This is Goose F.M., coming to you live from downtown Sikwan! We’re howling at the moon, down here at the station. It’s half-past midniiiigght!!”
Alan sat bolt upright in bed, flailing with his hand at what should have been his own night table, but was Ziggy’s instead. He knocked a book onto the floor, and something that sounded like a streudel plate. At the same moment, Ziggy awoke with a muffled yell and turned the clock radio off.
“Jeez, Zig. That must have woken half of Laingford,” Alan said, after his heart had stopped pounding.
“Sorry. It must have got turned up loud when it was under my pillow. It sort of slipped out from under.”
Josée came in a moment later.
“Quel bruit,” she said. “If that didn’t wake up your grandpère, nothing will.”
“Broke a plate, Zig,” Alan said. “Sorry.”
“Never mind. Let’s just wait for a few minutes to make sure Vati didn’t get disturbed. But I’m sure he wasn’t. He really sleeps.” They waited for five whole minutes, which is agonizing when you’re counting them. After that, Ziggy went along the hall and stood outside his grandfather’s door, listening.
“It’s okay,” he said, coming back. “He’s snoring. We’re good.”
Quickly, they changed into dark clothes. Ziggy lent Josée a black sweater. Alan had grabbed his sister’s black hoodie back at his house.
“You smell like a girl,” Ziggy said, after Alan had put it on. They all had dark baseball caps on—part of Ziggy’s collection. They debated rubbing dark stuff, like mud or something, on their faces, so they wouldn’t reflect the light, but Alan vetoed that idea because he thought it might freak out Hal.
“We don’t know the guy, and he doesn’t know us,” he said. “We don’t want him to think we’re trying to be, like, guerrillas or something.”
“Also, it would be difficile to explain if we’re caught,” Josée said.
They checked the daypack one more time. Food, water, matches, the envelope and flashlight. Ziggy hadn’t been able to find any batteries, but Alan said maybe Hal could buy some somewhere. He had the bone-handled knife in his back pocket. He intended to ask a question about the gun when he handed it back, no matter what the others thought.
It was bright out. Not a full moon—that was a few days past, but pretty bright, even so. Ziggy looked up. “It’s clouding over,” he said. “When we get to the Village, it’ll be pretty dark.”
“Good,” Alan said. “Tonight, the darker the better.”
The street was deserted. They could hear a distant car somewhere down towards Main Street, but up where Ziggy and his grandfather lived, an older part of town, it was dead quiet.
They coasted down the hill to a side road and biked along it as quickly as they could. Then Alan saw a car up ahead, turning onto the road they were on.
“Car,” he hissed. “Initiate evasion tactics.” The three bicycles split up, as they had planned. Each person went up a driveway or onto a lawn, looking for shadows, then jumped off their bikes and ducked down. It worked perfectly. The car went past without even slowing. They had to do that twice more. The second time, Ziggy picked a house with a dog, which started barking, so he backed off and was caught in some passing headlights. That car didn’t slow down either, though.
“People probably don’t even notice if they see someone on a bike at night,” Alan said later, when they were on the dirt road leading up to the rear entrance of the park. “It’s too dark to see how old you are anyway.”
They approached the gate cautiously. A single bulb was burning on the outside of the storage garage, throwing a pool of light onto the front step of the building, but there was no light on inside. Ziggy had been right. It had clouded over, and it was very dark.
“What should we do with our bikes? We don’t need to lock them, do we?” Ziggy said.
“No, we may need them in a hurry, and it’s too dark to deal with locks.”
“I wish you wouldn’t keep saying we might need to get away fast,” Josée said. “I’m nervous enough already.” They hid their bikes in some bushes then approached the gate.
“It’s high,” Ziggy said. “And it’s kind of bright here, with that outside light and everything. Does the fence go all around the property?”
“I think so,” Alan said. “But I bet it’s not this high stuff all the way around. I remember seeing just regular farm fence, further along. You know, the kind that keeps animals in but doesn’t keep people out.” He got out his flashlight, and they made their way along the fence, pushing through bushes and small trees, getting further into the woods surrounding the park property.
“If we’d gone in the front entrance, we could practically have walked in, without climbing a fence,” Ziggy said.
“Yeah, but it’s really brightly lit, there. Someone would see us from the road.”
Sure enough, a bit further along in the woods, the tall fence suddenly changed to the low kind that you could climb over with no problem. Once they were in, though, it was really hard to see where they were, even with the flashlight.
“The woods are too dense here,” Alan said. “We’ll have to follow the fence back, on the inside, until we get near enough to the garage to get our bearings.” They went single file, with Alan at the front with the flashlight, shining it down and sort of behind himself at the same time, so the others could see.
When the light from the garage floated into view, another set of lights appeared, too. Car headlights. “Get down!” Alan said.
“Is it a police car?” Ziggy whispered.
“I knew this was a mistake,” Josée said.
“I don’t think it’s the police,” Alan said. “There’s something on the roof, and it’s not flashers.”
Then from out of the bushes on the other side of the garage, a figure appeared. Ziggy squeaked and Josée gasped. “Keep still,” Alan said.
The car stopped at the gate, and the figure opened it without a key. It had been unlocked all along, Alan realized. They hadn’t even looked. The car drove in and around to the side of the garage—their side, not far from where they were hiding.
“We have to get closer,” Alan said, and started moving.
“He’s just asking for it,” Ziggy said, but the others followed, as quietly as they could. At least now it was pitch dark.
Alan was hoping that the trees would provide enough cover for him to get close enough to see and hear. While he was sneaking along, a man had got out of the car, and was doing something to the roof, his arms above his head. When Alan got close enough, he realized that the thing on the roof was a canoe—no, a kayak. The man was untying it, and the other person was helping. They weren’t saying anything, yet. The second man, the one who had appeared out of the bushes on the village-side of the fence, turned his head briefly, and there was a flash of reflected light. He was wearing glasses. Alan was sure this was Hal.
The two men lifted the kayak from the roof of the car and put it on the ground. It wasn’t a very big one. Alan wriggled closer still.
“So,” the car man said in a normal voice, not trying to keep quiet. “She said you’d give me three hundred dollars cash for it if I delivered it.”
“Yes,” Hal said. “And a paddle, too?”
“It’s in there. So where’s my money?”
“Well, there’s a problem with that. She was supposed to bring it for me today, but she hasn’t turned up.”
“Yep. That’s a problem. You think maybe she ran off with it?”
“She wouldn’t do that. She’s honest.”
The envelope. The money in there was for a kayak, of all things. How weird. And Ellen hadn’t been able to deliver it, because she was in hospital with her leg in a cast.
“I’m good for it,” Hal said. “Can you bring it back again tomorrow?”
“No way,” the man said. “It was trouble enough bringing it up here tonight. This sneaking around isn’t my style, you know. How come you wanted it brought here at this time of night, anyway?”
“I have to make an early start in the morning,” Hal said. “And she gave you the fifty bucks already, right, to do it this way?”
“Yes, I know she did. Still, seems shifty. But listen, buddy, if you don’t have the money—well, no kayak, then. I’ll just take it back home.”
“No, wait. I have some carvings back there,” Hal said, pointing behind himself towards the Village. “They’re worth money. Maybe we can do a trade?”
“What would I want with carvings? This is the twenty-first century, chief. We’re not trading whisky and wampum here.”
Alan could see Hal tense up, and he felt the hair raise on the back of his own neck. What the man had just said was like using the “n” word, he thought. Without thinking, he stood up and walked towards the men.
“Wait,” he said. Hal made a quick movement like he was getting ready to run. The car man just looked bewildered.
“Who’s this? Your little brother?”
Alan had the envelope half out of the pack already. “Hal, wait. Ellen sent us. She couldn’t come today. I’ll explain later. But she sent this.” He held the envelope out to him.
“He . . . he’s a friend,” Hal said. “I think.”
“Hey, there’s two more. The whole forest is full of munchkins,” the car man said.
Ziggy and Josée came forward and stood beside Alan, not saying anything.
“Whoa,” Hal said. “Is that all of you?” Alan nodded. Hal was not much taller than he was. He was heavy-set, though, and looked strong. He’d opened the envelope. It did contain money, as Alan had expected. He started counting bills out into the other man’s hand.
“There. Three hundred bucks. Do we have a deal?” Hal said.
“We have a deal. Thanks,” the man said.
“And no word about this to anyone for at least twenty-four hours, okay?”
“You’re the boss, boss. Though why you’d want to buy a second-hand kayak at the dead of night at the top of a hill is beyond me. Still. Whatever. Have a nice night.” The man gathered up the ropes that had been holding the kayak on the roof and got into his car. Hal went to the gate, opened it, and closed it after the car had left. Alan, Ziggy and Josée stood beside the kayak, waiting.
“That was such a scary thing to do, Alain,” Josée said, softly. “We couldn’t hear, and then you just walked over to them. It looked like they were having an argument, and I thought you were going to get—you know, beat up or something.”
“Thanks for showing yourselves,” Alan said. “It was fine. The guy just wanted his money for the kayak. And Hal didn’t have it. But I did.”
The young man came back, then, and stood there with his arms crossed, looking at them.
“Well, now,” he said. “Just who might you be?”
“We’re friends of Ellen’s,” Alan said. “I’m Alan, and this is Ziggy and Josée. And you’re Henry Ooslaq, right?”
The young man stepped closer. “I might be,” he said. “Or I might just be some guy called Hal.”
“Hal, then. It’s okay. We’re not going to tell.”
“Well, I guess that’s fair. Or you wouldn’t have come up here in the middle of the night. Thanks for bringing my money, anyway.”
“We have some other stuff for you, too.”
“What other stuff? You kids should get back to where you came from before someone finds you’re gone.”
“I have it right here,” Alan said. “But we want to ask you some things, first.”
“Not a good idea,” Hal said, starting to inspect the kayak. There was hardly any light, only a bit of spill from the other side of the garage. Alan offered him his flashlight.
“Thanks. But actually, we shouldn’t be flashing a light around up here. Someone could see it.”
“Then let’s go somewhere else,” Alan said. Hal straightened up and shook his head.
“Look, I know you guys probably think this is a great adventure, but this is serious stuff. You could get in trouble just being here. And I’d be, well, I’d be toast.”
“Ellen told us your parents had kicked you out of the house,” Ziggy said.
“Yeah, well. That’s all you need to know.”
“But we know you helped those guys escape from prison,” Josée said. “And now they’re caught, and the police are looking for you, too.”
“What? They caught Elijah and Ray? Damn. How’d you know?”
“It was in the paper,” Allan said. “I brought the clipping to show you, but you can’t read it here.”
Hal sighed. “You guys are what—junior detectives or something? Like the Hardy Boys?”
“Sorta,” Ziggy said.
“And you’re working with the police, right? And there’s a cop car down in the museum place right now, waiting to pick me up, eh?”
“No, no. The police don’t even know where the gun came from,” Alan said.
“What gun? You’re going too fast for me, here.” He sighed again, and there was a long pause. “Okay,” he said, finally. “We’ve got stories to tell, I guess. I have to get out of here tonight, and I have some things to do, first. Wait here if you want, and we can talk when I get back.”
“No. We’re coming with you,” Alan said.
“The church basement, right?” Josée said.
Hal grinned, his teeth showing white for a moment. “Ellen tell you that?”
“No, we figured it out by ourselves,” Alan said.
“And you’re not scared I’ll try something? An outlaw like me?”
“You’re a carver,” Alan said. “And you want to go home.”
“Huh,” Hal said. Alan could feel the young man staring at him.
“Oh, for . . . okay. But you’ve got to be real quiet until we get there.”
Hal lifted the kayak easily under one arm and stashed it in some bushes. Then they followed him down the path towards the Village.