A/N The following includes – lots of free advertising. :D
Chapter Nine – There's Something Familiar about that Woman
Jasper and I ran through the forest, our flashlights jangling in front, causing intermittent light on mossy ground and tree trunks.
"She's alright," Jasper yelled to me, not sounding as out of breath as I was. "You don't have to be so worried."
"Of course…" breathe… "I'm worried." I was. Alice was like a little sister and she was so sweet, and she was always so nice to me. How could I not worry about her?
"How come you're…" breathe… "So sure – she's… okay?" I asked.
"Alice told me."
We lost sight of her back by the 45th pine tree. I slowed, panting, trying hard to catch my breath, holding to my side. "Fuck – those wolves can move."
"You cuss too much."
"Whoop-dee-fuckin-doo ghost man."
"We need to raise this to an M rating if you're going to keep cussing like that. The T rating just won't cut it here."
"Huh?"
We paused to stare outward at nothing in particular. I always felt like I was a character placed in a story and if I stared long enough I'd see the person reading about me.
"……………………………………………………………………………………………"
"Anyhoo, Jasper the friendly ghost, back to the chase. Do you see her?"
Jasper shook his head. "I don't see her anywhere, but I have a guess as to where the wolf took her."
"To his hidden lair? His hidden cave?"
"No, I think there's a Jack-in-the-Box off the 101 and I'm sure she offered to buy him a burger. The drive-thru is open twenty-four/seven. She told me she would. They even serve breakfast around the clock."
I strangled the flashlight and then threw it at a tree. "WHY?!" I screamed to the sky, my hands raised, and falling to my knees. "WHHHYYYYYYY?!"
I stood up as Jasper watched me, unemotional and detached as usual. "You don't have to eat breakfast – they serve other things – tacos, salads, shakes…."
"No, you nimnod Cullen! Why are you all so fuckin insane? Is it the water? The meatballs? What the hell? You bunch of… crazy Cullen's!" I then continued my tirade stomping all over the ground, repeating, "fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" over and over again.
He giggled finally. "Alice likes when you go crazy like that. Can we go to Jack-in-the-Box now?" He began to wander away, "I feel like a breakfast burrito."
He kept walking away, the light of his flashlight growing dimmer.
"Oh fuck!"
I searched the darkness looking for the flashlight I threw into the tree. I grew frantic, because he kept walking away. I called, while crawling around the ground, "Wait!"
I was searching around trees and looking under tall growth of shrubbery and weeds.
"Yo," I called, "Wait up!"
Finally I saw the flashlight and lifted it up. "Schwoo - finally."
I looked around, flashing the light across the area.
"Jasper?" I spun around, "Jasper?"
I ran across the mossy ground, feeling the mud collect at the bottom of my boots.
"Jasper? Hey, where the hell did you go?!"
I swallowed…
….all alone
….in the dark.
I spun around again, trying to figure out which way to go. Everything looked the same. I was surrounded by a forest of all the same fuckin' trees and growth.
I yelled, "JASPER! JASPER DAMN IT - GET OVER HERE!!!
"Oh that's just great!" I started walking in the direction I thought I last saw him go.
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I think I was going in circles. I'm pretty sure I saw that same Sequoia an hour ago.
To top it off - it started raining again; a regular downpour.
Yes, I had to do it.
"FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"
I finally just stood still. The rain poured. The sky darkened. My flashlight was going out, as the battery drained. I stood – soaked - and slowly… started to cry.
"What are you doing out here?"
I turned to see a woman with a rain slicker, the hood pulled over her head and mud boots, carrying a rifle.
"You really shouldn't be out in this rain. You could catch a cold," she spoke as she walked up to me. Her eyes were dark with crow's feet at the corners. She smiled when she looked me over. "Oh look at you, getting soaked – poor thing. Come on, and I'll let you use my phone. Were you lost?"
"Um… kind of – yeah." I sniffed.
I stared at her face. She was one of the Quileute tribe women. It was an attractive face and I thought she was possibly middle-aged.
After I stared down at her rifle she said, "Oh don't worry, I won't shoot you. I thought there were trespassers out here. You happen to be in my backyard."
"Oh," I looked around the area. "I didn't realize it was a backyard. I'm sorry."
"I just wondered how you ended up here. The main road is far in that direction - unless you came from the Cullen's home." She said the word "Cullen" with a slight bite in her voice. "Those crazy Cullen's used to trespass," she patted the side of her rifle, "not any more."
"Oh… wouldn't know who they are." I let out a quick, short nervous laugh, thinking over that I didn't want to be duct taped to a tree if she knew I lived with them. I also worried she might use that gun.
"Well dear," she took my elbow within her arm, "follow me."
I didn't know how else I'd find my way back so I followed her to her house.
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Inside, she made me remove my coat, hat, scarf, and mud boots. She put up her rifle, removed her raincoat and had me follow her to the kitchen table. The home was very cozy, with a feel that I was in a home I'd been before. I wasn't sure why I continued to feel such familiarity with this woman.
I sat at her kitchen table and she placed a kettle on the stove. "I'm going to make you some hot cocoa – warm you up. Would you like some soup?"
"I don't want you to go to any trouble."
"I don't mind. I'm off work today. I work in town at the sheriff's department – Sheriff Swan's secretary – and today is my day off."
"Sheriff Swan? Bella Swan's dad?"
She turned to me, and I finally realized her eyes were a dark grey. "Yes," she smiled, "do you know his daughter?"
"Kind of… we go to the same high school."
I couldn't tell her - his daughter was my… nemesis.
She asked, "Why were you out in this rain, and on Quileute tribe lands?"
"I'm sorry – I didn't know where I was. I got lost."
"There was a girl a week ago that trespassed. She had to be duct taped to a tree. You need to be careful walking around. Sam and the boys don't allow it. You're lucky I found you first – or you'd be duct taped to a tree right now."
"…Are all the Quileute's okay with duct taping people to trees?"
"It's not for us to speak against it. If the leader decides then we all accept."
"Is Sam the leader of your tribe?"
"Yes – he's… the head of… watching over our lands." She smiled tightly and then began making the soup. She opened a can of Campbell's Select chicken noodle, heating it on the stove.
I asked, "Did you realize you have giant wolves running around your tribal lands?"
"Giant wolves?" She sniggered, her back to me, "where did you hear a story like that?"
"I don't know, but I saw one steal my friend a while ago. I heard they were going to the Jack-in-the-Box."
"A giant wolf?" She stayed with her back to me. "My, you kids love your tall tales. And Jack-in-the-Box has a wonderful selection of choices – even serving breakfast all day."
[Note from our sponsor: Jack-in-the-Box – where "selection" is our word of the day.]
"So I've heard…" I told her, acknowledging Jack. "It was the same giant wolf that stopped me from getting run over by a truck. He's kind of russet or red. I also saw a really big black wolf too. They also seem to have an affinity to meatballs."
"Excuse me," she said, "I have to make a call into work. I totally forgot."
She left the kitchen abruptly.
Entering a moment later she ran to the pan on the stove burning. "I'm sorry." She eyed me. "You seem like such a sweet little girl – almost like…" her eyes looked off. "Well, I lost my daughter many years ago in a fire. It was the same fire that took my husband. No one knows how it started. But… they never found her body and I've always wondered if maybe she was wandering… looking for me."
"Really?" I asked, "How long ago was that?"
"Oh… maybe twelve or thirteen years ago."
"That's so strange, because that's how long ago they found me wandering the streets. I was only five and couldn't remember anything but my name before that time. I've been in foster care and now I live with the Cullen's…."
Oops.
"The Cullen's? The crazy Cullen's?"
"I… I'm really not like them." I stood from the table, ready to leave. "My name is Leah… and I'm just there for a little while."
"Leah?"
I nodded. "I should probably go."
"No… don't go so soon." She walked over, holding at my arms, looking into my eyes. "Leah?"
"Yeah."
"I'm Sue… Sue Clearwater."
"Okay – nice meeting you."
She held around my arms staring into my eyes. "Do I look familiar to you at all?"
"Um… kind of…. I don't know…"
As we stared to one another, our eyes meeting, there really was something familiar about her.
The back door burst open. "Where is she? Where is that crazy Cullen?"
It was the Sam guy with Paul following. I pulled away from her and took off in the opposite direction to her front door.
"Get her!" they yelled.
I yanked open the door, and ran out into the rain. I was booking so fast. I didn't want them duct taping me to a tree again.
I could hear the woman yelling at them, "Wait…. Don't… she's…"
And then I kept running so fast I didn't want to stop. I ran and ran. I suddenly stopped realizing maybe they weren't following me. I left without my hat, jacket, or mud boots and now I was knee deep in mud.
"Oh… FFFUUUCCCKKK!"
I fell over in the mud I was stuck in, pounding my fists to the ground. They were definitely going to catch me now. I kept struggling in the mud, sinking deeper and deeper.
I suddenly saw a set of two legs in front of me.
Slowly, I looked up and there were Alice and Jasper, chewing on breakfast burritos.
"There you are," Alice said. "You had us scared."
"Alice?" I wanted to hug her, but I was stuck in the mud. "You're alright."
"Yes, the wolf was very nice. He likes you a lot. He wouldn't stop talking about you." She giggled, "Leah this, and Leah that, he just went on and on and I told him that you wanted to thank him for saving you from the runaway truck. He said it was nothing."
"He… speaks to you?"
"We communicate," Alice told me. "It's different than talking."
Jasper whispered to her. They both came on either side of me and pulled me out of the mud again.
"Did you have a nice visit with the woman?" Alice asked me.
"How'd you know I met a woman?"
"I saw it." She looked up at the sky. "I see things some times. She's a very nice lady. I think…." Alice grinned. "I think you'll see her again."
I was finally out of the mud and walking beside the two. Jasper pulled a burrito out from under his coat and handed it to me. "I thought you might like this," he said.
"Thanks."
"You've had a rough day," Alice told me. "It's a good thing you have such a good attitude."
I un-wrapped the burrito and ate as we walked along the forest. It wasn't too bad and still warm.
"You think I have a good attitude?" I laughed. "You do realize I'm on constant pissed mode?"
She and Jasper laughed again.
"I see good things for your future," Alice said, cheerily and with that Pollyanna sound to her voice.
She took my hand, as the Cullen house came into view. "Let's skip the rest of the way."
"I really…"
We all skipped up to the Cullen home.
A/N
This was meant to be a little sweeter, since Leah finally met her real mother. Isn't Alice cute?
