Red Hair Woman

Simon collapsed by the front door in exhaustion and shock. It was morning now and the sun has risen up shining brightly on his face. Simon took no notice, he was still in shock from the event that happened last night. 

After a couple of minutes Simon staggered to his feet and went inside his house. He stood there staring intensely on the ground when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Simon snapped back into reality and answered it, standing there was Mia. Mia was the local vet in the forest, she was in her twenties and had her dark brown hair in a ponytail and green emerald eyes, in her arms was an unconscious red haired women.

"Simon! What happened to you?" she asked with a shocked expression on her face, Simon looked down and realized that his arms were covered in cuts and bruises from the trees when he was trying to escape from the man. Simon looked blankly into Mia's brown eyes and replied "I heard a gunshot and tried looking for the source and ran into a couple of bushes along the way," Mia looked suspiciously at him then replied "I need you to help me." 

Simon looked at the red woman for a moment and stood aside to let Mia in.

Mia placed the woman gently on couch,"The woman was shot last night, I found her unconscious near my house. It's a good thing my dog scented her otherwise she would be dead." Simon ran his hands through his hair nervously, Mia stared intensely at him "Did you find the source of the gunshot?"

 Simon shook his head, Mia smiled and shook her head."You know I don't like liers Simon, I know you and you don't act like this." Simon stared blankly into her eyes again "I was just looking for the source and found nothing," 

Mia smile faded and turned into concern "then why do you still have your hunting rifle on?" Simon remembered and threw the rifle across the room. How could he forget, he could of saved that man's life instead of a murderer who could take more of people's lives. Mia grabbed him by the shoulders "Look, I know you won't tell me what happened last night but I need you to take care of this woman for me until she regains consciousness, okay?" 

Simon nodded his head "okay," Mia let out a sigh of relief "Let me fix up your arms then before they get infected."

Mia placed Simon down on the chair and went into the bathroom to get the antiseptic, he stared at the woman before asking ''Do you know anything about her?" Mia came from the bathroom "No, I checked her all over, she had nothing. The only thing she had was a gunshot wound," 

Mia came over and start to apply the cream on Simon wounds. Simon twitched at the sting, before looking at Mia in the eyes "why do you help animals and people Mia? They never give anything back." Mia smiled and replied "You may think they don't give anything back but they do, You get emotions of happiness."

 After Mia fixed up his wounds she slapped him on the back of his head "that is for lying to me and not having a fully equipped first aid kit. I can't keep coming to patch you up all the time," Simon grinned and gave her a soft punch to the arm "I know but what are you gonna do?" 

Mia shook her head and laughed "take care of this girl okay? I don't want to see her dropped off in some dodgy bar," Simon glanced at the woman "I promise I will take care of her."

When Mia left, Simon approached the woman lying unconscious on the couch and sighed "God what a night it must of been for you," After checking her pulse, Simon gently picked her up and carried her up to his bedroom. "If she doesn't recover tonight she will be moving to the couch,"

 He gently laid her down on his bed before thinking "She better recover tonight, I don't know how to feed the unconscious." All the sudden there was a knock on the door, he sighed "Isn't the world being social today". When he answered the door he was surprised to see that there was a note left on his front porch, when he picked it up it read 

Don't forget my threat country b*****d, I will kill you  

Simon spat on the grass and slammed the door shut. He ran and grabbed his hunting rifle from the ground and then raced outside, he scanned the area. No sign of him, Simon growled in frustration  "If you come on my property again, I will put a hole in your head, Do you hear me?" he shouted and started shooting shots in the air "IN YOUR HEAD," He then paused listening for any sign of human noise, nothing. Simon took a deep breath and calmly walked back inside.

It was dark now and Simon spent the day checking on the woman and cleaning the house. After hours of chores and monitoring, he went to the living room and collapsed on the couch, he was exhausted. The night before has taken a toll and the only thing keeping him awake was having a countless mugs of coffee.

 When he went to the kitchen for his fifth cup he swore, he forgot to go hunting and tomorrow he was meant to go to the markets to sell the meat. He could only go to the markets occasionally as the only transport to get to the village was Mia's old wagon or his close hunting friends giving him a lift whenever they feel like it.

 This meant he has to get up early in the morning track, hunt down and skin an animal before Mia picks him up at eight o clock. Simon groaned at the idea and grabbed some leftover soup from last nights dinner. 

After finishing his dinner and drank his last cup of coffee, he went upstairs to check on the woman one last time before he went to bed. As he entered the room, the woman was still laying there but on his bedside table there was a lit candle."Strange," he thought "I don't remember lighting that candle," being too tired to bother or care he blew the candle out and went to bed on the couch.

Simon woke up to the blast of Mia's car horn. Groaning, he put on his glasses and checked his watch 8:15, swearing Simon grabbed his boots and scrambled out the door. Mia was there waiting for him, "You f*****g lazy b*****d," she sighed shaking her head "You haven't even got any meat to sell have you?" Simon rubbed his eyes and forehead "I may be a b*****d but I'm not f*****g lazy," 

Mia gave a quiet laugh and sighed "alright alright, what are you gonna sell?" Simon jumped in the seat next to her and put on his seat belt "Don't know, might ask the other hunters to spare me some meat. They owe me one anyway," He turned on the radio and heavy metal blasted out the speakers, Mia immediately turned it off and pulled out the driveway. Simon gave her a look 

"Got a secret confession to tell me about?" Mia gave him a soft punch in the arm "I don't want you making fun of me every time we talk, and by the way I may need your help at the vets again, Paul said he's not coming," Simon groaned "Why do you even have him working there? He is a lazy little s**t who just in it for the money." Mia shrugged "I've been thinking about it too but that little s**t is related to me and I don't want the hassle of my family if I fire him," Simon hated that little s**t. Paul was Mia's nephew and only talked to Mia when it was pay day. 

Paul was also careless and dawdled during his work shift which on some accounts killed animals due to neglecting them."I'll sort the little s**t out for you, he will be running back to your sister in the middle of the night," 

Mia's face turned serious "Simon no, I know he's a little s**t but I don't want him turning up with a black eye for his next shift." He smiled at the thought and turned his head toward her "I was thinking of threatening him instead but a back eye sounds like a good idea, maybe I'll do both." 

She gave him a warning glare before turning her eyes back on the road "I can never tell whether you are joking or being serious." The forest started to turn dark as they headed toward the town market.

The wagon shuttered and dust flew into the air as it pulled up on the dirt marked road."Come on girl don't get worn," Mia said as she stroked the drivers wheel. "I bet this car is older than me," Simon replied as he glanced at the 20th century radio with missing buttons "it did belong to my father, he probably found it in a junk yard knowing him." 

Simon got out of the car and squinted at the horizon "good thing the market is just up the street from here, reckon there is an old man who could help us with your old car," He heard a loud slam of the car door and Mia's footsteps toward the boot "Another problem I need to deal with," 

She grabbed her backpack aggressively and threw a money bag towards him. "Here, this can be your wage of the shift you are going to do later." He caught the bag one handed and smiled "remember when we use to throw eaten fruit at each other?" A smile spread across Mia's face at the memory "We still do apart it got upgraded to favors to each other." 

Sighing he shoved the money bag in his pocket and started to walk to the market."Hey Simon," shouted Mia "Did you feed that woman this morning?" He swore quietly and quickened his walking pace "You son of a b***h, you promised me Simon" she started to run towards him "I want a third of my money back later or you will be the one with a threat and a black eye," he stopped and put his arm around her shoulder "Do you really want to try?" he replied before getting elbowed in the stomach.

The market was the main attraction of the town in the forest, today it was flooded with people trying to sell whatever they produced. Wool, fruit, vegetable and meat was the main selection that is offered in the line of stalls that stretched down the lane way. It is normally quite hard to sell these products as there is normally a confusion of orders and quantity that the customer wanted which cause a lot of aggression to occur.

 Simon maneuvered is way through the wave of aggressive people to a small white stall in the middle of the row. The stall had an overweight bald man in his forties waving rabbit meat in the air screaming on the top of his lungs with believing smile across his face. He then began to point his fat fingers at people in the crowd to grab their attention, then without warning presenting them with the best quality meat he has skinned with proud gesture.

 The man gaining a reputation normally succeeded in his sales as a saying goes "one new customer is a customer for life." Simon gave a man a friendly smile and signaled to the quieter alleyway to talk. The man noticing him negotiated his last deal before neglecting his stall."This better be important boy, I'm losing my customers," Simon nodded "I know, Listen Frank I'm sorry but I have no meat and I am low on supplies." A surprised expression spread across his face "I always thought this conversation would never happen, you have never had any problems with that rifle of yours, you feeling alright boy?" He gave him a quick inspection. Simon always loved the way Frank cared so much about him, 

"I had a rough night, I have an unconscious woman in my care." Frank gave a loud and deep laugh "A woman in your care?! I will prey for her survival then," He glanced back to his stall "Listen I will give you a quarter of my meat but.." with an evil smirk "you have to pay me back double what you owe me next season," taken aback Simon gave an long irritated groan "F*****g hell fine but you have to pay first round the next time we meet up." The same enlighted smile appeared on Frank's face "deal," after shaking hands Frank ran back to his stall and chucked twenty six rabbits into a brown worn sack and tossed to at Simon "Gave you an extra one for good look, I'll see you around boy," Taking one last glance Simon muttered under his breath "See ya Frank, You f*****g lovable yet demanding man."

Simon weaved through the crowd and met up with Mia who was leaning against a cream painted wall in a narrow alleyway to avoid the crowd. "Got the meat you lazy b*****d?" She asked as Simon weaved through the last wave of people. 

He opened the sack close to her face to make sure she gets the aroma of dried rabbit blood, "Here's the smell of the half I owe next season," he replied with an annoyed tone in his voice. 

Mia cringed and patted him on the shoulder "Try not to kill the girl during the process." Signing, Simon threw the sack over his shoulder and gave a long aggravated groan. He forgot that the sack was quite heavy and hurt his back in the impact, Mia burst into a high pitch laughter "God, your pain is my happiness," and received an elbow similar to the one she gave him earlier. 

Simon's mood turned into business "We really need to get this meat sold by the end of the day, I say we should head to the housing district," Mia agreed with a nod as she cradled her stomach area in pain.

The housing district is located to the west of the town, this is the area where Simon made the majority of his profits. It normally consists of residents who locally work at the shops, pub or post office around town, he managed to gain their trust by Mia promising the residents that his meat was always cut to perfection. 

The residents loved Mia as she always helps to fix or cure their pets with a cheap price or discount. However they have a love hate relationship with Simon, this was mainly due to the family he was born in and the trouble he caused as a child. 

Simon approached the first house with confidence, making sure he has a genuine smile across his face and to greet the first miserable customer of the day warmly with polite manners. Following the growing weeds on the what seems like a fridge sized front lawn, Simon banged his fists on the white covered door and waited there politely. A middle aged woman answered, Simon began to reconsider to carry on the business. The woman standing in front of him was the biggest nightmare in the town, she had a reputation of backstabbing and insulting her closest friends and co workers along with scowling at every situation she was in. 

That same scowl appeared on her face, "Do you realize that you are late? I do not want my money going to some man who just lays around all day."

 Simon tried to focus on a spot on her pale forehead before replying 

"I am so sorry Susie, you don't deserve to have to wait this long, you are a hard working woman who deserves to have her orders here on time."

She spat on the ground "Don't try that s**t on me you piece of s**t, I want a discount on that meat of yours. Do you realize that I am planning on having the girls over later? If you came earlier I would be able to plan the meal by now."

 Straining to smile Simon took a deep breath "Well Susie you are in luck because today I have biggest hare I have ever caught," presenting her with the fine meat that Frank gave him. 

She was not buying it, "I heard that before, last season my meat was cut s**t, it was covered in fat,"

 Simon's smile has lessened into a small curve "Well I can promise that this meat is cut to perfection, do we have a deal Susie?" Getting irritated Mia approached her."His meat has been cut really good today Susie" she said with a excited expression on her face.Seeing Mia Susie's scowl lessened,"Fine, here's your money you piece of s**t, give me that meat of yours."

 Relieved with the finished business,Simon reached and gave her the two finest hares in the pack. In return he was given $15 in notes, giving Susie one last welcoming smile, he grabbed the sack aggressively and rushed away.

"I f*****g hate that b***h," Simon growled as they exit the weed infected garden. "It was covered in fat," he mocked in a high pitch voice "I could give her the best cut in the world and she wouldn't know the difference."

 Mia shook her head "The woman is nuts Simon, ignore that b***h. She is going to die a lonely old miserable woman," She reached down and grabbed a leaf off the ground to fiddle with and smiled. 

"Want to know why I look after animals and people Simon? It's so I don't turn into one of them," she nudged her head to the row of houses. 

"If you become one of them," he warned "I will be heading to a mental asylum," With this he threw his arm around Mia's shoulders as they head to the next house along the street.

       

 

            

Author's Note

first draft, uncompleted, Let me know what you think of the story so far, That would be awesome :]