LOGINChapter 4
The morning was bright, the sun was shining so bright like it was its last day to shine. The birds were hyperactive as the sang melodious tunes and jumped through branches. I knew it was a good day. I went to the window side to get fresh air, then I saw Davis packing his bags already, he turned around and saw me staring at him.“Why are you peeping through my window goblin, go find help goblin while you still can, “this obsession you have with me is getting out of hand” he smirked and winked at me while he closed his window.“His nerves” I grunted as I shut mineHe was annoyingly going to the same college I got accepted into, turns out I won’t be getting rid of Davis Garraway any time soon, yayy.I went and took my bath then I started packing.“Peach are you not done yet? we have a long trip ahead of us” my mom screamed from down stairs.“I’m almost done mom’’ I replied as I continued. *********As soon as I finished, I quickly went down to the kitchen to have some snacks. Then I was all set to go.“Mom…. Mom I’m ready to go”. I spoke“I’m at the driveway already” she replied. ********I was putting my bag in the car’s boot when Davis’s mom Stacy approached my mom.“Hey Claire”“Hi Mrs. Garraway”“Oh, hello Charity”“Oh, hey there Stacy, when did you get back from your England trip”“Not too long ago, I got back yesterday”“Oh nice, how is Mike and work”“He is fine, he couldn’t come back, work is good everything’s going smoothly. Um Claire, I have a favor to ask you”“Yeah, what is it, anything it is I would be honored to help; I mean you played a huge role in our settling in this town you know”“Well Claire the thing is I got a call not too long ago that I have an emergency meeting back at England so I have to go back asap, so I need help with taking Davis to Starman, and I heard Charity got accepted there too so I figured it would be easier if I asked you, the driver would have taken him but he has to take me to the airport and before he gets back it must have been too late”Wait what, what, what did I just hear, taking Davis to Starman, that is me and Davis Garraway in the same car to Starman college, say no mom say nooo.“It Is not a problem Stacy, that’s our destination and I would be more than happy to take Davis with me” of course you would“Oh thanks a lot Claire, you are a live saver” she concluded as they hugged and she left to go call Davis.“Mom… you could have just said no, I don’t want Davis in the same car as me”“You know you should really try getting alone with Davis, he is a nice kid, and the both of have practically spent most of your lives together”“Mom you do not get it do you, Davis is the devil in this story while I’m the princess and princesses and devils do not get alone, ever”“I think you mean you are the goblin” a voice spoke from the back along with a chuckleYou have got to be kidding me did he just hear all of that.“Hey Mrs. Goldtown, if you are not okay with me tagging alone, I can leave” Davis said“Not at all Davis we are excited you are going with us, you can put your bags in the boot” she concluded as he smirkedYou see he is evil! Evil I say, evillllllll, he just gave me some kind of evil smirk or something that kid’s evil.We packed in our bags and we began the trip and guess what my mom suggested I stay at the back seat with Davis so he does not feel lonely, thanks a lot mom for sending me straight to hell.We started the trip and since I was already sent to hell, I decided to put my air pods and listen to music and maybe catch a little sleep before we get there. I brought out my phone and went straight to Ed Sheeran’s playlist, yep that dude knows how to sing to a lady.“What are you doing goblin” a very annoying voice spoke, and I ignored it quite well while connecting ,my air pods to my phone. “I’m talking to you goblin do not act like you didn’t hear me” I continued connecting my air pods as I didn’t act like I noticed his presence. He got furious I guess and then tried dragging the air pods from my hand, I didn’t let him, we dragged it and then I fell on him. We stared at each other for four minutes then subconscious spoke upHe has nice, strong chest like a pillow, I want to lay there and sleepppppI immediately got up, learn to shut up when you are not asked to talk and he doesn’t have nice chest I would wake up with nightmares if I was sleeping there, whatever. She rolled her eyes and left.“Give me those” I quickly broke the silence and awkwardness, grabbed my pods and started listening Ed’s amazing voice. I eventually dozed off when perfect by Ed Sheeran started playing, then subconscious appeared and sang along.I found a loveFor meDarling just dives right inFollow my lead and I found girlBeautiful and sweetAnd I never knew you were the someoneWaiting for meWe were still kids when weFell in love.That song had always been my all-time favorite; it takes me to places I have never been. The sleep was very peaceful surprisedly, the chair was very comfy it was nice and strong, soon I was in dream land, I was at the beach at sundown, alone. I could perceive tulips mixed with strawberry. I was enjoying the view of the sunset it looked just like my eye color.“Goblin…...Goblin”Really, Davis Garraway found his way to my dream.“Goblin, goblin wake up” I opened my eyes and I was on sleeping Davis Garraway’s chest, I perceived the tulips and strawberry again.You have got to be kidding me, that was his scent and I’ve been enjoying his scent for five hours now plus I’ve been on his chest, shit.“What da” I immediately jumped off of his body and he chuckled“I guess you just slept on the chest of a devil goblin” he said“Fuck you Davis” I replied as I immediately left the car to avoid further breathing of the same air as him. I looked up and I saw it, Starman college, we were here already.The valley does not keep track of time the way the city does. There are no billable hours, no fiscal quarters, no frantic, calendar-driven deadlines. There is only the cycle: the ice, the thaw, the green, and the yield.It has been three years since I walked away from the mahogany-paneled offices of London, leaving behind a life that was as polished and hollow as a store-bought mannequin.I am sitting on the porch of the cabin. The wood beneath me is smooth, worn silver by the sun and the weather—a surface I have maintained with my own hands. The orchard we planted in the first year is finally bearing fruit, the trees heavy with apples that taste of nothing but rain, sunlight, and the specific, iron-rich soil of this slope.Elena is down by the creek, working with a team of neighbors on a community-managed irrigation system. They aren't fighting the developers anymore; the developers, frustrated by the valley’s stubborn refusal to accommodate their rigid designs, long ago sold their p
The morning after the storm brought a silence so profound it felt heavy. The valley, washed clean by the deluge, shimmered under a pale, post-rain sun. The creek had retreated into its banks, though it left behind a landscape rearranged—driftwood piled against the bridge pilings, new gravel bars where the path had been, and a thick, rich layer of silt coating the garden's edge.Elena sat on the porch steps, staring at the debris-strewn creek bed where her entire life had been stored in cardboard boxes only twelve hours ago. She looked different—less like a city tourist, more like a survivor. The manicured polish was gone, replaced by the grime of the mud, and her eyes, though exhausted, had lost their frantic, darting edge.I stepped out with two mugs of coffee. I didn't offer sympathy; sympathy is a soft commodity in a place that demands hard ones. I offered the mug, sat down, and watched the water."It’s going to take a week to dig out the silt from the lower rows," I said. "And the
Spring in the valley was a relentless teacher. It didn't care for the elegance of a legal argument; it only responded to the precision of the planting. The "first green" had turned into a lush, aggressive canopy, and the cabin was now surrounded by a riot of life.I was no longer just the woman who had walked away from the firm. I was the woman who knew exactly how many days of sun it took to bring the snap peas to maturity, and how the soil composition near the eastern drainage ditch dictated the yield of our summer squash. The "geometry" of my life had shifted from the abstract to the tangible."The squash is crowding the beans," Davis said, emerging from the garden patch with a trowel in hand. His shirt was stained with chlorophyll, and his forearms were corded with muscle from months of steady work. "If we don't thin them, we’ll lose the nitrogen balance for the later crops."I stepped into the rows, my own hands mud-caked and steady. I didn't reach for a schedule or a spreadsheet
The thaw arrived not with a gentle sigh, but with a rhythmic, percussive roar. The ice on the creek, which had held the valley in a hushed grip for months, shattered in a series of sharp, resonant cracks that echoed off the ridges like small-caliber gunfire. Then came the rush—a torrent of meltwater fueled by the receding snowpack, turning the sleepy stream into a churning, slate-grey artery of life.I stepped onto the porch on the first morning the temperature stayed above freezing, and the smell hit me first. It was the scent of damp, liberated earth—an aroma so dense and fertile it felt like a physical weight in my lungs. Life, having been compressed and frozen, was now expanding with a frantic, almost violent ambition.Davis was already at the creek, testing the structural integrity of the small footbridge we had built the previous autumn. He looked up as I approached, his face mapped with the weariness of the long winter but alight with the kind of primal satisfaction that only c
Winter did not arrive; it invaded. It came on a Tuesday, heralded by a sky the color of a bruised plum, and by sunset, the valley had been erased. The world beyond the cabin walls ceased to exist, replaced by a swirling, white void that hammered against the cedar siding with a relentless, rhythmic intensity.For the first time since my arrival, the cabin was no longer a workshop; it was a fortress.The rhythm of our life shifted. The frantic, external labor of the harvest was replaced by the internal, meticulous labor of maintenance. We mended tools, we organized the grain stores, we checked the rafters for stress, and we sat.The silence of winter was different from the silence of summer. Summer’s silence was porous, filled with the hum of insects and the rustle of leaves. Winter’s silence was absolute, a heavy, velvet weight that pressed against the windows and demanded a different kind of articulation."The fire is dying," I said, my voice sounding small in the vast, still room.Da
The victory over Sterling-Crest Developments was not marked by a victory party or a celebratory drink. In the valley, such things were not the way of the world. Instead, it was marked by the quiet, steady return of water to the lower basin. Three days after Vane’s departure, the trickle in Elias’s creek deepened into a steady, singing flow. The pasture began to green again, a subtle shift in the color palette of the hillside that only those who lived in constant conversation with the land would notice.For me, the victory brought a different kind of shift. The word had spread, with the speed of wind through dry grass, that there was a "law-woman" in the cabin near the high ridge—someone who could speak the language of the developers and turn their own jargon against them.The consequence was an immediate and overwhelming influx of "neighbors."They came in the evenings, appearing at the edge of the clearing like ghosts emerging from the trees. There was Sarah, a widow whose logging ri
Chapter 27“Hey ladies, did anyone order pizza” Davis spoke as he winked at me “Well yes and we got a hot boy as bonus. I should really start ordering pizza” Tiffany responded“So you work there?” Sam asked as she pointed at one of the pizza boxes. Then Davis chuckled and walked towards her “No sammy,
Chapter 26That night was much more beautiful, than the other nights we spent together. By morning I woke up and I could not find anyone in the bed. Did he leave? He must have left. If he left then he is a jerk. I was still speaking to myself, when someone climbed in through the window.“I left to go
Chapter 24Parties in Starman college were not like regular parties, Starman always had unique parties. Regular parties will not require you dressing extra and all, but a Starman parties means you dress to impress. If you dress less, you will end up being the talk of the entire party and maybe the en
Chapter 23It was Monday already; I know right time really flies. Well, the weekend went on faster than it usually does. After I had explained everything to my roommates, they told me to hang with the both of them separately and observe them then I will figure out which one I actually have the most f







