Gordon sat in one of the home made chairs on his cabin porch high up in the Rockies watching the clouds form in the valleys far below. June was his favorite month. He was at peace with himself and with nature. He had inherited a small fortune from his favorite uncle and decided to drop out of society. Thirty years had passed since he found this idyllic spot. As soon as he saw it, he knew he would have to make it his home. So he built the cabin, dug a well and planted a small garden. All his furnishings were things he built by hand on the spot. He had no electricity and no plumbing. An outhouse served his sanitary needs, a smoke house preserved his fish and game and the small lake in front of his house supplied him with trout and kept him clean.
Visitors seldom got within sight of his cabin. If they approached, he invited them to leave. He loved his lonely life style. He planned on dying in this cabin if a bear or a mountain lion didn't get him first. Every fall he took an elk and so he had meat all winter. Life was good.
He got up and poured himself some water, then wandered back inside. The sun was setting, it was bedtime.
He was jolted from his sleep by a hideous scream just outside his window. He jumped up and saw a big grizzly grabbing a young girl by the thigh. She screamed again. He got his rifle out of the rack and fired a shot over the grizzly's head. The bear looked at him, dropped the girl and trotted into the woods.
He walked over to where the young girl laid trembling in fear and crying.
"It's okay miss. The bear is gone. Come inside."
"I can't stand up," she sobbed.
That was when he noticed the deep slash marks on her legs. He picked her up and carried her into the cabin.
Once inside, he laid her on his bunk and took her pants off. The wounds were bleeding profusely so he got his long-hoarded bottle of whiskey down and retrieved some bandages from his first aid kit.
"Take a shot of this," he ordered.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Something to help dull the pain. I have to get the bleeding stopped and then sew you up. It's gonna hurt like hell, but it's gotta be done."
She choked the first glass of whiskey down and he poured another immediately. By the time she finished the second one she was getting dizzy. She felt very weak. She wasn't much of a drinker. She gulped down another glass of whiskey. Then she passed out.
It took the old man ten minutes to stop the bleeding. He got some fishing line and sewed the gashes up. Even in her sleep, she moaned as he sewed her wounds closed.
She woke up in strange surroundings. Her legs hurt like hell and when she rubbed her hand on them, she could feel the stitches. Then she remembered the bear and the old man. She looked around the small cabin but he was nowhere in sight. She tried to get up but she was too tired and too hurt to move very much. She looked at the dried blood splattered on her legs. Her pants were gone! How had they gotten off? She saw them draped over the arm rest on the settee by the fire.
Well, if he didn't rape me last night, he's probably not going to, she thought.
The door swung open and the old man entered the cabin. He was a ferocious sight with wild unruly blond hair and a beard.
"So, you're awake, huh?" he grunted.
"Yeah. Are you the one who saved me from the bear?"
"Yup, my specialty is damsels in distress," he grinned.
"Do you live here?"
"Oh yeah, I like the solitude. You are my first visitor in three years."
"But how do you survive? What do you eat?"
"I harvest veggies and fruit from my garden and from the forest all summer and dry them or pickle them for winter. Twice a year, I go down the mountain and buy the things I'll need for the coming season. I've always got meat because game is plentiful way up here. In fact, I shot a deer for us early this morning."
"I've never eaten deer. I don't believe in hunting. Where are we, anyway?"
"We're just below the tree line in some of the roughest country in western Montana. How did you get up here?"
"Two guys grabbed me off the street in Boise. They drove for hours and hours to a tent up in the forest. All the while they were talking about all the things they were going to do to me. The first time I got an opportunity; I slipped out of their camp and hid in the bushes. I heard one of them say he thought I would go downhill because that was easiest and they'd be able to catch me easily. As soon as they started downhill, I started uphill. I've been running for two days. My feet are bleeding because I lost my shoes crossing a creek. Then the bear tracked me down and grabbed me. I thought I was dead."
"Let me have a look at those feet."
She presented her bleeding feet to him. He examined them and said, "You can't go anywhere for a while. I don't want you up and around. If you need something just yell for me and I'll get it."
For a big, powerful man, he was incredibly gentle. She felt the first twinges of admiration for him. "I'll get some antiseptic and bandage your feet. You just relax. I'll get you fixed and then I'll cook something." Gordon had run out of bandages so he bandaged her feet with a couple of torn up t-shirts. He had some iodine and applied that to the cuts on her soles.
"What do I call you?"
"My name is Gordon, Gordon James."
"I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Charlene Thompson. Where is the toilet? I've got to go pee."
"I'll have to carry you to the outhouse."
Without another word he took her panties off and carried her to the outhouse. As soon as she finished he carried her back to the cabin and slid her panties on her. He did these things so quickly and casually that she felt like it was just normal and natural. In fact she kind of liked the feel of his big, rough hands on her as he helped her. She had another twinge.
"By the way, I'm not due to go into town until late August or early September. Once you're well you can either try to make it on your own or wait and go with me."
"There is no way I'm going alone. Not with a hungry bear roaming around out there. Besides, I have no shoes. I guess I'll have to wait for you."
"Okay. Lay back and relax while I cook something for us to eat. Do you want to try to get into your pants?"
"What's the point? You've already had a good look at of all my parts. Beside, it would probably hurt."
"You're probably pretty hungry after running through the woods for two days."
"I could probably eat the whole deer. I'm starving!"
Gordon went outside to his smoke house and retrieved a loin out of the deer carcass. He gathered some vegetables from garden. Once back inside, he looked at her admiring her beauty and build then he cooked the breakfast and they ate in silence.
"That deer meat is really good," Charlene remarked.
