Four weeks later. Summer. And life here in the woods, is just hot, annoying, and complicated. We struggled with enemies, sickness, and hunger all in four friggen weeks. Ugh.
Aaron walks over to his little bed area and plops down. "I just don't understand why summer has got to be so damn hot. It's ridiculous." He sighs.
I nod in agreement and continue to clean the deer. After about four days of looking for food, we killed a deer. The fish wouldn't bite, the animals took the berries, and most prey left. Sucks I know.
I grunt as Jamie runs past. She stops and points to Wolf. He is growling and pawing at a tree. I walk over and see it's not a tree but a human disguised as one. I crouch and growl along with Wolf as Aaron comes over.
"Now just what are you two doing growlin' at a poor tree. He didn't do nothin' to you." He stops beside us and sees it's a man. "Well, who're you?"
The man nods and holds up his dirty hands. His hair is a tangled mess, his clothes torn and painted with mud and . . . was that shit?! He covered himself with poop?! Eww! I look at his pants and see that he cut them short and painted his legs the same as his upper body. His shorts are the same as his shirt; dirty, torn, and just plain ugly.
The man points at me and smiles. I give him a confused look and grunted a question. Jamie crouches next to me. She hisses and draws back. Something she's never done. Aaron steps forward and grabs his arm. The shit covered arm. Ew.
"Who are you?!" The man smiles at me again. He slowly picks up a stick and shows Aaron he's going to write it out. Neatly in the dirt he writes-
The boy's father.
Aaron slaps him upside the head. "Don't do that! He has no family but us." I stop Aaron's fist from colliding with the man's head. I grunt and point to the cave. I take the man's hair, the only thing not covered in shit, and lead him to our lake. I push him in and wait for all of the nastiness to float away. I pull him out once he's clean and half drown.
I take his very tanned hand and lead him to the cave. He sits when I push down on his head. Aaron comes over and sits across from him.
"Why're you here?" He hands the man a stick.
I ran away, he writes.
"From?"
My wife.
"Why?"
She hurt me.
"Why?"
She's evil.
"Do you have any siblings?" He shook his head. "Kids?" He points to me. "Quit lying. How is he your son?"
The man huffs and picks up his stick. When a mommy and a daddy love each oth-
Aaron snatches the stick out of his hand. "I know that! How do you know he's your son?" He hands the stick back.
He has my eyes and hair. But why won't he talk?
Aaron looks to me. "Wanna tell him?" I walk over to them from my skinning post and sit next to Aaron. I slowly open my mouth. The man gives me a concerned look.
She got you too? I'm sorry son.
I grunt at his words. He can't be talking about Mother. He can't be.
Your mother was horrible. She took you from me when you were 1. You grew fast. You could feed yourself at 2 and walk at 18 months. She took you and cut my tongue so I would stop yelling at her. He waited for us to read then erased that and continued.
She kicked me out, threatening to kill me if I came back. I lived here ever since, knowing you were getting hurt. I'm so sorry. She wouldn't even name you. She just hated you because you are mine. Because you were going to be shown love. She hated that. She loved her other kids because they weren't mine. I don't know why she had a kid with me if she didn't want it. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
I nod in understanding, still stunned he could be my 'father'.
"I don't know. Anyone can know what his mother did and who she is. Tell Jason something only he knows about her."
Sometimes she'd bring people over and take them downstairs to see you. I knew they weren't nice. They had an evil glint in their eyes. After the third group came and went, I went downstairs to see you naked and passed out. Im guessing rape?
I thought back to the horrible memories. Grabbing hands. Sweat. Heavy breathing. Pain. Hurt. Beatings. Exhaustion. Aaron took one look at my face and slapped the man.
"Out of all the things you could've told him, you chose that?! Fucking for real!" He pulled me into a hug and told me he's gonna punish the man for doing this. For bringing back the most painful of memories. The ones I've buried in the back of my mind, forgotten until now.
That was the only way boy. Im sorry son, but it was the only way.
"Fuck you! How'd you even find us?!"
I heard voices and thought oh well, hey. Better go greet the neighbors. He gave Aaron a dirty look.
No I was spying on you for a few weeks now. To make sure he's my boy.
"Wow creepy and mysterious. Do you believe him Jason?"
I look at this man, my father for a while. Thinking, how could he leave just to save himself? In all of the books I read, if someone loves the other that much, he'd risk his life. No matter what, he'd try to get the person back. I guess he doesn't love me enough to risk his life.
I pull Aaron close and draw 'sort of' in the dirt. He nods and wipes the words clean. He turns back to the man and says, "He sort of trusts you, so we'll give you a three week trial. Jason will judge as well as Jamie. If you fail, you die. If you succeed, you live."
I look at the man again and notice all of the battle scars. Claw marks, bites, burns, and a missing finger. The boy pats my back and heads inside the cave. I look up at the sky. It is clear for miles. A drought is coming.
It rained yesterday and we collected the rainwater, so we should have enough to last three days. Then there's the lake. Aaron insists on boiling it to clean it then let it cool to drink. So it'll take about three hours for one cup of water. I keep trying to tell him he needs to boil more at a time, but he says it'll take more time. Which is true I guess. He still needs to make at least three fires to boil water faster. He won't listen though.
I stand and nod at the man. He follows me to the cave and sits in a corner I point to. I continue to clean the damned deer. As I'm finishing up, Jamie comes over and licks my hand. Which has deer blood all over. I sort of half elbow half shove her away. She whimpers so I clean my hands in the bucket of lake water and hug her, getting her wet. She walks away with Wolf.
Aaron offers to finish and I nod. I could really use a break from hours of work and bad smell. I pick up the bones I had cut out and sit next to the man. I pick up a good sized rib and pretend to make a bow. He nods and follows my lead.
._._.
The day was long, but finally I climb into my bed. The man insisted on sleeping in a tree. We let him, knowing we are well guarded. We made four bows, three knives, and a huge rack of drying meat.
Aaron still doesn't trust him, but you know him. He'll warm up to the man. I hope it's soon, before the Aaron rips his throat out. Wolf wouldn't go near the man and Jamie avoids him at all costs. It's weird. They never do this. I hope it'll clear up by morning.
I turn over and slowly close my eyes.