Yes, in lieu of devouring me, would you accept this Starbucks loyalty program card? That’s correct, Starbucks is my ally and if you harm me there will be hazelnut-flavored reprisals.
Only a day earlier he had been interested in actively courting the unknown.
It’s easy to be on good terms with the unknown when it keeps its distance. Explorers in a history book. A probe visiting a far-off world. That tingle when we think about the deepest parts of the ocean or the unpeopled forests of the far past. It’s different, much different, when the unknown becomes a prominent part of your daily life, there on your pillow, stirred into your morning coffee.
Dancer was right. One mercy about Valentina’s place was that you really couldn’t miss it.
Her site was littered with half a dozen sheds, two old campers, a small log cabin, and an honest-to-god tree house the size of a small apartment. A lopsided spiderweb of black wires and orange extension cords hung about the place, stitching together the mismatched structures. Tidy rows of solar panels protruded above several of the roofs. There were no vehicles in sight. A ribbon of white smoke rose from the cabin and hung in a haze.
Even with all its eccentricities, Green’s first thought upon seeing the place was that it looked like a real home, something lived-in, especially in comparison to his own camp, which looked like a crashed car abandoned in the woods. An unexpected sorrow welled up. He felt the acute lack of such a place in his own life. Maybe ever. White couches and rooms he wasn’t allowed to track mud into. A condo he hired someone else to decorate. He stood on the narrow road unsure of what to do next. There was no obvious front door. No doorbell. No signs.
“Hello?”
No answer.
“Valentina?”
A door latch clicked, and Valentina emerged from the log cabin. She was a small woman, precise, dressed practically in mostly gray. Her silver hair was pulled back and the two turquoise studs in herears stood out like twin patches of sky glimpsed through a cloud bank. She stood just outside the cabin and studied Green.
“Yes?”
“Good morning. I’m Green. I’m your new neighbor. Sort of.”
“Ah. Hello.”
“Oh, um, Dancer sent me.”
“Yes, I noticed your hat. Good to meet you, Mr. Green.”
She spoke with an accent that Green couldn’t quite place. Part Eastern European. Part something else.
She turned to reenter her cabin.
“Hang on a minute.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Yes?”
Green suddenly couldn’t remember what a normal person did with their arms while talking, so he glued them to his sides.
“I was hoping we could talk. I mean, I need to speak with you.”
“Mr. Green, I have time-sensitive work this morning. Not a good time for social calls. Pleasure to meet you.”
She began to turn away again.
“It’s just that Dancer thought you could help me. I was attacked by a thing and she said you were an expert on the subject of…things.”
“A thing?”
“A giant wolf with a horn and not enough skin. Last night. Just down the road.”
He hated the words he was saying.
She paused.
“Well. Business then. That is different. Come in if you can.”
