She found me in the evening under trees that grew outside the village. I had never cared for her and would have hidden myself if I'd seen her coming. She was to blame, I'm certain, for her son's vices. If they were vices, but I'm very far from admitting that they were. At any rate he was generous, never mean, like others in the village I could mention if I chose.

I was staring hard at a leaf or she would never have found me. It was dangling from its twig, its stalk torn across by the wind or else by a stone one of the village children had flung. Only the green tough skin of the stalk held there suspended. I was watching closely, because a caterpillar was crawling across the surface, making the leaf sway to and fro. The caterpillar was aiming at the twig, and I wondered whether it would reach it in safety or whether the leaf would fall with it into the water. There was a pool underneath the trees, and the water always appeared red, because of the heavy clay in the soil.

I never knew whether the caterpillar reached the twig, for, as I've said, the wretched woman found me. The first I knew of her coming was her voice just behind my ear.

• the author uses a lot of description in this section, it almost seems as it is used as a distraction, because first he is talking about a women that is after him and then it goes on to describe the scenery.
• I believe the author wants us to be curious about the women as well as her son. I think the author expects us to be intrigued by why this women is so awful and the narrator would have avoided her.
• who is she? why doesn't he care for her? what are sons vices that he talks about? The caterpillar could be symbol for the man.
• Who is "she", the voice he can hear? What are her sons vices? And how is the caterpillar related to the story? Does the caterpillar represent or encompass something bigger?
• This man seems to have some sort of hate for this woman just by the way that he describes her. Saying "wretched" woman. He also appeared to not want to attract her attention for some reason.
• it seems to me that he is hiding from some someone, who he believes is to blame for whatever her son did, he doesn't seem to like many in the village but her son seemed nice and generous to him. I feel like the caterpillar and the leaf have some significance to what is going to happen in the story, but he doesn't know whats about to happen because she found him first, he doesn't know the ending.
• Why would he be under the trees outside the village? Does he not have a home? It says that he never cared for her and if he would have seen her coming he would have hid from her, but she seems to care about him a lot.  This makes me wonder about their past and what has happened between then to make her care about him so much, when he doesn't care about her at all.
• I think this story is about a woman and a man relationship. The author is explaining in detail that moment where these character started the first part of the story. It is unclear who the characters are.
• Why is this person hiding from the woman? Also, is the line where it says "...and the water always appeared red, because of the heavy clay in the soil." there to foreshadow blood, or death?
• the author writes what the person is seeing in great detail. The author makes the guy sound like he blames his mother for some reason.
• The first section of this story is rather confusing because there seems to be no context. It reminds me of the last story we read "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that it goes right into a narrative as opposed to giving any sort of background. So far I think the author is expecting us to find the narrator to be a distracted sort who is rather judgmental even though they themselves may not be totally moral. I'm expecting based on the title of this reading that this woman the narrator dislikes will entice him to kill someone or will herself kill someone.
• The main storyline seems to begin with the speaker being found by a bad woman while preoccupied by watching a caterpillar on a leaf. Seems like a strange way to begin a story. Not really sure of the purpose of describing the caterpillar and the leaf on which it sat with such care.
• It sounds like this person is trying to hide from "the wretched woman", but she found him. It seems like he was trying to get away from her by hiding under the trees outside the village.
• Clearly it seems the individual in this reading has a hate our for this woman that is coming to talk to him, he would rather just be left alone to watch this caterpillar than have to talk to this woman.
• The descriptive language here is nice. Everything he says seems to be said with purpose I find.
• To me this sounds like a character from the bible saying how the mother of Christ was responsible for his death. I'm not really sure what to think of this so far there was a lot of detail in that middle paragraph of complete useless information to what "The Second Death" actually is.
• I think as a reader we have to think that the narrator isnt a human being. and the vices of the son are his hands. i also would look at the title and believe this is either a cat or someone having their second chance at life in animal form. Wretched is such a strong word to use, so the narrator wants us to believe she is a very miserable women.
• Well, what a lovely introduction, a little frightening if I may add, but lovely in its descriptions nonetheless.  Now I'm assuming what I'm supposed to be responding to is this interesting and quite possibly dangerous woman approaching what appears to be the author. 
• Is she dangerous?  I mean, what did she ever do to her son to instil such notable vices?  Why would she get so close to the author as well?  It says that "The first I knew of her coming was her voice just behind my ear." which I'm assuming means that she has invaded the (quite possibly) author's intimate space.  Why would she invade such a thing if he loathes her for everything she's done, and what has she done anyway?
• The writing is quiet suspenseful. I imagine if I was in the right setting I would have gotten a chill when I read the line "The first I knew of her coming was her voice just behind my ear". I can just imagine an old woman standing behind me without me knowing.