– 5 –

Mr. Gulley cannot love the wolf.

He tries but it is not in him. It is too much for him. Rather he does love it, he cannot help but love it, but he cannot stop the hatred for it that also grows.

It is in him, the wolf is in Edmund Gulley, it is wound through him and within him, and the chains of that slip and cut in the chambers of his spirit until he is ragged with it, until he cannot bear it, until his fear and guilt and shame at being the owner of the wolf, and the wolf-gold, are too much for him to bear.

He hits the wolf. It is pitiable. He beats it with his fists and he cannot do anything more with this than ruffle his great wolf’s fur.

He screams at it. He yells at it. He tells it that it is a bad wolf and it should not eat people —

And the specific time that he says that, he whispers, “Especially not father,” and he slumps crying against the great warm wall that is its fur.

The wolf looks away as if it shares his shame.

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