My Jill

I met my wife Jill while we were in college and this is our story.

I liked to walk and hike at night, being it was a rural college, that backed up to several thousands of acres of National Forest, there were plenty of trails to walk, and a great lake that sat immediately behind the campus. On nights with a full moon, I loved to hike in the woods. 

It was an evening in mid October I was hiking to a clearing I liked to camp at near the rear of the lake I thought I heard crying. I stopped and listened, it wasn’t just crying it was all out sobbing. I quietly made my way off the trail into the woods and found a young blond haired woman there in the dark in near frightened crying. 

“Are you Ok?” I asked.
"What?" she said and looked up not realizing anyone was there. 

I turned my light on and she jumped back and let out a little scream. I quickly began letting her know I wasn’t going to hurt her. I had heard her crying and came to see if she was OK. I was here to help and reached my hand out too her. After a moment or two she jumped up and ran into my arms still crying. She gone on a hike with a couple of friends who decided they wanted to make out, being embarrassed, she ran the wrong way where the trail split, then became lost. She had never been in the woods at night by herself, and was scared. Not knowing how to get out, she just sat down. I took her by the hand, switched on my flashlight and we made our way out of the woods. 

I held her hand, helping her in the dark on a trail I knew well. We talked as we walked. I found out she was from Columbus, OH. She had attended a year at OSU, but didn’t like the large campus, the impersonality of the instructors, or the grade students who were always hitting on her. This was her first semester here, and she really didn’t know anyone. I asked about her friends who were making out somewhere in the woods, she said one was her roommate, who she had only known a few weeks, the other was her boyfriend, who she said was a creep. He kept pawing on her while they were walking under the guise of helping her. Then he asked her to join in when he and her roommate started making out. It was too much. 

I introduced myself. I was a junior. I had started out as a design major, but had switched majors to commercial art so I was on the 5 year track too. Soon we were starting to get closer to the lighted areas of campus, and the first chance I had to get a really good look at Jill. She was a knock out. About 5’7” bright green eyes, gentle, delicate features, long blonde hair, beautiful long legs that looked great in her cutoff jean shorts and hiking boots. Even though she was wearing a thermal undershirt, a flannel shirt, and a dark blue jack, I could tell she had a great figure. After a bit I stopped her under a street light, and told her to stand still. She was really kind of a mess. She had dirt and mud on her hands, face, and legs. Her hair was messed up, and she was still beautiful. I got out my canteen and a bandanna and cleaned her hands and face for her. She had a couple of pretty nasty scratches and cuts on her legs and face. I handed her the wet bandanna. 

“I don’t know you well enough to clean you legs yet.” 

“Oh, a gentleman,” she replied. 

“Chivalry isn’t completely dead” I said. 

She laughed and held onto my arm as she wiped her legs. After a moment I looked again, and realized one of the cuts on her leg was really pretty bad. She said she fell over a log, but didn’t know she had hurt herself that badly, it was starting to bleed freely, so I got a tee shirt from my night pack, and made a quick bandage. 

“Wow, I’m impressed” she said 

“Eagle Scout!” I replied. 

“So what else do they teach Eagle Scouts?” she asked 

“Oh, all kinds of things, but one of them is when someone needs stitches, and you do. The hospital is about a mile from here, and you really do need stitches on that cut. Stay here, My truck is a couple of blocks away I’ll get it and drive you to the ER.” I took off my pack left it with her, and ran to get my truck.

I returned shortly and found her sitting where I left her, a couple of girls and a guy were talking to her when I returned. They had stopped to check on her when they saw the bleeding. The guy was a friend who lived in the basement apartment in the house I lived in. Paul helped Jill up and into the truck. I thanked him and took her to the ER. Once there, I helped her register then sat with her in the waiting room.

I got Jill a coffee and I a soft drink then walked her to a couch where she could put her leg up. As she got to the couch, she handed me her drink and took her jacket off. She had a stunning figure. She looked at me funny for a moment, then said “What?”

I guess I blushed a bit at getting caught, and just said “your beautiful.”

“Thanks” she smiled, “your not so bad yourself.” 

Over the next hour or so we talked about everything. Turned out we had a lot in common. Finally the nurse called her into the ER to get her sewn up. Another 30 minutes and she was ready to go home. After getting in the truck, I saw it was around 12:00 and asked if she had eaten. “No”, it was around 3:00 when they went hiking, and she hadn’t even thought of it. We drove about a block to the McD’s but it was already closed. At 12:01 everywhere except the convenient store closes in the small mountain town where out university was located. 

“If you want to go to my place I can fix us something, I haven’t eaten either, I planned on cooking out tonight” I said.

She agreed and we drove the mile to my house. I had lucked out the year before. One of my professors who I had gotten to be good friends with was taking a three-year sabbatical to work on his Doctorate researching the Frescos in the mountian monestaries in France and Spain. His house needed a fair amount of work, so we had worked out an arrangement for me to stay rent-free and fix the place up. It was only two blocks off campus, and was a large two story home built in the late 20’s in the craftsman style. I fixed up the basement and rented it out, I got half the rent. The upstairs rooms still needed a lot of work. The whole setup was a great deal for me.

Jill was duly impressed when she saw the house and the work I had done. Her dad was an architect, and she was familiar with the styling of the house. I told Jill to make herself at home, and gave her the nickel tour after which she went to the living room turned on some MTV (this was in the early 80’s when MTV still had VJ’s and the man on the moon). I went into the kitchen, I kept a pretty decent fridge since I liked to cook, but it was late so I thought I would fix eggs. I asked her how she wanted hers fixed, and there was no answer. After the second time of no response I went to find she had fallen asleep on the couch. I went to my room and brought her a blanket, a pillow and covered her up. She looked like an angle that had stopped in my living room. I turned off the TV and all but one light, which was on a dimmer. I turned it down then sat in chair across from her and watched her sleep for awhile. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I finally went to my room and to bed. At some point I don’t know whether I dreamed it or not, but I could swear I thought someone was on the corner of my bed.