Page 10 of Raised By Wolves

“If you say so. Well, it was nice being in jail with you,” he says.

And then he’s gone.

CHAPTER 9

“WHAT HAPPENS NOW, Kai?” Holo asks once it’s just us and Dougie. He looks uncertain and small, like spending a night in jail shrunk him somehow.

A wolf in captivity is not a true wolf.

“Look,” I say, “it’s all part of the adventure, okay?”

Holo scowls at me.

I get it. Being in jail doesn’t feel like an adventure. It feels like torture. When I reach out to ruffle his hair, he ducks away from me. He’s too old for that now, I know. I just keep forgetting.

“They’re going to let us out soon, I promise,” I say. “What we did really wasn’t so bad. No one’s going to press charges.”

I say it firmly, so we both have to believe it.

A little while later the chief comes down the jail hallway with a man so old and thin he looks like a spring breeze could blow him away. I’m wondering what this skeleton in a long white coat could’ve done to get himself arrested, when the chief leads him over to our cell and smiles like he’s bringing us a treat.

“Kai, Holo,” the chief says. “This is Dr. Meyer. He’s going to take a look at you two. Make sure you’re good and healthy.” Then he says to the old man, “Dr. Meyer, this is Holo and Kai. I’ve never met anyone like them before. They’reveryinteresting children.”

You don’t know the half of it, cop.

“You can’t surprise me anymore, Chief Greene,” the old man says airily. “I’ve seen everything under the sun.”

“You seen kids raised by wolves?”

“You bet I have,” the old liar says.

Holo and I press ourselves against the back of the cell when the doctor comes inside. I don’t want that man anywhere near me. He’s creepy and he smells like the stuff we used to clean up Holo’s pee. Also we’ve never seen a doctor in real life before, and I have no idea what he wants to do to us.

“Don’t worry, you two,” the chief says. “Dr. Meyer is Kokanee Creek’s most experienced physician.”

“Because he was a doctor for the dinosaurs,” I whisper to Holo.

“Doctor Dino,” Holo snickers.

Dr. Meyer’s too deaf to hear us making fun of him. He says, “Like Chief Greene says, I’m just here to give you two a little checkup—just to make sure you’re healthy and happy.”

“Healthy, yes,” I say. “Happy, no.”

We’ve got to get out of here.

He lifts his stethoscope and says to Holo, “How about you let me listen to your heart?”

Holo growls at him. If he had hackles, he’d raise them.

The doctor takes a step back and says, “It’s not going to hurt, buddy.”

“Holo doesn’t care aboutpain,” I say. I’ve seen my brother fall twenty feet from a tree, wipe off his bloody knees, and climb right back up again. “He cares about you keeping your veiny hands off of him.”

Dr. Meyer blinks at me in surprise. “All right, I’ll just take a seat. When you’re ready, young man, you can come to me.” He sits down on the edge of Holo’s bed. He crosses one old, creaky leg over the other.

No one says anything for a long time. The chief clears his throat. Randall keeps looking our way. The doctor whistles jauntily. We ignore them all. Holo and I can sit quiet and still for hours.Days. The woods taught us how.

Finally Dr. Meyer looks at Holo and says, “‘You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.’”

---