Chapter Four
A few weeks passed, and Tracy felt ready to go back to Tweedy Pines. Johnny and Dana took that as a cue to head back onto the road. They pointed the Flying Fox west and drove away down Sherman.
Robbie, Amy, the golden lab Perry, and Tracy all piled into Robbie’s beat up M1008 truck and drove back to Tweedy Pines Academy.
“Which one is your dorm?” He asked as they pulled into the lot.
Tracy pointed to one of the red brick buildings. “Cell block D” she laughed.
The truck started creeping forward onto the grass. “Uh oh! The brakes work, but I’m not working the brakes!” Robbie said mischievously. He drove across the lawn to the dorm. Tracy was laughing hysterically. Faces appeared in all the windows and the girls craned their necks out the windows to see what the fuss was about.
Tracy hugged Robbie, Amy and Perry and hopped out of the truck and grabbed her bag from the bed of the truck. A woman in a red dress shoved the dorm’s main door open and ran out. She said, “Don’t park there!”
Robbie climbed out of the truck. “We’re just unloading, Ma’am. I thought I saw a sign that said loading and unloading on the grass only.”
“No! There’s no such sign.”
“It’s quite possible I just made that up.” Robbie smirked. “Bye Tracy!” He waved at her and climbed back in the cab. He honked the horn a couple of times and waved out the window at the building as they drove back across the lawn. He and Amy laughed as they drove back onto the parking lot, then he smoked the tires and kicked the back end of the truck out as they left the campus.
“I guess I’m just a redneck!” He laughed. “That was fun, although, that place curdles my milk.”
Amy had her head out the window with Perry. She said, “Man it’s getting cold. Brrr… C’mon back in, Perry.” She rolled the window up.
Robbie said, “Well, it’s just us, now.” They listened to the hum of the tires on the pavement and the air whistling over the cab.
Amy still hadn’t completely adjusted to her situation. The Wells family had been kind beyond words and she kept thinking she needed to do something to reciprocate, but they never asked, Robbie never even asked when she was going to leave. She thought there had to be a catch, so finally she just blurted out what she was thinking. “What’s the deal, Robbie? I mean what’s going to happen to me?”
He was confused. “What do you mean?”
“How long can I stay at your house?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. You’re welcome as long as you want to stay. Here’s the way I think about the house, my family occupies the place and it’s our home, but it’s also like a hotel, a hostel, a base of operations for our network. You’re in that network now. You belong, I think.”
She grunted. “I don’t get it. People always want something.”
He answered, “Well, I’m not a saint or anything. If you’re a pain in the ass, I’ll kick you out. And frankly, I think you’ll get bored not doing anything. If you want to hang out with me, we’ll stay busy, maybe you’ll learn something, figure out what you want to do.”
Amy asked, “Well, what about money?”
He rubbed his beard, “Yeah, you’re not a kid, without money, you’ll feel trapped. How old are you anyway?”
“Thirty two. How old are you?”
“Ugh. Don’t ask! I just turned forty over the summer. I feel every year of that age!”
She did the math. “So when I turn forty, you’d be forty eight. That’s not too bad.”
He chuckled. “That’s right. Wait, what are you thinking?”
Amy said, “Oh nothing. I think this will be fun, just the three of us...” She paused a long while. “My life’s been total shit so far, until I came here. I muddled through school barely paid attention, my parents died, then I was stoned. My life story.”
“You’re right, that’s pretty shitty, but hey, you are now in the position to do whatever you want. Matt left me some information on your house. We can go over that later. You can sell it when you’re ready. That’s a nice chunk of change, not enough to retire on, but enough to reboot your life. But don’t sell it until you’re ready, alright?”
He pulled the truck onto the lawn of the farm. He thought for a few minutes and said, “Hey I want to show you a couple of things. First of all, you drive, I’ll direct. Do you know ‘Chinese Fire Drill’?” She nodded. He said, “Go!”
They ran around the truck and switched seats. Perry watched them and Robbie scooted the dog over as he took the passenger’s side. Robbie pointed into the field, “Drive! But take it relatively easy. It’s pretty uneven.”
She looked tiny behind the wheel. They had to scoot the seat far forward. She cautiously drove into the field. The cab bounced around even at the slow pace. He pointed, “Head over there to the far corner of the property.”
They got to a stream bed in a low spot in the fields. Robbie said, “You’ll need to gun it to get some momentum.” She was too careful and lost traction. He said, “Oops! Takes some practice. You can try rocking it out. Go ahead try reverse, then drive.” They got very stuck and mud spattered up on the side of the truck and on the window.
She was upset, but he was smiling so she just shut the engine off. She twisted a finger in her hair and asked, “Now what?”
“We walk. Watch the water when you get out, of course.”
They walked across the field to the corner of the property. There was a concrete boundary marker and there was a larger-than-life statue of a woman that was facing east with her arms outstretched. Her face was aligned with the spring equinox sunrise and her arms with the solstices. The statue had been carved from an erratic boulder at the edge of the field decades ago. Robbie patted the statue’s butt. “I haven’t been over to this corner of the lot for years.”
“Who’s the lady?” Amy asked.
“The story is completely crazy, but anyway, this is my family’s patron goddess. Apparently, if I believe my brother, she’s actually real and he met her. Growing up, I just thought someone left it here as art. But clearly, it’s something more significant than that. The family story was we gave up all this hoodoo almost two hundred years ago… Guess not.” He stepped back and regarded the statue. “Whoever carved this was really devoted.”
Amy put her hand on the stone and admired. “She’s pretty.”
“The sculptor did a nice job. Nice tits.” He laughed. “Anyway, check out this field. That was all hay. We have a guy who manages it.”
She grunted in appreciation. “That’s pretty cool.”
He added, “So the sun shines on this field. The hay grows and he harvests it. He actually pays us, then sells the bales. We usually avoid doing deals in money whenever we can, though.”
“Why?” She asked.
“Well, trade and barter are better and it helps us build relationships and that’s more important.”
“Matt did that with me. He just made things happen, and I was a part of it.” She understood a little better what he was talking about.
“Yeah, see how it works?”
“But what do I add? When he met me, I was in really bad shape.” She said. “I keep worrying I’ll just slide back into that.”
Robbie shook his head no. “No way. I don’t think you will. ”
“How can you be so sure?” Amy hugged herself, suddenly feeling the chill air.
“Old habits can die hard, but they do die. You can just shed your old skin and do something new. Let’s walk back through the woods.”
They took another tractor trail back toward the house. There were some pond sized puddles they had to navigate around through the woods. Perry romped back and forth in the leaves.
“You want to help me with the firewood this year?” He asked.
“Sure, yeah, I mean what can I do?” She asked.
“It’s really pretty easy, you’ll have to learn to drive the tractor, run the wood splitter and help out with customers. No biggie. No pressure. We’ll just go arou
nd and cut up some downed trees.” He said.
She agreed, “Yeah, I think I’d really like doing something constructive.”
He showed her how to drive the tractor and she slowly maneuvered it over toward the truck. He hooked up a tow line and had her back up and pull him out of the stream. She was beaming with pride. She stopped the tractor and got off and did a little dance. “Gods, that felt great! I know this will sound totally, incredibly lame, but that’s the first time I ever really did anything.”
When they were done, they sipped some wine and went inside by the fire. She cuddled up by his side. She asked him, “Were you ever married? Girlfriend?”
“Well, yeah. Both, and that was the problem.” He laughed. “Well, my life has had it’s major ups and downs in that area. The way my family lives, it can be really hard on normal domestic life. Matt and Telia managed because they were sort of the center of the family, while I was out there on the wild frontier.”
“No kids?”
“Well, Tracy, now, but none of my own, anyway, none that I know about!” He stood up. “Hey, Amy, I’ve got some emails to fire off and then I’m hitting the sack. You can pick any room you want, or remain in the little one. Let’s talk tomorrow about your house. Lots to do!”
She slumped over in his spot, which was still warm. She patted Perry’s side and just enjoyed the fire. She dozed off, then woke up late in the night. The fire was just red embers. She brushed her teeth and checked her face in the mirror. She was looking much healthier, even cute. Her hair was clean and starting to have some glossiness. She breathed out a quick breath and went to seduce Robbie.
His light was off and his body was a big lump in the middle of the queen sized bed in his room. She sat on the bedside and asked, “Hey, are you awake?”
“Yeah.” He mumbled from under the covers. “I didn’t want to wake you up, so I just went up to bed.”
“Can I? Um, get in there with you?” She asked carefully.
She heard him breathe and could sense some tension. He said, “Yeah, climb in here, but I am not sure we should make a habit of this.. Plus, let’s not get physical, I think that will be bad for you, and me, frankly.”
She slipped under the covers. It was very warm with the two of them together. “Why do you say that?” She asked.
“We’ll get all distracted and I feel like you’re on the verge of figuring out what you’re going to do. I think if you do that first, then still find me appealing, we should date like a normal couple.”
She said, “It’s just weird being here with you, all alone, and we’re already like a couple in some ways. It’s confusing.”
He stroked her hair and she snuggled up against his chest. “Yeah, it’s hard to sort out, sometimes. I’ve learned from too much bad experience! I find it’s really best just to be completely open and blunt about it in these circumstances--like Dana is!”
She asked, “Okay. Honesty. Do you find me attractive? I feel worried that you don’t.”
Robbie answered, “I do. I find you attractive.”
She sighed, “Are you worried I’m a junkie? That I’m trashy?”
He sighed, “Have I acted like that at all so far? If I thought that, you’d know it, believe me. Here’s what I think, based on what you told me. You were a spoiled kid and stumbled into a really bad habit. It seems like you didn’t really process your parents deaths very well and never really had the skills you need to make it on your own. So the reason I’m not jumping your bones is I think you want to transfer that relationship to me, right? See how that won’t help you, or me?”
He sensed her get tense, then suddenly she blurted out, “Yeah! I think you’re right. What the fuck?” She tapped his chest with her hand. “How are you so smart?” She burbled. She was genuinely happy and relaxed for the first time in weeks.
“Like I said, it was hard experience, and absorbing wisdom from Dana. Actually I don’t consider myself very smart about this, well, compared to her, anyway.”
“Yeah, gosh, I was being very selfish and needy again, right? I mean, I was just going to come in here and fuck you so you’d take care of me… What the hell is that? I don’t want to be like that…”
“Damn straight!” He said. “Hey, let’s go sleep in the master bedroom. They’ve got a huge bed. If we stay in this one, we’ll end up forgetting all this good advice. It’s just too small.”
They went across the hall to the master bedroom. The moon was shining through the big picture window. She whispered, “This room is so nice.”
“Yeah!” he said. “Telia did a good job decorating it.”
The bed was two queen mattresses that were put together. It was huge. Telia had to stitch comforters and blankets together with a sewing machine to cover it. Amy laughed, “I feel like we’re swimming in a pool!”
“There is some acreage here.” He agreed. She still snuggled up by his side, but the tension and awkwardness was gone and they managed to fall asleep.
The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter Page 15