Wolves (English)

Chapter 9

'Psst, Dyre?' I whisper as I gently walk into my room. 'Come on out, please. I brought you something tasty.'

In my hand are six small pieces of chicken, a potato, and a slice of bread. At first I thought it would be difficult to get hold of a few crumbs at all, but luckily that was not too bad. My mother seemed completely captivated by Finn's phone call and that gave me the opportunity to smuggle a bit of everything.

There are still a number of difficult questions in my head. Where is Finn? What happened and what did he get involved in? An accident? Fire? Murder? That last idea is so horrible that I immediately reject it.

Of course not, Ester! Do not overreact! Finn and murder ... come on! How old are you now? Sixteen years old. Old enough to know he would never do such a thing.

I ignore all the thoughts that flow into my head and whisper again, 'Dyre? Are you still there? You didn't run away, did you?'

Fortunately, at that moment the she-wolf crawls out from under the bed, as if she have followed my orders exactly. I laugh at that thought and pass her a piece of chicken. The look in her eyes is soft and her ears are still pointed forward. She carefully sniffs the meat in my hand and seems to doubt whether she should take it.

'Go ahead,' I encourage her. 'You can trust me, you know that, right?'

Those words seem to convince her. She carefully takes the piece of meat from my hand, chews it for a moment, and swallows it. Then she starts wagging her tail and pushing her nose against my hand.

'Do you want more?' I ask her with a smile.

And again her head goes up and down enthusiastically which makes me laugh again.

One by one I feed her the other pieces of chicken, the potato, and the bread. She eats it all quietly, and happily licks her lips. Then she looks at me with a questioning look in her eyes.

'Sorry, I have nothing left.' I hold my empty hands towards her apologetically.

After Dyre has licked up the last crumbs and seems to come to the conclusion that there is really no food left, she settles down on my bed. For once, I allow it. After all, you just don't have a she-wolf to stay every day.

'But,' I say to her, 'tonight you will just go to sleep under my bed. Otherwise I won't have room to lie down myself.'

The animal tilts her head and looks at me in amazement.

'You know what?' I decide. 'I'll get you a blanket and put it under the bed. At least, then you have a nicer place to lie down, even if my parents ever come unexpectedly.'

Dyre seems to agree with that.

Soon she stops paying attention to me. She closes her eyes and falls asleep on my bed. It looks so endearing that I have to smile. A warm feeling spreads through my body. Who would want to kill such a beautiful, innocent animal? Yes, a bunch of people who don't understand. If they could only see how Dyre is here ... they would talk differently, I'm sure.

After carefully closing my bedroom door behind me, I walk downstairs to help my mother do the dishes and at the same time look for a blanket. There must still be one here.

My Mom loves blankets, especially in winter. The two of us always snuggle up there on the days when it snows and the temperature drops towards zero. While enjoying a cup of hot chocolate we watch Christmas movies, and we weep every year over the sad scenes from Hachi: A Dog's Tale. By far my favorite Christmas movie. Not only because a dog has the main role, but mainly because it is a true story. That makes it all the more pathetic.