Dangerous Obsession

Fool's Errand

    Snow crunched and squeaked underneath Dale's winter boots as he trudged towards his last trap. He'd been searching for the wolves for months now and hadn't even seen so much as a hair. He was beginning to doubt that he'd actually seen a wolf. After all, it was dark, and he was tired. He could have imagined it. It was possible that he'd seen some other forest creature and mistaken it for a wolf. He almost gave up entirely several times but his mind kept clinging onto two things: One, the howl and Two, the human like look of surprise that he'd seen in those yellow eyes. Those two things were real, he was positive of it. Of course, he hadn't told any one else about the expression that he'd seen in the eyes of the beast, not even Michelle. They would all really think that he was insane if he claimed that the wolf he'd seen also had human-like qualities.  When this had all started, he'd wanted to find the wolves to help advance him in his career, and also because they would be a fascinating research subject. It went so much deeper than that now, it was a matter of pride. His reputation was at stake, and possibly his job. If he were honest with himself he'd admit that he'd become obsessed. The small clearing his last trap was positioned at came into view. Dale's pulse quickened when he saw that there were tracks around the trap. The tracks were definitely canine. He broke into a full run. He couldn't get to there fast enough.

    A coyote. He'd managed to trap another coyote. He swore, ripped his toboggan off of his head, threw it on the ground, and swore some more. He raked his fingers through his hair, trying to regain control of his emotions. The sounds of the caged animal ramming itself against it's steel prison forced Dale to take his mind off of his current frustrations for a moment. He quickly removed his tranquilizer from his pack. He shot the animal in the hip. It wouldn't take long for the serum to take effect. Even in his current state of mind, Dale could not bear to see an animal suffer. As soon as the little canine laid down in a drug induced sleep, he got to work. He gently moved her (he'd discovered it was a young female) out of the trap. He also tagged her ear with a satellite chip, gave her a rabies booster, and treated her for ticks and fleas. He couldn't waste time because he did not want to be around when she woke up. The last thing he did was remove the memory card from the game camera he had set up and replace it with a fresh one. He couldn't reset his traps because it was Sunday and he wouldn't be able to check them again until the following Friday. He couldn't risk an animal being trapped for days. With his tasks complete, and a sigh of defeat, Dale once again left the forest empty handed. 

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   The smell of food greeted Dale as he stepped into his house. It was almost enough to cheer a fellow up it smelled so good. He rounded the corner just as Michelle was pulling something from the oven. He leaned against the wall to watch her for a minute. She really was a beautiful woman. Her light brown hair fell in soft curls to her shoulders. She was graying a little, but her hair dresser did a good job of hiding that fact with honey-colored highlights. She took pride in her appearance and maintained a nice tan, kept her nails polished, and her skin soft and supple. Her stomach and thighs were a little softer than they had been when they'd first got together, but Dale honestly liked her more with a few curves. His reverie was interrupted by a nerf bullet whizzing by his head, barely missing his nose. His younger son, Evan ran by - closely followed by a nerf gun wielding Jacob. Their socks were slipping on the hard wood flooring and the war-cries and laughter was deafening.

"Boys!" Michelle yelled, whipping around to glare at them, "No running in the house!"

She caught sight of Dale and smiled. 

"Oh, I didn't know you were back babe. Lunch is almost ready." 

Another foam bullet soared through the air, making contact with Michelle's neck. 

"BOYS! What have I told you about shooting those darn things in the house? I swear if I see it again, I'm throwing every last one of them in the dumpster!" She threatened. Both boys skidded to a stop, trying to appear somber but failing miserably. Michelle looked like she was about to explode so Dale stepped in.

"Alright guys, you've tortured your poor mother enough" He said tousling both dark heads from behind. "Why don't you guys go wash up for lunch and we'll have a snowball fight afterwards"

"Yeah!" the boys agreed simultaneously, fist bumping each other.

"Right after you help me organize the garage for disobeying Mom" I added with a smile.

"Uggg! Yes, sir." Jacob said, letting his gun fall to his side in defeat.

Evan, the more feisty of the two, grinned impishly.

"Yes, sir" he said giving his mom a quick hug and plucking the wayward bullet that she still had clenched in her hand away. "But we didn't really disobey. Mom said not to shoot at each other. We weren't Jacob was just shooting at me" and with that he bounded up the stairs before his parents could reply.

Dale was trying desperately not to make eye contact with Michelle. He knew she wouldn't be amused, but he was dangerously close to laughing out loud. He finally did look up at her guiltily. Her blue eyes were dancing. She threw her hands up and said dramatically, 

"Go ahead, laugh!"

So He did, and it felt so good.

"Uggg. Quit being such a kid and mash these potatoes" she ordered with a grin as she started slicing a steaming roast. 

"Yes Ma'am" Dale said with his best attempt at an army salute. This earned him another grin and a huge eye-roll. He considered that a worthy prize. It amazed him at how much just an ordinary moment with his family made him feel so much better. He'd momentarily forgotten all about his failure to find the wolves. He almost wished that he'd never seen that damn wolf in the first place.

Much later that evening Dale and the boys stumbled inside. They were breathless, covered in snow, and rosy cheeked. They'd had an 'epic' snow ball fight, followed by a lot of good natured wrestling. Michelle met them in the mudroom to fuss over them and make sure they shook the snow off their clothes. All three boys tolerated her fussing and bossing lovingly, although they teased her and grumbled more than a little. They couldn't help it. They liked to rile her up. She knew they were looking for a reaction from her, so she happily obliged and acted much more grumpy than she actually was.

"Hey, I was thinking hot cocoa and popcorn for supper" She suggested after they'd taken care of the mess in the mudroom.

"Mom, that's the best idea you've ever had!" Jacob exclaimed, placing his hand over his heart as if to still it,

"Yeah, so much better than my idea of having kids" Michelle retorted, giving him a playful shove.

"Hey! I'm offended" Evan protested. "I'm sweet and innocent!"

"Guilty by association pal." shrugged Dale.

"The justice system in this house is messed up!" was Evan's response, which was met by a hearty "Here, Here!" from Jacob.

"Sooo, you up for popcorn, Hot Cocoa, and a Movie, Babe" Michelle asked Dale again as she headed towards the kitchen.

Dale hesitated. A movie night with his family sounded great but he was dying to check the pictures from the game cameras. He looked down at his two boys. They were both begging him with their eyes to agree. He sighed and smiled, pulling Jacob down into a noogie.

"Sounds great, Mitch" 

He'd look at those pictures later. 

    Dale was still slowly clicking through the photos his game camera had collected. He'd looked through them quickly at first, but nothing had jumped out at him, so now he was taking his time looking carefully at each frame. Still nothing. Except an exceptionally large buck that was every hunter's dream, and a few shots of two male pumas fighting. He clicked to the next picture. At first it just looked like a few birds eating some scraps of bait, but in the left corner was a glimpse of something yellow. Something that almost seemed to glow. Dale squinted at the screen. He was about to zoom in when he heard Michelle's soft voice in the doorway. He spun his chair around. She was standing in her nightshirt, the hem just below her butt cheeks. One hand rested on the doorknob  and the other propped on the doorframe raising her shirt just enough to give him a peek of her panties . God she was beautiful.

"Are you coming to bed?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, I just want to go through these pictures first so I can clear these memory cards."

Michelle padded across the floor to him and sat down on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

'Go lie to someone else, Dale Wilson. I know you can't switch those out until Friday so you've got plenty of time to clear them" She said into his chest. Dale sighed, she was right of course.

"You are just going crazy to see if there are any pictures of your wolf on there" 

"You know me too well" Dale groaned.

"You act like that's a bad thing!" 

They were silent for a few minutes. Then Michelle stretched up and placed a kiss on Dale's stubbly cheek.

"I know this is important to you Dale. I'm proud of you for sticking with it, and I know you really did see a wolf"

Dale pushed her back to look into her eyes. What he saw in those blue depths assured him that she meant every word.  Words could not express how good it felt to hear her say that. It was a huge relief to have his obsession validated by someone, to have someone believe in him.

"So what convinced you?" He asked, curious as to what brought about this change.

"I'm married to a scientist" she shrugged, "and he's had his share of hair-brained ideas. But those ideas, the crazy ones, they never seem to stick. You've not wavered one time in four months, so I know it's real. You wouldn't waste that much time on a figment of your imagination."

"You don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that" Dale choked out, his emotions getting the better of him. He squeezed his wife promising himself that he would show her exactly how much she meant to him as soon as he examined that yellow glow he had spotted. Michelle hugged him back then slipped off off his lap.

"Anyways, I'm going to bed. Love you." 

"I love you too, Mitch" Dale said to his wife's retreating back. Michelle shut the door behind her and Dale turned back to his screen.  He zoomed in on the yellow glow he had seen earlier and he was sure that it was a pair of eyes. The more he looked at it the more sure he was. He couldn't make out any of the creature that the eyes belonged to, but he didn't need to. Those were the same yellow eyes that had held his for that brief moment on the river. He couldn't exactly explain how he knew this, but he was certain of it. Not only were those the eyes of A wolf, those were the eyes of THE wolf. 

Part of him was excited and part of him was frustrated. This wasn't enough evidence to convince the Dean. Hell, he wouldn't even show this to Michelle as proof. He knew how crazy it all sounded. Even more infuriating was the fact that the wolf was out there but he just couldn't seem to catch it on camera, not really. It was almost like the wolf knew what he was doing and was just playing with him. But that was impossible! Dale couldn't figure out why the wolf would just stand back in the shadows and  watch. Maybe Dale's scent was making it nervous? But the other animals didn't seem to be phased by his scent. It was all so maddening. 

Uggg! He had to be missing something! There had to be some way to find these wolves. Dale clicked out of his photo viewer and opened up the list he'd made of all the other wolf sightings in the area. He read through them for hours hoping something would click. Then suddenly, it did! He read through them all one more time. Yes! Out of ten known sightings, nine of them had mentioned that there was a full moon at the time. The tenth one simply did not mention the stage of the moon at all. It had also been a full moon the night Dale had seen the wolf. Maybe the best chance at seeing the wolves was on a full moon!

Dale frowned to himself. As excited as he was to have some sort of a breakthrough, it seemed too much like something out of a fairy tale. Everyone knows the cliche of a wolf howling a full moon, but it was all just made up. The product of somebody's imagination. Wasn't it?

Correlation doesn't equal causation Wilson the logical side of him objected, trying to talk some sense into himself. While that was true, what kind of scientist would he be if he didn't test his hypothesis? And at this point he had nothing left to loose. His mind made up, he googled when the next full moon fell. Two weeks from then on a Tuesday night. He'd have to arrange some way to take Wednesday off from work, but he didn't care. He was going to be in those woods during the next full moon come Hell or high water. And this time he was buying some "Sent-away" before he went.