The Woods

I've always lived on the run. I don't mean changing from house to house, or mansion to mansion, I mean living in the woods, one area to another. It's always been that way, ever since I was born. My sister, Denise, taught me to hunt and fish. My mom has recently been very sick, nobody knows what is wrong with her, but she is always lying down on our "bed". For us, a bed is some woods covered in sheep skin which we caught fresh. We don't have cell phones, we have our voices. We don't have MP3 players, we have sticks and drums. It's always been this way, and I was happy. I appreciate what I have; I thank whatever God is up there for my fishing and hunting skills and my sister who cares about me. I have no interest in TVs or cellular phones, I'm happy with what I have. Like I said, I'm happy, or at least I was, until I met Danny. I was Twelve and so was he. He was alone, no mom or dad or family. I never really knew any boys, considering my whole life has been my sister, my mom and I. Not like there was school or anything. I don't know how it got like this, my mom never told us and my Dad, he was killed in a hunting accident a long time ago, and I barely knew him. Anyways, I knew that girls my age usually liked boys. Since I was never exposed to boys, I didn't know if I liked them. However, when I met Danny, I felt something I have never felt before: jealousy. Not like he had a girlfriend or anything, but Jealous of the animals who wonder the woods, jealous because they get his attention, and I don't. Or at least I don't all the time. It all started when I was hunting and I saw a nice catch of a deer. I pulled back, all ready to shoot my arrow. But before I knew it, the deer was dead, and I hadn't even shot my arrow! I stared at the deer, confused. That's when a boy came climbing down from a tree. He wore a fancy bear skin jacket with sheep skin pants. Either he had money, or he was a talented hunter and craftsman. He said "Hi, I'm Daniel Richards the third, but you can call me Danny". He spoke with such confidence and with such a deep voice. I found myself completely unresponsive and just staring at him. He waved his hand at me: "I'm Leslie". He smiled at me, still remaining confident. I asked him where he lived and he said "The same place anyone here lives, nowhere and everywhere". I pondered the idea and was still thinking when he asked "Do you have a boyfriend out here in the woods?" I was so thrown off guard, I almost fell over. I shook my head. He stared for a while. Everyone in the woods (what we called our area) was relatively similar, history wise. Nobody really ever lived in a real house, with a real family or cars and clothes and such. We wouldn't be living here if we were ever in that situation. If we had money at some point and lost it, we would be in a foster home or shelter or whatever rich people can do for shelter. Everyone was relatively aware of their surroundings. Mostly because everyone in the area knows each other, and somewhere or another, you find someone who knows someone who lives on the outside. By the outside, I mean someone who has a home and eats real food and has clothes and such. The two people will talk for hours every once in a while and the person from the outside will fill in our friend about the latest technology and events. Mom told me about the time when the people from The Woods found out about cell phones. Anyway, Danny and I met up each day. As the months went on, Danny and I would share food, he would help me hunt and do other things I couldn't do. He knew a lot more than I did about the outside world. He told me boyfriends and girlfriends kissed, one of the things he showed me how to do. He also told me about something else, which I found gross. I told my sick mother and my sister all about Danny. I think they were both excited I finally had a friend, or boyfriend for that matter. I figured I had a pretty rough life, could this be a table turner? That was an expression my sister taught me. Denise was smart, she tried to talk to people who were smart and learn things from them. Denise taught me a lot of words and stuff like that, which she said was important. But as it turned out, Danny was too good to be true. One morning, Danny and I were having breakfast together, salmon and clams. Everything tasted so good, probably because Danny caught the fish and he also cooked it in a fire. Suddenly, I saw a bear. I let out a shriek, trying not to make a sudden movement. Danny put a hand on my shoulder, sending a chill through my back. He said "I'll get it". He pulled out his bow and arrow, thinking quickly. He pulled back and suddenly I began to cry, I was so scared for both of us. He heard me crying and turned around. While his back was turned, the bear came running toward him. I screamed as loud as I could, but it was too late. Danny was dead. I ran as fast as I could, leaving Danny's body behind. I ran over to where I currently "lived". We had preparation for things like this. I pulled the string that hung over our tent, this released the bear trap. I watched as the gigantic animal went flying down into the ground shaking the area. My sister came running out, at the time she was serving fish soup to my mother, who was in bed as usual. I just stood there, looking at the bear's bloody claws, crying. Denise's first thought was that it was my blood on the bear, so she quickly checked me for cuts. I couldn't even talk. It didn't take Denise long to realize what happened. She hugged me as I cried into her shoulder. For the next few weeks, I was like my mother, lying in bed. I was crying all day and all night, realizing I had lost something so special. It reminded me of when my father had died, I remembered very little of this, though. Eventually, things went back to how they were before Danny. I would hunt alone, fish alone and eat alone. There were no more picnics with Danny, no more of him teaching me how to do things. It took me a year to completely get over him, but after that year, I learned a very important lesson in which I would use for the rest of my life: nothing lasts forever, no matter how good it is.