“Whatcha say about me, girlie?” he asked as he whipped his head back around. His face held many wrinkles, and his head held liver spots under his one tuft of snow-white hair. Suddenly, recognition was made for both me and the old man. It was Mr. Thompson, my neighbor. Mr. Thompson recognized me as well, for he smiled. “If it isn’t one of the Davis kids. Your parents raised a mighty brat, didn’t they?”
I snorted. My words next vomited out before I could stop myself. No, word vomiting would be better. I released a horrid case of verbal diarrhea that was unnecessary.
“I could’ve wound up a crotchety a-hole like yourself. Life could be worse.” I sniffed indifferently.
The old man turned back around to stare at me. The poor high school-aged cashier that was scanning his items hurried her motions. She was looking afraid of our arguing. She probably wanted to get us both out of her line as fast as possible.
As I mentally prepared myself for another verbal blow from the old grouch, he instead smiled at me. His teeth were yellow, and a cavity was crawling up one of his bottom front canines. His breath smelled like an unfriendly mixture of cigarettes and whiskey.
“I like you,” the old man breathed. “You’ve got girl balls.” The now-blushing me didn’t quite know what to say, so I quietly watched my cart instead. I focused on the containers of heavy whipping cream and parmesan cheese, carefully avoiding eye contact with Mr. Thompson. I hoped the old man would just pay and leave so I could avoid speaking to him again, but Mr. Thompson turned back to eye me. “It’s best you’s a brave soul in a town like this,” he muttered.
“And why is that?” I didn’t quite know why I was even bothering to engage the old man in conversation.
Mr. Thompson snorted as he paid in cash. When the cashier handed it back to him, he counted his change with precise accuracy before accepting his receipt. He tipped his newsboy cap to the cashier before heading off. As if suddenly remembering I spoke, he turned back to glance at me. “There’s monsters out there, girlie. Brave people last longer than weak ones.”
He left after that with his plastic bags swinging in his grip as he walked out of the store. Something he said registered with me. I hurried after the old man after promising the cashier I would be back to pay. I hurried out the doors of the market just as Mr. Thompson was loading his items into his rusty pick-up truck in a parking space near the market’s exit.
“What do you mean, there are monsters out there?” Hearing that, my mind had automatically drifted to the werewolf.
“It’s a figure of speech, kid.”
He didn’t make eye contact as he said it, but I was still very alarmed. It wasn’t a figure of speech. That much I could tell. “So, like…people?”
“Again, figure of speech.” He didn’t pay me attention as he shut the tailgate of his truck. He started to hobble around to the front of the vehicle. There was a limp to his walk that I had never noticed. I thought carefully of what I should say next.
“Or do you mean monster as in something like vampires…mummies…werewolves?”
It was the last word that caused the old man to stop in his tracks. He turned around to look at me. Mr. Thompson raised a sandy eyebrow. Underneath were two wise-looking brown eyes. The old man snorted; a disgusting sound was heard as he did. He faced himself fully to look at me. “So, you knows somethin’s in those woods, dontcha?”
I could feel my green eyes going wide as I nodded. The old man smiled at my fearful expression. “Whatcha see?”
My words came tumbling out of me. “It ate a deer right in front of my brother and me.” I felt compelled to tell him what I knew even though I didn’t really know this character. The old man gave me another toothy grin.
“Be grateful ya’ll walked away with your lives. Animals and sometimes people ’round these parts don’t always get so lucky.” The old man spoke as though this was a completely normal conversation and not one that was giving me goosebumps.
“It ripped open a deer carcass right next to my house.”
The old man had gotten into his truck but looked out his open window with wide eyes. “Huh,” he breathed. “Lemme guess, ripped open belly, uneaten, displayed like a neat little package in a place where no normal animal would have left it, eh?”
I could only gape at him. “How did you…”
“Get in,” said the old man gruffly. I had him wait a few minutes as I went back into the store to collect my groceries. As I came out, I was partially surprised he was still waiting for me in his truck. I placed my groceries in my own car before getting into his vehicle. I briefly thought about the dangers of not getting in a car with strangers, but I needed to know what the old man was thinking. “Took you long enough,” mocked Mr. Thompson. He cocked a brow to stare at me. “You got yourself a problem, missy.”
“Yeah, I figure. How has no one figured out there’s a man-sized wolf running around Adams County?”
To my great surprise, the old man only laughed at me. He wheezed the sounds, his disgusting breath of cigarettes and whiskey filling up the small cab. “It ain’t the wolf you gotta worry about, missy. It’s what it wants that’s your problem.”
“What it…wants?” I instantly went from feeling relieved the old man believed me to instantly feeling suspicious he was just a crackpot. Maybe I was helping feed into his insanity.
The old man nodded glumly. “Your wolf left a present.”
Now he had lost me. “What are you talking about?”
The man rolled his eyes as if he thought I was stupid.
“How many times has you heard of a carnivorous animal like a wolf, coyote, or mountain lion rippin’ open a deer, leaving it completely intact, and not eating it?”
“Its guts were on the outside,” I recalled grimly. “So, it was probably eating it…”
“Naw. Its guts were open and exposed to make eating it easier.” The old man smiled. “Your wolf wanted to make sure its target was fed.”
Now I officially thought the old man was insane. I sighed as I opened the truck door to get out. “And here I thought you could help me.” I removed myself from the cab and was about to slam the door before the old man snickered. He shook his head as his torso rumbled with his own mocking laughter.
“There ain’t no helping you, girl. The wolf is looking for an alpha female before mating season.” He cackled with laughter as I slammed the door shut.
CHAPTER 6
During the ride home, I solely focused on the road while driving. I didn’t dare look out at the massive forest on both sides. Wisconsin Dells was mostly surrounded by forest once you got out of the tourist-trap downtown area. All of Adams County was surrounded by thick, dense trees and brush. My family’s house sat perched smack between the Dells and Adams. It was surrounded by lush green forest in all directions. The woods were frightening to me as I drove. All I could think of was the monster possibly lurking in the forest, watching as I drove past. Once I got home, I thought about telling Simon about my encounter at the store, but to my surprise, Simon was already outside. The gangly teenager held a shovel and looked to be laying down the final patch of dirt on a hole he had dug. He lazily slapped down the dark dirt one last time before stabbing the shovel into the ground.