Chapter 2
As they walked inside, Charlotte looked around her small cabin for anything she could use to patch the stranger up. Her cabin wasn’t lavish and only contained one large room that acted as a dining room as well as a kitchen and two bedrooms. She motioned for the stranger to take a seat at the table located in the middle of the main room and placed the skinned rabbit opposite of where she sat. Once the stranger seemed as comfortable as she could be, she headed to her bedroom to collect some unused sheets she could use as makeshift bandages. She tore the bed sheets into strips before returning to the main room. She grabbed a bottle of Gin from the kitchen before returning to sit on a chair next to the stranger.
“Here,” Charlotte said, giving the bottle of Gin to the stranger, “For the pain.”
Gratefully, the stranger pulled the cork out with her teeth and took a few large swigs before breaking out in a coughing fit. The coughs sounded painful and wet. They lasted for at least ten seconds before the stranger seemed to get them under control. She had covered her mouth with her hand and when she brought her hand away Charlotte thought she saw a glimpse of blood before the hand was discreetly wiped on her pants.
“Oh my,” Charlotte gasped, “Are you quite alright? Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“Ain’t nothing,” The stranger tried to reassure her, but it wasn’t very effective, as her voice was hoarse and scratchy from the coughs, “That’s some strong Gin you got there ma’am.”
Charlotte was skeptical but decided to take the stranger at her word, “If you say so.”
The stranger was right, the Gin was strong, and burned going down. Maybe she was telling the truth, but she couldn’t get the image of the blood on her palm out of her head. But, Charlotte didn’t want to scare the stranger off by being too much of a mother hen, so she decided to just focus on the more pressing issue, the bite wound.
“Why don’t you take off your coat so I can get a better look at that bite,” Charlotte asked.
Dutifully, the stranger carefully removed her coat, wincing when the movement jostled her injured arm. Underneath her coat, she was wearing a worn black leather vest, with tassels at chest level and a plain black shirt, which was torn and bloody where she was bitten. Charlotte could see much clearer now how strong the stranger really was. She had broad shoulders and thick arms which spoke to a life of heavy lifting. The stranger pulled up her sleeve to expose her wound to the dusty cabin air.
Charlotte slowly reached her hand out to grab the stranger’s wrist without startling her. She pulled her arm closer to her to get a better look. The wound looked swollen and painful, though luckily it was only bleeding sluggishly. Charlotte looked up to check on the stranger and found that she was looking directly at her with a strange expression on her face. When they made eye contact, the stranger looked down at her lap before looking back at her.
“See ma’am,” The stranger reassured her, “It ain’t too bad.”
Charlotte didn’t agree. She took the bottle of Gin and poured it over the wound, catching the excess with a cloth. The stranger grunted in pain.
“I’m sorry, I know it stings,” Charlotte consoled, “But I don’t want it to get infected.”
Using the excess Gin, Charlotte started to wipe the wound clean of debris and blood, revealing more and more broken skin. Charlotte felt a little ill looking at the deep punctures. The wound was deep enough that it could benefit from stitches, but Charlotte had no idea how to stitch a wound. The stranger would just have to make do. Once the bite was clean except for some blood that was still slowly making its way from the bite, Charlotte tied a makeshift bandage tightly around the wound. She slipped her hands from around the stranger’s forearm to tightly grip her hand.
“I’m sorry I can’t do more to thank you,” Charlotte said, “But hopefully the bandage will hold.”
“You did more than enough,” the stranger responded, “More than I could’ve asked for.”
“Still,” Charlotte didn’t know if she’d ever be able to make it up to this stranger for saving her life, in more ways than one, “Thank you again. That was the first time anyone’s done anything nice for us… for me… since we got here.”
For a moment, Charlotte had allowed herself to forget what had led to this predicament in this first place. She was still alone. Even if she felt slightly more hopeful for the future than she did that morning, living the rest of her life in this cabin alone felt daunting.
“Well,” the stranger, despite her tough exterior, seemed uncomfortable with the praise, “Nature provides, but she sure don’t always make it easy.”
Charlotte was still holding the stranger’s hand even if hers were clammy. She couldn’t make herself give up that little comfort when everything in her life had felt so grim lately. The stranger’s hand was bigger than hers, and felt rough on her smoother fingers. She imagined a life of hard work had built up a multitude of calluses.
“That she doesn’t,” Charlotte felt that if she didn’t get her thoughts out quickly, the stranger would be lost to her forever, “Ever since we got here, it feels like every step forward has come with a hundred steps back. People always talk about the simplicity of country life. But there’s nothing simple about any of this.”
“I guess we only know what we know.”
Charlotte supposed that was true, but she still thought that nothing quite compared to the struggles she’d felt living in the wilderness.
“Oh please, I’m sure it wouldn't take you too long to adjust to a life of privilege and indolence in the big city.”
Charlotte could imagine it. The stranger, clean and dressed in a pristine suit. Charlotte thought she would look very dashing, but somehow it still felt wrong. Like fitting her into a mold she didn’t fit into.
The stranger agreed with her inner thoughts, “I don’t know about that… It sounds awful.”
“Oh it is. A truly empty and boring existence… but an undeniably easy one,” Charlotte sighed, “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
With that, the stranger pulled her hand away from Charlotte and looked down at her feet, “I ain’t tryna overstay my welcome. I should get going.”
Charlotte didn’t want the stranger to leave just yet. She knew it was selfish but she couldn’t help but not want to be alone again. Not yet.
“Oh you’re not,” She cast about, trying to think of anything to get the stranger to stay a little while longer, “Why don’t you show me how to butcher that rabbit you shot. I’ve never butchered anything before and don’t want to do something wrong.”
“There ain’t nothing to it,” The stranger seemed to deliberate, before acquiescing, “I suppose I could stay a bit longer. Don’t want that rabbit to go to waste.”
Charlotte signed in relief. While it was true that she’d never butchered anything before, she imagined she could’ve figured it out herself. She was just glad to have the company of the mysterious stranger for a little while longer.
“So,” Charlotte asked, “Where do I start?”
The stranger nodded towards the corner of the room that acted as her kitchen, “Why don’t you grab a butcher knife and a bucket.”
Charlotte stood, gathering what she needed.
“Now normally, you’d want to drain it before you butchered it, but seeing as we’re short on time, we can just get on with it.”
Charlotte nodded and looked towards the stranger for guidance.
“You could tie the rabbit up by his hind legs, but why don’t I just hold it for you,” the stranger reached towards the rabbit and grabbed it from where it was laying on the table.
The stranger held the rabbit by its hind legs above the bucket.
“Make a cut right there in its stomach,” she said, drawing a line across the lower abdomen of the rabbit, “Carefully now, if you rupture the intestines, there’ll be a right big mess.”
“Alright,” Charlotte placed the knife where the stranger had traced and gently added pressure until she felt the flesh split. Slowly, she started cutting, unsure if she was cutting too deep or not deep enough.
When the cut was finished she once again looked towards the stranger, “What now?”
“You’re gonna get your hands dirty and pull all its organs out.”
Charlotte looked back at the rabbit and braced herself. She reached her hand out until it was touching the rabbit. Taking a deep breath, she slid her fingers into the cut she had made. Inside, the rabbit felt warm and sticky. She could feel its guts moving with her fingers. Grabbing whatever she could, she gingerly pulled her hand out again. Intestines came spilling out into the bucket. Charlotte found it fascinating how much could fit into one small rabbit.
More confidently, Charlotte once again reached inside the rabbit, guiding the rest of its organs to rest in the bucket with its intestines. Her hands felt sticky with blood but nothing else, as luckily she had not cut or tore the rabbit’s intestines.
The stranger seemed pleased with Charlotte’s work, and placed the rabbit back down on the table, “Ain’t so bad, now was it.”
Despite Charlotte’s initial reluctance, she decided that it wasn’t as bad as she assumed it would be.
Smiling, she replied, “No, it wasn’t. Though it might be because I had such a patient teacher.”
The stranger looked down at her feet, embarrassed, “Ah, I ain’t all that.”
“No,” Charlotte didn’t want the stranger to put herself down like that, “You truly did save me. I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher than you.”
The stranger didn’t have anything to say to that, and kept avoiding Charlotte’s eye contact. Charlotte found it funny that such a strong and competent woman could be made speechless with only a few words of praise. She wondered if the stranger didn’t hear praise very often. If today had been any test of her character, she was deserving of everything Charlotte said and much more.
Not wanting to embarrass the stranger any more than she already had, she grabbed the gutted rabbit and her knife and walked over to her kitchen to start preparing a meal. She didn’t have any food besides the rabbit, but she was so hungry she wouldn’t mind eating a plain meal. She raised the knife and brought it down on the rabbit to chop it into easier, more manageable pieces. The fire in her fireplace was already burning, so all she had to do was chop and cook the rabbit, and she could finally eat.
Now that the promise of a meal was close, she felt slightly faint with hunger. She had been so overcome with grief that she had managed to ignore the hunger pains plaguing her, but she had no such luck now. She thought that if she didn’t manage to cook the rabbit soon, she might die. In her haste, she had almost forgotten about the stranger still standing in the middle of her room.
Reminding Charlotte of her presence, the stranger said, “Alright. I’d better get going. I’ll leave you to eat your meal in peace.”
“If you say so,” Despite her hunger, Charlotte still felt a pang of sadness at her words, “Please do call again some time, though. A good meal and a good rest and hopefully I’ll be a new woman.”
Charlotte truly hoped that the stranger would take her up on her offer. It was going to be lonely in her cabin without Cal.
The stranger nodded at her, “You take care ma’am,” before putting her coat back on and walking out of her cabin.
Charlotte watched her walk away through the window. Once outside, the stranger took two fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly. After waiting for a couple of seconds, a horse came galloping from the forest surrounding the cabin. The horse, a Thoroughbred, Charlotte decided after studying it closely, was a dapple grey and looked clean and well cared for. The stranger approached her horse and pulled something out of her satchel. She held her hand out in front of her horse and let the horse eat whatever was in her hand. She gave the horse a few good pats on her nose before jumping up into her saddle. She seemed to be talking, but it was quiet enough that Charlotte couldn’t understand her. Finally, she pulled on the horse’s reins and left Charlotte and her small cabin behind.
Now looking at nothing, the hunger got the best of Charlotte once again and she turned back to the still uncooked rabbit. She grabbed a flank before placing it into a pot and hanging the pot above her fireplace. All she had to do was wait and she could finally eat.
As she waited for the rabbit to cook, she thought about Cal again. She thought Cal would have liked the stranger. Cal had always wanted to live wild and rough, though he wasn’t much better at it than her. He would have been eager to learn anything and everything the stranger would teach him.
Charlotte looked back at the door to Cal’s room. She hadn’t been able to go in that room since he died in it. She imagined that there was still blood covering his sheets, but even the thought of opening that door made her shaky with fear.
She flipped the flank and let it continue cooking. She realized that she hadn’t even asked the stranger’s name. If the stranger didn’t take her up on her offer to come back, then she would have no way of ever finding her again. Charlotte didn’t think her wound was fatal, but she still worried. She knew that if the stranger never returned, she would have no way of knowing if she survived. She thought of the stranger’s cough and hoped she truly wasn’t ill.
When Charlotte grew too impatient to wait any longer, she grabbed the flank from off the fire and finally got to take a bite of her long awaited meal. Despite the fact that it was unseasoned, it was the best thing she had ever eaten. She forced herself to eat slowly, not wanting to make herself sick after not eating for such a long time.
With her stomach finally full, she decided to hang the rabbit so she could cook the rest later and go to bed. She felt like she hadn’t slept for days, and maybe she hadn’t, she honestly couldn’t remember. The grief had been overpowering. It still was, but Charlotte felt slightly lighter at the hope for a better future. She knew that Cal wouldn’t want her to grieve forever, he’d want her to be happy and live her life to the fullest.
Glancing once more at Cal’s door she spoke, “I’m going to survive. It feels unbearable without you here with me, but I’m going to keep going anyway.”
She paused, feeling tears well up in her eyes.
She brushed the tears away before speaking once more, “I love you.”
With that, she looked away from the door to Cal’s room and went into her own room. Without even changing out of her dirtied and bloodied dress, she fell into bed. With a full stomach, she fell asleep quickly and deeply. For the first time since Cal was attacked, she was able to sleep without nightmares.