The Dehumanization of Ethan Brown

Ethan woke up as human in the middle of night. He tapped Jake’s shoulder to wake him. Ria was sleeping with her mother and the twins since the baby was due soon and males weren’t allowed to participate in the birth of a cub. Jake, Margaret and their three cubs had moved into the house when their lease ran out. “I fucking did it.” Ethaook ook Jake. Juan wasn’t in the living room he probably fell asleep near the kennel like most nights.

Jake yawned then returned to human. “What did you do? Some of us are trying to sleep.”

“Look at me. It’s far from dawn and I’m fucking human,” Ethan said.

“Big fucking deal,” Jake yawned again.

“I bee been thinking about it every fucking night for over year. I have never changed back to human before fucking dawn.”

“You did that day that you killed the rogue in the park.”

“Fuck. Leslie’s magic did it. I used my own fucking magic. Man, I’m not as weak as my father thought. I’m as strong as anyone else.”

“Go back to sleep. I have to get the office ready for our business. You can come in today and help connect me to the Internet. Margaret wrote up a web page. We called the phone book and put an ad in it for next year. In a few days, we’ll be open for business.”

“I’ll come in for a couple of hours. I need to be at the station at three. I have to relieve the men on stake out.”

“You’ll find the drugs in a few minutes.”

“Perhaps, then I’ll have to do a fucking ton of paperwork.”

“Work for us.”

“When you aren’t up to your fucking eyeballs in debt. Someone has to pay the fucking property tax and electricity for this place. Juan only gets paid when the puppies are sold. I t cot collect rent from pack members. I expect them to contribute to bills and groceries when they can.”

“When the agency gets on its feet, the money will be rolling in.” Jake rolled away from Ethan and closed his eyes. Ethan couldn’t sleep with this news but he didn’t want to wake Ria when she needed her sleep. Her guidance counselor was pressuring her for the baby’s father’s name. Her guidance counselor and several social workers believed that her father was responsible. Ethan tht iht it was time that they married, but Ria insisted that they didn’t need to fall to social pressure.

Ethan walked up the stairs an hour or so before dawn to wake Ria. He wanted her to see that he could change back before the sunrise. Ria, in human form, was asleep on the full-size bed in the nursery pressed against her mother. Although there was a crib for the twins, they were snug against mother’s side on the firm mattress. Ethan touched Ria’s shoulder. “Honey, I did it.”

Ria rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “What?”

“I changed back before dawn. I’ll try to do again tomorrow nighen Ien I’m not sleeping,” Ethan said. “Your father was right.”

“He usually is.” Ria slumped down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Honey, has the school been pressuring you?”

“The nurse tried to make me fill out these fucking forms to get free health insurance. I told them that I didn’t need help from the fucking state. She lectured me on the dangers of having a baby so young. I told her that my mother was younger than I when she had me and she just gave birth to twins. She did everything but call my mother and father fucking white trash.” Ria ate an apple. “I’m going to quit fucking school anyway. I can’t nurse my baby while I’m in class.”

“You can. You’re seventeen. I can help you get your GED,” Ethan said, eating raw sweet potatoes. “I started college without a high school diploma. I have a bachelor degree, a masters and no fucking high school diploma. It isn’t necessary.”

“I thought you needed a high school diploma or GED to get into the police academy?” Jake asked as he served the eggs, fat back and reheated casseroles. Potatoes and other starchy vegetables were usually eaten raw. The kitchen table seated only four and the counter two more but there were nownty-nty-three people living in the house if one included children.

There were only six males in this generation including Ethan. com complained about the lack of males in the last generation because his mother had only two boys and seven girls. Only one other family remained in the area; there were many small packs in the mountains but the closest large park was in New York City to the east (if one excludes the ones in Canada) or Buffalo to the west. Jake, the pack’s second in command, was the oldest of three brothers all living locally; their parents were living in an apartment in Syracuse but didn’t participate in pack affairs.

“A bachelor degree works just as well,” Ethan said. “I told them that I left fucking high school at fifteen and half. I started college the following year.”

“You were out of school for almost a year,” Juan said.

“I wanted to started college in the fall. Al convinced me to take one summer course before being officially enrolled,” Ethan said. “See Ria. You can go to college without finishing high school. Stay home and nurse the baby. I havttertter textbooks than the high school and the library is open everyday. For two fifty in late fees, you can get a better education than the high school provides.”

“You’re an angel,” Ria said. “So are we still on for the big summer wedding.”

“As long as I get to make your dress,” Juan’s sister-in-law Bea said. Emilio and her visited often but Emilio insisted that he needed his own place. Emilio claimed that it would be too difficult to keep Juan’s dogs out of his chickens. The dress comment was joke. If they could manage it, Ria would be wearing no more than flowers in her hair. The wedding party and guests would be naked. The only one dressed would be the minister unless they could find a minister or justice of the peace that was pack.

“We’ll need lots of food,” Jake said. “We need to feed one hundred to two hundred. We can’t afford to have our land stripped of wildlife.”

“We can hunt a few deer prior,” Emilio, Juan’s brother, said. “I still have deer from the last bait and shoot. You insisted that I take as much as my three freezers could hold. I only have my wife and our three children to feed.” None of Emilio’s children had reached puberty and werewolves didn’t eat much more than human children until they started to change.

“I can have a few of the ladies help me collect food from grocery stores dumpsters,” Margaret said. “They won’t stay long most have to get to work on Monday. Jake and I collect enough food to feed two packs on a good night.”

“I won’t go into school today. Mom, I’ll help you teach my brothers and sister,” Ria said. “I can help plan my wedding.”

“You wanted to go to school so bad,” Camilla said eating some crackers with her fatback.

“The baby is going to be here in two or three weeks,” Ria said. “Among the fucking social workers demanding that I get on WIC and public assistance and pressuring me to tell them who the fucking father is, I don’t need it anymor
“
“I was always home schooled,” Camilla said.

“I know you and Dad were against me going to school,” Ria said. “Ethan said we weren’t getting married until I was eighteen. Sitting at home was making me lonely.”

“I’m not angry with you,” Camilla said. “You went almost three years.”

“I don’t regret going,” Ria said as she started to clean the breakfast dishes. “I hope I get along with Tony’s wife. There are many females in the house. I won’t be lonely.”

Ethan kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you tonight.” Ethan couldn’t believe that he was living with twenty-three people. The pack included two more families Jake’s brother, Tobias, and his wife and their four and one year olds and Emilio and his family plus two older couples and two widows. He wondered if child welfare would complain about so many people living in one house, but Ethan loved being surrounded by family and he d't c't care if the state believed too many people were living in one house. This house was home where he was a born and he was so glad that his baby would be born in the same house that he was.