My Neighbor, The Wolf

At 11:30 at night I hear Amy knocking on the windows of her grandparents' house next door. Because our houses are so close together I initially think she's knocking on the glass in my bedroom. I listen to her out there for about 5 minutes as she circles the house. Finally, I turn on the front light and open the door. I'm sporting my flannel pajamas.

"Are you locked out?" I play it cool because I always find myself playing it cool with Amy.

"Yeah. I told my grandmother to leave the door open for me but she didn't. She wants me to come home but then she locks me out. I don't get it."

"Well, she probably just forgot. Do you want to use my phone and call them?"

She and her friend stand in the dining room. I hand her my phone and she switches her bow to the other hand. Did I mention that she's carrying a bow? She calls it a "bow and arrow" but there are no arrows. Just a bent tree branch with holes drilled into the ends. Essentially, white twine makes this stick into her bow - makes this 15 year-old teenager into Diana, goddess of the hunt. And what does she hunt? What interests this girl who smells strongly of cigarettes but, thank god, not of cheap perfume?

"You know how everything is made up of matter? Well, everything has an opposite. So there has to be an alternate universe that's made up of anti-matter. I think that's what black holes do. That's where the anti-matter is. Ya know?" She has really bad posture. Her bow is scratching my wall. I don't care. I'm painting it soon anyway.

"That's a good theory." I encourage her.

"Yeah. I talk to Dmitiri about it. He's my boyfriend. He's her cousin, too, but she didn't know it." She gestures to her dark-haired friend with the bright eyes. She's a happy girl.

"I'm native american and my people, the Fairbanks, like, there's lots of us so we don't know each other."

"Dmitri and me have the same left hand. " Amy shows me her palm. "That's your past life, ya know? We were both wolves."

"You should see her room! Wolves everywhere."

"Are wolves your spirit animal?"

"Awesome, she knows about spirit animals." I lean against the doorway. I'm cool.

"Yeah. Did you read Julie of the Wolves? That's my story. I went to a Shaman and she said that I was a silver wolf in a past life and Dmitri was a black pup who drowned. Just like in the book. I really like that book. I think Native people evolved from wolves. We live in packs just like they do. Dmitri hasn't read Julie of the Wolves but I told him he should. I like books about animals better than people. I don't really like people."

Her friend suggested that, seeing as how it was after midnight, they should go home to her house.

"Can I stop by sometime next week?" Amy tosses over her shoulder on her way out. She struggles to get the bent stick, I mean bow, through the doorway.

"Sure," I drop the words out of the corner of my mouth as I shrug my shoulder. "Anytime." We're playing it cool again, this girl who hates people and I. "She likes me." The words are in a thought bubble hanging over us - both.