Some Hunters Came Hunting

 

That evening Julia prepared a venison roast herself. I had never seen her so animated. She hummed little songs and laughed to herself. I made the salad and the potatoes.
She was a bit of a mystery.

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Next morning when I went into the mobile Julia was already up and sitting in her kitchen with Billy, drinking coffee. This was unusual, she usually slept in a bit. She had been up long enough to make muffins too.

“Beth, I got a call early this morning from Ben Jr. He said that yesterday when he was in town after classes, there was a strange official looking van driving around and the guys in it were going into stores and even on the street asking questions. He said they were asking about strangers in town or in the area,” said Julia. “They didn’t explain why they were asking; they were weird and rude. No one wanted to talk to them once they met them.”

“He thought you might want to know. Of course, he told them nothing. He said he hadn’t noticed anyone new at all. He said they looked kind of official, but he had never seen that uniform or that insignia before.”

I was proud of the boy’s instincts but thought right away that we might need to fill him in a little. I had to suppose that he knew we were here on the quiet, but he didn’t really understand why.

“I wonder what brought them here Aunt Julia,” I said slowly. “I thought we had made a clean break. I haven’t contacted anyone in Washington, even on a public computer, and I do need to let some people know I am alive.”

She said, “it might have something to do with your stolen car. What if the guy who took it got picked up with it and told the law where he got it? I don’t know why he would. I also don’t know how your kidnappers would find out about that. But far stranger things have happened. A leak is a leak and water runs downhill Beth.”

“You’re right Auntie, it has to be the car somehow. There is also the fact that Jessie's connection to this Res is known to anyone who checks him out.” My tummy felt sick and cold. I didn't know what to believe right then.

Her look was enigmatic and dark. I was glad that she had never turned those glittering black eyes on me like that!

I didn’t even stay for coffee but ran out to the hogan to speak with Jessie. He didn’t look any happier than his aunt had. He agreed that it had to be our old Honda that had provided a good clue as to where we had gone. We were not sure what our next move, if any, should be.

It occurred to me that maybe the USPS was the safest way for me to contact some of my friends up north, the ones I had been forming into a little bit of a resistance movement. That would be slow, but safest in the long run. I needed to let them know why I was gone. I knew better than to write down on paper where we were. Paper could be found by anyone, even if only sent to a trustworthy friend. That’s just the truth and I knew it.

So, after breakfast, with the sun coming up outside, I sat at our little table and wrote a long letter to my friend Letitia explaining what had happened to me, and that I was alive and well, and I joked about an undisclosed location. I asked her to let the rest of our motley gang of alert friends know that the situation had become a step more perilous for them. I only wrote the one letter. I didn’t write a return address on it either. I realized that there would be a post mark of course. So, to keep my dear friends in the dark, and anyone else, Jessie and I decided to drive up into Utah to mail the letter in a little place called Kanab. It would be a pleasant change and safer for my friends to not know where we had gone.

There being no time like the present, Jessie and I decided to go right away. It was still morning. We said goodbye to Aunt Julia, leaving her on her own for the day. We would be driving home in the dark possibly but that was okay. After gassing up in Joseph City, we drove north.

Kanab turned out to not be such a little place. It was an old Mormon town, of course, and the setting for many western TV shows and movies. After stopping at the Kanab Post Office to mail the letter, we found the Wild Thyme Café convenient for dinner. It was like a taste of our old familiar foods up north. Western Washinton is a famously foodie area.

Heading south back into Arizona was a drive into a beautiful sunset, and then the stars came out. I never could get enough of those stars. The distress of the early morning seemed rather remote as we rolled down into Arizona toward our new home. It was a sleepy sweet drive in that old blue truck rattling along the highway making about fifty miles per hour.

Home at last, after checking on Julia, we were all tucked in and nearly asleep when I started hearing some kind of fussing and yipping out beyond the buildings. Not sure what to think of it, I woke Jessie and said “listen, what is that?” He sat up in the dark and listened for a few minutes.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think it sounds dangerous. I better go look.” He jumped in his jeans and shoes and grabbed his flashlight. I wasn’t really sure about this, but I let him go.

Five minutes later he was back. Tucked under his arm he had a fuzzy pup that appeared to be maybe a couple of months old. It reminded me of pups I had seen before in my childhood. A mutt. Maybe half German Shepherd and half some sort of Collie. Terribly, terribly cute, bright eyed and curious about where it found itself. 

“I found this out there digging up the deer guts and stringing them around all over the ground. He made a hell of a mess,” said Jessie rather loudly. “What in the hell are we going to do with him!”

“Well,” I said, “um, feed him? After we wash him?”

The whole deal so far; They haven't taken my phone yet.docx