Paco stared at her. Suddenly, his thoughts lit up like the dark earth when the sun rises in the morning. “Sí! I do! I’ll ask the wild ones to help us.” Then his mind dimmed a little. “Do you think there’s time to ask them?”
“Yes, I do! The children won’t sneak away until after supper. Tommy will have to fix his flat tire. You will have a good head start on them.”
“Sí! Muy bien!” He looked at B-Boy.
B-Boy grinned. “Muy bien right back at you, Paco! You’re right!” He ran over and gave Paco a high five.
Coco’s sharp voice got their attention. “You’ll have a head start, but the children will be on bikes. They can ride faster than you can run. You’ll have to use some tricks to slow them down. Even then, it’s going to be very hard. Paco, you have to use your brains. You have to think!”
“Bueno! I will!” Determination strengthened the little dog’s backbone. He stood up as tall as he could. Although a cruel white worm of doubt was wiggling around in his stomach, he wouldn’t let Coco or B-Boy know that. And he would never let the werewolf hurt Olivia. He took that one thought in his teeth and bit hard. He’d hang onto it. No doubts or fears would stop him.
Paco slipped out the doggy door and into his backyard as soon as he and Olivia returned home. The smell of food cooking in the kitchen followed him into the evening air. The family would be eating soon. Afterward Olivia would make up an excuse to go back to Sandy’s and meet the others.
Paco didn’t overhear all the details of the children’s scheme, but he knew that much. He shivered with nerves and worry, his little body trembling from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail.
He hurried. He trotted down the walk until he got to the dirt path through the weeds. He knew that Pewy, the old skunk, slept through the daytime hours somewhere near the tumbled-down-stone wall, but his den was well hidden. Paco had never found it.
The Chihuahua stood up on his hind legs and stretched himself as tall as he could so his voice would carry. He called out, “Pewy! Can you hear me! Professor Pewmount, wake up. I need help.”
No one answered. The weeds didn’t stir.
Paco called again. He listened. He heard nothing. He called again, now getting very worried that the skunk wouldn’t wake up until it was too late.
Suddenly he heard a chickadee began to sing loudly dee dee dee. It came again. Dee dee dee dee. Paco’s ears stood up. Then the bird gave a two-note whistle, fee beee, fee beee.
Was the bird talking to him? Paco yipped, “I need help! I need help!”
Dee dee dee went the chickadee. Then louder, DEE DEE DEE.
Then, riding gently on the breeze, a sleepy voice said, “I’m coming, I’m coming. Keep your shirt on.” The weeds shook. A black and white tail waved above them. Finally, the fat skunk poked his pointed nose into the open.
“That you, Paco?”
“It’s me! I was looking for you.” Joy flooded the Chihuahua at the sight of his old friend.
“Guess you were. That noisy bird woke me up. Said you needed help.” The skunk waddled onto the lawn and sat down with a plop. “Let me catch my breath. Smart of you to tell a chickadee. They’re the biggest gossips in the forest. They can’t keep their mouths shut. They always know everything,” he grumped.
Paco decided that was a good thing to remember.
“So what’s wrong, my little amigo?” Pewmount asked.
Paco, talking so fast he barely took a breath, told him the whole story.
Pewmount didn’t interrupt. He listened without taking his licorice eyes from Paco’s worried face. When the tiny dog finished, the skunk asked, “What exactly do you want the forest creatures to do? They’re good soldiers, but not good generals, you understand?”
Paco had given that very question a lot of thought since Coco told him he had to think. He was good at plans, he really was.
Paco took a deep breath, exhaled, and said, “Sí. I need three things done. First, I need the wild ones to play some tricks that will slow the children down. That will give me and B-Boy time to get to the junkyard and find Natasha.”
“Mmmmmm. You have any ideas who should play the tricks?”
“I think so.” And Paco told him.
Pewmount considered Paco’s suggestions. He decided they might work, with a little luck. “OK, what’s the second thing you need done?” he asked, and his eyes got very worried when Paco told him. “It’s dangerous,” he said.
“Sí,” Paco agreed.
“But you’re right. It must be done. Now, what is the third thing?”
“I need a very fast and cunning animal to lure the werewolf away from Natasha, so B-Boy and I can reach her and tell her she has to come home.”
“Fast and cunning?” Pewmount mused.
Just then, Paco felt a poke. He turned around. Norma-Jean sat there. So did Little Annie.
“We heard everything,” the gray cat said.
“We want to help,” the black cat added.
Together they said, “We’re fast and cunning!” and they gave each other a shoulder bump.
“You’re only cats!” Paco protested.
“Exactly!” Norma-Jean grinned.
“That’s the point,” Little Annie laughed. “Any dog will chase a cat!”
“Even a dog who might be a werewolf!” Norma-Jean chimed in.
Paco’s heart sank to his toes. “No! I can’t let you. He might catch you. You might get hurt.”
Norma-Jean rolled her eyes. “Did you ever catch us?”
“Well, no.”
“We intend to go anyway.” Little Annie put her paws on her hips and cocked her head to one side. “Whether you want us to or not! Olivia belongs to us too! We have to protect her.”
“I—I—don’t know what to say.”
Professor Pewmount cleared his throat. “You don’t need to say anything. If any animals can fool this great beast, they can. Those two are the sneakiest, most mischievous cats I ever met.”
Norma-Jean and Little Annie grinned. “He’s right! We are!” They said together.
Pewmount spoke up again. “Now, Mr. Paco, my muy poco amigo, my small friend, as my sainted mother used to say, There’s a time to talk and a time to do. I better get doing if we are to slow those children down.”
With those final words, he turned around and disappeared back into the weeds.
To Paco, the minutes passed by as if they were in a race with each other. The sun dropped like a stone toward the horizon. Long evening shadows stretched across the lawn with the swiftness of spilled water.
Paco made a quick decision. “Let’s leave right now!” he cried out to Norma-Jean and Little Annie.
They didn’t wait until the family finished dinner. They didn’t worry whether or not they’d be missed. As if a starting gun had fired, Paco and his cats took off running. They bounded over the tumbled-down-stone wall. They raced along the narrow alley, and they crossed three streets—being careful to look both ways first. They dove under the hedges at Tommy Thompson’s house. Paco gave a prearranged signal: yip, yippity yip yip, bark bark!
Seconds later, B-Boy climbed out of a window and raced across the lawn.
“Go, go, go!” the Jack Russell barked as he scampered past them and down the sidewalk. “Tommy’s getting ready to leave.”
The facts are the facts. The truth cannot be ignored. Short legs do not run very fast or get very far.
The four friends raced away from Tommy Thompson’s house, paws a blur of motion, tails straight as rudders. But after they ran and ran, and ran and ran, and still didn’t reach the white highway, Paco called for a halt.
He needed to catch his breath. He puffed. He huffed. He remembered that it had taken hours for Coco and him to reach Mount Diablo.
He turned an anguished face toward the other animals. “This won’t work. We’re muy
lento, too slow.”
B-Boy, Norma-Jean, and Little Annie agreed.
“But we can’t give up,” B-Boy insisted.
“We won’t give up!” The two cats put in their two cents.
“We’re not!” Paco barked. “We need another plan. Let me think for a minute.”
Paco squeezed his eyes closed. Then he opened them and stared at the sky. The clear blue of an early summer evening did not reflect the dark worry in his mind. He really did not know what to do.
But he did not give up. He kept looking upward but seeing inward. He stayed still. He thought hard. Then his ears quivered, detecting the muted rumble of semi-trucks traveling the white highway in the distance. And, then, Paco got another great idea.
At the highway rest area, row after row of huge tractor trailers filled the parking spaces. Eighteen-wheelers, belching black smoke, pulled in off the highway, while others, their engines thundering, pulled back onto the interstate.
The noise frightened the four small animals, but it didn’t stop them from coming closer. They slunk around the edge of asphalt, staying on the grass. They crouched low and stayed out of sight. All the while, their eyes scanned the windows of the idling big rigs looking for what Paco had described to them.
“There!” B-Boy yipped. “Over there. In the green one. Do you see him?”
“I sure hear him.” Little Annie put her paws over her ears.
Not twenty feet away, the black head of a fox-like dog called a Schipperke suddenly poked out of the open passenger-side window of a tall truck cab. The dog’s front feet did a little dance on the window ledge as it barked loudly and joyously. “Hey! Hey! Who are you? Hey! Hey! Come on over! Hey! It’s OK. I like cats. Hey! Come say hello!”
“Let’s go!” Paco yelled and made a dash for the green cab. His friends followed. Standing in the parking lot, they introduced themselves to the dog high above them in the cab window.
The black dog was called Teddy. He was glad to meet them. But, he asked, what were they doing here at a truck rest stop?
Talking quickly, Paco told their story. He ended by saying they needed a ride to Mount Diablo to save their children. “So you are going that way? Sí? Is the driver coming back soon? We’re running out of time.”
“Don’t worry. Don’t worry,” the black dog barked. “Driver Jim only went to the restroom. He’s coming right back. We’re on our way home. Don’t worry. I’ll help.”
“Thank you!” the posse below yelled.
Teddy the Schipperke grinned a doggy smile. “Tell you what. I’ll get this door open. You hop in. Hide behind the seat. Jim won’t even notice. When we get to Mount Diablo, I’ll tell him I need to ‘go.’ You know what I mean. Soon as he opens the door, you guys run.”
“You sure?” Paco thought about all the things that could go wrong—in particular, what if driver Jim didn’t stop when Teddy asked to “go”?
“Absolute-ally! Come on. Hurry. I see Jim starting this way.”
Teddy pressed down on the door handle. He pushed the cab door open wide enough for the cats to clamber up. Then B-Boy, whose legs worked like coiled springs, bounced into the cab without a bit of trouble.
Tiny Paco jumped only as far as the running board. “I can’t make it,” he whimpered.
“Hang on!” B-Boy leaped back out. He got behind Paco and pushed. Teddy reached down and grabbed Paco’s collar with his teeth. With a heave and a ho, Paco found himself inside the truck. B-Boy came in right behind him just as a tall man wearing bib overalls and a red-and-black plaid jacket shouted, “Hey! The truck door’s open! Teddy! Stay!”
His face turning white, his heavy boots going thud on the pavement, Jim the truck driver rushed to his vehicle and slammed the cab door shut. It narrowly missed Paco’s tail.
Jim peered up at Teddy, whose head poked over the window ledge again. “How the heck did you get that door open? Gee whiz, little guy, that was close.” Jim took off his cap and scratched his head. He studied the door. Not seeing anything amiss, he went around the truck to get in on the driver’s side, muttering, “Doggone it. Near took ten years off my life, seeing that door open. Could have lost my dog. Doggone it!”
Jim turned on the engine. He changed the gears. He pressed the gas, and the eighteen-wheeler rolled back onto the highway. He flipped on the radio and sang along with a country song. Jim sang loudly and not very well, but he sang with gusto.
Squatting down behind the passenger seat, the little animals listened to Jim bellow out some words about being on the road again. They huddled together. They could feel each other’s hearts beating. But they only heard Jim sing three more tunes before Teddy started whining and scratching at the window.
The long journey along the white highway took Coco and Paco many hours to travel. Now it took just a few minutes.
Jim looked over at the black dog. “You got to go already?”
Whine, whine cried Teddy. He circled around several times on the seat just to make his point that the situation was urgent.
“Hang on, hang on, I’ll pull over at this exit,” Jim promised, his voice kind. He did love his dog a great deal and didn’t mind.
He eased the truck onto the off-ramp. Paco spotted the overhead exit sign through the truck window. It was for Mount Diablo. Teddy got it exactly right. He heaved a sigh of relief.
As soon as Jim opened the door on Teddy’s side of the truck, two cats and two dogs jumped out and scattered as fast as they could.
“Holy Hannah!” Jim gasped, his eyes as big as dinner plates. “Where did they come from?”
Teddy barked loudly.
Jim began to laugh. “So you picked me up some hitchhikers, did you?” Then the truck driver smiled so wide it made his cheeks ache. Whistling another song from the radio, he snapped on Teddy’s leash and lifted him down from the cab. Jim looked forward to telling his wife about what Teddy had done this time.
Meanwhile, B-Boy, Norma-Jean, and Little Annie scampered along behind Paco until they reached a fork in the road. Without hesitation, the Chihuahua took the white way to the right. “It’s not much longer,” Paco called out.
“I wonder where the children are?” B-Boy asked.
“I wonder too.” Paco felt a squeeze of anxiety in his chest, but he didn’t slow down. He had to have faith in Pewmount and the plan. He ran on.
Success owes much to luck. It owes more to good planning. Most of the time it needs a good dose of both.
Professor Pewmount’s sainted mother told him that.
The wise old skunk got busy after talking with Paco. He called a meeting with the nosy chickadee who woke him, two red squirrels who were eavesdropping in a nearby tree, and five loud-mouthed blue jays he happened to know personally. He asked them to take Paco’s request for help to the wild creatures.
The Professor was much respected by everyone, a true senator of the forest. He got a quick response. Birds, insects, and four-legged forest animals of all kinds showed up at his den. He didn’t have to twist any arms to make some of them agree to play tricks on the children. Animals loved to outwit humans, and Paco’s ideas were grand. Also, all wild creatures felt strongly about protecting their young.
And then Pewmount turned to some of the others. He chose them because they were the swiftest—they must travel a long way in a very short time—and because they had some very special talents. He explained Paco’s second request. They listened. They asked a few questions. They agreed to do it, even though it sounded very dangerous. They understood that this terrible creature must be driven away or destroyed before it ate them all, one by one.
“You must hurry,” Pewy said to these bravest of the brave. “If you are late, it will be too late…for all of us.”
They left as fast as they could.
Then Pewy turned to those whose job was to delay the children. “Chickadee will be your spotter. She’ll fly above
the children. Listen for her signal. Then move in!”
“Why is Coco howling?” Olivia asked Sandy. She stood next to her bike in Sandy’s backyard where the four children gathered.
“She didn’t want me to go out. Each time I walked away, she struggled to get up and started crying. I hated to leave her. How long do you think we’ll be gone, Tommy?”
“Let’s see.” Tommy looked at his wristwatch. “It’s nearly six now. We’ve got two good hours and maybe even three before dark. We can cover a lot of ground by then.”
“Where are we going?” Olivia’s face looked worried.
“We need to start where Natasha was last spotted with the big animal. Victoria, do you know that exact place?”
“Yes, I’ll take you to the street. It’s not far from here.”
“Great. They were headed toward the highway. We’ll follow the same route.” Tommy threw his leg over the bar of his bike and prepared to push off.
Olivia didn’t move. “Wait a minute. What happens when we get to the highway? We can’t ride our bikes along the interstate.”
Tommy grinned. “I already thought of that. I Googled a map on my computer. A hiking trail runs in the same direction as the highway, but through the woods. It leads toward Mount Diablo. We can ride there. OK?”
“That sounds OK, but—” Olivia’s voice held a heavy load of doubt. “Let’s watch the time. I wouldn’t want to be in the woods when it’s getting dark.”
“Me neither,” Sandy spoke up.
“Ahhh, don’t be sissies. Nothing out there can hurt us. Our bikes have headlights if it gets too dark to see. I even brought a megaphone for Victoria to call Natasha.”
Victoria looked at Tommy as if he was her hero. “Oh, Tommy, you’re always so smart.” Victoria smiled, showing perfect pearly teeth.
Chihuawolf Page 6
