A Second Chance

When I woke up the next day I laid in bed for a good extra two, three, twenty minutes. By the looks of my house yesterday, it would take quite a long time a lot of manual labor to get this ranch in tiptop shape. I would have to pull all those weeds, smash all those rocks and bulldoze over all those damn trees. I rolled over in my bed and sighed to myself.

Begrudgingly, I pulled the covers off of me and touched my bare feet to the hardwood floor. I wiped my eyes to try and wake myself up a bit more as I stumbled over to my tiny bathroom and did my business. I came back out and put on some of my already dirty clothes; no need in putting on clean clothes when they’re just going to get dirt splattered anyway. I threw my hair up in a messy pony tail just to keep all my falling hair out of my eyes. I walked over to the small toolbox that came with the house, supplied with a small starter kit of tools. I dug around for a few moments then pulled out an iron sickle. There were just way too many weeds to all pull out by hand. Half wanting to crawl back in my bed, I against my will walked outside to my fields.

For a spring day, the sun was bright and hot across my skin. The rays beat down harder than a whip across a bare back. I trudged over to my fields and began to sickle away at all the pestering weeds. But being so weak and not used to the hot sun, I not before long began to feel tired. I badly wanted to stop and go rest. But seeing as how I barely had gotten anything done, I kept pressing myself on.

I despise weeds. Despite using my sickle, I still had to pull some of the weeds out by hand, leading me to have my hands full of dirt and sore like anything. Maybe this life was just not for me; maybe Mom was right when she said that I’d never make it out here. I was skinny and quite weak, I couldn’t see how I would be able to keep all this up. Trying to stay a bit more positive, I pushed the thoughts out of my head and smiled to myself. In my thoughts of self-pity, I hadn’t realized that I had finished picking and pulling all the weeds on my field. But my happiness was soon drawn away when I remember that there were rocks and trees that still needed to be destroyed. Once again in a bit of a depressed mood, I wandered inside my house to get my hammer to crack the rocks.

I stared at the first of one of the rocks in my line of destruction with my hammer in hand. I slowly rose up the hammer under the hot spring sun and started banging away like I was in the final match of a whack-a-mole contest.

After a couple pounds on the rock I got a hard cramp in my wrist, leading me to stop whacking for a few minutes and take a small break while I held my aching wrist. The unbearable heat made it hard to stand, and I swear I started to pant like a dog for a few moments. I really wanted to stop and go back inside my house where it was nice and cool. But I couldn’t do that. I still had so much to do; I can’t just walk away from an unfinished job. It’s a sickness I’ve always had, I just can’t walk away.

Feeling as if my own body was pushing me into the ground, I raised my hammer over my head to strike the rock once more. The second I put that hammer over my head though, all my bones turned to jelly, and I dropped to the dirt.

My head was light and my vision slowly began to grow dim. But before I completely lost everything, I could make out a figure running toward me, yelling my name in a familiar voice.
When I slowly began to get blood flowing to all areas of my body again, and I slowly regained my sight, I was staring up at the beautiful blue sky above my head. Gradually, all my senses came back, and it was then that I realized that someone’s arms were holding me. I promptly closed my eyes and shook my head slightly before looking at the one holding me.

I turned to see Luke with a worried face.

His bright topaz eyes were incased in genuine concern, and his lips had no sign of a smile anywhere.

“Mallory?” Luke spoke softly. I attempted to speak, but just ended up groaning. His grip on me tightened ever so slightly. He was kneeling on the ground and holding me on his lap, his strong muscular arm was supporting my head like it would a baby’s. For a boy as strong as he was, he had quite a gentle hold.

Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, when I was in his arms, under his towering embrace, I felt completely and extremely safe.

“Mal? Mallory can you hear me?” once again attempting to speak, I once again failed and only a small groan came out, encouraging Luke’s worry. I looked at his worry struck face, he seemed so—serious. It didn’t seem to suite him at all. “Hey, are you ok? Mallory, can you remember? Do you know who I am? Do you know who you are? How many fingers am I holding up?” He held up four fingers as he spat questions at me. This was more of the Luke I had gotten to know yesterday. I smiled to myself.

“I’m ok, I can remember, you’re Luke, I’m Mallory, and you’re holding up four fingers.”

“Oh my God! No! I’m holding up fiv— oh wait, yeah, it’s four. Ok you’re all good.” I chuckled to myself. “Man, I thought I was gonna have to take you to the clinic.” I shuddered unnoticeably at the thought of the man-lady doctor. Regaining more of my voice, I spoke stronger and louder this time.

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Luke laughed slightly, seeming to be back to his happy go lucky self.
I attempted to sit up on Luke’s lap when he suddenly did something I didn’t expect. He fully picked me up in his strong arms bridal style and stood up. The sudden movement caused my reflexes to kick in, and I automatically locked my arms around his neck and pulled myself in tight, leading our faces to be extremely close to one another. I blushed slightly as Luke barely seemed to notice. He gently set me down on my feet, as I let go of him to stand on my own. He still had a hand placed on my shoulder to steady me. I wobbled a bit, but I grew balanced.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Luke asked, some of the worry coming back to his voice. I was a bit shocked and dazed by how he had picked me up, and how close I had gotten to him, but I replied to him anyway.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Totally fine, better than fine actually. I mean, I couldn’t be finer. Why would I not be fine? Because I’m totally fine. Everything’s fine, why wouldn’t it be fine?” Luke chuckled.

“Cause you’re rambling.”

I silently blushed. It was a habit of mine to ramble when I was embarrassed. I took a deep breath and looked at the boy calmly and smiled.

“I’m ok. Really, I just overworked myself a bit too hard.” He stared at me a little suspiciously.

“I’m fine!” I yelled; smiling.

“Ok, ok. You’re fine.” He chuckled. “The reason I came over here in the first place was to bring you back to the Carpentry. I told my pops about how there’s a new rancher, so he wants to meet you!” I absolutely loved how enthusiastic Luke got about simple stuff. I glanced over at my unfinished field without turning my head.

“Well, I think I could use a break from all this.” I looked back at Luke.

“You fainting didn’t tell you that already?” He smirked.

“Shut up, just take me back to meet your pops.” I said playfully.

“Well then come on! You’re gonna love my dad, he’s real good with girls.” He started walking ahead, and I followed, eventually walking side by side; our feet in sync.

“Uh…Luke?” It took a few seconds, but he got what I was saying.

“Oh, uh, not like that. I hope.” I giggled. I liked how innocent Luke’s mind was. Other guys I knew from back home had the dirtiest minds ever, it really sickened me sometimes.

“For my sake, I hope so too.”

“Haha, but nah, my dad’s pretty good with the chicks, since they’re normally so picky when they shop.” He automatically let out a tiny gasp and his eyes widened a little before retreating back to normal; he looked over at me. “Sorry.” I laughed.

“Nah, it’s fine. Most girls are like that. But not me. I’ve always been different. I’m not picky, I just know what I want, and I never settle for what I don’t truly want; and that goes for anything.” We were just turning the corner of the small dirt path we had been walking when the little woodshop came into view. Luke looked over at me.

“I’ve only known you one day, and I already know you’re nothing like anyone else I’ve ever met before.”

“…is that a bad thing?” I asked shyly. He smiled at me, and responded in a confident voice.

“Nope.” He looked back ahead as I smiled to myself. We were nearly at the Carpentry; it utterly surprised me how close I lived to it. We walked the rest of the way to the building in silence, which I was comfortable with.

We strolled over to the Rick’s Carpentry and walked inside.