A Simple Life Ch. 01-10

Lit by just the door behind us her long straight hair shone like glossy black silk down her long graceful back. From my perspective beside, below and behind the smooth tan skin and strong features of her face stood out in contrast between her onyx hair and the deep darkness beyond. Facing the inky unknown before her there was no trepidation, only anticipation. In that instant she looked so powerful and brave and I could easily imagine hers as the face hidden within the helm of Lady Ara.

"I-I should g-go." I mumble again.

"If you're gonna go, go." She dismisses me with a wave. "I'll see ya around Sprout."

"Um." I look to my right to the bright outdoors but my feet do not move.

"Great." She smiles when she sees that I was staying. "I need a witness."

"W-witness?" I cheep in an embarrassing voice cracking high note. "Ahem. Witness?"

"Yeah." She says. "A neutral party to see the state of the place when we took possession, ya know? In case we have to go to court."

"Court!?"

"This whole thing was a rush job. To push the paperwork through Dad had to buy this place sight unseen. I'm just hoping we didn't get fucked too hard here."

"Fucked?"

"Ya know. Screwed. Dicked. Bent over without any lube." She quips. "Without even giving us the courtesy of a safeword."

"Safeword?"

"Already?" She smirks. "Why Avery, I barely know you." As I stand blushing she reaches over to the switches on the wall opposite the doorway from me. "They said we ought to have power."

There is a click followed by an electrical tick-tick-tick-a-tack-bzzzz of a bank of old fashioned fluorescent lights flickering to life. Spreading out before us are the two dust covered automotive bays that made up the southern half of the building. Except for a belly height half wall that separated the bays the whole area was one big space. The concrete brick walls that I had leaned against so many times from the outside had the same drab white paint though far less sun faded on the inside. Above us heavy steel beams ran across the ceiling. The smooth surface of the polished concrete floor was only interrupted by an old steel vehicle lift smack in the center of the near bay. The big metal bay doors that faced out toward the T-intersection and the town's peninsula had their windows boarded from the outside and the glass was pristine on this side. Around the outer walls were empty benches and shelves along with some basic equipment such as a lathe, battery charger, engine hoist and air compressor. Along the central half wall was an jack stands, drain pans, and a host of other things. Every last item looked...well used, to put it charitably, and at least a few decades old. This whole place was a time capsule to a bygone era. The calendar with the bikini babe on it from 2001 was just the cherry on top.

Whoever built this place originally had built it to last. Except for the dust and age of the equipment the place looked like it closed yesterday. There was no obvious leaks or cracks or anything that looked seriously amiss. The 1950's looking facade outside might be faded and cracking but someone had clearly taken care that the inside was maintained.

"Oh my God." Winona whispers. "I think I'm gonna nut."

"What?" I titter.

"Look at this place Sprout!" She says, a contagious excitement shining through every word. "This is even better than the pictures! Wow!" She hurries out into the first bay with her hands on her head in disbelief of what she was seeing. "Ohhh. Dad is gonna be so happy. Holy shit. Holy shit! This is amazing." Even though this had nothing to do with me I was smiling. With all of the secondhand giddiness that I was getting off of the buoyant Winona it was impossible not to. "If even half this stuff works..." Her words trail off as she is overwhelmed by the moment.

"I always wondered what it looked like on the inside." I mutter quietly, starting to feel more comfortable.

Her head snaps to look at the two doors on the north wall. "Come on." She says with long, quick strides in that direction. Setting down my backpack on the near work bench I follow along. She goes through her keys and finds the right one to open the first door. Inside we find a nearly empty storage room. A stack of three mismatched tires the only thing inside besides the shelving.

After a brief perusal we move to the next door which I knew would lead out into the front desk area. Racks and posters of different oil and parts companies line the near and back wall. To our left were the big front windows and main door where the general public would come in and out of and to our right was the service counter. At the far end was a washroom. Behind the counter we find old order pads and receipt books and half a dozen ashtrays. There was a phone jack, a spot for a computer, and a small strong box. The latter Winona opens up to find empty. Behind the counter was another door.

Winona stops and places her hand on the door with a smile. "Here it is. Home sweet home."

"Home?" I say with growing courage. "You're going to live here?"

"All mine." She sighs happily. "My first place of my own." She looks tests the door to find it locked and starts going through the keys again. "The suite isn't big enough for all of us so Mom and Dad are renting in town." She turns the lock and pauses a moment to acknowledge this milestone in her life. "This is it."

The door swings open and Winona flicks on the light. The bare suite was small, just a bachelor pad, with only a closet and a basic washroom leading off of it. The main room would have to act as bedroom, living room and dining room combined. In the northeast corner was a tiny kitchenette that consisted of a counter, two cupboards, sink, mini-fridge, toaster over, and hotplate. Like in the garage bays most of this stuff looked like it might have been as old as Winona and I put together. A single window, boarded of course, faced out the back to look over the pad where I had just fed the cats. It wasn't much. Except for the industrial looking ceiling it could almost pass for a basic hotel room, one from the 70's at least. But Winona couldn't have been happier.

"The bed will go here. My book shelf here." She says as she rushes about the room. "Johnny goes here." She slaps the brick wall. "Computer here." She points to a spot near the 'kitchen'. She hurries to the fridge and cupboards to check them out. "Ha! It comes with a mug." She shows me a cup that had the logo of the old video store that used to serve our town. "A coat of paint, maybe some drapes and a few feminine touches..." She nods approvingly as she looks around. "...this is okay. This will do nicely." Spinning back toward me, her arms out wide, she asks. "Whadya think Sprout?"

Lifted by Winona's excitement at having a place of her own, something I had yet to experience myself, the space around me transforms before my eyes as I look at the dingy room again through new eyes. Through the filter of my imagination I start to picture what it could become with a little care and attention. I could see the natural light pouring in through the window, nice new curtains on either side of it. I see the whole room brightened with a fresh coat of paint and a big area rug right in the middle. I see posters, houseplants, a shelf of books, a spice rack over the counter and a kettle steaming on the hotplate.

"It's wonderful!" I smile and clap. "A real palace. Casa Winona."

Her eyes widen. "Yes. Yes Sprout! Casa Winona! Ha ha ha! I love it."

I giggle happily.

She looks around her shaking her head, still not quite believing her good fortune. "Dreams will come true here. I can FEEL it. Can't you just feel it?" She looks back to me. "Hey, I know you have to get going but...if you've got a minute I sure could use a hand unloading the truck."

With a big goofy grin I say. "I have a minute."

***

Chapter 5

The next thing I knew I was in a headlock! With my cheek pressed hard against her soft tit I feel not a hard knuckled noogie to my skull that I was used to in this position but a playful rustle of my hair. "Ah, you little legend." She lets me go, leaving me flustered and reeling. "Kayla always said you were a sweetheart. I owe ya one Sprout."

"Um...that's okay." I say with a flattered laugh.

"Come on." She says. "Let's get'er done before my folks show up."

As I follow along behind her back through the building I touch my cheek that had just touched her breast and admire her wide hips and big plump butt. She called me a legend. I didn't even know what to do with that. Nobody had called me a legend before. Seeing her here, now, was so different than when I had first met her. Back then she'd been more muted, better behaved. I realize now that she had her public face on then and that this rough around the edges woman that I was meeting now was closer to the real Winona. I don't know if it was because we were alone or simply the excitement of all that was happening in her life right now made polite niceties impossible, either way I was glad to see it.

As she lowers the tailgate of her truck she says. "If you're done staring at my ass we can start hauling."

"Eeep!" She hoists out an overstuffed garbage bag full of what I was guessing was blankets and towels and jams it into my body. My cheeks rapidly warming I hurry away. She caught me checking her out! How embarrassing. Leave it to me to meet a cool girl and then instantly screw it up by perving on her. Maybe sticking around had been a mistake. Winona carries a small nightstand in one hand and a lamp in the other and follows in behind me. When we get to the suite I ask. "Where should I put it."

"Right there in the corner." She says. As I set it down she says. "No, a little to the left."

I slide it to the left and look back. "Here?" What I see is Winona with her arms crossed checking out MY behind!

My blush deepens as she winks at me and says. "Perfect."

With that she heads back out the door. I stand a moment...then hurry along to catch up. "S-so...you and your parents are going to run a garage?"

"Yep." She says. "Dad and I are mechanics. Mom's an accountant, part time." This time when we reach the truck Winona unfastens the ropes and the tarp that had been securing the load.

"That's really cool."

"It's alright." She says in an upbeat manner that told me that it was more than just 'alright'. "I like working with my hands."

"Cool."

"What do you do for work Sprout?"

"Me?" I shuffle uncomfortably. "Nuthin."

She gives me a look. "You don't work? Parents rich or something?"

"Oh! No!" I say. "I mean, I don't have a career, like you. I just...I just have a job. D-down at the grocery. Just for now until I...um..." My words fail me, mostly because I had nothing to say. The truth was I worked at the local grocery store full stop. I was comfortable there and had no concrete intention of ever moving on. But I hated to confess that as people would always look down on me for lacking ambition. "Until I figure things out."

"You like it?"

"It's alright." I echo her previous sentiment.

"Nice." She says as she moves around to the other side to pull the tarp and ropes away. What is revealed is a tightly packed jumble of stuff. I could see a table, a chair, a bed frame, a mattress, a desk broken down into pieces, a bookshelf, and a bevy of boxes, bags and smaller items, an entire material life distilled down to the essentials. From one of her deep pockets she pulls out some work gloves and offers them to me. I take them and put them on. They were loose and the fingertips too long. Goodness, even her hands were bigger than mine. She claps her hands. "Alright, let's do this."

I clap my hands. "Let's do it."

She chuckles and shakes her head. For the next hour Winona and I haul her possessions into the suite, taking the smaller stuff individually and working as team to move the larger items. With her taking lead and me following that lead we actually work quite efficiently together unlike the normal dithering of other moves I'd helped with over my life. As we haul we talk about inanities like the weather, the cats, and how her long drive from her reservation to the coast was. It was wonderful.

We set down her narrow single person mattress and lean it against the wall. "So you come from a reservation?"

"Yeah."

"That means you're an Indian?"

She had just been turning to head toward the door when she stops and slowly looks back at me over her shoulder. "What did you just call me?"

My eyes bug out, my heart seizes, and in an instant I was hyperventilating. "I-I-I...uh..."

"Indian? You think I'm from India?"

"N-native?" I scramble for a better word. "Indigen...mmmm!"

"Excuse me!?" She turns to face me. Walking forward she backs me into the corner of the room and looms large over me.

"I-I-I'm sorry! I...I...I'm sorry."

Her chin rises, her chest puffs forward, and she stretches to her full imposing height. "I...am...LAKOTA!"

"I'm sorry! I-I-I didn't mean..." I huff. "I didn't mean...oh no..."

Her proud bearing cracks into a burst of laughter. Giving my chest two hard pats she laughs. "Dude, I'm fucking with you."

"Huh?"

"Yeah I'm an Indian. What the hell else would I be?"

I turn my face away from her and whisper. "I'm sorry. I-I-I should go."

Her laughter fades when she sees how shaken I am. Her hand comes to rest on my shoulder. "Avery, chill. It's cool. It's all cool." Her eyes narrow and her head tilts slightly to the side as she studies me closely. "You okay Sprout?"

I nod rapidly though my fast, shallow breathes give my nerves away. Try as I might I could not pretend to be okay. "Sorry." I whisper.

She takes a step back...and smiles. "Let's take a break. Can you stick around a little more? We're almost done."

If not for that warm smile I would have run for the door. As it was...I nod. "I can stick around."

"Awesome." She says. Spinning the one dining chair that she owned around she points to it. "Take a load off Sprout." Walking to the kitchen she pulls out the one mug and inspects the inside. "This looks mostly clean." Turning the tap nothing comes out. "Shit." She puts the mug on the counter. "Hold on. I have some water in the truck." Again she points to the chair. "Sit. You take it easy. I'll just be a sec."

As she leaves the room I sheepishly walk forward and take the seat. My hands clasped together I close my eyes and concentrate on slowing my breathing. God that had been so embarrassing. Despite how nice she was being she must think me a basket case by now. I was really starting to like her too. Why oh why did people have to be so hard?

A minute later she is walking back in with a big bottle of water in one hand and a tube in the other. The tube she sets on the edge of the mattress. Walking to me she says. "Put out your hands." I look at her, confused, but I do as she asks. She opens the bottle and dumps a little bit of water into my palms. "Splash your face." I hesitate again as I look down at my wet hands before bringing them to my face. I scrub my face then look back up at her. She passes me the bottle. "Feel better?"

"Uh...yeah." I say.

"Drink." She motions me. I take a sip and swallow. With the water cooling on my face and my throat quenched I really was starting to feel better again. She takes the bottle back and has a long, chugging drink herself. "Ahhhh." She passes me back the bottle.

As I sit quietly, holding the bottle in both of my hands, Winona starts digging around in a box. She soon finds some tape then from the tube pulls out a rolled up poster. On the north wall she unrolls it to reveal a black and white poster of Johnny Cash flipping the bird straight at the camera. I giggle at the unexpected rudeness of the picture.

"Why is he so mad?"

"Who knows." Winona says as she smooths it out and tapes it at the corners. "I like to think he's sayin 'fuck you' to the haters."

"Yeah, I think so too." I take another drink. Swallowing hard I muster my courage. "Sometimes I...I get nervous...around people...that I don't know well. Sometimes it gets too much." I even surprise myself with that over-sharing confession, but I felt that she deserved an explanation for her kindness. "Sorry about that Winona."

"It's cool Avery." She strolls over to lean back and rest her back against the wall. She takes off her glasses and slides them in the front pocket of her overalls. "We've all got our shit to deal with, right?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah." She takes the bottle from me again for another drink.

"Lakota." I say softly just to feel the new word in my mouth.

"That's me."

"I never knew a Lakota before. It sounds...cool."

"I think so." She says. "And I think you're pretty cool for a white boy."

I shake my head. "I'm really not."

With a chuckle and a little slap to my shoulder she quips. "Dude, you are never gonna get any pussy with an attitude like that."

"Pfff."

"Be proud of who you are Sprout." She nods to the poster. "And fuck the haters."

"Fuck the haters." I say with an unintentionally girlish titter.

"Ha ha!" She gives me a rough shake. "Ready Sprout?"

I nod eagerly and pull the work gloves back on. "I'm ready."

She lifts me to my feet and swats my bum. "Then lets gooo!"

Before I even knew what was happening I was running back to the truck and laughing like an idiot the whole way. I might have felt silly had Winona not been right behind me doing the same thing.

***

Chapter 6

Moving with upbeat energy it doesn't take long before Winona and I have the truck bed emptied out. While it was only a truck load it was already enough to make the small suite look mostly full.

"Damn this one's heavy." I say as I set down the last box. "What's in it?"

"Hm?" She looks over. "Oh, game books."

"Heavy game books." I say. "Is that all?"

"Nah. There's some more delicate things in the cab. I'll get them later." Winona says as she drags her stout wooden dresser into the closet. "I can't thank you enough Avery."

"I...I can go get them." I offer. "I'll be careful."

She looks at me a moment then shrugs. "Well thanks again. It's unlocked."

"I'm on it!" I say, grateful for this excuse to hang around a bit longer.

As I walk back out to her truck my is mind abuzz with a feeling I hadn't felt in a very long time. Winona wasn't at all what I though she was. She was kind. She was funny. And oh my goodness was she sexy! I had been so wrong about her. It made me wonder how many other things I might have been wrong about? I open the passenger door of the truck to find the seat and floor carefully stacked with a computer, a monitor, and two boxes. Deciding the tower was the most valuable thing here I choose it first and carefully carry it back to the suite.

When I get back Winona was pulling clothes from out of a bag and either hanging them in the closet or folding them up to put the items in the dresser. Spinning around with a long sleeveless blue dress hanging from a hanger in her hand she holds it up to her body and asks. "What do you think?"

I set down the computer on the table. Walking closer I say. "It's wonderful."

"Ya think?" She says looking down on it. "I'm not sure blue is my color." Flipping the dress around she reaches out and holds against me! Holding the hanger near my collar bone so that it draped down over my body she looks me up and down. "Now on you...pa-pow! Blue is definitely your thing. Those eyes of yours just pop."

I giggle and blush furiously. "Pa-pow?"

"Pa-pow." She says, turning back to hang the dress in the closet.

I hurry back to the truck feeling ever more jubilant. I liked this girl. I really liked her. Everything was going so well, I just prayed I didn't screw this up. I could hear my grandpa's voice echo through my memory. 'Start small. Don't come on too strong. Just be yourself Avery.' That was easy for him to say. Everybody liked grandpa.