“Oh,” she said.
“What were you doing way up there?” Wolf asked. “It seems a long hike for?—”
“For an old man, yeah, I know. That wolf showed up again, and I tracked him up there. Odd, I ain’t seen him once inall this time.” He added a mystical lilt to his voice on the final three words.
Wolf lowered his head to hide an amused smile and ignored the chill that went up his spine. The old ranger said, “I’m expected back. They get nervous if I’m late and pretend it’s not due to my age. You all enjoy yourselves now. Watch the drop-offs if you stay past dark, all righty?”
“Sure,” Wolf said. “And thank you."
The ranger started to turn away, then Wolf said, “Hey, you uh—you’re not gonna shoot that wolf, are you?”
Ranger Dan turned back and patted the ammo belt around his waist. It was filled with darts, not bullets. “Only a tranq so we can relocate him, and only if I have to. This is his home. We’re the invaders, so unless he’s literally eating campers, I’m not apt to do him any harm.”
He was about to turn away, but once more hesitated. “Almost forgot—hadforgot, for years. I’ve been going through my daily logs, reviewing my days as a ranger before I retire in a few weeks. I have some stories to tell, I’ll tell you what!”
“Maybe you should write a memoir,” Camellia said.
He lit right up. “That’s what I’m thinking, young lady. Anyway, I found a note I’d forgot all about, and I never made the connection till now. It might not mean much, but a sheriff come around here looking for a lost baby. Must’ve been a full six months before I stumbled upon you and Cilla and Sage, and I’d forgot all about him by then.”
The words hit Wolf like a mallet between the eyes. “Did you write downwhatsheriff? His name, or where he was from?”
Ranger Dan shook his head slowly. “Big man, he was. Honest face. From upriver, I believe.” Then he scraped his face with his hand again, like he was feeling around in his whiskers foranswers. “That’s everything, son. Believe me, once I found that note, I hunted through everything I had. It’s only now I’ve been putting it together myself.”
Then he blinked slowly, looking into Wolf’s eyes. “She’s passed, hasn’t she? Sage?”
“They both have,” Wolf said. “Grandma Sage when I was sixteen, and my mother two weeks ago.”
The old man looked at the ground. “No, that’s too young,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m real sorry to hear that. Special women, Sage and Cilla both. But closed off, you know? They lived behind a wall.”
“Yeah, I know. I lived there with ’em.” When he said it, he looked at Camellia and her eyes held on until he could break his free.
“If you find anything else, or remember anything, will you let me know?” Wolf asked.
“Sure. What site you all on?”
“It’s number three one nine,” Camellia offered. Wolf had not even noticed a number on their site.
The ranger waved, then headed off in a downhill direction.
Wolf watched him move out of sight, then sank back onto his boulder. He didn’t plan to, his legs just decided not to hold him upright anymore.
Camellia came over and sank right down beside him. “You see? Theydidlook for you,” she said.
“Yeah. I just wish we’d found a clue up here.”
“That’s ahugeclue, Wolf. Somebody was looking for you. That means you have a birth family.”
“I have one large sheriff,” he said. “That’s hardly a family.”
“It’s a start.”
She squeezed his shoulder, and it felt like comfort. “Let’s stay here a while,” he said.
She said, “There’s shade over there in the shack, beside those leaning walls. And we still have snacks, and a chunk of that journal left to read. You bring it?”
He slid off his boulder. “’Course I brought it.” They were on the second volume, yellow cloth-covered cardboard with embroidered daisies. It had a tiny, useless lock, and its key was threaded through the clasp by a thin yellow ribbon.
The journal of a fifteen-year-old mother-by-choice, or maybe by fate. The opening date would have made Wolf four years old.
