Little Wolf

Ch 52 Sister's Prelude

"I want to start by saying thank you so much to everyone!" Sister paused to wave to the crowd, her arm high above her head. "Today has been more than I expected and I really feel like this could be my home, but my real home will always be with my mom and dad!"

I could see Sister through the screen. The skit part would be told through shadows from us onto the screen. All the audience would see is shadows, not what made the shadows. The council members however...

"Tonight I want to share two stories, both in a way about my brother. You might not have heard the story of how we met. Let me tell you, it was something!"

And trust Sister to go slightly off script. I grinned, thinking if nothing else this story she was about to tell would help put people in the right frame of mind. We would just have to wait for the story that went with our skit.

"See, my awesome dad had filled out an application for the Make-A-Wish foundation to grant what I wanted most. Now you might not understand this, but I love werewolf stories! In the stories I read, werewolves aren't some hideous monsters, they're people who kinda have like split personalities. They have their human selves and they have a wolf that lives inside them with its own name and personality. The moon goddess sets each of them up with a special mate they are drawn to, just for them, to love forever!

"What I wanted more than anything was my werewolf mate to come find me and bite me, changing me into a werewolf. See, that would heal me automatically, then we would live happily ever after, joining in the full-moon pack run as wolves! I know, very juvenile of me, but that was my fantasy.

"What I settled for was to go see wolves in Yellowstone and join in their 5k race which would be like a pack running, except we never saw any wolves and the race was nothing like a pack, which has connections to each other, running together. I was upset, I admit it, and snuck off to find wolves. I shouldn't have, it caused a lot of worry for my parents, but I really wanted to see at least one wolf before, well, while I had the chance."

Understatement, I thought, remembering the way she had ranted that day. A small smile came across my face as I remembered that day.

"Well, let me tell you, I had about given up! I had fallen, nothing serious, but not fun either! I finally just sat down and had a good cry to get it out of my system when a huge black wolf appeared! He had a bit of white on his snout and his underneath had some grey and cream color to it. He was beautiful!"

She paused, and I could imagine the look of almost rapture that would be on her face right now. I was looking forward to watching the recording of this later.

"Anyway," she continued, "he came up to me, and we became friends. I told him all about everything and he guided me to the racecourse. We didn't backtrack through the woods, he led me toward the end of the race! How would that wolf, that wonderful, kind wolf, know where I needed to be? Well, let me tell you..."

Sister seemed to share my flair for the dramatic as she allowed an anticipation-filled silence to build. Her storytelling rhythm was exquisite, filled with all the right nuances to draw an audience in.

"It was Brother! Don't laugh or dismiss me," she warned, shaking her finger at the crowd. "And don't think he's going to admit it to you, but he came to me that day in his wolf form and that's the first time we met. See, Brother is a werewolf! Now don't get too excited, let me tell you the rest of the story!

"See, I had taken my stuffed wolf with me on that run. And you remember I told you I had fallen? Well, somehow I lost wolfie and didn't even realize it because I was so upset. Later Brother found him and went out of his way with the help of his friends to bring that little stuffed wolf back to me! Because that's the kind of person he is! He knew how much wolves meant to me!

"Well, I knew right away what he was. He wouldn't admit it in front of my mom of course, but he did in private to me. Very subtly too! I won't tell you just how, but he found a way to show me what he was.

"Now, this is where the story gets very emotional. Fair warning here! You remember my fantasy? It's soooo embarrassing now, but I really thought Brother was my werewolf mate come to cure me. He was quick to set me straight! 'Only the truth,' he said. 'A werewolf is merely a man who can become a wolf. I would bite you a thousand time, dear Sister, if it would do any good.'

I wanted to cry right there, let me tell you! But the way he looked at me held so much compassion, I could only love him! Everyone always tries to pretend that I'm going to live forever. And I fight, don't get me wrong, because you always have to fight for life! But Brother is the only one who looked at me with the truth in his eyes. Truth, but not pity. I don't want pity! No one does! What he offered me was love and acceptance, just the way I am!

"Now many of you have known Brother all his life, and you know he has the wolf within him. I bet you just never thought of it in the context of  him being a werewolf! Let me tell you, he has the most noble parts of both wolf and man. He isn't two separate beings like in the stories I read, he's just Brother, a man who can become a wolf and still be the man inside, not some mindless wild animal. It's in his bloodline! And that's the story you're going to hear about tonight!"

I could picture Sister just beaming as the audience applauded. They thought her assertion that I was a werewolf was just her leading into the story. No one took it seriously. The people I grew up with did indeed know the wolf was within me. Maybe a few would consider what she said, and wonder if it was true.

For the rest, it was merely storytelling at its finest, a sick child's fantasy, intertwined with reality. Her brain tumor alone could account for a slight disconnect with reality, explaining her dogged determination to believe what she did.

I know that's what her mother believed, and would continue to believe. Her mother despaired over the fantasy because for her, it was proof of the damage within her child's brain. To feed the fantasy, as she saw it, meant acknowledging that her daughter would never recover from the tumor growing within, the tumor I could smell.

"Now, onto the story!"

The audience simmered down.

Once again, here we go...