The Wolf Cupboard (4 page)

“Yes I do!” yelled Danny. “I'm practising my fierce…!”

“Will you shut up?” hissed Leon, clamping his hand over Danny's mouth. “You'll get me into a fight! Save that stare for the wolf cupboard.”

“OK!” agreed Danny. “I'll practise giving up instead.”

He rolled onto the pavement, whimpering and waving his paws in the air.

“You do it as well!” he said to Leon.

“Are you crazy?” said Leon. “There are people watching!”

Danny's eyes began to fill with tears. “If you don't help me,” he said, “I'm not going to school.”

“Oh no!” thought Leon. He checked his watch. They had only ten minutes to get to school!

Leon looked around again. None of his mates was about.

“All right,” he told Danny. “I'll pretend to be a wolf. But only for five seconds. Then will you come to school?”

“OK,” said Danny.

So Leon threw himself on his back on the pavement. He waved his arms and legs about. He whimpered. He put his tongue out of his mouth like a panting dog.

“Hey, you're a great wolf,” said Danny.

There was a bus going past. Leon looked up.

Some girls he knew were staring at him from the window.

“Oh no!” thought Leon. “They're going to think I'm really uncool!”

He jumped to his feet. He grabbed Danny's hand. He dragged him along the street and into school.

All that day, in lessons, Leon thought about Danny. How was his little brother doing?

“With any luck,” thought Leon, “he's forgotten all about the wolf in the cupboard.”

At the end of school, Leon waited for the baby class to come out. At last, he saw Danny running towards him, with a big smile on his face.

“Phew!” thought Leon. “He looks OK.”

But, as they walked home, Danny asked him, “Will you read me some more of that wolf book?”

“Why?” said Leon. “You'll only get scared again.”

“I won't,” said Danny. “I told you, I'm not scared of wolves any more.”

“No!” said Leon. “No more wolves!”

Wolves were nothing but trouble. They had nearly got him into a fight with those teenagers. They had made those girls on the bus think he was really uncool.

But Danny went on and on until Leon agreed.

So, that night, Leon sat on Danny's bed and opened the book
All About Wolves
.

“Just five minutes' reading,” said Leon. “And you've got to promise me you won't get scared.”

“I promise,” said Danny.

Leon looked down the page, to find something nice to say about wolves.

“Hey,” he told Danny, “it says here most people are totally wrong about wolves. Real wolves are nothing like the big, bad wolves in fairy tales.”

“So what are they like, then?” asked Danny.

“It says real wolves are shy. They run away from people. They only attack you if you hurt them first. Or try to hurt their cubs. I didn't know that,” said Leon, getting interested.

He turned over a few pages. “Hey!” he said again. “It says wolves make really good parents. And you know when they howl?”

“Yes,” said Danny. “I'm good at howling.” He threw back his head and gave a really loud howl.

“Cool!” said Leon. “That's a great howl!”

Mum yelled up the stairs, “What's going on? You and Danny aren't fighting, are you?”

Leon shouted down, “No, Mum!” He turned to the book again.

“When wolves howl,” he told Danny, “it's like they're talking to each other. You can hear a howl ten miles away!”

“Wow!” said Danny. “Ten miles!”

Danny opened his mouth and gave a howl so loud it seemed to shake the house.

“No more howling!” said Leon, putting his hands over his ears. “Mum will wonder what's going on.”

He flipped over another page in the book.

“The guy that wrote this lived with wolves in Alaska,” he told Danny. “He made friends with them. Look at this!”

Leon showed Danny the book.

It was the scary grey wolf from the other photo. And the man who lived with wolves was sitting beside him, scratching his ears, as if he was a great big friendly pet dog.