NO ORDINARY OWL Read online

  © 2013 by Lauraine Snelling & Kathleen Damp Wright

  Print ISBN 978-1-61626-570-0

  eBook Editions:

  Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62416-451-4

  Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62416-450-7

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover illustration: Jamey Christoph / lindgrensmith.com

  Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio

  44683, www.barbourbooks.com

  Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Dickinson Press, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI 49512; August 2013; D10004051

  Dedication

  To Cami M., Evan and Naomi W. and Natalie A.

  Looking forward to buying your books one day.

  Heartfelt thanks to Annie Rose for the exquisite

  sculptures of each animal in the series.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks most especially to Julie, Alex, and Natalie for night-vision goggle drills in their backyard, and to Daniel for letting me borrow his. Students are indeed the gifts that keep on giving. Becky, for naming the book during a Bossy Girls lunch. Corinne K., for the pickle story. Dalyn at Utah Wildlife Rehabilitation of Utah Center, for both her time and the work she and her faithful volunteers do for the wild ones. The Tracy Aviary, for lovely places to learn about all things avian.

  Always to my husband, Fred, for his support.

  Always to You, Jesus, for being our wind,

  our wings, and our guiding light.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Melissa’s Menacing Message

  Where are they? Eleven-year-old Esther Martin began to wonder if the rest of the S.A.V.E. Squad was going to show up at the community center on this rainy Saturday. But they had promised.

  Large, draped dog crates sat along the stage. “We’ll be beginning our bird show in just a few minutes. I’ll be introducing you to Beverly Beake, a licensed bird educator and rehabber for wild birds.” The short, round mayor of Oakton City paused and stuck the mic closer to her mouth to whisper, “But not the little birds you’re thinking of!” She stepped off the stage.

  A bird lady named Beake. Snorting with amusement, Esther snuck another quick look back toward the doors. This very auditorium was where Esther, Vee, Sunny, and Aneta first found out they’d won spots as Junior Event Planners for a city festival. Way back in the summer. Before they even liked each other. Now Monday would be Spring Break, and the Squad would have a whole week together.

  She loved everything about being a member of the S.A.V.E. Squad. Sunny, Aneta, and Vee. The serious-minded, dark-haired, and dark-eyed list maker, Vee. Spinning Sunny with the red hair, freckles, and friendly smile. Blue-eyed, blond-haired Aneta who loved her adoptive home with her lawyer mom. These girls liked her. Even when she was prickly. Sometimes she could be prickly. But only when she was right and nobody was listening. They teased her about her need to be right and her love of the Internet. It was the first time she’d had friends. Like this, anyway. Esther gave another little hop in her seat and glanced back. She wanted the Squad to be together always and continue their wild adventures.

  A whoosh of air lifted the back of her hair as someone flopped next to her. Esther turned to say the seats were saved—because all three were protected by her fierce glare, her bike helmet, and her wet raincoat. Her eyes widened.

  “Hello, Esther. Oh, ew, just saying, but with your mouth hanging open? You look like you have three chins instead of two.” The girl with brown hair delicately highlighted and a perfect French manicure regarded her with what Aneta called “The Melissa Smile.” It was not a friendly smile. It meant that she was sizing you up, all the better to eat you.

  “M–Melissa.” Melissa Dayton-Snipp was not supposed to be in Oakton, Oregon. Aneta, who had endured Melissa at the girls’ private school last year, had been happy to report at the start of school that Melissa had flown to France to attend a fancy horse-riding school.

  “In about a week and a half April will arrive, a lovely time of year here in Oakton.” The mayor was back on stage. As always, her scratchy voice boomed as though she were introducing the most exciting thing on the planet. “Don’t you love the changes that come with each new spring?” The mayor directed her question to the tall, thin woman who stood next to her. With her neck slightly humped and horns on the corners of her glasses, she looked like the turkey buzzard Esther had researched for her recent extra-credit science project. Yes, the one she got an A on. The woman’s nose resembled the turkey buzzard a bit with its sharp hook, yet the woman’s eyes, even seen from the second row, were friendly. Her wide, thin-lipped mouth was smiling. She nodded in response to the mayor’s question.

  The mayor glanced out at the crowd. “Don’t you all love the changes of spring, too?”

  Not really, Esther thought in a panic, while Melissa, other kids, and parents nodded their heads. She didn’t want anything to change. Life was perfect as part of the S.A.V.E. Squad. Melissa showing up only proved that change was not good.

  “How come you’re back?” Esther managed to choke some words out. Wait until Aneta shows up. Aneta will freak.

  Looking down her nose at Esther, Melissa smoothed her perfect hair. “I am recovering from an unfortunate accident at École D’élite Pour Des Cavaliers.” She rolled the name of the French riding school off her tongue like she said it a lot. Which, Esther thought, she probably did. Even to people who didn’t care. Like me.

  Then, craning her neck past Melissa at the empty row, Esther continued, “Where are all your friends?” She meant “servants,” as Melissa ran a group of girls who dressed like Melissa, acted like Melissa—shudder—and talked like Melissa. They followed the Rules of Melissa or risked nobody talking to them.

  “Those girls?” Melissa’s curled lip indicated Esther had been living in a cave or was stupid. Or both. “Nothing stays the same.”

  “The Squad does.” Esther knew as soon as she said it that she should have kept it in her head.

  Melissa cocked her head and flicked her tongue along her perfect white teeth, like a snake flicking its forked tongue. “Hmm. Yes, well.”

  Back in their first adventure, once Sunny, Aneta, Vee, and Esther joined forces to save Wink, an adorable basset hound, they had discovered that their success made Melissa look bad. Melissa hated anyone who made her look bad.

  Where are you guys? Esther t
wisted in her seat. She needed the S.A.V.E. Squad to help her not be afraid of Melissa. Around Melissa, she felt fat, ugly, and stupid. And she knew she wasn’t at least two of those things.

  “Like I said, Esther. I’m moving on.” She stood and leaned in close to Esther. “Even the S.A.V.E. Squad could change.” She pushed past Esther’s knees and was lost in the last-minute bustle of people finding seats.

  As sure as she was sitting in the second row, and as sure as she knew that macaroni and cheese was her favorite food, she knew why Melissa had lasered in on her with her snaky smile.

  She wants to change the S.A.V.E. Squad.

  An icy finger dripped chills that ran down her neck to her feet and pooled there, freezing her toes.

  Chapter 2

  Lightning Strikes

  Esther.” Vee frowned as she walked with her friend toward the bike stand outside the community center. “Did you even hear anything the Bird Lady said?” She shook back her glossy black hair and clipped on a green-and-white helmet.

  “Hurry, guys! The rain has stopped, and my parents said we could ride bikes to Uncle Dave’s if it did, so let’s roll!” Sunny was impatient, as always.

  Esther had remained stunned as the rest of the Squad arrived, and, because they were in the second row, she couldn’t whisper about Melissa’s threat. Vee and Aneta had slid into their seats, removed their wet raincoats, and squeezed Esther’s hand, just as the Bird Lady began her presentation. Sunny had been late, causing all heads—including the Bird Lady’s—to turn toward her as she sprinted to the girls.

  “You didn’t even say anything when the Bird Lady asked if anyone knew what the birds of prey were called.” Sunny was riding in circles in the emptying parking lot.

  “You already told us they were raptors, and these raptors weren’t dinosaurs,” Aneta chimed in, stepping to her bike, helmet and raincoat in place. Squeezing her brakes to test them, she added, “Hooray for a Squad sleepover tonight at Sunny’s Uncle Dave’s house!”

  Esther cleared her throat. “I was in shock.” She sucked in a deep breath before they could ask why and said, “Melissa is back!”

  She waited for the reaction.

  “She’s in France.” Vee climbed on her bike, pushed off, and began to pedal.

  “Lovely, faraway France,” Aneta said happily, pedaling after her.

  “C’mon. We’ve got to beat Uncle Dave to the ranch.” Sunny zipped by on her bike. “If he beats us from leaving Aneta’s house, we have to muck stalls tonight.”

  Climbing on her bike, Esther wanted to shout that they needed to listen to her, that Melissa was back. Then, after Sunny’s words zapped her mind, she began to pedal. Mucking stalls versus insisting the girls listen to her right now? She’d tell them at the ranch. Quickly snapping up her raincoat, Esther pushed away Melissa’s threat. The Squad would know what to do about Melissa.

  With Sunny and Vee out in front, Esther pedaled next to Aneta. Two side by side was the max when riding the wide road shoulder out to Uncle Dave’s ranch. She sent a smile toward Aneta. While Aneta could smoke both Vee and Sunny with her swimmer’s legs, she gave no sign of wanting to leave Esther as the slowest and last in line. Two by two. Squad rule for bike riding. That and helmets. Always. Like Vee said, “I plan on using my brains for a very long time. I want to keep them in my head.”

  Was that a growl of thunder? Esther squinted at the sky. The afternoon brightness that had followed them out of the parking lot now skittered away to hide behind gloomy clouds. It reminded her of how the mention of Melissa’s name gloomified everything. Good thing they had their raincoats. A ways up on the right was the haunted mansion with the creepy black-iron fence and giant gate. Once they passed that, only one other driveway on the right remained, then a left turn off the road and they were home free for the fast pedal to Secondhand Horse Ranch and fun. They’d spend the night and then go to Esther’s church together tomorrow.

  “I love sleepovers at Dave’s ranch. We get to play with all the animals.” How Aneta could look dreamy eyed and still keep her bike on the road, Esther couldn’t imagine. If Esther had been daydreaming like that, she’d be off in the ditch.

  After they left the city streets behind and fewer and fewer houses dotted the country road, Esther called for a rest. Although she hated to, because she was slowest of all of them, but she was going to fall over if she didn’t. She’d never catch up with them. Aneta accelerated and brought back Sunny and Vee, who were speeding along out of earshot.

  “Hey, a stop works for me.” Vee pulled the top up on her water bottle and took a swig. “Guess what? You’ll never guess the big surprise and change coming to my house. I didn’t even believe it at first.”

  Change? That word again. What could Vee’s news be? By the way Vee was holding back a flat-out grin from shooting across her face, Esther knew it must be an award at school. Vee attended the Accelerated Learning Center at Moby Perkins Elementary School. Vee liked to think she was the smartest Squad member. Esther wasn’t sure, since she herself was always on the high honor roll at Oakton Victory Academy and the sixth-grade computer coordinator. Maybe we’re just the smartest at different things.

  “My mom is having a baby!” Vee burst out, not waiting for guesses.

  Shrieks erupted from all four girls, their voices spilling down the deserted road. The sun jumped out briefly as though celebrating with them.

  Esther shrugged in the warmth. “Your mom! Bill will be the coolest dad!” Vee’s stepdad, Bill, worked on huge diesels and had a garage at home that the girls were convinced had secret treasure. The trouble was, they weren’t allowed in it. Only Vee, and only once when she had convinced Bill to let her organize it. Vee reported there were some high-potential boxes to investigate, labeled “other jobs” that were steel suitcases strapped and locked.

  “I have a surprise, too!” Aneta’s blue eyes were shining with her secret. “My mom—I think”—Aneta turned to Sunny—“likes your uncle Dave a lot.”

  “Really?” Sunny’s exaggerated looks at Esther and Vee put a furrow in Aneta’s brow. “Ready, girls?”

  “What took you so long?” The three shouted so piercingly it set off an echo with “longggg, ongggg, onnggggg!”

  Their friend look confused. “I do not understand.” When Aneta was uncertain or frightened, her English took a dive. Otherwise, their Ukrainian transplant friend did great with her English. Especially after Melissa Dayton-Snipp left Cunningham Preparatory Academy. Having Melissa gone had been good for everyone, in Esther’s opinion. Since everyone was telling news, now was a good time to tell the girls Melissa was back.

  “We knew it during the last adventure!” Esther said. Well, she’d been the third to know, but still, she’d known before Aneta. Sunny and Vee had been shooting sideways looks at each other. At first, Esther thought they were having a secret and leaving Esther and Aneta out, but then she’d seen how Sunny’s uncle—never married—and Aneta’s never-married mom spent a lot of time laughing and talking at Uncle Dave’s ranch.

  “Tell us why you think they like each other,” Vee said. “I’m an expert, since Mom and Bill got together.”

  The furrow disappeared between Aneta’s eyes when she smiled. “He calls my mom every day after she gets home from work. He comes over to eat dinner with us a lot, and”—the blue eyes turned from bright blue to dark—“my mom is making a lot of peanut butter cookies!”

  “It must be true!” Sunny spun.

  Esther smothered a laugh. Whenever Aneta’s mother had something big to think about, she made peanut butter cookies. During the girls’ first adventure, Aneta had gone to sleep several nights with the smell of baking cookies in her nose. It was the only time Aneta’s mother cooked. Usually Aneta’s grandmother brought over meals to bless Aneta’s mom who worked hard as a lawyer.

  Opening her mouth to spill the news that would be more giant than either of those changes—Melissa is back!—Esther was interrupted by Sunny.

  “Well, my parents changed the
ir mind and said if you guys had Spring Break, I could, too!” Sunny was homeschooled.

  “The rest of this school year is going to be great.” Vee seemed so happy with the change that was coming to her house. Aneta and Sunny, too. Esther wasn’t so sure about her house. She suspected something was up at home, and it couldn’t be good. Mom was cleaning more than usual, and Dad was snapping orders when he was home. Which wasn’t much, since he pastored a church.

  “I love us!” She interrupted Sunny who was telling how her brother had been busted while making the family lunch. He’d been biting tiny bites of sweet pickle and spitting them into the tuna salad because he wasn’t allowed to use a knife.

  Aneta turned a grimacing face to Esther. “What did you say, Esther? That is so gross, Sunny. I will never eat tuna salad again.”

  “I said I love us,” Esther repeated, putting her water bottle back in the bracket. “I hope we stay the S.A.V.E. Squad forever, saving the world one animal at a time.” It seemed crummy to tell such bad Melissa news along with everyone’s good news. She hesitated.

  “We’ll always be the S.A.V.E. Squad, but we haven’t had an animal rescue since forever.” Vee played with the strap of her helmet. “It’s not like these kinds of birds we saw at the bird show are going to show up for us to help.”

  The girls laughed, Esther the hardest. Sure. A turkey buzzard, a peregrine falcon, and some bird she couldn’t remember. She’d taken a quick look at them before the show was over. No cuddling those wild ones.

  “Ready to head for the ranch?” Sunny stood poised, her right foot on the pedal and her left foot ready to push off.

  “Ready!” sang out Esther. This sleepover would be the official beginning to Spring Break. As soon as they got to the ranch, she’d tell the girls about Melissa. For sure.

  A slight bend in the road curved them right, and the black wrought-iron fence began, twisted with the underbrush of winter. Some of it leaned crazily outward like medieval spikes. Esther shivered, not sure if it was because the temperature was dropping or because they were now passing the way tall double gate with the big padlock and some square box with buttons on it. Two hulking metal bird sculptures crouched on top of the tallest spikes. The whole entrance looked like a scene out of a scary story when stupid kids investigated where they had no business going.