Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

Tony slept very well that night. In the morning, though, he woke up with the feeling that someone was watching him. He turned over and looked up. Young Warren Wolf was watching him through the window of the door.

“What are you looking at?” Tony asked crankily. He wasn’t particularly a morning person. The boy opened the door a crack and stuck his nose in. “What?”

Tony winced. He was obviously going to find this younger version of Wolf every bit as irritating as the older one. “I said, what are you looking at?” Tony repeated.

“Nothing,” the boy answered in perfect little boy fashion.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

The boy thought for a moment. “I don’t think so.”

“Then why don’t you go inside and play?”

“Cos Mama sent me out here. She said I was bothering Virginia too much.” The boy put his weight on the doorknob and swung back and forth on it like it was a mini ride. With each swing, his shoes scraped on the ground loudly.

“Couldn’t you be more quiet?”

“What?” the boy said. He’d been concentrating too much on his game to notice he was making noise.

“Oh!” Tony said. It was clear he wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. “I think I’ll get up now and go inside.”

The boy followed Tony to the door of the house and would have followed him inside too. But Tony turned back and said, “No, no. Your Mama told you to stay outside, remember?” Young Warren cocked his head to one side and the crease deepened between his eyebrows as the door closed, leaving him outside.

Tony breathed a sigh of relief. At least it was quiet inside. Or at least, pretty quiet. Virginia and Scarlet were talking in the children’s room. No one else seemed to be there, so he went to them.

Virginia was sitting in a rocker by the window with a redheaded baby on her lap. Scarlet was dressing another child of about two with dark hair. Little Rose was hanging close to her mother.

“Good morning ladies,” Tony said.

“Oh, Daddy, look. This is Lazar.” Virginia held the baby up so he could see the child’s pink cheeks and tiny green eyes. “Isn’t he adorable? And he has a little red tail. He’s just the cutest thing.”

Tony could barely contain his lack of enthusiasm. So far he’d been successful in ignoring the fact that his grandchild might have a tail. A tepid, “How nice,” was the best answer he could muster.

Virginia cooed and gurgled and the baby smiled back at her readily.

Where’s Wolf?” Tony asked.

“He’s out with Josiah,” Scarlet answered. She was putting the final touches on her second youngest son’s faded outfit for the day. “There’s a special spot in the river where he goes to fish sometimes. Wolves aren’t supposed to be good at fishing, but Josiah is.”

“Will Wolf be all right traveling without papers?” Tony asked.

“In that area he should be,” Scarlet answered. “It’s at the edge of the maple forest. After the sugaring is done, no one goes there much.”

“You look just like your Mommy and your sister, don’t you,” Virginia cooed to the baby in her lap. The child smiled broadly as if he were thrilled at the idea.

“Wilhelm here looks more like our oldest,” Scarlet said, referring to the two-year-old she was dressing.

And so he did. He had the same dark looks as the young Wolf. But when his mother said they looked alike, Wilhelm scowled as though he were thoroughly insulted.

“I’m going to take care of the little ones while Scarlet goes into town,” Virginia said. “I gave her the rest of the beaver pelts we had in exchange for all she’s doing for us. She’s going to try to sell them in town.”

“Fine, fine,” Tony said.

“We’re just going to stay here all day and play games, aren’t we?” Virginia cooed at the baby. Lazar laughed this time. He was evidently looking forward to these games. Unfortunately Tony wasn’t.

Scarlet put little Wilhelm on the floor and started tidying the room. Rose took charge of her little brother at once, trying to draw him into playing with some well-worn wooden figurines.

“I think I’ll go outside,” Tony said.

“Oh,” Scarlet said. “Would you remind Warren that it’s time for him to go to school?”

“Of course,” Tony said, with a weak smile. When he got outside he breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. Young Wolf leaned around the corner of the house and started staring at him again. “Your mother says it’s time for school.”

The boy looked away from Tony and rounded the house, kicking the rust carpet of pine needles with his feet. “I don’t want to go.”

That was a standard little boy response, Tony thought. “Well, your mother says you have to.”

The boy kicked the pine needles again.

“Gotta listen to your mother,” Tony said. But then he noticed there was pain in the boy’s hazel eyes. “Why don’t you want to go to school?”

Young Wolf still didn’t answer, he just kept kicking those pine needles.

Tony couldn’t help it. He felt sorry for the boy. “Well, I haven’t anything to do. How about I walk you to school? Would you like that?”

The little boy nodded eagerly.

“O.K. Just let me tell Virginia where I’m going so she doesn’t worry.” Tony went back in the house and found Scarlet almost ready to leave. Virginia was still cooing to the children in the back room. “I just wanted you to know,” he said, “I’m going to walk the boy to school.”

“Oh, that would be so nice of you,” Scarlet said, gratefully. “It’s not far from here. And you probably won’t run into anybody else but children on the way. Sometimes they pick on Warren. I can’t walk him because I have to watch the other children. And Josiah, well. Let’s just say it’s better if full blooded wolves aren’t seen around too much.”

“I’ll take care of him,” Tony promised.

Young Wolf was waiting right outside, his whole demeanor improved. Now he seemed excited to be going.

“Which way?” Tony asked.

“This way,” young Wolf said, taking Tony’s hand.

Tony was surprised at the boy’s action, but he accepted it. Young Wolf was obviously just as touchy-feely as his older self. “So, are you learning to read yet?”

“Uh-huh,” the boy said. He wasn’t just walking next to Tony, you understand. He was hopping and bouncing and running, all while holding his hand.

“What’s your favorite subject?”

“Gym,” the boy said, leaping over a stone.

“Well, I can certainly believe that.”

“Are you and Virginia gonna live with us?”

“For a little while.”

“I like her. She’s pretty. She smells good too.”

“Yes, well,” Tony said. At least the boy didn’t say she was “succulent” or “creamy dreamy.” Wolf must have gotten into those sayings later. Probably in his teenage years. That’s when boys picked up most of their bad habits. “You like sports?”

“Uh-huh?” The boy was playing hopscotch on an invisible board now.

“Which ones?”

“Running.”

“I should have known.”

All at once the child stopped bouncing and sniffed the air. He looked worried. “Come on,” he said, dragging Tony along.

“What’s the matter?”

“Gotta go,” he whined.

Tony didn’t know what was wrong but in this crazy world of the Nine Kingdoms he’d learned to trust Wolf’s sense of smell. Even if this kid was only seven, he probably knew what he was smelling. Tony picked up his pace and tried to keep up with the boy as he strained ahead.

Suddenly rocks starting sailing in their direction. They weren’t big ones. They were on the smaller side. And they weren’t being thrown with much force, as if small hands were tossing them.

“What’s that?” Tony asked wincing as he was hit. He turned back and saw three boys, all about seven or eight. He had been thinking a dragon or something was chasing them. A dragon he might run from, but not children. “Hey, stop it!” Tony commanded. “I said stop it, you juvenile delinquents!” Tony started toward the boys as if he intended to turn each of them over his knee and give them a spanking.

The boys were surprised at Tony’s size and lack of fear. They stopped throwing stones and countered back.

“Shouldn’t you be in school? Come on. Get going,” Tony ordered, pointing ahead. “Now!” The boys ran off past them down the path, giving them a wide berth. But they called back tauntingly. “Hey wolf, hey wolf! Dirty animal!”

Young Wolf hung back and growled behind Tony.

“Do they bother you every day?” Tony asked.

The boy looked down at the ground and nodded yes. He whined and a single tear fell into the dust at his feet.

Tony wasn’t good at doing the physical comfort stuff. But he patted the boy on the back in as consoling a manner as he could muster. “Tell you what. How about I come back and pick you up after school?”

Young Wolf looked up at Tony, his red eyes and face shining with hope.

“Fine. It’s settled then. Now, come on. We better get moving or you’ll be late.”

While young Wolf was attending school, his older version was spending the day with Josiah. They fished in the morning and then went on to do some light hunting. They talked of being wolves, of having human mates, of full moons, and of living in a world that was less than fond of their kind.

In the afternoon they laid down in some long grass under a large oak tree at the edge of a quiet field. The late spring day was very warm. Josiah panted now and again. And Wolf unbuttoned his shirt and pushed up his long sleeves.

“It must have been hard growing up without your parents,” Josiah said.

Wolf looked away. “My foster parents tried, I guess. But they hated humans so much. Which means, they hated a part of me.”

“The world is hard on wolves. And it’s very difficult not to let it color your world. Your foster parents probably witnessed a lot. In fact, they were probably close to my father’s age. He grew up in the era of the bounty hunters, you know. That was when they were still trying to turn everything into farmland. Then Red Riding Hood the First came along. She wasn’t perfect. And she certainly didn’t have a fondness for wolves. But she tried to be fair. She stopped the bounty hunting and moved our economy into controlled logging and maple sugaring.” Josiah stopped and shook his gray head. “I always wondered what the full truth was behind the Red Riding Hood wolf attack.”

“What?”

“You know. Why did Aesophocles attack Red Riding Hood? Wolves generally don’t attack humans. My father told me it was for revenge. But he never did explain.”

“Maybe it was because of the bounty hunting,” Wolf offered.

“Maybe. Anyway, your foster parents probably saw a lot and it made them bitter. The same thing happened with my father. He grew to really hate humans. He was furious when I fell in love with Scarlet. He would have disowned me, if wolves did that. Scarlet’s parents did.”

“How did your mother take it?”

“My mother.” Here was a topic that Josiah seemed to warm to. “My mother was the sweetest she-wolf in all of creation. And one of the prettiest. She was more silver colored than gray. I think she married my father because she hoped to round off his sharp edges. And he took her to give himself sanity. When I married Scarlet, she warned me of the dangers. But she was very fond of my wife and visited us regularly right up till Warren was born. Then she died. My father was a little friendlier after she was gone. But not much.”

“And now?”

“He’s been dead for a couple of years. The problem was, he just never got to know any humans who were on our side. Not any good ones, anyway. But there are a lot of them. Scarlet wouldn’t be able to get the papers for you and your family without their help. And you’re lucky to have a father-in-law who accepts you for what you are.”

Wolf laughed derisively. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Oh, but he does. From what you’ve told me, I think the problem between you two is that Tony basically built his whole world around his daughter. When you came along, you disrupted everything. Now he feels shut out. What he needs is to find a life of his own.”

“Yeah,” Wolf agreed. It was a good point. Last night Wolf had been particularly angry at Tony for acting all huffity-puffity when Virginia asked him to give them a little privacy. Now maybe he understood better.

“I just hope things don’t get bad again now that Ruby, I mean, Red Riding Hood the Second is on the throne. She’s tightened things up on the wolves again and started the night guards. There’ve been a lot more attacks against us.” Josiah stopped to pant again. “But I’m getting morbid. The good news is that tomorrow is a full moon. My friend Goffrey and I always go hunting when the moon comes up. Why don’t you join us?”

Wolf sat up straight, his tail wagging. “I’d love to,” he said.

“Good. It’ll just be the three of us.”

“I hope you don’t mind my asking. But why don’t you take your oldest son as well?” Wolf had always wondered why his father had never taken him hunting or fishing as a boy, why all his hunting training had come from his foster parents much later on.

“Oh, no,” Josiah said. “Not with the night guard. It’s too dangerous. We’re adult wolves. We know how to keep a look out for danger and take off quickly at a split second’s notice. But Warren. How can a seven-year-old be expected to do that? He should stay close to the house at night till he gets older.”

“I understand,” Wolf said. “Is your friend Goffrey a full-blooded wolf?”

“Yes. But he’s married to a human, a little blond named Lydia. She and Scarlet are friends. Goffrey and I go back a long ways. We grew up together in the same woods.” Josiah got quiet for a moment. “If something happened to Scarlet and I, Goffrey and his mate are the ones I’d pick to be foster parents to our children. They’d bring them up right.”

Wolf nodded. He couldn’t say it. But he believed they’d done very well at bringing up his sister Rose.

When school got out that afternoon, Tony was waiting just as he’d promised. He saw the three boys who’d thrown the rocks that morning. They didn’t talk to him, but they whispered to some other boys and pointed. Tony made a face at them.

Young Warren came bounding out of the school like the young wolf he was. He headed straight for Tony and stopped right on a dime. “Hi!” the little boy said. His eyes were bright and happy to see his newfound friend.

“Ready to go?”

“Sure,” the boy said, grabbing Tony’s hand.

Once again, young Wolf jumped and hopped and skipped at Tony’s side.

“Don’t you have any books?” Tony asked. It hadn’t occurred to him earlier. But he’d just noticed that the three delinquent boys and their friends all seemed to be carrying books.

“No,” little Wolf said.

“But the other boys have them,” Tony pointed out.

“They’re humans,” the boy said, as if that explained everything.

“So?”

“So, humans get to take home books. Wolves only get to look at them at school. The teachers are afraid we’ll chew them up.”

“Excuse me,” Tony said, coming to a complete stop.

“They’re afraid we’ll chew them up.”

Tony was stunned. He’d seen Wolf read several books in his presence, mostly of the self-help variety. He’d seen Wolf throw them into rivers and fields when he’d finished them. And bend their backs till he broke their bindings. But never once did he see his son-in-law chew on one of them. “That’s ridiculous!” Tony said. “Why would you do that?”

The boy shrugged. “I don’t know. They say wolves can’t be trusted.”

“But how can you study or do homework?”

The boy shrugged again.

Tony was starting to get angry. The nerve of that school. How did they expect the boy to learn? To make anything of himself? He decided to change the subject. “Your Mama’s back. She got the papers we needed in town.”

“Does that mean you’re going?” Young Wolf’s eyebrows came together in real concern.

“Oh, I don’t think for awhile yet.”

“Good.”

They went on a little further before Tony noticed young Wolf sniffing the air and tightening the grip on his hand. This time Tony had a pretty good idea what was up. He turned around and saw the three delinquent boys walking behind them at a comfortable distance with three additional boys. They whispered among themselves and quickened their pace when they saw Tony turn around. There was only one thing to do. Tony stopped dead in the road and waited for them to pass, all the while giving them a mean look, that said, “Don’t mess with me if you know what’s good for you.”

In response, the pack of boys separated into two groups and sauntered past at an exaggerated walk. When they were a comfortable distance ahead, one of them yelled back, “Filthy animal!” But the others evidently were too wary of Tony to join in.

Young Wolf looked up adoringly at his protector. He didn’t say it, but he was hoping against hope that Tony would walk him to school the next day too.

During the rest of the way, Warren and Tony talked of happier things. By the time they arrived at the little house under the pines, Josiah and Wolf had returned. And Scarlet and Virginia had dinner well under way.

Since it was such a nice evening, it was decided that they would eat outside on a blanket spread on the rust colored pine needles. They ate the fish that Josiah and Wolf had caught in the morning and a corn meal pudding that Virginia had learned how to make while staying with Emerald. After that, they settled down to listen to the music of the frogs in the nearby marsh. It was mating season and the males were singing froggie love songs to entice the local frog ladies.

Josiah rested his head on his mate’s lap and sighed contentedly. Virginia nestled into Wolf’s arms and watched the sky as the stars started to appear. Rose had laid back to watch the stars too but had fallen soundly asleep with her mouth open. As she slept she made adorable little girl sounds that made the adults all smile.

Young Warren was the last one to finish eating. He ate two helpings of fish and finished his sister’s left over pudding. Then he licked the leavings in the crock that Virginia had cooked the pudding in.

“I can’t thank you enough for giving us those pelts,” Scarlet said. “Or for helping Josiah with the hunting. The children are going to eat very well this week.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Virginia said.

“Are you tired?” Scarlet asked her eldest son. He was starting to look sleepy.

Little Warren nodded.

“You can go to bed if you want. Or you can stay up a little longer. We should probably go in soon before the night guard goes on duty. But I want to stay and watch the moon come up.”

“I think Scarlet likes the moon more than I do,” Josiah said.

“Some people worship it, you know,” Scarlet said. “That’s ridiculous, of course. But it’s so beautiful.”

Young Warren surveyed the adults around him. Then he got up and climbed into Tony’s lap. Tony was surprised, but not nearly as much as Virginia and the older Wolf. They were amazed.

The boy leaned into Tony’s chest and settled in for a nap.

“You comfortable?” Tony asked.

The boy nodded and promptly closed his eyes.