NO ORDINARY OWL Read Free Page B

Peering through the sheets of rain that pelted her raincoat so loudly she couldn’t tell what the other Squaders were talking about, she gauged the distance between the tree and the truck. Could they dodge the lightning if they sprinted? Was a moving target harder for lightning to hit? She turned back to the other three who were circled around the birds.
    “Should we pick them up and take them for help?” Aneta reached out a hand toward the less-bloody bird. The beak stretched open. Even though they were small, their wingspread was easily as long as Esther’s arm. Maybe longer.
    “I say we go get help.” Vee’s dark, wet bangs stuck to her forehead. She pulled up the hood again. She looked ready to run wherever.
    Esther surveyed the two birds, the one still unmoving. If they left them here, they’d drown in the rain. She shivered. The temperature had dropped again, and suddenly her school sweatshirt under the raincoat wasn’t warm enough. Maybe the owls would freeze. Those little bodies couldn’t take the cold, wet ground.
    The gate hadn’t opened yet. Someone must still be in the truck. That someone had just been named a helper to the S.A.V.E. Squad. “We’ll get the people in the truck to help. The birds are too big for us.”
    “This would have been a great time for the Anti-Trouble Phone,” Vee grumbled, looking disgusted. “I wish I hadn’t left it at home.”
    They agreed. Esther shot a glance at the truck and then up at the gray sky that delivered a never-ending supply of water. Her teeth began to chatter. Oh, she was cold. And wet. And, well, all kinds of scared.
    Cr-rrr-ack!
    The thunder banged in the sky, and her lungs rattled again. She pulled off her raincoat, threw it over the owls, and ran for the truck.
    Vee and Sunny reached the truck first. Esther expected one of them to pound on the driver’s side window and scream for help, but that was not what redheaded Sunny did. Reaching the side of the vehicle, she yanked open the passenger side and launched herself into the backseat.
    “Sunny!” Vee screeched and stopped short. “What are you doing?”
    Another vicious crack of lightning, and Vee joined Sunny.
    “Where’s the driver?” Esther heard Vee say.
    Bang!
More lightning. Aneta dove into the truck on top of Vee.
    Her teeth chattering, Esther remained outside, unsure. Where was the driver? They were crazy.
We’re talking major stranger danger here
. Everything she’d ever learned about safety flashed through her head along with the booms of thunder and flashes of lightning.
    Yow!
This had to be a special case. She flung open the driver’s door and leaped in, slamming it behind her.
    Nobody said a word. In seconds, their gasping had steamed up the windows so the truck’s interior felt like a sweaty cave.
    Outside, the lightning flashed, the thunder boomed, and the pounding sheets of rain fell.
    “If the gate’s not open, where’s the driver?” Vee wanted to know, pulling herself out from under Aneta and squishing Sunny into the door in the process.
    “Maybe this is a ghost truck, and the driver is a ghost.” Aneta’s voice trembled.
    Sunny grunted and gasped, “Okay, I think this is the worst trouble the S.A.V.E. Squad has ever been in.”
    Vee eventually wriggled herself upright as the others straightened themselves. Staring straight ahead at the fence and headlights, Vee nodded. “We’ve just jumped into some strange truck where nobody is driving during a killer rainstorm, leaving two hurt owls.”
    The raincoat by the tree hadn’t moved. “Lord, we’re in big trouble,” Esther said. “If the truck is running and the lights are on, someone has to be
somewhere
to help us help those little owls.”
    A small voice said from the backseat, “We look like we took a shower with our clothes on.” It was Aneta. Twisting around to see her, Esther watched her friend’s face tremble, and for a moment, Esther thought she was going to cry. Instead her blue eyes crinkled, and her