Caged

Conversations

"Do you still think about them", she started, "the wolves?"

"Do you still think about your family?" I responded.

We sat silently, answering each others’ question. She’s the one that wanted us to write about ourselves. She thought it would help. I didn’t know yet. I knew more about her, I guess. But that’s not it. There was something more.

"Were they like people?" she interrupted.

"What do you-"

"I mean, when they looked you in the eyes and you saw them on the brink of death, did you feel like they were maybe more than wolves? Like they were just people stuck in a wolf body."

"Maybe. Maybe a bit. They seemed deeper. Deeper than a lot of people I’ve met. And ya, in a bit, I felt like they had more to say to me then they were able to. They are more down to earth. Closer to the edge of life. Survivors. Because I think when you are living so close to death, you think more about life. And when you think about life, you become sentient. That’s probably a really round about way of answering that, but ya, they were people to me. Just limited to what they could do."

"So that adds to the death you’ve seen."

"…yes."

"Interesting."

"What?"

"No, it’s just interesting."

"Okay, why is it interesting."

"Well, I think everyone is limited in what they can do to some extent. Some more than others. Some less than others. But what makes us people…what makes us alive and significant isn’t what limits us. It’s how much we try to overcome our limits."

"Go on."

"So the wolves. They went beyond the course that was assigned to them in life. And for doing that, they have had  greater impact on you then the wolves that stayed bounded to wolfness."

"Is wolfness a word now?"

"Great. That’s what you take out of all of that."

"No, I took out more. To live, you have to know your boundaries. To be alive, you have to try to be great than them."

"We should keep writing stuff."

"Definitely," I said. I held her hand. We sat for a while longer, taking in what we had given each other. And I wanted us to write about ourselves more.