6
Mark and Brian were tired by the end of the day. They had cleaned the kitchen, cooked and served dinner, and cleaned again because Mark had forgotten to include “tonight” in the Kitchen Cleaner Signup List. They stumbled back to the Lookout Lodge around 8:30 p.m., expecting to see everyone playing games and being ridiculous, but all they saw when they walked into the living room of Lookout Lodge was a giant brown bear sitting on the couch, eating a slice of pepperoni pizza.
“Don’t run,” a voice said behind them. Elliot was returning home at the same time, walking slowly up the porch steps.
“Be quiet and still. She will chase you if you run,” Elliot whispered.
The door of the Lodge was wide open. That was how the bear had gotten inside. It was so quiet in the Lodge that Mark, Brian and Elliot knew for sure that the rest of the boys had run when the bear walked in, and were probably hiding in their rooms.
“We need to close the door, or it’ll get out,” Brian said.
“We need to get the bear out,” Elliot corrected him. “It can’t stay in there.”
Mark moaned a little, “But we’re out here,” he said.
Elliot watched the bear through the window. She was big, real big, but she seemed pretty happy about the pizza. Now would not be a good time to disturb her. He hoped desperately that there were no other bears nearby.
Just then Samantha appeared.
“What are you looking at?” Samantha blurted.
The boys jumped.
The bear jumped, too. It climbed down from the couch and began walking across the room towards the window where the four of them were standing.
The four seventh graders took off. Sam yelled, “This way! I know a good place!” The boys followed her down the wooden boardwalk path and into the secluded church. They closed the door behind them and fell to the floor, breathing heavily, exhausted from shock.
Elliot was the first to stand up. He looked around the room.
“This is a cool place,” he said to Sam.
“Yeah, I like it, too,” she said. “There’s a room in the back you would like. I’ll show you later.”
“You mean AFTER WE GET RID OF THE BEAR?” Brian half spoke, half yelled at Sam and Elliot, as if they had forgotten why the four of them were locked inside the little church in the first place.
“If only we had a phone or something, we could call someone inside the lodge, find out what was happening,” Mark thought out loud.
Just then Samantha had a terrible thought. She looked at Elliot, her eyes wide open with fear. He knew exactly what she was thinking. She didn’t have to say a word. Miss Robles was all alone out there.
Elliot sat down again. “Aye, Aye, Aye! What is going on with this place?” He hung his head low and tried to figure out what they should do. What would my Dad do? He asked himself. Well that’s easy, he’d shoot the bear with a tranquilizer. But is that the solution? He wished he could call his Dad.
The four of them sat in silence, waiting for something to happen.
A half-hour went by, and the four classmates in the church racked their brains, brainstorming what they should do next. Samantha sat before the altar, on the floor with her eyes closed, and prayed. Her mother had taught her that prayer is simply feeling that something has already come true. She started to visualize in her mind how it would feel if they were safe. She felt safety spread across the camp, to all of the seventh graders and Ms. Robles, and suddenly, she started to believe it was true.
“We’re safe,” she said out loud, her eyes still closed.
“We think,” Elliot added, but in a strange way, he felt it, too.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Mark added.
The other three looked at him.
“Let’s just go. We’ll walk together making a lot of noise, and the bear will run away, and won’t bother us at all,” Sam suggested.
The three boys were impressed with Samantha’s bravery. She was a girl, but she was the first one to suggest that they go out and face the bear.
“And what if it attacks?” Brian asked, very, very seriously.
No one knew what to say to that.
They thought about going outside, but no one was ready to make a move. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Hey! What are you guys doing?” It was Julian.
“Julian!” Someone opened the door quickly and pulled him inside.
“Whhh…what’s going on?” Julian asked them.
“The bear. Outside?” Elliot answered.
Julian’s face froze. “There’s a bear outside?” He asked.
The four of them nodded their heads. Julian dropped to the floor, and lay, frozen solid.
“What are you doing?” Mark asked, annoyed.
“Playing dead,” Julian answered with his eyes shut.
“Why?”
“Because a bear won’t eat you if you’re dead!” Julian said louder this time, his head raised slightly off the ground, facing Mark, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
Sam and Elliot looked at each other and began to laugh.
“The bear’s outside, Julian. You’re inside.” Sam laughed.
“Were you in the Lodge?” Brian asked Julian.
“No. V.J. and I just walked back from the kitchen. We were making banana splits. V.J. went inside, and I walked back here because I saw the light on and I had a feeling it was you guys,” Julian explained. He opened one eye and stared at the ceiling, as if it was helping him think.
“And you didn’t see the bear?” Sam asked.
“No,” Julian answered. “Was it big?”
“Wait – V.J. walked inside, and he didn’t see a bear? Maybe it’s gone!” Samantha said.
Elliot just walked in circles, very fast, thinking.
“If the bear is gone, we should go back,” he said.
Mark looked him in the eyes and asked, “Are we ready?”
Everyone knew the answer to his question. There was no fear among the kids in the church. They gathered up their things, and stood at the front door.
Samantha had her hand on the door handle, but then stopped suddenly.
“Wait!” She shouted, and ran to the side room in the back of the church where she had hidden the butter knife. She carried it out and handed it to Elliot.
He looked at her strangely and asked, “You want me to kill the bear with a butter knife?”
“No!” Sam yelled at him. “Duh. I just got it for you because I thought you could use it. You know, since you couldn’t bring yours?”
Elliot smiled and accepted the gift.
“Thanks.”
“We’re walking straight to the Lodge,” she commanded to her cohorts. “No bears can stand in our way. Make noise, and stay together,” she said. Elliot clenched his butter knife, and pushed open the door.
The bear was gone, and the big room was so quiet they could hear the grandfather clock ticking from across the hall.
“Stick together. Let’s check out every nook and cranny,” decided Elliot. Samantha locked the door behind them, and Julian closed all of the windows tight.
“It wouldn’t have gone up the stairs; the stairwell door was closed when we saw the bear.”
“Well, we covered the entire downstairs. The bear isn’t inside,” Elliot said after they carefully and slowly searched for the bear.
They walked down the hallway to let everyone know it was safe to come out.
Afterwards, they took roll, and everyone was there – even the girls. We had all moved over to Lookout Lodge. There were plenty of rooms on the second floor, and it was closer to everything. Holly House was right on the edge of the forest, and was very dark at night. The seventh grade assembled in the center room again, feet sprawled out over couches and chairs, pillows and blankets thrown at and over each other.
Mark had a few words to say to everyone.
“I’m getting tired of taking care of all of you,??
? he began. Everyone moaned and grumbled at his words, because he does this all the time, being a year older, and much bigger than us all. “No, seriously, just listen. There are a few rules we all have to follow, before someone gets killed. First, don’t leave food out anywhere. Clean up after yourself. Just look what being sloppy has done for us so far. And don’t go anywhere alone. We have to stick together.”
Julian spoke, “Isn’t it weird that we read an article about bears, and then saw one?”
Everyone looked at him, puzzled.
“You read an article on bears?” V.J. asked.
“You didn’t?” Julian responded.
“No. Mine was about Mount Everest,” V.J. answered.
Everyone looked at me and Samantha, and Nicky. We all shook our heads no.
“Mine was about the Louisiana Purchase,” Sam said, rolling her eyes.
“I can’t remember what mine was about,” Nicky said.
I just shook my head no; I still wasn’t confident speaking in front of a crowd.
The night wound down after that. Mark’s words were well taken. We knew he was right. No one could see any reason to be concerned about what Julian had read. Movies went on, video game tournaments were played, Nerf balls bounced off the walls, ceilings, and people’s heads, until the seventh grade eventually dozed off into another night in the wilderness.