Adaptation: book I Read Free Page B

injured leg, and it would hurt but she soon forgot about that when she saw Maggie come rushing out of the house holding the knife and yelling like a wild woman.
    Carmella cursed and kick-started the bike. She gunned it into life, almost flipping it when she added too much gas.
    Maggie shrieked and brought back her arm, stabbing down as Carmella took off in a cloud of dust.

     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 2
~Wolf~
     
    Carmella sat in her kitchen eating her dinner. Her time with Maggie had caused her to garner certain habits. She washed daily and kept her dreadlocks neat and tidy. She kept her farmhouse in immaculate condition, sweeping, dusting, and mopping on a regular basis, maybe even to excess. She never allowed her trash to accumulate, and once a week she carried the unusable portion to the pit.
    But not on Sundays.
    On Sundays she had her bath, cooked Sunday dinner, read some, and sat out on the porch hoping that Wolf would come by to visit. She always saved the chicken butt for him, and if he didn’t show up, she placed it in the icebox until he did come. Then she’d warm it up on her cook stove and put it in his special bowl for him and the pups.
    She smiled to herself. She’d finished the paperback book by the time it had grown dark, and with a sigh she ambled inside and lit the kerosene lantern. Maybe Wolf would come tomorrow. She thought about Maggie and she thought about Kitty, whom she had carelessly released. The cat had probably never returned to the woman, unlike Wolf. He always returned home. That was another difference between the two women. Carmella hadn’t kept Wolf a prisoner.
    It had taken her several months after leaving Maggie’s farm to find her new home. By then she was on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. The farm had evidently served as a horse farm though the horses had long since left by the time she had arrived. The barn was the deciding factor. She had an unreasonable fear of wolves. and the barn was large enough to house the animals she wanted to keep locked away at night. The house itself was simple from the outside, but inside the prior inhabitants had spent a great deal of money making it a nice home. There was a chicken coop, a pen for pigs, and a large garden that was sadly overgrown.
    And Carmella loved it.
    Many of the chickens were still present, and a horse once showed up and took off, but Carmella had to find the cows—which attracted the bull, a goat, and some wild turkeys. It was a lot of hard work. The wolves kept picking off the chickens and killed the goat in the middle of the day. Although scared, she got her rifle and guns and went out hunting. It was early spring but still cold, snow covering the ground. It was her first winter there, and she assumed the bitter cold was what made the wolves desperate enough to approach the farm during the day.
    It wasn’t hard to follow their tracks so she was thankful for the cold weather. The trail of blood helped as well. After a few hours she came to a cave. Damn! Even a fool knew better than to go into a cave with wolves. But she didn’t have to worry. Two scrawny wolves came out, baring teeth and growling aggressively. Carmella didn’t think, shooting and killing them both. She didn’t need their pelts. She could easily go to Macy’s or Walmart or any number of department stores up in Cincinnati for all the clothes her heart desired. But it was a shame to waste the fresh meat. As she prepared to butcher one of the animals, she heard a sound that made her heart slow.
    It was the sound of a wolf puppy crying.
    Carmella cursed as she looked at the gaunt animal carcasses. Damn, a family of wolves. They had been trying to feed their babies. It was stupid, she knew, but she crawled carefully into the cave and saw a ball of fur whining in the corner. Just one. Carmella reached out, and the pup sniffed her hand, crawling to her without hesitation. Something in Carmella’s chest seemed to open up and flare to life. She picked up the