Moved into a new life part 1

ATTENTION: This is a story out of imagination only. It is intended only for those places in the imagination where we think things that we would never do and would not work out so Okay in real life. It is a fiction and intended for entertainment of the private mind only.

Probably need to work on format consistency . It should be readable. Longest thing I have written in many, many years. Let me know what you think. I think these characters have an interesting future and past.

Some revision and editing. This is the first thing I have ever posted and a jumpy cursor on my laptop have not helped. Sorry I will do better.

Mark Jones was heading out toward the stream that separated his recently new home from the cul-de-sac. The house was against a hill in back and a sturdy little bridge crossed the stream from the cul-de-sac. His property on almost three sides was bordered by that stream. Beyond the back and somewhere back along sides of his property was wooded rolling hills of unknown ownership. Marc really didn’t care who owned it. It was a very nice piece of nature which gave him a good bit of privacy while allowing him to be part of the community at the end of his street. He hadn’t really met many of the neighbors on the street other than a friendly wave and a smile since he had moved in. There were things that had to be tied up at his old work and selling his old home, so he was in and out of town while trying to get set up and fully moved in to the new one.

Today he was heading out to the stream to clear some of the old brush out near the northwest corner of his property. He thought it would be nice to have access to the stream for a quiet place to pause and maybe even take up fishing. It was overgrown but pretty even in early autumn. He was sizing up which tools he would want when he heard that unmistakable high pitched piercing scream of a child or woman coming from his left. Marc instantly leapt towards the sound, his gut churning, and bulldozed through the brush to his edge of the stream which at this time of year was rather low. The stream was several feet wide and eaten away from ground height about 3 or 4 feet down and about 2 feet deep at this point. A wide old tree had fallen across the stream bed here a few years ago and brush had grown around both ends. He heard a cry of “Help” from what seemed to be the other side of the creek. He leapt down into the water up to his knees and saw her. It appeared to be a woman off to one side of where the roots of the fallen tree had been overgrown by brush. She was tangled and stuck in the brush and roots kind of on her side and looking down. As he watched her sweater tore just a little more and dropped her an inch or so more toward the stream bed. The problem was that just below her was a tangle of deadwood that had caught below the fallen tree when the stream was in full flow. In that deadwood was a wicked sharp branch sticking straight up under the young woman. It was instantly clear that if she tore loose and fell she would be impaled.

“Don’t move! Hold as still as possible”, Marc ordered as he pushed across to her. She looked at him from a position of almost laying down with the left side of her torso about a foot directly above the spike. As he neared she tried to reach out to him. Part of his mind realized she was young, a teenager. A moment of special anguish washed over part of him. He reached out just as she tore loose from her movement an started to roll to a face down position still falling toward the sharp branch. He caught her just over her right leg with his left hand clutching her shorts just inside her right thigh and his right arm under her front and pulled her into his chest. One of the flickering thoughts that flitted across his awareness was just how soft her left breast was in his hand how firmly soft the inside of her thigh was. He was surprised, in the heat of the moment that he even noticed the feeling of warmth against his hand as it slid up against her cloth covered womanhood.

Marc set the young lady down into the water and asked, “Are you OK ?”

“My side.”, she said as at the same time he noted blood on her left side at a larger tear in her sweater. The girl thought she thought she saw a shadow of panic in Mark’s eyes. As they couldn’t get easily out of the stream at that point, Mark picked her up an tossed her over his right shoulder so as to stay away from her injury, grabbed her hip, said he was sorry, and forded up the stream bed faster than one would think to near his bridge where they could get out onto flat ground easier. She seemed to understand and said ,”My name is Val Oww! Thank you, Oww!”.

“Can you stand?”

“I feel a little shaky”

“Let me lay you down then. I need to check your side” Marc said as he lay her down on the grass and tried to see through the tear in her sweater. “It’s OK just pull it up.” she told him. He did and marveled at the smoothness of her tanned belly and waist till he saw a 3 or 4 inch wood sliver almost the size of a pencil scoring and piercing her skin and emerging about an inch later just under her ribs.

“It’s not going to help anything leaving this in there.” He said as he looked into her eyes and saw a not happy resignation and heard her,”Go ahead and do what you need to.” Marc pulled a tool from his pocket that had something like a wire cutter, snapped off one end of the sliver sticking out from the skin, looked again into her eyes trying to pull her attention out of the situation for a moment while he slid the remaining sliver out of her skin. Again, “OOWWYY!!!!” She cried. Valentina!!! Mark heard from two frightened and forceful voices.

“She is over here” Marc raised his voice to respond. He looked into her eyes again and asked “How are you now?”

“Still a little shaky but improving.” “Listen, I’m sorry I had to grab you so… intimately there in the stream”. Marc got a good look into her eyes at this point. Large hazel green eyes with flecks of gold framed by perfect blackish brows and full dark lashes. He felt himself getting lost and jerked his consciousness back to the here and now wondering if any time had passed and if so how much. She looked surprised for a second then with the barest hint of a smile as she remembered “I didn’t mind at all.” Marc thought ‘my God if she were older I would swear she was teasing me’.

“What happened?” said the man who came to a rapid halt by them as Marc lifted Valentina to her feet and she was immediately swept into the arms of the woman who was right behind the man. The obvious parents looked to be middle/late 30s, healthy, concerned, of course, and very good looking. Mom was a babe. Dad was a handsome man by any standards and a couple inches taller than Mark’s 5’10” though more medium in width than Marks deceptive compact thickness. Both moved with a sureness that bespoke healthy exercise.

“She fell by the edge of the creek and got a nasty large splinter in her side.” Mark showed her father the remnants of the splinter.

“She’s bleeding” from the concerned mother.

“Good.”said Marc “It is good to clean out a puncture wound with bleeding. In fact if you have a syringe or eyedropper that you could squirt some peroxide through the wound as soon as possible,it would hurt but it might be a good idea.”

“Mom he saved my life.” Val blurted and mom replied “It was just a large sliver, hon” “No mom, that just hurt, but I almost fell on this huge sharp branch and I couldn’t stop from falling. It would have spitted me like a fish!

Mother shot a wide eyed look at Mark who shrugged quietly. Dad looked at Mark carefully, noting his quite scratched up appearance and seriously said, “Thank You.”. Mark met his eyes and softly said, “Can’t let something like that happen to someones daughter.” While mom and daughter fussed at each other, dad asked,”Do you have a daughter?”

After a short pause Marc, with eyes clouding up a little, even more softly replied, “Had”. Marc turned to look at Valentina and her mother, took a slow deep breath and with a sharp little nod said as lightly as he could, “Helluva a way to meet the neighbors”

Dad took Marks hand firmly and said, “Thank you again, I’m Peter, Peter Brown, this is my wife Joan and you have already met Valentina.” We usually call her Val. Mark turned to look at Valentina and her mother. Valentina was already beautiful though young looking. After careful consideration Mark guessed her as a late blooming possibly sixteen, though probably fifteen. She had just too much intelligence and self possession to be any younger than that and then there was that very soft compact breast his hand had covered while catching her he thought a little guiltily. Valentina looked to be about 5’6″ and around 120 lbs.