William and the Wolf

The Phone Call

It turned out that Anthony was a painter.

Or, more accurately, he was a “Conservator” of old paintings. People around the world would ship him their old, faded or damaged paintings and it was his job to bring them back to their former glory.

I didn’t even know that was a thing.

William stared wide-eyed as Anthony showed him a room full of various paintings in different stages of damage and restoration. He immediately went to take pictures of all these beautiful pieces of art, but Anthony stood in front of him as soon as he lifted his camera.

“These are worth thousands, William,” Anthony warned, his serious eyes locking onto William’s, making it impossible for William to take a picture anyway. “It’s for their protection that no one knows they are here.”

“Is that why you got Mate? Are you sure he’s enough? Shouldn’t you get an electrical security system or something?” William stepped back to put some more space between him and the human magnet, breaking eye contact as he was suddenly more than a little nervous he’d accidently kick over something in this room worth far more than everything he owned.

Anthony turned and caressed one of his paintings, and that did not send weird thrills up William’s spine. “By the time I started getting in bigger value paintings like these, no security company wanted to enter this house.”

William tried to stifle a startled laugh but didn’t quite succeed. “That’s u-unfortunate,” he said, trying hard to keep a straight face.

Anthony turned and crossed his arms at him, raising an eyebrow. “Are you laughing at my pain?” There was a trace of a smile on his face even as his voice was reprimanding.

“Nope,” William denied even as a grin split his face. “Just happy.”

“Hmm.” Anthony’s eyes dropped to William’s mouth and the other man’s mirth evaporated. Unable to stop himself under that intense stare, William’s tongue came out to lick his lips, and he saw Anthony’s jaw clench right before the man turned away.

“I should get to work. You can explore this 'horror house' on your own for now.”

William shuddered, gave a weak, “Okay!” and got the hell out of that room.

Shit, s**t, s**t…

William didn’t bother to look at the other rooms, he just grabbed his boots from his room, quickly shoved them on, and headed right for the front door. He needed to get out of this house, to get fresh air, because it was just too hot in here right now.

As the screen door closed behind him and he was hit with the morning air, an earthy mix of grass and fresh dew, William felt instantly better. The house was hidden partially in a copse of trees from the actual Maple Tree Avenue, so the air was so clean it was heaven.

I could get use to this. Smog had been the only air to greet him when he lived in the city.

A sound behind him caused him to turn in surprise and watch with lifted eyebrows as Mr. Wolf—no, Mate—opened the screen door behind him and trotted out.

“Well, well, good morning. Did you go back to sleep or something?” William didn’t wait for the dog to not respond and started walking down the steps of the front porch. “Well, I’m off.”

When he looked down to see that the dog was following with him, he frowned in confusion. “Look, Mate, you can’t come with me. You have to protect the house.” He pointed back at the house.

The dog just stared at him.

William raised an eyebrow. “Don’t give me that. I know you can understand me. Now, stay.” He turned away to start walking down the driveway but could sense the dog was still following him and spun around again.

“Look, dog, I am not going to be responsible for the house getting broken into because you`re not there. So, go on,” he gestured back at the house. “Shoo.”

The dog just stared at him.

“Okay, look, I’m just going to the motel to pick up my things, okay? I’ll be right back.”

After a moment of silent staring, the dog sat down.

William squinted his eyes at the dog, not sure if that had really gotten through or if the dog had just sat down by coincidence. He started backing up down the driveway and the dog stayed where he was. Guess he understood.

“I’ll be right back,” he said again.

He turned around again and walked to the end of the driveway where it met the road. Unable to resist, he looked back and saw the dog was still sitting in the same spot, watching him. He gave it a wave, called out again, “I’ll be right back!” and started walking down the road towards where he’d parked his car the night before. He couldn’t help but shake his head and smile ruefully at the dog’s antics. Anthony definitely needed a security system if his only guard dog got that attached to strangers.

Humming, he got in his car and started heading toward downtown and his motel.

---

Worried that the dog would be still sitting in the exact same place when William returned, he didn’t take long to gather his stuff and check out of the motel. Strangely, it felt good to be leaving a motel and moving to a real house. Sure, it was only temporary… but still… it felt good.

He did make a quick stop at a convenience store to pick up a few groceries. The man hadn’t said anything about room and board and food, but William didn’t plan to be a complete mooch. Feeling suddenly motivated to cook, he picked up the ingredients for his homemade spaghetti and the makings for pancakes the next morning. He had no idea how long he would be staying, but a couple of meals wouldn’t go astray, he was sure.

On the fly, he decided to ask the older man behind the counter about his impressions of Anthony as he was being rung up.

“So, I suppose you must hear everything that happens in this town, being in such a busy area of town…” he began conversationally, watching the old man’s expression, but the man just nodded as he started scanning William’s items in. “You then would probably know everything there is to know about that person who lives in 1 Maple Tree Avenue? What do you make of him?”

The man shrugged as he started putting William’s things into paper bags. “Don’t make much of him at all. I’m not one for gossip,” he responded gruffly.

William nodded and thought that might be all… but wasn’t entirely surprised when the man leaned in as he returned William’s credit card, “But my wife is all about that and she heard that a lot of strange chemicals are sent to his place from the hardware store every month. Don’t know what they’re being used for, but they aren’t your usual house cleaners.” He raised his brows suggestively and then his face went back into its blank expression as he handed William his bags.

William’s brows shot up themselves and he nodded like that was strange news indeed, satisfying the old gossiper. But he decided to not leave it there. One gossiper could influence dozens to hundreds of other people in a single day, depending on the gossip.

“Oh, is that because he’s a painter?” William asked the question as if it were one of the rumours he’d heard. The best way to clear up a rumour was to pretend like another rumour, which could explain the first one, was already in circulation. No gossip liked to feel like they were out of the loop.

The man looked shocked a moment before he’d absorbed the news and nodded wisely, “Yes, that’s exactly right.”

William nodded and smiled, “Thank you for your insight!” before making his way back to his car, shaking his head as he put his bags in the back seat.

Maybe he could clear up Anthony’s reputation just by talking to people.

But, the article would do it much faster, much quicker.

Driven even more now to get started on it, William hurried home.

---

As William pulled into the driveway, he was relieved to see that the dog was not still waiting where he’d left him. Realizing he’d need to make two trips to take everything out of his car, he grabbed the groceries first and walked up to ring the front doorbell.

Immediately, the door then screen door opened, and Anthony was there, chest heaving slightly. It must have been a weird trick of light but for a moment he’d thought he saw a green glow in Anthony’s eyes before the other man looked down and took the groceries from his arms.

“Sorry, I just got a couple things, hope that’s all right,” William called because of course Anthony didn’t wait and started walking toward the kitchen with the bags. “I’ll just grab my stuff from the car, and I’ll be right there to put it away.”

After quickly dropping his stuff off at his new room, William hurried down the hall to the kitchen.

There, Anthony had already started taking out the groceries and putting the perishables into the fridge.

“Oh, thanks! I could’ve done that,” William said a little sheepishly, feeling a little awkward now that it felt like he was somehow officially moving in. Stop freaking out, it’s temporary. TEMPORARY.

Anthony didn’t say anything in response, just came around and tapped an open book on the island in front of William. “You try,” he said obscurely, then returned to the groceries.

Confused, William stepped up to the island and looked down at the book, recognizing it as a Yellow Pages. It was open to a page of security companies.

“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Okay.”

He pulled out his cell phone and punched in the first number of one of the circled companies on the page. Holding his breath, never having called for anyone else before, he waited nervously for the phone to connect.

After the third ring, the line connected and a man answered professionally, “ABT Security, how may I help you?”

“H-Hello, I was hoping to become a new customer?” William said hesitantly, hoping he wasn’t going to sound stupid on the phone.

“Of course, sir, will this be commercial or residential?”

William paused for just a second then decided, “Residential.”

“Of course. Can I have your address, please?”

“1 Maple Tree Avenue.” William was already wincing in anticipation. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Anthony had turned and was leaning against the counter with his arms folded over his chest, watching him.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Hello?”

“I’m sorry, sir, could you repeat your street address, please?”

William knew what he had to do. “Yes, of course. You wouldn’t believe the last security company I spoke to. So unprofessional! Wouldn’t even come see me because they had heard this ridiculous rumour about me being a ghost or something like that, and that my dog was some kind of rabid wolf. Can you imagine?” William sighed loudly. “Sorry, that still bothers me. Right, yes, it’s 1 Maple Tree Avenue.”

“Of course, sir… Someone will be there within the next 30 minutes to set that up for you.”

“Oh, thank you very much. That is a relief. I’ll have just enough time for a coffee. Perfect. Good-bye.”

“Have a good day, sir, and thank you for choosing ABT Security.”

William ended the call and let out a big woosh of air, laughing unsteadily before putting his cell phone down on the island and looking over with a proud grin at Anthony. “There!”