Puppy Love
Chapter Two
Still carrying me, the boy entered the forest. At last I thought to ask, "Who are you?"
"Jacob Black," the boy said.
"You are? Didn't we meet..?"
"Two years ago, yes."
"How can you run so fast?"
A pause. Then, "I'd rather not answer that question," Jacob said.
"Where are you taking me?"
"To a clear path in the forest that will lead you directly home. And I will advise you to never go out with strange boys again."
"You're a strange boy," I teased.
"Yeah, well, I'm saving your life. But if I showed up at your doorstep asking to take you for a joyride, don't trust me either."
"Where'd those two friends of yours go?" I asked, for I noticed that the other boys were no longer with us.
"Oh, Quil and Embry? They have business elsewhere. Hey, it only takes one of us to carry a damsel in distress."
"Ha-ha."
A few minutes later, Jacob stopped. We were in a glen. Trees surrounded us, but there was a small pond in this clear space. A couple of ducks swam of the surface of the pond.
"Okay, here's where we stop, partner," Jacob said. I climbed down, and he pointed in one direction. "Go straight ahead, then turn left when you get to a huge sequoia. You can recognize a sequoia, can't you?"
"Yes," I said. I didn't bother to tell him I knew the tree he meant.
"From there, keep going straight and you should find yourself back in Forks. If necessary, get to a girlfriend's house and have her drive you home. I don't want you running into that boy again."
"I think I can handle it," I said.
"Good, then. Farewell…till you get in trouble again." Jacob saluted me and turned heel afterward, moving at the same inhuman speed he had used to carry me to that spot.
I ambled in the direction he indicated, knowing that once I reached the sequoia, I could find my way home without problems. If I had needed to enter Forks, the only person that came to mind to contact would be Angela, but she usually hung out with that creepy boyfriend of hers, who always had his eye on me during high school.
Reaching the sequoia, I turned right instead of left. Left would take me into town, I'm sure, but going right would lead me directly home, which was my ultimate destination. About fifty yards beyond the tree, though, I heard a howling, and it chilled my heart. I wanted to turn back and head for Forks after all. Even facing Edward Cullen would be better than encountering a wild animal.
But it sounded as though the animal were in pain. As I drew closer, the howling began to sound more like whimpering. And in my head there was a fuzzy buzzing which I took to mean, Help me. Please…
I took several tentative steps nearer to the howling animal. First I saw it, hairy and large. By the howls, I guessed it was a wolf, but it happened to be twice as big as any wolf I had ever read about in nonfiction, at least.
When I stood only a few feet from it, I thought that this might be a trick. The wolf might be pretending to be in pain, when in reality it wanted to bite my head off. But I wondered: can animals practice deceit? Cheating, lying, stealing, killing (where not necessary for food)…all these are human traits. If we believed this, as I did, than it is not possible for an animal to be guilty of them.
Comforted by that, I approached the wolf. It stopped howling and looked at me with pleading eyes. Then my gaze fell to its paw. A pine needle was wedged in there,
I grabbed the paw and pulled on the pine needle. The wolf continued to whimper. Nothing happened, no matter what I tried. The pine needle remained stuck.
It's no good came the voice in my head, which wasn't my own. The needle will only come out when…when true love's kiss…
I was imagining things. I surmised that the voice came from the wolf, but even if I did have the ability to understand what wolves were thinking, why on Earth would true love be involved? And I certainly wasn't this wolf's true love, so if that was the only way to help it, I'd just have to leave it there in pain. We weren't even the same species!
I didn't want to leave it. Something drew me to keep trying. There had to be a way to remove the pine needle; there just had to!
Using my foot, I attempted to dislodge the pine needle again. When that didn't work, I pressed down on it with my knee. I attempted everything I could think of, but to no avail.
Thanks for trying, but…until my true love comes…it's not meant to be.
"Stop saying that!" I exclaimed, knowing full well the wolf could not understand me. "I will rescue you from this predicament!"
And with that, I put my lips to the pine needle, getting dirt and other nasty stuff I didn't want to think about in my mouth. The pine needle came out, now between my teeth. I spit it on the ground. Then I turned back to the wolf.
It stared at me. I heard the voice saying, That's…impossible.
"But I did it," I said. "Well, your pain is over now. I'll see you around."
I turned my back to the wolf and headed for home. Yet, even though I was happy to have set the wolf free from its pain, something inside made me miserable. I had no idea what caused me to feel this way, so I attributed it to Mike's ill behavior. I felt Jacob had given me wise advice, not to go out with strange men. But Mike wasn't strange. And if a guy could put on a façade for being nice just to hoodwink his ex-girlfriend into going on a joyride with him, could any guy be trusted at all?
It would take me more than a fortnight to realize that my misery had absolutely nothing to do with Mike.