Chapter Two

 

The summer night was warm outside but the breeze was cool coming in through Jim’s second floor bedroom window. He lay in the bed on his side, his dog Lady curled up into the small of his back. He shifted a little bit and Lady adjusted herself, snuggling back into his body, as if to say, “Hey, that’s my pillow. Bring that back here.” Jim smiled as Lady began to snore in the cute way she had. At least someone was getting a good night’s sleep. That was one good thing about farmwork. No matter what might be on a person’s mind to keep them from sleeping, a sixteen hour day of farmwork got them to drop into a deep sleep afterwards, from sheer exhaustion. Lately, though, with the FarmHandies lightening his workload, he’d been going to bed without total body-shut-down levels of exhaustion, and so, his mind wandered, keeping him awake.

The bed was too big. It had been his parents’ bed. As master of the house now, Jim used the master bedroom. Although he had changed the mattress to some new space age polymer crap that was actually divinely comfortable, the strong frame of this bed, made from mineral water hardened mahogany, and stained with a deep dark seal that kept those minerals locked inside, would probably last a few more generations. The bed being too big made Jim feel lonely, even with Lady there. Jim remembered the recent night in which he had invited Missy over, made her dinner, gave her the tour that had included his “stinky pigs”, and then…just didn’t invite her back here to the bedroom, much to Missy’s chagrin. Jim didn’t quite understand why he’d drove her home that night after dinner. It’s not that Missy was unattractive.

Before Jim could think further puzzling and lonely thoughts, he heard sudden loud noises coming through the window, which opened out from the front of the house toward the road that passed his land. It wasn’t uncommon for him to hear the odd car or truck or two passing by at any hour of the night, but some vehicle out there was, by the sound of it, clearly having engine trouble and had stalled out nearly right in front of his driveway. He rose from the bed and grabbed for his clothes in the dark, hearing the grind, grind, grind of someone trying to start a vehicle that clearly wasn’t going to start anytime soon. This was fine. Helping someone out there might make him tired enough to actually sleep when he got back.

Lady lifted her head and whimpered slightly at him as he turned on the light. “Ya comin’, Lady? Gonna protect me from the big, bad stranger danger?”

Lady yawned at him and set her head back down, trying in vain to snuggle into the blankets as comfortably as she had been snuggling into his back. She made a little huffing sound of disapproval but settled in to go back to sleep anyway.

“Fine,” Jim replied sarcastically. “Some mighty guard dog you are.”

Something about his playful remark to Lady about stranger danger triggered some caution in Jim, though. So before he left the room, he grabbed his family’s shotgun. It wouldn’t be the first time one of the megacorps had trespassed on his land in the night. After he made his way downstairs, he grabbed a powerful flashlight. Before heading out the front door, he looked out his kitchen window where he could see the stranded vehicle.

The kitchen window was also open, so he could hear the vehicle’s driver cursing. A person who looked like a medium tall female was pointing a flashlight of her own under the raised hood of a red Jeep Cherokee. The body style of the Jeep indicated that it was old, the generation that had gone out of production in 2023. The body style of the female indicated she was of a newer generation, Jim’s age.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why me?! Because I’m the one desperate enough to work third shift, that’s why, fuck!”

Jim headed for the door to his house and stepped outside cradling the shotgun, the flashlight clipped to his belt since he only had two hands and the Jeep had stalled well within the illumination of his farm’s yard light. He thought about using his foot to make sure the door closed slowly and didn’t slam, but he didn’t want the girl to get taken by surprise by a strange man with a gun. She might have a gun of her own, or mace or pepper spray or something. She was already agitated. Jim didn’t need her going off. If anything bad happened, as the male, the law would clearly side against him and in favor of the girl. So, he let his front door slam so she’d hear it and know someone was coming.

The girl, still looking under the hood of her Jeep, slowly turned around and saw Jim and his shotgun. “Great! Now here comes Farmer John with a gun.”

“Farmer Jim, not John, actually,” Jim replied as he spread his arms wide, holding his gun off to the side with one hand to show he wasn’t in a hurry to use it. He smiled. She probably wouldn’t see the smile in the dark but Jim knew smiles affected one’s voice. People could hear them. To set her at ease, he started some conversation as he finished closing the distance between them until they were close enough that they could talk back and forth without having to raise voices to be heard. “Thats’ a pre-2023 Cherokee, isn’t it?”

“2023 exactly,” she replied sheepishly. “It’s a piece of shit.”

Jim smiled. “Nah. Those old Jeeps run forever if you give ‘em the right TLC. Can I take a look?”

“Sure.”

With one hand, Jim held his gun while the other unclipped his flashlight and shone it into the passenger cabin of the young woman’s Jeep. Now, it was Jim’s turn to sound sheepish. “Sorry. I’m not trying to be nosy, but the megacorps have pulled some serious shit on me in the past. They’re always trying to get my land away from me. I’m just looking to make sure you’re really alone.” She was. There wasn’t anybody else in her vehicle. Jim turned around and swept the area, including the ditch on the far side of the road from his house, with his flashlight’s beam as well.

The girl’s face turned ashen white, but she smiled a forced smile, as if forcing herself to be brave. “I probably shouldn’t tell you where I work, then. I’m a third shift worker at Good4U. My babysitter called and my kid’s sick and I gotta get home. I really don’t need this car breakdown drama tonight.”

Something in the way she said I don’t need this drama touched Jim inside. Her voice had cracked just a bit. Here was a single mom, working for a slimy megacorp, trying to get home to her sick kid. Jim thought about himself and how he really didn’t need the drama going on in his life. He was just trying to get life started in a world that didn’t support his way of life anymore.

“Let’s see what we can do to get you home, then, shall we? What’s your child’s name?”

For a moment, she looked unsure whether she should share personal details with him. Then, she said “Gerard”.

“Ok. Gerard needs his mom tonight. Let’s get her there.” He stepped forward and began examining the situation under the Jeep’s hood.