excerpt
…and keeping a wary eye on the area, when suddenly he caught a movement.
An animal was moving slowly toward him. He grabbed the club.
He picked up his knife with his other hand, ready to use it. His heart
felt ready to explode. It was a wolf, a lone wolf. Strangely, he knew they
usually travel in packs, but he couldn’t see any others. The lone wolf
was slowly coming closer. Then he noticed that the wolf was limping.
The right hind leg of the animal was lame, and the animal hopped with
each step like a man who couldn’t use one of his legs. The injured wolf
kept coming closer to him. The lone, wounded wolf, a wolf discarded
by its pack, a lone wolf travelling in the forest, just like George. Perhaps
because it was a lame wolf, useless to its pack, a wolf left to fetch
its food alone, abandoned, left to die alone: a hungry wolf looking for
food, but what food? He stayed vigilant, counting every step the wolf
made as it limped towards him. He stood motionless. He held the club
in one hand and the Cretan knife in his other and waited. The wolf kept
coming closer to him. George stepped toward the animal and waved
his arms, holding the club in one hand. They were like two animals
ready to charge each other, to rip each other’s flesh. Then suddenly the
wolf howled, a strange howl, a howl of recognition, a begging howl
as if it needed something. He realized that the wolf was hungry. They
eyed each other for moments that felt like forever. George stepped
back, retreating closer to his fire, and the injured wolf, only six meters
away, sat on its rear legs eyeing him. George took the can of corned beef
from his backpack. He opened it slowly and carefully, and when he
finished, he grabbed the meat out of the can and threw it to the wolf.
The animal limped backward, startled, but when it smelled the meat,
it came closer and, after sniffing it, its tongue licked the meat. In a few
seconds, the corned beef was consumed. Then, strangely enough, the
hungry animal raised its head as if asking whether there was more.
He looked at the wolf in amazement. Then, he took another can of corn
beef out of his bag and, opening it, he dug out all the food and threw it
toward the hungry animal. This time, the wolf didn’t move backward
but almost ran toward the food he had consumed with the same eagerness
as the first time.
Libros Libertad 