Excerpt From 'Mazes'

HIS most memorable saying was ``A-woo-woo-woo-woo-wooooooo!,'' the last phrase spoken with a rising inflection. This may be mistaken for one of the North American Indian languages, but was actually idiomatic in a language much studied by the North American Indians, that of the wolf (canis lupus), a powerful totem. Any wolf who said this said, ``I am HE,'' and was a he-wolf. He was also, if he said it with conviction, an Alpha Male, which is pidgin Greek for Top Wolf. Pidgin Greek is a language written by ethologists. Thomas spoke wolf like a native, his father having been an Alaskan wolf. His mother, offspring of a union between a German Shepherd and a Malamute, had the fortune to come into season at a place where male wolves abounded. One of these briefly visited. She was subsequently brought south by a man whose destiny was to be a California milkman; at our door, in 1969, he spoke of ``puppies.'' At that time Thomas was a puppy.

He was a sad-eyed puppy, and remained sad-eyed his long life. Huge though he grew, his eyes were never alight: always the mirrors of his secret mind, which revolved some primitive woe: that there is no going back, that there is mortality. Through the wolves, his mind reached to the Ice Age, and before.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to Excerpt From 'Mazes'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/1989/0913/db1maze.html
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe