The Ninth Nugget (2 page)

The kids followed Thumbs down to a narrow path lined with stones. The path led to three small cabins. Behind the cabins, the sun sparkled off the pond.

Dink noticed other cabins farther along the path. “Who’s in those?” he asked.

“They’re all empty ’cept one,” Thumbs grumbled. He stopped in front of the middle cabin.

“This here’s yours. There’s a lady in that one,” Thumbs said, nodding at the
cabin to their right. “Some New York feller in the other. Married couple got one of those across the pond.”

They were log cabins with chimneys and narrow front porches. There were windows on the sides and in front, where they framed the door.

“Ma Wheat’ll give you extra blankets if it turns cold,” Thumbs said, clumping up the steps with the backpacks. “You’ll find towels in the bathroom.”

He nodded at the kids, then clumped off the porch and headed back along the path.

“That guy creeps me out,” Josh said. “What do you think happened to his thumb?”

“Maybe a bear bit it off,” Dink said, winking at Ruth Rose.

“Could’ve been a mountain lion,” Ruth Rose added, trying not to laugh.

Josh snorted. “Don’t try to scare
me,” he said. “There’s nothing out here but chickens and ducks.”

The kids carried their packs into the cabin. A set of bunk beds stood against the far wall, and a single bed was opposite the bunks.

A stone fireplace nestled between the bunk beds and a small bathroom. The only other furnishings were a braided rug, a few chairs, and a table.

“I want to live here forever!” Ruth Rose said. She tossed her backpack on the single bed and looked out her window at the barn.

“I’ve got upper,” Josh said, slinging his pack onto the top bunk.

Dink set his pack on the bunk beneath it as a loud clanging came from the main house.

“Food at last!” Josh said. They ran out of the cabin, nearly colliding with a skinny, bearded man.

“Whoa,” the man said, smiling. “No
need to rush. There’s plenty of food. You must be the newcomers.”

“We just got here,” Dink said.

“I’m Ed Getz,” the man said. “I came in yesterday from New York.” He wiggled his fingers at the kids. “I’m a magician. I’m trying to be an actor, but there’s not much work.”

Ed Getz had long arms, tapered hands, and thin fingers.

“Cool!” Josh said. “Can you do tricks?”

Ed nodded. “I’ll show you some later.”

They walked to the main house, then into the dining room. A moose head hung over a wide fireplace. Lassos, spurs, saddle blankets, and bridles decorated the walls.

In front of the fireplace stood a long table and benches. Jud, Thumbs, and three others were already seated. Lulu was placing food on the table.

Ma and Pa Wheat came out of the
kitchen. Ma said, “Hi, kids, take a seat.”

Pa tapped a spoon against a glass. “Say howdy to Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose from Connecticut,” he said.

A woman wearing a western shirt and jeans said, “Hello, I’m Fiona Nippit.”

“And we’re Seth and Bonnie Clyde,” said a man sitting next to a pretty woman with long blond hair.

Lulu bustled out of the kitchen carrying a heavy tray of food. “Eat while it’s hot!” she said. “What you don’t eat now is leftovers tomorrow!”

Everyone began passing platters of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and steaming vegetables.

With twelve people at the table, it got pretty noisy. The kids learned that Fiona was a nurse from Chicago. The Clydes had just gotten married in Florida and decided to spend their honeymoon at a dude ranch.

Only Thumbs didn’t join in the dinner table chatter. While everyone else talked, he just ate.

For dessert, Lulu served apple pie with ice cream on top. By the end of the meal, they were all rubbing their stomachs.

Pa stood up. “It’s almost dark. Jud’ll build us a bonfire out back. And unless I miss my guess, Thumbs will tell you about the grizzly bear that roams these parts.”

Josh shot a look at Thumbs. “Are there
really
grizzlies here?” he asked.

For an answer, Thumbs winked and held up his hand with the missing thumb.

Everyone helped carry stuff into the kitchen. When the table was cleared off, the kids went outside and walked down the path. They found Jud and Thumbs arranging firewood inside a circle of tree stumps.

It had grown almost completely dark. Dink saw a few fireflies in the bushes near the pond.

“Have a seat,” Jud told the kids, motioning toward the stumps. They
were joined by Fiona, Ed, and the Clydes.

Thumbs struck a match on his belt buckle. He knelt and lit some dry pine needles under the branches, and soon the wood caught.

The flames cast each face around the fire into shadow.

“Is this great or what?” Josh said. “Man, I wish I could stay here longer than a week.”

“Me too,” Dink said.

Then Ma, Pa, and Lulu came outside. “Got something to tell us, Thumbs?” Pa asked.

Everyone looked at Thumbs. The reflection from the flames made his eyes appear red under his hat brim. He began to speak in a hoarse whisper.

I’ll never forget that night,” Thumbs said. “It was a dry summer. There was a lightning storm, and one of
the strikes caused a fire. The woods in the hills began to burn. We was sittin’ here, just like now. Suddenly, a bear cub came a-runnin’ out of the trees. It
was a young’un, just a bitty thing. You could tell it had been burned. It was whimpering, like in pain. We caught the cub, took it inside. Lulu put some butter on the burns.”

Thumbs paused. The only sound was wood crackling in the fire.

Dink glanced over at Josh, sitting next to Ruth Rose. Josh’s mouth and eyes were wide open.

“What happened to the cub?” Ruth Rose asked.

Thumbs’s red eyes turned to Ruth Rose. “Next morning, we took the poor critter to the vet’s office,” he continued. “When the little thing was all healed up, the vet sent it to a zoo someplace in California.”

“Good!” Josh said.

Thumbs swung his gaze back at Josh. “Bad,” he said. “The momma grizzly came later that night. She tore
through here, howling for her young’un. Probably weighed seven hundred pounds, that grizzly did. Smashed cabin doors, ripped a hole in the barn, sent us all a-hidin’ down in Lulu’s root cellar.”

“D-did she ever come back?” Josh asked.

Thumbs let out a laugh that was more like a cackle. “Sonny, that grizzly pays us a visit at least two, three times every summer. She tears through here like a hairy tornado, destroyin’ nearly every thin’ in her path.”

Thumbs looked at his thumbless hand. “That poor momma wants her baby back. It’s been two years now, and she still comes around lookin’ for it.”

Thumbs placed the thumbless hand on Josh’s shoulder. “That cub would be just about your size, sonny,” he added, then walked into the night.

No one talked after Thumbs left. One by one, they stood, yawned, and left the circle.

“Remember, buttermilk pancakes for breakfast,” Lulu called as she walked toward the main house.

The kids stayed behind to help Jud douse the fire with pond water.

“Was there
really
a bear?” Josh asked Jud. “He was kidding, wasn’t he?”

“I was away at college, so I don’t know for sure,” Jud said. “But I’ve never known Thumbs to be a kidder.”

“It could be a true story,” Ruth Rose said. “I read a book about grizzly bears once. The mother bears protect their young until they’re all grown up.”

Dink slung his arm around Josh’s shoulders. “Don’t worry even a hungry bear wouldn’t want you. You’re too skinny.”

“Want me to walk you kids back to your cabin?” Jud asked.

“Nope,” Josh said. “I’m not afraid of any old bear. Besides, I bet Thumbs was fooling us. How did he really lose his thumb, Jud?”

Jud laughed. “You’ll have to ask him,” he said. “Sleep tight and don’t let the critters bite!”

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose walked toward the three cabins. The stars cast a soft glow over the stones that lined the path.

Light came from Fiona’s and Ed’s
cabins, but the cabin in the middle was pitch-black.

“I thought I left a light on,” Ruth Rose said.

“I thought you did, too,” Dink told her.

“I
know
I did!” Ruth Rose said. Then she jumped on Josh’s back and screamed, “THE GRIZZLY BEAR’S IN OUR CABIN!”

“Very funny, Ruth Rosebush,” Josh said. “See if I protect you when the bear really comes!”

When they were all in their beds, Dink turned out the light next to his bunk. He rolled onto his side and gazed out the window.

Fireflies flickered everywhere.

Frogs and crickets made a sweet racket from the pond.

“Good night, you guys,” Ruth Rose said from the other side of the room.

“Good night, Ruth Rose. Good night, grizzly bear,” Dink said.

“I’m not speaking to either one of you,” Josh said from the top bunk.

Dink smiled in his bunk.
Josh is so easy to scare
, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.

Suddenly, Dink was wide awake. He thought he’d heard something thump outside the cabin.

He sat up and peered through the window over Ruth Rose’s bed. She was a sleeping lump under her blankets.

Dink didn’t know what time it was, but he didn’t think he’d been sleeping for long. Josh was snoring.

Maybe a pine cone fell on the porch
, Dink said to himself.
Yeah, pine cones can make big thumps when they fall from tall trees
.

Dink lay back down and closed his eyes. He tried to force himself back to sleep.

Then he heard more noises. Something heavy was moving around on the
porch, and it was no pine cone!

Suddenly, a dark shape stepped in front of the window. Dink shuddered and fell back on his pillow. Whatever was out there was large enough to shut out the starlight.

Dink heard a scraping noise, and then the shape moved away. Starlight once more flowed through the window.

Dink pulled his covers up under his chin. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest.
Calm down
, he told himself.
It couldn’t be that lonely mother grizzly bear. Could it?

Wishing he hadn’t teased Josh about the bear, Dink finally went to sleep.