A Simple Life: Chapter 3 (Patreon)

“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