The Strand of Pearls

January 16, 2012 at 2:02 pm · Filed under Stories and tagged: animal, inner child, magic, wolf

I creep into the wood there marked by the gnarled old cypress.  I follow the leafy path through the thicket eating berries on my way.  I gently pad into the golden meadow where the butterflies greet me with their orange dance.  I slip into the far forest where I know he wanders.  I pick up my book and I begin reading.

I see the traces of broken twigs and I know he has passed this way, but I would never track him.  As I read, I feel his eyes on me.  I look up from my book and glance around.  He will only let me see him when he chooses.  I come here everyday to read aloud and today the sun is hot.  I can imagine his movements.

The Wolf Spirit is busy running through the forest.  He gathers food and herbs for medicine.  He leaps from rock to rock over the stream. He flies onto banks and floats in streams.  He darts out of sight again and runs without footfalls.

I enjoy the quiet and peace of this place.  Every so often I see the Wolf Spirit in the clearing.  I peak from behind a laurel to get a glimpse of him.  I sneak to the ground into the grass where I kneel silently.  My eyes are on him, his silver coat, dull and thick.  His eyes are on me ever vigilantly.

Only twice have I been allowed very near the Wolf Spirit.  This time I crept up on him while he was curled up in the open.  His eyebrow was raised as I approached.  I sat quietly in his majesty.  He sniffed at me and I sniffed at him.  I finally gained the courage to touch his coat.  I was surprised at how soft it was.  I scratched behind his ears and he laughed.  I snuggled against him , then we danced.

All of a sudden, he swallowed me up.  Down deep into his belly I fell as if through a tunnel.  I landed in a woosh in his stomach.  For as long as I could hold my breath I swam in his belly like a dolphin, laughing and splashing, spinning and chattering.  Then when I could hold my breath no longer, he spat me out onto the grass.  He licked me dry with his tongue in gentle kissing strokes… I fell into a dream.

When I awoke from sleeping I was alone.  There was only a silver pool on the ground which was seeping into the soil.  I crawled into the water basin and licked the dirt to taste the last bit of the wet earth where the Wolf Spirit’s paw prints still shone.  There in the shallow was a string of silver pearls.  I snatched up the strand and stuffed them into my belt.

I ran home to to the flower garden.  I climbed up the tall pink tulip where I lay my head at night. Once inside I sat on the pollen cushion and pulled the pearls out of my belt.  They were sparkling and wondrous.  Out of my pocket I withdrew a second string of pearls.  These were older and the string was stretched from my fingering the pearls like rosary beads.  I gently hung the older pearl strand in the window of my tulip home.  The sun sparkled off of them.  They were shiny as new.  The rain now dances on the pearls in the window like xylophone notes, and the sun makes fractured rainbows on my walls.  I keep the new string of pearls in my pocket now.

Every day I creep into the wood there marked by the gnarled old cypress.  I follow the leafy path through the thicket eating berries along my way.  I gently pad into the golden meadow where the butterflies greet me with their orange dance.  I slip into the far forest where I know he wanders.  I pick up my book and I begin reading.

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The Chase

January 16, 2012 at 2:01 pm · Filed under Stories and tagged: animal, inner child, magic, wolf

Wisps of cloud particles move like hungry fingers reaching for the moon.  The round globe laughs at the strands of white. I am standing on a melting shape waiting for the next one to form.  I jump, and losing my balance, I grab a lemony star to steady myself.  I trace my finger through the fresh coconut mist stretching cloudy shapes, when eyes appear.  Then a nose appears and then pointed ears.  The Wolf Spirit entices me, half hidden in milky foam.  His tail swishes.  He lightly touches me with his wet nose then he retreats, licking his lips and howling a laugh.

I jump from one cloud to the next, grabbing handfuls of cotton candy.  I pull myself up and taste the sugar on my fingers.  His eyes are fixed on me, his intense gaze unmoving.  I look up and he is gone, scurrying over froth.  “I see you!” , I cry.  He laughs.  “The Wolf Spirit is letting me catch him”, I find myself thinking in disbelief.  Leaping up and over I scramble to the starry eclipse just as he eludes me in a single stealth leap.  The merangue swallows him up.

I hold myself perfectly still.  I am hovering silently.  I am within reach, but a sudden glint of twilight gives me away.  I sparkle like a star…as bright as a sun.  My light radiates out in every direction.  I am a beaded cookie with sprinkles of gold.  The Wolf Spirit is focused on me.  His tail begins to wag again, left and right, anticipating the chase.  I am building up energy waiting for a clue of his tenor.  His ears are not back.  Suddenly he jumps on me from his cottony stance and we tumble head over heels.

Stopping to adjust my confetti coating, I lean over and look down.  Below me is a disembodied smile:  Canine incisors dripping with laughter.  “I will catch him”, I think to myself.  I exhale to become flat and I slide through the cloud’s mist like a shard of white chocolate.  My presence is unnoticed.  Slowly, I draw a line to where the Wolf Spirit lazes.  He turns in my direction and presses his nose against me pinning me on the cotton, melting a hole in me.  He releases me and twists his magnificent face left, then right quizzically.  There he studies me.  I sense a hunger.  I feel his peaceful eyes pouring over me like syrup on a thirsty pancake.

We both burst out laughing without cause or control.  Again the chase is on.  I dart, he swerves.  I free fall, he overtakes me.  Laughing, I am delirious and can barely keep my footing.  I scramble up the side of a cumulus, clinging to its rounded slope. It breaks off like divinity in my grasp.  I freeze hoping I am invisible. He sniffs the air and threads of candy cloud are drawn into his nostrils.  He is close behind me and he knows it.  I am ready to run again, but for some reason I do not.  I cannot.  As he pads to me I relax.  He stretches out and leans to rub his sturdy neck against mine.  I shiver at his closeness.  Never before have I known this softness.  He licks my fingers to taste their sugar coating.

He swirls in a circle making a nest and pushes me into it.  I fall clean through and dive, laughing hysterically.  Swiftly, like lightning he is beneath me and we fly together. His strength is substantial.  Up to the silvery full moon we soar.  It is so bright I squint my eyes.  I hold my breath and await the landing.  I run and hide.  He spies me crouching behind the disc of fragrant cheese.  He kneels next to me and takes a big bite.  We gorge ourselves on the savory treat, leaving the backside of the moon a chewed sculpture.  Too much laughter…too much bliss with him.  We run and chase and frolic and leap and fall and roll and turn and toss and grasp and fumble and moan and cry and taste and swallow.  We howl at the half eaten moon in perfect harmony.

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