Free Starfish by James Crowley

man. He was trailing two horses that carried loads wrapped in heavy waxed canvas. The boy and the horses seemed to appear from out of the thin mountain air.
    â€œI think it’d be best to keep moving,” the man said to the boy. “Looks like someone might be down in the lodge.”
    The small boy did not reply, but simply stared back at the large man with big dark eyes.
    â€œWe’ll skip the stop this time and hope they’re gone when we get back in a month or so,” the man continued. “That fallen cabin sure is pleasant in the springtime.”
    The boy again did not say a word, but this time replied with a nod.
    â€œWell, it’s agreed, then,” the man said with a smile, “maybe next month.”
    The large man and the small boy urged their horses forward and melted into the maze of snow-covered trees that stood before them.
    The man’s name was Avery John Hawkins. The boy, he was silent.

Chapter Fourteen
    W OLVERINE • A B ROKEN C HAIR • U LYSSES’S W RATH • T HE H OLE IN THE C HIMNEY
    LIONEL WOKE to an explosion of commotion. The lodge was filled with low, guttural snarls and the sound of a great collision. Ulysses paced wildly across the back of the room.
    â€œOpen the door, maybe he just wants to leave,” Beatrice said, her voice calm.
    She was no longer sleeping but standing over a large, snarling wolverine, holding it back with the end of a broken broom.
    Lionel scrambled to his feet and ran to open the door. The wolverine did not take them up on the invitation.
    â€œGet that broken chair,” Beatrice instructed.
    Lionel ran back, grabbing the broken pieces of a fallen chair that lay strewn across the floor. Lionel had seen wolverines before, but he had never seen one this agitated. The dog-sized animal viciously attacked the broom, sending the splintered ends flying across the room.
    â€œThe chair, Lionel,” Beatrice repeated.
    Lionel held the chair out in front of him like the lion tamer from the traveling circus that had stopped by the boarding school one summer. The wolverine turned its focus to Lionel, swatting at the chair’s legs with its long claws, practically pulling it from his hand.
    â€œStart moving him toward the door,” Beatrice said as she ran to the other side of the room, returning with a long stool.
    They backed the animal slowly toward the door, Lionel using every bit of strength that he could muster to keep the wolverine from knocking the chair from his hand—or worse, getting past it.
    He took his eyes from the wolverine for a moment as they pushed the snarling beast past the bundled supplies. Lionel saw their grandfather’s rifle and wondered why Beatrice didn’t use it. when he looked back from the rifle a second later, the wolverine splintered the chair and swiped at Lionel’s leg with a powerful swoop of its long claws.

    Lionel felt the creature’s paw take his legs out from under him. Before he could move, Beatrice was in between the wolverine and Lionel, pushing the creature back with the stool. She stood close to the open doorway, but the wolverine refused to leave.
    Lionel glanced down at his leg. Four long lines of blood appeared on the leg of his torn long underwear. He looked at the wolverine and thought that it might kill them.
    Lionel grabbed his lower leg and pulled himself back toward Ulysses, who kicked and bucked wildly toward Beatrice and the wolverine. Beatrice looked over her shoulder and jumped out of the way as one of Ulysses’s kicks came dangerously close. The wolverine did the same, twisting sideways in the crooked doorframe and then flattening itself to the ground to avoid another powerful kick. Beatrice seized the opportunity, sprang to her feet, and pushed the door closed on the wolverine. She then dropped the door’s wooden latch to secure it.
    The wolverine clawed and scratched at the worn wood, sending splintered pieces through the exposed cracks.