"Bedtime ones. About the Wolf." Lily picked at the edge of the pie crust. "The Wolf who protects people. He rides a big motorcycle and he has a gray wolf on his jacket, and if bad men come, he stands in front of everybody and he doesn't move."
Nadine was quiet for a second. "Sounds like a good story."
"Mama said if I was ever in trouble — really in trouble — I should find him." Lily's voice got small. "She said he would know what to do."
"And you did," Nadine said gently. "You found him."
Lily nodded. She looked out the window at the motorcycles. "We live in a cabin. In the pines. It's far from everything. Mama says the trees are so tall they touch the sky, and she's right, they do.
"How did you get here, honey?" Nadine asked. "That's a long way to walk."
"There's a path," Lily said. "Past the creek. Mama showed me once, a long time ago, and she said, 'Remember this, baby. Just in case.' I remembered. I followed it to the road, and then I just kept going until I saw the lights. The diner sign. Millie's. I could see it from a long way off."
"You walked all that way in the dark?"
Lily nodded, like it was the simplest thing in the world. "I wasn't scared. Not much. Mama always says the woods are only scary if you don't know them. And I know them.""
"What else is at the cabin?" Nadine asked, easy as anything.
"A porch. And a woodstove. And Mama's books. She reads to me every night, even when she's tired." Lily's face changed, just a little, the way a sky changes when a cloud goes over the sun. "Darren doesn't like the books. He says stories put ideas in my head."
"Do they?"
"Yes," Lily said. "Good ones."
Nadine smiled. "Good."
Lily set her fork down. She stared at the pie for a long time, and Nadine waited, because Nadine knew what waiting was for. In the kitchen, somebody dropped a pan, and Millie's voice said something sharp and funny, and far away a motorcycle started up and then went quiet again.
"Last night," Lily said, "Darren fell asleep on the couch. The loud kind of asleep. Snoring." She said the word like it was important. "Mama was already in bed. And I just... I got up. I put my shoes on. I went out the back door and I ran."
"Through the woods?" Nadine asked.
"Through the woods. It was dark, but I knew the path. There's a path to the road. Mama showed me once, a long time ago, and she said, 'Remember this, baby. Just in case.' I remembered." Lily's voice wobbled. "I ran and ran, and then I saw the diner, and I saw the motorcycles, and I saw his jacket."
"The wolf patch," Nadine said.
"The wolf patch." Lily looked up, and her eyes were wet and brave at the same time. ""Tell me one of the stories," Nadine said. "Just one."
Lily thought for a second, swinging her legs under the chair. "There was a storm," she said. "A big one, and the river came up, and a little lamb got stuck on the wrong side, and everybody was too scared to cross. And the Wolf came, and he waded right in, and he carried the lamb home on his back, and he didn't even get mad about getting wet."
"That sounds like him," Nadine said, and she was smiling, but her eyes were wet.
"Mama says the Wolf never leaves anybody behind," Lily said.
Mama told me the Wolf would protect me. And he did. He stood in front of me. Just like in the story."
Nadine reached across the table and put her hand over Lily's — not grabbing, just resting there, warm and steady. "You're safe now, honey. That part's true, too."
Lily nodded. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, the way kids do, and then she asked the question that had been sitting underneath all the other words, the one that mattered more than anything else in the world.
"Is my mommy going to be okay?"
Chapter 5
Claire