Prologue
If anything he was a drifter. You know the kind. Ones which displayed apathy in all interactions with society. Going from town to town never knowing what tomorrow will bring. All his processions were carried in that white canvas bag or on that boat that no one recognized, that late day in October. Yeah, he was a drifter, but I�ve never seen one like him before. Come to think of it, I�ve never seen one before at all. He was a lank creature if you only showed enough interest to glance. A closer examination would show you the opposite. My glance must have been a little more interested, he was well built, and quite muscular. I guess one would have to be to live on your own the way he did.
He was a person of contradictions, too. His clothes harshly contrasted with his face, being permanently dressed in a gray shirt with a ragged vest to match, and worn blue jeans that barely ascertained a blue hue. Yet, his face was always cleanly shaven, and hair perfectly in place as it fell into his face, accentuating the mystery in himself. Eyes that color were said to insure intelligence, but if that was true, he had to be some sort of genius. His dark ebony hair hung into his azure eyes, which was just at the right length, where it didn�t need to be cut yet.
I doubt any young girl of my age could say anything but praise to the ascetically pleasing young man. But then again, I�m not the average girl from this town. I wouldn�t know. His life intrigued me more than his handsome stature. I could spend hours just wondering on why he chose to live the way he did. Was it because of some quarrel in his family that cast him from his home? Or maybe it was a romance with a girl that broke his heart that threw him into a life of a traveling hermit. Being born and raised in a small New England port village made me one that didn�t experience excitement but I craved it none the less. So this young man�s story enticed me more than I would have thought. But the hand of hesitancy, griped my soul.
The modestly attractive, to say the least, appearance of the young man was enough to cause a fuss in our small, gossipy little fishing port. But the fact no one knew who he was or where he came from made matters worse. Even though I enjoy small town life, the fact that everyone knew everyone made it a breeding site for malicious gossip, occasionally that is. This made the arrival of the drifter big news that spread faster than some outbreak, which was basically the mood of his reception, the plague. Except for me that is. Well at least until I let my impetuousness and curiosity take over. We never get many visitors to Trenton Bay and I wasn�t going to be the only person to miss this one.