Life, Together

Living with a werewolf is interesting in a way, although it probably isn't what you think. Although, I will tell you this: it means I can't have dogs. That's a pity, at least, I think it is. My wife Shira may disagree, of course.

I mean, she's just a normal woman, you wouldn't notice it three weeks out of four. And around the beginning of the lunar month, too, she can even bear to touch silver objects. Fortunately, given our religious background, we're good at keeping track of the moon.

If you think that's funny, let me tell you how I found out.

See, I'd gotten kinda... well, you know, I went into grad school when I was 25, got out with an MS when I was 27, and by then I was wondering what I should do in terms of relationships. I had always been socially awkward, you know, nervous around people, but I figured I did need a relationship to keep me healthy. So I asked around. You know how this community is - everyone says to each other, Oh, would you like to introduce your son to my niece? And so on. Anyway... I let people know I was looking, I said religious observance was somewhat important, menschlichkeit was very important.

And by the by, I was introduced to Shira.

And we liked each other and hit it off, you know? We went on a number of formal dates, and then any number of less-formal ones. She was more religious and observant than I was, so I didn't press any intimacy on her. I mean, we held hands, we kissed sometimes, and one time we engaged in some petting, a backrub, you know how it goes.

Anyway, I think we'd genuinely fallen in love by that time, but she was still constantly skittish around me. I chalked it up to a quirk of personality, thought nothing of it until, well. One day I went to a jeweler and got a small ring, suitable for engagements - and for my budget. It looked nice, I felt. I took it in its little box, and visited her in her small apartment.

She greeted me warmly, but I started off with "Shira, can we talk?" and she stiffened, you know... and I said, you know we've been dating for a while, we've been in love with one another, and then I pulled out the small box with the ring in it, and I asked her, "Shira, will you marry me?"

She bit her lip, and then walked out of the room. That was unexpected, but I wasn't that easily deterred - I wanted a firm yes or no answer, as any man would. And after a moment I heard her weeping in the bathroom, although she turned on the water a second later and I couldn't hear over the white noise. So... I thought I'd shocked her and she'd turned out to be less stable than I thought. Not wonderful, but... I decided to stay put, and if she didn't come out of the bathroom in ten minutes to talk, I was leaving.

She came out in just three, I think. She had, clearly, been crying.

"Benjamin, we do need to talk," she said. She used my full first name instead of the diminutive, so I knew she was serious.

"You know my maternal family comes from Zweil, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you know that Zweil was known for having a lot of wolves there, right?"

"I didn't know it had more than any other little town in Ukraine, but I knew it had wolves nearby, yeah."

"Did you know that Zweil was cursed with werewolves, Ben?"

I blinked. "That's just an old legend, though, I mean... right?"

She smiled. The corners of her mouth turned up, but the corners of her eyes didn't. "It's not. And I'm one of them."

I think I said something along the lines of "No, that's impossible!" but she hushed me.

"Ben, I've known you for a while. You're a mensch. I trust you. So I'm going to show you something. Can you follow me?"

I got up and followed her to the bathroom. "Wait here a second," she said. I was kind of puzzled by this, as she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door in front of my face. But then after about thirty seconds, she spoke through the door. "Okay - wait three seconds, then open the door."

There was a soft sound, then, and I waited about three seconds before opening the door, hesitantly. I didn't see her, but I did see her clothes piled on the toilet seat. I peered around the door itself, and... didn't see her, I saw a wolf. Black and grey, and big, bigger than any wolf had a right to be. And there was no place in the room she could be hiding, and nowhere a wolf should have been either. I pushed open the door further as a small voice in my head said 'Ohhhh, shiiiiiittt...'

The wolf sat down and stared at me with a directness, and total lack of fear, I would not have expected from a wild animal. And that part of my brain I'd mentioned was screaming at me, but my skepticism - the same skepticism that had pushed me away from religion, to be honest - didn't let me listen. I knelt to look more closely. Yes, it was a wolf - it looked like a wolf, anyway, a female one.

Then, the wolf got up, head-butted me in the knees until I backed away, nudged the door closed with her head, and then a moment later I heard Shira's voice on the other side of the door, saying, "So, have you seen the problem yet?"

I gaped, and my mouth just opened and closed for a minute, as she got dressed - I heard her jeans zip up. Then the door opened, and there she was, dressed again.

I took her hand gently in mine as I led her back to the table. "That was you?"

She stared at me, and nodded. "That was me."

"Well..." With my free hand I picked up the box the ring was in, and spun it around a few times, just idling. "This ring may have been a bad idea. That is, this particular ring." I flipped it open, and showed it to her - it had a small diamond caged in tiny wires, set into a silver ring. "But you know, learning what I just learned about you... I don't love you any less, Shira, I'm not afraid of you. I'll ask you again, will you marry me?"

She stared at me still, took a deep breath and stood up. I was taken aback, but she said, a little more calmly, "Do you know what you're getting into?"

"We can work on the details later," I said. "Do you change who you are?"

She shook her head.

"Fine," I said. "I know enough. My question stands."

"Then, yes, Ben, I will."

And then we both broke into tears and laughter, and we embraced.

During the next hour, before I went back home, she told me things, I asked questions, and information was generally shared. It turns out that the werewolf myth about the moon is fairly accurate, that night-time around the time of the full moon compels transformation, that silver is dangerous, but that plants like wolfsbane didn't matter to her, that she didn't really like being a werewolf but wouldn't give it up either... it was enlightening.

We were married two months later, in a small ceremony attended only by our families and closest friends, and then we moved together, as husband and wife, into a house she and I and our parents had all put some money into. She made sure we had a large dog-door installed.

And, you know, a couple of weeks into the lunar month, she said she would be sleeping alone, and would take the couch, and that I wasn't to argue or go into the living room until she had come and let me know she was up and about. I protested a little, but she put her hands on her hips and cocked her head in that way I knew so well, and loved so well. So I decided I would concede this point. For now. And I went to sleep trying to ignore the clicking sound of claws on the flooring.

But during the night I awoke, because I was so used to rolling over into the warm and yielding resistance of another body, and this time I just flopped. I pulled on a pair of shorts and went out to the front. And there she was, lying curled up into a doughnut on the sofa. She opened her eyes as I approached, and glared at me, but she didn't flee when I sat down, she just moved to the other end of it. I held out a hand to her, and she rolled her eyes but got up and moved over enough for me to touch her. I ruffled the fur on the back of her neck.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I had to see for myself."

Her ears went back and her head dipped. I wasn't sure what that meant.

"You know, though, you don't have to stay out here if you don't want to. Do you want to come back to bed?"

Her head dipped lower. So I just put an arm over her shoulder and squeezed, just like I would hug a dog, and then I got up and went to bed.

A little later, she climbed up and curled up on top of the sheets beside me. Then we slept.