The Talisman

said quietly.
    Wolf lifted his chin and uttered a bubbling series of noises half-howl, half-laughter.
    ‘Wolfs need to eat,’ he said, and his voice, too, was joyous. ‘Oh, Jacky, how Wolfs do need to eat. EAT! Wolf!’
    ‘I’m going to have to put you in that shed,’ Jack said. ‘Remember, Wolf? I got the lock? We’ll just have to hope it’ll hold you. Let’s start over there now, Wolf. You’re scaring the shit out of me.’
    This time the bubbling laughter ballooned out of Wolf’s chest. ‘Scared! Wolf knows! Wolf knows, Jacky! You have the fear-smell.’
    ‘I’m not surprised,’ Jack said. ‘Let’s get over to that shed now, okay?’
    ‘Oh, I’m not going in the shed,’ Wolf said, and a long pointed tongue curled out from between his jaws. ‘No, not me, Jacky. Not Wolf. Wolf can’t go in the shed.’ The jaws widened, and the crowded teeth shone. ‘Wolf remembered, Jacky. Wolf! Right here and now! Wolf remembered!’
    Jack stepped backward.
    ‘More fear-smell. Even on your shoes. Shoes, Jacky! Wolf!’
    Shoes that smelled of fear were evidently deeply comic.
    ‘You have to go in the shed, that’s what you should remember.’
    ‘Wrong! Wolf! You go in the shed, Jacky! Jacky goes in shed! I remembered! Wolf!’
    The werewolf’s eyes slid from blazing reddish-orange to a mellow, satisfied shade of purple. ‘From The Book of Good Farming , Jacky. The story of the Wolf Who Would Not Injure His Herd. Remember it, Jacky? The herd goes in the barn. Remember? The lock goes on the door. When the Wolf knows his Change is coming on him, the herd goes in the barn and the lock goes on the door. He Would Not Injure His Herd.’ The jaws split and widened again, and the long dark tongue curled up at the tip in a perfect image of delight. ‘Not! Not! Not Injure His Herd! Wolf! Right here and now!’
    ‘You want me to stay locked up in the shed for three days?’ Jack said.
    ‘I have to eat, Jacky,’ Wolf said simply, and the boy saw something dark, quick, and sinister slide toward him from Wolf’s changing eyes. ‘When the moon takes me with her, I have to eat. Good smells here, Jacky. Plenty of food for Wolf. When the moon lets me go, Jacky comes out of the shed.’
    ‘What happens if I don’t want to be locked up for three days?’
    ‘Then Wolf will kill Jacky. And then Wolf will be damned.’
    ‘This is all in The Book of Good Farming , is it?’
    Wolf nodded his head. ‘I remembered. I remembered in time, Jacky. When I was waiting for you.’
    Jack was still trying to adjust himself to Wolf’s idea. He would have to go three days without food. Wolf would be free to wander. He would be in prison, and Wolf would have the world. Yet it was probably the only way he would survive Wolf’s transformation. Given the choice of a three-day fast or death, he’d choose an empty stomach. And then it suddenly seemed to Jack that this reversal was really no reversal at all – he would still be free, locked in the shed, and Wolf out in the world would still be imprisoned. His cage would just be larger than Jack’s. ‘Then God bless The Book of Good Farming , because I would never have thought of it myself.’
    Wolf gleamed at him again, and then looked up at the sky with a blank, yearning expression. ‘Not long now, Jacky. You’re the herd. I have to put you inside.’
    ‘Okay,’ Jack said. ‘I guess you do have to.’
    And this too struck Wolf as uproariously funny. As he laughed his howling laugh, he threw an arm around Jack’s waist and picked him up and carried him all the way across the field. ‘Wolf will take care of you, Jacky,’ he said when he had nearly howled himself inside-out. He set the boy gently on the ground at the top of the gully.
    ‘Wolf,’ Jack said.
    Wolf widened his jaws and began rubbing his crotch.
    ‘You can’t kill any people, Wolf,’ Jack said. ‘Remember that – if you remembered that story, then you can remember not to kill any people. Because if you do, they’ll hunt you down for sure. If you kill any people, if you kill even one person, then a lot of people will come to kill you. And they’d get you, Wolf. I promise you. They’d nail your hide to a board.’
    ‘No people, Jacky. Animals smell better than people. No people. Wolf!’
    They walked down the slope into the gully. Jack removed the lock from his pocket and several times clipped it through the metal ring that would hold it, showing Wolf how to use the key. ‘Then you slide the key under