Chapter 4

"My arms are getting tired," Ferdie whined.

"It is farther than I thought it'd be," Oswald admitted.

"I wish there was a little wind," 102 mumbled, looking up at the sail. As he did a small breeze came up from behind them, catching in the cloth and pushing them forward.

Oswald quickly put his paddle at the back, using it as a rudder to steer.

"Say that again!" Morty said with a smile as he looked at his cousin.

"I wish there was a little wind?" 102 said, unsure as he looked back at the mouse.

A rustling of the trees behind them was their warning as Oswald quickly ordered, "Pull up your oars!" Just as the words left his mouth a large gust of wind came up from behind them, taking hold of the sail. Oswald gripped tight to the paddle, turning them a bit left as the wind tried to blow them onto shore.

"Uhm, Dad?" 102 started, looking over his shoulder to his father.

Oswald threw him a look, keeping his eyes forward to make sure they didn't run into anything, as he said, "Yeah?"

"You did check the weather before we left, right?" 102 asked.

"Yeah, there was a chance of some sprinkles but nothing we couldn't handle," Oswald said, remembering what he had read. "I'm sure this bit of wind is just from that."

"I don't know, those dark clouds look a bit more than just sprinkle clouds," 102 said, pointing beyond Oswald.

Oswald quickly looked over his shoulder, surprised to see almost black clouds coming upon them quickly as another stronger gust of wind blew at them. Oswald tightened his grip on the oar and turned back to look forward, glad to see Horseshoe Island just around the bend coming up. "26, Ferdie, hold onto the ropes of the sail," Oswald ordered. "We're gonna have to make a rushed landing." He saw the two add their grips to the knots holding the rope to the boat just as the gust caught up to them, pushing them forward faster than Oswald had expected. Steering them towards the inside of the crescent shaped island, he waited until they had passed the first point of the horseshoe before ordering, "Drop the sail!"

The two fought with the knots, dropping the sail as their boat made contact with land.

"AH! My boat!" 26 exclaimed.

"Morty, Ferdie, grab the sail and mast," Oswald ordered, rising to his feet as he looked back at the storm heading their way down the river. "26, 102, grab the oars, we'll bring them with us. I've got the cooler."

"Where do you want us to put these?" Ferdie asked as the two pulled the mast out of its hole.

"The sail can come with us, the mast will have to stay with the boat," Oswald ordered, grabbing the cooler's handle as he stepped into water. The wind steadily grew stronger as large raindrops plopped down on them. He made his way through the water to dryer rocks at the beach to sit down the cooler. He turned back to the boat, seeing his sons holding tight to the oars as they stepped out, his nephews carrying the mast over to dry land. Oswald hurried back to the boat and took hold of the bow. Managing to pull the heavy wooden boat mostly onto dry land, he fell back to sit down on the flat rock behind him as Ferdie reached into the boat and grabbed the bundle of maroon sail cloth.

Oswald took a breath as he wiped rain from his eyes, forcing himself back to his feet as the rain started to get heavier. "Come on, we need to find some shelter," Oswald said, grabbing the cooler as he passed the two blue bunnies. "I think there's supposed to be a small cave on this island."

"So much for this just being a little sprinkle," 102 mumbled. "I'm drenched."

"We'll see if we can build a fire to dry off with," Oswald said, keeping his eyes peeled for the cave. He had looked the island up on the parks and rec's website this morning and it had shown him pictures of the cave. Quickly he caught sight of a rock that had been in the picture, following it to see the entrance to the cave. "There it is!" Oswald called out as the rain almost drowned out his voice. He pointed with his free hand to get passed by the four kids running for shelter. Oswald pushed forward, running under the cover of the cave right behind 102. He followed his sons to the sidewall and sat down the cooler next to the paddles as he said, "Ferdie, you're in charge of seeing if we can make a fire."

"Yes, sir!" Ferdie said with a salute.

Oswald pulled out his phone as he added, "I'll see if I can call home." He looked at the top of the screen only to see no bars. Taking a glance up at the rock above himself, he stepped over to the edge of the opening and managed to find a bar of signal. He dialed the house phone and put the cell to his head, waiting for the ringing to start. A shiver ran through his spine as he tried to get out of the heavy rain only to hear static as the phone made contact with a tower.

He waited as several rings sounded before someone picked up the receiver. "Hello, Rabbit household. Who is this?"

"Hey Junior," Oswald said, unsure which of his kids it was that had picked up the phone. "Can you put your mother on the phone?"

Oswald cringed, pulling the phone away from his head as his son yelled out, "Mom! Dad's on the phone!" Ortensia's voice sounded from beyond, her words not able to be understood. His voice back to a reasonable level. Junior said, "She's coming."

"You know you're not supposed to yell for someone like that," Oswald chastised.

"Mom just said the same thing," the boy admitted. "I'm sorry. I thought it was important since you're out in the boat."

"Not that important, I guess," Oswald said, giving a glance over his shoulder to see Ferdie shaking his head as he said something to his brother. "Just unexpected." He looked back out the cave's entrance as the wind blew the rain away from him. Taking the moment's relief from the rain as he held his phone between his head and shoulder to try and ring out his shirt.

"Here she is," Junior said before handing the phone off.

"Oswald? What's happened?" Ortensia asked through the phone.

Oswald let go of his shirt, giving up on ringing it out while he was still wearing it, and took hold of his phone. "Guess you're not getting rained on, huh?" Oswald asked.

"There was a bit of a sprinkle," Ortensia offered.

"We're getting buckets," Oswald said. "We made it to Horseshoe Island and found a cave to wait out the storm."

"That's strange, you're not that far away from the house," Ortensia said. "It's blue skies here now."

"Well, just figured I'd let you know," Oswald tried as the wind changed again to blow the rain at him. He took a step back as he added, "Hopefully we'll be able to leave in a bit, but I'd rather wait until the high winds die down."

"Just keep me informed, okay?" Ortensia said, worry in her voice. She forced out a laugh, static covering her voice, as she added, "Let me know if we've gotta send for the coast guard."

Oswald let out a more real sounding laugh as he said, "Hopefully this little pop up storm doesn't do that to us."

"What was that?" Ortensia asked, her voice hard to hear.

Oswald took a step farther out of the cave, the rain still hard on his head, as he tried, "We'll call you when we're about to leave."

"Okay, I love you."

"I love you too." Oswald took the phone away from his head only to realize the call had ended. Pocketing the device, he turned around to find the twins ringing out their shirts, 26 was stepping over to the pile of life jackets and oars as he put down the sail now folded up, and 102 was opening the cooler. "What happened to making a fire?"

"There's no ventilation," Ferdie said, shaking his shirt out before pulling it back over his head. Popping his ears free, he put his arms in the sleeves and added, "And there's not enough dry kindle."

"Well, it sounds like this is a pop up storm anyway so it shouldn't last all that long," Oswald said only to hear voices from over his shoulder. "Hey, stay here a moment," he said in a whisper.

"Like we wanna go back out in that mess," 26 retorted.

Oswald held his tongue, a part of him ready to tell his son off for the way he was talking but concern for who else might be on the small island over took him. He stepped back out into the rain, holding a hand above his eyes to block the rain as he looked towards the voices.

"Hey! There's other people on this island!" a deep male voice exclaimed as two figures trekked through the woods. The taller of the two waved, getting Oswald to wave back out of politeness.

"Have you found some shelter?" the second one asked, getting close enough Oswald could make out a bear and a horse through the rain. The bear held his life jacket over his head, using it as some protection against the rain.

"Yeah! Over here!" Oswald said, waving them over. He shook his head to clear out the suspicious thoughts that had first appeared in his mind. He turned to go back inside the cave and found the four sitting on the ground around the cooler eating the sandwiches Ortensia had made for them. "Boys, we've got company."

"Hope they're not hungry," Morty said, looking into the cooler, "Your lunch's all that's left."

"Don't worry 'bout us," the horse said as the two stepped into the cave behind Oswald. "We ate just before this downpour."

"Surprised you lot haven't made a fire," the bear mumbled, shaking his life jacket.

Oswald stepped over to sit with the four, reaching into the cooler for his bagged sandwich and cola. He closed the lid and sat on the cooler as Ferdie tried, "We couldn't, sirs. Not a way for the smoke to leave."

"Now that's thinking like a woodchuck," the horse said with a surprised smile.

"Were you a scout?" Ferdie asked as the two took a seat on the ground a few feet away.

"Yeah, used to even be a leader," the horse admitted. "Sorry, name's Benny and this is my cousin Sheldon."

"A bear and a horse?" Morty questioned through a bite full.

"Morty," Oswald said, surprised at his nephew.

"Yeah, like you're one to talk, cousin," 102 said, giving the mouse an elbow to the side.

"I'm Oswald, these are my kids, 26 and 102," Oswald said, already expecting the strange looks from the names, "and my nephews, Morty and Ferdie."

"Well, thanks to you all for letting us use your shelter," Benny said, throwing a look outside to see it still raining with sunlight breaking through. "Doesn't look like it'll last for much too longer."

"Just long enough for us to dry off and finish our food," Oswald said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Do you think we'll have to dump the boat?" 102 asked.

"Probably, it is water tight," Ferdie said with a nod.

Oswald kept an eye on the two strangers, something not feeling right about the bear as he noticed the two whispering to themselves, the horse shaking his head in disagreement a number of times. He tried to tell himself it wasn't any sort of prejudice but because of the kids, he still tried to listen in on their conversations. He took a sip of cola, mad at his long ears for not being able to pick up more than just a tone here or there. The two were obviously in disagreement but Oswald couldn't tell about what.

"You left the wreck!" Sheldon said loud enough to stop the kid's conversation for a moment as the bear turned to look at the family.

"Sorry," Benny tried, a sheepish smile on his long face. "We flipped our canoe in the storm."

"And I still think we should've pulled it farther on land," Sheldon said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Hey, at least you two're safe now," 102 pointed out.

"Thanks kid, you're right," Benny said, nodding his head.

Oswald smiled, secretly glad the strangers were arguing over something normal like a flipped boat. He finished his lunch, letting the boy's conversation take over.

"Mom doesn't really like us spending too much time in front of screens," Morty was saying. "So she gets frustrated every time school makes us do things online for homework."

"Only because you normally have some game in another window," Ferdie said.

"Hey, when there's a lot of reading, I just tell it to read to me while I play a game," Morty defended.

"What website does your school use?" 102 asked.

"Brain Labs," Ferdie offered.

"Mom has us using Jeffry Pop," 102 said. "I wonder what we'll be using next year."

"Everybody'll have something different," 26 pointed out, his ears hanging. "We're all gonna be split up."

"Have you ever been to a school before?" Morty asked.

"No," 26 simply stated, shoving the last of his sandwich in his mouth.

"We've always been homeschooled," 102 explained.

"Hey look, it's stopped raining," Ferdie exclaimed, turning all eyes towards the cave opening.

"And we're sorry about this, kids, but we can't have you leaving just yet," Sheldon said as the two strangers rose to their feet, already moving to block the only exit.

"Huh? What's this all about?" Oswald asked, quickly jumping to his feet. He recognized the sound of his empty can falling to the ground, its hollow aluminum echoing in the cave, as he gripped his hands into fists at his sides.

"It's nothing personal, but we know you're related to Mickey Mouse," Bennie tried. "We can't have him putting his nose in this so we can't let you leave until we're done."

"And if we refuse to be kept here?" Oswald asked, thinking the bear could be the stronger of the two.

"Don't let it come to that," Bennie said, reaching to his hip. He swiftly pulled out a pistol from within his waistband, pointing it at the ground in front of the boys as they quickly got to their feet.

"Behind me, now," Oswald ordered, glad they obeyed without a sound. He looked back up at the two strangers, a snarl pulling at his lips, as he said, "Fine. What do you want?"

"Collect your stuff and come with us," Benny ordered. "Don't forget any trash, remember, a good woodchuck leaves the wilderness wild."

"You shouldn't call yourself a woodchuck leader after this," Ferdie called out.

"Ferdie," Oswald hissed, putting a hand on the mouse's head. "For now, keep quiet and do as they say, okay?" Oswald looked back at the two calling the shots, just praying he could get them all out of this.