Corvan waited until their truck chugged its way up the long driveway before making his way to the kitchen. Whisps of steam rose lazily from the kettle’s spout and a pot of oatmeal sat on the counter next to the woodstove. With a heavy sigh, he poked at the sticky lumps. He was used to oatmeal every weekday morning, but for the last few months there had been no brown sugar and often they were out of milk. Unless the coal mine reopened soon, there wouldn’t be much of an improvement; definitely not before his birthday came around.

  A dog barked in the lane. Corvan snatched up his lunchbox and ran to the front door, but there was only a mangy stray slinking through the trees along the dirt track.

  Every morning since the start of grade eight, when Kate and her mom had moved to town, Kate had picked him up on her way to school. But last week she informed him she wouldn’t be walking with him anymore. She wouldn’t say why; Kate could be so secretive and stubborn at times. Her distance made for a hard week but now he had some news, both about the tracks and seeing the lizard for the first time.

  The morning breeze had died down, and the dust from the passing of his dad’s truck hung over their tree-lined lane. A red-tailed hawk perched on the weathered gate post at the end of the lane, followed his every move. The intense gaze reminded him of the bullies at school, always watching for an opportunity to swoop in and pick him to pieces. The dark eyes blinked in disdain, then the hawk rose into the air with its distinctive screech and soared along the road heading into town. Corvan ran his dusty hand over his crew-cut hair as he trudged toward the school. If only he could fly away and go wherever he wanted.

  The sound of playing children grew louder as he poked his head around the final clump of saskatoon bushes. His one-room schoolhouse had seen better days. It was new when his father attended, but now its faded red paint hung from the rough boards in brittle strips.

  Corvan scanned the playground, relieved that Billy Fry, the biggest bully in town, was nowhere in sight. He breathed a sigh of relief. Billy’s frequent truancy was one of the few things that made school days bearable. Whenever Billy showed up, Corvan could count on being harassed the entire day.

  Checking the perimeter of the playground, he spied Kate sitting against the picket fence around the ball diamond. He needed to tell her about the tracks and what he had seen from the outhouse.

  The bangs of her red hair were flopped over her eyes, and he didn’t think she had seen him, until she jerked a thumb toward the boys’ outhouse. Billy must be inside. Corvan glanced across the playground to the school door. This time, rather than hiding out until after the bell rang, he could make a run for it. He would not only impress his teacher with his early arrival, but also be safe inside—at least until recess.

  Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and stepped through the gate.

  He was halfway across the schoolyard when the outhouse door sprang open, and Billy stepped into the sunlight, looping the strap of his patched coveralls over his broad shoulder. The large boy paused on the stoop, surveying the playground like a hungry wolf searching for the weakest member of the herd. His eyes locked on Corvan, and a cruel grin spread over his face.

  Corvan froze and looked to Kate. She remained in place, biting her lower lip, and looking hard in the other direction. He didn’t expect her to always fight Billy for him, but her presence usually curbed the bully’s attacks. In fact, all the boys kept their distance from Kate’s lightning fists. Her slight frame hid a feisty fighter who could blacken an eye and get away before a larger opponent could even try to pin her down. If only he could be that brave.

  Not to be deprived of his prey, Billy lumbered over to Corvan, glanced at Kate, then dropped his voice to a menacing growl. “It’s good to see you on time today cause I gots something to tell ya.”

  “I’m all ears,” Corvan replied, attempting to disarm Billy with a grin.

  “I can see that.” Billy flicked the lobe of Corvan’s left ear until he winced in pain. “The way these things stick out, you look like Dumbo.”

  Corvan tried to pull away, but Billy stepped hard on his toes, pinning him to the ground and forcing him to look directly into the boy’s broad chest. He tried to squirm free from the humiliation, but his sneakers might as well have been nailed down.

  Kate’s voice cut the tense air. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

  Billy stepped away and turned to face her. Corvan was free to run away, but he didn’t want to let Kate face Billy alone, especially now that the other children were running over to see what might happen next.

  “Didn’t ya notice, Kate? There is no one my size in our school,” Billy said with a sneer.

  He laughed over the heads of the gathering crowd, then looked at Corvan. “Maybe Corvan’s dad could fight me.” He spread out his hands out in pretend shock. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. Corvan’s dad is a shrimpy chicken too.” He took a measured step away from Kate. “And you, you don’t even have a dad.”

  The other children pulled nervously away from Kate. She squinted through her bangs for a long moment, her jaw working as she chewed the inside of her cheek. Her eyes flickered to Corvan, lingered momentarily, then she spun around and marched away.

  Billy watched her leave with a relieved smirk, then turned his attention to Corvan. “My dad says your kind don’t belong in our school. Everyone in town knows your dad’s a no-account half-breed that can’t even keep a job.”

  Corvan stared at the ground, his arms hanging limply at his sides. This was not the first time someone had talked about his father this way. His dad said if Corvan just ignored the insults, people would eventually move on, but his father was dead wrong. Ignoring the comments had only intensified the attacks.

  The school bell rang, and children scampered past Corvan and Billy to beat each other into the building. He tried to follow, but Billy slapped an open hand the size of a baseball glove on Corvan’s forehead and shoved him to the ground. “Best just stay away from school today, Dumbo, ‘cause you ain’t gonna like it here as long as I’m around.”

  Corvan got to his knees. Through Billy’s legs, he could see Kate watching him from the school door, her fists tightly clenched.

  A plume of dust exploded in Corvan’s eyes as Billy’s heavy boot skimmed past his head. “No use lookin’ for Kate to save you.” Billy bent closer. “My dad told her mom about Kate fighting at school, and now she ain’t gonna let Kate help you no more.” The bell fell silent, and Billy’s footsteps faded toward the school.

  Corvan knelt and blinked with his head down, allowing his eyes to water and rinse the dust away. Gritty tears slid down his cheeks as his eyes cleared. Great! Now everyone would think he’d been crying. Grabbing the bottom edge of his t-shirt, he pulled it up to wipe his face clean and the hem tore apart.

  Getting to his feet, he poked a finger through the torn shirt, then slapped the dust off his pants. Now he really did look the part of Billy’s taunts. He looked toward the playground gate. This would be a good day to skip school, but with his mother and teacher comparing notes, it would not be the best idea.

  His shoulders drooped as he trudged to the school building and slipped quietly through the door.

  Miss Thompson stood at the chalkboard with her back to the class; the words “Oral Report” printed neatly over her head. He eased the heavy door closed.

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  “Corvan’s here, ma’am.” Billy’s voice broke the silence like the brash call of a raven. Corvan’s jaw clenched as he headed toward his assigned seat.

  Miss Thompson did not turn around. “You’re late again, Corvan. You will stay after school to write lines.”

  Corvan headed toward his desk at the back of the room. Normally, the shorter kids sat closer to the front, but Miss Thompson had agreed to let him sit at the back with the oldest children, thankfully one row behind Billy. As he walked up the aisle between the wooden desks, the bully shook a fist at him and mouthed a nasty slur. The next row over, Corvan caught a flicker of sympathy in Kate’s eyes.

  Miss Thompson’s voice pulled him up short. “Since you’re already standing, Corvan, you might as well be the first to give your oral report about what you did this past summer.”

  An oral report? She must have given that assignment on one of the days he arrived late. Corvan racked his brain for a topic as he dragged himself to the front of the class. It had been a boring summer as there was not enough money for gas to go camping in the mountains. The weather had been unusually hot and dry, and his father had stayed in the cellar most days or had gone to the caves by the river.

  But … something significant had just happened, something the others would find interesting. Coming alongside Miss Thompson’s desk, he turned to face the class and found everyone looking intently at him. Straightening his shoulders, he cleared his throat. He was good at telling stories. This was his time to impress them with a fantastic tale, and for once it was completely true.

  “This past week,” Corvan said, pointing out the side window, “I discovered strange tracks around the large rock in our field. The tracks were three toes with claws and sometimes there was a thick tail dragging behind. The tracks would come and go at night from our rock into the fields. Sometimes they headed into town, so I had to find out what it was up to.” He hitched up his pants. “I needed to make sure everyone was safe.”

  Kate frowned at him, and Corvan paused. He was going to tell Kate about the tracks when they were together again, not here in front of the whole class. The rest of the students, however, were fully engaged and waiting for him to go on. A few of the younger children at the front began to fidget nervously, and the ones at the back were leaning forward to hear more. He’d never had the entire school so intent on what he was saying. He stepped in front of Miss Thompson’s desk and lowered his voice.

  “Last night, I saw it up close. I was hiding inside our outhouse and spying out a knothole when it crawled out of our woodpile. It was a huge lizard, this high!” He held a hand past his waist. “There were dark blue markings around its chest and face, and it walked like this, upright on its hind legs. It had long sharp claws and—”

  Miss Thompson’s ruler smacked her open hand, and Corvan whirled around. “Corvan, the assignment was an oral report about your summer vacation, not another of your tall tales.” She shook her head. “You know as well as I do, there are no three-foot-high blue dinosaur-like lizards around here. This is the 1950s, not the Mesozoic era. After school, you will write that out on the board one hundred times.”

  She continued talking to the class, reassuring the younger students that dinosaurs went extinct a long time ago and were not roaming through their town at night.

  Could she be wrong? Corvan thought. In a recent story in one of his favorite science fiction magazines, the Mad Scientists club had hatched a dinosaur egg. His own town was close to one of the largest deposits of dinosaur bones in the world. Was it possible for an egg to be preserved deep underground and then hatch when it was pushed to the surface by the spring thaw? Could that be why the lizard was so large and walked on his hind legs?

  “Corvan!” Miss Thompson’s voice pierced his mental fog. “How many times do I need to tell you to sit down?”

  Corvan flinched as he looked up to rows of laughing classmates. His face burned as he walked dejectedly past the younger children to the back of the class. True to form, Billy Fry stuck his foot into the isle. Corvan jumped over the boy’s leg, stumbled against his own desk and scattered his pencils across the back of the room.

  Easing himself into the seat, he opened his desk and hunched down to hide behind the lid. At a touch on his leg, he peered over the top. Kate was leaning back to him from the next row, one of his pencils in her hand. Corvan smiled her and mouthed “thanks.” Closing his desk, he took the pencil and unwound a narrow piece of paper wrapped around it.

  We need to talk. Meet me at the fort after supper.

  Corvan looked up and nodded eagerly to Kate. Now he could tell her all about the lizard and get her help in finding out where it might be hiding.

  He was about to write back when the thin strip of paper disappeared into Billy Fry’s grimy hand.

  “Billy, what are you up to now?” A weary Miss Thompson walked up the aisle.

  Billy grinned at Corvan, then turned around. “Sorry, ma’am, but Corvan’s writin’ notes in class.” He held the strip of foolscap up to the teacher.

  As she took the paper from Billy, Corvan slouched deeper into his seat.

  Miss Thompson checked the handwriting, then turned to Kate. “Miss Poley, you will also stay after school today and write one hundred times on the blackboard, ‘I will not pass notes in school.’”

  “I can’t, Miss Thompson,” Kate pleaded, her voice trembling. “I have to clean the house before my mom gets home.”

  Miss Thompson’s posture softened, but when Billy Fry twisted to face Kate and mouthed a few nasty words behind the teacher’s back, Kate’s eyes blazed, and Miss Thompson’s back stiffened. “Today you will eat your lunch inside with the younger children and write your lines,” she said to Kate.

  Corvan’s heart sank. Kate never ate lunch with anyone else, as she rarely brought any. He always made sure that the second sandwich his mother put in his lunch box found its way into Kate’s hand.

  Pink crept up Kate’s cheeks and she pushed her shoulders back.

  A smug grin spread over Billy’s face. “I bet her mom spent her lunch money at the bingo hall,” he snickered.

  Miss Thompson whirled about; the crack of her wooden ruler breaking over Billy’s head brought everyone to attention, except Kate. Kate was halfway up the aisle before the pieces hit the floor.

  “Kate!” Miss Thompson’s voice brought the girl up short at the classroom door. “You do not have permission to leave class.” Her tone eased. “Please take your seat. We can talk about this later.”

  Kate’s lower lip quivered as she pulled the bangs of her red hair even farther over her eyes. She had cried only once in front of Corvan. There was no way she would let the class see her tears.

  Kate put her hand on the doorknob. “I don’t need permission to leave because I’m not coming back.” In a flash, she was gone, leaving the door wide open and the students sitting in stunned silence.

  Corvan ground his teeth, staring at Billy while the boy rubbed his head. What right did the bully have to make fun of Kate’s home life? It wasn’t like living alone with his father on their run-down farm was any better. If he had the strength of one of his comic book heroes, he’d make Billy pay for all the misery he caused others.

  But he was no hero. He hadn’t even stood up for Kate and taken the blame for the note. He slumped further into his desk and rested his hands on his knees. Once again, he had given in to his fears. Billy was right; he was a chicken, a runt, a pathetic excuse for a human being.

  A dark cloud hung over Corvan for the remainder of the day. Fortunately, Billy left at lunch, complaining of a headache. To avoid taunts about his “blue lizard”, Corvan ate by himself in the dugout of the ball diamond, forcing himself to listlessly eat both sandwiches.

  After lunch, Miss Thompson announced that she would be gone the following day, and that meant there would be no school that Friday. With Kate wanting to meet up again, the surprise long weekend was looking brighter.

  As soon as classes were over, Corvan wrote his assigned lines on the chalkboard with fervor. He did not want to waste precious moments of freedom. By the time he was finished, his fingers were cramped into a claw. On his way out, Miss Thompson called him to her desk.

  “Corvan, I know some of the big boys pick on you. I will do my best to see it stops, but you add fuel to the fire when you tell the class such an outlandish story about a giant lizard.” She leaned toward him. “Honesty is a basic building block of a successful life. Think of your father, Corvan, and try to follow his example.”

  Corvan nodded but couldn’t look her in the eyes. Mumbling an apology, he turned away and dragged his feet out the door.

  On the walk home, he turned her words over in his mind. If he were honest, he didn’t really believe it paid to be truthful. Many people took advantage of his father’s integrity or mocked his dad behind his back. Mr. Fry nicknamed him Tonto, referring to the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, and others made jokes about his height as he was the shortest man in town, most likely the whole county.

  Unfortunately, Corvan had inherited his father’s skin tone and stature. He was a good ten inches shorter than any of the other kids in his grade, and that gave the larger boys ample opportunity to make his life miserable. He had tried to win their respect by telling them fantastic stories from his science fiction magazines, but now it had earned him a reputation as a liar.

  He kicked a stone up the gravel road. By tonight, the whole town would be laughing at his description of the lizard and talking about his big lie.

  Stopping at the top of their lane, he put a hand on the fencepost and looked back toward the schoolyard. It was time to stand up for himself and not back down from what he knew was the truth.

  “Tonight,” he said, “I am going to catch that lizard and prove to everyone its real.”