Yle's Porch

These are not "Stand alone" Chapters. I suggest reading from the beginning.

Part six of eight: No birds this time

This story is the product of a diseased and febrile mind. As such, it is fiction. Having said that; All my stories are true, even the ones I make up.

Copyright 2007 L_D_Darrow

I wish to thank Wolv_Project for taking the time to edit my offering. All mistakes are mine solely, whether planed or not.

*

Two years have gone by. Every month or more Olive and Candy write to me. The first, only days after leaving here. They said they very nearly turned around when they read my note less than an hour from here. They may have, I have no way of knowing. Still I continued to receive their letters so I must have had some effect on them. They continually accuse me of spoiling them on other men.

I'm sure there have been others though. I certainly haven't been totally alone. That winter Cindy and I began a romance that died by summer. Then in fall flared up for a couple of months. I just can't share a girl with other men.

I answered the mail I got from Olive and Candy, and occasionally wrote to them when I was upset or lonely. They have been spending a lot of time in upper Canada, freezeing, or so they have told me. I can't imagine any man on an expedition allowing that to happen to either of them.

As the time moved me into October I realized there had been no letter from either of them in almost two months. I wrote to them, to tell them of a new romance that I had started. I kept the letter short as any fabrication should be. Then I set out on a survey of the local night life to see if that romance could be found.

As it turned out, it wasn't where I looked. She was setting in front of my turnoff with a flat tire. She had tried to change it. There was a full moon out, and she should have been able change it and be on her way, but she couldn't get the lug nuts loose.

I had been out on my Friday night survey, it was around 9 or 10. I saw the car from far up the road, it blocked access into my gate. I could have driven through the drainage ditch and gone around. I stopped first to see if anyone was around. She was, hiding behind her car.

I said "Relax, I can either help you, Or I'll drive around to get into my place. Your call."

I stayed about ten feet away as I talked. She held the tire iron in her left hand, not exactly threatening me.

"How do I know this is your place?" She said.

I walked to the gate and unlocked it. "It's your move." I said.

She was trying to find excuses now. "It's a full moon out. How do I know you aren't a weir-wolf or something?"

Even from ten feet away she was attractive, in her jeans and blouse. "I do seem to feel an urge to howl a little. I'll give you a moment to make up your mind." I couldn't help but notice how her hair glowed in the moonlight, blond it would have to be.

I got in my truck and drove through the ditch and through the gate. I got out and put on hand on the gate like I was going to close it. "Your move."

She said. "I-I don't know." She was wringing her hands on the iron, nervously.

I said. "Okay, the bars will be shutting down, there will be some cars along soon." Then I closed the gate and started to lock it.

"Wait." She said. "Will you help me?"

I opened the gate again. "Ok." Then in an official voice. "Miss, put down the tire iron and step slowly away from the car."

She laughed and did that. I tried the iron and saw the problem. The iron just rotated off the nut. It was too worn or the wrong one, to take the nuts loose. There were things I could have tried if there was no other choice. But I had some other ideas. "I'll have to go and get tools to take these loose."

I headed for my truck.

"Wait!" She said looking at a car approaching. The car slowed as it got close but kept going. "Can I go with you?"

"Put your spare back in the trunk and make sure the car is locked." I didn't offer to help her. She put the tire away and checked all four doors.

Before she got in my truck she said. "Promise you won't hurt me?"

I could see now she was nearly as tall as I. Her loose clothing hinted at a pleasing figure.

"No. This is real life. You take your chances just like I do."

"I-I could walk home from here." She was looking straight at me, almost a challenge.

"If you would rather, I could take you to the park, you can get a mechanic in the morning to fix your car."

"H-How do you know I live in the park?" She unconsciously stepped back from my truck.

"You just confirmed it. But it is the only place within walking distance."

"Oh." She nibbled on her lower lip for a few moments. "Maybe you should take me home. I want to trust you but I can't."

"I understand. I'll take you to the park."

She slowly got in and I turned around, back through the ditch, and down the road.

"Would you have really left me there?" I heard her say.

"No. I would have called for a Sheriff or a wrecker for you."

I pulled into the park and she directed me to a small Toyota Mini camper.

"That looks cramped." I said as she got out.

"It's home. Thanks." She said simply.

I waited as she walked away. She started feeling her pockets. "Shit!" I heard.

She came back and leaned in the passenger window. "Could you turn on the cab light?"

I did and watched her look on the seat and floor. "Shit." She said despondently.

"No keys?" I asked.

"I think I left them in the trunk. I remember laying them down when I got out the tire."

"Do you have a spare key on your RV or car?" I Asked.

"No." She started to cry.

I shut my truck off, and guided her to a concrete table to sit. I sat on the opposite side, Offering her no comfort other than my presence.

After a bit she said. "Thank you... God I don't even know your name."

It was almost a question. "Kyle."

"Thank you Kyle, I'm Bonnie." She was rubbing her forehead with the tips of her fingers.

I held out my hand. "Pleased to meet you Bonnie."

She briefly squeezed my hand. Not a handshake. I waited, my elbows on the table top.

"You're going to force me to ask you help aren't you?" She said as it became evident I wasn't going to say more. She was looking off into the night.

"You are safe enough here. It's not comfortable, and it will be cold by morning. Then the office will open and you can get help. I on the other hand can only offer the use of my home. I am not a locksmith, I could not open your trunk without damaging it. So I have few safe options to offer you."

"Oh. I hadn't thought it out." She lay her head on her arms, on the table.

"Bonnie, I am at as much risk from you as you are from me. Even if you came to my bed willingly tonight. Tomorrow you could yell

rape

and it would be messy for me."

"I see, so I am some what safe from you unless you hide my body somewhere." I could almost see her grin, I heard it in her voice.

I spoke after a few moments. "True. You could leave a note somewhere on your RV stating where you are and protect your self a little better."

It was thin, but I needed to give her some way to give in gracefully.

"And my car?" She followed me back to my truck.

"It should be fine there, I don't molest cars."

"Okay, do you have something I could write on?"

"Yes." I handed her a note pad and a pen.

"Kyle, may I sleep on your couch tonight?"

"Yes, and I have a variety of refreshments and food, and a bathroom also. I usually sit up late on my screened in porch and enjoy the night air."

After shoving a note through the barely open driver's window of her RV. She said. "I'm ready to go if you are."

I drove passed her car, through the ditch and locked the gate behind us. I drove slowly with just no lights on, the desert was so bright. She said nothing, just looked. I parked by the house and invited her up the steps.

I unlocked the inner door and said. "The bathroom's there, are you hungry or thirsty?"

"Yes, I'll be right back."

I started a light midnight snack for us, guessing at what she might like. She was a while in the bathroom, but soon reappeared.

"I... My purse is in my car. I found some tampons in the bathroom. If it's okay with you."

"Yes of course. They were left behind sometime ago. There are cold drinks in the 'frig. Take what you would like. Go a head and look around. I know female nature. You will find things that have been left by others. I'll even answer questions later, on the porch."

We settled in to eat on the porch, there was a nice breeze flowing past.

"I read that framed note in your front room." She said, spooning up the soup I had heated.

"Is that a question?" I broke off a chunk of the Italian bread, it was starting to get too dry.

"Could you tell me a little about it. I'm actually burning to know. That's not the normal

Dear John,

letter I've learned to expect." She had finished the soup, and was spreading the margarine on the last piece of bread.

"It might take a while to tell." I wiped off my face, done with the meal.

"I don't have anywhere to be for a while." She said.

"Ok, can I get you an other tea? Feel free to interrupt any time. It started here on this porch..."

I told her the whole story, from Kate, up to the last letter I wrote to the girls. We had switched to beer, she brought them out the last trip.

"Why did you write them that. I saw no evidence of a lover here now."

She didn't seem to realize she had told me she had looked. "It took me two years to realize I probably would never see them again. You can't go back to that kind of friendship, people change as they grow. I concluded that it was time to let go."

"Do you have a picture of them I could see?" She asked softly.

"Are you comfortable with computers?"

"Oh yes."

"The laptop's on my desk, I'll get another beer and come back out here, you can look at what they left me. All the pictures were taken by them. I had nothing to do with any of them, other then being there. Look in My pictures, there's two folders, Kate and The Girls. I'll warn you, they are graphic."

"I think I HAVE to see them now." She said, she finished her beer, and we went inside. She asked for another beer, as she turned on the computer.

I lay back on the lounge, reflecting that it had done me good to tell the story to a complete stranger. I heard an "Oh, my!" Later followed by an "Oh! God!" After that there was silence for some time. I heard the laptop's lid close, with a tiny "click." She didn't come out for a while, when she did she brought another round of beer with her. She didn't look at me, and lay back in the lounge. The moon was going down behind the mountains, and it was getting dark out. I waited for her to speak, if she would.

I was lightly dozing when she asked. "How... Why do you keep pictures of Kate? After all she did to you?"

"I didn't know they were there for a while, on the computer. Olive probably had them in her data files she got from Kate. I know they weren't there after Kate left. I didn't have this computer then. They were pictures of the old Kate. The one I had fallen in love with. Now they are just old memories, and don't really have a hold on me. I am glad that Olive transferred them."

I got up to use the bathroom, she was still on the porch and drained her can as I came back by the window. I restocked the 'frig and asked. "Do you want another?" Before I went back out.

"Just one more, then I'd better stop."

I lay back down, it was just starlight out now, and very quiet.

Bonnie said just above a whisper. "I love it here, there's just a faint noise from the wind in the screen. The city is never quiet, there is always a low rumble at least. The first two nights I couldn't sleep because it was so quiet. Now I dread going back."

I asked quietly. "What are you running from Bonnie?" At first, I didn't think she would answer.

From out of the dark she said, "An affair, with a man I didn't know was married."

I didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. Several minutes later.

"Kyle, I'm getting cold and sleepy."

"Of course, I'm sorry. I'll get you some blankets for the couch, it's really quite comfortable."

We went in side, she was having problems standing straight. I made up the couch, it wasn't a fold out, just a couch, she lay down still dressed and seemed comfortable. I asked. "Do you want the night lights left on?"

"Maybe you'd better, g'nite"

"Good night Bonnie."

I lay down and thought the situation over, but didn't really know enough to do more then speculate. I heard her stirring out front and then there was silence. A long while later I was just starting to doze when I heard her come down the hall to the bathroom. The toilet flushed and she came out. I knew she was standing in my doorway. She quietly came to the bed and sat on it. The hall night lights had showed she had taken her jeans, blouse and bra off. She lay down on top of the sheet that was covering me. I pulled a blanket up for her and she clung to me with the sheet for protection, crying silently.