A conversation.

"I had the sense you were watching. Just now and a few days ago. I wanted to be sure."

"Ol' Pete's doin' no harm," he says with a rasp. "Just livin'. Just tryna get by. You got no call to harm ol' Pete mister. No matter what you and the Runnin' Girl get up to. Not my business."

"I'm not going to harm you. I just wanted to meet you."

"You be from the school. You an' this fella. Where all the young misses are. What you doing there, a young buck like him and a jarhead? You gonna tell on ol' Pete?"

"We're new teachers," you reply, "What would I tell on you for?"

"For livin' here. Got no place to go, but folks get scared of men like ol' Pete. Think we're after stealing and such. And worse perhaps, with all the young misses up yonder. Think I'd be after doing to them what you and this fella was doin'...to the Runnin' Girl."

"It's ok Pete," Monica says in a soothing tone. "I wanted that. They didn't **** me."

"Ol' Pete can tell. Tell when a miss wants something and when she doesn't. Not like the wolf in the woods. Ol' Pete sees the wolf in the woods. He came some nights back. He took one of them young misses, surprised her and had his way. Screamed she did, but he melted away in the dark as he always does. Like he did all those months ago. Ol' Pete's too smart to be seen by the wolf. He's a bad one. Terrible beast he is."

"Are you saying you saw one of the students attacked two nights ago?" Brian says sharply. "Down here?"

The man flinches at his tone. "No need to be mad at ol' Pete for saying what he saw, mister. I seen it right down there where the woods end. The young misses were drinking and had some young men visit, and then the wolf in woods came and took one of them. He let her go, this time. Not like that other time when he took her away."

"What other time? What are you talking about?" Brian say with an angry urgency in his voice that makes the homeless man shrink and look warily from side to side.

"Nothin' mister. Nothin' t'all," Pete answers sullenly, clamming up.

"What do you eat?" you ask, trying to get him off the subject and re-establish the connection you felt you were making.

"Ol' Pete goes to the kitchen, and takes from what they throw out. Terrible wasteful those young misses are. And the Runnin' Girl here sometimes leaves ol' Pete food. And in town, sometimes ol' Pete...well he begs. Though it pains to do it, ol' Pete begs." You see his eyes starting to fill with tears. " A decorated veteran though he be."

"What was your ship Petty Officer?"

"No ship. Stationed at Little Creek," he replies, his voice returning to the more alert tone he used earlier.

"What do you mean no ship?" Brian says with exasperation. "You're in the Na..."

"Little Creek Virginia?" you ask, cutting off Brian.

"Aye. Until O'l Pete was deployed. Over there," he gestures vaguely to the east. "A terrible place. Ol' Pete don't like to remember." He looks at you with mute appeal in his eyes. "This is a good place, and ol' Pete don't do no harm. Don't make ol' Pete leave mister. The Runnin' Girl knows I'm no harm."

"I'll vouch for Pete," Monica says quietly but firmly. "I met him last year. He's a sweetheart."

"Your safe from us Petty Officer. Both of us," you look sharply at Brian. "Look after yourself. Maybe I'll come back sometime." You offer your hand. After a moment's hesitation he shakes yours with his mangled paw, his eyes staring up at you as though you have just sealed a debt of honour.

And maybe you have, you think as he nods and disappears up the trail and into the woods, moving as silently as a forest animal.