1870 – 1890
The Howletts, Elizabeth and John had two sons; John Jr. and James. Their first son, John Jr., was afflicted with allergies during the day and age that it was difficult to overcome them. The second born, James, was a runt and like his older brother he was also afflicted with allergies. This ailment would eventually take Junior away from the family and rendered James unable to leave his bedroom for large periods of time each year. The loss of their first born and the likelihood of losing their second, would send Elizabeth in to a deep depression.
Fearing that the loss of their second child would potentially destroy his wife completely, John began to do anything he could to improve his son’s quality of life. Along with the best doctors that money could pay for, he also paid for the Valley State Hospital to send the boy a playmate. The following spring a girl named Rose arrived on the farm. She would quickly befriend James. Through this friendship James began to show marked improvement and was able to get out of the house some. Slowly at first, venturing out during low allergy seasons. Leading them to meet a boy, “Dog.” Dog was a young man who lived on the estate with his father the estate’s foreman; Thomas Logan. At first Dog was his second real friend. Dog was quick to take the boy that he began to call ‘Frail’ under his wing. Dog took James further out of his safety zone and taught him to hunt and fish. He taught him about girls and through Dog’s guidance, James began to recognize that he had feelings for Rose.
Now Thomas Logan was nothing like the the man who would eventually be known as Logan. He was an old man, set in his way, his mind poisoned from too much booze and a hard life. Thomas had raised his son alone after his wife died to scarlet fever. His son was a constant reminder of his loss and so as he would drink; he was oft to lash out. He took to naming the boy ‘Dog,’ because that is how he treated him and truthfully it was also how the boy would ask.
Thomas resented the Howletts. Specifically James’ father. He hated him particularly because he had the one thing that Thomas always wanted; James’ mother. More to the point, Thomas had actually possessed young James’ mother, but only once. So he desired to do so again. His hatred was such that he once beat Dog to near death for accepting a present from the Christmas Howletts, dreaming it to be charity.
Eventually this resentment drove Thomas and Dog to go rabid, in his attempt take James’ mother away with him. Killing James father in cold blood before his very eyes. Driving young James very near insane with the feral. It would be his first kill when the claws popped from between knuckles, that pain added to his mental anguish. James would strike down Thomas, and scar Dog for Life, before Rose and his mother calmed him. The trauma only begun there, as his mother condemned the boy as a freak. Banishing him from the home, with Rose, before she took her own life.
James’ grandfather would find out of this strange goings on, but the tale would come from the distorted version told by the lone survivor; Dog. Still because of James being ‘Blood’ his grandfather gave James and Logan some money and clothing. Enough to send them on their way, away from Alberta for ever.
Rose would realize that the deep trauma of that night caused several new things to arise in her young friend James. He was healing right before her eyes, his allergies seemed to have disappeared, and he was growing very hard, cold, withdrawn. Perhaps the worst of the reactions was his seeming loss of all memory about what had happened in Alberta.