The Wolf at Number 4. Ayo Tamakloe-Garr

      

      THE WOLF AT NUMBER 4

      Laura T. Murphy and Ainehi Edoro, Series Editors

      This series brings the best African writing to an international audience. These groundbreaking novels, memoirs, and other literary works showcase the most talented writers of the African continent. The series also features works of significant historical and literary value translated into English for the first time. Moderately priced, the books chosen for the series are well crafted, original, and ideally suited for African studies classes, world literature classes, or any reader looking for compelling voices of diverse African perspectives.

       Welcome to Our Hillbrow A Novel of Postapartheid South Africa

      Phaswane Mpe

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-1962-5

       Dog Eat Dog

      Niq Mhlongo

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-1994-6

       After Tears

      Niq Mhlongo

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-1984-7

       From Sleep Unbound

      Andrée Chedid

      ISBN: 978-0-8040-0837-2

       On Black Sisters Street

      Chika Unigwe

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-1992-2

       Paper Sons and Daughters Growing Up Chinese in South Africa

      Ufrieda Ho

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2020-1

       The Conscript A Novel of Libya’s Anticolonial War

      Gebreyesus Hailu

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2023-2

       Thirteen Cents

      K. Sello Duiker

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2036-2

       Sacred River

      Syl Cheney-Coker

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2056-0 (hardcover)

      978-0-8214-2137-6 (paperback)

       491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69

      Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2102-4 (hardcover)

      978-0-8214-2101-7 (paperback)

       The Hairdresser of Harare

      Tendai Huchu

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2162-8 (hardcover)

      978-0-8214-2163-5 (paperback)

       Mrs. Shaw

      Mukoma Wa Ngugi

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2143-7

       The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician

      Tendai Huchu

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2205-2 (hardcover)

      978-0-8214-2206-9 (paperback)

       Tales of the Metric System

      Imraan Coovadia

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2225-0 (hardcover)

      978-0-8214-2226-7 (paperback)

       The Extinction of Menai

      Chuma Nwokolo

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2298-4

       The Wolf at Number 4

      Ayo Tamakloe-Garr

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-2354-7 (hardcover)

      978-0-8214-2355-4 (paperback)

      The Wolf at Number 4

      A NOVEL

      Ayo Tamakloe-Garr

      Ohio University Press • Athens

      Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

       ohioswallow.com

      © 2018 by Ayo Tamakloe-Garr

      All rights reserved

      To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at [phone] or [phone] (fax).

      Printed in the United States of America

      Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ™

      28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 5 4 3 2 1

      Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.

      All rights reserved.

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Tamakloe-Garr, Ayo, 1992- author.

      Title: The wolf at number 4 : a novel / Ayo Tamakloe-Garr.

      Other titles: Wolf at number four

      Description: Athens : Ohio University Press, 2018. | Series: Modern african writing series

      Identifiers: LCCN 2018038480| ISBN 9780821423547 (hardback) | ISBN 9780821423554 (pb) | ISBN 9780821446584 (pdf)

      Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / General. | LITERARY COLLECTIONS / African.

      Classification: LCC PR9379.9.T36 W65 2018 | DDC 823/.92--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038480

       For T

       and

      For K.

       I appreciate it all. I really do

      prologue

      MAYBE ALL THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE MR. ADDISON tried to rape me. For a man old enough to be my father, he sure was strong.

      Mike would have slapped his palm against his forehead if he had found out. Then he would have hugged me or something, and then after, gone to break Mr. Addison’s jaw. Mike was wonderful like that. When I asked him what he saw in Hannah, he said she was “some woman.” Noticing my expression, he added, “You’ve always been more person to me.” Half an hour later he married Hannah in the suit I had bought for him.

      So maybe it was Hannah after all.

      A cold gust brings me out of my thoughts. I am cold and numb. My throat is dry and cries out for something warm and sweet and comforting. Uncle Johnny gave me my first taste of wine when I was fourteen. I remember that night so vividly.

      Maybe it was Uncle Johnny, rather.

      I bite back the tears welling up behind my eyes. Kind of the way Augustine had attempted to. Augustine had not been one of my best decisions. I hadn’t told Wolf this, but Augustine had sort of gone off the rails afterwards. I had not been good for Augustine.

      Wolf—maybe it was him.

      Or maybe his father or his mother?

      Or Nii?

      Or was it the cancer that took my father?

      Or the miscarriage?