Sometimes when she drove she needed a pillow to prop herself up farther to see completely over the wheel, but she had left in such a rush one was forgotten.
"God Dammit!" She belted out as she hit a pot hole in the dirt road, one in which she was unable to see. It was still dark, only by a few minutes. She had seen the violet underneath the mountains as she was packing up her truck, and expected daylight momentarily. It was still unclear to her where exactly she was going on this morning, and perhaps she was depending on some primal force to find the right spot for her. She was spiritual like that sometimes, but only when it was convenient.
The road seemed to curve around a cluster of pine trees and she figured, rather blindly, that it would be there that she'd find the right spot. The trees began to come closer into the road until it almost disappeared and she pulled her truck to spot right along side an enormous oak tree. The windows began to fog as soon as she shut of the engine and she sat, rubbed her hands together, and watched the breath pull in and out of her body. She tried to see how long she could go without blinking.
She had forgotten how cold it gets up in the mountains and zipped her jacket. The light began to pull above the trees and everything took on a new color.
Down the hill a bit she spotted a creek with running water, she stopped to watch it for a moment, even though she grew up near one and so the sight wasn't new, hey eyes drew to it.
"Hey!" The voice broke her trance and made her lose her footing just enough to stagger down the remainder of the hill.
"Hello?" She asked, half frightened but mostly disappointed at her spot selection.
"Yes! Hello? What are you doing down there?" Finally she spotted the voice, a petite woman dressed in an oversized jacket and rubber boots.
"Sorry, I was just leavin'!" She started back up the hill.
"Wait!" The tiny woman easily hiked down the hill and approached her with a thermos in hand. Up close she noticed the fresh wrinkles on the woman's face, light and spirited. Probably happy, or something, she thought.
"Coffee? I gotta bunch. Some people come down here sometimes, maybe to get away from somethin', or, I don't know, hike, and mostly I offer 'um coffee cause they forget how cold it is up here." The woman poured the coffee into the plastic cup and handed it over. For some reason, she accepted it.
"So what's your name?" The woman asked, almost eager.
"Jesus." She said, sipped.
"Jesus! Well hell I thought I'd see some kinda white light or somethin' when I met you!" Jesus didn't crack a smile, she starred at the woman and then back at the cup of coffee and over at the trees.
"You know," The woman wiped some strings of blonde hair away from her eyes and the cold air made her cheeks and nose as red as you can see.
"If you were some big burly man or some biker chick I might be afraid of you, but you, you my dear look as harmless as they come."
"Well I aint." She snapped back and began to hand the kindly cup of coffee back over but suddenly changed her mind. "My name IS Jesus, okay? Really, my ma wanted a boy so she could name him after Jesus but instead she had a girl. But, hell, I guess she was a feminist an' thought I'd carry the name just the same."
"That's awful." The woman said, giggled a little. "So, Jesus, what are you doin' out here on my property? You hikin' or gettin' away from something, it's alllways one or the other."
"Hikin'" Jesus said, unthinking.
"Right. Well, Jesus, whatever you're running from you should know that there's always another chance, that's mostly what I tell people when they come down here." A jack rabbit sped down the hill and easily cleared the creek and the woman pointed it out with a smile. "You look a little frazzled, you're welcome to come inside and warm up a bit. I've gotta get my girls up for school in a bit, they love meeting new people."
"Kids, huh?" Jesus didn’t mean to ask, it just slipped out.
“Ohhh yeah, three girls; Madeline, Margot, and Melissa.”
“Handful?”
“In the best way. Do you have kids?” The woman inquired with wide eyes, she exuded a sincerity that Jesus rarely found.
“Nah.” She looked at the ground and remembered her mission, knocked back into reality she thanked the woman kindly for the coffee and began back up the hill.
“Jesus…” The woman called out just as she reached the top of the hill. She peered down at her, smiling and seemingly content, unafraid and friendly, and some envy boiled up inside her and then slowly seeped out through her breaths. “Whatever you’re running from, everyone always has another chance!” She shouted and then yelled to her louder as to make sure Jesus would hear, “Hell, even when you died you came back to life three days later! Talk about a come back!”
A smile curled up on her face and Jesus got into her truck, rubbed her hands together for warmth, and set off down the road to search for another spot.
She found it a few miles down, where the pavement ended and a dirt road began. The sun was hanging higher over the trees and the birds had begun to squawk and chirp there way into morning. She wasted no time and exited the truck quickly, this time with shovel in 0hand; certain she would find an appropriate spot here.
Under the biggest tree she could see, she found soft soil and began digging. She ripped into the dirt hard, enraged for a moment, and rational the next. When she was finished she had a round hole, about five feet deep. She scaled the small hill back to her truck swiftly, with short, tight breaths. She attempted to stay focused but her mind was beginning to throw her around.
In the backseat she pulled out a box holding the body of her seven hour old son. She slowly made her way down the hill and back to her spot. She closed her eyes as tight as they would go and felt the weight leave her hands as she dumped it into the hole and began kicking the dirt over it erratically. She cried for a minute and then stopped suddenly, talking herself down assuredly.
When Jesus finished, she got back into her truck and sat. Her hands were smeared with dirt and she watched it rub off onto the steering wheel. She tried to see how long she could go without blinking again, and felt a warm tear escape her eye. She removed her jacket and placed it underneath her so she could see more clearly, but her eyes still felt hazy.
On her way back into town she passed the spot where she had met the strange woman, and peered off over the trees, only that time did she see the tucked away cabin home she had missed the time before. The lights were on the chimney smoked like something out of a Kincaid painting. She sped up when she couldn’t see it anymore and starred straight ahead, still feeling doubtful about that second chance.
READER'S REVIEWS (1) DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.
"A touching story. But the woman who has 3 kids didn't sound as motherly as it should be. You might want to improve on that. Keep up the good work. =]" -- Sherrie, Singapore.
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