Wheels of Steel, Book 1

by Pepper Pace

  “How about fried chicken?”

  “Sounds good.” She placed some of the fillets in a bowl of water to thaw. He went back out to the living room and sat in his chair. Then he wheeled to his computer to finish up his homework. “Robin? You want to listen to some music?”

  “Sure.” She yelled from the kitchen. She had found rice and was deciding on which vegetable to make. She heard Miles Davis. She knew Miles because her Mom and Dad used to spend hours listening to various forms of jazz. She smiled and after she had the water simmering for the rice she came out to stand alongside of him.

  “You do like jazz?” He asked while looking up from his studies.

  “Yes I do! I was just listening to some Jazz a few weeks ago; Jazzmatazz-”

  “By Guru; volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4.” He added.

  “Oh my god…” She said in surprise. How did he know that?! She hadn’t even known about Jazzmatazz until she saw it on YouTube while searching for some old Bob James song. “How in the hell do you know that?! How do you know…?”

  He chuckled. “I love Guru and he just died so I listened to all of his songs right after that happened.” He pulled up YouTube. “Let me play you this. Volume 1 is the best in my opinion.” He played Loungin, then Le Bien. He continued with his homework while Robin moved back and forth from the kitchen to check the progress of the dinner that she was preparing and to check on Jason. When she was in the kitchen she danced and hummed and then she returned to the living room appearing ultra professional.

  After listening to Jazzmatazz Volume 1 she asked him to play Volume 4’s State of Clarity. “I like that one.” He said and then proceeded to ‘school’ her in the ways of Guru. “First of all, let me just say that Guru is one of my all time heroes. I have several but he ranks high up there. Guru and Gangstarr helped form the foundation of Hip Hop. And then if you think about how we all go digging for beats, finding old jazz and turning that into hip hop. Well Guru had the idea of actually recording with those Jazz greats; Sanborn, Bob James, and creating a new type of fusion. I mean if you want to make music you want to listen to Guru.” Jason went on excitedly talking about Guru and his brilliance.

  “Wow. You really are a fan.”

  “Yeah I am. But that’s how I know about Jazzmatazz.” She was still amazed. It seemed that she might really have a hard time finding something that this young man hadn’t already discovered for himself. She finished up dinner and placed it on the table. She cut up his chicken breast. In addition to that and the rice was a can of green beans that she doctored up. Robin knew that she was a good cook even if she seldom had a chance to do it. Even something as simple as fried chicken, rice and green beans was transformed into a feast.

  “Come and eat.” She called out from the kitchen. Jason felt all warm and fuzzy when he wheeled to the table and saw the meal. Robin was pouring juice into a sipper cup for him.

  “This looks good, Robin.”

  “Thank you.” She beamed. They sat down together eating the delicious meal with no conversation. Unfortunately Jason and fried chicken did not go well together as he gagged several times. But he eventually got more down his throat then on his clothes. And he actually did enjoy it, although by all outward appearance he didn’t.

  “Is it too dry?” She asked worried.

  “No. Fried food is just hard for me to swallow. But it’s good.” She placed that information into her memory banks. After dinner, before she could move to do dishes, he wheeled to the sink and began running dishwater. He washed while she dried and wiped off the counters. It was nine o’clock when he asked her if she wanted to go for a walk to the pond.

  “Okay.” Jason picked up the crutches. “Are you sure about this?” She asked.

  “I’ll need to practice to get better.”

  “True.”

  “Kiss me first.” She did, relaxing a bit. While they walked they talked about school and being a caregiver.

  “So what made you want to be caregiver?” He was very curious about this.

  “I…nothing. I didn’t want to do this. I just needed the money.”

  He paused a moment to catch his breath and to look at her. “You don’t have any kids, you’re not married…why do you work so many hours?”

  She shrugged. He didn’t have to work for a living, he was a student. She had to make ends meet. “Well, it’s what I need to do to cover my expenses.” He watched her curiously. What did she have; some type of drug addiction? She worked a lot of hours.

  When the silence continued she looked away and crossed her arms over her chest. “My father bought me that car when I graduated from high school. The plan was for me to go to college; paid for by a nice college fund my parent’s created for me; the one that they dangled over my head for fifteen years. Then I told them that I didn’t want to go to college and they snatched it back. They were going to take my car…” It was a thirty-eight thousand, fully loaded Volvo and she absolutely loved it. She explained about her offer to take over the payments and how her parent’s told her that she couldn’t afford it. But she lived at home and had no expenses except the car…so they gave in.

  She then explained about her Daddy dying and how he had been her buffer between Mama’s total control and her own sanity. And she moved out and that is why she was in this predicament. She looked at Jason again.

  “I worked two jobs to pay for a car that I can’t afford. My…my car is my last connection to my Dad and that’s all there is to it.” Jason didn’t respond for a moment.

  “When did your father die?”

  “It will be two years in October.”

  “I’m so sorry, Robin. It must be horrible losing a father. I…my Dad is alive, but he isn’t around. I can’t quite say that I’ve lost anything, though.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” She missed her Dad so much that she couldn’t understand choosing not to have a relationship with your own father.

  “I don’t care about him. When he was around he thought I was stupid. I could never do anything right for him. Once, I heard him and Mom arguing and he said ‘Nobody in my family has bad genes. It’s your fault! That’s your son and it’s your fault!’” A bitter look had crossed his face. Robin stopped walking and then he did as well.

  “Jason…there is nothing stupid about you. You are the smartest person I know.” He looked down. “Jason.” He looked at her.

  “I know I’m not stupid. It’s him that doesn’t know it. That’s the problem.”

  She placed her hand on his shoulder.

  It took an hour to get back to the apartment. Once they reached the lake they sat for a while to rest, holding hands on the wooden bench and watching the reflection of the moon across the water. Back at the apartment Jason collapsed onto the couch in exhaustion while Robin got them bottled water. Even though he was so tired that his legs muscles quivered, he felt a sense of accomplishment that he’d done it.

  He took a deep breath and dived into what he needed to say. He didn’t think it would be easy for her, but it had to be faced. “I have to go to the bathroom now.”

  Robin got his chair and wheeled it to the couch. He slid into it without standing and then looked at her. “I’m going to need help.”

  “Oh, ok.” She wheeled him to the bathroom door. He stopped the chair before it could enter.

  “I need to evacuate my bowels. That part I don’t need help with. You can stay out here. What I’ll do is flush; a courtesy flush, which will help carry away the flow of smell.” He watched her, waiting for her to flush and turn red—maybe even to have a panic attack. But she just watched him blandly. She was doing a good job of masking her discomfort—or else she really wasn’t all that uncomfortable with it. He continued, being as clinical as he could. “After I flush you’ll come in and I’ll be leaning forward. I think you know what to do from there, right?”

  She nodded and offered him a slight smile. “Right.” He squinted at her. It seemed that she was trying to ease his own discomfort.

  Jaso
n wheeled into the bathroom, turned and shut the door. Robin hurried into the living room and picked up her purse. She rummaged around until she found the small, individual dispenser of baby wipes and then she hurried back to the hallway to wait for the sound of the flushing toilet.

  After another moment she heard the sound that she had been waiting for and she opened the door and Jason was indeed leaning forward, holding a freshly lit match. He immediately blew out the flame and placed the smoldering match on the counter.

  Robin hid a grin. “Thanks for lighting a match.”

  “Well it’s the least I can do.”

  She grabbed toilet paper and cleaned his bottom. Then she used two of the wipes and swabbed him clean.

  He gave her an appreciative look. “Nice touch; baby wipes.”

  She crouched down. “I use them myself. Put your arms around me and we’ll get you standing.” He liked the way she took control. And if wiping his ass had bothered her, she sure didn’t show it. Though having to face cleaning the smegma from some old guy’s dick probably made wiping his bum a minor inconvenience.

  When he was standing, Robin reached down and pulled up his pants and shorts.

  “Uhhh…” He began when his penis was in jeopardy of being grazed by the waistband of his shorts. But she gently and quickly tucked him in. She had his pants fastened and zipped before he knew it.

  “Ready to sit down?” She asked.

  “Okay.” He watched her for any sign of fainting or even sweating. None. She gripped his body with strong arms and helped him to swivel around and then lowered him to the chair.

  “I’m going to wash my hands now. You go ahead and wheel yourself out.” Jason, once again, was surprised by her directness and control. He did as she requested and when she was finished in the bathroom she came out placed her hands on his shoulders.

  “Did you finish your school work?”

  “Yeah, I did. Okay…you didn’t have any problem with what…happened in there?”

  “Cleaning you? Not really. I mean…I’d rather be eating cake, but…oh well. Jason, can you show me how you make a beat?”

  After a moment of hesitation he wheeled to his computer. Robin was not completely easy to understand. He just knew that he really liked her. She was hot, she was sweet, and she loved music. He was very lucky to have found her. He powered up.

  “This, my dear Sweetheart, is an FL Studio. Back in the day we call it Fruity Loops Studio…”

  Chapter 26

  Robin stayed until eleven; which was her quitting time but she could have stayed longer. Watching Jason explain beats and mixing was very interesting. But she was actually tired and once she was in her car she found herself yawning all of the way home. She fell into bed and was asleep immediately.

  The next day she arrived at Jason’s bright and early and feeling perky. She wasn’t exactly sure what there was between the two of them but she knew that she liked him a lot and enjoyed being around him. She looked forward to seeing his handsome, freckled face. She enjoyed his snarky wit. She liked that he was so smart and didn’t let people push him around or intimidate him even though, with his disorder, he would have every reason in the world to give into insecurity.

  They lost about half an hour to kissing and had to rush in order to get to class on time. As Robin moved with him from class to class she paid more attention to his reaction to the world around him instead of the way the world moved around him. He didn’t try to fit in—he DID fit in. He talked to the other students and they seemed to honestly like him. At lunch she ‘learned’ how people interacted and joked with each other, instead of trying to find a hiding place and to go unnoticed. Jason’s friends had a comfortable routine. And best of all is that she stopped feeling like an unwanted intrusion because no one really paid that much attention to her anyway.

  After class Robin carried his things into the apartment and put them away. Jason grabbed his crutches and when she turned back around he was standing there waiting for her to notice him. They kissed for a time until she had to pull away, promising more kisses when she returned that evening.

  She wanted to go shopping for something to wear Friday. Now that she had committed to going, she agonized about how to dress. She didn’t want to go, the crowds alone would make her nervous. But if she was expected to interact with people that she didn’t know, she wanted to make sure that she at least looked nice. So she bypassed her usual department store’s Juniors department and headed for the trendy stores that she always distantly admired. First of all she was always too chunky for their skinny jeans and tight shirts. But she hoped to find something that would compliment her more curvy body.

  Everything she found looked really good on the mannequins but when she tried them she looked like she was trying to be someone else. Finally, one of the young sales girls had mercy on her and they picked out an ensemble that was really smoking. There were black jeans, and a nylon shirt with a cool screen print design. It had a plunging neckline that was almost a deal breaker but the clerk found a vibrant scarf to loop around her neck. With black boots that she already had at home, she knew that she was almost set.

  It was just her hair that might need some work. She went into a walk-in hair salon at the mall, and walked out with a haircut. She pretty much kept her hair pulled back. It would be so much easier just to wear it short and natural. Plus she thought it really looked good on her more-roundish face. It had been ages since she’d gone shopping like this for herself, so she bought perfume and cute underwear; thinking fleetingly of Jason.

  Jason was so cool. He didn’t try to touch her. She could tell that he just enjoyed the kisses and snuggling. She had to admit that sometimes she got very heated and she knew that he did as well, but he always remained a gentleman. She just looked forward to him…not being so gentlemanly.

  By the time Robin got home that evening she carried lots of bags and had put a sizeable dent in the money that had been accumulating in her account. But it was about time that she enjoyed the fruits of her labor. She didn’t have time to do much more then freshen, slip on some comfortable jeans and a nice blouse before she had to head right back out the door to get to Jason’s.

  When he opened the door his eyes got wide. “Robin…what happened to your pretty hair?” She touched it self-consciously.

  “You don’t like it?”

  He paused and then smiled. “I love it. You look great with short hair.”

  “Are you sure?” She asked while touching the tapered back of her neck and walking slowly into the apartment.

  “Yes!” He said honestly. “You look great.” He reached out and stroked her hair and then her face and then slowly her neck. Robin shivered. He placed his lips on her temple. “It’s beautiful…” He whispered. He kissed his way across her ear. Her eyes fluttered close. “You’re beautiful…” His lips met her neck. Robin’s hands moved up his body and beneath his shirt. She felt him shudder and then move his legs so that he could lean forward pressing her back against the wall. One of his arms went around her body and pulled her to him. She felt it glide down to cup her ass and a thrill shot through her. His mouth moved across her neck and then he urgently sought her lips.

  It felt good; his hands on her butt. He’d never touched her like that before. Robin’s body began a slow burn; the electrical shocks that she always experienced whenever Jason was near intensified and centered around her core. She felt herself pulsing between her thighs and her breath was coming in fast gasps.

  Jason leaned his body against hers and she suddenly reached down and gripped his ass with both of her hands. She pulled him to her and could feel him hard and pushing against her belly. He stopped kissing her for a moment in order to catch his breath, his own hands continuing to clutch at her rounded ass. He groaned loudly and then took his other hand and braced it against the wall. His head suddenly dipped down to capture her neck again and to tease her with his tongue. His hand came up her side and lightly stroked her breast, cupping and covering it with his big
palm.