Unlikely Hero

“Tim, honey…. It’s time for work…”

Tim groaned, the bed in his bedroom felt too warm and soft for him to want to move. With his eyes closed, he furrowed his brow and buried his face deeper into the pillow, hugging it tighter to his face.

“Babe, I’m off today… I just want to sleep in a little while longer… I’ll help with breakfast tomorrow, I promise…” He then felt the pressure of someone sitting on the bed beside him. He rolled to the side, eyes still closed, as he attempted to wrap an arm around the woman trying to wake him. When his reach came up empty, he began to feel around on the mattress where he KNEW his wife had just sat down. Still not finding her, he felt something was amiss. An unusually bright light was shining through his eyelids and he noticed he was feeling a little too comfortable in the bed- the one him and his wife shared was nice, but not this nice. He slowly opened his eyes to a white light that took his vision from him until it could adjust. As it did, a familiar face smiled down at him.

It was his wife, Ann. She warmly smiled at him, her blonde hair neatly done and cascading down around her delicate face. Her smooth and silky complexion was untouched by makeup, just how he liked, and she was wearing a white silken gown- a gift from him long ago before they had even moved in together. Her soft and curvy features shown through the material, bringing a sly smile to Tim’s face he took a slow look over her body. Bringing his focus, back to her face he noticed she wasn’t wearing her glasses. He found it odd- she usually wore them around the house instead of her contacts, saving them for when they would go out to town with their kids. He also noted he did not hear those kids, causing his sly smile to ease into a mischievous one.

“Tim, you got work to do, you need to get up.” Ann stated once more, locking her eyes with her husband, seeing the intent that was growing in them. She chuckled lightly and rolled her eyes. “There isn’t any time for none of that, you got important things to do… you need to get ready.” Being shot down before even getting off the ground, Tim turned away and sighed, looking toward the ceiling. He cocked his head to the side in confusion. This wasn’t his ceiling; it appeared smooth and slick and very white- unnaturally white. He looked around the room and noticed the walls, or rather the lack there of. He and his wife were sitting on a bed in a void of white space. He shot up and sat on the bed, turning to his wife with a questioning look.

His memories came back to him with the force of a mule kick to the temple. He brought his hand to his forehead and leaned into it. He knew this was not his room in his home he shared with his family. It looked like his bed he was sitting upon, but he knew that it wasn’t, Tim hadn’t been in that bed in almost 15 years. He lived on a boat. In Alaska. Alone. His eyes darted around and he tried to make sense of things… the last thing he remembered he had broken camp and was heading south away from the oncoming freeze. And the woman, Twilight, who he had pulled from the waters. Bits and pieces of the conversation he had with the strange horned woman flooded with his mind and he recalled the last thing he experienced… The casting of the spell and the torrent of clouds and lighting that swallowed him, Twilight and his boat whole just as he saw the woman fall to the deck. He quickly turned back to Ann and stared at her. He could see tears welling up in the corners of her sparkling blue eyes as she continued to smile at him.

“You know you’re a man of your word, so you know you need to get up and get going. They need you.” Tim could only look to her as more and more of his mind returned to him. His mouth and throat became painfully dry and he felt a burn in the corner of his eyes. His sight became blurry and he blinked repeatedly, causing a small stream of tears to slide down his cheek. A hundred questions came to him as he attempted to speak to his deceased wife.

“Are you?… am I?… are we?...” his questions died on his lips as Ann shook her head from side to side, her golden hair seeming to flow a little more than it should have. Her smile broadened slightly, but Tim could still see the small tinge of sadness in her eyes.

“No, hun, you’re not dead. Me, on the other hand…” She did not continue for she knew her husband knew the answer. Tim looked to her again, tears now steadily running down his face. His voice trembled as he spoke again. “…. A-and the kids?” The man felt his heart shatter all over again as Ann slowly nodded, her smile fading from her lips.
“Yes, we all are… and we miss you so, soo much.” She was slightly frowning now, watching her husband trying to hold himself together. He was doing it, but just barely. All Tim could do was bury his face in his hands and attempt to control his breathing. He knew he was on the verge of hyperventilating and he fought hard to pull himself together. Time seemed to stand still for him as the silence between them felt like forever before his wife’s honey sweet voice filled his ears again.

“Tim, I love you, we all love you… there is a place for you here and you will be with us again, but not now. I remember how you would get hurt or you would get sick to the point that you would spend days, if not a week or so in the hospital. You would tell me not cry and not to worry about you. Every time you would get better and would laugh, saying you guess God had some kind of plan for you…” She looked up and shook her head. “You would make me so mad! I always thought that was so stupid of you to say that, but Tim, it’s true. You got a job to do. You’re a good man… so many of us told you that all the time, but you acted like you never believed it…”

“You know the things I’ve done!” Tim interrupted. If he shocked his wife, he couldn’t tell it. “You know how I was when I was a youngan! You know the family I came from, you know the crowd I used to run with! Aint no way I’m a good person! How can I be forgiven for the things I’ve done to people and the lies I’ve told and the drinkin and the fightin and the stealin and the…”

“Stop it! Stop it right now!” Ann huffed angrily as she stood up from the bed. “Yes, I know that! My family knew that! Our friends knew that! But you know what, you knew you were doing wrong and you changed it! All of it! We all seen it, and Twilight sees it too! That’s why she found you, damnit!” She stood there with one hand on her hip as the other waved out before her. “I reach out to you like this, and you want to argue? Really!?” She looked away from him and sighed, trying to calm herself down a bit. Turning back to Tim, he was now sitting upright, staring at her with his tear streaked face. She crossed her arms under her breasts.

“Honey, you may have not always been great, but you know you have changed so much since you met me.” She smirked at him smartly. “I fixed you,” Tim smiled slightly. He couldn’t argue that fact. Ann rolled her eyes and laughed.
“I know the man you were, but I also know the man you are and the man you can be. You’ve done a lot of good helping people… Yes, you still screwed up from time to time, but when you did, you would almost kill yourself to get it fixed. I know you’re confused by what Twilight has told you and has asked you to do, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have come as far as she did if she didn’t think you were the man for the job.” She looked off in the distance as if she seen something or heard someone call to her. She sighed and turned back to Tim, a sad look now on her face.

“You have to go. Now.” Tim attempted to get out of the bed but his body wouldn’t respond. His wife again came and sat down on the bed and he noticed the white void around them was starting to dim.

“Ann,… I don’t want to go… I miss you and love you so much,… and the kids… I want to see them so bad and hold them and…” Tears began to well up in his eyes again.

“No, dear,… not now, not soon, but one day…” Ann turned on the bed, facing Tim and smiling as a lone tear trailed down her left cheek. “You have to go. We will be together again, don’t worry.” She slowly reached her hand to touch his chest, stopping a mere inch from his body. “We love you, I love you, and we miss you so much,… but you have a job to do first.” She looked to her hand and then back into Tim’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt.”

Tim raised a brow at his wife’s statement. He looked at her, and then down to her hand. Just as was going he was about to speak, Ann’s hand touched his chest........

All Tim could hear was metal grinding on metal and the sound of wood shattering and splintering. His head and back slammed into something hard and unforgiving. He felt something land across his chest, the combined impacts cracking, if not breaking, at least two or three of his ribs. He had still not opened his eyes, and as quick as the sounds came, they faded, he only wished the pain had went with it. He could taste dust and blood in his mouth and soon, he could smell the distinct scent of diesel fuel. He coughed harshly, still feeling the weight on his chest. His eyes opened slowly, his vision blurred. He could see shades of greens and browns and blues swirling before him. He squinted his eyes and then blinked repeatedly, his focus now returning.

Blue sky was directly above him. A few small, wispy white clouds were spread across the sky above him, one just barely shading the sun out of his eyes. In his peripherals he could see the underside of numerous treetops, the leaves dancing in a light breeze. He moved his hands to his sides and tried to lift himself, but the pain in his back and ribs stopped him, as well as the weight on his chest. Tim then craned his neck so as he could look down and when he did, his eyes went wide.

Twilight lay on top of him, her small frame still limp and covered with dust and debris. He brought a hand to her face to brush her hair away and froze when he saw her. Her eyes were closed, but he could just barely see her eyes move under her closed lids. And the blood. Just as he remembered seeing before he blacked out, there was a small, thin trail of blood- now dried- running down her cheek from her eye. Summoning all the strength he could muster and fighting through the pain in his chest, he slowly slid the woman’s body down to his lap as he forced himself to sit upright on the deck of his boat. Or at least what was left of it.

The cabin of the boat was almost completely crushed, the roof now crumpled and level with the bottoms of what used to be the windowsills. The railings and sidewalls around them were no more than torn and twisted scraps of metal. A large section out of the side of the bow, almost as wide as he was tall, was torn upward due to a large rock piercing through what was left of the deck. Looking around more, he saw the wooden deck of his boat was cracked and split violently, one large and sharp splinter of wood jutting up just a few inches from his right thigh. He noticed just past the rear of the boat a small lake, the clear, blue water reflecting the clouds above and slightly rippling due to a quaint waterfall a hundred yards or so away.

“Whitetail Woods…. We made it…” With that thought, he turned his attention back to Twilight. He eased himself out from under her, gritting his teeth and fighting through the pain. He stood on shaky legs and looked around him, hoping there would be someone who could possibly be of some help. After scanning the area all the way around him and his destroyed boat, he realized they were on their own. He looked down at Twilight and then back to the tree line.

“HELP! IS ANYONE OUT THERE! WE NEED HELP, PLEASE!” Tim continued to scan his surroundings, straining his hears in hopes to get a response. As his eyes continued to scout the trees, he noticed a small path worn onto the forest floor. He smiled and spit to the side, clearing his mouth of dust and blood. A trail meant people, and people meant help. A stray thought crossed his mind; just earlier that day the thought of people would make his lip curl into a snarl. Now, it was a blessing. Gritting his teeth and not taking his eyes off the dirt path, he bent down and forced himself to pick the unconscious woman up from the floor. A new, sharper pain shot through his chest and Tim immediately broke into a coughing fit. The taste of new, fresh blood filled his mouth with every exhale. He knew he just punctured a lung with one of his broken ribs. Looking down to the barely breathing woman in his arms, Tim swallowed the blood and grunted, adjusting the weight he carried. He carefully made his way over the broken lumber and to the torn-away section of the bow.

Luckily, the rock that tore the deck away sloped down toward the pebble beach of the lake like a perfect little ramp. Letting out a small sigh due to discovering this slight trace of a silver lining to this dark cloud he was experiencing, he slowly shuffled down the rock and off of what remained of his boat. He crossed the short span of pebbles and stone and made his way to the path in the distance. Stepping onto the pact soil of the trail, he noticed tracks in the dirt- the unmistakable shod hooves of a horse. Looking a bit to the left and right, he smiled at what he saw next.

What appeared to be a track of a cowboy boot was fresh on the ground, pointed away from the lake. The signs of moisture in the track told him that the track was less than an hour or two old. Another bout of coughing wracked Tim’s lungs, dropping him to one knee. He never let go of Twilight as he turned his head as far left as he could, coughing fresh, bright red blood onto and over his shoulder. He shook his head and spit. He needed to find help and find it fast. Struggling to get back onto both feet, Tim groaned through clench teeth as he stood. Sweat was pouring down his face and he could feel himself trembling. He had to get moving. NOW.

One foot after the other, he trudged forward along the path through the dense forest. The forest was beginning to come alive with signs of wildlife. He saw a doe with her fawn cross the path in front of him no more than a dozen steps away. Birds were happily chirping as they flitted among the branches. These things did little to improve Tim’s situation, but they gave him a small glimmer of hope, helping encourage him to press on. He wasn’t sure of how long he had been walking down the trail carrying the faintly-breathing Twilight Sparkle bridal-style, but it was taking its toll on his body. His chest burned fiercely, his head was pounding, every joint in his body screamed at him, begging him to stop. To add to his ailments, he was getting dizzy and his breathing was getting shallow and raspy. He stopped for a minute to attempt to get a breath when a pleasant scent entered his nostrils.

Apples. The sweet smell of apples filled the air around him. Looking up, he noticed that the trees had thinned and appeared now to be in rows going as far left and right of him as he could tell through his blurry vision. Delicious looking red apples of different shades of ripeness dotted the trees. Walking on, the aroma of the apple orchard clouded his mind. He suddenly thought of apple pie, apple turnovers and even a recipe for apple-cinnamon liquor he had once had as a teenager he continued further from the lake. He was now swaying on his feet, realizing he was no longer on a path, but on what appeared to be the edge of a field or a yard. He looked down at the ground, then at Twilight and back up at his surroundings. A broad smile came to his blood-speckled lips as he saw a large and worn farmhouse atop a small hill before him. What made him smile even more was when he saw the door open a small, redheaded girl come out onto the porch wearing bib-overalls and a large bow in her hair. She reached the corner post of the porch and reached up to a large iron triangle hanging from a leather strap with a similar colored metal rod in her hand.

“SOUPS ON, EVRY’BODY!” the small girl shouted as she rang the iron fast and loud. She then jumped down and ran back into the house, letting the screen door slam behind her. Tim looked back at the woman in his arms and smiled down at her.

“Well, Twilight,…” he said, as he grunted once more and adjusted his hold on her. “I hope them folks got room for two more at the table…” Laughing and spitting more blood onto the ground, Tim gritted his teeth and made his way slowly up the hill to the home ahead of him.