The Ranger

The Ranger (first published on Blue Monster)

The smell of bacon permeated the room as Sandra sat contemplating the day. It was too early and too wet to want to do anything much other than sit there in front of the mock fire with her fluffy slippers but unfortunately she had to go to work.

The bacon would soon be crispy beyond her liking so she stirred herself to make the much-coveted breakfast roll. She was starving and the day would entail lots of cold and damp and wet. It was days like this when she wished she had an office job – hell even a day job would be preferable.

Instead she found herself a warden of quite a lot of woodland. She would say she hated it but she didn’t. She would say she wanted a desk job but she’d tried that and almost died of boredom. She would say she was lonely but how could she be when she had the deer and badgers, the rabbits and, though she was trying to exterminate them, the grey squirrels. Then there were the birds that squalled and twittered and cheeped and cooed, their shapes silhouetted so serenely against the sky, regardless of the life and death struggle that may be occurring.

The trees even kept her company with the smell of sap rising – all tangy and sweet and the whisper of the breeze through the canopy.

No, the woods were her home now – they had always been really. So she would get cold and damp but it meant that she could eat a bacon butty in the morning and not get fat and it meant she appreciated the warmth far more. It made everything mean more.

Sandra zipped up her waterproof and grabbed her dripping butty. She opened the door to the incessant drizzle, sighed and went out to work.

Posted: Thursday, September 1st, 2011 @ 8:23 am
Categories: Flash Fiction.
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