Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Author:Carol Rifka Brunt [Rifka Brunt, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Juvenil
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2012-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Seven

It was late at night. That same day. Way after everybody was fast asleep. I was sitting in the kitchen, on the floor, with the Book of Days open on my lap. I cupped my hand around the phone receiver and whispered.

“I’m calling to tell you that I made it all up.”

“Oh… right. You what?” Toby’s voice sounded dopey, like I’d woken him from some thick kind of dream.

“The story. My Finn story. It wasn’t true.”

“Oh. It’s you, June. Hi. What time is it?”

“Late. Sorry for waking you up.”

“I wasn’t sleeping. Just resting with some brandy.”

I laughed with my mouth closed, trying not to make any noise. I reached over to the cabinet next to the dishwasher. The thin one that was my parents’ liquor cabinet. I looked around until I saw the brandy. I set it on the floor next to me and tapped my finger against the top of the bottle.

“Anyway, so I still owe you a story.”

“Are you sure yours wasn’t true? I, for one, believed every word.”

I smiled, even though I thought Toby might be making fun of me. “Come on.”

“No, really. Very good use of detail. Top marks.” Toby was whispering, even though he was all alone on his end.

We were both quiet for a few seconds, then Toby said, “You know, it’s all right, June. You don’t have to give me one of your stories if you don’t want to.” I heard him take a sip of his brandy.

I unscrewed the bottle in my hands, dipped a finger in, then touched it to my tongue.

“No. I want to. Next time.”

I could almost hear Toby smiling on the other end.

“Come whenever. Whenever you can. You know that, right? If you need anything…”

I thought that if I was drowning in the ocean, Finn would be like a strong, polished wooden ship with sails that always caught the wind. And Toby? Well, Toby was more like a big yellow rubber raft that might pop at any moment. But maybe he’d still be there. That’s what I was starting to think.

I nodded and tipped the bottle to my lips. The brandy shot through my body with so much heat that for a second I felt like my insides might have turned to lava.

“I know,” I whispered.

Again, quiet.

“Well… Good night, then,” I said.

“Good dreams, June.”

I stretched out flat on my back on the cold linoleum floor and held the receiver against my chest. The only sound in the kitchen was the ticking of the yellow clock high up on the wall over the sink. It must have been a minute or two like that, and then in that quiet dark kitchen I heard my name.

“June.”

I put the receiver to my ear.

“Yeah.”

“Go to bed.”

“Okay,” I whispered. “You too.”

Then I hung up, leaving Toby all by himself in Finn’s apartment.

I didn’t know how to seal a promise with a dead person. With someone who isn’t dead, you can get a pair of scissors and snip a tiny little cut into your clothes.

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