Challenge Submission A Fool's Belief

[PitViper]

Part 1: Late Winter

He'd found the little car, buried up to its windshield in a snowdrift. It looked like the car had taken a nosedive into the drainage ditch that ran alongside the road, but that was really no surprise. The storm had dropped two feet of snow in thirty-six hours, leaving the road mostly impassible by anything short of a tank or... his beefy four-wheel-drive truck. This little blue sport job, front wheel drive and all, was just not up to it.

After looking around, he check the inside of the car, finding that it was occupied. He pulled the door open, finding a girl in the driver's seat nearly frozen to death! After removing her seatbelt, he lifted her from the car, walked back to his truck, and set her in the passenger seat where warm air was already circulating, hoping like hell that it would help her. She needed all the help she could get. The little car's interior was like ice. Wasn't her heater working?

She started to react to the warm air once he climbed back in and headed home. His house was close, a mere ten minute drive under normal conditions, whech meant thirty minutes in this damned heavy snow. He drove carefully, letting the huge paws of his truck make their way, and all the while, he kept looking over at her, seeing her shift and squirm, a sure sign that she was alive, at least. When her eyes fluttered open, she glanced around, turning to face him rapidly, fear on her face. Calmly, with a low voice, he reassured her, told her she was safe, and that he'd found her where she was, dying of cold. After a few seconds, she reached out her hands to the vents in the dash, warming her hands, the start of a small, sad smile forming on her lips.

SLow and sure, his truck did the trick, finding its way to the place he called home. It was a secluded place, barred from the road by roughly half a mile of dense treeline. He parked it, went to her side, and tried to help her out, but she squealed in pain on her first step, saying it was her ankle. He, in turn, scooped her up into his arms once again, and carried her to the porch, asking her to help with his keys and the lock on his door. Once inside, he left her near the fireplace, letting her soak up more of the heat she needed. He left her there, but came back minutes later with hot coffee and a first-aid bag, dropping to the floor in front of her.

Removing her boot, he examined her ankle. She asked if he knew what he was doing, and he nodded, telling her that he was a field medic in the Marines. After a short look, he told her she simply sprained it and that there was no permanent damage. A bit of warming ointment and some bandage tape, and her boot was back on. She thanked him, tried the foot, and smiled.

She then told him why she'd gotten stranded in the first place, that she'd seen her fiance' in their bed with the blonde secretary from his office, the stupid look of surprise on his face, the feel of betrayal she felt. She was carrying his kid, after all, started just the week before. She was outraged, humiliated, and on her way to a girlfriend's place out at the end of the road, and... she crashed. Yet another insult on a day full of them.

He offered to take her the rest of the way. She finished her coffee and accepted his offer.

 

[PitViper]

Part 2: Spring, into Summer

He hadn't seen her again, and he never thought he would, so when she arrived one spring day, bearing a tray of cookies she'd said was to thank him, he smiled and invited her in. He talked with her, she showed him her perfectly working ankle, and he offered her dinner that he'd grill himself. She drank iced tea, watching as he grilled steaks like a master. He talked of his time in the Corps, and later, his time as a heavy machinery mechanic. She talked of her betrayal, of moving in with her girlfriend, of getting up the guts to show up there to thank him.

Her second visit was better than the first. Her conversation was more cheerful, her enjoyment of homemade pizza delightful, and the kiss she gave him when she left was sublime.

Her third visit was like the second, but instead of leaving, she let him guide her to his bed, where he made her naked, and made love to her. She screamed his name over and over, gripped his hands as she came, over and over. Wrapped herself around him when the time for sleep finally came. They let the sun beat them.

More visits, more love, and fun jaunts into the forests around his house. She loved to explore, to see the creatures of the woodland areas, to find pretty wild flowers. They went into town on shopping adventures.

He was happy.

More talk of the baby, of the ex-fiance' wanting forgiveness. As long as she had him, she said, the ex could go pound sand. She started showing the first tiny signs of baby belly. He thought it was adorable. He wanted to take care of the baby. After all, Marines made the beds daddies, didn't they? He was smitten.

Then, things started to change.

 

[PitViper]

Part Three: Late Summer

There was a time when she didn't show up quite as often. She'd told him she didn't want him to see her in her beluga-whale mode, that her belly made her ugly. He protested, but she insisted. Her calls became less frequent, and the substance of them began to falter. She sounded cold, distant.

Then, a span of two weeks, when he heard nothing, saw nothing. She may as well have been a ghost, because she seemed to vanish.

The postman brought the last words of her, a letter postmarked from a state three thousand miles away, but with no return address.

Hello,

Please don't hate me. I had to do what's right for my baby, and after all, he is the father. He wants a chance to make things right, and I agreed.
You meant a lot to me, but I have to think about my child, now. We're having a girl! I hope you can be happy for me. I think she'll be beautiful.

Goodbye.

Dropping to his knees, the letter slipped away from his fingers on a draft of summer breeze. He knelt there for long moments, staring at... nothing. He felt as if his chest had been opened, and everything inside had been ripped out by a beast with claws and teeth. Pain, heartache, humiliation, embarrasmment, that's all that was left. He felt like a fool.

He leaned his head back, howled, shrieked up at the sky, cutting loose all the love, the pain, the anguish he felt, letting it all pour skyward, but there was no one there to hear it but the trees and the creatuers that lived in them. The yell lasted seconds, many seconds, and then... silence, as his body fell face-first to the ground.

His body wasn't found for three days.