Page 11 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“You remember I have a front door, right? And a back door? The screen door’s been fixed and everything.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I only ask because you’re hung up in my basement window.”
The child grunted and wriggled forward another inch. “I’m mostly all. The way.Through,” she gasped.
“Is it possible that you were a bear cub a minute earlier and changed back at the worst possible time?”
“I couldn’t help it!”
“Couldn’t help it? So that…” Lila gestured at her. “That just happens? Anytime? Or during a full moon?”
“What’s the moon gotta do with it? Usually I mean for it to happen,” she mumbled. “But sometimes I slip.”
“Might as well slip down here, then.” Lila reached up, caught the kid–cub under her armpits, and pulled with careful pressure.
“Careful!”
“Iam,” she almost-but-not-quite snapped, then carefully lowered the kiddo to the cement floor.
The child blinked up at her in the basement’s poor light. “D’you have pizza? Last night you talked about pizza.”
“Last night I talked about several things.”
“Yeah, but is there pizza?”
There was.
* * *
“So, your leg seems better.”
“Mmff? Uh-huh.” The girl glanced down at herself. She was barefoot in the clothes she’d tossed into Lila’s basement before changing or transforming or warping or whatever the hell werebears did: jeans that were too big and a sweatshirt she swam in. “Wasn’t so bad. S’not like the bone was sticking out or anything.”
“No, I think I would have noticed that last night. And you wouldn’t be here right now if you had a compound fracture twelve hours ago. You’re not even limping.”
“Compound fracture, yuck! D’you have to learn that stuff to drive your ambulance?”
“It’s not an ambulance. Here, put these on. The bottoms of your feet are coal black. Next time, steal socks, too.” Lila, who had liberated clothing from more than one laundromat during her juvie phase, and also three years ago when she drove into Lake Minnetonka, was in no position to judge. So she just handed over a pair of thick red socks. Judging by the unruly mop of black waves, the kid probably should have liberated a brush, too. “And speaking of last night…”
“I know! It’s how come I’m here.”
“Again,” Lila prompted. “It’s how come you’re here again.”
“Well, yeah.”
“Are you in trouble? Wait.” Stupid question. Bear-Girl was obviously, clearly, completely in trouble. “How much trouble are you in?”
“I just haveta find my—” She cut herself off, put down the pizza and blushed, hard. It was remarkable to see; one minute you could see the golden undertones in her complexion, and the next she was doing a flawless impersonation of a beefsteak tomato. “Sorry, I just ’membered, I don’t know your name.”
“Lila Kai.”
“I’m Sally Smalls.”
“Are you really?” Lila asked, delighted. “That’s not a name, that’s a mythical elfin creature from an enchanted forest. Or a cartoon character.”
“I’m not a cartoon. I like forests, though. Your house goes right up against the woods!”
