WOLF
GK: I haven't been back to San Diego for awhile because it's an emotional journey for me that goes back to when I was a boy growing up in Minnesota. (BLIZZARD, WOLF) We lived in a cabin at the end of the Sawmill Trail, in a grove of tall pines, and my father was a lumberjack from Goteborg (TR SWEDISH) and my mother was a singer----
HM:
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the northern lake.
Breathe and blow, drifts of snow,
Until we reach spring break.
Over the frozen waters blow,
Blow me away to San Diego
There by the crystal sea,
While my little son, while my pretty one, sleeps.
GK: I slept in a bed of pine boughs by the fireplace and I remember her leaning over my bed, her face illumined by the flames.
HM: Goodbye, my boy. Your father will take care of you while I go to California and make my fortune in the music business and then I'll return and we can build a big house and send you to college and give you all the finer things in life. I'll be back soon. Goodbye. (DOOR CLOSE, BRIDGE)
GK: But my beloved mother did not return and Dad was gone cutting down trees most of the time (TR SWEDISH) so I was raised by my aunt Agatha who moved in with us and was very strict. (SS: Six o'clock tomorrow morning, you walk to the highway and catch the schoolbus, hear me?) (DARK CHORD)
GK: School. I had never gone to school. (DARK CHORD) My mother had taught me at home, standing at her knee.
SS: And you'll need new clothes for school. (DARK CHORD)
GK: My mother had woven my clothes out of grass and flowers, but Agatha threw them away and she made me wear itchy wool pants (RASP) with a tight belt (WINCH, TIGHTENING), and I was forced onto a bus (SS: Git up there. WHIP) and hauled to school (GONG OF DOOM) where other children looked at me and (CRUEL CHILDISH LAUGHTER). And the teacher was cruel too.
TR (GERMAN): Tell me about quotients. What is a denominator? What is an exponent?
GK: And that's when I ran away into the woods. (FOOTSTEPS IN BRUSH, CRACKLE OF TWIGS, GRASS) I walked for miles. (DISTANT HOWL) It was dark when the sun went down. And then (TENTATIVE GROWL). There ahead of me stood a beautiful silver wolf. (WOLF SNIFFING) He didn't seem dangerous, only curious. (WOLF, QUESTIONING GROWL) I spoke to him. Wolf. I need your help.(WOLF THROAT CLEARING). If you could take me home with you, I'd be very grateful. (WOLF TENTATIVE RESPONSE) Please. (WOLF SNIFFING) He walked around me, smelling me, and then he gave me a signal (WOLF BARK) and I
understood that I was to follow him. I did. And that was how I spent the next few years of my life.
I lived in a den which was very warm and cozy. (WOLF TALK, SOFT, SNIFFING, PURRING). Four wolves and I lay in the middle of them. And they licked my face and hands. They named me , SNHNSH. They were so affectionate, so helpful, and I tried to learn their language. But wolf grammar is complicated: the vocabulary is only a hundred "words" and each word has dozens of possible meanings ---- for example, (FN: WOLF WORD) can mean "the place where the deer come at night to browse" or "the way the sky looks when winter is approaching" or "There were fresh droppings on the trail today" and verb tense is indicated by the angle of your tail, so I never mastered the past or future or the subjunctive mood. On the other hand, I loved howling, which we did several times a week.
GK: We males would get together on our hill and call to females faraway (FN TR GK: WOLF HOWL CHORD, THEN SECOND CHORD) and the females would answer (JENNYS, HOWL CHORD, THEN SECOND CHORD, THEN THIRD) and we'd respond (HOWL CHORD). And then hear them. (JENNYS CHORD) I loved living with wolves, although I never developed a taste for squirrel, and then one day, my brother Omoo took me aside for a talk.
FN: (WOLF GRUNTS, SNIFFING) I'm going to talk to you in English so I'm sure you understand.
GK: (GK WOLF RESPONSE)
FN: No, I want to say this in English. You have to go back to your people.
GK: (HOWL)
FN: I'm sorry, but we have immigration laws, you know. And the pack has decided that you have to go back. And then he bit me. (FN LUNGE, SNARL, GK YELP). I ran away and he chased me (FOOTSTEPS RUNNING, FN BARKING) down the path toward the highway. (TRUCK PASSING) And there I saw a man in a red plaid jacket leaning over his car, looking under the hood (CLINK OF TOOLS) and he looked up as I drew near.
TR: Oh hi. How's it goin then? Nice coat. Looks like a bearskin. And your shoes made out of deer hide. What's your name?
GK: I couldn't remember. All I could remember was my wolf name. SNHNSH
TR: Gesundheit.
GK: SNHNSH.
TR: God bless you. (CLEARS THROAT)
GK: He said. Which in wolf means, "You are nothing but a deer dropping." And I bit him. (TR YELL. RUNNING FOOTSTEPS AWAY) And I shut the hood (SFX) and I got in the car (DOOR CLOSE) and I turned the key (STARTER) and it all came back to me, what I'd seen my father do. I put the car into gear and started up (SFX) and then I heard this voice:
SS (ROBOT): Hello. How may I help you?
GK: And I remembered where my mother had gone and I said: SAN DIEGO.
SS (ROBOT): San Diego. Is that what you said?
GK: (WOLF SNUFFLE)
SS (ROBOT): I didn't understand that.
GK: Yes.
SS (ROBOT): San Diego. Calculating route....... In fifty miles, turn left onto highway 22. (BRIDGE)
GK: And so I got to San Diego and I was arrested for driving without a license and they could see I was half-wild so they sent me to a social worker who worked with wild men.
SS: First we have to get you in the shower. My, you smell ripe. (SHOWER) There you go. Get in. (GK CRY OF PAIN) Here, let me wash your hair. (SHE SCRUBS, GK PAIN)
GK: It was months before I could bear the feeling of underwear on my body. To wear trousers at all felt like my body was caught in the jaws of a trap. (ZIPPER) And there were rules.
SS: Number one Never bite. No bites. And don't pee on the floor of your room. I know you're "marking" but we don't do that anymore. And don't poke your head up my skirt. We don't do sniffing like that. No more sniffing.
GK: It wasn't easy but gradually I learned about personhood and appropriate behavior. And one day I walked into a room and there was my mother on television (PIANO INTRO) ---- she was wearing a bearskin coat and standing outdoors under a big pine tree and it was snowing.
SS: You know her, honey?
GK: It was my mother and she was in Minnesota,
HM: (SINGS)
All around this wild country the winter it has now begun.Now is the time to slip away from the California sun
To a place where a man can be free as the wind, as wild as the husky's cry.
Now winter is nigh, let us fly to my log cabin home in the sky.
HM & GK:
With the snow piling all round the door and many a log on the stove,
With the chickadees singing a comforting song I'll show you it's you that I love.
Oh, let the wolves howl, they won't find us here, by a soft oil lamp we will lie.
JENNYS HOWL LAST LINE ((Now winter is nigh, let us fly to my log cabin home in the sky.))
GK: San Diego is a beautiful place, a person could live there, but a man only has one mother and one tribe, and so I said goodbye to the coast and headed inland , north, to the pine trees and the vast whiteness.
HM:
There comes a time for every man when he must turn his back on the crowd.
When the glare of the lights gets much too bright and the music plays too loud.
When a man must run from the deeds he has done, recalling those days with a sigh.
ALL:
Now winter is nigh, let us fly to my log cabin home in the sky.
Now winter is nigh, let us fly to my log cabin home in the sky.