History of Wolves

sensation came over me in a pounce.

had already landed a double axel, one footed, fully rotated, and I

to cover all her bases

an avalanche of poplar fluff floats by, silent and weightless as air

Hadn’t I planned this out long ago? It suddenly seemed I had. But of course it wasn’t a true plan at all, only the pulsing in my head, that old yearning to take far more than was reasonable.

I thought of him as my dad’s gregarious older brother, and my dad as the shy younger one, who could handle himself better against loneliness and disaster.

He was kind to objects. With people he was a little afraid.

. I could hear her breathing loudly through her nose and humming the same two lines from two totally different songs, mixing them together. Strange days have found us / Casting down their crowns along the glassy sea.

Maybe. Maybe there is a way to climb above everything, some special ladder or insight, some optical vantage point that allows a clear, unobstructed view of things. Maybe this way of seeing comes naturally to some people, and good for them if it does. But I remember it all, even now, as if two mutually exclusive things happened.

I found that hard to believe. I found it difficult to imagine that slippered, thin man leaving such a mark. He seemed insubstantial to me—though stubborn, maybe, like a stain.