by Bev Prescott
The sweetness that came from feeling something for another person was tempered by the fact that Alex’s heart was surrounded by a tangled thicket almost impossible to penetrate. Almost. Zoe didn’t give up easily.
Not a hint of breeze wafted over the lake to cool her skin. The early summer heat wave that had settled over Maine became more brutal each day. She hoped the eaglets were staying cool.
Terry and Dac had grown considerably over the past several weeks. They were already venturing out onto the edge of the nest to spread their wings, which was why she was so relieved that Mr. Marcotte had agreed to close the island.
She surveyed the lake’s glassy surface. A handful of fishing boats sat as motionless as statues on the shimmering horizon. The calm could be deceiving. A stiff wind blowing east off Mount Washington could kick up the water into a choppy tizzy with two- to four-foot waves in no time. The weather forecast for the day predicted continued dry, hot weather with the possibility of blustery winds coming in by afternoon. For now, tranquility reigned.
A few of the camp’s early morning risers bustled around the picnic tables. Miniature humans with sleepy faces stumbled around like little zombies, probably in search of breakfast.
A young girl sat alone in the sand on the shore not far from where Zoe floated. The girl’s blonde mop of hair stuck out in different directions. The clothes she wore hung off of her body and appeared to have seen better days. The girl folded her arms on her knees and rested her chin on them. A frown covered her face. It looked like she’d been crying.
Zoe picked up her paddle and took a couple of quick, efficient strokes toward shore. She landed her boat on the sand, got out, and sat down next to the little girl. “Hi, I’m Zoe. What’s your name?” No response came, so she leaned forward to peer at the girl’s face. “You okay?”
Tears spilled down the girl’s cheeks at the question. She buried her head in her folded arms.
“Do you miss home, or is something else wrong?” Zoe asked.
“I hate it here.”
“Isn’t there a lot of fun stuff to do here?” Zoe asked. “I bet if you played with the other kids, the time would fly by and you’d be home before you know it. I’ll bet you’d even like it here if you did.”
“They won’t play with me because they hate me,” the little girl mumbled into her arms.
“Why do you think that?”
“They laughed at my clothes and shoes.” The girl stretched out a leg and pointed at her tiny foot. She wore a pair of old sandals at least a size too big. The tops of her little toes were hidden beneath the strap that was supposed to cover the top of her foot just below them. “My mom spent all our extra money so I could come here. We went to the thrift shop to get me some clothes. This is all they had. The other kids said my shoes are stupid. I’m sick of everyone making fun of me. I wish I was either like them or invisible so they would leave me alone.”
Jerky brats. This was why Zoe preferred the company of wildlife to people. Mean kids often grew up to be cruel adults. There were way too many abusive people in the world who made it a sport to prey on the weak. She thought about giving the kids gathered at the picnic table a piece of her mind, but having an adult stick up for her would probably make things worse for the little girl.
“You haven’t told me your name yet,” she said.
“I’m Michelle.”
Zoe placed her palms on the sand slightly behind her butt and leaned on her arms. “I know it’s hard, but be glad you’re different. Being different means you’re special. It sounds like you have an awesome mom who loves you very much.” She stretched out her legs in front of her and crossed them at the ankles. “I don’t fit in, either, and I actually like it that way. There are lots of things about me that people don’t understand.”
“Like what?” Michelle asked.
“Look how short my legs are.” Zoe jutted her chin in the direction of her feet. “I’m shorter than every grown-up I know. When I was your age, bigger kids liked to beat me up just because I was smaller than them. I always got picked on and laughed at for being little.”
“What did you do to stop them?”
“I have a question before I tell you.”
“Okay.”
“Do you like Kool-Aid?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you ever get to make it yourself?”
“My mom lets me sometimes.”
“I’ll bet when she does, you add a lot less water than you’re supposed to.”
“How did you know?” Michelle asked.
“That’s what I used to do too,” Zoe said. “It tastes so much better that way. Do you know why?”
“It’s sweeter because it’s more concen… concentrated? We learned about that in science class.”
Zoe laughed. “That’s exactly right, and it’s also the way it is with me. When those kids started to make fun of me, I told them I wasn’t short, I was concentrated, so they’d better watch out. They stopped after that because they weren’t smart like you. They didn’t know what concentrated meant, so it scared them and they left me alone.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I could climb trees much better than other kids. They were too big and heavy to drag themselves up into the branches. But I could do it easily. I’ll bet there are lots of things you can do that they can’t. You’re a smart kid. I can tell.” Zoe heard someone walking toward them in the sand behind her. She didn’t have to guess who it was. She felt Alex near. She looked over her shoulder and smiled. Time and her early morning run must’ve taken the edge off of last night. Alex seemed more relaxed.
“Good morning.” Alex sat down next to Michelle. “Kool-Aid?” She chuckled.
Zoe sat up straight and brushed the sand from her hands. “You caught that?”
Alex grinned. “I did, and I couldn’t agree more. Concentrated is a perfect way to describe you.” She squeezed Michelle’s shoulder. “Do you remember the story we told you kids about the wildlife biologist who climbed the tree to save the baby eagle from the fire?” she asked.
“Yeah, that was so cool.”
Alex looked at Zoe and raised an eyebrow. “Do you mind?”
Zoe winked at Alex. She reached out to shake Michelle’s hand. “That was me. And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without these short legs of mine.”
“No way!” Michelle’s eyes widened in excitement. “You were like Spider-Man that day. They showed you on the news. I saw the whole thing.”
“I prefer to think of myself more as Spider-Woman than Spider-Man,” Zoe said. “Since I think you’re really special, Michelle, I want this to be our secret, okay?”
Michelle nodded. “Cool! Can I tell my mom, though? She’d be amazed that I got to meet a real life Spider-Woman who saved a baby eagle.”
“Sure, but only your mom. Remember, superheroes don’t like their real identities to be known. Nobody was ever supposed to know Clark Kent was Superman.”
Alex stood up and ruffled Michelle’s hair. “Why don’t you go get some breakfast now, kiddo? Zoe and I have some work to do out on the lake.”
Michelle jumped to her feet and threw her arms around Zoe’s shoulders. “Nice to meet you, Spider-Woman. I promise not to tell anyone it’s you.” She skipped away toward breakfast, a kid on top of the world.
Alex watched her go and turned to Zoe. “One of the camp’s few low-income kids. She’ll eat better in the next couple of weeks than she probably will the rest of the year. It’s a crime that any kid in this country goes hungry, and it’s a little unfortunate for us.”
“What is?” Zoe got to her feet and brushed the sand from her bottom.
“James says if we close the island, there will be less money to bring low-income kids here on scholarships. As much as I want the eagles to survive, I hope it’s not true.”
“I work for the government. Trust me. People like to make excuses all the time about why wildlife should suffer in order to save this or that. If you ask me, it’s possible to do
both if we didn’t spend money on so much nonsense. Maybe the camp needs a more creative manager who has both interests at heart.”
Alex seemed to contemplate Zoe’s words. She glanced away and back to her. “Yeah, maybe it does.” She gave her a long look. “You have a way with kids for someone who doesn’t think she likes them. Thanks for taking the time to help make Michelle feel better.”
Zoe smiled. “She and I are kindred spirits. I remember what it felt like to be bullied as a child.”
“You and I must be kindred spirits too.”
“Why is that?” Zoe asked.
Alex stared out at the lake. “I can’t stand bullies. They thrive on making us afraid.” She turned to her. “But last night, you made me feel safe for the first time in so long. Thank you for that.”
“Anytime you need company or someone to talk to, I hope you know you can ask me.”
“You really are sort of like a superhero,” Alex teased.
Zoe felt her cheeks flush. Her sunglasses hung around her neck. She slid them over her eyes to hide her expression. “And you’re going to be my trusty sidekick today like the Girl Wonder. Together, we’ll shut Eagle Island down to all those evildoers.”
Alex chuckled. “Can I wear black spandex?”
“Oh, my God.” Zoe shook her head and laughed. I’d love to see that. “You can wear anything you like.”
“You’re going to be an easy superhero boss to work for.”
Zoe hadn’t noticed the breeze starting to kick up until that moment. Little ripples crawled across the lake’s surface. “My first order is going to be that we get out there quick to get these signs posted. The wind is going to get progressively stronger. We should get your kayak in the water now.”
“If you don’t mind, I thought we’d take one of my father’s boats instead to set the buoys. That’s why I grabbed the keys. I thought it would be faster. Besides, if we’re going to set buoys, we’ll need cinderblocks. I assumed you’d want to do that, so I had a couple of counselors help me load them into the boat. And I stenciled the buoys with a warning this morning before my run. We’re ready to go.”
“You’ve thought of everything, Girl Wonder.” Zoe pulled her kayak farther up onto shore and secured her paddle inside the cockpit.
“If you get to be Spider-Woman, I want to be Batwoman.” Alex pouted.
“You know she’s gay, don’t you? By the way, just to be clear, my version of Spider-Woman isn’t the same as the Spider-Woman in the Marvel comic strip. I have no desire to exude pheromones that attract men.”
Alex laughed. “Well, I get that. The reason I chose Batwoman is because she’s gay.” She turned and headed toward the boat.
A gorgeous lesbian superhero with a broken heart. “You can be anyone you want to be.” Zoe unlashed her life jacket from the bow of her kayak and called after Alex, “Feel free to wear spandex too.” The sound of Alex’s laughter reminded Zoe of the melodies sung by songbirds in springtime. She could listen to it forever and never grow tired of it.
Chapter 16
Alex gave the four-foot-long stake a final pound into the ground with her hammer. She wiggled the stake to make sure it was secure and twisted it slightly so the No Trespassing sign attached to it was clearly visible to anyone who might consider landing on the beach. “That’s the last of the signs. Do you want to set the buoys now?”
“Look at this first.” Zoe held up a long white feather.
“An eagle’s tail feather?” Alex asked.
“Yeah.” Zoe handed her the feather. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Alex brushed her fingers along its length. “I still can’t believe eagles are nesting on this island. It’s incredible.”
Zoe put her hand out. “I’d better put that back where I found it.”
“You’re not going to let me keep it?”
“It’s illegal to have eagle feathers without a permit. I can’t let you keep it.”
“You’re such a good Eagle Scout. I like that about you.” Alex swept her hand once more along the feather’s wispy edges. “I wouldn’t want either of us to get into trouble. Thanks for at least showing it to me.” She returned the feather to Zoe. “This may sound hokey, but the other day when I helped band the eaglet, I made eye contact with it, and I felt like it could see right through me. Like it knew exactly what I was thinking.”
Zoe tucked the feather out of sight under a thicket of sweet fern bushes. “That’s not hokey at all. Animals absolutely communicate. They just don’t use words like we do. If we paid more attention to them, we’d understand just how much they have to say.”
As if on cue, the eaglets started to chirp.
Zoe pointed toward the nest. “What they’re saying now is that their bellies are empty. They’re calling the parents to bring them some food. We should probably get off the island and set the buoys so we don’t prevent Mom and Dad from bringing their breakfast.”
Alex raised her eyes to the nest. A dark gray head peeked over the edge and squeaked at her. “Hello, my little friend,” she whispered. She placed the hammer she’d used to secure the signs back into the toolbox. “Let’s get those buoys into the water.”
She and Zoe pushed the boat off the sand and climbed in over the bow. Alex turned the key and the engine came to life. She slowly backed the boat away from the island and headed toward the front side where boaters would have the best view of the nest and, therefore, be most likely to want to get close. The wind kicked what had been ripples on the lake into whitecaps. The boat bobbed over and down into the troughs of the building waves.
Alex pointed at one of the buoys tied to a cinderblock. “Decide where you want the buoy to float. Toss the cinderblock in at that point, and I’ll motor away from it so the line doesn’t tangle.”
“Got it.” Zoe pointed to a spot on the lake. “There.”
She hoisted the block over the side of the boat. It sank quickly as the line attached to it followed. When it came to rest on the bottom, the red buoy floated above it about two hundred feet from shore. The words painted in black read, “Keep Out, Wildlife Protection Area.”
Zoe reached for a second cinderblock as Alex continued to navigate the boat along a track in line with the first buoy. She tossed the block over the side. “That’s perfect, Alex. One more to go.”
Alex glanced up as Zoe heaved the last block over the side and into the water. One of the eagle parents soared toward the nest. A large fish wriggled in the death grip of its talons. The eagle flapped its wings a couple of times, spread them wide, and glided into the nest. Two dark heads bobbled above the rim as the eagle tore into the fish. The eaglets clamored and shoved against each other for the food in their parent’s beak. “Their bellies should be full after that,” she said.
“Hopefully, both of their bellies,” Zoe remarked.
“Why wouldn’t they be? That’s an enormous fish.”
“True, but the thing about eaglets is that they can be brutal to each other while their parents turn a blind eye. It’s survival of the fittest in the harshest form. Eagle parents go to great lengths to protect their babies from predators, but they don’t lift a talon, so to speak, to protect them from each other. The larger eaglets tend to peck at and horde food from the smaller ones. Sometimes they even manage to push a sibling out of the nest. The little guys have to be strong-willed if they want to survive.”
Two siblings struggling against each other to live conjured the ghost of Alex’s brother. She tried to blink away the memory of his face. Her brother’s death surged forward from the depths of her hidden recollections. His eyes were wide and his mouth contorted in a scream muted by the water. A silent scream only she could hear. It wailed inside the walls of her mind with a deafening echo. The switch to her anxiety had been flipped.
The boat slammed into the trough of a huge wave as it rolled underneath them and jostled Alex away from the controls. She regained her footing and tightened her grip on the steering wheel to catch her balance. “Damn it.”
Her pulse raced and the palms of her hands went wet—not from water splashed into the boat, but from fear. Sweat rolled from her temples down the sides of her neck. Goosebumps broke out over her body. She wrapped her arms around herself and sank to the floor of the boat. Like her brother, she was suffocating. The rational part of her brain spoke calmly, reminding her that this was an anxiety attack and she had the power to control it if she could only catch her breath. The other part of her brain drove her toward chaos, pulling her into a place where she couldn’t think, a state of emotional anarchy that terrified and consumed her.
A voice called her name. She closed her eyes and gulped for air. Her body trembled. The unfamiliar voice called her name again. She glanced around for a means of escape.
“Alex… what’s the matter?” A hand shook her by the shoulder.
Alex realized the voice belonged to Zoe. She fought to escape from the darkness inside herself, but it pulled at her.
Zoe’s voice cut through again. “Talk to me. What’s happening, Alex?”
Alex felt Zoe’s grip tighten on her shoulders. The physical connection created a lifeline she could grab. She concentrated on taking slow, regular breaths. Embarrassment moved in to replace the paralyzing terror. At least it meant she was coming back into the present.
She got to her feet and moved away from Zoe as the wind dragged the boat too fast toward the rocks around the island. She put her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. She reached for the throttle and threw the boat into reverse.
Zoe gripped her elbow. “Tell me what just happened.”
Alex pulled away. “Let it go.”
“I don’t want to let it go.”
“Why does it matter to you? The island is closed to trespassers, and I’m taking you back to shore. There was no harm done. That’s all you should be concerned with.” The customary anger that always followed an anxiety attack bubbled and frothed in Alex’s belly. It was wrong to be angry at Zoe, but she couldn’t help feeling furious at everyone and everything. Anger was the means by which she could cap her fear and gain control over it.
