A man moves in near a strange couple down the road, and strikes up a friendly relationship. Rick is a talkative man who worked in landscaping and construction, particularly tree work. He fell in love with a woman named Faye, who moved into his house with her two sons. To him, she seemed a cold woman, but he still had a daughter with her the next year. Rick seemed to enjoy being a father but was soon under strain to provide for his new family, and would take on more odd jobs and and work late into the night. He became bitter, as he was worn down by the difficulties of making ends meet. Rick loves the land he'd grown up on, with woods full of life that he knew intimately. He shows the man some of it one day, and teaches him about local flora and tells him about how he wants to build a cabin up there, despite it being state-owned property now. He'd seen a mountain lion there too, he said, though the man didn't quite believe him. Rick and Faye got married the following summer after they had another girl. Their wedding reception featured the roast of a pig that Rick killed himself. The man doesn't see the couple much in the next year, but runs into them at a party in the fall, where Rick introduces him to a 'buddy' named Schuyler. Immediately after that party, Rick exhibits some strange behavior. The man doesn't see the couple again after that. After he asks around, the man eventually finds out what happened from different people over the course of the following months. Schuyler had been Faye's foster brother for some time while they grew up, and Faye had run off with him and left the kids with Rick. Rick had grown angry, though he hadn't threatened violence. After the third time Faye had run off with Schuyler and then returned, she begged for forgiveness. Rick gave her an ultimatum to get out, to which she became violently angry. The cops show up, and she told them Rick had threatened her. Faye took out a restraining order against him, and he was sent to a psychiatric ward for a week-long observation. Determined to support his family despite all this, Rick took a tree work job but was killed in an accident. At the funeral, Rick's 'second mother' recognizes Faye as his widow, despite everyone's general idea that her cruel actions towards him had somehow driven him to despair and contributed to his death. Faye eventually moves away. One day, the man ends up on a walk up the same path he'd taken with Rick long ago, and remembers his neighbor and friend. He finds the cabin Rick had told him he'd been building, and feels as though some presence, a wildcat perhaps, is staring at him as he walks away.