Chapter 28: Sunday Dinner

The first Sunday, Torin arrived at five with a loaf of bread.

He stood on my landing above the shop holding it out with both hands.

"I bought it from the bakery next door," he said.

"I thought I should bring something."

"You brought bread to a baker," I said.

"I realized that on the stairs."

Hazel had come up behind me in her socks and was looking at the loaf with deep suspicion.

"That's the one with the seeds," she said.

"Mommy says the seeds get in her teeth."

"I'm in trouble," Torin said.

"Yes," said Hazel, and she took his hand and pulled him inside.

My flat had two rooms and a kitchen with a table that seated four if nobody moved.

Torin sat where Hazel pointed, which was between her and the wall, and he did not complain once about his knees.

I put down a roast chicken and a dish of green beans and the good potatoes.

Orin looked at the chicken for a while and then at his father.

"Do wolves have to use forks?" he asked.

"At your mother's table," Torin said, "yes."

"What about at the lodge?" Orin asked.

"At the lodge I use a fork because she'd find out."

Orin accepted this and ate.

Hazel narrated.

She told Torin which of her teachers were frauds and which pigeon on the roof was her enemy, and which of his forks was the wrong fork.

He listened to all of it with the full attention of a man at a briefing.

I watched him across the table and could not decide what I felt.

It was warm and annoyed in about equal parts.

He caught me looking and did not look away.

"Mommy," Orin said, in a different voice.

I turned.

He had gone completely still on his chair, and his plate was untouched.

Orin's eyes were gold, and his hands on the table were shaking.

"I feel funny," he said.

"Torin," I said.

"I see it."

He had put down his fork very slowly.

"Orin, I'm right here," he said.

"You don't have to fight it and you don't have to do anything, and nobody here will look away. Let it come."

It came all at once.

Orin's shirt slumped on the chair, and from inside it a dark pup scrambled out, with grey eyes and enormous ears.

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