No sir.
Well come on to the house.
What do you want me to do with her?
Her?
This here wolf.
Well I guess it’ll just have to lay around the kitchen till we get done eatin.
Lay around the kitchen?
It’s a joke, son. Hell fire. You brought that thing in the house you could hear my wife in Albuquerque with the wires down.
I dont want to leave her outside. Somethin’s liable to jump her.
I know that. Just come on. I wouldnt leave her out for nobody to see noways. They’d come and get me with a butterfly net.
They put the wolf in the smokehouse and left her and walked back to the kitchen. The man looked at the rifle the boy was carrying but he didnt say anything. When they got to the kitchen door the boy stood the rifle against the side of the house and the man held the door for him and they went in.
The woman had put the supper above the oven to warm and she brought everything out again and set a plate for the boy. Outside they heard RL start the truck. They passed the dishes, bowls of mashed potatoes and pinto beans and a platter of fried steaks. When he had his plate loaded with about all it could hold he looked up at the man. The man nodded at his plate.
We done blessed the food once, he said. So unless you got some personal business to conduct just tuck on in.
Yessir.
They began to eat.
Mama, the man said, see if you can get him to tell us where it is he’s headed with that lobo.
If he dont want to say he dont have to, the woman said.
I’m talon her to Mexico.
The man reached for the butter. Well, he said. That seems like a good idea.
I’m goin to take her down there and turn her loose.
The man nodded. Turn her loose, he said.
Yessir.
She’s got some pups somewheres, aint she?
No sir. Not yet she dont.
You sure about that?
Yessir. She’s fixin to have some.
What have you got against the Mexicans?
I dont have nothin against em.
You just figured they might could use another wolf or two. The boy cut a piece from his steak and forked it up. The man watched him.
How are they fixed for rattlesnakes down there do you reckon?
I aint talon her to give to nobody. I’m just talon her down there and turnin her loose. It’s where she come from.
The man troweled butter very methodically along the edge of a biscuit with his knife. He put the top back on the biscuit and looked at the boy.
You a very peculiar kid, he said. Did you know that?
No sir. I was always just like everbody else far as I know.
Well you aint.
Yessir.
Tell me this. You aint plannin on just dumpin that thing across the line are you? Cause if you are I’m goin to follow you out there with a rifle.
I was goin to take her back to the mountains.
Take her back to the mountains, the man said. He looked at the biscuit speculatively and then bit slowly into it.
Where all is your family from? the woman said.
We’re up at the Charcas.
She means before that, the man said.
We come out of Grant County. And De Baca fore that.
The man nodded.
We been down here a long time.
What’s a long time?
Goin on ten years.
Ten years, the man said. Time just flies, dont it?
Go on and eat your supper, the woman said. Dont pay no attention to him.
They ate. After a while the truck pulled into the yard and passed the house and the woman got up from the table and went to get RL’s plate from the warmer over the stove.
When they walked out after supper it was evening and growing cold and the sun was low over the mountains to the west. Bird stood in the yard tied by a rope halter to the gate and the bridle and reins were hung over the saddlehorn. The woman stood in the kitchen door and watched them cross toward the smokehouse.
Let’s be careful about openin this door, the man said. If that thing has come out of that muzzletie you’ll wish you was in a bathtub with a alligator.
Yessir, the boy said.
The man lifted the open lock from the haspstaple and the boy pushed the door in carefully. She was standing, backed into the corner. There was no window in the little adobe building and she blinked when the light fell across her.
She’s all right, the boy said.
He pushed the door open.
That poor thing, the woman said.
The rancher turned patiently. Jane Ellen, he said, what are you doin out here?
That leg looks awful. I’m goin to get Jaime.
You’re goin to what?
Just wait here.
She turned and set off across the yard. Half way she pulled off the coat she’d thrown over her shoulders and put it on. The man leaned in the door and shook his head.
Where was she goin? the boy said.
More craziness, the man said. We could be in a epidemic.
He stood in the doorway and rolled a smoke while the boy sat holding the wolf by the rope.
You dont use these do you? the man said.
No sir.
That’s good. Dont start.