Another Poem by Wolf’s Cub (Sanctum)

At a distance, on a hill, there stands a tower

Where the crumbled stones grow amidst the flowers.

The villagers told me of the tower’s legend

Of the brave villagers who swore to defend.

At night, the fireflies gather at the tower’s needle

Their bright, scattered pattern wards off unneccassary evil.

At least, I want to believe that

Instead of the more likely case of Mortal Combat.

A Story Between Wolf and Cub

It was yester night that we had our talk on the grass outside our cabin.  We looked up at the night sky as the tiny green pins were crushed under our weight. I pointed to The Big and Little Dippers, Orion’s Belt, and The Three Wisemen and told her where their names came from.

She wrinkled her round nose at the thought. Her long braids providing an obstacle for that traveling ant and, though it was faint, I could see her dark, brown eyes counting and tracking each dot in the sky. She did look a lot like her, especially the mocha skin. That’s what made it easier to tell her that she was beautiful. Nevertheless, I would hold myself back and tell her she looks just like her mother. It seemed to make her happy enough.

I went on explaining the cosmos, how Earth’s knowledge only extends to the borders of our galaxy and how everything else is just calculated speculation.

Her lungs ballooned in her chest then deflated quickly. Obviously, she was getting bored.

“What’s the matter,” I asked.

“I don’t wanna know about all that.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t wanna know about all that?’ That is important for you to know,” I said, waving my hands at the heavens. She’s always been interested in the fantastic, why be disinterested now?

“Right now, it’s boring. I wanna talk about something else. The stars will always be there.”

“Alright, what else is there?” A full moment passed by before a good idea came to me. “Tomorrow, the weatherman said it was going to rain.” I grinned.

“That’s even worse than stupid space,” she bellowed.  “Tell me something interesting like when you and mom met.”

I simply looked at her. She asked me this exact question before and I immediately tell her what I told her before. ‘We met at the library, we talked, then some years later we got married and had you. There. Happy now?’ She didn’t buy it then and it didn’t seem like she bought it now.

My daughter, a stubborn little child in a sundress, asked again where her mother and I met and wanted to know what I first thought of her. “Well, tell me.”

“I thought she was nice.”

“That’s it,” she asked, unconvinced.

“Yeah and at that same library we read up on how Black Holes carry the possibility of transporting you across space and, possibly, time? And that the nearest one to Earth is–”

“If I get inside one now will it take me to a time and place where you answer my question?” Her snappy tone and wide-eyed expression implored me.

I let out a stifled yawn. “If you’re going to get so sassy, I don’t think I’ll tell you.”

“Plenty of other kids in homeroom know how their parents met. Jamie’s parents met at a funfair and fell in love at the elephant ride. Malcolm’s moms went to the same high school and when they moved away to college, they got an apartment together. Five years later, they were married. All I get to say is my parents met at a library. What else happened?”

“We fell in love then had you. End.” I closed my eyes.

“Stop it! Now it’s annoying. Why won’t you tell me?”

“You’re not old enough yet to hear it, not the real version anyway,” I said with a matter-of-fact attitude.

She crossed her arms and let out a pout. We both laid there for a few minutes before I caved in.

“Up north, near your grandparents’ house, you know the churchyard you love so much, the one with the lilies planted there every spring? Around 12 years ago, there was a bus stop across that street and that’s where I would see your mom every now and then. I worked in the building a few blocks down from there and whenever I ended my shift I would see her there, waiting for the stop like everyone else.”

“So you lied? There’s was no library?” She snapped.

“Nah, told you that to make me sound smart.”

“Oh.” She wrinkled her nose. “And then you said ‘hi’ to her?”

“No, I merely noticed.” I sat up, shaking the grass clippings from hair. “It wasn’t until it rained that she noticed me. The bus was early that day and I don’t run for buses at all. But it stopped halfway towards the light at the corner and I jogged to get it. She was at the front of the bus, with a smile telling me, ‘that was a close one.’ I walked over and told her thanks for stopping the bus, blah, blah. It was the few ways I could’ve talked to her.”

“What were the other ways?”

“I don’t know. It already happened, there’s no use in worrying about it.”

She scooched over and rested on my arm. “So, what next? You asked her out?”

“No, I just talked to her for a little while. Well, actually she talked to me. It seemed like she noticed me before, I guess that’s why she was so comfortable smiling at me. It seems dumb when I think about it, how a facial tick would inspire me to walk over a whole bus length. There was really no guarantee that she liked me in any way. It was just a chance I took.”

“Malcolm’s mom said that she took the same kind of chance. That’s when she found out how much his other mom liked her. There didn’t seem like any other way for you to do it,” she said, looking up at me with those little brown eyes of hers.

“That’s true. We saw each other the next day and she didn’t get back to her home that night.” I coughed after realizing my allusion. Her face suggested only acknowledgment of her mother not going home so I continued. “The next day, we sat outside during my lunch break and talked about the most inane things but we enjoyed it. At the end, I finally asked for her out on a real date and I left with the biggest smile on my face.”

“That sounds sappy, pappy,” she said as she grabbed both my biceps with her spindly fingers. “But I don’t understand why you wouldn’t tell me this before?”

“There’s more. Since that day, we were never really apart, except for the little vacations she had with her family, or the road trips I took with your aunt down the coast. I never got tired of seeing her. But, we eventually hit our saturation point. About a year and three months in, it was about summer at this point, we were living together for almost five months. And we were just staring each other down at the table. Remember the photos of the apartment I showed you?”

She nodded.

“It was there, right there, that we had our worst argument. I couldn’t for the life of me understand what she was angry about but that didn’t surprise me. Your mother had a way of speaking in cryptic messages for no reason at all. I kept telling her that I didn’t understand, that I wanted to fix it if only she would tell me what the problem was, but that just made things worse and she left. She moved back in with her parents two days later.”

“What did you do?”

“I called and called then waited at the bus stop but she left. Over a week passed of me trying to get in touch with her. Every time I went to her parent’s home, she was ‘never home’. I didn’t know what to do after that.”

She moved in sitting between my legs, leaning back with her head resting on my chest. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry about? It wasn’t your fault.”

“Duh, I just know how you feel.”

“Oh, really?” I said with my chin slightly digging into her head.

“Well, there was a boy named Jamie in my class that I liked, but he moved away and I never got his address. So, I know what it feels like to like someone but they’re never there.”

I blinked twice. “You can’t have a boyfriend until you’re eighteen. Got it?”

She sighed. “Got it. Now tell me the rest of the story.”

“Well, I took a new job across town and left it all behind me. I rearranged the apartment, I reacquainted myself with old friends and recent ones, I lived. Two months past and your aunt, how can I put this, forced me to come to her friend’s birthday party.”

“She wanted you to drive her home didn’t she?”

“Yes and do not mention anything about that to her when you see her next week. Moving on, you know what happens at birthday parties. There’s greetings, cake, presents, the forced feeling of celebration for another year, the same old stuff. Throughout, I mingled with my sis’ friends and found only one to talk with. Her name was Hazel and we spent the better part of the evening chatting until she left. I then brought your mom home, like I usually did, and after coming back from walking her up her stairs I saw Hazel across the street. We waved to each other and met each other in the middle of the street and before I knew it we were kissing.”

Her eyes widened. “YOU KISSED SOMEONE ELSE?”

“I was surprised then as you are now. When we stopped, she said she’s been wanting to do that since we met. I told her that I wasn’t ready for anything too real and she agreed. Neither did she. The next week we hung out and it continued–”

“The ‘Kissing’?”

“The kissing, yes, the kissing continued.” I stopped for a moment to look at her. “Do you want me to continue?”

“Against my better judgment, yes.”

“We stopped seeing each other a week later. The same day your mom came back.”

“WHAT!? She decides to come back NOW?” Her face scrunched up on the last word causing her to bare her teeth until the last syllable, the ‘ow’.

“I couldn’t believe it. She was back with luggage in hand. Her puffy face told me everything she went through. The confusion, the anger, the regret. I could only mutter, ‘why’ before she dropped her bag and hugged me so tight I couldn’t get away. I didn’t want to.” I breathed in the cold night air, my eyes darting between the stars and the ground. It was getting closer to her bedtime, she knew it too, but she wanted me to keep going.

“It was there that I finally understood. Why she left and to where?”

She sat waiting for the punch line. “Why’d she leave?”

“She couldn’t conceive. She said, ‘I could never be a mother and I wanted to be with you but I thought that you would not accept me like this.’ Tears were streaming down her face as she told from across the table. I held out my hand. I told her to put hers in mine. I said, ‘I would never abandon you because of your faults. I would support you with everything that I am, with all my faults and strengths. Don’t think for a damn second that that isn’t true.’ She squeezed my hand tighter and I pulled her in for a kiss. We stayed together from then on. And with the help of a friend of mine, we were able to have you.”

She sniffed and hid her head on my chest. She never wanted people to see her cry. “I can’t believe you told me that.” She muffled. “I just wanted to know how you met, not that everything!” She pushed me away and ran back into the cabin.

I could never lie to her. That is why I always said we met at a library. It’s short and sweet and ends, predictably, but happily.