Ms. Got Rocks

by Jacqueline Colt

  Later, Rocky bit into the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, admired the check from the metal dealer propped up with the salt shaker on the kitchen table. She smiled at the thought of the almost antique chairs back in the living room. All was okay with her little world right now, right here. All right except for the lowlife Callaghan and Jazz Harris.

  “Holy Cow, I think, that is more than I have made at one time since I left home in the spring, including the sale of the monster nugget,” Rocky told the dogs, who were lingering around for a bite of the sandwich.

  The car parts recycle owner came with his lowboy truck and offloaded his bobcat dozer. They spent the rest of the afternoon in car part heaven discovering old parts that they could easily resell. The first piece that he wanted was the old Mustang chassis that Rocky’s Dad had sitting all by itself like he was intending to do something with it. Rocky got the most money for it. The driver of the lowboy was more excited about the Pontiac Firebird parts which he could spot in a whole pile of what look like identical parts to her.

  By the end of the day they had struck a deal. The men would be back tomorrow to pick up another load that they had marked. When everyone took a break Rocky told them of her plan for flying the plane up there for the winter to save the tie down fees.

  Mr. Sanchez wanted to know "Why don't you have it trucked up, if you are not supposed to fly. We could load it on the lowboy for you and bring it up in the morning."

  "I can't pay cash, but I have a couple of gold nuggets and maybe some Firebird parts."

  That swap worked for all of them. Before they left for the day, she made a hurried call to the aviation mechanic. The mechanic was available tomorrow morning to take the wings off, then the plane would fit on the truck. In a devilish way, Rocky giggled, hoping the men knew how big that plane really was. The bird would probably fit on the lowboy; maybe, the plane was one long baby.

  Rocky could put off taking the pickup down to the recycling place in Sacramento until Monday. Her father must have had an idea of the gold mine of scrap metal that he had scattered around the place.

  “Wait till Devlin gets a look at that check,” Rocky told the dogs.

  The second check would not be as big, but would be plenty respectable and the plane would be on the home place for the coming winter.

  As evening fell it was too hot in the cabin to be inside. The big moon was rising through the heat haze. In the city, Rocky would have to brave the mall and get jeans, shirts, and a business suit and oh mercy, heels. Because her yard was a mess, that did not mean she must look like a mess, as well.

  As the foursome lazed on the porch watching the bats chasing their dinner, she finally took a look at the lack of junk in that part of the yard. It had opened a really nice view of the bend in the river. Rocky felt an incentive to get the front yard free of metal pieces as soon as possible.

  It was well past pitch dark, Rocky was dozing on the porch. That was how worn out she was, all there was to sleep on was the porch floor. There she dozed off. The dogs at least had their beds from the airplane to lie on. Thumper cuddled next to Lovie on her bed.

  Rocky finally pulled herself inside to bed; she did not close the windows. Even with all the awful things that have happened in the past weeks, she felt good and at peace.

  Next morning that Bobcat machine moved the plane off the lowboy truck. It moved around the house to the side of the garden spot where Rocky wanted it. She thought they would take it off the truck and she would have to drag it around with the pickup somehow. What a deal.

  By four Friday afternoon, the men and Rocky were on a first name basis. She had the name of a man with a couch to sell cheap, the men have some old car parts that seem to thrill them to bits, the front meadow was much neater though not bare of metal pieces by any means, and Rocky had two checks totaling seventeen thousand dollars.

  Manny Sanchez and Marvin Bleu would be back in the morning to pick up the rest of the load included in the seventeen grand. Before they left, Manny handed Rocky his business card, and told her if she found any more Mustang parts he wanted first dibs. They shook on the deal. Rocky could not wipe the grin from her face. It had been a long time since the world had been graced by that smile.

  The Levi’s took a beating today. With her dive knife she made shorts out of the pair she was wearing. The dogs were having a swim; Rocky slipped out of her newly made shorts and washed them without soap in the river above where the dogs were swimming. She washed them and concentrated, not on her butt hanging out in the hot breeze with panties on, but on buying the plumbing pipe and having the septic tank dug. She moved along to speculating about Deputy Dixon.

  The weekend was spent with much neglected cleaning cabin chores and the dredge maintenance after pulling it out of the water, for who knows how long that would be.

  Rocky developed the snake photos at the drive through and they are creepy enough to her that they should sell in some venue. She made a couple of postcards from them and added them to the animal postcard variety pack she had been compiling. The rest were in the portfolio for future sale.

  No phone call from Deputy Dixon. He definitely has a woman friend, probably engaged by now. She missed him. She wondered how she could be angry and hurt at him and still miss him.

  Rocky had a list of things that she needed to do in Sacramento the following week. The list had grown long enough that she prioritized it to what could be done and what she cannot live without.

  Rocky hoped to make enough money on the load of scrap to cover all of the list purchases.

  Selling the scrap metal took no time at all. Rocky did not get enough money from her weensy puny pile to do much beyond filling the truck gas tank. She was glad to have the two checks deposited into the bank on last Saturday. She could get the rest of the stuff on the list anyway.

  Rocky drove in the general direction of Costco, she was on the look out for a pancake house. Costco did not open until eleven. She had ninety minutes to kill. Spotting a cafe Rocky pointed the truck into the parking lot.

  While waiting for her breakfast, Rocky saw the other store she had been watching for. There was a yarn store across the street in a strip mall. Rocky without apology gulped down her pancakes.

  “Oh what fun it is to be in a yarn store,” Rocky was actually singing while she crossed the street. The shop wasn’t as big or well stocked as Jen’s knitting palace in Anchorage, but it was a delight for Rocky.

  Rocky reluctantly left the shop. Though she left loaded with sock wool for three pairs, a pale peach wool blend to go with an apricot wool for a pullover sweater for herself, and three skeins of a sheep wool and alpaca blend for ski hats for Margie, Dev and herself she still went reluctantly into the good day.

  For extra measure Rocky bought bamboo needles in the small size she did not have and a sweater pattern for beginners. The shop and the gas station got the entire scrap metal earnings from that morning.

  Happily but guiltily leaving the store laden with bags, Rocky reminded her conscience that she had not a darn thing to wear for the winter.

  “Remember all my winter clothes are in the landfill in Anchorage. Take that, conscious,” she said aloud as she got into the truck.

  Feeling much less guilty, and much lighter in the wallet, Rocky made her way across town to Costco.

  This part of Sacramento with William Land Park Zoo was so pretty. It had always been a favorite of Rocky’s. Having still more time before the warehouse opened, Rocky could think of nowhere better to sit than in the big park and enjoy.

  Paying her admission, she bought an animal food packet. There was a gift shop on the pathway to the bears.

  Brushing off her dirty junkyard clothes and patting down her hair, she popped in a breath mint, and felt ready to meet the manager. Rocky checked that she had her business cards and the postcard portfolio.

  That was a profitable stop, Rocky sold the baby rattlesnake photo as a poster and greeting cards. The buyer would like an email brochure of her artwork.


  Rocky had never done a poster but that didn‘t stop her; she could stop at Kinko’s and find out how to make posters.

  Rocky would need twelve snake posters for the Zoo. She may order another two dozen on spec for the gallery in Truckee and who knows where else.

  Rocky grinned all the way to the bears and admonished herself for not bringing her camera. She had a parade of Peafowl following her through the park. Sitting on the park bench enjoying the bears Rocky called Margie. Funny that both of them were that excited about selling a picture of a bunch of deadly snakes.

  Costco, of course, was jammed with shoppers, and Rocky loved it. She arm-wrestled an absolute hunk of a doll guy for a cart. Rocky whirl winded off on a marathon shop before she dropped session.

  Film, always more film and it was getting scarce but a good buy there, detergent and jeans. Now she plopped as many bags of dog food onto the cart as she could possibly move through the store, and topped it all off with a package of muffins and a fresh pineapple that smelled like tropical heaven.

  Moving the heavily laden cart through the warehouse to the checkout stations Rocky saw that guy again. He was shopping for the office. He had copier paper, toner, coffee and muffins and two small bottles of water.

  He pulled his cart into the line behind Rocky, and held out one of the bottles of cold water.

  “One for the road?” he asked.

  “Not very original, but you get extra points for original in Costco checkout venue,” Rocky said accepting the water gratefully, she realized how tired she was.

  “I’ll try harder next time,” he said clinking his water bottle with hers.

  “How many dogs do you own?” he nodded toward the rolling cart filled with ten bags of dog food.

  “Oh, only two, I’m buying a years supply for my brothers’ dog,” Rocky answered.

  “I wondered if you were a sled dog musher, or something,” he smiled and talked at the same time. Rocky wondered how hard it was to do that. It seemed such a long time since she had smiled.

  “Sir, I can take you over here,” a Costco checker was dragging the handsome strangers’ cart over to her cash register.

  He waved at Rocky and moved after her, “Ah, ships that pass in Costco.”

  Rocky was at checkout now and stacking her items on the belt. She hoped this checker put a wiggle on the checkout.

  “Maybe I can catch up with handsome stranger at the door,” Rocky muttered as she watched him from behind.

  Scrounging around in her tote bag she found the breath mints, in case.

  Nope, no hope here, the checker could not get the scanner to read any of the labels on the dog food, and someone had taken the scanner cheat sheet from the register and Rocky waited and tried not to burn. Standing on her tiptoes, Rocky regretfully watched handsome stranger and his computer supplies walk out the door.

  “Ah well, four months without sex can’t be even close to the record,” Rocky sighed. “I will live. I do not like it, but I will live.” The checkout cashier looked up from her scanner.

  Rocky stopped at the edge of the sidewalk and scanned the area for him when she left the store. There were too many cars and people.

  “Too bad for both of us,” Rocky consoled herself. “He was probably married.”

  Then, she remembered that she was still married. That was another issue to look into that week.

  Rocky’s brief stop at Kinko’s taught her that making posters that way was much too expensive for what the buyer at the Zoo was willing to pay for them. It was apparent until Rocky bought her own equipment she should only make framed prints, greeting cards and post cards. Kinko’s gave her the name of the poster company used by the “name” pro photographers. Rocky would call them to see if she could get a better deal.

  The trip was almost done; she was driving home by the fastest back way roads, having no intention of getting stuck in any commute traffic on the freeway. Her hand was throbbing as it was and getting home to an ice pack, or heat pack or something pack was the priority.

  Back in Auburn, when Margie looked at Rocky’s swollen finger and hand; she sat Rocky down in the kitchen with a pan of crushed ice. Rocky soaked while her sister-in-law unloaded the dog food.

  “Open wide,” Margie had something in her hand.

  “Fat chance, Nurse Vampira. What is that?” Rocky mumbled through clenched bared teeth.

  “A poisoned apple disguised as an antibiotic capsule. Don’t be such a weenie. Your poor finger needs a chance to heal, what the hell have you been doing to it?” Margie was staring at Rocky’s hand, straight up with ice.

  “Just loading and unloading junk and putting the motor on the little wagon and stuff like that there,” Rocky was trying to make light of what she had been doing.

  “You and Dev are two peas in a pod,” Margie was shaking her head at her sister-in-law.

  “We aren’t bad; we aren’t used to being sick or hurt. We have no experience on how to behave,” she was creating excuses as fast as she could think of them.

  Devlin’s truck came surging up the driveway, and Rocky felt as though she had been rescued from the Spanish Inquisition.

  “Hey, Margie and Rocky, you have her hand in a pan in ice, what’s up?” Devlin was in the building, the dogs were dancing around him and the space in the kitchen was filled with him.

  “Nothing, she has been a naughty girl all week, and her finger is hot and swollen. She is getting an ice pack an antibiotic and the lecture.”

  “Oh no, not the lecture,” Devlin was making appalled type faces. He would have made a great old time melodrama actor.

  “But the heroine will be fine in an hour and can drive herself home, because her brother and his fair, adorable wife have a date,” Margie said while giving her a pat on the back.

  “In that case, I will leave you two lovely ladies and load the fire hose I bought today into fair heroine’s trusty pickup truck. Fair heroine owes me twenty-five dollars,” Devlin informed his sister.

  “What am I doing with a fire hose?” Rocky asked. “Oh, yeah, the lawn irrigation system. Cool, Dev, the check is in the mail, watch for it,” she called after her brother who was already half out the door, with the three adoring dogs all trying to get in the doorway at the same time he did.

  Chapter 26

  Through the first two weeks of August, Rocky made a valiant attempt to heal her amputated finger stump. The look of it still repulsed her, but the chunk out of her hip used for the skin graft had healed and was looking none too nasty.

  Rocky decided if she ever wore a bikini, she would not scare small children, if she also wore gloves. She was overreacting to her injury. Rocky’s face was striking and expressive enough no one looked at her hands.

  She spent her time practicing knitting using her left hand to move the yarn. Being left handed that was not a stretch for her. All three of the ski caps were knit and blocked. Rocky laid out plans for photo trips as soon as she could drive all day without pain.

  She drew a garden plan for the newly vacant front meadow. Gardening on that scale will be after there was a well and piped water outlets. There were rock walls to be built first.

  With money in the bank, Rocky was not feeling as much of a pinch for basic necessities. In her two-week layoff she discovered shopping on Ebay and Amazon. Her rural route mail carrier understood when she asked him to somehow get the packages into the mailbox, so she did not have to drive to the Post Office.

  Each day Rocky drove a little further. Ironically, she now had time to visit places that she could not go before she hurt her finger. One hot afternoon she went to the library and researched photo software in the air-conditioned building.

  The local farmers market in Auburn was busy and fun. Rocky stocked up on vegetables that someone else watered, and soap made by loving hands at Marigold Marsh Soap Co. She met with Margie there.

  Margie told Rocky, she had talked to Deputy Justin Dixon at the hospital, and he asked her if Rocky was still married. That may explain why he hadn
’t called. Deputy Justin Dixon may have received triple bonus points on the dating game.

  Before sunrise the next day, to beat the heat, Rocky made several batches of vegetable soup to put away for winter. However, having to buy zucchini, even organically grown zucchini was sick and wrong. Rocky daydreamed about Justin but the dream never had an ending.

  There was the appointment with the flight surgeon for the first week in September, Margie said it was too soon to go for a physical. Rocky could not wait much longer to resume flying. Flying was breathing for her. Her stomach hurt with the waiting, waiting for everything and everyone in her life.

  Sight unseen, she bought a seven-foot long faux leather couch, with plenty of hope she wasn’t doing something stupid. Rocky was desperate for something to sit on.

  The couch turned out to be a winner, with only one tear in the arm. She took a trip to town and bought a glue gun, while there she also bought a mattress, a computer center and a chest of drawers.

  It was a panic watching the huge furniture store delivery truck trying to power up the steep rutted driveway. That big truck could not do it. Rocky drove the pickup down, and the men re-loaded her purchases onto the pickup and they drove back up the driveway. The men unloaded and took the furniture into the cabin. It only took two trips, but they were plenty glad to leave. The temperature was hovering at 100F, and with no air conditioning in the cabin, they thought they were in a third world country. Rocky was truly bored, that was the most fun she had all that week.

  Lazing out on the grass with Thumper, the dogs and a catalog they chose linens, a down comforter and a bedspread for the newly furnished bedroom.

  For a jackrabbit, Thumper had good taste, although her color sense leaned toward carrot orange and lettuce green.

  "I am well and truly bored, if I care what a bunny color is." Rocky shook her head and then ruffled Thumper's fur.