He opened and eye blearily and his breath was stale from liquor intoxication. "Where am I?" He grunted at Blue. Blue closed her Bible silently and went to remove the washrag from his forehead.
"You're in my house. My name is Blue, and I found you on the street running away with stolen liquor."
The man grinned slightly. "Blue, that sounds like the name of a dog not the name of a human. And since I'm dirt poor and a whino the only way for me to get my fix is by stealing it. My name is Quent Yaiden by the way." The man named Quent added as an afterthought. Both people received a jolt at the same time; they were shockingly familiar with one another. Blue suddenly reached up to her neck as if to grasp an item long since gone.
"How do I feel as if I know you?" Quent stared at Blue and Blue shook her head. She'd been getting that eerie feeling lately.
"My wife is going to be angry that I'm not home. She calls me the worse deadbeat dad alive." Quent snorted and reached for his stolen liquor. "Where my booze?" Quent demanded angrily at Blue.
"I took it while you were sick. I don't think you really need anymore it could get you killed. Besides, it's very bad for your health," Blue replied honestly.
Quent wrinkled his nose in discontent. "What are you a preacher? If I wanted a sermon I'd go with my wife to that wacky church she started."
Blue tilted her head. "Your wife started a church?"
Quent lifted himself off the bed. "Yes, and I can't believe it. All of a sudden she starts believing in God and Jesus and trying to convert me. She should know better. I don't believe in anything that I can't see or touch myself." Quent looked cheeky, and Blue felt genuinely sorry for him. Blue helped Quent to clean up and drove him back home, where as Quint had predicted his wife was angry. Blue felt strongly attached to this stranger, for reasons she could not pinpoint. It was like the draw she had to Toboe, and that name Tsume. She noticed when she returned home that Quient had dropped a small picture. It was of a tiny boy holding a black colored puppy, except it was the largest puppy Blue had ever laid eyes on. She was drawn to this photo and felt memories rushing back.
"WOLVES!" Quent cried as that same black dog whimpered at his feet. Quent had a crazed look in his eyes as he held a shotgun. Blue felt her eyes burn. She remembered some. She had known Quent and obviously his dog played a vital part in it. She somehow remembered he'd lost his first wife and son in a fire. Blue felt her head start to ache, as if she could relate to that black whimpering dog at Quient's feet. She sighed, read a little of the Bible and fell asleep.
"I doubt paradise would take me, after all I'm only half-wolf." A young woman, black haired, with a black jacket, red scarf around her neck stared and spoke to a boy about 19 with a very Afro like haircut. Blue awoke with a jolt. These memories made her head ache. She tried to clear her head; she then headed to work. To her surprise, Toboe was back at her office with a rough looking man.
He wore black leather, had a white Mohawk, and a sneer. "My brother said I was supposed to come talk to some lady named Blue," a gruff voice came out of the leather clad stranger.
"That's me." Blue replied softly. Toboe led the way to Blue's office, and Blue took in the stranger's appearance.
"You must be Tsume," Blue said conversationally. Tsume grunted and started with mute dislike at the décor in Blue's office.
"Your brother was caught rummaging through garbage cans," Blue attempted to keep the conversation going. Tsume looked at her with gray eyes hard with poverty.
"Times have been hard. I've been laid off a lot, but we get by okay." Tsume replied in his rough voice. Blue could see there was more to him than a rough and hard exterior. He was concealing his feelings for he was constantly drawn to the wolves.
Toboe noticed his brother's fascination with the wolves because he said, "You feel something to then Tsume?"
Tsume's head jerked up abruptly and Blue felt the penetrating silence. "We're here to talk about your problems runt, not what I feel." Tsume replied.
Blue suddenly piped up. "Actually, I am very interested in what you feel. It might help me with Toboe." Blue answered.
Tsume looked highly uncomfortable with divulging his feeling, but slowly began. "I get these visions of wolves, like I understand why they howl. Like I have some drive for a higher place, a more perfect place, a Eden or paradise." Tsume bit his lip and Blue felt her heart thump.
That word paradise left her with fractured images of a woman, well a sort of woman who smelled of something called lunar flowers. She felt it the howling in her chest, the sorrow of the wolves, and gunshots.
"Ms. Blue! Ms. Blue!" Toboe called in alarm to Blue's sudden trance-like state.
"What? Oh, I'm sorry." Blue was going to say for my behavior, but she couldn't get the images out of her head. "I just can't shake the feeling we've all met before." Toboe broke the silence and Tsume nodded.
"Yeah, I felt that way when I first saw you Blue." Toboe smiled easily. Blue felt her head begin to ache.