Were-Geek

20.)

1.)

Jumping Beans was a coffee shop owned and operated by Mr. Mario Black. He had transported his buisness from Puerto Rico some years ago and now he regularly sold cups of good coffee and hot chocolate and food to dunk into the two.

On one particular night Mario had heard the next door neighbors dog barking rapidly and loudly at their house. Carrying a shotgun he had gone out to check and had found a miscreant. A local kid vandalizing his building. Mario had begun to shout and yell and threaten, but then he saw what the boy had been doing.

The change was so sudden in Mario that the boy paused in running away. Mario looked at the vandalism and saw art. It was beautiful, he saw customers coming to look at the art and to see how his building was different than all the other drab, gray buildings that squatted on his block like overgrown turds.

He turned to the boy, "Do you have friends who can all do this?" Mario asked. The boy hesitantly nodded.

Mario smiled, "Good, bring them all sometime in the next week and I'll pay you to finish this."

The boy nodded slowly again and took off. Mario grinned, looking at the art. He went back inside to wait for the artists.

This was what he was doing when a loud bang sounded outside a night later followed by a crash and a yelp. Mario stood and advanced toward the door with his gun. He slowly opened the screen door, wondering if perhaps the artists had come early, he hadn't really expected them until later in the week.

Mario stepped out into the alleyway and looked around. The sky was a myriad of hues as the sun slowly made its appearance. The ugly building next to his shoppe had its back to him, blocking off the revitalizing light of the sun. Trash littered the nasty ground and bags of junk dotted here and there. But what drew his attention was not the litter or the sun rays. It was the giant wolf that lay panting on the ground, on its side and looking pitiful with a slobbering tongue lollong out on the dirty ground.

This was the biggest wolf Mario had ever heard of let alone seen. It was more than triple the size of a normal wolf and its eyes, they appeared intelligent. Mario knew his life was getting ready the change.

The wolf was tawny in color, with multi colores of brown, grey and russet and all kinds of shades in between. It was beauty incarnate.

Mario had always been known as reckless, now middle aged he wasn't afraid (well, he never really had been) of consequences. He made snap second decisions and threw everything out of balance. This time was no different. He could see the animal was injured and he knew the decision had been made for him.

He stepped forward and the wolf leapt onto its front, growling at him. Mario tossed the gun away, that ever annoying rational part of his brain wondering if that was such a good idea or not. He ignored it and held his hands out, signalling that he wasn't going to harm it.

Mario knew a bit about wild animals, he had been a zoo keepers assistant for six years when he was young.

He hoped that information would float to the surface of his muddy mind. He must've been doing something right because the wolf quieted down and stared into his eyes. Mario was completely absorbed into those eyes. He saw what he must do.

He went back inside and rummaged around until he found a hunk of raw meet in the freezer. He thawed it and came back. The wolf gazed at the meat, licking its lips but not moving. It was wary of him, untrusting. Mario set the meat down and stepped back.

After a slight wait the wolf stood, limping slightly, and walked slowly to the meat. Its eyes never left him as it bent down and began gnawing on the meat. Mario stepped even farthur back, into his shoppe and grabbed another piece of meat.