The Wolfman

The front door to Mama Snow’s opened. Leon stepped out with a cup of coffee in his giant hand. He crossed the street and came over to my truck. I lowered the window and took the cup.

“Nothing?” he asked in a deep, tremulous voice.

“Nope.” I took a sip, then said, “You know, if you and I put our heads together, we’d be unstoppable. You should help me.”

“I don’t know you, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.”

“Because you say so, or they do?”

“Because I say so.”

“Okay,” I said. “Still, for a vampire, you’re all right. Thanks for the coffee.”

Leon smiled and walked away. He was a man of few words, but he knew what I was doing out there.

I drank the coffee in one gulp. I was exhausted, had been running myself ragged since this whole affair started. By four, when Alice stepped out, the coffee had worn off, and I was tired. I guess that’s why I didn’t do such a good job of following her home as I usually did. At a red light I was stupid enough to pull up right behind her, no car in between.

When she got to her building, I was still driving right behind her, not thinking. She stopped short, and I almost drove into the back of her car. Before I knew it she had gotten out of the Honda and was standing outside my driver’s-side door.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she said.

“Oh, hi, Alice,” I said, doing a poor job of pretending like I had just run into her out of the crystal blue. “What’s going on?”

“Are you completely stupid, or just when it comes to following someone?” She was genuinely upset. “I guess this is why I haven’t seen you around at the house for a while. You were too busy being every other fucking place I was.”

“I wasn’t following you, Alice, I …”

“What?”

“I was just driving you home.”

I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Marley, do you think I haven’t noticed your truck lately?”

“… Have you?”

“Yes, Marley. I see your stinking truck in my dreams. I don’t like being followed, especially since Josie died.”

I sighed. “That’s why I’ve been following you, Alice.”

“Well, I don’t need your help, okay? How did you know where I live anyway?”

“It’s a small town. I’m sure you know where I live….”

“I don’t, and I don’t want to know. This is a total invasion of my privacy.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just don’t know what else to do. I don’t want anything to happen to you….”

“Stop right there,” she said. “Don’t keep talking. I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

“Alice, please …”

She stuck her finger in my face.

“If I see this truck again, I’m going to call the police,” she said, her voice loaded with venom. “This is sick.”

“It’s not sick,” I said.

“It’s scary. This is just plain fucking creepy.”

I thought I was beyond having my heart broken, but that’s what it felt like. She began to walk back to her car, but I called her back.

“Alice, wait.”

She came back to my window. I opened my dash and took out the Magnum. Her eyes grew wide, but then I took it by the barrel and held it out the window.

“Take it.”

“I’m not taking that, Marley. What the hell are you doing with that thing?”

“I’m not doing anything with it. I want you to take it. Please.”

“This town doesn’t need a vigilante, Marley. Put the gun away.”

“Take it,” I said, hard. “I was doing this for you, no one else. If you don’t want me around, fine. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be safe.”

She reluctantly took the gun.

“I … I don’t like it when people cross lines,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of fantasy you have going in your head about you and me, but I don’t want any part of it. There’s a time and place. This is my real life. You’re not in it.”

“Fine,” I said. “But be safe. Keep your eyes open. While you still have them.”

I peeled away.

The way Alice spoke to me, it felt like a betrayal. It was impossible for me not to think of my mother.

When I came back from Vietnam, she wasn’t there to meet me at the train. As you know, I was labeled a burnout, unfit for service. I was the sole survivor of my entire company. They had all been killed—ripped apart—and Charlie Company had found me wandering the jungle naked, incoherent. The only dressing I had was my tags. They tried to ask me what happened, but I didn’t know. I didn’t remember for a long time.

At the train station back Stateside, I was expecting people to fuck with me, because I’d heard stories from some of the guys back in California about men coming home and getting spit on, getting hit with eggs, getting red paint spilled on them, but no one messed with me. It was like I wasn’t even there.

My friend Ben picked me up in his Thunderbird and drove me home. I was happy to be back home where the air smelled familiar, the faces were friendly, and I didn’t have to worry anymore. I had my life back.

The house I grew up in had flower bushes all around the front, a few trees. When Ben pulled up outside, I looked at the house and smiled. It looked like a postcard. I got out with my bag and went up the walkway.

For a second, I froze. I thought I saw someone behind one of the trees. My heart rate immediately sped up, and my mouth got dry. It was just my imagination, but it took me a moment to accept that I wasn’t in hostile territory anymore.

I rang the bell and waited. I heard a dish break inside, and after a minute or so, the door opened. It was my mother. I said, “Hi, Mom,” and I began to cry.

She began to cry too, and then she grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. She had lost a husband, and though I was there in her arms, she had lost a son as well. I was not the boy who had gone off to war. I had come back a monster, but I didn’t know it yet. I thought I had some kind of disease because of the two blackouts I’d had, including the one the night of the ambush. I put my stuff down in my room, and then we got in the car and went to see

Dad.

His grave was new and clean. The letters spelling out his name and dates were recently etched, and the edges were sharp. We put flowers down, and then, once she washed away her tears, she left me there with him so I could have my time.

I had nothing to say. I wasn’t one of those people who went to a grave and related my problems and worries, and I could never imagine how anyone could. I turned around to see where my mom was, what she was doing. I could see her where we parked, her back turned to me. I looked down at the grave.

“What kind of man were you to think it was good to send me out to that fucking madness?” I hissed. “They think I’m crazy. I’m having these blackouts, and I wake up God knows where, and I’m starting to think I’m crazy too. All I wanted was to have a life, and this war … It’s for nothing, Dad. I watched guys die for a fucking jungle. Why did I have to go through that? How did it build my character? I’m sorry you left Mom alone, but we’ll worry about this later. I have to see Doris. If she’ll still have me.”

I spit on the grave and walked back to the car.

“I need to see Doris,” I said to Mom.