CHAPTER NINETEEN

Twenty minutes later, they were rumbling down the road in the TruckVanAc, the kids having just recounted their adventure with the SNERT reporters to Mr. gәqidәb.

“And you, amigo mío?” Professor Fauna asked Mack. “Have you found a way to expose the Schmoke brothers’ villainous plans to clear-cut these forests?”

“Not quite yet,” Mack replied. “But I discovered that Edmund and Milton Schmoke themselves are in town now. What you lot need to worry about,” Mack said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to the back of the TruckVanAc, “is fitting into those sasquatch suits.”

Uchenna picked up a hot, hairy costume. “It smells,” she said.

“More believable that way,” Raven answered. She held up the hard hat and orange vest that Elliot had deposited on the floor. Under the hard hat she saw a blond wig. “Dad, what is all this?”

Mack looked quickly at what his daughter was referring to, then he retrained his vision back at the road and changed the subject. “We’ll hike into Sasquatch Valley,” Mack said, “carrying our costumes in our packs. Raven and I will show you the lay of the land. Then we’ll put on our big feet, start laying down false trails, let ourselves get seen from a distance by some of those film crews, and try to keep them away from the heart of the valley.”

It was an hour’s hike from Mack’s house to the trail. Along the way, Elliot and Uchenna marveled at the abundance of green life around them, the way the trees were covered with moss, the gray beard lichen hanging down from the branches of the old firs. They heard the two sharp, clear notes of a white-crowned sparrow, and as they reached a small brook, stopped for a while to watch little birds diving off the stones to disappear underwater and reemerge with insects in their beaks.

“There’s so much here,” Mack said. His voice was quiet as he spoke. “And it all depends on these big, beautiful life-givers, the trees. Creatures of all sorts and sizes rely on them. Not just the big ones, like sasquatch. So many birds. There’s juncos, sparrows, pine siskins, crossbills, all eating the seeds. Then there’s the little mammals, like that guy there.”

Elliot looked in the direction Mack was pointing. A tiny red-furred creature scurried around a massive tree trunk.

“Red tree vole?” Elliot asked.

“Good eyes, little buddy. Then there’s the bigger Douglas squirrel, shrews, mice, chipmunks, flying squirrels. They all use the cavities in the old trees for nests. Cut down these trees and . . . you just destroyed their whole world.”

As they continued, Elliot kept using his eyes to pick out the clues left by forest creatures. It was like reading a book. And Elliot was a champion reader.

“Deer tracks,” he said. “Maybe a doe and one—no, two—fawns!”

“Good eyes again,” Mack said, flashing him a thumbs-up. “We might just have to give you a new nickname. What about that there?”

Elliot studied the parallel scratches on the bark of a tree. He knew what they were! And to his own surprise he wasn’t scared—just excited.

“Bear clawings, right? It reached up as high as it could to make those.”

“Yup, marking its territory. If another bear comes along and can’t reach up that high, he’ll figure he’d better leave.”

“Mr. gәqidәb,” Uchenna said. “Excuse me, but it seems as if you’re not making any silly jokes now. Like you didn’t say it was ‘too much to bear’ or he could ‘bearly reach that high.’”

Mack smiled. “That’s right, Uchenna—though those are good ones. I’ll have to remember them.” He looked around. “When I’m here in these woods, I don’t feel the need to make jokes. I just want to feel the spirit of everything around us.”

As they took the trail that led down into the valley, there were places where huge trees had fallen across their path. They had to either crawl under or over them.

“Poor trees,” Uchenna said, after they clambered over the third one.

“No,” Raven said. “It’s just that their time came to fall. All sorts of plants and animals and birds are still using them. One day they’ll be part of the soil, feeding other trees. They’re still here in the woods, a part of it all.” She paused. “Like my mom.”

Mack stopped, looked back at his daughter, and smiled sadly.

Meanwhile, Uchenna had picked up a dead branch that was shaped like a big drumstick. She tapped it against the trunk of a big dead tree that was still standing, stripped of its bark. It made a hollow thump like a drum.

BUM BUM BUM

“How cool is this!?” she exclaimed. She began tapping harder in a complicated rhythm.

“Uh . . . ,” said Raven.

DADABUM

“Um, Uchenna,” the professor said. “That may not be a good idea.”

“But, listen,” Uchenna said, knocking out another rhythm. “Dig the acoustics on this!”

DA BUM DA BUM

DADADADA BUM

“Yes,” Mack said. “It does echo far. That’s why you should stop.”

Uchenna stopped and looked up at Mack. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s how sasquatch send messages to one another. Remember?” Raven reminded her.

“Right!” said Elliot. “Maybe, if we communicate with them, we can warn them about the danger!”

Raven shook her head. “Maybe, boyfriend, and maybe not. That rhythm Uchenna was pounding out might just be a message—or it may have been like those bear marks on that tree back there. A challenge!”

Suddenly, a huge roar, louder than the drumming, shook the forest.

The leaves on the trees trembled. When the roar died away, the echo lingered.

Professor Fauna grabbed the stick from Uchenna and pushed himself in front of her. “It sounds like, maybe, it was a challenge,” he whispered.

For a moment, everything was silent.

And then, with a crashing of brush and branches, an eight-foot-tall sasquatch stomped out from behind a tree. It had beautiful silken hair, long and brown, and a face like an ape’s. In one swift motion, before anyone could move, it scooped up the professor in one of its enormous furry hands and dangled him upside down from one leg.

At which point Elliot did the only logical thing he could think to do.

He screamed.