Miracle Man

She strutted around the room posing and twisting in her new clothes. "Katie, you'd better get a good night's sleep tonight," said Betty.

"Why mom?" asked Katie. It was the first time I'd ever heard her cheerful. "I was thinking about going into town tonight if I can still use the car."

"Well that's a pretty long walk, especially considering what you're going to have to do tomorrow," said Betty smiling. "Whoever you're going into town to screw might have to wait a couple of days."

Everyone around the table found somewhere else to look or concentrated on their food then. Katie leaped up, fighting mad. "Mom, are you trying to say something?" she asked angrily. "You know you weren't so pure yourself when you met Daddy."

"Katie, you're over eighteen and you can do what you want in terms of your affairs," said Betty. "But some of the things you do go far beyond anything I ever did. But that's really not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is, exactly where did you get the money for your new clothes?"

"Uhm, I had some birthday money left over that I'd been holding onto," said Katie. Everyone around the table stuck their heads even further into their plates. Even Dan started looking at the floor.

"Robert," said Betty, looking at me strangely. "Haven't you ever seen chicken before? Look up at me for a second." I pried my eyes away from my plate.

"How much did the parts for the truck cost?" asked Betty.

"A little under a hundred dollars," I said quietly. Katie glared at me.

"Where'd you get the money for the parts?" asked Betty. Both Betty's and Katie's gazes bore into me.

"I uhm had some money when I came here," I said. Now it was Betty's turn for the sneaky grin.

"Katie, when you took Robert into town, I gave you three hundred dollars. You brought me back seventeen dollars. Where's the rest of my money?" asked Betty.

Katie turned three different shades of red. "I was going to pay you back," she said.

"Katie, when you borrow money from someone, you're supposed to ask them first. Borrowing money without asking is called stealing. You STOLE two hundred and eighty-three dollars from me. How are you going to pay me back?" asked Betty.

Katie just looked at the floor. Her beautiful eyes filled with tears. "I just wanted to look nice," she said.

"The guys you visit really don't see you in clothes anyway," said Betty.

"Katie, you're a pretty girl," said Dan. "You don't need to get yourself all gussied up to attract a man."

"So I have an idea," said Betty.

"Joe, what is minimum wage now-a-days?" asked Betty.

"It's like seven dollars and some change," said Joe.

"It takes about four hours to muck out the stables," said Betty. "So at seven dollars an hour you have to muck out the stables the next ten times starting tomorrow."

"But..." began Katie.

Betty looked at her, ending the discussion.

"Well, why can't I still go to town tonight?" she asked.

"You still can," said Betty. "You're a grown woman. I have no intention of telling you what you can and can't do. I'm just telling you that you can't use my car. You stole from me, so until you pay the money back I can't trust you with my car."

Katie wrapped her arms across her chest and started sulking like a five year old girl. She glared at me and I knew then that if looks could kill, I'd be lying on the floor.

The next morning I got up bright and early. Before Rosa started breakfast, I was already in the barn looking at the tractor. The tractor had a diesel engine and it wasn't very drastically different from the motor in a small car. The engine needed several new gaskets and seals. New pistons and rings would also make it much more reliable. I was lucky I didn't actually need the service manual since the problems were just engine repairs.

Betty came to get me for breakfast and I told her I'd need to take a shower before I'd be presentable to sit at the table and she just laughed. I'd washed my only other pair of jeans in the sink and fortunately they'd had a couple of days to dry. They were loose on me and kind of wrinkled but they looked better than the ones I was wearing.

As I went into the kitchen and said good morning to everyone, Dan looked at me and I smiled.

"I'll need to look online to see where I can get parts for that diesel motor in your tractor," I said.

"You can fix it?" he asked. I nodded.

"It'll take a couple of days after I get the parts to do all of it, but I can do it," I said. Dan jumped up and started screaming. He was dancing around and slapping his knees so hard I thought he might need a hip replacement. He grabbed Betty and started kissing her. And the two of them weren't just giving each other pecks either. Betty was rubbing those big old tits of hers against him and kissing him back.

Nobody else seemed interested but I was shocked. Betty looked at me and smiled. "I told you he didn't marry me for my cooking; at least not for cooking in the kitchen."

After breakfast Dan, Betty and I drove into town in his truck. We got all of the parts I'd need for the tractor and then we stopped at another store in town. Before I knew it Betty had grabbed me by the arm and had loaded a cart with pants, shirts, socks and underwear for me. She wouldn't even listen to me when I told her that I didn't want them to buy me anything.

"Do you have any idea how much a tractor costs?" she asked. That was the end of it.

When we got back to the farm, I started right in on the tractor. I had all of the tools laid out neatly on the bench I'd set up and placed the new parts on a table nearby. All of the parts that I was going to reuse I was cleaning with mineral spirits and de-burring.

As I worked, I had the feeling that I was being watched. I looked up and there was a young woman staring at me. It was a hot afternoon and I'd taken off the sweatshirt so I didn't get oil on it, but also to cool down.

"Sorry," I said, grabbing for the shirt.

"Oh you don't have to cover up on my account,' she said, smiling at me. She was tall and kind of thin. She had on a short frilly skirt and a blouse in a contrasting color made of the same material. She had the top tied under where her breasts would be if she had any.

I just nodded at her and turned to get back to work. She stayed there and stared at me for a while longer and then left.

Maybe a half hour later she came back with Katie. Katie, as usual, was glaring at everything she came across. The two of them just stood in the doorway staring at me together and whispering.

Finally the girl reached out to Katie like she didn't really want to touch her and pushed her into the barn.

"Robert, this is Fanny," said Katie. "Fanny, this is Robert." That was all it took. Fanny jumped in and took over the conversation from then on.

"I just came over to show Katie one of my new outfits," said Fanny. Her voice was interesting. It sounded as if it belonged on a much older woman. "Katie told me she got a new outfit yesterday too," said Fanny. "But I'll bet it wasn't like this one. I'm glad she's not wearing it now. She's disgusting all covered in cow poop. If I hadn't been just dying to talk to you I wouldn't have even touched her."

"You're right," I said smiling. Katie seemed to just shrink in on herself. "Katie's outfit isn't like yours and I'm glad. She probably shouldn't try to wear anything like that."

Fanny smirked and Katie looked down.

"If Katie did wear an outfit like that one, no one in the whole town would be able to get any work done," I said. "All of the men in town would be too busy staring at her and all of the women would be jealous."

"What," said Fanny. This clearly wasn't going the way she'd expected it to.

"It's kind of like you said, Fanny," I continued. "Even right now, covered in cow poop, she's still probably the prettiest girl in the state. There's no one around here no matter how dressed up, that can come close to her."

Fanny started sputtering and then closed her mouth and glared at me. Katie's eyes shot open and she smiled so brightly that it lit up the barn. Fanny spun around on one heel and started stomping her way out of the barn. Katie followed her and I went back to work.

Some of the sealants that I was using needed time to dry. I thought that would be a good time to look at the other cars in the barn. There was a beat up Chevy Malibu that looked like with a little bit of TLC it might be drivable. I thought about it and decided to look at what else was there. An old Ford ranger with a lot of body damage but was still newer than the truck I had back home. I realized then that I'd just made a very big mistake. For all of the three days that I'd been here I hadn't thought about home or what I'd left behind even once. It was almost as if I'd simply started a new life and left the old one behind. I'd had three days of getting to know new people and a new place. When I started trying to fit in here, I'd left the pain that I'd so recently gone through behind with all of the problems I'd run away from.

I sat down and thought about it. I decided that I was in a better place. Heather had made her choice and it obviously wasn't me. We'd each have to make our way on our own from now on. I'd left her everything thing we owned. I'd walked away with two hundred dollars and the clothes on my back. I was sure she could get Jimmy to pay for a divorce for her. As I was taking long slow breaths to try to calm down, I saw a metallic gleam coming from under a pile of what I thought was hay.

I brushed some of the hay away and realized that there was another car in the barn that I hadn't noticed. I brushed away more hay and the car started to take shape. It was a mustang but not one of the recent models. The car was at least 10 years old. There wasn't any damage to the body, which was a good thing. Other than a few scratches and dings it looked pretty good.

I opened the door and started coughing immediately. The interior of the car smelled like a mixture of stale beer, old weed and pussy. It had been left to bake here in the barn for who knows how long.

"I'd forgotten all about that thing," said Dan as he came into the barn.

"The seals on your motor need to dry," I said. He waved his hand at me. "Robert you're not on a clock. I was just coming by to ask you what you did to Katie."

I was shocked. I wondered if she'd made something up about me to try to get back at me for letting her parents find out about the money.

"As far as I know," I said. "I didn't do anything. If I offended her in any way, I'll apologize immediately."

Dan started laughing. "Robert you've got it the wrong way," he said. "For the past few days she's been dragging her ass around here like an old wet hen. She's been constantly whining about wasting her time and telling us to lock everything at night because we have transients on the property. I had to look that word up in the dictionary. Now all of a sudden she's smiling like Miss America and she told her mother that you're really not that bad."

"She came by here a little while ago with that tall girl," I said. "That girl isn't very nice, she's..."

"Snooty as hell," interjected Dan.

"Exactly," I said nodding my head. "She was trying to put your daughter down with a few snide remarks, so I gave her my opinion."

"Uhm Robert, what was your opinion?" asked Dan.

"I told her that even covered in cow poop, Katie was probably one of the best looking women in the state and far better than anyone I'd seen around here."

Dan just started laughing. He was laughing so hard he couldn't stand up. Betty came running out to the barn to see what was so funny. When Dan told her she started laughing too. I just looked at them strangely.

Finally Betty told me. "Fanny is the mayor's daughter. She's a normal looking girl if you like them tall and thin. But she likes herself a little bit too much. Way back when they were all in grade school she declared herself to be the prettiest girl in town. All through high school and beyond, her daddy's money made sure that everyone agreed with her. She'd get all of the latest games and toys or whatever and all of the kids who wanted to play with them or be around her had to agree with her. She was the homecoming queen, twice. She was always the head cheerleader. She was the "it girl" since she's been old enough to walk."

"And now, Robert, you've had the gall to come into to town and challenge the status quo. It's like that story the emperor's new clothes. You're the only person who's had the balls to tell her that she isn't the most beautiful thing alive."

"Oh boy," I said. "I hope I didn't mess things up for Katie."

For the next few weeks, things just settled into a really nice pace. It was great being among people who liked me and respected me. It was great just being able to do my part to contribute to the farm and the people who lived on it.

It took me a couple of days longer than I thought to get the tractor going, but Dan told me it hasn't run this well since it was new. I looked over the other cars and decided to get the Malibu running for Katie and I'd keep the Mustang for myself. After I got the interior aired out and cleaned the leather, I kind of bonded with the car and spent all of my spare time working on it.

I also helped out by fixing cars and truck and other mechanical things for Dan's neighbors. I gave the money I made doing it to Dan. His neighbors were happy because what I charged them was far less than they'd have paid anywhere else. Dan was happy because he had another stream of revenue and I was happy because...Well I was just happy.

* * * * * *

Heather

In the three weeks since Robert left me, my life had changed drastically. I was having more sex and enjoying it less than any time in my life. I was barely able to pay the major bills in the house. I was probably not going to be able to make the month's mortgage payment and I was surviving on the food and drinks they put out at the office.

Since my husband left, Jimmy was calling me into the office a lot more. It wasn't a once or twice a week, when everyone was gone thing anymore. There were days that he called me more than once a day. He was also rougher with me than before because he no longer had to worry about leaving marks on me. He was also making me do things that nice southern girls just don't do or at least we don't admit to doing. Jimmy had started treating me like a possession more than a person. And as dire as my financial straits were I couldn't really refuse.

On the other hand, the women around the office went completely out of their way to pretend that I didn't exist. I think I liked it better when they snickered and made jokes about me. Being the office whore was infinitely better than non-existence. When Jimmy, in one of his good moods decided to buy everyone lunch, Lucy counted all of the people in the office including the security guys.

Since she isn't very smart she pointed at each person and counted, much like a school girl would. She looked right at me and moved her finger past me as if I wasn't sitting there right next to her, causing all of the other women in the office to nearly fall off of their chairs laughing. For a group of supposedly steadfast Christian women, they were surprising low on good Christian charity.

As they all sat there laughing and pointing past me, mimicking Lucy's gestures, tears started running down my cheeks. I got up and ran out of the room. While I was in the bathroom crying and trying to muster enough courage to go back out there, things got really quiet. Then I heard a lot of shuffling around and people moving.

I walked back out of the office just in time to catch the last part of Rhonda giving them the worst chewing out I'd ever heard. After that, things were different around the office. Everyone there treated me much nicer. Unfortunately, I could tell that it was faked. They were nice to me because they were afraid of Rhonda. Not because they'd had any semblance of sorrow for the way they'd behaved.

None of that really mattered though. They couldn't treat me any worse than I felt myself. I missed Robbie so badly it hurt physically. I'd called his friends to find out if he'd gone somewhere but they had no idea where he was or that we'd argued.

I had no one to turn to. Most of my friends had been the women I worked with. Other than them, I'd always spent all of my time with Robbie. I was having trouble sleeping but I was tired all the time. I kept jumping up at every sound hoping it was him. I needed so badly to tell him what a fool I'd been.

Last week I'd passed out in the office. Luckily, Rhonda had been there. I was sure that the women I worked with would have just politely walked over me and went about their business while I died on the floor. I woke up in the back of that big Lincoln Town car of hers. She was taking me to the doctor's office. I told her not to bother I just hadn't been eating well and I wasn't sleeping either.

This morning I got the worst phone call of my life. The doctor called back to tell me I needed to eat better and get more sleep. He also told me that I needed to stop drinking because going by the tests they'd taken the previous week, if there was still that much alcohol in my blood from drinking myself to sleep the night before, than I was dangerously close to becoming an alcoholic. On the other hand if I'd been drinking that early in the morning on the day they brought me in, then I was already an alcoholic.

The worse news of all though, was that I was pregnant. I was six weeks pregnant and I needed to start doing some kind of improvements to my life and health for the sake of my baby. I went into shock.

That morning, I waited until nearly lunchtime for Rhonda to drop by the office. She didn't come in on any kind of regular schedule. She might come in every day one week, and only once or twice the next week. When she came in though, I asked her if I could talk to her.

We used Jimmy's office and I broke down as soon as she closed the door. "I'm pregnant," I told her. Her eyes got huge and she sat down too.

"We're screwed," she said in shock. "I have to figure some way out of this. At least I can get along with you. You're not trying to take anything from me or my son. Who knows how I'll get along with his next whore?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Honey, your ass is grass," she said. "And maybe mine too."

"What do you usually do when Jimmy gets someone pregnant?" I asked. She looked at me stupidly.

"Sweetie, Jimmy has never gotten anyone pregnant," she said.

"So except for you, I'm the only one," I said incredulously. I was thinking that I had the worst luck ever.

"Sweetie," she said slowly, as if her assessment of my intelligence had taken another rapid drop. "Jimmy has never gotten anyone pregnant but he doesn't know it."

"You mean..." I began.

"Yep," she said. "Josh isn't Jimmy's son, but he doesn't know that. It's a long story but let's just say that the bastard cheated on me so many times, that I decided to get a little revenge of my own. My son is the result of that. You're how far along?"

"About six weeks according to your doctor," I said.

"And you've been fucking Jimmy for about a month right," she said. Suddenly it hit me and I started smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked.

"Because in my entire life I've only been with two men," I said.

"What good does that do us?" she asked. "If Jimmy finds out you're pregnant he'll drop you like you're radioactive. He can't have any sign of impropriety around him so he'll have to get rid of you. Jimmy doesn't own the church. There's a board of directors that he has to answer to, so he can't just pay you off without their approval."

"Like some of the other girls, in order to pay you off or get rid of you, the board is going to want all of the details. This may be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets Jimmy's dumb ass fired. The board may give him one more chance but they'd probably want to be able to prove that your baby is Jimmy's kid. Once they determine that it isn't, someone may want to do a DNA test on Josh. So, both of us could go down for this."