Secrets of Bearhaven

by K. E. Rocha

  “Then where did you—”

  “I got into the Lab!” he blurted out. “You were right, the Bear Council was meeting about my parents.”

  “Really? But how?” Kate scrambled to sit up. “You saw the Bear Council? Their meetings are always top secret!”

  “It’s a long story,” Spencer said, borrowing a line he felt he’d been hearing a lot lately. “And you can’t tell anyone. Not even Reggie. But I got into the council meeting. Uncle Mark and B.D. are leaving on a mission in two days to rescue Ro Ro and her cubs, and they’re going to look for more information about my parents. I have to go with them.”

  “But the council—”

  “The council doesn’t want me to go. But I’m going.”

  “But . . . it’s so dangerous,” Kate whispered.

  “That’s what they said!”

  Kate frowned and slid back onto her belly to watch the fish again.

  Spencer hadn’t meant to snap at Kate like that. “I know it’s dangerous,” he said more calmly. “But I can’t just sit here worrying about my family. I have to do something.” Kate ignored him. “There are bears that need help,” he went on. “At least I can help rescue Ro Ro and her cubs, and maybe I’ll find some clues that could get my parents back . . .” Kate made no move to respond. “Come on, Kate, you have to help me.”

  “Help you?” Kate finally answered, but kept her face turned to the river. “What can I do? I’m not going. No. Way.”

  “You don’t have to leave Bearhaven. Just help me convince your dad that I should go.” If Professor Weaver changed his mind, then the council would come around, Spencer was sure of it.

  Kate lifted her head to consider Spencer. “But I don’t think you should go,” she said quietly. “It’s scary out there, Spencer. Rescues are for grown-ups, and if the Bear Council doesn’t think you should go—”

  “I’m going.”

  Kate snapped her mouth shut and splashed a paw into the river unhappily. “I’ll teach you Salmon King if you stay.” She pouted.

  “Kate—?”

  The cub huffed. “Okay, okay!” She wiped droplets of river water off her claws and onto her fur. Spencer waited, afraid to say anything that might change her mind. Once Kate had dried each of her claws, she looked back up at Spencer, her eyes gleaming. “Talking to my dad’s never going to work. Talking is what Bear Council meetings are for. It’s time for showing.” Spencer was lost. Showing what? “You have to prove to them that you should go. That you can go.”

  “How?”

  “We have to train you for the mission!” Kate answered excitedly. “I’ll help you! Then, we’ll show them that they need your help. You’ll be so well trained, they won’t be able to say no.”

  “Okay, let’s do it! Do you know what—?”

  “Hello, you two!”

  They spun around to see Bunny and Professor Weaver emerging from the trees. They looked like they were just out for a stroll, but Spencer guessed the council meeting must have ended and they were coming from the Lab.

  Spencer and Kate exchanged a sideways glance. Had the Weavers heard them planning?

  “Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!” Kate sang.

  “Don’t be late for dinner!” Bunny called as she and Professor Weaver turned onto the path that led back to the center of Bearhaven. Spencer waved, and in a moment the bears had rounded another bend in the path.

  “That was close!” Kate gasped as soon as her parents were out of earshot. “Okay, are you ready?”

  “Ready?”

  “Ready to start training, of course!” the cub rushed on. “I’m done with school for today, and tomorrow is Saturday, so we can train then, too, and tonight we have dinner with everyone, so we can—”

  Spencer gulped. “Everyone?” He imagined all of Bearhaven’s bears gathering hungrily around him at dinnertime . . . “The rest of the family,” Kate exclaimed. “It’s perfect! Aldo will be there, and Fitch, and my dad!” Spencer wasn’t sure what Kate was getting at. Kate saw his confusion and went on in an exasperated tone, “Aldo’s on the Bear Guard. Fitch helps my dad in the Lab, and both of my parents are on the Bear Council. If we’re sneaky, we can figure out exactly what we need to train you to do.”

  “We can do it,” he said confidently. “It’s the best shot I have.”

  Spencer and Kate stood at the edge of the school yard. They’d crept around the side of the stone school building as quietly as they could, hoping not to run into any other cubs or teachers, only to find that they were completely alone. I guess bear school and human school aren’t so different after all, Spencer thought. When the weekend comes, everyone gets out as quickly as possible.

  Kate turned to face Spencer, surprising him with her seriousness. “Reggie says that whoever’s best at Bear Stealth in school always makes it onto the Bear Guard,” she explained. “All the cubs in Bearhaven go through Bear Stealth, because we don’t learn it in the wild like other bears.”

  Spencer surveyed the bears’ version of a school yard. It was the size of a football field, and rather than a swing set, basketball hoops, and benches, it had boulders, logs, and other natural obstacles. A row of bushes bordered the yard, and behind it, there was a row of different kinds of trees.

  “Okay, so now what?” Spencer asked. “I mean, what is Bear Stealth? What do you do out here?”

  “Oh! It’s hiding!” Kate exclaimed. “Well, hiding, silent walking, moving around secretly. That kind of thing. It’s so we can move around the woods safely if we have to. I’ll show you!” The cub bounded into the yard and ducked behind a boulder. Spencer kept his eyes on the boulder, waiting for the cub to reappear. A few moments later, he thought he heard a faint rustling from one side of the school yard. He turned just in time to see Kate leap out from beneath the needled limbs of a pine tree. She landed happily on all fours, obviously proud of her performance.

  “That was awesome!” Spencer called, impressed by Kate’s ability to move around the school yard without him even realizing that she’d left her hiding spot behind the boulder. “Can I try?” he asked, confident that he could do just as good a job as the cub. After all, he was smaller and more agile.

  Kate bounded back to Spencer. “Sure,” she panted. “Start at the boulder. I’ll stay here for a few minutes, then I’ll come find you. The longer it takes me to find you, the better you are at Bear Stealth, so don’t let me see you!”

  Spencer jogged over to the boulder. He ducked behind it and looked around. He examined the boulder itself. Kate was on the other side of it, but several yards away. He turned to look at the trees directly behind him. If I move back in a perfectly straight line . . . Picking the tree that looked to be centered behind the boulder, Spencer crouched down and ran straight at it. When he reached the row of bushes that marked the back perimeter of the school yard, he leaped over and slid down onto his back, allowing the row of bushes to hide him.

  “Okay, now what?” Spencer whispered to himself. He looked at the oak tree looming above him. It was the one he’d aimed for, but he wasn’t about to climb it. Quietly, he rolled onto his belly, and, careful to stay low to the ground, he used his elbows and toes to propel himself around to the other side of the tree that faced away from where Kate was standing.

  Perfect! The oak’s trunk was split and mostly hollow. A knothole looked like it had rotted out, leaving a gap just big enough for Spencer to slip through. Pushing aside the thought of spiders and other creepy-crawly creatures, he stood up and slid sideways through the crack in the trunk. This is definitely not one of the Bearhaven elevators.

  There was barely enough room for Spencer’s entire body inside of the tree, and every breath he took came with the strong smell of wet wood. Something crept along the back of his neck. Spencer shuddered.

  “Here I come!” Kate called. A minute passed, and then another. Spencer stood completely still. Soon, there was a rustling sound nearby.

  “I can smell you but I can’t see you!” the cub sang. Her footsteps circled the tree
, then the trunk started to shake, and a little shower of sawdust and wood fell on Spencer’s head. She’s climbing the tree . . . Spencer realized. Thump. The tree stopped shaking, and Kate’s footsteps circled the tree again.

  “Spencer?” Spencer could hear the cub sniffing loudly. “Spencer, where are you?” Suddenly, Kate’s snout poked through the crack in the trunk. “There you are!” she shouted, extracting her snout. “I didn’t even look for you in there!” She stepped back, leaving Spencer enough space to wiggle out of the gap in the oak’s trunk. He brushed himself off. The bugs and rotten tree insides were worth it. He was a Bear Stealth master!

  “You did great!” Kate exclaimed. “A bear would never be able to get in there!”

  Spencer smiled. “Thanks. What’s next?”

  “Dinner! We have to go, or we’re going to be late! But follow me; we can keep training on the way back!” Kate dashed along the row of bushes and turned to head down the side of the school yard toward home. She skidded to a halt and waited for Spencer. “Okay, what do you see?” she asked, motioning to the ground in front of them. Between the row of bushes and the row of trees, the ground was covered with twigs and leaves. It looked completely different from the bare ground Spencer had slid onto a few minutes earlier.

  “A bunch of twigs?”

  “A loud zone,” Kate corrected matter-of-factly. “You have to practice your silent walking.” Gingerly, Kate stepped onto the bed of twigs and leaves, then carefully started to walk. Chh, chh, chh. The sound of the brush under her feet was much quieter than Spencer expected, but he could still hear it. Determined to be completely silent, he set out after her.

  CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!

  “I said silent walking, not noisy marching!” Kate giggled. “Use all of your muscles. Silent walking isn’t just about feet; it’s about the whole body.” The cub continued, her quiet chh, chh picking back up.

  Crunch. “Dangit!” Spencer exclaimed. This was harder than it looked.

  “Pretend you’re as light as a fish bone! Pretend there’s a vine pulling you up into the air and carrying you across the ground so that your feet hardly touch.”

  Spencer tensed his abs and lifted his leg off the ground, trying to think about all of the muscles in his body working at once and lifting upward. He set his foot down. Chh. He did it again. Chh. “I’m doing it!” Chh, chh, chh. Crunch. Slowly, they continued forward until the quiet chh sound of their feet was all they could hear, and even that got quieter as they went. When they reached the end of the loud zone, Kate took off, loping toward home.

  “Come on!” she cried. “Last one there’s a rotten tree trunk!”

  When Kate and Spencer burst into the Weavers’ home, out of breath and covered in dirt, they found Bunny bustling around the kitchen.

  “There you are!” She turned to greet them, and her warm smile immediately faded. Bunny had the same look of surprised dismay that Evarita had every time Spencer handed over his grass-stained baseball uniform to her. “Heavens! What have you two been doing?” After a moment, when neither Spencer nor Kate offered an answer, Bunny continued. “No matter. Go wash up so you can set the table.”

  Kate dashed out of the room without protesting, but Spencer hung back. “Is Uncle Mark coming? To dinner?” He looked up at Bunny hopefully. Since stomping out of the council meeting that afternoon, Spencer hadn’t seen Uncle Mark. If he came to dinner, maybe Spencer could talk to him about the mission again . . .

  “No, dear, just you and the Weavers tonight!” Bunny said cheerfully, turning back to her cooking. “I believe your uncle’s at Raymond’s with B.D. They usually work out mission details there.” Spencer’s shoulders slumped. Uncle Mark and B.D. were planning without him. “Now, off you go! Your mother would not approve of me putting food into those filthy hands of yours!”

  Spencer shoved his hands in his pockets and retreated to his bedroom to get ready for dinner. Just because he wasn’t planning the mission with Uncle Mark and B.D. didn’t mean he wasn’t going. His training had begun, and he had plans of his own.

  The Weavers’ dining room table looked big enough to land a plane on. Wide, cushioned benches surrounded it, making space for at least twenty bears to sit comfortably, and three gleaming beehive-shaped chandeliers hung above, filling the room with a honey-colored light.

  Spencer was relieved that Bunny had handed him only nine huge plates to set on the table. He didn’t think he could carry even one more of the enormous disks of polished wood.

  The plates clattered when Spencer set them down, and Kate jumped out from under the table at the sound.

  “Oops,” he said, and looked back at the door to make sure nobody else had heard. “What are you doing under there?” he asked.

  She scooted back under the table without answering. A moment later, two extra cushions appeared on one of the benches. “They’re for cubs,” she explained, and then looked at him pointedly. “And cub-sized humans.”

  Spencer didn’t like the idea of having to sit on extra cushions, even if the table was made for bears. He wasn’t a baby.

  “Go ahead if you don’t believe me,” Kate said, waggling a paw at an unbolstered bench. Spencer sat down and Kate hopped up beside him. She reached her neck forward and rested her muzzle on the table. Spencer burst out laughing. Leaning forward, he rested his chin on the polished wood. Only their heads cleared it. Extra cushions it is.

  Spencer scooted over to settle himself on top of one of the two higher seats that Kate had assembled. His chest and shoulders were now above the surface of the table, and he began to relax, enjoying the feeling that he wasn’t quite so out of place in Bearhaven after all.

  Just then, Professor Weaver walked into the dining room. “Kate, I believe your mother could use some help in the kitchen.” He took a seat at the head of the table.

  Kate hopped down and scooted toward the door. “Okay, I’ll tell Jo-Jo and Winston,” she called over her shoulder.

  Professor Weaver chuckled. “I think we both know that’s not what I meant.”

  Kate stopped a few steps from the door.

  “I can help, too,” Spencer offered. He wanted to get a glimpse at whatever it was they were having for dinner. If it was grubs or something, he’d need to be prepared.

  “No, no, that’s okay, Spencer. Kate, go on upstairs. Let’s not make our guest prepare his own welcome dinner.”

  Professor Weaver looked at his youngest cub warmly, but even through the BEAR-COM Spencer could tell that the professor meant business. Kate huffed and flounced out of the room.

  “Your uncle tells me that you enjoy working with technology,” Professor Weaver said, turning back to Spencer and clasping his paws on the table.

  “Yeah!” Spencer exclaimed, sounding a bit more enthusiastic than he’d planned. This is perfect, he thought, preparing to dig for more information. “I’ve taken apart this computer for a project at school. I’m supposed to put it back together and give a report on it.” He paused. His schoolwork was definitely going to pile up while he was gone; Ramona and Cheng would have to fill him in on a lot when he got back. And he’d have a lot to tell them about Bearhaven, too. Cheng would go nuts hearing about the BEAR-COMs . . . He pulled his thoughts back to the computer project and Professor Weaver, who was looking at him with interest. “Anyway, it took way longer than I expected, because I kept getting stuck looking at every detail. I wanted to figure it all out, you know?”

  “I do know,” Professor Weaver answered.

  “The BEAR-COMs and everything”—Spencer dropped his voice to a whisper—“the Lab wall and the technology there . . . you made all of that?”

  Professor Weaver laughed. “Not alone, but yes, I developed the BEAR-COM, and even the lab’s security, which apparently we need to adjust.” The bear cocked his head and shot Spencer a playfully reprimanding look before continuing. “But the BEAR-COM was before Bearhaven. My mentor and I developed the first version together.”

  “You lived at Gutler University, righ
t?”

  “Yes, after the first Professor Weaver adopted me,” the bear replied. “I lost my mother to a bear trap in the forest when I was still a cub, no older than Kate, really. I hadn’t had much exposure to humans at that point, but I knew that whoever had created the trap had to have a way to open it once it snapped shut, so in desperation, I figured out the mechanics and released my mother. But she didn’t survive, even once I’d gotten her out.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Spencer said quietly. His parents had told him lots of stories about the intelligence of bears. He’d loved the fact that they were known to pick locks at zoos and use rocks as tools in the wild, but he’d never considered how their intelligence could be so much like humans’, driven by emotions as real as wanting to save their mother.

  “It’s all right, son,” Professor Weaver said. “It was a very long time ago. I ended up with Professor Weaver, a wonderful mentor, and it all led me here. The professor was doing work in the field at the time and happened upon me. He took me in and raised me as his own. We created the BEAR-COM together, a bit selfishly at first. We thought of ourselves as family, and we wanted to understand each other better, but then we started to realize what the BEAR-COM could do for other bears. If we could communicate, bears and humans that is, perhaps we could avoid so many misunderstandings.” Professor Weaver threw his front paws up in the air. “Can you imagine? The number of bears who could be saved if they could just explain . . . Anyway, your parents came to the professor regarding the mascot situation at Gutler. The rest is history, as they say.”

  Before Spencer could ask a single question, bears started piling into the dining room, surrounding Spencer and Professor Weaver in chatter as they filled the seats and covered the table with loads of food.

  Aldo plopped down onto the bench beside Spencer. “Pinky might have some glasses at the rehab center that you can borrow,” he said. “I hear your eyes aren’t so dependable.” Spencer froze. When he’d lied about spotting Kirby on the surveillance screen to escape Aldo earlier that day, he hadn’t realized he’d be having dinner with the bear that night. Aldo started to chuckle. “I’m only kidding, little man.” He laughed, seeming to forgive Spencer for the trick. Kate sat on Spencer’s other side, also elevated, and took advantage of it by making faces at Jo-Jo and Winston, who sat across the table, a little bit lower without cub cushions.