Page 13 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

The word echoed through my mind, something beautiful and sacred. I had been alone for so, so long, and now I wasn’t. It was overwhelming in a painful, beautiful way and, once again, my mind was growing confused from it all.

But that confusion couldn’t take away from the beauty, not even when it grew dark, and the woman looked out the window with a sigh.

“It’s time for you to get some rest.”

Ah. I was being dismissed.

I didn’t want to go, but I understood that she was asking me kindly, so I should respect her wishes. Letting out a sound I couldn’t rightly define, I retreated to the greenhouse.

But even though I was alone again, I felt so much less lonely.

Maybe soon we could sing together again?

7

VANESSA

Imindlessly stocked shelves as I replayed the incident of the previous day in my head. In the growing drama between my cats, Fork had decided to sleep right on top of the much smaller Mudpie, pinning her to the tallest perch on the cat tree in the living room. That had been a splurge purchase the previous year which I couldn’t reallyafford, but that’s what tax-returns were for, right? Buying little things that made life easier or more pleasant in order to endure all the drudgery and bullshit for the rest of the year.

I had just finished extracting my extremely clingy, orange-flavored son from his tortie sister when I returned to the kitchen to find a literal wolf partially in my doorway.

And somehow, that wasn’t the start of a horror story. In fact, everything had turned out all right. Better than all right, really. He’d kept me company while I did my mundane nightly chores: washing the dishes, sweeping, mopping, making my lunch for the next day. And I’d even managed tosingwith him.

I had to be crazy. That was the only solution. Especially since I was missing the freaking wolf.

I was so concerned with what that could mean, I didn’t realize someone was approaching me until the man cleared his throat a foot or so away from me. I nearly screamed yet again—I’d been doing a lot of that lately—but this time managed to tamp down the instinct.

“Hello?” I asked the young man. He was around my age, with light blond hair and green eyes, a touch taller and fairly fit. Probably a runner if I had to take a guess. Maybe from the local college.

“Hey, I hope you don’t mind me approaching you while you’re busy, but I was hoping to get your number?”

I blinked at him. Then blinked again, and then a little more for good measure. All sorts of emotions were going through me. From alarm to shock, and a whole lot of suspicion. I wasnotthe type of girl men randomly approached. Ever.

In fact, the only time I’d been asked out in such a way had been in high school, when the douchey boys thought it would be hilarious to prank me by?—

A snicker at the end of the aisle drew my attention, and I looked past the guy to see Tiffany duck behind a shelf.

Oh. It was a setup.

It really was high school all over again. Like I needed any of that.

“I know you probably think you’re really hilarious right now, but you’re not, and you can tell Tiffany that,” I said tersely. “Actually, wait. I can do that myself.”

Without missing a beat, I marched over to where Tiffany was still ducked behind the end cap like a kid playing hide and seek. How immature could she get? We were all adults. At least I thought we were.

“Your prank sucks,” I said matter-of-factly. Tiffany’s eyebrows went up like she was about to argue, but I wasn’t in the mood. “Save it. And why don’t you get some work done instead of goofing off so much. I’m tired of picking up your slack.”

It was the most direct I’d ever been with her, but honestly, it was a long it coming, and it felt damn good. Perhaps my manager was right. Maybe I did need to stop being such a doormat.

With those two dealt with, I returned to work. For the rest of my shift, I pretended Tiffany didn’t exist, but on the inside, I was reminded of the fact that someone being attracted to me, someone liking me, would always be a joke.

I hated that I was constantly leaving work in a foul mood, so I wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows on my bike ride home. I tried not to dwell, I really did, because there was so much worse going on in the world. But still, as I locked my bike up outside of my house, my heart was still heavy.

“Mudpie, Goober, Fork, I’m home!” I called, just like I did every time I returned to work, but even that was weighed down in the mire building in my chest.

Tiffany was a shitty person, and I shouldn’t let her get to me, but ever since my mother died, it was like I’d been a pariah to all those around me. Like they could sense something about me wasn’t right. It wasn’t like I didn’t deserve it. If I hadn’t been so selfish, if I hadn’t been such a fucking coward, an idiot, then maybe my mother would still be alive. And if she was alive, we would have grown up together. A happy family, just the two of us. Then my aunt never would have hated me. So much would be different.

Unfortunately, there were no do-overs in life, so even if I wished there were, even if I wished there was something about me that was redeemable enough to have someone love me, it wasn’t going to happen.

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