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  I was locked inside the forbidden barn.

  I’ll tell you, Dad, I never planned to go into the forbidden barn, never mind getting myself locked inside. Mindi and I only wanted to take a look at Mr. Braemarie’s visitors to get an idea about what he was selling. Simple as that. Why do I always have to be so impulsive?

  So that’s the situation I found myself in. Locked in a barn. Me, a city girl! There was nothing I could do at that point but investigate!

  TRAPPED!

  DATE: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

  (CONTINUED)

  LOCATION: STILL IN THE FORBIDDEN BARN

  I felt like screaming — in fact I think my mouth opened to do so — but then the rattling door and Mindi’s voice stopped me.

  “Sarah?”

  I stumbled down from the hayloft. “Mindi! I can’t get out!” I said, trying in vain to keep my voice level. “I’m locked in.”

  “I know,” Mindi groaned.

  “Mindi! What are we going to do?” I pleaded.

  “I don’t know.” Mindi moaned again. “Is there any other way out?”

  I swallowed down a sob and looked around the room. “There’s a door,” I said. “It leads to the back of the barn. Maybe there’s a way out back there.”

  “Okay,” said Mindi, “I’ll check around the outside. I’ve never been this close to the barn before. Maybe there’s another door around the back.” She sounded skeptical.

  I walked over to the only other door in the small room. Whatever lay beyond was what brought those men out here. This was why I sneaked into the barn. I should have been excited, but instead I only wanted to find a way out. Slowly, I pushed open the heavy door.

  The room was dim. The only light seemed to come from the ceiling skylights, and I blinked, trying to make out the large, vague shapes inside. The air was humid, and the zoo-like animal smell I’d noticed earlier was much stronger. I stepped through the door.

  The room was huge, taking up the rest of the barn. My eyes were slow to adjust to the light but I could see that large cages lined both walls to my right and left. They seemed to cover the entire length of the barn, forming a wide corridor between them. I approached the first one to my right. The door was ajar, and I peeked inside. An upturned wheelbarrow was wedged into the corner, a coiled-up garden hose hanging on a hook beside it. I stepped inside the cage to get a better look. I lifted the wooden lid of one of the two half barrels beside the hose. I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the pig slop inside. The bag of ice thrown on top did nothing to stop the stench. I knew all about pig slop since my mom kept telling us how much pigs loved the slop left over on our plates after dinner. An ancient-looking fridge hummed beside the barrels. I pulled open the heavy door latch. It was full of open plastic tubs holding huge chunks of stinky raw chicken and fish. Ugh! I held my nose and pushed the door closed, hearing the latch click loudly. Who — or what — was eating all this nasty food?

  I suddenly became aware of soft snuffling sounds. A hulking dark form moved in the cage beside me. My stomach turned to ice. I took a step towards it. When I was close enough to touch the bars, the dark form grunted and moved, surprisingly quickly. A large hairy face swung my way. I stifled a scream and jumped back. A black, glistening nose shoved its way between the cage bars and busily sniffed the air. I took another startled step back before realizing that I was looking at a bear. A huge black bear standing on its back legs and sniffing furiously at me.

  I backed out of the cage and stood in the corridor, rooted. It was as if the world had suddenly stopped turning on its axis. My eyes, completely accustomed now to the dark room, examined the rows of cages with fascination. They were large and spacious, similar to what you’d see at a zoo. I counted six cages along either side of the barn walls. Assuming one bear per cage, minus the cage with the food, that made eleven bears. Wow.

  The bear on my left became quite agitated by my presence. It swung its massive head to and fro, peering down its long nose at me. The bear to my right still had its snout pushed through the cage bars. I was frozen, amazed.

  A loud knocking from the end of the barn pulled me out of my reverie. I jumped.

  “Sarah!” It was Mindi’s muffled voice from outside. “Can you hear me?”

  “Just barely,” I yelled. The bears, startled by my voice, grunted and shuffled in their cages.

  “Did you find a way out?” she asked.

  “No, not yet. You wouldn’t believe what’s in here, Mindi,” I yelled. “You have to see this.”

  “Never mind that now, Sarah, it’s getting late. We’ve got to get you out of there. Colin’s going to wonder why we’re not back with the horses soon.”

  “Oh, right,” I mumbled. How could I have forgotten about that? I looked up at the skylights in the barn’s ceiling. The sky wasn’t as bright as I hoped it still was. Suddenly, the barn seemed spooky in the growing gloom. What if I couldn’t get out and I had to spend the night? The thought of being trapped in there alone, in the dark, with a bunch of wild bears made my knees start to tremble. The fact that they were in cages didn’t seem to make me feel a whole lot better.

  “I can’t find any other doors, Sarah,” Mindi said, her voice fading as she talked, as if she were walking away from me.

  I was cooked. There was no way out. I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I’d be bunking down with the bears when I heard banging; Mindi was up to something.

  “I found a spot where there are some rotting boards; I may be able to break them and make an opening for you to crawl through!” yelled Mindi in a muffled voice, now from the far end of the barn and to my left. The sharp crack of splintering wood made the bears shift restlessly within their cages.

  “Can you give me a hand from the inside?” asked Mindi, sounding a bit winded. “These boards are tougher than they look.”

  “I’ll try,” I called. The two bears on either side of me grunted as if skeptical I could be of any help to anyone. They were probably right.

  I stared down the middle corridor of the long barn. I didn’t particularly relish the idea of walking in the dark between cages of wild bears, but I had no choice if I wanted to get to Mindi.

  With a quick prayer for strong bars, I put one foot forward. The barn now had more shadows than light, and the bears seemed to grow more and more restless with any movement. I put the other foot ahead of the first. The end of the corridor seemed to move farther away. Honestly, it did! I swallowed. The bears were like hulking monsters in the shadows. I felt their eyes following my every move.

  “Don’t be stupid, Sarah ... don’t be stupid, Sarah ...” I chanted softly. Sometimes I let my imagination run away with me — this was one of those times. I swallowed again and forced another foot to go forward, all the while acutely aware of every sound: the bears rustling and snorting, the soft thump of my tentative steps, the heavy pounding of my heart, and my ragged breathing. I focused on walking exactly in the middle of the corridor so that I was as far away as possible from the cages on either side.

  I had taken about half a dozen steps when a bear to my right grunted. Another grunted, as if in answer. These two bears were joined by several others until soon there was a cacophony of madly grunting bears marking my painfully slow voyage down the corridor. I put my hands over my ears and stumbled on. Suddenly, a bear to my left reared onto its hind legs and slid its long, thick claws through the cage bars, reaching for me. I yelled and jumped back, hitting the bars of the cage behind me hard. An impossibly loud roar exploded in my ear. I whirled to face a massive open mouth crammed with gleaming yellow teeth. I froze in horror as the roar filled the barn and deafened me.

  Finally, the mouth snapped shut and its owner charged towards me, hurtling himself against the flimsy bars of his cage. I screamed and fled towards the far end of the barn. With a thud, I hit the wall and collapsed in a heap on the floor, my arms up to shield myself from the inevitable mauling I was about to receive.

  “Sarah! What’s going on in there?” Mindi shrieked
from outside the barn. “It sounds like a pack of wild animals are on the loose!”

  I lowered my arms and laughed deliriously. Oh yeah, Mindi. There were wild animals in here all right, and to my immense relief, the cage bars were stronger than they looked because no bears had busted loose to chase me down.

  “Sarah? Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay,” I replied, weakly. “I’ll live.” That made me giggle. I think I was getting a bit hysterical. I do that sometimes.

  The bears were quieting down now that I was sitting still on the floor. The closer ones watched me sullenly as if daring me to make a move. I stayed there for a while, on alert for a possible attack, oblivious to the cold seeping into my bottom. I slowly became aware of the sounds of Mindi breaking off rotting bits of the outside barn board in her efforts to free me. One part of me understood that I was being stupid. After all, the bears were in cages, they couldn’t hurt me. But another part of me was totally freaked out. I finally stood up, slowly sliding my back up the rough wall as I rose.

  “Sarah! Where are you? I could use your help here,” Mindi gasped.

  “I think I’m the one who needs the help, Mindi,” I said. That almost set off another round of hysterical giggling, but I managed to stop myself.

  “What did you say, Sarah?” asked Mindi.

  “I’ll be right there,” I answered, not wanting to explain myself at that moment.

  A few bears snorted more protests at the sounds of our voices, but other than that they seemed to have calmed down. I guess they were getting used to me.

  “I’m still working on this rotten board,” Mindi said, her voice strained. “I’m trying to break off enough of it so that you can squeeze through the hole. So far, I’ve only broken off small chunks, but I think I can do better.”

  I could hear the sound of splintering wood nearby as Mindi spoke, and I almost cried with relief. I knew I couldn’t survive a whole night alone in that barn with the bears. I wasn’t even up to another walk between their cages.

  “Can you find me, Sarah? Follow my voice, I’m over here.”

  Mindi’s voice was coming from outside the far wall of the barn, behind the cages, to my right. Keeping my back to the wall, I slowly made my way along it towards the corner of the barn. As I went, I listened to Mindi’s grunts of exertion as she worked on breaking the rotting barn boards loose. When I reached the pitch black corner of the barn, I had to face the realization that in order to get any closer to Mindi and freedom I’d have to squeeze into the small space between the cages and the outer barn wall.

  “Mindi?” I called.

  “I’m here, keep coming. You sound closer.”

  “Are you sure there isn’t a different rotting board somewhere else on this old barn?” I asked.

  “Are you nuts? I’ve been all around this place at least four or five times. I’m lucky I found this one. Besides, it’s starting to get dark, we’ve got to hurry.” She paused. “Why? What’s wrong?” Her voice was flat.

  My heart sank. “Nothing. Never mind, I’m coming.”

  I gulped and then entered the narrow passage between the last cage and the outer barn wall. I flattened myself against the wall as much as possible and began to slowly shuffle myself along.

  “Think thin,” I told myself over and over again.

  “Are you saying something, Sarah?” asked Mindi, her voice sounding closer and clearer than ever.

  “No, nothing.”

  As I continued to edge myself along, I felt the hot breath of a bear sniffing at my legs through the bars of its cage. We were becoming real good friends, the bears and me. I smothered another hysterical giggle. I couldn’t believe that I was that close to a real bear. At that point, I was actually thankful for the darkness. That way, I couldn’t see all the sets of eyes that were undoubtedly watching my slow journey to freedom.

  “Those bars should be closer together,” I muttered as a nose pressed through to sniff at me. I was their entertainment for the evening, I guess. Better than satellite TV.

  “What did you say? Did you say bars?” asked Mindi. Her voice came from just a short distance ahead.

  “Just get me out of here, I’ll explain later,” I urged.

  “I’ve managed to break off some of this board but the rest is too strong and I can’t break it. The ground is soft, though. I’m trying to dig some of it out with a rock. You’re going to get a little dirty crawling out of there.” Mindi’s voice was strained.

  “I don’t care, just as long as I get out of here,” I cried. I fought down a wave of panic and claustrophobia. I suddenly felt smothered by the darkness and the close quarters between the cages and the wall. I had trouble breathing. I closed my eyes and forced myself to continue my slow shuffle along the wall. To stay still would be to stay trapped.

  Something grabbed my ankle. I screamed, and a few of the bears began grunting again in response.

  “Shhhh! It’s just me. Don’t scream.” It was Mindi.

  I looked down. Like she said, one of the lower boards had been broken off and removed. Mindi’s hand was stuck through the hole and held me by the ankle.

  “Sorry, I thought you were going to go right by me,” she apologized.

  “I’m supposed to fit through that?” I screeched. The hole was impossibly small. That was the last straw. I lost the fight with hysteria and tears filled my eyes. Mindi’s hand let go of my leg.

  “It’s okay. Calm down. It’s bigger than it seems. We’ll dig a bit more, too. You’re skinny, you’ll fit through. You’ll see.”

  Mindi’s confidence helped me calm down a bit. I bent over awkwardly in order to take a closer look. At that angle, I could see Mindi’s face peering in and I blubbered a sob of relief.

  “See, Sarah. It’s almost big enough for you,” Mindi was saying. “Just a bit more digging and you’re a free woman.”

  I nodded and wiped away a stray tear. Together, we dug away with rocks and our fingers at the dirt floor underneath the broken board. Finally, as promised, the opening seemed big enough for me to fit through — barely. Freedom didn’t come easily, though. I gritted my teeth as Mindi yanked me by the arms while I pushed against the bars of the cage behind me with my feet. I refused to cry out when the jagged, broken boards clawed at my skin and ripped my clothes as if unwilling to release me.

  The whole time we struggled, I fought visions of razor-sharp bear claws swiping at my vulnerable legs as they suddenly slipped off the bars they were pushing against and landed at the angry bear’s feet. But I continued to use the bars behind me as leverage; I was determined to force myself to get through that tiny opening no matter how much it hurt. I had to get out of there!

  Finally, with one last aching wrench, I was free! I scrambled to my feet, threw my dirty arms around Mindi’s neck, and hugged her tightly.

  “Are you okay?” Mindi asked when I finally let her go. She examined my scratched arms and my filthy, torn clothes. “You look terrible. What are you going to say to your parents?”

  “I don’t care. I’m just glad I’m out of there,” I said.

  While I watched, Mindi propped the broken pieces of barn board back where they had once been attached in an attempt to hide the escape route. She pushed the loose dirt back into place and tried to pat it down so it looked undisturbed. Then, she took me by the arm and led me into the trees towards the hidden horses. As we walked, I told her about the bears.

  “Why would Colin have a barn full of bears?” asked Mindi.

  “I don’t know,” I said, shivering.

  “And who were those men? Do you think they meant the bears when they were talking about his ‘products’?”

  “They must have been — that’s all that was in there,” I said.

  “I don’t understand this,” said Mindi miserably. “Why would Colin want to sell bears? And who would want to buy them?”

  Good questions. I decided not to tell her about the police file just then. She was upset enough, and besides, I wanted to be abs
olutely sure I knew what I was talking about before making accusations. I didn’t know a thing about buying and selling bears. We jogged back to the horses in silence. In the stable, Mindi tried to help me clean up as much as possible. We traded T-shirts since mine was filthy.

  By the time I managed to pedal my protesting body home, it was fully dark. Dad and Mom were at the door, apparently watching for me. Mom burst out of the house and ran down the driveway, the anger disappearing from her face when she saw the sad condition I was in.

  “What happened?” she exploded. “Oh, I knew something was wrong when you didn’t come home for supper!”

  “I just fell off my bike into some prickly bushes,” I told her. “I hurt my leg so I had trouble riding home. I guess I went a little too far. Sorry.” I felt terrible lying, but at the time I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice.

  “Come inside, let’s get you cleaned up, and you can tell us all about it. You must be starving.” Mom put an arm around me, led me into the kitchen, and basically, you know, mothered me, while Dad scowled in the background, arms crossed, watching me get fussed over.

  “You’re up to something, I just know it,” he said suddenly, shifting his weight and watching me closely.

  I was expecting this, but Mom looked up, startled. “Oh, Ed. She fell off her bike, for goodness’ sake! Stop treating your daughter like one of your criminals.” She went back to examining my scratches and checking for broken bones. I pretended to be more hurt than I was and tried to appear extremely interested in Mom’s findings. All the while, though, I was aware of Dad’s penetrating stare through those narrowed eyes of his.

  I couldn’t look at him. He always knows when I’m lying.

  You didn’t say anything else after that, but it was obvious that you knew I was doing something I shouldn’t have been. After all, that’s when you made up that stupid rule that I wasn’t allowed to go bike riding by myself anymore. I was supposed to think it was for safety reasons, since I seemed to be wiping out quite frequently, but I knew it was really so that Roy had to go with me and keep me out of trouble. Like a chaperon. How humiliating.