“I won’t,” said Joel. “If you don’t tell the other husbands about this. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for them to know.”
“Sure. No problem.”
“It’s really just Pete I’m worried about.” Joel got out of the car. Alex grabbed both their lunches from the back seat and followed him through the parking lot. “He’s just such a man’s man, you know... and not in the same way I am.”
He reached a loving arm around Alex’s shoulders and pulled her into a side hug.
“My lips are sealed,” she said.
They walked like this, embracing, all the way to the front entrance of the library. Alex handed Joel his lunch. He kissed her on the cheek and told her to have a good day.
For a moment, everything felt normal. For a moment, Alex dared to feel happy and safe. She forgot about werewolves and food rations and the fear that someone might find out she was a girl.
Trying to hold on to the warm, gooey feeling of content, Alex turned to enter the building, colliding directly into the solid, barrel chest of a man. She was sent tumbling to the ground. She let out an unexpected, girlish squeal as her elbow made contact with the concrete.
“Oh geez! I’m so sorry.” The man held out a helping hand, which Alex tentatively took. He pulled her up onto her feet with surprising ease. “Are you okay?” He was incredibly fit, and was a good foot and a half taller than she was. His dark green eyes expressed genuine concern.
Alex rubbed her elbow and furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m fine.” She noticed three more very fit men standing a few feet behind the one who knocked her down. “Can I help you guys with something?”
“We actually came over to give you this.” The green-eyed man handed Alex a bright pink flyer. “We are giving them out to all human women, so if you have any female––”
“I’m not a woman,” Alex corrected him. “I’m a boy.” She handed the flyer back without even glancing at it. “So, I won’t be needing whatever this is.”
The man leaned in close and lowered his voice. “Listen, we know you’re a woman.” Alex felt a pit growing in her stomach, and her face must have betrayed her fear because the man quickly continued. “My name is Charlie, and I promise you there is no reason to be afraid. We’re werewolves.”
Alex immediately took two steps backwards and looked to make sure the door to the library was within her reach. “I have to get to work.”
“Just take this. Please.” He held out of the flyer. “It will explain everything.”
Not wanting to make the creature angry, Alex took the piece of paper, nodded her head in goodbye, and quickly slipped behind the safety of the library door. She watched the werewolf carefully as he turned back towards his friends. She locked the door, and the clinking sound caught Charlie’s attention. He glanced over his shoulder a moment, offering Alex an understanding, if not a bit disappointed smile.
The folded up flyer was burning a hole inside Alex’s pocket. She didn’t dare try to read it in front of any of the library staff. What if they asked her what it was or where she got it? No, it was too risky.
Instead, she forced herself to wait until she was home and away from prying eyes. Joel dropped her off around dinnertime. She ran up the stairs, two at a time, not even bothering to say hello to her mother.
Once inside her bedroom, with the door locked and the window shut, just in case, Alex pulled out the flyer and read:
Dear friends, both human and wolf alike,
Consider this flyer your invitation to a very important gathering. The Weare Council of Swan City is holding an event this Saturday, April 6th, at 7:00pm, in the Great Hall located just within the gates of Swan City Weare Territory.
It is the council’s deepest and most sincere desire that at this meeting an agreement can be arranged regarding the extreme lack of female subjects, which has plagued both the weare and human populations in this area.
Too many humans have been abducted because of this problem, and too many wolves have been slaughtered in vengeance for these deplorable acts. Something must be done, and the first step is having an open dialogue.
We want all our attendees to feel safe and secure during this meeting, so women are free, and encouraged, to bring along a human male companion if they so choose.
Thank you. We hope to see you there.
Kind regards,
The Weare Council of Swan City
p.s. All persons may be subject to a search and pat down upon arrival. Any weapons will be confiscated.
Alex held the flyer in her now clammy hands and read over its contents three times. A gathering between the werewolves and the humans? This is insane! It will never work. They will tear each other apart.
Her grip on the piece of paper was tightening, to the point where her nails were digging into the skin of her palms. She forced herself to lie down in bed and try to collect her dispersed and riotous thoughts. She wished desperately that she could call Hera.
And then it hit her. Hera.
Maybe Hera would be at this meeting. Alex had gone back and forth in the days since her encounter with the wolf, convincing herself first that there was no way the beast was Hera. Then quickly her mind would flip and she’d be arguing that there was no one else it could possibly have been.
The invite seemed cordial enough. Even if she didn’t find Hera herself, maybe she could find someone who could tell her where Hera was. Besides, what did she have to lose? Attending the gathering didn’t mean she was agreeing to be some wolf’s wife –– she wouldn’t be signing any dotted line. She’d just be going to hear the weares out. Where was the harm in that?
“Alex?” Her mother’s voice came from outside her door. “Are you hungry? I was just about to start dinner.”
“Uh, yeah. Starved.” Alex shoved the flyer underneath her pillow. “I’ll be right down.”
“Is everything all right?”
The casual, jokiness returned to Alex’s voice. “That depends, what are you making for dinner?”
“Chicken and rice.”
“Do we still have any of that hot sauce from last month’s rations?” Alex asked as she opened the door and followed her mother down to the kitchen.
“I think Joel had the last if it,” said Uma.
“For that,” Alex said under her breath, once her mother had walked out of earshot. “I might just have to drag him with me to this gathering.”
The Gathering
“Absolutely not.” Uma was sitting on the couch, her legs and arms crossed so tightly, Alex thought she looked like a stressed out pretzel. “You are not going and that’s final.”
“Mom,” Alex started to plead her case for the umpteenth time. “What’s the harm in going?”
Uma laughed. “What’s the harm in walking into weare-territory completely unarmed?” She put her finger to her chin mockingly. “Hmm, let me think about that.”
“Your mother’s right,” said William. He was sitting in between Uma and Peter. Adam was on the loveseat, Joel was in the kitchen making a snack, and Alex and Clark were standing together in front of the large fireplace. “It’s too risky.”
“Mom, I have to go,” said Alex. “They are trying to broker some sort of peaceful agreement! If it works, I’ll never have to hide who I really am again. This could change everything.”
“Yes, or,” Adam offered. “It could be a trap.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “It’s not a trap.”
“How do you know?” said William.
“I just... I know... If you saw the guy who gave it to me, he was, was––”
“Was a monster, that’s what he was!” Her mother stood up and rubbed her temples. “Alex, honey, I know you’re old enough to make your own decisions, but this is bigger than you. This is about all of us. If we lost you...” The end of Uma’s sentiment appeared to be caught in her chest, along with her breath. She wiped some tears from her eyes and tried to hide her face.
Alex reached out and grabbed her mom’s hand. “I’m going t
o be okay. I will be extra careful. Hyper-vigilant. If anything seems even a little bit suspect, I will leave immediately.”
“I just don’t know,” said Uma. She looked at Clark. “What do you think?”
Clark shook his head. “Who knows, maybe this really is an olive branch. I think we owe it to ourselves to at least check it out.”
“I second that,” said Peter. “Like the flyer said, the first step to finding common ground is open and honest communication. Really, I’m surprised no one has tried this in the past.”
“Are you guys nuts?” William gawked at his family. “This is insane! You can’t reason with those things!” He shot an annoyed glance at Peter. “You can’t use psychology on them! They aren’t human. They can’t be trusted.”
“William, don’t you think you’re being a little closed minded?” said Clark. “We’ve all met plenty of weares who were nothing but civil. Hell, two of the guys working on the construction team with Joel are weares, are they not?”
“Well, yeah, but––“
“And, Uma, you of all people should know how human they can be. Remember when we you were in the hospital about to give birth to Alex?” Uma avoided Clark’s gaze, but nodded her head. “And you met that other expecting mother who made you feel a whole lot less scared of the whole thing. If it wasn’t for her, you would have had a full-blown panic attack. We later found out she was a weare.”
“I don’t remember hearing that story,” said Alex.
“It’s true. William and Peter were there as well. There are good people amongst the weares.” Clark sighed and turned to speak directly to Alex. “Listen, I’m not saying I’m excited about the idea of you waltzing over the border and presenting yourself as a young, viable woman, but if you’re sure you can handle it, then I believe in you.”
“Thanks.” Alex gave him a hug. “Besides.” She motioned to the doorway connecting the living room and the kitchen, where Joel had just appeared. “I won’t be going alone. Joel is coming with me.”
“Going where?” Joel asked.
“To the werewolf meeting.”
His freshly made sandwich made a mess on the wood floor as he dropped it.
Alex didn’t sleep a wink the night before the meeting. Her mind was in a frenzy, thinking about all the possibilities that lie ahead. If this gathering was a success, it could change werewolf-human relations forever. Swan City could be a peaceful place again, where women didn’t have to be terrified to walk somewhere alone or accidently get on the wrong bus. It would be a revolution.
She lay in her bed, an hour before the gathering was scheduled to begin, and ran through her carefully formulated plan once more. Step one, she and Joel would enter the great hall and take the first open seats they saw next to weares. Step two, they would sit down nonchalantly and try to start a conversation with their soon-to-be friends. Step three, Alex would casually mention the name Hera, in passing, and see if the weares reacted in any way. Step four, address the council and raise all questions and concerns that might come to her during the meeting. And finally, step five, save womenkind.
Okay, step five is maybe a bit out of my reach... but hey, a girl can dream.
Her dreaming, however, was cut short by Joel frantically calling her name from his bedroom downstairs.
“ALLEEXX!” He yelled one last time, just as she was coming through the door.
“What, jeez!” she said. “I’m right here!”
“Thank god. You’ve got to help me.”
“With what?”
“With this!” Joel held up a plastic, serrated knife, which was longer than his forearm.
“What the hell is that?”
“William gave it to me. It’s some sort of fishing knife or something... I’m not sure. He said it wouldn’t set off the metal detectors, if they have those.” Joel placed the weapon in Alex’s outstretched hand. “He wanted me to take it. You know, just in case.”
“Just in case of what?”
Joel shrugged. “Trouble, I guess. The problem is, I have no idea where to put the damn thing. What if they pat me down?” Joel let out a small gasp. “What if they do a strip search?”
“I doubt they will do a strip search.” Alex tossed the knife gently onto Joel’s bed. “I don’t think we should bring it. The invite specifically said––”
“I know what it said!” Joel’s eyes flashed with panic. “But what if we need it!” He started rubbing his hands together. “Alex, if anything happens to you while we’re there... and if I don’t do anything to stop it... I just... I don’t––”
“Joel.” Alex grabbed her dad’s shoulders and forced him to look at her. “It’s going to be fine. We’re going to be fine.” Sweat was pooling in the armpits of his t-shirt and his face was pink as bubblegum. “Maybe,” said Alex, loosening her grip. “It wasn’t such a good idea to have you come with me.”
Joel frowned, but said nothing.
“Maybe you should just stay home. I’ll have Clark go with me.”
“What good will he be in a fight?” Joel said, his tone sharpened. “He’s old enough to be a grandpa!”
Alex nodded. “This is true.
“And Peter is too sensitive,” added Joel.
“Adam might do okay, except he’s still at work,” said Alex. “William, well... He’s just so...”
“Aggressive?”
“I was going to say eager.” Alex laughed.
“Let’s be honest,” he said. “If there’s going to be trouble, William would be the one who starts it.”
“I guess that just leaves you, buddy.”
“I guess so.”
“Joel, I didn’t ask you to come with me because I thought you’d be the best one to get us out of a sticky situation. I picked you because I’m a little nervous, and I wanted to have a friend with me. So can you do that? Can you just be my friend?”
“Yes.” Joel beamed. “I can do that.”
“Good, then ditch the Rambo knife, and let’s get going.”
It was a good thing Alex had connived her dad to leave the knife at home. The weare security personnel were doing random pat downs. Although, from the looks of it, there was nothing random about the selection process –– every capable looking younger male was stopped and frisked. Joel included.
Unlike many of the other men in line ahead of them, Joel did not appear to be made uncomfortable coming face to face with one of the creatures. A few of the guys who he worked construction with were weares, and Joel had always been on the more open-minded side of the Greenford family.
“You’re good to go,” said the weare, after he’d finished his search. He motioned both Joel and Alex to go ahead inside the great hall.
The place was packed. All the seats were taken, mainly, Alex thought, by wolves, but it was hard to tell considering they were all in their humanoid form. So much for steps one through three. They made their way through the crowd and over to the refreshments table. Most of what was laid out consisted of cold cuts and hors d’oeuvres wrapped in bacon. It was clearly catering to a mainly carnivorous group, which was fine with Alex. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had fresh bacon.
They each collected a mountain of food atop their paper plates and found a place to lean against the sidewall and wait for the meeting to begin.
It didn’t take long. At about a quarter past seven, a group of elderly weares took the stage and seated themselves at the table according to their homemade, paper place cards. There were three female council members and three male, Alex noted, approvingly. A second, smaller table sat to the left of theirs, where three more name cards and empty seats were placed. The male weare sitting on the far right of the table banged a heavy wooden gavel atop the plastic fold out table and cleared his throat.
“Quiet! Quiet please.” A silence quickly befell the crowd. “First and foremost, I would like to say thank you to each and every one of you who has come out tonight. My name is Bartholomew Read Armstrong and I am the head of the Swan City
Werewolf Council.” All the weares in the room erupted into a rowdy applause. Bartholomew smiled, humbly, and put up a hand, calling once again for silence. “It is my great honor to invite three more individuals up on stage here with us tonight, representing our friends across the border. We have the Mayor Rowland, Sheriff Brown, and the head of the Swan City Conservation Society, Karen McClain.” The humans were met with less applause, and even a few boos, as they made their way to the stage.
The Mayor of Swan City, Jonathan Rowland, was not popular with wolves or humans. He had been responsible for all the ration cuts and the weares didn’t think he did enough to combat attacks against them. Alex didn’t know anything about Sheriff Brown, besides the fact that he’d been sheriff for nearly thirty years. She’d never even heard of Karen McClain, nonetheless the Swan City Conservation Society.
The representatives took their seats, and Bartholomew continued with his opening speech. He spoke about recent attacks against the weare community. He said he believed these wolves were specifically targeted because of their supposed connection to a human woman’s disappearance, which occurred a few months back. Sheriff Brown frowned at Bartholomew’s emphasis on the word “supposed.”
Finally, the councilman came to the reason they had all gathered there. “Now,” he said. “I would like to discuss the possibility of coming to some sort of agreement between the werewolf and human populations of Swan City. As you are all aware, I’m sure, Swan City is in the midst of a crisis. There are not enough women.”
“And whose fault is that!” someone yelled from the audience. “If you animals hadn’t stolen all our women during the K-9 plague years, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” A couple people hollered in agreement. One or two of the weares let out deep growls.
“Our past is colored by much violence, betrayal, and bloodshed, yes,” Bartholomew conceded. “And there is much regret amongst my people for the atrocities we’ve committed in the past. But that was decades ago. We represent a new generation of wolves, and we’d like to set a better example, create a better world for future generations. That is why we are here tonight.”
The BabyMakers’ Shared Property Page 3
