But the fawn didn’t invade my thoughts and threaten me.
And the fawn isn’t monstrous in the same way as the damn wolf.
And the fawn hasn’t been visiting my dreams and keeping me from rest.
“Yes. Sort of, but it was the horned wolf that attacked us at Kinkaid Cabins.”
“Was that an attack?”
Anger erupted.
“Are you joking? Yes! Obviously it was!”
The birds watched his outburst with dead eyes.
Valentina stood like a stone. Her expression did not move.
Green mopped more sweat from his face and collected himself.
“I’m sorry. It’s just…”
“I know,” Valentina said. “You have made your feelings clear. I wasn’t there. I haven’t seen it. I appreciate your perspective, but I think you need to step outside your assumptions and consider that the horned wolf has visited you more than once and you are still whole and very much alive.”
“I need air.”
He brushed past Valentina and went out, wiping sweat with one hand and clutching the acorn in his pocket with the other.
He sank down to sit on a cinder block next to a cluster of rain barrels. Looking around at the strange assortment of buildings and padlocked doors, and imagining the unknown contents within, he felt suddenly and intensely homeless, a visitor in someone else’s story. A cold breeze chilled the sweat at his temples.
He put his head in his hands.
A distant crow cawed. He shivered.
He heard Valentina approach and looked up.
She frowned at him. Green wondered if she was reconsidering her offer of apprenticeship.
“You need to go for a walk,” she said.
“Am I being put in time-out?”
“No,” she said gently. “I have just…been forgetting somefundamentals. In more ways than one. You need to go look at the mountains. Get your bearings. Find a view that speaks to you and sit with it, have a conversation.”
She smiled, but it seemed mechanical, like she had recently learned the expression from a book. He supposed she meant it kindly.
“When you get back from your walk, we will talk about the basics of life here. Camp basics. Wilderness skills. I suspect you will find learning a new profession easier when you don’t feel threatened by unknowns on all sides.”
“Really? Is there time for that?”
“There is. There must be. Now, I have research to conclude and journals to revisit.”
She squeezed his shoulder and went back into the lab.
He didn’t know how she could stand the heat in there.
After fetching a canteen of water, Green did as he was told.
I am absolutely being put in time-out.
