backwoods, a lil bit more…

jack mitchell first saw sue-ellen at a local bar. she was different than the women he was used to charming. she had a stern eye, kind of, like she’d been through some emotional war and had to fight her way out to keep from sinking into it. by “it,” i guess i mean despair. she was never a suicidal woman, but the hard times she faced kept her close to death, in a sense. she probably knew more about death than most people, having been at the very surface of it, nearly as close as you can get without actually being there. she had a sense of doom about her for a long time, but she disguised it well. she wasn’t trying to get sympathy from anyone, so she spoke outgoing and kind to whoever happened to pass her way. the only thing that gave off her immediate desperation was the look on her face. when she smiled, you could still see it. her brown eyes were locked at an angle unfit for an easy life. she looked hard at whatever she was looking at, as if the object could show her it was more than what it appeared to be. jack mitchell thought she was the epitome of beauty. a rare gift in an unbelievably true form. he thought in her eyes carried the same weight the savior of the world’s eyes would have. he thought her slender figure and her collar bones could probably change his life. that was what he wanted, afterall.

sue-ellen stood around five foot six, with a thin, feminine physique that she wore well. she wasn’t especially sexual-looking. she was the kind of woman you wanted to take care of, to protect. he knew if he went to say hi, he would probably tower over her, and he wasn’t drunk enough to think about what he would say. she sat in a corner with a friend for a while, not speaking to anybody. she didn’t really know much of anyone there, but she was okay with that. in fact, she probably preferred it. she just sat sipping on something and gazing around, probably seeing something more beautiful than what you or i could in that dimly lit room.

people were dancing all in front of jack mitchell’s line of sight. he hated that more than he’d ever hated anything. he felt they were keeping him from her, and none of them had a clue. they were just dancing around, having drinks, singing songs. there was a country band playing, some local band that always got a lot of drinks as gratitude.