A story of connections broken, made, remade, and rearranged.
As soon as Corrine left for the beer run, Bill ate a couple of bites of leftovers standing in front of the open door, got himself a cold beer, and opened the briefcase on the work table in their home office. He liked working with money. The power of it, what it looked like, and the feeling he got when he held it in his hand. In the case, he was looking at bundles of bills ranging in value between 100 and 1 with each different denomination wrapped in a different colored paper band. Straps of 100 dollar bills were on top and the pictures of Benjamin Franklin seemed to be smiling smugly at him like a row of tellers greeting him at a bank. All together he was looking at almost 75 pounds of US currency worth about 1 million dollars. It was right there in front of him. He reached out and picked up a bundle of 100s, fanned his cheek with it, picked up another, putting each bundle on top of the table. He inhaled. It even smelled good. He took one of each color and arranged them on top of the desk into a colorful display. After a final look, he put the bills back in the case, locked it, and slid it under the desk where he normally kept it. He would take the money to the vault first thing tomorrow.
With the confrontation fresh in her mind and without any time for coming back down following her orgasm, Corrine was still a nervous wreck when she got back to their house. She put the 12 pack of ale in the refrigerator and started making their dinner to keep her anxiety at a tolerable level.
Cory was glad that Bill seemed to just want to eat and not engage in any small talk. With dinner finished, Bill got himself a fresh beer and went to the den to watch the news. On Thursdays it wasn’t unusual for Bill to fall asleep in the oversized soft brown leather chair in the den after supper and stay there until almost time to get ready for work the next day. Corrine needed to think about how to neutralize George. She turned the thermostat up just a little and kept Bill well supplied with beer.
By 830 Bill’s eyes were spending more time closed than open and he was well underway to falling asleep. Cory wanted to help him along. She sat down next to him and started rubbing the back of his neck, shoulders, and as his eyes closed she rubbed his eyelids coaxing them to stay closed. By 945 his breaths were coming at a steady rate and he was soundly sleeping.
She turned the sound down and went to the home office. The possibility that George might hurt Bill continued to worry Cory. She sat for a long time and finally made peace with the possibility that Bill might stop loving her. If she had finally fucked up the most positive thing in her life so be it. But she was not going to let George hurt Bill. That was not something she would allow as long as there was one breath of life left in her.
Two months later Cory picked up George, they drove to the airport, caught an international flight to Lima, Peru, and then travelled on a domestic flight to Pisco. From the time they landed in Peru, George was prancing like a hot shot jet setting man of the world. Cory hadn’t worked out all the details, but she did have one objective for the trip. Bill got home from work at his usual time.
That’s unusual. Cory’s cars gone?
He spotted the large brown envelope on the kitchen table.
Bill, I need to take care of something and may be gone for some time. I’m sorry that I can’t provide you with a better explanation but it’s a mistake I made a long time ago and now I have to take care of my mistake.
In the envelope is a consent decree in case you need or want a divorce and power of attorney giving you full power to do whatever is necessary in my absence.
I love you Bill. I will always love you.
Cory
Bill walked down the hall to their home office, tried to read the note again but his hands were shaking so badly that he couldn’t hold the note still so he set the note down on the table and stood over the table. He shook his head and looked around searching for something that would help him understand
What is it that Cory wouldn’t or couldn’t discuss with ME?
He called Cory’s phone, left voice messages, and sent text messages until her phone wouldn’t accept anything additional.
WHAT am I going to do?
Whether it was good fortune or bad luck, it was Friday so he had the week end to recover but he was faced with two days of uncertainty. He tried making lists, going through their bank records, and finally went to visit the Waters. She hadn’t told them anything and they were as mystified as Bill about where she had gone. As her aunt, Brenda was closest to Cory.
“The years when Cory was being bounced around from place to place before we adopted her left their mark on Cory.
“Sometimes if there is a problem she just can’t ask for help.
“Before the two of you married she and I talked a good deal.
“I have no doubt that she loved you Bill. And no doubt that she still loves you.
“Cory is very smart. If she said she needed to take care of something on her own, I have no doubt that she will do so.”
By Monday he had recovered enough to come up with a routine that would work for him in Cory’s absence. But it was tough now that what had been making all the irritations he had to put up with at work seem worthwhile. It progressed to the point that he was obsessed with trying to come up with an explanation and less than a month later, he was waiting for the jitney to go to make his Thursday drop offs for the armored car Friday runs and left the case with the money at the jitney pick up point while he went to the men’s room. Sam was conducting an audit of the operations on the armored car floor and had just walked down the stairs. He recognized the case at the jitney stand and could see that Bill was nowhere around. Always ready for a hustle, he ran back up the stairs, got the case from the trunk of his car on the personal car floor, hurried back down the stairs, and switched his case full of blank paper for the one with cash. Since he was the project manager for installing the surveillance cameras, he knew that the camera’s range did not cover the area between the stair case and the jitney pick up point. And with no visual evidence there would be no way to prove he had switched the cases. Bill would be responsible for the loss for not following company guidelines to keep his eyes on the case at all times when it was in his custody. Sam concluded that it was not his problem. Bill had been careless and Sam had just cashed in on an opportunity.
At 800 Friday, the armored car manager notified the cash operations head, Carter Stevens, that the armored cars assigned to deliver cash to the client banks had not been able to leave for their routes because of not having cash for their routes. Carter authorized use of emergency funds so that the banks would get the cash they needed to open and conducted a quick investigation that included an inquiry meeting with Bill.
“Bill, the armored car coordinator called me this morning and told me that the case that was supposed to contain the cash only had blank paper in it.
“For now, the situation is dealt with to make sure our clients have what they need but now I need for you to write down everything you did yesterday and especially focused on taking the case to the armored car vault.”
Bill was stunned.
“I don’t know how this happened.”
“Just write down everything. And I mean every little detail no matter how unimportant it might seem to you.
“I am not accusing you of stealing but there is a problem. And now I need to move forward to recover the company’s funds.”
“I understand.”
“I’m just doing my job, Bill.
“It’s nothing personal but I have to do my job.”
“I know.”
Seven days later, Bill and Carter had a follow up meeting.
“Bill, we have hired a private detective to look into the loss and if we find some other explanation something may change but for now I have to hold you responsible for the loss for not following approved procedures to keep your eyes on the case at all times when it was in your custody.
“I have a letter that I’m going to ask you to sign that says you will be able to keep your job only if you will agree to a repayment plan”
Bill made an initial payment as a result of the repayment plan agreement, put his and Cory’s house up for sale at a reduced price, gathered up his travel documents, and fourteen days later left Des Moines to live at a fishing lodge he had bought with plans to retire there in Manitoba.
Cory and George stayed at the same hotel her parents stayed at during their Pisco diving trip. After they checked into the hotel in Pisco, Cory looked through the hotel services guide and recognized the name of the concierge, Aaron Ruiz. Once they had checked in George went to beach leaving Cory and Aaron to talk for several hours in the square over Peruvian coffee, shots of amber Pisco, and sweet Picarones. She and George spent their first month sightseeing in Peru. Cory was proceeding carefully, but George was living it up. For him sightseeing was just not that interesting and he said he wanted to do something else. Cory and Aaron discussed several options that George might find enticing and of all the activities available, George chose deep sea fishing, something he had never done before Peru and with Aaron’s help arranging things he went on a 2 day excursion. It was the opportunity Cory had been waiting for. She said she didn’t want to risk sea sickness, urged George to go enjoy himself, and said she would make a dinner reservation for when he got back. He left early the next morning sitting between some lobster traps as Cory waved from the bell tower of a mission near the water until she saw the boat disappear behind the Ballestas Islands, kissed her middle finger, and raised it high above her head.
“So long!”
That evening Cory and Aaron enjoyed dinner at one of his favorites. He helped Cory get a fire started in one of the out of the way pits in the courtyard and she sat next to it adding wood until the documents and firewood she piled on top of them burned to ashes which she gathered and scattered from a pier down the coast far away from the hotel. The next day Cory boarded a return flight to Des Moines. She picked up her luggage from the baggage claim, her SUV from airport parking, dropped by the office supply story to get a new memory card for her phone, and sat in the parking space with her hands clasped in front of her.
Mission accomplished!
She saw that she had service, listened to the voice mail, skimmed through the messages, and called Bill’s phone.
The number you have reached is not a working number. Please check your number and dial again.
She entered the number manually.
The number you have reached is not a working number. Please check your number and dial again.
At Bill’s and her house, she saw two vehicles parked in the driveway that she didn’t recognize, stopped the SUV on the street next to the sidewalk, and as she approached the front door, a man walked out and asked if he could help her.
“Hello. My name is Corrine Johnstone. I’m looking for Bill Johnstone.”
“You’re Cory? Bill doesn’t live here anymore but he did leave something for you. Would you mind waiting here for me here for a few minutes?”
A short while later, the man came out with an envelope and handed it to Cory. She recognized the writing on the front as Bill’s. Inside she found a note from Bill explaining what had happened since she left and a cashier’s check made out to her for 375,000.
Dear Cory. I don’t know if this note will get to you. After you left, I got a bit careless at work and made a work related mistake. I had to make an initial payment on a debt I now have from that mistake and sold the house.
The enclosed check is for your portion of the sale of our house.
I used some of my portion and some of our savings to set up funding for my mom’s care.
I don’t know if I will ever see you again. If you do get this note and I don’t see you again, I hope you know that I loved you deeply. There will always be a hole in my heart that only you could fill. Bill
Stunned, Cory sat in the SUV staring blankly.
What am I going to do?
Maybe I should have talked to Bill.
Too late now, you little idiot.
You made this mess.
Now learn to live with it.
Cory needed to get herself back together. After a visit to her parents she went to live in a farmhouse on her parents’ farm. With lots of chores and projects, the farm provided exactly what she needed to keep from dwelling on Bill.
Bill’s mom liked Cory the first time they met and they always got along well. Cory went to the rest home where Dorothy Johnstone was living hoping that maybe Bill had at least told Dorothy where he was going. She didn’t know how to broach the subject and put it on her schedule to visit his mom at the rest home on a regular basis hoping that Dorothy might inadvertently let her know. During one visit she was about to ask the receptionist to call Dottie but then she saw George’s mom, Karen Simpson. They had a long visit in the coffee shop before Dottie came into the shop to join them.
Karen told Cory that George had bragged to her about having sex with Cory, but that it was so long ago that she couldn’t remember when, that when George told her she told him that his bragging about having sex with a woman was immature, rude, and disgustingly ugly, and since Karen and Dottie were good friends she had told Dottie. Karen went on to speculate that her telling him that he disgusted her must have been too humiliating for him because she hadn’t heard anything from him since he told her.
I don’t know that George’s dead. All I really know is that we flew to Peru together but he didn’t come back with me.
Dottie sat listening quietly while Karen and Cory talked and finally said Karen had told her about George’s bragging even before Cory and Bill married and that as far as she was concerned Cory, George, and Bill were all mature of age adults and it wasn’t her place to judge others. If Cory had a need that included having sex with George, that was between them to sort out. At the end of their visit, Karen and Dottie, gave Cory a big hug, told her not to worry about either of them since they had each other, and to please come by to see them from time to time.
Just shut up! You don’t know!
Bill used his banking contacts to borrow on their home equity, made an initial payment to his employer, and put the house up for sale. After setting aside enough funding for his mother’s care, Bill decided he needed a change and went to live by himself at his fishing lodge in Manitoba. He thanked his earlier frugality and modest spending habits for being able to devote the first year after leaving Iowa to settle into his new life in Manitoba. The plan at the outset was set things up so that he could live quietly by himself.
It helped that he loved the outdoors and that the internet service at the cabin turned out to be relatively fast and reliable. There were multiple lakes in the area and one medium size lake less than 200 yards from the cabin provided a steady supply of fresh fish. He installed a small garden and developed the skills to forage from his neighbors so that he could gather edible wild plants. One year faded into the next year and then that year into another year. After almost four years, he thought he might try trapping to broaden his diet. But to accomplish that, he needed some materials and to procure them he needed to go to a hardware store in Winnipeg. He left the cabin early enough to be at the store shortly after it opened at 730. Once he had selected and paid for his supplies, he backed his trailer up to the loading dock for the warehouse folks to load him up and they said it would be a little more than 20 minutes before they could get to him. With a few minutes to wait he was about to go to the nearby bus station for a cup of coffee when he noticed a cute brunette standing at the corner. Her straight black cocktail dress and tan pumps instead of the typical flannel shirt, jeans, windbreaker, and work boots seemed somewhat unusual but the absence of any jacket that early in the morning made her look totally out of place. Bill stood next to the trailer for a little while watching her. She seemed lost. After settling into his new life at the fishing lodge and since church just wasn’t his thing, other than the social media networks on the internet Bill had no social life.
He saw the woman continuing to look all around as if she were trying to decide which way to go and she looked like she was shivering. With all the noise of the busses and the loading dock she didn’t hear him until he spoke causing her to jump a little.
“Hello! I’m sorry if I startled you. You look like you could use some help finding your way. And you look cold.”
“You did surprise me.
“I just arrived on the bus and need to find someplace out of the way where I can stay for a while.”
“I’m not from around here and don’t know much about the hotels or that kind of thing here in Winnipeg.
“I was about to walk over to the bus station for a cup of coffee. Would you like to join me?”
“I am a bit chilly. That might help warm me up and I could use a pick me up.”
Bill asked the woman to walk with him, opened the SUV, took out a flannel shirt, and offered it to her. After taking a seat in the bus station snack bar, Bill took a sip of his coffee and looked at the woman.
“My coffee’s pretty tasty.
“How’s yours?”
“Nice. And hot. Thanks.”
“You’re looking for some out of the way place where you can stay for a while?
“How out of the way do you want to be?”
She clamped her hands on her arms and looked at Bill.
Why is this guy prying into my business?
Oh well.
The coffee’s good.
“As much out of the way as possible.
“I would like to become invisible until I’m ready to be seen again.”
“The way you look is going to make that hard.”
“What do you mean?”
“The way you’re dressed and no jacket?”
“I see.”
Bill thought for a minute about what she had said, looked out window at the trailer in case he was needed, and looked at the woman again. He thought it might not be the wisest thing to do but then thought about what little real benefit he had seen by being overly cautious.
“I don’t know how crowded Winnipeg gets. And I don’t know if this will sound like something you want to do.
“I certainly don’t want to offend you, so I hope you will hear what I have to say as merely an offer.”
She arched her eyebrows and puckered her mouth.
Should I just thank him for the coffee and get out of here?
But it’s warm in here.
It’s broad daylight and there are a lot of folks around.
“If you can be brief would you please continue.”
“I own a fishing lodge almost 400 miles north of Winnipeg. If you’re looking for a place way out of the way where you can stay hidden for a while, you are welcome to live at the lodge as long as you need or want. For the most part, I see no other humans for weeks on end so there is a pretty good chance for you to become invisible to all but the most determined person if that’s what your goal is.”
The woman’s directness pleased Bill, “I’m not looking to start an affair with anyone.”
Bill covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud at her.
“I’m not looking to start an affair with anyone either. I just saw you standing over there and you seemed a little out of sorts and maybe a bit cold so I thought maybe I could help. The lodge has six separate bedrooms. Five upstairs and one downstairs. I stay in the one downstairs. It can comfortably accommodate a crowd of up to 12 to 15 people. So, you would have your own bedroom and your own bathroom upstairs.”
“And you are sure you want to make that offer to me, someone you’ve never seen before in your life.”
“Now that you mention it, maybe I am nuts. But it won’t be the first time that’s happened. You seem nice and living up there has taught me that sometimes it pays off in the long run to help people out when you can. Maybe we should go into this with the understanding that if for some reason you or I don’t want to continue you living there either one of us can terminate the arrangement, no questions asked.
“Of course, I own the lodge so it would mean you would have to make other arrangements for yourself.”
The woman looked over at the ticket counter wondering if she should just go buy a ticket and keep travelling.
I started down this road when I caught a bus in Georgia.
And I really need a place where I can be invisible and get myself straightened out.
I could travel on but there is nothing that makes me think I’ll find a better situation.
Maybe it’s time for a little bold action and not so much caution.
He seems Ok, but he is a stranger.
If I get concerned after we get on the road, I’ll just get out someplace along the way and get the heck out of there
And he’s not hard on the eyes to look at.
Living up there by himself?
He’s probably in really good shape.
But why is a good looking guy like him there on his own?
I’ll probably find out soon enough but for now, I need someplace to hide while I get myself back on my feet.
“I think I’d like to take you up on your offer.
“How would I get back to Winnipeg if one of us decided that it wasn’t working out?”
“I could drive you.
“We’ll be taking good size roads until we get a lot closer to the lodge. And there are reliable bus stations located in some of the towns up north. At least during the months when it isn’t snowed in. And during the winter a train runs. They generally keep the tracks cleared with snow plows.”
She looked over toward Bill’s trailer at the loading dock and turned back to Bill.
“Then I’d for sure like to take you up on your offer.”
“I’d like to get started as soon as the trailer’s loaded up. It’s a long drive and sometimes the fog can become so thick up here that you have to drive really slowly. And with a loaded trailer it’ll be even slower. Do you have luggage?”
“All of my luggage is here. The suitcase, the duffle bag, and my purse. That’s it.”
Bill bought some breakfast sandwiches, they got a coffee carrier, topped up their coffees, and put on lids to keep the drinks hot. Bill picked up the suitcase and the woman picked up her purse and the duffle before they walked to the loading dock.
“Can I put the suitcase in the back?”
“I’d like to keep the duffle bag and my purse up front. Is that ok?”
“It’s fine with me. You can put something on the rear seat if you want to.”
Bill put the suitcase in the back of the SUV and held the door as she got in. He got out a heavy down jacket from the back and offered it to the woman.
She put it on, looked at how the arms fell over the ends of her hands, and smiled. It was big enough for her that it could have been a blanket and it felt clean, soft, and pleasantly warm. She thought she could fall asleep in it.
While the loading dock folks loaded up the trailer they ate the breakfast sandwiches. The hardware store employees finished loading the trailer and after Bill did a final check of the invoice against the packing list to make sure he had what he had bought and what he needed he was about to pull out and asked her if she needed to do anything before they started. She said she didn’t but then turned to face Bill and extended her hand,
“For starters, my name is Sharon.”
Bill took Sharon’s hand,
“My name’s Bill. I’m glad to meet you Sharon. Until we come to know each other better, why don’t we stay on a first name basis?”
Sharon thought to herself for a few seconds,
Nice handshake.
Steady, firm but not controlling.
Hard callouses on his hand.
He works hard with his hands.
A lot!
“For now, I think staying with first names is a great idea.”
Bill asked her,
“How do you happen to be here in Manitoba?”
“I’m kind of worn out. I’ll be happy to tell you later but for now can I just sit?”
“That’s fine. If you want to hear why I happen to be living at a fishing lodge way up north of Winnipeg, I’ll tell you.”
“I’d be interested to hear about that.”
“I moved up there after something bad happened to me.
“I was living in the states and had to sell my house. With nowhere else to live and not much to hold me, I moved to the lodge to get myself back together.”
After they had been driving for about 5 minutes, Sharon took a deep breath and let it out.
“I’m a little bit better now. I’m on the run to get away from something bad that was happening to me.”
Bill thought he would give Sharon an opening to tell him more.
“If you want to try talking about things but don’t want me to know the details you can tell me and leave out anything you don’t want to tell me.”
“Give me an example.”
“Okay. Let me think a few seconds to make sure I say what I want to say.”
After a few seconds, Bill continued,
“Here goes. My wife left me, I became careless and lost an asset that belonged to my employer, and now I have a debt to repay my employer for the loss. I sold my house and with no place else to live, I moved up here.”
“You’re married?”
“Yes I am. Or at least I was before coming to Manitoba.”
“How long have you been in Manitoba?”
“I’d rather not say right now.”
“I see what you mean about being careful about what you reveal.
“With no idea of how long you’ve been here it would be pretty hard to trace you back to your arrival.
“I’m not really used to this so if I take a long time between saying things will you understand?”
“I’m not really used to it either. My philosophy is that the best kept secret is one that is never spoken. But, yes! Certainly!”
After travelling on the bus for more than 24 hours, the steady vibration of the vehicle and the hum of the SUV’s wheels as Bill drove was hypnotic. She started nodding off after they had been driving for about 20 minutes.
“I’ve been on the bus for a long time. Would you be terribly upset if I catch a nap for a while as you drive?”
“Not at all. If I need to wake you for some reason, I’ll do it as gently as I can.
“If you lift up the handle on the right side of the seat, it will lay down. The jacket looks pretty warm but there is a sleeping bag you can climb into and there’s a cushion you can use for your head.”
“You’re a really nice guy. I’m glad you came over and talked to me.”
“I think I’m really glad I did too.”
Bill thought,
What a nice thing to say.
When he didn’t need to be paying attention to the road, Bill snuck glances at Sharon as she was nodding off.
She’s pretty.
I like the color of her hair. It kind of reminds me of cocoa. I wonder if it tastes like chocolate. I wonder what she tastes like!
Easy big fellow!
She’s already said she’s not looking for an affair.
And now that I have my life here together I’m not either.
But damn! Until I saw her in Winnipeg I hadn’t even noticed a woman.
She has her hair cut so there isn’t a whole lot of maintenance required.
Corrine’s eyes are a little more almond shaped and prettier, but Sharon’s mouth is prettier. Overall, her face isn’t as pretty as Cory’s. And she’s built a little differently. Maybe a little fuller breasts and bigger butt.
I wonder what it might feel like to have your hands on that woman’s butt!
Down, old man!
If you can’t be around her without thinking about sex with her you should take her back to Winnipeg.
You need to just think of her as a friend.
That’s it!
Every time I start to think about her as anything else just remember she and I are just here as friends.
When she was standing next to me she seemed a good bit shorter than Corrine with a little fuller figure. Overall, she probably weighs about the same as Corrine. Maybe 120 pounds give or take. 10 lower or 5 higher. Between say 110 and 125. I’d be willing to bet on that. She seems considerate and sweet. I wonder what she’s on the run from. I don’t want to get mixed up in a bunch of trouble, but it doesn’t matter now. I’m glad I took a chance and talked to her.
After another hour, still over 250 miles from the cabin, Bill braked and swerved sharply to avoid a group of deer crossing the road jolting Sharon awake. Barely awake, she yawned, looked around with sleepy eyes, and then turned to look at Bill. They were crossing a field covered with tall grasses and she could see that they would soon be entering a forest with large trees at the other side of the field.
“Hello?
“I’m starting to get my bearings back.
“It’s going to take me a few minutes.”
“I’m sorry to not be able to wake you more gently but I had to avoid some deer crossing the road.
“If you want to sleep a bit longer, you’re welcome to.”
“I might in a while but for now I’d like to just look around.
“This is really pretty.”
“I think so. It’s really pretty in the winter too, but it can get pretty snowed in so you need to be ready for lasting a long time without much outside help.”
“What do you do to keep yourself entertained?”
“When it’s warmer a lot of things.
“But in colder weather, there is as good size communication relay station between the cabin and Winnipeg so the internet up here works reasonably well. I spend a lot of time during the winter reading and I try writing.”
“What do you write?”
“Just about anything. I write mostly to keep myself entertained.”
“Would you let me read something you’ve written.”
“I’ll have to think about that. I’ve never talked face to face with anyone who has read anything I wrote.”
“Bill, you may turn out to be an enigma for me.”
“I’m not so mysterious. I’m just a plain old guy trying to get by.”
They were across the field and about to enter the forest. Sharon looked at Bill, turned her head to look at the field behind them, and shared a thought with the trees.
I think I might really like getting to know a plain old guy like you for a change.
Bill looked over to see if Sharon was still awake.
“We’ve been driving for close to 3 hours. I need to stop and stretch my legs a bit. There are some pretty places a bit further up the road where we can pull off.”
“That sounds nice.”
30 minutes later Bill turned off the road and parked on the east side of a big lake with lots of small islands and knoblike protrusions jutting out from the shoreline. The sun was still up high but since it was a little past noon it had moved into the western sky. After getting out and walking a little they each had a bottle of lemonade and shared a bag of cheese flavored chips. Sharon asked Bill if he wanted her to drive. Bill told her that once she became familiar with the area it would be okay but for now he thought he should do the driving.
“Up here you need to be a careful. And the farther north you get the more the need to be careful becomes. The garages and such are a lot fewer than in the states and for the most part you need to be prepared to take care of yourself. Which is why there is a skid plate on the bottom, winches on both the front and back bumpers, spare gas cans that I keep full, and things like belts and tape. I’m not the best mechanic in the world but if I don’t have materials then all the skill in the world won’t do much good.
“And during the winter you need to be prepared to survive for a good while on your own.”
After 4 more hours, interrupted by a short gas up stop, Bill slowed down, turned off the main road onto a narrow black top road, drove for another 5 miles, and then turned right onto a gravel surfaced road. It was that sliver of the day situated between nautical twilight and complete darkness. In a little less than 60 minutes it would be completely dark and if there was no moon it would be pitch black. After a few more minutes Sharon could see some lights up ahead.
“Good. The photo cells seem to be working. I’ve been having problems getting the timing right.”
“So, is that where we’re headed?”
Sharon saw a big red chow trotting from the cabin to greet them. Bill stopped, got out, and opened the rear door. In one bound the chow took his position on the rear seat and moved his head so that Sharon could scratch his head.
“Hercules, meet Sharon.”
Sharon swiveled around to look at Hercules and scratched his head.
“Hi, Hercules. Are you and I going to be friends?”
“You scratch his head when he first meets you every day and you’ll be friends.
“That may be a good thing or it may not. Do you like dogs?”
“I had dogs when I was younger. So, I guess the answer is yes although I’ve never thought about it.”
“I didn’t remember about Hercules when I talked to you in Winnipeg. He’s a great judge of people. If he likes you, chances are you’re a good person.”
Sharon continued to scratch Hercules’s head.
“Do you think he likes me?”
“His tail’s wagging. Yes, I do.”
“So now, do you think I’m a nice person?”
“Yes, I do.”
Bill smiled at his own directness and just like that he decided he would trust Hercules’s vote. If Hercules trusted Sharon, Bill thought he could also. As for Sharon liking or trusting him, he decided it was up to Sharon.
He pulled to the back behind the cabin and parked underneath an awning next to a set of stairs leading up to a porch.
“I have a few things that I want to get into cold storage right away. Fresh fruit and that type of thing. They’ve been on ice in the cooler since Winnipeg.
“I’ll help you with your luggage as soon as I get those things put away.”
“Are we alone here?”
“Yes, we are. Is that all right?”
“That’s fine, I just want to be careful with some of my things.”
“There is a gun safe inside. It’s really heavy so it isn’t going anywhere soon. I do have some guns in it.
“A 308 rifle I use for long distance, two shot guns, two revolvers, and a 10 mm pistol.
“And of course ammunition,
“Would you like to put something in it?”
“I’d like to put the duffle in it. Would that be all right?”
“That is perfectly fine.”
“Okay. I’ll just put them inside the cabin and then put them away later.”
Bill took her to the gun safe, opened it, wrote down the combination for Sharon, and Sharon put her duffle bag inside.
Thirty minutes later Bill moved the SUV to the barn and asked Sharon if she was hungry.
“I hadn’t thought about it but now that you ask, yes I am.”
“I have a fish that I caught yesterday, and I can grill it.
“Do you think you would like that?”
“I’m kind of embarrassed.
“In addition to feeling a bit like a moron to be so unprepared, I feel like total mooch!”
“It’s no trouble. I would be cooking something for my dinner and something for Hercules’s dinner anyway. So, it’s just a matter of making a bit more. And it’s kind of nice to have someone nice to talk to.”
“You cook dinner for Hercules?”
“I call it dinner since that’s what I make for myself. He eats twice a day.
“So yes, I do. He’s been my best friend since I got here. He takes care of me and I take care of him.
“He’s a great friend.”
Before he cooked the fish, Bill showed Sharon around the cabin. The first floor had a one large open multi- functional space with a wood burning stove and a huge fireplace, another smaller multi-use space where the gun safe was located, the kitchen, and one bed room off a hall that led to a staircase going up to the second floor. The upstairs bedrooms each had an attached bathroom so that the occupants would have more privacy. Sharon looked around taking it all in. The lodge looked like you might expect for a man who had been living by himself for a long time. Everything was tidy, clean, very functional, few frills, and everything worked.
She chuckled when she saw that the upper bedroom windows were covered with inside curtains made of burlap cut from feed bags and outside curtains cut from worn out bed sheets with unfinished edges. It looked like someone had made the holes for the curtain hooks with a nail, a screwdriver, or a knife.
She chose a room situated at a corner with two windows. One looked out toward the gravel road leading to the cabin. There was still light enough to see that the other window looked out toward a lake.
Bill invited her to put her things away. She said she would spend about 10 minutes organizing herself and then join him downstairs. After she unpacked things, washed her face, and oriented herself, she joined Bill downstairs. There was a small fire in a pit on the north side of the cabin. While he was preparing the fish to cook for their meal, Sharon joined him in the kitchen.
“Would you like a cold beer?”
“You have cold beer?”
“I don’t know if it’s really beer. I brew it myself using stuff things that I gather. Honey, berries, wild oats, barely, and grains. And I use sour dough to get the fermentation going. It’s not likely to win any awards but it seems relatively tasty once you get used to it. I don’t know how much of a drinker you are but it for sure gets me tipsy. I filter it using a sifter that I use for flour and a coffee filter. It’s not perfect. Just make sure you don’t drink any more of the solids than you have to.”
“Then for sure. A cold beer would taste good.”
Sharon took a sip of Bill’s home brew. She licked her lips. It wasn’t beer, but it was certainly strong enough. She asked him if he had ever had the alcohol concentration determined. Neither of them had eaten anything since Winnipeg except part of a bag of chips and it was already having an effect on her.
“You’re right about getting you tipsy. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t eaten much or if the beer is just stronger.”
Whether it was because of the alcohol or because she was exhausted, over dinner Sharon became a bit more relaxed. Hercules took a shine to Sharon and lay down to sleep outside her bedroom door when they turned in for the evening. With all the night sounds of the woods, the stress from the day, and the alcohol, Sharon tossed and turned for a bit before she finally fell asleep.
In the morning after having dinner leftovers for breakfast Bill told Sharon about his plans to trap some game for expanding his diet choices. Sharon offered to help him set up the traps and as they went around setting them up, Bill gave Sharon a working tour of the area around the cabin. Once Bill had chosen places on trails that seemed well used, Sharon asked Bill about the lake and the pier. After Bill told her it was the lake where he had caught the fish for their dinner the previous night, she asked if Bill would teach her how to fish. They worked for the next several days getting the traps working reliably and by the end of the week Sharon and Bill went to the pier on the lake. Sharon wasn’t proficient with a casting rig, so Bill set her up with a cork and showed her how to fish for smaller fish from the pier.
Sharon dropped the bobber with a big red worm and a bright white grub on the hook close to the pier. After 10 minutes, the cork disappeared and stayed under the water surface. She jerked the rig so hard that the fish flew over her head, splashed when it hit the water on the other side, and she managed to calm herself down enough to use her hands to pull the line and the fish up to the pier. It was a pretty 10 inch multi colored sunfish.
“That is the first fish I’ve ever caught.”
Bill offered to put it on the stringer for her. Sharon looked at the pretty fish.
“It’s too pretty to eat!”
“Do you remember the fish we had last night for dinner?”
“Yes, I do.”
“That fish looked like the one you just caught. I always thank the fish for being there to provide me with nourishment.”
“You’re right.
“Thank you, Mr. Fish”
Bill showed her how to put the fish on the stringer. He hauled in a nice brown trout and Sharon caught one more sunfish.
“I think we have more than enough for our meal and since we’re the ones who need for the fishing to stay good, I don’t think we should catch anymore. At least not right now. So I’ll put the second sunfish back in if that’s okay with you.”
“Thanks for asking. I think your reasons for doing things are very smart.
“Have you ever thought about smoking any of the fish?”
“I haven’t but that might be something worthwhile to do.”
“Would you mind if I try to learn to do that?”
“No, I wouldn’t mind at all.
“If we are going to do that we probably want to catch the fish we smoke in a bigger pond at the edge of the south woods. The fish there are plentiful and bigger plus I don’t want to overfish this lake.
“I think I’m going to like you being here.”
“I haven’t been here very long but I think I’m going to like being here, too.
“Thank you again for talking to me in Winnipeg.”
“And thank you for coming here. For right now it’s time to learn how to go from a caught fish to a ready to cook fish.”
Bill explained the options of getting a fish from caught to ready to cook. Sharon said she would like to start off simple, so Bill scaled and cleaned the brown trout and with Bill’s guidance she took care of the preparing the sunfish so that they could be plank cooked over a fire. Back at the cabin Bill started a small wood fire and to complete their meal they enjoyed some wild greens and nuts.
The following day, Bill and Sharon checked their traps and found a couple tripped but no game. Bill made the loop on each of the snares a little smaller and made the triggers more sensitive. A few days later, they checked the traps and found four quail, a wild turkey, and a partially eaten rabbit. He looked at the tracks around the rabbit.
“Not a cat. Probably a fox. Too small for a wolf.”
After two months the productivity of the traps had increased to become a steady food source.
Bill told Sharon about setting up some spring traps. Sharon asked him about it, he sketched a diagram, explained how it worked, and told her about some of the risks. Upon learning of the dangers, she told Bill she was nervous and wanted to help him set them up to become more familiar with them. He explained the things they would do to lower the risks. The most important thing they would do would be to be aware of the traps.
That afternoon Sharon accompanied him to work out the details. He selected spots on well used trails where the path narrowed and the surrounding forest was made up of both mature and young trees. There would be two spring traps. One would be on a trail leading to a medium sized lake to the south and one would be on a trail leading to deeper woods to the east. They made up signs and put them up on the trails in the area where he would deploy each trap. Sharon seemed more at ease but said she was worried about Hercules. Bill said they would take Hercules to where each trap was deployed and trip it so he would avoid the area.
Bill designed the traps to be capable of killing an animal as large as a deer. For each trap he sawed a single two inch thick 12 inch disk from the limb of a white oak that had fallen over during a storm. To construct the killing heads, he drove wooden stakes into holes drilled into the round section and sharpened the stakes.
All together the sharpened stakes formed a ten inch by ten inch crude square with sharply pointed wooden stakes every 2 inches. Killing force of the trap came from a springy green sapling bent and held in place with thick nylon rope tied to a sturdy tree trunk. It took him a good while to get the triggering mechanisms operating properly. The first time after he set the trigger and backed away, the trip released by itself and if he had been in the path of the killing head, it likely would have killed or at least badly injured him. Once he had each of the traps working reliably, he took Sharon and Hercules to each of the areas and with Hercules held tightly with a strong leash he tripped the trap. The killing head whipped through the air making a frightful whoosh like a giant arrow followed by a very loud pop when the head hit thick bushes at the end of the arc. Hercules strained at the leash trying to get away. After several more trips, Bill released Hercules and he moved a safe distance away while Bill reset the trap.
Two months later, Bill checked the eastern trap and found a nice size doe impaled on it. It had been a long time since Bill cut up a deer and butchering took some time. He scraped and salted the hide before stretching it to dry on the top of the barn. They used the setup Sharon had constructed to smoke fish to smoke the venison.
Sharon had been skeptical and Hercules continued to avoid the area around the traps but they all loved the smoked venison. Bill made a special trip to his nearest neighbors to warn him about the traps and took them a sample of smoked venison. He also put up signs where the trails crossed the property lines to warn hikers passing through about the danger.
She was impressed with the success of Bill’s trapping and being able to provide for all of them with little outside help. After a full day of working around the cabin, the two of them were a bit more tired than usual and had an evening meal of smoked venison, wild mushrooms, wild greens, potatoes, and onions. After a few bottles of Bill’s home brew, Sharon was a good bit more tipsy than typical and started talking about her life before arriving in Winnipeg. She told Bill about being in an abusive marriage to John Barth in a suburb just to the north of Atlanta, Georgia. Bill could see from the harshness in Sharon’s face that she was still angry and told her that if she didn’t want to talk about it she didn’t have to.
“It might do me good to talk about it.
“Of course, if you’d rather not hear about it, tell me.”
“I want to hear whatever you want to say.
“I’ll be happy to listen.”
She went on to say she had no idea why John had married other than for him to have someone to abuse and explained that even on their wedding day as soon as the marriage reception was over he had become abusive.
“As soon as we got in the limousine to ride from the church to the airport he pushed his pants down to his knees and told me to start earning my keep.
“I was dumbstruck and protested but he had a lot to drink before and after the wedding. He started yelling at me, calling me his bitch whore wife, saying that I belonged to him now, and how it was my duty to obey him no matter what. So, I went ahead and sucked him off to shut him up. I wanted to avoid a big public scene.
“I went into the marriage with a good amount of my own money so maybe I should have left him right then, but my religious upbringing had taught me the importance of marriage vows and I didn’t want to just give up without trying. So, I stuck it out hoping he would come to value our relationship enough to treat me more respectfully but that never happened.
“So, finally on the day of our 10th anniversary he played golf with a couple of his buddies and as expected he got drunk. I was at the golf club to meet one of my girlfriends for lunch and John dragged me into the men’s locker room and ordered me to have sex with the guys in his golf group. I said I wouldn’t, so he held me down on a bench in the locker room and told his buddies that they could take a turn fucking me. I screamed at them that I would consider it rape if they even attempted to have sex with me. They told John that they wouldn’t do it and he went absolutely ballistic cursing at me for embarrassing him.
“That was the last straw. I decided to take the money I had before marrying him and leave.”
Sharon went on to say that in spite of John’s short comings as a husband, he was a shrewd ruthless businessman with little sense of ethics. He successfully set up an operation to syphon off some of his employer’s products to supply his own customers and without having to pay for the employer’s products during their marriage he amassed a great deal of money. John also insisted that the money Sharon had before their marriage was his because Sharon belonged to him and she had no ownership of anything.
Since they met in Winnipeg, Sharon and Bill had been living in the fishing cabin for almost three years and had never talked much about their life together, but they often said how fond of one another they were and how happy they were. One evening Bill was watching Sharon fillet a walleye for their supper when the knife slipped inflicting a deep cut on her hand and Bill received his wake-up call. They tried wrapping the cut with layers of gauze and surgical tape but the blood kept leaking through making it impossible to completely stop the bleeding.
Bill wanted for them to go to a clinic to have the wound treated but Sharon was nervous. Not about receiving medical care but at having to identify herself. Back at the cabin, Bill told Sharon how nervous he had been.
“I think I’ve come to a deeper emotional place with you than just a friend.”
“I understand. Would you explain how you feel about me?”
“There isn’t much to explain.
“I think I love you!
“No that’s not right.
“I love you!”
“And I think I love you too.”
“Do you think we should do anything about it?”
“I don’t see what there is to be done unless you find me living here with you unacceptable. Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Want me to not live at the cabin with you?”
“That would be about the worst thing that could happen to me.
“After all the trials of my life to finally meet someone like you and enjoy the life we have?
“If all of a sudden that were taken away I don’t know that I have it in me to pick up the pieces and go on.”
“You sell yourself short, Bill.
“I think.
“No, I know you do.
“You are a warrior.
“You fight.
“And as long as you are able to fight you will survive.”
“It helps to have something or someone to fight for.”
“Are you worried about us not being married?”
“Not in the least. Are you?”
“No!”
Once John became aware that Sharon had left with money John insisted was his, he vowed he would find Sharon and get it back. And once again John showed his cunning. One of the dock workers who had loaded up Bill’s trailer was an amateur detective and in going through some missing person notifications on the internet came across one regarding the disappearance of Sharon Barth placed by John Barth. Because of how Sharon had been dressed, the worker remembered Bill talking to a woman that looked like the woman in the notice when they were loading the trailer. The worker checked the address on the packing list when Bill picked up his supplies and contacted some friends of his who worked up north close to the address. One friend worked at the clinic Sharon went to when she cut her hand.
On their 7th anniversary John and Sharon were at dinner in Atlanta and he spiked her drink. With her passed out he had a female black widow spider tattooed on the inside of her left arm below the elbow. When Sharon came to she was livid and said she wanted it removed immediately. John told her that he had the right as her husband to do whatever he wanted to her. His ad purposefully hadn’t mentioned the tattoo so that John could use it as a test to make sure he was on Sharon’s trail. The reward for information that would let him find Sharon was 10,000 and after the dockhand read the ad he sent a response. It took some time, but John responded and asked the worker if he had noticed any tattoos and if so to describe them. The worker remembered the spider tattoo, described it in a follow up email, and said when he had seen it. The time frame was right. And the information about the tattoo spot on. After exchanging emails and agreeing on an additional reward for the worker being able to provide an address, John decided a trip to Manitoba might prove worthwhile.
He arrived in Winnipeg early Tuesday afternoon, paid the dock worker, and entered the address the worker gave him into the GPS. After refueling his vehicle, a 4 wheel drive Japanese make, John set off after Sharon ready for his day of reckoning and revenge.
It was way after midnight and because of no moon, pitch dark by the time John got to the area. Not knowing what might be waiting for him, he decided to leave the vehicle parked next to the black top and walk the rest of the way. He gave himself a couple of toasts to celebrate his cleverness at being about to find Sharon and her pending demise as a result of her crossing him. His rifle was fully loaded and he was ready for a showdown with Sharon and anyone or anything else that got in his way. To preserve the element of surprise he didn’t want to give himself away, so he used the flashlight only occasionally and instead of following the road cut through the woods following a property line and found a trail that looked well used. He used his compass to check the direction the trail seemed to be going. After a half mile he found that the trail joined with another trail. In one direction the trail seemed to go in the direction he wanted to go and in the other direction it seemed to be going back toward the property line. He could taste the revenge that was about to be his and licked his lips.
All right you little cunt.
So, you thought you could steal from John Barth?
Not on your life!
She’ll crap her panties when she sees me aiming this rifle at her.
I want to make sure she sees my face as I squeeze the trigger.
About 330 Wednesday morning Hercules started barking but after about 15 minutes he quieted down. In the morning, Sharon and Bill went about their daily chore of checking the traps, found John impaled on the south trail spring trap, and called the sheriff. He found the flashlight hanging 30 feet off the ground in some bushes 40 feet from the trap with the switch off, the rifle muzzle stuck in the mud 100 feet from the trap, and called out the medical examiner who called out the coroner. The doctor took a cursory look and saw the deep bruising around the stakes but little blood outside the body. Sharon overheard the examiner telling the sheriff that dying was probably traumatic since John would have been unable to dislodge himself from the stakes as he bled out internally, getting colder and colder as he died. Sharon showed the sheriff proof of her identity and identified the dead guy as John Barth from Georgia. The sheriff’s investigation referenced the medical examiner’s report. After noting the warning signage Bill had put up about the traps at the property lines and in the proximity of the traps, John’s death was ruled an accident.
In his haste to inflict his final act of ruthless savagery on Sharon he hadn’t prepared for the possibility of things not going the way he planned. With no will and since Sharon and he were married at the time of his death, Sharon took ownership of all of that had been John’s and her community property at the time of his death.
Through his family attorney, Bill made contact with Carter Stevens about paying off his debt to the cash services company. Two weeks later he got a letter from his lawyer. When he read the part about the private detective finding a camera recording a reflection in one of the jitney windshields of Samuel Andrews switching the case Bill had left at the jitney pickup point and a cashier’s check for 900,000 he had to smile.
So that asshole got his.
The two of them discussed marriage. Bill obtained a certificate of abandonment to dissolve his marriage to Corrine and they decided that as soon as they could they would marry to prevent any legal issues. Sharon could tell that Bill was nervous.
“Are you sure you want to marry me?
“Ever since we decided to marry, you’ve been acting differently.
“Are you sure?”
Bill told Sharon he was nervous about having sex with her because he didn’t think he was a good enough partner to satisfy her. She went to Bill and kissed him gently.
“I don’t think you should worry about it.”
She and Bill went to her room, she took the lead, and each of them had a pleasant orgasm. The next morning over their morning coffee, she nervously suggested they hire a sex coach to help them get the sex life they wanted. Bill looked at her bug eyed.
A sex coach?
Bill confessed to having never thought about a sex coach and received her suggestion enthusiastically. It might have been something that the coach said to everyone, but when Bill heard him say that he was one of the most diligent and enthusiastic persons he had ever helped Bill was elated. As the training was wrapping up the coach advised him to put his new capabilities in play gradually, keep what seemed to work well for him or more correctly them, and to not be afraid to try something new to see if it was something to add or not. Bill adopted the philosophy that if he could imagine it, it might be something worth trying. It became practically a certainty that each of them would have an orgasm although they varied from warm, sweet, and gentle to powerful, mind blowing, and spectacular.
Six months after completing the coaching, Bill and Sharon embarked on a trip to visit their families in the states with one of the main goals to personally announce their plans to marry. First, they went to Georgia. Sharon only wanted to see her mother. John’s and her house was vacant and she transferred ownership to her.