Chapter 2

Watching the chopper disappear into the distance, I mentally kicked myself. I could've asked for a couple of changes of clothes for Nikki. Five-five and one-twenty and six-two and two hundred, she could practically swim in anything I wore, and all she had was the clothes on her back.

We walked back to the house. I mentioned the problem to her. "We can wash these like you did yesterday, an' I can wear your pj's."

"I suppose. We'll see what we can do." We went inside and ate sandwiches for lunch, then she helped me put together a spaghetti sauce for supper and left it simmering while we walked up the road. I carried the shotgun. Nikki was amazed by the mounds of debris and vegetation piled on the road. I wasn't. I'd seen it before. Elsewhere.

We walked back to the collapsed apartments. She pointed out her room in the mess, and I came away with the same conclusion that we'd reached earlier, there was no way either of us would risk going into the place. The place was fodder for a bulldozer. Tiring of the humidity, we returned to the air conditioned haven of the house and made sure all the electronics were off. Nikki watched as I shut the generator down to check it out, then restarted it.

We went inside and she chose a CD of Mozart. We sat in the floor and played a game of cards until suppertime, then boiled up a pot of spaghetti to go with the simmering sauce. I grated fresh cheese to top it and Nikki declared it to be the best ever. "I can make this," she announced. After dinner we cleared the dishes together and returned to the living room. She chose another movie for us to watch. I was getting ready to start it when she announced, "I wanna take a shower first. Then you can take yours, and we'll have that out of the way."

"Okay," I said. "Good idea. Let me get you something to wear."

"Those pj bottoms and your t-shirt?"

"If that works for you. I'll start a load of wash when we finish."

"'Kay," she said. I handed her the fresh clothes and she bounced into the bathroom. And heaven help me, I noted that she had an attractive form.

Fifteen minutes later she was sitting on my bed drying her hair and I was in the shower. I got out, shaved, and dabbed a bit of cologne on. She was still running the dryer when I walked out, kneeling in the middle of my bed, the t-shirt having slid down on one shoulder.

"Dan," she said, "I need a safety pin for these pj's. When I stand up they fall down. See?" And she stood up and caught them sliding down, stopping the waistband before it reached her pubic mound. I caught my breath. "Oops! Didn't mean to ... you know..."

"That's okay, babe. Lemme see if I have a safety pin." I found one and helped her pin the waistband tighter. And that put me in close proximity to what I determined to be a nicely shaped teen ass. And when she stood in front of me, I made a similar assessment of t-shirt clad tits.

My best move was to gather up the clothes and head to the laundry room. And on top of the stack was a pair of light blue panties. I should have just tossed the pile into the washer, but that's not what I did. I lifted those panties to my nose and sniffed deeply. And closed my eyes. Enough! I mentally slapped myself. Into the washer they went.

I walked back into the living room. She was lounging on the sofa, eyes twinkling, her arm languorously tossed on the back of the sofa and that t-shirt did little to hide the shape of those titties. My own pj's tented out. I hunched over to hide it and retreated to my recliner. And Nikki was watching me closely. And a wry smile spread on her red lips.

She started the movie, the original Indiana Jones flick. We'd both seen it before, and laughed at both appropriate and inappropriate times. She started talking about archaeology and I'm no expert, but it sound to me like she knew a bit.

I commented on that idea.

"Lots of Discovery Channel an' History Channel. And the library when I can get a ride there." Her brow knit for a second. "I had books checked out. D'ya think they're gonna charge me for them?

"Not likely. That's giving me a thought, though. In the morning we need to take my camera and go get pictures of your apartment. And if anybody says anything, that's your evidence."

"That's a good idea. What kind of camera do you have?"

"A pretty good one. Hang on, I'll show you!" I got up and retrieved the camera bag from the closet. I pulled a digital SLR out of the case and pointed it at her. "Smile", I said. She smiled and the flash went off.

"That's a fancy one," she said.

I sat down next to her on the sofa. "Yeah, I use it in my work sometimes." I punched the controls and handed it to her. "Here's you!"

"I don't look good in pictures," she said.

"Oh, bullshit!" I said. "That's what most women say. Come into my office. You can't see the picture very good on this little screen."

We went into the office and I fired up my desktop computer. While it was booting, I pulled out the cable to connect the camera to a USB port.

"She looked around the office. "What's all these papers?"

"That's from my last project. I need to go through each drawing and make sure it's correct and all the changes are logged. It's all billable hours."

"You mean you get paid for working at home?"

"Yep. I worked four hours yesterday while you were sleeping. Two hundred and eighty dollars."

She caught her breath. "That's seventy bucks an hour!"

"That was quick. You're good at math."

"I made B's and C's last year. I don't like to do homework."

The computer finished booting. I pulled her photo up on the big monitor. "There!" I said. "That's not a bad-looking picture at all."

"It's just me."

"And that makes it unique. And forgive me for saying so, but you're actually kinda cute! And this is a good picture. Look. You can see every strand of hair on your bangs. And you have a little bit of a smile."

"You think I'm cute? In the picture, I mean?"

"Yep! Very pleasant to look at."

She looked bit flustered and changed the subject. "That's a BIG monitor."

"Yeah," I said. "Those drawings are eleven by seventeen inches and I work on 'em on screen, full size. Makes life better for me."

"Show me."

I pulled up some recent files and showed her the red additions and green deletions.

"You READ these things? All I see is a bunch of lines."

"D'you read Chinese?"

"Nooo."

"Same thing. This is a language. People who are familiar with the language can read it. I can look at every symbol on this page and get a mental image of a real piece of equipment and how it works in the system." I patted an inch-thick stack on the corner of the desk. "This is what it took to do the electrical power for ONE small production unit at the plant I was working for."

"Wow! That's what engineers do?" She folded her arms and leaned over my shoulder.

"That's a painful part of it. It's not nearly as fun as getting called when things don't work right and I get to go in and fix them."

"Can I take YOUR picture?"

"Sure," I said, handing her the camera. "Just point it and click."

"Turn around. I want to get you with your computer and that desk behind you."

I turned and she shot. "Do a couple. Film's cheap for that thing."

"Uh, right..."

Then she wanted to look at the pictures she took. "I did pretty good, huh?"

"You could be the official photographer of old goats everywhere."

"You're not that old, Dan." She looked at the camera. "This thing has a timer. If you had a tripod, we could BOTH be in the picture."

"I've got a tripod in the closet. Why do you want a picture of both of us?"

"So I have a record of who rescued me." She smiled.

I set the tripod up and showed her how to set up the timer. We took several shots and reviewed them on the big monitor. "I like this one best." It had me standing close behind her, with her offset just a little to the right. Her head was tilted slightly and she was smiling.

"I'm downloading these to the hard drive," I said.

"Okay," came the response. "I'll go put the laundry in the dryer." In two minutes, she was back hovering over my shoulder. "D'ya have any work pictures?"

"Work pictures?"

"Yeah, you know, where you work? What you do?"

"I have a bunch, but I don't think you're interested in that stuff. Most of it's kinda technical. Obscure. Interesting to me because it's what I work on, but..."

"Try me. I LIKE that stuff. Besides, what else do we have to do?"

"Well, pull that chair over here." And she sat close. Very close. I showed pictures, explaining what each was, and she asked questions. Like she was interested.

Finally I said, "Babe, it's getting late. Let's shut it down for the night."

She laughed. "Okay, Dan. I'll go make my bed."

While she was arranging her nest on the sofa, I came in with the clothes folded and gave her a stack.

"Thanks, Dan!" she smiled. "G'nite!"

"G'nite, Nikki," I said, walking out of the room. I closed my bedroom door and did my pre-bed routine, then stretched out. I thought about the contents of the other room as I drifted off to sleep.

And for the second morning I awoke to the smell of bacon. I dressed and walked into the kitchen to find Nikki at the stove again. She smiled over her shoulder. "I found potatoes. I hope you like hash browns."

"You amaze me. Where'd you learn to cook?"

"Before she died, I used to spend a lot of time with my grandma, Mom's mom. And she knew how to cook. And I learned a few things. That was the happiest time of my life, so far." She smiled. "Although yesterday was pretty cool, too."

"Yesterday?"

"Yeah. I mean, other than the whole "my home is a debris pile in south Louisiana" thing, we met people, we took a walk, we played games, we watched a movie, listened to really good music, and I got to learn a little bit about engineering stuff. I think that was a pretty good day."

"I'm glad you liked it, Nikki. I could see you taking this a lot worse..."