“It’s all right, Cricket. He’ll come home in his own time.”
“Come home?”
She slowly tipped back and forth in her rocking chair. “Have I told you the story of the lone wolf and the chief’s daughter?”
“I don’t think so.” I settled in to my chair. I loved Gram’s stories.
“When the world was still young, there was a great wolf pack. They roamed far and wide through their vast territory. One day, a young male wolf took a grievous injury. Not a mortal wound, but close. So he did what wolves do: He found a safe place to lick his wounds and heal. Except when he was up and walking again, he didn’t return to his pack. He stayed in his cave and avoided them, as if they’d done the damage.”
“He didn’t trust his own pack anymore?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“That doesn’t seem fair of him. Although I guess he was just a wolf.”
“True. And fair doesn’t hold much sway in the wild. Doesn’t always hold sway with men, either.”
“What happened to him?” I was afraid she was going to say he died alone in his cave.
Gram’s mouth twitched in the hint of a smile. “One afternoon, the chief’s daughter was out gathering berries when she came across the mouth of the lone wolf’s cave. His yellow eyes glowed in the darkness and he growled a warning.”
Involuntarily, I gasped.
“Her father, the chief, was friends with the wolf pack, so his daughter wasn’t afraid, not even when the wolf bared his teeth to her. She knew the pack had traveled north in search of prey and this male must have been separated from his family. And as he paced back and forth in the entrance to the cave, she could see the signs of his injury.”
“So she knew he’d been wounded and now he was alone.”
“Yes. And she knew it wasn’t good for the wolf to be alone. So she decided to help him.”
“How?”
“She began leaving pieces of meat to coax him from the cave. At first she kept her distance, but gradually she moved closer. It wasn’t long before he was eating right out of her hand.”
“She wasn’t afraid he’d attack her?”
“Oh, I imagine she had moments of fear. The lone wolf wasn’t friendly to most people. He growled and bared his teeth to everyone else. But the chief’s daughter became the exception.”
“But what about his family? What about the wolf pack?”
Gram’s lips turned up in a smile. “That’s a very good question, Cricket. You see, the chief’s daughter wasn’t trying to tame the wolf. She was merely teaching him to trust her. Once he did, she started luring him farther from his cave, in the direction of the pack.
“One day, she led him close to where the pack was resting. The lone wolf sat at a distance and watched for a while, then went back to his cave. But the chief’s daughter was determined. Each day, she led the wolf back to his pack, until he finally ran into their midst and made contact.”
“Was the pack happy to see him?”
“Indeed they were. They circled and sniffed and did what wolves do. And the chief’s daughter watched with a full heart as they accepted the lone wolf back into their pack. The story says the alpha wolf looked at the chief’s daughter and dipped his head to acknowledge what she’d done.”
A tingle raced down my spine. “That gives me chills. What a beautiful story. Do you mean I’m kind of like the chief’s daughter, luring the lone wolf out of his cave?”
“A little bit,” she said. “He’s happier than I’ve seen him in a very long time. Soon I think he’ll remember he can trust his pack. He’ll be a part of it again.”
I finished my iced tea with Gram and reluctantly said goodbye.
When I got home, Evan and Sasquatch were gone. His vehicles were all here, so he’d probably taken him for a trail walk. I threw in a load of laundry and glanced in the spare room. He’d thrown out most of the boxes he’d brought home from college without even looking in them.
There was a knock at the front door, so I went to answer it. I opened the door and almost choked on my own tongue. It was Simone.
Her platinum hair was down and she wore a flowy pink tank top, jeans, and bright red lipstick. She smiled and held her arms out.