[Charlie - Drawing]

[hereand_now]

Wolf likes school, he really does, and he's trying hard to show up on time for all his classes and do all his work, but some of the classes are hard. Reading and writing aren't easy, but writing is way harder than reading. At least Wolf can already read some things -- not very many, but some, thanks to The Book of Good Farming -- but he can't write

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[1000_cranes]

She's been working on the same sculpture for about a week now. Today, while Cadi plays with blocks in her playpen, Charlie's making origami roses. Half a dozen of them litter the surface of her desk. When he sticks his head around the door, she looks up and beams.

"Of course he can!" she says. "Pull up a chair, honey."

[hereand_now]

Even though he's having a hard time, even though he's frustrated with what he's trying to do, it's impossible not to brighten at the sight of her smile and the little girl with the blocks. Wolf beams back, biting his lower lip as he slinks into the room and sits awkwardly in a chair, scooting it closer to Charlie's desk.

"I really like your class," he says, both because it's honest and because it's polite. Slowly, Wolf is learning how to be polite, even if he doesn't do it all the time. "I sure do, right here and now! But..." Chewing on his lip, Wolf looks at Charlie and thinks she won't be mad at him, so he'll just say it. "Wolf doesn't know how to hold a pencil. I never had to do no writing back home."

[1000_cranes]

"Well, good, honey," she says, leaning forward on her elbows, a half finished flower on the desk in front of her. She leans her chin on her knuckles and listens to him.

"Well, we can deal with that," she says. "You want to know a secret? I never made a sculpture before I got here. I've been learning as I go."

[hereand_now]

"Really?" Wolf asks, surprised. She's so good at all the things she teaches in her classes that he's sort of thought she's always been doing them. There are things he's good at -- watching the cows, protecting the herd -- and he's been doing that his whole life.

"I like the flowers you're making," he adds, because they remind him of the little wolf Cassie made for him. "They're real pretty."

[1000_cranes]

"Really, truly. A friend of mine taught me how to make things out of paper but I never thought to do anythin' with it at all." She flashes him a little smile, almost shy. "How about I show you about pencils and then, maybe, I can teach you to make somethin'. Frogs? Frogs are cute."

[hereand_now]

"Okay," Wolf answers brightly, excited by that prospect. Maybe he can make something for all the nice people he's made. Even if they're all frogs, he'll be happy to have something to give them.

"I don't even know which hand to hold it in," he says, holding the pencil first in his right, then in his left, showing Charlie. "Both feel really weird, right here and now!"

[1000_cranes]

"Well, that's the first thing then," she says, reaching out to pluck another pencil from the pot, settling it in her right hand in a loose, comfortable grip. She draws a swirl on the paper in front of her. "We have to figure out what's comfortable before we can do anything else."

[hereand_now]

Wolf watches Charlie, then sets the pencil in his right hand again, like she's doing. It still feels weird and he frowns, reaching forward to try and draw something as well. He's trying to duplicate what she's doing, but his fingers feel big and clumsy, which is a first for Wolf.

"How do you know what feels right?" he asks, switching to his left again. It feels a little bit better, but he still isn't sure how to hold it.

[1000_cranes]

"You've just got to practice until it feels good, honey," she says. "Until it feels right." She draws another swirl and then she reaches out and, gently, corrects his grip and guides his hand.

"How's that?"

[hereand_now]

The pencil is still in his left hand and now that Charlie has corrected him, it does feel a little bit better. Not so strange. He smiles at her, practically beaming, and nods. "Feels better, right here and now!" he agrees, trying to hold the pencil on his own. It falls into the crook between his thumb and forefinger easier than before.

"That feels right," he says, nodding, looking pleased.

[1000_cranes]

"Good!" says Charlie, finding him a clean sheet of paper and sliding it across the desk. "Why don't you try drawin' somethin, hon? See how it goes."

[hereand_now]

"What should I draw?" Wolf asks shyly. The pencil still feels a little shaky in his hand, but he has to practice, he knows, especially if he's going to be able to do the class. He wants to do the class, he wants to be good at it, but he knows it won't be very easy.

[1000_cranes]

"How about," says Charlie, snagging herself another pencil from the pot, "a house?"

She sketches the outline of the house in the corner of the page. "How about that?"

[hereand_now]

Wolf watches while Charlie draws the house, trying his hardest to remember all the lines she makes before he tries it for himself. What results is a shaky imitation of what Charlie has done, but at least it's obviously a house and Wolf looks at her, beaming.

"It's not so bad!" he says happily.

[1000_cranes]

"It's not bad at all!" says Charlie, grinning, leaning back in her chair and watching him. "Now you've got to draw a tree."

[hereand_now]

Wolf knows how to draw a tree -- at least he thinks he does -- and so he leans forward again, drawing one of the trees he's used to seeing outside his window. It's still fairly rough, but he smiles happily.

"It's not so hard anymore," he says. "Thanks for showing me."