Wolfie Read Online Free

big park near Lucie’s house, and as long as she went with Fang, her parents let her go without them. Their favourite part (although Lucie’s parents did not
know this) was the wild bit on the far side where there weren’t many people and there were woods and a gorge with a stream. Fang could run about and get some real exercise. She showed Lucie
how to spot kingfishers. She also caught fish and rabbits to eat.
    Lucie did not mind about the fish, but she
did
mind about the rabbits.
    “Do you
have
to eat them?” she asked, looking the other way while Fang gnawed on a hind quarter.
    Fang licked her lips. “Yes,” she said simply. “I must eat meat. Or would you rather I ate little girls?”
    Lucie jumped.
    “Just my little joke,” said Fang. “I wouldn’t really eat little girls.” She winked. “Too chewy.”
    “Humph,” said Lucie. Of course Fang
was
a wolf, and a wolf could not live off bread and butter. But sometimes Lucie wished she could just go to a supermarket and buy a big tin
marked Wolf Food — as Sophie had done in the story after the Tiger Came for Tea.
    “
You
eat meat,” Fang pointed out. “You eat cows and pigs and chickens.”
    “I know. But they are kept on farms.”
    “Exactly,” said Fang. “Poor things. At least these rabbits have a good time right up until I eat them.”
    Lucie had to admit that this was true.
    Afterwards they walked down to the lake. Lucie often brought bread for the ducks, and enjoyed feeding them; and Fang enjoyed snapping playfully at the gulls if they came too close (at least,
Lucie
hoped
she was being playful). But today she had forgotten the bread, and because it was such a nice day and she did not want to go home, she wandered into the children’s
playground.
    It was a very sunny day, and lots of parents had brought their children to play on the swings and slides. Lucie made her way towards the swings, with Fang beside her. Some of the grown-ups were
sitting on benches, chatting. Some of them looked up as Fang passed. But none of them said anything. They just turned back to their conversations.
    Then a little boy looked straight at Fang. He stood staring at her for a long time. Then he lifted a hand, pointed, and shouted, “Wolf!”
    Everything went still. The children stopped playing. The parents stopped gossiping. Everybody turned and stared at Fang, who suddenly looked very big and very…
wolf-like
.
    Lucie knew she had to do something quickly. She reckoned she only had a moment before everyone started screaming.
    “
Of course
she’s not a wolf,” she said as loudly as possible. “I mean, how
could
she be a wolf? What an idea!”
    Still nobody said a word. Lucie remembered talking to Mum in the kitchen. She forced a laugh. “I mean — a wolf! Ha, ha! Hee, hee!” She kept going. “Ho ho! Tee
hee!”
    It wasn’t working. They were still staring at Fang.
    “Fang!” Lucie whispered. “Roll on your back!”
    But Fang just gave her a Look that said that she wasn’t going to roll about on her back, like a silly dog, for anything.
    So Lucie tried one last time. “I mean — just think of it!
Whoever heard of a
WOLF
in a children’s playground!
” She forced herself to giggle.
    Slowly the terrified faces relaxed. They began to grin. Then they began to laugh. “Ha ha ha! A wolf in a children’s playground? How ridiculous!” A few wiped tears from their
eyes.
    And the next moment everybody had gone right back to their gossiping, their swinging, their sliding or cheerful shrieking. It was just as if nothing had ever happened.
    Except for the small boy who had shouted in the first place. He stared at Fang solemnly with his thumb in his mouth.
    “Don’t worry,” Lucie whispered. “She’s a
nice
wolf.”
    The boy nodded and toddled off to the roundabout.
    “It really was strange,” said Lucie to Fang later. “You’d think everybody would have run away. After all, there you were, teeth and everything. Running away would have
been the