Preview: “Return of the Wolf Girl”

Madina returned to town the evening of her eighteenth birthday. She had signed out of the orphanage that morning, and spent the day on the bus, watching cornfields pass outside her window and wondering if she will have travelled so far for nothing. Gold light streaked down the street as she stepped off the bus. She shielded her eyes and looked, for the first time, at the town where she was born. 

Nothing about this town felt like her. She didn’t recognize herself in the charming town square, still lined with American flags for Independence Day, or the old fashioned soda shop. But, inside her backpack, pressed between a change of clothes and an envelope of cash, was a file that stated this was the town where she was found as an infant, tucked in a milk crate, in front of the police station. Now, eighteen and too old to remain at the orphanage, Madina didn’t know where she belonged. She came to town, hoping to find some answers. 

Madina studied each person as they passed by—the teenage couple walking arm-in-arm into the movie theatre, or the mother pushing a baby stroller along the sidewalk—checking to see if there was any family resemblance, especially if they had dark hair and blue eyes. 

Then she heard the cry.

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