Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.
You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.
Click here
I caught some flak from the other guys online after Kat left as they thought I had scared her off. A couple of them even left themselves in a bit of a snit. It was their loss however as a few minutes later Kat did come back online, and when I ran the mapping tool again, I saw that she had indeed moved over to the terminal I suggested. She made it a point to thank me for the suggestion and seemed to single me out for ongoing conversation that evening. Now you have to understand this was all open at the time there were no private messages, so anything typed in was visible to everyone else. I was sure to inform Kat of this early on and I guess she took it to heart.
Kat turned out to be quite capable of holding her own with this group of computer nerds. They were all brazenly flirting with her and trying to get her to describe herself... what she was wearing, what kinds of foods she liked, music, movies, TV shows, what classes she was taking etc. I just kind of let it ride and didn't press her for information like the others. Of course, with so many people on at the same time I think there were perhaps eleven or twelve at that time, conversations soon overlapped and got confusing, like they would in person at say a noisy party perhaps.
For those of us used to the chaos it was nothing new but for someone getting on for the first time it was a little overwhelming. Kat seemed to be doing okay however. None the less she said she had to go as she had to drive home, and it was getting late. It would seem she was another commuter student like me rather than an on-campus resident. I said good night and just as my parents always remind me to "Take care and be careful." This got me a thank you. I didn't think anything about it I mean it was just a reflex really.
Things kind of settled down to the normal silliness after Kat left and it wasn't long that I myself had to beg pardon and say my goodbyes. I still lived at home on the farm after all and it was getting late. My parents were well used to my coming in late in the wee hours of the night by now due to work and study, but I still had to sleep some too. I gathered up my books in my book bag and told my pals I'd see them later. I rode the elevator down to the lobby and then went out to the side of the tower where my pickup was parked.
When I started my truck, I saw that a US Mail tractor Trailer had Patterson drive blocked off at White Hall classroom building, no doubt delivering mail to the campus post office in the basement of that building. With a sigh I backed out to Administration Drive and went around the loop to exit out onto South Limestone. As I drove around the loop I passed by the Business and Economics building. I thought back to earlier and speaking with the new girl Kat on "Phone". While I was thinking about this it registered in my brain that I saw a car parked in front of the B&E building with its hood open and a pair of legs sticking out in the drive. Of course, I stopped rather than risk hitting whoever it was climbing all over their engine. I rolled down my window and asked if they were okay.
The slender legs kicked a couple of times and then they began inching back out over the fender until a decidedly feminine backside and waist came into view and the feet touched the ground. The girl that rotated around from under the hood brushed a stray handful of long curly hair out of her face before giving me a grimace and meeting my eyes. Maybe it was my predisposed funk and reminiscing, maybe it was a cruel twist of fate or an even crueler trick by some higher power but the face looking back at me stunned me to the point of gibberish. The irreverent loose curly long hair, the grease smudge on her cheek or the smirking half grin or grimace along with those eyes made my heart stop beating. Or it felt like it anyway. My gut froze and my blood ran cold as I gasped.
They say that when you are in mourning your heart rules your brain and even your senses. You look for the one you loved in every face and listen for them in every voice etc. I had never really paid that much heed but at this moment it would certainly explain my reaction upon seeing this girl. I know full well that it was not her... this girl's eyes were different, they were an odd hazel color somewhere between brown and grey... her face... was different... her hair, okay her hair was similar in its wildness but still there was something... something indescribable maybe that struck me to my core. I knew this girl... somehow... some way. I felt an immediate connection with her and as much as I know how hokey that sounds it was true. I honestly think that she felt it too as she stammered as if uncertain for a moment or two as well. Yeah, it was only a few heartbeats in time seconds at most but seeing one another face to face in the moment in time seemed more like a day or even a week really.
She was the first to snap out of this perplexing phenomenon. Brushing the hair out of her face and inadvertently spreading the smudge of grease a little further across her pale white cheek. I watched it all as if it were in slow motion. I was a little taken aback and even confused when she spoke.
"Hello." She said. A simple greeting, a simple word, yet the sound of her voice was almost musical to my ears. That one word carried like a symphony to my ears and my mind. After an awkward pause I guess I finally snapped back into the present. I shook my head and cleared my throat.
"Um... hi... Uh, are you having problems... with your car?" I stammered so eloquently. I'm amazed to this day that she didn't merely burst out laughing at me even then.
"Yeah... I've got a loose battery terminal connection it seems like every time I hit a bump it comes off my battery. I was just trying to put it back on when I dropped my flashlight. I was trying to fish it back out when you drove up." She said with a touch of aggravation and a hint of embarrassment.
"Did you get it, the flashlight that is?" I asked. I was answered with another puff of air as she blew a few stray strands of hair out of her face... an act that sent a chill down my spine as it was so achingly familiar and similar to someone else. I recovered much more quickly this time as she spoke.
"No. It's just out of reach, my arms are just a little too short without climbing down into the engine compartment anyway. I almost did that already." She said with another puff of air.
"Let me give it a shot." I said as I turned off my truck and set the parking brake and turned on my flashers since I was in the middle of the drive. I got out of my truck and walked to the front of her car, an older model Ford Crown Victoria LTD.
"What is this, a '72 model?" I asked her absently.
"Pretty close, it's a '74 actually. My mom gave it to me when I started school here at the University. It's seen better days but it's generally reliable... battery cable withstanding anyway." She informed me.
As I leaned over the grill, I could see the errant flashlight still on down in the engine compartment sitting on top of what must be one of the motor mounts wedged between the frame and the engine. I took off my windbreaker and then leaned over and snaked my arm down along the side of the motor until my fingers were just brushing the flashlight. I couldn't quite get my fingers around it but I had a thought that if I bumped it out from where it was wedged the flashlight would fall to the ground under the car. So that's what I did. With a clunk the flashlight hit the ground and rolled to come to rest just behind the driver side front tire. With a sigh of relief, the girl leaned over and picked it up and shined it into the engine compartment as I snaked my arm back out from around the motor.
"Oh, thank you... I'm sorry I didn't even get your name." She said as I cleared the motor and straightened back up.
"Jim" I offered as I took the rag she handed me and tried to wipe off the grease that was now smudged and staining my right hand and arm.
"Oh hi... Jim... and Thank you, really." She said smiling at me. I could have stood there all night looking at that smile and into those eyes. In the dark I couldn't even tell exactly what color they were, but they were alive and vibrant and almost shining with some sort of inner light. Again, that familiar tug yanked on my heart strings and I had to swallow a lump in my throat before I spoke again.
"Um... why don't you shine the light in here again and I'll see if I can reconnect your battery cable for you... uh..." I paused realizing that though I had offered up my own name I still didn't know what hers was. Of course, this was quickly corrected as she told me.
"Kathie... with an eye ee. Actually, it's Katherine but I hate that and only my mother and grandmother call me that so it's just Kathie." She gushed almost a little embarrassed it thought for some reason... but how would I know that? I had only literally just met this girl. This Kathie... with an eye ee.
"Well Kathie... with an eye ee, it looks like the clamp on your battery cable is too loose. Let me get a pair of pliers out of my truck and I'll tighten it up for you so it doesn't come off the next time you hit a bump or something." I said with a shy smile.
"That'd be great! Thanks... Jim." She said happily as if not believing her good luck. I walked over to my truck and climbed in so I could lean over and get into my glove box. I pulled out a pair of pliers and I knew I would need something else to hold the base end of the bolt in the clamp, so I grabbed a flat head screwdriver as well. I slid back out of my truck and walked to the side of the fender closest to her car's battery. With Kathie with an eye ee holding the errant flashlight shining on the battery I slipped the cable connector back over the battery post and tapped it down snuggly with the pair of pliers. I then wedged the flat head screwdriver under one of the flats on the base of the bolt going through the clamp and using the pliers I turned the nut down tightening the clamp securely onto the battery post.
With the cable secured I told Kathie with an eye ee to give it a shot and see if her car would start. She smiled and got in and turned the engine over. It whirred a couple of times then fired right up and ran strong and true. I closed her hood for her and wiped my hands off a little more before handing her the rag as she leaned out her driver side window.
"I don't know how to thank you enough... Jim. That was really nice of you to help." She said smiling up at me.
"Oh, it was nothing really. I've needed help before. I'm just paying it forward, I guess. Besides, I couldn't let anyone be stranded this late at night, especially a pretty girl." I said with a sheepish grin knowing that I was probably blushing but thankful that it was dimly lit out as we were quite a way from the nearest streetlamp.
"Well thank you again all the same..." she was saying when I noticed that we were both suddenly bathed in light. A very bright light... a spotlight in fact. Turning to see or try to see the source of the light I saw the blue light begin to flash somewhere behind the source of the spotlight. "Uh oh..." I heard Kathie with an eye ee mutter to my side.
"Is there a problem here?" Came a stern commanding voice from somewhere behind the blinding light.
"Just a little battery problem, but it's all fixed now" I heard Kathie say to my right and I nodded agreeing with her.
"Well okay then, you two need to move along, you're blocking the drive." I heard as the spotlight went out and I found I was still momentarily blinded... seeing a ghost image of the light yet.
"I guess I'd better get on home myself. Nice to meet you Kathie... with an eye ee." I said with a touch of sadness and a reluctance to part so soon... there was just something about her that made me want to learn more.
"Maybe we'll see each other around sometime... Jim." She said with a curious smile... or maybe it was my dazzled vision still messing with me.
"Yeah, maybe. I'm around campus in the evenings usually working on assignments or in study group... it's possible we might run into each other. Take care and be careful."
"What did you say?" Kathie asked with a curious alert expression on her face.
"Uh... take care... and be careful..." I said puzzled as to how this could be of any interest to anyone. "It's just something that I say... I guess because I've always heard it from my folks whenever I was leaving to go somewhere." I added.
"In that case... thanks and I think we might very well see each other around... goodnight Frodov." Kathie said as she smiled sweetly and then put the car in gear and drove away past the still parked campus police car with its lights still flashing.
I stood there rooted to the ground as I watched her taillights grow smaller and then vanish around the bed of the drive. How did she know my "Phone" handle? I wondered.
"Just whose car had the battery problem anyway?" I heard the campus police officer ask a little annoyed that I was still blocking the drive.
"Sorry... I'm moving." I said and walked back over and climbed in my truck and started it back up, put it in gear and drove away.
My mind was in a clouded muddled fog as I drove through campus and then downtown to make my way out to the interstate and then on towards home and the farm. It wasn't until I was about halfway home that I finally put two and two together. Kathie... with an eye ee... was parked outside the B&E building... I had just gotten offline from being on "Phone" with my friends and this new girl "Kat"... who was on a terminal in the B&E building... just a short time before I left to go home. Could this Kathie... with an eye ee be "Kat"?
Once I got home to the farm and parked my truck, I parked my butt on a chair on the back porch and sat back to stare at the stars above. My eyes weren't really seeing the stars however as my mind turned inward and to visions of the girl, I thought would be my entire universe. Yes, there was sadness, but the tears rarely came anymore, only that lonely longing feeling of missing her. I could still hear her infectious laughter, the soft purring quality of her voice when she would speak to me as we held one another. I could see the light and magic and the love in her eyes when she gazed into my own... those endlessly deep light blue green gems with the little gold flecks... God I missed Michelle.
I knew in my heart, and in my mind that there would never truly be another like her. How could there be? Yet this very night I was startled, no I was shaken and stunned even by that familiar look in the eyes of another. A girl that I didn't even know that I had never met before... but I felt... I don't know... a connection of some sort. How is that even possible? Maybe it was just too much to think about right now I surmised. Taking a last long look at the heavens above I said a silent prayer for Michelle and for our beloved Miss Penny, wishing them both all the love in the world and that they were happy wherever they may be. Then I got up and went in the house and soon to bed.
I dreamt that night... I often did after thinking so hard and remembering the ones I loved so dearly. They visited me in my dreams. Usually, it's just flashes of the past, the good times, the feelings of love and joy warming my heart and giving me strength to carry on from day to day. It was like that this night as well... but there was a twist. Mixed in with the more familiar flashes and visions were new ones. It was a face that I had only seen once, with smoky brownish grey eyes... and a smudge of grease on her cheek.
A lot had happened in the two years since I had lost my innocence and my world collapsed. Yes, life goes on, the pain dulls and the trivial day to day matters makes the time pass in its ever-onward passage. Some things remain the same however, friendships, true friendships anyway will remain. Sure, people grow apart as their own lives diverge and they may see less and less of one another but if the love was there to begin with it will never fade. I was reminded of that the next evening as I sat in the parking lot of the Dom's Pizza store I worked at four or five nights a week to help pay for my gas and insurance. It was the very same location I had started at several years ago when I first began classes at the university. It was the place that I was taken in under the wing of several people as an awkward inexperienced and terribly shy teenager fresh out of high school. Sitting there on the tailgate of my pickup truck I was joined by probably one of my dearest and oldest friends.
My truck sagged just a bit on its springs as Jules hopped up and planted her keester on other end of my tailgate.
"Hey Buddy! How you doing?" She asked as she took a pull out of the bottle of beer in her hand. I had been lost in thought I suppose as I was momentarily startled but recovered quickly.
"Hi Jules." I said in greeting and grinned sheepishly as she grinned because I had been startled.
"You look awfully thoughtful there farm boy." She said as she leaned back against the sidewall of my truck bed stretching her right leg out along the tailgate, her foot just shy of brushing my left thigh and hip.
"Yeah... you know... just remembering. It was a hard day yesterday." I said sadly and stared intently at a spot on the parking lot pavement several feet from the back of my truck. My two hands were wrapped around a half empty bottle of Pepsi that was all but forgotten as my mind wandered.
"I know bud... It was hard for me too, but you know, life goes on." She said in a somber voice that resonated with a shared emotional knowing. We both just sat there in silence for a few minutes... Jules taking an occasional pull from her beer. Eventually I pulled myself out of my sad state of reverie and engage with my friend.
"So, tell me about this job you got with the government." I said half turning to face Jules and smiling at her.
"I still can't believe I got the job really but yeah, I'll be working with the environmental protection agency. They're sending me to a school in Illinois for training." She said with her trademark smirk on her face, but I could see in her eyes both excitement and a little trepidation.
"Wow! You're going to be a government agent? Who knew?" I said in a joking tone and grinned at her. "I'll miss you girl." I added and swallowed a lump in my throat but kept the smile on my face. The smirk on Jules' face faltered for a moment as she registered the true emotions, but it was back in a flash before she began talking again.
"Well don't get too used to the idea that I'm gone, I'll be coming back after I complete the schooling, so you'd better stay out of trouble while I'm gone." She said and took another pull of her beer to hide the trembling of her bottom lip. She went on.
"And just so you know, I've got people who know you and will be keeping me informed as to any hi-jinks you might get up to while I'm away." She warned in mock seriousness as she slid off the end of the tailgate to stand in front of me. I simply looked up at her and smiled knowing she was just telling me she loved me and still cared.
"Thanks Jules... I love you too." I said with a lopsided grin knowing that she couldn't bring herself to say it in return and hearing it would cause her to choke up, because she knew it was true. She sucked in her lips in an aggravated grimace as if she were about to say something, but I saw that her eyes got shiny. She swatted the side of my leg with a backhand and turned to walk to her car. She turned her head and growled over her shoulder.
"You kill me Jim... Damn you... Take care bud." She said as she closed her car door and started the engine to drive off.
That night wasn't a study group night but I didn't have to close at Dom's so I had some free time before I should be heading home to the farm for the night. I thought about swinging by campus and getting on the mainframe to play a while on "Phone". I should be going to the library instead and working on a writing assignment for English Comp class. Maybe I could do both, the library has terminal locations too after all. That settled, I hopped off the tailgate and turned to close it before getting in my truck and heading towards campus.
