Oddball Ch. 06

"You to Saint Gabriel?" Grace asked.

"Yeah, stabbed my man, stupid mother fucker up and died," Precious shrugged her shoulders.

"Then what you doing here?" Grace asked.

"Oh, shit, I done got out," Precious laughed. "NO, no, I here on prostitution! I be out in a few days, don't you worry about old Precious."

Grace wasn't worried in the least about 'old Precious.' Being in DeGarde Lockup was a vacation for her, a vacation from the ridicule of the bitches at North side. The food here was better than the stuff her mother threw together and slapped on the table in front of her. (No, it never occurred to Grace that maybe she might want to help her mother, who worked two jobs to make ends meet.) But the idea that she might have to go to prison hadn't entered her mind.

"They, um, they wouldn't just keep me here?" Grace asked and sipped the fruit punch Cindy made for them.

"Shit girl, get real, huh? Precious laughed. "Attempted murder? You dreaming!"

----

Britney drove to the hospital; Tiffany said she'd get a ride home with Heather or Amber. Thomas had said that he would drive them, but then Coach said he could either show up for football practice, or get off the team. Thomas was counting on football to get into a good college; so he had to make that grim-faced decision.

She sat in the car for a moment, praying silently to God, then got out and locked the car.

Inside, Yolanda didn't even look up when the familiar figure passed the nurses' station on her way to Mary's room.

She entered the room and her breath caught in her throat. Her friend, her lover looked so peaceful despite having her head swathed in bandages, beatific smile on her lips.

----

"Son of a bitch!" Coach Benoit finally bellowed. "Kowalski, go home, damn it!"

"'Bye," Thomas said and raced for his truck.

"God damn, give a boy a piece of ass and it just fucks him all up," Coach groused then started screaming orders at the remaining students.

Chapter 5

The MRI confirmed Dr. Indri's suspicions; the little redhead had a tumor the size of a small orange nestled in the left hemisphere of her brain. Imbedded as it was, it was inoperable; to attempt removal would render Teresa a vegetable.

"I can try to make your remaining days as comfortable as possible," he told her.

"Fuck, what do you think I was trying to do?" she snarled at him.

----

The dull ache was becoming more noticeable, becoming sharper, more focused. She was becoming aware of noises, a hum, and a whirr.

The ache was now a pain, a constant, throbbing pain.

Britney looked around; they were alone in the room. Mary's small, beautiful face was slightly wrinkled now, no longer as relaxed as before.

She bent over and softly pressed her lips to Mary's soft, sweet lips.

"I love you," she whispered into Mary's ear.

Mary felt a soft pressure against her lips. Then she heard a soft breath in her ear.

She opened her eyes and saw a blond woman, head swathed in a halo of light. She gasped aloud.

Behind Britney's head was one of the recessed light fixtures. Without her glasses on, Mary did not recognize Britney.

"Are you an angel?" Mary asked sincerely.

The doors of the Chapel burst open and Yolanda bustled in.

"Mrs. Farmer, come, come!" she said.

John's heart stopped when he saw the hospital's number on the caller ID box. He'd laughed at George when George had paid extra to have the unit installed.

"You just want to see if it's an ex-girlfriend hunting your ass down," he'd laughed.

Now he saw it as an early warning device, warning him to start praying and pray hard.

Silently he prayed, "Heavenly Father, give me just one more day, just one more day with my little girl. But if you must take her, please let her know that I love her."

Aloud he said "George's Garage."

----

---

Mary complained to Dr. Moorehouse, "I got a headache,"

"I would hope so," he laughed and continued his examination. "Hungry?"

"Yeah, yes I am," she said after she thought about it for a moment. "I'm starving!"

"Well, can't have you starving to death now can we?" he cheerfully said.

"And where are my glasses?" she asked.

"Don't know; you didn't have any on when you came in," he said.

"They probably got broken," Mary decided.

"Yeah, you took a pretty good hit when that girl ran over you," Dr. Moorehouse agreed.

She shook her head in confusion; why would someone run over her? She winced with pain.

"Hurts when you do that?" Dr. Moorehouse asked.

"Uh-huh," Mary agreed.

He concluded his examination and smiled at the small girl.

"Mary, I'm not going to lie to you; I was really afraid you wouldn't make it," he said. "You had a large amount of swelling in the frontal lobes and twice your heart stopped altogether."

"That must have been when I went to Heaven," Mary said with conviction.

"You went to Heaven?" Dr. Moorehouse asked, making notes. "What was it like?"

"Love," Mary said emphatically. "More love than you could ever imagine. I was so happy there I didn't want to ever leave."

"God, that sounds beautiful," Dr. Moorehouse said quietly.

"It was," Mary said.

----

In the hallway, Leah and John hugged and shared tears of gratitude. Thomas sat down on the bench and shed his own tears.

"I got to call my mom," he said suddenly. "She's been praying real hard for Mary."

He found a pay phone and dumped a couple of quarters, then grimaced when the metallic voice informed him that it was a long distance phone call, please deposit twenty five more cents.

"Oh, my goodness," Theresa laughed. "Oh Honey, that is wonderful! Now, do me a favor and call your father and let him know."

"Oh come on Mom!" Thomas complained. "It's long distance from here!"

"Do it," she ordered. "It would mean a lot to him to hear from you."

"Fine, whatever," Thomas muttered.

"DeGarde Police," James snapped.

He had a headache; he wanted a drink.

"Hey, Dad?" Thomas asked. "This is Thomas."

"Thomas! What's wrong?" James asked, headache forgotten.

"No, no, Dad, nothing's wrong, no, just wanted to call and let you know Mary woke up this afternoon," Thomas said.

"Yeah, yeah, your mom told me about her, her accident," James said. "I was going to call you tonight and see how she was."

"Well, um, okay, I got to get going; I want to see her before supper," Thomas said.

"Hey, um, Thomas?" James said. "I um, I want you to know, I um, I love you."

"Um, love you too Dad," Thomas said, shocked.

----

"Hey, not that it matters to you," Cindy Villeaux said as she gathered up the food containers. "But Mary woke up this afternoon. Looks like she might live."

"So I can get out of here?" Grace asked, then realized as soon as she'd said it how foolish it sounded.

"No ma'am," Cindy said. "You forget? You tried to kill her. Just 'cause you didn't succeed don't mean that just goes away."

"It is so hard to believe you got a good Catholic education," Charles teased his daughter in law.

"What?" Cindy laughed. Just 'cause I use double negatives don't mean I ain't educated!"

"Your parents must be so proud," Charles smirked.

"They was 'til they found out who my father in law was," Cindy said and continued cleaning the jail cell.

"Mark call yet?" Precious asked.

"No, Precious," Charles said. "Your bail bondsman hasn't called yet."

"You sure?" Precious asked, suspicious.

"No, Precious, I'm lying to you, because it's so much fun buying your breakfast, lunch and dinner and listening to you complain about us being non-smoking," Charles sighed.

"All right, all right, ain't got to bet all uptight, I just asking," Precious grumbled. "Mad how come you non-smoking anyway? Watt y'all got against smoking?"

----

Melissa shed tears of joy when Jim called her at work and told her the wonderful news.

"Oh, my mom wants to know if you're coming over," Jim said, voice bubbling happily.

"Yeah, if it's all right," she said eagerly.

"Sure; we're having spaghetti," Jim told her.

"Be there as soon as I can," Melissa said and got off the phone before Mr. Falgout said anything about the personal calls at work.

Chapter 6

Theresa got out of the car and walked to the edge of the water. The rising sun had painted the ocean a surreal dark green.

The water looked surprisingly calm as she began to walk out into it. She gave one final wave to the people that were on the beach and began to swim out toward the horizon. After a moment, she decided that her clothing was hampering her progress so she stripped out of her tee shirt and shorts and bra.

----

John looked at the girl that sat calmly on the step of the office door. She looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old, about Mary's age. Her blonde hair looked slightly greasy, but the majority of kids these days seemed to think looking sloppy, slovenly were stylish. She sat with her knees up to her chin and from the angle he was parked, it looked as if she wore nothing but the baggy tee shirt and sneakers.

She regarded him silently as he killed the truck engine. When she saw him fumble with the keys for the door she got to her feet.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," she repeated in a deep voice, surprisingly deep for such a slight figure.

He got a whiff of her body odor and held his breath as he unlocked the door.

"Help you with anything?" he asked before opening the door.

"Yeah, I read in the paper you looking for a mechanic," the girl said.

"Um, yeah, yeah, I need someone that can work on cars; you got any experience?" John asked.

"Yeah, I worked a bunch of years in Atlanta before I come out here," the girl said and reached into her large shoulder bag.

She pulled out a crumpled looking paper and John realized it was her resume.

He read it over, trying hard not to be obvious about how offensive her body odor smelled.

If the resume was right, Violet Jones was around twenty-two or three, not eighteen or nineteen, and had been working in various automotive repair shops for the last seven years, mainly in Atlanta.

"So, what are you doing here in DeGarde?" John asked.

She regarded him for a long moment.

"Had enough," she said finally. "Had enough of being the only one getting up and going to work while he just lays around and getting all fucked up and so I just up and left. Went to New Orleans; friend of mine from high school's all like 'oh yeah, girl, come on down, we'll party!' and it's just same shit, different day; I'm the only one going to work, paying the bills, so I left there. Guy tells me he's going to Houston, I can come if I want, so I'm; like, 'nothing better to do,' but when we get to Lafayette, he's like, 'so you going to give up the pussy or what?' and I'm like, 'hey, I'm paying half the gas, know what I'm saying? Why I got to put out too?' and he's like 'girl I thought you was cool with this shit, know what I'm saying?' but I ain't into that shit, so he puts me out on the side of the road and I just start walking."

"But you can work on cars, right?" John asked.

"Yeah, what you got?" Violet asked.

"Garage's right there, take a look," John said and pointed to the inner door.

"Okay, mind if I change? Don't want to get my shirt all full of grease," Violet said.

"Yeah, bathroom's right there," John said and pointed behind her.

He hoped she could fix cars. Something about her independent spirit appealed to him.

----

She was wobbly on her feet, but Dr. Moorehouse encouraged her to keep walking. More than once, Mary had to fight the impulse to use profanities; she stumbled and would have fallen if not for the bars. But it hurt when she slammed into the bars; her ego was taking a pounding too.

"Come on, Sweetie," Yolanda said cheerfully and guided Mary back to the wheelchair.

"How long is this going to take?" Mary tearfully asked the nurse.

"Two, three minutes you'll be back to your room," Yolanda said.

"No, no, I mean, how long before I can walk on my own?" Mary asked and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Time takes time, Honey," Yolanda said.

Yolanda helped Mary back into her bed and left the room.

"God, please help me," Mary begged the ceiling. "Please help me; I want to be back with Thomas and Britney.

"You want to do TWO physical therapy sessions?" Dr. Moorehouse asked when Mary told him of her decision.

"I want to go home," Mary said simply. "You won't release me until I can prove that I'm okay, so I want two sessions instead of one."

"Okay," Dr. Moorehouse smiled and patted the girl's hand.

Her legs were on fire; each step burned and throbbed. She was coated in sweat when she finished. She actually broke down and sobbed from the pain when Yolanda assisted her back to her bed.

----

"Hey," Melissa said to Jim as they sat on the couch in the Kowalski living room.

"Yeah?" he said, and took his eyes off of Jeopardy.

"I um, I want to ask you something and it's pretty important," Melissa said nervously.

"Yeah?" Jim asked, turning off the game show.

"We uh, we been together now, what? About five or six weeks, right?" Melissa stammered.

"Six weeks, two days," Jim smiled. "That was a trick question, right?"

"No, no, Baby," she laughed. "That wasn't a trick question!"

She kissed him, and then leaned heavily against him. He smelled good, clean, and masculine. She prayed silently for courage.

"Anyway, I, we been together and I don't remember ever being this happy and this loved ever in my life," she mumbled into his chest.

"You make me happy too," Jim said and kissed her forehead.

"Jim, will you marry me?" Melissa asked and held her breath.

"Wait, what?" Jim finally asked.

Tears began to form in her eyes; maybe he didn't love her that much, didn't love her enough to want to be with her forever.

"I, what?" Jim asked again. "Did you just ask me to marry you?"

"Forget it," Melissa choked out. "It was a stupid thing to say."

"No, wait, I'm serious; did you just ask me to marry you?" Jim asked her, pushing himself away from her slightly so he could look into her eyes.

:No, no, just forget it," Melissa said and wiped her eyes.

"Melissa, come on, talk to me," Jim said and pulled the now struggling girl in for a hug.

"It was a stupid thing to say, just forget it," Melissa argued.

"But did you mean it?" Jim asked softly.

After a moment, Melissa nodded her head yes.

"If you meant it, then it wasn't a stupid thing to say," Jim said quietly.

----

Pee U!" Britney screeched as Thomas got into the truck.

"Uh huh, and you smell like a bucket of roses too," Thomas laughed.

They both stunk from the hard work-out their coaches put them through; the Cheerleading coach was a stickler for timing, even when they were just doing simple routines and made them do it over and over until they were positively sick of it.

Coach Benoit had mumbled something about being glad that Mary had come out of the coma then screamed himself raw, demanding all Tanks could give him.

"God, what are you listening to?" Britney complained as My Scarlet Life's 'Buzz Bomb' came on.

"My truck, my music," Thomas said. "When you drive, we'll listen to whatever you want."

"Whatever," Britney complained.

The two of them were still lightly bickering back and forth when they entered Mary's room.

"Hey!" she smiled happily; pushing her old glasses back up her nose (They kept sliding down).

"You're boyfriend is a big old butt hole," Britney said and kissed Mary quickly.

"And your girlfriend is a huge pain in the ass," Thomas said and kissed Mary as well.

"Okay, okay," Mary, said sternly. "You two go to your corners, and come out fighting when you hear the bell ring."

"I'd cream him," Britney laughed.

"Phew!" Mary said. "You two ever hear of soap and water?"

"No, why? We stink?" Britney asked and thrust her armpit in Mary's face.

Both girls screeched with laughter when Mary licked Britney's armpit.

She may have been complaining, but Mary thought that the smell of sweat was the most erotic smell in the world. Despite being on her period, smelling Thomas and Britney had her pussy on fire. As soon as she could have a little privacy, Mary planned on masturbating.

Her pubic hair was growing back; Mary wasn't sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, it would be more convenient not to have to shave it every two or three days. On the other hand, she loved the way a bald pussy looked and felt and loved the way Thomas' mouth felt on it, and loved the way Britney's mouth felt on it.

But there wasn't much she could do about that right now. She just had to sit and endure the itch. The way both Britney and Thomas smelled; she had another itch going on as well.

Thomas had to adjust his growing erection. Watching Mary swipes her fat little tongue on Britney's armpit; he could imagine her swiping that tongue on other parts of Britney's body, on his body.

Finally, Yolanda had to come in and remind them that they were in a hospital.

"Love you, can't wait for you to get out of here," Britney enthused.

"You?" Mary asked.

"Love you Baby," Thomas said and kissed her.

"Now, you two play nice on the way home, you hear?" Mary told them.

"Love you so much," Britney whispered in Mary's ear and quickly stuffed her tongue into Mary's mouth.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Mary slid a hand down to her pussy.

----

"So, I got the job or what?" Violet asked.

"Yeah, you got the job," John smiled.

"Okay," she said and returned to working on the Cadillac Anna Lacombe had brought in.

John half wished Violet would put on slightly less revealing clothing, and half wished she would bend over a little more. The shorts were snug, but not overly so. When she cocked a leg up like that, he could see that the carpet was considerably darker than the drapes. He could also see her lips.

"Um, just one thing, Violet?" John finally asked.

"Yeah?" Violet asked, not bothering to straighten up.

"Um, do you um, do you think you could wear, you know, some coveralls or something?" John stammered out.

In response, Violet reached down and adjusted her shorts so that the crotch covered her crotch.

"I'll wear some jeans tomorrow, okay?" Violet asked.

"Good, that'd be good," John, said.

"Um, hey, think you could spot me a couple of bucks, to get something to eat?" Violet asked as they both washed their hands.

"Would you rather have a home-cooked meal?" John asked her.

He was sure that Leah wouldn't be all that thrilled with him, just inviting a complete stranger over to dinner. But he could argue with her that this was the Christian thing to do. He also wondered what she would think of him hiring a young, attractive woman to work for him.

"Yeah, been a while," Violet agreed. "Sure it wouldn't be any trouble?"

----

"How's it going, Kowalski?" Charles asked as he locked his office door.

"The truth?" James asked him.

"Yeah, why not?" Charles said. "Let's try that."

"Sucks. I want a fucking drink and I want it bad," James admitted.

"Settle for a cup of coffee instead?" Charles asked.

Chapter 7

The jeans were a little better; he couldn't actually see Violet's pubic hair. But he could see her very sexy ass as she bend over the engine. Or when she was on the creeper underneath a car, the material of the snug jeans would 'camel toe' her. She also had pierced breasts; a bra rarely fettered her large breasts and she tended to wear very snug tops.

When he'd brought her home for dinner, Leah had been surprisingly gracious and offered the girl the opportunity to take a hot shower before dinner. After dinner, Leah told the young lady to sleep in Mary's bed; Mary wouldn't be using it that night.

Violet agreed to the fifteen percent commission he'd worked for when George was alive and very happily agreed to rent the apartment above the garage for eight hundred a month, to be deducted from her paycheck. It didn't take much arm-twisting for her to accept when Leah invited her for dinners.