A Simple Life Ch. 01-10

I scramble as quietly as I could to where I had my scuffed up old DSLR camera already waiting on a tripod. I take the cap off of the brand new telephoto lens that had cost me an entire month's pay. I adjust the settings for exposure, shutter speed, and depth of field then swiftly look through the branches in the direction I had heard it. My eyes dart about the foliage looking for any sign of telltale color or movement. In the brief silence there is a sudden flutter and streak of baby blue. I gasp despite myself as I spot him land to perch proudly at the very tip of the branch of a Sitka Spruce. The branch hung out over the very gap in the canopy through which I was able enjoy such amazing vistas of my hometown. The steady distance, the warm light, the regal posing, with Haven Point positioned as a backdrop...it was PERFECT!

As the striking Mountain Bluebird obliviously goes about his business the snapping clicks of my shutter comes in furious rapid fire bursts. Moment like these did not last long and I had to make the most of it. My right finger feathering the shutter button, my right thumb zipping through various settings, and my left hand twisting this way and that on the lens I milk all that I could from the scant seconds this beautiful avian graces me with. Less than a minute later he flits off to disappear into the dense old forest.

I spring to my feet and leap into the air, my fist pumping with joy. "YES!" I cheer. "Yes! I got it." I call out into the woods. "Thank you!"

For the next few minutes I pace around my camp looking through my shots and bursting at the seams with joyful energy. These were some of my best photos ever. I could not wait to show grandpa what I'd gotten. Knowing that it wasn't going to get any better than this today I decide to head for home early. Besides, I had some hungry mouths waiting on me. I roll up my little pup tent and pack away my gear into my backpack and the saddlebags of my banged up old dirt bike. I was saving up for a new one but that lens had set me back a good ways, not that I was complaining!

Looking back to the overhanging branch I nod to myself. "This is my lucky day."

***

Chapter 2

I rip down the slope via the winding trails and back roads that criss-crossed the area and before long I find myself back on the single highway that mostly ringed the island, the steep slopes of the north and northeast made a fully connected loop impossible. On my rattling Honda I had to open it right up to attain anything approaching highway speed. The road was predictably quiet with just a research van from the college out of town and a couple of folk from the villages heading into Haven Point for work or shopping. I slow as I approach the T-intersection of where the island highway met the road out onto the Haven Point peninsula. The closer I get the slower I get until at last I kill the engine to coast up the dirt and gravel entrance of the abandoned boarded up garage that overlooked the junction. I didn't want to scare anyone.

I glide to a stop along the south side of the main building and park my bike. Removing my helmet I leave it hanging on the handlebars and head around to the rear of the building. In behind was a large asphalt pad that had seen better days. Weeds and thistles grew up through the spider webbing cracks and entire chunks had come loose at the edges. A row of rusted junkers lined back and beyond the lot itself was tall grass and shrubs under the shadow of the looming forest that surrounded the property on three sides.

"Hello?" I call out as I set my backpack down on concrete step of the garage's back door.

Almost instantly two tabby ears pop up over the grass and a pair of green eyes lock onto me. A moment later out trots a sleek brown and black feline followed close behind by a quartet of similarly striped kittens. A few seconds after that comes the tiny bumbling orange one.

"Hey Mama. Hey babies." I say as I sit down and dig the three cans of cat food I'd brought along from my pack. "Let's see what's on the menu today. Chicken and liver, salmon and liver, and...beef and liver." I giggle. "I sure hope you guys like liver." All six of them are purring and rubbing against my legs as I spoon out six little mounds of squish, Mama getting a bit more than the rest. The small orange one's pile I have to protect from the others to ensure he got his share. I tickle at his fuzzy orange back with my fingertips as I whisper. "I'm glad to see you again." Mama had already lost one of her litter, the other orange one she'd had, and I worried that this little apricot sweetie would be the next to go.

Fishing out my own breakfast I open the granola bar and much away with the rest of them. Excitedly I tell them about my morning and my wonderful minute with the beautiful bluebird. I explain to them at length on just how perfect the warm morning light was, lighting up my subject from directly behind me, and how incredible it was to see the details that I could catch with my expensive new lens. I then show them my pictures with no small amount of pride. "There he is. In all his glory." I scratch Mama behind an ear and chuckle. "Please don't make supper out him. He was a very nice fellow. And I hope he lets me shoot him again." One of the kittens bumps my hand and chaws at my pinkie. I giggle and rustle it's tiny head. "You want a picture too, huh?"

I put on a close angle lens and snap a few pics for the family as they play and wrestle. The final one I include myself with them, holding the camera high above my head to shoot down to catch the kitties on the ground around me. I look at the last photo and see a happy man staring back at me. My big blue eye's glimmered with the photographer's high that I was still coming down from and that bright smile that I got so many compliments on was actually a genuine one this time. If my dirty blonde hair hadn't have looked so greasy from camping and having my helmet on I might have kept it. As it was it is trashed without a second thought.

I show the litter the photos I'd taken of them and I think they liked them. Looking around at the happy bundles of fur all around me I smile and say softly. "I love you all."

Just then Mama's head snaps up and she looks off toward the road. Without a noise she turns and makes for the cover the nearest grassy border at a swift trot. Sensing danger and with the food all gobbled up anyway her children hurry along behind her, the orange one straggling as usual. I was confused for a moment, until I hear the deep rumble of an engine and the crackle of gravel under tire followed by a Willy Nelson twang coming from a radio. I scramble to hide the empty cans and get ready to go. It was probably just some berry pickers but I wasn't really one to wait around for chit-chat.

I keep my head down and cinch up my pack as a dusty brown pick up comes to a stop just beyond the building, it's box was piled high and strapped securely down. A bright orange tarp covered the load. I shoulder my pack and make for my bike, doing what I can to avoid eye contact. When I spot the rifle and shotgun held in a back window gun rack of the vehicle my pace picks up. The driver steps out and the door slams.

"Hey. You're on my property white boy." Comes a woman's stern voice, not unfriendly just...stern. There was something in the deep, rich tone and firm confidence that was...very...very...familiar. Despite myself I stop. "Just so ya know. God damn this place is in rough..." Her words catch a moment before she squeals. "Oh my God! Kittens!!! Ha ha ha!"

That voice! That laugh! No. It couldn't be. She left over a year ago. Outsiders never come back to the island once they leave. It couldn't be her. It just couldn't be. My eyes needing to confirm what my ears already knew I raise my gaze to look at this ghost of my past. The moment I see spot those familiar black rimmed glasses and vibrant hazel eyes the truth hits me like a bullet from one of those guns. Winona!

Despite her dating my friend Kayla in the weeks following that humiliating night I had managed to avoid Winona like the plague. Until now. When I had arrived at that ill-fated game those years ago Winona had already been there in her seat, and she had remained seated the whole time I was there. Seeing her now it strikes me how tall she was! At nearly six foot she stood at least six inches taller than me. She had let her long, ruler straight, shiny black hair continue to grow so that it now hung down to touch her butt. She was neither small breasted nor particularly busty but I saw now that her sitting during our first meeting had also hidden from me a full, plump behind. She had on baggy denim overalls, thick soled work boots, and a snug white t shirt through the thin fabric of which I could just make out a blue sports bra. Hardly the height of fashion and a heck of a lot different from the nicely dressed lady I encountered two years ago. Yet despite this, and despite the gnawing dread growing in my gut, I had to admit that she was every bit as beautiful as I remembered her. It was such a shame that a soul so cruel could be wrapped in a facade so lovely.

"Ha ha ha!" She laughs and points at the retreating cat family. "Look at the runt! Look at it! Ha ha ha ha! Oh my God! The place might be a dump...but I already love it!"

She glances my way for an instant, then does a double take. She cocks her head as her smile fades. "Do I know you?"

I shake my head no and turn to go.

"Hold on."

I freeze, rooted to the spot despite my mind screaming at me to RUN. Praying with all of my heart to a God that I didn't even believe in that she wouldn't remember me I turn back to face her.

She pushes her glasses higher up her nose and her eyes narrow as she studies me closely. My heart sinks as her eyes widen again with a twinkle of recognition. "Sprout?"

***

Chapter 3

"It is you!" She marches toward me, her arms out wide. I back up a step but find myself up against the wall of the building. "Holy shit. Avery." She says, stopping just a couple of feet away and effectively cornering me. I actually have to tilt my head upward to look at her face to face. At a shrimpy 5 foot 4 I was used to this of course, just usually not with women. "Small island, eh. Hello!"

"Um...hi." I say with as much confidence as I could muster. I swallow hard. "I-I should get to..."

"I like your bike Sprout. There must be all kinds of trails around here, eh?" She says in an upbeat tone. "I saw a tent pokin out of your bags. Were you camping out here?"

"N-no. I mean, yes." I take a deep breath and start again. "Not here I mean. I w-was...taking p-pictures..." I swallow. "...of birds."

"A shutterbug, huh? That is so cool."

"It is?"

"Hell yeah." She says. "Get any good ones?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Sweet. You'll have to show me your stuff sometime." Why was she acting like we were friends? "And how's Kayla?" She asks. "I haven't talked to her much since I left."

"Um...good."

"Can't wait to see her again." She places her hands on her hips and smiles. "The group still talks about you ya know. We still play online sometimes." Shaking her head she chuckles. "You might have only been there for half a game but you certainly left an impression. Ha!"

"Yeah." I say as I feel my chest tighten. As if my humiliation in the moment wasn't enough now I learn that I was a running joke to these people. Assholes! All of them. I glance to the corner of the building, considering just making a break for it, but I had to say something. I glare back at the towering bully and screw my courage up to tell her off. Before I can say anything though she speaks first.

"Did you stick with it? The game? Got a local group? If ya need a player..."

"N-no." I shake my head. "I don't play."

"I guess not." She says, her tone softening. "Hey. I just wanted to apologize for that night. We all do. We did a piss poor job of explaining things to you and we could have done a way better job making you feel welcome. We weren't laughing at you, it was just the situation, ya know? I tried to tell you back then but I could never find you. And Kayla was no help." She looks me square in the eyes. "I am sorry Avery."

"Uh..."

She claps my shoulder. Stepping back she looks off toward grass. "So are those your cats or something?"

"Um, no." I say, still reeling from the apology. Was it genuine? Did she just say it so this wouldn't be so awkward? Was she messing with me? Did she want something? For two years I had built up this character in my mind of a sly bully. For two years I had heard the groups mocking laughter echoing in my memory. Was this apology just to get me to put my guard down so that she could set me up for something else? Or...was it possible that I misread what had happened. The therapist had mentioned to me that I had a pattern of too hastily cutting people out of my life if I felt like my pride had been hurt. Was this one of those times? How could I know? "Th-They're wild kitties."

"It looked like you got close to them?"

"Um, yeah." I say. "They're used to me. I come out here. I...I b-bring them food sometimes."

"Aw." She grins. "That's sweet." Her eyes begin to pan around to inspect the building, the line of half salvaged vehicles, and just the lot in general. "Now that I'm livin here I can take over doing that."

"What? You're living here?" I whisper as my heart quietly breaks.

"Yep!" She says. "Ever since we had to leave we've been trying to get back here. We all loved this place. Quiet, safe, clean. A slice of paradise." Pulling keys from a deep pocket of her overalls she nods toward the building. "And this little gem was our ticket in."

"Oh?"

"Thanks to a shrewd bit of negotiating between our Rez and the Ehkolie council we got to slide around all the state level nonsense." She knocks on the sun faded plywood covering a window as she approaches the back door. "My Dad HATES the Federal government, but it sure did us a solid this time. This island is locked up tighter than a vault!"

She wasn't kidding. Thanks to the island's weird history we had ended up as a quasi-independent territory of the United States. At one point near the turn of the 20th Century the island had been simultaneous claimed by America, Canada, Mexico, and even France while at the same time both Washington and Oregon bickered over which state we would belong to once we were brought into the fold. All the while the independent minded and deeply religious locals wanted nothing to do with any of them. In the end a multi-lateral treaty was reached whereby we would be generally overseen by the American federal government until the residents of the island themselves decided which way to go. In their short-sightedness none of the parties bothered to include a deadline by which the decision had to be made. It was that oversight that had allowed us to enjoy our unique status to this day. Every year for well over a century on the first of September the people of Ehkolie Island took great pride in marching down to the Assembly building to vote for our own independence. A whole festival had grown up around it. And because we weren't officially a state it complicated all sorts of inter-state stuff as well. For good and for bad we were in America but not of America. Just getting onto the island if you weren't a student or tourist was tricky enough, but if her family was actually buying property that means they'd been granted resident status. Which means...she was here to stay.

Grabbing the padlock that secured the back door Winona starts looking through her ring of keys. "Let's hope it looks better on the inside, huh?"

"Uh, yeah." I say, still standing in the same spot that she'd left me.

I try to concentrate but I was still dealing with the loss of my cat family. It was the strangest feeling. On the one hand I was happy that they would have someone here for them full time. But on the other hand...it hurt not to be needed anymore. And I was already mourning the loss. Mama had been a secret friend, someone that I could come talk to and hang out with when things got to be too much in town. With people here...I'm not sure I'd have the courage to come see her anymore. Her or her kittens.

"Um...they...they like c-canned food." I stutter.

"Huh?" She looks over at me. "Oh, the cats you mean."

"Yeah." I nod. "And they...they like to sleep in the old cars. You should be c-careful when-when starting...cars out h-h-here."

"Avery, calm down. It's cool. I'll be careful, okay?"

I take a huge, gulping breath and let it out in a gasp. "And...you have to watch the orange one. The others will eat his food if you let them."

She glances back over her shoulder to the forested slope. "It's survival of the fittest for feral cats. He might not be suited to live wild."

"What?"

"If he can't make it on his own, well..." She shrugs. "...I guess we'll see."

"No!" I hurry up to her. "Please. I-I'll come out and feed him. If it's too much bother for you. You can't let him d-d-die!"

Winona pauses, looking at me in that way that so many people did when I would try to make my thoughts known. She thought I was weird...just like the rest of the island. Reaching out she places her hand on my shoulder. "I meant that we'll see if I have to take him in or not." She says with surprising warmth. "I'm not going to let him croak Avery. I love cats."

"Oh." I say, feeling awfully embarrassed by my outburst. "Um, good. Sorry."

"You're really worried about them, aren't you?"

"Yeah." I look down to my feet and add quietly. "They're my friends."

I await the laughter or scoffing that such honesty always invited. What I get instead...is understanding.

"That is awesome." She says as she unlocks the padlock. "Well I'll keep an eye on them for you, okay? I promise. And feel free to swing by and visit them anytime."

The tension in my chest begins to ease. "Thank you...Winona."

"You can call me Winnie if you like." She says, pulling the lock from the door to slip it into her pocket. Reaching out she cautiously pushes the creaky door open, her hazel eyes wide with anticipation. "I feel like I'm Lady Ara going into a dungeon. Hee hee!" She looks at me from the corner of her eye and motions in. "Come on Sprout. Let's check it out."

"I...I should r-really get..." I mumble as Winona steps into the building. "...going."

It falls silent as I am left alone behind the old garage. I look to my right where my bike waited just around the corner to whisk me away from here. I look to my left and the open door where Winona had just beckoned me to follow her. On my left shoulder I could hear the raspy voice of my grandpa telling me to take a chance. To show some faith in someone and put myself out there. On my right shoulder I hear the cruel chortling of my brothers daring me to go make a fool of myself like I always did so they could laugh at my inevitable misfortune. Should I run and stay safe? Or do I follow the beautiful newcomer and see where it lead? I just didn't know.

Suddenly a hand darts out of the doorway to grab me by the collar and haul me inside. "Come on!"

***

Chapter 4

Dragged inside unexpectedly, and with my pack throwing my balance off, I stumble through and right into Winona. Still having control of me she shoves me back again to pin me against the door frame. Once she was sure I was steady on my feet again her arm relaxes. All of this she does with one arm and without even looking my way. Her eyes wide and searching the darkness before her she lets go of my collar and smooths it out again with a few pats across my chest. Beyond the slice of light coming in from the open door there was nothing in front of us but blackness and vague ghostly shapes within it. The building was boarded up tight.

The building I pay no notice to as I gawk up at Winona still shaken by the power and brazenness she'd just shown. Not only was she bigger than me but the way she'd just manhandled me and my pack with such ease let me know that she had a sort of tomboy strength that equaled or even surpassed my own! I feel rightfully disrespected and offended by the rude treatment. Who did she think she was mauling me like that!? I'd had my damn fill of that shit growing up with two big brothers and an older sister, to say nothing of the bullies of my school years. But mostly I feel...really...really...really...aroused??? Huh!?