25 comments/ 23444 views/ 8 favorites Now What In The Hell? By: magmaman {I am writing less now than when I used to, getting older I guess. When my 2nd wife Dotty passed I think deep inside I thought that was the end, and I was headed there for nearly a decade. So I filled the time writing some crap, and I actually even sold some of the crap. Then I met Debra, since then it seems like there is always something weird going on. I blame her for that, but some of it can't be all her fault, like this little story. My own fault, maybe? After all, I could have just stayed inside the house, everything would have been different if I had done that. The wonderful relationship, the joy, the pure fun of being alive and part of another's life had I just minded my own business? That would have been the result. Anyway, here we go, more mayhem, things keep happening to my Debs and me. When I get like this I ramble all over the place, at my age I can if I want to.} +++ I was sitting in my chair watching Big Brother on TV when all hell broke loose outside. Kind of a messy show, one of the guys had to pour nasty stuff all over himself every time a bell rang, and it appeared to ring every few minutes. Dumb stuff all the time on that TV show, I have no idea why I watch this crap. But I don't even have to watch it when it's on, I have the video recorder set so I can watch it whenever I want to. Debs, my pretty Registered Nurse wife was down at the local hospital, she has to pull a long shift there a few times each month. Shortage of nurses is what the deal is, government keeps cutting the medicare compensation so the other nurses keep quitting. That means she fills a 12 hour shift which always seems to be 14 to 16 hours. There is one Doctor on staff down there at her clinic, has to be one due to some law I guess. But the Registered Nurses run the show, old Doc Barker stays in his office. At the hospital Doctors come in when needed, the rest of the time it's only the nurses. That I know because I got to stay there a few times. Debs manages to hang on with her work though, of course she would like to make more money but her $75K per year average is easily enough for us. She is a bit overworked lately, her main concern is making a mistake, because her job is to heal people and if she does make an error it's a disaster. So even her clinic job is now 10 hours, and sometimes she goes in on Saturday. That and my own $934 a month after they take out for Medicare covers the bills. Debs, being a nurse, has full medical and me being the hubby, I am on that as a dependent which is cool. Lately my finances have changed, I have been selling stuff online, actually doing pretty good at that. Life is fine, and when Summer comes it quits raining for a few weeks, or days, or hours, depending on the Summer. What the hell, this is Oregon, if we ain't wet, we get irritable. +++ Summertimes on the Oregon Coast means tourists, they come down to beat the valley heat and then sit around bundled up in coats like it's cold or something. I see them down there on the docks throwing hot dogs at the pet seals, you know, the "wildlife". Not very damned wild, those Seals. I try to go fishing and they lay there with their fat asses in the way and snarl at me when I whack them with my fishing pole. They call that stuff harrassing "wildlife" but I figure since they are harrassing ME, then fair is fair. The tourists? They head down to beat the valley heat, which works very well, by the way. 65° around our town is a heat wave. Normal is 50°. So they get cold, jumping up and down, huddling close to each other. Funny stuff. Maybe 50 degree wind at 20 miles per hour off the ocean is a tad chilly to folks not used to it. Not to me, that's T-shirt weather. OK, a heavy T-shirt, but still. +++ Anyway, I was watching my TV show when I heard the sudden racket outside, I got up and went to the window, nothing. I turned to go back to my chair. Then I heard it again, a woman's voice, screaming her fool head off down the street a ways. I went out onto my porch, looked down there. Some guy has smacking the hell out of a woman, she was jumping each time he swung, trying to avoid the blows. He was kind of big and she was kind of little, and he had a grip on her arm. This just does not happen in our town, at least not on our street. Sure, stuff goes on down by the waterfront, people get drunk and..well..you know. That gives the cops something to do and the local paper something to write about besides the Crab festivals which they seem to hold every other weekend. Lots of Crabs in the river come August and September, the boats bring in the big ocean Crab, the market by then is mostly to the retail stores so any with missing legs or cracked shells get pitched right back into the river. The tourists love that, boats everywhere. I hate that, plus there usually isn't a rock left to stand on and fish off of, so I wait until later in the Fall. Anyway. +++ "Hey!" I yelled at them. The guy kept swinging, managing to connect and down the woman went. Then he started kicking her, I saw one kick land right on the back of her head! Enough of that, what this guy was doing could really hurt the woman, so down my walk and through my gate I went at a dead run. Well, a pretty good clip anyway since I am 69 and running is not what that is any more. It's called a quick shuffle. "Hey!" I yelled again, the guy turned and saw me, then swung one at ME instead of stopping like I expected. I ducked, but nowhere near fast enough, down I went. I was seeing stars, he gave me a kick in the ribs as I rolled over to my hands and knees with a groan. That hurt like hell but now I was pissed off, I lashed out with a kick of my own and got him in the knee. I wear nice heavy shoes, the kind with Velcro instead of laces since the shoe laces got a bit too far away for me to reach comfortably the last few years. Damned if he didn't go down himself. That exercise bike Debs has me work out on down at the gym paid off, I guess. The woman, who now I realized was just a young girl got up and took off like a shot down the street. The guy was back on his feet, he started to chase her but stopped and grabbed his leg. I guess I got him pretty good. Then he turned on me again, now he was really mad. "I will kill you, you fucking son of a bitch!" He yelled, going for another kick. I had reached in my pocket for my little folding fishing knife while his attention was diverted. I saw he was going to try and kick me in the head so I sort of rolled forward and his left foot went right on by me. When his kick missed me I swung the little 3 inch blade as hard as I could. It went in smack dab into his you know what's! Which was kind of where I was aiming. Damn good knife, too, I use it for fishing, plus I can shave with it. Down he went again, I had no idea at all that a man could scream like that. Maybe the asshole should have tried out for America's Got Talent? The guy hit a high note that would match the best fat lady opera singer on the planet. Three inches of razor sharp blade in the balls will make any man scream, I guess. I scooted away from him on my hands and knees, got up. He still lay there, both hands holding his nuts, kind of moaning now. My nose felt wet, I wiped at it with the back of my hand and it came away bloody. No sign of the Girl, she had taken off running and man could she run! I turned and went back down to my house, called 911. My ribs hurt like hell, by the time I got to the phone and pushed the buttons I was gasping. Sally answered, Debs and I know Sally of course, she is a friend. Another story there, not this one. I told her what had happened, so she dispatched the local police. "Don't go back out there, Danny. Stay inside and lock your doors." Sally told me. "OK." I told her, then I went and got my pistol and went back out there. It was loaded, I always keep it loaded. The last time I even saw it was last year when I took it out and oiled it, then put it away in the drawer. Yep, loaded. Other wise it's just a hammer and I already have a hammer. I only fired it once, so I wasn't real sure I could hit anything with it, but the jerk outside didn't know that. Damn thing is loud and it hurt my wrist when I fired it. But if I did have to pull the trigger I figured the noise alone would make him pee his pants, assuming he could still pee at all. The guy was now trying to get up, there was quite a pool of blood. I sat down on a nearby cement retaining wall, pointed my pistol at him and cocked it. It's a pretty big gun. He looked up at me, his eyes widened. "Hey, bud. Don't shoot, please? Let me get out of here, OK?" He asked me. "No. And I ain't your bud." I told him. Seconds later I heard sirens. "Put that away, Dan." Hal Jordon told me as soon as he got out of the car. I carefully uncocked the pistol, stuck it in my belt. Hal was putting handcuffs on the guy when two State cars rolled up and one of the Sheriff's deputies, who is a woman. I think she is, anyway. She has shoulders wider than mine and wears her hair in a crew cut, I wouldn't want her pissed off at me. "Things slow downtown, guys?" I wisecracked. They all just looked at me. "Damn it, Dan. Why in the fuck didn't you just call us in the first place? You know now we have to take you downtown." Hal told me. "Can it wait? Big Brother is on." I told him. "Come on, get in the god damn car." He just shook his head but he was grinning. Kind of a small town, everyone knows me and Debs and I know everyone, at least the locals. I got into Hal's car, he didn't even take my pistol away from me. He did take my knife, dropped in a plastic bag and wrote something on it. The other deputy did take my pistol when we pulled up at the station. "Jesus Christ, a .45 magnum." He mumbled. I watched as he carefully unloaded it, dropped the five shells into a plastic bag. I never keep a round under the hammer. I told them what had happened, and about the girl again. They had searched all over the neighborhood, no sign on her. "She took off like a dang Deer, probably in Salem by now." I told them. They just looked at me. "Skinny looking little thing, short hair, t-shirt and jeans." I added. They all wrote it down in their little note pads. "Bleeding I think, maybe you can follow the drops?" I added again, trying to be helpful. They all just looked at me some more, I wanted to ask them if I was interfering with their doughnut break but I kept my mouth shut. It only took maybe an hour or so, then Hal drove me home. They gave me my pistol back, plus the little baggie of ammo. They kept my knife though, something about it being evidence. No matter, I had two more of them in my drawer. Hal just shook his head when I proceeded to reload my pistol right in front of him. "Why are you reloading that?" He asked me after a moment. "It ain't a hammer, Hal." I told him. He shook his head again, got in his car and left. +++ Debs had to still be at work, her car wasn't there. I dug around in my truck and found my cell phone, managed to get it plugged in so it would work, and dialed Debs. Fucking things. Batteries are always dead. I told her what had happened, she gasped and asked me if I was all right. I told her I got a bloody nose and my ribs hurt but I was OK. She told me to come down for an xray but I didn't want to, dammit I wanted to watch my TV show. I had been recording it so I knew I still could find out what happened. OK. So I stabbed the jerk in the balls, he was trying to hurt me, he had it coming. I wasn't even too upset about it, and by God I would do it again if I had to. Debs gave me a ration of crap, she does love me and was concerned. She also told me that she got to treat that guy, like I said, small town. "He is going to be sore for while, you stuck him right between his testicles." She said with a nervous laugh. "I was trying to take them off, I guess I need some practice." I laughed. She didn't think that was very funny, I guess. Debs had to go back to work, the Doctor was sewing the guy back up and the cops were waiting to take him off to jail. No girl to tell them anything, so they had him charged with assault on me. Inside, I hit the recorder, watched Big Brother as that Frank guy put on his Carrot suit, then damned if that Dan guy didn't manage to squirm off the hot seat and screw up the blonde. She was snibbling about being lied to, what did she expect? They are ALL lying. Lord did my ribs hurt, plus my nose was still bleeding. Damned Plavix they put me on after my stroke a couple of years back, if I nick myself shaving I bleed for three hours. I went into the bathroom, washed my face. I heard a noise, looked around. I heard it again, it sounded like a whimper? It was coming from the closet? I opened the door. Folded up and jammed all the way to the back underneath the bottom shelf was the girl! She must have ducked in my door since I left it standing open. "Please don't hurt me!" She cried out. "I am not going to hurt you, miss. Come on out, let me help you." There was a streak of blood on the floor, I knew she was hurt too. Her eyes were red and puffy, I knew she had been crying. Trembling, she squirmed out of there. Even as skinny as she was, I had no idea how she got under there, it was maybe 12 inches from the floor to the bottom shelf, although the closet was fairly deep. She had on a pullover top and blue jeans, she couldn't be more than 20 or so, maybe less. She looked up at me, her eyes were blue and huge, hair cropped short and dirty blonde. I got a washcloth and cleaned her face, she just stood there and let me. She had several lumps on her head, a swollen lip and a bloody nose just like me. Her top was torn on the side, halfway up her ribcage and I could see blood there, too. "I need to check your side, miss. Is there anything else hurting?" She shook her head no, then looked at me. Reaching down, she pulled up the side of her top, her skinny ribs were very bruised, she had a cut that was shallow but went up out of sight. "It hurts real bad." She whimpered. "Hang on." I went and got some of the lotion I use on my wrists, I have a bit of Arthritus myself. She was standing there looking at her side in the mirror, her top in her hand, one arm held up. Naked from the waist up? It stuck me that either I was wrong and this was an on the effiminent side young boy, or it was the flattest chested girl I ever saw in my life! I tried to not look at her nipples, but a man can't not do that, I guess. They were jet black and about the size of a pencil eraser. She didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about her nudity, she didn't even blush. I suppose it's because of my mostly bald head and weather beaten face, so I do look like a harmless grandpa type. I grabbed a towel and handed it to her, she looked at me funny, then realized and held it to her front. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Carlos sometimes made me do things...you know..for money." She said. Then she bit her lower lip and looked down. "Carlos? That's the guy who was hitting you?" I asked. She nodded. I didn't press that any more, it was clear that she had been with an abusive male that was using her. How bad had it been? I didn't know, and I wasn't real sure I wanted to know. I washed her scratch and applied the lotion. Then she tugged her top back on, turning her bacl when she did that. "Miss, I need to call the cops, you need to tell them what happened." I told her. "Oh no, please! Please don't call them!" I saw her glance at the doorway, and I knew if I went for the phone she would run. I already saw her run, no way in hell could I catch her. I sighed, nothing else to do. No way did I want to send her out there onto the street, all alone. "OK, OK. Relax, miss. I won't call them, let's get you comfortable." I told her in my softest voice. She looked at me, I saw her visibly relax a little bit. I decided to get her into our living room, wait until Debs got home. She would know what to do. I held out my hand, she looked at it and then at me. Then she took it, I led her to our couch. I went into the kitchen, got a soda pop out of the fridge, she took it and drank half of it with one pull. "Is there any food? Maybe some Cheese or something?" She asked, a hopeful look on her face. I went in and made a big sandwich, some Cheese and lunch meat, Lettuce and Tomato. I watched as she ate, at one point she had so much in her mouth her cheeks were puffed out. "I'm Sandi, with an "i"", she told me, licking her fingers. There were some Peanuts on our coffee table, she started in on those. "They call me Dan." I told her. "Thank you sir for helping me, and the sandwich." She smiled, her mouth now stuffed with peanuts. She kept right on cracking the shells, being careful to put the empty shells in a small tray we kept there just for that. She was sort of pretty when she smiled, except for her lip which by now was getting pretty big. I went and got an ice pack, she pressed it to her lip. Then we sat and talked, oddly it was easy. Her comments came in short little bursts and she told me she was from Tennessee. That explained the funny accent. I did ask her about Carlos after I saw she seemed completely calm. "Sometimes we would find guys camping on the beaches, Carlos would charge them money for me dancing..and other things." Her eyes did that downward look again. "That's why I kept trying to get away from him." Her head came right back up, I realized she had a stubborn streak in her also. "Well, you are free of him now." I told her. "I hope so." Her eyes went damp for a moment before she again composed herself. I could only imagine some of the things she must have been through. +++ Debs came to a dead stop when she walked in the door. The girl was sitting in Debra's chair, wide eyed. She again looked ready to bolt. "This is my wife, Debra. Debs, this is Sandi." I said. "What in the world?" Debs managed. Easy to see the reason for my wife's surprise, this young girl's face looked all beaten to hell. "I found her in our closet, can I keep her?" I wisecracked. Debra looked at me, then at the girl I now knew as named Sandi with an "i", that's what she said anyway. She looked back at me and started laughing. Debs always laughs at my wisecracks, I find something funny in everything. Well, almost everything. Here I had acquired what was clearly a street urchin, and I didn't have a clue about what to do with her. Then Debs came over and made me take off my shirt, and inspected my ribs carefully. "Nothing broken, good. You are going to have a bruise though." "No shit." I said. "So, are you hurt, honey?" Debs asked Sandi. "I..he..Carlos kicked me too...here." Sandi pointed at her own ribs. "I am a nurse, honey. Let me check." Debra stepped towards Sandi, probably planning on taking her to the bedroom. Sandi stood up, once again jerked her top over her head and lifted her arm. Debra blinked, glanced at me. I just shrugged. Hell, the scrawny young girl didn't have any tits so there was nothing to look at anyway. Still, kind of weird. Debs went to work, checked my bandage job I put on Sandi which was pretty danged good even if I do say so myself. "We need to call the police." Debra said. "No! Oh no, please! He will find me!" Sandi just about rolled up into a ball on the corner of our couch. "Tell us what's going on, honey." Debs sat on the couch and reached out with one arm. Darned if the girl didn't climb right into her arm and snuggle up. Now What In The Hell? With no shirt on. The only thing missing from that scene was her stuffing her thumb in her mouth. Debra retrieved her top, helped her put it back on. In about 60 seconds, she started to talk and then the words came in a torrent. I was wondering how she managed to breathe. She told us how the guy, his name was Carlos, had been her boyfriend..sort of is how she put it. They had hitchhiked down to the coast and slept on the beach. They had very little money and that ran out, so Carlos had told her to go do some tourists and pick up some cash, she had refused. That's how she said it, "do" some tourists. I got that part. I had it figured out already from her earlier comments. Things went downhill from there between them and the jerk insisted, then when she tried to get away from him he started hitting her. She ran and he chased her, at the highway she realized he was gaining. Now I saw her run, so I have no idea how he could have been gaining on her, but that's what she said. She ducked down a side street, tried to jump a fence to get away but he grabbed her and started hitting her. That was in front of Sam Miller's place down the street, he had a white board fence that was sharp on the top, her scratch came from Carlos dragging her back over it. That's when I showed up. "Dan saved me!" Sandi looked at me with a huge smile. +++ "What in the hell are we going to do with her?" Debra asked me later in the kitchen. The girl had fallen asleep right in the middle of a sentence so Debs slipped her knitted couch cover over her. "I was hoping you would know." I told her. "Well, I don't. We should call the police, let them deal with her." "Yea, but it's after midnight, let's see what happens in the morning. They got that Carlos jerk in the jail so no hurry. Besides she is sound asleep." +++ I woke up at 6 AM, I always do. Years on my little farm way back, just force of habit. I found Sandi in the kitchen, a bit of a surprise, that. I half expected her to be long gone. She was sitting there stirring something in a bowl, I saw our bag of pancake flour on the table. Plus a bottle of cola? She jumped up and poured me some Coffee, then sat back down, went back to mixing whatever in the hell she was making. "Thanks!" I told her. "No, thank you for helping me. I don't know what would have happened if...if Carlos....?" Her voice trailed off. "They have him in jail downtown, he won't be bothering you." "They will let him go. They always do. Then he will find me, just like last time." Sandi got a painful look on her face. "Last time?" I asked. "Yes, he beat me up back in Portland, he hits me all the time. I tried to run away but that makes it worse. Then he was real nice so we came down here, but it just started up again." "Wow." I heard of things like that but this was my first experience this close. "Honey, has he been forcing you to...?" I asked, my voice trailing off. "Yea, sometimes." Her face turned scarlet, she knew what I meant. "I don't want to but he...this time I decided I had enough and tried to get away." She added. "Don't you have some family, someplace you can go?" I asked. Sandi just shook her head. "Back home, I ran away several times but the cops just brought me back. When I was 18 they couldn't make me go back no more." Just then Debra came out and joined us. I saw her look, she had overheard what Sandi said and it upset her. They began to talk, in short order it was clear that they were enjoying the chat so I slipped away. "Come get some pancakes, honey." Debra called out to me a few minutes later. I looked at them, tried one. Pancake flour mixed with cola? Strange, but kind of good, and fluffy. Then the two women started that talking stuff again. Debs doesn't have any children of her own, but she sure can turn into a Mom very quickly. I was smart enough to know that some female talk was coming, best for me to go find something to do. I knew that Debs didn't have to go to work until 11 AM, so I busied myself outside with my Rose garden. It was pretty nice outside, the fog lifted by 9 AM and the Sun was out so it warmed right up. Then Debra came out. "Nancy is going to pull my shift today." She told me. "Oh? Why?" "I need to be here to look after Sandi." She said. I just looked at my wife. I had been thinking of giving Hal Jordan a call, have him come out and chase the girl. But looking at Debs it hit me that her maternal instinct was coming out. "So, what are we going to do?" I asked her. "Look after her until she decides what she wants to do. I like her." Debs looked right at me. I know that look, once she makes up her mind, that is it. Hal found out that Sandi was at our house, of course he did, he is a cop. He came by the next day, Sandi cringed when she saw the uniform but relaxed when Debra put her arm around her shoulders and told her it was OK. Hal did say he needed to take Sandi downtown but Debs stubbornly told him he wasn't taking her anywhere. Hal knows Debra very well, he gave up just like I do when she gets that way. All she was, was a material witness in an assault case, and a victim, Hal listened as she told him what happened. At first, her words were halting, then as she realized that Hal was not going to handcuff her and haul her off, she relaxed and went into that torrent of words again. "You should have called me the other night." He accused me later. "I forgot." I told him. Hal looked at Debra, then back at me. He just shrugged and left, one of those grins on his face. Hal is a damn good cop, hard to not like that guy. +++ Carlos pled guilty so we didn't have to testify, the judge gave him 10 whole days in County. And Sandi was now a fixture around our house. Why? I have no idea at all, Debra liked her I guess. Hell, I sort of liked her myself, she was bright and funny and she piled right in, doing the laundry, cleaning up, even helping with the cooking. Crazy cooking, but some of the things she came up with were pretty good. We gave her a dab of money so she could get some new clothes, she and Debs went down to Goodwill and came back with several outfits. Sandi insisted on going there, saying they had some really good deals. I guess it was almost like we suddenly had an adopted daughter? Nearly three months went by. November on the Oregon coast can be nasty, the three of us were sitting in the living room, the wind howling outside. Someone knocked on our door. I answered it, wondering who in the hell would be out on a night like this? There stood Carlos. "Hey, I don't mean to cause no trouble. I just came to get Sandi." He told me. "I'm not so sure she wants to be anywhere near you." I told him. "She does, ask her." He growled, looking past me to where Debra sat with Sandi who was wide eyed. "OK. Sandi, this guy here wants to see you. What do you want?" I asked, without taking my eyes off of Carlos. "Leave me alone, go away!" Sandi moved closer to Debs. The look on her face was one of sheer fright. "She doesn't want to see you." I told him. "I will be back." Carlos told me with a snarl. "Best you don't come back....bud." I told him. Carlos glared, but he left. Things like that do not give a person a feeling of comfort, to be honest. +++ I called and talked to Hal Jordan the next day. He explained that Sandi could get a restraining order, that way if the guy did come back they could lock him up. Otherwise if he just knocked on the door and did nothing, there was nothing they could do about it. It took some talking, but finally Debs managed to convince Sandi that it was the right thing to do. I was well aware from some of the comments Sandi had made, that she had very little faith in the justice system. I actually did have faith, small towns in some areas are not exactly anything for outsiders to mess around with. Hal told us he found Carlos living in the woods North of town, there was a nototious homeless camp up there. So he was served with the court order. A week later I went outside to find all four tires on my truck flat. Sure, I had comprehensive so it was covered, but that pissed me off. I reported it to Hal Jordan of course. I wanted to keep my pistol on the headboard of my bed, because I was reasonably sure that it was Carlos and sure as hell he was going to do something else. Debs would have none of that, though. She didn't like me having the thing in the first place. By then, Sandi had become a fixture around our place, probably as close to a daughter as I ever had. Sure, there was Rachel next door, another story I wrote about. Sandi was far closer to Debs and I than even that. Debs did finally convince her to stay dressed around the house, the one strange thing about Sandi was that she appeared to have zero concern about that. At least a couple of times I saw Sandi in nothing but a pair of panties, and the other thing is that after a few months of very good and regular food, Sandi was actually developing breasts. gaining weight from the waif thin thing she was at first. After Debra gave her a little talk the nudity stopped. Once I heard her in the small den we have, she was doing lord knows what, but singing quietly to herself. I hovered just outside listening, she sounded like a young girl that was happy, playing. Over time and from some comments, Debs and I came to realize that Sandi had not done much playing in her young life. Once for some reason the subject of her family and home came up. "Pa made us work and my cousins was always pestering me, that's why I kept trying to run away. But Mom saw to it I went to school." Her life had apparantly been one of mostly misery growing up. When she did talk about things, it always came in those rapid fire bursts. At first I was thinking she had to be making some of it up, but after some time I came to realize she wasn't. Then the next thing I noticed was when Debs said something to Sandi, Sandi called her "Mom." And I do not think she even realized that. Debra did, though, she looked over at me and beamed. The other not so fun part was when Carlos sneaked by our place at about 4 AM and stuck one of my tires again which made twice that had happened after all four of them got it the first time. He made one mistake, he didn't see the little infrared camera I had set up and I got him that time. I showed Hal Jordan the photos, he said he would take care of it. I saw Hal down at the waterfront cafe I go to sometimes a few days later, he had a swollen lip. "I took a spill." He told me with a grin when I asked. He also told me that the Carlos guy had left town and was unlikely to be back. I didn't want to know any more, like I said, small town justice. Hal Jordan is a pretty good cop, sure there are rules, laws. Sometimes those don't work. Then damned if Hal didn't ask me about Sandi. I told him some of what I knew, explaining she had a tough upbringing. Hal nodded, told me he had that part figured out but found her interesting. He had seen her a few times when she was with us going shopping, Sandi loved to do that with Debs and a few times they conned me into going along. It's a bit like trying to give a Dog that hates water a bath, that, but when women folk gang up what can a man do? I did get me two new pairs of pants out of the deal though. And Hal Jordon noticed Sandi. Maybe it was the slight swelling she made in the front of her T-shirt, or the fact that her hair was longer now? Maybe it was the curve of her behind and the fact that even I looked when she was walking away, there was no missing that sexy twitch. Our little girl was growing up, filling out, and the smile now nearly never left her face. Yea, that's what I thought now, OUR little girl. Talk about setting ourselves up for a fall? One day Sandi was going to be gone and then we would be right back to the way it was before. I knew that, so I was taking it one day at a time. Don't get me wrong, my Debra is one hell of a woman, and we certainly do enjoy each other. It's just that Sandi filled some hole that before she showed up that night I had no idea even existed. Debs was wagging her tail being all maternal, I am sure I was doing some of the same. Then one day Sandi called me "Dad" instead of "Dan" and damned if I didn't have trouble keeping my old eyes dry. +++ One day I was headed down to the Jetty, I mean the docks, Debs won't let me go out on the jetty any more. I wanted to get myself some Herring, there is one big flat rock sticking out the current goes out around, where those fish come right in close and I can catch them 2, sometimes 3 at a time. If I get a nice bunch, I set up my smoker and I love them that way. "Hey, Dan! Got a minute?" Hal Jordan came out of the tiny cafe near the waterfront as I walked by, I see him there all the time. He uses it for a spare office I think. "Sure." I stopped, no idea what was up. Hal launched into beating around the bush, talking about fishing and the weather and everything under the Sun. "Hal, what in the hell are you trying to get at?" I asked him, having one of those feelings deep down inside. "I was thinking...would you mind if I asked Sandi out?" He actually took off his damned hat. The way he asked that was so funny I nearly choked trying to keep a straight face. "You want to take Sandi out?" I managed. "Yea, she is interesting." He looked me right in the eye and turned back into a city policeman again. For a moment there he had looked like a nervous teenager. Hal I knew was around 25-26 years old, not married. He was a no nonsense kind of guy, and big. Bigger than me and I ain't little, he had me by maybe 15 pounds or so. "Hell, ask her, not me. She is an adult and she knows she can trust you." I don't know why I added that last part, it just sort of came out. Hal nodded, gave me one of his lopsided grins. I wandered on down to the jetty, I mean the docks. I caught about 15 of those ugly Bullheads and two Greenlings, one was a dandy one I kept for my dinner. No Herring, though. I have no idea why Bullheads grab a Herring jig but they do. Maybe they should call them Bullhead jigs? Back at the house I went into the kitchen and cleaned my fish, then went looking for Debra and Sandi. They were in the guest bathroom, I knocked and got yelled at. "You can't come in here!" Debs called out. "OK." I wandered back to the living room, I know when I am not wanted. Some politician on TV was calling some other guy names like always during the election year, so I changed the channel and was watching some folks debunking UFO sightings. I guess I fell asleep. "Danny?" Debs gave me a shake, woke me up. "How does she look?" Debs asked me. "Wow!" Was what came out of me. Sandi's hair was pulled up with a little tie in the side, she had on a full length dress that was perfect for her, a pale blue and modest. "Now what is going on?" I asked. "Sandi has a date, with Hal Jordan." Debs said with a grin. "That guy sure doesn't waste any time!" I said. "How do you know?" She asked me. "I saw Hal maybe 5-6 hours ago when I was on the way to the jetty...I mean the docks. He said he wanted to ask Sandi out." "So. What do you think?" Debs asked me. "Hell, I want to ask her out!" I laughed. Sandi blushed but grinned, batting her eyes perfectly which made her look like a teenager getting ready for her first prom. I have to admit, Sandi did look pretty as a picture. Hal rolled up in his little green Honda maybe 30 minutes later. That was the first time I ever saw him not in uniform, and even I had to admit he was one nice looking young man. "Be sure and have her in by midnight!" I did my very best gruff Grandpa imitation. "Oh, Daddy." Sandi blurted out. That was the 2nd time she ever called me that, it was always "Dan" before. Holding hands, they left. I looked over at Debra, she was studying me. Then she smiled. "We have the whole house to ourselves." She told me. Debs and I keep fairly active, well, as active as it is possible to make a 69 year old anyway. But with a young woman in our spare bedroom just across the hall, I guess the word is we did some things on the quiet side? "You don't suppose they will....?" Debs asked me maybe 30 minutes later. She was doing that tickle my you know what's like she does after a nice session in bed. "Will what? OH! Hell, how should I know?" "Well, Sandi is...experienced for such a young girl, and a lot of it was not good." Debs said. "Yea, I got that from some of the things she has said, but I think the truth is she is a nice person if she is allowed to be." "Yea." Debs sounded far away for a moment. It was about 1:30 when I heard them at the door. Yea, I was awake, most Fathers are when their little girl is out on their first date. OK. So I know about Sandi, I know some of what she has been through. Not my kid either. I don't care, it was the way I was feeling. I heard her close her bedroom door, then she was quietly doing that singing to herself stuff I had heard her do several times. "She's home." Debs whispered to me. She was awake also. I hugged her. It was then easy to sleep. +++ Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't. This one I have to say did. It was perhaps two full months later when the day came that Sandi did not come home after her date with Hal. That part I could figure out, and it was none of my business. I might as well have been sitting on a pile of Ants, I was up every few seconds looking out the window and then back to my chair. I was sitting at our kitchen table watching a Robin do it's best to find something to eat in my lawn when the little blue Honda drove up. OK, so I could see the end of our driveway from there, so what? I glanced at the clock, it was almost noon. Hal got out and opened the door for Sandi, he was in full uniform, gun on his hip and all. He hugged Sandi, I expected him to leave and go to work but they turned and came up our walkway. Holding hands. "Morning, Dan." Hal said when they walked in. "Coffee?" I nodded towards the pot. He got a cup and they both sat down. They looked at each other with a smile, I had me an idea of what was coming. "I asked Sandi to marry me and she says she will. We just want to be sure it's all right with you." He said. "Yes, of course it is. In fact, it couldn't be better!" I gave Sandi a hug, shook Hal's hand. "Did you tell Debra?" I asked. "We wanted to tell you first." They both said at almost the same time. +++ So that is the story. By accident Debs and I met a young woman who blended right into and became part of our lives. It wasn't even over a very long time like it would be if it was our own child that we raised. It wasn't any less pure, though. Things happened before to her, I know that. Sandi told us some of it, not all of it I am sure. Underneath the flawed and scrawny little street urchin I found underneath the bottom shelf in my closet was a bright and beautiful young woman. Someone's daughter, not mine? Yes, she is. At least in just 8 short months it does feel that way. Plus she will be on MY arm when I give her away come November the 10th.