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Susie

I’d been taking groceries up to Bear Hollis’ cabin in the woods for the last two years He was quiet, with a stony composure and cold denored , silent type, living alone, e solitude as if it were his best friend I didn’t feel sorry for hi by himself

I pulled my beat-up Cherokee to a stop in front of his cabin and cut the engine I didn’t see hiroceries and never saw hi to co, and instead paid the fee to have the store send h, not when there were those chances of getting to see him

Maybe that’s why I was the only one who volunteered to drop off his shit Maybe everyone else was too afraid of the man he’d become

I wasn’t ashamed to admit that over the years,much more

Love

I loved a man who didn’t even look at me half the time, who probably didn’t even know my name after all these years I was in love with a man who couldn’t stand to be around people, whose only friend was another recluse loner named Wolf, who’d just found hi Bear, should have just put him to the back of my mind and moved on with my life

But I couldn’t I wouldn’t

I got out of the car and shut the door, standing there for a e When he was at horoceries out of the back of runt as if that was his way of saying thank you

But all was still and quiet, which led me to believe he wasn’t hos out of the backseat There was a ht with me this time, mainly nonperishables, but he’d also requested fresh fruits and vegetables

Although I knew he had a garden during the surown in our zone

Taking the porch steps one at a tis down and knocked on the front door I already kneasn’t around, but I never just barged into his place When there was no answer, I opened the front door and picked up the bags again before heading inside The interior of his cabin smelled like pine, not the chemical, artificial kind, but the real wood aroma It was the kind that told me he’d built this place on his own, cut the trees down, hammered them in place, made this his own

Even if I didn’t know that to be true, the crafts this place was evident

It took roceries inside As per every other tis, not putting it away, but setting it on the counters A part ofthis even if it wasn’t roceries ahile thefor us

I was insane, absolutely crazy for what I wanted and how I felt

Placing ers around the ceramic and stared out the sh up on the mountain that the air had a crispness to it It was the middle of summer but up here there was a chill in the air when the wind h the trees

I turned and stared at his place, having been in this home countless times over the last couple of years To my left there were two leather chairs, worn and tattered from years of use Between them was a coffee table, one that appeared handmade, no doubt by Bear

The fireplace was in the center, the stone mantle dark from soot and use There was a short hallway off to the side, the bathroom on one side and his bedroom on the other I closedwith the pine and the wildernessme feel drunk