Chapter 3: Adjustments

Zelda was amazed at how good she felt when she woke up in a nice bed with no lumps and sags in it. She took a fast shower and put on yesterday's underwear and Jack's tee shirt and shorts. She wrinkled her nose. She remembered Jack promised her an advance on her salary, however he was paying her.

This meant she could get something better to wear than what she had now. She felt great all over as she walked out of her bedroom and stretched her body.

She came into the living room and gave her new employer a big smile, "Jack, that was the best night's sleep I've had in ages."

Jack didn't hear her. "We got another problem," he told her. "I got to take a dump." His lack of expression sent the message loud and clear about how he felt.

"Houston, we do have a problem," she murmured to herself. She came to him and brought the chair into an upright position. "How bad do you have to go?"

"I guess I can hold it for a while, if that's what you mean," he answered.

"Let me call the medical supply house and try to get a power chair out here as fast as possible." Zelda grabbed the cordless phone up off of the computer desk and hit redial. She was thankful her last call the evening before had been to the people from whom they had ordered the wheelchair.

When someone answered, she asked, "How soon before the Daniels order is delivered?"

"I do not show an order for a party named Daniels." The person sounded like a teenager said no more but waited in silence.

"Hey, are you still there?" Zelda finally asked. "I'm calling to find out where the delivery of two wheel chairs stands. Are they on their way out here or not? Are they no longer available? Or are you too damned dumb to look up an order?"

"There is no need to get hostile," the voice told her.

"Honey," Zelda's voice dripped with venom, "You have no idea just how hostile I am about to become if I have to come over there and get that damned chair. Let me talk to someone with intelligence."

After a short pause a man's voice came on. "Who is this?" he demanded.

"Have you ever heard of Whiskey Jack Daniels?" she demanded.

"Of course I have. He's our most famous local hero, even if he isn't a Mormon. Now don't try to tell me you're old Whiskey. I met him and his voice is not a bit like yours."

"Would you like to speak to him?" Zelda asked with sweet sarcasm. She handed the phone to Jack, "Here. Talk to the man. He says he knows you."

Jack could barely hold the phone to his ear. "This is Jack Daniels, who am I speaking to?" he demanded.

"If this is Whiskey Jack, we met at a bike rally fifteen years ago years ago in Aspen, Colorado. What color bike were you riding in the event?"

"That time, I wasn't entered in the competition. I came to see a friend off who was in the tryouts for his first competition."

"How may I help you, sir?" The voice changed to respectful.

"You heard I was shot up and sent home?"

"Yes sir, I was damned sad to hear about that. What do you need today?"

"We ordered one powered wheelchair and a fold up type yesterday for delivery first thing this morning. When will they get here?"

"I'll bring them myself. That order is just now being loaded onto the truck. I'll have it there in half an hour." The phone was disconnected. Jack dropped the cordless. It had become too heavy to hold any longer.

Fifteen minutes later, a knock sounded at the front door. Zelda opened the door and saw a man on crutches. "Is this the Daniels residence?" he asked.

"Yeah," Zelda answered, "You the wheelchair guy?"

"I am he. My sons are unloading the units right now.

"I remember you now," Jack said as the man maneuvered himself through the front door.

"I need a top of the line hospital type bed sometime today." Jack told him. We'll pay for it now with plastic. Later on, I want a custom-built power chair. The two you brought me today will have to do for the present.

"We also brought an expanded light weight aluminum ramp for access to the house and safety rails for the bathroom and a shower seat. You want any of that stuff? It's all top of the line."

"Thanks, install everything, we'll take it all and anything else that will make this lady's job easier."

The man's two sons brought in the wheelchairs. The man and Zelda transferred Jack to the power chair. In the meantime, the sons installed the ramp and placed the safety rails in place in the bathroom. Zelda paid for everything with plastic and they left. Jack was clumsy as he drove the chair into the bathroom and waited for Zelda to come help him. The chair arm folded down and Zelda strained to slide Jack over onto the toilet. She had already begun to lose some of her shyness. She lost the rest, after she had helped him on and off the toilet seat.

"Gal," Jack told her, "I am sure glad you took the job. I never realized what all it was going to take for someone to help me live at home. Jesus, this is almost a nightmare."

"Jack, we happened onto each other at just the right time. Let's hope we continue to be good for each other." She looked into his eyes and blushed. She began to feel a stirring down deep inside her, in a place that was scabbed and scarred over. Dream on idiot came a little voice within. She smiled down at him and turned away before he could see the lonely tears in her eyes.

Zelda gave him an all over sponge bath and slipped a pair of loose fitting gym shorts on him. The tee shirt was easy.

Jack felt a strong urge to lick her face when it came close to his own as she pulled the tee shirt down over his body. What the hell? His thoughts embarrassed him even though he gave no indication to her what those thoughts were. He visualized a few other places he wanted to lick. What in hell is the matter with me?

"Look, I got to learn how to use this wheelchair and we need to go to the mall and provision up."

"How do you figure on doing that, Jack?"

"Why I'm going to ride my new chair all the way. I'm going to let the wind flow through my hair and..." His voice broke as he said, "I am going to breathe some free air that has not been filtered through a goddamned hospital air conditioner. You have no idea what I am feeling right now." You don't want to know, either, he thought to himself.

She saw the hungry look on his face and answered so soft he almost did not hear her, "Be careful, Jack. Please, just be careful." She opened the front door and he steered his way through.

When he got to the ramp Jack kicked the chair into high speed and pushed the joystick all the way forward. "Eeehaaa!" he yelled and shot down the ramp. He cornered at the sidewalk and almost tipped over. As the wheelchair settled back down on all its wheels, he stopped and waited for Zelda to catch up.

Jack laughed for the first time in what seemed years. "Yeah! That felt great."

"Damn you Jack. That was a crazy stunt. What is the matter with you?" Her face was wrinkled with worry. "Please Jack," she said in a softer voice.

He repeated himself, "Damn but that felt good!" His face was flushed with excitement. His eyes glinted like a predatory hawk on the hunt. "I'm about half a mind to go back and do that again. I felt alive!"

In spite of her worry, Zelda had to laugh at his excitement. "Damn you Jack, if you have half a mind to go back and do it over again you definitely only have half a mind. You behave now."

He chose a crisp pace and she jogged alongside. Zelda was breathing slightly harder than usual as they ended the two-mile trip to the mall. "How about that," Jack told her. "I thought I could run you into the ground halfway there and then get you to park your buns in my lap while I drove us the rest of the way."

"Jack, you are a nut. I guess you got a right to be nuts." She tousled his hair, "Just be careful, please."

Jack liked the intimacy of her fingers on his scalp. "How much am I paying you?" he asked.

"Is a thousand a month too much?" she asked.

"Way too low. Zelda, you are not cheap help. You are first class across the board, number one all the way. "How about you give yourself twenty-five hundred a month to start and more later if necessary?"

He looked down at his lap, "I found you and I don't want to lose you." He ached inside and didn't know how to express what he felt. He was afraid she would laugh if she knew his feelings right then.

She bent over to hug his neck and he turned at the same time. His nose was buried between two warm, soft, wonderful feeling unclad breasts, covered only by a thin tee shirt. He moaned and she jerked back. "Oh! I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"Not a bit," he smiled at her, "I can take it if you keep dishing it out. Try me." The smile became a grin.

"Men are born perverts." She laughed at him.

Jack laughed back at her. He reveled at the friendly intimacy he felt spring up between them. It felt strange to share the moment and feel pleasure in another's presence. Christ, if only ... He left the rest of the thought hanging. If only didn't cut it. There was only now, a bleak and sexless now, spiced only by Zelda's presence. Oh well...

"Let's head over to that bank and get a check cashed. You brought my ID?"

Her exasperation showed in her voice. "Jack, you never said to bring any identification with us."

"Well, you should have anyway." He grinned, "Take a cab and go get it. My wallet is on top of the chest of drawers. It has an old driver's license and stuff. I think my passbook is with it.

"I'll just wait here until you get back."

"I'd better run there and back. I need to work off all that pizza you forced me to eat last night. Besides a cab would take too long." She kissed his forehead and took off at a fast pace."

"God damn," Jack muttered to himself as he watched her back side bounce as she ran away toward the house. "Oh how I wish.

"By god I am going to make it. I am going to..." He left the rest of the thought unspoken. He had a goal. He told himself, "One of these days I am going to take her to bed and screw her brains out."

Jack did not realize he had spoken aloud until he heard, "Disgusting."

He turned his head and saw a pinch-faced woman staring at him. "Piss off," he growled at her, the magic of the moment broken. She glowered at him and hurried off.

Jack sat and enjoyed the morning sun as it warmed his face. "I never realized how much I had until I lost it all." One life was gone and another life had begun. He vowed to do the best he could within the realities of what he still had. He sighed and waited.

It took Zelda a half hour to make the four-mile round trip and bring his wallet to him. Her breasts, a small C cup at most, heaved as she strove to catch her breath.

Jack grinned at her, "Damn, you're panting like a dog."

"Just you don't try to scratch me behind the ears," she told him between deep breaths of air. She leaned over, placed her hands on her knees and started to stretch.

"It ain't your ears I want to scratch," he told her, as he looked hard at her well-formed butt.

She ignored the comment and finished her cool off. "You want to go to the bank?"

"Let's go," He steered toward the bank. Zelda hurried ahead and opened the door for him. Jack managed to scrape the doorframe as he entered the bank. "Damned chair."

"How about 'damned driver?' He's the dangerous one." Zelda laughed. It amazed her how the little things about Jack make her laugh and feel good. Again, there were those small stirrings of emotions inside her.