No Plans for Love

by Ruth Ann Hixson

  Frank's hoot of laughter became, "Whoa!" as he jammed on the brakes when a doe with two half-grown fawns ran across the road.

  They rode in silence for a while until Jan asked, "Do you want to come to dinner, too, Sherry?"

  "No. I have my own tuna but thanks for the offer. I didn't sleep well after that storm went through last night." She wasn't about to admit that her lack of sleep was because of the discomfort of sleeping on the floor. "I plan to rest up this afternoon. After all, it's Sunday."

  "We'll see you at milking time," Frank said as she got out of the car.

  "I'll be there." She waved to Jan and went to the breezeway door. By the time she had the key in the lock, Frank had already backed out on the road and was headed for home. After changing to her favorite hot pink tee shirt and denim shorts, she looked through her pantry to find something for lunch. Selecting a can of ravioli, she scooped the contents into the white dish she had bought at the dollar store the day before.

  After she ate, she went out the back door and walked around the yard in her bare feet. "This grass needs mowed," she mused. She would talk to Frank about it tomorrow. The flower beds were woefully untended. Even so, the chrysanthemums were in bud. Among the flowers she found a perfectly egg-shaped rock that had remnants of paint on it. She carried it to the porch and laid it beside the door. Later she would wash it and paint it like an Easter egg to add a little color to her new home.

  She went back inside to take the mystery she was reading out of her pile of belongings and lay down on her blankets to read. When she tired of the hard floor, she got her bag of potato chips and went out to the front porch where she perched at the top of the steps.

  Mark drove by in his Suburban and tooted the horn. Sherry waved. Elena waved, too, but Sherry didn't miss her middle finger sticking up. "You, too," Sherry said. She closed her potato chip bag and went back inside where she lay down for a nap.

  It was almost four o'clock when she woke up hungry. A peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich and powdered milk mixed with water in an empty juice bottle was sufficient to hold her until suppertime.

  At a quarter to five she walked over to the farm where she found Frank and Jan already preparing to do the milking. She joined in the work.

  They were half finished when Mark walked in the barn still dressed in his white shirt, gray trousers and shiny black shoes. He went up to Sherry, put his hands on her shoulders and leaned to kiss her. Her reaction was swift. She slapped his face.

  "Ow! That hurt."

  She stepped back out of his reach. "That'll teach you to mess with a street-smart kid from Newark."

  Mark cracked up. Because of his laughter, he stuttered, "Do...do you hiss, scratch and bite, too?"

  "You better believe it. With a couple karate chops and kicks thrown in for good measure."

  "Karate? You? I'll bet you don't weigh a hundred pounds."

  "One hundred and six," she told him. "Where I lived a girl needed to know how to protect herself. The only time I needed to use it was on a man about your size. When I left him, he was on his knees moaning with his hands over a particularly vulnerable part of the male anatomy."

  "Mark, why did you do that?" Jan asked.

  He shrugged. "If I'm gonna have the name, I'm gonna have the game. Elena broke up with me because I paid too much attention to Sherry."

  "Go change your clothes and help with the milking so I can make supper."

  After Mark went to the house, Frank came through the milking parlor. He smacked Jan on the behind as he passed. "If you women worked as much as you talk, we'd get done quicker."

  "Watch where you put your hands, Mr. Blakely," Jan said.

  He turned and grinned at her. "My hands have been in much more intimate places than your ass, Mrs. Blakely. Mark's home. Go make supper. That tuna sandwich and salad you gave me for dinner wasn't enough."

  Sherry put a little extra effort into her work, hoping they wouldn't see how she was blushing. Their sexual banter made her feel uncomfortable though they were husband and wife. When Mark came to the barn dressed in a tee shirt and jeans, she kept her distance from him. He was no longer off limits and she wasn't sure how that made her feel.

  It was already dark when Frank took her home after a supper of chili and cornbread. When she had the door unlocked, she waved to thank him. Inside all was dark but she knew where her flashlight was.

  Sitting on her pillow by candlelight, she played her guitar and munched potato chips until the bag was empty. She could pick up another bag when she took her application in to the dollar store the next day. Potato chips were her comfort food. She went to bed early because she knew that Frank or Mark would be calling to wake her up in the morning.

  Despite the discomfort of the hard floor, she went to sleep quickly. She was awakened so suddenly that she sat right up in bed, her heart pounding. She grabbed her flashlight and looked at her watch. It was nearly one thirty. She sat there listening until she heard it again. Someone was trying to get in the door in the den.

  She got up unsure of what to do. Then she heard the scrape of a footstep on the brick patio. Pointing her flashlight at the floor, she went to look out the kitchen window. Someone was out there with a small flashlight and he went straight to the back door to the breezeway but she had locked the storm door. He shone his light around until he saw the egg-shaped stone.

  She grabbed the phone and dialed the Blakely's number. It took three rings before Jan's sleepy voice answered.

  "This is Sherry. Someone's trying to break in. He just smashed the window in the storm door to the breezeway." Her voice became panicky. "He's inside. He must have a key."

  "Go hide in the bathroom and lock the door," Jan ordered. "I'll wake Frank and Mark and call the cops." Jan shook her husband by his shoulder. "Frank! Frank, wake up!".

  "Leave me alone," he mumbled.

  "Frank! Sherry just called. She said someone is trying to break in."

  That brought him out of bed in a hurry. "Wake Mark. Tell him to move it. Then call the cops." He headed for the door no more than he had his pants and sneakers on.

  Jan ran back the hall to her stepson's bedroom to pound on his door. He answered immediately. "I'm up. I heard you trying to wake Dad."

  "I've got to go call the cops."

  He came out of his room pulling on a dark blue tee shirt. "Call Sherry back. Maybe the phone ringing will scare the intruder away."

  He ran down the steps and out the front door. Frank already had the truck turned around. He leaned over to open the passenger-side door. "If you're coming with me, move it." He had the truck going out the lane before Mark had the door shut.

  As he pulled into Sherry's driveway, the headlights reflected from the breezeway windows, but they could see the light of the flashlight the intruder carried as he came out the kitchen door.

  Mark was out of the truck before it was stopped and ran full tilt around the house. A dark figure ran across the patio. "Hold it right there!" Mark shouted.

  The flashlight went out and the man took off across the backyard and between the garden fences to the fields beyond. Mark raced after him. Mark always thought he could run fast but he was no match for the fleeing figure.

  The sliver of a crescent moon and the stars gave little light. Once the dark figure was in the shadow of the trees along the creek, Mark couldn't see him anymore. On the far side of the creek he could make out a white or light colored car parked on a field road. But he couldn't see the intruder. He looked around straining his eyes in the meager light. He heard a soft footfall behind him and started to turn around.

  Something hit the side of his head and a million stars exploded in his brain as he fell and the world faded away to oblivion.

  Chapter 3

  "Sherry, it's Frank."

  She opened the door and peered out. "Did you see him?"

  "No. Mark must have. I heard him holler out back."

  "I heard him, too. What could anyone possibly want? I haven't got that much. I
put my money in the bank."

  As they stood on the front porch waiting for the police, Frank shifted uneasily, looking toward the corner of the house. "Mark must've chased that guy to kingdom come. He should be back by now. If he isn't here soon, I'm going looking for him."

  His worriment planted a seed of worry in Sherry's brain. At last they saw the flashing lights of a state police car.

  "Here comes the cavalry," Frank said.

  The car pulled in the driveway and stopped behind Frank's truck. The trooper shone his flashlight on the pair on the porch. "Hello, Frank. Who's with you?"

  "Chad. I'm glad it's you. You remember Sherry Winnette?"

  "Of course." Chad crossed the lawn and held out his hand to Sherry. "I'm Chad Wertman. Do you remember me?"

  "No."

  Frank interrupted. "Mark ran after the guy and he's been gone a good long while. Something must have happened to him."

  Chad shone his light over the tall grass in the yard. "I can see his trail. I'll go try to find him."

  Chad went off around the house following the trail in the dew-wet grass between the gardens and on between the soybean field on the left and the recently cut hay field on the right. He flashed his light from side to side to look over the fields as well as the path ahead. As he got to the trees along the creek, he shone his light around until he saw Mark lying there with blood on his face. He approached and squatted down to feel for Mark's carotid pulse. It was strong and steady. Chad let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He rolled Mark onto his back.

  "Mark." He patted his face. "Mark."

  Mark opened his eyes. "Chad?"

  Chad reached out a hand to help him sit up. "Do you think you can stand up and walk? I'd hate to have to carry you."

  "I'll manage." Chad assisted him to his feet.

  Chad shone his light over the ground. "There's a piece of a dead limb." He walked over for a closer look. "It's got blood on it. Let's go back to the house."

  Chad reached to the radio on his shoulder and pushed a button. "This is Wertman. Send an ambulance to the address of that break in. I got a man here with a head injury."

  "I don't need an ambulance," Mark insisted.

  "You were knocked out. That means you have a concussion. You could have a subdural hematoma. You are going to the hospital if I have to cuff you to the gurney."

  "You've been wanting to put cuffs on me ever since you got the damn things," Mark complained.

  "Did you get a good look at the perp?" Chad asked.

  "Not enough light. He ran like he was training for the Olympics. Man, I've got a headache."

  "That's why you are going in that ambulance when it gets here," reasoned Chad. They walked around the house to stop at the front porch where Sherry and Frank waited. "I found him down by the creek, knocked cold."

  "How bad is he hurt?" Frank asked as they stopped beside the porch railing.

  "Took a blow to the head. I called for an ambulance."

  "I told you I don't need an ambulance," Mark protested.

  "When that ambulance gets here you better be in it or I'll put you in it," his father warned.

  "You and who else?" Mark asked.

  "Me," Chad answered.

  "And me," Sherry spoke up.

  "Well, since you got the Karate Kid from Newark on your side I guess I better listen or she'll kick me in that particularly vulnerable part of the male anatomy." Mark walked over and sat down on the porch steps.

  "Karate Kid?" Chad asked.

  "Never mind," Sherry said. She didn't want to explain what had passed between her and Mark in the barn. She didn't know if Jan had told Frank.

  "Here comes my backup." Chad said. When Trooper Turner approached the little group, Chad told him, "Check around back to see how he got in. Ask Sherry ."

  Sherry didn't wait to be asked. "The back door to the breezeway. He broke the glass in the storm door but he must have had a key to the door. I didn't hear him break in."

  "Where were you?" Turner asked.

  "Hiding in a locked bathroom."

  "Why don't you have any lights on?" Turner wondered.

  "Because I don't have electricity yet," Sherry answered. "I got here late Friday afternoon. I am just glad I got phone service."

  Turner came back a short time later. "It's like the girl said. He must have had a key or else he picked the lock."

  "He got in too quick to have picked the lock," Sherry guessed. "A matter of seconds after he broke the glass. I didn't wait around. I ran in the bathroom and locked the door."

  Frank had a thought on the matter. "It is possible he didn't know Sherry was here."

  "He left in a hurry when the phone rang," she recalled.

  "I told Mom to call; that it might scare him away." Mark said.

  Just then Jan drove up and parked behind Chad's cruiser and headed for the porch. "I want to know what's going on."

  "I'm not hurt that bad, Mom," Mark assured her.

  "Here comes the ambulance now," Chad said.

  Jan walked out to the road as the driver put down his window. "You can turn around in our lane." She pointed toward the farm. "Then park in front of my car."

  "You follow the ambulance to the hospital so you can bring Mark home," Frank told his wife. "As soon as things settle down here, I'm going home to get a few Z's before milking time."

  "Follow them to the hospital," Chad told Turner. "That's our main witness. He got a better look at the perp than anyone."

  After Turner left, Chad said to Sherry, "Since you don't have electricity, we'll talk in the car where I can see to write." Chad put a small tape recorder on the dash in front of Sherry but he also took notes. He asked the usual questions about name, date of birth and address. Then he had Sherry tell her story until she said the intruder had a key. "Who has a key besides you, Sherry?"

  "I do," Frank said from the back seat. "And Roy Winnette. He had power of attorney over his mother's affairs."

  "He tried to get in the door in the den first," Sherry remembered. "But it was bolted. I don't know why that door has a bolt when the rest don't. And the bolt is up so high."

  "That is because a certain little girl used to sneak off when Grandma was busy and come over to play with Lisa," Frank said.

  A look of realization crossed Chad's face. "What's wrong?" Sherry asked.

  "I just made a connection with something Mark said. I'll have to check it out. Is there anything more?"

  "I don't think so. Frank told me not to touch anything so I didn't."

  "Frank, can you add anything to what Sherry said?"

  "Not much. Just that Mark and I got over here as quick as possible. The intruder was just running out through the breezeway. We could see his flashlight. Mark chased him and you know how that ended."

  "Here's the CSI team." Just then a call came over Chad's radio for him to report to an accident on Route 322. "I'll be in touch," he told Frank as he opened the door for him. He got back in his car and left with the lights flashing.

  "I'm going home," Frank told Sherry. "Can you help with the milking since Mark and Jan are both away?"

  "Sure. I'll be over about five." Sherry greeted the CSI team. "You'll need flashlights because I don't have electricity." By the time they left it was nearly five o'clock. Sherry saw no reason to lie down just to get up in a few minutes to go help with the milking. She made sure the doors were locked and walked over to the farm. When she arrived there were no lights on at the barn. She went inside and found Frank asleep on the daybed in the den.

  She shook his shoulder. "Time to milk cows."

  He sat up sleepy eyed. "Is there coffee?"

  They were halfway done with the milking when Jan walked in the barn. "Mark's okay. He has a concussion. No fracture; no hematoma. The doctor told me he has a hard head. I said it runs in the family. He's just like his father and grandfather. I must go get ready for work."

  When they finished and went to the house, Jan met them at the door. "Mark isn't in his room
. He must have gone to work. He's not supposed to be driving."

  Frank walked over and looked in a window in the garage door. "His truck isn't here."

  ****

  "Got any coffee?" Frank walked into Sherry's kitchen without knocking.

  "No, but I have tea. If you leave the tea bag in the cup, it gets pretty strong. I have to try out my cooktop now that I have gas. The water's almost hot."

  "Anything that has caffeine. I even brewed the used grounds over. I won't have any coffee until Jan gets home."

  She smiled at him as she turned off the gas and poured the hot water into the only cup she had. "You don't have to wait that long. I'm stopping at the dollar store."

  A grin spread across his face. "Yeah."

  Sherry set the cup of tea in front of him and got a washed tin can to make some for herself. "Do you want sugar?" she asked as she got the tin can that served as her sugar bowl.

  "Nah. I like your sugar bowl."

  She grinned. "It matches my teacup." She pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

  "Why didn't you tell me you only have one cup?"

  She used a paper napkin to hold the hot can. "I need to get to a thrift store. Not only do I need more dishes, I need a mattress. I'm tired of sleeping on the floor."

  "There's a thrift store in Lewistown. We'll stop after we finish our other business."

  "Sounds good to me."

  He drank down the last of his tea. "Let's get going, kid. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I get to take a nap."

  Sherry leaned back in the truck seat and dozed until Frank reached over and snapped her on the nose. "Wake up, kid. You have to talk to me so I don't fall asleep at the wheel."

  "What do you want to talk about?"

  He thought a moment. "The weather's usually a safe topic."

  "It's cloudy," she said.

  "The Weather Channel says we're supposed to get rain this afternoon. That pretty well exhausts that topic."

  "Who do you think broke into my place last night?"

  Frank frowned. "I don't know. Chad seemed to get an idea when I said your Uncle Roy has a key. But he said it's connected to something Mark said and since I don't know what that is I haven't a clue."