Andrea Donovan Pt. 04

..."Think I'll call it a night, Brother" Ricky said, draining the last of his beer and standing.

"Good to have you both home, get some sleep Amigo" I said, standing and hugging my little brother.

After Ricky went inside I remained on the swing as I stared off into the darkness and just listened to the Desert. A few minutes later Andrea joined me.

"Brenda go off to bed?" I asked, as Andrea snuggled against me.

"Half hour ago" she replied.

"They've had a long week, with the garage sale and packing everything else. Thanks for working so hard on dinner, it was wonderful and so are you" I said quietly.

"You helped and it was a pleasure, Love" Andrea responded.

"You're a pleasure, honey" I said, pulling her closer.

"Wolfie wouldn't let me put his flea collar on, guess I'm not surprised at that." Andrea mused and changing subjects as she yawned.

"I heard him yowling a few minutes ago and wondered what he was kicking up such a fuss about" I laughed softly.

"He's extremely fastidious about his grooming habits so I think we'll be alright until he permits us to slip one on him. Maybe we could get something from the vet to slip into his food that'll dope him up long enough to put the collar on him, I had a name tag already made for him too" Andrea said, closing eyes and leaning into me.

"He's fastidious about his grooming because there's a lady kit-cat in the house now. I wonder if he's ever seen another cat before, much less a female" I asked.

"He has now and I think he senses that she's different, somehow." Andrea mused.

"Yes, he probably senses how dangerous you female cats really are" I said, rubbing my face in Andrea's hair and smelling her jasmine as I closed my eyes.

"Maybe she'll flash her boobs at him, which seems to be a common genre around here" Andrea said dryly.

"Wanna flash me with yours?" I asked.

"No, were not stopped at a traffic light right now, Tim." Andrea said sarcastically.

"Guess I'll have to go to bed without giving the cook, at the Lazy-G ranch, a mustache ride then" I sighed.

Andrea rose to her feet and, taking my hand, helped me to stand now. "Mustache rides at the Lazy-G ranch will never go to waste; you should already know that rule by now, cowboy."

.................................

...Most of the next week was a blur of activity for all of us. My little brother Ricky and I put in some long days shaping the rough pieces of scrap pipe into a coral and digging fence post holes. The ladies closed on the new house that Ricky and Brenda would be moving into but there was still no sign of Vic. Apparently Andrea and Vic talked almost every day but I really didn't keep-up on what the two talked about. I knew that plans could often change and just figured that Vic would get here, whenever he got here, if he ever did. ...After five days of cutting, welding and grinding pipe, Ricky and I had about three quarters of the coral completed.

All the main sections were now done but we still needed to rent a portable cement mixer and fill the post holes with concrete, the gates still needed to be fabricated and I hadn't completed the archway or stables yet. The sections of the coral that were actually standing now really didn't look like much to brag about at the moment, the rusty pipe coral actually seemed to give the ranch a run-down look but I knew that once the stables and coral were completed and painted nicely that everything would begin to take shape and give the appearance and feeling of home. It was funny how a simple coat of paint could tie a project all together into something presentable and Andrea had already selected a nice antique white for the stables and a lovely turquoise for the coral. The turquoise would also be used on the window and door frames of the stables, almost like Gingerbread frosting. I believed that the coral and stables would be something that my wife could really take pride in once everything was finally completed.

...I walked over and shut off the welder and turned off the valves on the tanks while Ricky was still grinding on a weld that he'd just completed. Ricky now switched off the grinder and looked up at me upon hearing the welder shut down.

"Time to clock-out, it's beer-thirty, Brother" I said pulling off my leather gloves.

"Works for me, Tim" Ricky replied.

"How 'bout a cold one?" I asked, walking toward the cooler.

"Thought you'd never ask" Ricky replied as he began collecting his tools.

I handed Ricky a beer and opened a can of soda for myself.

"Want to walk over and check out the Texaco now?" I asked nodding my head in the general direction.

"Love to" Ricky replied taking a long pull on his beer.

"You're going to remove the floor hoists?" Ricky asked as we began walking.

"Oh- that reminds me, hang on a minute" I said as I turned back toward the Nissan and grabbed my camera.

"I'm going to grab another beer, Tim" Ricky replied, slinging his empty can into the garbage barrel.

"You inhaled that one, Brother" I joked.

"Probably should have started with a bottle of water first -- too late now" Ricky said opening the second beer.

"...Yeah, the floor hoists have to go, Brother. I worked under them when I was at Fred's Volkswagen Repair in Anchorage back in the early eighties but I never did get used to standing under a damn car. Andrea doesn't like the idea either so I promised her that the hoists would go away" I said as we began walking again.

"They're nice for doing brake work and tire rotations but yeah, I hear ya, Tim" Ricky nodded.

"They take up a lot of floor space and seems like you're always tripping over the damn things, besides, we're not going to open a shop for outside work anyway, Ricky" I reasoned.

"What's the name of this place, again?" Ricky asked.

"The Desert Belle Texaco, it was the only filling station, for miles, once" I answered.

"We should be able to really fix it up nice, Tim" Ricky said sipping his beer.

"I know we can, Brother" I said putting my arm around my little brother.

It was the first time that Ricky had actually seen the station up close, since his and Brenda's arrival to Arizona City that week. Once inside the building, I gave Ricky a quick run-down on the station's history and how Andrea had presented the little station to me as a gift. Realistically I think it had been a gift to Ricky and I both. I took several photos of the floor hoists before Ricky and I examined the rest of the building for structural soundness. I also carefully removed the ancient calendar from the wall which was dated with 1970 on its cover. The calendar showed a three dimensional view of the station with a very pretty girl dressed in a Texaco cheerleader uniform as she cleaned the windshields of a nineteen forty seven Buick Roadmaster convertible which was powder blue in color. I was hoping that someone could restore the photo into a large poster for posterity sake. I also wanted to create a similar photo depicting Andrea with her thirty four Ford coup in front of the little Texaco.

"The storage tanks were above ground and went away years ago, Ricky, Andrea made sure that there aren't any outstanding issues with the EPA, before she bought the place. ...This is the one thing that does scare me a little though, I think we're going to have problems here" I said pointing to the sagging wall between the office and foyer where the rain had puddle earlier in the week.

"That's a load bearing wall alright, Tim, but there are steel columns there behind the fiberboard ...looks like one, two ...three columns. Probably at worst, we'll just have to replace a few roof beams ...and this old rotten crap will have to go, of course." Ricky said shaking the wall's rotted fiberboard with his fingers.

"You're right, Ricky, there are steel columns there" I said standing back and looking more closely toward the wall's ceiling.

My phone alerted me of a text "Someone's in the texaco the gate and door are open".

"The ladies are home now, Ricky" I said as I replied to Andrea's text with "us home soon love u"

Ricky and I locked everything up again and walked the hundred yards back to the ranch now. Arriving home, I quickly posted an ad on the internet within the freebies, offering the floor hoists to anyone willing to come and remove them - complete with photos and the phrase "Must be removed by someone Licensed Bonded and Insured." I added this clause because I didn't want someone screwing around with inadequate equipment and maybe getting hurt; the hoists were large and heavy and were potentially dangerous. ...I really didn't think anyone would want the ancient floor hoists which were of the single ram design and built by a company called Rotary Lift. However, if anyone was willing to pay a reputable demolition company or the equivalent of, to remove the hoists for their own use then it would save Ricky and I a lot of work. It was worth a try I thought, as I pushed the "Post" button for the advertisement.

"Roast beef again, alright, Babe?" Andrea called from the kitchen.

Before I could speak, Andrea answered for me.

"I know, you could eat it every day -- you do eat it every day, why am I asking?" Andrea asked herself.

"Wash up and sit down gentlemen, please" Brenda called from the kitchen.

Ricky and I washed up and sat down at the table few minutes later.

..."The corals are really looking nice, you guys" Andrea said as she served us.

"Thank you" I replied, leaning my head back and looking up at my wife, whereupon I received a kiss for my efforts.

"Why won't you let me do the wire wheeling so I can begin painting, Tim?" Andrea asked me as all of us began to eat.

"Because grinders and wire wheels are carnivores, Andrea" I replied evenly.

"I don't understand, Tim" she replied, looking at me with her fork half way to her mouth.

"They're meat eaters" Ricky interjected, for me.

"They're what?" Andrea asked, confused.

I held up the backs of my hands and reminded Andrea of my scars from years of handling power tools.

"This was an Emergency Room visit, so was this. ...This one was from working on the Peterbilt and this one was from an impact wrench. Here's where I zipped through the skin with a grinder but didn't go to the bone, that time. ...I got eleven stitches here, on this one, Ricky remembers that episode. ...Honey, Ricky and I will get everything ready and then we can all primer and paint together -- they'll be enough painting to last everyone a lifetime, believe me. Besides, wire wheeling rusty pipe is a filthy job anyway, please just be patient and trust me now, Love" I said as I cut into my roast beef and winked at her.

"I understand, Honey, I'm just so excited about Pippi arriving!" Andrea smiled.'

"We all are, Andrea, she's adorable!" Brenda spoke up, smiling.

"My compliments to the chuck wagon crew of the Lazy-G" Ricky suddenly said, with a mouth full of food.

"Thank you, cowboy, you've earned your stake this week, both of you. ...Why don't the two of you take tomorrow off and go play with your toy gas station?" Andrea suggested.

"That's a good idea, Andrea. I posted the hoists, on-line, a few minutes ago too, Honey" I nodded.

"Oh, good" Andrea replied.

The conversation then centered around Ricky and Brenda's new house in Casa Grande. It was a brand new house and located approximately twenty miles from the Lazy-G. Andrea had stated that, when dealing with family, it was good to be within close proximity of each other but not too close. Twenty miles seemed to be the sweet spot, she had said. I don't really think Ricky and I cared where the other lived, within reason, as long as we could spend time together, and provided that the ladies were happy of course. ...The arrival of Pippi Longstocking was the next conversation piece around the dinner table and it almost appeared as if Brenda was starting to become inspired with the prospect of riding some herself. ...Maybe there really was some "cowgirl" deep within the Seattle Native, I now mused as I looked over at her.

My phone rang with a number which I didn't recognize, I answered with speaker so I wouldn't have to stop eating.

"Hello" I said.

"Yeah, you got the floor hoists?" a guy asked roughly.

"Yes" I replied.

"I'll come remove those two lifts for fifteen grand, boss, -- they're a fuckin' bitch to remove and you're going to have used hydraulic oil to deal with and if you don't dispose of it properly the County is going to be up your ass and --" he began now with the phone still on speaker.

I suddenly went from zero to extremely PISSED OFF and could feel blood begin pounding in my ears as I grabbed the phone off the table and yelled into the phone as I stood up and walked briskly out the door.

"- MY WIFE AND FAMILY ARE HERE AND THEY CAN HEAR YOUR BIG FAT MOUTH -- IS THAT REALLY HOW YOU TALK TO PEOPLE? I'VE NEVER EVEN MET YOU AND YOU'RE ALREADY DROPPING F-BOMBS AT ME -- WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU ARROGANT SONOFABITCH!!!!!" I yelled from deep within me into the phone as I shook with instant rage.

The phone suddenly clicked off on the other end.

"Arrogant sonofabitch!" I said as I looked at the phone and shook.

I thought about calling the asshole back and jumping down his throat again but then Andrea came beside me and gently began smoothing my ruffled feathers back into place. I suddenly realized that we were standing on the outside porch; I didn't even remember walking out here.

"Relax Baby, it's alright" she said quietly.

"Just want to rip that mother fucker's face off -- sorry" I said quietly, still shaking with rage.

Andrea calmed me down with quiet words for a few minutes, telling me to breathe deeply; we then went back inside and sat down at the table again.

"...I'm sorry, everyone, I shouldn't have answered the phone at the table. I'm sorry everyone had to be subjected to that nonsense during our meal" I said sincerely.

"Nothing that I haven't heard a million times before in the E.R., Tim" Brenda said nonchalantly.

"Yes but you shouldn't have to listen to that kind of nonsense, Brenda. ...Is that really how people talk to each other now?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Just a windbag, Tim, let it go, Brother" Ricky said.

I finally calmed down and began enjoying the meal again. ...After all of us had finished eating; I then helped Andrea load the dishwasher and kissed her several times within the kitchen, I was in-love with this woman and wanted to kiss her all the time, it seemed. With the dishes loaded into the dishwasher now, all of us sat down within the living room and began watching the movie "The Gauntlet." Andrea was fairly new to Eastwood movies which weren't exactly her genre but she was a good sport and seemed to get some enjoyment from the movie. Yogi was always up for watching a movie with Ricky and Brenda and Stormy just like to cuddle with her Mom or Dad, any excuse was as good as another.

...Earlier that day Stormy and Wolfie had engaged in a slight pissing contest, Stormy on the kitchen table and looking downward, while Wolfie stood on the floor looking up at Stormy as the two of them had tried to out yowl the other with self righteous defiance, it had made all of us laugh until our sides hurt. Animals could be some funny at times, I thought, smiling to myself.

Presently now, Wolfie seemed to grasp that "Movie Time" was quality time for the family and he seemed to be genuinely enjoying the movie time as much as anyone else. As always, he sat on the backrest of the sofa, closest to Andrea, while he constantly glanced from each of us and periodically the movie screen itself. Wolfie was a beautiful cat with large yellow eyes and fur mixed of greys and whites resembling that of a wolf. He had a happy disposition about him and so far none of us had found any evidence of "transgressions" within Andrea's castle. Apparently Wolfie had been using the kitty door whenever he had needed to go potty, which I was grateful for because I genuinely enjoyed having him inside the house with us. Maybe Andrea was right, maybe he had understood more of what she had told him than I had previously believed.

It was the belief of Andrea and me both, that Wolfie had approached us simply out of loneliness. Like all warm blooded creatures he'd simply needed to be loved and to feel part of a family. Andrea often told him that we loved him and this was something that I believed he wholeheartedly understood. Andrea always insisted that a house without animals is not a home at all but just a dwelling, I completely agreed.

Wolfie loved us, I knew, but he still would not permit any of us to pet or handle him yet. Andrea had leaned down and lightly kissed the cat's head once or twice but that was about all he would presently allow. My wife had a natural way with animals it seemed and I had no doubt that even the wild Wolfie would be butter in her hands soon. With Mom it would have been the same, Wolfie would have adored her too.

...Wolfie's bright green flea and tick collar, complete with his silver name tag, was still lying on the table I casually noticed. ...Green would look good on him, I bet.

I sat contentedly watching the movie and just enjoyed the solitude of a good film with family and our pets - my disgust with the earlier phone call, now forgotten. I leaned down and closed my eyes as I ran my face through Andrea's hair and breathed deeply of her jasmine scent, my God, this woman does it for me I thought. ...There really wasn't any way to put a price tag on such an evening as this, and I was presently cuddled with the most beautiful woman in the world - A.J. West the famous model. My God, how did I get here? I wondered in awe.

...Lovisa Donovan had expended a tremendous amount of selfless time and energy over the years in preparing two very raw teenage boys for wives which she knew would eventually come along. Mom had always anticipated two gorgeous women to be in the lives of Ricky and me and here they were. Mom had been right all along, Ricky and I each had a wife now it suddenly dawned on me and we were actually living like "adults" ...this thought almost scared me a little.

...My God, I missed Mom.

Andrea glanced up at me now, she had that look in her eyes again I noticed. ...A bolt of electricity suddenly surged through me as I took a sudden deep breath and we silently held eye contact with each other for a few seconds.

"You're blushing, Love" Andrea said without breaking eye contact with me.

"I'm trying to watch the movie now, A.J. West, and you're distracting me" I replied.

"My name isn't A.J. West and you're still blushing" she replied.

...I somehow sensed my Mother's presence behind me now and felt as if she were smiling with genuine joy in her heart.

I pulled Andrea closer to me and closed my eyes.

"Watch the movie, Baby" I said.

.........................

"...This is nuts, Ricky" I said in frustration as I threw down my styrofoam coffee cup into the trash barrel.

Ricky and I had now been in the process of tearing down the rotted front office wall within the little Texaco station since eleven AM that morning. So far, we had seemingly accomplished nothing for our efforts except the creation of a large mess of wet rotted fiberboard particles upon the floor of the front foyer.

"Tim, let's do this, I'll drill some holes into the fiber board with the hole-saw, where it's dry, then we can back the old Chevy to the front door, run a chain through the foyer and then through the holes that I've drilled. That way we'll just drag down all this crap and out the front door with one fell swoop" Ricky said, squeezing the trigger of the electric hole-saw a few times to emphasize his point.

"I think that's a lot better idea than trying to tear down all this crap by hand, Ricky. ...I'll be back in about ten minutes with the truck and chain then. Anything is better than working like this and I think we can get everything loaded for one single trip to the dump this afternoon too, if we're lucky" I said as I set down my crowbar and turned toward the doorway.