A Bears Hunted Love

Chapter 2

Bear POV

Present Day

“Mom, where are you? Everything ok?”

I walk into my mom’s house, on the edge of town, a holla. She called Mr Jenkins this morning, asking him to reach out across the radio, saying she needed me and to come to the house. I spend very little time in town and don’t own a phone, the radio is the only way to reach me in my cabin. I have a sweet set up and a signal that lets me know if I have missed a call.

Old Mr Jenkins is a bit of a nut but he has a radio and my mom refuses to learn so I guess this system works.

“In here” she shouts from the kitchen.

I hope she’s ok, she’s the only reason I come into town at all most times and even then it can be months that pass in between visits.

I walk into the kitchen, my muddy boots and full beared not the son she remembers but the son I am now. A crowd greets me and I freeze. Not again.

“Mom? I think I’ll come back late”

“Don’t you dare, all these lovely young ladies are here to see you”

“Pardon” she says with a full smile and beaming.

“Why on earth would the entire female population of Crawford be waiting to see me? Excuse us, but my mom has some explaining to do.. in private”

I stroll to my mom and escort her out in the garden.

“Koda, don’t embarrass yourself or me, these lovely ladies are all single and eager to settle down. They all think you might be the man for them. This is perfect. You need someone Koda, it cant just be you and the woods. I worry about you.”

“You are not worried about me, you are worried about grandchildren!! We have had this argument of old. I am not the Koda of old, I am Bear. That’s all I am, that’s all I deserve. I got my friend’s killed mom. I don’t get a wife and kids and a white picket fence, because they don’t. You radioed through Mr Jenkins like it was an emergency. This is a setup and I’m out”

“Koda, honey, stop. That’s not fair. You came home, you survived but sweetheart, you aren’t living. You aren’t honouring those boys anything by locking yourself away in that cabin. I know you blame yourself, and you hate that you survived and they didn’t but sweetheart” she sniffs and her eyes shine.

“You need to find a way to start healing, because at the minute you’re still stuck there.. .. and I want my boy to home” tears streak down her face now but I’m too angry.

I walk off through the garden and head back to my cabin. She never changes. She misses her son, the one she encouraged to sign up. Not the one she found in Germany. I have been back state side for 16 months now and it’s not getting any easier to breathe. That weight on my chest never goes.

This is the fourth attempt my mom has made at getting me a girlfriend, and I am terrified it won’t be her last. She knows I’ll never not come through, just incase it is an emergency.

Pacing back through the woods, the pull of my refuge guides me. There’s not a lot out in these woods I haven’t seen already. No surprises. No changes. No people. My land has a border so no humans can accidentally cross it, and I have a truck parked at the trail head for when I need specific supplies that I can’t make or hunt for. I have a Polly tunnel for my vegetables, which keeps me fed year round and cold stores with enough meet for the coming winter, and it’s only September. Winters are bitter in Colorado, and this one coming is going to be no more pleasant. I’ll get snowed in and not make it to my truck until March.

It takes me 4 hours, but eventually I cross my border and enter my land. I stop, taking a deep breath and close my eyes. The sounds and smells, along with the cleanness of the air is what grounds me. This is my home, my sanctuary.

Continuing on, I walk up my steps and head into my cabin. It’s nothing you’ll see in a magazine but I made it with my hands and it’s mine. It’s two bed, one and a half bath (my mother insisted she needed one for her when she visited, not that she can actually get here). The main room is where I spend most of my time when I’m here, the kitchen is basic but functional, an Aga dominates the kitchen and provides the cabin with a lot of its heat and my hot water. A hearth and fire place on the other side keeps the entire room comfortable. The cabinets and table I made myself, like most things. Only a handful of necessities needed trekking in, and luckily I managed to bring it by river for most of the journey. The Aga, that was my nemesis.

I take off my boots, and crash on to my sofa. It’s been such a long day, and I struggle not to highlight that I had planned to stay in and relax today. I guess I’ll never learn, bad things happen when I take a day off.