Alaskan Bush People - Short Stories

Trebuchet (Gabe Brown)

This one shot is for jammer16 Enjoy!

Picture of the trebuchet!

~COPYRIGHT 2016~

Gustavus was a small, tightknit community. With a population of just over 400 people, everybody knew one another's business. You couldn't hide much. Other than the tourists that came around during the summer, the town didn't get many visitors. Yet today there was a group of four men exploring the town. They weren't known to the locals, but they had heard something about them doing a few deliveries.

While everybody wanted to keep their distance from these men, Jenny wanted to meet them. She spent most of her time in her secluded cabin, entertaining herself by writing romance stories, hoping that one day her prince would come along. There wasn't much of a pick in Gustavus and seeing an outsider, none the less four men, was a rare occurrence.

Stepping out of her cabin, she made her way to the center of town where she had heard they were last seen. Sure enough, there they were, monkeying their way around the trebuchet that had been sitting in that same field for years. It hadn't been used since nearly two years ago on July 4th. The owner had been trying to get rid of it and he'd surely be happy to see the interest these men had in it.

"Um...hi!" Jenny called to the men.

They were too distracted to notice her. She stepped closer.

"Hello?" she called again.

The four men stopped what they were doing and looked down at her. The smallest of them jumped down. He pushed his red tinted hair back with one hand and stuck the other out.

"Hi, I'm Bear. You are?" he asked.

"My name's Jenny," she replied, shaking his hand. "So I can't help but notice that you guys aren't from around here."

"Nope!" the man with salt and pepper curled hair replied, jumping down as well. "I'm Matt. These are my brothers. We're here to drop off some things to the town and we had some free time and found this."

"Isn't it awesome?" Bear questioned.

"Yeah, it is pretty awesome," Jenny agreed. "You guys should talk to the owner. Maybe he'll offer it to you."

"That's a great idea! Come on Bam, let's go strike up a deal!" Matt exclaimed.

The male with glasses on jumped down and walked down the road with Matt to find the owner. That left Jenny standing with Bear and the man who she had yet to meet.

"Are you just going to hang up there all day or are you going to leave me guessing what your name is?" she asked him.

He hopped down, landing right in front of her. She was speechless for a moment as she looked him over. His curly light brown hair was framing his face along with a set of mutton chops that shaped his face perfectly. She'd never seen someone make that style of sideburns look so good. His eyes sparkled as he smiled wide and stuck out his hand.

"I'm Gabe Brown. It's a pleasure to meet you Jenny," he said.

"Uh...yeah...you too," she replied, shaking his hand slowly.

Gabe got lost in the girls bright blue eyes as they shook hands. Bear stared on at the interaction with a knowing glint in his eye. Both of them were smitten and they'd just met one another.

"I'm just going to go climb a tree..." Bear trailed off, running off into the woods.

Gabe stared after his brother, secretly thanking him. He had been left alone with this girl and could get to know her more.

"So you could tell that easily that we weren't from here, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's not every day you have a group of four men monkeying around on a trebuchet in a field," she pointed out. "I've lived here my entire life and we barely have visitors other than tourists, so it's easy to point you guys out."

"Hope we weren't causing too much trouble," he laughed. "My brothers and I tend to get a little crazy when we get excited."

"No, you weren't bothering me. In fact, you guys were cracking me up."

They absentmindedly began to walk around, talking to one another like they had been friends for years, getting to know one another. Matt and Bam came back twenty minutes later with the owner. They had bartered and had a small job to do. Jenny was more than happy to help them out. And when they finished, she helped them to load the trebuchet up in the boat. But loading that trebuchet in the boat meant one thing.

"My brothers and I are going to have to get back to our home," Gabe told her, a frown on his face.

"It was nice talking to you guys. You should come around more often. We need this kind of livelihood around here," Jenny told him.

"Actually, I was going to ask you something about that," he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

"About what?"

"If I came to town again, would you want to maybe see me again?"

She bit her lip and smiled. "I would love if you came to see me, Gabe," she said.

He gave her a wide grin and kissed her cheek. "Wait for me," he said, hopping up on the boat.

"I'll wait as long as it takes. Just don't forget to come back to see me."

"I couldn't forget about you."

"Alright, alright, cut it with the mushy stuff and let's get going!" Bam interrupted the conversation.

Jenny stepped back from the boat as Matt and Bear let the lines loose from the dock, throwing them up onto the boat. As they drove out into the open water, Jenny waved. As they rode off, she thought to herself, who would've thought I would meet my prince charming all because of a trebuchet.

~COPYRIGHT 2016~