Aaron, Jeannette and Tucker worked their way up the trail back toward the cabin where they lived. The trail was rocky and steep; having all the proper attributes of any trail in Appalachia. At this altitude a lot of the maples and elm gave way to hardier oak and spruce. The morning was cloudless and had just enough chill to have the sweat feel icy when it ran from down the skin.
Aaron was reflecting on the past year as the three marched up the trail finishing the three mile loop that they liked to do on Saturday mornings. The move to West Virginia hadn’t initially been welcome. Coming from Columbus to the perpetual rural area around Grayston, West Virginia had been a bit of a culture shock. Not to mention how different the people were. Only a couple hours south of Columbus, but the people were a thousand miles different. Not bad, per se, but definitely different. These folks didn’t like being rushed in anything. Aaron had discovered that the more rush you attempted to add, the slower things were likely to move. So different from Columbus where everything was a rush order and had to be done yesterday. The change had come with difficulty at work, especially. He had taken an director position within a hospital here and immediately tried making fast hard changes to areas where he saw major areas of opportunity. He had been met with amazing resistance. Everyone acknowledged that the issues were pertinent and need resolution, but the speed by which Aaron wanted to get them done was alien to his colleagues. It was suddenly like trying to run through mud; both the walkers and runners would get to the end at the same time but the runner would be a lot more wore out.
It was Jeannette who had helped him see that he needed to pace himself. This wasn’t Columbus, she reminded him and things were different here. It was kind of ironic having Jean help him through this with such patience. She had been really uncertain about the move. Her whole family was in Columbus and she had never lived anywhere else. The desire had been his due in large part to a restlessness that he’d never been able to fully put away. He had no such ties to Columbus. His family was a mess of historic proportions and having anything to do with them would often leave him drained for days. To him, the further his family was the better. Nevertheless, he could understand Jean’s desire to be with her family. They were kind people; patient and generous with affection. When Aaron had first met them, he held them at arm’s length and actually considered them a sort of threat to his hold on Jean. It had taken a while for him to realize that not all families were as predatory as his own. He had finally begun to embrace them as his own family and give as much as he got.
In spite of this change, he still had a general restlessness that wouldn’t let him remain contented long. He had a record of changing jobs fairly regularly. He stayed within his field but either sought different areas within or promotion. Up to this point, the frequent changes hadn’t been considered detrimental, but rather, perceived as a young man attempting to make the most of himself. However, with the move to West Virginia, he knew that he had tied himself to this role until he had seen it through. To leave this job early would start to look like career flipping and that would be very damaging. Convincing Jean to move to the area had taken time and she had mostly relented because she loved him and understood his nature. She hoped that he would be able to resolve this consistent dissatisfaction eventually and had told him so on occasion. When she would tell him this he often thought back to a Metallica song that resonated in his mind and thought of those lyrics now: “New blood joins this earth and is quickly he’s subdued. Through constant pained disgrace, the young boy learns their rules…” He never told Jean this, though, as he knew that she would give him a side smile and ask if he was going to live there forever or would he face the future without dragging his past behind him like a corpse for the rest of his life. He knew she was right, but to release that corpse had proven more difficult than he would have thought. That aside, Jean was resolute in her dedication to him. He was fairly sure that there was nothing he could do that would cause her to give up on him. Her resilience often astounded him. So, she had allowed him to drag her away from everything she had known. There had been other offers in different states, but those all ended up being too far away from “home” and it was a sort of unspoken agreement between he and Jean that they wouldn’t move too far away. Here they were only a few hours away and weekend visits were easy.
They had purchased this cabin home because it was both beautiful and strategically located a few miles from the major artery I-64 that allowed them to get to work in a fairly convenient amount of time. The cabin sat on a single acre, but backed up to a national forest which granted them access to hundreds of miles of trails. This trail had become a favorite and had become the routine on Saturday mornings.
Breathing hard, Aaron looked back and spotted Jean and Tucker coming up behind him at a distance. Aaron often pushed hard on the return trip to get the biggest bang for his exercise buck. Jean could keep up easily, for sure, but Tucker was struggling as usual. Jean would lag back and encourage Tucker to make this final push up this stony ridge.
“Come on, baby. Almost home now. Follow momma. You got it.” Jean’s voice sounded behind him as she pushed the dog to catch up. Tucker was an fourteen year old German Shepherd that had seen his glory years a while ago. Huffing and puffing, the huge dog slowly made his way up behind Jean. Aaron was fairly sure he was throwing dirty looks up the trail at his master, but this was routine and so far Tucker had made every trip. Not to mention, the dog knew that there was a special treat for him whenever they made it back home.
They had acquired the dog a few years before leaving Columbus from a lifelong friend of Jean’s that couldn’t keep him anymore due to allergies that their children had been born with. Jean had known the dog from puppyhood and immediately welcomed the idea of having Tucker around. Aaron liked the idea, too, largely because the home they owned had been in a slightly shady part of town and the hundred and fifty pound shepherd had a way about him that made people think twice about approaching the house. Since then, though, Tucker and Aaron had grown close. Jean and Aaron both knew that Tucker considered Aaron the Alpha and worked hard to make sure his master was pleased at all costs. Sure, Tucker seemed to have a lot of affection for Jean, but it was Aaron that got the loyalty.
Now as they approached the top of the ridge, Aaron could hear Tucker coughing lightly as he tried to keep up with his master. In a shot of empathy, Aaron slowed the pace a little to let the dog catch up a little. Soon he heard Jean and Tucker coming up behind him at the same time the came over the top of the ridge and in sight of the cabin.
The cabin was mid-sized at about 2000sq feet and had an attached garage. There was a wraparound porch that had several rocking chairs and the porch swing that had lent a lot of weight to their final decision to buy the place. They knew it was silly and that you could put a porch swing on any porch, but something about how this rough oak swing looked out over thousands of acres of Appalachian beauty had stolen their hearts. The yard wasn’t as much a yard as a partially grassed rocky slope that led down to the forests. They had cultivated the areas closest to the cabin for flowers and a small garden.
Aaron became aware of a scrabbling behind him and turned to see Tucker sprinting for the house with a last ditch effort to beat his master. Laughing affectionately, Aaron took off after the dog as it past him in the hundred yard stretch to the porch. Tucker went like a bullet causing Aaron to wonder if the dog had been faking with the coughing and wheezing on the hill. They were neck and neck as the porch stairs drew nearer. Aaron made a leap and skipped the stairs landing in a hard roll onto the porch. Tucker came up on him and jumped on Aaron playfully licking at his face. The dog was panting and drooling all over Aaron.
“Ok… ok boy…”, Aaron exclaimed laughing as Tucker licked and tried to get his tongue up Aaron’s nose which was a favorite of Tucker’s. “Let me up and I’ll get you your treat, boy.”
At the word treat, the dog leapt off Aaron and started doing small jumps up on his hind legs. Jean had climbed the stairs to the porch and Aaron looked at her. Her face was flushed with exertion and her walnut hair was shining in the morning light giving it red highlights. She stood about five seven and had a form that was very fit but not bony. She carried all the right things in all the right places and Aaron couldn’t get enough. Jean reached down and Aaron threw his hand into hers and she pulled him to his feet.
“Thanks, babe. That beast was sandbagging on the trail, I’m sure of it now. Did you see him make for the porch? Tired, pish.” Aaron was looking at the dancing dog shaking his head. Tucker barked.
“Yeah, I don’t know where he learns how to malinger so well? Perhaps, someone else in the house is good at acting hurt or sick to get attention…” Jean’s bland tone left no question that she was referring to Aaron’s propensity to get all too dramatic when he felt ill or hurt.
“What? Me? Come on. You know that I save all my toughness for the day I need to protect you from vicious villains that may attack us. If I used it all up being tough when I am sick or hurt, what would you do when that dreadful day came you needed me to save your life?” Aaron eyed Jean with disturbing amounts of faux concern.
“Ah yes. I forgot. Please do save all that manliness for that dreaded day. I have no idea what I would do without my hospital administrator husband to protect me from the evils of the world.” Jean smirked and turned to Tucker to pet his head. The truth was that Jean was anything but helpless. The career change from Columbus to Grayston hadn’t only been for Aaron. Jean worked for the Charleston division of the ATF and had clocked a substantial hours taking down any number of bad guys. The move to West Virginia had allowed her to take a promotion and she had been enjoying the new role. West Virginia had a large crystal meth industry and she worked closely with other DHS affiliates to crack down on the trafficking. Her job was dangerous and her ability to think fast and take care of herself had saved her life a number of times. Aaron, however, had very little in the way of knowledge regarding the handling anything remotely dangerous barring the occasional paper cut or hostile tones in a finance meeting at the hospital.
“Exactly. See, Tucker, that’s how you keep’em in line. These modern women need a stern hand.” Jean turned and quickly started grabbing at Aaron trying to get a hold on his shirt with one hand and neatly aiming the other fist at his midsection. Aaron, laughing danced out of her reach and jumped the railing on the porch to the ground below. With the sudden action of his masters playful fighting, Tucker started barking and jumping around.
“I’ll show you a stern hand, mister. Come back up here and show me how manly you are, there buster.” Jean stood smiling at him from on the porch.
“Sic her, Tucker. Sic her.” Tucker, having no idea what “sic” meant, came bounding off the porch to his master jumping on him and nearly knocking him from his feet. “Useless, mutt. Her, I wanted you to get her…”
“I see you both work on the same level of intelligence.” Jean said with hands firmly placed on her hips.
“Did you hear what she said, Tuck? She said that you’re only as smart as me. Are you actually going to let her get away with that?” Jean made a disgusted sound and turned toward the door. Tuck continued trying to get his master to wrestle some more. “She’s getting your treat, Tuck, you should go with her.”
Those words did the trick. Tuck turned and barreled up the stairs toward Jean. The doorway was not built to facilitate both a person and the gigantic dog going through at the same time and Jean was pushed aside and grunted as she made hard contact with the frame. Aaron’s laughter came in uncontrolled breathless waves.
Jean turned and looked at him as she headed through the door. “Very funny, smart guy. How is it again that you’re planning on getting into the house?” With that she closed the door and Aaron heard the distinct sound of the door locking. His laughter faded rapidly
“Hey… Wha? Come on, babe, I was so kidding around. You can’t seriously be locking me out.” Aaron’s mock look of devastation as he climbed the porch stairs was returned with the curtain on the front door parting and Jean’s face appearing with her tongue clearly stuck out at him. “That’s some stern hand I have…” He muttered to himself.
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