Dawn

    A bright dawn makes one think of beautiful things, old and new, and of good news.  Except for this morning’s dawn.  It wasn’t making anyone think of these things, least of all the young woman sitting in front of me.  I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I had some inkling that she had come to me as a last ditch effort to get help.  I wasn’t about to let her down.
    My name is Joseph Parnes and I happen to live in a little shack on the side of a mountain.  It was here that the young woman, she was called Anne Lathem, came in search of help.  It was very early, probably not even 6 o’clock, but I had been up for an hour already.  I had milked the two cows that I keep and fed them, along with the dozen or so chickens I have on the place.  It was shortly after I’d made my way back to the house to start on my breakfast that I heard her scream.
    When I walked out onto my little porch, I saw this young lady wavering and crying.  Then she collapsed in my arms.  I thought this was strange, it’s not everyday a pretty girl arrives, crying and carrying on like she was, then faints dead away.  I carried her inside and brought her around, then told her she was all right.
    I told her that I’d make breakfast for the both of us and she could tell me what happened when she felt up to it.  So I went and started cooking the eggs and bacon, then made some toast and coffee to go along with it.  She pulled herself together, it seemed, while I was cooking and as I set her plate in front of her she was ready to talk.  I watched her as she began to explain herself and was amazed that she was in as good a state as she was.
    Anne explained that she had gone out the night before with a boy she had been seeing regularly.  The night was going well, she said, until they were on their way home.  The car’s tire blew and her date pulled over, stopping on the side of the road.  He got out to change it and Anne got out of the car so he could raise it to do it right.  As she stepped out of the vehicle, a truck came careening down the road in their direction.
    The scream died in her throat as she saw the truck hit Richard and proceed to drag him for some distance before it drove onward.  They didn’t even stop to see if they were okay.  When Anne reached the young man, he was dead.  She had known Richard for nearly three years and to see him killed made her ache inside.  She looked around for help, but saw none.  She knew that she couldn’t just leave Richard in the road, so she dragged him towards the car and then leaned against it.
    Anne told me that she wasn’t sure what to do at that time.  She had no knowledge about how to change a tire.  She needed to find help.  She agonized, her words, over the decision and then left Richard there beside the car and started walking down the road.  She remembered a gas station not that far back.  Perhaps they could help.
    She never made it there, she said, because the truck returned.  She turned to see it coming towards her over her shoulder.  Swallowing nervously, she began to walk faster.  When they reached her side, the driver rolled down his window and whistled at her.  Anne said she ignored the man, but he wouldn’t stop.  Then it progressed into the driver and his passenger making lewd comments and kissing sounds.  She knew that this would not end well if she did not get away from them.  So she ran.
    Anne turned into the woods beside the road and ran as hard and fast as she could, just to get away from them.  It was her only thought at that moment and it took hold and caused her to run her best.  She said that she didn’t know how long she ran for, but she soon figured that she’d lost the men and slowed down to take a breath, a much needed one.  While she sat on the rock, she looked around and realized that she was now lost.  Her boyfriend was dead on the road and his killers were after her.
    She sat there and wondered what the point of it was.  She didn’t recognize either of the men in the truck, so why had they run Richard over like they did, drive off, then return and get after her?  Was there something that she didn’t know, perhaps that they thought she did?  She knew Richard for three years and he’d never been in the ‘bad crowd’.  It couldn’t be that.  She told me all of this as we ate breakfast.  By the time we were finished, she had gotten to the point where it was deep into the night.  She said that she’d found a hole and curled into it to sleep, shivering since the night was cold.
    I felt bad for her, being out there all alone like that, and told her so.  She thanked me, but said that she had survived.  It was during the night that she heard someone approaching, so she sat up and made to run.  That’s when one of the men grabbed her and threw her around to look at him.  Anne told me she was so scared she couldn’t do anything right off, but then sense kicked in and she grinned.  Just before she kneed the man in the groin.  I winced at the sound of that, just knowing how that must have felt.  I’ve been there a time or two.  Anyway, she went on to say that as he fell to the ground and she took off running, she could hear the other guy running after her.  He got close enough once to grab her and that’s when I heard her scream.  I nodded as she mentioned this part since I knew that she was near the end of her tale, now that she was near to me in her story. I motioned for her to continue.
    Anne said that she scratched that man’s face all to shreds and took to running again.  This is where I came in.  She came out of the woods and saw the house, then me on the porch.  Approaching me, she said I was like an angel come to rescue her.  I told her I’m no angel, but that I’m glad I was here to help her.  Soon after that, the breakfast dishes were done up and I turned to speak to her, only to come face to face with the cold steel of a pistol.  My blue eyes stared at it for a few moments until they slid upward to peer into the cool, green eyes of the young woman I’d just spent the past two hours talking with.
    I asked her what was up and she told me that it was my time.  She had been watching me for some time, and decided that now was when she should make her move.  You see, she had followed me to my gold mine a time or two and had seen how much I was bringing out.  It was too good an opportunity to pass up, so she acted upon it.  I took a deep breath, and lowered my hands, keeping my eyes on her.  I asked her why she thought she had to make up such a story as she told me.  She answered that she had seen me tending to the animals around my place and knew that I would be taken in if she were to seem helpless.  For that, I had to give her credit.  She was so right.
    Anne told me that she was done talking and to say goodbye.  That was when I heard the shot.  I never felt the pain, though.  Just the darkness that came over me.  As I lay there dying, she moved around quickly and called in the ‘killers’ to help her carry out my gold.  I said a soft prayer and then closed my eyes.  The next time I opened my eyes, it was nearly 6 o’clock and I had just finished milking the cows and feeding the chickens.  I looked down at my left arm and sighed, seeing it hanging loose and unusable, and I was remembered once more of that morning so long ago when a young woman nearly killed me.  I wonder what she’s thinking now, then I smile and know that no one in Hell thinks about anything but themselves.  It was a great feeling.  I went into my house to make breakfast and thought how beautiful this morning was.