Page 6 of True North
He shifted back and went off into the woods. He wasn’t ready to accept the implicit offer in that stack of jeans and shirts, and maybe never would be. The human world was fraught with complications. He would stay a bear, and stay safe.
But he knew he would come back.
Three
JT had dinner at his parents’ house a couple of times a week when he was in town, and usually his siblings were there, too, and his grandmother: a big, noisy gathering with the TV on and the dogs running around everywhere, and generous helpings of what his team’s nutritionist referred to as “sometimes foods.” JT wasn’t the kind of guy who liked loud parties or crowded nightclubs, but his family’s commotion and clamor were, well—familiar. Nothing made him feel more at home than listening to his parents fondly bicker about whether they should get another dog.
He went for dinner a couple of days after he fed the bear—Misha—breakfast. His parents lived in the P Patch in town, in the same tidy split-level house he’d grown up in. He’d offered more than once to buy them a newer, nicer place, but his mom said moving was too much trouble. Secretly, JT was glad. His hockey career took him far away, even overseas for international tournaments, and it was nice to be able to come home and sit on the same ancient leather couch he’d been sitting on all his life. It made him feel that he was still rooted here in the happy security of his childhood and that no matter how far away his life took him or how many Stanley Cups he failed to win, he would always be able to come back to people who loved him.
Someone in the house must have heard his truck pull into the driveway because the front door opened and out spilled his sister and all three dogs, a small tornado of excited barking (the dogs) and complaints that he was late (his sister).
“Mom told me seven o’clock,” JT protested, accepting Kendall’s hug and trying to pat all of the dogs at the same time as they leaped about him in the grass. “I’m fifteen minutes early.”
“Well, she toldmesix thirty, and I’m starving,” Kendall said. She had her hair piled on top of her head in a big knot, like frosting on a cupcake. She hooked her arm through JT’s and started pulling him into the house. The dogs ran ahead of them, still barking. “Do you want to go camping next weekend? Me and Tyler were talking about it.”
“Uh, maybe?” JT said, struggling as always to shift gears to keep up with Kendall’s rapid subject changes. She had never learned how to segue. “Where were you guys thinking about?”
“Maybe Pukaskwa,” she said, and went off on some tangent about canoeing as they made their way into the kitchen. The whole family was crammed in there: JT’s parents bustling between the stovetop and the fridge, his grandmother drinking a glass of wine at the little corner table, and his brother, Tyler, perched on the Formica countertop eating potato chips as if they weren’t going to sit down for dinner any minute now. Everyone stopped what they were doing to greet JT. They all talked over each other, and the dogs were barking, and JT somehow ended up with a beer, and he could only laugh and steal a few of Tyler’s chips. The Howlett clan never changed.
Conversation over dinner veered from Kendall’s job doing social media for the local junior team to JT’s grandmother’s poker habit. She was a card shark and was basically financing her retirement playing high-stakes poker at the casino, and she always had some long and hilarious story about the latest sucker she had fleeced. JT laughed until his sides hurt and drank another beer and was reminded yet again why he came back here every summer. He liked Toronto, but the Sault would always be home.
After the plates were cleared and dessert was brought out—icebox cake, which JT shouldn’t eat but was going to anyway—JT’s dad leaned back in his seat and said, “So, how are things going with that bear?”
JT groaned. “You guys are all going to laugh at me.” He was kind of embarrassed to admit how the situation was progressing, but his siblings especially had a creepy sixth sense for when he was being evasive, and he didn’t want to give anyone a reason to get suspicious.
“Ooh,juicy,” Tyler said. “What happened, did it steal your boxers off the laundry line or something?”
“It’s a he,” JT said, “and he’s a shifter, and I’ve been, uh. Feeding him? I made him some breakfast the other day, and I’ve been leaving food out for him on the deck.”
“Hey, you never makemebreakfast,” Kendall said. She and Tyler exchanged a look that meant nothing good for JT. “Feeding him, huh.”
“I’d rather feed him than have him keep going through my garbage,” JT said. “Plus, I went to talk to one of the local shifters. You know, the guy who runs The Ursid.” Everyone nodded. “He said the guy’s probably a feral, like, out in the woods by himself for too long. Well, he was right. The guy ate with his hands and wouldn’t say a word to me.”
“Oh, he shifted forms for you?” JT’s mom asked, coming back into the dining room with a fresh pot of coffee. “That seems like he trusts you, then.”
“Are you going to screw this guy?” Tyler asked, and then coughed and shot a guilty look at their grandmother. “I mean. Is this your new boyfriend?”
JT rolled his eyes. “He’shomeless. I’mhelping him out. I’m not so hard-up for dating opportunities that I have to turn to vagrants rooting through my garbage.”
“Youhavebeen single for a while,” Kendall said with a wicked gleam in her eye. “Since—”
“Okay, yep, noted,” JT interrupted. He truly, deeply did not want to talk about his breakup with Marcus. That bruise was still tender even a year later. “I can handle my own love life, thanks.”
“Leave him alone, Kendall,” JT’s dad said mildly. “JT, it’s kind of you to try to help this guy, but are you sure it’s a good idea? He might be mentally ill. Maybe it’s better to let his fellow shifters handle it.”
“He mostly seems hungry,” JT said. “I don’t know, I’ve thought about it—asking the shifters to deal with him, I mean. But I think that’s overkill. The worst he’s done is make a mess in my garbage can. Plus it sounds like they’ve been trying to make contact with him and haven’t had any luck.”
“Well, let us know if you need any help, honey,” his mom said. “You don’t have to deal with this situation alone. We can always send Tyler over to help rustle the bear out of your trash.”
“Whyme?” Tyler protested. Kendall shoveled a forkful of cake into his mouth to shut him up.
“I’ll text the guy at The Ursid and let him know what’s going on,” JT said. “Deal? That way everyone can quit worrying about my bear problem, which isn’t even really a problem.”
“Deal,” JT’s mom said immediately, which was how JT knew he had been manipulated. Well, you couldn’t win them all.
“Now, Tyler,” JT’s dad said, leaning forward over his cake plate. “Let’s hear about this new lady friend of yours. Carrie, right?”
“Kendall sold me out!” Tyler yelped, and JT grinned and settled back to enjoy someone else’s turn in the hot seat.