-I felt at a bit of a loss when I finished the actual book "Hoot" for the second time, so I decided to write a sequal to it since Carl Hiaasen hasn't done so. Please R and R everyone, hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Hoot characters or other stuff, it's legal property of Carl Hiaasen or whoever would sue me for not putting this. And this applies for the whole story.
Roy Eberhardt rode his bike past the burrowing owl sanctuary on the corner of East Oriole and Woodbury and stopped for a few minutes to see if the owls would come out. None did, of course, as it was a busy traffic day. Feeling slightly disappointed, Roy got back on his bike and rode off towards the junkyard. Occasionally he'd hope that the old Jo-Jo's Ice-Cream truck would be back there again, though it never was. Nor was it today as he rode by. It was a particularly hot last week of summer in Coconut Cove. Beatrice Leep had gone to some kind of camp for the summer, and Roy had reason to believe that she hadn't gone willingly. Roy's other friend, Garret, had gone to Hawaii, leaving poor Roy lonely and bored. The reason he had been biking past these all to familiar places almost everyday was that he had been hoping to catch a glimpse of his other friend, Napoleon Bridger Leep (better known as Mullet Fingers) who Roy was sure was still living in Coconut Cove. It had been almost a year since Roy had last seen Mullet Fingers. That was the day they had stopped the Mother Paula's All-American Pancake Company from burying the dens of the burrowing owls. Roy had been so exceedingly bored that he'd decided to revert back to his old habit of looking for his barefoot friend. Unfortunately, he hadn't had much luck. One particularly cold night about a month ago, he decided that he was so determined to find Mullet Fingers that he camped out all night at the owl sanctuary. He was driven home by old Officer David Delinko, who had happened to be driving by at one in the morning to find Roy running away from a violent looking racoon. He also made the mistake of not informing his parents of his stakeout. Mrs Eberhardt had gone into check on him at around eleven to find his bed empty, hence the reason why Officer Delinko was driving past the owl sanctuary at one in the morning. That was the last time Roy ever tried that. Roy was so deep in thought, remembering that hectic night, that he accidentally rode right into a shabby looking man with messy grey hair and familiar sunglasses. Roy knocked him down, causing him to drop a bag he was carrying. He immediately recognized the man as Chuck Muckle, former big shot of the Mother Paula's company. Roy hoped off his bike to pick up the bag he had caused Muckle to drop.
"Sorry." he said, peering into the bag. It contained broken glass, nails, rat traps and some needles.
"Thank-you." Said Muckle, snatching the bag away from Roy.
Before Roy had a chance to ask what all that stuff was for, Chuck Muckle was already halfway down the road.
Finally, some excitement, thought Roy.
He waited until Muckle was a little ways ahead of him, then followed. He tailed Muckle all the way to a run down house that slightly resembled that of Dana Matherson's. He watched from behind a bush as Chuck Muckle scattered the glass, nails and pins all over the lawn. He then put the rat traps under the windows. Suddenly, Roy noticed that the windows of Chuck Muckle's house were spray painted black. A smile spread across Roy's face. It looked as though Mullet Fingers had been keeping busy. Roy knew that glass and nails wouldn't stop Mullet Fingers, he would only take it as a challenge. Muckle was muttering angrily to himself as he went into the house and slammed the door behind him. Roy looked around the area, half hoping that Beatrice's stepbrother was still around. He wasn't of course. He was probably long gone. Roy remembered how fast Mullet Fingers was running the first time he had seen him. After a few moments of basking in good memories, Roy got back on his bike and began to head home. He found a postcard from Hawaii when he got home, from Garret of course, saying that he wished he'd brought his skateboard as there were some 'gnarly' jumps in Hawaii and that he got in trouble for making a fake fart noise at his uncle's wedding. There was also a letter from Trace Middle School which contained a newsletter, an outline of the school year and a list of required supplies. Roy was actually looking forward to going back to school, believe it or not. Summer was just no fun without his friends. Roy got into bed that night and lay in bed wondering if Mullet Fingers was messing around at Chuck Muckle's house tonight. Roy wondered if he would dare a quick bike ride over there to find out. He opened the door and peered out. The house appeared to be deserted. He closed his door again, threw on some clothes and crept out the window and onto his bike. He then sped off towards Chuck Muckle's run down house. When he got there, he found it to be pitch black as there were no street lamps on this road. He got off his bike and crept over to what he expected was a dead bush. It wasn't. As soon as Roy had snuck up behind it, the bush whirled around and smacked him in the face.
"Ouch!" Said Roy.
"Who are you? Why are you sneaken up on me?" The dead bush, who was actually a person, demanded.
"I'm sorry, I was just looking for someone." Said Roy, struggling to get up, but the person got up and put one foot on his chest.
It was a dirty barefoot. Suddenly, Roy realized who it was.
"Mullet Fingers?" He asked. The weight on Roy's chest seemed to decrease.
"Tex? That you?" He asked.
"Yeah!" Said Roy excitedly, leaping to his feet once Beatrice's stepbrother released him "What are you doing out here?" Roy added.
"Uh, no comment." He said playfully.
"C'mon." Said Roy.
"Oh alright, that jerk Muckle's been around with the owl sanctuary, so I've been messing around with his house." Said Mullet Fingers quietly.
"What've you done tonight?" Roy asked, half worriedly.
"Tonight? Nothing...yet. I'm waiting for Muckle to go out, he always does around now. There he goes, look!" Exclaimed Mullet Fingers as Chuck Muckle himself emerged from the house and walked over to a car which Roy was surprised to see start.
The two boys waited for Muckle to drive off before they spoke again. "Tonight," said Mullet Fingers, getting back to his feet ", I'm going into his house. I wanna see what he's up to."
"What? No, you can't! That's breaking and entering, you'll be thrown back in juvie!" Exclaimed Roy worriedly, even though he knew there was no chance of changing his mind.
"You comin?" He asked Roy.
Sure, why not? Thought Roy. There was no way he could stop Mullet Fingers, and he did want to know what Muckle was up to. "Ok." He said.
They began to creep across the yard, when suddenly Roy remembered the glass that Muckle had spread out over the lawn and grabbed his friend's shoulder. "Wait, there's glass in the grass." Said Roy, though he thought he should have rephrased that seeing as it sounded funny.
Mullet Fingers laughed. "So? I've walked through worse." He said.
"Why didn't you wear those sneakers I gave you?" Roy demanded.
"Uh...that's a long story." Said Mullet Fingers.
And indeed it was. During a fight he had with his mother, Lonna, the day he was shipped off to juvie, Napoleon Bridger pulled the sneakers that Roy had given him off and used one to smash the windows of his mother's car with and then threw them both at his mother's bedroom window. He later heard from Beatrice that Lonna had burned the sneakers with the idea in her head that her son wouldn't run away again without any shoes. Little did his mother know, Napoleon Bridger hardly ever wore shoes. It just went to show how much attention Lonna paid to her son. When Mullet Fingers finished telling this story, he was already halfway across the lawn before Roy could get over how Lonna had paid so little attention to her son that she didn't even know he never wore shoes.
"Hey, wait for me!" Roy shouted as Mullet Fingers was already popping the sliding door off it's slide on Chuck Muckle's house.
Roy remembered Beatrice had done this about a year before and suddenly realized where she must have learned it. The two boys crept into Muckle's dark house. Roy went to put a light on but Mullet Fingers stopped him.
"The neighbors around here are pretty nosy, if they see a light on while Muckles out, they'll likely tell him about it in the morning." He explained.
Mullet Fingers knocked a few pictures off the walls, shredded a few important looking papers, then went over to Muckle's computer and said "Hey, Roy, come show me how to work this thing."
Roy went over and showed Mullet Fingers how to work the mouse and the keyboard. When Roy jiggled the mouse, the screen flashed on and showed an Internet page open on the screen.
Burrowing Owls:
Natural Predators
The burrowing owl has many predators including:
Badgers, foxes, skunks, weasels, raccoons, and snakes.
This page was also sitting, printed, on the desk with the words 'snakes' and 'foxes' highlighted. Mullet Fingers had already figured out what was going on and was so angry that he lifted up Muckle's computer and hurled it across the room. It smashed against the wall.
"What are you doing?" Hissed Roy, looking at the smashed computed monitor.
"HE'S TRYING TO KILL THE OWLS AGAIN! HE'S GOING TO SET THOSE ANIMALS LOOSE IN THE SANCTUARY!" Mullet Fingers bellowed back.
He stormed across the room and knocked several shelves over. Roy was about to grab him and force him to sit down, then remembered that Mullet Fingers was about twice as strong as him and instead reached out and put his hand on his shoulder.
"We don't even have proof yet, you've gotta calm down. You're over reacting." Said Roy calmly.
"I ain't over reacting." He snapped "An what do you mean we haven't got proof? You saw that paper!"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Listen, why don't we just go over to the owl sanctuary and see if anything's wrong." Said Roy.
Mullet Fingers was silent for a few moments. Roy was all too familiar with Mullet Fingers's habit of jumping to conclusions and causing strife.
"Yeah. Alright, let's do that." He said.
He and Roy went out to Roy's bike. Roy instructed him to get on the handlebars and received a look from Mullet Fingers that clearly said "You've gotta be kidding."
Five minutes later, Roy found himself sitting on the handlebars of his own bike while Mullet Fingers peddled like mad. Ten minutes past and there they were on that all to familiar corner of East Oriole and Woodbury. A nearby street lamp lit the empty lot that was the owl sanctuary. The two boys walked onto the lot, Mullet Fingers was scavenging the area like a bloodhound. They spend almost a half hour searching the lot until finally Mullet Fingers said: "Well, Tex, I guess you're right. Sorry I kinda freaked out back there."
"No sweat." Roy replied.
"Well, I'd better get going. I'll catcha later, Tex." Said Mullet Fingers as he turned to leave the lot.
"Hey wait," Called Roy "Where've you been sleeping?"
Mullet Fingers stopped and turned around. "I've been getting around." He said confidently.
"You don't have anywhere to go at all, do you?" Roy asked. He knew Mullet Fingers would never admit he didn't have a place to go "Listen, come stay at my place. At least for the weekend. I'll bet my room beats the ground anyway."
Mullet Fingers took a moment to think about this, then said "Sure, I guess. I have gotten tired of waking up to dirt and branches every morning."