Ice (7 page)

“Because of what we are,” he said simply, like it was obvious. He then looked down again and mumbled, “Because of what they
were
.”

I gulped, feeling sorry for this mysterious and very strange boy. A sad and awkward silence followed, so I decided that was the best time to ask his name.

“What’s your name?” I nearly whispered, my voice sounding too loud against the silence.

First his eyes looked up at me from under his long, black lashes as if he were hesitating, and then he tipped his head up fully to look at me straight on. “Kavick.”

I was surprised by the strange sound that came out of his mouth. I didn’t say anything for several seconds, and then he cocked his head to the side and added, “But, you can call me Kevin. That’s the name I go by when I’m in town.”

“But, Ka…vick…”

He nodded, letting me know I was pronouncing it correctly. I could see the faintest traces of a smile at the corners of his mouth, like he was pleased I was trying to say it.

“…I
s your real name?”

“Yes.”

“That’s an unusual name.” It was all I could think to say. I hoped I hadn’t offended him, but he had to have known how strange it sounded to go by “Kevin” around normal people.

“It’s Inuit, I think. It’s the name of a river, but my parents changed the spelling.”

I stared at him for a moment as he grinned, somehow seeing even more of a resemblance to the beautiful Husky that had rescued Big John and me from the bear.

He
continued, saying, “My dad was a wolf and my mom was a Husky. They both had ancestors that were Inuit and Yupik. They didn’t know much of either language, but they wanted my brothers and me to have Native names.” He then added with a chuckle, “And they had white ancestors, too, as you can see.”

I felt my eyes widen. “You’re dad was an actual wolf…?”

“He shifted into one, like I shifted for you,” he explained quickly.

I was silent again. I didn’t know what to think anymore. Kavick kept talking, though, finding plenty to say.

“My brother Tartok, who we call Tark for short, but Tom around your kind, is a black wolf like my dad. I had a brother named Tupit who was also a Husky. And then there was Maguyuk, who was a black wolf, too, and then there was Anuun, a white Husky. Tark is the only one who is still alive. My other brothers and my parents were killed by the hunters.”

He stared at me for a moment, the silence filling the void again. Or rather, creating another one. His face was indifferent, but I could see the sadness he was trying to hide in his eyes. He was trying to stare at me bravely, not looking down like before. He was pretending like it didn't bother him. I knew how hard it must be for him from my own personal experience with death.

“My parents are dead, too,” I whispered, looking down afterwards. I couldn’t be strong like him. I admired this strange person, Kavick, or Kevin, whatever his name was.

“I know it’s hard,” I heard him say with a painful understanding. Finally, I felt like I wasn’t alone in the world anymore. There was someone who understood me, after all. I looked up at him again, but stunned for a totally different reason this time. He seemed very human to me in that moment an
d I was shocked by that. I didn’t know how to react.

We held the silence for a moment, just staring at each other. His face seemed gentler than sad now, like he was trying to comfort me. Like he was saying,
“I know.”

Finally, I had to look away for fear I would start crying.

“When did they die?” I asked with a sniff, my voice sounding a little rough to me. A second later, my nose was stinging. I kept my head down as he talked, afraid my nose was turning that embarrassing bright red.

“My mom was shot a year ago. My dad was killed just a few months after her.”

His voice sounded much stronger than mine. He sounded calm and collected. His voice wasn’t rough at all. In fact, his voice sounded rather soft to my ears. I found myself focusing more on his voice than the actual words he was saying, thinking he had an equally nice voice to go with his face.

In his strength, I found my own; I was able to swallow and hold my chin up again. His icy blue eyes were still looking at me, almost glowing against his incredibly white skin. His skin was almost as white as the streaks in his hair. Almost as white as snow. Almost as white as the fur of his Husky form.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said, just like everyone else had told me at my parents' funeral. I didn’t know what else to say, except, “My parents died in a car accident in May.”

“We’
re strangely alike,” he said, voicing my very own thoughts with an amused look on his face. I shared in the amused grin and he chuckled.

“What’
s your name?” he asked, cocking his head to the side again. It must be a quirky habit of his, like how a dog cocks his head when he’s puzzled.

I suddenly felt stupid, realizing I hadn't introduced myself yet. “Christine,” I said, holding out my hand to try to make up for my lack of manners.

He shook my hand and I noticed again how big his hand was against mine. I didn’t care that his hand was dirty. He smiled and said, “Nice to meet you, Christine.”

I actually chuckled myself, and on the inside I was surprised at it. I realized I actually enjoyed being with this strange dog-person.

“Um, how old are you?” I asked curiously. He looked so young to have experienced so much.

“Eighteen,” he said. “And you?”

“Seventeen,” I said quietly. I still wished I didn’t have to wait a few months to be an adult.

“So you live with your uncle now,” he said, understanding.

I nodded, and then Big John jumped up onto the couch between us. I was surprised he hadn’t done it sooner. I suppose it was a matter of getting used to Kavick. Kavick immediately began running his long fingers through the thick fur of John’s neck. He smiled at him and introduced himself as if Big John was a human being like me. “Hello, Big John. My name is Kavick.”

Once again, I was feeling like this boy was a bit quirky, but his quirkiness also struck me as cute. He returned his gaze to mine and said, “I really appreciate what you did for me, and what you’re doing now.”

I could see the gratefulness was genuine by how his face changed, like he couldn’t stress it enough.

“The way you dragged me on your sled with your wolf…” He glanced down at Big John and then looked back up at me. “…even though you were scared of me, you still helped me.”

I felt a little embarrassed that he could tell I had been afraid of him. I shifted awkwardly and slipped one of my feet under me onto the couch. “Well, you had saved us from that bear. It was the least I could do.” I then raised my eyebrows at the memory and added, “By the way, that was really impressive how you attacked that bear.”

He smiled in a bashful kind of way. “Well, it couldn’t have been that impressive since the bear was the one that ended up winning. If you hadn’t of thrown that thing at him, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Looking back on it, I still can’t believe it landed and that the bear hadn’t attacked me. I was still convinced it was nothing short of a miracle.

Suddenly, Kavick’s face twisted in confusion. “By the way, why did you call that gray wolf a boy?”

I stared at him for a few seconds, trying to remember. I finally realized what he meant when I remembered calling to the timber wolf in the distance. “I thought it was Big John,” I explained, pointing to the said dog between us.

He still looked puzzled, though. “But that wolf wasn’t a boy. It was a girl, a friend of mine named Anana. Didn’t you notice she didn’t have…”

I felt my face flush in embarrassment and I cut him off. “I was panicking, okay? I thought it was Big John!”

He burst out laughing, smiling bigger than I had ever seen. He was laughing so hard that he leaned his head back and I felt my face flush even more. I officially felt like an idiot. Despite how nice his smile was, I was getting sick and tired of being laughed at
, even though he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

“I don’t understand what’s so funny,” I mumbled, still embarrassed.

“Your face!” he said in between laughs. He pointed at me and said, “You’re face turned so red! You were so cold and serious before, and then your face…!”

“Yeah, okay,” I said, cutting him off again. His explanation wasn’t making me feel any better. If anything at all, it was only making me feel even more embarrassed
. As strange as it was, I eventually found myself grinning about it. His smile must be infectious. He really did seem like one of those care-free happy-go-lucky types, which is what I wished I could be.

He saw the grin on my face and his laughing died down, but he kept smiling at me. “So how long have you been living with your uncle?”

I looked up in thought. “Since the funeral. That’s when I met my uncle for the first time. He stayed in California for a couple of days and then I flew back with him. I wanted to stay in California and support myself, but everything was happening so fast. I had to sell my parents’ house to cover their debt. Nobody would take me in long enough for me to get on my feet, so when my uncle offered, I felt like I had to take him up on it.”

I mentally kicked myself for my long-winded explanation, but he didn’t seem to be annoyed by it.

“So you haven’t been here very long,” he said with a raised eyebrow.

I shook my head.

“So you haven’t seen an Aurora Borealis yet!” he gushed excitedly.

I felt myself blink in surprise. That had been the last thing I was expecting him to say.  “No.”

“I know the best place to view them!” he said, leaning close to Big John and me.             

I felt myself blink again. He was going to show me? So, I was actually going to be seeing him again?

Whoa…hold on a second. Did I actually just make a friend here, in the middle of nowhere…in this place where I thought I would never fit in? Who’s a shape-shifting wolf-dog hybrid thing?

I shook my head in disbelief.

“I need to show you the next time there’s one,” he continued eagerly. “Usually you can start seeing them in September.”

That was just a month away.

“If I’m still alive, I’ll show you,” he grinned, despite the dark and rather depressing choice of words. “That is, if you want me to,” he added quickly, losing his grin.

I didn’t know how to respond, and I never got to. It was then that Kavick suddenly stiffened, looking at the front door, the same time as Big John. Kavick’s eyes widened and I knew what it had to be: they could hear Uncle Justin. A second later, I could hear the gravel crunching under his Ford’s tires and the hum of its engine.

Kavick suddenly jumped over the back of the couch. I darted up from it and walked around to him.

“How are you going to leave without him seeing?” I panicked.

He stood there for a second, staring at me with big eyes as he wondered the same thing. We heard the engine die and Justin’s car door creak open. His eyes darted to the door and then back to my face. “Your bedroom window!”

I was about to wonder how he knew to think of that, and then I remembered how he had looked at me through it as a dog.

He ran into my room and I followed. He quickly took off the jeans. I would have groaned in annoyance if it weren’t a dire situation. As soon the jeans were off, he transformed into the Husky. He had forgotten to remove Justin’s shirt in his haste, though, and somehow it had gotten hung up on his nose. He was pawing at it and whining loudly in a voice that was almost a howl, but it was short and broken up, like he was trying to talk to me.

“Aroo-woo-woo-woo-woo!”

“Move your paws away!” I hissed as I bent over to lift the shirt off of him. He did as I said and I was able to twist it around so I could pull it off. We then darted over to my window where I raised it for him. He jumped out effortlessly in an elegant way, leaving me in a daze. I then leaned out my window, watching him disappear into the trees.

I was snapped out of my daze when I heard Uncle Justin unlocking the front door. I shut my window and tossed the shirt under the bed as I kicked his jeans out of sight. I trotted out of my room to greet him with Big John by my side.

Justin walked through the front door and my eyes immediately went to his left arm he held across his chest. His entire hand was wrapped in white gauze.

“What happened?!” The words flew out my mouth before I could think.

The look on Justin’s face was a little grim as he locked the door with his other hand. He then looked up at me with a softer expression. I could see the familiar optimism returning. “I had a little brush with the fire. It’s nothing serious,” he said calmly as he tried to convince me there was nothing to worry about.

“How bad is it?” I asked as I neared him, totally disregarding his “It’s nothing serious”.

He moved his hand closer to himself like he could foresee me pulling up the sleeve of his jacket. “It’s just a little burn. The doc said I’d be right as rain in just a few weeks.”

“A few weeks?!” I repeated exasperated. He just stared at me, not wanting to say anything else to make me worry, I’m sure, and he might have been surprised by how worked up I was over it. I could tell he knew I could see through his nonchalant attitude.

I pushed up the sleeve of his jacket and saw more gauze. The white bandages went all the way up to his elbow. I stifled a gasp and tried not to panic.

“What degree is it?” I questioned, regaining only some of my calm.

He gently moved his arm out of my grip and pulled down on the bill of his blue baseball cap, like he did so often. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not that big a deal,” he said in that persuasive tone, like everything was fine.

“If the doctor said a few weeks then it’s a third degree burn, right?”

“Don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

“Am I right?”

He sighed. “I’m goin’ back to work, so it can’t be that bad.”

I shut my mouth then, speechless in my worry. Justin was a hard worker and would work regardless of what the doctor said. He then patted my shoulder and looked into my eyes. “No need for you to worry about me. I’m tough.”

My lips twitched into a grin for a split second, and I realized he was right. He was tough. The burn probably wouldn’t slow him down for a second.

He smiled then, probably happy to see me finally listening to him, and then I suddenly remembered something. “How’s the fire? Is it under control now?”

We walked toward the couch and sat down. I couldn’t help but notice he was sitting exactly where Kavick had. Big John joined us by sitting in the middle where he usually did.

“I wasn’t helping long enough to see…” he said, glancing at his hand with that grim expression again. He then looked back up at me and said, “The police think it’s arson. They don’t have a clue as to who could’ve done it, though. Everyone’s been so excited about that factory goin’ in; nobody’s opposed it, or complained about it….”

The arson attack on the factory was all over the local news the next day. The fire was out by morning and it hadn’t spread to the lumber yard. However, the factory was positioned close to the forest so there was concern about the wildlife that might have been affected by the blaze.

I ate cereal on the couch beside Big John as I watched the morning news anchor report on it
. “Here is an amateur video sent to us that was caught last night shortly after the fire began.”

The anchor disappeared and the TV screen was filled with a lower quality image, like someone had recorded it with their camera phone from inside their car. It was dark and there was a red glare from a street light ahead. I could see the orange glow of the fire nearby, and then suddenly two wolves darted out of the darkness and across the street. They ran so fast they could only be seen for a couple of seconds.

The clip repeated over and over again as the anchor spoke about the fire. Each time the clip replayed, I noticed little details I hadn’t before. For instance, I had first thought I was seeing two black wolves, but now I could see some white fur on one. More and more, the black and white wolf looked like a Husky. The news anchor kept referring to the image as “Two wolves running to safety”. The Husky-like one certainly did appear like a wolf, much like the way Kavick looked when he had changed into an animal to prove he wasn’t lying to me.

I suddenly remembered what he told me last night and realized why he looked so wolfish: it wasn’t just because he was a Husky, his father was a black wolf. And then I remembered his brother was one, too.

I nearly dropped my spoon into my bowl of milk. I scooted closer to the TV, sitting on the very edge of the couch. Was I looking at Kavick and his brother, or was it just a coincidence? Were these really just two wild wolves looking for shelter from the fire? It was blurry and hard tell if I was just imagining details that weren’t really there, or if one of them really was a big Husky and the anchor just hadn’t noticed the brief second of footage that had a bit of white blur on the second dog.

Suddenly, Justin walked by the couch on his way out, telling me goodbye, startling me a bit. I told him bye and to be careful at work. I was still worried about his hand and how he would manage working with it. He still acted like it wasn’t a big deal and that nothing would change. He had told me last night that he was still going to do all the things he usually did, the only difference was that his hand was going to be bandaged up for a while.

During all my worrying, I realized just how much I cared about Uncle Justin and I couldn’t imagine moving back to California without him. Moving back felt like such a strange thing to do. Justin really did feel like family now, but I still missed California. It had been my home for so long, how could anywhere else possibly feel like home? I told myself I was being dependant on Justin if I stayed, and that wasn’t right; I would have to be independent after the school year was over and would move back to California and live with Charlotte. I needed to be strong and shouldn’t be an inconvenience on Justin any longer than I had to be. I could always visit him from time to time, and call him.

As the day went on, I couldn’t get the image of the wolves out of my head. I washed Justin’s clothes Kavick had worn and returned them to his room. Justin never knew that they were missing.

Two weeks later, I started school. I figured I would never see Kavick again, and that was fine. At least, I told myself that, too. I knew that it was for the best
, despite how much of a nice person he might have seemed.

I got hellos from nearly every one of the students in the minute high school, but only a few people were actually friendly enough to carry on conversations with me.

There was one girl who always tried to make conversation with me; Molly Straley. She had straight blond hair that barely brushed her shoulders, dark brown eyes and tan skin. She eagerly told me her life’s story at lunch, saying her hair wasn’t naturally blond and that her mother was part Eskimo, Yupik to be exact. She pushed her rectangular black glasses up her nose and then proceeded to ask me two thousand questions. I quickly learned that she liked to talk and that she was nosey, but she was the only one who had given me a truly warm welcome.

We had many classes together, and after seeing my schedule, she decided to follow me around school, filling me in on everything useful, as well as everything useless.

For example: she thought it was important that I know exactly who scratched “lily and tyler 4 eva” on the wall in the girls’ bathroom. I could have guessed it was “Lily,” but Molly told me everything that happened to Lily Manheim and Tyler Booth last year, including how she had dumped him because she thought he didn’t give her enough attention.

As we walked out of the school building at the end of the day, Molly’s big t-shirt and baggy jeans made the swishing sound that I had become accustomed to hearing. The first thing my eyes saw when I stepped outside was the parking lot of a little grocery store across the street. Behind it was a wall of trees, which I was accustomed to seeing behind every building in this town. But, then I n
oticed a familiar person leaving that parking lot. The person who seemed vaguely familiar was a pale faced, black and white haired young man skateboarding along beside someone who I didn’t recognize.

I felt my jaw drop and I stopped walking for a second. Molly immediately stopped, as well, and turned to me. “What’s up?”

I tried to act as casual as possible as I resumed my walk to the school bus with her. I pointed straight ahead and said, “Do you know who those two boys are?”

She squinted her eyes and pushed up her glasses. After a few seconds she tipped her head back and said, “Oh, yeah! That’s Kevin and Tom Skarling. They graduated last year. I had a couple of classes with them. Tom was kind of popular. The bad kind of popular with the boys, but the good kind of popular with the girls, if you know what I mean. Kevin was kind of popular with the girls, too, because he was like that nice bad boy every girl wants. But the guys hated Kevin, too. In fact, all the guys at school hate the Skarlings.”

As we boarded the bus I asked, “Why is that?”

We took our seats in the back and I sat next to the window so that I could peer out at the boys in question. Kavick was wearing a gray t-shirt that looked like the sleeves had been ripped off
, revealing the muscles of his pale arms, and faded blue jeans. It was only 59 degrees, but he was dressed like it was a hot, summery California day. The person walking beside him with short black hair was dressed in a black t-shirt and cargo shorts.

“Kevin was kind of a misfit. His hair can tell you that much. He was getting picked on all the time because of it. Tom was like an older brother—well, technically he is by like, five minutes, or something—always getting into fig
hts with guys who picked on him and his other brothers. Most guys were scared of Tom, but the girls thought Tom was cool for sticking up for his brothers like that, despite his bad attitude.” Molly rolled her eyes. “Tom is nothing like Kevin. Sure, Tom and Kevin are kind of cute, but I think Kevin’s hair prevented him from being as popular with the ladies. He got called a freak sometimes because of it. I don’t think any hairstyle is worth all the drama he went through. I asked him why once, and he said he was proud of it.” She had a puzzled look on her face, as if she had never understood his answer.

I looked down at the equally pale man walking alongside Kevin who was the same height. His short messy hair didn’t have any white in it at all. It was completely pitch black.

Molly continued recounting her time with them, lending me her vast knowledge she seemed to have on everyone in the school. “Even though Tom was pretty anti-social and aloof, every girl wanted him. Kevin was fun and talkative, and sat with me at lunch sometimes. Their other brother, Thomas, looked just like Tom, but he had one blue eye and one brown eye. Some people were stupid enough to call Thomas a freak, too, over that.”

I saw Kavick’s distant figure glance up at the bus, just before it turned at a stop sign. I stared back at him, wondering if I should wave. But it was too late. There was no way he would see me. I looked away from the window, now watching Molly animatedly speak with her hands.

“They became even more anti-social after their two brothers died. Like I said before, they got picked on a lot and usually Tom was the one to get into fights, but there was this one time where an idiot started on Kevin as soon as he walked in the classroom, saying his brothers who had just died were freaks like him and Thomas. That was the only time I saw Kevin attack someone. It was obvious that he was having a hard time dealing with it and that idiot just wouldn’t shut up. I mean, Kevin totally lost it. He picked up a chair and threw it at him! The guy barely managed to get out of the way.” She added with a chuckle, “People didn’t pick on Kevin for a while after that.”

“How did his brothers die?” I asked curiously. I was wondering if people knew that they were murdered. I also felt like I had to pretend I didn’t know anything.

“A hunting trip gone wrong. They were attacked by a bear, or a moose, something like that. Their mom was with them, too. And then their dad was murdered last year.” Her eyes widened at the mention of Kavick’s father. “The police couldn’t find any evidence as to who did it. The Skarlings stopped sitting with me at lunch after that. Kevin and Thomas became nearly as anti-social as Tom. They would avoid people and stuff, even me.”

I wonder why,
I thought sarcastically. Knowing Molly, she probably wouldn’t stop asking them about the murder. It was probably the talk of the town since Riverton was so small.

She then leaned toward me and pushed her glasses up again. “And to make it even weirder, they were quintuplets.”

She raised her eyebrows like it was a juicy chunk of gossip. It took me a moment to realize I should do the same so that I could appear like it was news to me. Kavick hadn’t mentioned he and his brothers were quintuplets, but after seeing him turn into a dog, much didn’t surprise me about him.

“Oh,” I said in a (regrettably) stiff way. I was struggling to keep up my act. I then furrowed my eyebrows to seem more convincing. “Really?” I
whispered in a scandalous tone to match Molly’s.

Molly must have bought it because she nodded her head vigorously. “Uh-huh. Weird, isn’t it?”

I nodded in agreement and then quickly changed the subject so that she would forget about the Skarling brothers. I didn’t want her thinking too much about it for fear of her becoming suspicious of them.