She means preschool.
I'm in first grade this year--and she is still just a baby.
Is that a dog? When did you get a dog?" "Pretty school," repeated Maia.
"And I'm not a baby." She gave me a hug and launched herself at Sam.
I would have caught her if Sam hadn't bounded forward, too.
"Pony," she said, attacking him as if he weren't a scarily huge wolf.
She grabbed a handful of fur and climbed on top of him.
"Pony, pony." I reached for her, but froze when Sam gave me a look.
"My pony," Maia said happily, oblivious to my terror.
She thumped her heels into his ribs hard enough I could hear the noise.
"Go, pony." Maia's sister seemed to understand the danger as well as I did.
"Mam?," she shrieked.
"Mam?, Maia's being stupid again." Well, maybe not as well.
She frowned at her sister and--while I stood frozen, afraid that whatever action I took would be the one that sent Sam over the edge--told me, "We took her to the fair and she saw the horses--now she climbs on every dog she sees.
She almost got bitten by the last one." Sam, for his part, grunted the fourth or fifth time Maia's heels hit his side, gave me another look--one that might have been exasperation--and started toward the office, for all the world as if he were a pony instead of a werewolf.
"Mercy?" Sissy said.
I suppose she'd expected me to say something--or at least move.
Panic left me with cold fingers and a pounding heart-- but as it faded, something else took its place.
I've seen any number of werewolves whose wolf had superseded the man.
Usually, it happens in the middle of a fight--and the only thing to do is to lie low until the man takes back control.
The other time it often occurs is with the newly Changed wolves.
They are vicious, unpredictable, and dangerous even to the people they love.
But Sam hadn't been vicious or even unpredictable--except in the best sense of the word--when Maia had hopped up to play Wild Horse Annie.
For the first time since I'd walked into that damned hospital storeroom last night, I felt real hope.
If Sam the wolf could keep to civilized manners for a few days, maybe I would have a chance to persuade Bran to give us a little more time.
Sam had reached the office door and stood patiently waiting for me to let him in while Maia patted him on the top of his head and told him he was a good pony.
"Mercy? Are you okay?" Sissy looked in my car--I often brought cookies.
I'd brought the ones I made this morning out of habit.
I usually make a lot more cookies than any one person can eat, so when I have a baking fest, I bring the cookies for customers.
She didn't say anything when she spotted the bags sitting on top of the book I still needed to deliver to Phin, but she got a big smile on her face.