Thor's Child ©
by K Pelle
Chapter 8
The next day Tor was standing at Kevin's right side in the lunch lineup when he felt a strange feeling come over him, a sense of danger.
Then to his surprise another talent appeared – he could suddenly 'sense' the intent of someone near him. He knew he was being approached from the right rear by someone intending to do him harm. Somehow he even knew what the attacker was planning to do. The thug wanted to kick Tor's cane away, then when Tor lost his balance and fell, the attacker planned to fall on him. After that he was going to 'rough up' Tor, then roll away and complain loudly that he'd been intentionally tripped.
Only, because of Tor's new 'warning' system, things didn't happen quite the way his attacker had planned.
Tor shifted his weight to the left, bumping against Kevin just as the attacker's foot contacted the cane, which went flying out of Tor's hand and across the lunchroom floor. Simultaneously Tor lifted his right foot, then bent his knee just as the attacker's foot touched his leg so his cast was free to swing away. Instantly Tor raised both arms and screamed as loud as he could, trying to sound as if he was in excruciating pain. Tor's right wrist just happened to slide under the creep's left foot as his kick carried through. As Tor raised his arms, his right arm was lifting the attacker's left leg far higher than he expected and because Tor's right foot was in the air, the shift in weight caused him to fall toward his attacker. The creep began to fall, but his left foot was still lifted high in the air and his right foot was caught under him. Although Tor had been thrown off balance, he managed to twist and duck under the thug's left foot, but he kicked the creep's right knee as he staggered past the falling body. Tor even managed to remain standing, but he had been slightly hurt and was favouring his right leg again.
"You rotten coward! You did that intentionally!" Tor screamed as he staggered to the closest seat and flopped down. "You intentionally kicked my bad leg, you stupid dick."
It was only after Tor sat down that he realized who the guy that had tried to hurt him had been. He was Tommy Carruthers' cousin and best buddy, another goon who played hockey, but on a different team. He was older, in high school and one of the guys who always went out to a fast-food joint for lunch, so even seeing him in the lunch room at that time of day was suspicious.
Everyone in the room was backing away from the thug as he lay there moaning and groaning. Well – everyone, but Kevin, who walked over and stared down at the creep's face.
"You disgust me, Johnny. You're as bad as your cousin, but then I suppose you're here because he got his ass kicked yesterday morning and you wanted revenge. Well, it looks like you screwed up, just like you always do. You look like you're hurt just as much as Tor is, and I'm going to make certain the Principal knows exactly what you tried to do. You chicken-shit son-of-a-bitch, attacking an injured man from behind is about your speed. You aren't worth the turd that Tor crapped out this morning, only you stink far worse and . . ."
"That will be enough of that sort of language, Mr. Craigmiller!" Mr. Mueller, the Principal, barked as he came into the room. "Now, other than Mr. Craigmiller, Mr Eklund and Mr. Carruthers, who can tell me what happened here?"
"That big jerk came running into the room behind the gimpy guy's back and kicked the gimp in the leg, but he hit his cane too. He kicked it so hard that it flew all the way back here." A grade-eight kid hollered from the back of the room and waved Tor's cane in his hand.
"Bring that up here and return it to Mr. Eklund, would you please, Mr. James?" Mr Mueller frowned. "Are there any other people here who are willing to tell me what they saw?"
Almost half the students in the room were yelling yes, or holding up their hands, while some were doing both. Most of them were hollering about how Carruthers kicked Tor from behind or how he was running when he came into the room and only paused long enough to see where Tor was standing.
Mr. Mueller just held up his hands after a moment, then pointed to one of the younger students, sending him to get Mr Yaworski and the staff nurse from the staff lunch room. Then he turned to Tor and told him to sit where he was until the nurse looked at his leg. He never said a word to Kevin, but the look he gave him made Kevin back away from Johnny Carruthers, who was laying on the floor, looking as if he'd just been caught with his hand in the cash register.
"And what do you have to say for yourself, John?" Mr. Mueller asked in a tone that made shivers run down Tor's back.
"Tommy is my cousin, so he's even closer than a player on my hockey team. You can't let a guy from the other team hurt one of yours and not hit him back." Johnny Carruthers moaned, then tried to stand up, but squealed, grabbing the inside of his left thigh as he dropped back to the floor.
"What's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?" Mr. Mueller asked quietly.
"I think I've pulled something in my leg." Johnny whined with his face screwed up in pain.
"Well, since you came here with the aim of causing someone else pain, I doubt if many of these students are sympathetic. I'm not even very sympathetic and I'm not sure I should be." Mr. Mueller snorted.
Tor had been brought his cane, so while the Principal's attention was on Carruthers, he quietly got to his feet and limped from the room, heading for the closest bathroom. He was sitting on a toilet in one of the cubicles, with the right leg of his pants rolled up, when he heard someone come rushing into the room.
"Hey Tor, you in here? The school nurse wants to check out your leg," Tor heard Kevin ask.
"Well, you can tell her I needed to take a dump and I wasn't about to do it in my pants. Besides, it looks like I only got a little bruise and maybe a bit of a twist of my ankle, it doesn't hurt much now that I've walked on it some. I think he kicked the cane more than my leg."
"You are so friggin' lucky. The nurse thinks Johnny Carruthers will end up in the hospital. She suspects he tore a muscle in his groin," Kevin sounded almost triumphant first but changed to sound concerned. "I thought it was you that screamed, not him?"
"I did scream. You should remember that from Jiu-Jitsu lessons. When you're attacked like that you're supposed to make a loud noise so the attacker gets surprised, then you can take action. I think I kinda helped him lift his leg, about a foot above his head."
"Well, one of the kids said Johnny kicked the cane, then your leg and next your hand, so I don't see how you could do anything. Since there's a witness who disagrees with you, I think you should forget to mention what you just said," Kevin snorted. "Now I'm going to go tell the school nurse that your attacker scared the crap right out of you and you hurried to the can to save yourself from embarrassment."
So Tor had to miss more classes while he went to the nurse's room and she checked out his ankle. Then Officer McDonald took pictures of the minor bruise on his leg, the scuff on his cane and a shoe-polish marking his pant leg. At the time he commented that Johnny Carruthers fetish for freshly polished shoes was a bonus, but that he didn't really need it because of all the witnesses he had. In the long run he wanted Tor to be seen by a doctor though, so the nurse called Tor's mother and had her take him to the doctor so he could check Tor's ankle to see if it had been reinjured. That took the rest of the school day, so after the doctor was done they went straight home.
That bruise on his leg bothered him, but not because it as painful, but because Tor didn't recall feeling Johnny Carruthers' foot strike his leg at all. On top of that, although he could see the bruise, he couldn't feel any discomfort or pain in that area of his leg. The only pain he felt was a bit more pain in his ankle than he'd been accustomed to feeling, about as much as he'd feel if he went for a long walk without using his cane. In truth, Tor had faked his reaction and overstated his pain in the lunchroom, but only enough to justify his angry verbal outburst at Johnny Carruthers. He felt guilty about that and even about using his talents to defend himself. So when Officer McDonald dropped around the house that evening and wanted his family to sign a complaint against Johnny for assault, Tor argued against the idea.
"Look, from what I heard at the hospital, he's going to be in treatment and therapy for almost as long as I've been under treatment for my ankle, and that took almost eight months. I'd say he's already suffering for his own stupidity and right about now, he has very few people who would consider visiting him in the hospital. I'd be willing to bet that the only people who go to see him are his immediate family," Tor said as firmly as he could. "Since he plays hockey as an enforcer and isn't playing for the Midgets, that means he's at least eighteen, so if he gets charged with anything, he'll be charged as an adult. I don't want to be the guy who sends him to jail where he'd just be taught to be a real criminal. I don't care what anyone says about it, I don't really want to be responsible for turning him into a crook. Sure he deserves to be punished, but if he thinks about it, he's hurt himself far more than he managed to hurt me. So if anything, I want him to know that I'm giving him a chance . . . this time, but I won't do it a second time – not for him and not for his foul mouthed, mean tempered cousin."
There was dead silence for a while, then Tor's dad snorted and shook his head. "Vår pojke är vettigt – Oh, sorry, Officer, I was just saying that the boy makes sense."
"Yeah, I agree. Tor does make sense." Officer McDonald sighed heavily. "I still hate the idea of letting any of the Carruthers get away scot free and I'm not certain that he doesn't deserve some form of punishment. You see, I know he's a bully and I know he has a record for being violent, but only as a minor."
"Well, we might not charge him, but I'm certain the school will. Principal Mueller is absolutely livid about the attack." Tor's mom said quietly. "Isn't there some way we can delay the trial for a while and see if he shows any remorse or not? If he does show remorse, couldn't we convince the judge to go easy on him and give him community service or something of that sort?"
"If he's anything like his cousin, he won't feel the least bit of remorse. I've coached Tommy for two years and he is one of the most hard headed, stubborn, mean-spirited individuals I've ever met. He's fought off all our attempts of coaching him to be a more effective player because he feels that he knows more than we do. If Johnny has an ego even half as big as Tommy's, he'll blame his troubles on anything and everything else, just so he can refuse to admit any responsibility," Officer McDonald said firmly. "Now I haven't worked directly with Johnny Carruthers, but I've worked with his cousin, Tommy, and I've spoken with Johnny's coach. From what I've seen and heard of the two of them, they're both cast from the same clay and they follow the same behaviour patterns."
They talked for a while more, but couldn't come to any conclusion, but Tor could see both his dad and Officer McDonald glance at their watches. His dad wanted to get to the afternoon chores and Officer McDonald had come to talk to them when he was off duty, so he was missing out on time with his family. Tor wasn't surprised when his parents decided that they'd try to talk to a few people who had dealt with the Carruthers before they made up their minds about any definite course of action.
Tor walked out onto the front porch with Officer McDonald while his dad went to change into his work clothes, which turned out to be a good thing. As Tor stood on the front steps to bid Officer McDonald goodbye, he suddenly felt his shield form around him. Almost at the same instant he felt a light jerk in the area of his right shoulder, then heard a sharp thudding sound from the wood of the support post that held up the front porch roof. It was right near him, so he couldn't have missed that sound, then a second later he heard the sound of a rifle shot. He dropped instantly, then rolled down the stairs and lay flat as he could.
"Officer McDonald – Get down!" he shouted. "Someone is shooting at us."
"Holy shit!" Officer McDonald barked.
Then he dove toward his car, only he was off duty and driving his private car, so Tor wondered why he wanted to get to it. Only the officer opened the passenger door and reached inside to pull out a microphone for a radio. He stayed low and Tor could understand why, he was presenting as small a target as possible. The Tor grew worried about his parents, so while Officer McDonald was calling his office Tor scrambled to his feet, dashed back up the steps and dove into the house.
"Mom, Dad, get behind something solid, maybe going down the basement would be best! Somebody is shooting at the house from the top of the hill behind the barn. They just missed me and hit a porch post by my head. Officer McDonald is already calling for help on his radio."
"I'll call 911 on the telephone, just in case he can't get through." Tor's mom said as she hurried to the kitchen.
"Tor, få din gevär och granater. Om de vill ha ett krig, de har kommit till rätt ställe!" his dad spoke in Swedish and somehow Tor understood him. (Tor, get your rifle and shells. If they want a war, they've come to the right place.)
Tor raced up the stairs and pulled his lever action 30-30 out of the closet then grabbed a box of twenty shells. His dad was right, if the creep wanted a war, he'd come to the right place. That's when he realized his bedroom window was a perfect spot for a view of the slope above the barn. There was even a short set of drawers right under the windowsill which would do for a rest. He moved to the wall beside the window and slid the sash open about six inches, tossed a folded blanket on top of the set of drawers, then knelt behind it and loaded his rifle.
As he swung the rifle up and rested it in on his open palm, then peeked through the scope, he felt another jerk, only this time it was his head that twitched to one side. Almost instantly he heard something behind him explode, but he didn't worry about that. Only a second or two later he heard the sound of the shot come from up the hill, and he saw movement through his scope. It wasn't much, just an elbow shifting back and forth as the shooter reloaded a bolt action rifle, then he saw that elbow again, only it was steady now. Tor guessed that the shooter had his finger on the trigger and was trying to line up another shot, in fact Tor could make out the shape of his head and shoulders above the shape of a fallen log. So he estimated range, elevation, windage, and realized that he didn't have a clue about any of it. But then, his old lever action Marlin 336 wasn't meant for accuracy at that distance anyway, the barrel was just too darn short and his rifle had been used for years before he'd bought it. Shooting uphill and over two hundred yards, with a short barrelled rifle that had years of wear on the barrel, was practically useless. All Tor could do was throw lead in the general direction of the shooter, more to scare him than to hurt him.
Still – Tor did know the rifle fairly well – and two hundred yards was only a little out of his normal range – there was no wind to speak of – besides he didn't want to kill anyone. So he set out to scare that shooter's pants off or at least give him skid marks in his shorts. Tor's lever action rifle was sure to be faster than the shooter's bolt action and since Tor knew his 'shield' was working just fine, he wasn't afraid of being hurt.
He only got off three shots before Officer McDonald was shouting at him to stop. Then suddenly he saw Ghost and both of his dad's cattle dogs tear off up the hill, so he kept his scope on the area where he'd seen the guy with his rifle. If Tor saw him swing that rifle toward the oncoming dogs, he was going to shoot again, no matter what Officer McDonald said or did. The shooter must have decided he didn't like the odds though, because Tor saw him get to his feet and dash of toward the road. It didn't look like he was carrying his rifle either.
"Officer McDonald, he's running off. Just one guy and it looks like Tommy Carruthers," Tor shouted out the window as he threw it wide open and leaned out. "It looks like my dog is right on his butt, only I think Dad's dogs are trying to herd him this way."
Tor could only see the chase for a moment, then there were trees in the way. He closed the window, unloaded the rifle, then left it standing in the corner of the closet, planning to clean it later. It was only then that he looked to see what had exploded in the back of his room. Dammit, the stupid bugger had blown up his old computer. It was only an old Apple II+, but Tor had about twenty games for that thing and he'd learned how to use the word processor to print his essays for school. He even had a dot matrix printer for the darn thing. He groaned, because suddenly his homework assignments were going to be a lot harder to finish. Oh, well, he could worry about that later. Right then he was expecting a bawling out from Officer McDonald and perhaps one from his dad too.
Tor got bawled out all right. His mom started in on him the moment he went downstairs. When she was done, his dad had a few choice words for him too, but he had to wait to be chewed out by Officer McDonald. The cop had raced out of the yard almost as soon as Tor had told him that the shooter was running. While they were waiting to hear any word from him, Tor explained that he'd gotten annoyed when the shooter had blown up his computer. He was making out that he felt Tommy was out to get him one way or the other and that he'd lost his temper. Tor saw his dad hide a smile, so he asked his dad what he'd meant anyway, saying that if the shooter wanted war, he'd come to the right place.
"If you didn't mean that Dad, why did you say it?"
"I thought I said it in Swedish."
"You did, Ollie." Tor's mom said quietly. "I think our son understands much more Svenska than we thought he did."
She looked at Tor and shook her head. "You are a very strange young man. You get shot at and it doesn't seem to bother you, but someone breaks one of your toys and you get angry."
"It's not just a toy. I use it for school too. In fact I use it more as an electric typewriter with a memory than anything else. I can work on a school assignment for days, and save my work each day, fiddling with it until I'm happy with it, then I can print it out and take it to my teacher."
"So you're saying you're going to want another computer?" his mom asked.
"I'd like one, but the one I had was only an old one that Dag gave me, so maybe we can find a used one like it somewhere. I don't need a new one or anything, because I don't use it that much."
They talked about the computer for a short while, but Tor and his father had to do the chores, so they headed outside. The three dogs were back, but Ghost was acting strangely, pawing at his mouth and rubbing his nose on the ground, so Tor called him over. Caught in his teeth was a piece of cloth, a hunk of camouflage coloured cloth, similar to the cloth of the pants that Tommy Carruthers liked to wear, so Tor raced back into the house.
"Mom, could you call the RCMP office and let them know that one of our dogs came back from chasing that shooter with a piece of camo dyed cloth caught in his teeth?"
"Is that important?" she asked with a frown.
"Sure, if the dog bit the guy, he might need to be rushed to the hospital. Besides, if they catch a suspect and this chunk of cloth matches his clothes, it would be proof he was here."
"Oh, right." she took the bit of cloth and headed for the phone, while Tor went back outside to help his dad with the chores.
They had finished the chores and even eaten before they heard anything from Officer McDonald and when they did, Tor wasn't at all surprised that the first thing he asked for was that bit of cloth.
"That was good thinking on your part, Tor. Somehow the shooter who was here got to town and managed to abandon his car in an out-of-the-way alley about three blocks from the hospital. It wasn't until your mother called about this little strip of cotton that we checked the hospital and who should we find in the emergency room being treated for a dog bite, but Tommy Carruthers. The hospital had cut off his favourite camouflage pants and I'm betting that this swatch of cloth matches those britches. Now all we need to do is find his rifle and we can match it to the slugs we can dig out of your house. You don't know where the second one went, do you?"
"Yeah, right through my old computer," Tor grouched. "Having him shoot that annoyed me. I have a ton of games for it and I used to use it for school work, but I'll need another one now and it's old, so I guess any programs I had for it will be useless."
"So that's why you started shooting at him, was it? I wish you hadn't done that."
"That wasn't it at all, he had to have a scope on his rifle and he was shooting at me!" Tor growled. "I'm sorry, but that scared me a lot and I didn't like it, so I thought I'd scare him instead."
"So he missed you twice?"
"I heard the bullets both times, once out front and once in my bedroom." Tor fibbed, not wanting to tell him about his 'shield' and all that implied. "He must be a darn good shot with whatever rifle he had, because those two slugs had to be darn close if I could hear them."
"I know he was shooting close to you!" Officer McDonald nodded. "I looked at hole left in the post out front and guessing at where you were standing, he must have missed you by less than an inch. I'd like to find that rifle, but it wasn't in his car so he either abandoned it or hid it somewhere. It might be here on the farm for all I know, so I suppose we'll have to come back in the morning and look for it."
"Well, I know where he was lying and I don't think he had the rifle when the dogs were chasing him through the bushes toward the road. I'll bet he shoved it under the log he was using as a steady rest when he was shooting. The sun hasn't set, so we could go look for it now, if you want to that is?"
"Is your ankle in shape to climb the hill? I don't want you to hurt yourself any worse than you already are."
"Yeah, I'll be okay. I'll walk slowly and I intend to use my cane every inch of the way," Tor snorted. "Besides wanting to find that rifle, I want to see if I hit where I was aiming."
"You weren't aiming at him?"
"Nope, just close enough to make him think I had him bracketed," Tor snorted. "One shot should be in the small stump that stood on his left, about four feet away and about a foot higher than his head. The second one should be in a branch of the big pine tree on his right, maybe three feet away and about even with his head height. I know I hit that, because I saw the pine needles falling as I lined up the third shot. It should be in the log he lay behind, about two feet to the left of where his head was at. I chose big targets, but I made sure he'd know I was coming closer each time I shot."
Tor decided Officer McDonald thought he was bragging, but he noticed his dad didn't comment. Twenty minutes later they were up the hill and standing in front of the log where Tommy had been hiding. They found all the holes from Tor's shots and they were all within a few inches of where he'd said they'd be. The rifle was there too, only it wasn't hidden, instead it looked as if Tommy had just dropped it and run off. It even had a round in the chamber and the safety hadn't been set. That let Tor know the asshole didn't have any respect for anyone, because any hunter learns not to leave a loaded rifle lying around for the next fool to find. That's how people get shot and killed, especially little kids. Just finding that rifle abandoned while still loaded annoyed him almost as much as being shot at had. He could see that it bothered Officer McDonald even more, but it was his dad who said something.
"Damn fool!" he growled. "He could have gotten someone killed by leaving a loaded gun laying here like that. That kid is a danger to everyone around him and needs to learn some discipline."
"Ollie, he just shot at your house and was trying to kill your son," Officer McDonald sounded exasperated. "He'll be tried for attempted murder."
"Good, put him away for a long time," Tor's dad growled, then turned and started back toward the house.
Since Officer McDonald had told them not to touch anything until the police could check things out, Tor just shrugged and followed his dad. Perhaps their reactions bothered Officer McDonald, but he was quiet about it. Actually Tor was wound up tight as a drum, but he simply couldn't allow himself to show it for some reason. It was as if he knew that if he let his emotions run free he'd go wild and for some reason he just couldn't let that happen. Besides, by the time they got back down the hill, his ankle was hurting quite a bit and all he wanted to do was sit down with his foot raised.
Actually after they got to the house, they went up to his room so Officer McDonald could collect his old computer to try to recover the rifle slug out of its innards. Tor didn't feel like going back downstairs afterward though. Instead he flopped on his bed and tried to relax, only that's when he got the shakes. He knew he should have been terrified when the bullets were flying, but somehow he'd held it together then. It was only after he felt safe that he dared let his true feelings run free. He heard Officer McDonald's car leave, then he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, so he knew either his mom or dad was coming up to see him. To his surprise, it was both of them and even though the door to his bedroom was open, his dad knocked.
"Tor, are you okay?" he asked.
"Come on in. I've just been laying here in bed, shaking like a leaf," Tor managed to laugh, but his laugh sounded forced even to him. "Now, after everything is all done and that damn fool has been caught, I'm feeling scared. It doesn't make any sense."
"It's a natural reaction and I'm sure it's not fear you're feeling, instead, it's probably relief," Tor's mom said quietly as she came over and sat on the edge of his bed, then took his hand in hers. "I doubt if any of us will be back to normal for a while."
"I can't believe you shot at him," his dad sighed as he pulled over a chair and sat down. "I know what I said, but I don't think I could really have shot at the kid."
"But I didn't shoot at him, Dad. I just shot close enough to scare him. I wanted to stop him from shooting at us, then I saw the dogs heading for him and didn't want him to shoot at them either, so I thought I'd keep him ducking to stop him from shooting. I think what scares me now is that I could have hit him with a ricochet or something. It's just not like me to do something like that."
"No, but that sort of thing is in your genes," his mom sighed. "Your ancestors were Vikings, perhaps even Berserkers, who would do just about anything to protect their homes and families from invaders. One day you should read the Sagas of your remote ancestors, then you might understand. The people who were your direct ancestors were traders first and fighters second, but attacking their homes was the ultimate insult and often led to the death and destruction of the attackers. Now if you want to get into genealogy, we can trace our ancestry back to the Vasa family, the royal family of Sweden in the 1600s and the Vasa family wasn't known for being forgiving. Just as long as you don't start showing too many of your ancestors' less desirable traits though, I'm not going to worry about your character."
She smiled then and leaned down to hug him. His parents sat and talked to him for a while and gradually his shakes disappeared, so he was actually able to relax once again.
After his folks left he just lay there, intent on relaxing, but in the back of his mind he knew he was going to have to assimilate the two new tricks his mind had shown him that day. First off, it seemed he now had a built in alarm system for approaching danger, some sort of 'proximity alarm' that warned him of rising hazards. Of course when he thought about the 'shield' that had protected him from rifle fire, that 'proximity alarm' made sense. Otherwise, how would his 'shield' have known when to activate to protect him? The fact that both talents seemed to be semiautomatic appeared to be a blessing in disguise, because otherwise he was certain he'd have been dead. Tommy had been a darn good shot and if it hadn't been for his shield he wouldn't have had a chance against that sneak attack. That bothered Tor more than anything else.
Tor must have fallen asleep while puzzling about those talents, because when he woke the next morning he was still lying in the same position and still dressed in the clothes he'd worn the day before. When he rolled out of bed to go to the bathroom, his ankle let him know that he'd either done too much the day before, or else Johnny Carruthers had hurt him more than he had thought at the time. He needed to use his cane just to get to the bathroom. When he hobbled downstairs, his mother took one look at the way he was walking and ordered him back to bed.
"No school for you today and probably none for the rest of the week," she stated firmly. "It's a good thing it's Easter weekend, because that will give you a full six days to rest up. I'll call Sami and have her let the bus driver know you won't be coming."
"Okay, Mom," Tor sighed.
"Now just so you know, the RCMP called and they're coming to investigate the crime scene. Since there was no damage in your room, but the computer, I'll ask them not to disturb you. Only they might have questions to ask you, so you might get disturbed. Otherwise, I want you to rest, okay?"
"Yes, Mom," Tor didn't even try to argue.
He had breakfast before going back upstairs, but once he was there and lying down again, he fell asleep once more and slept until shortly before lunch. Now that astounded him, because he usually didn't sleep much more than four or five hours, yet he'd slept all night and then had gone back to bed to sleep even more. Two things had happened to him while he was asleep though, first of all he noticed that his ankle felt a lot better and secondly he could 'feel' where both of his parents were. His mom was making lunch in the kitchen and his dad was coming toward the house after working on one of their tractors in the machine shed all morning. Somehow Tor's 'proximity alarm' had turned into something else, and he didn't know what to call it now, because it was more than just an alarm, now it was some sort of tracking system.
As he rolled out of bed to head for the bathroom, the 'tracking system' faded away, but he knew he could call on it again if he wanted or needed it. He sighed then, wishing that all his 'talents' came that easily and were controlled so simply, but he decided not to wonder about it right then. He was hungry and needed the can before he bothered thinking about anything else. When he went downstairs for lunch though, he was greeted with a frown.
"I thought I told you to stay in bed?" his mother grumbled. "I had planned to bring you your lunch and let you eat in bed as long as possible."
"Sorry, Mom. I fell asleep and when I woke up my ankle felt so much better I thought it was silly for you to come up when I could just as easily come down."
"Well, you're going to have to go right back up after you've eaten. You need to shower and change into some decent clothes. We have to go to town. First we need to have the doctor look at your ankle again, just in case you hurt it any more. Then we told the police who were here today that we'd go to the police station and swear out a complaint against the idiot who tried to shoot you. While we're there, I think we should swear out a complaint against the guy who attacked you at school too."
"Oh, why did you change your mind?"
"Well, I've been getting phone calls all morning about the two of them, even your Aunt Hanna called. She was telling me that the whole family is like those two boys, a whole family of trouble makers. She and Nils have had trouble with their folks and she said we might be in for a family feud if we don't step on the trouble early and hit them with legal action."
Tor didn't know what to say to that and he didn't want to argue, so he changed the subject and asked if Aunt Hanna had said anything about the place they had bought in the mountains. That got both of his parents involved in a rant about how Uncle Nils was wasting money on old pipe dreams. At least that got them off of the topic of the Carruthers family for the time being. Tor had made up his mind that he was going to find a way to talk to Johnny before he decided what to do about the incident at school.
Tor got the opportunity to talk to him far sooner than he expected, because when they went to see the doctor, they were sent to the hospital so Tor's ankle could be X-rayed again. Once the X-rays were taken and while he was still in the wheelchair, he went looking for Johnny Carruthers and found him in the same ward where Tor had stayed when he was in the hospital.
"Well, if it ain't the gimp," Johnny growled when he saw Tor. "Come to beg me not to come after you when I get out of here, Gimpy?"
"No, I just thought I'd come by to see how you were doing."
"Well, I have to say that's surprising, but then I hear Tommy missed when he shot at you yesterday, so I guess you must feel pretty damn brave. That won't last though."
Tor just shook his head, because Johnny was making up his mind about what to do.
"What, don't you believe you're living on borrowed time?" Johnny snarled. "Just so you know, I'm a better shot than Tommy ever was."
"Well, next time you see Tommy, ask him who ran off, pissing his pants as he ran, and leaving the rifle he used behind for the cops to find? It seems his target was a better shot than he was, so he didn't like the sound of bullets hitting the log he was hiding behind. He didn't like the dogs either and since one of them ripped part of his pants off, we gave that to the cops as proof that Tommy was there. You know there is another thing too, that rifle being left at the scene of the crime means the cops were able to find the necessary evidence to charge him with attempted murder, don't you?" Tor wheeled the chair around and started to leave, then wheeled again and stared right into Johnny's eyes. "Oh, there was one other thing I should mention while I'm here, something that concerns you directly. Since there's a rumour it was your rifle and your car that he used, you just might be charged as an accessory to whatever charge and sentence Tommy gets. Since you're over eighteen, being convicted as an accessory to attempted murder ought to be worth a good ten or twelve years in the crowbar hotel. Then I suppose you can add on the charge of aggravated assault and battery for the attack on Kevin and me, as well as whatever charges the school board comes up with. That ought to add a few more years, so I'd say both of you just might become experts at making license plates and breaking rocks."
Johnny's face had gone white and he was just staring at Tor as if he was terrified. By that time Tor had made up his mind what to do when they went to the police station anyway, so he turned and wheeled out of the room. Instead of wandering the hallways, he headed to the nurse's station.
"Excuse me, but I just had an X-ray done and I don't know where I'm supposed to go," he told the duty nurse. "I'm Dr. Mueller's patient and was only here for an X-ray of my ankle."
Actually Tor knew where he was supposed to be, but he was covering his butt about wandering into the room where Johnny was. He could say he'd gotten confused and had just wheeled back to his old ward, but in the long run, no one even asked him about it.
Dr. Mueller couldn't see any new damage to the bones of his ankle. He decided that Tor had just done too much the day before, suggesting that he'd strained the muscles and tendons in his ankle slightly. His advice was to use crutches for a few days and then to go back to the cane. He hinted that Tor might see a local massage therapist and have her massage his ankle and foot twice a week if the pain didn't lessen soon. As well as that he told Tor to soak his foot in a warm salt bath every night before bed if the pain continued. Other than that, he just told Tor to take it easy and not overtire his ankle by doing too much walking for a while.
After leaving the hospital and the doctor, the family went to the police station and Tor swore out a complaint against both to the Carruthers boys. While they were there an RCMP Constable walked into the room where they were and handed Tor a box.
"Here, I saw what happened to your old Apple II and I've had this one sitting around the apartment, getting in my way for a few months. I've swapped over to IBM and all this Apple stuff is useless to me, so you might as well have it. There's this box of stuff as well as another one out front. Then too, we've removed the rifle slug from your old computer, but there are still several usable pieces inside the computer case. You might as well take it all home and see if you can make any of it work. If nothing else it will keep you amused for a few days."
Tor tried to thank him, but the constable just waved him off and Officer McDonald just grinned.
"What can I do to say thank you?" Tor asked him.
"Put that thing together and make it work. I mentioned how you didn't get mad at the perp. until he shot your computer, then you became 'Mr Sharp Shooter' and the fellows got a kick out of it. When I told them about you calling where your shots had hit and that you were shooting to scare the idiot off so he wouldn't hurt your dogs, it tickled their fancy even more. Besides, don't tell any lawyers or judges, but when you happened to tangle with both of those two in just one day and came out on top both times, all of us had to grin. When a thirteen-year-old kid with a buggered up ankle can take down the two biggest bullies in town and do it legally, we all wanted to applaud. All of this is off the record though. Okay?"
Tor could only nod at that, but his parents agreed quite vocally.
"Now all we need to do is get the judge to agree," Tor's mom said quietly.
"Oh, the local judges have run into that pair before. I think whichever one draws the case will give the two young – um – 'gentlemen' exactly what they deserve," then he frowned. "Of course there could be a problem when their lawyer brings up the fact that Tor fired in Tommy's direction. However, I doubt if any charge will ever be laid over Tor's actions, since no one was injured, but it might prejudice the case."
"Why not take the lawyers out to the shooting range?" Tor's dad snorted. "Let Tor prove to them that he was shooting to scare, not to kill. Besides, he was defending his home from an armed marauder who was out to kill him. In the mood I was in after I saw that first hole on the porch and you told me where Tor had been standing, I'd have shot too, but I wouldn't have been out to scare anyone."
"Well, the shooting range demonstration would probably backfire, so that would be a bad idea," Officer McDonald sighed. "And, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear what you said about how you felt about shooting back at someone who shot at you, since that would be illegal."
"So what you're saying is that if he gets out, he can come out to the farm and shoot at us as much as he wants, but we can't defend ourselves?"
"I'm afraid that's the law."
"Humph, then you'd better put him in jail where he'll be safe, because from what my friends and neighbours say, if he gets away with it this time, he'll come back and try again. If he does, I won't wait for you to come all the way from town to protect me, I'll protect myself and my family, then worry about the consequences later," Ollie Eklund stared directly at Officer McDonald
"Oh, I'm quite certain that the trial will go against him, but if it doesn't I'll warn you now that I have to enforce the law, so if you shoot someone, I'll have to arrest you."
"Fine, we know where we stand," Tor's father stood and so did the rest of his family.
Tor set the box he was holding on the Officer McDonald's desk.
"You can thank the constable, but I'll leave this here. I'm certain you can explain that I don't take bribes. If my shooting and scaring the bastard was such an admirable thing to do yesterday, then the crap you were spouting just now is pure bullshit, because you don't really believe in the laws you enforce."
"Now wait a minute, I know that the law seems wrong, but I have to enforce it." Officer McDonald protested.
"Fine, but I'm not a hypocrite, so I can't accept that computer," Tor snapped.
"Are you saying I'm being hypocritical?"
"That is not what I said at all. I told you that I'm not a hypocrite. I won't accept a reward, or a replacement, or a gift, or whatever it is, which was given because of something I did, only to have a member of my family threatened with arrest for doing that exact thing under identical circumstances," Tor had stopped in the doorway and was looking back at Officer McDonald. "I realize that you must enforce the law, but I have to follow the dictates of my scruples, which are a hell of a lot stronger for me than some law meant to protect crooks and murderers. Thank you for the education into the workings of the RCMP and the legal system however."
The Eklund family walked out of the police station amidst stares from several police officers, but none of them said a word until after they were in the car.
"You didn't have to leave that computer there," Tor's mother said quietly.
"Yes I did and you heard me tell that cop why," Tor snapped. "I can't believe that the law is slanted toward protecting an attempted murderer. If I had it to do over again, I'd aim for the bastard's elbow, then he'd never use his arm to raise another rifle."
That brought dead silence for a few minutes. In fact they were almost home before Olga spoke up.
"You know, I just thought of something. Did Officer McDonald actually see you shooting the rifle?"
"No, he couldn't have, because he was at the front of the house, by his car." Ollie spoke up then. "I saw where he was standing and you can't see Tor's window from there."
"Did he see you, Ollie?" Olga asked then.
"He might have seen me, but I'd pulled back before Tor started shooting. Why?"
"Because there were three of us in the house and he only has our word on who made the shots. He never checked the rifle. He never even checked Tor's room for the smell of gun smoke. He never checked any of us for gunpowder residue on our hands. I'm betting they never even dug the slugs out that timber up the hill. In other words, Tor could have been shooting blanks. In fact it could have been either one of us who shot instead. He doesn't have a solid case against anyone."
"Well, just in case he comes to dig those slugs out tomorrow, we should take every rifle in the house and go out to the barn after we finish chores tonight to have some target practise. All three of us should be able to hit the same areas from the barn loft and come close to where Tor hit from the house."
"Hey, you don't have to do that," Tor broke into laughter. "Remember, I'm only thirteen-years-old and I've never been in any trouble with the law, so the most a court would do to me would be to put me on probation or have me do community service."
"Well the other thing we could do is cut up those logs and that tree for firewood." Ollie chuckled. "If the officer asked us why, we could say we were worried that it was a perfect spot of a killer to set up and shoot from, so we were getting rid of it."
"Oh, I like that idea even better." Olga snickered. "Only I'd like to leave that pine tree standing."
"Which is better, one more pine tree or having your son in trouble with the law?" Tor's dad asked quietly. "Personally, I'd rather sacrifice the tree, especially since we have thousands more growing all around us."
"You might not have to cut down the tree, Dad. I shot at a large branch," Tor said quietly. "If we cut off the lower branches in the area, we'd want to take that one."
By the time they got home, Tor's parents had decided what they wanted to do. Tor helped with the chores, while his mom made some phone calls. Right after they'd eaten, the Enrights, the Clemens, Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna showed up. Uncle Nils had even brought along his log splitter on a trailer behind his truck and both Mr. Enright and Sam Clemens had brought along their chain saws. Ollie hitched a trailer on the back of the tractor and the men were off to cut wood into fireplace length billets in moments. Meanwhile Tor's mom and Aunt Hanna put on their gloves and got the log splitter ready to split timber.
The only thing that upset Tor was that he was told he couldn't do anything, because of his ankle. Then his mom decided that he needed company, so Sunny, Sami and Tor were sent into the house. They were told to make a big pot of coffee and then to amuse themselves and stay out of the way of the wood cutting crew. At least what happened once he was inside with the two girls was different, to say the least. There was nothing they wanted to watch on TV, his computer had been destroyed and the three of them hadn't exactly been getting along well with each other for the last while.
"Okay, so what do we do?" Tor asked, after he'd put the big coffee pot on the stove.
"Well, you can start by telling us about what's been going on between you and the Carruthers for a start," Sami snapped. "What started the big feud anyway?"
"Oh, I know that. That was at the hockey game, last week," Sunny snorted. "Tor made a comment about the opposing team's goon, but Tommy Carruthers thought Tor was talking about him, so he went ballistic. He was trying use his hockey stick to jab Tor through the wire mesh behind the player's bench and made such a ruckus that the referee got involved. Tommy was given a two game suspension for it and that set his temper off, which is what brought on the attack he made on Tor on Monday morning. You know what happened there."
"Yeah, kinda," Sami laughed. "Tor tossed him out the door and into old sourpuss Yaworski. That was hilarious."
"Well, you know he got a week's suspension from school for that too, don't you?"
"Yeah, I was there when he was told that. To say that he was cheesed off about it is putting it mildly."
"Well, his family was annoyed too so they decided to get even by sending Tommy's cousin Johnny and have him beat up Tor. The dumb ass is so stupid that he attacked Tor right in the lunch room and even then he got hurt worse than Tor did. Kevin claims he never saw anything until too late, but everyone else who was in the room seems to have seen what happened. I wasn't there, so I'm just going by what other people said," Sunny frowned and looked at Sami, then Tor. "So what happened after that?"
"Well, I didn't see anything, but I was at the back of the room." Sami shrugged. "All I know is that the Principal came in and there was a lot of fuss. Then the nurse came and they called the ambulance to haul away Johnny Carruthers, but the cops showed up too, which is when they discovered that Tor had disappeared. Kevin found him in the bathroom and after that I heard Tor's Mom came and took him to see the doctor. When I tried calling here to find out if Tor was okay, the phone was either unanswered, or it was busy. So Tor, what happened after that?"
"Like you said, Mom took me to the doctor's office, then the hospital, then home. Officer McDonald came out here on his own time, even using his own car. He was trying to talk me into laying a charge against Johnny Carruthers, then just when he was leaving Tommy Carruthers opened fire on the house and almost hit me with a couple of shots from his rifle. The dogs chased him off and the cops caught him at the hospital, being treated for a dog bite, which was how they knew it was him. Ghost even had a hunk of Tommy Carruthers camouflage pants caught in his teeth. The only thing is, when Tommy shot at me, I was diving around and hurt my foot again. I had to go have it checked out once more, then I got told to stay off my foot, which is why I'm not going to school this week."
"So why is everyone here cutting wood?" Sunny demanded.
"Oh, they're getting rid of the place where Tommy was shooting from. Mom and Dad heard that the whole family is a bit crazy and that spot is almost like a hidden shooting gallery with a perfect view to shoot at the house. The cops have been all over the area already, so my folks decided to get rid of that setup before one of those nuts decide to attack us again. We'll need firewood for the fireplace next winter anyway, but this gets rid of a danger to us as well."
"You're not telling us everything are you? I heard he shot up your room." Sami looked worried.
"Tommy put one shot through the open window and hit my computer, but the cops took the computer away to dig out the slug from his rifle." Tor shrugged then. "That means we can't even go upstairs and play games on the computer."
"Hey, what are you going to do about your school work? You used that computer to write most of your assignments." Sami frowned again.
"I'll have to see if anyone has an old Apple II they want to get rid of, I guess. Either that or get another computer or a typewriter of some kind."
"You can have my old computer. I got a new one for my birthday last summer, but the old one was almost like yours, maybe newer though." Sami grinned. "I can't use my old one anyway, because the monitor died on me and none of the programs will work on the new computer."
"I've got an old one like yours was too, so you could have that." Sunny offered instantly. "Dad got me an IBM clone for Christmas, with a colour monitor."
"Really? That's what Dad got me. I've got a couple of really neat games for it too." Sami winked at Tor.
That set the two of them off and they were soon comparing what they had, each trying to outbrag the other. Tor just grinned, because it got them away from discussing the Carruthers and in a few minutes the two of them were almost acting civil, even offering to swap games and visit each other.
Before it grew too dark to see that evening the whole area near the spot Tommy Carruthers had used as a shooting gallery was cleaned up. It almost looked like a park and there were few if any spots where anyone could hide while getting a decent sight line for a rifle shot at the house. Any spots that were there had been marked out by Uncle Nils with clearly visible stakes, as if they'd sighted in their rifles on those spots.
"Nuttin, but a big Texas Bluff," he laughed when Tor asked him about the stakes. "Vee make dem tink vee can shoot at all dose places better dan dey can shoot at da house. Scare da bustardts from tryin enyting, yaw?"
Even Tor thought that was funny, then he decided it wasn't a bad idea at all.
"Tomorrow, Aye bring yew a new gun, yust like da vun yew got now. Vee svap, okay?" Uncle Nils grinned. "Da cops dey took avay part uf da stump alreadty an dey choppedt up part of da log too. Vee tink dey might haf got vun slug, but vee got da udder tew. Da new rifle I got, it belongs to my pojke, Kai, an von't haf da same marks from da barrel ass yewrs made on da bullets. It iss da same make an' model, but newer too, so da scope yew got vill fit. If da cops effen look, der vill be no gun here vhat left dat slug behindt."
With that he slapped Tor lightly on the shoulder, then walked over to the other men as they sipped coffee and talked.
Tor just shook his head in disbelief. Everyone was going to so much trouble to protect him that he was having a hard time accepting it. Then he thought about the stupid laws that made it virtually illegal for someone to protect themselves and he knew he wasn't the only one who was disgusted by the legal system. What they were doing didn't feel right, but with the law bent toward protecting the crooks and thugs from any kind of retaliation, Tor didn't know what else they could do.
He made the decision right then that he wanted to see if he could fight that sort of stupidity and the only way he could think to do that was to become a lawyer, which was a decision he hated. It had been lawyers who had created the legal mess though and the only way to fight a lawyer was to become a better and smarter one. Perhaps if he devoted his life to it, he could bring about some minor changes that would benefit real people who just wanted to protect themselves from bullying thugs.
"You look as you just swallowed a lemon," Sunny surprised Tor, by coming up and speaking when he was thinking deeply.
"Yeah, well I just decided what I need to do with my life and it isn't exactly a pleasant thought," he grumbled. "I hate most lawyers, but I think I might have to become one."
"Why would you want to learn to do something you don't like?" she frowned. "Besides, I thought you wanted to raise and train horses?"
"Who says I can't do both," he snapped. "I just want to change the law so a man can protect himself on his own property."
"Well, lawyers don't make the laws, politicians do," Sami joined the discussion.
"Most politicians are lawyers," Tor argued. "Maybe I'll have to do that too. Look at all the trouble everyone is having to go to, just because I tried to protect myself from a crazy creep with a gun. That just isn't right. I mean, I'm very, very thankful to everyone here, but I feel like crap that I caused it while doing something that I think should be legal. A person should be able to protect himself, at least if he can do it without endangering anyone else. I'm not saying that you should be able to shoot and kill anyone who was trying to kill you, but I didn't do that. I just found a way to scare the stupid son-of-a-bitch away."
"Well, what did you do? Send the dogs after him?" Sunny asked quietly.
"No, they chased after him on their own, but I can't tell you what I did, because of the possible court case I might be facing. If you accidentally repeated something I said and it got rumoured around and changed, I could end up in court and maybe even in jail," Tor sighed. "I'd like to be able to brag about what I did, because I think it was the right thing to do, but I because of a stupid law, I can't tell anyone anything. Mom and Dad know and they might have told your folks, but they would have sworn them to secrecy. When the court case is all done, I might be able to tell you, but even then it might be impossible."
That didn't leave either of the girls happy, but Tor was adamant.
It wasn't long after that discussion when everyone decided they had to leave, but before they left, Tor's mom invited them all over for Easter dinner on Sunday. Since his family wasn't extremely religious, Tor decided it was just her way of telling everyone thanks for their help, but he certainly wasn't about to ask. Her reasons were her own and Tor wasn't going to rock the boat, not with his mom.
He went upstairs and decided he should pull the scope off his rifle that night since he wasn't sleepy and knew that if he had a rough night he might be fumble fingered in the morning. He didn't want to upset Uncle Nils by going slowly when he brought over the other rifle, especially if he came early. Tor was lucky he'd done that though, because Uncle Nils came back that night and they swapped rifles. As Uncle Nils was storing Tor's rifle behind the driver's seat of his pickup he paused and turned to look at Tor.
"If enyvun asks yew, I left my axe here und comedt back fer it, yaw?" he grinned and winked at Tor as he got into his truck and drove away.
So Tor went back up to his bedroom, put his scope on Kai's rifle, then put it away in the closet where he was always stored his guns. The thing that was funny about that was that Kai's rifle was identical to his, but Kai's rifle hadn't had the barrel cleaned in months. Anyone looking at it would know it hadn't been shot in a long while.
That night Tor lay in bed for a long time considering the idea of working toward becoming a lawyer, but the longer he thought about it, the less he liked the idea. He really liked lawyers who helped innocent people, but he felt there were far too many lawyers who were just in the 'business' to help crooks and make money. As far as he was concerned, the shysters and shylocks were ruining the legal system and he really didn't like the idea of having to face people of that sort for the rest of his life. He had a very hard time getting to sleep that night.
Since he didn't get to sleep until late, he wasn't up early enough to help Dad with the chores. After they'd had breakfast though they went out with the tractor and trailer to clean up the piles of small branches that had been cut down the night before. Tor drove the tractor while his parents tossed the branches into the trailer, then he'd dump them in an old burn pit out in the middle of one of the pastures so they could burn them.
Tor and his dad did take a break after lunch though because one of their goats had just had kids and the crows were driving the goat and her new twins nuts, so they went out with their shotguns. They each managed to shoot a crow and hung the two of them by the feet from a tree, then waited for the crow congregation that they knew would come. In half an hour they shot six more crows before the other crows got smart and decided that a 'crow funeral' on the Eklund farm was a bad idea, then Tor and his dad went back to their cleanup. They were still at it late that afternoon when Sam Clemens and Sami showed up, so they stopped for a coffee and a chat before they went to do chores.
"I got Daddy to bring my old computer and we're giving it to you, just like I said." Sami greeted Tor with a hug. "Let's go see if we can make it work with your monitor and other stuff. I had some really neat games that come along with it and I want to show you how they work."
"You mean you want to play the games again," Tor teased.
"Of course I do, Silly Boy," she giggled and swatted him on the arm. "Now let's hurry, because Sunny and Emily are coming over with some of their games and computer things for you too. Since you already had some stuff, you're going to have the best setup for games of any of us. The games for our new IBM computers are really expensive so we each only have a couple, but you're going to have dozens of games for your Apple. If Sunny and Emily are right, you might even be able to get two or three computers going at once."
In the long run Tor didn't get to help his dad with the chores that night, instead Sam Clemens did, but doing the chores might have been better for Tor's nerves. He ended up having visitors over for the evening, four of them and they all showed up with bits and pieces of computers and diskettes loaded with computer games and programs for Apple computers. Sami had brought over a basic computer and keyboard as well as a batch of games. Sunny and her mom brought over a complete Apple II with all the bells and whistles, computer, keyboard, monitor, diskette drives and a mouse. Kevin and Emily showed up with something Tor had never seen for an Apple computer, a hard disk drive, already loaded with programs and games. They also brought an Apple IIc, a keyboard and a colour monitor and everything worked.
Getting all the bits and pieces connected and operating was almost enough to drive Tor and Kevin nuts, because as soon as they got something to run, everyone else wanted to give it a try. To find room for everything, they even had to go down to the basement and bring up an old folding table and a couple of old chairs, but then Tor's room was packed full.
Tor's mom looked in on them once and just shook her head, then went downstairs and made a snack for the whole group. On top of that she called Emily and Kevin's Mom as well as Mrs. Enright, then invited everyone that was there to eat with them that night, just to give the teenagers more time to play with the computers.
Only Tor knew his mom liked cooking for large groups of people at times. That night they had Sam and Sami Clemens, Sunny, and her folks, as well as Emily and Kevin and their parents sitting down at the table. The grownups sat at one end of the big table and all of the kids sat at the other end. They'd just finished eating and were sitting there with coffee and tea when there was a knock at the door, so Tor's mom went to get it, then called Tor and his dad.
It was Officer McDonald as well as another constable, but Officer McDonald was annoyed.
"What have you done to the crime scene?" he growled as he pointed up at the freshly cleaned hillside. "You've interfered with a police investigation."
"Well, now is a fine time for you to tell us that you weren't finished with whatever you were doing," Tor's dad sounded just as grumpy. "We heard that there were more of that crazy family who were planning to attack us, so we decided to clean up our property, then they wouldn't be able to hide as easily. You didn't mark anything as a crime scene when you were here yesterday, or tell us not to clean up. Since you didn't, I'm not taking the blame for cleaning up my own farm to try to reduce the chances of our being killed. First you tell us that we can't use a weapon to defend ourselves from a homicidal maniac, now you're telling us that we have to read your mind about what you want to do? Did you think we would leave a dangerous situation alone once we had a concrete demonstration that we weren't safe? We were attacked even when you were standing in the yard with us, so even having a police officer here isn't a guarantee of safety, is it? Wouldn't you do your best to make your family safe if you heard there was a dangerous group out to attack you?"
"How was I supposed to know you'd do something like that? What did you do with the debris you removed from the hillside?" Officer McDonald snapped back. "We did manage to find one slug up there, but it was so damaged that we can't use it for analysis. We need to find the other slugs so we can trace back the rifle which was used. Which reminds me, we need your son's weapon."
"Why do you want Tor's gun?"
"To check against the slug we found."
"You just said the slug you found was so badly damaged it can't be used for analysis, but there's no reason you can't see his gun," Dad retorted. "Tor, go get your gun."
"I haven't cleaned it from today, Dad. Should I clean it first?"
"Absolutely not." The Constable barked, then he frowned. "Did you say you had shot a weapon today?"
"Yeah, I did, this morning, well, about lunch time."
"Shit!" Tor heard him mutter.
"What's wrong?" Dad asked.
"We were going to check for discharge residue, but . . ."
"Well unfortunately we both shot guns today. This is a farm, so we have pests that attack our animals and we have a permit that allows us to shoot pests on our property." Then Dad turned toward Tor with a frown. "I thought I told you to go get your gun?"
"Oops, sorry, Dad." Tor hurried off to his bedroom and opened his closet.
His father had used the word gun over and over and he hadn't used the word rifle, so Tor knew what his dad wanted him to do. He picked up his Remington pump, the sixteen gauge shotgun that he'd used that day while shooting crows and hurried back downstairs.
"That's a shotgun." The constable squawked when he saw what Tor was carrying.
"Well, yeah! What else would I shoot crows with?" Tor asked, doing his best to keep a straight face.
"We're looking for a 30-30 rifle." The constable almost shouted.
"Oh, well the only 30-30 in the house would probably be my cousin Kai's old Marlin, but it hasn't been shot since deer hunting season last year. Oh, wait, that's right. I didn't even use it then because I'd hurt my leg." Tor observed. "Do you still want to see it?"
"Yes, I do," the guy was doing his best to hold back his temper by then.
So Tor took the shotgun back to his room and brought down Kai's Marlin. The constable opened the action, put a strip of white card into the opening and looked down the barrel, then sighed heavily.
"This weapon badly needs to be cleaned and you're right, it definitely hasn't been shot in a long time, so it wasn't used recently. Are you positive there are no other weapons of 30-30 calibre in this house?"
"No, my oldest son used to have one, but he sold it when we moved from Saskatchewan. I do have a 303, do you want to inspect that?" Tor's dad offered.
"No, the slug we found was definitely from a 30-30," Officer McDonald growled. "I don't know how you managed this, but I don't enjoy being made to look like a fool."
"Welcome to the club," Tor's dad snorted. "We didn't care for you making us look like fools either. Now unless there is something more, we have guests and I feel we're being rude to them by making them sit in the kitchen while we're out here talking to you."
"Wait a moment, how did we make you look like fools?" Officer McDonald snapped.
"Well, one moment you were patting the back of a member of our family and offering him a bribe, then the next moment you said you'd be willing to charge that same person with a crime if he did the same thing. Now you've come out here, trying to restart an investigation that you had previously implied was complete. At least that's what we assumed when we talked to you in your office and since you didn't mark it as a crime scene, then didn't warn us that you weren't done. It makes us look foolish because we assumed that you must have found what you wanted and we could clean up the problem, but now you're trying to blame us for doing it."
"But, that log had to have lain there for years, why did you clean it up so soon, if not to foil our investigation?"
"We just purchased the farm last year and it had previously been owned by an eighty-year-old couple, so naturally things are being changed as we discover problems. Farming is a business and in order to make this farm safe and profitable, we need to make changes at times. It appears that one of our major priorities is going to be protecting ourselves from homicidal maniacs and while they are allowed to use weapons to attack us, we can't use any form of violence against them. In other words, since you are protecting the thugs and homicidal maniacs, we have to defend ourselves by more inventive means, including making it hard for them to attack us."
"We are not protecting the thugs."
"Officer McDonald, you are doing nothing but that, just by being here and accusing us of being criminals, however I am done arguing. Are there any other questions you wish my family to answer tonight?"
"No, I can't think of anything we can do now."
"Fine, then if you'll excuse me, we do have guests. Good night."
They waited at the door until the RCMP officers had climbed into the car and driven away, then Dad sighed deeply.
"Dad, why did you get him angry like that? That isn't like you," Tor asked quietly.
"Well he asked what we did with the material when we cleaned up that shooting gallery, then also asked about your rifle and I had to divert him away from thinking about the wood. The two splits that contain the slugs from your rifle are sitting downstairs, just outside the basement door and not ten feet from the stack of firewood," Tor's dad said quietly. "If he had gone around the back of the house, he'd have seen them. I was planning to burn them in the fireplace tonight, but we have guests."
Much later that night, after their guests had left, Tor and his dad did burn those two pieces of wood. They had to use a few old pieces of wood salvaged during cleanup around the farm as kindling though and that wood was loaded with old rusty nails. The next morning Tor cleaned the ashes from the fireplace and after screaming out the nails and bits of metal, spread the ashes on the new garden. The bits of metal he screened out of the ashes went into the bottom of a four-foot deep hole which had been dug for a new gatepost meant to hold up the new gate into the lower pasture. After all, an old rusty nail or a burnt chunk of heavy wire could cause a flat tire, so you had to be careful where you disposed of them.