Emma’s Cottage: Chapter Two

At first she didn’t register what was happening. Was there someone really at her door? She couldn't remember the last time someone knocked on her door. She even picked up her mail in town, the mailman didn’t want to come all the way out here just to deliver her mail and she understood. But no, there as someone that was actually at the door and they sounded like they were out of breath. Slowly, she got up and looked out her window, it was dark outside, how did someone find her house?

The knocking continued.

“Emma, I can see that your fire is lit, please let me in.”

And that is when she recognized the voice. It was her friend Andrew. He was her closest neighbor to the south and he also had to travel into town for the farmers market on the weekends. He was much younger and lived with his parents and always had something to say about the woes of growing up so far from the local school. It just so happened that he was always late because his parents made him walk. Said it gave him character.

“I’m coming, Andrew!” she shoved her feet into her slippers and waddled over to the front door, her hips stiff from sitting, even though it had only been a couple minutes. She made a mental note to do some hip strengthening exercises tomorrow.

“What’s wrong?” she said as she opened the door for Andrew. Her little brown cat ran up to greet him.

“We saw a few foxes headed this way and I wanted to make sure your ducks were okay. I ran the whole way and was trying to scare them, but they were unspookable. They seem to be rabid. Mom told me I needed to tell you right away.”

Emma’s heart sank. She loved those ducks so much. Andrew was a fast runner, but there is no way that he outran a fox. She left him in the doorway and ran through the house to make it to the back door. Just as she was exiting with the only thing she could shoo them away with, a long gardening rake, she could see two red tails with white tips poking out if the bushes near the little hutch.

When she had purchased the home, the little hutch has been for chickens, so she had to make some adjustments to make it a little more duck friendly, but it was all the same. It still protected them and kept them warm and dry. She had always wanted ducks and the little hutch seemed like the last push to finally go purchase some. Before, she had heard that their eggs were even more delicious than chicken eggs, and to be honest, chickens kind of freaked her out, so it was really the best of all worlds. The summer she bought them, she decided to make a little pond on her land, just past her garden, and down the hill, so that her ducks had somewhere to splash around on hot days. It had proved to be much more work than she thought it was going to be when she decided on the project, but it was well worth it. Last summer, she saw that some frogs had chosen her pond to hatch their tadpoles and she had never been more proud. Her ducks ate most of them, but the few that survived to frog hood brought her so much joy and would sing late into the night all summer long.

Having not used her voice in a while, she was nervous about screaming at the foxes, like she usually would do. Especially if they were rapid like Andrew suspected, so she ran toward the hutch as quietly as she could. Her heart was racing. She couldn’t lose these sweet creatures. She relied on them so much to help take care of the gardens and for their eggs to sell. Though the pounding in her ears she heard giggles from her back door that seemed to echo off the hutch. Why was Andrew giggling at her fear? A surge of annoyance shot through her as she turned the corner and found Benjamin and Sarah crouched in her bushes, waving around foxes tails they had attached to the end of sticks.

All the fear and panic that had welled up in her chest melted away and she let out an exasperated grunt.

“You three! You about gave me a heart attack!” a smile crept across her face and they rolled out of the bush, bursting with laughter.

“Andrew, you were in on this, too! Get over here!” She dropped the sharp rake and ran after Andrew with her arms out, ready to tackle him. The younger two ran after her in pure glee and the fireflies started coming out from their resting places.

“You three go on home. It is getting late. You can scare me again another day.” She gave each of them hot chocolate ushered them out her front door. Standing in the doorway, she saw their bikes hidden at the end of her driveway, tucked into the bushes. They each had a little flashlight on the end of their bikes, so if she had been paying attention, she would have been able to see them ride up, but she didn't have as many windows on that side of the house.

The community had been surprisingly welcoming to her, but she still didn’t feel quite like a local, even after being there for three years. She had always been quiet to herself, but after moving here, she was even more to herself. It wasn’t intentional, it was just the way she was grieving, and then it became what everyone expected of her. She went to the market every weekend and afternoon tea with the ladies on Wednesdays, but that was about it. No one came to visit her except the kids from down the road.

She settled back into the chair. She knew she had to wake up early if she wanted to make the most of the sunlight, but the kids got her so riled up, and she really hadn’t spent anytime reading her book. Her little brown cat curled up on her lap and she pulled out the mystery she had been reading. Maybe this is why I am so jumpy she thought to herself.

The fire was almost out when she finished the book and she looked to the clock, it was past midnight and she knew she was going to have trouble getting up in the morning. Once she was upstairs, she brushed her teeth and washed her face in the dark and curled up in her bed. The window was open and she could hear the wind lightly blowing through the leaves and she quickly fell asleep.