Fear Stalks Grizzly Hill (3 page)

A
WOMAN DASHED ACROSS HER
backyard, between her house and the Nashes’ house, and out to the street. Brian, Sean, and Alan ran after her. At the same time, Mr. and Mrs. Nash rushed out the front door of their house.

“What happened, Cecelia?” Mrs. Nash cried.

Miss Crane breathed heavily and leaned on Mrs. Nash’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Gloria,” she gasped. “I didn’t mean to scream. For a moment I was badly frightened.”

“By what?” Sean asked. He saw that Brian’s notebook was out and ready.

“I was taking down my hummingbird feeder to refill it, when I came face-to-face with a very large raccoon,” Miss Crane said. “That is, I think it was a raccoon, although it didn’t have that dark mask around its eyes. The raccoon bared its teeth, as though it wanted to bite me, and then it hissed at me. I screamed because it frightened me. I’ve never heard a raccoon hiss!”

Mrs. Nash patted Miss Crane’s shoulder. “There, there,” she said. “It didn’t hurt you. It’s probably already run back into the forest.”

“Miss Crane,” Brian said, “my name is Brian Quinn, and this is my brother, Sean. If you don’t mind I’d like to ask you a few questions. Do you have pets?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t have time for a pet, but I do like to watch the birds.”

“Do you know much about raccoons?”

“I know nothing about them at all. I suppose that’s why the raccoon took me by surprise.” She ducked her head and smiled sheepishly. “I feel so foolish for screaming and running away from a raccoon.”

“The animal you saw might not be a raccoon,” Brian said. “Do you remember what kind of feet it had?”

“Ummm, yes,” she said. “It had wide feet and long claws, and it hung onto the branch with its tail and back feet while it hissed and waved its front paws at me.”

Brian and Sean looked at each other. Both of them were sure the animal hadn’t been a raccoon. With wide feet and long claws, it had to be the mysterious animal they were tracking.

“Which way did it go?” Sean asked Miss Crane.

“I have no idea,” she said. “I didn’t stay around to find out.”

Mr. Webber’s van swung into the circular drive and straight into the Webbers’ open garage. Although Mr. Webber passed the group on Miss Crane’s front lawn, he didn’t wave or even glance in their direction.

“Oh dear. I’m afraid Glen’s angry with me,” Miss Crane said. “The truck from the furniture store is here only a few minutes at a time, but today it blocked the road just as Glen wanted to get out.” She sighed. “The men who brought my accent table did hurry, so Glen wasn’t delayed long.” She nervously ran her fingers through her hair.

“Why don’t you come into the house for a cup of tea, Cecelia,” Mrs. Nash said. “You’re still upset. You need to relax. Tell me about your table. What designs are you going to paint on it?”

Alan nudged Brian and Sean. “Let’s go back to the patio and finish our dinner.”

They cut between the houses and headed for the patio. But when they got there Alan stopped and said, “Oh, no! Look at the mess!”

The paper plates were lying on the ground. The hot dogs and buns hadn’t been taken, but every scrap of fruit salad had disappeared.

“Rusty!” Alan complained.

“Not Rusty,” Brian pointed out. “He would have eaten the hot dogs, but they’re still here. Only the fruit salad is gone.”

“Bears like sweet stuff to eat,” Sean said. He glanced toward the woods and imagined he saw gleaming eyes staring back at him. His heart started pounding again.

“Bears would have eaten the hot dogs, too,” Brian said. “Bears eat everything.”

Sean gulped.

“Hey, look, Sean, it wasn’t a bear,” Brian said. “I think it was the mystery animal we’re trying to find.”

“I don’t care about a mystery animal,” Alan said. “I’m hungry, and I want my dinner.”

Lucy glared at them suspiciously after Alan told her what had happened. “You’re playing a trick on me. Right?” she asked. “A monster came through the woods and ate your fruit cocktail? C’mon. You can think up something better than that.”

“Lucy, we’re hungry!” Alan wailed.

“Well, okay,” Lucy said. “But no more tricks. They aren’t funny.”

She let them fill up their plates again, and they returned to the patio.

Much later, as they were going through Alan’s video games, the doorbell rang. They could hear Mr. Webber’s voice from the entry hall.

“No, thank you. No coffee. I can’t stay. I came to ask you to keep the boys out of the woods. I’m concerned for their safety.”

Mr. Nash said something they couldn’t hear. Then Mr. Webber answered, irritation in his voice. “I realize that Alan knows his way around the woods near your home, but what if the boys stray a little farther than they should? I mean, there’s been talk of bears …”

Finally, they heard Mr. Webber say, “Suit yourself.”

The door opened and shut again, and in a few minutes Mr. Nash came into the room.

Alan quickly said, “Dad, we heard what Mr. Webber told you. He’s wrong. Nothing’s going to happen to us in the woods.”

“I agree,” Mr. Nash said. “He seems overly cautious. Maybe because he’s never had children.”

“He said something about bears,” Sean said. He glanced at the darkness outside the window and shivered.

“I know,” Mr. Nash said, “but he’s wrong. There haven’t been any bear sightings around here since—”

“Since the giant grizzly lived here.” Sean finished the sentence.

Mrs. Nash joined them. “Mr. Everitt telephoned a few minutes ago. He seems to think the boys should stay out of the woods because they’re endangering the animals who live there.”

“What did you tell him?” Mr. Nash asked his wife.

“That the boys don’t endanger the animals. They respect the animals. Making plaster casts of prints certainly won’t bother them.”

“What’s the big deal with Mr. Webber and Mr. Everitt?” Alan asked. “Why are they acting so weird about our going exploring in the woods?”

“Who knows?” Mrs. Nash answered and sighed. “When we moved here I didn’t think we’d have trouble with nosy neighbors.” She looked at her watch and added, “Boys, it’s late—way past your bedtime. Time for bed.”

Without an argument, they started up the stairs. Outside the guest room door Alan said, “We’ll get up real early and eat breakfast. Then we can visit the giant grizzly bear’s den.”

“Cool,” Brian said.

But Sean climbed into bed, dreading the next morning so much that he couldn’t fall asleep.

Soon Brian’s steady breathing came from the next bed, so Sean knew his brother was sleeping soundly. Sean rolled over and pushed his pillow into place for the umpteenth time. He glanced at the bedroom window.

There, staring in at him, was an animal face. The animal had rounded ears and a pointed snout like a bear, but it was smaller, with big eyes like a bear cub has.

“Yikes!” Sean yelled and jumped out of bed. “Bri! Wake up!”

Brian groaned and rolled over, so Sean sat on him, trying to pull the quilt away from his face.

“What’s the matter?” Brian managed to ask. He struggled and tried to dump Sean on the floor.

“Wake up and look!” Sean yelled in his ear. “We’re on the second floor! Right? Well, there’s an animal out there looking in the window!”

T
HE ANIMAL, STARTLED, SCRABBLED
across the ledge outside the window and disappeared. Brian sat up and squinted at his wristwatch. “Calm down, Sean. Keep quiet. Do you want to wake everybody up?”

“But the animal …”

“It’s almost midnight. Everyone else is asleep.”

“Listen to me, Bri! Pay attention. I saw the animal we’re trying to track.”

Brian, fully awake now, climbed out of bed. “Where?”

“He’s gone. You missed him.”

Brian found his notebook and pencil and turned on a lamp. “Okay,” he said. “What was it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Haven’t you ever seen an animal like it? Not even in a photograph or a drawing?”

“No. Never.”

“Then describe it.”

“It had a bear face and buggy eyes.”

“Buggy eyes?”

“Yeah. And funny ears.”

“Buggy eyes and funny ears? What kind of description is that?”

“A good description.”

“Try describing the animal a different way,” Brian said. “You said his face was like a bear’s. Go on from there.”

“Okay. It was like a bear’s because it had a pointed nose, and I think it was furry.”

“What were its ears like?”

Sean thought a moment. “Round. Like a bear cub’s. Okay?”

“Tell me about his eyes.”

“Bugg—uh—big and round.”

“Bulging eyes.”

“That’s what I said.”

“How large was the animal?”

Sean had to think about it again. “Ummm, not as big as Rusty, but lots bigger and longer than a raccoon.”

“Any chance it could be Mr. Shaw’s coatimundi?”

“No. I know what a coatimundi looks like.”

Brian pulled on his jeans. “Could you recognize the animal if you saw a picture of it?” he asked.

“I think so,” Sean said.

“Then come with me, and be quiet. We’re going to wake up Alan.”

Alan just mumbled to himself as Brian tried to wake him, but when Brian said, “Sean saw the mystery animal,” Alan sat up and stared.

“Where?” he asked.

“On the ledge outside our bedroom window,” Brian said.

“What was it?”

“Sean isn’t sure, so we need to use your computer encyclopedia. Okay?”

“Sure,” Alan said. He hopped out of bed. “We’ll have to be real quiet and not wake my parents,” he said.

They tiptoed down the stairs, wincing when the wood creaked, and made their way to the den, where they turned on only a small desk lamp.

Alan booted up the computer and inserted the CD-ROM encyclopedia. “What’ll I look for?” he asked.

“Bears,” Sean said quickly.

Brian shrugged. “Sean said it had the snout of a bear and ears like a cub. Maybe something will turn up.”

They went through many types of bears— grizzly, Kodiak, brown bear, black bear, even koala, but at each photograph Sean shook his head.

“I don’t know where else to look,” Alan said. He turned off the computer. “We can work on it in the morning. Right now I’m sleepy. I’d like to get back to bed. C’mon.”

As they reached the entry hall they stopped, startled by a strange, scratching noise outside the front door.

“Is something trying to get in?” Sean whispered, his voice trembling.

Alan gulped loudly. He snatched an umbrella out of a rack near the door and held it like a baseball bat. “It might attack us. We’ve got to protect ourselves.”

Brian shook his head. “That’s a strong front door, and it’s locked. The animal won’t be able to get in.”

At that moment the door flew open.

Alan, Sean, and Brian yelled at the top of their lungs.

Lucy, who stood in the doorway, screamed.

Mr. and Mrs. Nash came running, and everyone began talking at once. Finally, Mr. Nash shouted for quiet.

“But Dad, I just got back from baby-sitting, and …” Lucy began.

Alan interrupted. “We didn’t know Lucy was out baby-sitting. We thought she was the animal we were tracking.”

“Ha! Tracking an animal at the front door? You expect anyone to believe that?” Lucy shouted.

“We were looking it up on the computer,” Alan explained. “We were trying to see if Sean could recognize the animal’s picture since he saw it.”

“You were supposed to be in bed, not using the computer,” Mrs. Nash said.

But Mr. Nash said, “Wait a minute. What animal did Sean see?”

“A bear,” Sean answered.

“Just where did you see this bear?”

“He was looking in our bedroom window.”

“When?”

“Just a little while ago.”

Mr. and Mrs. Nash looked at each other. Then Mrs. Nash put an arm around Sean’s shoulders. “You had a nightmare, dear,” she said. “Too much excitement and too many sweets, I’m afraid. Now the nightmare’s all gone, so go back to bed and back to sleep.”

“But I wasn’t asleep. I saw a bear. A real bear,” Sean said.

Lucy glared at Sean. “You didn’t see a bear, and you didn’t have a nightmare,” she said. “Also, I don’t believe all that stuff about bears and the computer. The three of you were trying to play another rotten trick on me.”

“No we weren’t,” Sean protested.

But Lucy scowled. “No more tricks. Understand? Or—just like I said—you’re going to find yourselves in big trouble.”