Exodus Chapter Six

Chapter Six
Pulp and Paper
 

Raven was always the group's peace maker. When Owl and I got into fights, Raven helped us patch things up. When Viper and Wolf clashed early on in their friendship, Raven helped them find common ground. Every time Owl and Viper got into a fight, it was Raven who sat them down to talk it out. The one time Wolf and I got in a fight and weren't talking to each other, it was Raven who convinced us that we were being morons.

So, I wasn't surprised when Raven called and told me that her parents had invited us kids for a dinner and games night. Raven's parents were both peace makers types themselves, and they had probably supported the idea. But our parents weren't invited, so I knew who was behind the dinner. Raven was trying to fix the group again. And a good thing too; because with strong personalities like Viper and Owl, sometimes our group was like a jack hammer in a pogostick race. Thing got a little bit shaky.

Raven called fairly early, so I had the whole day to myself before I needed to head out. I spent a bunch of my time playing Civilization on my computer. It was cold in the house and so I wrapped myself up in a couple blankets while I played. I was deep in a war with the Russians, when my mother walked in.

"Child of mine, I need you to shut off the computer unless you're doing something desperately important."

By now I didn't need to ask why, "Alright mom. Is that why the house is cold?"

She nodded, "Bundle up, because this is as warm as things will get for the next little while."

I nodded. I wondered what this felt like for the other kids. I had several adults in the know who from whom I got information- even if not always on purpose. I got to attention the town council meetings, even if the were frequently very boring. Other kids probably didn't have a clue why they couldn't play their video games or turn up the heat. How were they handling it? How would you?

With most of my usual distractions off the table, I looked for something to do. I considered watching the news again. But when I went to the living room, I saw a note on the television that said: 'Don't Use by order of your wife/mother! This means you!'

So I went back to my room and ran my fingers across the books on my bookshelf and browsed through the titles. Eventually I grabbed 'Lord of the Flies' off the shelf. I hadn't read it before, it had been a gift from my Aunt Janine who was a High School English Teacher. She had told me it was a classic about human nature and that seemed appropriate these days.

So I sat down on my bed and wrappd myself back up in piles of blankets and started reading. The book was about these kids who crash on a deserted island, and have to try and survive without the adults. They kind of hold it together in the beginning by having council meetings using a conch shell as a horn. But then they kind of go savage one by one.

The book definitely wanted me to see the kids who go wild and savage as having failed. But I noticed something that even the author was willing to admit. The kids who went savage were the one who hunted and the ones who managed to keep finding food.

The author had the wild kids hunt the last few kids who didn't want to go wild, but I couldn't figure out why. The kids kept hallucinating and it seemed kind of contrived. He definitely wanted the wilderness and the wild kids to be seen as some kind of bogey-men. And then an adult arrives and puts everything back as it should be.

I thought about the adults I knew and how they were acting. It seemed like the people on council were acting like the savages from the book. And I wondered, what if the guy who wrote this book got things backwards?

Raven lived in South End in a tan one story house. They had a vegetable garden in the front yard. Raven's dad worked with Kids from the local tribal reservation, helping them get their high school diploma and helping them get jobs and stuff like that. Raven's dad was really nice, he served as Chief for a little while, but stepped down when he said the politics were getting nasty. Raven's Dad wasn't tall, but he he seemed taller when he asked you questions. He wore sweater vests all the time and had a salt and pepper grey moustache. Raven's Mom was the only psychologist in town. She had an office on the hill that called her a Career Counsellor, because people didn't like to make appointments otherwise. She was a really tall big blonde lady who was always smiling and wore flower print everything.

Raven's Mom only went to work when she had people scheduled to talk to. The rest of the time she worked in the vegetable garden. Both Raven's front and back yards were pretty much all vegetable gardens. Raven had to play somewhere else.

We all trickled into the Raven’s House. Viper was already there when I arrived. she gave me a cold ‘hello’, so I guess I was in trouble too for being either Owl’s friend or a boy. Owl arrived second and Viper simply refused to say anything or even look at him until Raven’s Mom gave Viper a significant look. Owl got a ‘hi’ so cold and unemotional, he almost didn’t manage a response. Wolf and Russell arrived nearly at the same time and got the same response I did. Raven was her usual self when she was set on fixing the group again: happy and supportive.

But after this awkward start Raven’s Mom, ushered us into the dining room to get right to dinner, probably sensing that nobody was going to be enjoying meaningful conversation right now anyway.

Raven's Dad listened as quietly through most of the dinner. He only spoke up when Raven used Professor Tuttle's three questions on her mother regarding desert.

"Sweetie, where did you learn those questions?"

"From Professor Tuttle dad."

"Hmm. And did he he answer the second question?"

"What do you mean dad?"

Raven's Dad grinned, "Well, you definitely learned the lesson. I meant, did he tell you how he knows about the three questions."

We both shook our heads.

"Ask him who taught him when he went to Safehope School."

"Was it you, dad?"

"Ask him."

"Sir," I asked, "Do you not like him?"

"I like him better when he stood for something."

"What do you mean, Dad?"

"Did you know you know that Mr. Tuttle got into quite a bit of trouble in 2001 for things he had written about the violence inherent in government. He was a big shot Professor at a University out east, and the government took him in for questioning. We didn't hear from him for weeks. And when we did, he'd resigned from the University and come back to Safehope. He wouldn't talk about it, and most people were so happy to have a local celebrity come home that they didn't ask."

"Dad, why don't you teach at the school anymore?"

"The same reason that I don't run for Band Chief any more. Too many battles to do too little good. I tried for years in the school system and years with the local band. And I just burned out. I couldn't stop helping people, but I got tired of doing it wrapped in bureaucratic red tape. I just sit on the the council and occasionally try to act as the voice of reason."

"Are you mad at Professor Tuttle for not telling us that you taught him?"

"No, not really. Just a little disappointed. I'm too tired to be mad at this point."

“You seemed almost mad the other day with my Dad, sir. What was it that upset you?” Wolf asked.

"I have to admit, I was highly disturbed by how Wolf's father behaved yesterday. I've been looking for allies willing to speak at the town council to undercut the false perception he's trying to create of broad support. He doesn't have support outside his own Union, and they do not represent a majority of the town. They're loud. Loud is not necessarily correct."

“So who’s on your side dad?’

"I've got Mr. and Mrs. Butters, the folks who run the Mr. Pickle Diner lined up to speak at the next town meeting. I think I've convinced Mr. Nottingham- your Vice Principal- and the other families who collectively own the movie theater on the mayor's side as well."

“So you think that will help?” Raven asked.

"I really dislike the idea of this breaking down into simple binary us versus them, but sadly your father isn't giving us an option. He's taking a page from the father of Alexander the Great- Phillip of Macedon."

“What did he do sir?” Wolf asked.

"Phillip would conquer territory, and then go to the negotiating table. And while he was negotiating, his armies would occupy more territory and conquer new land. And this would force people into a defensive mindset and they would end up making concessions that they would not have made if they had been ready for the assault. Their guard was down because they assumed that Phillip would negotiate in good faith."

“So my dad is lying to other people?” Wolf asked.

"Your father has made it abundantly clear that he considers the current events to be a military campaign. A battle. And every negotiation, every conversation is a military engagement that he believes that he must win. And everyone who is not an ally, or one of what he perceives as his troops is therefore his enemy. And he doesn't play fair against an enemy."

“My dad doesn’t really play at all. He tried to teach me chess once. It wasn’t a game- it was strategy training. He wanted me to be friends with Owl so that I could learn hunting or something from Owl’s Dad.”

“My dad isn’t such a good teacher.” Owl said quietly.

“Not true,” Raven’s Dad said,” Your father was very active in the community, both Safehope and on the Reservation for a number of years.”

“Okay, but he’s not such a good teacher now.”

"I never did find out what caused him to start drinking. He didn't drink as a young man, which is impressive in itself. The environment he grew up in didn't exactly embrace sobriety."

"Sobriety?" Owl said.

"Staying sober. Alcohol is an easy method of hiding from problems and feeling better easily."

"Is that why you never drink?" Raven asked.

"I have my own reasons for never drinking. We’ve worked hard to prevent alcoholism on the reservation, with pretty solid success. The track record across the country isn’t very encouraging. If you put people in a situation where they feel without hope and feel they have no method of improving their situation, they will look for solace. So we’ve worked at giving people hope and helping them feel as though they can have an impact on their own lives. But still, no solution is perfect. Owl's grandfather was quite a drinker, and so I was always impressed by the fact that Owl's dad stayed dry for as long as he did. But something broke him. I don't know what exactly, I never managed to get that out of him. But one day life handed him something he couldn't cope with, and he retreated to the only escape that would protect him."

"Do you think it was the divorce?" Owl asked quietly.

"Oh, your parents aren't divorced. They're just separated, but legally they're still married. But no, I don't think it was the separation. I think whatever broke him may have contributed to their separation. His drinking certainly didn't help their marriage."

"But why couldn't he fix it?"

"Without knowing what broke him, I couldn't say. I've always believed that something changed his worldview. That something betrayed his sense of how the world worked and he couldn't recover from it. He's always been very ashamed of his drinking, but he clings to it despite all attempts to help him."

"So, he's never going to get better?"

"I have no idea. Not knowing what broke him makes it very hard for me to guess at whether anything could fix him."

The conversation kind of ran out of steam there and we finished the dinner, not exactly in silence, but with only banter and small talk between our mouthfuls of homemade mac and cheese. Everyone always had to help with the post dinner clean up. But after that, we were set to the basement games room with a meaningful look directed to Owl and Viper by Raven’s Mom.

Viper wasn’t having any of it and sat looking stoically at the floor. After a long silence, Owl started talking.

"Look, I'm sorry. I haven't been trying to make you angry."

"Tell Owl that whether he tried or not, he definitely did make me angry and I'm not interested in talking to him or listening to excuses." Viper deliberately faced away.

"That's awfully lame." Wolf commented. Viper glared at him.

"Well maybe I'm not talking to you either then."

Wolf shrugged.

"This is stupid. You know me, you know who I am. Why are acting like what I like and what I want are suddenly a surprise." Owl said.

"Would somebody tell Mr. Cowboy hat that I'm not the stupid one who doesn't know how to live in the real world." Viper said.

"Last time I checked you thought the real world ended at the edge of town."

"Somebody here needs to realize he's a baby who does want to grow up."

"Have you looked at how the grown ups are acting? They're terrified that I'm right."

"At least they don't want the world to end."

"Have you been listening? The world doesn't end at your dumb picket fence!"

"Stop this right now!" Raven's voice cracked, she wasn't yelling, but she was loud enough that owl and Viper stopped right away.

"You guys are being mean for no reason." She turned to Viper, "You know how important this is to him. He's scared he'll turn out like his Dad! And you aren't being fair to him."

And spun around back to Owl, "And you know she's right. If the world goes bad like everyone's afraid, then a lot of people are going to get hurt. And maybe even die. And that's not good. It's bad. So of course most people aren't happy that it may be about to happen. And you're being stupid for not listening to people when they say that."

"You know this.” Raven continued, “I shouldn't have to tell you guys this. Remember when we had to play Pioneer Town when were little? Because Viper wanted to play 'House' and Owl wanted to play 'Hunter'? This isn't new."

I interjected in the pause, "The problem isn't what you guys want. The problem is that all the fear and backstabbing that the adults are doing is driving us crazy."

"And everyone thinks somebody else knows something or is spying on somebody." Wolf added.
"Who's supposed to be spying?" Raven asked.
"Well, we are, for Bart." I pointed out, "But apparently Mrs. Winters has her own group of kids who are spying for her. And some of the other kids think Viper is one of them."

"What? I am not! Who said that?" Viper's voice rose as she spoke.

"Well, Skunk said it first." Wolf admitted.

"And you did compliment Wolf's Dad." I added carefully.

"That doesn't make me a spy!"

"We're all spies. That's not the point. The point here is whether one of us is a double spy." Owl said, "I think its safe to say that none of us are. But why don't we prove it to each other, and maybe get some real information for Bart at the same time."

"Diggity." Wolf said.

"What were you thinking?" I asked.

"We sneak into the school and look in Mrs. Winters' office for information."

"She isn't just going to leave that lying around." Viper said dismissively.

Raven shook her head, "Mrs. Winters writes down everything. She's one of those crazy organized people who can draw perfect straight lines without a ruler. She would have it written down. And the school is closed. It would be a great place to hide stuff."

"So, we're breaking into the Principal's office now?" Viper crossed her arms.

"What? Now you don't want to know what's really going on?"

"This is bigger though. I mean we could actually get in trouble for this." Viper said.

"I'm always in trouble." Owl said, he was grinning again.

Viper was very quiet for a minute.

"alright fine. But you and I are friends and nothing more."

"Were we more than friends before?" Owl asked, clearly surprised by the idea.

"No, because you're a moron." Viper said, arms crossed.

It was always crazy easy to sneak away from Raven’s parents. They were really good people, and they expected the best from people. That was part of their jobs I guess. They saw the best, or at least the good in everyone. It helped them them win people’s trust, it also let them down every so often.

We snuck out the back way. The plan was pretty simple. Sneak into the school and get a look at Mrs. Winters’ office. It was a stupid plan I guess, but the only other option would have been trying to sneak into the office in Wolf’s house where his dad kept papers. None of us were going to do that.

Mrs. Winters was nowhere near as scary as Wolf’s dad.

We stuck to the back streets, not too far of the main road. Owl could find his way around at night like nobody’s business, but the rest of us weren’t as good at this sneaky thing. I could see Owl wince whenever we kicked a stone or stepped on something loose.

We were getting close to the school when a low whistle stopped us cold. I turned and looked up and back in the direction of the whistle and saw Mouse looking at us from his window. He had binoculars in his hands. He waved, and then gave a shushing motion with his finger and disappeared from the window.

A few minutes later he reappeared at the back door.

“What are you guys doing? I’m watching out for suspicious activity. You know. Like you dad told us to.” Mouse said, looking at Wolf as he finished up.

Owl glanced back at Wolf and me, “We’re looking for clues too. We’re looking for answers.”

“Cool. Like what?” Mouse asked.

“Nothing solid yet.” I said, before the others could speak, “We’ll tell you if it’s anything cool. We don’t want to disappoint Wolf’s Dad if it turns out to be nothing.”

Mouse nodded, and grinned really big. Owl put a finger to his lips, and Mouse nodded and gave a thumbs up. He closed the door and we kept moving.

Everything went pretty normal until we reached the school. Even from the wooded area beside the school, we could see men patrolling the school grounds. They were all big men, and it was a safe bet that they were all part of the Pulp and Paper Union.

Owl changed when we got to the school grounds. He seemed to transform. I knew that Owl really liked the outdoors, the woods. And I knew that he was uncomfortable with everyday life. But as I watched him start to move across the field, I began to really understood just how much at home Owl was in the wild places.

Owl seemed to breathe with his whole body, slowly and gently. And as I watched, he seemed to fade into the darkness. I could see him, but only because I knew where he had been before. Even in regular clothes, even with his cowboy hat, he seemed entirely a part of his surroundings.

I watched the deer as the feed on the school field.

Owl looked back at me and shook his head.

"Don't look at them. They can tell." Owl whispered to me.

A deer raised its head to look in our direction and we stayed as still as possible.

"How can they tell?" I asked in an even lower whisper.

"No idea, but they can tell every time. You have to think like you're grass or a rock or a tree. You can't think like a person. They can tell."

We all waited in silence until Owl began moving again, and then we followed- keeping our eyes averted and trying to mimic Owl's movements as best we could. He was a shadow in a dark room. We... weren't.

Fortunately the deer seemed not to notice the sounds of our footfalls, no matter how loud they sounded to me.

Occasionally I would steal glances up at the school we were approaching. The lights were all off, but we could hear the heavy footsteps of men in boots.

We held close to the tree line that ran up to the school, staying in shadow and moving slowly. The school loomed liked a fortress or a prison in front of us, a pile of sharp and ominous shadows wrapping around the building like a cloak.

We could see flashlight beams swinging back and forth at the other side of the school, near the gym. They weren't close, but we froze whenever they swung in our direction.

When we finally reached the school itself, we paused for breath and Viper tried the door.

“It’s locked genius.” She said. “Now what do we do?”

“Can anyone pick a lock?” I asked as a joke.

“Nope, but I can climb.” Owl motioned to the windows. The windows in the school were big picture windows that didn’t open. But above those windows were smaller windows that swung upon for ventilation. And one of those windows had been left open just a crack by somebody when the school was locked up and closed down.

“Need a boost bud?” Wolf asked.

Owl nodded and Wolf interlaced his hands and cupped them for Owl to step on. Owl climbed up, but it was too low even with Owl’s boost.

Raven whispered, “If you stand on their shoulders you should reach.”

“Who’s they?” Wolf asked.

“You and Rabbit.”

I shook my head and stepped up. Owl adjusted until he was awkwardly balanced on our shoulders. Now Owl is a really skinny kid, but that’s still heavy and Owl still wears cowboy boots. It hurt, no lie. But Owl could just reach the window and, after scrambling a little to pull the thing open, he was able to squeeze that skinny body of his through the window and down into the classroom.

Then we waited and tried to think about the fact that we were rocks or grass or anything but kids out too late in a place they weren’t supposed to be that was guarded by adults doing things other adults didn’t like. We could hear heavy footsteps getting closer.

“What’s taking Owl so long?” Wolf whispered.

“We’re being stupid. What’s he going to do? Get a ladder?” Viper suddenly whispered.

“What?” I asked.

“There aren’t any doors from the classrooms, other than the fire escape doors. And we know that the fire alarms go off if you use those.”

Wolf nodded, “Yeah Skunk found that out.”

“So where’s Owl?” I asked.

Viper pointed, “At the main entrance.”

And right about then a flashlight beam appeared around the corner. We froze.

“Into the bushes!” Viper whispered, “No! Not back there! The ones against the school!”

She pointed at the nasty prickly shrubs that lined the school. Wolf shrugged and dove in. Raven and I squirmed after him. And Viper followed close after.

Moments later, a big black figure- backlit against his own flashlight- stomped past our hiding place.

He stopped a feet away as a another figure came from the other direction.

Viper whispered, “We’re rocks.”

We all nodded and tried to be rocks.

“You got a match? Or a lighter?” The first figure said.

“The Principal doesn’t like us smoking on school grounds.” The second figure replied.

“It’s not like there’s going to be any kids here for a long time.”

“I know that. And so does she. She thinks its a safety hazard.”

“I’m not going to be lighting anything on fire other than a cigarette. Do you have a match?”

“Yeah, fine. Take the whole book. If the place explodes because you were a moron, I don’t want them thinking it was my fault.”

“Yeah, alright coward. If I somehow manage to detonate the whole stockpile, I won’t tell them who gave me the match.”

We heard the shuffling of cloth and then the sound and light of somebody striking a match. And finally the two figure turned and went back the way they had come.

Once they were out of sight, we crept to the main entrance and found Owl peering through a crack in the door. He let us in and we made our way to Mrs. Winters’ office. Mrs. Winter had always taught the class for students in grades ten to twelve. Her office was the last room on the left, right next to the gymnasium- now warehouse.

Mrs. Winter's office was always sticky to touch clean and always always smelled like chemical lemons and tinfoil on the teeth. Her desk was not the comfortable old wooden desks that the other teachers favored. Instead, Mrs. Winter held court behind a heavy welded steel desk that was painted a spearmint green and looked like it had escaped from some war movie briefing room.

The only decoration were two winter blue painted bookshelf with piles of big heavy books. The  shelves were also metal and built to withstand artillery fire. On these shelves were packed books full of political theory, behavioral science, disciplinary theory, management strategy, and several translations of Sun Tzu's "On the Art of War". The books had titles that talked about Illuminati, and Rosicrucian's and Knights Templar and the Rothschild family. They had pictures of world maps, and pyramids with eyes, and old men in suits. The dust jackets talked about world conspiracies and secret governments and world domination plans. The books were generally hard covers with black dust jackets and ominous covers.

Mrs. Winter wasn't just scary, she was crazy scary.

Wolf looked at me and whispered, "You think she believes this stuff?"

I shrugged.

"I can't even pretend to imagine how her brain works."

The walls were white and had nothing decorating them. The windows had blackout curtains between the blinds and the windows. All the other teacher's office lights were hanging lights with big frosted glass globes to diffuse the light from the light bulbs. But Mrs. Winter had actually removed the glass globe and left the bare bulb hanging above her desk to cast harsh light over everything and cut shadows across the room.

There was a saying in town, one the adults said when they thought us kids couldn't hear them. Winter froze her man into Summer's bed. We had a pretty good idea what it meant. It definitely explained why Mrs. Winter seemed to hate men and boys more than she hated everyone else.

The only thing that we didn't know, was who Summer was supposed to be. The adults didn't seem to know either. I didn't know anybody in town named Summer, either as a first or a last name. It had to be a nickname, or maybe the gossips just added it to make the joke work and the real name got lost in the mix.

We dug through the books on her shelves and the files in her desk and her filing cabinet. She had lists of every child that she considered ‘problems’, they were almost all boys. We were just about ready to give up, when Viper began taking hard cover books off the shelves and started pulling dust jackets off.

“What are you doing?” Raven asked.

“When I got books that my parents didn’t like…”

“Like that horrible vampire book?” Raven grinned.

Viper stuck her tongue out at her friend and continued, “When I got books that my parents didn’t like, I would put dust jackets from other books on them to hide them. Ah-hah! This isn’t World History!”

Underneath a dust jacket for “The Rise and Fall of Great Nations”, was a hard cover notebook. Viper laid it on the table, and flipped it open.

“Did she make a table of contents for her own notebook?” Wolf asked.

“Yup.” I nodded.

“Let’s see here,” Raven started reading “Crisis and laying the foundation with preparation… Consolidation and how to place allies into positions of power… Survival and how to last the early shortages… Order and how to build a new civilization… The Illuminati and other enemies… Balkanization and how to use isolation to prevent outside interference…”

“This is really creepy,” Viper said.

“Yeah, why would anyone go along with this?” Raven flipped through the book, “She’s trying to make her own little empire here according to this book. She’s been hoping for a crisis for years now, and she’s planning to use this to reshape things to the way she wants them. What’s this? ‘Possible allies and how to sway them to your cause’. Okay, here she talks about using the fear of disorder and collapse to make her actions seem righteous and necessary to others. Well, she says that showing them the results of disorder will convince them of her rightness. But it’s the same thing.”

“That makes sense.” Wolf said.

“It does?” I asked in surprise.

"My dad is retired army. This is the only way he understands. He served as a peacekeeper in other countries. He was used to setting rules and making people obey them. He likes things in neat little lines, under control. And then mom got a lump in her brain. The size of a walnut. She lost who she was. I didn't know my mom. She couldn't control herself and dad couldn't control the situation except to keep her out of sight. And then, when she died and he, and he, he couldn't save her- he said he would make sure nobody died because he couldn't do anything every again."

"I'm so sorry."

"This is what Winter used get him on side. She made him see this as a way to save people, and now they're doing this. And I think they’re going to make things worse."

"I think this was always going to get worse."

"Winter won't help though. How long do you think she's been planning for this?"

"Judging from this book? For as long as she's been teaching, maybe longer."

Owl looked at Viper. He didn’t say anything, and she didn’t either. They just kind of stared at each other. I couldn’t tell if this was them finally understanding each other or if they were still fighting. But as they stood looking at each other, a flashlight beam spotlighted them through the dusty glass.

“Hey! Who’s in there?”

“Crap!”

“Run!”

“Take the book!”

“No leave it!”

“Put it back in the jacket!”

“No time!”

“They’ll know we know!”

“Only if we get caught! Better they know somebody knows and we escape, than for them to know we snuck in at all.”

“Right! Go!”

And we ran. We bolted out of the office and scrambled out the door into the field before the guards could get around to the entrance we had used.

We were sprinting full throttle into the trees, sending deer everywhere when the guards came around the corners.

“That way! Follow them!”

“Did you see them?”

“Nothing clear! Go!”

And we kept running. Branches scraped at my face and I kept stumbling on loose rocks until we finally came out the other side of the woods. For a moment I thought we were in the clear, and then I heard the crackle of a radio ahead of us. I could hear the guards pushing through the trees behind us.

“Follow me!” Owl hissed and suddenly turned and sprinted off. We followed him as best we could. Owl was fast and we were having trouble keeping up. All around us now we could hear movement. As we moved, I realized where Owl was going. He was heading us back towards Bart’s office.

“Everyone down! Flat on your bellies!” Owl hissed, motioning us into the ditch by the road. We lay flat and still, and waited for whatever Owl had noticed. I could hear the sounds of hundreds, probably thousands of insects. I could hear the sounds of people, but not close by, as they spoke to each other- clearly searching for something. I couldn’t hear anything that sounded like a threat, but I did trust Owl.

Viper clearly didn’t agree though.

“This is stupid. You are so stupid, look what you got us into.” She whispered, “And now we’re hiding from nothing, after we’ve got away. I am not playing anymore. I’m going home.”

Viper started to get to her feet, but Owl grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back down sharply.

Viper glared at him and opened her mouth to say something. And then a flashlight beam swept across the street and across the ditch we lay flattened. We were all silent as a huge black figure walked up the street, backlight by the flashlight. The flashlight beam moved across the ditch again, and I was certain we’d been seen. But the figure kept walking, and I realized that the shadows of the ditch had hidden us from his view.

“We need to tell Bart about this. “ Owl said quietly, “With luck, he can hide us. I don’t think that they’ve identified us.”

And so we went. Moving from shadow to shadow. Staying away from lit lamp posts. Hiding whenever union members passed by. I hadn’t realized how many people were acting on order from Wolf’s Dad until I had to hide from them.

We all paused between two buildings as the sound of footrprints got closer. Owl pointed to the tree line at the edge of main street, where the town met the woods. We all ran for the cover of the trees.

The dark concealing shadows of the forest were almost within reach when the ground sled out from under me as my foot hit a round stone and turned in the wrong direction. I hit the asphalt and rolled with  it, coming up on my hands and knees and scrambling in to the shadows. But the stone had skipped off across the road, and the footsteps were closing in.

We huddled in the concealing darkness as the large black human shape approached and switched on a flashlight. The beam scanned across the trees. I don't know about the others, but I was thinking very intently about how I was a rock, just a very large rock.

Time seemed to slow down, as the flashlight passed back and forth, seemingly far too many times. And then then the silence was broken by a hoot from the trees.

"hoo hoo ho-ho, hoo hoo ho-hoooooaw"

The flashlight beam darted upwards to reveal a barred owl, with its round earless head and brown feathers spattered with white. The owl twisted its head impossibly and called again.

"hoo ho-ho, hoo ho-hoooooaw"

The figure with the flashlight grunted, and shurgged its shoulders, and then turned and walked away.
"That owl is my hero." Viper whispered.

We crept across town to Bart's office. As we got within sight of it, I noticed that no lights were on.

"Nobody's there." I whispered.

"Of course not," Viper said, "It's way too late. He'll be at home- where we should be."

"So now what?" Wolf asked, "I don't want to explain this to my dad."

As we stared up at the darkened building, a beam of  light swept across us and we froze.

"Got you! Did you think you were going to get away with your spying?"

I froze. I didn't know what to do, know that we had been caught. I didn't know the man before us, couldn't even see his face behind the glare of the flashlight.

Viper whispered to us, as the figure approached, "We use this, where we are. We use it as cover. Your dad wanted us to spy for him. So we were spying for him. On Bart."

"let's hope that works." Owl whispered.

"Your plan didn't leave us many other options." Viper whispered back.

"I ought to beat you blue for the spying you little brats did."

He waved the heavy steel flashlight menacingly. And then a second flashlight beam swept across us and across the man interrogating us.

"What is going on here?" A second voice asked, and Professor Tuttle strode out of the shadows in full teacher and disciplinarian mode.

"Hey Professor. I got our spies right here."

Professor Tuttle turned and regarded us gravely. Then he shook his head and turned back to the man with the flashlight.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because they were out at night, and they shouldn't be."

Tuttle turned back to look at us.

"You are correct that the children are out at night. And you are likely correct that their parents would probably not approve. But that does not mean that they were the ones trespassing in the school. The children are a long way from the school. How do you know that they were 'spying'?"

"I guess I don't know for sure, do I?" He said sullenly.

"That's correct. You don't. Now that does not mean that you are wrong, but it does mean that we should look closer. Perhaps the children have a reason to explain why they were out."

Wolf looked grim, but sounded calm as he spoke, "We have a report to give to my dad."
"Hey! I know you. You're the boss's kid.” The figure straightened and then chuckled, "Little soldiers huh? Well let's get you to him then." The man turned and looked up a Bart's offices, and then spat. Then he turned and marched off, signalling for us to follow with a stiff armed wave.

The union guy who found us, brought us back to the school. As he walked us through the hallways I saw a light on in one of the classrooms. And I could hear Mrs. Winter’s voice.

“I don’t have all night. You are going to explain yourself, or there will be repercussions far beyond just yourself young man.”

I couldn’t see into the classroom, and we kept walking we were in Vice Principal Nottingham’s office. Wolf father stood at ease, military style with his back to us. The union guy cleared his throat.

“Sir, your son and his friends. They were found by that punk Bart’s offices when we were out searching. They said that they had news for you.”

He didn’t turn around, he just nodded. The union guy took this as his cue and left us, closing the door behind him. Only then did Wolf’s dad turn around. He seemed a little surprised to see the girls, but recovered quickly.

"What have you heard, men? I assume you were out at night looking for information.”

We paused and looked at each other. Did we tell him about Bartholomew and his secret tribe? No, of course not. But, and I could see this in the fear on Wolf and Owl's faces, we all knew we had to tell him about something. And he expected us to have news.

“Honestly sir,” Wolf said, “Tonight was a bit of a bust. We couldn’t get into his office. And then your guy caught us.”

“What made you think that you could break in?” He asked.

“Well sir, you wanted to know about him. I didn’t think it would be too hard.” Owl said.

“He’s right,” Viper chimed in, “We talked to him before and the office is a total mess. It doesn’t look like he keeps anything clean. I couldn’t imagine he has much in the way of security. I mean the sign says there are cameras, but I don’t think they even work.”

Wolf’s Dad actually chuckled at this. And I realized that Viper was playing on his expectations to keep us safe. I was actually starting to feel a little safer at that point, and then he asked, "And what about what Mr. Bartholomew said earlier? You said you managed to speak to him when his office was open."

"He tried to fink out on the bike bell offer." I answered, hoping to draw Mr. Wolf away from the dangerous topics.

“And?” He asked.

“He thinks you’re the villain sir. He wants to expose you as the bad guy sir.” Wolf said.

“That doesn’t surprise me. And what else?

Viper chimed in again, “Well this may be off topic, but earlier Professor Tuttle talked about how the whole world was run on spider webs stretched from one place to another."

His eyebrows went up a little bit.

"Did he elaborate on this?"

"Yeah, he said that everything that we depended on was there because these of these spiderwebs, and if the strands of the web fell we would start to lose the fun things that we were used to having. I got the sense that he was trying to warn us that things could get really tough."

Mr. Wolf was silent for a several long moments.

"I always dismissed Tuttle as too abstract. I may have to approach him and see where he stands. This is useful, thank you men. Why bring this up?"

“Well, because Bart was asking about it when we visited him.”

Wolf father narrowed his eyes when Viper said this, “That man is a perceptive annoyance. Anything else?”

"My dad says things are about to get bad, but I don't know if that counts for anything." Owl said quietly.

Mr. Wolf's face softened for a second, and he looked interested.

"Really? Did he say why?"

"He rambled a lot. I didn't catch all of it. But it sounded a lot like what Professor Tuttle and you said. He told me to be careful. Why would anything my dad says matter?"

"You dad used to be a really solid man, somebody you could rely on. Never held much in the way of a day job, but he helped everyone, provided for people with lower incomes. When Wolf was in diapers, and I was just working the line at the mill. We were short on money and short of food one winter, and your dad just showed up one snowy November night with half a white tailed deer worth of meat in a cooler. Didn't ask for anything in return, wouldn't accept anything but thanks."

"So why's my dad such a... the way he is now?"

"I don't know. He wouldn't talk about it. I remember when happened. He got beaten up by some of the Sumpter crowd just before he started drinking, but when I asked him about it, he always denied the two things were connected. he just said there was no point in trying anymore."

"Well he's said that if he's right, he's about to stop drinking."

"That would be good. I miss the man he was."

He paused for a moment.

“This is all useful. Nothing to disregard, but nothing shocking or amazing either. Do you have anything else? Anything that I can use? Anything of strategic value?”

I could see we weren’t getting out of here without giving up something good. But I couldn’t think of what we could give without looking bad ourselves.

“Well sir, Mr. and Mrs. Butters and Mr. Nottingham are going to side with Mayor Tailor at the next council meeting. Does that help?” Viper said cautiously.

It was the scariest thing, his eyes lit up like some Bond Villain about to activate his master plan.

“Yes. Yes, that is of strategic value. Alright men. You’ve done well. I’ll have to think on how best to use this intel, but you’ve done well.”

I squirmed, and I noticed that Raven looked sick. I could understand why, after all it was her dad who told us about Mr. Nottingham and Mr. and Mrs. Butters. I looked back up at Wolf’s Dad. He seemed lost in thought. We waited. He was silent a long time, and looked a little sad briefly- which surprised me. Then he spoke again.

"I have some bad news men. Your friend, the Mayor's son, was caught trying to spy on our operations."

"Russell?"

"Clearly, his father put him up to it. Mayor Tailor is a weak man who isn't up to the task of shepherding people through this crisis. He clearly sees our efforts as a threat to his power. You boy's shouldn't trust Mayor Tailor or his kid. He's a weak man, brittle like glass. Poke him and he can see cracks, push him and he shatters. He's still in our way. We need to outflank him if we're going to get into a position to protect the town and our way of life. His weakness could endanger us all. I'm going to have to take measures to limit his influence in the coming days."

"What about Russell?"

"Until further notice, Russell will be grounded and may not leave his house unless in the company of his parents. That is what his father told me when we delivered the boy back to his father."

"Are you sure he was spying?"

"Yes. The evidence is clear. I have my associate dealing him now."

I felt sick, it was becoming a familiar sensation these days. I should have said something, but then what? My mother would end up looking bad if I said anything. And nobody wanted to admit to Wolf's Dad that we weren't on his side. The thought of him angry was terrifying.

“You kids should get home. I appreciate the sacrifice you made, but you got caught and word may trickle back to your parents. I will instruct my men to forget that we found you. We have our spy in any event. But I don’t think it would be wise to deny anything if word does leak out. I expect you’ll be willing to endure a grounding for a greater cause if it comes to that?”

We all nodded quietly. He turned away and one of the union guys ushered us out of the room.

"My Dad is getting even scarier than usual." Wolf said as we left.

"Your dad was totally doing the Darth Vader thing. 'Join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!' He was trying to get us to turn dark side." I said.

“We already have turned to the dark side, or at least let the dark side do its thing.” Viper said bitterly.

“Do you see another way?” Wolf asked.

“With your dad? No!” Viper said.

"The thing is, he's one of the few adults that is telling us anything," Owl said, "He scares me, but he actually talks to us. What we found in Winter’s office scares me. But what if their right? I mean Bart talks all heroic, but he feels like he's playing us."

"I always feel like my Dad is playing with me." Wolf said.

"And Raven's Dad talks to us, so does Professor Tuttle and Mildred Sanger." I objected.

"The teachers don't tell you anything, they're playing with us too." Owl said, "And Raven's dad is nice, but what can he do?"

"He's got a lot of respect from the other adults." I said.

"Yeah, but no power." Owl said.

“We should warn Bart about what’s going on.”

“How much do we tell him?”

“I don’t know.”

The next morning, we met in front of the Mr. Pickle Diner, and I couldn’t help but notice that the diner wasn’t open. The closed sign was up. The light were off. A plywood board had been nailed across the plate glass window from the inside. And there was a sign taped to the window. The sign read: ‘Closed For Business Until Further Notice’.

None of us commented on the sign, or the fact that the diner was closed the morning after we had ratted out the Butters family to Wolf’s Dad. But we were all thinking it. We headed over to Bart’s office as soon as everyone arrived. Everyone except Russell, but we weren’t expecting Russell to show up. None of us had even tried to knock on the Tailor’s front door. We didn’t want to deal with that. Bart’s office was open, the ground floor empty, as before. We climbed to the second floor, and found him waiting for us.

"So what have my rebel crusaders discovered?" Bartholomew said with a colorful smile.

"My dad doesn't like you." Wolf said flaty.

"I knew that." he answered, still grinning.

"He was asking about you, point blank. He knew we were here and he wanted to know everything we knew." Owl added.

"And what did you end up telling him?" He was still smiling like a maniac.

"A little as we could," I added.

"You didn't reveal the secret tribe did you?"

"We don't think so."

“Where’s Mayor Tailor’s son? Isn’t he normally with you guys?”

“He was caught out at night last night, and was accused of spying on my Dad. He’s been grounded until further notice.”

Bart looked surprised, “How’d you hear about this?”

“We were out spying too. We got caught and told my dad that we were spying for him on you. It worked.”

Bart laughed.

“You find anything good then?”

“Mrs. Winter is crazy. Like conspiracy theory, secret governments and flying saucers crazy. She seems to want things to fall apart, so that her group can take power.”

Bart’s expression changed, “She actually wants things to fall apart?”

“That’s what it sounded like from her notes. We didn’t get to read much before we had to run though.”

“That changes things. That makes her very dangerous. Before we assumed that we could trust her to act like a civilized person. But if she wants things to break down, then she’s only going to pretend to play by society’s rules. That’s a scary thoughts my fellow crusaders. A very scary thought indeed.”

“But it’s not her in charge. That’s my dad- he’s the one with the power.”

“Are you so sure about that? I’m not.”

Bart closed his eyes and looked away from us for a moment, then he turned back around, “The theater, the diner and Maggie’s Apparel are boarded up with signs that say they’re closed until further notice. They were all allies on the Mayor’s side. His son is grounded. And now it looks like the other side isn’t playing by the same rule book that we are. I need to talk to the Mayor and we need to plan a response. This is all really good stuff. I won’t tell them where I got it, but good work. I need you guys to leave me alone to think before I head out to find Mayor Tailor, so I’ll talk to you later. That cool?”

We nodded and left him to his thoughts.

When we reached the front door Raven spoke, “Everyone is thanking us for acting like snitches. I feel like a total creep lately, like everyone we do hurts other people.”

“I agree,” I said, “And I don’t feel like this is making any more sense than before. The more we learn about what’s going on, the more it seems like everything is just falling apart. How can everything just fall apart?”

Viper shook her head, "It doesn't matter. We don't know what's causing all of this. Not really. We don't know for sure what's going wrong outside of our own little town. And we don't need to. I mean we can guess little bits of it, and every adults seems to have theories. Stuff isn't getting delivered where it should, and people can't buy, so people can't make money so stuff isn't getting fixed and people don't have enough. We know that, because that's happening here. We don't know what started it, but we aren't going to go fix that stuff, are we? So we can deal with what broke things later. We might never know, but we do need to know how to deal with it right here in our little town. If we don't we aren't going to have a little town left."

"Exactly," Owl said.

"No, don't you exactly me. You like this. Just like Mrs. Winter. You don’t want to become king, you just want an excuse to run away. But you still wanted this. You don't want this town to make it. I do. I want the house when I grow up, with a dog and a cat and a car and two girls and a white picket fence. You want a bush fort and a .22 hunting rifle."

"I have a dog," Owl said.

"So not the point. We all can see that something is going very wrong. Wolf's Dad and Mrs. Winter are scary people. But Mr. Tailor doesn't seem to know what to do. Rabbit's Mom is cool, and she's talking with Mrs. Winter. Maybe they are scary, but maybe we need scary."

"If my Dad is in charge, he'll run this place like an army base, Viper. He'll have you doing push ups and saying 'yes sir'. You know he will, that's all he knows anymore. Mom took something from him when she died. And you read Mrs. Winter’s notes. You even just said she wants let things fall to become king or queen or whatever."

"Maybe that's okay, if that’s what it takes to keep things together." Viper said, " Maybe we can’t save everything. But Mrs. Winter’s notes at least told us that she wants to save something. I'm not saying I like them. They both give me the creeps. I'm saying that I want Safehope Bluff to still be my town when this is over."

"And what if it's never over?" Owl asked.

"Everything is over eventually." Viper said.

"And what if it ends, and they've changed everything so much that it isn't your town anymore?" Raven asked.

"They couldn't do that." Viper said.

"My dad used to be Chief, remember?" Raven said, "It happened to us. This used to be a string of small tribal villages. And then new people arrived, and by the time it was done my Grandfather and Grandmother didn't live in a village, they lived on a reservation. Things can change, and then you look up and you don't recognize it anymore." Raven said quietly.

Nobody knew what to say at that point, and we were basically just wandering through town like shell shocked victims. As we turned a corner, I actually bumped right into Mildred Sanger coming from the opposite direction. She looked at us, and seemed to size us up quickly.

“This doesn’t look good.” She said, “What’s bothering you?”

“Everything,” Viper said.

“Nothing.” Owl said.

“My dad.” Wolf said.

“The town.” Raven said.

“We don’t really know.” I finished.

“This sounds big. I suspect, my advice to stay out of the way has gone unheeded.”

We didn’t answer.

“Very well. The diner is closed,” She said, “But you need a coffee break and somebody to listen to you, I suspect. So come with me, we’ll have tea at my house.”

We followed Mildred to her little cob brick cottage. Her parents had built one just like it when they arrived, and Mildred had apparently built her own when she turned eighteen. The house was dark with no overhead lights. Sunlight streamed in through carefully aimed windows to light the living room enough to see and read, but probably only on sunny days. The house seemed to have no sharp edges and no corners. Everything was rounded and smooth and made of cob brick: a material that looked a little like mud or clay. A few gaudy grandmother type lamps with bright colored glass shades sat unlit on end tables around the room. The place felt like a hobbit hole and a wizard's tower and a spider's lair all at once. And despite all this the house still felt like a grandmother owned it.

"From here, I need to know what's brought you to this point. I see you lot together most days. You stick together like a gang or a tribe, and so to see you fighting so fiercely is telling."

"What do you mean telling?" Raven asked.

"Friends and family normally accept each other and the differences of opinion that are inevitable. Mother doesn’t constantly point out that she thinks Father's need to upgrade the car each year is wasteful, and Father doesn't comment that he thinks Mother's cosmetics budget is excessive. But all of this changes when push comes to shove, when the situation turns tense, when people move from abundance to lack. Father gets laid off from his job and things change. Suddenly Mother is on Father's case about the car- and Father is on Mother's case about the cosmetics. What they could accept in times of plenty, they are less willing to accept in times of need."

"So what does that have to do with us?" I asked.

"And this is precisely my question to you." Mildred Sanger said.

We were quiet for a long time, and finally Viper spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you are in a time a lack, where things that you previously tolerated, you now find intolerable. In the details of what you are lacking, we will find the source of your problems. So what do you lack?"

"A way to fix things." Viper said.

"A way out." Owl said.

"Answers from the adults." I said.

"Good defenses against what's coming." Wolf added.

"Community spirit." Raven said.

Mildred laughed.

"There, you see? I think that you are all speaking of the same concern, but look how you frame it. Viper, our young scholar- wants information to repair what has been damaged. Owl of course, who sees the current way as being wrong and unjust- seeks a way to free his spirit. Rabbit seeks truth. Wolf, our young fighter- seeks strategy. And Raven, our peacemaker- seeks something to bring people back together."

"So what does that mean? If we all think we're missing different things?" Viper asked.

"It means you aren't looking deep enough. Each of you is drawing conclusions, based on what you value. What you think you lack, is lacking because something else is missing- something closer to the core of your problem."

"That's the problem." Owl answered, "We don't really know what that is. We know something big is going on. Stuff is running out. Professor Tuttle was talking about how these kind of spiderwebs connect factories and stores and stuff, and the other adults are talking about this like things are going wrong- like there being less oil than people thought and people panicking. But we don't know what exactly. It’s all so big and fuzzy and nobody can seem to spell it out for us."

"Those spider webs are called supply lines. And you are correct that you haven't reached the root of the problem. But have you reached deeper than previously. What you are all lacking is certainty, and this is caused by a shortage of basic necessities of modern life. Things haven't run out, but there is less than there was. You see the tension this causes with your parents and the other adults. You are not blind as your parents seem to have assumed. You can see that this shortage could last a long time, and could damage those things in your life that you value. Yes?"

"Well, yeah." Raven said.

"So the dispute was caused by that tension. You all have given different importance to different things, and as you become aware of problems which could limit can be done, you are less willing to accept the differing opinions of your friends, because after all that could mean that their preferences continue while your preferences are sacrificed as the problems get worse."

"Yeah, that sounds exactly right." Owl conceded.

"And of course, your parents are experiencing the exact same things. This is why they are arguing and jockeying for power and control. Nobody wants to be powerless when the shortage becomes severe and people are required to give up things in order to get by. Everyone is positioning themselves to protect what they value, because everyone can tell that bad times are coming."

"But can't we fix them?" Viper asked.

"Whether we can fix them isn't the question at the moment I'm afraid. The question is what will those people in power do in response to the situation? And additionally, who is in power?"

"That would be Mayor Tailor and Rabbit's mom for the most part. Wolf's Dad and Mrs. Winters are putting a lot of pressure on them lately though," Owl said, "They are all talking about shortages of stuff all over the place. They all seem to want to prepare for when the shortages get really bad, but they still seem to argue a lot."

"They're arguing for the same reason that we were, aren't they?" Viper asked, "They're arguing over what's missing, but they aren't looking deep enough- right?"

"I am not on the Town Council, so I am not aware of what the Council is debating. But I think you are probably right. Russell's father has always been very concerned with keeping people happy. Rose- Rabbit's Mother- has always been focused on keeping things reasonably managed. Principal Winters has always been concerned with keeping things in order. and Wolf's Father has always been concerned with keeping things under control. On the surface these things should match up nicely, but as shortages limit options I expect that we will see these priorities butting up against each other."

"They already are," Owl said, "But what do we do?"

"That depends on what you want?"

"We want things be alright." Raven said, Viper nodded.

"And what is that? A wish that you can close your eyes and the world will change before you open them? Now is not the time for fairy tales. I am not asking for your wishes. I am asking for your choices. We are experiencing shortages in many important or essential things. Supply lines are struggling. Small towns are not getting goods delivered because there isn't as much left after the big cities take their fill. These are not things you can change. You do not get to decide what the world will give you. You only get to decide what to do with what you are given."

"Okay, but what can we do?" Wolf crossed his arms as he spoke.

"Mmmm. I think I will approach this from a different direction. I mentioned fairy tales and said you shouldn't believe in them. But fairy tales in their original form served useful purposes- they transmitted information. This is a fairy tale, in the sense that it did not happen- not in the way I will tell it. This is a true story in the sense that it explains what happened, even if the story itself never happened."

"What does that mean?" Viper asked.

"It means listen, and then decide if you need to ask me that."

And this is where Mildred Sanger told us the story from the beginning of the book: The Story of the Brave Young Man and the Corn Lady.

Go back and read it again if you need to. I'm not going to rewrite it here just to save you flipping pages.