Summer of the Wolves (8 page)

T
here was a gray lightness in the room. It was just about morning. I thought I was too wound up to fall asleep, but somehow I must have, because when I opened my eyes the room was bright, and I heard steps on the loft stairs.

Lynn’s head popped up over the stairwell, and then she came up and sat on the bed. Her short blonde hair was matted, and she looked real worried. “Stephanie, did Diana tell you where she was going?”

“Yeah, she had an early morning ride with Maggie.”

“Oh.” Lynn stroked my arm through the covers, staring at Diana’s empty bed. “Okay, I remember Maggie mentioning something at dinner last night. But Diana’s supposed to be grounded from the barn.”

“Maybe she forgot.” Under the covers, I crossed my toes. It was stupid and babyish, crossing my fingers or toes when telling a lie, but I still did it automatically.

Lynn rolled her eyes. “I seriously doubt it. That was a pretty big argument we had last night. It would be kind of tough to forget about it.” Lynn stood up. “And did you two talk before bed? How did she seem?”

“She seemed okay.” I met Lynn’s eyes for a second, then dropped my gaze. “But if something was bothering her she wouldn’t tell me.”

Lynn sat down on the bed again. “I’m sorry about the way Diana acts, Stephanie. I know you’ve tried really hard with her, and I do appreciate it. She has to learn to focus and control her impulses, and it’s harder for her than for others. She also is feeling insecure right now, since your dad and I have gotten married. And I know she’s tried texting her dad, and he hasn’t answered.”

“Why hasn’t he?” I really wanted to know. As much as Daddy put pressure on me, I couldn’t imagine him not answering texts or calling.

“Mmm … Diana’s dad is going through a tough time, I think.”

“Oh.” I nodded. “I can tell Diana doesn’t like it when you and I talk.”

Lynn covered my hand with hers. “I just think she’s hurting so much. It’s like if an animal is wounded and you try to help it, it will try to bite you. Do you know what I mean?”

“I guess,” I said, with a small smile. “My feelings aren’t hurt.”

“Well.” Lynn rubbed my arm through the covers. “You are a very perceptive girl, Stephanie. Things okay with you, honey?”

So now she was trying to see how I was without letting me know that Dad had told her.

“I just want you to know, sweetie, that any time you want to talk, feel free,” Lynn was saying. “I’d never try to take your mom’s place, but if you do need or want someone to talk to, I’ll be happy to listen. Why don’t you get dressed and come on downstairs? You and your dad and I will go over to the lodge for breakfast. I bet Diana didn’t even eat anything or take her meds before she left.”

Had Diana taken her pill? I couldn’t remember. I didn’t think she had, but I didn’t want to get her in trouble, so I stayed quiet.

“Is she really going to be grounded for the rest of the week?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

Lynn cocked her head and looked at me thoughtfully. “You’re pretty protective of your stepsister, even though she’s not so nice to you.”

I smiled and shrugged. Lynn patted my legs through the covers and then moved toward the door. “Well, your dad and I will discuss it. I’m going to go down and take a shower. Why don’t you come on downstairs when you’re ready?”

“Okay. I need to take a shower, too. I’ll be down in a few minutes.” I pulled the covers to my chin. I’d told enough lies just now to use up every one of my fingers and toes. If I said anything else I’d have to grow a couple of tails or something.

I put on socks and tennis shoes after my shower to cover up the scrapes on my feet. But when I got downstairs, the first thing Daddy said, looking up from the paper, was, “Morning, sweet pea. How’d you get those scratches on your arms?”

I looked down. “Oh, that must’ve been when Nick and I were playing horseshoes. I accidentally threw one of them in some bushes.”

Daddy nodded. “Oh, well, you might want to put some Neosporin on those.”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Sometimes scratches like that can get infected.”

“Right.”

“Hungry, sweet pea?” Daddy put down the paper and pulled me to him in a big hug, hooking his arm around my waist. Daddy felt warm and smelled like aftershave.

“Uh-huh.” I tried pulling away.

“Hey, kid, Lynn says I’m being too tough on you about riding. I wanted you and Diana to get closer, and I also want you to get better at riding, but my lovely wife says I’m putting on too much pressure. So, forget about riding today. We’re on vacation. Relax.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Even though this was just what I wanted, now, somehow, I wasn’t that excited.

“And about the argument last night,” Daddy went on. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper with Diana like that. I hope you understand. We can’t allow her to talk back like that, but I admit I was out of line with my temper.”

“Is she still grounded for the whole week?”

“Uh … Lynn and I decided that if she goes rafting tomorrow, she only has to give up one day of riding. We think that’s fair. Anyway, is she still asleep? Doesn’t she want to eat breakfast?”

I glanced into the bedroom where Lynn was. Hadn’t she said anything to Dad? “Uh, I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you go upstairs and wake her up? Tell her the family is going over to the lodge to eat.” Daddy glanced upstairs and then folded the paper. “Wait, I’m the one who lost my temper. Never mind, I’ll go up and talk to her.” Daddy stood up.

Suddenly it hurt me to breathe. What would happen when Daddy got upstairs and saw that Diana wasn’t there?

Lynn hurried out of the bedroom, raking a brush through her hair. “That’s okay, Norm, you don’t need to do that. She’s exhausted. Last night was kind of rough. Let’s just let her sleep, why don’t we?” She gave me a quick look. “I’ll bring her back a plate from breakfast, and then I’ll talk with her about rafting and being grounded from the barn for a day.”

I swallowed, trying not to stare at Lynn. Lynn was lying to Dad! But she was trying to help Diana. Now there were two of us trying to help Diana and to protect her from Dad.

“Well, if that’s what you want to do,” Daddy said. “I just want to get everything back on the right foot.” Daddy sat back down and picked up the paper again.

“We will,” said Lynn. “But just let her sleep for now.”

I went out on the porch without a word. I sat in one of the ancient rocking chairs, waiting for Daddy and Lynn to come outside. I didn’t like that Lynn was
keeping secrets from Daddy. Married people should tell each other the truth. But Diana and I weren’t telling Daddy and Lynn the truth. I grabbed a hunk of my hair and twirled it tightly around my finger. I squeezed harder, making my finger throb.

From the porch, I could see the colorful patchwork patterns of the surrounding mountains. The mountains that were closest were green, the ones in the middle distance were dark purple, and the ones farther away were a lighter shade of purple. Somewhere loose in those mountains were two gray wolves with yellow eyes. I shivered, remembering the way that one wolf paced back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Nick and his parents joined us at breakfast as I was finishing my cereal. The wranglers handed around platters of fluffy scrambled eggs, sausages, and mountains of grits topped with pools of melted butter. Daddy was serving himself big helpings of each. Mama would have yelled at him to go ahead and eat like that, she’d just collect the insurance money once he keeled over from his clogged arteries, but Lynn didn’t say a word. Daddy was telling Nick’s parents about tomorrow’s rafting trip, trying to talk them into going along.

I watched all of these ordinary events go on as if I
were inside some sort of bubble. Everything seemed so weird and surreal. I placed my hand on my cheek and felt my jaws moving up and down through the skin. I had aches and pains in odd places and my eyelids pricked from being up too late last night. The wolves were free. Diana and I had sat on a cold mountain rock talking about the stars. The whole world had changed. But no one else knew. On the surface everything seemed exactly the same.

Nick poked me under the table.

“Look,” he said. In his hand was a yellowish-brown toad no bigger than a thumbtack. “Isn’t he cool?” Sitting on Nick’s palm, the toad looked tiny and lost on a huge pink field with deep crevices in it.

“You should let him go.”

“I will,” said Nick. “I just wanted to show him to you.”

“What are you kids doing?” asked Nick’s mom.

We looked up.

“Nothing,” said Nick.

“Did you bring some sort of critter to the table?”

“Just a toad.”

“A toad? Nick! Take that toad outside this minute, and then go wash your hands.”

Nick made a face, then slowly got up. The wooden legs on his chair scraped as he pushed it under the table.

“Daddy, can I go with him to let it go?” I asked. “I’m done with my cereal.”

Daddy and Lynn glanced at each other. “Sure,” Daddy said.

I jumped up and followed Nick out the back door to the edge of the patio. Nick knelt. The toad hopped an inch across Nick’s palm, then made a daring leap off and fell about a foot and a half to the ground.

“Whoa! That was probably like falling off a huge cliff to us,” I said.

“Yeah. He looks kind of dazed.” Nick laughed.

I thought about the cliff last night. What would Nick think about the wolves? He didn’t have a big mouth. He wouldn’t tell anyone. But would he think we’d done something wrong? I was absolutely crazy to tell.

“Guess what?” I said.

Nick didn’t take his eyes from the toad. “What?”

The porch door slammed behind us. The toad scrambled under some plants and disappeared.

“What?” Nick said. “What were you going to tell me?”

Glancing through the window, I saw Mr. Morgan at the entrance of the dining room, talking in a real loud voice to the lodge manager. He yelled loud enough I could hear him all the way outside. His eyes were bloodshot, his gray-black hair was sticking up, and his shirt was buttoned up wrong. Coldness ran down my arms.

“Wait a minute.” I touched Nick’s arm. “I’ll tell you later.”

I stepped inside so I could hear Mr. Morgan. Nick was right behind me.

“Somebody let my wolf dogs go.” Morgan was practically shouting. “Those wolves cost me three hundred dollars each. I know it was somebody from here. Somebody that heard the talk last night.”

“Mr. Morgan, calm down. Come to my office, let’s talk there.” The lodge manager led Mr. Morgan out of the dining room.

“Whoa!” Nick said. “Somebody let the wolves go?”

I sneaked behind Nick into the narrow hallway where the restrooms were.

“Where are you going?” Nick asked.

I pointed at the restroom and ran inside. I looked at myself in the small mirror above the sink. My own brown almond-shaped eyes looked back, my smooth bronze cheeks, my mouth maybe a little more serious than usual. How could I still look the same as I’d looked yesterday?

So much had changed. I turned on the water full blast and started washing my hands.

I
dragged my feet up the stairs to the lodge porch. My eyes burned. Every muscle ached. I’d missed a whole night’s sleep. On the ride back to the barn with Maggie and Russell, I’d realized that if I ran away it would be obvious that I’d been the one who let the wolves go. Like an advertisement, practically. So when they got back to the barn, I’d offered to take care of the horses. Put the tack away while Maggie and Russell went out in the pickup to search for Waya and Oginali.

“You’re a peach, Diana,” Maggie had said as she started the truck.

“Yeah, thanks, Diana,” Russell said as he climbed in and slammed the passenger door. I’d smiled in a way Maggie and Russell probably thought was just modest. I watched the truck climb the hill to the back entrance of the lodge. Saw Russell’s lanky figure jump out and sprint across the back patio.

The horses were damp and lathered from the ride back. I took my time brushing them and cleaning the tack. Copper nuzzled me for sugar and I gave him some. I stroked his soft, velvety muzzle and the smooth auburn disc of his jaw. I combed his mane and forelock in dreamy slow motion, as though I were styling my own hair. Every now and then he butted me, just for play, and I felt an ache in the back of my throat thinking about how attached I’d become to this horse in just a few days. His big brown eyes, when he looked at me, were liquid and peaceful.

Maggie had said to turn all three horses out into the pasture, so I did. I stood on the bottom rung of the fence and watched them trot away. Like kindergartners, they picked at each other but stayed together as they meandered through the yellow flowers. After a couple of minutes they all lowered their heads to graze. The other two horses stayed together. Copper
grazed a little ways away. He tried moving closer. The other two edged away. Probably because he was one of the lowest on the pecking order. I hoped he would move up. I could feel the way he was trying.

I went back to the cabin. Found nobody there. Two days without my meds. I could feel the black cloud coming back over me, like those veils that some ladies wear to church in Italy. The zooming wasn’t fun anymore. I felt sick to my stomach. I took a pill with some water.

My stomach growled. Maybe everyone was over at the lodge having breakfast. I realized I’d been up all night and then on a long morning ride without anything to eat. So I headed over. I should talk to Stephanie before I saw Mom and Norm, to see if anyone had missed me.

I went around to the hummingbird feeder, stood on my tiptoes. Peeked in the window. I saw Stephanie coming out of the women’s room and signaled for her to come out onto the porch. Then I ran around to meet her.

Stephanie burst through the screen door with Nick right behind her and touched my arm, saying, “We didn’t tell Daddy you went to the barn. He thinks you just got up.”

“Really? Does Mom know?”

“Yes—but get this—she told Daddy you were still asleep.”

Something fluttered in my chest.

“And guess what? Mr. Morgan came by a few minutes ago. He is really, really mad—somebody let his wolves go.”

I glanced at Nick, then let my eyes grow wide with shock. “Really?”

“Yeah. He said they cost him three hundred dollars apiece.”

I swallowed. I let my eyes slip over to Nick, then back to Stephanie, and Stephanie shook her head, just barely. She hadn’t told him. “Gosh, I wonder who did it?”

“He thinks it was somebody who was at the talk last night,” Nick offered.

“Wow. Is breakfast over? I’m starved.”

“I think there’s still some cereal and biscuits on the buffet table,” said Nick.

“Hey, Nick, nobody would think it was weird for you to go get seconds, right?” Stephanie said.

“Not hardly,” he said, grinning.

“Could you please, please get Diana a biscuit? So she doesn’t have to talk to the ‘rents?”

Nick gave Stephanie a funny look. Probably surprised to see us getting along.

But he said, “Well, okay,” and went back inside.

“Oh, no,” Stephanie said, the second he left. “What are we going to do? We’re going to be in so much
trouble. That man was so mad. And he seems like he’s so mean, Diana.”

“Maggie and Russell are mad, too! They went out looking for the wolves. And they think some of the farmers around are going to kill Waya and Oginali. This is terrible. Don’t tell anybody yet, even Nick. We need time to figure this out. Okay? Swear?”

Stephanie looked like she might be sick, but she nodded. “Your mom wondered if you’d taken your pill,” she said.

“I did.” I didn’t look at Stephanie. Looked out at the purple-hued angles of the mountains, pink-framed in the morning sky. I scanned the tree line, wondering if Waya and Oginali had stayed together. Or separated. I wondered how far a wolf could go in one day.

The screen door slammed.

“Here.” Nick handed me a glass of orange juice and three warm, butter-soaked biscuits wrapped in a napkin.

“Oh, man, thanks; you’re the best,” I said. Saliva flooded my mouth and I ate half a biscuit in one bite and gulped the orange juice.

I was still eating when an old pickup truck pulled up a minute later. A tall man wearing a flannel shirt and faded jeans got out. He wore granny glasses, and his hair was longish and blonde with some gray mixed
in. A silver refrigerator compartment occupied a third of the flatbed of his truck. Stacks of plastic containers and coiled lengths of ivory-colored rubber tubing filled the rest. Hanging out of one box was the longest rubber glove I’d ever seen. It looked long enough to go up to a person’s shoulder.

His boots scuffed the front steps and he smiled at us. “Afternoon, folks,” he said. “Maggie around?”

“She’s out looking for some wolves,” I said.

“I know; I’m Doc. She called me about it.” Doc leaned against the porch railing. “I sure hope we can find those pups. I love those wolves. First time I went to vaccinate them I went inside their pen and was kneeling down to get the syringe, and Waya stole my dern medical bag. She ran around with it for a while, and I swear she was smiling. Then she dropped it and walked away, so I headed over to get it, and just as I’m leaning over to pick it up Oginali comes running by and grabs it. I ended up playing keep away with those two for half an hour. Course, there was nothing left of my bag.”

“Hey, I didn’t know wolves were playful,” Nick said.

“Heck, yeah. I frankly don’t know why people are so terrified of wolves. They’re not so much vicious as they are mischievous. Course, these two, they’ll never make it on their own.”

“What do you mean?” Stephanie asked.

I was careful not to look at Stephanie while Doc explained the difference between hybrid wolves and real wild wolves. I’d never forget the way my heart was beating. In school we’d read this story by Edgar Allan Poe called
The Tell-Tale Heart
about how this guilty guy’s heart was beating so loudly that he was sure everyone could hear it. My heart was beating like that now. But every minute that went by made it seem less and less possible to tell the truth.

“The bottom line is, these wolf-dogs shouldn’t even exist,” Doc said. “They’re not very good as pets, and they can’t survive in the wild. It’s like there’s no good place for them. Waya and Oginali should be living in one of the wolf rescue reserves near here. Maggie and I tried to explain that to Joe back when he got them, but he wouldn’t pay attention. He thought he could make money on them. And now look at the mess we’ve got.”

Maggie’s truck spun around the corner and came to a sudden halt beside Doc’s. Both doors flew open, and Maggie and Russell jumped out.

“Doc! Thanks for coming.”

“Did you bring your gun?” Russell said.

“Yep.” Doc took the steps two at a time and crossed to the bed of his truck. He reached in and took out a long black gun case.

I jumped to my feet. “You’re not going to shoot them!”

“It’s a tranquilizer gun,” Doc said. He unzipped the case. Everyone crowded around. He pulled out a plastic container containing several darts with feathery yellow tails. “There’s anesthesia in the darts. Puts them to sleep so we can get them back.”

“I just hope you shoot them before anybody else does,” said Maggie.

“That would be the idea,” Doc said.

“We’ve tracked them heading in the direction of Scooter McGuff’s farm, but then they must’ve waded down the creek a ways. We lost the track.” Russell took the box of anesthesia darts Doc handed him and scanned the overcast sky. “Plus, it looks like it might rain, which would wash away the track.”

“You two coming?” said Doc as he climbed in behind the wheel.

“Yeah,” Russell said. “Hey, you ought to come,” he said to me. “You’re the one who has that telepathic thing going with Waya.” He caught my eye. My heart kind of thudded. He raised his fingers in a good-bye gesture as Maggie swung into the cab. Doc backed the truck out onto the road.

Stephanie, Nick, and I watched in silence as a swirl of dust followed the truck down the dirt road. I glanced
at Stephanie, whose eyes were wide and watery. With Nick here there was nothing we could say.

Just then Mom and Norm came out on the porch with their coffee cups. Mom came over and kissed my forehead, saying, “Oh, you’re up, sweetie, did you catch up on your sleep?” I could tell Norm felt bad about yelling at me last night because he kept cutting his eyes at me with a half smile, but I also knew he wouldn’t say anything with Nick around. Maybe Nick would hang around with us all day. Everyone would be polite. Pleasant. I wouldn’t get interrogated.

“Hey, kids, how about a trip to Tweetsie Railroad?” Norm said in a jovial voice.

Tweetsie Railroad was for little kids, but considering how mad Mr. Morgan was, maybe going to Tweetsie Railroad was the perfect thing to do.

“Okay,” I shrugged. “It’s okay with me.” I almost smiled when I saw the look of shock on Mom’s face.

Stephanie looked a little surprised, too, but went along in a heartbeat. “Hey, that might be fun.”

“Nick, would you like to come to Tweetsie Railroad with us?” said Mom.

“I’ll ask,” he said with a quick grin and headed inside the lodge, leaving the screen door swinging.

So, that’s how we ended up driving down the mountain with Stephanie squeezed between Nick and me
in the backseat. I noticed that when Nick had a choice of getting in the car beside me or Stephanie he picked Stephanie.

Stephanie and Nick played stupid games like saying “jinx” when they said the same thing or poking each other in the arm or saying “punch-buggy, no take-backs” when they saw a Volkswagen. Nobody poked my arm or said “jinx” to me so I just acted like it was stupid.

At Tweetsie Railroad we rode around in the woods in an old-timey train. Some guy with a mountain twang made lame announcements about how the Tweetsie Railroad was pretty dangerous. He hoped we came out of it alive. Once the train stopped, high school and college kids dressed in cowboy and Indian costumes faked a fight. Another time some so-called bandits with kerchiefs tied over their noses and mouths got on the train and walked up and down the aisle telling people to empty their pockets. Nick and Stephanie giggled as they swaggered by.

Norm embarrassed everyone by acting like he was in the scene, too. He stood up and said, “Citizens’ arrest! Citzens’ arrest!” He got one of the bandit college kids in an armlock, and when the kid with the badge jumped on board, he yelled, “I got this one for you, Sheriff!”

The sheriff was a little surprised. Looked at the bandits and laughed, but he went along with it. “Hey, good work, Pop,” he said.

“Omigosh, I have never been so embarrassed in my life,” Stephanie said. She ducked her head and hid her face on Nick’s shoulder.

“Norm, you’re embarrassing the kids; would you sit down?” Mom kept saying. But she was laughing in between her words. Everyone spent a lot of time trying to get me to laugh with them but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Even if some of the stuff was kind of funny. After the train there were a few other rides. Then we got hot dogs and funnel cakes and sat at a picnic table to eat them.

On the way home we stopped at a place beside the road where people could pan for gemstones. Norm bought everyone a big bucket full of dirt, each of which was guaranteed to have at least five gems, including emeralds and sapphires. I couldn’t imagine my dad ever doing that. He would have called it a rip-off joint. Wouldn’t even have stopped the car.

I watched Mom with Norm, the way they touched each other all the time, just lightly, like they owned each other. Mom and Dad had fought all the time. I never saw them touch. And Stephanie was smacking Nick’s arm, hiding her eyes on his shirt. Nick was into it.

Well, so what. Boys in general could eat dirt.

We sat on wooden benches and poured the dirt, one handful at a time, into a trestle with water running over a screen. The water washed the dirt through the screen, and a few of the ordinary-looking rocks transformed under the stream of water to become vivid purple, amber, and tiger-striped gems.

And I couldn’t believe it, Norm and Mom bought a bucket, too. They sat together with their shoulders touching. Sifting through the sand.

“It’s like a rock makeover,” said Stephanie, giggling. She held up a brown dirt-coated rock. “Before.” She held up a shiny wet chunk of tigereye. “After.”

Then Norm jumped up holding a brownish-looking rock and said, “Lynn, love of my life, we’re rich. Now I can buy you that big screen TV you’ve always wanted!”

I watched Mom laugh. She sounded like a teenager. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her laugh like that before. “Norm, that’s a rock. A plain old rock. Would you please sit down?”

But Norm kissed the rock. Then kissed Mom. “And I know how much you’ve wanted that digital cable with eleven different sports channels, and now we can get that for you, too, honey.” Norm hugged Mom. She couldn’t stop laughing.

I heard Nick whisper to Stephanie, “That is just a rock, right?”

“Right.”

“So, is your stepmom a big sports fan?”

And Stephanie laughed and said, “No, Daddy is. He’s just acting stupid again.”

Stephanie and I looked at each other. Tried to keep straight faces. The clouds had blown away and it had not rained at all. The afternoon sun blanketed my head and shoulders like warm hands. I got a little sleepy then, sitting on the bench, searching for hidden gems. Maybe it was my pill. But maybe it was just being there. Time spun by in a golden lazy way and I had to admit it was nice.