Chapter 5: Roadway Under Construction - Obey Signs and Signals

I’m not sure if I’ll ever understand most people, I certainly didn’t understand Sam McAdam’s reaction to my story. I’d sat at his table and while I was eating his food, I had literally told him that I was a stupid fool who had allowed other people to get him drunk. I’d even admitted that I was a silly chicken who ran out of a house when I’d felt sexual pressure, and a damn idiot who got angry when someone else was slandered. Yet, he’d had a total about face of opinion and now seemed to want me to date his daughter. Then to top it off, he seemed to want me to chauffeur his twin daughters around as well.

His wife and daughters were even worse. Mrs. McAdam and Sandy seemed ecstatic for some reason and the twins, Jean and Jessica, were darn near as bad. Personally, I was starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing. I was wondering if I wouldn’t have been better off if I had stayed at home and watched the twins clean out the chicken coop.

To my surprise Sandy excused herself and ran off. As I stared after her, her mother took sympathy on my puzzled look.

“She’s just going to change out of her school clothes,” Mrs. McAdam smiled then she turned slightly toward the twins. “Which reminds me, girls, it’s Friday and you have a softball game tonight. So, you’d best go get your gym bags packed and your uniforms all ready to go hadn’t you?”

When the twins ran off to grab those, Mrs. McAdam turned back to me with a wide smile.

“Thank you,” she said reaching out and touching my hand gently. “Sam is a bit overprotective of his girls, so this is a huge change for them.”

I must have frowned and looked questioning.

“Didn’t you realise that?” she asked quietly.

I just shook my head slowly from side to side. “No, not really.”

“Oh, he is very protective of them. In fact if I hadn’t argued him out of it last night he was going to be at the school to pick up Sandra at lunch time. As it was, I only convinced him to allow you to give her a ride home if the two of you were accompanied by her sisters,” she smiled wryly. “Sam wasn’t a perfect gentleman when he was younger and I think he was expecting you to be like he was or like a lot of the other young men he’s met. I think you’ve disarmed him at the moment and even I’m not positive why.”

“I don’t know either,” I said quietly. “I’m not really an angel or anything.”

“I don’t for one minute imagine that you are, but I do hope you’re a gentleman,” she laughed softly.

“If I wasn’t, Dad would whup my butt,” I grinned. “Well, maybe he wouldn’t have to. Mom might beat him to it.”

“Oh, I think I could easily learn to like your parents,” she laughed aloud, then sobered. “You do know that part of the reason Sam was so cooperative was because of your father don’t you?”

“Pardon me? What did Dad do?”

“Well, perhaps I shouldn’t say anything at all, but a few years ago when Sam had a problem, your father helped him out. Actually what happened is between the two of them, and I think it should be up to them whether they tell you or not, but I think Sam saw that you were a lot like your father,” she said, then turned to watch for the girls.

For some reason I knew she wouldn’t even give me a hint about what Dad had done, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t curious. Just then the twins came bouncing back into the room and I couldn’t have asked a question if I’d wanted to.

“Well, we’re all ready...” One of them said.

“and Sandy won’t be long...” The other answered.

“but we wanted to talk to you...”

“when she wasn’t here to hear us...”

“Whoa,” I said, frowning at them. “I hate that twin whipsaw thing you do when you talk. It reminds me of the ‘Ice Cubes, ‘ and right now I’ve had about all of that I can take.”

“He’s right, girls, you know that isn’t polite,” Mrs. McAdam frowned at them and then smiled at me. “Now what was so important?”

“Sorry, we don’t mean to upset people,” one of the twins smiled slightly and I noticed a tiny dimple on her cheek as she spoke.

A quick glance at the other girl showed a matching dimple on the opposite cheek.

“That’s alright. You couldn’t know it upset me,” I grinned, carefully looking just between them. “Now Jean, why don’t you tell me what’s so important?”

“Well, it’s just that Sandy is so shy around guys,” The twin with the dimple on her left cheek responded. “We didn’t want you to think she was cold or anything if she doesn’t talk much.”

“That’s why I like her, Jean,” I chuckled. “I’m usually very shy myself.”

“But ... you haven’t been shy today!” Right cheek responded.

“No Jess, I forced myself to talk, which doesn’t come easily unless I’m with people I know well. Besides, she and I aren’t alone, that makes a big difference.”

“Oh ... hey, you can tell us apart?” Jess squeaked.

“Sometimes,” I grinned, then I saw a motion at the dining room door.

Sandy was there, but she’d pulled her red hair back into a pony tail and was wearing a pretty blouse that was open at the neck along with shorts that looked like she’d cut off the legs of a pair of old jeans. She was wearing running shoes and carrying a little back pack.

“Wow,” I sighed softly, making both of the twins giggle. “Sandy, you look wonderful.”

“Oh my,” she giggled and blushed bright red, looking at the floor. “I just tried to match what you were wearing, sorta.”

“You know your father would have kittens if he saw you wearing that,” Mrs. McAdam smiled.

“Daddy isn’t here,” Sandy said defiantly “And I want to look like a girl, not an old lady in a long dress, with a shawl and...”

“Oh yeah,” I hooted with laughter and made Sandy and her sisters giggle. “Oops sorry Mrs. McAdam. I was trying to picture Sandy in a yashmak and it just didn’t fit.”

“A what?” Jean asked.

“A yashmak is one of the names for the veil that Arabian women wear, but besides that they wear long dresses that hide their ankles. Moslem women aren’t supposed to show very much skin,” I grinned.

“Maybe Daddy is a closet Moslem then,” Sandy giggled. “There are times I think he’d like me to dress like that.”

“Now Sandra, he’s not all that bad,” Mrs. McAdam protested. “And I think you’d best take along a set of jeans just in case, okay?”

“In case I might run into Daddy?” Sandy grinned.

“No young lady, in case you get chilly,” her mom laughed softly. “And you’d better hurry if you want to get the girls back to school before they’re late.”

“Okay, but I already have a pair of my jeans in my pack,” Sandy grinned and moved to hug her mom.

Both of the twins hugged their mom after that, then I shook her hand and thanked her for lunch before the four of us raced out to my car. Well, the twins raced out to my car, I hobbled on my crutches and Sandy hovered at my side. She actually held the door and helped me get into the car, then passed the crutches to one of the twins to put into the back seat before running around and hopping in the other side of the front seat and sliding over next to me. We all waved to her mom as we backed out onto the street and turned to head back to the school.

“Mmm, this is much nicer than the ride home was,” Sandy whispered as she snuggled against my arm.

“Unh huh,” I grinned as I glanced at her.

“And what would happen if Daddy saw you snuggling like that?” One of the twins asked.

“I think maybe he expects it,” I answered. “To be honest, I really don’t find him to be half as much of an ogre as you guys make him out to be.”

“You don’t have to live with him,” Sandy said emphatically.

“Right,” both twins answered at once.

“He almost wouldn’t let us play soccer because the uniforms were too revealing,” one added.

“It was only because he loves the game that he did. He’s even our coach now, on the weekends,” the other giggled. “And we aren’t whipsawing you either. This is just conversation.”

Both Sandy and I laughed, but I wanted to comment.

“I don’t think your Dad is an ogre at all,” I said quickly. “He’s just a man with three daughters and he wants to protect you from harm.”

“I know,” Sandy sighed. “But, sometimes it feels like he wants to shut us in a vault and throw away the key.”

“Aww, he’s not that bad,” a twin answered. “But he is tougher on you than on us for some reason.”

“That’s ‘cause she’s older,” the other answered. “Almost two years.”

That’s when it dawned on me that Sandy was actually a year older than I was, yet one grade behind me in school. It gave me a funny feeling for a minute, but I didn’t have a chance to say anything because just then we turned onto the street that lead in front of the school. We could see the crowd of kids heading back after lunch.

“Oh great, we get to run the gauntlet of comments again,” I sighed.

“Yeah,” Sandy sighed as well, pulling away a bit. “You would be the school hero right now, wouldn’t you?”

“Hey Sis, if he wasn’t a hero, you wouldn’t be sitting there.”

“Hey, we could give them something to really talk about,” the other twin giggled.

“What?” I snapped, wondering what they could be up to.

“Well, if Sandy shifts a bit, we could both lean over the seat and kiss you on the cheek before we got out,” and they both giggled.

Since I was just pulling to a stop at the school and really didn’t expect them to actually do anything like that, I wasn’t prepared for Sandy to shift further away from me. Then darn if the twins didn’t lean forward, and suddenly two arms snaked out over my shoulders. One hand pressed on my chest, coming from over my left shoulder and the other hand came from my right and held my chin, then I was being kissed on the cheek from both sides at once.

“See you later, Sexy,” one twin giggled as she flipped away and out the door.

“Keep him happy for us, Sis,” the other said, loudly enough to get a reaction from the crowd of kids outside as she laughed, sliding out the other door.

The slamming of the back doors left me with a blushing face, while Sandy was giggling loudly. I didn’t wait to see what the follow up reaction of the crowd was, I simply drove away as quickly as I dared.

“They got you to blush,” Sandy giggled, sliding over even tighter to my side than before.

“Of course they did” I glanced at her. “Hey, you’re blushing too.”

“I do that,” she snorted. “Mom says it’s a sympathy blush.”

“I see, now where would you like to go?”

“Umm, somewhere that’s quiet and where we can be alone?”

“The campsite at the river? No one will be there right now.”

“Oh, that would be perfect,” she sighed.

I glanced down at my gas gauge and sighed. “Uh oh, I’ll need to get gas first.”

“Well, there’s Mr. Dolens’ place. It’s on the way and he sells gas.”

“That’s a great idea; I want to thank him again for this car anyway.”

“I heard about that, did you really trade him an old junk heap for this car?”

“It wasn’t a junk heap. It ran great,” I laughed. “And he was the one who suggested the trade.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she laughed. “So you traded a great running old junk heap for a newer car.”

“Actually we traded two old Model A Fords for a good car, a decent car, and a junk heap car,” I grinned. “Tom and George did so much work on this car though, that I gave them the decent car and permission to use parts from the junker to fix their car too.”

“I heard about that, I just can’t believe you. You work your butt off to get things, then give those things away and you do stuff like the other day, when you helped out the Coulter twins. What are you anyway, a white knight?”

“Hey, Tom and George worked their butts off, both on the Model A and on this car. They earned the car that I gave them and the deal the Ice Cubes were getting was just wrong!” I was getting tired of justifying myself. “You heard the story about the twins. What would you have done if you were me?”

“Me, I think that if I was a guy, I’d have stayed in bed, even if I’m glad you didn’t,” she giggled. “But actually, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the party in the first place. I think I’m even more shy than you are and probably more cautious in other ways too.”

“You’d have stayed in the bed?” I looked at her in astonishment.

“Yes, and keep your eyes on the road, huh? I don’t want to be in an accident.”

“Sorry, but you astonished me.”

“Why? You mean about admitting that if I was a guy and I was offered something like that, I’d have taken advantage of the situation?” she said firmly. “Heck, I know that most guys would have ... well, let’s just say that the twins wouldn’t have been able to brag about being virgins anymore, not with any of the guys I know anyway, other than you.”

“Hold that thought, I want to ask you another question later,” I said as I turned into Mr. Dolens’ service station, which was right beside his used car lot.

“Hi Billy,” I greeted the guy at the pumps. “Fill er up please.”

“Hi Chris, is everything okay under the hood?” he grinned.

“Do you think Tom would let me drive it otherwise?” I cracked back. “Is Mr. Dolens in?”

“Yeah, I think he wants to see you too. He’s in the office over at the sales lot.”

So I turned and bent over to look in the window. “Want to hobble over to Mr. Dolens office with me, Sandy?” I asked.

“Sure,” she grinned, sliding out of the car as I pulled the crutches out of the back.

“I see that damn horse of yours finally nailed you huh?” Billy said.

“Nope, I finally fell off,” I grinned. “Do you want me to leave the keys in the car so you can move it after you’re done?”

“Nah, we’ve got two pumps, you keep the keys. I’d just get your seats dirty with these coveralls anyway,” he laughed

Sandy and I were only about half way over to Mr. Dolens’ office when he came hurrying out the door.

“Hold it, Chris, stop right there, no sense in hobbling over here on those crutches when I’m just going to ask you to hobble right back out again,” he called.

“Hi, Mr. Dolens, what’s up?”

“Well, I have something I want to show you and a favour to ask of you too,” he grinned. “I bought a trailer the other day and it has a piece of junk sitting on it that you might be interested in. If you are, you and your two friends can have it for nothing. It’s sitting out behind the garage. By the way, who’s your girlfriend?”

“Oh, sorry, This is Sandy McAdam. Sandy, meet my friend, Mr. Dolens.”

“Hi, Mr. Dolens,” Sandy smiled.

“Hello, Sandra, are you Sam and Ann’s oldest girl?”

“Yes sir,” she smiled.

“Well, you tell your Dad ‘Hi’ from me and tell him that you’ve got one of the nicest young men in town as a boyfriend, huh?”

“I think he already knows that,” Sandy blushed. “Otherwise, I don’t think I’d be here.”

“I’ll just bet he does,” Mr. Dolens laughed as he started to lead us toward the back of the garage.

On the way he turned to me and grinned. “I hear that you’ve been rather busy,” he chuckled.

“Oh, you mean my crutches? I sorta fell off my horse.”

“Hmmph, I heard that it was because my silly nieces wanted to have a horse ride,” he snorted. “And that was after you saved their spoiled little asses from being humiliated too. Just wait until I get a chance to talk to those spoiled little bitches.”

“Unh, Mr. Dolens? I don’t think they’re bitches, actually I kinda like ‘em. Not as much as I like Sandy here, but when they’re out of town and away from their school chums, they don’t act the same. Besides, I think after what they’ve gone through in the last little while; they might be a lot nicer from now on too. For instance, right now, they’re on the farm and they’re cleaning out the chicken coop with my sister Beth.”

“You’re defending them again? Wait a minute, you said they’re at your farm, shovelling chicken shit out of your hen house?” he asked in surprise. “How the hell did that happen?”

“Well, after the ruckus at the school the other day, all four of us, I mean Beth, the ‘Ice Cubes’, and I ... Oops, I mean Beth, the Coulter twins, and I...”

“Oh, no need to apologise, I’ve heard about their reputation with boys and I’ve heard their nickname. My son, Billy isn’t that much older than you are,” he smiled ruefully. “Just carry on with your story.”

“Well, we all got sent home for the rest of the week. Mom ‘n’ Dad, and Mr. Coulter decided that it would serve his daughters right if they sort of returned the favour for trying to get me into trouble by helping us out with the chores and stuff around the farm. So to make a long story short, they’ve ended up kinda taking my place around the farm since I’m out of commission with a busted hand and leg.”

“Oh that’s wonderful,” he laughed loudly. “But what does my sister, Wilma, I mean, Mrs. Coulter, think of that?”

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask her yourself,” I grinned and Sandy giggled.

“I heard a rumour from Dad,” she said. “But I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

“Well, Sam is a good friend of John Coulter’s. So, what did he say?” Mr. Dolens smiled at her.

“He said Mr. Coulter was spending the rest of the week sleeping on the couch,” she giggled. “And I know I shouldn’t repeat rumours, but Daddy doesn’t usually either so...”

“Honey, Wilma is my sister and that sounds just like her. Besides, I know your dad and John really well. I imagine I’ll hear the story from them,” he chuckled. “Now to change the subject, there’s my problem.”

He pointed ahead of us to a car sitting on a trailer. It was a stripped down version of a car like mine, only it was a two-door, not a four-door. Not only that, but it had been rebuilt as a stock car.

“There it is Chris and the car is yours, if you and the other boys want it. There’s a spare motor and transmission that goes with it and a lot of other parts. I heard that you gave the other boys your second car, so if you want this one, you can have it for parts,” he offered. “Of course, there is the other option.”

I turned and simply stared at him in surprise.

“You’re just giving it to us?” I whispered. “But why?”

“Because I bought this rig for the trailer, not the car. The car didn’t cost me a red cent and if you can give away a car, I can certainly give away a car,” he grinned at me, then he rested a hand on my shoulder. “I did talk to your Dad about it this morning, and he even came to town and looked at it. He was with your mother, who was on her way to pick you up at the hospital, so they both know about it.”

I just shook my head and snorted. “Boy, can Mom ever keep secrets.”

That made both of them laugh.

“Wait a minute, Mom knows about it? Really? And she didn’t say no?”

“Well, she did ask me if I thought it was a safe thing to give to a sixteen-year-old kid,” he smiled. “So I grinned at her and asked if a Quarter Horse stud was a safe thing to give to a thirteen-year-old kid. She said you’d earned that horse and if it was handled right the horse wasn’t dangerous. So I told her I thought you had earned the car and if you handled it right, it wasn’t dangerous either.”

“You don’t mean that you think they’d let me race it?” I stared at him.

“Perhaps,” he said in a noncommital tone. “Parents will do strange things if you handle them right too.”

That made me laugh and Sandy giggled, then I looked at her closely because she sounded a bit different. She was staring at the car, her face was flushed and her hands were clenched tightly. I could see that the car fascinated her, then she turned to look at me and her eyes were as big as saucers.