Read Online Two Medicine by John Hansen - Free Book Online Page B

across the entire face, with a
wooden railing going round and two or three large rocking chairs
set out on it, empty. The store was painted dark brown with a
light, tan trim around the large windows, kind of a Swedish-chalet
style, like the big lodge I had slept in the night before. Logs cut
in half made up the heavy staircase that lead up to the front door.
It looked as good as any place to start with, so I walked towards
the entrance and put one foot on the first split log
step.
    A girl suddenly stepped
out of the front door above me and walked onto the porch. She
shielded her eyes with her hand from the sun and squinted at me.
She looked to be in her early twenties
    “ Are you Will?” she
asked.
    “ Yep.” I stood there
holding my bag and guitar.
    She came down the stairs.
“I’m Katie – I work here too.” She offered me her hand and I
grasped it for a second and gave it a slight shake. She was short
and fit and had natural sandy blonde hair with brown eyes set in a
youthful, thoughtful looking face. She had a good figure, a nice
compact little frame, with fine, full boobs under a tight park
shirt that I couldn’t help but notice. An unavoidable little wave
of interest shot through me involuntarily. Forget it, I told myself. You are done with that messy business, pal, at
least for now.
    She was looking at me in a
quizzical way, as if studying a science experiment that was turning
out different than she had planned.
    “ The lodge called this
morning and said you were on your way out. You’re not what I
thought you’d look like.”
    “ Good…” I looked back at
her at a loss for what to say.
    She looked doubtfully at my
bag. “You packed a suitcase? Everybody here just has backpacks.” She shook her
head slightly, “A regular Daniel Boone huh?”
    That was a bit irritating.
To change to the subject I nodded at the store behind her. “How
long have you been here?”
    “ Two weeks ago, and it’s
already been pretty crazy.” She turned back to the store and
gestured for me to follow her up the stairs. “I’ve been stocking,
cleaning, and getting the place ready non-stop since I set foot off
the jammer.”
    She spoke in a strangely
flat, hesitant kind of voice, like she was reluctantly speaking out
of obligation and making an effort to say as little as possible,
but also awkwardly trying to be friendly at the same time. I
wondered how it was going to be living with her.
    She turned and looked back
at me as if reading my thoughts. “You’re going to like it here,
though,” she said as she held the front doors open, and then gave
me a cautious look. “But it’s gonna take some getting used
to.”
    She then disappeared back
inside the dark interior of the store, letting the doors close,
apparently having forgotten she had been holding the door open for
me, and leaving me alone outside again.
     
    It was quiet in the valley. The mountain peaks around me seemed
at once close and an impossible distance away. The cold breeze made
a whisper through nearby pines, sunlight peeping down through the
branches and dotting the pine needles on their feet; the lake
surface rested glassy and still. Perhaps I
should just wander into those trees, and never stop wandering…
wouldn’t that be simpler? I looked around
at the store again and let loose a sigh. I set my foot back onto
the first split-log stair and climbed up. I walked across the porch
to the front door. Here goes.
    As my hand rested on the
door a nervous expectation and fear built up to a point that I
wanted to grab hold of something immovable and just think for a
moment… just for a moment. To think about what I was doing… I had
given up so much to be here, I had given everything up for a new
start. What was I doing here? I had talked and dreamed for so long about living
in Montana, and now here I was feeling like I was lost.
    I pushed the heavy wooden
door open walked in. I saw that the store itself was mainly a
large, open room all the way up to the