PART 4 – How I became a Wolf!

I began to sink again.  Then Alice asked, “What else do you love?”

            I pondered a moment or two, really wanting this answer to take us somewhere.  “Literature,” I exclaimed.  “I was an English major!”

             There had to be something here.  What richer vessel of names than the world of literature?  I sat up on the edge of my chair.  Alice stopped chewing.  The table got quiet.  Her nimble literature-rich mind began spinning.  She stared deeply into my brown eyes with her blue ones.  A few seconds passed, and then with her trademark calm authority said, “Virginia Woolf!  Woolf!  How about…… Marilyn Woolf?  Dogs, literature…..Woolf!”  Alice clapped her hands. She had hit her mark.

            All the women at the table smiled and nodded, turning to one another, and looking at me.            “Yes.  That’s a good name.  Marilyn Woolf.  How creative.  Yes, that’s a fine name.  Isn’t Alice clever?”  The approval of my friends rumbled in my ears as I stared at Alice.

Where less creative but equally generous spirits wanting to help may have come up with Hemingway or Shakespeare, Alice found Woolf in the library of her heart and gave me a beautifully simple gift.  My name dilemma had ended.  I loved the name immediately, but not for the reasons Alice thought.  In my dog-loving heart, I instantly knew I could be Marilyn Wolf, with only one “o.”  Now all I had to do was conjure up the courage to actually make the change.