 
DAVID SHATH SQUARE Chapter Twelve
I could have remained on that dock with Thoreena for eternity, but reality has a way of sneaking up on us. It drags us back from bliss and stamps a heavy imprint on our joys.
The first imprint was a rumbling in our stomachs that suggested dinner. The second was a cloud of mosquitoes making a meal of us. We got up and slipped into our sun-dried clothes; they felt soft and warm and reassuring in the cool evening air.
Shadow was barking. We walked through the bush to a large jack pine where he had treed a porcupine. We ignored Shadow and the porcupine because the ground was covered with blueberry bushes and the berries were big and juicy. Thoreena and I began to strip them from the bushes, shoving them into our mouths like beasts -- I guess we had never known true hunger until that moment.
We feasted until darkness pervaded the forest. When we stopped eating a looked around, it was apparent we were two people lost and alone.
"Where are we, Hardy?"
"I'm not sure, but I think this is the old trail to Lake George."
"Don't you mean George Lake?"
"I guess...but we always called it Lake George. It's about a three mile hike south of here. I was there with my father and grandfather once. There's a log cabin on the east shore built by two brothers who wanted to evade the draft of World War 1."
"I remember my father talking about them," said Thoreena.
"My grandfather said they were traitors to their country and should have been hunted down and strung up. But nobody did anything about it. My father said they had the right to do what they did."
"I suppose if you don't believe in a war you should have the right not to participate," said Thoreena. "Doesn't democracy guarantee us rights?"
"Yea, but how can you have rights if you're not prepared to stand up and fight for them?"
"There are always lots of people who are ready to fight for a cause. Some folks should be exempt from war if they don't believe in violence?"
"Yea, well why should they share the rights others have died for?" I was starting to get annoyed at Thoreena. I could see she was just warming to her argument.
Just then an eerie howl cut through the cold night air like the edge of a night hawk's wing.
Shadow stopped barking and looked about nervously.
The howl was repeated again, but this time it came from another direction much closer to us.
"Wolves," said Thoreena. "Isn't that the most hauntingly beautiful sound you've ever heard?"
"It's beautiful...but it's kind of creepy and lonesome, too," I said.
"Don't worry, Hardy. Wolves won't attack humans."
"But they will attack dogs," I said, looking at Shadow who was looking at me as if to ask 'what now, Einstein?'
It was decision time. I wasn't good at decisions. My father or my grandfather always made important decisions. But now it was up to me and I didn't feel up to the task.
"We could try to find that cabin on..." Thoreena started to say.
"That's just what I was thinking. The cabin on Lake George," I said, cutting off Thoreena before she could claim the idea as her own.
Before we began our hike, she waded into the river and pulled a dozen bullrushes out by the roots and divided them into two bundles.
When she returned to shore, she began to wrap each bundle with jack pine boughs, tying them together with green willow branches.
She handed one of the bundles to me.
"What am I supposed to do with this bunch of bullrushes?"
She looked at me derisively.
"First of all they're not bullrushes, they're cattails; and secondly they make a reliable torch. Wolves don't like fire. For a kid who grew up in the country you don't know much about flora and fauna."
"I probably know as much as you," I said, "At least I know you can't light torches without matches."
"You mean matches like these," said Thoreena, producing a waterproof metal cylinder from her pocket that contained about fifty matches.
She unscrewed the metal cap and selected a match with a thick sulfur head and struck it on the leg of her jeans. It spurted to life. She lit one of the torches which ignited immediately and used it to light my torch.
"Fine," I said, "I'll lead the way. Don't fall too far behind or you may get lost."
The trail had been well tramped by fishermen and was easy to follow through the bush. But when it broke onto granite boulders, the trail disappeared and we had to rely on my sense of direction.
Thoreena followed giving encouraging hints such as 'go a little further west' or 'you'll lead us in a circle if you go that way.'
I was about to tell Thoreena that I knew exactly where I was going when a wolf let out a howl not twenty feet away. He was on top of a granite boulder silhouetted against the moon; his coat jet black and his head raised proudly.
"That must be the alpha male," said Thoreena, "Isn't he magnificent?"
Shadow seemed less impressed. The hackles on the back of his neck stood up and an atavistic growl began to build in his powerful chest. If he had to confront the Hell's Angels of the canine world alone, then he was going to do it with a good fight.
As we stood and listened, we could hear slight movements in the bush as the rest of the pack began to surround us. Our torches crackled and threw a dim light. I could discern about seven wolves, not counting the leader, in amongst the trees. Their yellow canine eyes looked at us intently showing neither fear or friendliness; they were hungry eyes.
To Chapter Thirteen
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