Wild Spirits

by Rosa Jordan

  “If you’re sure you didn’t give it to anyone but Danny —” Kyle began.

  “I’m sure,” Wendy said, and started to cry again.

  Kyle patted her shoulder. “I talked the situation over with the captain. He put me on day shift for the time being, so you won’t be alone out here at night. Not until we get this thing straightened out.”

  • • •

  Wendy was glad to have Kyle coming home before dark, but she knew he preferred the evening shift. Seeing him in front of the TV night after night, watching shows that probably didn’t interest him, Wendy could tell that he felt trapped, too. Sometimes she found him staring off into space, an angry expression on his face, and could imagine how frustrated he must feel. He was a just-do-it kind of guy, yet there was nothing he could do about his own wife being threatened.

  Kyle no longer had to tell Wendy to stay at home and carry her cellphone with her when she went out to feed the animals. Whereas she used to spend hours with her animals, talking quietly with them as she went about cleaning their enclosures, now she did those chores hurriedly, one eye on the highway. If a vehicle slowed down as it passed by out on the main road, she scurried to the house. Only later, when she was sure it had kept going, would she go back and finish her work.

  Maybe it was only her imagination, but it seemed as if the llamas weren’t as friendly as they used to be. Danny had always spent more time with them than she did, and they were all fond of him. When she went to feed them, they lifted their heads high and gazed past her like they were looking for him. She knew they missed him because she missed him. Some days she felt that losing Danny as a friend and helper was worse than the fear.

  Wendy was sure that he had not deliberately given the number to the robbers, but she was equally sure that he had given it to somebody. Maybe the robbers had learned that he spent a lot of time at her place and had asked some other kid to get the number from him. Maybe one of the robbers had actually spoken to Danny when he was roaming around town collecting aluminum cans, as he still did most days after school. Danny liked earning money; she knew that. Suppose somebody had said, “Here, kid, I’ll give you a hundred bucks for Wendy Collins’s phone number.” Would Danny have said yes? Wouldn’t he have realized who that person might be?

  Wendy ran dozens of scenarios through her mind. All of them came out the same: Danny had betrayed her. And then lied about it. When Wendy had thoughts like that, even if it was the middle of the day or after supper and Kyle was at home, her head would start to pound.

  “I’ve got a headache,” she’d say, and go to bed. Radar would follow her up the stairs, stand in the middle of the bed until she was tucked in, then curl up on her pillow and stay there as long as she did.

  Kyle got used to finding the kitten on Wendy’s pillow surrounded by a tangle of blonde hair, and Wendy became used to the warmth of Radar’s body and soft purr vibrating against the top of her head. But even with Radar there and Kyle at home in the evenings, Wendy had a hard time getting through the dark days of December.

  Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Even thought they had got a new unlisted number, another threatening call came. The phone rang in the middle of the night and was recorded on the answering machine. Again the call had been placed from a phone booth, one in town this time.

  By then it was almost Christmas, a holiday Wendy loved. But how could she get into the spirit of Christmas when she had lost her best friend, and somebody out there wanted to harm her, and there wasn’t anything anybody could do to make it better?

  33

  CHRISTIMAS EVE

  Kyle’s parents and Wendy’s parents both lived within an hour’s drive. Wendy and Kyle spoke with them often on the phone, but they didn’t spend a lot of time at each other’s houses. The big family gatherings of the year took place at Christmas. First there was Christmas Eve at the home of Wendy’s parents, then, on Christmas Day, Kyle’s parents had a big family get-together. And finally there was Christmas night. That was when Wendy and Kyle would go home and have one more celebration, a small cozy one, with the animals they loved.

  Normally Wendy looked forward to their “three-in-one” Christmas. But this year she didn’t have the heart for one, let alone three. She just wanted the fear to go away. She wanted to feel free again. She wanted her friendship with Danny back. Yet all those things seemed gone forever. The depressing reality was that her life had turned into a black hole. And if those criminals ever caught up to her, she could end up at the bottom of that black hole.

  Kyle insisted that they go ahead with the usual celebrations. Otherwise, he said, everybody’s feelings would be hurt. He even bought her a new outfit, which he gave to her on Christmas Eve, just before they left for dinner with Wendy’s parents.

  “What’s this for? You think I should have new clothes just to visit family?”

  “Well, uh, it’s not exactly that,” Kyle said. “It’s just that Radar is always peeing on you. I wasn’t sure you had anything to wear that wasn’t, uh, you know, kind of rank.”

  “Oh come on!” Wendy chided. “It’s not that bad. And I do use that odour-kill stuff Karen told me about.” She pulled off her shirt, sniffed it, and made a face. “Although I guess it doesn’t work one hundred percent.”

  “You mean she told you servals pee on everything? And you took Radar, anyway?” Kyle shook his head in disbelief.

  “Not everything,” Wendy stepped out of her jeans and slipped into the new outfit. “Just on me, because he thinks I belong to him. He never pees on you.”

  “Right,” Kyle said. “Never on me. He just pees on my stuff. I bring something in the house, and the minute I set it down, he pees on it. So far he has peed on my wallet, on the book I was reading, on an electric drill, and on a brand-new package of socks I’d never even worn. The other day I set a six-pack of Pepsi down on the coffee table and he even peed on it!”

  “He’s trying to train you to put things away,” Wendy teased. She turned from the mirror where she had been checking herself out in the new outfit. “Like it?”

  Kyle put his arms around her. “I like what’s in it. Even if she does smell like serval pee.”

  “No I don’t. I just showered.” Wendy wrinkled her nose and sniffed. “But now that you mentioned it … did you check your new shoes before you put them on?”

  • • •

  By the time they got to Wendy’s parents’ house, her brother was already there with his girlfriend. Her parents were very religious so there was a lot of hymn singing and a long prayer of thanksgiving before dinner. Everybody had a present for everybody else, mostly homemade things like hand-knitted sweaters, canisters of cookies, jars of salsa so spicy it sent smoke out your ears, and venison steaks from Wendy’s father to go in their freezer.

  After the gift-opening they settled in around the dining table for Christmas Eve dinner. There was stuffed quail, home-baked bread, vegetables in delicate sauces, pumpkin and berry pies, and a whole plate of special Christmas cookies — all things that had been Wendy’s favourites since she was a little girl. This year she could barely choke anything down. Of course her mother noticed, and toward the end of the meal, when Wendy refused dessert and only took one cookie on her plate for the sake of politeness, Mrs. Marshall said, “You look tired, honey. Do you have a headache?”

  “I think one’s coming on,” Wendy admitted. “We might have to leave early.”

  Her father reached across and patted her hand. “That’s okay, hon. It’s been a real nice Christmas Eve already, a blessed one, if you ask me. But before ya’ll leave, I got one more present for you.” He grinned. “Well, not for you, but for some friends of yours.” He left the room and came back carrying five dead rabbits by the ears.

  “Oh, Dad!” Wendy exclaimed. “I spend my life trying to save animals and you’re still out there shooting them
!”

  “Well, now, we all got to eat, and there’s nothing wrong with keeping the balance of nature,” her father said, offering his usual reasons for hunting. “Since your cats can’t go out and hunt their own, I thought they’d each one enjoy a nice natural rabbit for a change. I know you’ve fed them already today, so just put these out on the back porch. Cold as it is, they’ll keep till feeding time tomorrow night. When you see how much they appreciate these rabbits, that’ll make you happy.”

  As Wendy and Kyle were preparing to leave, Wendy’s mother handed her a large wrapped package. “This is for that boy, Danny,” her mother said. “I expect he’ll be stopping out sometime in the next day or two, so you give him this, will you?”

  Wendy looked at the package uncertainly. She had not told her parents about what had happened with Danny, or the fact that he hadn’t been to the farm in a month. She wasn’t sure what to do with the gift. Her mother, not knowing why Wendy was looking at the package in such a dubious way, said apologetically, “I suppose it was silly to spend so much on somebody who’s not even family, but he’s bound to be having a terrible Christmas, what with his mother getting fired and all.”

  “Terrible for anybody to get the boot right at Christmas,” Wendy’s father agreed. “But her especially, since she’s the family breadwinner. That husband of hers hasn’t held a real job since they got married.”

  “Oh,” Wendy said. “I hadn’t heard. Where did Mrs. Ryan work?”

  “At the phone company.”

  • • •

  When they got home that night, Wendy immediately went to bed, with Radar curled up on the pillow next to her head. She heard Kyle downstairs on the telephone. She supposed he was talking to his folks, making plans for the party they always had at their house on Christmas Day.

  A little while later he came into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Wendy?” he asked. “You still awake?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Did you ask your folks what they want us to bring tomorrow?”

  “I wasn’t talking to them,” Kyle said. “I was trying to find out why Mrs. Ryan got fired.

  “And did you?”

  “More or less. You know I reported to the phone company about somebody getting our unlisted number. I said we thought it was Danny who gave it out. But just a few days ago we got that call at night. It was to our new unlisted number, which Danny didn’t have. When I reported it, they said it might be an inside job, and put a company detective on it. Whatever Mrs. Ryan’s job was, she wasn’t supposed to have access to unlisted numbers. But they found her in those files and she had copied down one number. Our most recent one.”

  “I can’t believe they told you all this!” Wendy exclaimed, collecting Radar into her arms to stop him from chewing on her hair.

  Kyle smiled grimly. “I have friends in high places.”

  “In the FBI?”

  “Higher than that,” Kyle said. “In the phone company.”

  34

  CHRISTMAS DAY

  Where Christmas Eve with Wendy’s family was quiet and religious, Christmas Day with Kyle’s folks was a noisy party. Brothers and sisters and in-laws and cousins started collecting before noon. The women cooked and gossiped, while the men wise-cracked, tossed around a football, or showed off their new power tools, and the kids raced around inside and out, laughing, yelling, squabbling, and playing with new toys.

  Wendy often felt lost among Kyle’s high-energy relatives, but this year she was glad for their rowdy ways and the gag gifts they always exchanged. The laughter and good-humoured teasing back and forth kept anyone from noticing that she was even quieter than usual.

  Around four in the afternoon, Kyle announced, “We better be getting home. Lot of animals to feed before dark.”

  Wendy shot him a grateful look. Getting back to her animals was exactly what she wanted to do.

  She noticed, though, that Kyle didn’t take the shortest route home. He drove a different way, along the street that went past Danny’s house. “Why are you going this way?” she asked. “I didn’t bring Danny’s present. I thought you could drop it off when you go to work tomorrow.”

  “Don’t you want to see him?” Kyle asked.

  Wendy was silent. Then she said in a small voice, “I don’t think he’ll want to see me.”

  Kyle pulled the car to a stop in front of the Ryan house, and looked over at her. “Honey, that boy’s been treated a lot worse by a lot of people. I expect he knows how to forgive somebody who made an honest mistake.”

  Wendy looked toward the house. The garage door was open and the car was gone. The house was dark, except for a blue glow that might be coming from a television set.

  “Looks like nobody’s home,” she said.

  “I’ll find out.”

  Kyle went up the walk to the front door, and knocked. The door opened, and Danny stood there. He and Kyle chatted for a minute. Then Danny stepped outside. Kyle put his arm around the boy’s shoulder and they walked to the car.

  “Hi,” Wendy said, as Danny slid into the back seat.

  “Hi,” he said, not lifting his eyes to look at her.

  “Danny’s going to spend the night with us,” Kyle said.

  Wendy turned in her seat and asked, “Did you leave your parents a note?”

  “They’re away,” Danny mumbled. “They won’t be back tonight.”

  “Oh. Did Kyle tell you about the Christmas presents we’ve got for the cats?”

  “Presents?” Danny’s eyes flickered up to meet Wendy’s. “What?”

  “Real rabbits,” Wendy said. “Dead, of course. Ones my dad got when he was out hunting. You want to see something crazy, wait till you see Buzzsaw Bob and the others go after what they know to be their natural food.”

  • • •

  “We’ve got a kind of Christmas night ritual,” Wendy told Danny as they got out of the car and headed for the house. “Each of the animals gets some special treat. For Velvet and the llamas, it’s alfalfa pellets. For the cats, it’ll be the rabbits. Except the new one who’s still a kitten.”

  “What kind of kitten?”

  Wendy fitted her key into the lock and said, “You’ll see.”

  The instant the door opened, a gold-and-black ball of fur came bounding across the living room and made a flying leap into Wendy’s arms. Then Radar swivelled his big ears around and stared at Danny.

  “A serval!” Danny yelped.

  “Yes. A horrible heart-stealing little serval.” Wendy handed the kitten to him. “Radar, meet Danny. Danny, meet Radar.”

  Wendy left Danny playing with the serval kitten while she went up to take off her new Christmas outfit before Radar decided to dribble pee on it. She came back in jeans, and said, “Let’s take care of the outside animals before it gets dark. Radar can wait for his treat.”

  They got the dead rabbits and carried them across the pasture to where the cats were penned. As usual, Zari the serval and Kenya the caracal hung back, but watched with interest as the rabbits were tossed into their enclosure. The second Danny and Wendy walked away they grabbed them and went racing back to their dens where they could eat in private.

  By the time they got to Buzzsaw Bob’s enclosure, he had already smelled the rabbits and was climbing the fence. Wendy shook her head. “When it comes to food, this greedy rascal only knows one word: Mine!” She opened the feeding window and quickly tossed in one rabbit. BB reared on his hind legs and pounced, landing on top of the rabbit the instant it hit the ground.

  “Wow!” Danny exclaimed. “If that rabbit hadn’t already been dead, it would be now.”

  “If you think he’s fast, you should see your little Lucky.”

  Wendy handed Danny one of the rabbits. “Go ahead, give it to her. But be careful. Just because she runs up all fri
endly-like, don’t think she won’t make a ten-claw grab for that fresh meat.”

  It was the first time Wendy had ever allowed Danny to feed one of the cats after it got past the kitten stage. She hoped he knew it was her way of letting him know that she trusted him.

  As they approached, Lucky rubbed herself against the wire, purring a loud bobcat purr. Danny opened the feeding window and quickly tossed the rabbit inside, in a high arc. The little bobcat launched herself into the air, and caught it before it hit the ground. Then she was off and running to the back side of the pen, dragging a rabbit that was as long as she was.

  “Well done!” Wendy called. “Now for Namu. You know, Danny, in the wild, most cats eat a wide range of prey, but lynx eat only rabbits. They say lynx go after other prey only if they can’t find any rabbits and are starving.”

  “I didn’t know that.” Danny stopped walking and looked across to where Namu lay atop his den. His big, shaggy grey head was turned toward them, nose and tufted ears twitching.

  “I’ll wait here,” Danny said. When Wendy looked at him, questioning, Danny said, “He doesn’t know me. I don’t want him to be upset by the smell of a stranger.”

  Wendy’s heart melted. How could Danny, whom practically nobody showed any sensitivity toward, be so sensitive to others?

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll feed him tonight. Tomorrow, and after that, you can come closer every time, until he gets used to you.”

  “They said at Red River that he never came out,” Danny recalled.

  “He’s always out here,” Wendy said. “Usually up there on top of his den. Testing the wind for smells, I imagine.” She started walking toward the enclosure then stopped. “Look!” she said in a low, excited voice. “He’s coming down! He’s coming to the fence! He’s never done that before. It must be because he smells the rabbit!”