Wolf & Remi

 

These last few weeks felt like a haze of some sort. Just when you thought it might be spring, a snowstorm came out of nowhere. Then a storm came up like it might be a snow hurricane. The little trailer was probably no better than a shanty. It swayed like it might lose its balance. He and Remi were both scared. And it was warmer sleeping together. March was just as cold as it always was in the heartland. 

Honestly, Wolf wasn't prepared for anything. He knew it would be tough to be on his own. Still, it felt like someone was watching over him. Maybe his mom had loved him all along. Of course, his uncle had always wanted him to be a fighter. Fight for what was his, even if he was the lone wolf.

Wolf wasn't really acknowledged by her girls. He was the only boy. And it was best to stay out of the family drama. He'd done so all his life. After all, his mother was the one who left him with an uncle out in the middle of nowhere. 

"I don't know, she must have thought something was wrong with me," Wolf finally confessed to Remi. It was just too painful to think about because he remembered her so well, sometimes. But she was even old then. "They must have told  her something." He nodded as he watched Remi eat the chili dog he'd made for supper as if it was her favorite food. Of course, he didn't know how to make many things but give him a can of chili and he would make do with what was in the fridge.

"Who are they?" Remi wanted to know as if it was a big mystery they needed to solve so he could just go home, but there really wasn't one to go to. His uncle was in an old folks' home now. They'd sold the place so his uncle could go on living.

"I don't know. Maybe the school." He was straight-lipped about it. It was always a mystery to him. No one wanted him to talk. Therefore he'd never asked.

"Nothing is wrong with you," she told him as if she might be channeling his mother. He looked around at the tiny place. Could her ghost be here? It gave him a slight shiver, but really he was too tired to care anymore. 

His back was hurting from moving furniture and boxes at his job, but somehow he sufficed. And he'd never believed in that kind of supernatural ghost thing anyway. 

"I just wish, I had a picture of her and me together." Tears welled up in his eyes and when he tasted the hot pickled jalapenos in the chili dog, he thought he might choke. How did Remi do it? She was on her second helping already.

He sniffed back the tears and went on. There was no going back. Didn't he know that by now?

Well, he did cook for her. The least Remi could do was walk on his back for his backache only that hadn't helped any. It wasn't easy to show kindness. She'd always been one to take what she wanted. Giving back really wasn't in her nature. But she'd learned a lot from Brandon over the weeks. She couldn't hate either of them. They seemed to be here for her even if she thought they were on Yuki's side.

She'd told Wolf a little of this, but she didn't know if he was listening. Half the time he was searching the place for something, but there wasn't anything of his mother's here.

"They took all that stuff," Remi told him early on, but it didn't stop his search. It was funny how he seemed to forget about this quest and then he'd wake up in the night as if he needed to find proof of something.

She was beginning to think the old woman wasn't his mother anyway. Wouldn't he have been weird in some way? Especially, since she was an alcoholic and he didn't look to be damaged in any way. Although, she didn't really want to notice. Of course, she was certain she might have liked him better if he had been a woman. 

There were times she told him, "You are such a girl." It made her laugh now when she thought about it. Of course, he didn't think it was funny. Was it that funny that he actually would sweep and clean that oven she'd put off doing?

 "I've never used it," Remi explained. Of course, he took to it as if maybe he'd find a treasure. Instead just some old newspapers and unpaid bills. Another dead end for his search.

She never walked on his back again because he was sure she was trying to kill him and it wasn't all that warm of a spring yet to attempt it again on the picnic table out back. But sometimes, she'd rub his shoulders down with ICY HOT and act like she knew what she was doing. 

"You just need to find better work," Remi said she knew of places he could work that would pay more.

"I'm not good at talking to people," he said.

"Well, you talk to me just fine," she told him he needed to get some new ideas or he'd be stuck with this manual labor forever. "You work well with others." She said there would always be others. They might not be your family and maybe that would make it that much easier. It was easy to see others suffering and yet it felt impossible to take care of her own problems.