Chapter 2

Renee woke feeling warm and comfortable and refreshed, for the first time in a long time. Then her eyes opened and she saw Bobby. She felt her naked lower body, under the blanket, and immediately felt fear.

“Mamma said to wake you up for breakfast,” he said. Then he turned and walked out.

She lay there for a few minutes, thinking about where she was, and what this was like. Her fear had vanished, almost as soon as she had felt it. Her mind classified Bobby as a “nice guy”, which was a designation that, only four or five years ago, would have meant he wasn’t in the dating pool. Nice guys were the guys you had help you with your homework when it really mattered. They were the guys you asked to be designated drivers for parties. They were big brother types. She didn’t think that was unusual. He was a big brother, to a whole slew of girls.

She was hungry.

She sat up and threw the covers off, only to realize that the door to the bedroom was still open. She started to cover herself, feeling angst, but then stopped. She’d slept in her shirt, but it wasn’t all that bad. It was wrinkled, but it didn’t smell bad. Not like what she’d taken off. She was pretty sure she’d just toss those clothes in the trash. She found her jeans and, facing the bed, pulled them on, wiggling her hips to get them over the spread of her flesh there.

She turned ... and there he was, standing in the doorway. He had obviously watched her pull her jeans up over her naked butt.

“Sorry,” he said, casually. “I was afraid you might just go back to sleep.”

She didn’t know how to feel. She didn’t feel violated ... not really. She knew she should feel violated ... but with all the other things that were wrong in her life, having a nice guy see her butt didn’t rank all that high on the list. Still, he needed to be put in his place.

“You might have said something,” she said, tightly.

“I didn’t want to startle you,” he said, grinning. “Besides, around here, I see that kind of thing all the time.”

He was so casual about it. It was disarming, really.

“You ready?” he asked, not giving her time to think about it.

“I need my shoes,” she said, looking around. She couldn’t remember where she’d taken them off.

“Why?” he asked. “The floor is warm.”

She thought about that for a few seconds, and then looked at his feet. He was only wearing socks. Her upbringing had taught her that you always arrived at a meal appropriately attired. Some rebellion inside her oozed out.

“Okay,” she said. “But if my feet get cold, you have to give me your socks.”

He laughed, and it made her feel good that somebody would laugh at something she said.

“I’ll get you different socks, if it comes to that,” he said. “Come on.”

She followed him to the kitchen, which smelled wonderful.

Any thoughts she might have had that the atmosphere last night was something rare, or special, were banished as, again, she was surrounded by a family of people who obviously loved each other. There was plenty of teasing, but it was all delivered in a way that made her wish some of it was directed toward her. The food was good. She relished eating eggs that she had helped collect. Again there was conversation all around, about what was going to go on that day.

“How about you?” asked Mirriam, who was breastfeeding Theodore again. She hadn’t said anything about it this time. She just did it, as if Renee was now family. “What are you going to do?”

Renee blushed, remembering how she had poured her heart out to this woman, the night before. She had told her things she hadn’t intended to, but it was too late now.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Well,” said Bobby. “We need to get your car back, for one thing.”

“Yes,” said Renee. “Of course.”

“I can take as much time as we need,” he said, eating a piece of bacon. “I already called folks and postponed the stuff I was going to do today.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Renee objected.

“A man needs a day to play hooky, once in a while,” said Bobby, smiling. “It’s no big deal. I do have to go do one thing first. It’s kind of an emergency, but hopefully it won’t take long.”

“What’s that?” asked his mother.

“Jill and Christy’s plumbing is stopped up again,” he said. “I think there may be some tree roots involved, and they’ll have to get Roto Rooter out there sooner or later, but they have to have a drain working in the darkroom.”

“Darkroom?” asked Renee.

“They run a photo studio at their house,” said Bobby.

“Oh,” she said.

“You can come along for the ride,” said Bobby. “I’ll teach you how to be a plumber.”

“Oh, I could never do that,” said Renee, automatically.

“Oh no,” moaned Linda. “Don’t ever say that around him! Now he won’t leave you alone until you’ve learned to solder or something.”

There was laughter around the table, but it was the kind of laugher about a true story, rather than someone being teased.

Renee stood to the side of the door as Bobby rang the bell. She was, therefore, not visible to Jill, who opened the door, reached out with one hand, grasped the front of Bobby’s shirt and pulled him into the open doorway. She promptly put both arms around his neck and kissed him for a full minute. He put his hands on her waist and she, mistaking his push to mean he wanted to get to her breasts, pulled his hands up to them. He finally gave up and kissed her again.

“I need to get laid bad, Bobby,” she sighed, as she finally broke the kiss.

Then she saw Renee, standing, staring open mouthed and wide-eyed, at what had happened.

“Bobby!” Jill chided him, turning red. “Why didn’t you tell me you had somebody with you?!”

“You didn’t give me time,” he said, grinning. “Jill, this is Renee. Renee, this is Jill, one of my customers.”

Jill looked at the young woman, who was clearly flabbergasted by what she’d just seen.

“He’s very good at what he does,” she said, trying to salvage her pride. “I’m ... um ... just really happy to see him,” she added, getting redder. “Our pipes are stopped up,” she gasped, before turning away and fleeing.

“Maybe I should just wait in the car,” Renee said, her voice dazed.

“No,” said Bobby. “She was just exaggerating. Come on in. You can help me.”

He bent over and picked up the big bag he’d brought to the door and stepped back. Renee stepped hesitantly into the house, and saw another woman approaching.

“Hi!” she said brightly. “I’m Christy. Jill is hiding in the bedroom. She said she embarrassed herself to death, and maybe you too.”

“Uh...” said Renee. “It’s okay.”

The woman turned to Bobby. “I won’t embarrass anybody,” she said, winking at him. “But I’m glad you’re here. You didn’t mention anything about having an apprentice.”

“She’s just along for a very short ride,” said Bobby. “I hope,” he added. “It’s a long story, and not one I want to go into.”

“As long as you fix our pipes, that’s all that matters,” said Christy. “You going to need any help?”

“Nope,” said Bobby. “I have Renee.”

“Well, you know where everything is, so get cracking.”

“Yes ma’am,” said Bobby, and he saluted her.

She slapped his shoulder and laughed, but then turned around and left them alone.

Bobby took Renee to what looked like a utility room, and opened a trap door in the floor. A few feet down was dirt. She could see thick, black pipes through the hole. He got into the bag and pulled out a big wrench. He twirled a little knob on it until it fit a square protrusion on the end of a pipe and unscrewed a cap. He then got out a roll of thick cable from the bag and uncoiled it. He apologized for not having gloves she could wear and asked her to tend to the excess as he started feeding one end of the cable down into the pipe he had uncovered. It was moving along rapidly and then, suddenly, it stopped. Bobby pushed and pulled, ramming the end of the cable against something, and it began to move again. He pulled it back and forth several times and told Renee to coil the cable up as he pulled it out.

She did so, watching her hands become black and slimy. She shuddered, but kept doing what he’d asked her to do. When the cable was out, she realized there was something on the end of it. There were two wings, and there were threads of some kind hanging off of them.

“Yup,” he said. “Tree roots.” He wound some wire around the coil, to keep it coiled up, and stuffed it back in the bag. Then he replaced the cap he’d taken off.

He took her to a sink and turned on the water. At first she thought he was waiting for it to get hot, so they could wash their hands, but he waited long after the water steamed.

“Looks like it’s draining again,” he said. He adjusted the temperature and washed his hands quickly and, stepping back, he handing her the soap. She scrubbed and scrubbed, but still didn’t feel clean. There were still some dark smudges on her fingers and palms that she couldn’t seem to get off.

“I have something in the car that will take care of that,” he said, tossing her a towel.

He walked through the house like he lived there and stopped at a door. He tapped.

The woman named Jill opened it. She saw Renee and blushed again.

“It’s open for now,” said Bobby. “You need Roto Rooter or somebody with bigger stuff than I have to ream it out. If it happens more than once a year after that, I’d recommend digging it up and replacing the pipe.”

“That sounds expensive,” she said, ignoring Renee.

“If we can rent something to dig with and you two help, it will cut the cost by two thirds,” he said.

“We’ll have to look into that, then,” said the woman. “How much do we owe you for today?”

“Six tweny-five,” said Bobby. “You want me to put it on your tab?”

“May as well,” she sighed. “When it gets up to twenty-five dollars, just let us know and we’ll write you a check.”

“Okay,” he said.

“Nice meeting you,” Jill said suddenly to Renee. Then she closed the door.

They were leaving, and walking by a door that had a red light lit above it. The light blinked off, and Christy came out of the room.

“Are we fixed?” she asked.

“Yup,” said Bobby.

She seemed to attack him. “Now I’ll embarrass myself,” she said, kissing him firmly. “Thank you!” she said, and then moved her mouth close to his ear.

Renee barely heard her whisper: “Is she a customer too?”

Renee jumped when Bobby’s hand came down and slapped hard on Christy’s bottom.

“Mind your own business,” he said as she yelped, and rubbed at where he’d hit her.

“You’ll pay for that!” she said, sticking out her tongue. “When are you going to come see the kids? You’ve been neglecting them.”

“I’ve been busy, but I promise I’ll spend the weekend with them soon,” he said.

“The whole weekend?” her voice rose. “Oh goody!”

“Now,” he said firmly. “I have to go. Renee needs me right now.”

“Oh!” said Christy. “By all means, then, go!”

Renee heard the words, but was confused by the tone. By all that she’d seen and heard, both of these women had been ... or were ... on extremely friendly terms with this man she had run into. Women’s intuition told her that those kisses, and Jill’s, “I need to get laid” comment, were not unusual between them. But it didn’t make any sense. All he had come to do was fix a plugged pipe. And who were “the kids”? What confused her the most was that, with most women who were romantically involved with a man, the phrase, “By all means then, go!” would have been delivered in a scathing way ... expressing jealousy or displeasure that he would leave her, because another woman needed him. But that wasn’t the tone Christy had used at all. She had sounded genuinely willing ... almost eager ... for him to leave.

It couldn’t be because the woman knew that Renee did need his help. He hadn’t said a word about her problems. He didn’t even know about all her problems. His mother did, but not him. It was almost as if the woman cared about Renee, and the problems she didn’t know Renee had.

Back in the car, as Bobby steered it towards the downtown area, she couldn’t keep her questions bottled up.

“What did she mean when she asked you if I was one of your customers?” she asked. That had seemed like a strikingly odd thing to ask him, especially since it was supposed to have been a question Renee didn’t hear.

“I’d rather not discuss that right now,” he said, mysteriously. “You have enough problems.”

“What do you know about my problems?” she asked.

“Mamma told me a little bit,” he admitted.

“Why?” Now she did feel violated ... like her trust had been abused.

“She was worried about you,” he said. “She wants me to keep an eye on you.”

“Oh,” said Renee, the indignation she felt seeming to fall apart. She had known Mirriam cared, last night, as she sobbed in her arms. She didn’t know why, but she knew it was real. She also had an intuitive knowledge that Bobby cared too. Again, she had no idea why he would ... but he did. For whatever reason, it never occurred to her to point out that she was a big girl, and didn’t need anybody to look out for her. Perhaps that’s because, deep down, she knew she was a big girl, who did need someone to care about her.

“What did she tell you?” she asked.

“That your husband is in prison, and that you can’t talk to your family about it.”

“I’m so embarrassed,” she moaned.

“Why?” he asked. “It isn’t your fault. You didn’t know anything about his activities ... right?”

“No!” she blurted out. “I swear!”

“You don’t have to swear,” he said calmly. “I’ll trust your word until you break it.”

“Thank you,” she said, impulsively.

“You’re welcome.”

They drove on in silence, until they reached the police station.

“They’re probably going to arrest me,” said Renee, sadly.

“I doubt it,” said Bobby.

“But I rammed into you,” she said.

“I told them I didn’t want to press charges,” he said, as if he had simply said he didn’t want anything to drink, when offered it.

“Why?” she gasped.

“When I saw you ... I knew there was some kind of trouble. I looked at the damage, and figured I could fix it. I did. You said you’d pay me the twelve-fifty you owe me. What do I need the police to lean on you for?” He smiled. “It was an accident ... right?”

“Yes,” she said meekly. “But you didn’t know I’d pay you.”

“It was only two hours work,” he said. “Why make a big deal about that?”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked, suddenly.

“Why not be nice to you?” he asked.

“It’s just that I’m not used to people being ... like you,” she said.

“It would be a better world if people didn’t hassle each other so much,” he said.

He took her in, and had to declare again that he didn’t want to press charges. They wrote her a ticket for inattentive driving anyway, and told her she’d have to pay thirty-five dollars to get her car out of the fence behind the station. She wrote a check for all the charges, and, while she was at it, wrote Bobby a check for twelve dollars and fifty cents. Fifteen minutes later, another man handed her the keys to her car. It started right away.