“Beautiful.\u00c2\u00a0 Absolutely beautiful.”<\/p>\n
Carl McGowan leaned over the railing and stared down into the pen as the she-wolf strutted back and forth, showing off.\u00c2\u00a0 The bitch’s mate hunched down, lowering its tail between its legs, and growled at Carl, who just smiled.<\/p>\n
“What’s the matter, Boy?\u00c2\u00a0 Jealous?”\u00c2\u00a0 His smile faded.\u00c2\u00a0 A group of elderly men and women made their way down the path toward the pen, led by a young girl he recognized from his Senior English class, though her name escaped him.\u00c2\u00a0 She looked very uncomfortable, dressed in the brown and white polyester zoo uniform.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl backed away, trying to blend in with a tree.<\/p>\n
“And to the right we see our wolves,” the girl said.\u00c2\u00a0 “Wolves are the ancestors of domestic dogs.\u00c2\u00a0 They are highly intelligent and their remarkable endurance is legendary.”
\n
\nShe paused a moment as her group peered down at the animals, then continued.<\/p>\n
“These are timber wolves, one male and one female.\u00c2\u00a0 We call them Bill and Hilary.”<\/p>\n
Nobody even cracked a smile but the young girl didn’t seem to care. The group moved away, toward the elephant pen, and Carl stepped from behind the tree.\u00c2\u00a0 The male had moved inside but the female sat in the sun, cleaning herself.<\/p>\n
“They sure are beautiful animals,” a voice said from his right.\u00c2\u00a0 “But you knew that already, didn’t you?”<\/p>\n
Carl glanced over at the older man approaching, in his blue jeans and work shirt with the zoo’s logo on the breast pocket.\u00c2\u00a0 He carried a broom in one hand and a dustpan in the other.<\/p>\n
Carl smiled.\u00c2\u00a0 “How are you, Thomas?”<\/p>\n
“Oh, another day and I’m still breathing,” he said, then his voice turned stern.\u00c2\u00a0 “You were late today.”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, I know,” Carl said and nodded.\u00c2\u00a0 “I had to play taxi and drive someone home from school.”<\/p>\n
Thomas’s eye brows went up a little.\u00c2\u00a0 “A girl?”<\/p>\n
“No!” he snapped.\u00c2\u00a0 “It was my brother.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?”<\/p>\n
The old man shrugged.\u00c2\u00a0 “I was just wondering when you’re going to find a girlfriend so you don’t have to spend as much time hanging out around here.”<\/p>\n
Carl blushed and leaned on the railing again.\u00c2\u00a0 His voice dropped to little more than a whisper.\u00c2\u00a0 “I’m not here that much.”<\/p>\n
Thomas laughed and moved away.\u00c2\u00a0 “Carl, you’re here more than I am.\u00c2\u00a0 They should put you on the payroll.”<\/p>\n
“I tried,” Carl said.\u00c2\u00a0 “But I won’t take a job unless it’s working with the wolves.”<\/p>\n
“That reminds me,” Thomas announced.\u00c2\u00a0 “Miss Sullivan said if I saw you to tell you that the supervisor won’t be in tomorrow morning.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to help feed them, be here by seven.”<\/p>\n
“Really?” Carl said, swinging around.\u00c2\u00a0 “Outstanding!”<\/p>\n
“Whatever you say,” Thomas mumbled and continued his rounds.<\/p>\n
Carl turned back to the pen.\u00c2\u00a0 The she-wolf was sitting in the corner staring up at him.<\/p>\n
“Did you hear that?” he whispered.\u00c2\u00a0 “Tomorrow morning.”<\/p>\n
The male walked out of the enclosure and looked at its mate, then up at Carl, who sensed, more than he heard its low growl.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl growled back.<\/p>\n
Carl ran like he’d never run before, panting, the cool wind on his face exhilarating him beyond anything he’d ever known as a human being.\u00c2\u00a0 The trees rose up around him, providing the shade, protecting the pack from the outside world.\u00c2\u00a0 His four legs pumped a little faster, keeping him in step with the others of his family.\u00c2\u00a0 The hunt was on.<\/p>\n
His mouth watered when they caught sight of the stray deer.\u00c2\u00a0 They dodged around trees, spreading out slightly to get a better angle on their prey.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl could feel the rumbling in his stomach as his claws began to itch, anticipating the attack.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted to feel his teeth sinking into the flesh.\u00c2\u00a0 The deer’s head popped up.\u00c2\u00a0 It sensed them, but it was too late.\u00c2\u00a0 Today the pack would feed.<\/p>\n
“Carl!”<\/p>\n
Carl sat up quickly, gripped by vertigo, naked on his bed.\u00c2\u00a0 The room was spinning, but eventually slowed.\u00c2\u00a0 His focus sharpened.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a pounding on his door, followed by his mother’s nervous voice.<\/p>\n
“Answer me, Carl!”<\/p>\n
“What?”<\/p>\n
“Are you okay in there?”<\/p>\n
Carl rolled out of bed and stretched.\u00c2\u00a0 “I’m fine.\u00c2\u00a0 I must have fallen asleep.”<\/p>\n
“Well, get up and come downstairs.\u00c2\u00a0 Dinner’s ready.”<\/p>\n
“I’ll be right there.”\u00c2\u00a0 Carl reached over, pulling back the window shade.\u00c2\u00a0 The sun had almost set.\u00c2\u00a0 The kid next door was walking his German Shepherd puppy.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than that, the street was deserted.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl let the shade drop back into place and leaned against the wall as he clung to the last fragments of the fantasy, his mouth still watering.<\/p>\n
Mom put the plate down on the table.\u00c2\u00a0 “Nice and rare.\u00c2\u00a0 Just the way you like it.”<\/p>\n
Carl looked down at the steak, drooling blood and juices that pooled around a steaming pile of mashed potatoes.\u00c2\u00a0 He thought of the dream and leaned over, placing his face close to the meat, inhaling deeply.\u00c2\u00a0 He managed to reach for his fork and knife with shaky hands instead of giving in to his first impulse to rip the meat apart with his teeth.<\/p>\n
Dad sat on his right, reading the paper.\u00c2\u00a0 His younger brother, Richard, sat across from Carl, smothering his own steak under a blanket of ketchup.<\/p>\n
Richard looked up with a sly smile.\u00c2\u00a0 “How was the zoo today, Carl?\u00c2\u00a0 Pick up any wild animals while you were there?”<\/p>\n
Mom slapped him lightly in the back of the head as she passed.\u00c2\u00a0 “Leave your brother alone, Richard.”<\/p>\n
She sat between them as Carl stared down at his plate, not saying anything.<\/p>\n
“But, Ma, he embarrasses me,” Richard said.<\/p>\n
There was a rustle of newspaper as dad peered over the top.<\/p>\n
“Well he does!” he cried.<\/p>\n
The newspaper dropped all the way into dad’s lap.\u00c2\u00a0 “Don’t push it any further, Richard.”<\/p>\n
“He stands there for hours staring down at a couple of wolves.\u00c2\u00a0 The kids in school all call him the damn Wolf Man!”<\/p>\n
The loud slap brought Carl’s attention away from his food.\u00c2\u00a0 His brother rubbed the side of his face, mom’s hand hovering above him, as if ready to strike again.<\/p>\n
“What did you do that for?”<\/p>\n
“Your brother likes to spend his time at the zoo!\u00c2\u00a0 He likes the wolves.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s the big deal.”\u00c2\u00a0 She relaxed her hand.<\/p>\n
“But…”<\/p>\n
“If your so-called friends aren’t able to understand that, it’s their problem, not Carl’s!”<\/p>\n
“But…”<\/p>\n
“Not another word!”<\/p>\n
Richard shut up; Dad went back to reading his paper; and Carl looked back down at his plate, smiling.\u00c2\u00a0 He ate slowly, savoring every bite of the beef, its texture and rareness.\u00c2\u00a0 But in his mind’s eye, it was the finest deer he’d ever sank his teeth into.<\/p>\n
The parking lot was virtually empty when Carl pulled in early the next morning, two hours before the zoo opened.\u00c2\u00a0 Tammy Sullivan was waiting by the open gate.<\/p>\n
She smiled and looked at her watch.\u00c2\u00a0 “Right on time.”<\/p>\n
Carl looked at his own watch and shrugged.\u00c2\u00a0 Tammy let him pass and locked the gate behind them.<\/p>\n
“I really appreciate you letting me do this,” Carl said.\u00c2\u00a0 “I know you can get in trouble.”<\/p>\n
“Don’t worry about it,” Tammy told him.\u00c2\u00a0 “I know how much you like the wolves.”<\/p>\n
Tammy had started taking care of the wolves about three months ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike the last keeper, she understood his love for them.\u00c2\u00a0 Though she never said it in so many words, he knew that she understood his passion, maybe even shared it.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl wished he could talk to her about it but could never find the words.<\/p>\n
As they walked past the wolf pen, Carl glanced down and saw both wolves outside.\u00c2\u00a0 The she-wolf looked up and their eyes met for a moment.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl smiled and looked away.\u00c2\u00a0 The male didn’t seem to notice the exchange.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl and Tammy rounded the corner of the pen and walked down a hill to the back.<\/p>\n
Carl took a deep breath as he walked in through the back door.\u00c2\u00a0 Their scent was everywhere; her scent.\u00c2\u00a0 She walked into the structure and Carl watched her through the bars of her cage.\u00c2\u00a0 Tammy went into the next room, mumbling something about getting the food and she’d be right back but Carl wasn’t really paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 He walked to the cage door.<\/p>\n
“Hi, there” he said quietly.\u00c2\u00a0 She came to the door to meet him and he held his hand to the bars, allowing her to sniff him.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl’s heart sped up.<\/p>\n
“So close,” he whispered.\u00c2\u00a0 “Outstanding.”\u00c2\u00a0 He lowered his face for her inspection.\u00c2\u00a0 She sniffed him then suddenly licked his nose.\u00c2\u00a0 Carl sighed and reached down to pull the cotter pin out of the latch.\u00c2\u00a0 He slid the cage door up and leaned in, supporting it on his back.\u00c2\u00a0 She lay down in front of him and allowed herself to be stroked.\u00c2\u00a0 For a moment, Carl lost track of everything around him but the she-wolf suddenly jumped up and moved away from him.<\/p>\n
“Oh my God,” Tammy cried, though Carl barely heard her.\u00c2\u00a0 His attention had locked onto another sound, low and resounding coming from his right.\u00c2\u00a0 The male wolf stood, hunched down near the entrance, its growl rumbling like an idling truck.<\/p>\n
“Carl,” Tammy said.\u00c2\u00a0 She was somewhere behind and to his left.\u00c2\u00a0 “Back out of the cage very slowly.”<\/p>\n
continued in two weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Beautiful.\u00c2\u00a0 Absolutely beautiful.” Carl McGowan leaned over the railing and stared down into the pen as the she-wolf strutted back and forth, showing off.\u00c2\u00a0 The bitch’s mate hunched down, lowering its tail between its legs, and growled at Carl, who just smiled. “What’s the matter, Boy?\u00c2\u00a0 Jealous?”\u00c2\u00a0 His smile faded.\u00c2\u00a0 A group of elderly men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}