And that was how Wayne Nishikawa came to be walking down a bush trail in full lacrosse goalie equipment. He looked a bit like a bear himself, the heavy equipment nearly doubling his bulk and making him waddle as he walked.
Sam’s idea had been ingenious, Travis thought. They needed a terrific, horrific smell that no bear on earth could help but notice. What better than Nish’s lacrosse equipment?
Nish had been outraged. He was furious when Sam suggested it and fought the idea tooth and nail. But the Owls had thought about it and decided. In the end, he had no choice. The horror movie, after all, was his idea. If it was going to work, they all had to pitch in – and this time it was his turn.
“I’m the director!” he’d whined. “Not bear bait!”
Jesse and Simon, who knew more about the bush than the others, had taken over the rest of the planning. Jesse knew, from experience, that nothing gets rid of a black bear better than a sudden sound, so they were carrying whistles, and Jesse even had an old pot and a wooden spoon to smack together if they needed to drive one off.
“What if one of them starts to eat me?” Nish had whined.
“What’s ‘I’m gonna hurl!’ in bear language?” laughed Sarah.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Jesse. “Bears are a lot more scared of people than people should be of them.”
Nish had dressed, reluctantly, at the side of the road and then walked in with the rest to take up their positions. He would waddle along the trails in his stinking equipment; Jesse and Simon would be right behind him in case some sudden noise was needed; and the Owls would set up with their cameras in two strategic places, hoping to get some good footage of a black bear rambling through the woods. With luck, they’d even have one of them rise on its haunches to sniff the air for some stinking Nishikawa.
Travis and Sarah and Sam were to take the far end of the path. Fahd and Andy were among the Owls at the near end.
Travis found a perfect stand of cedar to wriggle into. The branches were soft and smelled wonderful, and the skirt of the cedar was so low and dense that, once he was inside, he could not be seen from the trail.
Sarah and Sam hunkered down on the other side of the trail. Sam had the video camera. If either Travis or Sarah saw signs of a bear coming, their job was to alert Sam to be ready.
It was a hot, lazy day. There were still mosquitoes in the woods, and Travis wished he’d remembered to bring along a bottle of bug repellent. He felt he was being eaten alive.
The wind was still. The only sounds were the occasional songbird flitting through the trees, the grating call of a crow high in the maples, and as the air grew hotter, the deep, long buzz of cicadas that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
Travis thought he heard a whistle!
It could mean one of only two things: a bear had been spotted, or a bear had to be frightened off.
He listened hard, wondering if he put his ear to the ground whether he could hear the sound better, the way a railway track is supposed to let you know a train is coming long before it can be seen.
He could hear breathing now! Heavy breathing, puffing!
Travis pushed out a little from under the apron of cedar branches. He looked down the trail, the sunlight dancing as it played through the high branches and spotted the path with occasional bright patches.
The sound was closer now! And he could hear branches being pushed aside and then swishing back into place.
He could hear grunting! The telltale sound of Nish working hard.
Travis looked across at Sarah and Sam. Sam was readying the camera. Sarah was leaning down, staring towards the sound of the oncoming Nish.
The branch of a spruce was thrust aside, and Nish pushed through, breathing very heavily now. He wasn’t running, but he seemed anxious, frightened.
Travis suddenly felt sorry for his friend.
Nish kept going, past Sam, past Sarah, past Travis, completely unaware that they were hidden there in the bush.
The spruce bough swung again, this time more slowly.
The head of a bear pushed through, swinging its nose from side to side, sniffing for Nish!
Travis could see Sam already filming. She was well out of sight and downwind from the bear. It hadn’t noticed her.
The bear pushed the rest of the way through. It was huge!
It paused, sniffed the air again, then rose on its haunches.
Travis caught the briefest flash of white.
Silvertip!