Story A Day #9 The Kindness of Strangers

By the time Ruth realized she was lost storm clouds had gathered menacingly above the trees.   It had started out as a sunny autumn day although the temperature was quite chilly.  Ruth had left the shelter vowing never to return.  With just the clothes on her back, she started walking.  Grateful for the heavy sweater jeans and boots she had been given at the shelter she decided to keep walking to get warm.  She had nowhere else to go.    She headed out to the highway and kept going.  At 70 she was in good shape.   Arthur and she had had a small hobby farm that kept them busy and fit.   They prided themselves on living off the grid and keeping things simple.   Ruth felt tears slip down her cheeks.   How she missed Arthur!  Once again she cursed the God who had taken him from her.   A God she no longer needed.  Or wanted.

 

Outside the city limits, the landscape became wooded.  Ruth loved the woods.   All of her life she had found her solace in the forest.  Behind their farm, there had been a forest and Ruth often walked back there.  She wasn’t afraid.   Their forest, as she called it, had trails that were frequented by hikers and sometimes school children taking daring short cuts.  Reclusive by nature Ruth often hid among the trees in order to avoid contact with anyone.  She smiled to herself as she remembered overhearing some children calling her the crazy tree lady.   She was not ashamed to admit to cackling like a witch once and sending them screaming their way home. 

Noticing a gap in the trees, Ruth turned off the highway just intending to take a short walk and then come back out again.   The forest was dense and smelled pungently of pine and dead leaves.   Most of the trees were pine and it was dark in the woods but Ruth didn’t mind.  She felt happier than she had in days, weeks even.   Breathing deeply she headed further into the woods, not thinking about where she was going, just enjoying the peace of the forest.   Squirrels scurried about gathering nuts for winter, some oblivious to her intrusion, some calling out their alarm.  

After a while, she noticed the temperature had dropped quite a bit and the forest was darker.   Looking up she saw dark threatening clouds had replaced the bright blue sky.   As if on cue the wind picked up.   Ruth knew she had better get back out to the road and see if she could flag a ride back into town.  But when she turned out she became very disoriented. Nothing looked familiar.  Where was the trail she had been on and when had she gone off it?   She had been so lost in thought she hadn’t paid attention to her surroundings, something Ruth knew was dangerous when hiking in the woods.   

Suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder.  Not knowing where she was Ruth started running.   She found a dirt road and wept with relief thinking surely it would lead to the main road.  Ruth continued jogging down the road as large raindrops began to fall.  A few minutes later she was running blindly in a downpour, soaked to the skin and freezing cold.   The wind lashed the branches around her in a menacing way and leaves and twigs were being stirred up all around her feet.   She decided to head into the trees and make herself a shelter till the storm passed.   Ducking into a spot where there were some older trees, not tall enough to attract the lightning that was flashing all around her, she looked around for a place to shelter.   Inside the forest was a bit calmer but it was much colder.   Ruth realized she was lost.  Lost and alone with no one to worry about her, no one to notice she was gone, or to come looking for her.  She began to panic and run faster.  A streak of lightning hit a tree nearby and it crashed to the ground behind her.  Turning to look she didn’t see the root on the ground and caught her foot in it and went flying through the air.   She hit the ground with a sickening thud and everything went black.

Ruth didn’t know how long she had been out when she came to.   She lay on the ground in the rain for a few minutes assessing the damage.   Her left wrist was excruciating, she must have broken her fall with it, and she had a gash above her right eye which would explain her pounding head. The storm had whipped itself into a frenzy of wind and driving rain.  What was she going to do?   She began to cry.  Then she noticed there was a building nearby.   Sobbing she gingerly stood up and walked toward it.  It was a cabin.   The door was unlocked and Ruth went inside.

The cabin was neat and homey.  It was clear someone had been staying there recently.  It was a small cabin with a bedroom and a bathroom off the main room.   Best of all there was a wood stove with wood in it all ready to make a fire.   Ruth immediately started a fire and looked at the box of wood beside the stove.  It was almost empty.   There wasn’t enough wood in there to last her more than a few hours.   Ruth had no idea what time it was, the sky was so dark from the storm and she didn’t know how long she had been knocked out.   Well, she couldn’t worry about that now.  Her wrist was throbbing painfully and swelled up like a balloon.   Even if she could find wood, she wouldn’t be able to carry it let alone chop it.   She dragged a quilt out of the bedroom and moved the recliner closer to the fire.  Removing her wet clothes with great difficulty she spread them on another chair to dry.  Exhausted from her efforts and her ordeal she collapsed in the chair.  Wrapped in the quilt in front of the cozy fire it was easy to forget her situation.  She would just rest here until the storm passed and then try and find her way out.   As the wind raged outside Ruth, lulled by the fire, fell into a deep sleep.

Joe drove up to his cabin and parked his truck.  He had gone into town for supplies and had dinner at the local diner to wait out the storm.  Once the weather settled he headed home, looking forward to a nice fire and a hot drink.  He immediately noticed the glow in the window. 

“Well Iris, it looks like we have company.”   Iris jumped out of the car and ran to the door.  

Ruth felt something wet on her cheek and opened her eyes to see the strangest creature she had ever seen.  It had one blue eye and one brown one, and its fur was various colours of gray and white and black and brown.  She sat up quickly, alarmed by this apparition.  Her vision cleared and she realized it was a dog.

“What’s going on here then?”  a deep booming voice said. 

Joe was ready to confront the intruder when he noticed it was an old woman and she was injured.

“I’m sorry….I didn’t mean to….the door was unlocked…I fell…the storm…” Ruth realized she was babbling but she couldn’t seem to get her words to come out right.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. My name is Joe. You’re hurt.  Let me have a look at you.”  His voice was kind and Ruth looked up into the face of a man with gentle eyes that were filled with concern. He was probably in his mid-thirties with long shaggy hair and a beard.  He carefully examined her head, cleaned the cut and made her an ice pack.

“My arm….”   He looked at her wrist carefully. 

“I don’t think anything is broken, maybe just a sprain.  Let me find something to wrap it.  Oh….”  Just then he noticed her clothes spread out before the rapidly cooling woodstove.   He realized it was chilly in the cabin.

“I’m going to go and get some wood and get this fire going again.  You stay right there and rest…” 

“Oh no!  I really should get going…!” Ruth protested. 

“You are in no shape to be going out in this weather.  Stay right here.”  He was firm and gentle and Ruth felt safe with him.

  

Feeling a nudge at her arm Ruth looked at the dog.

“Oh yeah, that’s Iris.  She’s a great friend and she’ll keep you company.  I will be back in a few minutes. And he was gone.

A few hours later Ruth was feeling much better.  Joe had built a fire in the stove and made her some dinner.   His kindness was overwhelming and Ruth found herself telling him her story.

He listened attentively as she told him about Arthur and their little farm and how he had died suddenly of a massive heart attack several months ago.  He’d never been sick a day in his life.  Not only had she lost Arthur but she had lost the farm as well and she was forced out on the street.  She had been living in shelters for the past month.  She told him about walking in the woods and getting lost.  Joe asked her if there was anyone he could call for her, knowing the answer before she said it.   Arthur and Ruth had not been blessed with children, so there was no one.  Joe stared at the old women feeling emotion rise up in him. It had been a long time since he felt anything for anyone and now here he was touched by a total stranger.

“So that’s how I ended up here.  I am really sorry for…well I didn’t really break in, the door was open…!”  she explained.

“Hey don’t worry about it. I am glad you got out of the storm.  I don’t usually lock my door.  There is no one out here at all. “  Ruth noticed a sadness about him that made her heart melt.

“Tell me your story, Joe.”  She said gently.

Joe found himself opening up to Ruth as he not done with anyone in months.     Joe was a wildlife photographer which is why he had this cabin, so he could have a place to stay while he was shooting.   He came here on weekends and lived here through the summer.  During the winter he did his “real job” in the city.   It was just him and Iris he explained, his face lined with pain.   Ruth waited, knowing he would share when he was ready.  She felt tears spring up when he told her he had lost his wife and son and their unborn child in a mass shooting two years earlier.   Ruth’s heart broke in two at this news.   For several minutes the two of them sat quietly each lost in their own grief.   They had bonded deeply in just a short time.  Ruth believed she had been meant to meet this young man and she didn’t understand why, but she knew there was a reason. 

Joe sat beside Ruth thinking he had never met anyone so easy to be with and that understood his loss because she had her loss too.  The two of them were alone in the world.  He wondered if she had appeared in his life for a reason.

“I think we should get some sleep,” Joe said.  “You can have the bedroom, I will sleep in the recliner…no it’s okay, I do it all the time” He reassured her.

“You’ve been so kind.  I will be out of your hair tomorrow. I promise”. 

“Don’t be in a rush.  You probably have a bit of a concussion.  You can stay here as long as you need to until you are feeling better.  But where will you go?”  Joe said.

Ruth had no idea where she was going to go.  

“I’ll figure something out.” She said, yawning.  “I will see you in the morning."

Joe watched her head into the bedroom and realized he didn’t want her to leave.

The next dawned bright and clear, a perfect fall day.   Ruth was up early and dressed in her now dry clothes.    She put the coffee on and was getting ready to make breakfast when Joe came in with Iris who bounded over to her new best friend who was holding bacon. 

Joe asked if she had slept well and was happy when she said it was the best night’s sleep she had ever had.  And then he told her he had been thinking and had a proposition for her.   Ruth listened as Joe told her of his plan.  He could use someone to stay at his cabin while he was in the city.  Since Ruth had nowhere to go, maybe she would like to stay here until she found a place to go.  It would help him out a lot and he could leave Iris here with her.   Ruth stared in amazement at her new found friend.   She could live in the woods.  And not have to go to a shelter again.  It was a perfect solution to her problem.

“Oh thank you, Joe.  I would be happy to stay here….just till I get on my feet you know…and well if it would help you out it’s the least I could do”.  Joe and Ruth grinned at each other happily.

And yes, Ruth and Joe did come to realize they needed each other, and they did live happily ever after.