Piper was one who loved to make a show of everything. She opened each gift, showering the giver with thanks and appreciation and talking about how she would use the present, from her fancy doll that looked remarkably like her to her new dress. But when she opened the one from Auntie, something changed. She pulled out a book, gripped it against her chest before anyone could see what it was. This wasn’t for show. Her emotions were getting the best of her in the best of ways.
“May I see what it is?” Unlike Rupert, she wasn’t hugely into books. This one had to be special, and as she showed it to me, I saw how true that was.
“It’s my own book! My own book!”
It had the same title as the one we read every night, but the cover was different. This time, there were two additional wolves.
“I got a feeling it was nearing that time.” Auntie looked at Rupert. “We’ll see how accurate my illustration is.”
“Is this me?” Piper asked.
“It is, but we won’t know how close I am for quite a few more years.”
No one questioned her, telling her that Piper might be human but my attention turned to Rupert who jumped up and grabbed a hold of his alpha grandfather.
“Pop! Pop!” was all he said.
“I thought so, young man. Let’s go.”
He brought him out to the backyard, just out of sight.
“Should we be with him?” I asked. This was my first time experiencing a first shift, and as much as we'd discussed it, I still felt way over my head.
“No. He wants to do this process with his grandfather.”
I knew they’d talked about first shifts in a father-and-son way. I never asked for details, because it felt as private as puberty talks tended to be. I hadn’t realized they had a plan.
A couple of minutes later, out came Raff’s father’s wolf, followed by Rupert’s. The remaining wolves joined them, Piper and I staying put and giving them this time. We watched as they played.
“My brother’s a wolf,” she said factually, as if it wasn’t this monumental milestone but a quiz answer.
“He is.”
“Auntie thinks I’m a wolf too.” She held her book.
“What makes you think that?” She probably did, given the book, but I knew Piper well enough to know that sometimes you needed to scratch the surface of her notions because they weren’t always as clear cut as they appeared.
“She wouldn’t have put me on the cover if she hadn’t.”
“And what do you think?”
“I think if I’m a wolf, I’m gonna be fierce. And I think if I’m not a wolf, I’m gonna be fierce.”
“You got that right, my sweet girl.” I hugged her close, and we waited until we got a sign from Raff to join them and ran over to play, enjoying Rupert’s first day in his fur.
I wish you were here, Harvey. I wish you could see that Rupert is okay, that he’s thriving and happy.
Something told me that somewhere he was, and he was smiling down on us.
