A/N This is a story I originally submitted for the "Keep Reminding Me" themed contest, sponsored by Ultimate Bethyl Fic List back in 2017. Once the contest completed I posted it as part of my Little Love Stories collection and also added a follow up chapter. That chapter will post in the morning. Thank you all for taking the time to read it.

Faith and Reminders

1965, Somewhere in Georgia

It was early, not yet five a.m., but he had to get on the road. He was heading over to Norcross to check on a job he'd heard about at the Pulp and Paper Mill. He hated to leave, and before crawling out of bed he paused for just a minute to watch her as she slept.

She looked so peaceful, as if everything was okay and like he hadn't messed it all up again. She was like that. Always encouraging him, telling him he was good and how far he'd come in life. He knew the truth though, she was the only thing that kept him on the straight and narrow.

The pregnancy had been rough on her from the start. At first it was mostly that she'd had such terrible morning sickness and it seemed she was dog tired all the time. But then two months ago she'd had to quit her job at the Pup & Burger. Her ankles were all swollen up and the Doc said it was dangerous for her and the baby. She felt real bad like she wasn't contributing but he told her that wasn't her worry and he didn't really want her working anyway. He wanted to be the one to provide for her and their baby, just like he'd promised her he would.

Now there was real big trouble. The small farm equipment shop where he worked had gone belly up without warning, at least none for him. He'd been out of work over a month. He tried everywhere and everything. He'd do whatever it took to care for her but nothing had come through.

He'd made a little money washing cars and mowing grass but not enough to support a family. It was barely enough to keep gas in the truck and the light bill paid.

He didn't tell her at first. He didn't want her worrying about things that were his responsibility, but their situation was desperate now. He'd managed to get the rent paid for the next month and there were some groceries for now, after that he just didn't know.

He knew if he told her she'd tell him not to worry. He didn't understand why she believed in him the way she did. She'd tell him how much faith she had in him, how he always figured out a way and that he would this time too. She always said he was the strong one. That wasn't true at all and he knew it. She was the strong one, the one who had changed everything about her life. She'd given up everything for him. Yet she was always the one who told him he was good, that he'd changed and that he just had to let go of the past. He had trouble believing it could be true.

What he knew was that if the job over in Norcross didn't pan out he'd have to sell the bike. There was a guy who'd asked him about it a few times and offered a fair price. As much as he loved that motorcycle he loved her a whole lot more. Maybe someday he could get a new Bike but there was only one of her.

If they ran out of the Bike money and he still didn't have work maybe he wouldn't have a choice. Maybe he'd have to do what Merle did, what he himself used to do before her and he'd start down that wrong road again. He didn't want to, he wanted to prove to her he wasn't that bad person people just always assumed he was. He wanted to prove she was right and he could be a good man. There were so many things he wanted so badly to prove to her, and just maybe to himself.

Before he slipped from the bed he kissed her cheek and whispered "I love ya Beth." She stirred a little and without even opening her eyes she whispered back, "I love you Daryl. It will all work out, you always find a way. We'll be good."

He went out and fired up the old truck. While he gave it a minute to warm up he lightly touched his fingers to that Polaroid picture of her that was taped to the dash. Life had been a lot easier for them then, and it seemed like they were so much younger. They'd been at the lake that day just playing in the water and having fun. He'd managed to get hold of a couple of beers for himself and wine coolers for her. They got a little buzzed and they were a lot in love and it was then they made love for the first time.

Once they'd crossed over into physical love they had no desire to walk away from it. It wasn't long before she was pregnant with their baby. She was 16 and he was 18. He knew it was all his fault, he felt that right to the heart of him. He should have known better, he should have protected her. She told him that wasn't true and that she had wanted that closeness with him just as much as he wanted it with her. She told him their baby was a blessing and the child would bring them even more happiness.

Her family was angry and disappointed so the two of them struck out on their own. At first they cried together and then they agreed it really was good. It was scary but they had love and they were sure that their love would make everything okay. That's what she'd told him and he believed her, at least he tried very hard to.

00

He got to the Pulp and Paper Mill thirty minutes before start time yet there was already a line 50 men deep and more arriving by the minute. He knew then he didn't have a chance. He'd just turned 19, he had no high school diploma and no skillset in this type of work. It was a lost cause. But he stood in line there for two and a half hours waiting for his turn to be interviewed. Just in case.

When they finally got to him he could see the man was just going through the motions, he had no intention of hiring some redneck kid. Still he tried, "I can fix anythin' with a motor. I'll do whatever kind a work ya want done, clean the toilets whatever but man I need a job. I just need a chance, please."

He didn't get hired and with the loss of the prospect he lost his hope. He didn't have any options left. Tomorrow the bike would be gone and he was feeling pretty sure in another few weeks he'd be back to selling dope and running scams with Merle. What the hell else could he do?

He no sooner got in the pickup than the rain started to fall, light at first but it soon turned heavy. Perfect he thought, it added to his already miserable mood.

He was only about a half hour from home and Beth when he saw it up ahead. It was one of those real fancy cars, a brand new Cadillac. By the looks of it the driver had been side swiped. The driver's side was smashed in from back to front and the paint had been scraped right off. If not for the guardrail the car would have been over the side.

There was a lady standing next to the car all alone and soaking wet. He didn't want to stop. He wanted to go home. He needed to see Beth, she was the only thing in this world that could make him feel better. But that's what made him stop. He knew she'd want him to.

He hopped out of the pickup and hurried over to the women. He saw she was an older lady and she looked panic-stricken and disoriented. She was drenched and he told her, "C'mon now ma'am ya gotta come with me, ya can't be standin' out here in the rain. C'mon I'll help ya."

He held her arm tightly so she wouldn't fall on the slippery pavement and rushed her over to the pickup, "Get in where it's dry, c'mon now hurry." The woman didn't question him and he figured she was probably in shock or something. What was important was she did as he asked.

He ran to the driver's side and reached back behind the seat, pulling out a thin blanket before jumping in. He cranked the heat up a little more, they were both wet and cold but he knew she was worst off. "Take off that wet coat an wrap up in this blanket here. Sorry, it's just an old army blanket but it's all I got."

She seemed to be settling in a little and while they sat warming up he asked, "What happened?"

Her hands were shaking but she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, "It was so frightening, I've never been more scared. It was like the person just slid their truck right along the side of my car. It seemed to push the vehicle sideways into that rail."

"Yeah Ma'am well it's a good thing that rail was there I'm bettin' it saved your life. Other than bein' cold an scared ya okay?"

She looked at him then and saw he was just a kid. Although his truck was clean it was old and well worn. "Yes I'm fine I'm just so shook up all I can think about is how relieved I am to be alright, and how grateful I am to you for stopping. I just wish I was home. My husband is over in Alabama visiting his brother so I can't even find a payphone and call him to come for me."

"Where's home? I can drop ya."

"In Suwanee, I was just driving over to Columbus to see my sister but I think I got turned around in this weather." He figured she'd had enough trouble for one day and he sure knew how that felt, so he didn't tell her just how turned around she was.

"Yeah well ya did but it's no big deal. I just come from up that way. I'll take ya." It was one of the last things he wanted to do, to drive another hour and a half back there, then still have two hours to drive to get home. But she was older and obviously shaken, and he could almost hear Beth's voice telling him it was the right thing to do.

They drove in silence for about 15 minutes. The woman noticed the picture of the girl taped to the dash and the girlish writing below that read, "Daryl & Beth 4Ever," with a little heart next to it.

She broke the silence asking, "That's an awfully pretty young woman in the photo, is she your steady girl?"

She saw the faintest of smiles cross his lips and he reached his fingers over for a minute to touch the picture. He stunned the woman when he answered, "Yeah she's my steady alright, she's my wife."

She forgot her manners as she continued, "Oh my goodness you're both so young. How old are you?"

There was no reason not to tell her so he did, "She's 16 but she'll be 17 when the baby's born. I turned 19 last week."

For some reason the woman felt her eyes get moist. They were so young and there was a baby on the way. "It must be quite a challenge to be so young and starting a family."

"It ain't when ya love each other like me an her do. Then it's good, we're happy. We only got one problem."

The woman couldn't seem to help herself. He spoke so sincerely of his love she had to know, "What kind of problem would that be?"

He didn't know why he was telling this woman everything, he didn't even know her. But maybe that was it. He'd been carrying the weight of all this on his shoulders for a long while now. He didn't even know how heavy it had been weighing on him until he began to tell it.

He took a deep breath and then she noticed him chewing on his bottom lip, "Lost my job an I ain't been able ta find work. It seems not many folks wanna take a chance on some redneck kid with no diploma. I tried everywhere, that's where I been today, the paper mill in Norcross. Me an about 75 other guys."

"Norcross, but that's not where you live?"

"Nah we live down in Perry but that don't matter I'll go wherever I gotta go an do whatever I gotta do. I need ta care for Beth an our baby."

"So you were driving back from Norcross to Perry, you were almost home and now you're driving me all the way back to Suwanee? And you'll turn around and go back home to Perry?"

"Well you was in trouble an needed help. So yeah. I'ma have ta stop when I see a station though, I'ma need some more gas."

She was beginning to clearly see why the pretty young girl in the picture loved this boy. He had such a good heart.

She knew what he was doing as he scrounged around in both pockets and the ashtray, finally coming up with two dollars and change. He'd already said he was looking for work, she got her wallet out of her handbag and said, "Here let me pay for the gas."

Ah but he was proud, "Nah Ma'am, I got it." When they pulled in the service station he told the attendant, "Just two dollars and fifty cents, no more." The attendant seemed to scoff before pumping the fuel.

She was intrigued by the young man and his very young wife. She admired his sincerity and his obviously strong sense of responsibility. She knew she shouldn't pry but then she supposed if he didn't want to answer he wouldn't. She didn't bother to ask why they married so young, she was sure she knew the answer to that and she had no desire to embarrass him. So she asked, "How did you meet your pretty wife?"

"I got in some trouble an got sent ta juvie for a couple months, ya know youth detention. I didn't go back ta school after that. I needed money ta live an I figured if I went back ta school then I couldn't get a full time job. I'd just go right back ta doing wrong ta support myself. I's lucky the guy at the farm equipment knew I could fix about anythin' with a motor. I guess it just comes natural ta me, anyway he hired me."

"You didn't live with your folks?"

"Nah my Mom's dead an my Dad is a real mean kind a drunk. It's best I stay away. My brother he don't really have a place he stays permanent. So it seemed best I just take care a myself."

The woman bit her tongue she had so many things she would have liked to say, and so many more questions she wanted to ask. Instead she just listened as he continued.

"Beth worked a couple a hours after school at the drive-in food stand just a block down the street from where I worked. Every day I'd go there an buy me a hot dog or a coke just so I could see her. One day she told me ta quit comin' around there an lookin' at her if I wasn't gonna ever ask her out."

The woman saw his smile grow bigger as he said the words and a smile spread across her own face. "Oh my gosh so she asked you out?"

"Well the way I took it seemed like she told me ta get my ass in gear or move it along. Sorry, didn't mean ta cuss."

"That's okay, tell me more."

The young man smiled then, "Well I sure don't know much about girls but I knew I needed ta do sumthin', so I ask her would she wanna go for a ride on my bike when she got off work."

"A bicycle ride? How sweet."

He snorted out a little laugh as he clarified, "Nah a motorcycle. Anyway, she liked the idea real well an that's how it all started. We rode out by lake an just started talkin'. I's never one ta talk ta folks much, ya know about me an all that stuff but my Beth she wanted ta know. So I told her."

"What kinds of things Daryl?"

"I's honest with her ma'am. I told her, an sorry but I used some cuss words, I said, 'You wanna know what I was before? I was just driftin' around with my brother Merle doin' whatever he said we were gonna be doing that day. I was nobody. Nuthin'. Just some redneck asshole with an even bigger asshole for a brother.'"

"She told me I wasn't that at all, not anymore. She said she wished she could change like I did. She said she wished she was strong, ya know tough on the inside. I told her she was. I told her I's just used to things being ugly and hard. Growing up the way I did an all I had ta be strong. She said yeah, 'but you got away from it' and I told her nah not really, I's still that guy. She said no that I did change. I told her maybe she needed ta keep reminding me sometimes."

"It sounds like you were supportive of each other right from the start."

"Yes ma'am we got close with each other right away. She don't know it but she taught me so much, made my life better and made me wanna be a good person so I could make her proud. But I screwed up when I lost my job."

"Were you fired?"

"Nah the place went outta business, closed up."

"Well that's not your fault is it?"

"It feels like it is, like I shoulda been able ta do sumthin', like I shoulda had work by now. I's hopin' for this job today but now…well I'm sellin' the bike an that'll help. After that I don't know. I can't let Beth down."

"Maybe something else will come along, you can't give up Daryl you have to have faith."

"That's what Beth tells me too but it's hard for me ta believe in that stuff. It's like faith comes natural ta her."

"Are you looking forward to being a father?"

"I's scared at first an Beth had some health troubles but she's better now. That's all I want is for Beth an our baby ta be okay, an yeah, I'm real excited. I wanna do right for them."

"And you'd really just up and move to some new place to get work?"

"Hell yeah we got no ties ta Perry, not anymore. We just need a start an then I know her an me an our baby can have a good life."

They were nearly to Suwanee when she saw him digging his hand in the ashtray again, feeling under the seat and between seat cushions. "What are you looking for Daryl?"

"I's hoping ta find a little change. I need ta call the neighbor so she can tell Beth not ta worry, I'll be home in a couple hours."

"You don't have a telephone?"

She immediately regretted having asked him such a question. She knew she'd embarrassed him when she noticed he was chewing the side of his thumb, he answered honestly, "Nah we can't afford extras like that. We got a real nice neighbor though, she'll walk over an let Beth know."

The woman reached in her bag then, "Let me lend this to you for now. When we get to my house I'm sure you'll find your money."

"Ya sure? I'll pay ya back an all, I don't like owin'."

"Daryl I can wait for the money and I know you'll pay me back. Better take fifty cents it'll be a long distance charge from here."

She'd also taken a slip of paper and pen out of her bag. She wrote on it while he was out of the pickup making his call.

They rode the remainder of the way in silence and she heard his stomach growl several times. When they pulled in her driveway she asked, "Please come in and let me make you a sandwich, it's the very least I can do for you. You've done so much for me."

She was right about the young man, he was proud. But he also hadn't eaten since the day before and he was starving, "Yeah okay if you're sure it ain't too much trouble. Lemme just check in my toolbox first though, I think I got some change." He gave her a handful of coins, pennies, nickels and dimes for the phone call. She wished he wouldn't have but she understood.

They chatted while she fixed his meal, "Ya sure do got a nice home here ma'am."

"Thank you Daryl we like it very much, and we feel very grateful to have it and all the nice things we have in life. We didn't always have nice things though. We were young once and we struggled just like you and Beth. But we were happy because we had each other, just like the two of you are happy."

She'd made him what she was sure was the biggest sandwich she'd made in her life. She wished it could have been even bigger when she saw the way he devoured it.

When he was done he nodded his head, "Thanks again ma'am, it was real good. I best be gettin' home ta Beth now."

"Thank you Daryl, I feel grateful to have met you. I appreciate the ride it was so kind of you."

00

He figured Beth would be in bed and sound asleep by the time he got home, that was okay though. As long as he was with her that was what was important. Tomorrow he'd sell the bike and try to pick up some kind of work cutting grass, hauling trash for folks, maybe wash a few cars. He was going to try hard to stay straight, he would as long as he was able.

When he finally pulled up to the little duplex he was exhausted from the long day of driving and the weight of his disappointment at not getting a job. He knew he had one cigarette left in that red pack, this would be the last one he ever had. He wouldn't spend the money to buy more and he knew his smoking worried Beth.

He reached a hand over in the glove box to get the pack, thinking now that the rain had stopped he'd sit on the curb and enjoy the last of his bad habit. The pack felt funny and he turned on the overhead light in the cab. Sure enough the package was torn open and there was a piece of paper, a business card and a hundred dollar bill inside.

The note read, "I feel honored to have met such a fine young man. My husband has been looking for someone trustworthy and dependable to work for him at his automobile lot and service center. I believe you're the right man for the job. You said you'd move. Use this $100 to come with Beth to Suwanee and start your new job. The money is only a loan, a little will be deducted from your check each week until it's paid back. I hope you'll decide to come to work in our family business, and that we see you first thing Monday morning at 7a.m. sharp. Sincerely, Erma Horvath."

He forgot all about the cigarette. He took the money, the note, the card and the 100 dollar bill and hurried in the little house. Beth was standing there waiting for him and they didn't say anything at first, they just hugged each other close. She whipered, "I missed you so much today."

"I missed ya lots more an I got a big story ta tell ya. But for now I gotta ask ya, if I got a job in Suwanee would ya move there?"

"Of course I would Daryl. I'd go anywhere with you, you know that."

He stared into her eyes as his hands softly moved along her cheeks until his fingers wove into her hair. He kissed her long and deep and told her, "I love ya so much Beth an everythin's gonna be okay, we're gonna be good."

"I never doubted it Daryl and I never doubted you. I told you I have faith in you, I knew you'd find a way."

"Maybe ya just gotta keep remindin' me sometimes."

A/N Thank you for reading along. I'd appreciate it very much if you would leave a comment or a review. There's a chapter photo of the couple on my tumblr blogs, bethylmethbrick and gneebee. Part two of Faith & Reminders will post tomorrow. If you're inclined, please check it out. I thank you again and remember, I love ya Large! xo gneebee