The shifting alarm call of a red-winged blackbird woke Paige in the morning. She lay on her back, staring sleepily up into the tree and at the blue sky beyond. The leaves were golden in the sunlight, shimmering in the breeze and making a sound like soft applause. Paige saw the blackbird high in the tree, stretching its little neck with each call. Then it flew away, and all went still. For an instant everything was as silent and motionless as a photograph. Then a hoarse caw broke the silence. Paige rolled over. Across the pasture she spotted the fat crows, twenty or more, descending onto the power lines, screeching and fighting for position. The eastern sky beyond them was rose-coloured in the dawn.
A film of dew coated the outside of the sleeping bag, and the boards of the fort were stained dark with dampness. Paige felt something digging into her shoulder. She threw off the sleeping bag and sat up. The shark’s tooth, its cord snapped, lay on the flannel lining. Paige picked it up and turned it in her hand, studying the face of the Tiki god in the sunlight and remembering the night before. Then, along the back edge of the tooth, in tiny raised letters, she read the words: MADE IN CHINA. She broke out laughing and clutched the fake tooth in her hand, then threw it as far as she could into the grass. Rising to her hands and knees, she crawled to the edge of the fort and gazed down at her mother’s station wagon. The car’s tailgate was open but all was quiet inside. The windows of the car were misted with dew already evaporating in the early sunlight.
Paige stood and walked to the other side of the fort. Using the bucket Mrs. Thorvald had left, she noticed that her period had stopped. When she finished, she walked back to the edge of the fort and threw a twig onto the car’s roof.
“Mom?” she said, her voice croaking like a frog’s.
Nothing.
She cleared her throat and called out louder. “Mom!”
There was movement inside the car. Her mother’s head popped out the back tailgate. She smiled up at Paige. “Happy birthday, honey.”
Toby stuck his head out. “Happy birthday, Paige.”
Paige grinned. “Thanks.”
The noise of a screen door slamming came from the farmhouse. Paige saw Sally bounding down the back steps, followed by Mr. Thorvald, who went into his aluminum shed. Sally sniffed her way along the edge of the lawn, then slipped under the rail fence and disappeared into the tall grass of the field. Moments later Mrs. Thorvald came outside, carrying her picnic basket and heading across the lawn. The sputter of an engine filled the air. Mr. Thorvald emerged from the shed on the back of his little tractor mower. As Mrs. Thorvald wobbled across the field, her husband began whirring around the lawn. He hadn’t once looked over at the oak tree.
Toby was sitting on the station wagon’s tailgate now, pulling on his socks and shoes. Sally ran up, wagging her tail, sniffing Toby’s bare feet, and licking his toes. Toby giggled. Paige’s mother, standing on the compacted grass around the bottom of the tree, yawned, stretched, and looked up at the fort. “So, Paige, are you going to come down today?”
Paige felt badly about the ruckus she had caused. She wanted nothing more than to climb down and for everything to be okay, for the tree to be safe and for herself to be able to celebrate her birthday, but then she gazed across the field at Mr. Thorvald cutting the grass and realized she couldn’t. “Only when he promises not to cut down the tree and pave the pasture.”
Mrs. Thorvald arrived. “Good morning!”
Everyone returned her greeting as she set her basket on the tailgate. She looked up at Paige. “So how is our little flying squirrel on her birthday?”
Toby laughed. “Flying squirrel!”
“I’m fine, thank you, Mrs. Thorvald.”
“You are hungry?”
Paige nodded.
Mrs. Thorvald opened the basket and began arranging food on the tailgate. The smell of eggs and sausages wafted up to Paige. The old woman stopped and raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh,” she said, glancing up, “I forgot. Do you need pads?”
“No,” Paige replied. “That’s over.”
“Good.”
Paige’s mother asked Mrs. Thorvald if her husband had said what he planned to do about the tree.
“Ach!” she said, waving her hand at the house. “He makes no plans. I tell him, leave the girl alone, let her have her tree, he has enough money. But the old fool refuses. I tell him fine, so cook his own breakfast.” The old woman laughed, looking at her husband across the pasture. “He eats nothing. Today he has a hangover and stews like prunes.” She turned to Toby. “You, I hope you do not grow up to become an old prune man like him.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
Toby nodded.
“Good.” She pointed a thick finger at the tree. “Your sister is very brave.”
“I know.”
She smiled and petted his cheek. “Bring the rope so the brave squirrel can eat.”
Toby jumped down and dragged the end of the rope over to the car. Mrs. Thorvald tied it to the basket and glanced up. “Okay, pull!”
Paige pulled the basket up. Inside there was a plate of sausage and scrambled eggs covered in plastic wrap, a smaller basket of hot toast covered in a tea towel, and a white plastic bag with something large inside. Paige lifted out the bag and opened it. It held a birthday present wrapped in gold paper and tied with a bow. “Mom, look!” Paige said, holding up the present.
“Oh, Lianne,” Paige’s mother said, “you didn’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t have to. I want to.”
Paige pulled off the bow and paper and uncovered an old shoebox. She lifted the lid away. Inside, buried in tissue paper, was the strawberry nesting doll.
“Mom!” Paige cried, holding out the doll for her mother to see. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Thorvald!”
“It is her favourite,” Mrs. Thorvald said. “Someone should have her who will love her. You must take care of her!”
“I will. I promise.”
Mrs. Thorvald smiled. “Now everyone eat.”
Paige set the doll in front of herself as she ate the sausage and eggs. After they were done, Paige’s mother and Toby went up to the house with Mrs. Thorvald to use the bathroom. When the three of them returned, Paige’s mother said, “I called your father, Paige.”
“What did he say?”
“I couldn’t get hold of him. He’s in court, but I left a message.”
A small blue Datsun turned into the driveway and honked.
“There is Helena,” Mrs. Thorvald said. “She takes me to the firemen’s picnic.” Mrs. Thorvald had been baking pies all week to help pay for the new fire engine. “I telephoned her this morning because the old prune refuses to drive.”
The car stopped in front of the house, and the plump figure of Helena Babchuk got out.
“You’re leaving?” Paige asked.
“For a little while only. I must go sell pies, but I will be back.”
Paige gazed across the field at Mr. Thorvald.
“Do not worry about him. I tell him to leave you be. I will come back at lunch —” she held up a finger “— after my pies win the blue ribbon!”
Everyone laughed.
She turned to go but hesitated, placing a hand on the small of her back and looking toward a bank of purple clouds arcing over the horizon far to the south. “Oh, I think it rains today.” Then she nodded and ambled away, calling out, “Bye-bye!”
“Bye, Mrs. Thorvald!” they said. “Good luck!”
“Happy birthday, squirrel!”
Paige sat with the strawberry doll in front of her as she watched Mrs. Thorvald waddle back across the field and up the lawn. Mrs. Thorvald and Helena stood for a minute and talked. Helena peered at the oak and waved. Paige waved back. Then the two women went inside the house, emerging some minutes later with pie boxes. They made three trips in and out of the house loading Helena’s car, then got in and drove away. As they passed Mr. Thorvald mowing a strip of lawn between the orchard and the driveway, they stopped. Paige saw him peer at the passenger window. Then he yelled something and the car drove off. Paige heard him grind the mower’s gears as he continued to cut the lawn.
Down below, Toby asked, “Mom, can I go check the duck eggs?”
“No, honey. We have to stay here.”
Paige spread the sleeping bag open again and lay down to read. The sun was now high over the horizon, and the air was becoming thick with a humid haze. A wind rose from the south. A row of poplars along the highway hissed and shimmered, their leaves fluttering and sparkling. The crows were multiplying. Paige counted thirty of them, cawing madly as they flapped their wings and fought for position. They had spread from the power lines into the trees now. Beyond them, high above, a single crow was perched on the very tip of the giant white pine.
Mr. Thorvald finished cutting the grass. He parked his mower in the shed and then went inside the house. About half an hour later the OPP cruiser returned. Paige watched it turn up the driveway.
“Mom,” Paige called from the edge of the fort.
“I see him, honey.”
The cruiser stopped in front of the house and Cole got out. He looked toward the oak, then went inside. A few minutes later he and Mr. Thorvald came out the back door and went into the garage. They emerged with an aluminum extension ladder.
“Mom!” Paige shouted.
Paige’s mother moved to stand between the tree and the house as they carried the ladder down the lawn and across the field. Toby was sitting on the tailgate of the car. The two men approached. Cole was in the lead, Mr. Thorvald behind. Sally ran between them barking, and Mr. Thorvald tried to grab her collar with his free hand, but she loped off into the grass. When they got to where Paige’s mother stood, they stopped and put the ladder down in the grass.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Paige’s mother demanded.
“Susan,” Cole said, “I just need to talk to you and your daughter to make sure everyone’s okay.”
“Everyone’s fine.”
“They’re trespassing,” Mr. Thorvald said.
Cole turned. “We agreed you’d let me handle this.”
Mr. Thorvald crossed his arms and gritted his teeth.
Cole looked back at Paige’s mother. “I need to talk to your daughter, Susan, and find out how to resolve this situation.”
“You can resolve it by going away!” Paige yelled down.
He glanced up and smiled. “Good morning, Paige.” She didn’t reply.
“Do you mind if I just talk to her?” Cole asked Paige’s mother.
“I guess that’s up to her, isn’t it?”
Cole nodded. “Okay.” He began circling the tree. “Paige?”
Paige had retreated to the centre of the fort and was watching him from her spy hole.
“Paige,” he said, smiling up at her, “will you talk to me?”
“There’s nothing to talk about!”
“Well, of course there is, Paige. We have to talk about this tree and how to resolve this situation so that everyone’s happy. You don’t want to live in a tree the rest of your life, do you?”
“Yes, I do.”
He laughed. “Oh, come on, there’s more to life than living in a tree, isn’t there? What about all the things you’re going to do? What about school and your friends in the city? Don’t you want to grow up and go to school and graduate and get married and have a family? How are you going do all that if you live in a tree?”
“I don’t care about those things.”
“Well, you may say that now, but in time you’ll come to understand that those are important things.”
“I don’t care. All I care about is this tree and stopping him from cutting it down.” She pointed a finger through the hole at Mr. Thorvald.
“This is awfully awkward, isn’t it, Paige?” Cole said. “Me down here yelling up at you and you up there yelling back? Wouldn’t it be better if we could talk face to face?” He gestured back toward the ladder. “I could come up there just to talk to you.”
“No!”
“Oh, come on now, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I just want to talk to you face to face and see that you’re all right, that you haven’t been hurt.” He looked at Paige’s mother.
“I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong with me.”
“We brought a ladder. I could lean it up against one of those big limbs. I won’t even come near your fort. I’ll just stay on the ladder, okay?”
“No!”
He looked at her mother again. “Well, now the truth is, Paige, I have to come up and check on you because that’s the law. You’re a minor. I know that’s not what you want, and you think everything’s okay, that everything would be all right if I were to simply go away, but I can’t do that. It’s not allowed.”
“Yes, it is. Just get in your car and go. No one’s stopping you.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true. You see this uniform I’m wearing? This uniform was given to me by the people of Ontario, and when I wear it — heck, even when I’m not wearing it — it means I have an obligation to protect people. If there’s a problem, or someone’s in danger, I can’t just walk away. I have an obligation to you, and to your mother and your little brother, and, well, to Mr. Thorvald, too. Right now my most important job concerns you, though. To make sure you’re okay.”
“If you don’t want anything bad to happen to me,” Paige said, pointing a finger through the hole again, “make him promise not to cut down this tree!”
But when she took away her finger and peered through the hole, she saw Cole lift the ladder out of the grass. Mr. Thorvald moved to help him, but he said something and the old man backed away. Cole raised the end of the ladder high into the air and looked up into the tree, concentrating on the branches around the fort.
“What are you doing?” Paige demanded. “You can’t come up here!”
“Paige,” he said, straining under the weight of the ladder, “I’m not here to cut down this tree, nor am I here to hurt you. I’m here to make sure you’re okay. It’s my job to make sure you’re okay, and I can’t do that unless I see you and talk to you face to face.” Holding the ladder vertical, he pulled on a rope, and the end of the ladder clattered upward into the tree. He spun it around, and its end landed against one of the thick branches that held up the fort.
“Mom,” Paige cried, “tell him to stop!”
Her mother glanced helplessly from the tree to Cole as he stood at the base of the ladder, testing its stability. Toby jumped down from the tailgate and ran at Cole. “Leave my sister alone!” he yelled, pushing Cole’s hip and punching at his stomach.
“Whoa, mister!” Cole said, holding him off.
Paige’s mother ran over, seized Toby, and pulled him away. “Stop it, Toby! You can’t hit people.”
“But he wants to hurt Paige!” he protested as she held him back.
“Your mother knows I’m not going to hurt anyone, Toby,” Cole said, moving to the bottom of the ladder again. “She knows I’m not even going to go near your sister.” He peered at his watch. “Hey, you know, at eleven o’clock I’m supposed to be on the dunking booth at the volunteer firemen’s picnic.” He looked up at the fort. “If you were to come down, Paige, we could all go over there together and, if you wanted, you could throw a ball and dunk me in the water.” He laughed. “That’d be fun, wouldn’t it?”
“No!”
He started to climb. Paige jumped up and darted to the corner of the fort supported by the branch that the ladder was leaning against. She climbed up the branch and pushed the ladder off. Cole, only a few rungs from the bottom, jumped down and rolled onto the grass as the ladder swung through the air and crashed to the ground.
“Hey,” Mr. Thorvald yelled, “that’s my ladder!”
“Paige!” her mother cried angrily. She ran over and helped Cole up. “I’m so sorry.”
He smiled, stood, and dusted himself off. “That’s all right. I’m not hurt.” He laughed. “She’s obviously a little upset.” He looked up into the tree. “Now that wasn’t very nice, Paige.” He bent over and hoisted the ladder into the air again.
Paige watched in silence as he circled to the other side of the tree, balancing the ladder vertically. He stopped and let its end fall against a branch farther out from the fort. “I do have to come up and check on you, Paige,” he said, testing the ladder again. “You know, I have a daughter who’s going to be your age soon, and, well, she can be a handful at times, but I sure hope she never does anything like that to anyone.” He started to climb again.
Scrambling across the fort toward the other branch, Paige slipped in her socks and accidentally kicked the toilet bucket over the edge. She landed on her behind on the planks and heard the rattle of plastic on metal. Then there was the crash of the ladder, followed by a loud groan and a peal of laughter. Paige crawled to the edge of the fort and peered down. The bucket and the ladder lay in the grass, and Cole was sitting on the ground. The bucket had hit the ladder and spilled its contents on Cole’s head. He had then fallen, taking the ladder with him.
The laughter was Toby’s.
“I’m sorry!” Paige said. “That was an accident!”
Paige’s mother scolded Toby, then ran over to Cole, but there was little she could do. He sat in the grass, his hands out at his sides. A napkin was plastered to his shoulder. He flicked it off. “I’m sorry, too,” he said, getting up. “The girl is obviously distraught and she might injure herself. I’m going to have to call for assistance.” Carrying the ladder, he retreated across the field with Mr. Thorvald.
Paige’s mother watched them go, then stood with her hands on her hips and scowled furiously up into the tree. Her face was twisted, and Paige braced for a scolding, but when her mother’s mouth opened, what burst out instead was a howl of laughter. She raised her hands to cover her mouth and doubled over, laughing uncontrollably. Paige and Toby glanced at each other in amazement, then they, too, started laughing.
The two men walked back up the lawn to the police cruiser. Cole leaned in through the driver’s window and spoke for a minute into the car’s radio microphone. He set the microphone back inside and walked to the car’s trunk, retrieving a clean shirt. Then they went inside the house.
For the longest time everything remained quiet. Cole and Mr. Thorvald didn’t come back outside. No car or truck appeared on the highway. A stillness passed. Even the audience of crows settled down as though waiting for the next act. Far to the south, beyond the orchard, the long ridge of purple clouds had advanced farther north. Then Paige heard an engine. At first she thought it might be Billy’s motorcycle, but the noise was too thin and shaky, like a distant small airplane. Paige watched the corner of the highway as the sound got louder. Then a green-and-white Volkswagen bus puttered around the bend. It rattled and jerked along the asphalt, slowing as it approached the driveway. When its turn signal flashed, the crows jumped into the air, cawing wildly.
“Mom, look!” Paige cried, pointing at the bus.
Her mother and Toby were already gazing across the field. The bus drove up the gravel drive, a plume of dust and exhaust floating behind it. It looped in front of the house and rolled to a shuddering stop, facing the police cruiser. For a moment nothing moved, then, as the dust settled, the driver’s door swung open and a sandal-footed man with a beard and long hair got out.
It was Stanley Thorvald!
He stood in the driveway, tall, thin, and shaggy, stretching, his eyes fixed on the police cruiser. The other doors of the bus opened, and more people emerged — three men and two women, all hippies like Stanley, dressed in cut-offs, sandals, T-shirts, and peasant dresses. Paige saw Eudora sitting in the front passenger seat. The hippies circled in front of the bus, examining the police cruiser. Paige couldn’t hear what they were saying, but a few of them started laughing. Sally was running among them, wagging her tail. Stanley crouched to pet her, rubbing her ears as she licked his face.
Paige saw one of the hippies, a woman with curly hair, glance across the field. She pointed and said something, and Stanley stood up. They all turned and looked at the oak tree. Stanley scratched his beard, then went back to the bus. Reaching through the open driver’s window, he retrieved a 35 mm camera and walked partway down the lawn, snapping pictures. There was the slam of a screen door, and Stanley whirled back to look at the house. His father and Cole were standing on the porch.
Stanley jogged over and began talking to his father, gesturing toward his friends, who all waved hello. Mr. Thorvald folded his arms. Stanley kept talking, but his father just shook his head. Stanley pointed across the field, but Mr. Thorvald shook his head again. Their conversation ended. Stanley stood silently in front of him for a moment, then backed away, nodding. He circled the bus and talked to his friends and they all got back into the Volkswagen. It rattled to life and backed up. Paige saw Stanley in the driver’s seat, shifting gears. He hesitated for a moment, then cranked the steering wheel and swung the bus around the police cruiser. Paige thought they were leaving, but instead of following the loop of the driveway, the bus proceeded straight out onto the lawn.
Mr. Thorvald stepped off the porch and bellowed, “Stanley!”
The bus bounced down the lawn and across the field. It shuddered to a stop under the oak tree, parking on the side opposite the station wagon. The doors flew open and the hippies got out. Paige spotted Eudora sitting in the passenger seat. She was breast-feeding a baby in a cloth sling over her shoulder.
“Hi, Mrs. Morrow,” Stanley said. “What’s going on? My old man says you guys are trespassing.”
“I’m not trespassing!” Paige cried. “It’s my tree and your dad wants to cut it down!”
They all looked up at her.
“Groovy,” one of Stanley’s friends said.
“You’re protecting this tree?” another asked.
“Yes!”
They all smiled and nodded. “Beautiful.”
Stanley held up his camera. “Hey, can I take some pictures of you?”
Paige glanced at her mother, who just grinned and shrugged, then looked back at Stanley. “Okay.”
Stanley raised the camera and snapped shots, walking around the bottom of the tree and out into the field. He took pictures of Paige’s mother and Toby, too. When he was finished, he asked Paige’s mother, “Do you mind if we camp out in the field with you? My old man won’t let us stay up at the house.”
“Okay.”
“Groovy.”
He introduced his friends. “This is Eudora.” He gestured at the passenger door of the bus, which was now open. “And that hungry guy with her is our son, Ben.” Eudora smiled up at Paige. Stanley continued the introductions. “That’s James and Kevin over there, lying in the grass.” He rolled his eyes. “They’re in love.” The woman with curly hair was named Joan, another woman with long black hair was named Michelle, and a bearded man in a leather vest was Gunter.
“Nice to meet you all,” Paige’s mother said.
Paige waved hello from the tree, and Gunter flashed her a peace sign.
“Right on,” Stanley said to his friends. “Let’s set up camp.”
But before they could start the sound of a siren cut through the air.