I walk back into the house, up the stairs and into my old bedroom. It’s still ratty and abandoned, with only a bed pushed up against the wall and a dirty mattress on it. But that doesn’t matter. I just start another story in my head—

Once upon a time . . .

—and reach under the mattress. I don’t know if it’s really there, or if it’s only there because I believe it’s there, but I pull out that old Ellen Wentworth storybook that I read and reread as a kid. The book where I first met Mattie through “Prince Teddy Bear”—the story Wentworth told about her.

I flip through the book, past familiar illustrations, then there it is.

The one of Mattie and her bear.

I reach under the mattress once more and this time my questing fingers find a pencil. I sit on the floor under the window so that the light comes in over my shoulder. Opening the book to the end, where there are some blank pages, I get to work.

Joe

“Honey was a city dog, wasn’t she?” Jack asked as they approached the arroyo where Joe had met up with her earlier when it was still light.

Joe nodded. “Bred for the fighting pits.”

“So what’s she doing here?”

“I’d guess trying to put as much distance between herself and the crap that was her life.”

Jack nodded. “Good point.”

“Do me a favour,” Joe said.

“What’s that?”

“Play it cool.”

“You mean with those dogs that are circling around us that we’re not supposed to know are there?”

“They don’t know you, and I’m not sure they really trust me.”

“Can’t I just give them the ghost of a scare? Shake up their lives a little?”

“Jack . . .”

“Hey, it’s cool. I’m just mouthing off. Do what you need to do. I’m only here to watch your back.”

Joe nodded. They were almost at the arroyo now, and the circling dogs used the cover of darkness to work their way closer, not realizing that the two canids could read scents from the wind as readily as they could. That their hearing was also as good, if not better.

Joe stopped and sank down to the red dirt, easing into a cross-legged position. Jack followed suit, keeping his back to Joe so that he faced the other direction.

“You let her know we’re here yet?” Jack asked.

“Soon as we touched down in these badlands. She’s on her way.”

But before Honey reached them, a ghostly presence took shape in front of Joe. Looking at Anwatan brought Walker’s face to Joe’s mind. The sorrow of having lost a child that lay so deep in the cerva’s eyes.

Can you come with me now? she asked.

“I’m kind of busy. I need to deal with my other problem before I get to yours.”