Part 3. cont. In search of his lost love. A woman and her young daughter were walking down the sidewalk. Travis hurriedly crossed over to put him self in their path. The woman grabbed her daughter’s hand. She knew he was not dangerous but her girl may become frightened. His hair was long and wildly unkempt. He was unshaven and looked a little scary.
He looked at them bewildered and said ” have you seen my friend freckles? we had a fight and now I can’t find her. Please tell me me if you’ve seen her. I’m very worried about her. I don’t even know when last I saw her.”
The woman squeezed her girl’s hand to let her know it was okay. Then she looked at Travis ” Alright , honey. If we see her we will tell her you are looking for her”
He said ” thank you. I miss her so much. I hardly ever see her anymore . Sometimes I think she is deliberately hiding from me.”
The lady smiled ” I doubt that , she sounds like such a nice girl. She probably just needs some time to herself.”

As Travis continued to walk he noticed a calico cat. He came up behind it and the cat turned and looked at him. He studied its spotted coat and immediately it reminded him of freckles. He looked into the cats eyes hoping it would reveal its secrets. He could hear the cat whispering about its encounter with freckles. Yes , I’ve seen her , why do you think I have this spotted coat.
The cat jumped to its feet as Travis hovered over it . He reached down and ran his hand along its back and the cat stiffened and arched it with a satisfied purring escaping out of its throat. The cat met his gaze and waited to see if the petting would continue. When Travis straightened up the cat began to prance along the sidewalk. She was enticing him to follow her. Could this be it , was he finally going to be lead to where she was , by this lovely cat?
He followed the cat up and down the road. sometimes she would lead him through a resident’s yard. And sometimes they would come out and yell at him. When he explained the cat was taking him to find freckles they would become silent and stare at him with that one look he had come to know well. They were impressed with his intelligence. That had to be it , because they would stop being mad and just tell him to go on. Who else was able to communicate with a cat in order to find something out , especially something as important as finding freckles.
“Freckles !” he yelled. It was getting dark. How long has he been searching for her?” just a little longer. A car drove slowly by and the window rolled down . It was some of the local neighborhood kids.” Hey Travis , we saw freckles. She was heading into the woods over there behind Jill avenue”. They started laughing and pulled away.
Travis stood there and felt his heart race. Butterflies fluttered in stomach. They had lied before , but what if they really saw her? She could be in danger going into the woods by herself. Just the thought of something bad happening to her made tears well up in his eyes. He couldn’t risk letting anything happen to her. He’d do what ever was possible to help her in any way. He loved her ,even if she was tormenting him by hiding.
He stood at the edge of the woods . It was dark and the sky was lit only by a half moon and stars. He peered into the dark forest. Insects buzzed and hummed. Twigs cracked and snapped by unseen creepy crawly things. His heart raced out of control. If she was in there he needed to find her. Before slipping into the woods and disappearing in the dark he called out frantically ” Freckles! Freckles! are you in there!” he waited but only heard the nocturnal sounds of the country. He took a deep breath and tilted his head down as he stepped in. His hands were up in front of him defensively warding off any protruding sticks or other things. His mouth was slightly a gap and insects kept falling in making him spit and gag. He yelled out again “freckles ! ” he kept on moving ahead breaking branches and swatting at invisible bugs. Sweat started pouring out over his forehead and dripped down into his mouth. Tears tried coming out of his eyes but he fought them back “Freckles!” If she was in here she was out of ear shot. He began to cough and become thirsty. More bugs were flying into his mouth. He wished he was home in bed dreaming. In his dreams she didn’t hide from him. They walked together and talked. They even held hands sometimes. This time tears came streaming down his cheek and there was no way to hold them back. Bugs were flying around his face. He heard snapping twigs and stopped . Was it her? ” freckles?” he whispered.
“Travis” it was a mans voice. He saw a light bobbing up and down. A static crackle and a female’s voice then spilled out. Officer Henderson , can you confirm. The other officers appeared and Travis was taken home after they sufficiently convinced him freckles was not in the woods or in danger.
Later that night he laid in his bed and pictured her pretty face. Sometimes he had to concentrate real hard to see her as she was in the dreams. He would try to remember exactly where each freckle was on her cheeks. He saw her smiling. She smiled with her eyes. They would light up and shine when she enthusiasticlly told him something exciting. A lot of the dreams were at a college and they lived near a big telescope. Both of them worked at the big telescope.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep. Soon she materialized in front of him. He was smart and good looking now. He looked at her and felt a happiness he would never feel under any other circumstances. They looked into each others eyes and both smiled like Cheshire cats. He whispered , barely audible, ” I missed you so much , so much…”
He tossed and turned in his sleep. When he awoke and looked around in the dark and realized he was alone, he wept

Travis M Smith
DOC #529433