Project Purple

53 - The Matron

Heidi Burrhen was on a mission.

The state name of her native North Dakota restrained tourism, and customers, due to its frigid sounding forename. Heidi, through her Dakota Committee-a body she created composed of several friends-intended to change that.

"In many ways, we're actually warmer than South Dakota, but people don't want to go someplace that has the name "North" in it-It sounds too wintry."

'How about South Saskatchewan?" the Sayer had jeered light-heartedly.

Heidi ignored the heckling Canadian, steadfast in her commitment to get the state to drop the word North and simply refer to itself as Dakota.

One thing both Dakotas had plenty of was wolves. And when they came, it was in sudden relentless packs.

"Be gone, foul demons!" she screamed when she caught them tearing at the dug out corpse of her Robert in the swollen little cemetery.

Together with the Bibliothecary, they beat pots and shouted themselves hoarse, and the Goatwench took careful aim with her arrows. But the distance was great, and the creatures dragged the preacher off with ease.

That night Heidi spoke of the wolf. "As Christians, our battle is not against humans but against powerful spiritual beings of evil," Heidi said, "those creatures out there right now."

"It is our duty to bring out the wolf in today's world," Tiffany said, in what Heidi construed as opposition.

"What does that mean? - Are you saying it's a symbol for something else?"

"A symbol stands for something abstract," Tiffany continued, "which may manifest into the material and physical, depending on its intrinsic principles."

Heidi snered, "Just what is the wolf representing then?"

"Freedom," the Goatwench suddenly cut in, "the freedom the wilderness empowers."

Heidi scoffed, "You're implying something noble about these hideous scavengers, and I don't like that."

Tiffany fiddled pensively with her eyeglasses, "Take your average Canis lupus familiaris..."

"The dog?" Heidi asked.

"The domestic dog. It wants comfort. Give it some floor space in the house. It's sedentary..." Tiffany paused, "...Not so the wolf. It's restless, intense, incredibly resourceful, an outstanding hunter. It has a drive, an inner compass that leads it to survival."

Buford looked up, "And we, as Americans, are the fat dogs farting on the kitchen floor slobbering for more Alpo?"

Tiffany nodded, "Really, do you know where your food comes from? - The Trader Joe's? And before that? Do you care?"

"That's the answer right there," Buford said, "we moderns have just lost touch with the soil, with the Earth."

Heidi clicked her tongue, "And the wolves are here to remind us?"

"To teach us," Tiffany said.

Heidi frowned, "Teach us what?"

She usually considered her own capacity for thought greater than the others. And when she spoke, it was in a calm, simple manner. Not any more. Now she wasn't sure of anything, and she had to constantly repeat herself, because she'd forgotten what she'd just said.