Dangerous Obsession

In Wolves Clothing

   Wednesday dawned cold and clear. The rain had stopped sometime in the night, and a bright sun crept into the sky. Michelle was disappointed that her husband was still gone on his wolf hunt when she woke, but she wasn't surprised. She knew that he would stay in those woods until he got his pictures. She roused the boys from their sleep, fed them a quick breakfast, then stood on the front steps as the bus picked them up for school. She stood there for a while after the bus had disappeared and sent up a silent prayer that Dale had been successful. She didn't know how many more times she could see him return defeated and devastated. It was breaking her heart. The Dale she loved was smart, poised, and extremely confident. He tried to hide from her how much proving himself meant to him, but she could see right through those efforts. She had been married to him for seventeen years after all. She knew him better than she knew herself. He hid behind his smiles and his shrugs of indifference whenever Michelle talked to him about the wolves, but his eyes.... His eyes betrayed him. What Michelle saw in those eyes was enough to make her heart bleed. She could live with his disappointment, but he was beginning to doubt himself. His confidence in his own ability was badly shaken, and that is what Michelle couldn't bear. She would do anything to she his faith in himself restored.

    She vowed to herself that she would stand by him through this journey. No matter how many late nights, and weekends it took. No matter how much she had to sit at home and worry over him. She would wait for him to prove himself, and she had no doubt that he would. Dale was used to success and like everything else, success is a habit. She just wished that he could have as much faith in himself as she had in him. 

She sighed and looked down the street, hoping to see Dale's silver pick-up heading towards their house. There was no sign of him, however, so she headed back in to start her day. She was determined not to worry about Dale and let him pursue his passion without interference from her. Luckily she had plenty to do to keep herself busy and hopefully distract her.

By 3:00 that afternoon, Michelle's reserve had flown out the window. Her day had went by smoothly. Her clients at the salon were all friendly and seemed pleased with her work. One of her regulars had even left her a very generous tip. Michelle appreciated the gesture, but considering her frame of mind, she was just happy that she'd made it through the day without ruining some poor woman's hair.  

   As the day went on she found herself checking her phone more and more frequently. When she left the salon and headed to pick the boys up from school she opened her phone. A frown formed on her face when she saw that Dale had not texted or called yet. Ugg! She shoved her phone back into her purse angrily. What had gotten into her? Why couldn't she just calm down? She had been so determined not to do this to herself, or Dale. She let out a pent up breath and leaned her forehead to rest on her steering wheel. She really didn't know why she was so nervous. Dale had been gone countless times, and sometimes longer than this, since this whole obsession with wolves began. Some weekends, he'd spent the whole time deep in his beloved forest. She thought she was used to it. She thought she had accepted that her husband had a mistress, just not the human kind. This time felt different though. She had a bad feeling that something wasn't right. The worst part was that she couldn't just call and check in on him. Hearing his voice would reassure her, but she knew that he'd left his phone in his truck. Even if he had his phone on him, he wouldn't have any service.

 Michelle was not the type of woman to just sit by and let come what may. She believed in being proactive. If she had a problem, she brainstormed until she solved it. She couldn't rest until she had a plan and was always quick to act on it. She thought that was part of the reason Her and Dale still had such a strong marriage. Michelle never accepted defeat during their tough times. She never settled for mediocre. She worked hard to make everything in her life align with her ideals. She couldn't do that this time though. There were no actions that she could take. She had to wait helplessly for Dale to contact her, and she hated it. 

    Resentment started to rise up in her chest. Why should she be forced to sit at home and worry while her husband traipsed through the woods on a wild goose chase? The months of putting her life on hold for Dale's obsession with the wolves flashed through her mind. She felt herself becoming more and more angry. No! She thought suddenly, pushing all the anger and resentment back down. She understood what was at stake for Dale, she truly did. Besides, Dale would not give this up, no matter what she did or said. He was determined to see this through. Michelle had to make a choice right then and there in the front seat of her Camry. Was this worth jeopardizing her marriage? Was she willing to try force Dale to choose between her feelings and his obsession? She sat there, eyes closed, head on the wheel for a long time. Finally she started her car and eased onto the road. She knew in her heart that she didn't want to fight this battle yet. Even if Dale did agree to stop searching for those beasts, it would destroy him. No, she wouldn't be the cause of that. She loved him too much, she loved their family too much. With renewed determination she got control of herself again, and focused her mind on what she was going to feed those two boys of hers for supper.

Michelle was proud of herself. She had managed to get through the rest of the evening without even glancing at her phone. She'd kept it in her back pocket the entire time, so it was not like she would have missed an incoming call or message, but she'd still felt the urge to check it a few times. Stubbornly she had refused to give into the temptation, and she was proud of herself for that. After supper the she left the boys to clean up the dishes while she worked on some laundry. Then they played a game of Yahtzee before bedtime. Yahtzee was one of Michelle's favorites and she managed to truly enjoy herself. Laughter truly is the best medicine. 

  The boys had gone upstairs to take their showers. Michelle stayed behind to put away the game and tidy the main living spaces a little. As she passed through the kitchen in search of the broom, she couldn't help her eyes glancing at the glowing green numbers on the stove. 9:15. She managed to keep herself in check, but she honestly had never expected Dale to be gone this late. He had work the next morning. Prompt, hard working Dale, would never miss work without telling someone. She paused and chewed on her bottom lip. There was a difference between being an angry, jealous wife and legitimate concern, wasn't there? The minutes flipped by on the stove clock, and Michelle was becoming more and more unsure of what she should do. She didn't want to fly into a panic over nothing, but she also didn't want to hesitate if Dale was in actual trouble. Thankfully, she heard the garage door sliding open before she had time to get too worked up. She sighed in relief, glad that he was home safely. Luckily for Dale, her relief was so great that she didn't take time to wonder why he hadn't called her. She abandoned her quest for the broom and rushed to meet her husband. She found him sitting on the bench in the mudroom sliding his boots off. 

"Hey, you made it home. I thought you might have gotten lost" she teased. Hoping her jest disguised the anxiety she had been feeling only moments ago. Dale met her eyes and smiled at her joke. His eyes were different, she didn't see a trace of that familiar doubt and disappointment. Her heart raced. Something had happened, she knew it!

"Did you see them? Did you see the wolves?" She asked excitedly. A cloud passed over Dale's face, but was gone so fast that Michelle wondered if she'd imagined it.

"No" he said quickly, shaking his head and letting his gaze fall back to his boots. Michelle frowned. Why was he acting so strange? She pondered his behavior as he rose from the bench and reached for her. It was second nature to return his hug, but something felt off. He.. smelled...different. That's when she noticed that she'd never seen the shirt he was wearing before. His jeans looked like they were a couple of sizes too big as well. 

"Dale." she asked slowly, pushing away from him "Where did those clothes come from?"

At first Dale did not meet her eyes, looking everywhere but at Michelle. Finally he looked at her and gave her a soft smile.

"I've had quite the adventure today Michelle."

She just arched an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue with his explanation. He gulped.

"Uh...I want to tell you all it about it, Mitch, but I'm really tired. Can we do this in the bedroom?" 

Michelle nodded and fell into step behind him as he headed to their room. Of course he was tired! He'd been awake for almost 48 hours at this point. She knew she would need some answers before they could go to sleep though, no matter how tired Dale was. Patience never was her strong suit. Dale knew that too so he sank down onto their bed. He leaned against the headboard and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. Wearily began unbuttoning the front of his shirt. Michelle climbed up on the bed, but she sat cross-legged facing him, waiting for him to fill her in on all that had happened. She knew something big had happened and she wanted to see his face when he told her about it. It seemed like ages before Dale finally asked,

"Why did you think that I had seen them this time?"

Michelle shrugged, struggling to explain what she read in his eyes, 'You just didn't look sad this time, I guess" It sounded lame, even to her, but that was the best explanation she could offer.

Dale nodded, "Well, I didn't actually see the Wolves, but I think I've found some evidence of them. That definitely makes me feel hopeful." He admitted.

"Really? What kind of evidence?" 

"Uhhh... well... Tracks! Big tracks. Much too big to belong to a coyote"  Once again, Dale seemed to be avoiding eye contact. Michelle was trying really hard not to be suspicious or jealous, but Dale was definitely acting strange. Even stranger than usual.

"Did you take pictures of the tracks?" she wondered.

"I did"

"Do you think that they might be enough for Dean Sommers to believe you?"

Dale hesitated. He closed his eyes and looked like he was thinking really hard about something. Then his eyes snapped open and he finally looked his wife in the eye.

"Well, you see, here's what happened, " he said in a rush "I saw the tracks late last night.. well early this morning. A-after the rain had stopped. So.... I followed them. I followed those tracks for hours, Mitch. The sun had come up and I snapped some pictures. But I had to keep following them. I was so close. I ended up on a pretty steep hillside. The ground was wet and slippery from all the rain so I lost my footing and took a pretty nasty tumble. I wasn't much worse for wear but my camera took a beating. I don't know if I'll be able to salvage any pictures from it." 

Michelle took a minute to process his story. It sounded fishy to her, but she couldn't accuse Dale of lying. He had never lied to her before. But why was he acting so strange? Suddenly, It felt like a lightbulb went off in Michelle's head. Dale probably knew how worried she had been when he stayed gone for so long, he was probably nervous about facing her after that. She smiled to herself. She couldn't blame him, sometimes she could be an unreasonable b***h. If only he knew how close he'd been to seeing that side of her tonight.

"Hmm" she was her eventual response. "That still doesn't tell me why you are wearing someone else's clothes?" If Dale thought she was letting that one slide, he had another thing coming. Michelle swore she saw him gulp. 

"Well..... I went back to the University. To, to uh.. See if I could get anything off of my camera. I ran into Loyd and he saw what a mess I was from the fall. He offered to let me borrow his extra set of clothes. I was pretty gross, so I accepted." 

Who keeps spare clothes at their job?, Michelle wondered. Aside from that it seemed like a logical explanation to her. She still had a feeling that something else was going on, or that Dale wasn't being totally honest with her. 

"I'm gonna grab a quick shower." Dale said, interrupting his wife's skeptical musing. She glanced up at him just in time to see him shrug out of his shirt. She let out a gasp when her eyes fell on a jagged scar wrapping around Dale's neck. She jumped off the bed and ran to him.

"Dale!" she cried, "What happened to your neck?!"

Dale's had flew to the exact spot that Michelle was referring to. He looked exactly like a kid that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I-I- it happened when I fell. My neck got caught in some vines and stuff on the way down..."

Michelle stepped closer to him, her eyes narrowed, inspecting the mark.

"It looks almost like a .... bite, Dale." she said quietly. She reached her hand up to touch the pink marks that looked oh so much like teeth impressions. As soon as her bare skin touched Dale, he jumped backwards as if he'd been burned. Michelle's hand stayed frozen in mid-air. She was in shock, what had just happened? She studied her husband hard, trying to make sense of it all. He was staring at her raised hand, his mouth hung open, and a look of pure confusion on his face. All at once Michelle felt sick. Her husband had been gone all night and day, never bothered to call her one time, was full of bizarre stories, and didn't want her to touch him. Oh, and he was wearing someone else's clothes. The pieces all slid into place, and she slowly took back her outstretched hand sinking onto the side of the bed. She swallowed hard and managed to raise her eyes to her husband one more time. It took all of her strength to choke out,

"Dale... are you having an affair?"