The White Wolf of Wishing Moon Bay - Harmony Raines

Chapter One – Penny

“Oh, no. No, no, no.” Penny stared at the flashing light on the dashboard which didn’t stop no matter how many times she no-ed it.

“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Milo’s small, scared voice came from the back seat where he was buckled in safely with his toy wolf tucked under his arm.

“Nothing.” The flashing light said otherwise but there was no use worrying her son. Not yet at least. Maybe the light didn’t mean an emergency. Maybe it just meant, get me to a garage at your earliest convenience. But cars weren’t polite in that way. As if to confirm this, something clunked under the hood.

“That didn’t sound like nothing.” Milo squirmed in his seat and sat up straighter so that he could see out of the window. Not that there was anything to see, darkness surrounded them on all sides. Deep, penetrating darkness.

“We’re okay. The car is still running.” She closed her eyes briefly as they kangaroo-hopped down the narrow country road. They were in the middle of nowhere, heading for her sister’s house.

After the breakup of her marriage, Penny was practically destitute, thanks to the lying, cheating man she thought she loved. But what love she had for him was gone after her jerk of a husband ran off with an older woman. When you hit forty, your husband was supposed to run off with a young, nubile woman. Not a woman ten years his senior.

She let out a small sob and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Her confidence was at its lowest ebb, she was a failure, forced to go beg her sister to let her and Milo stay until she got herself back on her feet.

Penny focused on keeping the car on the road and refused to think that at least the headlights were still working in case they heard her and gave up, too. Not that it mattered if they were working or not if the engine failed. There were no towns, no houses for a hundred miles in either direction. No one to see them, no one to come to her rescue. Not according to the map.

Wishing Moon Bay 2 miles

She read the sign as the car bounced along the road like Milo when he had the hiccups. Her forehead creased. Penny had driven this route before and was certain there had been no sign for Wishing Moon Bay the last time she’d followed this road to Helena’s house. As for the map... Wishing Moon Bay wasn’t on the map.

Perhaps it was a new town. One that had been built recently. Too new to be on any map.

Wishing Moon Bay 1 mile

The car lurched forward, and Milo grabbed hold of the door while clutching Mr. Wolfy even tighter. “Is it going to stop?”

“I hope not.” She meant the car, but she suspected Milo meant the bumping and clanking that seemed to have combined into a steady rhythm like an acapella group waiting for someone to start singing. Penny was not in the mood for singing.

Wishing Moon Bay 1/2 mile

The singing started anyway. A small whine from under the hood which she suspected was steam escaping from the radiator.

“What are we going to do?” Milo asked the question that had been beating in her head in time with the clanking.

“We’re going to take a detour and find a garage to fix the car.” Penny peered into the darkness, looking for the turnout to Wishing Moon Bay. It had to be close and she couldn’t risk missing it. The car was barely capable of driving forward let alone reversing.

“We’re going to Wishing Moon Bay?” Milo’s hopeful voice gave her confidence.

“Yes, we are. It sounds like a good place, doesn’t it?” Any place was better than breaking down on the side of the road in the dark.

“Do you think we could make a wish if we go there?” His hope cranked up a notch.

“I don’t see why not.”

“There’s the turnout, Mommy!” Milo pointed and Penny turned the wheel sharply.

The turnout was almost hidden between the trees on the left side of the road. It would be so easy to drive past and never see it at all. But they had seen it and now they were driving along the narrow road. With no hope of turning around, the car seemed to have toned down its cacophony of noises and only emitted a small hiccup every now and again.

The temptation to back the car up and drive back toward the known world, the safe world, was