Warmth in the cold

He dreams of when he first met Estiah.

It was the same day he had ran away. He hadn't really met her as her mother told her to stay indoors, she was scared of him and so she told her not to go anywhere near him, or even go out on her own. So she stayed indoors.

When they returned, Mr Dunn and his wife got into an argument, they yelled and yelled at each other and even from the barn and even with the rain beating against the roof he could still hear them quarreling about him.

Then came Estiah, she had snuck out the back door of the main house. She peeked into the barn and looked around, he was on the top floor of the barn where they stalked most of the hay.

She calmly tiptoed in, knowing that if she can't see him from there he must be somewhere in the barn, where else would he be plus her parents had brought their arguments out to the porch, so in order to avoid being seen she snuck in.

She held two bags in her hands. She climbed up to the top floor of the barn. She slowly walked by stalks of hay. she looked around searching for him. The whole place was getting dark.

She stopped and thought about calling out his name, but his name didn't come to mind, she'd only heard her father call him son. So she just screamed at the stalks of hay

"Where are you!"

He had been lying on a cluster of hay, shivering from the cold, he still had his wet clothes on as they were his only one and they made the cold worse.

When he heard her footsteps, he got up to look. When he saw her felt scared, a feeling gripped his heart, a feeling he couldn't quite explain, he was in awe of her but that awe was quickly replaced with fear.

Fear she might see him, fear she might smell him, fear she might spit at him and kick him down the stairs or fear she might scream when she saw his face.

So he hid himself and every time she got closer and closer to where he was he'd tip toe away.

Please go away, miss, he said in his mind, let me be alone, I've already got enough, enough hay and enough room to sleep. I roll around as much as I want, I don't need any more, please.

She knew he was there, he had to be but as to his precise location, that puzzled her and she felt like she was running out of time, her mother could call for her at any moment.

So she turned to leave but as she did she slipped on a loose strand of hay and fell backwards but he reacted quickly, he pushed the stack of hay at her, it was the one he was hiding behind at him. She landed on the hay.

She breathed a sigh of relief then chuckled, he watched her at top she looked cute and laughed. He felt shy at what he felt and tried to hide his face from her but he had already blown his cover.

She turned and looked at him, he tried to move backwards but he couldn't go anywhere. He was just pressing his back against the beam behind him.

"So there you are"

she spoke to him with a big bright smile, her eyes were filled with such innocence and love, that it only made him more scared.

"Wow, you look so lovely," she said.

Me lovely? He thought to himself. No one has ever said something like that to me.

"I like your hair" she said

He couldn't believe his ears, she wasn't scared, she wasn't screaming, she wasn't mad about his smell, what is she? He wondered. She must be a goddess or something.

"Oh that's right I've got something for you, I've been looking all over for you. I don't know why you'd be hiding, is it mom?"

"Don't worry about it, mom will get used to you, she was the same why about the dog, now she loves it to death."

She opened the bag and brought a pair of pants and she said,

"This may be a little girlie for you but it should stop you from catching a cold. Go on, try it on and give me those one's you've got on so I can wash them."

He couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't, he had spent most of his short life in unsightly places, he had seen many terrible things and so many kinds of people but never any genuine kindness,so much so that he struggled to process it all.

She opened the other bag and said,

"And I got you some food too."

She popped the flasked open and the aroma wafted in his face.

That smells so good, he thought. Yes, I'll mask my smell.

Then her mother called out for her

"Oh jeez looks like I'm busted…. She got up…. Well I'll be going now, so put your wet clothes in the bag and I'll sneak out to check on you later."

She gave him a final bright smile and ran off to her, mother called out for her again.

His heart was still pounding, her perfume was still in the air, he couldn't tell if he was scared or overjoyed but he could feel a burning sweetness in his heart and for the first time in his life he felt loved.

Over the years they had grown up together and his adoration for her had only grown strong, he had tried courting her with flowers but those had gotten quite expensive since the melt down.

So he took to writing her poems but they all came out, horrible and so badly written that they made her laugh till she cried. She did thank him for the laughs by kissing him once on the cheek .

Before their home was made hell. Mr Dunn had offered her hand in marriage to him, to his surprise she didn't object, they weren't of the age yet but he was overjoyed and couldn't wait till they were old enough.

He had grown to become like a son to Mr Dunn and Mrs Dunn, who later grew to accept him, just as Estiah had predicted. He had a dream of rebuilding the farm and affording enough equipment to expand the farm but that was before the second melt down.