. . .

Each time — each time Mr. Gulley does this, each time he finds any reason or any circumstance to get close to the wolf — he berates himself. He feels sick with it. He tells himself that he must stop; or he tells himself that it is not his fault, that he is tangled.

Mostly he just keeps reminding himself: this is how your father died.

A fey sickness comes over him. He becomes obsessed with it. He stares into the mirror and thinks how the wolf will eat him. He practices witty parting lines.

“My head will be a bitter meal, wolf-breath!” he tries.

“Biting my neck will come back and bite you in the butt, see if it won’t!”

It is difficult to come up with a suitably witty parting line. In the end he consults with Ms. Dalca, who proposes: “At last I am free of you.”

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