Raymond Stillwell parked the battered truck in front of the Agway and got out. "Come on, girl," he called and Jessie jumped down. Man and dog then walked together into the store, the dog happily wagging her tail.
"Hey, Ray," the clerk said with a smile, "How's the old homestead today?" He looked down at the canine. "And how's our little wolfie friend today?"
Jessie panted and wagged vigorously. Ray smiled. "You tell him Jessie."
"Woof!" she said happily, "Rrror rr wof!"
"God, Ray!" the man laughed, "You really are going to teach that dog to talk."
"Watch this," Ray said softly. He turned to the dog. "Jessie! Protect!"
The dog crouched low on her haunches and growled menacingly at the closest customer, who nearly dropped his bags of bird seed.
"Stop, Jesse!" Ray commanded. The dog looked at him with ears up in surprise but stopped and sat down obediently.
"Whoa!" the clerk said, "Don't do that in the store! You'll chase all my customers away."
"She won't hurt anyone; she's my special girl, ain't ya girl?"
Jessie woofed again, then followed Ray around the store as he picked up a new sawblade and extra sandpaper. Back in the truck, he turned on the radio to his favorite country-and-western station and crooned along with the singers. Jessie held back until the chorus and howled softly along with him. Ray got through the second song before his laughter burbled up and he rubbed Jessie's head. "God, you're a funny dog."
As he got out of the truck Ray stopped to look at the sunset. It was quiet up here with the kids all grown and left, and his Susan gone too. Now he only had the dogs to keep him company, Jessie and her mother Red. He sometimes wondered what strange dog had jumped the fence two years ago and made Red pregnant. He'd given away the other pups but kept Jessie to keep him and Red company. Both mother and pup looked rather wolfish, especially Jessie, but the pup was the sweetest, brightest dog he'd ever known. She was the best company a single man could ask for.
"Come on, girl," he said and started for the door. He stopped, not feeling her presence by his side. Turning back he saw her facing the moon as it began its rise through the darkening sky. Close to the horizon, it swelled large, like a pregnant woman. He stepped up next to Jessie looked at the beauty of it. The dog whined softly, and looked up at him with... what? Jessie was an expressive dog and she could almost always communicate her moods to him, but this time he couldn't tell exactly what was going on her mind. Fear, trepidation, anticipation?
"Come on, now," he murmured, "Gotta make supper." She turned - reluctantly? - to rejoin him and they slowly made their way inside.
That night, the sounds of lamps being overturned woke him. A howl came from downstairs that made him shiver. It was a cry of pain and of anger like he'd never heard before. The thought of burglars came to his mind and in the light of the bright moon he grabbed his shotgun.
As he came down the stairs the sounds of stomping and thrashing increased and he began to worry if the dogs, their protective instincts awakened, were tearing the robber to shreds. When he reached the foot of stairs he saw Red cringing in a corner, scared as he'd never seen her before. He could see in the room the bent over figure of a huge man. Somewhere, he heard a deep growling noise. The burglar must have hurt Jessie.
"All right now!" he said, raising the gun, "You get your hands up and I'll call off the dogs." Then he flicked the lights on with his elbow.
The figure turned towards him, and it wasn't a man but a monster. It leaped and was upon him, his weapon knocked to the side. Huge teeth lined the wolfish face and sharp claws dug into his chest. Ray felt his blood go cold as it roared at him and raised its head to bite.
"Jessie!" he squeaked out, "Protect!"
At his words, the monster stopped and looked at him in confusion. It whined loudly and backed away, shaking its enormous head. Its body flexed and warped like it was made of playdough and it groaned and whined in pain. It looked at him again and he recognized the deep gray eyes. "Jesse?" he asked in astonishment.
"Rorr rorror," the creature said and its head bobbed. It convulsed, began to shrivel, and fell to the floor. Before his unbelieving eyes the creature changed, fur changing to smooth skin and claws to hands. After a few moments, a young girl lay shivering and crying on the ground where the wolf beast had stood.
He stared at her for a moment, listening to her wracking sobs. He didn't understand what had just happened to his favorite dog, but he had to do something about the young girl in front of him.
"Jessie," he said again, and picked her up gently.
She looked at him and he could read the pain in her eyes, and new intelligence behind the tears. She whined and pawed at him with her hands.
"Be still now." He carried her upstairs to his bed. He wrapped her in a blanket and held her until she stopped trembling and finally fell asleep.
He woke up, remembering the strangest dream about Jessie becoming monster, then a teenaged girl. He sat up to see Jessie lying next to him, under the covers. "Hey, you know the rules: no dogs on the bed," he said grumpily and bumped the dog. Jessie yelped, jumped onto the floor and shook herself. Her eyes were full of questions as she looked at him while he dressed. Strangest dream. He even had scratch marks on his chest where the dream-monster had placed its claws on him. He stretched his aching muscles, thinking it might be time to get another mattress.
When he got to the staircase he saw the wreckage. Jessie went down first and sniffed around as he slowly descended, taking inventory. Chairs and tables were overturned, ripped apart and smashed. He picked up his shotgun, left where the monster, Jessie? had knocked it out of his hands. Jessie whined a little and hung her head as if to apologize for destroying the living room. He put out extra food for the dogs and watched with interest as Red let Jessie eat first instead of them sharing the big bowl. He let them out and went over to the computer. He'd mostly used it for agricultural sites and the weather but now he picked up one of the many manuals that he'd bought with it and looked up search engines.
An hour later Ray was startled by the sound of the back door closing. Jessie trotted in, looking very pleased with herself. "Did you open the door?" he said half aloud. The dogs had never figured out the simple latch installed on the door but now Jessie was in and wagging her tail in triumph. Then she looked at the destroyed living room and her head sank again.
"Just be a good girl, Jessie?" he said pleading and Jessie rolled over and woofed. While he waited for the websites to load he watched the dog sniff carefully around the house as if she was getting to know everything for the first time.
After a time she stopped in front of the table radio and stared intently at it. "Woof?" she asked pensively and whined.
He smiled a little and turned it on. Country-and-western burbled out of the speaker and Jessie sat enraptured by it, her tail keeping time with the music.
He found on very little on the Internet aside from mythology and a few crank sites about werewolves. Nothing about dogs becoming young girls. But by dinnertime he'd formed a strategy.
"Jessie, come on," he said and just as always the dog came to his side. They walked down to the barn which had been emptied of animals years ago. "Jessie, girl," he said stroking the dog's head. "I don't know what's going on with you, but if you change again you're going to be dangerous. You almost killed me, you know."
The dog looked at him with her big gray eyes, trying to express something back. She came close and leaned against him.
"I love you too, girl, but for your own protection and mine, I'm going to put you in the barn for the night. Now, go on," he pushed her gently into the barn and locked the door. His heart broke as he walked away, hearing her barking and whining pitifully. He went inside, got his old dimes and his reloading equipment out. By sunset he had several shotgun shells loaded with silver shot.
It had cooled down by the time night fell and the moon rose. He sat on the porch, cradling his gun and drinking coffee, watching the barn. Around 10 o'clock he heard Jessie barking in alarm. It quickly changed to growls loud enough to hear from the porch.
Then there came a series of horrendous howls that screamed pain and confusion. The doors of the barn rattled and he could hear the scrap of claws on wood but the door held. After about a quarter hour, it grew quiet and he dared to go over to the barn. Listening carefully, he heard sobs, very human sobs.
Gingerly he opened the door and shined a flashlight in. There he saw the teenage girl lying on the ground, curled up in pain. "Jessie?" he called out and the girl started to crawl towards him. Dumbfounded he let her reach his side where she began to lick his hand.
"Come on, I'll take you inside." At those words she tried to crawl quickly but fell. He picked her up and carried her inside the house. He placed her on the couch and clicked on a surviving light.
She looked at him with confusion and terror. Then she looked at her hands. Her eyes widened and she inexpertly tried to clap her hands. Then she reached out for him. After some desperate attempts she managed to place her palm against his. Her eyes met his and there was an understanding. "Yes, Jessie," Ray said, "you're like me now."
Her smile made him forget the wreckage and the monster.
By the next morning he was exhausted. He'd stayed awake all night and watched with astonishment when the girl morphed back into a dog. Jessie awoke looking depressed and moped around by his side while he ate breakfast. Although his brain hurt from seeing the unbelievable, he needed to get some sleep and he collapsed onto the couch.
A knock on the front door woke him after several hours. He answered it and saw a bearded man and scruffy-looking woman waiting for him.
"Excuse me, we're from the university biology department. We're up here doing a field study and we heard a wolf howl last night. Did you hear anything?"
"No," he said tersely. "Now go away."
"Are you sure? It was pretty loud."
"I said GO AWAY!"
At the sound of his angry voice Jessie came to the door and growled at the stranger. From the stranger's throat came an answering growl that wavered strangely. Jessie jumped back in surprise.
"What is it, girl?" he asked the dog. But the dog spun around excitedly like she was chasing her tail, then barked, whined and growled at the stranger. The woman woofed an answer and Jessie wagged her tail with such delight she almost fell over.
The man smiled at Ray. "I think we found our wolf. And perhaps a friend?" He nodded to the dog. "She says you stayed with her when she changed. I think I can explain what's going on..."
Several hours later Ray sat in the kitchen with the man who called himself Arlo. "So you see," Arlo finished up, "we've been around a long time, but we stay hidden from you as much as possible."
"So there's both people who turn wolf and wolves who turn people?" Ray said slowly. "And you're..?"
"Wolf turned people," Arlo replied with a smile. "But there are few purebred wolves around these days so we try to find canines with the wolf blood in them to mate with."
Ray gathered his wits together. "So what you're saying is that you're Jessie's father."
"Yes."
"Pretty damn strange if you ask me. Always wondered what strange dog knocked up Red that time."
Arlo laughed and regarded him with friendly gray eyes. "You get used to it."
"Now what?"
"We'll we train Jessie how to be both wolf and human. Margie has helped several lupuses with their transition. Let's go see how she's doing."
The two men went upstairs where Jessie and the woman that came with Arlo had been holed up while Ray talked with Arlo. Ray wondered what he'd see when they went into the room; a monster, his dog, or a strange young girl? Sitting on the bed with Margie was the young girl and he felt his heart sink. The woman turned and looked worriedly at them.
"She doesn't want to leave," Margie said, "She wants to stay here."
"If she doesn't want to go," Ray said firmly, "I won't let you take her."
Arlo looked grave. "Then we won't," he replied, "If you agree to let us stay and help her, and you too. We'll stay with you two as long as you need us to help the two of you adjust."
Ray was silent for a moment. "Thank you," he choked out, finally overwhelmed by the situation.
"She's amazing though," Margie continued. "I asked her to shift forms and she did it the first try. Then she demanded that I teach her something."
"Ray?" she continued, "Could you come here?"
Hesitantly, he sat on the bed with the strange girl. Clumsily she took up his hand. "Lmuv... youuuu," she stammered out. "Jehesie ... luvvvv ryouuu."
He'd lost a dog and gained a foster child.
"I love you too, Jessie."
END