They promise you this vast sea of potential mates
and they hand you a pole and expect you to fish.
Jesse hated it. The ones she wanted never took the
line. The ones that wanted her – and there were
many – she just couldn’t warm to. She looked
every day, sometimes more than once, sometimes
all afternoon and nothing came of it.
It was the rejection she hated the most.
He threw her a wink one day. It’s the same as a
greeting but a little less personal. She looked at
him and was not impressed. He was older, gray,
and disheveled physically if that were possible.
He had a big nose and big ears. It was laughable
that she would ever consider him.
Jesse was tall and regal. Her appearance was
always impeccable. She had been a great beauty
in her youth, she won countywide contests and
she had a slew of ribbons somewhere back in the
farmhouse, some still up on a wall. Even today,
well past the sunny side, her bright brown eyes
sparkled with the clarity of decades living clean
and holding an even composure.
She dismissed him out of hand and didn’t give it
another thought.
But she was lonely. She missed couple-hood, the
sharing, the intimacy. She didn’t think of herself
as being too old or even retired, although that’s
what she was. She had been a homemaker and
raised a whole barnyard of kids. Her man, Luka,
died suddenly during a cold snap two winters ago.
He was a monster, good looking too, gentle and
loving. She missed him every day.
That’s why she came back to the pool, that sea of
faces that stretched out until dusk, searching for
another.
Summer was coming and although the Gold
Country still struggled with drought, the
surrounding pastures and hills were a tossed salad
of green thanks to the recent rain. There would be
wild flowers soon. Already the almonds, the
peaches and the cherry trees were showing early
blossoms. She would watch the road for
something new, but nothing came that way either.
Cars rushed toward Sacramento in the morning,
rushed back again each night. Cars going both
ways on the weekends, happy couples inside off
to explore the antique shops in Sutter Creek and
taste the Barbara and Zin in Amador.
Two weeks later, he tried again.
This time he sent a gift, a sea crab, or at least
that’s what it looked like. No message, just the
crab. A step up from the wink but still impersonal,
a product she suspected of him being rejected
most of the time too.
It was a very odd thing to send. She’d never seen
one in real life before. There had to be better
options – a bunch of roses, a wine glass, even a
pair of sunglasses. What does the sea crab
suggest? Jesse had been landlocked her whole
life, never once visiting the shore. What’s he
saying by sending a crab?
She peeked at him again, just to confirm what she
already knew. Nope, not for me. Not my type. He
might as well have come from Mars.
He happened to be watching, at the same time,
looking for her and he caught her looking him
over. She wanted to hide but it was too late. He
took his chance and boldly gave voice to his
pursuit.
“Good morning,” he said to her. “I’m Troy.”
Jesse gasped then burst into laughter. Troy?
OMG. This odd collection of features and fur
wants to be called Troy? Troy is something with
blue eyes and looks really good in a swim suit.
Troy was not this guy’s name, it was something
he used only in the pool because it gave him more
confidence. More likely his real name was
Barnaby or Poncho.
She retreated again, leaving his words like an
unfinished bridge.
His background was different from hers. He had
been alone all his life or at least as long as he
could remember. He spent most of that time
working the hard and remote land in Elko County,
Nevada. One ranch in particular.
In Elko, the air is thin and the climate harsh.
There’s salt flats and sage and sweat. He worked
hard, everyone said so, everyone said he was
tough as hell.
Deep inside, deep inside – Troy (which was his
real name) thought himself a poet. He sang at
night to the coyotes and the horned toads. He
noticed the blue-black sky at morning and the
strands of red bleeding over the hills just before
sunset. He loved the smell of the high desert after
it rained and the look of the Ruby Mountains after
it snowed. Troy wanted someone to share it all
with but there wasn’t time to look and there
weren’t many opportunities.
Before long Troy had become old. Some of the
things he did around the ranch were jobs going to
someone else. No one seemed to mind that he had
become old, in fact, they treated him even better
than before, as if he’d earned it. Before long, they
made arrangements for him to go west,
downslope, where there was plenty of soft grass
and easy winters.
He took to watching the pool there as well. Just
one of the things the new farm had to offer. He
suggested himself many times to younger, more
attractive females and wasn’t too surprised he
didn’t get picked. It was something to pass the
time, that is, until he ran across Jesse. When he
looked at her the first time, he was in love.
He figured it would happen. She was there. He
was there. It would happen.
He waited like a good fisherman would. He
considered his profile, considered how he was
presenting himself. He wouldn’t lie, that would
seem a terrible mistake because at some point if
you were not as tall as you claimed, you would be
found out and probably lose any chance you
might have had. Since he wouldn’t embellish,
there wasn’t much air brushing to do. He was who
he was.
At first he knew she was out of his league and
would never get that chance. But the episode with
the crab gave him hope. He knew that it was a
gamble, sending such an unusual, even exotic gift.
But it paid off. She looked at him and long
enough that he was able to get a few words out.
She hadn’t responded but she maybe she will
another day.
He kept going back. Waiting. Pole down, hook
baited.
Long after all this, after they did get together,
Jesse would say that it was his diligence that
finally attracted her. She also came to like his
face. Sure, the nose was too big and the ears were
huge, but he had a nice toothy smile that you
couldn’t help but to smile back. And his eyes.
Dark and deep. Honest and unflinching. There
was something very safe about him. He gave her
room and a place to be understood and forgiven.
It was a good two weeks after he’d sent the crab
that he found her again. He offered himself up
again.
“I’m Troy,” he said. “There’s good grass by the
two oaks but I suspect it won’t last much longer
with the days getting longer.”
This time Jesse didn’t retreat.
“No,” she replied. “It won’t last too much longer.
It will be very hot by July but those oaks give us a
lot of good shade.”
She waited for him to say more but Troy knew he
was in and instead, wandered off for a bit to
another part of the pasture. He returned maybe an
hour later and she was waiting for him.
That’s how it started.
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