Chapter Three

Bad News

September 2003, La Push, Washington

I was striding home from school in a pretty good mood, having spent half an hour or so at the beach with my mates. It was one of those rare sunny days in La Push that made you glad you were alive. Quil and Embry, my two best mates were coming around later to help me work on the truck I was fixing in my spare time. I seemed to have a gift for all things mechanical and although I knew Quil and Embry weren't really able or even willing to help it as always good fun to hang out with them. Life was good being a thirteen year old boy growing up in the La Push reservation in the North West United States, even if it did rain for most of the year. There was always something to do, and I was keen to get the truck back on the road.

I pushed my thoughts of the beach and the truck out of my mind as I approached the modest house I shared with my wheel-chair bound father. I had homework to concentrate on first of course, and I was ravenously hungry too. I noticed the police cruiser of Chief Swan parked outside and remembered that my father had invited him around for tea.

Charlie Swan was well known on the reservation. He was one of my father's best friends and had been for years. Since my mother died he had been a regular visitor. He didn't have much else going on in his life outside of his job as Chief of Police and if my father didn't invite him down to the reservation once in a while, or out on a fishing trip he would stay buried in his paperwork until the midnight hour.

His wife had left him several years ago and even his daughter, Bella had stopped visiting, so I guess Charlie was lonely too, just like my father. I think Bella had actually been forced into the last two or three visits and had finally put her foot down. Who could blame her? She lived with her mother in Phoenix, Arizona where the sun shone pretty much all year round. Why would she want to spend any time in Washington County which had to be just about the wettest place on earth?

I racked my brains to remember Bella. I had vague memories of playing together when we were much younger. She was cool, being a couple of years older than me I always looked up to her, but I doubted she would remember me. I wondered what she looked like now. She had never been particularly beautiful, but there was definitely something about her; something which stood her apart from the rest. I remembered her clumsiness and that brought a smile to my face. She was always falling over and hurting herself. Maybe all girls were clumsy? No, Bella was exceptionally clumsy, I was sure of it.

"Hey Charlie!" I called out as I entered the house.

"Hi Jake!" he replied, "School ok?"

"Yeah, I guess. Where's dad?" I looked around but couldn't see him. Charlie was sitting on the small sofa in our cosy living room.

"Here in the kitchen" my father called out. "I hope you're hungry!" His face broke into a huge smile as he wheeled himself into the living room.

"Starving!" I replied, before heading off to my room to begin my homework. I knew I wouldn't be allowed out to my make-shift garage until I had finished my school work.

I set about my math homework, finding it relatively easy. I could hear my father and Charlie speaking in the living room. It seems Charlie had only just arrived shortly before me. They were chatting about their next fishing trip and whether or not Harry Clearwater would be joining them. I smiled to myself as I thought of the three of them out on their tiny boat and wondered whether I would ever be interested in Fishing. It seemed unlikely.

I pressed on with my homework aware of the burning hunger pains growing in my stomach, which was now making rather loud gurgling noises, and I hoped it wouldn't be long before tea was ready. I had nearly finished now in any case, so I could scoff my food down and be out in time for Quil and Embry to turn up.

"Food's ready!" I heard my father call out just as I was finishing off the last question.

"Great, perfect timing, I'm almost done!"

I closed my books and headed into the living room where the tiny table was set in the corner. My father and Charlie were already there, tucking into enormous plates of spaghetti Bolognese, which I remembered was one of Charlie's favourites.

"I met the new Doctor at the hospital today," Charlie told us, in between mouthfuls of food. "There was an accident in the town, a young girl got knocked off her bike by a car and so I had to attend to get statements."

"Is she ok?" I asked, more out of courtesy than real interest.

"Yeah, yeah, she'll be fine. No damage apart from some cuts and bruises. She had a lucky escape. That new doctor is marvellous. Wonderful bedside manner."

My father nodded. "Good, how long has he been there?"

"Oh just arrived a couple of weeks ago, from Alaska they tell me." Charlie continued. "He seems very young though. But very knowledgeable and thorough. Dr Cullen, that was what he called himself."

My father spat his mouthful of spaghetti across the table and spluttered "Cullen? Are you sure? Blond hair, about mid-twenties, pale skin, strange eyes?"

"Yeah, you've already met him then?" Charlie asked, looking a bit taken aback.

My father didn't answer immediately, he just looked like he was about to choke on his food. His face was red with rage and his eyes were bulging and staring hard at Charlie's face like he had just delivered the worst possible news. He looked like he was going to explode. He threw his knife and fork down on the table and muttered, "Well, I never thought they would show their faces around here again."

Charlie shook his head in disbelief at my father's reaction. "What? What's the problem with Dr Cullen?"

"Have you finished your food Jacob?" My father suddenly snapped.

"Er no, not quite." I stammered, a little shaken by the sudden shift in mood. An hour ago it had been a lovely sunny day and now it felt like the storm clouds were gathering over our tiny little house.

I shoved the last few mouthfuls down with as much speed as I could manage without making myself sick as it was obvious my father wanted to talk alone to Charlie, presumably to explain his rather strange reaction. I actually couldn't wait to get outside anyway. I had never seen my father quite so wound up about anything, well not since I took his truck for an illegal drive a couple of months ago and rammed it into a tree. Besides, it was obvious my father wasn't going to tell me anything about the strange Dr Cullen and I wanted to know if Quil or Embry had heard anything.

Once out in the garage, my safe haven, I began working on the truck. After I had collided with the tree I had convinced my father to allow me to rebuild the engine. Not that there had been much damage to the engine, but it was just so slow and I wanted to see if I could improve it. My father wasn't able to drive it now anyway, and the plan was that I would inherit it as soon as I was old enough to legally drive. If I was going to have to drive round in an ancient chevvy truck I didn't want to be overtaken by girls on push-bikes.

I was tempted to creep back to the house and listen outside the window, but just as I was contemplating that idea, my two mates turned up.

"Hey Jake, how's the tired old truck coming along?" Quil asked.

I smirked, "It might be an old wreck, but it's better than what you have."

"Well you don't seem to be making much progress on it," Embry teased.

"Great achievements take time," I replied. "Anyway, enough of that, I need to ask you something. My father has just completely flipped out over something Charlie told him about the new Doctor at the hospital. Have you two heard anything?"

Quil and Embry both shook their heads simultaneously.

"His name is Cullen. Does that mean anything to you?"

"Cullen?" Quil asked, a little hesitantly.

"Yeah, that's what Charlie said. My dad acted like he knew him from the past or something, but that's not possible because he's only about mid-twenties or something. It's so weird, I thought my dad was going to burst he was so angry."

"Yeah, I've heard of Cullen," Quil offered, "Although it might be something completely different. I'm not sure, it's just some story I heard Harry and Sue talking about one day. I wasn't supposed to be listening."

"Harry Clearwater?"

"Yeah, they didn't know I was there. I was with Seth, we were supposed to have been outside but we had gone back in to get something from Seth's room."

"And?" I urged Quil to continue.

"Well I don't know if there is any truth in it, but it seems that the Cullen's were ancient enemies of our kind. There was some sort of feud years back. I didn't really get too much of what they were saying, and it was a long time ago now...something about wolves, and shape-shifting...no, sorry, I can't remember..."

Embry interrupted him, "I've heard stories too about wolves. I was told that our descendents were wolves, that some of us have the ability to shape-shift and become wolves."

"Nah, get out of here!" I laughed. "I've never heard any such thing. When was the last time you saw any of us change into a wolf?"

"Like I said," Embry continued, "It's just a story I've heard. It only happens once every hundred years or something, when the cold ones show up."

"The cold ones?" I asked, still laughing.

Embry shrugged, "I don't know what it means, it's only what I have heard."

"Well you've lost the plot mate," I joked at him. "Besides, what has all that got to do with Dr Cullen? If he is only in his twenties, it can't be anything to do with him."

"Unless Cullen is a descendent of the enemy maybe," Quil said thoughtfully, "a descendant of the cold ones?" and then laughing he made a howl like a wolf and raised his hands over his head and pretended to swipe Embry with his imaginary claws. "Well, you got to admit, it would be pretty cool."

"No, you idiot," Embry whispered, "It's dangerous. The times I have heard about were extremely dangerous. We don't speak about it."

"Embry you pussy-cat. Where's your wolf-spirit?" Quil teased and then he howled again.

"Shut up Quil, My father will hear us." I scolded and then turned back to Embry who was looking a little concerned. "What else do you know?"

Embry shrugged, "That's about it really, just that it was dangerous, and that the cold ones were our enemies and we shape-shifted to protect our people. Surely you must have heard this too Jake?"

I shook my head and stared at the floor beginning to feel a little annoyed that I had obviously been kept in the dark about some of our tribe's ancient secrets and decided I would have it out with my father later when Charlie left.

"None of it?" Embry asked.

"None of it," I replied. "But I'm going to find out, that's for sure."

"Yeah, me too," Quil added. "I still say it sounds cool."

"Come on, let's go over to the Clearwaters ." Embry suggested.

"No, I'm going to ask my father to tell me." I replied. "He will be angry if someone else tells me first. Seems that everyone knows something except for me though." I was fighting hard to control the emotion that was building up inside of me. I kicked a small stone out through the open door in frustration. My great-grandfather, Ephraim Black had been the Chief so my father should know the stories. I wanted to give him the opportunity to explain things to me the way he saw it, and also, I wanted to know why he had kept it a secret from me.

"It's all supposed to be a secret Jake," Embry said. "No-one outside out tribe is supposed to know anything about it. I expect that is why no-one has said anything."

"Yeah, well that may be the case, but we are in the tribe. We should be told about these things," I replied angrily.

I couldn't imagine then what my father was telling Charlie. Why couldn't he tell me? I was part of this tribe and I had a right to know the legends associated with it, even if there was no truth in them, and I couldn't imagine there would be. Native American tribal history was full of myths and legends. But if I was going to turn into a wolf one day then I wanted to know what to expect. And what exactly were the cold ones; what did that mean? How would I recognise the enemy if I didn't know what to look for?

Quil and Embry headed off in the direction of the Clearwater's house. My evening was ruined anyway. I was no longer interested in fixing the truck. I packed up my spanners and turned off the light. I noticed with annoyance that Charlie's cruiser was still outside the house so I wouldn't be able to ask anything for now. I wondered if they were still talking about it. I crept up to the house and listened outside the window for a couple of minutes. No, they were talking about baseball now, so it was safe to go in, I wasn't interrupting anything I shouldn't.

"That didn't take long," my father stated as I walked in through the front door. He looked normal again now at least, his eyes no longer bulging out of their sockets. His face was unhappy though and I could tell he was deep in thought. I wondered if he was trying to figure out how to explain his irrational behaviour earlier. There was definitely tension in the room; I could sense it.

I mustered a smile and came up with a plausible excuse, "Yeah, I remembered some more homework I had to do before tomorrow."

"Ok, Jacob, well it's nice to see you are still taking your school work seriously," my father replied. It was the kind of rehearsed statement a father would make to his son when he didn't really know what else to say. He looked at me quizzically, presumably to figure out if I had overheard any of their earlier conversation. Charlie seemed keen all of a sudden to go home so I decided to go to my room and pretend to be doing more homework while I was really figuring out how to approach the subject of the legends with my father.

I listened to Charlie and my father saying goodbye to each other to see if I could pick up any further clues, but there seemed to be tension between the pair of them. I had heard my father and Charlie chat for many hours but this was different. They seemed somehow too formal with each other now. Something wasn't right.

Charlie ended the conversation with "Well, I'll see you around then Billy?"

My father just grunted and muttered, "Yeah, something like that," but it was after Charlie had closed the door behind him.

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