Hunter returns home...

Hunter looked at himself in the mirror and stopped, suddenly. I don't even remember who you are, Lily. I don't remember you. He instantly panicked. Hunter had become a successful businessman after getting out of jail for going on a rampage after Lily died. His stash of money had come in handy; he invested well and had been living a worldy life in society as a hob knobber, ever the popular guy that he always had been. The mirror told him to go home, to go back to the schoolbus, back to where Lily was, to a place he could find himself again. He looked at his fancy clothes and felt a sense of shame overwhelm him. He needed to go home. He tied up some loose ends and got in the car for the five hour drive to the river, back to where he had been the happiest in his life. when Lily was alive, when Lily was so ready to give birth to their first child. Oh, Lily, he thought as he sped down the backroads, Lily I am so sorry but now I am coming back home to you. Wait for me, wait, I'm on my way. Hunter shook his head. No, Lily wouldn't be waiting with fresh bread and a fruit salad and a good hot cup of coffee. Lily was gone. Gone. She could not return. Oh those days when Hunter would be on the river....knowing Lily was back at the schoolbus fiddling in the garden or crocheting something new for the baby to come. Sometimes she would spend hours just walking and taking photographs. If not for Lily's photographs being so popular and such good money makers, they would not have been able to fund their life away from society, but somehow they managed to exist mostly from the river and the land and the garden and the bread and the great artesian well water just a walk away from their kitchen bus. Hunter was lost in thought as he drove closer to the homeground. He saw the road, the driveway, and turned. It felt like a million miles until he saw the first bright look at yellow. His old bus. He parked, got out of the car, started to walk to his old home and then fell to the ground weeping. My God, he said aloud, he yelled, My God why did you let this happen? When he woke up an hour later, he was spent, tired, weary and in need of a hot meal. He pried open the door to the kitchen bus. How could everything look the same, he wondered? Was he caught in some kind of time warp? Would Lily magically appear now and welcome him home like she used to with her bright smile and sweet kiss? To be in her arms again was all Hunter wanted. He started a small fire and made some coffee. He put some beans to cooking and found some deer jerky to tide him over until his meal was ready. Hunter was home again. He knew he would never leave. The world would have to do without him again. He had a story to tell, a story that needed to be heard. He would start from scratch again alone. He became the wilderness king then and vowed never to leave the grounds where his precious and beautiful Lily was buried. That kind of love could sustain him even through his loneliness. He would be fine. He would thrive. The sound of boiling water and the smell of northern beans brought him back to the bus, to his real time thoughts. Just eat for now he told himself. The rest will take care of itself.