Tell the Wolves I'm Home

June finds four cassette tapes in the bag Toby has given her. Each is a different version of Mozart’s “Requiem”; she recalls listening to each with Finn. She reads Toby’s note, in which he suggests they can learn new things about Finn from one another.

Two days later on Sunday morning, June’s father shares an article in the New York Post about a man who has been tried and subsequently sentenced to prison for knowingly transmitting AIDS to two people. Greta and her father feel that Toby deserves the same.

Later, June’s mother gives her and Greta each a key to a safety deposit box at the bank where the painting is stored, telling them they can view the painting any time they wish.

That night, June sends the newspaper article to Toby. Days later, he mails a note back, insisting that Finn’s situation was different.

June recalls a visit with Finn to the Cloisters, where he asked if she would pose for a portrait with Greta. June was reluctant but agreed to consider it.

June exits school one day to find Toby waiting for her. She is skeptical, but, knowing that there may be remnants of Finn in the car, she decides to go with him. Toby suggests they drive to Playland. He has brought another gift for June—a folder filled with sketches that Finn completed for the portrait. June looks through them, noticing in one that the negative space between her and Greta makes the shape of a wolf’s head.

At the amusement park, Toby leads June to a kiosk selling black-and-white photos stylized in various eras. Toby, having learned of June’s interest in history from Finn, suggests they take one together. When they each dress in a costume from a different era, the photographer protests, saying they must match. Toby argues with the woman at first but then changes to match June.

On the drive back, they agree to tell each other one story about Finn so that each of them will learn something new about him.

When June returns home, Greta is suspicious because of the makeup from the photo session, which June is still wearing. June imagines how Greta would react were she to tell her about Toby. She retreats to her room, where she studies the sketches until she falls asleep.

At the bus stop the next morning, Greta pesters June again about where she was the previous day, but June says nothing. After school, June goes to the bank to see the portrait. She is surprised when her eyes immediately go to the black buttons on her shirt. She takes her time, trying to find the outline of the wolf in the negative space, and is finally able to do so. Before she leaves, she notices the outline of a skull on Greta’s hand. Surprised she had not noticed it before, June suspects that Greta has visited the painting and drawn the skull.

One Saturday, June receives the Elizabethan photo in the mail from Toby. She studies it and realizes it looks inauthentic to have a photograph from a time when photography did not exist. The next day, June learns that Greta’s drama instructor has recommended Greta to fill in for a role in the musical Annie on Broadway. Their parents are overjoyed, but Greta shrugs it off, saying she likely won’t accept the role. Her mother is adamant that she should accept the opportunity before it is gone. In the end, Greta decides to take the role.

The family watches TV and eats popcorn one evening. When the news comes on, they watch a report about AIDS, which includes a story about a judge who held a court session outdoors due to fears of having a person with AIDS inside the courtroom. Then, they learn of the approval of the drug AZT, a treatment for AIDS that will be available to the public in six months.

On a day off from school, June takes the train into the city to meet Toby at the apartment. She is relieved to find it much the same but is shocked when she learns that many of the possessions she assumed were Finn’s actually belong to Toby. She is unaware that Toby had lived there with Finn for the past nine years.

Toby makes tea, and they attempt to play chess, though neither truly knows how to play. June heads to the bathroom at one point and sneaks into the bedroom. She lies on the bed, imagining Finn and Toby there.

They go out to a Chinese restaurant, where Toby orders a great deal of food. He folds a napkin into an origami butterfly and presents it to June. She refuses to take it, realizing this “trick” of Finn’s was actually one he learned from Toby. When June leaves, Toby suggests that he pick her up on a Thursday for their next visit.

On the train home, June recalls a time when she was 12 and stayed with Finn for four days when her parents were out of town. They ordered takeout every night and viewed Fourth of July fireworks. June recalls a comment Finn made about having British friends, and she realizes she could have learned about Toby in that moment.

She opens the gift from Finn that Toby has given her. It is an illustrated book about medievalism. June fears that no one will ever understand her like Finn did. She finds a note from him in the middle of the book, adjacent to an image of a painting of a sick man. The note is disjointed and frantic, asking June to take care of Toby and insisting he is a good person.

June tries to forget about the book, which she has hidden in her closet. At the grocery store, she runs into Ben, who asks her about Finn having AIDS, having seen the article displayed in the library.

One night, her parents arrive home late with pizza for dinner, but June feigns an illness and looks at the medieval book in her room. Later, she sneaks into Greta’s room and tries to ask her for advice about Toby, without revealing any details or context. Greta presumes that June is alluding to having sex with a boy and cautions her to be careful.

Greta has invited June to watch her practice with the dance choreographer. June watches from the green room, which is filled with other theater students. Ben is there and asks June if she would like to play Dungeons & Dragons, but she explains that she only came to watch Greta.

June’s mother drags her shopping at Macy’s in the city. On the train, her mother suggests lunch afterward at a restaurant they enjoyed going to with Finn. June protests. Her mother insists that June needs to move beyond Finn and make new memories. They talk about Toby, her mother explaining that she gave Finn a choice between seeing Toby and seeing June and Greta.

Back home, Greta gives June a few stretchy bracelets she bought with her clothing money. June tells their parents that she is going to help with the play, which pleases them. Later, she hides the bracelets in her closet with the things from Finn.

June sneaks out of her final class to visit Toby. As they sit opposite one another in the apartment, he asks about her interest in the Middle Ages. Their talk turns to AIDS, and Toby says that he was not responsible for Finn contracting the virus. Instead, this is a lie he and Finn agreed to tell June’s mother. June asks if Finn ever painted a portrait of Toby, and Toby replies by taking her to a secret room in the basement Finn called the annex. The room is decorated as a Victorian-era parlor, and Toby explains that he often retreated there while Finn painted June and Greta. He offers to show June all of Finn’s paintings, which are stored there, but June is not ready to see them.

As Toby walks her to the train station, it begins to rain. June suddenly asks him about the black buttons on the painting, and Toby confesses to having painted them himself, explaining that Finn insisted something was wrong with the final painting but couldn’t see well enough to paint anymore. June cries, and Toby hugs her.

Late that night, June calls Toby and tells him that the previous Finn story she told him is not actually true. She promises Toby a true one next time. After they hang up, June pricks her finger with a thumbtack. She presses the blood against Finn’s note in which he asks June to take care of Toby, sealing her promise to do so.