“Or if you’re filled with glee because you defeated your enemy,” Danny said.
“Hush!” Robin frowned. “If you don’t want to participate, Danny, nobody’s making you.”
Danny crossed himself. “Forgive me,” he said in his Mafia accent.
Julian’s stomach told him he was full of spaghetti and his mind told him he was secure in a tree house in a redwood forest, a place unimaginable just a few months before. His new friends had undertaken a brave quest on his behalf, and his father’s knife was safely in its wooden box. He had looked down on his uncle and spoken the truth.
“OK, now,” Ariel said, looking intently from one to the other, “you will never, ever, ever forget this moment. Even when you’re sixteen or twenty-seven or sixty-five. You will always remember it exactly this way, the way it really was.”
Was this true? Julian tried to narrow down the moment to its essence: candle smoke, bird song, a soft breeze, his friends’ faces, contentment. “I am Julian Carter-Li,” he said to himself, “in a tree house in Big Tree Grove with Danny, Robin, and Ariel, having stood up to Uncle Sibley, and outlasted two security guards.” Certainly he would remember everything in a day, a month, a year. Why not forever? All he had to do was remember to keep remembering.
Later, when they’d settled down into their sleeping bags for the night, Julian lay awake, staring up at the stars. He imagined Big Tree Grove filled with tree houses. One for each of them. They would build zip-lines and complicated pulley systems for moving people, messages, and supplies from one house to the other. They would never have to touch the ground.
ulian was jolted awake the next morning by something slippery snaking across his face. He reached for it half-asleep and found himself clutching the end of a smooth white climbing rope. There was a tug on the other end.
“Now our rope’s stuck!” a voice rang out. “What are we gonna do?”
“Stuck? What’d you get it stuck on?”
“I don’t know.”
“Aww, you bumbler!”
Julian froze. Maybe his uncle had sent these goons. He looked quickly around. The girls were quiet and Danny was snoring slightly, his mouth slack. Julian gave him a small kick and said in his ear, “Somebody’s trying to break in to the tree house.”
Danny grasped the danger immediately. He crawled stealthily over to the girls and squeezed their noses until they woke up, sputtering. “We’re under attack! Wake up!” he whispered.
Maybe he could catch the intruders off guard, Julian thought, and disarm them. He yanked the rope with all his strength, but whoever was holding the other end had a firm grip. Danny sneezed three times.
“Hey! Somebody up there?” a voice called out.
Robin was sitting up, wide awake, while Ariel blinked and stretched sleepily. They were both in their nightgowns. Julian crawled over to the railing, where the intruders’ rope went up and over the beam, and motioned to the others.
Below them stood two disheveled young men wearing enormous, stuffed backpacks. Tied to the backpacks with odd bits of string were pieces of clothing, water bottles, a battered guitar case, and pots and pans of various sizes.
“Go away,” said Robin. “You can’t make us come down!”
“It’s those kids! They’re still here!” said the one holding the rope. He wore a tie-dyed bandana and had a scruffy blond beard. “In their jammies!”
“Why wouldn’t we be here?” Danny said. “Who are you, anyway?”
“I’m Trout.” He nodded at his friend. “And he’s Crow.”
Crow smiled broadly and touched a hand to his red knit hat in greeting. Beneath his hat, his brown hair hung lankly around his round face and his nose stuck out like a small potato.
“Why are you attacking us?” Danny said.
“Whoa! Slow down. Slow down. We’re not the enemy,” Crow said. “We’re on your side!”
“We’re here to join you in the fight for our redwood friends,” Trout continued. “We’re gonna continue the sacred vigil.”
“Well, we’re still here,” Robin said. “Go away. This is our tree house.”
“You’re Robin, right? I’m Crow. You’re Robin. That’s kind of funny. Crow. Robin. Birds of a feather and all that.” He reached under his red hat and scratched his head.
“How do you know my name?”
Crow turned to his friend in amazement, then stared back up at them. “Come on—you’re famous! Old-growth forever! Yes!”
Robin turned to Julian. “Hey! They read the article!”
“Oh, yes, the article has been read,” Trout said, pulling on his scraggly beard. “Read deeply, and digested. By us. By others. Others in high places.”
“Let’s just say I don’t think Mr. Sibley Carter got his forty winks last night,” Crow added. And unexpectedly, he closed one round brown eye and gave them a wink.
“What do you mean?” Julian asked.
“Some of our acquaintances were in the neighborhood,” Crow said. “With signs.”
“Signs and songs,” Trout intoned. “Don’t forget songs.”
“They’re picketing Carter?” Robin asked in amazement. “I can’t believe it! This is fantastic!”
“Are they still there?” Julian could picture Preston staring in consternation at a bunch of noisy protestors outside his window.
“Who knows?” Crow said with an air of mystery.
“Do you hear what they’re saying?” Robin shouted. “It’s working!”
“If we’re so famous, who am I?” Danny called down.
Crow looked at him blankly. “Who’s he?” he whispered.
Trout frowned and pulled at his scruffy bead. “D something,” he muttered. “Dick, Duck, Dirk . . . no. Darwin? Davey?”
“Lo-pez!” Crow shouted out with a huge grin.
Danny looked down at them severely. “Danny. Danny Lopez.”
“And you’re Carter’s nephew,” Trout said, pointing to Julian. “And you!” He pointed to Ariel. “You’re that sweet little Earthlovin’ girl.”
Ariel frowned. They all stood in silence, staring at each other.
“Maybe you could lower that chair thing down, so we could come up and get acquainted,” Trout said at last.
“This could be one of Sibley’s tactics,” Danny warned.
Robin narrowed her eyes. “No way,” she shouted down. “Go find your own tree house.”
Their faces fell. “You dumb bumbler,” Crow muttered. “I told you this wasn’t gonna work.”
“I didn’t say it was going to work, I said it might work. I said if it worked then it would be a good idea.”
“No way. You said, ‘It’ll work. It’ll work. We’ll scale the tree house!’”
The children glanced quickly at one another.
“We need to talk,” Julian said. “Privately.”
“No problemo,” Trout said, and the two of them ambled over to a nearby tree.
Robin and Ariel went into the cabin and changed into shorts and T-shirts. Then the children gathered together on the deck.
“Maybe we should tell them to come back another day,” Julian said. “After we’re gone.”
“We can’t leave our tree house to those guys.” Robin looked at him in disbelief. “Look at them!”
They were lying on their backs with their packs still on, like upside-down turtles.
“Whoa!” Trout cried out. “The tree house is below me now. The kids are all upside-down.”
Robin had a point, Julian thought. “OK, we won’t let them up for now. But what about when we leave? We couldn’t stop them even if we wanted to.”
“We could set booby traps,” Danny said. “They trip the wire, a boulder lands on their heads. Something like that.”
The children began discussing the pros and cons of various protection and surveillance devices. Trout and Crow slipped out of their packs and found a seat on an old log, where Trout began picking out songs on his guitar. After a few minutes, a high, nasal voice called out from bel
ow, “Excuse me, do you know where the children are?”
They glanced down. A slight, balding man was peering through his glasses at Trout and Crow.
“Children, children, there are children everywhere,” Trout sang.
“I’ve come to see Julian Carter-Li. And the others,” the man yelled over the sound of the guitar.
“Children in the bushes, children in the trees, listen to them giggle, listen to them sneeze,” Trout wailed.
The man followed Trout’s gaze to the tree house. “I’m a reporter from the Willits News,” he shouted up.
“What can we do for you?” Robin said.
“It’s a little hard to talk over this music! Couldn’t you come down to make a statement?”
“We can’t come down,” Robin said. “We’re protesting!”
“Robin’s in the treetops, Trout’s stuck on the ground, itty bitty feller’s looking all around,” Trout sang out.
“Listen, I’m not going to grab you.”
Robin sighed. “OK. I guess it’s safe enough.” She climbed into the pulley-seat and zoomed down to the ground.
“Look at the little robin!” Crow said. “She’s flying back to Earth!”
“Wait! I’m coming too!” Danny cried, hauling up the pulley seat. “I’ve got my sound bites all ready this time!” He lowered himself down and Julian heard him say confidently, “Danny Lopez, that’s L-O-P-E-Z.”
There was a shout from the direction of the river. Julian turned and saw a small group making its way through the woods. Most were dressed in hiking clothes. A few were barefoot. A young woman with a pierced belly button called out to Trout and he raised a hand in greeting. Julian felt trouble gnawing at his stomach. Bob wasn’t going to like this. Well, Julian thought, what could he do? He hadn’t invited them.
Robin reappeared on the tree-house deck. Julian frowned at the newcomers, but she just grinned with excitement and said, “Julian, it’s your turn. The reporter wants you to make a statement.”
Reluctantly, Julian let himself down in the pulley seat. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Crow grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him and Danny into a giant embrace. “You guys,” he said with feeling. “You’re an inspiration to us all!”
Julian smiled weakly.
“Whoo!” Danny said with a shake, “Raise your arm, lose your charm.” And he made a quick turn and ducked away.
Julian managed to extricate himself from Crow’s other armpit, only to find himself bombarded with questions from the waiting reporter. “Are you and your uncle close? Do you have a good relationship?”
“It’s not about my uncle,” Julian repeated for the third time. He noticed a few more stragglers crashing their way through the woods from Greeley Road. “We just want to protect Big Tree Grove.”
When the reporter finally ran out of questions, Julian returned with relief to the tree house. But when he stepped out onto the deck, he found a serious-looking man in glasses and an earnest young woman sitting on the storage bins, deep in discussion with Robin and the others. He gave them a little wave, then climbed onto the cabin roof. At least there he wouldn’t have to answer any more questions.
“Those two know a lot of people,” Robin said happily, when the couple finally said good-bye. “They’re in touch with all the big environmental groups. They talked to the scientists who spoke at the THP appeal. They said the protests in San Francisco are serious.”
“Now we’ve hit the big time!” Danny shouted.
At ten o’clock, the security guards reappeared. They sized up the crowd nervously, one barking into his radio, the other standing with his jaw open.
The four children huddled together on the deck, looking down at the scene below.
“This is great!” Robin said.
Trout gave a shout and the singing suddenly swelled.
Ariel frowned. “I don’t like it.”
“Me neither,” Julian said.
“I want it to be the way it was before. Just the four of us.”
Candle smoke, the evening breeze, the three faces in the tree house, contentment, Julian thought. And most important, except for the calling of the birds, quiet.
Julian was the first to see Sibley coming along the path, dressed now in his weekend wear. Filing resolutely behind him were three officers in uniform, wearing helmets with protective shields. And behind them strode some sort of living action hero, with a black crew cut, heavy boots, and a faded blue T-shirt that fit snugly over his enormous chest.
“All right, everyone, party’s over,” said the first officer. His voice came out loudly through some kind of hidden microphone.
“This is private property, everybody go home,” said another.
The crowd stopped singing and started to chant, “Save the redwoods, save the redwoods, save the redwoods.”
“If you do not immediately vacate the premises,” the first officer repeated, “you will be arrested for trespassing on private property.”
The reporter leaned in to take a picture and the officer said, “That goes for you too.”
The chanting continued, growing louder and more riotous. The police circled about, batons in hand. Suddenly, the first officer nodded, and the two others grabbed the girl sitting closest to them. She screamed. Ariel reached for Julian’s arm and they watched as the two officers half-dragged and half-carried the girl’s limp body down the trail.
“Enough!” Trout shouted. “There is no place for violence in the sacred redwood grove!” He stood up, banged out a few chords and started singing, “Let her go, let her go, la di da, la di do.” Crow grabbed their backpacks and hoisted one over each shoulder. The earnest couple gave Robin a small salute. The crowd rose slowly to their feet, chanting, “Let her go! Let her go!” Then, like some lost and tattered marching band, they all began to follow Trout down the path. The remaining officer trailed behind them, fingering his baton. The reporter was taking pictures. And gradually, they disappeared into the forest. The sound of chanting grew fainter and fainter. Julian heard another shout, distant this time, and the grove was quiet again.
It was just the children, up in the tree and, down below, Sibley and the giant.
“Children,” Sibley said at last, “it’s time to come down.”
Nobody spoke.
“This man,” Sibley said, “is here to help you come down. That’s his job. He’s a professional. Nobody’s going to get hurt.”
Julian could feel Ariel’s nails digging into his arm.
“The name’s Ivan,” the huge man said in a tremendously deep voice. “I see you’ve got a nice little chair hanging there. I think that’s the way to go. It’s a lot easier for everyone.”
“Do you want to go down?” Julian whispered to Robin.
“No way,” Robin whispered back. “I’m not leaving.”
“Children, this is your last warning,” Sibley said.
They watched nervously as Ivan wrapped some kind of strap around the trunk of the tree and adjusted it around his torso. He gave a sudden heave, and pulled himself several feet up the trunk.
“Holy guacamole!” Danny said. “He’s climbing straight up the freakin’ tree.”
They stared mutely as he came higher and higher toward them.
“How’s he doing that?” Julian finally said.
Robin scowled. “He’s got some kind of nails in his boots.”
“Jeez-o-man!” Danny said, in awe. “We’re being attacked by Paul Bunyan!”
“He’s down below us. I don’t see how he can get up into the tree house—” Robin began, but before she could finish, a green rope looped up and over a branch and Ivan’s slightly bug-eyed face appeared above the railing. They could see each short black hair sticking out of his pale scalp. Within moments, he had swung his huge body over the railing and onto the deck.
“Hello, kids!” Ivan’s voice boomed out like a tuba. “Now, what’ll it be?” He held out an enormous, muscled arm toward Ariel. “What about you, blondie? Ladies first?”
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Ariel shook her head almost imperceptibly.
“Freckles?” He held out his hands appealingly to Robin, but she just crossed her arms and didn’t budge.
“Come on, boys. This is going to be a lot easier if you cooperate.”
“But we don’t want to come down,” Julian said.
“How much do you weigh?” Ivan asked, appraisingly, his head to the side. “I don’t think more than a hundred pounds.” Without warning, he lunged toward Julian. He almost grabbed him, but Julian took a step to the side, ran along the storage bins, and scrambled up onto the roof. He crouched down on the sloped shingles, his heart racing. Everything around him seemed to have a hard, bright edge around it.
Ivan looked down at Sibley and lifted his gorilla hands in a questioning gesture.
“Leave the others,” Sibley said. “But get Julian. We can’t let this go on any longer.”
Julian looked around for an escape route, but before he knew it, Ivan had bounded up on the roof next to him.
“Jump, Julian!” Robin cried, and Julian jumped free just in time. He ran to the far side of the tree house and climbed up and over the railing. His toes were on the tree-house floor and his hands were clinging tightly to the wooden rails, but he felt precariously balanced, hanging from the outside of the wooden structure that had always safely enclosed him.
Ivan came to the edge of the railing. Julian could see the pale blue of his buggy eyes and smell the detergent from his T-shirt.
The only sound was his heart pounding. Then, with a loud “Hi-ya!” Danny made a flying leap onto Ivan’s back and began punching him on the shoulders.
Ivan’s enormous bulk barely quivered. Slowly, with Danny still clinging to his back and pounding furiously, he reached out and gripped Julian’s wrist. With his free hand, he grabbed the green rope, and clipped it to the belt loop of Julian’s jeans.
Julian felt helpless and, at the same time, overcome by a wave of rage so powerful it completely filled his head. “No!” he screamed, louder than he’d ever screamed before. “Let go of me! Let go! It’s not fair!” He couldn’t stop himself. It was almost as if his voice were coming from somebody else.
Operation Redwood Page 21
