Turning Towards Ohio

If you don't open the closet door fully, you would almost think that my closet is still full of clothes. I realize at once that all of this stuff won't fit in my car. Mustangs are not noted for trunk space. I rent a storage unit in a facility only a mile from my house. I make several trips during that day. I move everything that matters to me into the storage unit.

I go into work and talk to my boss. He's an old friend and he offers to help me in any way he can. As much as he hates the idea, he puts in an application for a transfer for me. The new position is a Senior Engineering position. It's actually a promotion and comes with a hefty raise. It's also located much further west and also further south. I have no problem with it. The more distance between Jane and I, the better.

I decided against calling my daughter. I didn't want to disrupt her education. I'll call her as soon as I'm settled. She can split the holidays between her mom and me.

My lawyer and I are still going over what I want as a settlement. I'm hoping that I can get out of the marriage easily. I don't really anticipate there being a problem. After all Jane is back with her first love.

Besides all I wanted was what my lawyer assured me the judge would offer. We'd split everything fifty/fifty. Instead of me paying Jane any type of alimony or support, she could have the house. She could start working on a real basis for her uncle and take care of herself. I would continue to pay for my daughter's college. It all looked good and seemed reasonable.

I gave my lawyer my power of attorney. He had my contact information if things went wrong. I told him that I just wanted to move on without looking back. I didn't want to have to deal with Jane's anger and fake sadness. I also didn't want to face my own embarrassment if she wasn't angry or sad; and more than likely, she wouldn't be. This would give her the chance to rectify the mistake she made by marrying me instead of her dream man.

As I walked around the house, giving it one final look, a lot of memories came up. We'd had a lot of good times in that house. Most of my daughter's memories, good and bad were here. I grabbed a few photos here and there as I remembered funny or sad things that had happened during our time there.

Then I headed towards the door, before I broke my promise to myself and shed more tears on a situation that was clearly not worth it anymore.

I had a few days before I needed to show up at the new plant that I had transferred into. So I was at an impasse. I actually had no idea where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do with the time. I guess I had overestimated the importance of our marriage. I thought it would take a bit longer to crumble into nothing.

Then it hit me. My life had always been so scheduled. I knew where I had to be and when I had to be there all the time. Engineers love schedules and metrics. Even my vacations had been planned down to the hour. I had often dreamed of taking a road trip.

My idea of the perfect road trip was just an open stretch of road with no destination in mind. Just me and my Mustang out looking for adventure and whatever is there. It would give me a chance to see some sights. And it would give my pony a chance to stretch her legs.

I looked through the duffle bags of clothing that I had stuffed into the trunk to make sure that I had everything I would need. I had already made arrangements for the storage company to ship the rest of my things to Arizona as soon as I got scheduled. I paid the guy a little extra to ship my stuff to one of their facilities there, so that as soon as I had a place, they'd deliver my stuff.

With that in mind, and a big dumb-assed smile on my face, I jumped into my Mustang and hit the road. I didn't even look back. I had no clue where I was heading and I enjoyed it.

Jane had always been mortified by the prospect of just driving for days at a time. She hated how tiny the cockpit of my car was; and especially my loud droning exhaust system. The exhaust note that was music to my ears really bothered her.

I just drove. I thought about many things. I wondered what my new job would be like. I wondered what my new life would be like. Of course all of those things just took me back to the reason I needed a new life in the first place. I began to wonder what I would do if Jane wanted to talk to me.

What would I do if she contacted me through my lawyer and told me that she had made a terrible mistake and she'd do anything to get second chance?

I knew what I would do. I'd feel a hell of a lot better. But after what Jane had done there was simply no way I could ever take her back. Our marriage was over. I had tried to be as fair about things as possible. I was willing to listen to any possible changes in the settlement through my lawyer, but I didn't have anything to say to Jane.

The sun was starting to sink lower in the sky when I saw it. I actually had no idea where I was. I didn't really care. I could always find my way home or to Arizona through the magic of GPS.

There in front of me was the oldest truck I had ever seen. It wasn't old in terms of being a faithfully restored classic or antique. It was old in a bad way. The truck looked as if it was only held together by spit and a promise. There were holes in the body panels and I think there was more rust on it than remaining paint.

The hood was up and then I got the shock of my life. There was a small figure bent over looking under the hood. She ... and it was very definitely a she, was bent over under the hood. She had long tapering incredible legs that ascended into an ass that was simply a work of art. Her ass was full and round without being huge, but it was clearly bigger than it should have been for her frame.

Her shorts rode up and revealed one of her perfect upturned C shaped ass cheeks. As much as I had only recently sworn off of women for good, I was moved. And by moved, I mean I was rock hard. Apparently my dick hadn't gotten the memo that I had sworn off of women.

As she heard the rumble of my Mustang, she turned to look at me. Her face showed her distress and she watched as I slowly drove by. I stopped a little bit in front of her and she turned her head to watch as I got out of the car.

I made my way back to her and stood in front of the truck. When she looked at me I was even more astounded. Despite the dirt that covered it, her face was beautiful. She had those huge cornflower blue eyes that you only see on cartoon characters. Her tiny upturned button nose had a few freckles on it, but then again they could have just been more dirt.

And I have to admit it; I felt something when I looked at her. I'm sure that humans will one day develop telepathy. Maybe we already have it in some capacity, because something passed between us. And it was more than an empathic communication. For a second I started to turn around and head back to my car.

"Disappointed huh?" she said. Her voice and her accent sounded southern. Not Texas southern, or Mississippi southern, it was like half of those.

It was just a very slight, lazy drawl that made me think I could smell the Magnolias growing on the banks of the river and the winds blowing through the Sycamore trees. The pain emanating from those cornflower eyes drew me in.

I uttered the most literate and urbane statement I could manage. "Huh?" I said.

"When ya pulled over and saw my big fat ass, ya thought I had some big old titties and a purty face ta go with it, didn't ya?" she asked. "Then when ya got up on me, ya found out that I ain't got no titties and mah face is just as plain as grass, so ya wish ya hadn't bothered ta stop."

My face flashed with anger then. She was obviously just another woman who thought she knew everything. That was the reason she wore those fucking shorts. She did it just so she could lure some unsuspecting guy in to help her. I looked around then. I expected to see three or four guys jump out of the bushes and car jack me. It was almost like the beginning of the movie "Bad Boys," with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

"Whut are ya looking around fer?" she asked. Her bemused smile, relaxed me. And the more I looked at that face the more I wondered what the hell she was talking about. There was no way that her face was plain. Cleaned up and made up, she was probably a goddess. Even with the dirt and sweat on her face she was one of the most attractive women I had ever met. Her leonine mane of tousled tawny curls followed every movement of her head.

I guess I was in more emotional pain than I had wanted to admit. And she seemed to sense it somehow.

"Uhm, what's wrong with your truck?" I asked.

"It's broke," she smiled. "It started ta smokin' and then it jest stopped."

"Where was the smoke coming from?" I asked trying really hard not to look into those too blue eyes.

"Did you call a tow truck?" I asked.

"Ooh, you are so smart!" she said. "Lem' me do that raht now!"

She walked into the middle of the road. With every step, her incredible ass jiggled. She put both hands to her mouth and shouted, "Tow truuuuuuuuuuckkkkk!"

Then she put a hand to one ear and pretended to listen. She looked up at me with a smirk on her face. "Honey, I'm not sure that worked," she said.

Despite all of my problems and the things I was running away from, she had me smiling. In fact the two of us were throwing off sparks we were grinning so broadly.

"Okay, Smartass," I began.

"I knew it," she interrupted. She started nodding her head.

"You knew what?" I asked.

"That you couldn't take your eyes off of my ass," she said.

I just sighed. "Do you want me to call you a tow truck or not?" I asked.

I don't know what it was that broke the mood, but the look in her eyes changed so suddenly that I wondered what I'd done.

"I guess that's better than some of the things I've been called," she said. I pulled out my iPhone and got on the internet. I looked for a local listing and found there was a service station only three miles away from where we were. The guy on the phone told me that he'd be out to us in less than ten minutes.

"I hope it's nothing serious," she said quietly. "I don't have much money."

"I don't think it's major," I said. "I think it's your radiator."

"It's not actually my truck," she said. "I'm kind of..." Then she broke out in tears. By the time I got her calmed down the tow truck was pulling up. The driver got out. He was an older guy and he looked and acted friendly. He gave us a big smile full of yellow teeth and a few spaces where some were missing.

We watched as he hooked up her broken down ride to his truck. It took him only a few minutes. He had obviously done this a lot of times. "You two kin foller me down to the station, or one a ya kin ride along with me," he said favoring us with another smile.

I was already missing her. She had made a strong impression on me in the twenty minutes or so that we'd been together.

"Well, it's been nice knowing..." I began to say as she grabbed my hand like it was a life preserver.

"We'll follah ya there," she told the driver. If I'd ever had any doubts about the nuances and differences in regional southern accents, listening to the two of them would definitely convinced me. His accent though southern was more hillbilly. He spoke with a definite twang, where she had the softer more refined Alabama/Georgia delivery.

"Please," she said. "Ah'm scared a him. He's a stranger."

"So am I. At least you know his name. I could be some axe murderer," I said. Any doubt that there was something going on was wiped from my mind.

"No you couldn't. At least not towards me," she said knowingly. Then she looked at me. "What d'ya mean we know his name?"

"His name is Clem," I said.

"How the hell did ya find that out?" she asked.

"It's on the name tag on his shirt," I laughed. Didn't you see it?"

She took my hand again as we walked over to my car. "Oh my God, it smells like a new leather jacket in here," she exclaimed. The whole trip to the station she oohed and aahed over my car. We followed Clem back to the station where he turned us over to Goober.

Goober assured us that he'd get to the bottom of whatever was wrong with the truck, so we headed for the strip of buildings next to the station, hoping to find something to occupy our time while he looked at the truck. I had nowhere to be and I wasn't in a hurry to get there, so I stayed. Part of the reason I stayed was that my new friend hadn't let go of my hand since we got out of the car.

Attached to the service station, in the same rustic strip mall, were a restaurant, a super market and a feed store. We opted for the restaurant. We sat down and a friendly looking, though over weight, waitress appeared before us dropping menus, before our butts made an impression on the booth.

"Well ... I can't keep calling you smart ass," I said. "I'm Bob. What is your name?"

"Callie," she said. "It's short for Callista Mae. Callista Mae Twinkle. It used ta be Callista Mae Porter til ah got married, boy was that a mistake."

"I'll stick with Callie," I said. "What would you like to eat?"

"Kin ah have a burger n fries?" she asked gleefully. I just nodded and told the waitress to make it two.

We started out talking about nothing and ended up opening up to each other. I was amazed to find out that Callie at thirty seven years old was nearly my age. I had thought her much younger.

"You're how old?" I gushed almost spitting out a mouthful of food.

Between bouts of laughter, she fetched her driver's license out of the pocket of her too tiny shorts.

Looking at the license I saw that she'd been born in 1977 which meant her 37th birthday had just passed.

"Ya'd think that with all the time I've been alive, I'd have bigger titties," she said.

"Ya'd think ... I mean you'd think that with all the time that you've been alive, you'd realize that you're beautiful just the way you are and be happy with it," I said, far more sharply than I'd intended.

She looked up at me and again time stopped as something passed between us.

"I shore wish the people where ah'm from saw thangs the way you do," she said continuing her story. Callie had excelled in school until she ran out of school to excel in. In Callie's small Kentucky town, high school was as far as most of the people went. Very, very few went to college. And almost all of them were men. Callie had dreamed of being a teacher, but it didn't happen.

In fact, she had started working to save money so she could go to college. She felt kind of odd at nineteen, and then twenty and twenty one years old; when all of the girls she'd gone to school with, and then the ones who'd graduated a year younger were all married and either pregnant or raising kids.

People started to look at her funny when she helped to plan her younger sister's wedding. Especially since she was not only unmarried but not even dating seriously. By the time she was twenty four, there were rumors that she was a lezzie.

By the time her twenty-fifth birthday rolled around, her parents had started inviting men over to socialize with her. She looked around and started dating Jed Twinkle. She'd chosen him as the lesser of all evils.

Jed didn't put any pressure on her and he was a complete gentleman. That did a couple of things for her. It gave her something to do with her free time and for a while it stopped all of those small town tongues from wagging.

After a while though, the pressure came back and it was far more intense. Everyone in town was wondering when they would marry and start having kids. And this time the pressure, beside being more intense became more concentrated. Besides just the people in town, the pressure came from her family and from his. It didn't help things that the store she worked at was owned by his family.

So at the ripe old age of twenty eight years old, the town's old maid walked down the aisle and said, "I do."

"Thangs started ta change as soon as we got married," she said. "Jed was kind of a late bloomer because he among all of his brothers chose to work the family's large farm, instead of working in one of their several businesses."

As the wife of a farmer, she was expected to quit her job and work around the farm and farm house with her husband. Sex was also not what she expected. The perfect gentleman was rough and brutal in the bedroom. It was almost as if he had learned about the birds and the bees by watching the horses and the cattle.

Jed had no idea what foreplay was, let alone how to do it. What he did was, he got on, got in then got off and got lost. Her initiation into sex lasted fifteen minutes.

It left her confused and wondering why everyone thought sex was so great. It didn't help that while she lay there in their bed, experiencing the pain and discomfort that her mother had warned her about, something happened that colored the rest of her marriage.

She was feeling warm and the house, as large as it was, had no air conditioning. She had opened the bedroom window to catch breeze. About twenty minutes later she heard Jed talking to some of the farm hands and a couple of hhearI nting buddies.

"So how was she?" asked one of them.

"About as bad as I imagined," said Jed in a tone she had never heard him use. "Believe it or not she was a virgin. How stupid is that? I'd almost forgotten how to even handle that. I know all you boys like a tight pussy, but when it's so God damned tight that you can barely move and she ain't too wet ... it's a problem."

"Tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to my husband describing how awful the gift I'd just given him had been."

"Whull, why the heyell did ya marry 'er for in the first place?" asked another one of the guys.

"Cuz mah dumb assed father din't want me ta marry Sue Ellen Terwilliger," said Jed. "He told me that if'n I married Sue Ellen, I could kiss inheritin' the farm good bye. Neither him nor his pappy before him or my great grandpappy before either of them would be able to rest in their graves knowing that a baby that was part Terwilliger would ever own even one square inch of our farm."

"Shit, half of the town knows that you done already got Sue Ellen pregnant twice," said one the guys. "What you gon' do when he finds out that both a his Grandkids is Terwilligers?"

"Them kids is Twinkles through and through," spat Jed. "Besides, Daddy has that heart condition. So he ain't gonna last too long. Plus his eyesight is already failing and Callie has the same color a hair as Sue Ellen. In a couple a more years he won't be able ta tell the difference."

"Yeah but everybody else sure can," laughed one of the guys. "Callie ain't got no titties at all. What did ya hold onto whilst you was fuckin' her?"

They all laughed at that. "Shit, if'n she din't have them awesome legs and that bubble butt, Ya'd never even notice Callie." That brought more laughter.

"So how're ya gonna handle havin' two wives?" asked one of the men.

"I'm gonna do my husbandly duty ta Callie," said Jed. "I'll throw a mercy fuck her way a couple a times a week, or whatever she kin stand, but I'll be fucking Sue Ellen every day like always. Sue Ellen git's evil as hell when she ain't gittin' no dick."

"I din't know what ta do," Callie told me. She grabbed onto my hand across the table. I squeezed hers gently letting her know that I was there for her. What she was telling me was obviously hard on her.

"Fer about a year we circled around a maypole of deception," she said. I noticed new wetness on her cheeks.

"He pretended that he loved me. And I pretended that I din't know that he was pretendin'," she said.

But after a while I just couldn't take it anymore. There were all kinds of thoughts goin' through me. My parents were happy. His family was happy. The only fly in the ointment was the fact that I hadn't gotten pregnant. I got to the point where I actually wanted a baby. I wanted one just so there would be someone around who really loved me. I couldn't talk to my parents. They didn't want to rock the boat. His parents thought that everything was hunky dory, so no one knew the kind of emotional pain I was going through.