feeding the earth as it did her.
My life is fleeting.
It was the first time she had realized it to be the truth, and as this epiphany came, so did the wolf.
The deep, throaty growl filled Coreen with dread. She froze at first but mustered enough will to back herself up against the tall, strong pine. It was all she could do; she’d rather face the wild animal than go to Hank, so she sat, and it growled, and its eyes flashed an intense yellow as they caught the glow from mother moon.
“Go for it,” she whispered. “I’d rather die here and now than go back to a life that I’ll hate.”
The wolf stopped, and cocked its head a little, opened its mouth, and howled. The sound was so loud and so shrill that it pierced her very core. It was a thrill like she had never experienced before—as if she was the wolf and it was her, their energy becoming one in that moment. Locking eyes, they watched each other in silence and awe.
“Shoo, shoo,” came Ahanu’s voice.
The wolf hesitated, not following his command.
Ahanu moved between her and the wolf. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
The wolf watched them both.
“Shoo . . .”
“Ahanu?” she called out, reaching at nothing, unable to see. Everything was black. She was blind.
“Coreen,” he said, kneeling by her side. “Your leg . . . you are bleeding, a lot.”
“I can’t see.”
“You’re hurt; you need water. Need to stop the bleeding.” He removed his buckskin shirt, ripped off a sleeve, and tied it around her thigh above the knee. “I’ll take you to my house.”
Her vision came back to her as the transient blackout passed. “No. We can’t go there. They can’t find out.”
“I’ll just say I found you.”
“They’ll know.”
“I’ll carry you home then.”
“No, my father will kill you. We can’t go there either. Somewhere else.”
“Then where? Where shall we go?”
“Shhh . . . I hear him . . .” said Coreen. “I hear everything and nothing at the same time.”
Taking a look, Ahanu watched as Hank stood upon the same rock on his way back to the fair, calling for his girlfriend again. Ahanu squatted low, Coreen in his arms. She was fading in and out. She came around to the calls.
“Hank?” she whispered.
“Shhh.” Ahanu leaned close to her, whispering in her ear to soothe her, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Coreeeeeeeen!” Hank’s desperation came through. He waited futilely for her to show up, then jumped from the rock, and ran back along the trail towards town.
A few moments passed before Ahanu took the same route. He could have used the woods—he knew the way through—but it just wasn’t quick enough. Hank’s calls rang out ahead of him, and Ahanu slowed or increased pace accordingly, holding back amongst the trees to let Hank cross the open field first.
Coreen moaned something he couldn’t make out.
“I know. We are almost there. Soon.”
D Street had very low light—the kind to entice—and the fair had faded as the night had settled in. Just a few folks still meandered about, and the regulars had shown up. Ahanu snuck in behind the wood buildings as he always did—this time, however, not to watch.
The back door to the Betty’s was open, so he snuck into the unknown. The back room was just a storage area of sorts, with old mattresses, crates, chicken coops, and other random junk. The smell of cigars hung in the air, and a woman’s sultry voice carried from somewhere. The tune was low and seductive as the mystery woman sang the last note; the placed erupted in a roar of clapping and whistling. It was the last place he should be seen or be caught— but he and Coreen had no choice.
There was only one hallway leading to the front. They had nowhere to go. Ahanu kicked over a dusty mattress, laid his girl gently upon it, and went back outside to check the windows on higher floors.
He threw a rock at one of the windows but received no response.
“Come on,” he urged, throwing another.
A black-bearded man in a sleeveless t-shirt swung the window open. “Hey you! Get the hell out of here, kid.”
“I came to—” Ahanu started.
“Go!” the man said, waving a huge, white-knuckled fist.
“I need to see Betty.”
“Betty is busy!” he yelled.
“It’s an emergency.”
“There is only one kind of emergency that gets seen to here, kid.”
“Ed, who is it?”
Betty’s voice carried out into the night air with a tone so playful that Ed stopped his protests.
“Now who’s this