Werewolf's Humanity

Second Thoughts, Part 2

Much to Sammy's surprise, they were still with each other's company after an hour. Sarah did most of the talking. Sammy was a quiet person for reasons he wasn't altogether happy with, but he did enjoy listening to people. Learning other peoples' stories felt like he was enriching his own life vicariously. Sarah Parker had grown up in Pine Grove, and she came from a long line of cowboys. She had even tried her own hand at the ranch life too, but after breaking her leg for the second time, she decided to pursue a safer vocation. But teaching high school, she joked, was almost as hazardous.

Sammy struggled to share things about himself, but it proved to be harder than expected. He told her he worked at the Double-W ranch, and that he could play a couple basic tunes on the violin. Even though Sammy knew he was anything but, he was starting to feel boring. The most interesting parts of his life were a secret. And if Sarah recognized him from his public meltdown on the football field, she was polite enough not to mention it.

Things had apparently not worked out for Gerry with his first choice of women, so he had moved on. He gave Sammy a wide berth but every time he passed by he flashed Sammy a pair of thumbs-up and a wide smile. Sammy pretended not to see him. Crimping his style, indeed.

"You know," she eventually asked. "I appreciate a man who listens and doesn't just brag about himself. But you've barely told me anything about yourself."

"Uh..." Sammy tried not to choke. "Well, I'm honestly drawing a blank now. What would y'like to know?"

"Well for starters, how about your last name?"

"Oh. That's easy. It's uhm, Phoenix."

"Samson Phoenix?" she asked, smiling. "Cute name."

He blushed. "Well, my foster parents kinda made it up for me."

"Interesting choices they made. Do you understand the significance of it?

He bobbed his head in a half-hearted nod. He thought about it a lot, actually. "Samson because I'm big and strong, and Phoenix because this is my new life. My a-foster dad has a flare for the dramatic."

Her smile brightened. "Samson Phoenix, Sarah Parker. We have the same initials."

Sammy blushed harder.

***

Another hour passed, and the conversation improved. He found out that she had been dragged here by friends as well. They were even treated to a show, as they watched Gerry approach her friends. She couldn't hear what was being said, and Sammy could only make out about half of it through the rest of the noise, but he couldn't let on about his superior hearing. Sarah proved not to need it, though, as she predicted the outcome: Gerry got nowhere, and eventually slunk away in defeat. As he returned to the bar for another drink, their conversation naturally turned to dating.

"So, you've never done this before?" she asked.

"Nope," he said, swishing his second beer for the night in his mug. "I didn't date as a teenager. I had other problems at the time. When I was twenty, my foster parents hired this girl to work at the ranch, and a few months later we started datin'. It was hardly a conventional datin' situation."

"How so?"

"It um..." He took another swig before elaborating, "She was just usin' me. A few months ago she up and left all of a sudden and left me a 'Dear John' letter."

"Oh, Sammy. I am so sorry," Sarah sounded downright horrified.

"Least it wasn't a voicemail message," he said. Sammy didn't know if he could have bared to hear her voice reciting that message. There was something to be said about the impersonal touch when having one's heart broken. But then, he still had the letter in a cabinet by his bed and he still read it on occasion. That probably wasn't healthy. He took another swig to steady his nerves. "In retrospect I guess I came on too strong sometimes. If I ever come on too strong for you, jus' bop me on the nose."