I was told how, one night, my mom woke to a wet nose nudging her. “Go lay down, Romy. I’m sleeping.” She said Romy was persistent and gave another snout nudge. She whispered loudly, “Stop it!”
My father later said that was when he woke, asking, “What’s wrong?”
“Damn wolf wants to chitchat or something.” She rolled away from Romy and into my father.
He closed his eyes and mumbled, “Weird, he never leaves that kid’s side.”
They both froze.
When they quickly sat up and saw Romy nervously pacing in their bedroom doorway, they scrambled out of bed and ran up the stairs, following an agitated wolf, to find me in bed with an extremely high fever.
I cried it wasn’t bath time as my parents struggled to put my overheated body into a tub of cool water. My mom was on her knees with my father standing over her, both trying to catch my limbs that rebelled against their efforts to immerse me. I was too young to understand their terrified, worried faces.
What stopped my repeated escape attempts was Romy stepping around my parents and joining me in the tub of tidal waves I had caused. He sat in front of me and gave me a big lick across my angry, snotty face.
I sniffled as I clung to my wolf, but I stayed in the tub.
My mother’s tension stopped knotting her brow. Her long blond hair was not tightly wound in its usual bun. I watched as her blue eyes, the ones my father said I shared, tear while she calmly kept pouring a cup of bath water over my shoulders. I was going to ask her why she was about to cry, but she quietly said, “Everett?”
My father, exhaling in relief, massaged her tense shoulders. “Yeah?” His black hair and beard were speckled with gray.
A timid voice I had not heard my mother use said, “Romy is allowed to bring dead animals into this house if he wants to.” She began to cry. “This damn hairy mutt can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Okay? Everett, do you hear me? Okay?”
I shivered in the water, watching my rugged father look adoringly at my mother. He kissed the top of her head. “Okay.”
My parents weren’t model-beautiful. They were possibly even plain, but their hearts showed me the most important kind of beauty.
The years passed, and my crush on Trevor grew as my memory of what Romy could possibly be faded. Visits to his mother’s gravesite slowly diminished, and my youth caused her memory to fade also. Romy had become a wonderful, unlikely pet from the wild with which I’d built a special, one-of-a-kind relationship. Trevor became the young man I would marry someday.
Trevor, Jimmy, and I were friends who had a lot of firsts together: first movie at a movie theater, first roller-skating night, first egging of a house, first beer. Most of the time, we had a hairy sidekick, unless we went somewhere other than my house or the woods.
I thought it was because of his intimidating size that my parents never took Romy anywhere, but my father had once told me it was illegal to have this kind of pet. When I’d looked worried, he’d stated, “What they don’t know won’t hurt them, little girl. Right?”
I wasn’t sure about my father’s logic, but I was sure I wanted Romy kept out of harm’s way. My father had shrugged. “If someone were to ask questions, I’ll say that it’s not my fault a wolf hangs around here sometimes.”
In fact, there were no issues with Romy until I was fifteen.
Trevor and Jimmy were growing into young men with growing interest. Jimmy was no longer an awkward carrot top but a handsome green-eyed guy who could hold his own against T. Girls adored him and his sense of humor. When Trevor and Jimmy went off to high school, they were a pair of hormones on a mission, and I was left to a year without them in middle school. That was when I realized how our friends were truly T and Hound’s friends. Trevor and Jimmy were more popular, and I was more reclusive. I just didn’t feel comfortable with anyone but them.
Not seeing them as much because they were chasing girls stung, and I called off the wedding Trevor was not aware he was involved in. On the back porch, I hugged Romy and informed him that he was now going to have to marry me. His tongue left a trail of slobber across my face, telling me he was much obliged.
Things changed when I became a freshman in high school. Jimmy was so excited. He kept telling me, “We got our girl back! The trio is a trio again! Love you, Mar-cakes.”
But Trevor? He was standoffish. I would try to talk to him, which wasn’t easy with all the girls fighting for his attention, but Trevor was always paying attention to the guys around me.
“Trevor! Why are you being distant?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. I was so frustrated I could’ve spit nails right there in the school hallway.
He didn’t answer or even glance at me, just scowled at someone behind me. “What are you looking at?”
Peering over my shoulder, I saw a guy walking past me with his hands in the air. “Nothing, T. I know she’s off limits.”
Apparently, guys were becoming interested in me, and this was not sitting well with Big T. I faced Trevor, tapping my toes. “What do you care? You have girls all over you.”
The muscles in Trevor’s neck appeared strained. “Stop looking at me with those blues, Marlena.”
Jimmy chuckled while digging in his locker.
Trevor growled. “Shut it, Hound.”
He shut his locker door, laughing. “Oh, you’re just pissed because our girl here has changed over the past year.” He pointed to Trevor. “Choose or lose, my friend.”
“Not asking for your opinion.” Trevor’s jaw was as strained as his neck.
I leaned against a locker and huffed. “Jimmy, what are you talking about?”
Jimmy seemed extremely entertained with whatever was transpiring. He said to himself, “Let’s see. She needs an example.” He scoured the hallway, running his fingers through his red hair. Finding what he wanted, he lifted his chin. “Yo, Scott!”
Scott walked past us. He replied with a chin lift of his own.
“Marlena is looking for a movie date Friday night. You in?”
Scott’s feet became concreted to the flooring, causing a fellow student to collide with his back. My jaw unhinged itself as I stumbled forward to stop Jimmy, but I only stuttered, not forming any words in the English language. Jimmy winked. “Don’t worry, girl. I got your back.” He focused on Scott again. “So, you in?”
Scott’s eyes lit up, and he took a step toward me. “Yeah, I’m in.”
Before I could explain that Jimmy had lost his ever-loving mind, Trevor pulled my back to his chest, wrapped his arm firmly around my waist, and spoke over the top of my head to Scott. “You’re not in nothin’ of hers. Hound’s an asshole, and Marlena’s mine.”
Jimmy stepped into my stunned view and grinned in my face. “Understand now?” He put his arm around Scott’s shoulder, walking him away. “Sorry, dude. Had to prove a point.”
My cheeks blushed with hope. Could this be? I slowly turned to face Trevor, who still had his arm around me, holding my body up against his. I inhaled, nervous he didn’t mean those words. Trevor refused to look at me while he cleared his throat. “I guess I should’ve, uh, asked if you wanted this but… Jimmy told me you had a crush on me… I… I just couldn’t… handle the thought… of you crush’n’ on anyone else.”
I exhaled.
Music. To. My. Ears.
“Okay, Trevor. I won’t like anyone but you.”
Brown eyes finally looked down to me. The strain left Trevor’s neck as he moved my blond hair from my face. “So… you and me?”
It wasn’t romance out of a movie, but it was coming from Trevor, which made it great.
“Yeah.” I felt my eyelashes bat of their own accord. “You and me.”
Trevor had officially become my boyfriend.
The other male in my life had been eating l
ike a pig, rather than a wolf, and was packing on weight at an alarming rate. My mom worried because a wolf should have been done growing years ago. I was scrawny but still managed to reach the height of five foot six. Romy on all fours was above my bony hip, the height of a Great Dane, but with the girth of a Rottweiler on steroids, weighing in at one hundred and seventy-something pounds.
It was hard to know exactly because to weigh him we had to subtract my father’s weight from the total. Only problem was, Romy seemed to prefer his paws on the ground. My father would have to try to hold a massive, moving wolf while standing on my mom’s overwhelmed bathroom scale. My father being a strong man due to his manual labor job was the only reason this was even possible.
Either way, a few weeks after Trevor and I became an item, my little bed squeaked its protest. I grumbled about long, furry limbs taking up the whole mattress as I arranged my blankets over me, getting ready for bed. The hall light lit my dark room while my father and mother stood in my doorway.
My dad said, “He’s just gonna have to start sleeping on the floor.”
My jaw dropped at such a horrid suggestion. Romy painfully howled his complaint. My father laughed as he walked away, talking to himself. “I swear he understands the human language. He practically knows algebra with how she schools him every day. Shouldn’t the wolf act like a wolf?” I might have forgotten Romy’s mother’s words, but teaching Romy was habit and had continued through the years.
My mother stayed at my doorway, shadowing my room. “Marlena, he’s just too big and getting bigger!”
The overgrown wolf was now in my lap, whimpering. The bed squeaked its own cries. “Mom, please! I’ve had him with me since I was—”
“Six years old. I know, I know.” She sighed. “I’m just concerned that your dad has been right all along. We should let him be—well, a wolf.”
At that point, the big ol’ bad wolf taking refuge in my lap put his face under his paws to hide.
At sixteen, serious issues with Romy began to show themselves. It was no longer simple problems like him being too big for my bed. Anyone involved with Romy and me was starting to feel the pressure and responsibility of our unique relationship. If Trevor tried to hold me in his lap or showed too much affection toward me, a low rumble would escape from Romy.
Jimmy would laugh in pure amusement, as usual, while Trevor argued with my wolf. “Knock it off, Romy. We have to share!”
When I was a sophomore and Trevor a junior, we became a more serious couple. When Jimmy wasn’t with us, Trevor and I would sneak off to kiss in the woods, but were always found and interrupted by Romy, who had now packed on another twenty pounds, weighing in at one hundred and ninety-something. My mother’s scale was almost maxed out.
“Marlena, I can’t ever get you alone!” Trevor loudly complained as Romy nudged his way in between us.
Leaning back against the tree, I playfully said, “That’s the way my daddy likes it, Trevor.” I petted the wolf now sitting proudly between my legs.
Lusty brown eyes smiled at me, just like his lips did. “Why don’t you ever call me T?”
“Because that’s not what your mama named you, and it feeds your inflated ego.”
Trevor threw his head backward as he laughed. “My inflated ego?” He turned on what he considered his animal magnetism. “I’ll have you know that I’m constantly approached with offers from other girls…”
Romy snorted then rubbed the top of his huge head all over my belly while I ruffled the fur under his chin. The soft fur felt the way I imagined clouds felt like—oops, wasn’t Trevor saying something?
“… promising me a really good time, but with you, I barely get to cop a feel with this”—Trevor gestured to my favorite creature on earth —“furry, overgrown monstrosity you call a pet.”
Yes, that comment won T a warning growl from Romy.
“Easy, Cujo,” Trevor said with attitude, not fear.
Trevor wasn’t the only one with concerns. One day when I got off the bus after school, I was surprised to see my father already home from work.
“Why home so early?” I rocked back and forth, trying to stay on my feet while Romy obsessively rubbed and rubbed the full length of his body all over me.
My father had yet to answer me, seeming distracted watching Romy. He pointed to me and asked my mother, “Is this what you’re talking about?”
Just then, Romy stuck his nose in my butt. I pushed his snout away, annoyed—as I was usually was—when dealing with the unnecessary intrusion. “Romy! Knock it off.”
Mom stood there, her apron showing smears of her labor, and blew out a deep breath. “Yes, every day lately.”
I petted the top of Romy’s head, still wobbling from his heavy weight pushing on me as he circled my legs and hips, and I shrugged. “So I look like a hair factory by the time he’s done. All dogs like butts. What’s the big deal?”
My father didn’t answer me till that night when we sat on the top step of our back porch. There was a nice breeze carrying the scent of the woods. He drank his evening beer while we both watched my poor Romy become more and more territorial, urinating all over the perimeter of our property. The moon shone down on our growing issue.
“It’s normal, I guess,” my father told me, “but he should be out in his natural surroundings, not a domestic environment… and possibly not all over my little girl. His attachment to you is becoming, well, a bit unnerving.”
I thought that was absurd. “So he likes sniffing butts.”
“Only yours, little girl.”
I winced. “What do you want me to do, Dad? Have him neutered?”
His shoulders bounced with his chuckle. “No, my buddy might bite me after that, and that may cause Romy to personally neuter your boyfriend.” He took a worried breath. “I’m just saying maybe… the time for… him to—” He stopped in midthought then said with heart, “Just keep your mind open. He’s changing, little girl.” My father patted my shoulder, got up, and went inside to my mother, who was cooking dinner.
I stayed and watched my best friend as he became more and more agitated, running from one corner of our large yard to the other as if chasing invisible beings he felt he needed to piss on, his massive back paws kicking dirt behind him like a proud rooster.
As Romy strutted—no, prowled—through the trees at the edge of my property, I had a vision of a darker wolf doing the same prowl. I figured my mind was playing tricks on me as the thoughts became more like memories.
An extremely dark wolf that was as tall as I, as a little girl…
A female wolf who would watch me as I played…
They protected my chocolate castle.
It felt as if my head was going to explode as memories invaded my brain. I lay back on the porch to close my eyes and try to clear my head, to let the cool wood calm me.
One day, the two wolves brought a baby gray wolf.
The mother wolf dying and transforming into a human…
I sat up in a hurry, bending over, grabbing my head as more memories assaulted me.
Romy howling out his cries to the moon…
Mother Wolf in wolf form again…
I hid my face in my hands, trying to trust a little girl’s memories that seemed so damn real. “This can’t be,” I told myself, but deep down, I knew the memories were true.
Franticly, I scanned my yard for Romy, the need to protect him once again rising. He wasn’t there. I called out his name and heard his distant howl answering me.
Waiting for Romy’s return, I gasped when I saw dark, proud Father Wolf walking toward me, coming out of the nighttime forest. For a moment, I believed Romy’s father had returned until I realized I was not looking at Romy’s father. I was seeing Romy now resembling his father. No longer was I seeing Romy as the sweet, overgrown wolf I believe
d him to be. Now, I saw the mature Romy, whose presence alone demanded respect.
He’s changing, little girl. My father’s words echoed through my mind.
“Oh, dear God, help me,” I whispered in fear for my friend.
Romy must have heard me or sensed my emotional state because his huge paws dug into the dirt for traction. He gained speed and rushed to me. Tears quietly fell from my eyes at the shock I was experiencing. I reached for his face with both my shaky hands as he slid to a stop. “Can you truly understand me?”
He let out a whimper while staring deep into my eyes.
“I’m either madder than the Mad Hatter or—” I stared at him for another moment. “If you can truly understand me, bark twice for the answer yes. If I’m nuts, well, bark once?”
Two barks rang in my ears.
Chapter Four:
Folklore and the Kissing Tree
Everything became complicated after that. Everything seemed so… magnetized. Up ’til that point, I had been sure of myself and, yes, bossy at times, but now, I was so worried for my friend that the selfishness I had owned proudly was dissipating. I viewed Romy completely differently. My bed was now our bed. My room was now our room. And the thought of him eating out of a bowl or chasing his dinner through the woods concerned me with how it would affect him after his possible change.
I wondered who would Romy be if not Romy anymore? And if my mind wasn’t wondering enough, my parents and I sat down to watch a movie about an alien. The story was not related to my wolf, so I was happy for the distraction. But the distraction only upped my worry to a whole new level. This poor creature ended up stranded on earth with none of his family. He managed to take on the human form to blend, but once someone found out his secret, the government stepped in and forcefully took him to a top-secret lab. The alien was tortured from one brutal science project to the next. It was merciless in the name of science. It was cruel.
My Wolf and me Page 3