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.