Kate - A Wolf in New York

Virginia knew she had to visit her grandmother soon and give some sort of explanation about her and her father's sudden disappearance. She was not looking forward to that. She thought she should make the lone trip soon because Wolf was starting to act a little strange. He was becoming extremely attentive to her. She could not get out of a chair without help from him. He waited on her all the time and insisted on cooking all the meals. She knew it was just expectant father jitters but all the royal treatment she was getting from Mr. Murray, his family, and now Wolf was getting on her nerves.

“Wolf,” she said one morning, “This has to stop. I like to make my own breakfast. Besides, I'm starting to get sick of bacon.”

“What!?” He sounded shocked, as if the idea of too much bacon was absurd. He piled a large amount on his plate, covering one little fried egg.

“I like variety. Variety is good,” she said. “Like maybe pancakes, or fruit, or even plain oatmeal would be nice.” He gave a little growl.

“Ok, I'll make pancakes.” He got up from the table.

Virginia reached out and took his arm. “No, no. Sit down. Let me make them.” He started to protest but she cut him off.

“Wolf, you're starting to drive me crazy! The baby's not due until another eight months. Relax.”

He slumped in his chair. “I know. I'm sorry. It's just my instincts kicking in again.” He leaned across the table and took one of her hands. “I feel like I have to make sure you're well cared for. Part of me wants to go out right now, catch a young deer and bring it back to the den -- I mean apartment.” He scratched his head and looked out the window. “But I don't think I would be able to find one so easily around here.”

She came up with an idea. She got some cash from her purse and handed it to him. “While I'm visiting my grandmother, I want you to go out and take the day for yourself. Do a little exploring on your own and then if you find something that you like, besides bacon, bring it back and we'll have it for dinner. Okay?” she said, hoping it would satisfy his animal side.

“All right,” he replied, sounding a bit reluctant.

“I'll be fine,” she reassured him.

Her visit to her grandmother's did not turned out as smoothly as she hoped. Virginia was polite and patient as she could possibly be when it came to her grandmother. She smiled when her grandmother made a fuss over her. Listened politely as Grandmother went on to lecture her and bit her tongue whenever Grandmother mentioned her father. The “story” Virginia gave her grandmother was that she ran into a friend that she and her father knew. This friend wanted their help with a family problem. So the two had to leave town right away. She was terrible at lying. Apparently Grandmother knew this as well. “You remind me of your mother when she was your age,” she told her granddaughter. “Christine would come home late every night and make up some silly excuse for missing her curfew. She never fooled me.”

Virginia didn't have the heart to tell her about her mother's death. She chickened out. She decided to put that announcement and the news of a future great grandchild off for the time being. Informing the poor lonely woman about her only daughter's death seemed cruel at the time. Then hitting her with the pregnancy news would certainly be a case of bad timing. All these years her grandmother lived under the delusion that her daughter would one-day show up at the door and everything would be like the old days. I guess she can continue on with that dream for now. Maybe when Dad visits, we could both break the news to her. Strength in numbers, she thought.

Her grandmother had brought up Wolf as well. It seems she was not fully recovered from the “traumatizing incident” as she called it. Virginia couldn't blame her really. She sighed. That day seemed like a long time ago.

When she got back she noticed Wolf was not home. It was getting late in the afternoon. She thought her idea was working out for him after all. She went into the library and sat down at the desk. She found a writing tablet in one of the drawers. She decided to write down everything that had happened in the past days while it was still fresh in her mind. The entire story, beginning with the day she literally ran into Prince Wendell. She didn't want to leave anything out. It would include her first encounter with Wolf and what she thought of him and then how she came to fall in love with him. It was important for her to be honest in the journal. She planned to give it to the baby when he or she was old enough to understand.

She spent hours at the desk unaware of how late it was getting. Finally she looked out the window and saw that it was completely dark out. Wolf was still out there.

She paced around the apartment. It was a bad idea, she thought. She was about to call the police when Wolf burst through the door. “Oh thank God. I was getting worried,” she said hugging him. “Where did you go?” He didn't even hear her.

“Virginia. You must turn on the television.”

He followed her to the set. She turned it on. “What's this all about?” she wondered.

“Just watch,” was all he said. He fiddled with the buttons, changing the stations until he found the one he was looking for.

It was the local news. The anchorman Fred Baxter was on screen. “A remarkable story of a modern day Good Samaritan happened this afternoon. Reporter Debbie Rodgers picks up the story. Debbie?”

Then the studio switched over to Debbie. Virginia didn't have to read the screen to know the location, it was a few blocks from where they lived.

“I'm standing outside Donald Collins' convenience store that he and his wife have been running for twenty years,” she reported. “Over the years Mr. Collins has had his share of robberies. But nothing has ever ended like this.” Then the screen cut to an earlier recorded scene of the elderly Collins and his wife being interviewed.

“This kid came in and wanted to buy some beer,” the old man related. “I told him I wanted to see his I.D. first. Then he started yelling and he whipped his gun out and demanded the money from the register. So my wife gives him the money and then he runs out taking all our money and the beer. Then I ran after him, and then the kid jumps in this car and they drive off--”

Mrs. Collins cut her husband off to finish the story, “So Donny's yelling that he's just been robbed and people are looking all around, then out of nowhere this guy starts running down the street chasing the kids. He ran all the way down the block until I couldn't see him any more. I couldn't believe it!” Debbie turned to the camera. “The story we have is that this man actually chased these suspects for FIFTEEN blocks. Eyewitnesses at the scene say they saw Mr. Tony Wolf surprise the two young suspects involved in the robbery.”

The tape then cut to one of the witnesses offering his account of the story. “Uh, yeah, these kids were in their car and then this guy kind of leaped on the hood and that freaked them out, 'cuz they like flew out that car so fast. Then they ran into one of those alleys over there. Then that Wolf guy jumped off the car and ran after them. But there was this cop who saw the whole thing and he followed them too.”

Then it was back to Debbie. “Fred, the police have not released the names of the suspects, and they also have not made an official statement regarding Mr. Wolf's phenomenal act of bravery, however one officer was overheard saying that they were very grateful to Mr. Wolf. We do have Mr. Wolf here with us now. Sir?” Debbie instructed the cameraman to follow her as she walked over to the street corner.

There was Wolf standing a few feet away. His eyes darting all around suspiciously, checking out the camera crew before him. Debbie placed the microphone up to his face. He snarled at it and she quickly pulled it back.

“Mr. Wolf. Please tell us how you were able to find the robbers through fifteen blocks?” she asked him.

“It was easy,” he told her. “I just followed their scents once I was able to identify them.” Debbie gave an odd look. Wolf continued, “It was a mixture of sweat, some smelly stuff from the goo that they put in their hair and the odor of some kind of tobacco that I never recognized before but which gave me a funny little buzz.”

“You certainly have a keen sense of smell,” she told him.

“Thank you,” he responded with a proud smile.

“Would you call yourself a hero Mr. Wolf?”, she asked.

He licked his lips and did a quick scratch to his head. “Well I've been called that before, but I just like to think of myself as one of the good guys.”

Debbie smiled but looked confused. “Well there you have it,” she said turning to the camera. Wolf tapped her shoulder.

“Someone told me that I'm going to be on television, is that true?” he asked her.

“Yes that's right,” she nodded.

“Oh! Can I say hello to my fiancée then?” he pleaded. Before she could respond Wolf walked straight up to the camera and took hold of it. His face now covered the entire screen.

“Virginia! I'm on television! Hi!”

Debbie could be heard saying, “Back to you Fred.”

Wolf turned off the set. Virginia sat on the couch perfectly still, her eyes and mouth were wide open. He looked at her, beaming with happiness and pride.

“Wasn't that great? Boy, I love television.”

She blinked several times. Then she erupted with laughter. She had never laughed so hard. They sat there laughing for a long time.

Meanwhile, in a small pub not to far away from the park, a visitor to the Tenth Kingdom watched the same news broadcast. The bartender next to him shook his head.

“Wow, fifteen blocks. Can you believe that?” he asked the stranger.

“Actually I can,” the stranger replied in an icy tone. “Bartender, another round of ale for my friends here.”