I was interested though I’d never seen such long worms. It took forever to wind the slippery things onto my fork thing. The worms kept falling off when I got them almost to my mouth. Kim almost choked laughing and bits of chewed white worm spilled down her chin.
Finally I managed to get some into my mouth. Mmm. Good. And they were easier to chew than most of the food I was used to.
I stuck my fork back in and once again the worms fell off. I could starve to death at this rate. Everyone else was half done. Soon they’d be sniffing at mine.
I took a bite of meatball. The taste exploded in my mouth. Meat, but not like real meat. It was all grainy bits stuck together, but it was delicious. I dove into the worms for another try.
“Maybe I ought to cut that spaghetti up for you, Gruff,” said Mrs. Parker, taking my plate.
Kim giggled. I couldn’t see what was funny, but it didn’t matter because now I could fork up spaghetti by the mouthful. In a minute I was done. When I looked up, the whole family was staring at me.
I stiffened in fear. Could they see somehow that I wasn’t like them? Could they see what I really was?
But they weren’t staring like my wolf family had done the first night of the wereing. This was different. More a wondering, apart kind of staring.
“I’ve never seen anyone eat so fast,” said Mrs. Parker with a small breathless laugh. “Would you like some more?”
I tensed up again. Was she offering me her own portion? Wolfmother hadn’t done that since I was old enough to chew for myself. Did Mrs. Parker think I was a helpless baby?
“No, po-leese,” I said, in my rusty-hinge voice. Mrs. Parker was always telling Paul and Kim to say “please” and “thank you” when they spoke to her.
Unlike the wolves, humans sat at the table and waited until everyone else was done eating. And nobody snatched anything from anyone else’s plate. It was all so strange, so very strange.
With my belly full of worm-spaghetti, I suddenly felt so sleepy I could hardly hold my head up.
Finally Mrs. Parker pushed back her chair. “I’ve fixed up the guest room for you, Gruff. Paul, show him where it is and lend him some pajamas.”
Pajamas? What was pajamas? Was pajamas going to be as scary as taking a bath?
Chapter 46
Pajamas turned out to be the softest, most colorful clothes I’d ever seen. “That’s what we wear to bed,” Paul explained.
I wondered why they didn’t wear them all the time, they were so comfortable, but I wasn’t yet sure enough of the words to ask. I liked the feel of these skins but I was worried about these humans. They were so used to warm water and soft clothes. Even with their wonderful weapons they were too trusting to save themselves from the werewolves. They didn’t even realize they had taken a monster into their den.
“And just in case you haven’t figured it out, this is a bed,” Paul said. He bounced on the thing called a bed. “You sleep here, okay?”
I nodded. I knew what sleep was. I sighed, wondering where my wolf family was sleeping tonight.
“Another thing,” Paul said. “See these little button things? These are light switches.”
He clicked one on and the room went dark. I jumped, frightened. He clicked the switch again and the light came back on, just like magic.
“Turn that out when you’re ready,” he said. “Or I guess you can sleep with the lights on if you’re scared.”
“Not sk-eered,” I said.
“Great,” he said with a yawn. “See you in the morning.”
He left, closing the door. I was alone. I shut off the lights—now the room was more like my old wolf den. The darkness was comforting, but I missed my family. Would I ever be a human? Would I ever see Wolfmother again?
I felt uneasy. Light drew me to the window.
The moon. It wasn’t full now—it had no special power over me—but still it called to me.
I thought of my wolf family out there somewhere. Would they have found a new den yet? Probably not. Leaper and Snapjaw would be frightened. I wished I was there to help Wolf-mother calm them.
But there was something about this human family that stirred deep feelings inside me, too. Even though I was always doing things a little wrong and making people laugh, I felt like I knew them.
Things were strange, but some things were familiar, too. Part of me that had been asleep for a long, long time was waking up. I was afraid of the future but excited, too. Maybe I could belong here.
But my eye caught the moon again and my spirits fell. What would happen with the next full moon? I would become a monster again, that’s what.
I’d have to leave this place and my new friends. I had to go back to the swamp and find a place to hide before the next full moon. I couldn’t take a chance on letting a monster—me—loose in Fox Hollow.
I sighed and was starting to turn away from the window when a man came down the street. He turned off the road and headed toward the woods. Then he stopped.
He seemed to be waiting for something.
The hairs on the back of my neck bristled. There was something very strange about the way the man was acting.
I kept watching.
After a few minutes more men appeared in the street. They came from several directions. They joined the first man and together they started toward the woods. What were they doing out there?
They all stopped in a patch of silver moonlight.
One by one they threw their heads back and opened their mouths. No sound came out—they were howling silently!
Somehow I knew what was going to happen next. And it did.
Suddenly their clothing burst at the seams and fell away from
