Because of Ellison (21 page)

Seven days into the baiting project and I was finally
finished. During that time, I’d stopped following Ellison out on our hikes. The
first day didn’t seem to faze her because she left at her usual time and returned
at her usual time without bothering to glance in my direction. On the second
day, I noticed her head turn to look at me as she entered the narrow path, but
that was the only acknowledgement I received. Days three, four, five and six
were the same. But, on day seven, she passed me while I was repairing the last
broken board on Bill’s porch and she stopped for a moment to watch me. I forced
myself not to look up at her from what I was doing. She didn’t approach me and
she didn’t say anything, and, eventually, she made her way out to the trail.
But it was the fact she’d stopped that made me grin. It meant she was still
interested and it meant that it was time to put out the bait.

On day eight, I was outside scraping off the remaining bits
of paint on the porch in order to prime and paint it. I’d replaced all the
rotting wood and I’d removed the torn and tattered screening that looked like
it might have been original to the house. I heard Ellison’s front door open and
close and the usual barking of the dogs as they were introduced to the first
bits of sunlight in the day. I was tired as fuck because I’d been up until
almost before those bits of sunlight appeared over the horizon; but, I’d spent
the night executing my plan and now I would get to watch it unfold and discover
if it would work.

She passed me by without a glance, probably because I was
staring right at her. But I smiled anyway, grabbed the hiking pack that I’d
also purchased with the money my mom had sent, and I followed behind her. When
we entered the path, she turned to look at me. She sighed when she saw me, but
I swear there was the tiniest smile peeking out at the corners of her lips. I
smiled brightly — flashing the dimples, of course — and took my
place with the dogs following her onto the trail.

We passed a low hanging branch just as the path broke out
into the trail and hanging from that branch was a little plastic bag tied to a
string. Inside that bag was a note. It was like an archaic text message and I
knew the plastic bag would piss Ellison off because I didn’t belong in nature.
She ran up to it almost immediately and ripped it off the branch. Looking down
at it she must have noticed it had her name on it. She glanced back at me and
her brows furrowed between her eyes. I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders at
her. I’d hoped she would take the note out and read it, but instead she just
shoved it in her pocket, plastic bag and all, and kept hoofing it up the trail.

I wasn’t worried though, because I knew that it was just the
beginning. We approached the second mile mark of the hike and a person was
standing up ahead. He stood on the sideline of the trail with his hand waving
out at us. The only thing about it was, he wasn’t moving and he looked just
like me. Ellison stopped in her tracks and the dogs ran ahead to investigate.
When they approached the man, they jumped up and knocked him over. It didn’t
take much for them to do so considering he was a cardboard cutout of yours
truly. I’d had Lily take pictures of me is different positions until I was
satisfied with a few I could have blown up and made into life-sized images.

Ellison slowly approached and I silently followed behind
her. When she reached the
cut-out
she noticed the note
it held in its hand, also wrapped within a plastic bag. She looked back at me
confused at first, but eventually, she rolled her eyes and grabbed the note off
the cutout and shoved it in her pocket.

We continued walking and I tripped over my feet when she
spoke.

“You do realize you can’t leave that cardboard out here,
right? It’s not good for the environment.”

I smiled. “I’ve already got that covered, El.” The guy at
the print shop had assured me that the cutout was biodegradable, but I still
had plans to walk the trail again with garbage bags in an effort to clean up
the remnants of the bait.

She didn’t respond.

Mile three came and went but when we reached the four-mile
mark, another note hung in a plastic bag from another cardboard cutout. I was
in a begging position for this one, which helped, because it hid the box tucked
into the brush behind it. Ellison sighed up ahead of me, but still approached
“Begging Hunter” and tried to pull off the note.

The note was secured to the cutout with a large staple so
Ellison had to pull hard to free it. But, there was also a string attached to
that note and when she gave it a good tug, the string was pulled and it opened
the top of the box that was hidden in the brush behind the cutout. As soon as
that box was opened, a hundred butterflies escaped that box and flew all around
Ellison. It was a magical moment. The different colors of their wings
surrounded her almost instantly and she spun slowly within the cloud of
butterflies, her lips finally breaking out into the smile I’d missed seeing on
her face over the past two weeks. The butterflies landed in her hair and on her
hands and she stood still until the cloud finally dispersed and took off in
separate directions.

She turned to look back at me with a questioning expression
on her face. I shrugged my shoulders and explained, “The guy at the garden shop
assured me they are an indigenous species to Florida to they won’t be messing
up the environment or anything. I just thought the little guys needed to be
freed.”

“Uh huh.” She shoved the note in her pocket, but I didn’t
miss the smirk on her lips when she turned back to continue along the trail.

By the time we reached mile seven, the sun was higher in the
sky and luckily; it was beating down on our backs something brutal. I could see
the sweat sliding along Ellison’s skin and I knew she was just as miserable as
I was in the heat. At the opening of the path that led to the spring, there was
another Hunter cutout. This one held a sign in his hands that read, “Hot?
Tired? Need a dip perhaps? You should check the grass and pay your buddies a
visit.” Underneath those words was an arrow pointing towards the water.

Ellison stopped again. She glanced over her shoulder at me,
but then turned to walk the path to the spring. When she approached the grass
patch where’d we almost had sex the first time she found a blanket, and on top
of that blanket was a large box.

Opening the box, she discovered two masks and two snorkels.
Inside the masks were notes that read, “The fish miss you and so do I.” She
smiled but turned her head in an attempt from letting me see it. I noticed
anyway despite her attempt.

She picked up the smaller of the masks and moved to walk out
to the edge of the spring. After placing her pack on the rocks to the side, she
stripped off her shirt and shorts and jumped into the water before placing the
mask on her face and swimming out into deeper water. Hunter junior stood at
attention to see her strip down to her bra and underwear, so I took a moment
for him to calm down before following behind her.

In the distance I could see the small piece of Styrofoam
that floated on the surface of the water. I placed the mask on my face and
looked under the water to watch as Ellison approached it and found the smaller,
waterproof case that hung from it and was weighted down to keep it from floating
to the surface. Ellison grabbed the case and pulled it free of the float. After
she’d accomplished that, I swam out to her side and we spent a good half hour
just watching the fish move in multi-colored waves beneath us. Every once in a
while, Ellison would swim down and move within the center of the school and it
was a beautiful sight to watch. She looked peaceful — happy — and
even if was only for a brief moment, I was ecstatic for having given her that
small bit of peace.

When it was time to return to shore, I grabbed the Styrofoam
float and pulled it to shore behind me. I took the masks and snorkels and
stowed them away in the box, along with the float. By the time I returned to
the trail, I noticed that Ellison had been watching me. She had a strange look
on her face, but she smiled when I caught her before turning to complete the
trail, shoving the case in her pocket as we walked. That was the last of my
surprises, but I was happy to know that I’d gotten my messages out to her.

~
    
~
    
~

The hike back was quiet as usual. Except, this time, it was
a comfortable quiet. Not the kind of quiet where I could tell that Ellison was
mad that I was following her and she was calling me a stalker in her head. No.
That had been the old kind of quiet — the new kind felt like acceptance.

We reached the houses and we both were beat down and tired.
Even though I was drenched in sweat and my feet were killing me, I smiled
brightly. The first part of my plan had worked.

Lily, Bill and Henry were standing by Ellison’s porch when
we rounded the corner from the trail and their six eyes locked on us almost
immediately. Lily looked worried, Bill looked distraught, and Henry looked like
he was going to follow through with his previous threats against me. He might
have been sick, but he still looked like he’d find a way to kill me and feed my
body to the gators.

“Hey, everyone. Daddy? Why are you home so early?”

Henry reluctantly peeled his eyes off of me to look over at
Ellison. “I had an incident at work. It wasn’t anything you need to worry
about, I’m just going to go inside and go to bed.”

Ellison nodded her head and Henry shot me one more eye
dagger before turning to walk inside. Once he was out of earshot, Ellison
looked to Lily. “What happened?”

Bill cleared his throat and answered. “He passed out at work
today. Said he’s just tired and that he hasn’t been sleeping well. Besides the
receptionist at his job who had a little bit of medical training, he wouldn’t
let anyone else take a look at him. They called me to go pick him up and he
demanded I bring him home and not ask questions. Is everything alright with
him, Ellie?”

Ellison’s face fell and I groaned to realize that this news
would destroy all the good feelings I’d just worked hard to build up inside of
her.

“No. He’s just been tired like he said. I’ll go inside and
see what I can do for him.”

I didn’t know why Ellison and her father continued to lie
about his health, but it wasn’t my place to say anything, so I kept my mouth
shut. Ellison waved at us and made her way back to the house before opening the
door and disappearing inside.

Bill and Lily walked over to their house and I walked over
to the porch to finish up the scraping despite how tired I was from the trail.
Ellison needed time, I would give her that time, and I’d done what I could to
get my messages out to her.

The only thing I could do at that point was to wait
patiently and see if the messages were enough to get her to approach me.

Ellison

By the time I got inside, daddy had already gone to his room
to lie down. I sighed a heavy breath and showered before going into my room to
take a nap. When I threw my shorts on top of my hamper, the case in the pocket
of the shorts fell out and rolled across the carpet to land at my feet. I ignored
it, not really in the mood to worry myself with my problems with Hunter. My
father’s illness was draining me emotionally and I didn’t have any room left in
me for more problems. By my calculations, he was leaving in three weeks and
he’d return to the life he’d known before. There was no point in muddying up
both our lives with a relationship that could never happen.

I wasn’t able to fall asleep no matter how hard I tried. I
was physically exhausted from the hike, but I couldn’t get the notes out of my head.
It also didn’t help that I couldn’t get the night I’d had sex with Hunter out
of my head either. I don’t know what I’d been thinking that night, but he was
exactly what I’d needed at that moment. I needed the release, the feeling of
something besides pain and heartache. And I hated to admit it, but he
delivered. In fact, I couldn’t get it out of my head for the next week about
how he’d delivered. I could still feel his lips traveling over my skin and the
perfect strength to his hands as they’d explored every part of me. My hands
remembered the feel of his body, the way his muscles moved beneath his skin,
and my mouth watered to remember the salt taste to his skin and lips. And I
won’t even get started on what he felt like inside me. Let’s just say a volcano
erupted within me and I was pushed over an edge so high, my fall back to the
ground almost felt as good as the trip it took to get to that edge. He was
amazing in bed … that was for certain.

My eyes peeked open when I finally gave up on sleep and they
slowly traveled over to look at the case that sat on my floor and the hiking
shorts on the top of the hamper. Huffing out a breath, I pushed my weary body
up from the bed and walked the short distance to retrieve the notes. Carrying
them back to my bed, I laughed to think about what he’d done to get them to me
and I had to give him points for originality. The butterflies were a good touch
… I could admit that. I wondered if he’d known I wouldn’t read the notes when I
found them because I noticed that he’d numbered them to help me remember the
order. He was a sneaky bastard, but I smiled thinking about how much time he
must have spent putting the whole thing together. The least I could do was read
what he wanted to tell me.

Opening note number one, I carefully unfolded the page and
saw that it wasn’t very long.

Hey, Ellie. I know you
don’t want to talk to me much and I know that I’ve been annoying you lately by
following you on the trails, but I want to explain. I was hoping my presence
would get you to talk to me, but it wasn’t only about that. I want you to know
that you’re not alone in what you’re going through. Just like the days on the
trail, I’m always behind you, I’m always available to listen and I’m willing to
walk through whatever you need me to walk through to prove that to you. I don’t
want you alone and I don’t want you carrying the weight of everything that’s
happening right now by yourself.