Werewolf 2-Thanksgiving

By Geraldle

Copyright © 2001

ONE-Wednesday, November 21, 2001


Robby Hansen was in a dither. He was going to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at Gary Wilson's, his best friend. He was going to spend the whole weekend there. He had spent the occasional night at a friend's house before, but this was the first time that he had ever spent more than a night. This was going to be four days and three nights.

Robby asked apprehensively, “Are you sure, Mom. I've never spent a full moon at a friend's house before. Suppose I change?”

His mother Harriet or Hary as she was usually called, told him, with a little bit of amusement in her voice, “Now Robby, you're being silly. You haven't had an unwanted change since just before you turned seven. Now Teddy on the other hand,” and she looked over at her younger son, who was lying by the fireplace, head on his paws. “is really annoyed that he can't control his changes yet. He's bigger than you were at his age, so hopefully he'll be able to control the change earlier. I know how hard it is to be the younger sibling of a werewolf brother who could already control his changes. My brother was really a brat, he loved lording it over the rest of us who still couldn't change.”

“I'm glad you're not like your uncle, Robby. You're a very nice young werewolf.” She grabbed him and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

And like any eleven year old boy, werewolf or not, Robby struggled out of her hug and wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, saying, “Oh yuk. Did you have to do that?”

Hary tapped him on the nose, “Now Robby Hansen, you're my oldest son and I love you and I insist that you accept my hugs and kisses when we're in private. I promise I won't embarrass you in front of any of your friends.”

Knowing his mother, Robby knew that was the best deal he would get. He sighed, telling her, “Okay, Mom, kiss me and hug me, I won't struggle.”

Hary said with amusement, “That's all right, Robby, I won't make you suffer any more tonight. Now off to bed with you.” and turning him around, she gave him a swat on his underpants clad bottom. “And take Teddy with you, his mournful looks make me want to howl.”

Robby told his brother, “Come on, Teddy, time for bed.” and Teddy scrambled to his feet and followed his older brother, claws clicking on the wood floor.

TWO


Robby had taken his usual two mile run before breakfast. Werewolves had to make sure their human bodies stayed in good condition, because that affected how the change occurred. You would never see a werewolf with a fat human body; they simply wouldn’t live very long.

He'd eaten and then had a shower and dressed in his best clothes. Gray trousers, white shirt, a gray blazer and a navy blue bow tie, which he'd wear until after Thanksgiving dinner was over. He carried a clothes bag that he could put his good clothes in right after the dinner was over, when he could discard them and wear more comfortable clothing for the rest of the weekend. He was also carrying his backpack, with what he would be wearing for most of the weekend. A couple of pairs of shorts, a pair of green ones and a pair of navy blue ones. He also had a couple of lighter blue T shirts and three pairs of underpants, a couple of pairs of socks and a pair of pajamas.

Most of time nowadays Robby just wore underpants to bed. While it wouldn't have bothered him if the Wilson's saw him in his underpants he thought it would be polite to wear pajamas.

Luckily, the Wilson's weren't churchgoers. Werewolves were a little uncomfortable in churches, they preferred to worship outdoors. Right now, since he had killed on Halloween, Robby was more uncomfortable than usual. His eyes lit up when he saw a familiar gray mini-van pull up in front of their house. He hadn't known that Gary's Uncle Paul was going to be there today. He'd heard he was attending a business meeting in California.

Gary pushed his door open and headed for his friend. Gary's father would have just given a wave, but Paul Wilson, got out of the van and came up to the porch, to say hello. Teddy ran down the walk to buzz around Paul, he adored his older brother's Little League Baseball coach.

Robby and Gary, mindful of the good clothes they were wearing, instead of getting into a wrestling match as they would normally do, after greeting each other just came up to the porch to listen to the adults talk. It didn't last long. As a policewoman and a banker, they didn't have a lot in common.

They were soon in the mini-van and the very brief trip, which took about thirty seconds since the two boys lived less than a quarter of a mile apart. But that was the Wilson family. When they invited guests, they picked them up by car, whether they lived fifty miles away, or right next door.

It seemed an interminable wait for the two boys, unable to vent their excess energy physically, they were limited to video games and neither boy was a video game addict, preferring more active endeavors. But two o'clock finally arrived and once the meal was over Robby and Gary could get into more comfortable clothes and head outdoors.

They spent the next two hours shooting baskets with frequent time outs for vigorous wrestling matches. At four-thirty in spite of the enormous dinner and the coming of supper at seven, they went inside for sandwiches, milk and some cookies. Then they headed outside again with a football. They began throwing the football back and forth, but the football was just an excuse for wrestling.

Watching from inside, Paul and Fred, winced every time one of them threw the ball to the other and the one with the ball ran forward, to be met with a full body tackle. Then there would be two or three minutes of wrestling, before they'd get up and do the same thing over again.

Fred commented, “You'd think they'd kill each other, the way they go at it. But they've been doing it since they were seven. Except for a couple of nose bleeds and a few inadvertent kicks to the nuts, neither of them has ever been hurt.”

THREE


Suppertime was at seven, since they had eaten dinner much later than usual and that suited the adults just fine. Despite the fairly substantial snack they had had at four-thirty, the boys had been nibbling steadily since they had finally come in at five-thirty. They still tucked away enough for four. Stuffed they went up to Gary's room to watch some television and play some video games and ended up going to bed at nine-thirty.

Robby woke up around two AM with the need to pee and a growling stomach. Moving silently in the dark, knowing the Wilson's house almost as well as he did his own, he made his way to the bathroom and took care of the first. After washing his hands, he headed for the kitchen. Mrs. Wilson had pointed out some already sliced turkey to the boys just before they went to bed and said that it was for snacks during the night, just in case.

When Robby entered the kitchen, he was just about to turn on the light, when a hand covered his mouth and nose. He bit down, hard and just before things went even darker, he thought, 'Stupid, dumb instincts.'

He woke up his head pounding with pain, lying on the sofa in the Wilson's living room, Mrs. Wilson hovering over him anxiously. He brought his hand up to the back of his head and touched the lump on the back of his head, briefly. After the additional flare of agony, eyes crossing briefly, he moved his hand away quickly.

“Here Robby take these.” Mrs. Wilson said, handing him a couple of tablets and a glass of water. He put them in his mouth and feeling dry; he drained the glass of water. “They're regular aspirin, Robby, I didn't think Children's Aspirin would be strong enough.”

“What hit me?” Robby asked.

“I'm afraid Mr. One over there, hit you over the head with a gun barrel.” Mrs. Wilson said.

Robby tentatively began to sit up and finding that his head stayed on, he got to a full sitting position. Gary and his father were sitting in an armchair and Mrs. Wilson sat down on the sofa beside Robby and put her arm around the boy.

He could see two men wearing dark stocking masks and dark sweaters and pants, both holding guns with silencers, casually pointed in their direction. He didn't have to ask who Mr. One was, the bloody handkerchief around the shorter man's hand told him, to his complete satisfaction. They were wearing knit gloves but the glove on Mr. One's hand had been little protection from Robby's teeth. Even in human form, his jaw muscles were much stronger than a normal human.

He looked around, “Where's the Coach?” he asked

Mrs. Wilson said seriously, “I'm afraid, Mr. Three took him to the bank, to rob it. It appears that they had a confederate on the inside and they disabled the time lock on the vault and the alarm system.”

“All right, stow the gab. It's time to put you away for the time being,” said the man who hadn't yet been identified. Robby assumed he was Mr. Two.

Mr. One said, “I've examined the larder. It's got a good lock but most of it is shelf space, so there's only room for the adults and one of the kids. It'll be a squeeze, even for them. What do we do about the other kid?”

Mr. Two said, “I've examined the basement, put him down there. I noticed some wire on a bench, use that, the only way he'll get out of that is when they cut him free.”

“Which kid?”

“Which one do you dislike the most?” said Mr. Two laughing.

FOUR


So, Robby found himself down in the basement, with hands, feet wired together and his feet wired to a pipe, a gag in his mouth. Mr. One, who highly disliked the boy who had bit him, hadn't been careful and the wire fastening Robby's hands and legs were digging into his flesh, drawing blood.

He heard a vehicle pulling out of the driveway as he changed. The wire, which had been used to fasten the boy’s hands and feet, were much too big to hold a wolf's legs. He changed back to a boy, opened the side door and then changed back to a wolf. His legs were a bit tender from being fastened with wire, but he ignored the pain and headed for the bank. Because of the construction going on at the moment they would need to take three detours and had to go several miles out their way. By line of sight it was slightly over half a mile and Robby could get there by line of sight, except for one detour which only took him a couple of hundred yards out of his way.

Robby reached the downtown area in which the bank was located just as Mr. Three and Paul Wilson, were leaving the bank. His instincts were hard to fight down. He felt like leaping for Mr. Three's throat, but the man still had a gun, aimed at Paul. Instead, Robby decided to try to startle the man.

Robby barked once and as the gun started to turn his way, he leaped not for the throat but for the hand holding the gun. He yelped as the silenced gun fired once, hitting him in the shoulder but it didn't distract him from his target. For the second time that night his jaws closed on an arm. This time it was in wolf form and he almost shredded the man's wrist, causing him to drop the gun and scream in agony. However Paul was taking advantage of Robby's action to swing a large fist and mercifully put Mr. Three out. Robby landed awkwardly, his leg crumpling under him.

Ignoring the man, who he knew was unconscious, Paul bent over what he thought was a dog, but when he looked into those familiar green eyes, he knew. “All right, Robby, how badly are you hurt?” he asked.

Knowing that the jig was up Robby turned back into a boy and the man examined his shoulder, seeing that it was just a bullet burn which luckily hadn't even broken the skin. Painful but not dangerous. Robby said, “The other two are on their way here. They probably won't be very long.”

“Then let's get ready to greet them.” Paul said grinning at Robby. His eyes began to glow as he turned into a wolf, which was the only part of a werewolf's magic that was visible to everyone. Robby, stunned, followed his lead and they moved into a hiding place.

*Are the Wilson's werewolves too?* Robby asked.

*No.* said Paul, *My parents were killed when I was eight. It was lucky I was already old enough to control the change. The Wilson's are cousins and their blood is too thinned out for them to change, but they are more durable than normal humans, as I think you've found out with Gary. Fred's father adopted me and he was the only one who ever knew about me.*

Hearing an approaching vehicle, Robby said, *Here they come.*

They let the men drive up and then padded behind the van, both of the men getting out at the same time and Robby and Paul leaped at their backs, Still bent over when the two werewolves hit them, it drove their heads against the doors of the van. Since Robby only weighed seventy-nine pounds, the one he hit got off lucky, suffering a mild concussion. Paul weighed close to two hundred and twenty pounds. The one he hit was going to be in the hospital for a while with a fractured skull.

Paul padded around the back of the van. He said sardonically, *I guess I don't have to ask you if you can make it back to the house, not if you can leap like that.*

Robby answered, *No, I'm fine and the way I was wired up I can even get my legs back into them.” He started to pad away, then remembering something, *By the way, when they examine that man I bit, they might find some of my DNA. I killed a man on Halloween. He was a child molester and he kidnapped Teddy and me. I didn't want it to come as a surprise, if it ever gets mentioned.*

*From what I read, he had it coming to him. I won't worry about him.* Paul said.

FIVE


A disgruntled Robby was home the next door, really annoyed with the crooks who had spoiled his Thanksgiving. The police hadn't bothered having a police doctor examine Robby. His own doctor was unfamiliar with bullet wounds or in this case bullet burns. While he didn't know what caused it, he had just bandaged it and Robby's wrists and ankles and didn't even mention it in the report that he provided to the police department.

Robby said with a twinkle in his large green eyes, “Mom, since those crooks spoiled Thanksgiving, I thought I'd invite Paul over for supper. I hope you don't mind.”

“No, no, I guess not,” said his mother, not sure about it at all.

When Paul showed up promptly at five, he brought a colorfully wrapped box which he offered to Hary, short for Harriet. She opened it and stared at it. She'd been given chocolates and flowers and candies but this was the first time she'd ever gotten a box of Kibbles'N Bits. She looked up at Paul to ask if it was a joke and her heart began pumping fast as she saw familiar glowing eyes and Paul changed into a wolf.

Quickly she joined him and she and Paul slipped out into the backyard heading for the woods behind the house, when Robby opened the back door.

Teddy looked up at Robby; “Do you think they'll like each others?”

“I hope so, but that's up to them, right now they're just going to bay at the moon.” Robby said.

END

05.23.03

-07.23.09

2792 Words