The cry was so desperate it chilled Frank to the bone. He ran toward the rentals and saw a young woman running toward him. Her clothes were torn, and there were bruises on her neck and face. She was trembling with terror.
“Please, save me! Hide me!” she sobbed.
“Come on, honey, it’s okay. Follow me,” Frank said.
He wrapped his heavy coat around her and led her back to his cabin.
“You’re safe now. I’m calling the sheriff’s office.”
But the story took a dark turn. The man who had attacked the girl, whose name was Sarah, turned out to be the son of a very influential businessman.
“There won’t be any charges, and there won’t be a statement,” the man’s lawyer, a man named Alex, told her later. “If she says a word, we’ll file a counter-complaint. We’ll say she tried to seduce him to rob him. And who are they going to believe? A girl like her or a man of his standing?”
When Deputy Miller arrived to pick up Sarah, she was so terrified she couldn’t speak.
“There was no assault,” Miller pressured her. “So there’s nothing to report. If you start making trouble, you’ll regret it.”
“How can you say that? A few more minutes and he would have killed her!” Frank shouted, but Miller had an answer for him, too.
“And you, Frank, you should keep your mouth shut. This cabin belongs to the county. One wrong move and you’re back on the street. Look at her—she’s fine. No harm done, right?”
“You’ve got no conscience, Deputy,” Frank said, staring him down. “You’re on the wrong side of the law.”
Frank spent the winter with a new companion—a dog he named Scout. He had found the poor animal in the woods, weak and whimpering. Scout was a large hunting dog, likely abandoned by his owner after a run-in with a wild animal. The wounds on his belly looked like they came from a boar’s tusks.
“Easy, boy,” Frank whispered, slowly approaching the wary dog. Scout didn’t growl, but he was clearly in pain.
“I’m here to help. Let’s get you fixed up.”
Frank carefully picked up the dog and realized he wasn’t fighting back. He carried him to the local vet, a man named Doc Henderson.
“Frank! Are you crazy? Why are you bringing this stray into my clinic?” Doc grumbled, but he started examining Scout anyway.
“He’s a good dog, Doc. Look at those eyes,” Frank said, scratching the dog behind the ears. “I’m keeping him.”
And so he did. Scout began to recover, but the medicine was expensive.
“You’re going to go broke over this dog,” Doc warned.
“It doesn’t matter,” Frank replied. He worked extra shifts at the farm to pay the bills. “He’s young. He’s got a lot of life left. Even if he has a limp, he’s alive.”
Under Frank’s care, Scout was soon running through the snow. Despite the freezing cold, Frank took the dog on all his walks. They trekked under the heavy pine branches, chasing rabbits and enjoying the quiet of the winter woods.
When the spring thaw began, the river rose rapidly, overflowing its banks and flooding the low-lying fields. The houses in the valley were soon under water. People worked tirelessly to save what they could. Frank’s cabin, luckily, was on higher ground. From his porch, he could see the entire town struggling against the flood.
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