Along the Trail - 2. Into Those Eyes

A sensation almost like slowly rising from a pool of water, Ellis begins to wake. Like a puzzle, piece by piece, his senses come forward. The aching in his chest tries to stay the focus but slowly more pleasant things become apparent. He is warm in a bed, a very comfortable bed at that. Wrapped in a soft blanket, his brain reminds him what got him here. As fast as turning a light on, Ellis is very much awake. A slight panicky feeling comes on.

Opening his eyes he sees he is in a small bedroom. It was pretty sparse on furniture and decor with just the essentials of a bed, nightstand and a small chest of drawers. A nice and clean room if a bit bland and lack warmth for Ellis's tastes.

Some higher being must of been looking out for him with how his last memories played out inside of his head, he thought. He had to get answers to how he got here. With much effort, he starts to get out of bed. Using the nightstand for support he goes to stand up. With a yelp, a piercing pain spreads through his chest and he loses all ability to stay upright and tumbles to the floor bringing most of what was on the nightstand with him.

The pain of hitting the floor causes him to cry out louder. He lays there shivering from the pain and all the swirling thoughts rushing to him of what happened to him causes a panic attack. Everything starts to feel like he is rushing through a tunnel and he fails to focus on his surroundings just listening to the blood rushing in his ears.

He barely notices the rushing footsteps and the bedroom door bursting open.

"Oh my god, let's get you back into bed. You are in no condition walking yet with what you went through."

Hands touch him and Ellis reacts by pulling away and closing himself into a ball.

"Hey, hey. Its ok honey, your ok. You are ok. I'm not going to hurt you. Let me help you."

Before he realizes it, the hands are back and holding him upright and rubbing the middle of his back. Comfort. He leans in and takes what he can from this person. After a couple of minutes of bringing himself back to normal he looks at who is beside him. A woman around his age if he could guess, which wouldn't be a good guess, since he is absolutely terrible at guessing anyone's age. With warm brown hair and kind hazel eyes she smiles at him.

"Thank you." Ellis tells her.

"Its nothing honey. You have been through a lot and I guess more than I know of. My name is Sarah." she replies with her warm smile growing.

"My name is Ellis. Thank you also for bringing me to your home and taking care of me. I don't know how I am alive, let alone not in a hospital now."

"You don't have to thank me. This is my brother Ben's house. He is the one that found you in time and got help for you injury."

"I have to thank him as soon as I can. Tell me though, why am I not in a hospital? I didn't have just a simple injury, I..." Ellis pauses on the painful thought before continuing. "I got stabbed."

Sadness shows on Sarah's face.

"I know Ellis, I know. Someone was looking out for you the other night. I can't tell you everything. Ben will explain everything to you when he gets back from...back from work. We have a doctor here in town that is very good at what he does. Thankfully he was able to save you without going to the hospital."

"Why am I here though? Where am I? People don't just do things like this is 'Little House on the Prairie'." Ellis asks.

"Your just outside of the town of Armstrong. It's about an hour west of where Ben found you. That was two days ago. Dr. Harris gave you something to sleep to let your body heal faster. The world isn't run by Michael Landon but there are still good people around like the people in this town. We care. I care. Ben cares. You deserve good things to happen to you Ellis. Don't ever forget that.", responds Sarah with a small caring smile back on her face.

The warmth from what she says brings a smile to Ellis. He is thankful for such kindness from this stranger that he would love to hopefully be a friend.

Feeling a little better and wanting to get off the hard wood floor Ellis says, "I don't want to go back into bed. Could I have something to drink and we can talk some more somewhere else here in this house other than on this hard ass floor?"

Sarah mules it over with a thoughtful look and tells Ellis, "Ok. On one condition. You are going to go to the sofa in the living room and be good. I don't want you to get hurt again when I'm to take care of you while Ben is gone. I will bring you whatever you want to drink and something to eat. We can get to know each other more when I know you are getting food into your stomach. Deal?"

"It's a deal." Ellis chuckles.

With a little effort and help from Sarah, Ellis sits at the sofa in a very no-nonsense masculine living room. Reminded of a hunting lodge with the wood furniture, wood paneling and stone fireplace. Ellis can tell that Sarah's only contribution to trying to add a feminine touch to the room is the few decor that is on the walls. The large room is surprisingly inviting with all dark colors that fill the room. A large leather sectional that is deceiving comfortable and gigantic flat screen above the fireplace, dominates the space. It practically screams "Gameday Football".

Sarah pulls a chocolate-brown and black flannel throw from the back of the sectional and gives it to Ellis.

"You will want this to keep you comfortable. Winter seems to want to come early this year. The forcast says it will drop 30 degrees tonight. A storm is coming in from Canada and we could get at least 6 inches of snow! We just finished with October! I'm about done with this climate change shit. One winter is warm and the next is colder than a witch's tit."

Sarah and Ellis laughs.

"Well then Sarah, does your brother have any hot chocolate? We should at least prepare for snow the right way. Clutching a mug of cocoa while bitching and moaning on when spring comes again in 5 months."

They both laugh together some more. "That sounds perfect. My brother always keeps a big box of that. He drinks is almost as much as his coffee. Sometimes he is such a serious adult but still a big kid at heart. I'll go get some made and bring out cookies too. Want marshmallows with yours?"

"Yes, thank you."

Sarah still a smile on her face, "Ellis, you don't need to thank me all the time. I'm just doing what any friend would do. Before you say anything, Yes, you are now my new friend."

Sarah goes off into what is the kitchen to make the cocoa while Ellis ponders more on the luck that he has had since that night two days ago. That reminded Ellis that he had no idea on what the time was now. Looking around for a clock in the room he sees the cable box below the tv that reads 4:45 on the tiny screen. Taking a pretty sure guess it was the evening he wonders when his rescuer will be back.

Sarah walks back in with two steaming mugs of cocoa and a plate of what looks like homemade chocolate chip cookies.

"Sarah, What time is Ben to be back home?"

"It shouldn't be too long now." Sarah turns to look at the same cable box. "Actually he said he will be back at 5 o'clock."

"That's good. I've wanted to meet this brother slash rescuer of yours. I can't tell him how thankful I with finding me."

"Don't push him too hard on the thanks. He may not show it but he gets a bit embarrassed on being told how good of a man he is. His modesty is probably one of the nicest things about my brother. Never asks for anything in return on helping another person out in a time of need. Need a bit more of that around here If I'm honest."

"I'll try to promise on not thanking him too much but I may fail at it. Sort of a random question but what does Ben do for a living"

Sarah's face changed just slightly when answering, "Oh, him and a few of his friends runs a small construction business here in town. They do mainly general contracting work and the like for people in the little area we call home. It's a good business for our little town when all the larger companies are farther away in the bigger cities. Many here can't afford what they want to come all the way here for the jobs that need done."

Ellis nods his head. "I can understand that. Those bigger companies forget that these smaller towns don't have all the money flowing through like larger cities. EIther they forget or they just don't care and want to squeeze as much as they can out of them."
They chatted over other things until the sound of what is a truck pulling up outside. A door slams and a few seconds later a man comes walking in the front door. Ellis looks over at the man. He never saw the most awe-inspiring dark blue-grey eyes in his life and never wanted to look into anything else ever again.