Timberwolf Prey

by Sigmund Brouwer

  TIMBERWOLF

  Prey

  SIGMUND BROUWER

  illustrated by GRAHAM ROSS

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  Text copyright © 2010 Sigmund Brouwer

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 Graham Ross

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in

  any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

  recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be

  invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Brouwer, Sigmund, 1959-

  Timberwolf prey / Sigmund Brouwer ; illustrated by Graham Ross.

  (Howling Timber Wolves )

  (Orca echoes)

  ISBN 978-1-55469-109-8

  I. Ross, Graham, 1962- II. Title. III. Series. IV. Series: Orca echoes

  PS8553.R68467T546 2010 jC813’.54 C2009-907266-1

  First published in the United States, 2009

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2009942224

  Summary: In this eighth and final book in the Timberwolves series,

  the Howling Timberwolves need to make it to the championship hockey finals,

  but first Johnny Maverick has to survive a visit from his six-year-old cousin.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided

  by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the

  Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia

  through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed this book

  on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

  Typesetting by Teresa Bubela

  Cover artwork and interior illustrations by Graham Ross

  Author photo by Bill Bilsley

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHER ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  PO BOX 5626, STN. B PO BOX 468

  VICTORIA, BC Canada CUSTER, WA USA

  V8R 6S4 98240-0468

  www.orcabook.com

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  13 12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Chapter One: You Snooze, You Lose

  Chapter Two: Who Played This Trick?

  Chapter Three: Coach’s Pep Talk

  Chapter Four: Bad Penalty

  Chapter Five: Help with Homework

  Chapter Six: Clean Teeth

  Chapter Seven: An Even Dirtier Trick

  Chapter Eight: Feeling Better?

  Chapter Nine: Still Trying To Help

  Chapter Ten: Breakaway!

  Chapter Eleven: A Painted Room

  Chapter One

  You Snooze, You Lose

  Johnny Maverick was on a breakaway in his first NHL game. He had been called in to play in the seventh game in the Stanley Cup finals. He had already scored six goals, setting a record impossible for anyone to break. But the score was 6–6. There were only seconds left in the game. If he scored, his team would win the Stanley Cup!

  The crowd roared as he rushed down the ice.

  He reached the net. He moved the puck to his backhand. Then he swept the puck in the other direction as the goalie went for the fake. The net was wide-open. From his forehand side, he snapped the puck into the upper corner.

  Goal!

  The red light went on behind the net. The buzzer sounded to end the game.

  Johnny raised his arms in triumph as he circled the ice. He grinned his special grin at all the pretty girls in the stands, who now adored him more than ever before.

  But something was not right.

  The buzzer kept sounding to end the game. And the buzzer was getting louder and louder.

  That’s when Johnny realized he was dreaming. The buzzer wasn’t from the game. It was from his alarm clock.

  He groaned.

  Even though it was Saturday morning, and still dark, he had to get up for hockey. Johnny lived in a small town called Howling, and he played for the Timberwolves. He had to be up early to travel out of town for a playoff hockey game in Baden.

  But Johnny hated waking up. Even for something as exciting as a playoff game. He liked snoozing.

  Just one quick snooze, he told himself, keeping his eyes closed. Just one press of the snooze button on his alarm clock. Maybe he could start dreaming again, especially the part about the goal and the girls.

  With his eyes still closed, he reached over to push the snooze button. His fingers brushed against something that did not feel like the snooze button. Snap!

  Something hard clamped down on all his fingers. Something that hurt. Something that felt like an animal was biting his hand and wouldn’t let go.

  Johnny yelled and jumped out of bed. He shook his hand as hard as he could. But the animal wouldn’t let go. His fingers stung so much he didn’t stop to turn on the light.

  He knocked his bedroom door open and ran, screaming, down the hallway. He shook his hand as hard as he could. He reached the kitchen. His friend Stu Duncan was sitting at the kitchen table, eating pancakes. His friend Tom Morgan was there too, staring at Johnny.

  In the light of the kitchen, Johnny could finally see the animal biting his fingers so hard.

  It was a mousetrap.

  Chapter Two

  Who Played This Trick?

  Johnny pulled the top of the mousetrap off his fingers. He dropped it on the floor. He stepped to the kitchen sink and ran cold water over his fingers, so it wouldn’t hurt so much.

  “Did you know you scream like a little girl?” Tom said. “And if you wanted cheese, all you had to do was get it from the fridge. Not put your hand in a mousetrap. You scream like a girl, and you have fewer brains than a mouse.”

  “The mousetrap was on my snooze button,” Johnny said. “Wait till I get you back.”

  “Wish I had thought of it,” Tom said. “That is very funny.”

  Johnny pulled his hand out of the cold water and looked at his fingers. There was a red line across the tops of them. If Tom hadn’t done it, then there could only be one other person in Howling to blame. And that person was eating pancakes.

  “Stu,” Johnny said. He shut off the tap and dried his hand. “You’re going to pay for this.”

  Stu shook his head. But he didn’t speak. His mouth was full of pancake. Syrup dripped down his chin.

  “You didn’t do it?” Johnny asked Stu. “To make sure I got out of bed for the big game today?”

  Stu swallowed a mouthful and shook his head again. “Wish I had thought of it. What a great trick, putting a mousetrap on the snooze button. Everyone knows you like to snooze. Besides, why would I want to wake you up? That would mean fewer pancakes for me.”

  Johnny frowned. The three of them were friends. They liked playing tricks on each other. And when you fooled one of your friends with a good trick, you bragged about it. If Tom and Stu said they didn’t do it, then they didn’t do it. Johnny frowned. He had no idea who had played the trick on him.

  Before he could say anything, Johnny’s mom walked into the kitchen.

  “Leave some pancakes for Johnny,” she told Stu. She had to tell Stu this often.

  Tom and Stu liked coming over on Saturday mornings to pick up Johnny for hockey, because his mom always made them breakfast while Johnny snoozed. The longer Johnny snoozed, the more time Stu had to eat.

  “If you guys didn’t do it,” Johnny said to Stu and Tom, “who did? Mom?”

  “Did what?” she said.

  “Put a mousetrap on the snooze button.” Johnny held up his
fingers and showed his mom the red welt from the trap. “Were you trying to make sure I would wake up instead of snoozing?”

  “Is that what all the screaming was about?” she said. “I thought it was Stu, screaming because we were out of syrup.” She smiled to show Stu she was joking.

  “I thought the screaming was a little girl,” Tom said. “Isn’t there a girl staying with you this weekend?”

  “Since yesterday morning,” Johnny’s mom said. “Sarah, Johnny’s six-year-old cousin. She’s staying here while her parents are away. You boys could learn from her. She’s always trying to help.”

  A little red-headed girl stepped into the kitchen. She had a big grin, lots of freckles and was missing her two front teeth.

  “Cool,” she said. “Johnny, you are finally out of bed. Your mom said you always sleep in.”

  “Of course I am out of bed,” he said. “Someone put a mousetrap on my snooze button.”

  “That was me,” Sarah said. “Did you like my idea to help you wake up on time for your hockey game?”

  Chapter Three

  Coach’s Pep Talk

  “Hey, everybody,” Tom yelled as he entered the dressing room before their game. “Guess what? Johnny got pranked by a six-year-old girl!”

  All the noise and talking stopped. The guys on the hockey team had been tying their skates. Everyone was almost ready to go on the ice.

  “I don’t believe it,” Eldridge said. He was another friend of Johnny’s. He was sitting beside Stu. “Johnny is too smart for that.”

  “It’s true,” Stu said. “His cousin Sarah put a mousetrap on his alarm clock. When Johnny went to hit the snooze button, he put his fingers in the trap.”

  “Yeah,” Tom said, “he screamed like a little girl.”

  All the guys on the team laughed. But they stopped when Coach Smith opened the door and stepped inside the dressing room. Coach Smith had a serious look on his face. They knew what that look meant. Coach Smith was going to give them a pep talk before the game.

  “Listen up,” Coach Smith said. He always started his pep talks like that. “This is a big game.”

  Johnny was sitting on the other side of Stu. He whispered to Stu, “Not as big as the plate of pancakes you put away this morning.”

  Stu elbowed Johnny.

  “If we win this series,” Coach Smith said, “we go to the championship finals.”

  Coach Smith was always telling the boys things they already knew. That’s why they often didn’t listen to him.

  Like now. Johnny elbowed Stu back. Stu’s gum dropped out of his mouth and onto the floor.

  “Yes,” Coach Smith said, “it’s the best two out of three games. One here today in Baden against the Sabres and one tomorrow morning back in Howling. If each team wins a game, the tie-breaker is tomorrow afternoon in Howling. Got it?”

  Stu leaned forward and reached around on the floor with one hand.

  “What are you doing, Stu?” Coach Smith asked.

  “Nothing,” Stu said.

  Johnny knew Stu was trying to pick his gum up off the floor. But it wasn’t the time to tell Coach Smith. Coach Smith didn’t like interruptions during his pep talk.

  “All right, guys,” Coach Smith said. “Play your best. And play so your parents can be proud of you. That’s all I can ask.”

  Everyone knew the pep talk was over. Coach Smith always ended his pep talks like that.

  Coach Smith left the room and everybody started talking. Johnny noticed Stu was chewing his gum again. Stu had a funny look on his face.

  “What’s wrong?” Johnny asked. “Did I elbow you too hard?”

  “No,” Stu said, “I dropped my gum on the floor.”

  “I saw you pick it up,” Johnny said. “But that doesn’t explain the look on your face.”

  “Coach Smith was giving us his pep talk, so I couldn’t look down to find it.”

  “So?” Johnny asked.

  “Well,” Stu said, spitting the gum out onto his hand, “my gum was spearmint. This is cherry.”

  “Gross!” Johnny said. “You are chewing somebody else’s old gum!”

  Stu tossed the cherry gum into the garbage. He looked at the floor and found the gum he had been chewing. He popped it back in his mouth.

  “Gross!” Johnny said again.

  “Not as gross as yesterday after school,” Stu said. “I was watching television and eating Oreo cookies. The crumbs that fell onto the couch were crunchier than I expected.”

  “How can that be bad?” Johnny asked.

  “Those crunchy crumbs had legs,” Stu said. “And I didn’t realize it until after I had chewed on a couple.”

  Chapter Four

  Bad Penalty

  The Howling Timberwolves were up 5–2 against the Sabres. There were only a few minutes left in the game.

  Johnny Maverick was in a bad mood. First, he had been pranked by a six-year-old girl. His fingers were still sore from the mousetrap. Then Stu had grossed him out in the dressing room. He had not yet scored a goal or made an assist. And worse, a guy named Dale on the Sabres team kept jabbing Johnny with his hockey stick whenever the referee wasn’t looking. Dale had jabbed Johnny in the ribs, the stomach and the back of the legs.

  Now, with Tom Morgan about to take the face-off at center for the Timberwolves, Johnny and Dale as opposing wingers were lined up beside each other in the Timberwolves’ end. They waited for the ref to drop the puck.

  “How about you quit the cheap shots with your stick?” Johnny said to Dale. Johnny leaned forward with his stick on the ice.

  “How about you quit being such a princess?” Dale said. Dale placed his stick on the ice behind Johnny’s.

  “Maybe if you were a good player,” Johnny said, “you wouldn’t have to cheat.”

  “Maybe it’s fun,” Dale said.

  The referee entered the face-off circle. His back was turned to Johnny and Dale.

  Dale slid the blade of his stick up against the back of Johnny’s skates.

  As the ref got ready to drop the puck, Dale pushed the stick blade hard, shoving Johnny’s skates forward. Johnny fell on his butt.

  Dale laughed. Nobody but Dale and Johnny knew what had happened.

  Johnny lost his temper. He jumped up and tackled Dale. Dale dropped onto his hands and knees and tucked his head into his chest like a turtle.

  The referee pulled Johnny off Dale and gave Johnny a penalty. As Johnny skated to the penalty box, Dale laughed at him.

  The Sabres scored a goal during the penalty. When Johnny skated over to the bench, Dale laughed at him again.

  The game continued into last minute of play, with the Timberwolves still leading 5–3. Coach Smith walked down the bench to Johnny. Johnny expected Coach Smith to be mad.

  “I saw what he did to you,” Coach Smith said. “I understand why you lost your temper. But that doesn’t mean you should jump on him.” Coach Smith pointed at the scoreboard. “He wanted you to get a penalty. And it was a good thing we were ahead by three goals, or you might have hurt the team.”

  “Sorry, Coach Smith,” Johnny said.

  “You’ll know better for next time, right? He is being a bad sport. You don’t need to be one too. You should always play so you can be proud of yourself.”

  “Yes,” Johnny said, “I’ll remember that.”

  The buzzer sounded to end the game. The score was Timberwolves 5, Sabres 3.

  “Good,” Coach Smith said. “But even though we won, you will have to face him again tomorrow morning.”

  Chapter Five

  Help with Homework

  Johnny returned from the game just before supper. Sarah was in the dining room at the family computer. She was concentrating very hard as she hit the different letters on the keyboard. Johnny walked closer. This is what he saw on the first line:

  LOPUI. #%?< L EA.UR. JL.

  LJKOIUIUO.@34xi== WHTO. DHELD

  In fact, that’s all that was on the computer screen.

  “Hey, Sa
rah,” Johnny said. “What are you doing?”

  “I am working on a report,” she said. “For homework.”

  “Really,” Johnny said. “What’s it about?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I can’t read.”

  Johnny thought that was funny. It put him in a better mood after what Dale had done to him on the ice. Johnny laughed.

  “Do you want me to show you how to save your report?” Johnny asked. “It’s very important when you work on a computer to save your changes.”

  “Sure,” Sarah said. “How?”

  Johnny showed her on the keyboard how to save it. Then he saved the changes for her. It was funny, saving a report that looked like this:

  LOPUI. #%?< L EA.UR. JL.

  LJKOIUIUO.@34xi== WHTO. DHELD

  Johnny could hardly wait to tell Stu and Tom about this. He was also hungry. He could hardly wait for supper. Johnny smelled something cooking in the kitchen. Pizza. He loved pizza. He turned toward the kitchen and left Sarah at the computer. Then he thought of something.

  “Sarah,” he said, “there was a report on the computer. My report.”

  “I know,” she said. “I heard you talking with your mom yesterday. You said you needed to finish it for Monday morning.”

  Johnny walked up to the computer. He had almost finished his report the night before. He had saved his changes before going to bed. Then he put the computer in sleep mode.

  All it took to wake the computer was to move the mouse.

  “Sarah,” Johnny said. He had a bad feeling. “Where is my report?”

  “Right here,” she said. “I was helping you. Do you like it?” She pointed at the computer screen. The first line looked like this:

  LOPUI. #%?< L EA.UR. JL.

  LJKOIUIUO.@34xi== WHTO. DHELD

  Johnny looked closer. The title of the document on the screen was the same title of his report. Sarah had deleted his report. All that remained was:

  LOPUI. #%?< L EA.UR. JL.

  LJKOIUIUO.@34xi== WHTO. DHELD

  “It’s a good thing you saved my changes, isn’t it?” Sarah said. “I am glad to help.”