter mode, leaves had gone past orange and reached mouldy brown in big piles around town. The blackberry bushes looked like enormous evil piles of living barbed wire. The grass was yellowed or dull mud brown. We had frost in the mornings most days, and the skies were icy blue and clean as old bones found in the forest.

"So what are you going to dress up as for Halloween?" I asked Owl.

"I don't know. Maybe Hawkeye from "Last of the Mohicans", maybe Mani from "Brotherhood of the Wolf"." Owl answered.

"The mysterious mountain man, huh? The only problem is nobody will know who you are."

"Nobody ever does, outside the five of us anyway." Owl said.

I nodded and we kept walking.

To the east of town was the edge of the bluff which dropped five hundred feet down in just 100 feet across, all the way down to the Little Hope River and Fallen Angel Lake which always looked red from the silt on the river bed. To the west of town, the Red Wing highway ran north to south and acted as the life line that kept the town connected to the real world. To the south was Sumpter's Ridge and to the North was Littleton.

Safehope Bluff was covered in evergreen trees with a few birch trees scattered about to adda bit of salt and pepper to the forest. The hill sloped down to the west into a valley that was all forest and a national park as well.

The town itself was laid out into four areas, to the northeast of the Town Square was Merchant Hill and held most of the Shops and the oldest most expensive homes. To the northwest of the town square was Old Town where the old Pulp and Paper Mill still stood empty and what little industry the town had remained to slowly rust. Just south of the town square is Angel Fields, the new residential area, where the majority of the town lived. And south of Angel Fields was South End, where the less weatlhy members of Safehop Bluff lived and home to the only trailer park in Safehope Bluff.

But Safehope Bluff wasn't big, you could walk across town in twenty minutes.

Abruptly Owl stopped, and turned his head like Frisk did when the dog heard something. Owl tipped up his cowboy hat.

"You hear that? It sounds like a fight. And I think I recognize one of the voices. I think its Russell."

I was about to object that I couldn't hear anything, but Owl was already off and running.

At the intersection of Grace Street and 4th Ave, we could see a big kid with a black T-shirt with the sleeves torn off standing over top of Russell Tailor staring down at the smaller kid.

Russell Tailor was the youngest son of our Mayor Mr. Tailor. Both Russell and his dad looked kind of geeky. Mr. Tailor dressed in tweed suits and bow ties. He was nice, but always seemed kind of nervous when he was giving his speeches, like he was scared of people. Russell Tailor dressed in Star Trek t-shirts and plaid pants. Russell was a walking talking stereotype, and seemed to revel in it. My guess was he couldn't figure out how to not be geeky, so he just went with it.

We recognized the bully right away too: Skunk. Russell was smart and nice and funny, so the only person who picked on his was Skunk. Skunk was a walking talking stereotypical bully, so I guess it made sense that the two of them always ended up doing the bully dance.

Skunk was a big kid, he was thirteen years old in the seventh grade. Nobody fails a grade anymore, kids get pushed to the next by the School district even if they can't spell their name, because parents complain too much otherwise. Skunk was still in the seventh grade because his father insisted on it.

Everyone hated Skunk. He was big and mean and resented everyone in the school, because he was stuck here with us. We called him Skunk, not to his face, because he had this weird bleached out strip of hair the left side of his head. And we called him Skunk because he smelled, mostly of cigarettes, but also because he didn't shower after gym class.

We avoided Skunk. He was mean, but he was hollow. He wore leather jackets and carried a pocket knife to look tough. But it's hard to look tough riding a yellow bicycle with wicker basket on the handle bars. Skunk was mean and pitiful and funny at the same time. We just made sure not to laugh when he was looking.

Skunk had his pocketknife out and was scraping paint off Russell's bright red bicycle.

"Lunch money, Tailor boy. I want it now. Or else I'll take your bike instead." Skunk was saying as we approached.

I could tell that Owl was angry rather than scared, but I was scared. Skunk had his knife out. I knew Owl had a knife, and I knew he could use, probably better than Skunk, but the idea of a knife fight terrified me. My mom had told me about what happened to people in knife fights. The winner was often hurt nearly as bad as the loser.

“Lunch money? Really? That's sad Skunk,” Owl said. As he finished speaking, Owl actually laughed at Skunk.

Skunk turned around. I noticed that he kept the pocketknife hidden- poorly- behind his back. When he saw who was behind him, Skunk drew the knife out and grinned.

"This doesn't concern you guys, just keep walking." Skunk said.

Owl shook his head, "That's a friend of ours, so it does concern us."

"You sure you want to do that?" Skunk waved his pocketknife in a crude figure eight as he spoke.

"Why wouldn't we?" Owl asked, a little too innocently, as though he couldn't see Skunk's knife.

"Well, I wouldn't want you to get hurt." Skunk answered with exaggerated concern.

"How would we get hurt?" Owl asked, pointedly not looking at Skunk's knife.

"Look moron. If you don't keep walking, I'm going to cut your face." Skunk raised the knife to eye level as he spoke.

Owl grinned a sheep eating grin, and reached behind his back- slowly drawing out his sheath knife from where he kept it hidden.

"You've got a tool there, not a weapon. You want to learn the difference?" Owl lazily flipped the knife from regular grip to reverse grip and back as he spoke.

Skunk's gaze followed Owl's knife, like a Cobra following a snake charmer's flute, almost as though he were hypnotized by the larger weapon. Skunk's pocketknife had a folding blade about as long as Skunk's index finger. Owl's sheath knife had a fixed blade that was as long as Owl's hand from fingertip to wrist.

"This is a skinning knife. And you know that I hunt with my Mom. I've skinned rabbits and squirrels and all sorts of small game. I could skin something larger if I had too. If you get what I mean. You like to threaten people. I don't. This isn't a threat. This is a statement of fact, of what I can do. And that is my friend. You do the math."

Skunk didn't say anything, but he folded his knife up and back away with his hand out behind him until he reached his yellow bike. He quickly turned and swung himself onto his bike and pedalled off with one last withering look back at us.

I grinned. Russell wasn't part of our in group, but he was a friend and Owl had helped him despite real danger to himself. I walked over and held a hand to help Russell stand up. Owl sheathed his knife and flipped his canvas fanny pack cover back over top of the sheath knife to hide it again.

"He knows about your knife now," I pointed out, "He could tell a teacher and get you expelled."

Owl nodded, "I know about his, I could do the same."

"Skunk might not be smart enough to realize that."

Owl shrugged. Maybe he disagreed, maybe he didn't care. Owl had a habit of not talking rather than arguing if he didn't actually want something. Owl only argued if it mattered.

"Thanks guys," Russell said as he ran his hands over the damage to his bike, "You'd think being the Mayor's kid would keep people from wanting to bully me, but it seems to paint a target on me instead. My dad gets to be Mayor. I get to be the son of the Mayor: all of the fame, none of the benefits."

"They resent you." I said, "They think you get more than they do in some way. And they notice you, and it's never good to be noticed when you're in school."

"People notice me, and they don't mess with me. Where's my target?" Owl asked.

"It's painted right there. They're just waiting for you to stumble or turn your back. Piss off the bullies and they'll get you as soon as they think have you at a disadvantage- count on it." I said.

"Hey guys! Hey Russell!"

The three of us turned to look down Grace Street and saw Raven and Viper walking up the road.

Viper and Raven were both thirteen years old. Viper was slim and willowy, with cocoa skin and rich black curly hair. Raven was tall and had already hit puberty. Viper was cute, Raven was beautiful. Raven had shiny black wavy hair and dark blue eyes and was always smiling. Viper dressed in gyspy dresses and wire wrapped gemstone jewelry and upset her mother by looking like a hippie. Raven dressed in purples and browns and loved snuggly sweaters and fancy boots.

The girls reached us and Viper ran up and gave Owl a hug and then pointedly hugged both myself and Russell, as though she simply liked to hug everyone.

"So how is everyone?" Raven asked.

"I'm thinking of putting my hair in corn rows, "Viper announced, and looked at Owl, "What do you guys think?"

"I think it would look cool." I answered.

"I think so too." Russell said.

Viper ignored us and looked at Owl.

"I think your hair looks good now," Owl answered.

Viper put her hands on hips and bit her lip for moment, and then looked up and announced, "If you guys don't like the idea, then I won't do it."

Russell and I looked at each other.

Then Owl piped up, "I didn't say I didn't like the idea. I think it would look good in corn rows too.”

“Well, I guess if everyone likes the idea, I'll do it.”

Owl seemed not to notice as he continued, “Hey girls, if you knew something important, and you knew somebody else knew more about it than you- but that he might get in really big trouble if you talked with him about it- would it be a good idea to talk to him anyway?"

Raven frowned, "What do you mean?"

I shook my head, Owl was trying to get the girls on his side to outvote me.

"If there was a really big mystery, that affected everyone in town say. And say both people had a piece of the puzzle, but nobody had enough that they could understand on their own, but one of the people could get in really big trouble if other people found out that these guys had shared what they knew. Do you think they should share what they know or not?"

Raven frowned again, "How much trouble?"

"Like they could get beat up. Bad." I answered, before Owl could say anything.

Viper looked at Owl.

"I think they should talk, if it's really that important." Viper said.

"And what if they would find out the truth just by waiting." I asked.

"And what if they got lied to instead, because people didn't want to tell the truth?" Owl asked.

I turned to face Owl, "Why would they lie?" I asked.

"Because they obviously don't want people to know, or they wouldn't have done what they did in the way that they did it." Owl said.

"I assume we're talking about something real?" Raven asked.

I said nothing. Owl nodded.

"So if they don't share information, what happens. If they do, then one person could get beat up, but what happens if they don't share information? Why would that be bad?" Raven asked.

"We don't know." I answered flatly.

"But something big is happening," Owl added, "something that is going to change the town in a big way, maybe forever."

"Oh come on." I said, "You really think that this is going to change the town forever? Isn't that a little bit much?"

"Are you telling me that what I saw sounds like something little, something that won't change the town?" Owl countered.

"You ever feel like you're missing half the conversation?" Viper said to Raven in a mock whisper.

"Rabbit doesn't want me to talk about it. He said, he'd wouldn't talk to me any more if I did." Owl said.

Raven sighed and looked at me, "Rabbit, that's mean and you know it. Don't do that. Take it back."

"Look," I said, "It's about Wolf's Dad. You know what he's like to Wolf when he gets angry. I don't want to watch Wolf limp around for a week again. Do you?"

Everyone was silent. And nobody would look at me.

Finally Viper said, "Who would tell Wolf's Dad? I mean, how would he find out?"

We all looked at each other, and then the four of us looked at Russell. Russell held his arms wide, as though he were trying to prove he was unarmed.

"You guys are my friends. I would never do that."

Owl nodded, "But your dad is the mayor, and they might talk about this. And then you might let something slip just because you know what they're talking about, even though you didn't mean to do it."

"I swear I wouldn't. You saved me from Skunk just now. I promise I wouldn't."

I didn't like this. The day had gone from interesting to dangerous. Skunk knew Owl had a knife, and even Skunk could figure out that Owl carried it to school. Now Russell knew something was up with Wolf's Dad. Now I liked Russell, but Russell wasn't one of us. Russell let himself get bullied a little to easily, didn't fight back when he should. I didn't think I trusted that sort of person with any amount of information that could get my best friend beaten by his Dad.

Still, what could we do know? Russell knew something was up, not telling might be worse now, since he would wonder and make the whole thing bigger in his head. It would be better if we told them and made them feel like they could get in trouble if people found out.

"Russell," I said, "Raven, Viper. This is important. And from what Owl's told me, this is something adults don't want us to know. Wolf could get in real trouble if his Dad found out, but so could we if our parent's found out. Russell's dad is Mayor, and my Mom is Police Chief. Owl's right when he says this is big and weird, and I don't think our parent's wouldn't know about it- so we could both get in big trouble too. So for all of our sakes we have to keep this quiet. Is that clear?"

I waited until everyone nodded.

"I want you all to swear on our friendship that you won't blab this to anyone else. We're going to have to tell Wolf now, and I don't want to, but that's the only option. But we don't tell anyone else. If anyone does, they don't have friends anymore. Clear?"

Again, everyone nodded.

"Do you swear?" I asked.

Owl moved first and put his hand out flat, palm down. I put mine out above his. And one by one everyone else added their hand on top of Owl's.

Owl nodded.

"Okay, we've all sworn. Anyone talks, they have no friends anymore or ever again."

I added, “Listen up, Owl’s going to tell you his story.”

And everyone listened as Owl recounted the story about the school and the midnight delivery and the strange goings on and Wolf’s Dad.

“Alright then,” Owl said as he finished, “The let’s go find Wolf, and go watch them close school down.”

I shook my head. Owl was so sure he was right. I was more worried about how many things could now get us in real trouble, but nobody was listening to me.

We met Wolf at the Safehope Bluff K to 12 Public School. The town wasn't big enough to have a separate school for the high school grades. All the classes had multiple grade levels. We were all in the class for grades seven through nine, taught by Professor Tuttle.

Wolf was sitting on the grass by the soccer field when we showed up. He waved and stood up as we got close. Wolf stood almost half a head above me, and nearly a full head above Owl and the girls. He was half a year younger than me, but he looked three years older. Wolf was thirteen and already had to shave nearly every day. Puberty was weird.

"Hey Buds." Wolf said as we approached.

"Hey." I said back.

"Wolf, I got something important to ask you. Promise you won't get angry?" Owl said.

We were all good friends with Wolf, but even people who liked Wolf were normally a little scared of him.

Owl always carried his sheath knife if he was able. Wolf, as far as I knew, never carried a weapon. Wolf was a weapon. Wolf's Dad was mean with Wolf's training, but as a result of the training, Wolf was the toughest kid I had ever met. He was strong, fast, and ruthless when fighting. I had only seen him fight once. I think everybody had only seen him fight once.

When Wolf was in the fifth grade, a seventh grader had tried to pick on a kindergartener, and Wolf had objected. The Seven grader and tried to push Wolf over. And then the Seventh grader was on the ground and Wolf was pounding him. Wolf had been suspended, but so had seventh grader after he was let out of the hospital. The family moved away right after that, apparently to get away from Wolf- because there kid was so scared of him.

Wolf gave Owl an amused look, "Tell me anyway."

Wolf's answer didn't make Owl look any happier, but he nodded and told his story. I watched Wolf and noticed that as Owl talked, Wolf actually began to look worried.

When Owl finished his story he looked at Wolf and asked, "So does any of that make sense to you?"

"My dad walked me to school today." Wolf said.

I couldn't imagine Wolf's Dad walking anyone to school, let alone his own son.

"He's in the school right now, with Mrs. Winter. They've been meeting for a couple of weeks now. I though he was hitting on the old lady, and so I didn't talk about it."

Viper shook her head, "Your dad is weird Wolf."

Wolf continued, "He's also been going to shops all over town, talking to store owners. He takes me on Sundays to help carry stuff, boxes mostly. But he makes me wait outside while he talks. It's creepy. Especially after what you told me."

"What's in the boxes he makes you carry?" Raven asked.

"I don't know. They're normally pretty big and heavy cardboard boxes, and they're always taped up really crazy. Couldn't open one without a box cutter or a grenade," Wolf said.

"Did the boxes make any noise when you lifted them?" Russell asked.

Wolf thought for a second, "Some of them did. Some of them sounded like they had baseballs in them, other ones sounded like they had sand or something."

Owl crossed his arms and looked over to the gymnasium.

"Our gym is filled with a tonne of stuff, and we can't use it. Adults are being sneaky all over the place. We need to find out what is going on."

"It's only Wolf's Dad that we know of, are sure we need to be this worried?"

Owl nodded.

Russell broke in, "We need to get Wolf to swear to secrecy too."

"Wolf already is. Wolf wouldn't blab if you beat him up. I know, I've seen it tried." I said, thinking about the times I'd seen Wolf get trained by his Dad. Wolf's Dad would bark questions at Wolf that were not of his business. Wolf never answered, and sometimes I thought that was the reason Wolf's Dad did it. Other times I thought Wolf's Dad just enjoyed being scary.

Wolf grinned at me.

Owl spoke up again, "Look, you guys don't need to help me figure this out. I can't force you, obviously. But I am going to find out. And when you want to know, you can ask and maybe I'll tell you, maybe I won't."

"Okay, smart guy. How are you going to figure this out?" Viper asked, hands on hips.

"I'm going to get into the Gym and see what's in the boxes and I'm going to find out what Wolf's Dad is delivering to the stores."

"You're going to get all of us in trouble." I said.

"Only if I get caught."

"They're adults. You're not. They have all the advantages. You'll get caught. That's what happens to all snoopy kids except the Scooby-Doo Gang." I said.

It was almost time for the school bell to ring. Other kids were milling around, although none of them got close enough for me to worry that they could overhear our conversation.

I could see Skunk across the field, we locked gaze and he glared at me without moving. I looked away and noticed that Mrs. Winter had opened the door and was standing in front of the main entrance to the School. Standing behind her were the other teachers. Standing beside her was Wolf's Dad.

My blood ran cold.

"Guys, look." I said.

Everyone looked, and I heard Raven actually gasp.

"I told you." Owl said.

"Don't say that like its a good thing." I answered.