Chapter 3: Transition

Her foot throbbed; pain shot up from her ankle and ended in the pit of her stomach. She whimpered as she made her way into the living room. Somehow, she had gotten the cast wet while rinsing the clothes in the washing machine. It was soaked all the way through and became a sodden mess.

She switched on the big late model Philco radio and sat back in the kitchen chair next to it to listen to "Stella Dallas" as Stella, the star of the soap opera, comforted Ruby as her raspy man's voice gave out her wisdom and solved the problems of all the other characters in the cast.

Ruby tried to pay attention to the radio drama and keep her mind off the pain. As she listened to the radio, she was transported back to her childhood when she and her friends gathered together after school at a friend's house to listen to the "soap operas."

The girls giggled together and lost themselves in the never-never worlds of fantasy where people ate well and wore new clothes. The cheap old radios the girls listened to at home sure never sounded as good as this floor model Philco with its ten inch speaker.

Ruby tried to will the pain to go away and ignore the throbbing in her foot and ankle. For minutes at a time, she was successful. Then it returned as sharp twinges shot up her leg and ended in the pit of her stomach.

"I done died and gone to heaven," she whispered during one of the almost pain free times. Then the injured foot began to throb again. "Well, not quite heaven, but someplace near as nice." It took her a while to make her way back across the living room to the dark green sofa and collapse on it.

She felt a new sharp pain shoot through her foot, followed by an intense stomach-wrenching ache that worked its way up and down her leg. She screamed and lay back and began to whimper and moan. She was in too much pain to curl up. Two hours later Jimmy found her still in agony, lying on the floor beside the sofa.

"Ruby, what happened?" he exclaimed. He was ever so tender as he picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom. He saw her cast was a ruined mess.

"Oh god, please make it stop hurting," Ruby moaned "Oh please! I hurt bad." Her piteous cries tore through Jimmy.

The big man rushed into the bathroom. He removed a large white pill from a bottle in the medicine cabinet, and brought it to her with a glass of water. His movements were sure and steady as he propped her up and placed the big pill into her mouth. He felt guilty as he remembered what else he had put in her mouth.

Oh, it was so shameful and plain wrong to think such thoughts when she was in such pain. He could not help it, the way his mind kept focusing again and again on all she had done for him. Jimmy's touch remained sure and gentle as he held Ruby's head up while she swallowed the pill with a sip of water. Still gentle as he could be, he eased her back down onto the bed.

"I give you one of them morphine pills the doctors at the vets' hospital give me when I was hurting. It ought to make you feel better. I'll come home early and get you back to the hospital so the doctor can fix you again. Please don't hurt." He fussed over her until the pill worked its magic and she dropped off into a happy morphine induced sleep.

Jimmy went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to get the stew and saw his guest had finished it off. The empty bowl had been washed and placed on the drain board. He smiled and grabbed a couple of slices of bread and wolfed them down, covered with butter. He poured a cup of the lukewarm coffee and washed the sodden mass of bread in his throat on down and rushed out the door to return to work.

It was four straight up when he re-entered the house. She had barely started to stir a little. Jimmy stood quiet and looked down at her. She looked so beautiful. He felt the soft ache return to his heart.

"Do you feel better?" Jimmy asked her. The new tenderness he had never felt before he met Ruby swept over him as he held her hand. His eyes were soft with devotion as he looked at her with concern. "Please feel better," he whispered. He kissed her hand.

Her unfocused eyes opened, crossed slightly and she tried to sit up. It took three tries before she slurred a barely understood sentence. "Let's do it some more."

A self-conscious grin crossed his face. "I think that pill was too strong for you," he told her. "I better get you to the doctor before it wears off." When he bent over to pick her up, she planted a sloppy wet kiss on his lips.

"Please," he begged her, "Don't do that right now. It won't look right if I bring you into the hospital with a hard..." He hurriedly cut off his sentence and said, "Well it just wouldn't."

It embarrassed Jimmy to think such thoughts while he held her cradled in his arms, let alone say them. It was so difficult to think virtuous thoughts when she would not help him keep his mind pure. It was made even more difficult by the memory of what happened after they woke up naked and together. He felt sweet warmth where he wanted to feel virtuous.

Once again, Jimmy carried her to the car and placed her inside. The trip to the hospital took only minutes. To Jimmy seemed like it would never end.

He parked and carried her inside the emergency room again. The woman at the Emergency Room desk looked up the records from the previous night and saw he had paid in full in cash. They were taken to a small examining room immediately, where Jimmy placed her on the examining table.

The resident, a tired looking man in his late twenties, took one look at the mushy cast and called for a nurse. "Who put that thing on her?" he demanded. The nurse gave the name of the intern working emergency the previous evening.

"Get that mess off of her and give her a walking cast in its place. Where are her crutches?"

"She wasn't given any last night, Doc," Jimmy told him.

"Fit her with new crutches and take her to x-ray." He stalked away, in search of another overworked intern to chew out.

Two hours later Jimmy hovered over Ruby and worried as she made unsteady progress toward the parking lot on her new crutches. She placed very little weight on the injured foot. He rushed ahead and opened the car door for her. She backed up to the car seat and tried to lift her cast covered left leg inside but couldn't manage it.

"Jimmy, would you help me please?" It seemed so natural to ask Jimmy for assistance.

Jimmy was careful as he took the crutches from her and eased both her legs up and inside the car as gentle as he could. He felt his heart seem to swell in his chest when he assisted her. As soon as he closed the door Jimmy hurried around, got in and started the engine.

"Do you feel up to going to the store?" he asked as he steered the car out of the parking area.

Ruby decided that she felt a whole lot better now, and it was about time she started looking after Jimmy a little and solidify her position in his house. "Well, you do need milk and flour and yeast and other things." She thought hard. " A small roast might be nice and some onions and liver and carrots, oh so many things. I'll make do till you can get the shopping in. I'd like to make you a good supper to come home to." She rubbed her face against his arm.

He turned and gave her a shy smile, then looked right back t0 his driving. "I guess we could maybe we get some groceries too. Right now, I mean to get you some clothes. You need all sorts of things."

He tried to act nonchalant as he told her, "Oh, by the way I almost forgot I have a little present for you in the glove box. Open it."

She opened the glove box and saw a small gift-wrapped box barely able to fit in the small space. She felt a glow of excitement as she unwrapped it. Ruby opened the box and saw an expensive tortoise shell and pure bristle hairbrush and comb set. Her eyes opened wide at the wonder of such a costly gift. Tears formed and ran down her cheeks as she clutched the precious gift to her breast. She gave a faint keening sound.

"You're crying!" Jimmy exclaimed. "Don't you like them? If you don't like them, I'll take them right back where I got them. Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry," he babbled. "What did I do wrong? I won't do it again, I promise."

"Oh, Jimmy you didn't do nothing wrong." Her voice quavered as she held the brush and comb even tighter to her breast. "Oh, this is just so precious."

"Well, what are you crying for if you think they're so nice?" he asked, mystified by this beautiful beside him who seemed to become more of a mystery to him with each passing minute.

She bawled at him, "I'm crying because you made me so happy. Nobody never ever give me a nice present before in my life. Oh Jimmy, I don't deserve you to be so nice to me. I just don't."

She smiled up at him through her tears and bent forward to kiss his right hand holding the steering wheel. She laid her cheek against his right bicep and his hard on returned. He squirmed his discomfort as he tried to concentrate on his driving and not the thrills she caused in his groin.

Ruby still smiled as he parked in front of the JC Penney store and helped her out. Jimmy held the door open for her as they made their way into the store. When they reached the women's clothing department, a friendly young clerk came forward.

She looked at Jimmy, "May I help you?"

"Uh yeah," Jimmy answered, "You see, we need to get some dresses and stuff." He felt out of place and uncomfortable around so much female clothing.

"For what purpose?" the clerk asked.

"Oh, to wear, of course." He thought that was a dumb question.

"For what occasion, sir?" She took a deep breath as she recognized clumsy ol' Jimmy, the guy who was too dumb to ever amount to anything.

"Jimmy, she means what are the dresses for? Are they to wear to a birthday party? Or to do housework or what?" Ruby patted his shoulder affectionately.

"Oh, all of them. Give us some dresses and that other women's stuff." Couldn't she understand simple words?

The clerk kept her voice friendly. She asked, "Very well, how many every day around the house dresses do you wish to buy?"

Ruby was about to answer, but changed her mind and decided to leave it up to Jimmy. After all, it was his money, and she didn't want to be buying too much. Besides, it felt real nice to be taken care of in this way.

Jimmy thought a moment as he calculated. He had ten changes of work clothes so he didn't have to do laundry too often. It was the same with his underwear and socks. He wore black socks because someone once said black went with everything. "Better give us ten," he answered in a serious voice.

"Ten everyday dresses?" she asked. "What about skirts and blouses?

"Oh, I guess ten each of them too. Oh and some shoes and socks and all that other stuff." He shrugged. "Might as well get it all now," he told them. "No sense coming back for more later." He shrugged again, "Get it done and over with, I always say."

Two hours later Jimmy wrote a check for a little over two hundred dollars and Ruby had more clothing than she had ever owned before in her life, or ever dreamed of owning as far as that went. She looked up at Jimmy and stifled a faint moan. She felt numb and excited at the same time. "Oh my, Jimmy," she whispered. This had to be a dream.

Not only did she have a lot of clothes but everything was all brand new. At last, she put her foot down when he tried to buy ten pairs of shoes for her. She settled for a pair of penny loafers and a pair of low pumps. Jimmy led the way to the car; both he and the clerk were loaded down with packages.

The stock boy trailed along behind with his share of the load. The clerk looked at the nice convertible, at the attractive red head and finally at Jimmy. He must have something besides money to get one like this red head, she decided.

The stock boy couldn't keep his eyes off Ruby's rear end and the bared leg as she got in the car. Jimmy saw where the stock boy was looking. "Hey," he said in a low voice and frowned. Jimmy experienced a new, primitive emotion, as he protected his woman.

The young man gulped and hurried off. Jimmy felt great pride that Ruby was with him. She had changed into one of the new dresses in the store, to get out of her old safety pinned together dress. Jimmy thought she looked like a princess. He wanted to shout at the heavens...

In the Safeway Store, Ruby again felt the need to rein Jimmy in as he started to buy everything in sight.

"Jimmy, just get one small roast and two steaks. There is no room in that little electric icebox for anything more than you already got here. Let's get taters and onions and beans and just a few fresh vegetables."

She paused, "Oh yes, we need milk and bacon and eggs and grits. Better get more butter. That is," she amended, "if you're of a mind to." She was afraid she had begun to get too pushy.

"Hey, that sounds just fine with me." He grinned his pride as he led the way and pushed the shopping cart. He still managed to spend almost eighty dollars before they were checked out. Ruby was afraid he would spend all his money. He opened the trunk of the car and the bag boy placed the groceries inside. Jimmy frowned a warning as the young teen tried to peek at Ruby's legs.

Once home, Jimmy helped Ruby out of the car and handed her the new crutches. She made her painful way as far as the steps, and then had to stop. The pain came back after all the jostling and moving around while they shopped.

"Jimmy, please don't be angry with me but I can't make it up the steps. I'm starting to hurt real bad."

Alarmed, he put the bag of groceries down and hurried up the steps to open the front door. He returned, picked her up and carried her with ease into the house and set her on the sofa. He placed the kitchen chair, still where she had left it, under her cast. He hurried into the bedroom and returned with a pillow to cushion the cast. "Is that better?" She nodded and leaned back and closed her eyes.

The groceries were put away. Jimmy piled the new clothing, still in its boxes and bags, on the floor in the corner of the bedroom. He returned to the living room and turned on the radio. The music of Glen Grey and his Casa Loma Band flooded the house with sweet sounds. Jimmy sat down beside her and she leaned against him. She closed her eyes and felt safe.

"You are such a wonderful man, Jimmy," she told him, surprised how much she meant it.

"Aw," he answered, embarrassed at all this open affection directed at him. It frightened him a little.

"Oh Jimmy," she exclaimed as she sat back up.

"What is it? Is something wrong? What's wrong?" He looked at her in alarm.

"The laundry is still in the machine. Help me up so I can get it out. It will go sour if you leave wet laundry too long in the washing machine." She struggled to rise.

"I'll do it," he told her. "You just sit back and take it easy." Jimmy rose from the couch and went out to the back porch. He removed the wash from the Maytag and hang it on the clothesline. It was dark by the time he returned to the living room.

Ruby was exhausted; it had been a hard day. She needed to get ready for bed and wanted Jimmy to help her. She could have made do by herself, but she wanted to bind him tighter to her.

"Jimmy, will you help me into the bathroom?" she asked and gave him a shy smile. "I need to go to the toilet."

Sharing such an intimate act would help, she thought. She remembered something one of her girl friends back home said about how taking a woman to the toilet made some men real horny. It was such a personal and intimate act.

She loosened her dress when he helped her up off the sofa...

"Please help me get undressed, Jimmy," she told him as he helped her up off the sofa. When her dress fell to the floor around her ankles she smiled up at him. Jimmy got hard, as he stared in wonder at her naked body.

They left the crutches behind. Jimmy carried her and helped her set on the toilet. His face turned red as he heard the pee splash into the water. He was both embarrassed and excited as he backed out of the room.

"You better get undressed too, Jimmy. I need help to get under the shower. I got to leave the cast outside the curtains so it don't get wet." She smiled to herself.

Jimmy pulled off his clothes and dropped them onto the bedroom floor. By the time he returned to the bathroom naked, he had another hard on. Ruby giggled and squeezed it as he came close to help her up off the toilet seat. He started the water and got it warm. The big man placed her half in and half out of the tub. She straddled the edge of the tub and Jimmy soaped her up, at her insistence.

She tried her best to sound shy. "It's real hard to do this and keep my balance here. You do it for me, Jimmy. Please?"

"

Oh Ruby, you feel so soft and..." his voice trailed off. "Oh you are so beautiful." Jimmy's hand shook as he rubbed the soapy washcloth over her naked body.

His voice took on a reverent tone as he looked at her, and tears came to his eyes. "I never saw nothing so beautiful before." He could not take his eyes off of her.

"Thank you Jimmy," she whispered to him.

He helped her stand, as he rinsed the soap off. Then he sat her back on the toilet seat and reached for a towel. As he brought it to her, she grabbed his erect penis and kissed the head. She smiled as he whimpered his pleasure.