Paul’s Pursuit

Prologue-2

Twenty-one years before:

“What is this?” Paul asked quietly, kneeling down along the narrow animal trail.

A small bundle of long curls fell forward almost touching the ground as the tiny figure next to him squatted down. Small fingers reached out and barely touched the soft imprint in the moist soil. Trisha focused on the shape, picturing in her mind all the different animals that lived in the region and what their footprints looked like. She curled her hand around the small bow her dad had made for her before she looked up and around her with dark, serious eyes.

“Mountain lion,” she whispered with wide eyes. “It is an old one from the size of the print. Do you think it is close?”

“You tell me,” Paul asked quietly smiling down proudly into her intense face. “How old do you think the track is?”

Trisha looked down at the track again before her eyes moved to the next one. “Not old. See how the leaves are pressed down into the print? It is still damp and firm. Maybe this morning,” she murmured.

“Good job, baby girl,” Paul said standing. “We need to get back to camp. Ariel and Carmen are going to camp out with us tonight.”

Trisha grinned excitedly up at her dad. “Is their daddy coming too?”

Paul laughed as he swung the large pack up onto his shoulder. “Yes. Their mom has gone to visit her sister so he figured it would be a nice break for the girls from his cooking.”

Trisha laughed as she skipped down the narrow animal trail. “Will we still get to talk to mommy tonight?”

Paul’s chest tightened at the innocent delight. Every night they would lie outside when the weather permitted and look up at the brilliant stars in the sky. And each night, he would pick a different one where his beautiful Evelyn would be looking down on them. He thanked her each and every night for giving him the precious gift that was skipping in front of him. It was only when he was out in the wilds with his baby girl or lying under the stars talking to his beautiful wife that he felt a sense of peace. His eyes drifted up to the clear, blue skies. He wondered if he would always feel that nagging feeling that there was someone else out there for him. He had searched but none of the women he had met so far calmed the restlessness in his soul.

His eyes jerked down suddenly as his ears picked up the changes in the forest. Trisha recognized the changes at the same time, her little body freezing into perfect stillness. The hair on the back of Paul’s neck stood up in warning.

“Trisha, come to me, baby girl,” he said quietly.

Trisha immediately stepped backwards, scanning the forest for whatever had caused both of them to realize that danger was near. Paul raised his rifle to his shoulder and widened his stance so that whatever came at them would have to go through him first.

“Trisha, get in the trees now,” he hissed out quietly. “Don’t come down until I tell you.”

He listened as Trisha scrambled over to a low tree branch and started climbing. He didn’t turn around to watch her. He let his ears guide him in knowing when his precious daughter was safe.

Out of the woods to his left, he heard a crack before the old mountain lion burst out in a rush of speed at him. Paul held his stance until he knew he had a clear shot. He held himself motionless, waiting. If he missed, it could leave the animal wounded, making it even more dangerous. He took his shot as it leaped. The force of the blast cut through the mountain lion’s heart, knocking it to the side where it rolled and disappeared into the high ferns covering the forest floor. Paul pulled the bolt back, releasing the spent shell and loaded another shell into the chamber with a calm efficiency built from years of training.

“Daddy,” Trisha whispered. “I can see it. It is the mountain lion. It’s not moving.”

“Stay there, baby girl. I need to make sure it is dead,” Paul said, walking slowly forward.

Paul moved through the ferns until he was next to the mountain lion. It had been a clean kill. It was unusual for one to be this far down the mountain. He knelt down next to the huge, old cat and did a quick inventory of it. It was very thin. He pulled back its upper lip and saw that its teeth were in bad shape. He looked down at its paws and could see the left back paw had a deep cut that was infected.

“It is time to seek the next life, old friend,” Paul said quietly as he rested his palm on the head of the old cat for a moment. “May the Earth take your body and keep it to nurture others.”

Paul stood and walked back to the tree where Trisha was standing on a limb watching him. “Come on down, baby girl. There is nothing we can do for him.”

He kept his eyes glued on Trisha as she climbed down, reaching up and swinging her down when she was close enough. He smiled down as the wild curls swirled around her as she clung to him for a moment. He was going to have a time brushing out the knots tonight.

He looked up one last time at the clear blue sky and thanked his beautiful wife for looking out for them. His heart lightened as if he could feel her smiling down on them.

One day, he thought, one day I am going to find the one woman who can fill my heart the way you did.