The Wolves of Slough Creek by Judy Young

Author:Judy Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781534110205
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Published: 2019-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

For the second night in a row, Buck tossed and turned. He dreamt about wolves flying around in drones, buzzing past geysers and mud pots, and a red fox grabbing kibble from a tissue left in a fire ring. An injured elk walked along a fallen tree across a spring of boiling bright blue water, wobbled, and started to fall. Buck sat straight up in alarm, breathing hard. He looked around, at first not knowing where he was, but then heard Dad snoring softly on the bed behind him and realized he had been dreaming. Shoop rolled over but didn’t wake.

Buck lay back down. Whoever was flying the drone was there before we went to the ranger station, he thought. And he couldn’t fly it in the parking lot. Too much of a chance that someone would see him. He had to be in the campground. Buck sat back up again. The boot prints only went one direction—in, not out. Whoever it was, he was in the campground when we were! Had to have been. The truck was still there when we walked to the campground. But it was gone when we walked back out. I was so upset about Odin, I didn’t even notice the truck had left! And I never even thought about looking for tracks coming back out.

Buck quietly got out of bed and pulled on some sweatpants. Then he tiptoed over to Toni’s door and slowly opened it.

“Toni?” he whispered. There was no answer.

Buck went in the room and shut the door behind him. He could hear Toni’s steady breathing from her bunk above the desk. He sat down at the computer, and turned it on. The sound of the computer opening up seemed incredibly loud, and the light from the screen hurt his eyes. Toni instantly leaned over the bunk and looked down at him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Sorry,” Buck said. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I just thought of something.”

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Toni said.

Buck looked at the computer. “Twelve thirty.”

“Ohhh,” Toni moaned. “Go back to bed!”

“I will,” Buck said. “In just a second.”

Toni flopped back over onto her bunk, turned toward the wall, and pulled the covers over her head. But Buck continued bringing up Shoop’s video, then fast-forwarded until he saw himself skipping a stone. He watched himself balance on the tree across the creek and back, and then climb up onto the picnic table. He saw himself looking through the binoculars, discovering Odin’s lifeless body. He didn’t see anything unusual but decided to watch it one more time before going back to bed.

When he reversed it, he went back a little too far and saw the last of the elk kill, where the magpie grabbed a bite from the carcass.

“That’s enough to give anybody nightmares,” Buck said to himself.

“Shhh,” Toni said from under the covers. “I’m trying to sleep.”

“Sorry,” Buck said, and went back to watching. Shoop had evidently turned off the camera as Geri returned to eat after chasing away a coyote.

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