THE HUNTING ACCIDENT AND THE MYSTERIOUS STRAY BULLET
“I’m pregnant,” said Lisa.
”And why do you tell me this?” Michael asked her, being seemingly indifferent and preoccupied with his problems.
“Because it’s your child,” continued Lisa. She was surprised at his reactions because she knew everything about his troubled marriage.
“Are you sure?” Michael asked her ironically.
“I planned my pregnancy. When I made love with you, I was in my fertile period and every time I was with Jeff I took the birth control pills, “continued Lisa, trying to convince him to believe in what is happening.
“You must prove my paternity first,” said Michael. He wanted to end the discussion.
“Sure. I can get a DNA test during the pregnancy.”
“Okay. When I have the certitude that I’m the baby’s father, I’ll tell Nora that I want to divorce, “said Michael.He only wanted to be conciliatory.
“Let’s live together. You and me,”said Lisa. She felt instinctively that she must grab her chance.
“I think it’s a good idea. Thinking of you and me can be awesome.”
“Are you serious?” Lisa ask him, visible happy.” It is an unusual circumstance,” she said. She tried to explain her position, but Michael didn’t let her to continue and said,”No, my darling, quite unusual was our sleeping situation.”
“Will you run this risk of ending up with a crazy person like me?”
“Maybe we will not ruin our friendship,” said Michael.
“Will you search an apartment for us?” Lisa couldn’t believe that it is a real moment and not a dream.
“More likely, I have already a house in my mind.What about Jeff? He is going to be hurt very badly when you ask for a separation. What reason will you give him for your desire to get a divorce?”Michael became curious.
“I have already told him the truth,” continued Lisa, speaking very quickly.
“Interesting, I met him a few hours ago and he didn’t tell me anything. I’m afraid to see him again because I don’t want to put myself in danger. You shouldn’t tell him without discussing this situation with me first,” said Michael. He felt a little bit nervous.
“For the past five years we’ve had an open marriage. I told him that I had had an affair, because I could not imagine hiding who I was from him. After that, he was curious to be with someone else and it worked.We had a wonderful time in bed. We had a good marriage. I told him that I got pregnant accidentally because I forgot to take my pill. He understood my situation,” said Lisa.
“Are you serious? I know your husband better than you do, and you’re the one who have been married to him for many years. It’s very pathetic. Maybe he leaves you now because he has to do this, but he will never forgive you for what you are doing to him,” said Michael, being very sure of what he said.
She chewed thoughtfully on a stray cuticle.
“Dividing the possessions may be difficult because we’ve been married for one decade. I need a lawyer for the divorce negotiations and for knowing what I absolutely can keep. I don’t want to lose anything that belongs to me,” Lisa continued.
“The bulk of his wealth is hidden in bank. Much of his wealth has shrunk in recent years in the eyes of the public, but Jeff remains extremely wealthy. His bank accounts remain hidden from view. You will not get anything from him. Listen what I say, Jeff is an old fox. It is better to reach an understanding with him,” said Michael.
“I’m a father!” Alexander exclaimed, keeping so tenderly the little life in his arms.He felt responsible for this little life and a little scared. He wasn’t sure he could assume the responsibilities for being a good father for his child.
“How do you feel?” Ella asked him, being a little amused ” You seem to be so helpless, Alexander!” She tried to encourage him. She knew that he may just not have enough confidence in himself.
“I feel very confused and excited at the same time. I don’t know why I feel so,” said Alexander, becoming suddenly very serious. He wanted to believe that his child can eventually overcome the difficulties and succeed in life. He was not sure of himself. He was particularly an introvert man, but becoming a father was a very important moment for him and he tried to express himself.
“Maybe because you don’t know what means to be a father,” said Ella. Ella knew that he was prepared for this moment, but the emotions overcame him. She fell upon her knees, looked up to heaven and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving, in which she spoke of her helpless husband and her little child, waiting His hand to save them from perishing. Alexander smiled because of her reactions and he tried to express his faith in front of The Lord. He understood that she thinks that his reactions are exaggerated.
“I felt a great sense of responsibility from the moment I saw Emanuel. You’re completely wrong. I love you so much in this moment. You’re completely mine. I need to make love with you.Ask me why I want to do this.”
“Why do you want to do this?” asked Ella, looking at him with sparkling eyes and smiling.
“I want to make love with you because I miss my little girl. I want a little girl like you,” said Alexander, caressing the little boy.
Ella kissed him.
“It’s a little early for making love. You must wait a few weeks. But loving and caring for our baby is the most important thing we can do in our lives,” said Ella.
Alexander began to kiss her and he lied in bed near her with the baby in his arms. He said,”He’s my little prince. He will have the best chance in life.”
“You must speak to him,” said Ella.
“I speak to him all the time. You need time to rest, my darling, try to sleep.I will stay with him. In an hour he will get up and he will want to suck milk from your breast.”
The men hunted together because this was a part of their bonding. The deer hunting was not a dangerous affair. Many of the tasks, in which they were engaged, required some kind of trainings. A safe hunting experience depended more on the gun handling abilities.Men usually hunted together for obtaining one thing,the meat,even if they were doing so many other things together such as making the coffee, preparing the meals, working with the firearms and blinds, carting around the deer, butchering and processing the meat and sitting around the fire for eating the deer stew. For others the hunting meant training for more hunting.
Generally, the number of legal deer that could be taken was maximized. Every legal hunter had a license for his weapon. The guns were maintained and adjusted for their accuracy.After the hunting, they took the meat for processing it and dividing it up. Usually, the bonding happened without anything going wrong because they were experienced hunters.
“Can we avoid the poaching?” David, who was against poaching, wanted to react somehow because he was afraid.
“I have only a little idea about how much poaching happen in this area,” said Victor.
“Hey, Jeff, how many deer are here?” Daniel was very optimistic.
“No one can tell you this. Anyway, many more than we can hunt,” said Jeff.
“We have a quota of the deer,” said Michael, who was a very experienced hunter.
“How many deer can we hunt?” David asked Jeff. He was a beginner and he had no idea about hunting, in general.
“Ten deer,” said Jeff.
“I hope that we have enough blinds and weapons for this,”said John, who was a follower, searching for the prey capture.
“Yes, we have and the weather is on our side,” said Klaus. He remained calm and completely unmoved for a few seconds. His gaze was fixed on the sky.
“Be careful with that gun, David! Guns are dangerous and sometimes the accidents cannot be avoided,” said Alexander.
“The most of the accidents take place because of inexperienced hunters. We have to learn to do this,” said Jeff.
“When you see a hunter with his gun pointed right at you, try to say something,” laughed Michael.
“The firearms can discharge themselves unexpectedly. I’m serious,” said Victor.
“When the safety device is not engaged, they can discharge this way. The most of the shooting accidents are not caused by a dark demon hiding in the forest,” said Brandon.
“Nothing will happen if you follow the standard procedure,” said John.
It was in the morning and they were greeted with a beautiful sunrise. The sun’s rays gave to the granite face of the mountain an orange sheen. The colors changed as the sun climbed into the sky until they reached their blue granite hue. Everything seemed to be so beautiful like a visual symphony of colors.
“Too many idiots with guns and no proper training,” said Klaus.
“Wonder how many people waited the hunting season to kill their neighbor?” David laughed, trying to overcome his fear.
“Hey, this is too much,” said John.
“I have never killed anything until now, not even a single bird,” said David.
“Let me explain. You can place a lime stick so as to form a natural perch among the tree.The warbler can land on the branch and it can remain, fluttering, until you,the great hunter,will tear it off,” said Jeff, smiling with indulgence.
“It’s very interesting,” said Daniel, “I didn’t know this.”
“The real hunters are trying to look like the surrounding vegetation,” said Michael.
“The hunter really hopes that the deer will come to him,” said John.
“A mature deer’s nose can smell one thousand times better than a human nose,” said Jeff.
“They lick their nose to moisten the scent,” said Michael.
“You can play the wind to fool the old wary deer,” said Klaus.
“Being downwind of the deer with a steady stiff breeze, you can get closer to it,” said Jeff.
“Or you can sit in a stand when the wind is blowing the wrong way and you can have all the chances to ruin the shooting of the buck,” said Michael, laughing.
“Did you use the scent neutralizing spray, David?” Victor asked him.
“No. What should I spray?” David was somewhat scared.
“The clothes, the fanny packs and the equipment,” said Victor.
“When you are in the wood, you must smell like the wood,” said Michael, laughing again.
“The secret is to search for the places, where the other hunters don’t go to hunt. Those places are the places, where the deer usually go. Try to call it, Michael,” said Jeff.
“I can’t now, maybe you can try instead of me,” said Michael.
“You know that my voice is not good. I call them too loud,” said Jeff.
“Okay,” said Michael.
The hunters crouched behind the trees to inspect the area through their weapon sights and they waited the deer to appear. They set up their firing positions..
“Look,” said Daniel.
“Wait for the deer to step out from behind that bush first. When it steps out, we can shoot,” said Jeff.
“Now,” said Klaus.
“Help!!!!”
‘What happened?”David looked around, visibly surprised.
“The deer is dead,”said Klaus.
They turned around searching for Alexander. A bullet from a strange unknown rifle fizzed past his right ear. Alexander was sitting at the bottom of a muddy mound. It bounced off a tree trunk and spiraled into the air before coming to rest two yards to his left. He sprinted behind a tree, his body bent and launched himself into some kind of ditch on the other side of the tree.
“I moved my head to get a better view and a split second later I felt a bullet fizz past my ear. I felt the heat brushing my ear,” said Alexander.
“That shoot came at the same time with our shoots. Someone else was shooting at us,” said Brandon.
“Maybe someone tried to murder you, Alexander,” said Victor.
Everyone around understood that Alexander felt a violent emotion. They gazed at him with respect.
“Call the police!” Jeff told Michael, visibly nervous.
Into the silence of the atmosphere, the wail of the siren came with the shock of a thunderclap. The policemen leaped to their feet and rushed out. They reached the forest within three minutes.
The hunters have been interviewed by the police. The police also inspected their weapons.
The cops said that it looked like an accident in the beginning, but they discovered that the bullet didn’t belong to any gun used by the hunters.
“The shot was fired from the east, about forty yards away,” said the policeman.
“Maybe it was a hunter belonging to another group, shooting in a wrong direction,” said Victor, visibly shocked.
“The shooter used a high-powered rifle, which was illegal for the deer hunting,” said the policeman.
“Then, maybe it was a poaching man,” said John
“The shooting is very suspicious, but I can’t say whether it was a hunting accident or something sinister,” said the policeman.
“Someone fired the weapon, anyway, against him. I’m really very scared. It could happen to anyone of us,” said John, being visible very scared.
“Generally, the fear of crime is far greater than the crime itself,”said Victor.
“A hunter can shoot accidentally another hunter, when he is trying to hit a passing deer. Sometimes, some several more shots were fired than deer killed, and in some cases, the hunters were out in the woods with their firearms and never got a shot at all. There were some incidents, in which the bullet graze was simply not reported.All these can happen accidentally. But the caliber used for this shooting didn’t belong to the guns, generally used for hunting,”said the policeman and he continued,”How do you feel, Alexander?”
“I’m okay now,”said Alexander.
“Did you see any person around?” The policeman asked him.
“No,” said Alexander.
“Do you have an enemy?”
“I don’t know,” continued Alexander.
“We couldn’t make any headway in finding the guilty person. This is very strange,” said the policeman. Yet, he continued, “Maybe you know the reason why he tried to shoot you.”
“No,” said again Alexander.
“So, the motive behind your bizarre accident is unknown,” said the policeman.
“Maybe the bullet was for someone else,” said Alexander
“Probably, it was someone who needed only targets around him and never a sport hunting,” said John.
“Indeed,” said the policeman. “Maybe he hid behind another smokescreen, but we will find the truth.This is a promise,” continued the policeman.
