NO ORDINARY OWL by Lauraine Snelling and Kathleen Damp Wright Page A

Aneta was behind Esther. Melissa, of course, pushed Sunny aside so she was right smack in front of Beake Man.
    “O–kay.” Sunny’s voice quavered.
    “Just cut it in half. Sure. No problem,” Vee said, not moving to do so.
    “If you’re not going to do it, you’re just in the way.” Melissa grabbed one of the knives and looked at Beake Man. “Might I have an apron and gloves? I wouldn’t want mice guts on the pashmina jacket that I got in Paris, and I just had a mani today.”
    Esther heard a soft thud on the hard floor behind her.
    Sunny turned. “Aneta? Aneta!”
    The next sound was a grunt from Melissa and then the snick of a knife cutting through to the steel counter.
Urp
. The second flip of Esther’s stomach dove deep and landed, squirming, then began to bounce upward. Turning, she tripped over Aneta on the floor. Staggering until she regained her balance, she sprinted to the carriage house door, hand over her mouth, shoulders jerking.
    Melissa’s words grated behind her. “Esther’s just not cut out for this work, is she?”
    Esther made it to the outside and right of the carriage house.
    “Oh dear, I was afraid of this.” The Bird Lady’s voice penetrated Esther’s emptying of her stomach. She patted Esther on the back, helping her ease back to a cross-legged position on the damp grass when it was over. “When people want to help wild birds, they often forget what wild birds eat.”
    Esther focused on breathing in and out through her nose. When she became aware of the mud on her shoes, she made a note she’d have to be sure to take them off in the garage. Her mother would scream for sure if she tracked that much mud in the house.
    Aneta. Aneta on the ground. She tried to stand up, but her legs wouldn’t hold her. Collapsing, she stammered, “A–A–neta fainted. On the floor. I’m such a bad friend. I jumped over her to get out and puke.”
    “Yes.” The Bird Lady hunkered down so she was eye level with Esther. “I was just entering the carriage house when I saw her faint and you take off running. You ran past me. She’s fine. Feeling a little light-headed, but fine. It doesn’t make you a bad friend. Would you like to go back in now?”
    No
. Esther shuddered. Now, not only were frozen mice in there, but top halves and bottom halves of frozen dead mice. Had Sunny and Vee been able to pass the test? What did they think of her running out and abandoning them?
    “I—I…” If she went back in, Melissa would make fun of her as sure as Esther’s peanut butter and honey sandwich was spewed out on the grass. If she didn’t go back in, though, Melissa might somehow, some way, take her place. Melissa’s clipped words came back to her.
“Not up to the work.”
This final project of the S.A.V.E. Squad. At least the S.A.V.E. Squad with Esther in it.
    “I have to go back in. I have to see what’s going on.” She wiped her mouth once more with the small towel the Bird Lady had produced from her many-pocketed barn coat. “Melissa…”
    “I get the notion that Melissa is not a friend to you four, then?”
    Esther nodded. She remembered where her arms and legs were. In another moment, she had wriggled to her feet, and it seemed she would stay upright. Her stomach felt like she’d been punched. Maybe she’d never eat again.
    The Bird Lady was eyeing her sort of like the buzzard in the nearby flight cage, with her head cocked to the side and tipped, looking at Esther with one eye. “There’s more here you’re not telling, isn’t there?”
    Esther nodded again. Should she tell her secret to the Bird Lady? Blurt out that she had to move when school was out? Had to make sure the S.A.V.E. Squad had one last project to save
something
so they wouldn’t forget her? Would Melissa take her place now since Esther couldn’t chop up a mouse?
    She felt miserable.
    The Bird Lady sat back with a thump on the ground, crossing her legs and wrapping her long arms around her knees. For an old lady, she