Elle's fictional prose

Hoping For Change (18+)

Squelch. Hope paused in her walk across the paddock and looked down. One of her sneakers, previously a pristine white, was submerged in a large circle of cow dung. She gagged. Very smelly and, ugh, squishy cow dung. She stepped onto some clean grass and tried to wipe off the mess. The more she smeared it over the dandelions and buttercups, the more she fought the urge to throw up.

Please don't let this be an omen, she prayed. I need this new move to work.

At 30 years old, Hope Marin had finally gained access to her substantial inheritance, and shocked everyone by buying a small farm in rural New Zealand. Sick of the pretentiousness, and frankly, sick of being lonely, she wanted to feel like she was part of a community. She wanted to have friends, maybe even meet a man. She had moved in to the farmhouse yesterday, and this was her first chance to explore her new home, all 30 acres of it.

Hope went through a gate, carefully closing it behind her as she'd been warned, even though she didn’t have any animals yet. Hearing a shout in the distance, she looked up to see a man waving his arms at some cattle, herding them towards a gate. He must be her new neighbour. Typical. Figures she'd meet him when she stank of cow poop. When he’d closed the gate, she called out.

"Hello!"

He spun around, looking nothing like the men she was used to. His jeans looked worn and comfortable, unlike hers which still felt stiff and new. His brown hair looked soft and tumbled over a rugged, masculine face. He clearly wasn't into preening in front of a mirror with a bunch of products. He looked...genuine. Natural.

"Hey ya!" he called back. "You must be Hope.” He smiled at her. "Come on through," he said, gesturing to the fence.

She looked for a gate, but didn't see one. Figuring she was small enough to duck through the wires, she reached out a hand just as the man yelled at her. Her entire body jolted as electricity arced through her, from her hand to her feet. Surprise sent her stumbling back. Her wide eyes found the man as he jogged the last few paces to the fence.

"Sorry, I tried to warn you. Didn't expect you to do that. Didn’t you realise it's electric? Why didn't you use the gate?" He paused and blinked at her. "You okay?"

Hope stared at him for a moment before finding her voice. “Ah, yes?” She shook her head and continued. “Yes, sorry. It just gave me a shock.” When the man gave her a disbelieving look, she realised her mistake. “I mean, not a shock. A fright. A surprise. Obviously it gave me a shock, it’s an electric fence.” She gave a weak laugh and felt her face heat.

The man frowned and reached out to the fence. “It shouldn’t be a big shock. It’s just not set that high.”

Hope watched in amazement as he wrapped his fist around the wire and his muscles twitched as the current ran through them.

“Why would you do that?” she asked. “Why would you give yourself an electric shock like that?”

“It’s not like touching a powerline,” he countered. “Even kids do it, often having contests to see who can hold on the longest.”

Hope stared at him. Kids put themselves through that…on purpose?

“I didn’t introduce myself,” he said with a smile as he extended his hand to her. “Jake Cooper. I’m your next door neighbour, obviously, but also the local cop.”

Hope tilted her head to the side as she shook his hand, noting his firm grip and how warm his fingers were. “The local cop? How do you have time to be a farmer and a cop?”

Jake laughed. “It’s just not that busy around here, honest. The cop side of things, I mean. Being a farmer is always busy, there’s always something that needs doing. This is a quiet community though. The worst we get is some of the high school kids experimenting with drugs or graffiti. Nothing like big city crime.”

Hope nodded. That sounded perfect, just the kind of community she wanted to start her new life in.

“What are you planning on running on your side?” Jake asked her.

“Running?”

“Beef? Sheep? You don’t have the setup for dairy or deer.”

“Oh! Um… I haven’t decided yet. Maybe you have some suggestions?” She looked hopefully at Jake with a smile. He was familiar with the land, he should know what worked here.

“Well, what do you have experience with?” he asked. “Other than electric fences, I mean.”

He winked at her. Honest to goodness winked at her. Who does that anymore? Hope couldn’t remember the last time a man had winked at her.

“Well, I don’t have experience with anything.” She shook her head and quickly continued. “I mean, with anything to do with farming. I have no farming experience. Apart from yesterday when I moved in to the house, this is the first time I’ve been on a farm.”

Hope watched his eyes widen and then she looked away. Here came the judgement she was so familiar with.

“You….” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Just let me get this straight. You bought a farm you’d never seen, with zero farming experience and no idea what to do with it? Are you going to get someone in to run it for you?”

“Oh no,” Hope assured him. “I want to do it myself. I was hoping to start with something easy. Maybe a few sheep. The cows all look a bit big, to be honest.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m just… I’m not sure I’m ready for something that size. Maybe some lambs?” She looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

“Huh.”

Hope narrowed her eyes. “Something you want to say?” she goaded him.

“Well… It’s just that there’s a lot to think about. If you’re going to run a couple hundred head of sheep, you’ve got to think about shearing and dosing and…”

Hope interrupted him with a laugh. “Oh no! Not a couple hundred! Gosh, no. I was thinking more like three or four.”

“Three or four hundred? On 30 acres?”

“No, three or four sheep,” she corrected.

“Three or four…? But… How can that possibly be profitable?”

“I’m not interested in making a profit, Mr Cooper. I’ve got plenty of money. I’m interested in settling down here and becoming part of the community.”

Jake scrunched his mouth up and looked away for a moment. “I see. So it’s more like a lifestyle block?”

Hope grinned. “Exactly!”

“Uh huh. Okay then. There are still considerations to think of. Your sheep will still need dosing and shearing and all that stuff. Plus you’ll need to maintain the fences and the grass. Might be worth leasing out some of your paddocks if you’re not going to be running much stock. And if you decide to get a dog, that’s a whole other thing, because you don’t want to end up having to put it down for chasing sheep or anything.”

Hope sucked in a deep breath and frowned. She hadn’t considered any of those things. She wasn’t even sure what he meant by maintaining the grass. Didn’t grass just grow on its own? Maybe there was more to this than she had realised. Maybe her new neighbour would be kind enough to help her out.

“I know there’s a lot to learn, Mr Cooper-”

“Jake,” he interrupted.

“Jake,” she repeated with a smile. “Perhaps I could treat you to dinner and you could help me make some notes of things I need to look into?”

Jake’s smile made her breath catch, and she found herself watching the way his eyes crinkled at the corners. Blue eyes, she noted. A deep blue, like the summer sky in late evening as the sun is dropping to the horizon.

“I'm not gonna turn down a home cooked meal,” he said, bringing her back to herself. “You’ve got yourself a deal. When suits? I’m free tonight and tomorrow night, but I’ve got one or two things on after that.”

A home cooked meal? Hope gulped. She had forgotten where she was and the distinct lack of restaurants nearby. Of course he was expecting a home cooked meal. And it wasn’t like she could even order in and fake it.

“Um, tomorrow? I’ve got, um…” She trailed off. “Tomorrow would be better?” She peered up at him. There was no way she could do a meal for two tonight, not unless he wanted baked beans on toast. She’d have to go to the grocery store tomorrow. And find a recipe. Surely there’d be plenty of recipes online. Wait, she didn’t even have the internet hooked up yet. Could they even get internet out here? Hope started to panic at that thought.

“Tomorrow’s perfect,” Jake said.

**********************************************************************************

As the cold metal cuffs snapped around her wrists, something inside Hope froze. She didn't register the words Jake was speaking quietly near her ear, nor the warmth of his hand on her arm as he led her toward his patrol car. Even the shouting and yelling had faded to a dull hum as shock and despair held Hope captive in a way that the handcuffs never could.

Hope stared out the window as the patrol car rumbled down the gravel road, not even wincing when the pot holes caused her to knock her head against the glass. The farms they drove past blurred into a continuous stream of green and brown, dissected by the occasional road or building.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when the door she was leaning against opened, causing her to tumble out. She hadn't even realised the car had stopped.

Jake grabbed her shoulders in a gentle grip, steadying her. "Hope? Hope, are you okay? Answer me! Hope!"

She heard him muttering as she was turned around and then the click as he unfastened one cuff and then the other. Her arms fell down to her sides and she was turned back to face Jake.

"I'm sorry, Hope, I really am. I had to do something. I was worried they were going to form a lynch mob or something."

Hope stared straight ahead, which meant Jake's broad chest filled her field of vision.

"Hope? Will you please talk to me?" He briskly rubbed her arms as if she was cold and he was trying to warm her, despite the heat of the summer sun bearing down on them. Then suddenly she was enveloped in his embrace, and the warmth of his body and the unique scent of man, grass and fabric softener combined to feel like...home. Hot tears leaked into his shirt.

"I just wanted to belong," she sobbed. "I've never belonged anywhere, to anyone. I just... I thought this time it might be different."

Jake's hands smoothed up and down her back as he held her close. "Shh, honey," he crooned. "It's not your fault."

"They hate me!" she wailed. "Everybody hates me."

"Oh, Hope. That's not true. As much as I hate to break up your pity party," he teased gently, "I don't hate you. I actually... I mean... I've been trying to tell you, I..."

Hope pushed away from his chest and raised wet eyes to blink up at him.

Red tinged his cheeks as he looked away. "I love you, Hope."

Hope sucked in a breath. "What?" She cringed at the squeak in her voice.

Jake met her gaze and smiled. "I love you. I hate that you're upset, and I hate that I made you cry, but I just had to get you out of there."

"You love me? But... Me, really? You love me?"

Jake chuckled, then leaned down to place his lips against hers. "You, Hope Marin. And only you. I love you." Then he kissed her, a sweet press of lips that melted her limbs and left her leaning against him again.



Hope didn't know what Jake had planned when he'd gathered what seemed like the entire community into the local hall. One thing she definitely hadn't expected though was pictures of herself as a child to be flashed up on the projector screen while he stood in front of the crowd talking. What was he thinking? He'd started talking about her childhood, her parents, the nanny, and it seemed like he was telling them her whole life story. Hope fidgeted. There was no way this was going to end well. These people didn't care about a poor little rich girl. They wanted someone strong and capable, someone who fit in. Someone who belonged here.

As Jake continued, Hope heard him recite every one of the mistakes she'd made since buying her farm. She cringed. She didn't want to think about them, and surely reminding everyone was the very opposite of what they should do? It was bad enough that most people had been there for one or another, let alone listing them all off like some criminal's rap sheet.

"She came here looking for acceptance. To belong somewhere. All she's ever wanted is to be accepted. To be part of this community. A friend. A neighbour. And you not only turned your backs on her, you made her doubt that she was worthy of us."

Tears ran down Hope's face as she listened to Jake talk about her. She believed him now. He really did understand her. He loved her. She didn't know why, but it was enough that he did.

"She is the strongest, sweetest woman I know, and frankly I don't think you deserve her. I'm sure I don't. But that's not going to stop me trying my hardest every day to do right by her. Hope, honey, would you come out here?"

What? Hope glanced around, looking for an escape. He hadn't said anything about her having to go out there and face them all.

"Hope? Please?"

Hope tipped her head back and looked up at the ceiling. There was no way to resist him when he used that gentle, coaxing tone. No wonder everyone, even the animals, responded to him the way they did. She trudged out to stand beside him, looking at the wooden floor of the stage as she tried not to make eye contact with anyone in the crowd. She heard the buzz of a low murmur moving through the crowd.

She looked up at Jake, then squawked in a most undignified fashion as he dropped to one knee in front of her. "What are you doing?" she hissed, shooting panicked glances at the people closest to them.

"Hope Marin, I love you. Will you do me the honour of being my wife?"

Hope was so startled she barely even noticed the ring he held out in a small black jeweller's box. "I... But... Jake? I don't know..."

A yell came from the crowd. "Say yes!"

Hope spun around as the cry was picked up and repeated, more and more voices joining in. Tears streaming down her face, she looked back at Jake who was smiling at her. "I don't understand."

"I think they want you to say yes," he said, laughing softly.

Hope nodded, and barely heard her own voice saying "Yes" as a roar went up from the crowd.

Jake slid the ring on her finger and then stood up to kiss her, accompanied by whistles and cheers.

"I don't understand, Jake," Hope whispered. "They don't even like me."

Jake turned her to face everyone, his arm around her shoulders. "They don't hate you," he whispered in her ear. "They understand now how badly they behaved, and they understand that none of it was your fault. They want to make it up to you."

"I don't need that," she protested, looking up at him. "I never wanted to be special. I just wanted to fit in."

As people came up to congratulate them, Hope recognised quite a few of the faces from the past weeks. One after the other they apologised. Hope tried to brush away their words, saying there was nothing to forgive, but when she and Jake were left alone for a few moments she had to admit she was relieved that they all insisted she stay in the community with Jake.

"You will always be special, Hope," Jake murmured as he brushed a kiss over her hair. "But I promise you, you belong with me. Here or wherever you want to live, so long as it's with me. We belong together."


Written 15 September 2016