The lake was peacefully still with the occasional ripple made by the many fish in it. The sun was warm as it caressed her soft skin and the trees sang as the wind softly danced through them. Small animals like bunnies and squirrels were scattered around her, sounds of heavy jumps and teeth gnawing through acorns filled the air around her. Just how she liked it, alone with only the sounds of nature to keep her company.

"Oh, hi there, miss!" a high-pitched, child-like voice asked her with surprise in their voice. "Almost didn't see you there."

Jolene turned to where the sound was coming for, seeing the last echoes of the child's voice paint up their silhouette. And a child it was, small, no more than four years old with short hair and a nightgown still on.

"Hello," Jolene answered, her voice smooth and amused. "Who are you?"

The child took a step forward, breaking a fragile twig under his bare feet. "I'm Jack!"

She chuckled at the eagerness of 'Jack' who was rocking on his feet. "Are you lost, Jack?" Jolene asked. No child his age would be left to wander on his own, especially not on the outskirts of the slums of Blackwater.

"Uhuh!" Jack nodded. "I lost my mama and I can't find her anywhere!" the boy pouted and kicked a rock by his feet that flew into the lake.

Jolene looked at him with unmoving eyes, watching out for any predators that may have followed the small boy. It would be so easy for a pack, or even a lone wolf to just snatch him up and eat him before anyone even realised he was gone. But who would let their child wander into the forest so far away from the city?

"Did you wander off?" she asked, knowing he was a curious child. At his nod she continued, "and you lost your mama, what about your father? Any other family members around?"

This time he was silent and Jolene tensed as her view of him disappeared. "My papa doesn't like me very much, but I got lots of uncles! They're all waiting back at Uncle Dutch's camp."

"Dutch..." Jolene echoed, rubbing her chin in thought. "What's your last name, feller?"

"Marston!" Jack eagerly proclaimed, lurching forward, sitting down next to her. "Jack Marston, and when my mama ain't angry with papa her name is Abigail Marston."

Pulling herself to her feet, she grabbed the thin walking stick she had stolen off a drunken man in a bar as a young child. It was rough under her fingers but it was a familiar and welcome roughness that came from years of constant use and love. Jolene suspected it was used as a cane or a way to keep balance when fishing in deep water but she loved it all the same, weird twists, bumps and tears.

Jolene beckoned Jack to her, "come on then. Let's go find your mama," she told him, discreetly smacking her cane on the forest floor, pleased with the way his eyes widened at her words. "Or maybe you'd rather find her by yourself, hm? Never trust a stranger, my mama used to say. 'Course my mama was a working girl and shortly after was found shot under a bed, but don't you worry 'bout that, sweet Jack."

"I trust you," his innocent, sweet voice replied as he grabbed her left hand. "Please don't tell mama."

"Ah... sweet boy," Jolene cooed, rhythmically hitting the ground beneath her, creating ripples in the air around her that bounced off whatever was near, creating a short picture for her to navigate. "She must be worried sick by now," her harsh southern accent mixed with something foreign, proof of her childhood in a small village in Texas near the border.

"She'll be mad at me," Jack pleaded, "I didn't mean to get lost!"

"Oh, I know. Wandering is an unfortunate habit of mine. I come from a family of wanderers, you see. Much like yours, only...different. Mine wandered for survival, at first that is, but then that wandering set in our bones, seeped into our blood and now none of their descendants or mine will ever know peace, cursed to forever wander in search for something they will never find." Jolene told the young boy with a bitter-sweet grin on her painted lips. "I love it as much as I hate it. My mama tried to resist but that didn't end so well, did it?"

"No," Jack shook his head though he did not fully understand her words. "Why are you telling me this, miss... I don't know your name!" he realised with a cute gasp and a squeeze of her hand.

"Jolene," she laughed at his innocence. "My name is Jolene, sweet boy. Now I ain't telling you all that to scare you, quite the opposite really. Wandering off ain't always bad but you should be careful with your choices or they may be all you have. Just like how my ancestors wandered and did little else, they wandered for so long they forgot how to do anything else!" It had been a long time since she spoke of her family, much less drawn wisdom from their tales. "Everything has consequences and you wandering off... Now I don't know yet how that's gonna turn out but hopefully it's good."

"I don't understand." Jack said.

Jolene chuckled again, the sound was scratchy as her throat screamed. "You don't need to. Not yet anyways. Don't mind me, I just ain't seen no one in a long time and now I can't seem to shut up."

Jack nodded and let out an 'aha' sound. "Uncle Dutch told me not to show anyone the camp but..."

"Argh, don't you mind Uncle Dutch, Jack. You're lost and I'm blind. Who am I gonna tell? My dead mother?" She joked, patting the boy on the head. "Don't you worry, I'll deal with Dutch if he gives you any trouble, you hear?"

"But if you're blind then how will you help me find camp?" Jack frowned, nose scrunching up in confusion as he glanced up at the woman next to him.

"Can you keep a secret, Jackie?" she asked him, lowering her voice for show. The boy nodded eagerly just in time for when her cane hit the ground. "My papa ain't from around here, he was a scientist from a poor village in his home country. Now when he found out my mama was pregnant he was not happy! Not happy at all! Not even the slighest, he'd swear up and down that he'd shot her dead if she showed her face to him. See my papa didn't want no child to bring him down, he wasn't a wanderer like my mama and he'd only lived in two places his whole life-"

"Jolene...?"

"Yes, Jack?" she frowned slightly at the interruption but decided to let it go. Wasn't everyday she met someone she could talk to, no less tell stories that she ached to tell. Jolene had always been a talker and any time she could she'd jump the closest person and bombard them with stories they didn't ask for.

"What's this got to do with you being blind?" the question was innocent but it made her bristle all the same. Being alone for so long made her unused to people questioning her and she had to force herself to not snap at the young boy.

"I'm getting to that. Now where was I? Oh yes, my papa ain't no wanderer and he did not want no kids around him. Now my mama wasn't happy 'bout that! Nuhuh, not one bit! She kept working and then she had me, stayed in one place for nine months, she did. My papa, ever the proud man never sought my mama out, too busy with ignoring our existence and trying to fit in with the rest of the folks. Years passed and my mama forced us to stay in one place. Five years went and I was begging, no, pleading with her that we move. I simply could not bear it anymore! My mama looked at me and told me that before we left I had to go see this man three houses down and ask for a pair of new shoes. I was an obedient child that was eager to leave and so I ran down the street, pushed the elderly and horses alike. I came upon his store and walked in, now I didn't know that he was my father, mind you and so I went right up to him and asked for a pair of shoes just like my mama told me to."

Jolene's face was blank as she reminisced. "He looked me up and down, cursed in spanish. Mierda! he said and turned around so fast he knocked over this vial of green goo. It got all over my face and burned my eyes something horribly!" she was about to continue when she realised who she was talking to and glanced down at the child holding her hand before she sighed, "I won't bore you with the details. Anyways, I screamed like a pig being sent to slaughter and in rushed the town doctor. He screamed when he saw my face and then my mama rushed in! She screamed too and then I passed out right on that floor. The next morning I woke up, vision as black as night but my hearing was better than ever! I could hear the people whispering outside of the house as if they were screaming next to me! My mama sent me to sleep, she did, and I woke up several days later with a killer headache-"

"This is a really long story," Jack complained and Jolene sighed again, this time in annoyance.

She stopped, looked down at him sternly before sweeping him up in her arms. Jolene kept one arm around his waist as the boy wrapped his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist. "Be patient, Jackie or I shall never get to the end. After my mama saw I was awake she took off the bandages and that's when I realised my papa made me go blind, accidental as it was. My mama was sobbing by my bedside but I was laughing! I could see it all, flashing around me in tune with my mama's sobs and the hooves out on the street. Echoes of the sounds, it was. I was blind but I could still see. Only downside is that when it goes all quiet I'm blind as a bat! It ain't too good with too much noise either because then I get all overwhelmed and my head hurts. I never did lose that extra hearing I got, nor the other senses. You see, Jack, I may have been robbed of my sight but I gained in all else."

Jack breathed out a sigh of relief against her neck once she finished her tale. "That was a long story. I don't think I like them that long, Auntie Jolene. I will never ever complain when Uncle Hosea tells a story ever again!" he nodded his head frantically and Jolene couldn't help the laugh bubbling out from her.

"I like telling stories almost as much as I like hearing them. Maybe your Uncle Hosea could tell me a story once I get you back to camp, hm?"

Jack hesitated, "I don't know..."

"Why not, sweet child? Afraid of me stealing him away from you?" Jolene joked, digging her fingers into his sides as she tickled him. "Don't you worry about me, mister! I can take on that uncle of yours just fine."

Peals of sweet laughter came from the boy in her arms and Jolene swore she had never heard such a sweet sound before. He twisted and turned in her hold but no matter what he couldn't get away from her hold.

"Stop... stop, Auntie Jolene!" he pleaded and begged for mercy but by the way he sought her out whenever she would have to knock her cane against the floor told her he enjoyed it about as much as she did.

Jolene shook her head and kept on teasing the boy. "Not until you ask your uncle to tell me some of them stories he's hiding!"

"Fine! Fine, I'll ask him!" Jack relented, chest heaving as he panted from all the tickling. "But what if Uncle Hosea doesn't like you? Will you still play and tell me stories?"

"If your mama don't mind. I don't bow to no man." She held her head high as she said the words. "Uncle Hosea couldn't stop me even if he set the whole army after me."