Boomtown (4 page)

  I tossed the wash cloth towards the laundry room door, and hit my mother in the boob as she walked in from the garage. She gave me a disgusted look but didn't say anything. I sat next to Janie and looked at James.

  "How are you doing, Jamie?" I asked.

  James did that half smile again and replied, "I'm doing pretty good, Chey Chey.  It’s the same old, same old here. Dougie says hi, and wants to know when you are sending another package."

  I rolled my eyes.

  I sent a care package for James at least once a week, and he knew this.  Most of the time the packages contained toiletries, baby wipes, snacks, and socks, and I tried to get some of the other guys things if they didn’t have anyone sending them anything.  James sometimes requested different odds and ends every once in a while too.  I had once sent an erotic romance novel because I had just finished it.  The next time I spoke with James it was circulating through the men.  Anything was wanted, chick shit or otherwise.  They would find a use for it.

  The most requested item was golf balls that they would hit across the sand dunes.  I had a website that I ordered from that sent as many golf balls as you asked for.  They dredged the local golf course ponds and got to keep whatever they found. 

  "Ugh! I will not order anymore golf balls! That is the 5th time I've done that!

The people probably think I'm a weirdo going through two thousand golf balls in the last four months!" I half laughed.

 I wasn’t fooling him though.  As soon as I had a chance, I would get online and order another batch of balls and have them directly sent to where they were staying.  I would do anything for my brother, absolutely anything. 

  James glanced behind him as he said "Ah come on Chey, Dougie says he will paint Optimus when he gets home if you buy us some more. You know how boring it is here. We take great pleasure in seeing who can knock the balls the furthest!"

  I laughed and started to reply when Janie interrupted me and said "daddy daddy!"

  I smiled as I watched James talk to Janie. They were so cute together. They looked so much alike.  James was really tall at 6’3, with buzzed blonde hair, a nice square jaw, straight nose, and thin lips that covered straight white teeth that cost my mom four thousand dollars to fix.  His eyes were hazel just like mine.  He had muscles on top of muscles, but wasn’t huge like a body builder.  His tan was a nice golden color from being out in the sun so much.  Janie had the same hazel eyes, just like James and I.  Her honey blonde hair hung past her shoulders and curled at the ends.  Right now it had pieces of it sticking together from the cheese, and one quarter of her hair was still up in her pony tail that I put in early this morning. 

  Janie's mom left when she was ten days old. She said she couldn't handle all the stuff that came with a baby. She must have liked the idea of having a baby.  Not the piss, or shit, or vomit, or all hours of the night feedings that came with one. James raised Janie with the help of mom and me. Mom and I rotated picking Janie up from daycare, and taking care of her while James was doing his duties for the army. I got the "your daughter is so cute" all the time from strangers because she was with me so much. James tried to be there with us as much as possible, but with him moving up in rank in the rangers, he wasn't there as much as he wanted to be. Right now he was serving an eight month deployment in Iraq.

  "Hey Jamie, you eating alright?" I heard my mom ask.

  I looked over my shoulder to see my mom blowing a kiss at James. Then Janie couldn't be one upped so she threw herself in front of the screen and blew wet kisses which in turn blew spit all over the screen to match the snot that was already drying on. Well at least I won't need a wet wash cloth.... Yuck.

  James laughed and said, "I’m doing good mama jamma. Janie girl, isn't it time for bed?"

  I thanked the lucky stars that James had skyped us because that meant that I didn’t have to endure a screaming fit that Janie would throw. James was Janie's shining star and vice versa. He could get her to do anything. My mom walked out of the room with Janie after they said their good nights to each other.

"How's work going?" James asked.

 "Works work, I suppose. I'm taking twelve hours at Kilgore this year. So Nappa isn't getting the same amount of hours they normally get from me.”  I was saying as I was interrupted by a commotion in the background behind James, and he replied suddenly “I gotta go Chey Chey. I love you. Kiss my baby for me!"

"Always big bro, be careful or I’ll kick your ass, I love you.” I replied and closed the Skype down.

 I got up to get another wash cloth as my mom came back in to the room.  My mom had James and me when she was really young.  I was the carbon copy of her, minus the grey hairs that streaked over her head.  She was about 5’5 with long blonde hair and big hazel eyes.  She had the same build as me as well with larger legs, a little junk in the trunk, and small boobs.  Thanks mom, I appreciate you handing those down.  

  Momma was looking mighty rough today. Her pocket off the front of her scrubs was torn a little so I asked, "What the fuck happened to your shirt?"

  I probably could tell you what happened to her shirt.  She works in the ER, and has some crazy stories that I love hearing about. When she is not travel nursing, she picks up odd shifts at the local ER to supplement her income.   It’s amazing how fucked up some people were.  When she came home looking frazzled, I knew she had a good story to tell.

  This is why I wanted to pursue a career in nursing.  Never a dull moment.  I couldn’t stand being idle.  That is unless I wasn’t reading one of my romance novels! 

  "Watch your mouth, girl. You’re not too old for a spanking. As for the shirt, some little four year old didn't want to get a tetanus shot, so instead of his mother helping hold him down, I had to call in a PA and have him give the shot while I held him down. The mother sat in the corner and talked to her friend about what they were going to do that night, and who was going to watch the little boy while the little boy steadily let out a steam of curses and pulled at my clothes to get me away from him."

  "Nice. That’s quality parenting right there." I laughed and headed towards the hallway saying over my shoulder "Alright. I'm off to bed. I have to be at work at eight in the morning, and then have class until 4. Love you. "

  "Night. See you in the morning. I‘ll get Janie tomorrow. I'm off. ", she replied while she sifted through the mail on the counter.

  I walked down the hallway to my bedroom and closed the door behind myself. I stripped off my clothes and tossed them in the general direction of the pile of clothes on the floor by the dresser. As you can tell, I don’t do laundry, or put my clothes in a hamper unless I absolutely need to either. 

  I shuffled in to my bathroom, side stepping a boot on the ground and hopped into the shower. I cranked the water as hot as I could stand it and washed my hair, shaved the two inches of hair off my legs, and rinsed off.  I glanced at the shower door and decided that it could wait one more day until it needed cleaned. I fucking hate cleaning. I sped through the rest of the shower and hung the towel on the towel bar after drying off.

 I turned around and stared at my body in the mirror. My hair hung wetly down to my ass, already a curling mess. My eyes stared back at me with my Mom’s same hazel color. I had a normal sized nose and normal sized lips. I slowly looked down at my boobs; they were small and pert at their 36A cups. My legs were muscular and big, but not fat. I had a little Buddha belly, but not something that was too unattractive, or at least that is what I told myself.  The belly button ring that was pierced through my belly button was bright orange against my pasty white skin. I told myself I was going to get up early and run, but more likely I was going to reset my alarm for 45 more minutes and go back to sleep.

  I ran my hand over my belly again, starting to freak out a little, but pushed it back down.  I will not flip out until I have something to flip out about.  It had been over a week since I had seen Sam.  Neither one of us had made a move to call nor see each other again, just like I assumed would happen.

 Unfortunately, I thought about him constantly, and found the phone in my hand to call or text him quite a bit.  I always talked myself out of it though.  If he wanted to see or talk to me, he would call me right?  Deciding that I was dwelling again, I shook my head and went back to what I was doing.

  I walked back into the room after brushing my teeth and hair, threw on a big oversized shirt of James’ and some cotton bikini underwear. I took a running leap at my bed and plopped down in the middle and settled after a few bounces. I fucking love my bed. It's a king with 600 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, and 6 pillows. I quickly arranged myself with two pillows under my head, and one between my legs. I searched blindly with my hand and finally found Mr. Bear, the bear that I stole from James when I was younger.  I tucked him under my chin, then threw the comforter over my body, Mr. Bear and the pillows, and sighed. Ahhhhh, yea. I love this feeling. The only thing that could be better right now was Thor and his big hammer. Or Sam. One could dream, right? I slowly sank into the bed some more, and thought over what I had to do tomorrow. I had work from 8-1, and school at 2 until 4:00. Then home to help mom with the two year old terror that is Janie.  

  She is a handful, but I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. My eyes slowly got heavy and fell asleep. I slept straight through until my alarm went off at 5:39. I then turned it off and reset it for 6:45 just like I knew I would. Screw the run, I think I'll stop and get some donuts on the way to work. Yes, donuts, was my last thought as I fell back asleep.

"Chey!" I heard screamed outside my bedroom door, just as little fists pounded and the doorknob jiggled. I popped one eye open and glanced at the clock. 7:35.

  I closed my eye again, then immediately popped back open and rechecked the time.

  "Fuck! I'm late! God damn piece of shit alarm. Mother Fucker! “I yelled as I stripped off my clothes.  

  I went to the pile of clothes on my dresser and quickly found a pair of jeans that had seen better days. The jeans were so worn that they skimmed all of my curves quite nicely. The denim was faded on the thighs and ass. There was also a hole on both sides of the left back pocket. I changed my undies for a hot pink thong with angry birds decorating the front. Then slipped into my jeans, found a pair of mismatched socks, put them on, then slipped into my hot pink and black Adidas tennis shoes. Then went back to my underwear drawer and put on a black sports bra and pulled my polo with the Napa logo on the right breast over my head, I quickly went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, combed my hair and then bent over throwing my head down to pull my hair together at the top of my head, and then wrapped the ponytail around my hair. I quickly swiped on some deodorant, and then darted out of the room towards the kitchen. Mom already had Janie in her high chair and was feeding her scrambled eggs and cheese. I went to the pantry and pulled out a chocolate pop tart, grabbed my keys and purse and started out the door without a word.

  I grounded to a halt when I heard mom say, "Phone!"

   I quickly ran back to my mom, grabbed the phone, kissed her on the cheek and muttered "thanks" and ran back to Optimus. 

 Optimus is my 1987 Chevy Silverado.  The paint job had seen better days, but he ran like a top thanks to James. I opened the door, jumped into the cab and slammed the door. Anyone who has ever gotten into an old vehicle knows that you have to slam the door really hard to get it to close all the way, and I normally had to put some back into it. I cranked the window down and started the truck. It roared to life and I couldn't help but smile when the neighbors new SUV started squawking. I threw it in reverse and laughed as my neighbors’ front door flew open and he shook his fist at me. I gave him a dismissive wave, and smiled.  Yea, fuck you too Mr. Yates. 

  Once out of the driveway I yanked it down into drive and accelerated down the street.  I stopped at the four way stop, and then turned left and headed to the main branch of NAPPA auto parts on Highway 80. I passed the Donut Hole and let a whine escape as I realized I didn't have enough time to stop for some. Fuck my life. I pulled into the lot at 7:56 and parked beside my best friend’s car.  I locked and slammed the door and hauled ass for the front door. I power walked through the front lobby, and into the back hallway.  I clocked in at eight on the dot. Thank fuck, because I hated hearing Dick complaining about my lack of dedication to this wonderful job.

 Let me explain my job to you. I arrive and head to the counter to get the tickets that have auto body and mechanic shops that need parts delivered. I go retrieve the parts, then I hop my ass into my fine company truck that has no radio and barely working A/C and drive said parts to the places that requested them.  Then drive back to the shop and get more tickets. Then I repeat over and over and over until my shift ends.  Fucking brilliant if you ask me! Not.  Dick acted like this was the type of dream job that changed lives, when in actuality absolutely anyone could do it.

  After walking back to the counter, I got my first ticket of the day and collected the parts. I left out the wide side door and went to the number 6 slot that held my assigned vehicle for the day. Ember’s truck was already gone, so it meant that she was her usual punctual self. Tossing the parts in the back of the truck, I plugged the address into the GPS and was off.

 As I got closer and closer to the little blinking green dot I started to get nervous.  There was only one mechanic on this block.   Oh, fuck. Please no, please no. But of course I was not that lucky. The green dot blinked right over Free, the local motorcycle shop.  Free was a new shop that just opened less than a year ago.  Free made the locals nervous because of all bikers that came and went.  It was more of a compound of sorts. There were buildings that attached to the main garage and office area. It had a ten foot chain link fence surrounding the property with razor wire at the top.  They gates stayed open during the day, but at night there was a key pad that allowed you to put in a code to get the gate to swing open. It was also where Sam had taken me that night a week ago.