I shuddered. I would be completely helpless crawling around blindly among all those branches. All the werewolf had to do was stay still and wait for me to come within its reach. Then it could grab me before I had a chance to cry out. And that would be the end of me.
And if the monster wasn’t hiding in the bushes, if it had gone out to the street, it would get away while I was poking around in the shrubs. I decided to check the street first.
And there it was! A hunched figure was lurching up the road, swinging its shaggy head. It was looking for prey, I was sure! If I didn’t chase the creature, it might lure another child out of a house or reach through a window and snatch a sleeping baby.
My bare feet slapped the pavement as I ran after it. But the werewolf never looked back to see me.
As I gained on it, I started to feel nervous. What would I do when I caught up to it? I had no claws, no sharp fangs, no super strength. I couldn’t attack it. I couldn’t even stop it or scare it. Basically, I was monster food.
Slowing a little, I reconsidered. I needed a plan. Maybe I should just follow it. Then, when the werewolf tried to grab a child I could shout an alarm and wake everyone up. Yes, that’s exactly what I’d do. Just keep the werewolf in sight and wait.
Great plan. There was only one thing wrong with it. The werewolf had just disappeared!
My heart began to pound. Speeding up, I ran as fast as I could to the spot where I had last seen the monster. But it was really gone.
My stomach shriveled with fear and worry. The werewolf could be inside any one of these houses. It could be creeping up on a sleeping child right now.
I had to sound the alarm immediately. I sucked in a huge lungful of air and opened my mouth to scream.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something big leap at me from the shadows. I screamed.
“AAE—”
The scream died in my throat as a large angry face suddenly loomed in front of my eyes.
“Mr. Clawson!” I gasped.
“It’s the wolf-boy, isn’t it?” demanded the school principal. “What are you doing out here this time of night?” His nostrils flared angrily as he stared at me, waiting for my answer.
“I-I-I saw something,” I stammered. “In yard. So I follow.”
“Humph,” said Mr. Clawson. “Likely story. Wolves prowl at night, looking for prey, don’t they? Is that what you were doing?”
He thrust his face into mine menacingly and I backed away. “No,” I said. “No.”
“It’s a good thing I was out walking my dog,” said Mr. Clawson. “Or who knows what new mischief you might have caused.”
I shook my head, looking around nervously for his dog. The principal would be likely to have a dog that liked to bite boys, I thought. But I didn’t see any sign of a dog.
“My dog ran off,” said Mr. Clawson. “He likes to chase things. Maybe the dog is what you saw—if you’re not just making that up.”
He frowned darkly at me and I backed up another step. “No,” I said again. “I saw something.”
Mr. Clawson nodded. “He’s a big dog with a jaw full of teeth. You better watch out for him on your way home. Now, get along and don’t let me catch you out here again.”
“Yes, Mr. Clawson,” I said, turning to go back the way I’d come. I was relieved to get away but a bad feeling nagged at me. It was something Mr. Clawson had said, something not quite right. But what? I just couldn’t remember.
I hurried up the street, keeping a nervous eye out for Mr. Clawson’s roving dog. But everything was quiet and nothing moved in the shadows.
When I got home I quickly let myself in and locked the kitchen door. I was so relieved to be there I just sagged against the door, letting the safe feeling of the house and the sleeping family settle around me.
But I still couldn’t relax. Something was wrong. But what could it be?
The house was quiet and still. I chewed at my lip as I went slowly upstairs, trying to figure out what was bothering me. Then, just as I sank into bed, it hit me.
Mr. Clawson didn’t have a dog! I sat bolt upright, staring into the dark. Miss Possum had told me he didn’t have a dog. “Mr. Clawson doesn’t like animals,” she had said.
But if he wasn’t out walking a dog then what was he doing?
Chapter 21
In school the next morning Miss Possum let me sit next to Paul in class.
I slipped into my seat feeling good. My reading lesson with Kim yesterday had me looking forward to cracking the books. I figured I ought to be able to sound out just about anything now that I had the alphabet sounds clear in my brain. Wouldn’t Miss Possum be surprised!
But it didn’t work out quite like that.
To begin with, she asked us to open our language arts books to page fifty-six. My heart sank right away. I didn’t know how to count. I didn’t even know what numbers looked like! I realized I had to learn a counting alphabet as well as a reading alphabet.
And then it turned out that hardly any words were spelled the way they should be. And everyone read along so fast they were done while I was still trying to puzzle out “thorough” in the first sentence. It seemed I really couldn’t read any better at all.
So it was a tremendous relief when the bell rang and Paul told me to leave my books behind. “You won’t need them for this next class,” he said. “It’s gym. No reading. No math. And no girls.”
All the boys filed into a big room
