“Until the tank gets here, we’re going to try to control it as best we can.”

Another fireman put a blanket on me and one on Gloria. “Just let it go,” she said.

“I’m sorry, ma’am?”

“Burn itself out. There’s no point trying to save it. The place is destroyed. Not like there’s anything of value in there.”

He scritched his head. “We’re going to do everything we can.”

“Yeah.” Gloria laughed, but it wasn’t a friendly laugh. “I heard that before.” Then she yelled, “Chicken! Get away from there.”

I watched Chicken. He was glued to the side of the house. He was back at that same spot, digging his claws at the cement. He pawed away the pile of rocks Gloria had put there over the dead bird. Then he scritched off a square piece of plastic on the vent. With his snout pushed in, he pulled stuffing out of the vent with his teeth. It looked like old grocery bags or T-shirts. He was whining and circling like he had a bellyache from the pork chop bones. They were sharp and pointy, but he chewed them down.

“Chickennnnnn!” Gloria screamed at him.

He barked and barked.

My head was full of cotton.

The blanket fireman said, “He’ll be fine, ma’am. He’ll know when to move. Animals have an instinctual fear of fire.”

Smacking at her leg, she kept yelling. “Chicken. C’mon. Get over here!”

But he wouldn’t listen. He must’ve made her disappear. He banged the rocks with his paws. He poked his nose into a hole in the house. I knew what he smelled. I couldn’t pretend. My fingers pinched my leg. My leg hurt. It really hurt. That vent went like a snake into the basement.

Into the basement bathroom.

Where the wolf was hiding.

The lid on my box was rattling and bumping. I couldn’t look at Chicken. I squeezed my eyes shut.

But I couldn’t keep at it.

I knew he was down there.

I knew.

I knew.

I knew.

I knew.

I knew.

ROWAN

I dreamt I was underneath the bridge, the coolness coating my spotted skin, a new island coming out near my left elbow. Carl handed me segment after segment of an orange. Girl trotted over to lick me beneath my lip, and I smelled the sweet smell from Carl’s fire.

The sweet smell from Carl’s fire.

My eyes flicked open. In the darkness of that box, I could taste it. Only a faint, sour thread, but there it was on my tongue. I sneezed, sniffed again. It didn’t fade back into my dream.

Smoke.