The Hunter, The Dragon And The Smokey Mountain Angel

Knock, Knock, Knock!

Julia opened her eyes. The blurred image of the Hunter came to her mind and she floated up to the ceiling.

Knock, Knock, Knock, “I know you’re in there. I see the smoke from the fireplace. Open the door.” Spoke a female voice. Julia didn’t think the Hunter’s voice would sound anything like that but she didn’t know what to think anymore.

Why would a hunter knock on the door?

Julia shook her head and floated to the window. She saw a black Mercedes parked in front of a red SUV. A young couple were standing in front of the SUV looking a little embarrassed. Julia flew to her bag and threw on a shirt and sweat pants then opened the front door.

A blond woman, in her mid–40s stared at her with a frown. She said, “You are trespassing.”

Julia felt her pulse quicken when she saw a few yard signs in the Mercedes’ back seat.

“This is my house!” Julia said angrily.

“That’s not what the bank says lady,” The blond woman snapped.

Julia took a deep breath and said, “I understand, there was a mistake with my pay from the Air Force but I’m getting that cleared up. I had equity in this house and as soon as my Air Force problems are finished, I’m going to pay off the mortgage in full.”

Julia felt that she was a capable person but she had no idea how mortgages worked or anything about the foreclosure process. She hoped that the house really had equity, perhaps she could pull some out to help with the bills but she wasn’t sure how it worked.

It would be too easy if it worked that way.

Her world had gone from Orphan, to High school loner, to mom, to server to Target Acquisition Specialist. Right now this woman was about to become her new target.

The image of a Strike Drone launching a missile at the black Mercedes and it exploding into a million smoking parts came to her mind but the young couple standing next to it would be collateral damage.

Unacceptable.

Then Julia shook her head clear of that thought. This woman was just doing her job. She didn’t know Julia at all.

The real estate woman said, “These people here,” She waved to the couple waiting in the distance and they waved back but they averted their eyes from the door where Julia stood, “Can pay the mortgage today. You’re ruining my chance on a commission. If I don’t get paid then I’ll lose my house too. That’s how this works. Job and then get paid.”

Julia said, “But this is my house. I’ve lived here before going to war. I paid the mortgage every month until they found me unconscious on duty. Again, I awoke in a hospital bed unable to walk or talk for three months. My ex–husband was supposed to pay the mortgage with the money I was sending him and our baby.”

The woman smirked, “Oh, well your husband left months ago. He told the bank that his wife had abandoned him and their son.”

“You know something about my Ex–husband and my son! Do you have a record of him saying that? Please tell me where they are. I haven’t seen or heard from them in a year.”

The woman shook her head and pressed a button on her keychain. The Mercedes engine started and the woman said, “That’s not information I can share. You need to be out of this house by tomorrow morning or I’ll be back with the Sheriff.”

Then she turned and with a singsong voice, she said to the waiting couple, “There was a miss understanding, we’ll return in two days. In the meantime, let’s see the other property I was telling you about.”

Julia slammed the door shut and the ground trembled.

“Oh stop that!” She shouted into the air but the ground shook for a few more seconds longer before stopping.

She floated to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Tears begin to well up and she took a deep breath. The shadows behind her moved. She turned but the light coming through the window shifted with the clouds. She rolled her eyes and whispered; “Now the shadows are playing tricks.”

It was time to go to work. She fixed her hair, read the Waffle House menu three times, then finished getting dressed and left the house.

She floated through the trail in the woods as she read the menu two more times. She stopped reading when the trail opened up to the creek and she looked to see if anyone was watching. No one was out. She floated across the water and then resumed the posture of a person walking normally. A minute later, she arrived at the Waffle House.

Andrew said cheerfully, “Welcome to Waffle House Julia!”

Julia smiled and said, “I’m ready to work...” She saw the stubble on his chin and added, “Did you stay here all night?”

Andrew nodded. He smiled but he looked very tired. Then he pointed to the back door. Julia nodded and went into the back utility room; saw a uniform with her name on a sticky note. She said to herself, “It’s the Waffle House Salon again,” and then she got dressed in the bathroom.

Minutes later, she walked onto the service floor and the restaurant went silent as everyone stared at her. Barney said, “Now, don’t go burning my Waffles young lady.”

“Shut up Barney.” Betty said.

Andrew walked up to her and adjusted her visor. He whispered, “You are the hottest server I’ve ever seen.”

Betty shook her head, walked up to Julia and pulled her away from Andrew. She said, “I’ll be training you honey,” she motioned with her hand to Andrew and said, “Go cook,” then she turned to Julia and asked, “Now can you tell me three things on the menu?”

Andrew smiled, turned and walked to the grill. Julia read the menu to Betty, in full including most of the prices without looking.

Betty gave a crooked smile and said, “Great, now you’re going to show me how you wash dishes and then the bathroom needs attention.”

“Don’t work her too hard on her first day,” Barny said, “We want her to come back tomorrow.”

Julia laughed to herself. Compared to basic training this was easy. Betty washed a few dishes, showed her how to clean the dish machine and where to set everything to dry.

Julia washed all the rest of the dishes, cleaned and mopped the bathrooms and when the restaurant filled up with guest and Betty was too busy to give her directions, she bussed tables, refilled glasses and took phone numbers from nearly every single, and some she thought might be married– men that she walked by. Betty’s tips started getting bigger.

“It’s like a queen just asked me if I’d like a coke with that,” she heard men say to each other, more than once, as she left the table. As all the men kept coming in through the door, Julia realized that she hadn’t seen this much camo since the war. She remained all–business only flashing her smile when she greeted the guest, after the order had been taken and when it was time to pay the bill.

As the day went on, she smiled more. Few people noticed, or at least talked about her strange way of moving and she guessed that she had perfected the needed motions to fake–walking.

Andrew cooked like a mad man stopping only to show Julia where a bag of sugar was and, from time to time, just to watch her work. He admired how she handled all the attention she was getting while keeping busy with all the tasks she had. To him, she still moved oddly. He could hear her joints clicking and popping when she had to lean over a table or bend down to pick up fallen items off the floor but she was a model employee. She acted professionally but she was so beautiful that he had to force himself to keep his eyes on the grill.

The day turned into a long evening, as word got out that there is a very pretty girl serving at the Waffle House. Then the regular guy failed to show up for his shift. Waters called in and asked Julia to stay on for another shift and he allowed her to have her own tables. Andrew stayed on too but he was starting to mumble and forget things. He looked like he was about to fall over in exhaustion at any moment, so they took a short coffee break together and then got back to work.

“Well look who’s here,” came a familiar voice.

Julia turned toward the door and her stern expression changed to pure joy.

She shouted, “Frank!” Then pointed to an empty seat in her section.

Frank walked over to the chair and leaned over the divider. Julia almost floated off the floor as she reached out for a hug. Frank wrapped his skinny arms around her and squeezed her tight though he was careful not to hurt her. Then he stepped back and said, “I heard that a pretty girl had just started working here but I never guessed it would be you. He gave her a once over and his head tilted as a disbelieving look pursed his lips.

Julia said, “The doctor gave me a treatment that took the pain away. All the metal is still inside but I can move better now.”

Frank shook his head and sat down, “That must be some magic pill because you are not the same girl I saw the other night.”

Julia smiled and said, “What can I get ya– Mr. Frank”

Then the door opened again; Barny had returned. He said, “So you found the Princess I was talking about.”

Frank turned around and pulled an extra chair next to the low top table he was sitting at. The other people around him adjusted and an extra space formed.

Frank said, “I met Princess Julia the other night. Anna and Jerry brought her up to the Catfish Barn for dinner.”

Julia laughed and waved. She said, “Hi Barney, welcome back.”

Barny sat down, paused then said, “You sure were busy this morning, so I didn’t get to ask... You either grew two inches over night or...”

“The doctor gave her some good meds,” Frank said.

“He didn’t prescribe any of that hippy crap did he?” Barny said with a smirk on his face.

Andrew flipped an egg and said, “No but I know she can count on you for some when she runs out of her regular meds.”

Frank shook his head, took the menu and said, “I’ll take a stake and two eggs over easy and Barny will have the usual.”

Barny’s eyes flicked around the room and he said, “Been seeing more war protestors lately.”

Julia called Frank and Barny’s order to Andrew then ran food, poured two drinks and dropped them off by Frank. She said, “A protester threw a bottle at me yesterday.”

Frank’s face turned red. He said, “If I’d have seen that I would have...”

“Calm down Frank,” Barny said, “You’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”

Frank took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He said, “I can understand hating war. We can argue the merits of our politicians all day long. We can even put bad soldiers in jail for committing crimes but treating our boys and girls like this, it ant–right!”

“Well, some older man with a beard got out of his pick up and was about to let that guy have it but he sped off,” Julia said.

“He’s lucky I wasn’t there.” Frank patted his side and Julia saw a very large gun under his long brown coat. He continued, “I would have shown him the Judge.”

Barny looked at Fred and said, “You’re a rebel without a cause.”

“But..,” Frank started to say when Andrew brought them their food.

Andrew added, “I know what you mean Frank. If I ever saw someone do anything to hurt Julia, I would...”

“You would what, put too much salt in their omelet?” Barny replied.

“I would stop it!”

“What if there was a lot of–em?” Barny pressed.

“Then I would call you and Frank and we would let the Judge decide.”

Frank nodded, “That’s right boy, you see any trouble come near this girl and you just call me.”

Barny shook his head, looked Julia in the eyes and said, “If you ever need an army Princess, look no further than the Waffle House.”

Julia laughed and all three men smiled. Then she turned and took more orders. Her mood had lightened and she started engaging some of the other customers. It had been a long time since she was hit–on by people she didn’t have to salute or consider killing later...

The more she relaxed the more tips she made. After a while, she realized that, although these people were paying attention to her because she looked beautiful again it still wasn’t her they were looking at. Andrew had seen parts of her true self–but for everyone else; it was an imagined version of her that they were infatuated with.

As she continued her busy work, she made quick exchanges with Frank and Barny and she was happy because of how normal this felt. Just the other day, she could hardly move without suppressing tears and now she was joking and cutting up.

After a while, she gave into the imagined version of herself that everyone expected. She felt like an actor as all the nonstop affection from a continuous flow of men entering the restaurant to see her, pushed her into a caricature of herself. She considered the whole thing a show. Her acting made her even more tips. She had played this game while undercover and the exercise made her training come to mind.

The whole interaction was like a play but she was a character being shaped by the thoughts of those in the audience. She knew she wasn’t the same girl she was yesterday. She had changed. She remembered how hard it was for her training officers to get her to act like a lady. She passed sniper training, land, sea and air deployment and battle tactics with excellence but it was simply being a pretty girl that gave her the most trouble.

She started to see that part of what these people were seeing in her was really part of who she was. She thought of her relationship with Rand and she realized how confused they both had been. He loved the strong, take–charge side she projected. He admired how she would just do what needed done without needing to be told. He was the control freak, hard–ass but she was the responsible one. Still, he wanted more of her than she could give at the time; and who she really was lay dormant inside…

Then she started washing dishes and her heart returned to her son. Everything she was doing was for him.

Then she stopped.

She had been so busy she forgot to go to the police... She said, “Andrew I gotta go outside for a minute.”

Andrew paused, the restaurant was full of men and most of them were there to see her. He smiled and said, “Ok, they can wait.”

Julia hurried out the back door and called Rand’s phone but the voice mail picked up. She said, “Rand, I’ve called the police. I’m going to get a detective and we are going to find Noah. You need to call me back!” As Julia stood in the parking lot, a few men started to walk around the back of the restaurant, no doubt to see her, so she hurried back inside.

An hour later Frank and Barney left. She found an extra $20 under Frank’s plate but Barney had only given her a dollar tip with a note that said, “Don’t worry Hun; you’ll get more of my money, so don’t go quitting.”

She smiled, turned and greeted another table full of smiling, young men and continued the game.

Hours passed. It was getting late and the sun had disappeared. She felt like a robot. Then Andrew stopped her and said, “You’re done. It’s time to go home.”

Julia blinked. She was very tired, so tired that her mind felt like mush. She hadn’t worked this hard at any restaurant before. She wasn’t just the server. She was the cashier, dishwasher, busboy, food runner and sometimes counselor. The constant work had drawn her in to a blank state of mind.

Andrew held her hand and brushed several strands of her hair away from her eyes. She looked like a perfect mess. He asked, “Can I take you home?”

Julia’s blank stare changed and she smiled then nodded. A few minutes later, she shut the jeep door but Andrew hesitated in the driver’s seat waiting to start the engine. Julia looked over at him and said, “You want to know about the floating thing.”

Andrew pursed his lips and nodded.

Julia inhaled deeply and said, “I don’t get it myself. My whole life was falling apart, is falling apart and then I get a flier about a health clinic across the street from the Air force office.”

“How did it go with the Air Force? Did they say they could help?” Andrew asked.

“They don’t have any records of me ever being in the Air Force. They can’t find even one of my commanding officers. So no, they couldn’t help, for now. I’m going to bug the crap out of them about this but for now I’m stuck. Anyway, across the street was the health clinic. They sprayed some kind of experimental foam on me; the whole thing was weird... I think the pain medicines I was on really made my mind fuzzy. It was like a dream. The doctor and nurse were both... spaced out, yet they knew exactly what they were doing.”

And I’m hearing voices and feeling odd vibrations in my body... But she kept that thought to herself.

“When they were done, I could float. I have to adjust my body in a certain way to move like this. I’ve never heard of any technology like this and I’ve seen things right out of a science fiction novel when I was in the Air Force...”

“Holy Cow!” Andrew said.

“Yes, I had to train myself to look like I’m walking normally. Yes, Holy Cow, and I can fly too.”

Andrew put the Jeep in reverse and then drove onto the main road towards her home. He was quiet until he suddenly pulled over and stopped. He said, “Show me.”

“Andrew, this is exactly what I don’t want. I don’t like people staring at me.”

“It won’t be like that; it’s me. You can’t be alone in this.”

Julia thought about the voice warning her about the hunter. She wasn’t alone in this, but she knew what he meant. She said, “Take me home Andrew.”

He started to protest but shut his mouth, put the jeep in drive and turned back onto the main road. A few minutes later, they pulled into her driveway and stopped at the mailbox.

Julia said, “Drive to the back of the house.”

Andrew obeyed.

The sun had set hours ago, so she invited him inside. “Can you get some wood from the garage and bring it inside?” She pointed to the large stack of cut wood sitting under the garage.

Julia went inside as Andrew walked to the garage. He stacked several loads on the back porch and after picking up another stack, he went inside.

As he walked inside, he heard the crackling fire from the living room just ahead. A glow was coming from the main room but the hallway blocked his view.

He tried to walk as casually as possible but his heart was beating wildly. He didn’t know what he expected to see around the corner.

He had watched Julia working hard all day. She was polite and she accepted every compliment and phone number with a smile. She wasn’t leading anyone on but she had a way to make everyone feel that they had her attention and that’s all most of them wanted. All but the most foolish were very aware that a woman like this was out of their league and Andrew felt the same way too.

He passed the end of the hallway and looked up. The stack of wood in his hands hit the floor as he stared up in amazement at Julia’s floating body. Her feet were beautiful. Her hair and flowing nightgown seemed to ignite in the firelight. He stood dumbfounded staring at the curves of her body, the way the gown hid and revealed her full breasts. She looked more amazing than he had imagined.

Julia held her eyes closed and slowly turned a full circle in midair excited and scared to show herself in this way. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground and stood with her head up. Her chest rose as Andrew walked close to her and wrapped his arms around her. She hesitated and then looked away. He pulled her closer to him and she felt his body throbbing against her body.

Her eyes lowered and then she looked at him. The ground began to shake, as it had done so many times before but they ignored it. Seconds later the rumbling stopped. Julia thought of the presence, her son, Rand and all that she had gone through over the past year. Andrew tried to kiss her but she turned her face as she hardened and retreated into her fears.

Andrew watched as she sank deeper into her mind. He said, “You are not some lost girl as others think. You are the strongest woman I’ve ever met and though you hide it you are one of the sweetest people in the world.”

His words touched her and her thoughts blurred. She felt her heart rate quicken. Her mind focused on the sound of his voice and the barriers she had hidden behind washed away. The weakness that she feared could not stand against all she now knew to be true about herself. She had been lost... but not anymore. She wasn’t sure who she was becoming but the lock around her heart opened and she looked him in the eyes.

Andrew stared at her and took a deep breath. He took her by the hand and they both sat on the floor before the hearth. He tried to tell her that his heart was about to explode, that he had loved her since the moment he had first seen her. He didn’t care about her disabilities, he could see past all that. She is the most beautiful woman he knew, inside and out, but no words came out.

Julia leaned forward and he met her with a kiss. She could feel his heart beating in the palms of his hands. She wanted this, him. She wanted to be looked at the way he looked at her. He had always been interested in her and his heart was true. In a way, he was the man she had been waiting for all her life.

Slowly, he released her lips but then he kissed her again and the connection was like fire.

Then he leaned back and smiled. He didn’t say anything but his kiss told her everything she needed to know; he wanted all of her. She whispered, “Take off your clothes.”

He said, “I want you Julia but I want to wait.” He paused for a few moments then continued, “I’ve rushed into too many relationships, when I fall it’s hard. You have many–things on your plate. I want to help you with all this. I want to be your partner and friend, and then I want to be your love.”

Julia stared at him for a long moment. The fire popped and crackled in an endless musical that filled the silence in a way that focused her mind on the power of his words and the fact that he meant them.

Julia looked at the fire and whispered, “Something inside me, I’m changing–I’m reconnecting,”

Andrew squeezed her hand and said, “Awakening.”

Julia smiled, pursed her lips and said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way.” She closed her eyes and she felt his thumbs rubbing gently against her palms but he remained still.

She didn’t have words to express how she felt for him right now. She had started to believe that she wasn’t going to find someone again; who would want someone as messed up as she was...

She thought,

Love, what a complicated act.

Andrew had been there for her from the beginning. He had seen her. He had showed her kindness and he was interested in her when he knew she had little to offer. He believed in her.

He started to speak again but she floated into him and kissed him again. He started to resist but then melted into her embrace. Then he was kissing her and she was taking off his shirt...

Two hours later, Andrew sat up and quietly re–built the fire. He didn’t want her living in this cold place without power or reliable heat. He lived with friends in a shared apartment but it had power and running water. He took a deep breath; he felt his heart rushing forward. He was moving faster than his mind could keep up with and usually that was a bad thing.

“I can’t judge her by my past,” he whispered. Still, he had put his heart out there too many times only for it to be taken for granted, misunderstood or abused...

Julia’s naked form lay like a freshly cut flower on a sea of blankets. He covered her with the Army sleeping bag and then watched her lying peacefully as the fire crackled. She stirred for a moment, a smile passed across her face but she remained asleep. He loved how beautiful she looked at rest and with no worries…

A few minutes later, he was dressed and quietly he left out the back door.

That night Julia dreamed that she had great, orange and green wings that sparkled like diamonds under the light of a strange sun. She was flying in a world far away where flowers were as big as houses and towns looked like forest shaped into dwellings by the songs of old lovers. In the distance, she saw the greatest tree she ever beheld... but inside it lived a Red Dragon.