The night...black, the snow falls heavily. I wrap the Child in my coat. I do not feel the cold. I feel little...not for a long time now. Carry the Child, she is tired and hungry. I must find food and shelter for her. Stealing...it should bother me, but the Child comes first. War..."get the child to safety" said the Captain and he died. Running, looking for a place of safety, then the pain, fading...the Child...safety...wandering, avoiding the fights that swirled around us. Then the fighting stopped, but never the Child. For the longest time thinking was hard. I don't even know how long long is. Then the wolf came, thoughts became easier. Why the wolf? I do not question. Protect the Child. The thought I know that is the oldest. There were other thoughts once. They...spilled from my head someplace in the twilight time. Thoughts, and causes, and reasons...all lost. The Child. She is not the one I started with. I can't tell the faces apart. All marked by pain and hunger, abandonment. Get the Child to safety. There have been many Children, I take them to safety, to warmth, to food, to heads in which the thoughts stay. It is never hard to find another Child...that should bother me too.
Lights ahead, the pretty colors of the Church windows. The Church feels bad...I know that for the Child it is good within. They never turn the Child away. Does God hate me? That thought. I think it has been here before. I stop at the churchyard gate and send her to the parson's door. I wait, it opens and she is taken in. He looks into the dark and cold of the night and his eyes do not rest on me. The wolf and I turn into the night. There will be another Child.
Until Relieved -- Garry Stahl, February 2012