North Vancouver
“If you’re not here when I get up, I’ll change the padlock.” Michael said the next morning when I reported for my watch. On the railing in front of him were a dozen plastic water bottles, each one was half full of clear liquid and had a toilet paper wick poking out. Homemade fire extinguishers. He’d made a bunch once for a school science project and scattered around his feet were components I recognized from that venture: a watering can, a mega bottle of vinegar, dish soap, toilet paper and baking soda.
“In case you haven’t heard this house has a fire suppression system the whole way through it,” I said wondering if the shock of the earthquake had made him forgetful.
He stood up and started packing the bottles into a cardboard box on the loveseat. “Yep and there’s one ginormous Class BC fire extinguisher in Tony’s office and another smaller one in the kitchen. But I’m smelling a lot of fire around here. I want to be prepared for anything.”
“Right.” I shrugged.
“And don’t try to change the subject. I know you’ve got a key to the front padlock and I think I know where it came from, but it doesn’t matter. You go AWOL again and I’ll change the lock. You can rot out there, see how much you like it on the outside.”
Ever since I’d got home he’d been cutting me with thin slices of guilt. I took it last night because I had screwed up but if I didn’t push back today, I’d be under his thumb until Tony was back. When he looked at me with that arrogant gleam in his eye, I stared right back at him and said, “I’m staying because you’ve got a bad ankle.”
Michael ran his fingers through his ruffled hair. It spiked out in every direction as if he had been doing that all night long. We glared at each other until I couldn’t stand it any longer. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy and that was probably my fault too. I touched three fingers to my temple in a salute and said, “Dishonourable Sand Flea Rowan Morgan reporting for duty, Commander Michael, sir.”
His lips twitched. With the crazies outside, we had enough to fight without battling each other. The same thought must have occurred to him and he let himself laugh. The tension between us evaporated like the dew on the lawn. Beside him on the table was an empty Coke can, a pair of binoculars, a blue exercise book and a pen.
I picked up the book. “Did you spend all night on the porch?”
“Pretty much.”
“You could have seen from Tony’s office.”
“I like the peace, the privacy, of the middle of the night. Besides, the cameras only track what’s going on around our house. I wanted to see the whole street.”
“Anything worth seeing?” I flipped through the book. No notes. Just the date and time he came on shift.
“A family showed up just after midnight. Parents and a little kid, really young, two or three only. He had a scraped knee. They were picnicking in the park when the quake hit. Their car was destroyed. They waited all afternoon for a bus to get them home to Burnaby. Then they slept at a picnic shelter. Then they waited all day. I’m guessing there aren’t going to be any buses for a while. They hadn’t eaten since early yesterday so I gave them some granola bars, a bag of raisins, and a couple of bottles of water. I know I shouldn’t have but no one was watching. They’re walking down to the SeaBus to get home.”
He had given away food, just like that. He made his own rules. It had been that way since I could remember, since I first saw him making popcorn when we were home alone on a Saturday afternoon. It was a Sometimes Food, which we weren’t supposed to be eating without Mom or Tony being there. But Michael made up his own rules, even when we were nine and five. Back then Mom and Tony lived in the same house. They’d had another big fight and Mom had gone for a run in the pouring rain. Tony had burned off in his truck, Michael and I stood at the living room window and saw the two of them head out in opposite directions. Then Michael looked at me and said, “Popcorn!”
My job was to get the air freshener out of the bathroom and spray the whole house so Mom wouldn’t smell it when she got back. Michael stood in front of the microwave and watched it pop. Then he lifted the package out carefully and spilled the contents into two bowls. Lion’s share to him, a tiny portion for me.
“Hey,” I said. “Not fair.”
“That’s because I’m the leader. Leaders always get more.”
Almost ten years later and I had never totally shaken free of his so-called leadership. To him, I was still that same little kid. Just like Tony, he didn’t ask me for my opinion because it didn’t count.
I thought about him giving food away but I wasn’t sure what was right or wrong any longer. Since Tony got hurt there seemed to be a curse on me breaking his rules. I left the compound and Michael twisted his ankle. Then something even worst almost happened to me. But nothing bad happened when Michael gave water to Javier and the Muellers or supplies to a young family. Maybe the curse was only on me, only on leaving the compound. Maybe Michael could do what he wanted. “What were they doing wandering around? Don’t they know about the curfew?”
“They didn’t and when I mentioned it they didn’t seem to care. I told them how to get to Lynn Valley Road and said if they followed it downhill, they’d get to the SeaBus terminal eventually.” He stacked his extinguisher components in a neat row in front of him and put the lid back on the vinegar jug.
“There’re cops on Lynn Valley Road.” I murmured and tried to imagine wandering around the darkness with a toddler and an empty belly. Half of me wanted to turn off the fence and throw open the gate. The other half wanted to add another padlock.
“I’m guessing when you’ve got no shelter and no food, being picked up by the cops might be a good deal.” He rubbed his cheek. “After they left, I saw a bear at the far end of the cul-de-sac. I hope they stayed safe.”
“Anything else?” I said. I checked the time: 7:03 AM. I wrote that in the book.
“One weird thing.” Michael looked away like he didn’t really want to tell me.
“Give it up,” I said and locked my teeth together.
“I keep hearing that tune that dude in the forest was whistling.”
“Hearing for real, or stuck-in-your-head-like-a-earworm hearing?”
“Hearing for real. At first I thought it was coming from the pedestrian path over near Jake’s place. Then it seemed to be coming from the back of Kagome’s house. I must be tired.”
“Must be,” I said. Michael had been suspicious of Greg. I hadn’t told him how Greg appeared out of nowhere at Jake’s house, then again at Wakeford Drive. No need to feed his irrational fears. Tony had enough for all of us.
Michael’s gaze dropped to the ground. “Fact is I fell asleep twice. Both times I woke to that whistling and it was mega-creepy. That’s why I decided to make some fire extinguishers, to keep myself awake.”
“Well now you can sleep in your own bed.”
“How’s Misty?” He tossed his Coke can into the box of extinguishers.
“Better. I’ve been bathing her cut in salted water. This morning there was no new blood at all. I’m going to keep her shut in my room though. I’m afraid if I let her out she’ll run away. It’d be nice to give her back to the Kurtzes when they get home. You know, something that the earthquake didn’t destroy.”
“Don’t worry, Rowanberry, we’ll find Oliver. I know we will.” Michael hadn’t called me Rowanberry since elementary school. The softness of his voice reminded me of hiding under his desk together during thunderstorms when we were little. He used to whisper that I didn’t need to worry because he’d protect me. I always knew he was as scared as I was but it didn’t matter because I also knew the storm would end.
“And we’ll be talking to Mom on the phone any minute now.” Bitterness soured my voice so I added in a kinder tone, “I didn’t think you’d worry so much when I went out. Sorry.”
“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I understand why you took off yesterday. Don’t think I wasn’t tempted to go too.” He gave me a long, understanding look that I hadn’t seen for years. It was warm and inclusive and I wanted to hang onto it with both hands. Before either of us could get sloppy or sentimental, he picked up his firefighting bombs and went inside.
I went down to the garden and opened the chicken house. The birds flapped out of their night roost hungry and squawking. I threw the feed on the ground and studied the huge yard. The house and fence stood solid while the rest of Tony’s life stayed empty and barren. The rows of raised garden beds groaned under the abundance of late summer vegetables. People always thought the abundant crops were evidence of Tony’s love of nature. False: it was all about his need for control.
Three crows landed on the Muellers’ roof. One of them had something in its beak and the others tried to pull it away. Something furry and grey. Probably a squirrel. Road kill? Earthquake kill? I climbed the stairs and walked around the porch, searching for chickadees in the greenbelt on the far side of the house. I picked up a book and tried to read it but couldn’t concentrate on the ridiculous fantasy world. I ran up and down the stairs to burn off some anxiety. I brought out the travel chess set and tried to get interested in the game for the millionth time.
Then I heard it. Half-growl, half-whine, something not quite human. A bead of cold sweat dribbled down my face. I ran up to the porch and yelled into the kitchen where Michael was making a pre-bedtime snack, “Michael.”
There on the far corner of the fence, near the path to Jake’s house, came a crawling figure. Too big for a dog or coyote, too small for a bear.
“What’ve you got?” Michael said, his voice sharp and alert.
“There’s something near the west fence. God, I think it’s human.”