Tell the Wolves I'm Home

One evening, Greta does not have play practice and her and June’s parents aren’t working late, so the family eats dinner together and then plays Trivial Pursuit. June is surprised that they all have fun, playing late into the night while eating popcorn. After her mother and Greta have gone to bed, June asks her father if he has ever met Toby.

Her father explains that he has and then tells June the history of the dissent between her mother and Finn. Her mother was also an artist, and she and Finn planned to be artists together, until Finn left for Europe at age 17. He returned with Toby, and June’s father hypothesizes that June’s mother became jealous. She blamed Toby for taking Finn away from her and seemed embarrassed that she became an accountant and lived a socially acceptable life in the suburbs.

June visits Toby. She is surprised to find the apartment a mess, knowing Finn would never live in it that way. Together, they clean up the dirty dishes and the records scattered about. Toby plays June a cassette of himself playing guitar, and then June sneaks off to the bathroom. When Toby finds her in his bedroom, he does not mind, encouraging June to take any object she’d like to have. He tells her that he is also dying and then suggests they walk around the city.

As they walk, June tells him about Greta, the play, and the distance between them. Toby says that Finn painted the portrait because he hoped it would keep them close. June isn’t sure how a painting could make this possible. Toby tells her more about the rift between her mother and Finn.

That night, June looks through the medieval book from Finn, thinking of something she might do for Toby. She suddenly phones him to ask the name of the town he is from in England.

June watches the rehearsal of the play but feels like Greta is not performing her best. June wanders into the woods, waiting for the rehearsal to end and the party to start. She has looked up the town Toby is from in England and decided that the thing she will do to take care of him is to take him back to that town. She is certain that he looked much happier in the photos taken when he and Finn were in England.

The party begins, and June watches for Greta. She is taken by surprise by Ben, who taps her on the shoulder and asks her to find the wolves with him. June sends him off in a direction where she promises there are wolves, but Ben quickly kisses her before he rushes off. This causes June to lose sight of Greta, so she goes in search of her.

The party is broken up by police before June can find Greta, so June hides in the woods and then goes to her special tree—the place she found Greta before. Greta is there, drunk, but June convinces her to walk home. Greta reminisces about a game they played when they were young, but the two begin to argue.

The next day, the family attends an annual barbecue at the Ingrams’. Greta and June keep to themselves, loitering on a swing set. June tries bringing up Ben by showing Greta the die he gave her. Greta insists that she saw Ben go off with another girl at the party. Pretending not to care, June tells Greta that she has a secret boyfriend in the city and then throws Ben’s die into the yard.

On April 1, President Reagan finally addresses the AIDS crisis. June recalls being alone with Finn one day while her mother shopped at Bloomingdale’s; Finn brought up June learning that he had AIDS. June quickly changed the subject.

All day, she is alert for Greta to play an April Fool’s Day joke on her, but Greta never attempts one. June receives a cassette of Toby’s guitar playing in the mail.

June visits Toby again and tells him she would like to view Finn’s paintings. Toby falls asleep on the annex sofa while she makes her way through them. Her favorite is a series titled “Wishing You Were Here” depicting Toby in various tourist locations throughout the US.

They walk the city and end up at a Chinese restaurant. Toby orders an enormous fruit-punch-like drink, which they share, and June enjoys the buzz it gives her. As they leave, she realizes that Toby has become her friend.

One morning, June’s mother gives her lunch money, but June, wanting to be cared for by her mother, asks her to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead. Her mother begins to but then notes that June, at 14, is old enough to complete the task. June thinks about her passport, which she has snuck from her parents’ locked box and which is now in her backpack, and her plan to take Toby to England.

One afternoon, June calls Toby and asks him to see a movie with her. When she hangs up, Greta is there with all the things from Toby that June has hidden in her closet. They fight about Toby, and the fight escalates when June lunges at Greta, pulling her hair. When Greta hears their mother returning home, Greta quickly stuffs June’s things into a garbage bag and tells their mother she has been cleaning her room.

As repayment for not exposing June’s secret, Greta makes June clean her room. She tells June that Toby and Finn met while Toby was incarcerated and that Finn gave a workshop at the prison. Later, June sorts through the trash can, attempting to retrieve her things. All that remains are the photo of her and Toby, Finn’s teapot, and the medieval book.

June tries to get out of a visit to Toby by telling him she has to catch up on writing journal entries for her English class. Toby, however, convinces her that he will keep her company while she works. At the apartment, June presents Toby with a gift, which she tells him to open later. Toby convinces June to invent ridiculous details to include in the journal entries. When she arrives at February 5, the date of Finn’s death, June is unsure of what to say. She asks Toby to write something for her, but he refuses, telling June, “[Y]ou weren’t there” (249), which he’d said before. This angers June, and she leaves.

That night, she dreams of wolves.

The gift June left with Toby is the top of Finn’s Russian teapot and her passport, with a note attached suggesting they go to England. June is certain that this will be the best way to take care of Toby.

June’s father arrives home early one afternoon with a stomach illness. June gives him ginger ale as he expresses his eagerness for tax season to be done. June asks why he tolerates being an accountant if he does not enjoy it. When he says that he does it for her and Greta, she feels guilty.

June realizes that with tax season drawing to a close, she has little time left to get Toby to England.

Greta avoids June, so one afternoon, June attends play rehearsal, hoping to force Greta to talk to her. Ben spots June and calls her up to the lighting booth. They make small talk, and then Ben brings up the kiss. June snarks back about the girl she has heard he is with and leaves. She waits for Greta after rehearsal, but she never comes out.

June returns to visit Toby a week later. She asks him his thoughts about her idea to go to England; Toby insists that they cannot go. June becomes upset and then reveals to Toby that Finn asked her to take care of him. Toby begins to laugh and then shows June a note from Finn in which he asked Toby to take care of June. They laugh and cry together, and June feels the closest she’s felt to Finn since he died.

On the train ride home, however, it occurs to June that Toby does not really like her as a friend and that he is merely spending time with her to appease Finn.

An article about the painting appears in Newsweek magazine. The writer lists the “most wanted” missing pieces of art, placing Finn’s painting at number six. At dinner, June’s mother says she has contacted the author and agreed to allow him to see the painting.

The next day, June visits the painting at the bank vault, hoping the changes will not be noticeable, but they are. Greta has added red paint to her lips since June last saw the painting. June feels that they are communicating with one another through their additions to the painting. She adds gold paint to Greta’s fingernails.