Red and the Wolf

Wolves are usually the villains right?

Big eyes.

Big ears.

Big teeth.

Scary...

Right?

Then why am I not scared???

...

"Things have just been different since father died. Now, I have to make these trips at night," I sighed and pulled my hood up around my freezing ears.

Across from me a big black wolf laid in the dim light of the woods. He sighed as well and laid his head in between his front paws. He had been sitting there listening intently. Just like the night before and the night before that.

Ever since I saw him in the woods a few days after I started making the "trip", this same wolf had followed me through the woods. Always at a distance. Up until a few days ago.

I had turned suddenly and spoke to him.

"Look here," I had said. "These woods are scary enough without you sulking around in the dark. I am not afraid of you. I grew up in Downside. A wolf is the least of my worries."

I heard a growl and he slunk out of the the trees. This giant wild animal had just sat down in front of me as if he understood. He looked as if to ask me what my name was; I was tired, the trip is long, so I sat down and took a break with him.

"My name is Red and I live in Downside, on the bad end, unfortunately. Of course you wouldn't know anything about town, living out here and all," the wolf huffed and turned his head. "Anyhow, I have to make this trip for my mother every night to take my grandmother her supplies."

I held up the red backpack I carried every night.

"Then, grandmother gives me the medicine to bring back to mother, so we can eat."

The wolf made a deep rumble and looked at me sadly. He didn't come any closer but had sat there watching me as I gathered my things back up.

"Well I better get going. If you want we can sit together every night and chat. It's nice to know you are out here. Maybe the other baddies will leave me alone."

The wolf huffed again and got up and disappeared back into the woods. That's how it had started. He followed me to grandmother's and then back again. In the middle we would sit together and take a break.

Tonight I had started opening up more. Whenever I mentioned father or mother or especially grandmother, the wolf perked up. He would listen more intently. So I began to tell him more.

"Father would walk every night through these woods, with this backpack. Down to grandmother's and back again. Mother would pace the whole time he was gone. She never did help me with my homework like she said she would, but that's okay because I graduated just fine.

Anyhow, I never was allowed to ask what he was carrying or why, but a bunch of people always showed up to the house before his trips. And right before he would walk out the back door mother would be arguing with a person on the front porch about how we were out of something.

I never knew what it was until father passed."

The wolf groaned as he got to his feet. He moved closer and slowly sniffed the backpack. I pulled it in closer to me.

"Oh no buddy, I don't open this for nothing," then I chuckled feeling silly. "I don't know why I am being secretive with you, you're a wolf. Who are you going to tell?"

I put the backpack down and got to my feet. Putting my hand out to him I was surprised when he touched my fingers with his nose. He had the biggest deep brown eyes I had ever seen. They looked like liquid mahogany. Warm and inviting.

Aren't wolf eyes supposed to be yellow or something spooky?

"This stuff is not for wolves though. It would definitely hurt you worse than all those poor people out there." I slung the backpack on my shoulder and looked down the dark trail. If I am too late grandmother will be upset and of course mother was still at home pacing the floor. "We will talk again tomorrow night wolfie. I really need to get this trip done so I can get some rest tonight. I got an interview tomorrow. Coffee shop out in Upside. That would be heaven compared to this."

And so my wolfie companion jumped back into the shadows and I began my trek through the dark woods again.

Coming to grandmother's house I slowed my pace, I could see her boyfriend on the porch; his feet propped on the porch, an ax by his side. He was a poor excuse for a man, but he imagined himself as a big burly lumberjack. His nickname was the woodsman since he lived out here in the woods with grandmother and carried around the ax.

But that was where the similarities between him and a lumberjack ended. He was skinny, not big and muscular and his health was terrible, thanks to being the frontline of the test subjects for grandmother's special medicine. He barely had any teeth left in his mouth and his skin was loose and yellowish.

He also had no filter and no respect for women.

Since I had become a young woman I had to watch how close I got to him.

There was a rustle in the bushes and I glimpsed a bushy black tail disappearing into the shadows. I took a deep breath and moved on forward. time to get this trip over with.

"Hi there little Red," he leered at me and lit a cigarette. "You better get your tail in there girl. Your grandmother is chomping at the bit to get a new batch started."

I hopped away from him as he reached out to grab my behind and slipped inside the house quickly. I heard a growl from the woods and the woodsman snatched up his ax.

"Damned wolf," he muttered as he stalked off the porch ax in one hand and his other hand on his rusty old pistol that was tucked in the back of his pants.

I heard the gun go off once or twice as I slammed the door shut behind me. I hoped my wolfie had been smart and ran away from the drunken fool.

Grandmother was on me as soon as I had made two steps in the door, she snatched the backpack from me and whirled away. The house was a mess and stunk. Fast food was left out on the table, and trash spilled over in the trash can. Grandmother disappeared into her backroom where the "cooking" happened and I shuffled nervously. I hoped the woodsman would be kept busy outside "hunting" the wolf.

Then grandmother was back again with the backpack clutched in her thin white hands. She looked up at me with watery blue eyes. Red veins spidered through the white.

Now those were some spooky eyes.

"Beware the wolf," she whispered clutching my hand.

"Um ok," I pulled away from her. She smelled worse than she looked. "Um, bye."

I turned with the backpack slung over my shoulder again. Grandmother shuffled off into the back room and the door opened in front of me.

The woodsman stumbled in, looking down at his pistol muttering something about "damn wolfman" and needing silver bullets. I used his distraction as an opportunity to duck around him and out the still open door. He stumbled around as I leapt off the porch and ran down the trail. He yelled something in the distance but I was too fast for even his words.

A rustle in the woods assured me the wolf had dodged the woodsman's drunken aim.

"Good job, wolfie! We survived another night," I gasped out as I still ran down the trail. At this pace the trip would be done in half the time. Good thing I took gym class in school so seriously. I looked forward to my bed.

About thirty minutes at a marathon pace I neared the end of the trail and had to slow down. I knew the woodsman would never catch up and the wolf had kept the pace easily beside me through the woods.

As I finally saw the light on my home's back porch, thirty more minutes later, I slowed down even more and looked over to see large black ears poking out from behind a bush. I giggled and the ears twisted and turned listening to the sound.

"Good night wolfie. See you later."

Mother was still pacing when I got home. She snatched the backpack from me and looked down at her watch.

"Quick tonight," she said unzipping the bag in front of me. She stopped realizing I was still there. She waved her hand impatiently at me and muttered. "Go away."

I sighed and told her good night and went upstairs to bed; falling asleep to the incessant knocking on the door that would go on through the night.

The next day I was getting ready to go out for my interview. I had a few hours of sleep and a pound of makeup to cover the dark circles, but if I could get this job maybe I could get mother to abandon her current career path and provide for us both.

Or run away.

Whatever.

There was a heavy knock on the door. I knew that knock. It was what father had always called the knock of the law. Heavy and serious.

"Excuse me miss," the man on the other side of the door said as I snatched it open. "I know you have a very busy morning."

"You don't know the half of it buddy," I said pushing through the screen door and out onto the porch. I looked up and stopped in my tracks.

Smooth mahogany eyes looked down at me, set into a chiseled dark face, with short little black ringlets hanging around it. When he smiled, his big white teeth gleamed in the morning sun.

"I know you don't have the time, but I wanted to stop by and talk to your mother, is she in?" the tall dark man said sticking his hand out. "I am Detective Wolf. They put me in charge of your father's case at the department."

"That's a dead end street detective," I said as I made my way quickly down the steps. I called back to him as I reached the gate at the end of the path. "Good luck getting her to come to the door by the way."

"Oh well, good luck with your interview," his deep voice floated down to me and stopped me in my tracks. How did he...

I spun around with a mouth full of questions to find him gone from the porch. I shook my head.

"Nothing good comes from the law, my little Red," Father had always told me. "Nothing good. All wolves in sheep's clothing I tell you."

I shook my head and pulled my hoodie back up over my red hair so it wouldn't frizz on the long walk to Upside for my interview. Maybe I had just imagined what the detective had said, I sure hadn't had enough sleep lately.

Later that evening I sat at the kitchen table. The house was cleaner than it usually was, I guessed mother had been visited again by the detective, especially since most of the trash from the room was stuffed in our long unused pantry. Mother sat across from me counting out dollar bills on the table. The man would be through soon to get his cut and then the rest would go to the bills and new supplies for grandmother to continue cooking.

The red backpack sat at her feet and she jiggled her leg nervously as she counted. I wouldn't be there when the man came, mother would send me away with my backpack to get a head start on the customers who would come through the night.

"Get on with it," she said suddenly. Snatching up the backpack and shoving it across the table at me, she got up and left the room. A second later there was a loud knock at the door.

I grabbed the backpack and left out the back door as she opened the front door with a cheery greeting to the man on the other side.

Once out in the night air I started the walk slow. The interview had not gone well. The walk from Downside to Upside was long and public transportation only took you so far. When I arrived among the other fresh faced and rested candidates, I knew I didn't stand a chance. I was red faced, my makeup streaked from the cold wind making my eyes water the whole way.

I left before they called my name.

"Well hello there wolfie," I said as the wolf appeared out of the darkness. "It's been a day I tell you. We are going to have to walk and talk tonight, if you don't mind. I'm so tired I need to get back to my bed."

The wolf came up beside me on the trail and I rested my hand on his back as we walked.

"There was a detective out our house today, it scared me," I said as we walked. The wolf whimpered a little hanging his head. "Don't get me wrong I know the law does a job for the people. The problem is the secrets we sometimes have to keep. The man who comes over every night takes money from mother. He calls it protection money. Since we keep their secrets, the money is supposed to protect us. Well it sure didn't protect father."

The wolf growled a little and looked up at me. I thought he looked like he wanted to hear more, but I don't like to talk about father dying. It wasn't an accident but at the same time father could have been more careful.

I talked about other things the rest of the trip; my interview, my mother and her anxiety and a little more about the detective that showed up on our doorstep this morning.

When we got closer to the shack in the woods the wolf nosed the backpack and me forward like he was hurrying me along. He slunk off into the woods as I rounded the corner into the dim light from the porch. The woodsman was in his usual spot. I hurried past him quietly after seeing his eyes closed.

Grandmother, of course, was right at the door as soon as I walked in. She snatched the backpack from me and walked to the back room, slowly hefting the bag in her hand.

I stood there for a few minutes waiting on her to return back to the living room. Suddenly, the back room door banged open. Grandmother came charging out of the room. In one hand she held a small electronic device and in the other a knife. She looked like a wild cat, even her white hair seemed to stand on her head in rage.

"What is this girl?!" she screamed at me. I stumbled back against the door and heard the woodsman jump to his feet outside.

Grandmother threw the device, that looked like some sort of recording thing. I shook my head still backing up, looking for an exit. She shrieked at me again and swung at me with the knife as the woodsman came in the door and grabbed my arms.

He didn't hold me long.

A window smashed through and the wolf leapt through in a spray of shattered glass. First he grabbed grandmother by her throat and slung her across the room; lifeless.

The woodsman howled slinging me across the room and hurtling himself towards the wolf. The wolf growled and swung his head at the door. I took the opportunity and made a run for it out into the dark woods. I didn't look back as I heard snarling and yells and gunshots.

Unfortunately I didn't realize I had left the trail. After a good ten minutes of running I was completely lost in the dark woods. I could hear sirens in the background, but I couldn't tell which way they were coming from. Following the noise was just getting me even more lost. I just kept running in different directions until I collapsed on the ground in tears.

I sat there with my head buried in my knees, sobbing until I heard a shuffling noise from the brush. Out stepped my brown eyed wolf. He limped towards me, blood matted in his fur above his shoulder. He laid down beside me and flopped his head over into my lap.

He was breathing so heavy I was afraid he might die, so I wrapped my arms around him and continued to sob until the darkness surrounded us completely. I held onto the wound on his shoulder so tightly as the darkness took over my mind as well.

Voices yelling shook me awake. I realized that the body I held in my arms was no longer covered in soft shaggy fur. It was smooth brown skin under my hands. The head pressed against my cheek was not a snout and long ears, it was a smooth chin and soft mass of curls. I jumped and the man in my arms groaned, blood streaked down his bare chest and I looked down at the hand I had pressed against the gunshot wound in his shoulder.

"They're over here! Detective Wolf! Is that you sir?" a uniformed police officer broke through the bushes. "Oh thank God! He's still alive guys. Call the paramedics!"

I heard the other officer speaking quickly into his radio about an officer down.

"What the hell?" I whispered.

Mahogany eyes fluttered open up at me. The handsome man smiled weakly.

"Thanks Red," he whispered.

The other officers rushed in with bandages to replace her hand on his wound and minutes later paramedics came crashing through with all their equipment to rescue their fallen comrade.

"We got them all boss," one of the officers said excitedly to the detective as he passed him on the stretcher. "Even the Man, thanks to the mother!"

I gasped. Mother had been in on this?

But still I was confused. Was the detective the wolf?

He smiled at me and those big warm eyes confirmed my suspicions.

I learned that day, sometimes the wolf is not the villain we always think he is. Sometimes its a sheep in wolf's clothing that comes to the rescue.