He looked up and a grin a mile wide appeared on his face. He started jumping up and down, giggling like a little schoolgirl.
“I knew it, I knew it, today is my lucky day!” he screamed. As he scanned the field in front of him, there were artifacts everywhere.
“The tornado must have dug them all up.” He started going around picking up as many of the artifacts as he could find. These treasures included a red flag torn off a mailbox, a VW hub cap, a mangled silver fork.
“Wow, I didn’t know Native Americans had cd players” he said out loud as he picked it up. “I am going to have the best collection ever!” He even found a headless Barbie doll, but he didn’t dare pick that one up as it didn’t have a shirt on.
After about twenty minutes of stuffing his bag with his treasures, he suddenly froze. It looked like he was made of stone, he didn’t even blink. Off in the next field over, he saw a beat up old blue pickup truck come speeding in his direction. He stood there completely motionless as the truck pulled up next to him and a pretty blond woman jumped out of the driver’s seat.
“Willy, Willy, are you ok?” the lady asked, obviously shaken and concerned. “I saw the tornado hit your house and I was terrified something happened to you.”
Willy didn’t move a muscle.
“Willy, I can see you even though you are not moving,” she said with a rather coy look on her face.
“I am a deer and deer can’t talk,” Willy stated with the utmost authority. Inside, he was terrified. This woman was always trying to barge in on him at the most inopportune times. He was afraid she would see the relics he had not yet been able to acquire and take them for herself.
Trying not to laugh, Mary Jane pointed out that he did not have his antler hat on so he could not be a deer. Immediately Willy put hands on his head and his face turned to a genuine frown.
“You are right. The wind stole my hat. I forgot,” he responded.
Mary Jane walked up to him and gave him a big hug.
“I am so glad you are Ok, Willy. I was so worried about you.”
As usual when Mary Jane hugged him, Willy didn’t know how to respond.
“Your nose looks nice today,” he murmured.
A big smile came over Mary Jane’s face at hearing his compliment.
“Why thank you sweetie,” she said just before kissing his cheek.
Willy could feel the heat in his cheeks as he turned bright red. She had never kissed him before and he really didn’t know how to react, so he ran and hid behind the truck.
Mary Jane giggled and followed him around the back of the truck. “I see you,” she teased.
Willy stood up and a huge smile crossed his face. There it was, his antler hat, not twenty feet from him. He took off running and dived on the hat. In one swift motion, he placed the hat on his head and suddenly became a deer. Well, in his mind he became a deer.
Mary Jane liked Willy a lot, but he was oblivious. Being his neighbor, she was used to his peculiarities. She never felt threatened by him. He was like a little boy, gentle and innocent. She adored him for that. Willy had short, curly caramel hair that shifted to golden under the sun’s rays. He was a heavy set man; the layer of fat on his tummy and his round face gave him the appearance of a big teddy bear. His grey beady eyes were always shifting this way and that and quivered uncontrollably at the approach of another human being. A dimple appeared on his left cheek when he smiled. Despite his skittish nature, the few people who had come across Willy on a one on one basis always felt a strange sense of calm and safety.
She would come over to visit him from time to time. Only once did they actually have a semi-normal conversation. She brought him a Hobbit hat and cape she had made. She knew he loved the Lord of the Rings movies so she rented the movie and did her best to make exact replicas. He was so excited, he forgot to be scared. He put them on and suddenly became a Hobbit. They talked about Hobbit things like why their feet were so big and what they grew in their gardens. Willy was happy to show Mary Jane his Hobbit garden. But suddenly, his heart pounded against his ribcage and his thoughts went wild. The smile left his face when he became very suspicious that she wanted to steel his radishes. He took his hat and cape and ran into his house and locked the door.
Mary Jane decided to join him in what she called his “reindeer games”. “Oh, no, Willy disappeared. The only thing here is this big, strong, handsome deer,” she joked.
Willy’s smile returned since he now didn’t have to talk as deer could not talk.
“Well Mr. Deer, if you see Willy, will you tell him he is welcome to stay at my house since his was destroyed by the tornado,” she said with a mischievous smile on her face.
Willy’s jaw dropped and he forgot he was a deer.
“What do you mean the tornado destroyed my house? It’s right there“ he said, pointing the direction of his home.
Mary Jane looked and there was nothing there. A sad look took over her face.
He does not realize what happened, or he is just denying that it happened, she thought.
Willy wondered why she was sad, not sure why he cared how she felt. He wondered if she really thought his house was destroyed.
“Here, I will show you,” he insisted as he started walking in the direction of his house.
“Wait Willy, hop in my truck, I will drive you there,” she offered. Willy either didn’t hear her or ignored her as he just kept on walking. Mary Jane jumped in her truck and quickly caught up with him. She rolled down the window and asked again,
“Willy will you let me drive you to your house, please”.
Willy stopped and looked at Mary Jane. He just stood there thinking for a minute, literally sixty seconds. She just sat there hoping he would say yes. After contemplating his situation, he answered with a resounding “NO” and started walking again.
Mary Jane was disappointed, but on the bright side, he kind of invited her to his house, or at least what was left of it. She continued driving along next to him until they reached where his house once stood. She turned off the truck and slowly got out. Willy was just standing there, emotionless, staring at the former location of his house. He suddenly began to cry.
“Why did this have to happen?” he cried as tears rolled down his face.
“Aww its ok Willy,” she comforted as she put her arms around him to give him another hug. “It’s just sometimes bad things happen to really good people like you. That’s life”. Willy rested his head on her shoulder as he continued to sob.
“But.but...but why did it have to happen? Why did that terrible storm have to uproot my pansies?” he cried. Mary Jane was not expecting that.
He is upset about losing his pansies, not his house being destroyed? she thought. This time she didn’t quite know what to say.
“Umm, I will get you new pansies, the yellow ones with the little blue faces that you like. I will even help you plant them.”
Willy stopped crying and took a step back. “Really, you would do that for me?” he asked, truly shocked.
“Of course I would sweetie,” she replied.
“But why?” he asked. “Nobody in suburbia ever did anything like that for me. The only thing they did was boss me around and make me sleep before I was tired.”
Mary Jane didn’t know what had happened to Willy prior to coming to the “Country”. But she picked up bits and pieces from the few things he had said to her over the last year. It almost sounded like he had been in a hospital of some sort.
Willy suddenly lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her, accidently knocking her to the ground. He ended up lying on top of her, but didn’t break his hug.
“Thank you so much Mary Jane,” he wept. “Can I ask you a question Mary Jane? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to; I know it’s a very personal thing I am asking.”
Mary Jane didn’t know what to expect.
“Can we be friends?” Willy asked.
Mary Jane thought to herself, what a cute strange, adorable man I have laying on top of me. She giggled to herself at the thought. She really wanted to be more than just friends, but it was a step in the right direction.
“Of course we can be friends, sweetie.”
“Wait here, wait here!” Willy squealed as he jump up and ran over toward the tree line. The tornado had skipped over many of the trees as it passed over the hill.
Mary Jane nodded obediently, a pensive look taking over her face as her eyes followed Willy into the woods.
What an odd and wonderful rollercoaster of a day.
She got up and brushed off her little short shorts.
Maybe these little shorts worked after all. That thought made her smile.
It had been five years since her husband Tom had been killed in that horrible automobile accident. She had been so depressed; she almost never left the house. For four years, she mourned his loss relentlessly. Then one day, when she was making her monthly trip to the grocery store to get what she needed for the next month, she ran into Willy, literally. She had turned the corner into the cookie and cracker isle and walked right into him.
He looked terrified and blurted out “I am so, so sorry mam, please I will never do it again.” He then literally ran the other way down the aisle. She just stood there dumbfounded. She followed him, staying back where he most likely could not see her. She watched as Willy picked up each tomato in the produce section and held it up to his ear. She just stood there staring at this rather bizarre, cute guy’s strange behavior. But something about him made her feel safe. She had no idea why.
Why would some weirdo make me feel safe? she asked herself. She turned away, feeling a bit confused, but feeling more alive than she had since Tom died.
About a week after their first encounter, Mary Jane was walking around her fields aimlessly, as she often did, thinking about that strange man at the grocery store. Suddenly he popped up from behind the bank of the little creek that bordered her property. He was wearing full camo and a cap with deer antlers on it. He had not acquired his orange vest yet. He spotted Mary Jane and took off running. She watched as he disappeared into what looked to be a little bump in the earth, almost like a chipmunk. A weird feeling of peace came over her. She just stood there for twenty minutes, trying to figure out if she had been dreaming or if that really just happened.
Willy came running back toward her with his hobbit cape and hat on.
“Look, look what I still have,” he said with the utmost pride.
She looked at him in amazement.
His house was destroyed, how did he save that? she pondered.
“How…How did you save thos..,” she stammered, trying to get out her question out, but he quickly interrupted.
“Wait, first the ceremony,” he said.
“Ceremony? What ceremony?” she asked, puzzled.
“The friendship ceremony, of course,” he replied like she should have already known.
“Oh,” was all she could say.
“Here, take this,” he ordered as he removed the hobbit cape and passed it to her. “Put it on, put it on,” he said like an anxious kid.
She wrapped the cape around her neck and fastened the front. The look on Willy’s face was priceless, like he just saw an angel.
“Yes, Yes, Yes, now we can do the ceremony. Give me your hand…please,” he asked.
Mary Jane offered him her hand and he took it with one hand and with his other, reached into his pocket and pulled out something shiny.
Oh my god, is this some bizarre blood ritual? What did I get myself into? her mind screamed. She tried to pull her hand away but his grip was very strong. Then she looked at his face and immediately calm flowed over her. What am I thinking; it’s Willy, after all; he would never hurt me.
Willy opened his palm and Mary Jane saw two of the most beautiful silver bracelets she had ever seen. He took one and placed it on her arm and closed the tiny clasp. He put the other on his arm.
“Friendship bracelets…we are almost friends now,” he giddily squawked. “Now we have to do the pinkie promise to be friends forever”.
She smiled a genuine smile. He is so cute, she thought.
Willy wrapped his pinkie finger around hers.
“Repeat after me; I, Mary Jane, take Willy to be my forever and ever friend, till death do us part.”
Mary Jane laughed and repeated his oath. He then said it replacing Mary Jane with Willy. He gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and declared;
“Now we are friends”.
This time Mary Jane’s face turned red and she was at a loss for words. But she liked it.