by Rose Francis
“I should have all the tools already,” Blake mumbled to himself.
He headed into town, not knowing how his life was about to change.
Chapter 2 -
“Ok Pastor Duncan, I got it all squared away,” He told the portly man.
“How much do I owe you?” The pastor had a checkbook out and a pen poised to the paper.
“Well its two hours and-“ his voice trailed off into nothing as a slender woman came walking in, her dark brown hair cut short, almost in a spike. Most ladies that turned his head had long flowing hair, but this one was different, she had a presence that made him notice. She had freckles spread across her cheeks and dark green eyes that hinted at the fun and excitement she’d seen in her life.
“Hello, I’m Blake,” he held his hand out as she stopped next to the pastor and gave him a quick one armed hug.
“Oh, sorry, how rude of me. Blake, this is my daughter Sandra, Sandra, this is Blake.”
“Pleasure,” She said with a smile, showing her teeth. His heart felt like it was laboring to start again and couldn’t quit staring.
“So Blake…?”
“Huh?” He looked at the priest again.
“How much do I owe you?”
“Well, this is the only church in town and all. How about we call this tithe for this week?”
“Nonsense. What’s your usual rate?”
“Thirty five an hour,” He admitted after a pause, “but it was a simple fix. I spent more time showing you how to fix it next time it happens. How about we call it oh… twenty five dollars and the rest is tithe?”
“Why twenty five?” Sandra asked him.
“It’s how much a fuel pump costs.”
“Is that your truck out front?”
“The one with the tools?” He was glad to have a chance to get the younger lady talking to him. She was an adult, but almost too pretty to look at for long without getting caught staring.
“Yeah, must be. You know how to put one in?”
“A fuel pump? Sort of. I work on just about anything, but it’ll be a first with that old beast.”
“Here you go,” Pastor Duncan smiled as he pushed a check into Blake’s breast pocket and left the room un-noticed.
“If you want a hand, I know that truck like the back of my hand.”
“How?” He knew it was dumb to ask, and it probably broke some sort of ethics thing, but a lady, a pretty lady who knew mechanics?
“Well, the Army unit I was stationed with had a ton of them. You get the parts, they run forever. Especially the diesels like you got.”
“You were in the army?” Surprise after surprise floored the thirty year old man. “You look like you just graduated high school,” and then winced when he realized how insulting that may have sounded.
“It’s ok, you don’t have to pull your foot out of your mouth, I get that a lot. I’m actually 28, and the motor pool was my life until about two months ago.”
“Thanks,” he laughed in relief at not getting called out for his careless tongue, “Tell you what, I’ll be in town again on Friday to pick up an order I have coming in. Maybe we can borrow Pete’s Garage and later on I’ll take you out for something to eat?”
Blake realized not once had he checked out her finger to make sure she was available and was about to apologize when she smiled and nodded.
“That sounds wonderful actually,” she took his hand and gave it a squeeze and wrote her number for him.
He left the church and headed to the bank, surprised when he pulled the check out and it was made out for $150.00. He was going to complain but the money was already being counted. He could always stuff the rest into the donation basket the next time he was in town for church. It would be awkward to do without an envelope so he snagged one from the bank and then walked across the street to the supermarket.
“Morning Blake,” said Sally, his mother’s best friend when his family was alive, greeted him as he walked into the air conditioned air of the small grocery store. “Picking up supplies?”
“No ma’am, just wanted to get a paper and maybe a bottle or two for later on.”
“Oh no you don’t, I’ll swat you down if you try to buy some-“
Sally broke off into smiles as Blake got two Diet Cokes from the refrigerated case, put those and a newspaper on the counter. If he was in town, he might as well check craigslist ads and the paper before heading back home. Trips to town cost him in terms of fuel, and though he lived a frugal life by necessity, he had brought some cash of his own just in case he found something.
“That’ll be $4.05 Hon,” she smiled. He paid her and left the store.
The heat in the truck hit him like a ton of bricks, but Blake rolled down the windows and spread out the newspaper before cracking into his first cola. The advertisement page held almost nothing of interest or it was too expensive. He was about to give up and check craigslist on his phone when he saw an advertisement that caught his eye. Storage Unit Auctions, Friday July 9th, 2pm. Smiling, he started the truck and headed back towards the house, the thirty minute drive soothing despite the deep ruts of the two track lane.
Chapter 3 -
Blake didn’t get any more calls that week for folks needing a handyman, and he used some of the camping furniture in the house. He had fun testing out the grey water system he had set up on his sink and shower. Just having a pressurized shower felt luxurious. He’d made his water heater easily using 1” pex tubing and coiling it inside an insulated box covered in glass. The whole thing was mounted on the roof with only one side dedicated to solar, the other was still available. The pipes ran down to the basement and fed throughout the house wherever hot water was needed.
Friday came after a long week of gardening and he spent a little more time on how he looked. He’d trimmed his hair the best he could, got the best shave ever, now that he had a big mirror to stand in front of in his otherwise empty house. If he planned things out right, he could get the parts, go fix the truck, go to the auction and then go on a date. It’d been years since he’d last gone on one, Blake had stressed over what to wear. In the end, he put on his best shirt and the best jeans he had with a clean pair of work boots. He hitched up an enclosed trailer he’d had forever so he had extra room to haul his findings
After leaving the auto parts store, he thumbed in Sandra’s number and waited for her to pick up.
“Hello?” Her voice was music to him.
“Hi, this is Blake. I’m in town today doing some stuff and…”
“Great! I already talked to Pete and said we can use the bay with the lift.”
“You know Pete?”
“Of course, I went to school with his daughter. I’ve been working off and on for a day or two now there to have some rolling around money.”
He laughed. “That’s good news. When do you want to-“
“I’m ready now if you are. Meet you there.”
“Ok, I’ll see you soon,” he hung up.
He pulled into Pete’s parking lot and dropped the trailer in one of the back parking spots and noticed Sandra immediately. He pulled in as she directed him and stopped. For an hour they worked on the truck and Blake learned a ton of new tricks on diesel maintenance. With a new fuel pump and water filter, some tweaks and vacuum tubes replaced, the truck was purring like a kitten.
“What’s the Trailer for?” Sandra asked him as they were washing their hands with some goop.
“Well, I just finished building my house, but I’ve been sleeping on the floor… So… I thought I’d go to an auction today and see if they had any beds, chairs. That sort of thing.”
“Sleeping on the floor? Why would you do that?”
“It’s better than the camper, trust me,” He smiled at the bemused look she gave him.
“You can’t live in a camper in town, where are you?”
“Out on Holloway trail.”
“That isn’t a trail, that’s an old logging track.”
“I have ten acres up t
here I got from my grandparents. Nice and quiet.”
“I bet. Well, let’s go to the auction then.”
“Uh, I didn’t ask you if you, I mean, you’re welcome to come of course but,” he stammered.
“You didn’t think I’d want to go to something so boring… No, I won’t consider that part a date… and you have to quit thinking you’ll stick your foot in your mouth around me. I’m just a normal girl.”
He took a few deep breaths. “Sounds good to me.”
They hitched the trailer back on the truck and took off to the storage unit, almost thirty minutes before the auction started.
“You ever been to one of these?” Sandra asked.
“No, but I brought some cash in case I find something.”
“It looks pretty dead here,”
Sandra was right, other than one car, the parking lot to the storage units was empty. They got out of the truck and headed into the office area where an elderly lady looked up hopefully from a newspaper.
“Here for the auction dears?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Well, it isn’t a big one. I’ve got two units today. We’ll wait until two and then head out there, does that sound ok to you?”
“I’m fine with that, we’re early,” he explained.
“Better too early than late, I always say,” she cackled.
The ladies talked and Blake only half listened as he looked at the newspaper she had been reading. News that the nuclear talks with Iran were not going well and a new round of terrorism was sweeping across Europe. He doubted anything like that would ever touch him in America’s heartland but it was something he hadn’t been paying attention to in the past week. Not since he’d met the pastor’s daughter that is.
When it was 2 p.m. the three of us walked out alone. The manager held out a pair of bolt cutters to Blake.
“You do the honors.”
“Ok,” He told her, breaking the lock open and rolling up the door.
The storage unit had a mattress on the left wall and floor to ceiling boxes as far as he could tell. Blake started to move one before his hand was slapped.
“No, gotta bid on them without knowing. Haven’t you seen the TV show?”
“How do I know if I want it?”
“It’s a gamble.”
“Well, where’s the other one?” he asked.
“Right there,” She pointed out a door just behind the one that had been cracked open.
Blake cut the lock on that one, and smiled when the door rolled up. There was a dining set, the chairs upside down around a table for four. A Lazy Boy recliner and a desk were pushed against one wall and some boxes and trash bags full of what he would guess clothing made up the rest of the unit. It wasn’t full, but it looked promising to him, though it didn’t have a bed.
“So how much for this one?”
“You bid.”
“What happens if nobody bids on anything?” He asked her.
“I keep it and throw away what I don’t want… but by law I have to offer it up for bid first.”
“$20,” he started and she laughed.
“You’re cheap, boy.”
“Well, I had to start somewhere.”
“There isn’t anyone else here to bid. Tell you what, 80 dollars a unit if you take both.”
“I don’t know if I want that other one, but it does have a mattress…”
“Or it’s $150 for the one with the table and chairs.”
Blake cursed himself for a fool and smiled. This woman didn’t want to dig through the units to sort out the treasure, she just wanted both of them gone. He pulled out his wallet and peeled out eight bills and handed them to her. She thanked them and went inside to get a receipt.
“So, was that like TV?” Blake asked Sandra who surprised him by laughing out loud, covering her mouth as the funny worked itself out.
“No, that was nothing like Storage Wars. You just got taken advantage of by a little old lady.”
“Well shucks, not really. That table and chairs is worth that alone. I am just frugal by nature,” he admitted.
“Or cheap.”
“You picking on me there, Ms. Preacher’s daughter?”
“Yes, yes I am.”
Before he could stick his foot in his mouth more, he walked back to his pickup truck, tongue tied and pulled it down the middle lane between both units. Ethel, the manager came back out with a sheet of paper.
“All right, here’s your receipt. You two get these unloaded in the next few hours, or the rest is going into the dumpster.”
“I can manage that,” Blake told her and she nodded.
“You two newlyweds have fun, I’ve got soaps to watch,” she started walking off, her shoulders straight and proud.
Blake opened his mouth to speak but all his air left him in a rush when a hand poked him in the side and surprised the crap out of him.
“Come on hubs, let’s get loading,” she joked.
“Which one should we do first?”
“How about the mattress and boxes against the back wall of the trailer, then we can throw the rest of the stuff in the bed of the truck if we run out of room.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
They both started to load boxes into the trailer, but Blake was worried that if the entire unit was full of boxes, he’d run out of room. That wasn’t the case, and there was only a two layer set of boxes deep and high. Most of the unit was actually hollowed out but what he saw had him instantly stunned. There was an old three wheeler and a quad parked by the back wall and a black metal safe still strapped to a dolly with solid rubber wheels.
“Jackpot,” he mumbled.
Something in his voice made Sandra look back and her jaw dropped open.
“Do you think they run?” He asked her, running his hands over the old Honda’s.
“If they don’t, I can fix them easily,” she was smiling.
“Of course you can.”
“Let’s get these loaded before the old lady comes out and decides to charge you more.”
They both worked in a hurry, putting the Honda’s into the front of the trailer, and then loading boxes on and behind them, making a solid blocking wall. The mattress went next and a small metal frame was found when they rolled the safe in. The safe wasn’t as heavy as they expected it to be, but it had something that shifted and banged when it was moved, so Sandra had guessed it had guns or something in there. It was the right size, but there were no markings and even worse, no keys.
The last unit, the one that Blake wanted the most was also the easiest to load. That one took little time and as they were rolling down the doors Ethel came out to wish them luck and to see if they had left a mess for her. When she saw they hadn’t, she smiled and wished them a happy life together. Blake made it until they were in the truck and almost pulling out when he busted up laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“You smiled when she said that, like you think-“ then he stopped dead.
“I almost did it again, didn’t I?” He asked her.
“You don’t get out much do you?”
“You have no idea! So where would you like to grab a bite to eat today?”
“Well, let’s get this stuff unloaded at your place and then we’ll figure something out.”
Blake just nodded. He hadn’t intended on going back so early, but now that he had her in the truck with him, he didn’t want to spend any time apart. Finding a lady who caught his interest was hard enough, finding a lady who could put up with his foot in mouth disease was almost impossible when you added the two things together. He drove the loaded down truck out of town slowly.
“Do you think you’re dad will get the wrong idea about you helping me unload things?”
“What, that a single woman who’s an adult with military training, cannot handle herself in a proper manner around a roughened hermit who may or may not be an axe murderer?”
“I wouldn’t use an axe. I have a chainsaw,
” he busted up laughing when her jaw dropped open.
“See, you are starting to loosen up around me. Joking, jokes are good Mister Funny Man.”
“Thanks. I don’t know, you don’t scare me so much now.”
“Scare you?”
“Well, you know,” His face was burning.
“Scare you?” She pressed.
“You’re pretty, but you are Pastor Duncan’s daughter and I don’t want to screw this up. It scares me.”
“My my, love at first sight?” She asked, watching him turn a shade of crimson.
“I’m about to die of a stroke. Let me pull off the lane so I can die without taking you with me first.”
“Ok, ok, I won’t pick on you. Thank you though.”
“For what?”
“For calling me pretty. Most guys won’t give me a second look. I know you don’t mean it, nobody likes a greasy tomboy hanging around. I’m just glad you took pity on me. It’s lonely sometimes.”
“You’re joking right?” Blake asked, not understanding her tone of voice. She didn’t sound like she had earlier when she was joking.
She never answered and he didn’t press. His turn off for Holloway trail was coming and it took all his concentration to get the trailer straight on the path because the turns didn’t leave much room with the trees closing in on both sides. Sandra had been right, this lane was little more than an old logging trail. It had a full canopy of trees across it, the branches sometimes brushing noisily across the top of the trailer. They came to a spot and Blake drove the truck slowly through and stopped, jumping out.
“What are you doing?” Sandra yelled.
“Making sure I don’t rip the jack off the trailer. It’s loaded down more than I’d normally like. The ruts in the road are bad here.”
After a moment of inspection, they started rolling slowly. Even raised and turned sideways, it rubbed on the ground, but it didn’t cause any issues. After that spot, the drive got easier until the lane ended.
“Where’s your house?” Sandra asked as he turned left into an old cow pasture and skirted the fence line.
“Up and over the hill.”