Summer of the Wolves (21 page)

“Come on, Luna,” Nika called, kneeling and pup-whining, trying to keep the urgency from her voice so she wouldn't scare the wolf. She puppy-whined again. When Luna didn't come toward them, Thomas dug into his pack and produced a piece of jerky, holding it out. One of Luna's ears stood taller, the other still pulled partway back in fear. She began to move toward Nika and Thomas in a crouch, shooting glances toward the clunking noises from Bristo's boat. She circled around behind them and flattened herself in the cover of bushy junipers. Thomas tossed her a chunk of the jerky. She took it in her mouth, then dropped it.

Nika crooned, “Good girl, Luna, good girl. You can do it. Stay with us. Come on, Luna.”

Nika and Thomas both realized at the same moment that there was no going home now. The sky was burly with purple clouds, and they could hear the collisions of thunder coming closer.

Thomas tried to lure Luna with another small piece of jerky. Like Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood all mixed up, this time they were dropping crumbs for the wolf.

Luna moved closer to them, but kept her eyes and ears trained on the muffled scraping behind the eagle tree. She growled, raised her hackles, trotted in a circle, then froze and sank into the junipers again.

Nika heard a thud and saw the bushes shake beneath the eagle tree. Luna heard it too and tensed. She crouched. Then Nika and Thomas heard Bristo moving through the trees and swearing. The wolf ran up the rock heading for safety, but Bristo had cut uphill and was coming out near the feeding spot. Luna froze. Nika and Thomas saw Bristo at the edge of the trees, staring at the crouched wolf. He laughed, then raised his rifle. There was a snapping sound, like a large branch breaking in the wind, followed by a yelp of pain.

Nika yelled and ran across the rock toward the man. She didn't think and didn't care.

Thomas shouted, “Nika, don't!”

But Nika was screaming at Bristo, “Stop! Stop! I'll get my uncle. You'll go to jail!”

Halfway across the rock ledge, she tripped, her foot jammed between two rocks. Pain spiked up through her ankle. Panic dulled the pain, and she hobbled on. She couldn't see Luna. When she came around a giant boulder, she saw Bristo staggering toward the wolf with his rifle pointed down. He stopped to maintain his balance, one hand on a stump. Luna was on the ground past the boulder, at the edge of some small trees. She was bleeding from a wound in her shoulder, her head partly raised. Bristo was cursing and swaying.

Nika ran to Luna and fell to her knees beside her, screaming at Bristo, “This is what you wanted! Get out of here! You going to shoot kids, too?”

“You didn't see nuthin!” shouted Bristo, breathing heavily. “I bet you're the one let go the others so I got nuthin'. Stupid bleedin'-heart kids . . .” Bristo turned and walked haltingly away. At that moment, the wind died, and the lake went completely still.

After a snarl of engine noise and swearing, Nika heard the boat putter away from the island.

Luna wasn't moving much, but she panted and made low-pitched puppy-whines. Nika felt a sharp wave of pain from her own ankle. She slumped down next to the beautiful tan wolf. Across the lake yellow wires of light cut through the navy blue sky, followed by a grumble of thunder. Inside, Nika felt her courage collapse. Luna could die. Maybe Bristo had found her because of them. She jabbed at her tears with the back of her hand. Then taking a breath, she yelled, “Thomas!

Thomas came scrambling up with his backpack, his face frozen in fear, his mouth gaping as he stared at the downed wolf. “I thought he shot you!”

He quickly seemed to collect himself. “We'll get the vet. Touch her. Go slowly,” he said.

Nika reached out and carefully lowered her hand onto the thick fur on the wolf's shoulder. Her hand came away bloody. Luna lifted her nose, then let her head drop back down again.

“Good. Now see if you can find the wound, and press, to stop the bleeding.” Nika found a wet hole in Luna's bloody shoulder and pinched it together with her fingers. The wolf moaned and jerked, then looked away, as though she'd given up.

The wolf's breathing seemed to steady, and Nika started to breathe with her, feeling a strange calm. She thought about Ian, how much she needed him right now.

The wind was picking up. Thomas looked at the sky again. “The storm's gonna hit. I can just make it to town. You stay here. You're going to get pretty wet. Wait a sec. Hang on.” Thomas flew down to his boat and came back with a life jacket and a boat cushion. “For insulation from the ground,” he said. Then he attacked some nearby trees with the knife he always carried. He came back with armloads of branches that he began to teepee around and over her and the wolf.

As the balsam branches began to surround her, Nika was grateful that Luna had fallen next to a dense stand of trees on brushy ground. She remembered hearing you didn't want to be next to a tall tree or on a big rock in a lightning storm.

Thomas poked his head into the ragged shelter he'd thrown up around them. “When the lightning starts, if your hair stands on end, squat on the life jacket with your head between your knees.” She heard the scraping of his boots as he scrambled down to his boat. At least it was still light out. The engine started right away, and she heard his small boat move out into the lake, thumping as it bucked the waves. She was glad it wasn't far to Red Pine.

The rain fell softly at first, then increased to a rhythm of heavy drops plunked against the rocks and leaves. In the distance she could barely hear the drone of Thomas's boat. Adjusting the branches, Nika laid the life jacket and cushion so she could circle her body around Luna. As rain trickled down her face, she positioned her arm over the wolf, pressing the wound. Soon she was soaked through, shivering, and her ankle throbbed with pain. Thunder tumbled, dark sounds ripped by stabs of lightning. The storm lowered around them like a sudden fall of early night.

 

Nika wondered what time it had been when Thomas left. She wished she'd worn a watch. She tried to remember when Ian said he was going home today. Had he already left town? If so, who would Thomas find to help?

Spikes of lightning, explosions of thunder, wind pushing trees in dizzy circles, and slanting sheets of water all surrounded Nika and the unconscious wolf. She tried to think of something else beside her fear and the pulsing pain in her ankle. Something besides how Luna might die because of them. She thought of her old dog-friend Rookie and his knowing brown eyes. Once she had been with her mom in the mountains in a cabin, and both she and Randall had been afraid of the thunder and lightning. Her mom had made up a story about the Thunder Princess, how she had big feet, and how she made thunder when her enormous boots pounded across the sky. Nika imagined her mom cuddled up next to her now, telling the story.

Time seemed to crawl on its belly. Nika couldn't stop worrying. She had to do something to pass the eternity until someone came. She tried reciting nursery rhymes, starting with “There was an old woman tossed up in a basket,” but she couldn't remember all of the words. Then she tried to remember her lines from the school play last year. She said the alphabet with an animal for each letter. Aardvark was her favorite. She bogged down with
N
and ended up singing Girl Scout songs. Finally she just sat in the dark, clutching the green jade of the necklace Olivia had made.

When the heavy rain began to let up, Nika could see the lake again. Sunset threw fingers of yellow light in fans above the leftover hunching thunderclouds. It had been a hot day before the storm, but now the temperature had dropped. She worried about Luna being cold. She remembered that when a person was injured, you were supposed to keep him warm. The wolf was unresponsive, but Nika could feel a pulse. Shivering, she put as much of her body as she could next to the wolf for warmth. At least she could feel the soft rise and fall of the wolf's breathing under her hand. “Good girl, Luna. Good girl,” she said.

Nika remembered all the lonely waiting she'd experienced in her life, wondering what would happen next. And here she was waiting again, cold and soaking wet. After the sun went down, she couldn't even see beyond her foot in the storm-swept moonless night. What if Thomas's boat had broken down? If so, the only person who knew she was here was Bristo.

Finally she heard outboard motors, then a man's voice, and aluminum clonks from the landing. Soon thin bars of light were breaking and zigzagging through the trees. She shivered even more. Even her jaw was shaking. What if it was Bristo? Finally she heard low voices and one higher one. Bristo would have been alone.

“They're up the hill a little, over here.” It was Thomas! In a moment shafts of light from four flashlights pinned the balsam tent. She heard the squishing of wet boots, then Thomas, Ian, Maki, and Elinor all emerged. As Thomas removed the branches, no one spoke. Maki propped a large flashlight in the crotch of a tree to light the scene.

“We got a little wet” was all Nika managed to say through chattering teeth. The three adults in their rain slickers looked down at the sodden pair. Elinor and Maki gently squatted by the wolf. Ian stood holding his flashlight, shaking his head, then went down on his knees next to Nika.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“My ankle,” she answered in a shaky voice. Now that they were here, she felt warm tears on her cold cheeks, and her nose was running.

Ian gently flexed and probed at her ankle, saying, “Does this hurt? How about this?” His voice was steady, as it had been when he'd examined the dead wolf earlier in the summer—very professional. “Well, I don't think it's broken. But we need to get you home.” Then he turned to Luna and, with the same calm, quickly assessed the wound in her shoulder. The wolf seemed to be barely breathing.

“I somehow can't believe what I'm seeing.” He stood and looked off toward the boats. “Thomas explained he thought this wolf came from Bristo. And you two tried to stop him?” He shook his head, wiping his face with his sleeve. She wished she could see his expression. She couldn't tell if he was proud of her, scared, or mad.

“Before he shot her, she came to us,” Nika declared, trying to sound bright and brave, even though she wasn't sure she was strong enough to even stand. “She's just got to be okay . . .” Thomas stood behind Ian. Nika tried to force her shivering lips into a smile of gratitude.

Ian spoke to Elinor and Maki. “We've got to hurry. Nika is pretty cold. And the wolf . . .”

Ian helped Nika stand on one leg, then swept her up to his shoulder. “This okay?” he asked. “Hold on. It's called a fireman's carry.”

Upside down, Nika craned her neck to see Elinor and Maki and Thomas lift Luna onto some kind of canvas sling. Luna didn't move. Nika took this as a bad sign. Struggling to stay on their feet and making a bizarre parade, flashlights slicing through the darkness, they carried the full-grown wolf across the wet rocks to where the boats were tied.

After Maki and Elinor loaded their canvas burden into Maki's boat, Thomas hopped in and sat by Luna, his hand keeping pressure on the wound.

“Go ahead and take the wolf to Dave!” Ian shouted.

Maki nodded. He and Elinor pushed off and climbed in. The motor started, then accelerated to an urgent-sounding high-pitched hum as they headed toward town.

Ian helped Nika across the rocks to his larger boat. Drops of water fell from the soaked trees and waves sloshed against the shore. To keep her balance, Nika held tight to the gunwales of the big boat until Ian came to lift her over the side. She hopped up to the chair next to his in the front. Wading, Ian maneuvered the boat past the rocks, jumped over the side, started the big engine, turned on the running lights, and set out into uneasy water.

Nika couldn't believe he knew where he was going in the dark. To her it felt like being inside a windy tunnel, but when she saw the lights of Red Pine, she realized they'd rounded the far end of Eagle Island. The lights faded as they headed out into the murky lake. She felt lost as they tossed across the waves created by the storm. The powerful boat pounded the water, jarring her teeth. Her ankle shouted out with pain each time the boat hit the bottom of a trough. It wasn't long before she saw the familiar pattern of lights in Ian's cabin by the beach. They were home.

 

The tan wolf woke in another cage, and there was pain in her shoulder. She fell in and out of fitful sleep. The cage was small, and there was no place to hide. A man moved slowly, talked calmly, and put something smelly on her wound.

Pearl helped Nika out of her dripping-wet clothes and wrapped her in a white terrycloth robe big enough for two people. Bending over the lower bunk, the one Randall usually slept in, Pearl pulled back the covers and said, “Get in and get warm.” She placed a pillow under Nika's foot. “Ian's trained as an EMT, you know. He knows just what to do.”