After the talk I had with Nessie I hadn't seen Embry at the elementary school anymore instead Opal's uncle Seth was there. This did make me feel better though Nessie assured me that Embry was no harm to Reina doesn't mean I have to trust him. As for Brett our torturing was going better. Being at the library made it easier for him to focus we would get about three assignments done a day. What made me even happier was that he was paying my asking price and since he was so behind it was an after-school thing every day. I had a good chuck of change for grocery and other little expenses. For the most part things were falling in to place (it'll never get back to normal) I was making money, everyone at school had moved on, and me and Reina were left to ourselves. The only hold up was this damn cast.
"I'm telling you I can do it. Your going to hurt yourself even more, what you goanna do if you wreak and break your other leg? How will you explain to Mr. Brooker or the doctor why grandma isn't here?" I thinned my lips ignoring her as I continued to adjust my broken leg while I sat on top of the four-wheeler. It was a little thing, lime green paint pilling away something Chris had bought (or stole) from a friend. Hooked to the end was a small trailer filled with the several bags of trash from the week. I hadn't seen the animal at all since the first night, but I didn't want to chance it. Trash would be picked up tomorrow morning, so we needed to get it in the pin tonight. But I knew I couldn't convince Reina to walk all the bags from the back-mud room to the dumpster up front near the opening of the driveway. So I was going to drive it up, easier said than done.
I couldn't bend my leg at all making the foot pad useless. I couldn't just let my leg drag behind either and risk damaging the cast or my leg. If the four-wheeler had the plastic fender I could rest my leg on it, uncomfortable but it would work but it had broken off sometime ago.
"Fine." She jumped from the porch step. "Which one is the break?" She rolled her eyes. "The break?"
"This one, and that's the gas, and that's the emergency brake and this tells me how fast I'm going. Grandpa showed me how to drive this too."
"Yea well it's been some time and I'm going to have to ride in the trailer, so my life is also on the line." I maneuvered my self off and even though I was instructed not to walk on the cast I did so back to the trailer. I took a seat on the edge and layer my bad leg out over one of the garbage bags. Reina started the engine and after a second took off. It had rained the day before, so our yard was a wet muddy mess and grass was flying up but from where I was sitting I was protected. I adjusted the plastic bag I had used to protect the bottom of my cast.
Reina hit the pavement but instead heading down the driveway she shot out towards the other side of the house past the side parking lot gaining speed. "Reina!" I knew what she was planning to do our grandpa did it with us when we were kids, Chris even did it a few times. There was a uphill slop on the right side of the house, if you got enough speed you could become airborne.
"Reina don't do it!" She ignored me as she when faster, dirt kicking up at me this time. I pushed myself deeper into the trailer moving the garbage out of my way holding tight as she shot up the hill and for a couple of seconds we were in the air I didn't see this as my eyes where shut tight then the slamming of wheels back on to the ground. The trailer hit hard once then again, and I let a closed lipped yell. When she slowed down on the pavement I opened my eyes. We had lost two bags with that stunt and I knew I was going to have a bruises und my shoulder blades from when I slammed into the back of the trailer. Reina was just laughing away and while I was glad she was having fun she was going to be upset when I sent her on foot to grab the lost garbage, I hoped one of the bags bust open on her.
"That was awesome. If I didn't have this trailer I would have had some great air there." She had come to a stop in front of the pin. I gave her a glare when she finally turned toward me.
"We lost some soldiers along the way go get them."
She wrinkled her nose, "Worth it," and ran after them. I searched out my back, yep I was going to get a bruise, and undid the latch. The pin was just a long wooden gate that held our dumpster. Most restaurants and hotel had them to keep people and animals from getting into the trash. I threw one bag in and decided Reina could do the rest. I walked up to the edge of the woods, I grew up in these woods it was natural for me to explore them. But I was looking for something this time.
Hunting was a part of this community; fall is the most popular season but that because its deer season and my grandpa wasted no time in teaching me the ropes. I learned how to track, trap, shoot all kinds of animals. I knew the sign to recognize if an animal had been around and could guesstimate how long ago it was. I hadn't seen the animal since the first night but that didn't mean it wasn't out there.
I started walking around the perimeter of the woods slowly looking for trampled undergrow, broken twigs, and poop, if I found that I had something to worry about. It met that it was marking territory. "Rhonda what are doing?" Reina yelled I had walked a good fifteen feet away, I waved her off.
I had found what I was looking for. Something had laid on top of this undergrowth recently. That was unexpected, wild animals don't rest or sleep this close to humans. I walked into the woods following the path the animal had made for its self. I went just a few feet still able to see our house and looked and listened. I hoped that whatever it was wouldn't be returning soon. The sound of the animals surrounded me, the wind on the trees caused water from yesterdays rain to fall echoing the sound. I looked up and my eyes thin broken branches from some trees. A prickle of panic hit my spine. If branches higher than me had been pushed aside for this animal, it was a massive. I looked deeper trying to make my eyes see through the trees and greenery. Looking for movement.
The sound of wheels on our gravel driveway broke my concentration. I whipped my head back to my house. Who could be here? The car came to a stop and the sound of doors. "Mrs. Sims, what are you don't up here?" I groaned when I heard Reina. Mrs. Sims was one of our few neighbors. If you walked straight from the back of our house through the woods for about 6 miles you would end up on the outline of Mrs. Sims farm.
I ran, well tried to at least back out the woods. Sure enough she was there with her powder blue dodge colt. With her was a twig of a guy with long arms, dark skin and wild curly hair pulled into a pony tail on top back part of his head. Mrs. Sims was a widow and her only child had moved up to Toledo and rarely visited. My grandpa had helped her around her house and the farm till his passing, if it wasn't for the fact that my grandpa was taking care of his two granddaughter and wayward daughter I believed him, and Mrs. Sims would have gotten married at one point. It was a path that fate didn't allow. Since his passing Mrs. Sims had gotten into the risky game of offering her home to the transits for work around the farm or home. That's who the guy with her must be.
"Rhonda what are you doing trampling around in the woods like that you should be resting."
"Just trying to get some chores done."
"Your grandmother is making you do chores in your condition? I'm going to have a talk to her about it."
"No she's at work and she isn't making me do this it just well we hadn't been able to take the trash out all week and it wasn't fair for Reina to have to do it all."
"What's wrong with your trash?"
"Rhonda saw a big animal the other day, she was worried that it would get through the pin."
"Really? Have you noticed anything Dominic?" The man shook his head. "Well I'll get ahold of Mr. Walker see if his deer cams have anything." I nodded that probably was a good idea, Mr. Walker, Mrs. Sims and my grandpa let each other hunt on each other's land so he had cameras set up everywhere.
"So what brings you here?"
"Oh well I was wanting to see your grandmother, but I guess I missed her but none the less I can still do what I planned. I was thinking that Dominic could help with some work around the home for you all and I was going to make dinner for everyone. I brought all the ingredients for my homemade chicken pot pie."
"Oh that's not necessary really."
"Please dear I've already decided. Come on get in the car so I can give you a ride back to the house. Reina?"
"I'll take the four-wheeler back."
"Right back I'm still mad at the stunt you pulled earlier." She rolled her eyes and took off. I took the bag I had over my cast off not wanting to get the back of Mrs. Sims car wet or dirty. Reina revved her engine and shot back to the house.
"So where is you grandmother working at now?"
"Well she's still a nurse in Columbus?"
"She drives to Columbus every day?"
"Yea, seems kinda inconvenient but she's just a couple years from retirement and she'll get a nice bonus if she stays and waits it out." It was a cover story I had come up with that was mostly true. Debra was a nurse in Columbus and she was going to be retiring soon the only lie was she doesn't actually live here.
"I've been retired for almost 6 years now; when she does retire have her go to the gym in Garfield Heights they have some great classes with low impact and it keeps ya young. Not to mention the owner just hired some really attractive young men, oh and Leah she teaches yoga and meditation it's very relaxing. I go three times a week Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays." She was talking about the gym that Nessie was at the other day I remembered the man I met inside and Jacob and Embry. They must be who she's referring to as the 'attractive' young men. I guess that explains why they are all so massive.
We headed back into the house, Dominic helping me up the stairs while Mrs. Sims carried in the food she was going to cook for us tonight. I wondered how long she would stay and what excuse I would use when she wondered why my Debra wasn't home. This brought some panic Charlotte Sims may seem like a sweet old lady, but she was formerly a district attorney, getting one over her was going to be hard.
Mis. Sims headed back to the kitchen me and Dominic followed unsure of what she had planed for us to do. "Ah." The simple chick of her tongue told me she was not impressed with the state of our kitchen. It gotten even messier since the day Nessie was here and because we had a weeks' worth of trash just hanging around there was a sour smell in the air.
Reina was sitting at the table, she had put on a new pair of sweat pants as her others were wet and covered in grass and mud. Mis. Sims set the food to make dinner on the table pushing aside some of the junk that had been collected there.
"Okay then it seems me a Reina will work on this Kitchen." Reina's face twisted when she realized she would be stuck with Mis. Sims. "Rhonda is there anything that you need help with that Dominic could do for you?" I felt embarrassed, I didn't know Dominic and she wanted me to give him a job.
"It's okay we really don't need any help."
"Come now dear Dominic is really good at lifting and repairing."
"She's right I am. Besides it would make me uncomfortable if you three were doing work while I was just standing around watching." His voice was deep it almost didn't match up with his body.
"See don't make the man uncomfortable."
"Well I do need to move some boxes from the back bedroom to the front door."
"Lead the way." I head out the hall towards the back bedroom, Nessie and Bella would be here tomorrow. I had gone throw most of the other rooms and had packaged everything. Some of the stuff I was going to keep and put in a yard sell over the summer. But I did have three boxes of stuff I would get more money from pawning.
"Sorry about this I'm sure its not how you want to spend your Saturday."
"Eh, hey it gives me a place to sleep in and food in my stomach." So I was right he was one to the transits. "Besides at least I get to work inside today, yesterday I was cleaning the barn."
"Oh you've been staying with Mrs. Sims for a while?"
"Since Thursday night. The last time I was in the area it was four days."
"You come through Valley View often?"
"Sometimes, I was in Cleveland for eight months but I'm heading to Akron now."
"Hmm Is that your final destination or do you have somewhere else in mind?"
"Don't know we'll have to see." He grabbed two boxes and felling out of place I grabbed the third, yea I'm pretty sure Dr. Roff is going to be mad at me for walking on this cast. Dominic gave a knowing smile but said nothing as we headed to the front door.
"This is a pretty big house you have here." He said looking up the stairs. "It was a B and B?"
"Yea. You there is still a faded ad on the bus stop for this place." I felt like an idiot. Was it okay for me to say that? To assume that he would on an off chance know of this ad just because he was homeless and hung out by the bus stop.
"I think I know the one you're talking about." I felt a little better. "The address and phone number are scratched off."
"Mmhm, my mom did that. She was tired of people showing up thinking the place was still open." He chuckled probably due to my tone.
"That would be annoying." He continued to laugh.
"I can't really remember much. Oh, I do remember Reina once let in a really drunk guy in one night."
"What?"
"Yea she was about seven and he was knocking on the door and she just let him in. Tried to check him in too. She had seen my grandpa and mom do it before had him sign in crayon and everything. This guy was so plastered he didn't even question it. My mom freaked out when she walked into the dining area and he was just sitting at a table, Reina was with him going over one of the old menus."
"What did your mom do?"
"Called the police. He spent the night sobering up in a jail cell." We continued to laugh about the outlandish event, that had happened not long after my grandpa had died and at the time it was a bit scary looking at it now it was hilarious.
"Do you two need another job?" Mrs. Sims asked coming up the hall behind the desk. "How's your firewood situation Rhonda?" I had looked outside to see it was starting to rain.
"We don't need to worry about firewood. You said you are good at fixing things the sink is leaking in the bathroom." He mouthed a soft 'thank you' and we headed towards the master bathroom.
It was called a master bathroom though it wasn't as big as you would think, the only difference between this bathroom and the hall bath was this one had a shower and a tub. Dominic messed with the handles for a second then opened the bottom self. "Do you have any tools?"
"Yea, I'll go get them." I went back towards the kitchen catching Reina's stick eye as Mrs. Sims had her sweeping out behind the fridge. I pulled grandpa's tools out of the mud room and went back.
"Your going to need a new pipe down here too. This one should last for a little while longer but sooner rather than later will be best." He started looking through the tool bag finding what he needed he started messing around I unable to see.
"Where did you learn plumbing?"
He answered without looking back. "It's what I use to do. The first time I met Charlotte she needed someone to fix her running toilet, no one else knew how to do it but me." I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I pass that bus stop almost every day, Valley View didn't have a high number of homeless, but it was a between town so there were a few people who would sleep there at night, either missing the bus or not having enough fair. I had never considered much about what they did before. He noticed my silence.
"I was living with my parents at the time and I wasn't exactly a peach. I came and went as I pleased, never listened to them and broke way too many rules and got involved with some ruff people. But I was an adult I was making my own money. Then one day I crossed the line and my dad kick me out. 'Boy if you think you're an adult go be one in the real world' and so I did and well life was a suck punch to the gut."
"You didn't have to explained to me." He looked at me I hadn't realized his eyes where green.
"I know. But I get enough of people judging me when I'm on the streets they see I'm homeless and assume I'm useless or lazy. In no means am I a saint but I'm trying."
"Where are you from?"
"Charleston."
"South Carolina!"
"West Virginia. I know not as exciting." He gave a knowing laugh. "I'm going to have to turn off the water really quick."
"Umm, okay." We headed back towards the mud room and I started fidgeting with my shirt top. In the mud room on the back side was a door on the floor that led to the cellar. I had a sinking feeling as I pushed aside some old coats and boots. With little effort I pulled open the door and flicked the light switch beside the porch door.
There was a small staircase that led down, no railing and falling apart. The room started to sway as my vision was in and out of focus. "Creppy." Dominic said, he grabbed the flashlight that was sitting on the widow seal and headed down. He offered his hand to help me down as well. Sweat was rolling off the back of my neck as I took his hand.
"Rhonda?" Reina had spoken, shaken, I gave her a reassuring smile though I didn't fell reassured at all. I took Dominic's hand and slowly went down the stairs. My heart was pounding so fast I couldn't hear anything else. It was a narrow hall the ceiling so low Dominic had to crouch forward.
"It's just down there." My voice was but a whisper and he noticed my nerves.
"Your shaken light a leaf. You don't like being down here, I'll be quick just stay here." He walked down, and I sat on the step tying to calm myself. I set my hand over my heart and breathed slow.
It's okay, the door is open, the light is on, Dominic is just down the hall you can see him from here.
Your fine. 'Bad girls get time outs' Your fine. 'Bad girls don't get light' Your fine! 'Bad girls don't get to leave'
My breathing became shallow, and I held onto my chest unable to stop the panic, tears were spilling. I had to get out of here, I would be stuck down her forever if I didn't leave now. I gripped for the stairs trying to pull myself up. My coughing and crying was getting loud. Dominic was right behind me trying to help my frantic panic body up the stairs, Reina was there to saying my name trying to calm me down with soft short words. I saw Mrs. Sims gray eyes wide and worried.
"What's wrong."
"She's having a panic attack, get her to the table and get glass of water." Dominic sat me on a chair and a glass of water appeared in front of my face. I kept myself from chugging the thing and instead did what Youtube told me. I drank slowly breathing in from my nose and out with each gulp of water. My heartrate was slowing down and I was no longer shaking. When the glass was empty I sat it down, it was over.
"Rhonda I'm sorry if I had known you were claustrophobic I wouldn't have had you come down with me."
"I should probably call your grandmother to let her know this had happened."
"No no I'll call her." I said getting up. All there jumped ready to catch me if I decided to faint on the spot.
"I'll go finish fixing the sink." Dominic said, I was so embarrassed putting a stranger in such an uncomfortable situation and now Mrs. Sims would be really hard to shake of tonight. She might stay till Debra got home. Could I convince her to drive all the way up tonight so late? I headed to my room and dialed Debra. On the third ring she answered.
"You really shouldn't be using your deseeded mothers phone. I about had a heart attack when I saw the caller ID."
"Good to hear from you too."
"What's wrong?"
"Mrs. Sims is here, she's making dinner for us tonight, she wants to talk to you."
"Charlotte Sims? Why? What did I do?"
"Nothing. I had a panic attack and she's probably wondering when you will be home?"
"Are you alright?" I hadn't expected her to ask that.
"Yea I'm fine but we have a bigger problem here. What will we do if she insisted on staying till you get here."
"I can't get there tonight. Tell her my tire blew and I'm staying at a hotel or something."
"She my just stay the whole night then."
"Hey this taking care of Reina plan was your idea, I figured you would have cover stories in place for this." I scrunched my nose.
"I'll figure something out." I hung up on her debating the best course of action. I just needed her to leave for tonight, if she came back tomorrow I could just say she missed Debra or if she showed up while I was with Nessie, Reina could lie and say we went to Cleveland.
Coming up with the only thing I could think of I headed back into the kitchen. Dominic had come back up from the cellar, shutting the door behind him. Reina was doing dishes and Mrs. Sims had just pulled out the food from the oven.
"Did you get a hold of your grandmother?" She asked.
"Yea she's on her way home now about an hour out still."
"Oh that's good. She'll miss dinner thought."
"Yea I told her she said she heat some up when she gets here and wants to thank you for all the effort." I leaned forward on my chair running my hand through my hair. I felt tired, I'm sure I looked tired.
"Are you okay dear."
"Oh, that took a lot out of me so I'm just tired. I think I might just go to bed, but I feel bad for doing that since you just made us dinner."
"Don't you worry a thing about that you do what's best for you." She made no move to leave.
"No, no you're my guest I don't want to be rude." I took a seat at the table but also rubbed my eyes and forehead as if I had a headache, which I did. I saw the change in her features and she looked to her watch.
"Well it is getting late as guest we shouldn't over stay our welcome. Come on Dominic we have left over pork chops at the house." She gathered her things.
"I'm sorry about this."
"You don't have to apologize it happens to the best of us." She gave me a hug and went to go give Reina one to. Dominic was standing by the hall door out of sorts about what had happened. I grabbed my back pack that hung on the back of the chair. I pulled out 20 dollars from the money I had made by tutoring Brett.
"That's not necessary Rhonda."
"No take it. If I had called a plumber I would have paid twice as much." He shoved the money into his back pocket. "If I don't see you again good luck in Akron."
"Good luck here."
***This is a much better chapter compared to the last and we get some Rhonda and Reina bonding. Let me know what you all think***
