“You don’t want to miss your ride.” He lifted his hand and shook it. “No. I’m serious, Dot.” He sounded irritated. “You can’t just decide to keep one. He’s not a sweater or a stone.” He closed his eyes, shook his head.

I understood what he was arguing about. What the invisible woman in his head wanted. My mind flew toward a cottony what if? This man was eccentric but friendly. He had a cozy shelter and blankets and food and a fire. I’d managed to stay one night. Why couldn’t I stay another? It would be the best adventure. He didn’t mind me hanging around, and besides, no one would miss me.

That wasn’t true; Maisy would miss me. Her pale face was probably watching the woods right now. I stood up.

“Do you know the way?”

“Sure,” I said. Orange and pink light filtered through the trees.

I asked one last question. “Are there any wolves in these woods?”

“Wolves?” His laughter sounded like it came from deep within him. As though he had a wonderful and endless supply of it. “No.”

“None?”

“Not a single one,” he said. “Urh. Not for a hundred years.”

“Oh,” I said. “Oh.”

—

I was back beneath the sign for only five minutes when I heard Gloria clomping through the woods. I’d know her heavy foot anywhere.

“I hope you learned your lesson” was all she said.

MAISY

“Were you scared in the woods?”

The rain was stopped, but all the water was still gushing around. Rowan said we could look in the ditches around the circle. That was fun. Sometimes good stuff came floating by.

“No, I wasn’t scared.”

“Not a bit?”

“No, Turtle. Not one bit.”

He always called me that. Turtle. He said I hid inside my shell too much.

“You want to know what Gloria said?”

“Not really. But tell me.”

“She said if you acted like a wolf, you got to live like a wolf.”

Rowan laughed, and he curled his fingers up and grrr-ed real loud. I jumped.

“That’s funny,” he said. “It’s just a dumb lie to frighten you.”

“It’s not,” I said. Gloria never told lies. There were wolves in the woods. I never saw none, but she said when they’re hungry they come right into our backyard looking for children. She told me never to trust a wolf. Not all of them had fur and pointy ears. A wolf could look like anybody.

We walked around our circle. The water in the ditch was dirty brown and I used a stick to stir it.

“Well, did you see any?”

“No, Maisy. And no aliens or murderers or anything stupid like that. Nothing but a few possums, maybe. Birds, sleeping. I kind of liked it.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I didn’t have to listen to Gloria complain about Telly.”