Read Online Ghost of Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen - Free Book Online Page B

teasing and bullying was ignored by the teachers.
    Keith and his bunch mimicked Cole’s injured right arm by purposely hugging an arm in close to their waists as they passed him in the hallway. Alex pretended it was an accident when he bumped Cole hard with a shoulder and tripped him.
    In study hall, Keith approached Cole’s table. “Hey, you turd!” he growled under his breath. “You didn’t have to press charges just because I shoved you a little. What a weenie.”
    Cole pulled up his shirt to show the large bruises on his rib cage. “You call this a little shove?”
    “My parents are all bent out of shape,” Keith said. “You drop those charges or I swear I’ll—”
    “Or you’ll what?” Cole interrupted. “Kill me?”
    Leaving, Keith gave Cole’s chair a hard shove.
    Cole knew he and Peter weren’t the only ones bullied. Midweek, he noticed some football players teasing a student with Down syndrome by using baby talk to her face. He also spotted four girls following the thin girl he’d seen teased the first day of school. Fear haunted the girl’s eyes as her tormentors mimicked her every move.
    Something else kept weighing on Cole’s mind. Finally he had to do something about it. Thursday, when Peter met him after school, Cole excused himself. “I need to be alone,” he said.
    “Can’t we be alone together?”
    “I’m going to go see my dad.”
    “For real?”
    Cole nodded.
    “Does he know you’re coming?”
    Cole shook his head. “I’ll tell you how things go.”
    Peter waved good-bye, and soon Cole was on the bus headed downtown to his father’s office.
    “Well, hello,” the secretary said when Cole walked in. “Haven’t seen you in a while. Let me check and see if your dad’s free.”
    “If he’s not with someone, I’d like to surprise him,” Cole said.
    Hesitating, she motioned Cole toward the closed door. “Okay, go on in.”
    Cole nearly chickened out. He knocked cautiously, then turned the handle and eased the door open far enough to poke his head inside. His father sat behind a large desk, wearing a suit and tie. At first he didn’t look up from his work. When he did, surprise and hostility showed in his eyes. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
    Cole entered and closed the door behind him. “I just came to see you.”
    His father rocked back in his chair. “So what do you want from me now?”
    “Nothing, Dad, I just wanted to know how you’re doing. I haven’t seen you since last year.”
    “How did you expect me to be doing? Your mother won custody of you with her abuse charges. Social Services is all over me, the divorce cost me a mint, and my business is half what it used to be.”
    “Is that all that’s important to you?” Cole asked. “The money and your reputation?”
    “What else is there? I gave up on
you
years ago.”
    Cole wasn’t sure what to say next. Listening to his father, he felt like he was standing on a train track with a freight train barreling toward him. “Dad, this isn’t about anybody’s money or reputation. It’s about you and me. It’s about our family.”
    “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a family anymore, thanks to you.”
    Cole’s voice trembled. “I’ve been a real jerk, Dad, but I’m trying to make things right.”
    “It’s too late for that—you and your mother already messed up my life.”
    “Mom filed charges because you drank and got violent. You started hitting me really hard.”
    “You deserved a good spanking.”
    “Getting drunk and hitting someone until he bleeds isn’t a spanking,” Cole said strongly.
    “Keep your voice down,” his father said, glancing toward the door. “So why are you really here?”
    Cole swallowed the rush of feelings that threatened to flood his eyes with tears. “Dad, you never wrote me a single letter while I was gone.”
    “Wouldn’t have done any good.”
    “You don’t know that! Being on the island changed me,” Cole said. “You have to believe