The Wolf Girl

I was bored. So bored. And Bella didn’t want to talk.
She got into moods like this sometimes, when she wanted to think or wanted me to shut up.
So I struck up a conversation with an elderly couple, they were quite cute and coming home from visiting their daughter. I also talked to a single mom and her absolutely adorable six-year-old son, Tyler. But now I was bored, so I looked over to Bella.
She was staring out the window with a pout on her face. I frowned. How unhappy was she about the move?
I reached over and gently tugged the headphones out of her ears. She turned to me and cocked an eyebrow. I was always jealous of her ability to that. “Wanna talk?”
“Not really,” said Bella.
“Oh. Well…can we anyway?” I put on my best grin and she rolled her eyes. She did that a lot around me.
“Sure. What do you want to talk about?”
“Forks. Moving. I know you’re not too thrilled, but, you can still go home if you want to. I don’t know how Dad would feel, but – “
She cut me off, “Charlie would be disappointed. And so would Phil. I know Mom wouldn’t care, because she would prefer if we didn’t go to Forks. Besides, I don’t want to have to leave you of all people alone with Charlie.”
“Why?” I joked, “I think I could handle him.”
“You don’t even know him.” She stated dryly.
I didn’t say anything, just tried to recover from the low blow. But she was right. I didn’t know him. Even less than Bella did. I knew his name was Charlie and I knew he was my father. That was about it.
“Oh, oh Dee. I’m sorry, you know I didn’t mean it.”
“Yeah.” I put on a happy face. “I know. But you were right. I don’t know him. Could you…could you tell me about him?”
She smiled crookedly at me and I wished I was holding the camera currently packed in my carry-on bag. She almost never smiled like that. “He’s a lot like me. Quiet. He loves this diner, I can’t remember the name, but we’d go there once a week every summer. In the way that you are so like Mom, I’m a lot like him.”
I half smiled. “He sounds nice.”
Of course I’ve met my father, I was just so young I don’t remember him. Our parents split up when we were young. Bella would go to Dad’s every summer. I felt bad. I didn’t want to leave my mom alone. So I stayed with her, and she went with him. That resulted in a broken relationship between us. When Phil told us he would be touring with his team, I was actually excited. My dad and I had a second chance.
“I think he is.”
“You think?” I asked bemused.
“Well, I haven’t seen him in a while. Memories of him are kind of fuzzy.”
“Fuzzy? How long has it been?”
“I don’t know, a couple of years.”
“Oh. I didn’t know it was that long ago.”
“Yeah.” We sat in silence for a bit, before she spoke up again. “Can I listen to my music now?”
“Yeah, sure.”
She put her headphones back in and went back to staring out the plane’s window.
And I was left bored. Again.



“What does he look like?” I whispered excitedly. I was fidgeting, couldn’t stay still. Bella was the opposite, the picture of calm.
“You’ll know him when you see him.”
We had just picked up our bags and were know waiting for Him.
Bella sat down, while I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting. I stood up.
And that’s when I saw Him.
Bella was right, I knew him as soon as I saw him.
I wrenched my camera from my bag and snapped a picture of him. Of my real dad.
I ran. I know I looked like a freak but I just ran and jumped on him. It felt so good to hug him, even though he didn’t hug me back.
I pulled back and watched as he gaped at me. “I’m Dee! You’re daughter!”
I felt like I was Little Orphan Annie and I just met my Daddy Warbucks.
“Hi, Deena. Bella.” His tone took on surprise when he said her name and I watched as he embraced her.
“Hi, Dad.”
An awkward silence enveloped us and I looked around. Dad was staring at the floor, and Bella found something really interesting on a security poster. I stared at him, then to her and I realized I actually had to live with these two (who both had the social expertise of a two year old).
“Well,” I stated, slinging my arm around Bella’s shoulders. I stretched for Dad’s, but I couldn’t reach. Or maybe he pulled away, “Let’s go home.”