Hunted (Samantha p.o.v)
885 Words
Things were shaping up. The school,
again, wasn’t at all what she had been
expecting. It was virtually a one-room
shindig.She was to have 31 students ranging from kindergarten to high school. She had one teacher’s aide, a mother of one of the students.
The children were a mixture of the
logging, tourism trade, and the native
people that made up Warbly. She had
already met most of them and found them to be both respectful and delightful.
It was going to be a good year. She’d
made the right choice.
She turned off the Jeep’s ignition and
got out. Her accommodations were
better than expected at least and truly she felt herself blessed by the generosity of the small community.
She’d met practically almost everybody as in one way or another, they
had come hunting for her. Now more
than ever she felt the burden of not
letting them down in the tasks that she
had been assigned in regards to the
children, which she was learning
quickly, was the most important thing for these people.
Their children meant absolutely
everything to them. What a refreshing
change from the suburban environment
that she had come from, where children
were hustled off to day care centers and
babysitters and thought of as being a
burden for the most part.
No, Warbly was a refreshing change,
even if it was a bit of a boring one.
There was nothing to do! Nothing!!!.Most evenings she spent sipping coffee and reading. In her move here she’d made the decision to give up watching TV good thing too, because what channels were locally available here were enough to drive one nuts.
Closing the door of the house behind
her, she went in and sat down in her
favorite chair and watched the fading of
one more day’s sunlight from off the
land. When it was gone, she was left
altogether alone with her thoughts once
more.
Alone. She hated it.
There were a few young women in
town around her age, but she had nothing in common with them. Every timberjack for miles around had made a point to stop her and tell her his name.
Two had even made proposals. It had
actually been quite comical.
As a whole there were only too many
men who would like to be filling out her
evenings, but she didn’t want any of
them. Idly her fingers played with the
keys of the Jeep. She wanted him, and
only him, with a sigh, though she
reflected on the fact that he, unlike all
the other men avoided her as if she had
the plague.
His keeping distance with her had
nothing to do with lack of attraction of
that she did know. No, the more and
more she learned of the said, Stephen Haynes, the more she admired. And it
was in point of fact that his biggest
restraint, big mountain man that he was
all boiled down to the simple fact that he
was shy.
It was hard to believe a man that had
everything going for him like he had
could be shy towards a woman, but it
was the truth. In addition to being an
introvert, he was also deeply religious.
Every Sunday she saw his truck
parked at the lone church in town. That
was the only time he showed his face
around town.
Well, tomorrow she was going
hunting. She was going to church.
She hadn’t gone to a church since she’d been a girl in pigtails. Tomorrow
promised to have unwelcome
remembrances of the past, but she’d
come to the conclusion that being alone
in life was simply not for her.
Still, she’d rather be alone than ever
let herself fall into the narcissistic
clutches of another man like Michael. No, her former boyfriend had all but
destroyed her will and desire to live life
and she would never let that happen
again!
Stephen on the other hand, though
definitely was not Michael. Where Micheal had been loud, Stephen was quiet.
Where Micheal had used her body
because she was pretty enough to be with, Stephen had looked at her like he admired, respected and wanted her. The very thought of having a child to Micheal was as if someone had made a horrible joke.
Where Micheal had been superficially
macho, Stephen was primal male. What
Michael had thought himself to be and often stated as if it were so, Stephen already was in the hearts and minds of everyone that knew him.
He was a caring individual with a
good heart. In the past three weeks she’d
done all she could to learn about him.
By now it was definitely no secret in
the town as to her interest in Stephen and she found everyone for the most part only too willing to be ready sources of information. Whether it was how Stephen has loaned them money and hadn’t even charged them interest, split firewood when their arm had been broken, pulled them out of a ditch in a snowstorm, helped them build a house, unpaid of course, to on and on and on.
From the appearance of things Stephen
was someone who was always doing for
others. He employed half the loggers in
town and he paid them well too.
- Writer
