I had to sit on my hands to keep from snatching up the bowl she put in front of me. But I still had to wait for Kim and Paul.
At last they showed up. “Smells good, Mom,” said Paul, sliding into his seat.
“Not stew again,” complained Kim. “Yuck!”
I stared at her in amazement and then looked at my bowl. Big chunks of meat and earthy-smelling vegetables. What could be better? My stomach growled. I didn’t think I could stand to wait another second.
“We can’t have spaghetti every night, Kim,” said her mother. “Just eat what you can.”
I watched Mrs. Parker for the signal to start eating. When she started eating, the rest of us could, too. At least that’s how it always was with Wolfmother.
Finally Mrs. Parker finished dishing out the food. Then she took her napkin and spread it carefully in her lap.
Quickly I did the same. The meat smell was making me dizzy with hunger. I eyed the juicy chunks longingly.
Then Mrs. Parker looked around the table. “Everyone have what they need? Good.”
At long last she broke off a piece of bread and dipped it in her stew. The signal! We could eat!
I buried my face in the bowl, filling my nose with the scent. Growling with pleasure, I grabbed the first chunk of meat with my teeth, feeling the juices spurt as I bit down. Mmmmm, good!
I lapped up the rich gravy and wolfed down the vegetables, chomping them together with the tender meat. It was so delicious I hardly remembered to chew.
Too soon, it was all gone. I looked up, wondering if there was more.
A shock of alarm jolted through me. The whole family was staring at me.
“Wow,” said Paul. “Cool!”
But no one else seemed to think so.
I wanted to crawl under the table in embarrassment. I’d been so overcome by the delicious smell and all the waiting, I’d completely forgotten about forks. Humans had such complicated eating habits and they were very particular about them.
“Gross,” said Kim, looking disgusted. “No offense, Gruff, but only dogs eat like that. And wolves, I guess. People use forks.”
Suddenly I was aware of the grease glistening on my face. I wiped at it with my fingers, wondering what would happen to me now.
“Use your napkin to wipe your face, Gruff,” said Mrs. Parker gently. “And don’t mind Kim. It’s true that’s not the way we eat but we don’t expect you to learn all our ways all at once.” She broke into a wide grin. “Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone enjoy a bowl of my stew quite so much.”
It was so hard learning all the rules of being a human.
Would I ever get it right?
What horrible mistake would I make next?
Chapter 17
That night I woke to moonlight in my face. Startled, I sat up quickly, my heart racing. Something had woken me from a sound sleep.
The moonlight? But the moonlight was faint. It was only a quarter moon and the light was barely enough to outline the shapes of furniture in my room. Surely that hadn’t awakened me. And everything was quiet. Even the breeze barely stirred the curtains at my window.
So what had snapped me out of a deep sleep? What was it that made my heart race with fright?
My eye kept going to the dark outline of the window. Something was out there.
I didn’t want to get up and look but I had to. A strange urgency told me to hurry. I pushed off the bedclothes and ran to the window.
At first I didn’t see anything. The street was quiet. The backyard was in deep shadow, the moonlight showing only in dim patches through the trees.
Then a figure moved. Dressed in white, it looked like a ghost flitting from shadow to shadow. I stared harder, trying to make out who—or what—it was.
But it disappeared behind a tree and I saw nothing. Had I imagined it? It was so dark and so late. Perhaps all I’d seen was a piece of paper blowing in the breeze.
No—there it was again! Moving slowly, almost floating, the white figure came out of the shadows. Moonlight touched its head and it looked up.
It wasn’t a ghost! It was Kim!
I opened my mouth to shout her name out the window but a worried feeling stopped me. It seemed important to be quiet, although I didn’t know why.
Kim vanished into another dark pool of shadow and then reappeared, farther away. There was a strange, jerky motion to the way she was moving.
And she was heading for the woods!
Again I started to call out and again I stopped myself.
Something might hear me.
And it wouldn’t be Kim.
Kim was walking into the swamp. And she looked like the living dead.
Chapter 18
I had to stop Kim from disappearing into the woods!
Without even pausing to put on my sneakers I flew out of my room and down the stairs.
I had a bad moment when I got to the kitchen and saw the back door standing partway open. Anything could have gotten in. But there was no time to worry about that now. I slipped out the door and shut it behind me.
But where was Kim? I dashed across the yard and down toward the woods where I had last seen her. There was no sign of her.
Could she have reached the woods already? Was she heading for the swamp?
Uncertain which way to go, afraid to cry out, I looked around, my eyes darting every which way. But it was so dark I couldn’t see two feet in front of me. Dread curled in a cold ball in my stomach as the seconds ticked by. What if I couldn’t find Kim?
I hurried toward the next clump of trees. She wasn’t there. I was getting very close to the woods and the trees were getting thicker. No moonlight pierced the thick leaves above me.
The night was
