The Children and the Wolves Read Free Page B

fuck. Girls. Little kids. Old people.
I said, What about animals?
I’d punch a cat, he answered.
He scratched his orange hair and dandruff floated onto his shoulders.
    Why’d
you
get detention? Orange asked me.
Because I challenged Mr. Kantu to an arm-wrestling match.
No shit? he said.
Mr. Kantu? Wiggins chimed in. The football coach?
We were discussing derivatives in Advanced Calc, I explained. I raised my hand and challenged him.
Did he do it? Orange asked.
Nope, I said.
He’s got big arms, Wiggins said.
I would’ve whipped him, I said.
How do you know? Orange asked.
I said, Because I know the secret.
What secret? Wiggins asked.
The secret to winning in arm wrestling.
What is it? Orange asked, the dummy.
Forearm strength, I answered.
    Then to Orange I said, You wanna punch me?
No, he answered.
Come on, I said, punch me. It’ll feel good. You can punch me right in the face.
    Then Mrs. Slakeberry returned from the bathroom.
    Thank you, Carla, she said.
    She had brushed her hair and put it up in a bun.
    Was everything okay? she asked.
Everything was great, I replied.
    After detention I invited them to go to the mall with me.
    My mom’s picking me up in the Lexus, I told them.
    Both their faces changed when they heard the word Lexus. Put a poor kid in a one-hundred-and-eleven-thousand-dollar car and watch him suddenly act polite. They were polite as pussy willows.
    It’s a six-hundred-h, I told them. Five-liter V-eight engine, continuously variable transmission, satellite radio, iPod input, DVD player. She’ll drop us off, pick us up, drive us home, door-to-door service.
    So that day after detention they came to the mall with me. We ate Cinnabons and played video games and went to a Mel Gibson movie.
    That was back in January and we’ve been inseparable since.
    They like me because I’m rich and maternal.
    And I like them because they’re lost and stupid.
    One of them is also pretty but the other one is just lost and stupid.

they come out of the trees
they walk slow and their eyes glow yellow
I can see them from far away
I am the best at seeing them
my arms are dirty from the mud and the bugs
last night they got dingdong and becky
dingdong was pushing becky up a tree but they got him from behind and then becky fell and they got her too
becky was my friend
she talked about dolls and sparkles
they ate her head, the hair and everything
dingdong was dumb but he had a nice face and he told me about his pet duck and his train set
when the wolves come I make myself skinny so they cant smell me
they cant smell me and if I make myself skinny enough they wont eat me cause they dont like it when its just bones
they like it if youre chubby or if you got big feet or a fat butt
theres another boy who can run fast
his name is shane and hes got a face like a catfish
shane caught a bird and we ate it with some sticks
shane ate a stick too which made him slow and stupider than dingdong but he got smart again after the moon came
I am smaller than the others and I like my tree
raheem is chubby and he lets me curl up near his belly
he told me I would soon eat a wolf
soon he said
soon you will eat one and then more birds will come
    toofairy feeds me and lets me tinkle and I know he is good

The Frog was on the news again.
    Dirty Diana was watching it when I walked in. She was bleaching her feet and eating a big bag of Tostitos.
    You see this? she said. Poor little girl.
    According to the news, the Frog’s real name is Laurel May Gillett. This anchorwoman said she’s three-and-a-half and that she’s allergic to nuts. The anchorwoman’s hair looked like it would taste like a birthday cake. Her name is Ronette Stone and she said the Frog’s nut allergy is potentially fatal and they showed her preschool picture and talked about how the police had formed a special task force to find her, how they were going to use all these German shepherds.
    The Dumas toddler has been missing for nearly ten weeks, Ronette Stone told all the viewers.
    She