by K. E. Rocha
“Wait, what happened to the third bear at the university?”
“There were two brothers and a sister. We got the two males out, but . . .” Uncle Mark paused. “We couldn’t get the female out quickly enough. The Gutler bear handler recaptured her. It was awful. We heard the bear eventually escaped, but we don’t know if that’s true. She certainly never made it to Bearhaven, and we never saw her again.”
Uncle Mark stood up and started to pace around the room.
“Since then, our work has been rescuing bears and guiding them here. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bears out there that need rescuing, and a lot of bad people who don’t want someone just swooping in and taking their bears. These bears can bring in a lot of money, Spence, and oftentimes the people making that money don’t consider the animals . . . Well, you understand.”
“Yeah, I understand,” Spencer said. He’d been hearing about animal rights his entire life. He knew how badly some zoos and circuses treated their bears—and all their other animals, too. He could see why Bearhaven needed to be so well hidden.
“So Mom and Dad have . . . enemies?”
“You could put it that way,” Uncle Mark answered carefully.
The giant in the football helmet suddenly popped into Spencer’s head. If his parents had enemies, did that mean he had enemies? “Like the people in the Corvette?” he asked, afraid to hear the answer.
“Yes. That was Margo Lalicki behind the wheel, and her brother, Ivan. Margo was the bear handler at Gutler. She’s a cold, uncaring woman without a good bone in her body. When we rescued the bear mascots, the abuse they’d suffered made the news. Margo was fired from Gutler because of it. She’s never forgiven us.”
“So Ivan’s the guy in the football helmet?”
“You saw him?”
“Just for a minute,” Spencer admitted.
“He’s all brawn and very few brains, if you know what I mean.” Uncle Mark shook his head. “Don’t worry about the Lalickis. We can handle them. You’re safe here now.”
“Are they the ones who have Dad?”
“We’re not sure, but I don’t think so. There’s something going on that’s a lot bigger than Margo. Like I said before, your parents have been working to crack a whole network of bear abuse. It’s more likely that whoever’s at the top is who has your dad.” He paused, then said, “I know it’s a lot to take in, Spence. And I can answer any questions you want, but I think it’s time we got some rest. For tonight, we’re safe, your parents are both okay, and we’ve got a really strong team working on getting them home ASAP.”
Spencer still had questions, but he was struggling to keep his eyes open. As long as he knew Mom and Dad were going to be okay, he could wait to hear the rest tomorrow.
“Where’s your room?” he asked. He felt a little better, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to sleep in here alone.
“My room’s down the hall,” a new voice chimed in. Uncle Mark and Spencer both looked to the door in surprise. A chestnut-colored snout was poking into the room.
Kate pushed her head in farther and looked at Spencer. “Wanna see?”
“Oh . . . um . . .” He was way too tired for another tour.
“Spencer was just about to go to bed, Kate,” Uncle Mark jumped in. “Do you want me to stay in here with you, Spence?”
“Do you want me to stay in here with you?” Kate said, putting one paw in front of the other as slowly as possible, as though they might not notice, until she was completely in the room.
“Kate Dora Weaver!” Bunny’s voice called from the hallway. The cub’s ears twitched, but she didn’t move to go.
“Kate, I think your—” Before Uncle Mark could finish his sentence, a large paw reached into the room and gently pulled Kate back out into the hallway. The door clicked shut behind her.
Spencer woke in his bunk bed and stretched. Evarita usually only made pancakes on weekends, but maybe he could convince her to make an exception. He was starving. He moved to sit up, ready to call to her, but every muscle in his body protested. Yesterday’s events came rushing back. Evarita couldn’t make him pancakes this morning, and no matter how much it looked like it, this wasn’t really Spencer’s bedroom. He was in Bearhaven. His aching legs confirmed it.
Poking his head over the side of the top bunk, Spencer looked down to see if his uncle was still in the bottom bunk. Uncle Mark had stayed last night, despite the fact that his feet stuck out over the end of the bed. It had taken every bit of energy Spencer had left to climb the ladder and get into bed himself. He’d practically been asleep before he made it to the top bunk. Now he felt like he had slept for days.
Uncle Mark wasn’t in bed. He was probably having breakfast. The thought made Spencer’s stomach growl. He’d never finished that peanut butter sandwich . . . Sitting up, he rolled himself out from under his blue-and-silver comforter. He clambered onto the ladder, made his bed, and jumped down, landing unevenly on something much too soft to be the floor.
“GRAHH!” a roar filled the room.
“AHHHH!” Spencer screamed and leaped onto the bottom bunk. He peered over the edge to find the black, leathery pad of a chestnut-colored paw poking out from underneath the bed. It wiggled around and was soon joined by a second paw, and before long, Kate had squirmed out on her belly.
“You stepped on me!”
“I didn’t know you were there!” Spencer answered, relieved that it was only Kate. How had she gotten here? He was sure that Bunny had taken her back to her own room last night. Kate sat brushing herself off.
“I slept here,” she answered. “It’s really like three beds. One—” She pointed to the top bunk. “Two—” She pointed to the lower bunk. “Three—” She motioned to the floor. “Mom said you might be sad, so I came back to keep you company.” She shrugged.
“I can’t believe you fit under there!” Spencer looked under the bed.
“I liked it. It’s like a den. It was like being in the wild.” If the wild was carpeted, Spencer thought, and then wondered if Kate had ever actually been in the wild. But that didn’t seem like the sort of thing you should ask a bear, like asking a new kid on the baseball team if they’d ever seen a bat before.
“Have you seen Uncle Mark?” he asked instead. His stomach growled again, and Kate’s ears gave a small twitch.
“No. I’ve been sleeping.” She cocked her head toward the door and sniffed hard. “He’s not here. I’d smell him. C’mon! Mom always leaves breakfast.” Spencer looked down at the clothes he’d slept in.
“I need to change.”
Kate followed him to the dresser, poking her head into the drawer when he opened it. “What do you need all these clothes for?” She nuzzled and pushed things around. “They all look the same.” Spencer reached around the bear to pull out a pair of jeans and a green T-shirt.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “People wear a lot of clothes.” He and Kate stared at each other for a moment. Was she going to leave so that he could change? Didn’t look like it. “Uh . . . do you mind . . . ?” Kate blinked at him. “Could you wait for me outside?”
“Oh! Sure! But hurry, I’m as hungry as a bear!” She burst out in the series of airy chuffing sounds that Spencer was beginning to recognize as her laugh, and then bounded from the room.
When Spencer stepped into the hallway, he found Kate staring so intently at him that he wondered if she’d taken her eyes off the door for one second since settling outside his room to wait. “Last night, Mom said I could show you around before school. I know everything about Bearhaven.” She started down the hallway. “I especially know all the buildings,” she added matter-of-factly. “Mom designs them, you know. And she designs all the homes, too!”
“Really?” Spencer looked around the hallway in surprise. The cub puffed with pride.
With Kate walking on all fours beside him, Spencer could see that her BEAR-COM was fastened around her neck by a wide, stretchy-looking band. Like a necklace, but more secure.
�
��Can you take that off yourself? Your BEAR-COM?” he asked as they reached the stairs.
“Yeah, but it’s not that easy, so I can just turn it off, too.” That explained why Spencer couldn’t understand some of the bears last night. They must have had their BEAR-COMs turned off.
The oversized stairs that had seemed nearly impossible to Spencer last night didn’t seem so bad now.
“Why would you want to?”
“I didn’t say I did!” Kate answered quickly, before going on. “We’re not really supposed to . . . Dad says it’s a sign of respect—for Bearhaven—to keep your BEAR-COM on. Even without humans around. He says it’s an honor to have BEAR-COMs at all. He had the first one, you know. He helped invent it. Anyway, other bears turn them off, sometimes. If they just want to use Ragayo. But Mom says you have to have a good reason—”
“Ragayo?” They stepped into the Weavers’ cavernous living room and kitchen. Nobody was there. Spencer had hoped for more information about his parents. He wanted to get to work on finding them, but with nobody here—
“Ragayo is our language,” Kate answered. “All bears speak Ragayo. I could teach you some, maybe. If you promise not to tell Mom that I turned off my BEAR-COM.” She stopped walking and stared at Spencer, her head cocked to one side, until he nodded solemnly back at her.
“I promise,” he said, questions beginning to pile up.
“Okay, good. Now watch this!” She faced Spencer on her hind legs. Her BEAR-COM glittered pink in the sunlit room, and its green light radiated from the base of her neck. With one claw, she pressed a red button on the side of the device. When she did, a green button popped out on the other side, and the green light blinked off.
“Graflaui!” No translation followed Kate’s grumble and grunt. She huffed out a giggle, then moved her claw to the other side of the BEAR-COM and pushed the green button back in. The red button popped out and the device shone green once more. “See? I said, Let’s eat!”
Spencer smiled as the cub trotted over to the kitchen counter. He didn’t know if he’d ever get used to bears talking to him, but their technology was awesome, and after seeing Jo-Jo and Winston playing Salmon King last night, he was pretty sure that the BEAR-COM wasn’t the only cool invention these bears had come up with.
Kate retrieved two bowls, one by one, with her mouth, and set them on the table. “This one’s for you,” she said, scooting one of the bear-sized bowls toward Spencer. He stepped closer, but didn’t bother sitting down. If he sat, there was no way he’d be able to see his breakfast, let alone eat out of the huge basin it came in.
“Uh . . .” he started, looking around for a spoon.
“Don’t tell me you don’t like berries and honey!” Kate practically shouted as she happily plunged her snout into her breakfast.
Spencer laughed. “No, I love berries and honey.” He looked down into his own sticky bowl. How important could table manners be when you were eating with a bear cub? He scooped up a handful of berries, his fingers immediately coated in honey, and scarfed it down.
Spencer and Kate stepped out into the bright sunshine, and Bearhaven came into focus.
Last night, everything had felt like a dream, unbelievable and covered in darkness. He’d been afraid, exhausted, and confused, but now, with Kate as his guide, Spencer could see Bearhaven for what it was: a very real town full of way more bears than he’d expected.
“We’ll start in the center!” Kate called as she bounded down the path, Spencer following at a jog.
Bustling around them, the bears were as varied in color and age as they were in size. As they passed, Spencer could see that a number of the bears were scarred, some were missing eyes or ears or paws, and others looked as though they were in perfect condition, as healthy and energetic as Kate beside him. In the light of day, any fear that Spencer had about being surrounded by bears melted away. Instead, he was fascinated and determined to learn everything he could.
Kate turned onto one of the larger paths that cut through to the square. Following, Spencer tried to memorize where the Weavers’ home was, so that he could get back there later on his own if he had to. He noted that only one other small path intersected this larger one before they came to Raymond’s Café. At least he’d be able to find which path they lived on, and then Kate would probably just smell him and fling open the door.
“Hey, Kate,” Spencer started, reminded of the design carved into the Weavers’ door. “The design on the door of your home—”
“My mom did that! With her claws!” Kate answered before Spencer could finish his question.
“Did she do all of them?” He scanned a row of doorways. Each was crosshatched with claw marks but none of them looked the same.
“Oh, no! She designs the homes, and she did our door, but every family does their own door. Ours is the best, though. Ask anyone.” Kate turned her attention to the stone building that she’d paused beside. “This is Raymond’s. We passed it last night, remember?” Smoke wafted from a chimney, and bears sat around the wooden table in front. “It’s our restaurant.”
Spencer was still surprised that Bearhaven had a restaurant. After their breakfast of berries, he’d figured that all of the food in Bearhaven was simple and foraged. “What do you get there?” he asked, trying to make out what the bears at the table were eating.
“Salmon nuggets are my favorite! You can try them sometime.” Kate dashed off down the path. “Come on!”
Spencer followed. They were circling the square, and between the large stone buildings that stood on its perimeter, there were smaller, brightly colored shops. Kate stopped in the middle of a row of them.
“Food,” she said, pointing to a shop with a sign that read Forage Fresh. “Lab stuff.” She pointed to another shop that seemed to be filled with high-tech gadgets. Lab stuff? Before he could ask, Kate dropped to all fours and took off again.
“Kate!” Spencer shouted, running to catch up. This wasn’t the tour he’d expected. A race around Bearhaven on sore legs was more than he’d bargained for, even after a long night’s sleep, and it wasn’t getting him any closer to finding Mom and Dad.
“We haven’t even gotten to the good parts, and I have to go to school soon!” She stopped to wait for him. “You want to waste time on the boring stuff?”
“Well, I want to see everything,” he said. How was he supposed to know what the boring stuff was?
“Fine. This is Pinky’s Rehab Center and Salon,” Kate said flatly. Spencer looked at the stone building she was pointing at. It was about the same size as Raymond’s, but it had tons of windows with flower boxes hanging from each one. “That’s where they help bears when they first get to Bearhaven. Those are the flags. They’re always up there.” Spencer looked up at the flags he’d only barely made out last night, waving over Bearhaven in the darkness. One of the flags was tattered, a dirty green and gold, and looked old. The other flag was black, with the image of a crown resting on an upraised bear claw in shining silver. Kate motioned to another stone building on the square. “That building’s called the meetinghouse, but I don’t know why. It’s not like there are that many meetings. The important ones happen in the Lab anyway. And those are secret.”
Finally! Something that sounded promising! “What do you mean secret?” Spencer tried to sound casual.
“What I mean is that the Bear Council meets in the Lab, and only members are allowed. And nobody is supposed to know when they meet, but I do.”
“What’s the Bear Council?” If anyone was working on getting his parents back, it must be them.
“They’re the decision makers in Bearhaven. They oversee everything here, and the rescue missions, too. My mom and dad are on it. Nobody else has two parents on the Bear Council. Just me and Jo-Jo and Winston and Aldo and Lisle. Well . . . and you. But you’re not a bear, so that’s not the same.”
“My parents are on the council?” Spencer asked.
“Of course your parents are on the council! And your uncle is, too! Y
ou’re really lucky.”
“Do you think they’re meeting now?” Spencer asked eagerly. That had to be where Uncle Mark and the Weavers were. “Do you think they’re making a plan to rescue my parents?”
“Probably,” Kate said.
“Where’s the Lab?” If they were talking about his parents, Spencer needed to be there. He could help.
Kate huffed. “Well, I’ve been trying to show you that.”
“Oh, okay. Let’s go, then.” Over Kate’s shoulder, Spencer could see a group of cubs playing in the square. A cinnamon-colored one broke off and ran toward them.
“Kate!” it called, right before tripping over its own paws and stumbling into Spencer, taking them both down into a heap. “Sorry!”
Spencer tumbled around, trying to extract himself from the tangle of furry limbs. The bear didn’t seem to be trying quite as hard to right itself. Instead, Spencer had a feeling that the cub was sniffing him, brushing a clumsy paw across Spencer’s head on purpose. Then the cub’s tongue darted out and slurped up Spencer’s forearm.
“Hey!” Spencer shouted, half laughing and half grossed out.
“Reggie, you’re such a chipmunk!” Kate cried, and leaped into the fray, tackling Reggie and dragging him away from Spencer. “You have to be gentle. Spencer Plain is a human.”
“Sorry,” Reggie said sheepishly. He sat up and fixed his brown eyes on Spencer. “What’re you guys doing?”
Spencer brushed himself off. “Taking a tour.” He didn’t mind being bowled over by the cub; it’s not like it hurt. He didn’t even mind being tasted by the cub, but he definitely didn’t want the cub to delay their getting to the Lab.
“Can I come?” Reggie asked.
“If you can keep up!” Kate hollered, and took off at a gallop.
Spencer recognized the path as they raced along it. He’d seen it last night. It was the one that connected the center of Bearhaven to the dock at the river’s edge.
