All Body, No Soul

Just the way he was born by no fault of anyone except maybe the people who ran the old paint factory up the river all those years and years ago. Might coulda been they had something to do with it. Might coulda been they had something to do with every dummy in this county. I hadn't seen Sheldon since I went away to college. I flunked out, unfortunately, so I came back home to beautiful Montana and started bartending in my hometown.

I learned to bartend during the few months I spent at college where it was something of a dream job. Free drinks when the owner wasn't looking, the conveyor belt of flirty girls, the late nights, the music, the energy of all those excited bodies. That all kept me feeling alive during those otherwise depressing months. It's not quite the same here at the day's end in Woodall, Montana.

The nights are late, yes. The drinks are free if you enjoy beer that tastes a bit watered down. The women here flirt, but they've lost some game over the decades, you know. The music I'm forced to play is

and he didn't tip much, so I didn't stand to gain much by entertaining him. But besides watching black and white movies on mute on the little T V behind the bar, I really didn't have anything better to do than listen to him.

One night, Sheldon started talking about this wolf. It started when a few of the stray cats he kept around by feeding'em went missing. One by one he noticed them disappearing. At first, you know, he thought they might have moved on to another ranch or gotten hit by a truck or something. He'd inherited the ranch from his daddy, who actually ran it well and was, in my opinion, one of the sharpest men in this county. His mama taught at the high school, so I know she wasn't no dummy neither.

Made a lot of us think Sheldon's stupidity came mostly by choice rather than circumstance, but I If he knew anything about running the ranch, he didn't show it. Anyway, when the third or fourth cat went missing, he started to suspect there might be a predator lurking in the woods to the north of his land. Montana's still got a lot of wild country, all kinds of big stuff wanders through. Around here we gotta be careful about bears and mountain lions and like in Sheldon's case, Wolves.

He came in all excited one night rambling about this big old wolf he spotted in the headlights on his way to the bar. He claimed it looked big enough to chomp his head clean off, which would be impressive based on what I've already told you about his head. Now everyone knew Shelton tended to exaggerate things when it came to the sizes of different animals. If he caught a three pound bass, he'd say it was five. Or he'd see a decent sized buck and he'd say it was an elk.

Nobody could ever prove he was lying since he never showed us any photos or nothing. But it's just one of those things everybody knew about him. Sheldon liked to exaggerate. The more he talked about that wolf, the more myself and others teased him about it. We kept trying to get him to bring in a photo or video to prove the gigantic lone wolf he claimed to keep seeing was really stalking his property. It wouldn't have been hard to set up a few trail cams here and there.

Some of the guys at Day's End even offered to lend him a few. I guess that's why we didn't believe him. We gave him every chance to help us believe, but he refused em all. Then his claims got even more wild. Let's see if you would have believed him. What would you think if somebody told you they'd started taming a wild wolf? And a lone wolf, no less.

In case you don't know, wolves are pack animals. Not saying it's never happened, but still, what are the odds a loner'd be lurking around this area and also be docile enough to come up to somebody's house for a hot dog? That's what Sheldon told us happened. He said he saw the wolf crouched at the edge of the trees when he got out of his truck after he got home one afternoon. He tried shooing it away, but the darn thing just stared at him.

He said something some look in its eyes made him feel like it wasn't a threat to him. He said it looked like it wanted a friend. Yeah, I know. So he put a hot dog on his back porch and stood behind the glass with his porch light on, and all dark inside, so the wolf wouldn't be able to see him standing on the other side. Truth be told, that sounded pretty smart for Sheldon. He said it took a while but eventually the wolf crept out of the woods.

All he probably had to do was flip on the light above him, and the thing would have scurried off. But instead, he went to the fridge, slipped out another hot dog, and went back to the door. The wolf was sitting right outside like it understood the glass could open. Sheldon said it sat like a dog. He started thinking maybe it was somebody's pet they got loose.

It's not unheard of, folks keeping wolves as pets, treating them like dogs. Back then, standing behind the bar and listening to his story, I did credit Sheldon with that idea, but not anymore. No way. One look at that thing should have told him it was no wolf, pet or otherwise.

I won't force you to hear every detail about the next few days Sheldon told me about, but long story short, he kept putting food out and sometimes feeding the wolf out of his hand like he did with that second hot dog. I forgot to mention that. He said it took the Hot dog right out of his hand and stayed so calm he wanted to let it in his house, see if it wanted a warm place to sleep that night.

So Sheldon could tell I didn't believe a word of his story while he told it to me, and he said, Listen, man, you don't believe me? Follow me home when you get off work. I got that wolf living in my barn right now. When I laughed at him, he said, Swear to God, if you come over, I'll let it in the house. That's how much he believed that wolf was domesticated, and me, maybe not being so smart myself, I decided to call his bluff.

I told him I'd be off at eleven and he could show me this wolf, if it was real. Sheldon got laughed away by a few other regulars while he waited for my shift to end. I won't lie, I kept the bar open a little longer than usual just to see if he'd get up and leave. It's not that I was scared he might actually have the wolf trapped in his barn. I just didn't want to give him the last bit of my night before I turned in. I'd have rather watched a show or something.

By eleven thirty I had to kick out the last couple of guys who'd taken advantage of my reluctance to close. I had the place cleaned up and closed out by eleven forty five, and Sheldon was waiting by the door, swinging his truck keys on his finger. I followed him out to his dad's ranch, which was really his, but it felt dishonest to call it that. He didn't have any lights on. I remember that distinctly.

I would have driven right past without seeing his house or the barn if he hadn't been leading me, even though he never used his turn signal once.

I don't really remember getting out of my truck, but I guess I did, because that's what you do once you've arrived somewhere. You get out and you join up with whoever's there with you. I thought Sheldon was gonna break out and dance, he looked so excited. He must have seen the shock in my face. What he didn't know is I didn't look like that because I was surprised he'd really domesticated a lone wolf, but because of how the howling sounded.

Once I got out of my truck, it was obvious the creature making that awful sound didn't sound like any wolf I'd ever heard howling out in the woods.

Just one each day, he said. Nothing too crazy. I asked him what he'd do when he ran out of cats, and he just shrugged. Those bones were picked clean. I knew whatever he was about to show me must be one hungry animal.

He shoved open one of the barn doors and slipped through. It was so dark, I couldn't see him once he went inside. It was like he vanished, but he was just a couple feet away from me. At least the howling stopped. He told me to come through and I asked him if he had a light to turn on or anything. He said, One second, and I heard some bumpin' around. Then I heard a click and a flashlight came on. Sheldon shined it right in my eyes, I guess showing me he had it.

It took a second for me to be able to see again, but once I could, I followed him into the barn. Into the dark.

There were these stalls to our right, all empty, except for some old flattened hay and the occasional bucket or broom. Maybe some rope. Above us I could see the stars poking through holes in the roof. Seemed like it should have been brighter in there, with all those holes in the roof, but like I said, it was pitch black everywhere except where Sheldon pointed that flashlight.

I didn't like how there were lofts on either side of the barn as well. Anyone or anything could have jumped down on us without us knowing until it was on us.

Then I wondered, what if that's exactly what he's doing? What if he knows he's out of cats and plotted to bring me out here in the middle of the night to beat dinner? Unfortunately it was too late to back away. First of all, Sheldon had the flashlight and I couldn't see any way out of the dark. I guess he must have closed the door behind me and I was too focused on what lay ahead to notice.

Second, we'd reached the last stall. It had been built for a horse and had metal bars running up from the floor, taking a short break where the horse could stick its head through, then continuing up to the ceiling. Sheldon took a few extra steps to make room for me in front of the cage, room I refused to fill in, and said Hey, boy The panting stopped. He looked at me and said, What, you afraid of being proved wrong? And I said, That's not what I'm afraid of which made him laugh pretty hard.

Barns are strange, how they seem to swallow sound. All the damp wood and straw, I suppose. The effect somehow made his laugh sound more forced, more I don't know, nervous. Like he might be afraid too. A flash of black slammed into the metal bars, then vanished again behind the stall. Sheldon used a soothing voice, but I heard the thing start growling. It really didn't like me there. That much was obvious.

I told Sheldon I didn't think I should be there, but he said, Then hurry up and get over here so you can see it and go. I realized I could see scratch marks on the stall's wall, three deep parallel lines. Sheldon must have noticed them too, and they must have been new, because he said, Oh boy, have you been trying to get out? That ain't like you. He turned to me and said, Guess this is the longest I ever left him alone. The wolf's paw edged toward the bars. That's the first glimpse of it I got.

I was picturing grey, but tangled black fur curled over its clawed toes. It spread kinda funny, too, the paw. Those toes really looked more like fingers. Sawdust coated the fur, telling me this paw was responsible for those slashes in the wall. I wanted to run. I just wanted to spin around and bolt for the door, but remember, I couldn't see it. It was like somebody pumped the barn full of darkness with a fog machine.

I told Sheldon I believed him and I wanted to go, but he got this determined look in his eyes. And he told me, I swore I'd let it in the house. I ain't proved nothin' yet but that I caught the damn thing. I told him he didn't have anything left to prove. I said I'd tell everybody at day's end that Sheldon Simmons had done the impossible and tamed the rare lone wolf.

but that look froze in his eyes. He flipped a latch on the edge of the stall and stepped back to let the barred door swing open. I stepped out of the light as that creature crept into it. It kept its head low in a way I think Sheldon interpreted as submission, but I took as predatory. Maybe that's because of the way its eyes found me and zeroed in.

They looked too far apart, its eyes, I've only seen a couple of wolves in person, but I seen enough pictures to know the whole face on this one was off. The eyes were the most obvious thing, spread more to the sides of its head rather than being in front like they were supposed to. But its nose looked short, too. Honestly, the whole head kind of looked like a five-year-old's drawing of a wolf. hair too long, legs or arms,'cause that's what they all looked like, also too long.

and it really did look uncomfortable on all fours. When it turned towards me. For a second, it did rear up on its hind legs. Just for a second. But that's all it took for me to see all the proportions line up a whole lot better. That thing was not a wolf, friends. I don't know what the hell it was, but it was not. That's for sure. I spun around what I thought was halfway in a circle and took off running.

I'd look back to make sure my feet weren't about to be snapped up and just see Sheldon and that thing circled in light, slowly walking away from the cage. It looked to me like Sheldon hadn't tamed that wolf, but the other way around. It led. He followed. shining the lights straight down, so just about everything was pitch black except the stars above, which I could see through the holes in the roof. The darkness, I'm realizing as I look back, encircled us, but it didn't fill the whole barn.

It was like a different kind of cage, I suppose. I kept bumping into stuff, getting slowed down, and letting Sheldon and his mangy pet get closer.

Next thing I knew, light flooded into the barn. It came through the front door, which Sheldon had just opened and walked his pet through. He asked me, You coming? Like I was holding him back from something important. He turned to follow the wolf, without waiting for my answer. I left the barn and walked as far as our trucks, but that's where I let him go. I yelled goodbye, but Sheldon didn't so much as look at me.

The creature did though. It showed me only its stained back teeth. Maybe it was the shadows from the flashlight, but I thought it looked like it was smiling. I watched them go up to the house through my windshield, but left before they went inside. I felt like something bad was gonna happen. Something real bad. I just wanted to get out of there.

Not like I could have done much to save him anyway. So what happened to Sheldon Simmons? Depends who you ask. Some say nothing. They see him almost every day making his way into town to sit alone on a stool at the day's end. Others, including me, don't think what we see sitting in that stool is Sheldon anymore. I'm not sure what you'd call the opposite of a ghost, but that's what Sheldon's become. All body, no soul. The man's gone. The question is

Where'd you go? I'm not too keen to learn the answer. Do I feel guilty? No. Sheldon was a fully independent adult who made his own choices. But a question's been tugging at my brain lately. I'm telling you that thing barely tried to look like a wolf. Maybe that's the best it could do, or maybe it knew that's all it needed to do to fool Sheldon. What I want to know is, what am I dumb enough to get tricked by? What's it take to fool me?

I followed a drunk guy out to his ranch in the middle of the night, so maybe And this is what scares me. Maybe it wouldn't take too much. You made it out. Congratulations. If you enjoyed the story, please rate, like, review, or subscribe. For early ad-free episodes and behind the scenes episodes called Into the Woods, become a patron at patreon.com slash The Warning Woods. You can also support the show by purchasing merch. The merch store and Patreon links are in this episode's description.

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