MB

We all just stood there, dumbfounded looking at the demolished building. "Any ideas?" I asked the kids, "you know, this was your mother's idea and she's not even here."

"Well, we tried. Lets go." Rain started to leave.

"Come on, we can't just give up. We've got to try something. Anything?" I pleaded, but I could see Ivar was worn out, and could hardly stay awake any longer. "Ok, here's what we'll do: Ivar, you stay there and rest up. Rain, see if you can't clean up the floor. I'm going to call in some reinforcements of the animal type."

"Can you do that?"

"We're going to find out, aren't we?" I tossed Rain a mop and she groaned as she looked at the task at hand. Now, how do I go about summoning animals? "All you small mammals out there, I need your help!" I shouted into the trees in front of me. We stood there silently for a few moments, looking at each other. I felt pretty dumb. That is, until I heard a crack. Next thing I knew there were about 50 gophers surrounding me. Great, I'm the new Doolittle. "Can you rebuild this wall for me?" They chattered to themselves and rushed over to the school.

"Now what?" Rain asked.

"Birds! Yes, we need birds!" She looked at me like I was loony, and who can blame her. "I need some birds to help me rebuild the roof!"

A flock of birds flew from the trees and onto the roof. This sort of behavior carried on for a few hours until the animals dispersed. The sun was beginning to come up, I guess that's why they stopped.

"Uh, dad." Rain awoke me from my trans. "Do you really think this is going to work?"

"What do you mean?" I blinked, and then took the whole picture in. It looked like a giant dam with a nest on top. "Oh, that. Well, it's going to have to do until they school board forks out the money to fix it. They can't prove you did it. Speaking of which, we better get out of here. We could be charged for trespassing."

"Really?" She raised her eyebrow, "If you say so." She then ran over to Ivar. She tried to wake him up but it was like waking the dead. So I just pulled him over my shoulders. "What are we going to tell his parents?"

I tried to think of something logical the whole time we were driving to his house. It didn't come to me until we were on their doorstep. Ivar was barely conscious. His mother opened the door in a panic.

"What did you do to him? I am calling the police!"

"Now, hold on there. I didn't do anything. I. . .uh. . .he. . .uh. . ." Ok so it never came to me.

"He climbed into my bedroom window last night to apologize for fighting me. We talked for a long time before he fell asleep on my bean bag chair. I swear, my dad had nothing to do with it."

She looked a little skeptical, but decided to go along with it, "and all you did was talk?"

"Oh, yes ma'am. Ivar was a perfect gentleman."

She nodded and pulled her half-awake son into the house and shut the door. "Do you think she bought it?" I asked.

"I sure hope so, let's go home." Rain smiled as she wrapped her arm around me.