Chapter 42

I always liked riding out of the plant with Cindy beside me. Sure, there was the excitement of having this little doll with me, that was one thing, but another was that is was almost surreal, she was fourteen, my WIFE, and she had impressed quite a few people who found her to be much more than a cute ball of fluff (which she was!) or a curious schoolkid (that too!).

In the truck, headed home, she was smiling.

"You're happy, my little one?"

"Yes I am, sweetie," she said. "I was just kinda goin' over the last six months." She rubbed her cheek on my shoulder. "Last summer, if somebody would've told me that I'd be the mascot of this project I would've thought they were crazy. Or that I'd be flyin' around visiting friends and goin' to concerts." Her hands gripped my bicep. "Or that I'd be MARRIED!"

"It has been a surprising ride, little one," I said. "I can't imagine it being better up to now..."

She rubbed her face into my shoulder. "Me neither," she said. "With Mom..." her face clouded. " Sometimes I wonder what's up with Mom. I mean, baby, it's been six months and I haven't even got a postcard..."

"I know, sweetness. I'm pretty much surprised myself. I'd've expected SOMETHING ... I'm sorry..."

"Not YOUR fault, babe," she sighed.

"Yours neither, little one," I replied.

"I'd just like to think things got better for her, Dan. You know, she thought I was an impediment."

We pulled in next to our trailer and went inside.

Cindy looked sad.

"Baby," I asked, "is there anything I can do?"

"Hold me."

"C'mere," I said as I sat on the sofa. I opened my arms and she slid backward onto my lap, cuddling against my chest as I wrapped her in my arms. "I love you, princess. You've got a whole lot of people that love you. Friends, family..."

"I know, guy," she said. "But you'd think that my mom would care a little bit..."

"Sometimes people are just oblivious about how other people are affected by their actions, baby. Sometimes one person thinks that the other person is as unfeeling as they themselves are."

"You know about this," she observed.

"We talked about Darcy, baby..." Darcy was the girl I thought I was headed toward marrying a couple years after my wife and daughter had been killed in the car crash. "She didn't see her connection with me as being that important, and derived that mine with her was as weak."

"You're saying that some people think that how strongly THEY feel is how strong others feel." She looked into my eyes.

"Yes, and little one, it is sad to say that there are some people on this planet that just don't feel strongly about others. Sometimes they're just selfish and they think everybody else is as selfish. They lie to get what they want and they figure that everybody else is lying, too."

"I think that there are some people who KNOW that others aren't the same, and they take advantage ... Mom did that to more than one of her men, an' I KNOW that some of them did that to her, too." She nestled into my chest. "'S why I watched YOU and talked to Mizz Helen about you. I didn't want one of THOSE."

"I worried, too, little girl."

"I know ... that whole 'jailbait' thing..." she turned her face to mine. The sad look started to show a little sunshine. "You decided different, though..."

"I had difficulty rationalizing 'jailbait' with somebody understanding the idea of imaginary numbers." I bent my head forward and kissed her head.

She twisted and moved her face toward mine. Green eyes. Lips so soft ... her hand went to the back of my head and lightly pulled me to her and we kissed.

"I'm sorry about that, baby ... sometimes I think too much about things."

"It's okay, sweetness," I said. "That's what I'm here for..."

"I just wish that one day she'd show back up an' look at me, at US, and at least think that in spite of everything, I turned out okay..."

"Just okay? Try 'spectacular' little one," I said. "I'm looking at a girl that last year was a 'C' student, just one of a thundering herd of middle school average students, a face in the crowd." I met her lips again. "And now ... You're so far above the crowd that there's no category. You're getting ready to graduate from high school at fourteen, starting college with a scholarship..."

"Married," she picked up the thought. "Hopelessly, totally in love, devoted to a guy who worships me as much as I do him. Happy. Healthy." She paused, looking thoughtful, for a second. "We're kinda counting blessings, huh?"

"Yes we are. And I have my biggest one sitting in my lap."

She sighed, face darkening for a brief moment. "I just wish I could show her ... Maybe she'd see that there IS a different way..."

"Maybe so, Cindy," I said, "But most people in those sorts of situations KNOW there are other paths, but they don't see themselves taking them. For lots of reasons. Back to that 'people are messy' thing..."

Her lips met mine again. "Just love me, okay?"

"Only forever, little one."

"You get that back at ya..."

"Gosh, I hope so," I said. "You've ruint me for other women..."

"That's good," she giggled. "You got ME!"

"Yeah," I laughed, happy to hear the edge of a giggle in her voice. "And in bit, I'm gonna have a hungry YOU. Let's go find something to eat."

"Are you too tired of grilled cheese sandwiches?" she asked.

"No. But we had 'em yesterday."

"I LOVE your grilled cheese sandwiches."

Prior to finding Cindy in my life, I ate quite simply when left to my own devices. Eating the same thing a couple of days in a row wasn't a shock to my sensibilities. I'd had more than one week of making a batch of beans and eating leftovers for several days. If a stupid sandwich two days in a row made her happy, I was happy.

"What kind of soup" I asked.

"Lemme look!" She got up and rifled through the cabinet and took a can out. I started the griddle to heating and she dumped the soup from the can into a pot and put it on the back burner. A short while later we were eating, talking happily.

"Mister Jim says my ACT scores are due any day now," she said.

"That leaves you with one more hurdle for graduation," I noted.

"Uh-huh. And that'll be the first week of May. Mister Jim says he's gonna get me all the stuff from high school so I can order my cap an' gown an' graduation invitations and stuff."

I laughed. "Fourteen..."

She giggled. "It IS kinda funny when I think about it," she said.

"We need to get the date nailed down."

"Uh-huh. You know what me an' Tina an' Susan wanna do, don't you"

"I can just imagine."

"We talked. If theirs and mine aren't on the same night, we wanna go to each other's."

"But, baby ... Tennessee..."

"Two hour flight," she said. "We go up there, stay in a hotel, go to theirs. They come here, stay in a hotel, come to mine!"

"Has Tina talked to Alan?"

"Hee-hee," she giggled. "Tina said when she told 'im, he just threw his hands up an' said, 'Naturally!'."

"The high school should already know the date, baby. Check with Jim. We can start planning this one, too."

"You think it's a good idea, don't you?" she had that way of looking all shy and sweet and innocent and I was one manipulated son-of-a-gun.

"Naturally! What else would you want to do? Miss your own sister's graduation?"

"Both my sisters," she giggled.

I remembered the picture that scrolled on the frame on my desk: the three of them from the weekend, some kind of cute, stair-stepped kaleidoscope, Cindy, the shortest, and her copper hair, middle height was Susan, plump and blonde, and Alan's Tina, the tallest, her hair chestnut, pushing red. What a set!

"It'll be interesting," I said.

She smiled as she stood up, taking my soup bowl. I got up and wiped the stove down as she washed the two bowls and spoons and dried them. That was our standard: clean up immediately. Tiny trailers clutter up fast if you do otherwise. After she finished the dishes, we took a thirty-minute interlude to watch TV and check email, and then it was shower time.

I assumed that we'd be back in the sofa end of the trailer after showers, but when I got out, that end of the trailer was dark, and there was the light on above the bed. That was something much more entertaining than TV.

"Don't even put your shirt on," she said. She emphasized her desire by kneeling on the bed and stripping her nightshirt off over her head. "Now, it's YOUR responsibility to keep me warm!" her grin was precious, melting my heart, and firming up another part of me quite handily.

I crawled over the end of the bed to meet her. "How absolutely beautiful you are, Cindy," I said. And I meant it. I looked at her and saw absolute perfection, perfection that extended its arms and wrapped around my neck, drawing me to her face for kisses. I loved kissing her giggly mouth, little kisses, flirtations with her tongue, punctuated with soft endearing words that told me that we were a single entity.

We both knew each other's special spots and favorite things and love-making tonight was slow and tender, interspersed with sighs and giggles. Cindy was a joy to all my senses and from the way she treated me, she felt the same way about me. After her third orgasm, I held her tenderly in my arms, stroking her red head like she was a favorite kitten. As she was.

Tuesday was a nominal day. No issues, no turmoil, little stress. I worked with my counterpart, the electrical engineer who would inherit the new plant from us. Actually, the client already had possession and responsibility. I was hanging on to give them a new set of documentation above and beyond the construction package, and part of that was being an educator for a young engineer who, while quite knowledgeable, lacked experience. He had a good attitude, though, and we worked together well.

I got off work and drove home. I called Cindy when I got on the highway. "Hey, cutie! I'm on the way!"

"Good, honey!" she chirped. "I'll be at the office with Mizz Helen an' Mister Charlie." Then a little squeal. "I got my ACT scores!"

"How'd you do?"

"Thirty-three on English, thirty-two on reading, eleven on writing, thirty on math and thirty-one on science! Composite is thirty-one point something!"

"Ouch!" I said. "You beat me so bad it's scary, baby!"

"It ain't about beating you, honey! I'm gonna GRADUATE!"

"Uh-huh! Okay, I'll be there in a minute!"

"We're goin' to the Hardesty's, remember?"

"I remember," I answered.

I walked into the park office and greeted my friends.

Charlie was sitting in his chair, smiling. "Dan, I'm impressed by our Cindy."

"Yessir,"I replied, "Pretty much EVERYBODY is impressed by our Cindy!"

She slid up beside me. "Hi, baby!"

Helen agreed. "She sure is a different person than she was last year in school."

"Happier," Cindy said. "I can come home every day an' not worry about who or what I find when I get there. I got somebody who CARES if I do good. And I know that it makes a difference."

"We were talking about this last night," I told Helen and Charlie.

"Ya'll are goin' to the Hardesty's tonight, Cindy says," Helen said.

"Yeah. Wanna think about another concert?"

"If you folks are up to it," Charlie said, surprising me.

"We'll see if they want to," Cindy said. She grabbed my hand. "Let's go, guy!"

"Bye, folks!" I said, letting Cindy lead me out the door.

We stopped at the trailer to offload her bookbag and for me to change shoes. I offered to bring her bag inside while she sat in the truck, but she wouldn't have that. She followed me inside. As soon as I set the bag down, she was in my arms. Or I was in hers. Anyway, you get the picture.

"Excited?"

She giggled. "Uh-huh! I mean, I KNEW I was gonna do okay on that test, but seeing it on paper, that's ... SOMETHING!"

"Yes it is, cutie! Have you talked to Tina? Maybe she got hers, too!"

"I wanna be careful with that, Dan," she said. "I don't wanna sound like I'm gloating."

"I understand, baby," I answered. "But she and Susan are both pretty smart, too, and they have the advantage of more years in school. There's a pretty good chance you three are all in the same range."

She grinned. "It COULD happen," she admitted. "My sisters ARE smart. We talked about it. We all finished ahead of time an' went back checking our work."