“She looks bad,” Raine said.
“We’ll come help her once we get Jeremy inside.” Jeremy was walking without a problem, but he didn’t speak; he just let out an occasional sniffle.
Cecil was already back huddled under the costume skins, and even though he was breathing strangely, Stefan was happy to see he looked almost normal. Boris was gnawing at the cord that was fastened to his collar. Someone, Cecil or Jeremy, had pounded a pole into the ground and tied the wolf and Kep to it, using some shorter extension cords as makeshift leashes.
“What’s wrong with the boy?” Cecil asked.
“His foot got trapped and he got too cold.” Stefan tried to remember his mother’s stories about how they treated kids who fell through ice or got lost in the woods in the winter, but he couldn’t think of any details besides getting them warm. “Here, Raine, can you sit with him and wrap your arms around him? I’ll cover you both up and then build up the fire.”
“Put something on his head,” Cecil said. “He’s losing too much heat that way.”
Stefan saw that the stunt mattresses had been partly inflated. He didn’t know how they had managed, but this wasn’t the right time to figure it out. The mattresses made the shelter look a little more comfortable, and he knew Jeremy would get warmer more quickly if he was off the cold ground. While they were getting the boy all bundled up, Phoebe hobbled in and lay down next to Boris. When Kep saw her he began yelping and straining at the cord that held him until Stefan untied him. The little dog immediately ran to Phoebe and pushed himself under her chin.
“How bad is she?” Raine asked.
Stefan moved a little closer to the wolf, but he didn’t want to crowd her. If she was hurt, she might overreact. “I don’t know. She’s not bleeding too much.”
“At least she’s safe now. Those wolves will be too scared to come back,” Raine said.
Stefan wasn’t so sure. He feared the white-eyed wolf would be back.
It took some time, but finally Jeremy grew more alert. The rest of them sat quietly watching him until his sniffles turned into big gasping sobs. “That wolf was going to get me!”
“I don’t think so, Jeremy. It was just watching you,” Raine said reassuringly.
“Where’s Natasha?” Jeremy said, trying to stand up. “Has she come back? I tied up the other wolves because I didn’t want them running away like her.”
“Jeremy, stay covered up!” Stefan ordered. “You have to get warm. We haven’t seen Natasha. I think she likes being free.”
“But how can she leave Boris and Phoebe? They’re part of her pack.”
“I don’t know. Maybe the idea of freedom was stronger.”
They were all silent. The wind blowing through the cracks in the shelter panels sounded like alien music, weird and lonely.
“Did you find help?” Jeremy asked. “Is someone coming to get us?”
“No, it was just the ruins of a castle,” Stefan said. That already seemed so long ago. “There wasn’t anybody there.” He felt really worn out now, thinking of all they had been through that day. The knowledge they’d still be there when night fell didn’t make him happy.
“I’m hungry,” Raine said.
“Did you get the sausages?” Jeremy asked. “I found some up the hill. Well, Boris found some, a lot, and I took the ones he didn’t eat. Where’d they go?”
“Sausages?” Stefan said.
“I had them in my hand when I slipped and my foot got stuck,” Jeremy said.
Stefan remembered Jeremy had been clutching something in his hand, but he didn’t remember seeing anything after the wolves had been chased off. He went back outside and it only took a minute to find the package, six sausages wrapped in white paper. No wonder the wolf had been so close to Jeremy. It wasn’t interested in him, it smelled the sausages. If Jeremy had just thrown them to the wolf, the creature might have gone away happy. Now that they had them though, there was no reason not to eat them. Stefan broke off some smaller branches from one of the downed trees to use as skewers for the meat and then took everything inside.
Once the sausages were cooking over the fire, Stefan didn’t think anything had ever smelled as tantalizing. He could hardly restrain his impatience but he waited until the fire had crisped the skin of his, turning it to a golden brown. When he bit into it, it burned his mouth. He didn’t care. It was delicious. One of the wolves whined and he looked up to find them and Kep staring intently at the sausage.
He felt a twinge of guilt as he took another bite. “Didn’t you guys already scarf up all the extra meat?” Stefan asked the animals. “How hungry can you be?”
“We have to give them some,” Raine said, taking an extra sausage and breaking it into pieces. “They don’t want just frozen raw meat. Gross.” She fed a bit to each one.
“Now I know why wild wolves in stories are so awful,” Jeremy said.
“Not all wolves in stories are bad. What about the wolves who took care of Mowgli in The Jungle Book? They were good wolves.” Raine broke her stick into pieces and added it to the fire. It was too green to catch well.
“That’s just one story.”
“I know another. I’ll tell it to you if you think about going to sleep. It’s getting dark and I’m getting tired.”
“What’s it called?” Jeremy asked.
“It’s the actual true story about Little Red Riding Hood. You know, even though wolves aren’t naturally bad, some people are, and Little Red was one of those people, really bad.”
Jeremy already looked like his attention was caught. He stopped sniffling.
Stefan went to the door. Between the fading daylight and the heavy snowfall he couldn’t see far enough through the opening, but he knew the wolves were still out there. Boris came over and pushed in front of him, like he was nudging Stefan back into the shelter.
He heard Raine’s voice switch to a singsong tone. “Once upon a time there was a small kingdom high in the mountains where everyone lived happily raising cows and making cheese, but next to this kingdom, there lived a bad outlaw who was planning to invade it. He wanted to take over the cheese production, and he recruited Little Red to help him.”
“This sounds like a silly story,” Jeremy said. “I’m too old for ones like that.”
“Just wait. It gets more exciting. Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t a little girl, she was a very short grown-up. She worked in the kitchen at the castle as a dishwasher, but she also worked for the outlaw. The grandmother lived in the kingdom and she was a real grandmother, just not Little Red’s grandmother. She lived in a broken-down hut deep in the woods.”
“Why was the hut broken?” Jeremy asked.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”
“She could fix the hut,” he insisted.
“She was old and her hands were all gnarled up with arthritis. She couldn’t fix the hut. Anyway, the grandmother was a spy too. Little Red would visit her, pretending to bring baskets of food so she could pass information on about what was happening in the kingdom. The grandmother would pass on the information to the outlaw to help him plan his invasion.”
Stefan tried to think of what they should do when daylight came. If the snow stopped by then and the cell phones still weren’t working, surely someone would try to find a way across the river to come check on them. At least he hoped they would.
Raine’s voice drew him back into her story. She did have a nice voice when she wanted to use it. “Now the queen of this kingdom didn’t trust anyone. She’d grown up surrounded by people who just pretended to like her because she was the queen.”
Jeremy interrupted again. “Where was the king?”
“There was no king. The queen was in charge. Do you want me to finish this story or not?” Jeremy nodded his head. “Good, no more questions then. She knew the outlaw wanted to take over her kingdom and she suspected someone in the castle was feeding him information. Her only chance was to hire a lone wolf who naturally wouldn’t be working for anyone,
because lone wolves just don’t do that. She found a big gray wolf named Silvertip. He had gray fur that was almost white on the tips, so he looked like he had been dipped in silver.
“Once the queen had explained what she wanted, the wolf said, ‘Why would I want to work with you? I’m a lone wolf and I’m not crazy about humans.’”
“Like Natasha,” Jeremy said.
“Right, like Natasha, she’s not much of a life-of-the-party wolf. Well, this wolf was like her.
“The queen said, ‘If the outlaw takes over, he’ll hunt you down and use your pelt for a rug.’” Jeremy gasped. “‘You need to work for me to make sure that doesn’t happen. Now somewhere in the woods is a spy, and I want you to find him or her and neutralize them.’
“The wolf decided he would do what she wanted, because he didn’t want to become a rug. He cruised around the forest pretending to be an ordinary wolf so he could track down the spy. He grew suspicious of Little Red almost immediately because he noticed she only skipped when other people were watching. As soon as she was alone, she would stop and take a break to smoke a cigarette.
“The wolf discovered the grandmother, and the queen’s soldiers came to get her. The wolf decided to disguise himself as the grandmother to capture Little Red. The spy came in with her basket of food and they went through the whole bit of ‘what big eyes you have,’ etc., etc. Then the wolf said, ‘I’ve heard the invasion is tomorrow. Go back and get ready to open the gate when the invasion starts.’
“The wolf followed Little Red back to the castle and told the queen. Little Red was arrested and thrown in the dungeon with the grandmother. The kingdom was saved. The wolf thought about going back to being a lone wolf, but then he decided that was kind of a lonely life, so he became the queen’s trusted advisor, and they all lived happily ever after. The end.”
There was silence except for the crackling of the fire, and then Cecil said, “It worked. The boy’s asleep.” They listened to the sound of Jeremy’s wheezy breathing. “Nicely done, Miss Randolph. You have a true actor’s voice, mesmerizing when you engage your audience. I see a great future for you on the stage, if you so choose.”
“Where did that story come from?” Stefan asked.
“I made it up.” She shrugged. “That’s not the real ending, though. I’d have the invasion happen anyway and then there would be a colossal battle and the queen would charge out on her horse and slay all her enemies. More exciting that way.”
No one spoke for a few minutes. Stefan watched the flickering fire, thinking if he stared at it long enough, it might put him to sleep.
Raine picked up Kep. “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” she murmured.
“Do you like The Wizard of Oz?” Stefan asked. His brothers loved it when he did whole sections of the movie for them, saying the lines of all the characters.
“Like it? I’m crazy about it. That’s when I decided I wanted to be an actress, the first time I saw it. I was only four though, and for a long time I was very scared of the part with the wicked witch and the flying monkeys.”
“Oh, the witch role was a wonderful part.” Cecil chuckled. “Margaret Hamilton played it perfectly, though I always felt sorry for her having to wear that dreadful green makeup.”
“I do a good wicked witch imitation,” Stefan said, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he couldn’t believe he had told them. Only his family had seen that one.
“You’re kidding!” Raine put Kep down. “I want to hear it!”
“It’s actually not that good.” Stefan wanted to kick himself. “In fact, it’s pretty bad. Besides, it will wake up Jeremy.”
“Now don’t be shy, Stefan,” Cecil said. “You can do it softly. I’d like to hear the imitation too.”
They badgered him a little longer until Stefan finally gave in, just to make them stop.
“Okay, but I’m just going to do the bit where Dorothy throws water on the witch. Those are the best lines.” He stood up and hunched over a little, then cleared his throat and concentrated on getting the voice right. Glaring at Raine like she was Dorothy he cackled, “‘You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! I’m melting! Oh, what a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I’m going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!’” He sank to the ground like he had melted away.
“Bravo!” Cecil said, clapping quietly.
“That was good.” Raine got up. “Can you do the Cowardly Lion? I can do the Scarecrow.”
Just then Boris jumped up and very slowly stalked to the door, growling softly. The howling outside started again, this time close by. Stefan went over and looked out. Both the snow and the wind were picking up.
“Maybe we’d better tie up Boris again,” Raine said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to go out looking for other wolves. Phoebe didn’t stand a chance with them. It’s a good thing you saved her, Cecil.”
“One must look out for one’s wolves,” Cecil said, “though that’s something I never imagined I would say.”
Stefan shifted around, trying to get comfortable. “How did Jeremy get the stunt mattresses inflated?” he asked. They weren’t very full and he could still feel the cold through them. It would be nice to inflate them more.
“They’re called air bags now,” Raine said.
“Whatever. You said they had to be hooked up to fans to inflate. Where did he find some electricity?”
Cecil coughed. “I knew Alan is never unprepared, so I sent Jeremy back to the trailer to look for power packs. They are self-contained power sources that give you a small amount of electricity you can access through a plug. One of the many miracles of modern life I never imagined when I was a child. I’ve seen Alan use them in a pinch. There wasn’t enough power to inflate the whole air bag, but since we aren’t jumping off cliffs onto them, we didn’t need more.”
Stefan wished Alan were still here. He had a feeling if they’d had the prop master as a companion, the man would have rigged them some miracle contraption to get away.
Now that they had nothing to do, the cramped space inside the shelter began to get on Stefan’s nerves. How much longer would they be stuck there? He felt a desperation and a panic growing in him. “We can’t stay here, getting more and more buried in the snow, surrounded by wolves. What if Boris gets free, or the wolves outside decide hunger is more important than fear? We have to get away.”
“We can’t do anything in the dark,” Raine said, “unless we do something dramatic. Jeremy told me about the pyrotechnics he found. Maybe we should set them off. People will be able to see them from a long way away at night. Then they’ll know something is wrong.”
“No,” Cecil said. “Too dangerous. Movie-set pyrotechnics take a trained expert. They aren’t like fireworks people set off in their gardens on holidays.”
“Cecil’s right,” Stefan said reluctantly. “Besides, most of those complex movie types would be set off with electronic charges, and we don’t have any electricity to do it, unless we find some more power packs.” He hated to admit it, but there was nothing they could do until morning. They were stuck, and if the snow continued, he didn’t think they could count on a rescue tomorrow either.
“We should try to get some sleep then,” Raine said. “This day has gone on forever.”
No one said anything for a long time after that, and Stefan thought both Cecil and Raine were asleep, judging by their breathing. He was getting very tired of listening to people breathe, and he was cold, too cold to fall asleep. It was a good thing they were all crammed together and that they had the wolves, because they really would have frozen without them. Boris settled down against his back, and as Stefan lay there, he could feel his muscles relaxing from the heat radiating off the wolf.
Tomorrow, either someone would come to get them or they’d get away by themselves. At least he would get away and go for help. He couldn’t stand any more worry about Cecil and Jeremy, and he’d go crazy if h
e felt too much more snow on him. The thought of it made his skin crawl. If only they had skis, or sleds, or snowboards. If they got down the cliff, they could just take off. Maybe he could find something that would work, for at least himself and Raine. Trying to picture Cecil on skis or a snowboard just didn’t work, but they could leave him with Jeremy while they went for help. As soon as they told someone Cecil was ill, people would mount a rescue operation.
His stomach was churning. The one sausage hadn’t filled him up. He thought of his house, and how warm the kitchen felt after his mom had been simmering chili on the stove all day. As soon as he got home, she’d make some for him if he asked. And he was sure he could convince her to make some of her brownies too, the ones with the extra chocolate bits. He closed his eyes, thinking how good it would all taste.
Either the cold or the sound of Jeremy’s wheezing woke Stefan sometime later. Boris was no longer next to him. Only a few embers remained of the fire and he couldn’t feel any heat coming off them. The cold was so sharp it hurt to draw the air into him. He knew it would be agony to drag himself away from the skins to add wood to the fire, but everyone else was too dead asleep to do it for him. If he didn’t get up, the fire would go out completely, and the cold would just get worse.
He got up and went to the fire, thankful Raine had the foresight to bring in extra wood. It took him a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dark and then he saw Boris. The wolf stood by the door, ears alert, the fur on the back of his neck raised. Stefan took a stick from the fire and lifted the flap, waving the glowing tip of it in front of him. Three sets of eyes glowed at him from the darkness, silent and staring.
Stumbling over Boris, Stefan stepped back and dropped the flap. He went to the fire and added all the extra wood. When the fire blazed up, Stefan felt like he could take a breath again, telling himself there was no way the wolves would try to get in with a fire inside. Boris growled and Stefan went over to take his collar. “Easy, boy. You can’t go out there.” His feet were so cold he tried to lead Boris back to the fire, so he could warm them there, but the wolf wouldn’t move. Stefan checked his leash. It was securely fastened, so even if Boris tried to go out, he wouldn’t be able to get free.
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