Sally’s parents weren’t home, but the guys stayed anyway and played chess. Actually, Sally and Adam played together as a team against Watch, who was extremely good at the game. When Watch managed to take their queen only twenty moves into the game, Sally scowled.
“How can we beat this guy?” she asked. “He practices every night against his computer.”
“I know this sounds weird but my computer refuses to play with me anymore,” Watch said.
“Your computer is a machine,” Adam said, trying to figure out how to save the game. “How can it refuse you anything?”
“Ordinarily I would agree with you,” Watch said. “But the last time I tried to play chess against my computer it took software from a Star Trek game I have and fired phasers at both my king and queen. The computer didn’t want checkmate, it wanted total annihilation.” Watch paused. “I’ll have you guys checkmated in three moves.”
“How do you know what moves we’re going to make?” Sally asked.
“You always make the same mistakes,” Watch said.
Just then they heard a loud crash and a painful yelp.
Sally jumped up. “Where’s the cat?”
“You said you put it in the backyard,” Adam said, also hopping up.
“Let’s take a look,” Sally said.
In the backyard they found that the neighbor’s tree had fallen down and apparently struck the neighbor’s dog, a golden retriever, who had been barking a few minutes earlier. The dog was limping now, clearly in pain. But since the neighbor’s yard was separated from them by a white picket fence, they weren’t sure what to do.
“Is your neighbor home?” Adam asked Sally.
“No,” she said. “Mr. Coat works long hours at an oil refinery north of town. He gets home after dark.”
The dog continued to yelp.
“We have to help the poor thing,” Adam said. “I think we should climb the fence.”
“How can you help it?” Sally asked. “What are you going to do, give it a doggie biscuit?”
“We see that her love of all little furry creatures doesn’t extend to animals that don’t get along with cats,” Watch remarked.
Sally looked worried. “Where is my cat?”
They found it on the far side of the house, licking its paws and yawning. Sally picked it up and carried it to the back porch. “Poor kitty,” she cooed. “Was that big bad dog barking at you?”
But Adam continued to worry about the dog.
“I think the falling tree might have broken its leg,” he said. “I’m going to climb the fence to check.”
“Mr. Coat doesn’t like people on his property,” Sally warned. “He once sprayed a bunch of trick-or-treaters with gasoline and tried to set them on fire.”
“That was water because the trick-or-treaters were trying to light his house on fire,” Watch corrected.
“What’s the difference?” Sally asked.
Adam climbed over the fence, a tricky maneuver because of the sharp pickets. For a moment he slipped and almost stuck himself bad. But soon he was in Coat’s yard. The golden retriever seemed friendly enough, and immediately limped over to Adam to lick his hand. Adam studied the dog’s hind leg. It had been a large pine tree that had obviously hit the poor animal. Yet even though the animal squirmed as Adam ran his fingers along the dog’s leg, Adam was soon convinced nothing was broken.
He called out to the others, “I think he just got bruised.”
“Serves him right for barking at kitty,” Sally said.
“Oh, that’s really fair,” Watch said with sarcasm. “All dogs should be punished for barking. And every police officer should be abused for writing parking tickets. And every politician should be arrested for making promises he can’t keep. And—”
“You’ve made your point,” Sally interrupted.
“I wish I had a dog like this,” Adam said. He was just about to climb back over the fence when something odd about the fallen tree caught his eye. Walking over to it, he noticed that the point where it had cracked and fallen was scorched black. He told the others and Watch was intrigued.
“Is there a downed electrical wire nearby?” he asked.
“A tree wouldn’t fall down because you electrocuted it,” Sally said.
“Then how did it fall?” Watch asked her.
Sally shrugged. “The wind.”
“But there isn’t any wind today,” Watch said.
“You’re such a stickler for details,” Sally said, still stroking the cat.
Adam reached down and touched the black bark. It was warm.
“I’d like you to come over here,” he said. “This is weird.”
“You go,” Sally said to Watch as she stepped up on the porch. “I think kitty wants dinner.”
Watch managed to climb the fence and soon was standing beside the fallen tree, studying the burnt wood. The black marks cut almost to the core of the trunk. Yet there was something peculiar about that as well.
“Notice that the burn only radiates from one side,” Watch said, pointing. “It doesn’t go all the way around.”
“What could cause that?” Adam asked.
“A lightning strike; it would have to be from the direction of Sally’s house.”
“But there isn’t a cloud in the sky,” Adam protested.
Watch nodded, puzzled. “But I can’t think of anything else that would burn a tree like this. The burn definitely has to be the reason it fell down, and since the rest of the tree didn’t catch fire, I suspect it got struck all at once and quickly.”
“It looks like it was struck with a laser blast,” Adam said.
“Yeah,” Watch agreed. “But I gave this planet’s only laser pistol back to the Kaster admiral on Amacron Thirty-seven. You remember?”
“Yeah,” Adam said thoughtfully. “You know what’s also strange about this tree? That it managed to fall on the dog.”
Watch nodded. “Yeah. It’s like someone timed it to hurt the poor guy.”
“But what or who would do such a thing?”
Watch smiled. “Sally, if you gave her half the chance. Come on, let’s go inside. We still have to finish our game.”
“Just don’t go lasering my king,” Adam said.