Chapter Two, Part Three

  Nodding back, the Sheriff rounded the corner on to Main Street where they saw quite a group of people looking in the direction of Collin’s Hardware Store.

  “Bunch of idiots, don’t they know a dangerous situation when they see one? I tell you Joey boy people just never cease to amaze me.”

  As they approached the crowd they got their first glimpse of what had gathered these people together like this.

  “Jesus,” said Joey, “would you look at the size of that thing, it’s got to be at least a 200 pounder Sheriff, and why’s it just staring at us like that?”

  “Damned if I know son, damned if I know,” whispered the Sheriff as he slowly pulled the Bronco over to the curb near the ever increasing crowd. They both got out of the Bronco at the same time, the Sheriff grabbing his rifle as he did so, carefully so as not to arouse the wolf‘s suspicion and send it into action, although he didn’t know why. There was no reason in hell that a wild animal such as this would even know what a gun was.

  The wolf just stared at them, almost as if he knew them, his jaws started to slowly move in just such a way as to make his black rubbery lips rise up in the corners.

  “What the hell is it doing Jon,” whispered Joey to the Sheriff, the fact that Joey had just called his boss by his first name, definitely meant he was scared.

  “Your guess is as good as mine junior, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look like he’s trying to smile at us. It must be as crazy as a shit-house rat though, the way it’s just standing there and sort of taking us in like that.” 

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Chapter Two, Part Three

  “Seems we got us a beast of a wolf out there for a stroll on Main Street, and if I were a betting man, which I’m not.” The sheriff said, grinning lopsidedly at Joey. “I would have to say that the beasty’s not in the right frame of mind.” At that he lazily twirled his finger around his right ear. “So we’re going to do him a great big favor son, and send him all the way back to baby Jesus.”

  “Um, Sheriff.” Billy wheezed, “About how big did Mrs. Browerton say this thing is?”

  It was well known around town that Deputy Joey Smalls wasn’t the bravest soul to ever walk the land, but he had a big heart, and the Sheriff had known Joey’s dad since kindergarten, so he tried to cut him a little bit more slack than he might normally have afforded any other young deputy.

  “Well there Daniel Boone, I’m not sure how accurate this description actually is, but according to Nancy it’s almost four feet tall at the shoulders and anywhere between 185-195 pounds.”

  Joey just stared at his boss for a minute trying to wrap his mind around what he’d just heard. “You’re not shitting me; it could really be that big?”

  There was no humor in the Sheriff’s eyes this time when he smiled, “No matter how big it is son, we have a job to do, and if this wolf is wandering around our town in the light of day, then there is something seriously wrong with him. I know that confrontation isn’t your strong suit, I never liked it much either, but I need you on your toes for this one. Loopy animals are unpredictable, and this one is close to two hundred pounds with big teeth.”

  With that the Sheriff locked eyes with Joey, “I need to know right now if I can count on you Jo, cause if I can’t, you’re no good to me. So I’m going to ask, are you with me on this one?”

  It only took him a moment, but Deputy Joey Smalls slowly nodded his assent, “I’m with you sir,” he added, making sure that the Sheriff knew that he could trust him. 


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Chapter Two, Part Two

  The sheriff of Bettles had received a call a few minutes earlier from Nancy Browerton, who lived over on Central Street about a giant timber wolf that was just roaming around the streets of town and had just about scared the life out of her and her son Tommy.

 Sheriff Jon Brown knew a thing or two about timber wolves, and he knew that there was no way that one of these fellows would just wander into town on it’s own unless it was crazy or rabid, or both. If it was as big as Nancy claimed, he knew for double sure it wouldn’t just wander into town, the big ones usually lived way out in the wild barrens of Alaska and wouldn’t come this close to civilization.

  Occasionally a small gray, or a brown would be seen on the outskirts of town, but these were generally small wolves, that were probably looking for a garbage can to ransack or a chicken to steal. So why a giant timber would be roaming the streets of Bettles, seemingly oblivious to the people who lived here was beyond the sheriff’s comprehension, unless it really was mad.

  After receiving the call, Sheriff Jon Brown quickly snatched up his silver tinted cop shades, the very same ones Ponch had worn on C.H.I.P.S, God he loved that crappy old cop show, his 30-30 hunting rifle and his deputy, Joey Smalls. Jumping into his Ford Bronco, the deputy asked him what was going on, and why the hell were they in such a hurry about it?

Chapter Two

  The wolf was walking down the Main Street sidewalk of Bettles like it had not a care in the world. It was even stopping to look into some of the various storefront’s windows, not just cursory glances either, it was taking long thoughtful looks at whatever happened to be on display at these stores. When the wolf got to Collin’s hardware store, it really seemed to be taking stock of what was on display.

  They had all sorts of things in that window, everything from fishing poles, to the latest Black and Decker cordless tools. Camping equipment, rifles, and even a couple of old truck parts were displayed in all their glory, and the wolf seemed to be looking at all of it.

  The beast seemed especially interested in an old Remington 30-30 bolt action hunting rifle, maybe it recognized it from when a hunter had taken out one his pack mates. On the other hand, if you were watching carefully, it looked like the beast was actually slowly and methodically checking out the different aspects of the weapon. Crazy as it may sound, the wolf wasn’t looking at the gun like it had killed his Pa, it was looking at the gun like it wanted to walk right in to Collin’s place, throw down $189.95, and walk back out with it.

  Just then the sounds of a siren could be heard all through the sleepy little town. Sirens weren’t heard very often in Bettles, so when you did hear one it was either a false alarm, or something big was going down. From seemingly out of nowhere, a crowd of people had started to gather across the street from the hardware store, silently watching the curious creature examining the goods in the storefront window.

 

  Bettles was an old frontier town so the streets weren’t all that wide, in some areas of town the roads were still paved with cobblestones. As narrow as the streets were, they didn’t provide all that much distance between the crowd and the beast. If the wolf were to all of a sudden take notice of his fan club, there’s no doubt he could have been in the middle of them in seconds flat. Aware of the imminent danger, they still didn’t seem to care, nobody had ever seen a wolf this big before, especially one brazen enough to walk down their streets in broad daylight.

Chapter One, Part Four

  The woman and her son continued to watch the wolf as it walked down the street, seemingly taking in all the sights as it went, it seemed to her as though the great beast were on a Sunday stroll, sauntering along without a care in the world, not at all acting like the wild predator that it was.

  When they felt like the animal had put enough distance between them, she turned and ran into the house without even looking back to see if the wolf had changed its mind. Putting her son down she asked him if he was ok, meekly replying that he was, she went into the kitchen to call the town’s sheriff, and tell him that there was a mad wolf casually roaming the streets of their fair town terrorizing its citizens.

  When she was finished talking to the sheriff’s office she hung up the phone and tried to recount the last bits of her encounter with the wolf. There was something nagging at the back of her mind about the way the wolf had looked at her and her son. There was something there, something she just couldn’t quite put her finger on, but she knew it was there. What was it?

  At the time she had been paralyzed with fear, but now that she was calmed down a bit she remembered something about the way the wolf had looked at them. There didn’t seem to be any rage in its eyes, it didn’t seem to exude the white hot hatred of a predator trying to intimidate its prey. Now that she thought about it a little more, it seemed as though the beast had a thoughtful look in its eyes, almost like it was trying to say hello.

  
  “Hell, if that were the case, then maybe when it was baring it’s teeth at us it wasn’t really trying to scare the ever-loving crap out of us, maybe it was just trying to smile and say lovely day for a stroll don’t you think?” She said to herself laughing out loud at the absurdity of it. Falling back on the couch next to her son, she looked at him and exclaimed, “I must be going crazy.”

Chapter One, Part Three

This time the boy moved his head about a half an inch forward and then back again, the movement was so slow that it was almost imperceptible.

 

“Alright,” she said, “lets move, but remember, go slow and I’ll guide you.”

 

Bracing herself for the excruciatingly long backwards journey to the front porch of their house, she took in a deep breath, being careful not to make any sudden movements and waited for her son to take his first step. The whole time she was standing there she made sure that she maintained eye contact with the wolf, as she was doing so, she could have sworn that the beast’s gaze kept wandering back and forth between her and her son.

  Before her son could take his first step backwards towards the house, the wolf’s lips started to peel back away from his teeth in an upward arc towards the corners of its mouth forming a rictus of repulsion. As it did so, row after row of razor sharp, yellow stained, monstrous teeth were revealed. Though never daring to express it out loud, the woman thought to herself, “my God, this is it!”

  She was so afraid that this monstrous killing machine was ready to attack, that she decided to throw caution to the wind and just grab her son and make a run for the house. Not knowing in the least what was going on, all the air that the boy had been holding in his lungs whooshed out of him when his mother scooped him up in the only way it could, a high pitched, fear-filled scream.

  Throughout all the commotion, the wolf stayed exactly where he was, the gruesome rows of fangs that had been on display just moments before, disappeared behind his black rubbery lips. After giving the mother and her son the scare of their lives, he spared them one last golden eyed glance before he pointed his head back down Center Street and casually resumed his trek towards the Bettles, Alaska business district.

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Chapter 1, Part 2

  As it sauntered along, its huge chest rose and fell not unlike a bellows in an old blacksmith’s forge. Should you be close enough to hear, its breathing would have sounded like a laboring locomotive forcing its steam up out of the stack. With each long step it took its paws slapped the pavement with a purpose, and when the monster picked up speed it almost sounded like someone methodically clapping.

 

  Continuing down Center street it stopped to look at a small child who was playing in the front yard of his house, it was a cold day so the youngster was pretty well bundled up, including a scarf that was wrapped around his face leaving only his eyes exposed, but the fear the child was experiencing shone through his eyes as if it were painted on a sign that he was displaying in his hand. Frozen to the spot in the yard where he had first seen the wolf, all he could do was stare back at the huge animal in silent anticipation of what the beast might do

  Inside the young man’s house his mother happened to look out the window to check on her son and saw what was stopped out on the sidewalk in front of her house staring at her son from less than twenty feet away. As horrified as she was at the sight of the giant wolf, she knew she had to do something, after all there was an animal outside big enough to eat her small child in a couple of tasty bites.

  All she could think to do was to slowly approach her son, being careful not to make any sudden movements, wild animals tend to be jittery and the last thing she wanted to do was provoke an attack. The wolf was close enough to both herself and her son that there was no way she could get them both to safety before being ripped to pieces. Her heart was beating so hard that she swore she could actually hear it pounding in her ears. Although she was only a few feet from her son, she felt miles away. With every tension filled step all she was able to think about was that any second the monster on the sidewalk was going to explode; like a coiled spring, teeth gnashing, and bits of raw meat from its last meal spraying out of its mouth as it springs toward them in a blood fueled fury.

  The wolf never moved it just stared back at them, almost as if it wanted to see what they would do. The mother took another step towards her son, nothing. Another step and still the wolf didn’t move a muscle. What did it want? Finally she reached the boy, standing behind him she slowly put her hand on his shoulder, as she did she felt his body stiffen like somebody had squeezed all of the air out of him.  

 

  “Son,” she said, “I want you to listen to me very carefully, if we don’t make any sudden movements, I don’t think it will attack. Here’s what I want you to do. When I say now, I want you to start walking backwards towards the house one step at a time. When you start to go, I’m going to match you step for step and guide you up the stairs and into the house. Now nod very slowly if you understand me.”

 

  The boy continued his impersonation of a statue, his body still frozen with fear. It was almost as if he didn’t even know that his mother was there behind him. When she gently squeezed his shoulder though, he seemed to snap out of it, “Do you understand,” she repeated.

 

Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting installment-JRH

Chapter One

  It was a warm afternoon being this late in the fall; all the leaves had changed color, going from a painter’s palette of brilliant oranges, reds and yellows, painting the landscape prettier than Bob Ross could ever have imagined, to a cold dusky brown. Now they were fluttering to the ground in a last desperate act, creating Mother Nature’s blanket for the winter. The sun was just tickling the tops of the trees, dancing in and out the branches as if it were some golden-giant’s fingers being run through a head of hair.

    

  That’s when the beast waltzed out of the woods like it was on a Sunday stroll; it walked about twenty yards down Mayfair Street, and then turned left onto Center Street heading directly for downtown Bettles, Alaska. The thing was huge even by Timber wolf standards; it had to be almost four feet tall at the shoulders, and a good 185 pounds if not more. The wolf was a dirty brownish gray color, though it was hard to tell due to the matting of it’s fur, and all the dirt and grime  it seemed to have collected all over it’s massive body. Looking into it’s eyes you would almost swear that there was something going on in there, something calculating, thoughtful, something……….human.