Silenced!: The 1969 Journal of Malcolm Moorie

by Bill Doyle

  “But it’s still locked,” Harvey said, ratting the door.

  Not for long, I thought. “Read the PS part of his message to me,” I told Jackie who now held the letter.

  “Okay,” she. “The letter says, ‘you three …’”

  I spun the dial of the combination lock to 3.

  “…are as good as thirty-four kids …”

  My fingers turned the dial to 34.

  “…really number one!”

  I turned the dial to 1.

  Holding my breath, I pulled on the lock. With the most satisfying CLICK! I’d ever heard, it slid open.

  We had done it! We had unlocked the door to WFL HQ!

  Pushing open the door with a creak, I reached in and flicked the switch. The lights came on, and we went inside.

  “What are we looking for?” Moonbeam asked.

  “Conrad’s notes,” I answered, heading straight for the worktable where Conrad and I had examined the partridge.

  I opened the drawer and was relieved to see the pages Conrad and tucked away were still there.

  I took them out and began flipping through them. These were the triangles each of the dead birds. They showed the locations where he had discovered them.

  “Now we just need a map of the Wilderness,” I told the others.

  “Like this?” Jackie said, pointing to a detailed map that had been tacked up to a piece of corkboard on the wall. The map showed the entire San Rafael Wilderness and surrounding areas.

  “Perfect!” I said. I searched through a few more drawers until I discovered a box of red pushpins. Using Conrad’s notes, I placed a pint at each location on the map where he had discovered a dead bird.

  By the time I was done placing all 25 pins, a pattern had emerged. It looked like this:

  There were five pins that were deep into the Wilderness. But most of the birds had been discovered along the edges of the area, near what looked to be empty fields.

  “Those fields aren’t empty,” Harvey said. “That’s farmland that belongs to Country Girl Kitchen.”

  “How on earth do you know that?” Moonbeam asked.

  Harvey said, “Harvey studied their holdings before buying stock in the company. That is Country Girl Kitchen land. All their expensive farm equipment, like tractors and tillers, is kept at that factory. They head out to different farms every day.”

  I thought for a moment. I found the spot on the map I was looking for and tapped it. “We have to go here.”

  “Where?” Jackie asked.

  “The Country Girl Kitchen Factory.”

  Jackie shook her head. “But why?

  That’s not where the poisonings are taking place. In fact, the birds could’ve eaten the poison anywhere and then flown for miles before dying. There’s no way to trace these poisoning by using the locations where the dead birds were found.”

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “And that’s why we need to get more evidence. They might be storing poison in the factory. We’ll take your camera, Jackie, and take pictures of any evidence we find.”

  The others looked at me like I was really losing it.

  “Why don’t we just tell your friend Judge?” Jackie said. “She can help us.”

  I thought of the agreement I had made with Judge. I had told her I would stay on school grounds. “No. If we find out anything solid, we can go to her then.”

  Putting a finger on the map, I traced the route we would take. “We’ll sneak down to the stream and follow it for a half mile until it joins the sisquoc River. Then it’s just a quick one-mile hike up the river to the Country Girl Kitchen Factory.”

  “Why does it have to be tonight?”

  “I can’t stand to think of another animal being hurt because we waited a day.”

  Jackie looked down. “But if we get caught off campus, I’ll lose my scholarship.”

  “Your scholarship won’t matter,” Moonbeam said. “Because if we get caught, you’ll be expelled with the rest us.”

  “Moonbeam’s right,” Jackie said.

  Harvey looked at us and smiled. “Then why does Harvey think we’re all about to say we’re in?”

  8:25 pm

  Careful to stay in the shadows, I made my way from my dorm to Dulson Hall. I didn’t want to run into anyone who might ask why I was wearing all black and had charcoal smeared underneath my eyes.

  The other three were waiting for me at the start of the trail that leads to the stream. I was glad to see that they had taken my little speech on camouflage to heart. Like me, they were dressed in dark colors from head to toe.

  “You guys look perfect,” I whispered. Eager to get underway, I had turned to start down the trail when Jackie grabbed my arm.

  “Wait,” she said. “Go ahead, say it. Someone should.”

  In a flash I knew what she meant. We were making this trip partly for Conrad, after all. I smiled at them and said in a soft voice, “Into the wild, gorillas!”

  And off we went.

  Even in the dark, the first part of the hike was no problem. We’d made the trip down to the stream so many times, we could do it with our eyes closed. But after we left the main trail and started heading up the stream toward the river, we were in new territory. The moon was hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds, so there was barely any light to help us pick our way around fallen logs and hidden rocks.

  We had been walking along the stream for about five minutes, when Moonbeam said, “Can you feel the energy change?”

  “What do you mean?” Jackie asked.

  “We’re now officially off campus,” Moonbeam said.

  At just that second, a flashlight shone in our faces. It was blinding.

  No! We were only two steps off school property, and we’d already been caught!

  “Stop right there,” a familiar voice commanded.

  “Kyle, is that you?” I asked, trying to peer around the light. “What are you doing here?”

  “Information is power,” Kyle’s voice emerged from the light. “I wanted to see what you four were up to.”

  “Shine that light away from us,” I commanded. “Now.”

  The beam danced off to the side, shining on the surrounding tree trunks. I could now see my roommate clearly. His freckled face glowed creepily in the deflected light.

  “Where are you four going?” Kyle demanded.

  “Is this something to do with Conrad?”

  “Yes,” I said defiantly. “And you can’t stop us.”

  “Why would I want to?” he said to my surprise. “No one—including that Bev Prokos—humiliates me in front of other people. If whatever you’re doing will get Conrad back to replace her, then I say go.”

  I was about to say something when he turned back toward school. “Watch out,” he told us. “I saw two campus security guards walking toward the stream. They should be about 100 yards down the trail by now.”

  Maybe Kyle wasn’t had , “Thanks” I called after him.

  He stopped. “Don’t get all mushy,” he sneered, still walking away. “I have a lot to make up for.”

  Kyle was gone before I could ask what that meant. The four of us looked at each other for a moment and then continued down the stream.

  THE FACTORY LOOMED DUT OF THE NIGHT.

  October 24, 1969

  9:10 pm

  The first thing I saw of the Country Girl

  Kitchen factory was the set of smokestacks. They’d been equipped with blinking lights to warn off ;low-flying planes.

  We made our way closer, and finally, the main factory building was in sight. I guess I expected to see workers dumping barrels of toxic waste into the river or something. But there wasn’t anything like that. Just an empty, cracked parking lot. There wasn’t even a chain-link fence around the main building, which squatted near the river like some mutant fungus. Tall, buzzing work lights shone down on the scene, bating everything in a yellowish light.

  I glanced at Jackie and was surprised to see that she was grinning.

>   Smiling, I asked, “Having fun?”

  “To tell the truth, Yes!” she said. “let’s take a closer look.” With Jackie leading the way, we snuck to the nearest wall of the building. A window was about 6 feet off the ground. Too high for any of us to see through.

  “Here, use Harvey,” Harvey said to Moonbeam. He got down on all fours and Moonbeam stepped up on his back. Before I could argue, Jackie handed me the camera and got down on all fours as well. “Hurry up, Mal!” she said.

  I stepped as gently as I could onto Jackie’s back and joined Moonbeam. We peered through the dirty window and got our first look inside the factory.

  Lit by dim security lights, the shadowy room was enormous—about the size of a football field. Giant refrigeration machines hunkered at the far end, and in between, there appeared to be miles of conveyor belts, which were quiet for the night. To our right, several doorways probably led to hallways and officers.

  Moonbeam looked at me, and we both shrugged. Everyone must be gone for the day. We didn’t see any signs of foul play.

  I was about to climb down when I spotted a guard with a yellow tie coming around the side of the giant conveyorbelt machine. Mr. yellow Tie held one end of a leash. And at the other end was—

  TEDDY!

  The kitten had grown over the past weeks, but there was no mistaking him. Mr. yellow Tie pulled him. Mr.Yellow Tie pulled him along, and they disappeared through a doorway.

  Moonbeam clapped her hands to her mouth in shock— and lost her balance. As she fell, she bumped against me. The four of us ended up in a heap on the ground.

  Pulling myself up into a sitting position, I said, “Teddy’s in there.”

  “WHAT?” Harvey demanded. Moonbeam and I told them what we’d seen.

  Jackie asked, “Why would Teddy be in a factory?”

  I shook my head, angry with myself for not taking his pictures to use as evidence. “Teddy should be in animal shelter or back in the wild.”

  “What should we do now?” Moonbeam asked.

  I thought for a moment. “We have to split up. Harvey and Moonbeam, go back to school. Find Judge Pinkerton. Tell her what’s happing here. She’ll know what to do.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Moonbeam said and crossed her arms.

  “You have to, Moonbeam. Someone has to get help, and two people will have better luck than one.”

  Harvey asked, “Why don’t we all go?”

  “I’m not leaving without Teddy,” I said.

  Without any hesitation, Jackie said, “I’ll stay and help you rescue the little guy.”

  Moonbeam threw her arms around Jackie and me, and told us the universe was at one with us. Harvey shook my hand with both of his. “I won’t let you down,” he said. It was the first time I had ever heard him say “I.”

  Them, with a final wave, Harvey and Moonbeam slipped into the darkness and were gone.

  “Now what?” Jackie said, turning to me.

  “We go in,” I answered. But how? We’d have to break the glass of the high window to climb in, and that’d be sure to attract attention. Of course, there was a main door, but that was probably guarded.

  Jackie and I walked toward the river. A light drizzle of the river. A light drizzle of rain started coming down, and then we spotted another way in. There! A square hole about 3 feet by 3 feet had been cut into the wall. It was covered with long black strips like the hanging pieces of cloth at the

  End of a car wash. The hole was probably used to load boxes in and out.

  “Looks like someone forgot the welcome mat,” Jackie said. “Do you think we should knock or go right in?”

  “Who knew you’d be so funny under pressure?” I said with a smile.

  “I want to get out of this rain,” She said. “Let me go first.” Once again, she didn’t give me a chance to argue. Jackie ducked through the strips.

  After a second, I followed her. The plastic strips were wet and felt like a clammy handshake. The hole did not lead directly inside. There was a short tunnel, about 2 feet long.

  When I poked my head out the other side, Jackie had already pulled herself completely through and was waiting for me. She had yanked a loose tarp off a group of barrels and was pointing at them silently. And she was smiling.

  My eyes went first to the hazard symbol and then to the three letters stamped on the sides of each barrel.

  I was looking at barrels of DDT!

  This is what we were looking for. Finally, after all this time, here was near-absolute proof that DDT was poisoning the Wilderness. I had to get out of this tunnel and start taking, pictures!

  When I was halfway through the opening, I heard footsteps coming our way. It was too late for me to pull back, and whoever was coming would spot me for sure.

  I shot a panicked look at Jackie, who darted several feet away. She started sneezing loudly. After the third sneeze, I realized she was acting as a decoy. As she performed her fake sneezes, her long wet hair covered her face.

  The footsteps grew louder and quicker. Two guards came around the refrigeration machine—one extremely tall and the other with a bright yellow tie.

  Thanks to Jackie, the men rushed to her and didn’t even notice me as I slipped out of the tunnel and behind a nearby control panel. The guards each took one of her arms.

  “Let me go!” Jackie struggled in their grip. “I’m going to sue you and your and your company. This is false imprisonment.”

  “What are you doing here?” Mr. Tall Guy asked,

  I had the camera out and pointed toward the barrels of DDT. The guards and Jackie were in the picture. It would be perfect. But just as I was about to take the shot, I realized I would need a flash for the picture to turn out. And a flash would give me away.

  Jackie must have been thinking the same thing. Because when Mr. Yellow Tie demanded, “Show us your face,” Jackie nodded and said, “fine.”

  She whipped her head back, and her wet hair flew out, flinging an arc of water that sprayed the men’s faces.

  “Oops, sorry!” Jackie said.

  The instant they both put their hands to their eyes to rub water out, I took two quick shots of the barrels.

  The men never noticed the flashes. We had the evidence we needed! Now I had to figure out how to get Jackie away form the guards.

  A hand clamped down on my shoulder.

  Instinctively, I rolled to the ground in 2 protective ball. My hands worked feverishly. I only had seconds to do what needed to be done!

  I was pulled to my feet and found myself looking into the face of Mr. Newkirk, the owner of country Girl Kitchen.

  “Do I have to do everything around here?” he asked the guards, as he pulled me over to them. “Those barrels belong in our new warehouse where they won’t be spotted. Along with all the wildlife—” He broke off, seeming to realize that he might be saying too much. He told the men, “lock these two up, then start taking those barrels to the truck waiting at the loading dock.”

  Mr. Tall Guy grabbed Jackie, and Mr. Yellow Tie latched onto me. “You’re a killer!” I shouted at Mr. Newkirk as they started to pull us away.

  “What?” Mr. Newkirk looked shocked. “No one is going to kill anyone. There’s no need. We’ll have all the DDT out of here by morning. We’ll let you go, and then it will be your word against ours. You’re troublemaking youths of today. And we’re the established corporation. Who do you think will be believed?”

  He spotted Jackie’s camera, which I had tucked into my jacket pocket. “I’ll take that.” His thin fingers plucked out the camera, and he handed it to Mr. Tall Guy. “Toss this in the incinerator.”

  “You’ll never get away with this,” I said.

  “Why should this time be any different?” Mr. Newkirk asked with a smirk as the two men dragged us away.

  10:35 PM

  “Let us out!” Jackie shouted, hammering on the thick steel door with her fists.

  The guards had tossed us in here about twenty minutes ago. Our “prison
” looked more like a hallway than a room. It was 20 feet long and only a few feet wide with a door on either end. There was door #1 where Jackie was pounding. Door #2 was at the opposite end and just as locked as #1.

  I put a hand on Jackie’s shoulder until she stopped pounding. “That’s not doing any good.”

  Her eyes were like a trapped animal’s. “What are we going to do?”

  “We could just wait. Like Mr. Newkirk said, they’ll let us go in the morning.”

  “But by then the DDT—and Teddy!—will be gone,” Jackie said miserably. She walked to door #2 and gave it a few good kicks. “They took the camera, so it will be our word against theirs. We’ll be arrested for trespassing and kicked out of school.”

  The room might have been bugged, so I wasn’t sure how I should answer.

  I turned my attention to the doors. I knew there were three basic ways to get out of a locked room.

  I remembered stories of relatives who had done all those things. But these doors were made of heavy steel with no keyholes on the inside. And the hinges were welded at the top and bottom to keep them from sliding out.

  If only we were in nature, I might be able think of something. But here in this man-made factory I might as well be on Mars or Venus…

  Venus! That’s it!

  I sprang into action. The guards may have taken my digging stick, but they’d left my small backpack and my journal. I tore a page from my journal and wrote a message on it.

  “What are you doing?” Jackie started at me like I was nuts.

  “Creating a flytrap,” I said. I explained my plan to her. She thought for a long moment.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “Sounds risky, but count me in.”

  We had to get in our positions. I gave her a boost and she grabbed onto a thick pipe that hung from the ceiling near door #2. She pulled herself up and lodged herself between two steel beams. She said, “I don’t know how long I can hold this position, so you’d better hurry!”