Collier's Creek: 9 - The Big Bad Wolf by Jo Cameron-Symes

“Wait!” Hannah shouted. “I know Billy can be a hot headed fool Aunt, but he does have good in him. Good that a wife could nurture, anyhow,” she said, pulling out a ring attached to a delicate chain around her neck. 

“Hannah!” Mrs Taylor shouted “Are you married?”

“No, not yet Mother, but we are engaged. Please Aunt Margaret, give him a chance? You did say you’d do anything for your family?” 

Aunt Margaret paused then nodded and sat down. 

“You’d best be careful girl,” she said to Hannah, “if you lie down with rattlesnakes, you’re gonna get bit.”

Hannah looked annoyed but didn’t reply. It went quiet and I could hear Bonnie wailing upstairs. She called for her mother who met her on the landing then came over to me. “Bonnie wants you to read this letter, she said it would explain everything.” I looked across at Hannah and Aunt Margaret and they seemed curious but Mrs Taylor took charge. “Read it upstairs in the parlour, you’ll be able to think up there. Bonnie’s calming down now.”

I did as she said, thankful to sit in the comfort of the parlour compared to the hard chairs down in the bar. At least I would get five minutes to myself now I thought. However, my peaceful interlude was not to last…

Dear Cal,

I’ve been meaning to tell you this ever since you first arrived but I was too scared to say anything. I did know James Lennox. I met him at a dance and had been getting to know him. I did at one time hope we would be married but that hope is dashed now and has been for some time. 

James was earnest and hardworking when he first arrived here. He was eager to make his money in the mine. I had high hopes for him. The problem was Billy and his gun running scheme. We thought Billy was the Master behind that scheme then, but turns out we were wrong. 

One day in the mine James was excavating a new area when he uncovered a hidden tunnel that had been temporarily boarded up and did not exist on any maps or plans of the mine. When he broke through the boards he found barrels and barrels full of guns and ammunition. He was livid. It didn’t take long for him to find out Billy was behind it, so they got into an almighty fight. Billy, being more experienced in brawling won and took James’s beaten body way out into the desert at night and left him for dead. 

Hannah found out what Billy had done and told me so I took the cart and rode into the desert to find him. On the horizon I could see vultures circling and thought it was too late. I reached him and could see he was alive, but barely. I managed with difficulty to get him onto the cart. I wanted to drive him into town to take him to see the Doctor, but he begged me not to. He was adamant that I take him to Hollister’s Cave, about a mile from where we were. Thinking the journey into town would be too much for him, I agreed. 

He stayed there for three weeks with me nursing him and bringing him food and drink. It was strange though as apart from the initial bruises  he also had huge bite wounds. They looked as if they were from some kind of beast. I asked him how he had got them and all he would say was, “there was a wolf, a huge wolf.” Now, we don’t get wolves out this far South or so I thought. As James was a city boy I thought he must have got confused and mistaken a coyote for a wolf. I was, however, worried that the wounds would get infected and as he was so adamant not to go back to Collier’s Creek I asked him if he would mind if I brought over a healer from the nearby Indian Reservation. He was adamant that he wanted no healer, so I followed his advice, even though I didn’t agree with it.

The town folk assumed that James had moved on to another town. Ma was fairly oblivious to his presence anyhow, she never did like those from out East, much though she seems rather fond of you Cal. I encouraged their belief that James had moved on and most of the townsfolk assumed that he had.

Just over three weeks later something strange happened. I arrived at the cave one day bringing food. James was in the corner, doubled over in pain. A layer of dark hair covered his arms that I’d never seen before. Concerned, I tried to move him to help but he struck me and I flew across the room. Now, James was fairly strong, though not a patch on Billy and most of the men out here who do manual work. I knew however, he was not that strong or hadn’t been before. He shouted but it came out as a growl and warned me to stay away from him and leave him alone, never to come back for my own good. Well, he didn’t have to tell me twice. I was gone.

It was only later on when reports of dead cattle and a huge wolf being spotted made me think, crazy as it sounds, could that wolf be James? Had he been bitten by a wolf out in the desert that night? I almost laughed when I first had the thought but this is a strange place where odd things occur. Who knows what the Devil may have created? Could it be possible? Maybe it could.

I now find out that James recovered enough to go and live with Aunt Margaret. She’s always been trouble that woman, I tried to tell Ma something was going on with her with all those young men out on her stud farm but Ma wouldn’t hear of it. Turns out I was right, but the thing about Aunt Margaret is, she thinks she knows it all, when really, she’s a fool. She had no idea that James was the wolf, but the thing is, has anyone ever really seen them both at the same time? It was awful dark in that mine, who could tell? Especially as James was the one supposed to be the one ‘looking after it.’ Now, he’s dead, tortured by his own guilt. He wanted to end his life once and for all and I can’t blame him.

This all made me think. Could the man I once loved become such a monster? All I know is that I’m glad that you’re here Cal. We need your help now, more than ever.

Bonnie

I folded up the letter and held on to it. Then I walked over to Bonnie’s room. She had stopped wailing and I understood her earlier outburst more now.

“Bonnie?” I said as I knocked on the door, “It’s Cal.”

“Come in,” she sniffled.

“I read your letter. I understand it all now.”

“I wrote most of it yesterday and just finished it now. I’m just glad you’re here,” she smiled, “It feels like the Lord has sent you on a mission, to help us get out of this infernal mess.”

I smiled, “I’m no angel, Bonnie.”

“I never said you were. But I think that you know that all this needs to stop and I believe that you’re just the man to do it.”

I reached out and placed my hand over hers and we looked at one another.

A gunshot outside broke us from our reverie and startled, we ran downstairs. On our way, Bonnie fetched a rifle from the landing.