Tragedy to Joy

Copyright 2011 by madengineer3

I was emotionally at my lowest point. It was a late October evening and it was cold with a slow drizzle of rain and mist. I had decided that I needed to get out of my house for a while.

Up until ten months ago my life had been almost ideallic. Then the accident happened. My wife and kids died when a drunk idiot crashed his three quarter ton pickup truck into them, head on. A month or so after the funerals I started to visit the bar where I had met my wife. I wasn't out to get plastered, I just wanted to be around old friends.

Anyway, the combination of this cold damp Monday evening, and the things on my mind, left me feeling down in the dumps. I left the bar early and started walking for the public parking lot I use. (I don't want my transportation banged up by someone who was drunk.) I was part of the way there when a scrawny young woman stepped into my path.

"Ten bucks for a blow job, mister?"

My mind was spinning. Why would anyone offer to do that for so little money?

"No, thank you. Not tonight."

"Please, mister, I'm desperate for money for food. I can survive without shelter but it's been two days since I have had a meal."

"Tell you what; follow me back to the bar and I'll buy you some food."

"You're joking right?"

"No, I'm dead serious."

As we started walking it was obvious that the woman had real trouble with her legs. We made our way back to the bar and I asked my friend, who is the owner and bartender, if he could whip up something to eat for the young woman. He agreed and ten minutes later a plate of canned ravioli and Italian bread with butter was on the table along with a cup of hot chocolate. She bowed her head for half a minute and then started to eat.

The next ten minutes were somewhat silent since the gal was eating so intently. Her odor indicated that she had not had bathing facilities available for a while. As she started to slow down I started to ask some questions.

"How come you were out there without food and without shelter? Don't you have a family?"

"I had my dad. He was my only relative. We weren't rich but we got by. My dad got laid off and was driving us to a place where he said that there was work that he could do. We got this far. At a gas station I got out to use the women's toilet. While I was in the toilet a drunk woman drove into the gas station at full street speed. The cops said that she was doing about thirty miles an hour and caught my dad between our car and hers. He was dead before the ambulance got there. Our car caught fire and was destroyed. Everybody was concerned about my dad and missed seeing me. That was about four months ago. It's been rough since then."

"What made you think of selling your body to get food?"

"I don't know this village. Everyone here seems to be white and I'm black, somewhat crippled, and as you can see my face is scarred. I was afraid to approach anyone."

"You know, I still don't know your name. My name is Jim Weaver and I know what it is like to loose people who are important to you."

"My name is Sharon Jones. Who have you lost?"

"Ten months ago a drunk driver killed my wife and daughter, they....." Tears overtook me at this point..........."I'm sorry I lost it there for a second.... Anyway I am now living alone in what used to be our home, but it can't really be a home without other people there."

She looked very sad. She looked at me and asked:

"Do you know of anyplace I could find shelter to get out of this cold, damp weather?"

I don't know why I was so thick skulled. I should have thought of it before this point, but I hadn't.

"How about I let you use my daughter's old room? It has a lock on the inside of the door so that you would feel safe."

She looked at me like she was trying to evaluate me. I'm sure she was asking herself "Is this guy safe?". She looked around and noticed the bartender who I had talked to.

She said "please excuse me for a minute" and got up. She went over to talk to the bartender. They moved over to a more private spot and they talked for a couple of minutes. Then, she came back and sat down with a pensive look on her face.

After about two or three minutes she said "What strings are attached? What do you want me to do for the use of the room?"

I hadn't even thought of that. "How are you at cooking and cleaning?"

"Pretty good. While my mom was alive she made sure that I learned to keep a house. I'm a bit slow due to my physical condition but I do good work."

"O.K. how about this. You take care of the house and go to church with me and your pay will be room and board, basic medical care and an allowance. Does that sound fair?"

"I'd like to try that. Right now I'm cold all the way through."

I paid for the food and led Sharon to my car. My car isn't new, but it is in excellent condition and clean.

"You have a nice car!"

"Thanks, I like it. It isn't fancy but it runs well and doesn't take a lot of gasoline to run. I live about ten miles out of town. By the time we reach the main road we should have some heat to help you start to dry out."

The rest of the trip was in silence. When we pulled into the yard I drove the car directly into the attached garage. I had her wait in the car until I had lights on in the garage and in the kitchen. Then I led her into the house.

"This is beautiful. I've never been in a house like this."

"Here, let me take your coat."

When her coat was off it was obvious that she hadn't had any way to wash her clothes or herself for quite some time.

"Let me show you my daughter Ashley's room. I think her clothes will fit you, even if they may be a bit big on you. Oh, I built a bathroom just for Ashley. That way she could take all the time she needed to get ready for things. If you want, when you get into the room lock the door, find some clothes that you think would be O.K. for you, then take a hot bath and put on the clean clothes. We can wash your old clothes tomorrow.

If you are hungry when you're re-dressed come on out and I'll fix you some food. If you are just tired, climb into Ashley's bed and sleep. There is no special wake up time. Sleep as long as you want. I'll be out here in the living room until you either drop your dirty clothes outside the door and go to sleep or you come out either dressed or in a robe and slippers ready for food."

She looked at me a bit strangely but nodded her head, entered the room and locked the door.

It was over half an hour later that her arm appeared outside the door and dropped her dirty clothes on the floor. I called in "Good Night!" and headed to my bedroom. I locked my door. I shouldn't admit it but having a young woman in the house gave me a real boner. I went into the master bathroom, took a hot shower and took care of the hard-on and then went to bed.

The next morning, Tuesday, I was up at my usual time. I put the coffee on and made French toast and Gionelli's country sausage. The French toast and sausage went into the oven to keep them warm, along with a shallow dish of water to keep them from drying out.

I set two places at the table and then sat down and had a cup of coffee and picked up the book I had been reading. I became lost in the book when I suddenly heard a "Good Morning.".

There stood Sharon in my daughter's sweat pants and shirt. She had Sharon's "bunny slippers" on.

"And Good morning to you. Pull up a chair in front of that place setting and I'll get the food on the table. I hope you like French toast and sausage."

She had a big smile on her face and said, "I love French toast and sausage."

When the plates had been loaded with food, I sat back down and returned thanks for the food. "Lord, we thank you for the food and blessings you have provided. Father please bless the food to us and us to your service; amen."

Before I could say anything Sharon asked "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Do you really try to live like a Christian or do you just use the name?"

"I believe and try to live as a Christian. Sometimes is isn't very easy though."

"I know. I've prayed for forgiveness daily for what I had to do to get food." At this she blushed.

"So, how did you sleep last night, Sharon?"

"Very well. This is the first time I have truly felt warm for over a week. What are you going to do today?"

"First I should give you a tour of the house, then I have to pay some attention to my small business. I run the business out of a room that has been set up as an office. Most of what I do can be done without any help from other people."

"What kind of business is it?"

"Mostly I try to see if a customer's design for a product is safe and will be reliable. I also look over other people's engineering problems and try to help them solve those problems. Every now and then I come up with a new gadget that can be patented. I let my attorney handle that part of the work."

"That sounds complicated."

"It can be. What did your father do?"

"He was a machinist. He could make amazing things out of metal."

By this point we had finished our breakfast.

Sharon told me, "After you show me the house I'll get the dishes washed. Do you have any books that I could read?"

"You bet!"

I showed her the house and then we went to the room I use as a den. Two of the walls had floor to ceiling bookshelves and one wall held the fireplace and my gun safe. The book shelves were almost totally full of books as well as some pictures of my family.

Sharon's eyes went wide when she saw the books. I told her to help herself after the dishes were done. Then I went into my office and started to work.

By that Saturday evening Sharon had established a good routine. She was beginning to show that she was relaxing. I could still catch her checking my actions out of the corner of her eyes. She didn't fully trust me yet and I could understand that.

Sunday morning we got dressed in clean, comfortable clothes and went to my church. There were about eighty people in the congregation that day. The variety of people seemed to take Sharon by surprise. Our pastor is black, the organist is oriental, the choir was a mixture of black, oriental, Caucasian, Hispanic, and native American. The service itself ran for about an hour and a half and then we went to the fellowship hall for coffee hour.

Many of the people there came over to meet Sharon. Sharon was quite taken with the fact that a fair portion of our church membership was black.

After church I took Sharon to my favorite restaurant. I told her she could order whatever she wanted from the menu. We had a leisurely meal and then went home.

Sharon had more questions when we got into our comfortable, non-church, clothes.

"Can you afford to go out to a restaurant like that? The prices were awfully high."

"Yes, but I have a confession to make. I own that restaurant. I have some members of my church run it for me. I have made my investments carefully so that they provide good equity as well as a good return on investment."

"You are a strange man, Mr. Weaver! You live as if you are a normal person yet you have significant wealth. You have a heart that reaches out to the needy even though you are not needy."

"I'm afraid that you don't quite understand my position, Sharon. By the way, please call me Jim. That mister stuff gets old in a hurry. I am a steward, a manager, of the gifts that I have been given. My Lord demanded that I reach out to those who are in need. Only if I take care of the resources under my control can I help people. As far as significant wealth, while I was alone after loosing my family I felt as if I had nothing of value. Your being here has helped me a bit with that problem. You are not yet like family but your presence takes the lonely gloom off this house. There is an old saying that 'No man is an island, no man stands alone' and that is the truth."

"May I ask you a personal question Jim?"

"I won't guarantee an answer, but you are free to ask."

"This is awkward, and personal; but I am very curious. I've been with you for about a week now. In that time I haven't seen you seek female companionship outside and you haven't made a pass at me (which I can understand due to my scarred face). How can you live with no sex life? Please don't be angry with me but the question is driving me to distraction."

I chuckled and Sharon gave me a very strange look.

"Sharon, I can assure you that I have a normal sex drive like most men. You probably know that men and women tend to relieve those stresses by masturbation. I don't go seeking a person to just have sex with because I believe that sexual intercourse is to be saved for marriage. To indicate how much I believe that I should tell you that I have not had sexual relations since my wife died. I plan on staying that way until I marry. As far as not making a pass at you I will only say two things. One, I will treat you as a lady as long as you are in my house. That means that I will not make sexual advances on you and I will not try to take advantage of you. Two, in the last week I have started to see the real person behind your outward appearances and I like what I see very much. Oh, and there is a third thing, my sister-in-law happens to be black. I was brought up to be "color blind".

Sharon's face showed surprise. At first she just sat there. Then she said something that meant a lot to me.

"While I was growing up my father told me the same basic things that you just said. I thought he was just trying to say those things because he thought he was supposed to. But, now that I hear them from you I am beginning to believe them. I know that my father was a very good man, I believe that you are like him."

"Thank you for that compliment Sharon. Let me ask you a question now. What had you wanted to do with your life before the accident took your father away from you?"

"I wanted to be a nurse or an RPA (registered physicians assistant) but the finances weren't available."

"Do you still want to be a nurse or RPA?"

"Yes, but that dream seems to be very far away right now."

"There is a lot of hard work to earn either of those degrees. Do you think you are up to it?"

"I sure would like to try. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, maybe just idle curiosity. I'll get back to you later in the week if I have other questions. I've got to go in and do some work now. You can just relax and do whatever you feel like; within reason."

When I said "within reason" she had a beautiful smile on her face.

I got to work.

The following week I made several phone calls.

We have a good community college in our town. It has a degree transfer program that allows many of its majors to transfer to a good four year college. Nursing is one of their possible majors. I checked out the required admission criteria and was relatively sure that Sharon could meet them.

I also called a friend from church. He owns a local Chrysler dealership and sometimes has very nice cars come in. I told him that I was probably going to be buying a car for someone and wanted four wheel drive, good road clearance, a good safety record, and reliability. He indicated that he had a Jeep Compass that had just come in. It still had the lifetime warranty on the power train. I told him to hold the car for me.

Now all I had to do is see if Sharon had come up with an answer to her interest in schooling. When I asked her about schooling she indicated that she was not afraid of work and wanted to try schooling if it was possible. I then told her that I would be taking her out to eat dinner the next day (Thursday).

**********

I took Sharon back to the restaurant where we had eaten the previous Sunday. This time I decided to use the small private conference room. It's a nice room and can seat up to twenty or so people, but it isn't used on a normal basis. We only use that room for me or for reserved meetings.

Sharon was surprised when we were seated. The carpet and furniture were not what one would expect to find in a restaurant. They were more like you would find in the executive lounge of a large corporation.

"Jim, why are we eating in here?"

"I want to discuss some things with you. I figured it would be easier without the distraction of other voices, music, waiters, and such. You don't mind, do you?"

"No ... no, it just looks awfully fancy here."

I chuckled, we ordered our food and I started to speak.

"Since you would like to become an nurse and or an RPA I would like to make a deal with you. If you need to, take all the time you need to think this through. If you are willing to put the work into getting the degree of your choice and keep an overall average of at least 2.75 out of 5.00 I will pay for your education, no strings attached. I will also provide you with dependable transportation to get you too and from school. If you end up with less than a 2.00 average I will stop paying for the schooling. Can you live with those terms?"

Sharon had tears in her eyes, got up and ran around the table and hugged me. She couldn't stop saying yes!

I told her that we would be registering her in the community college and getting her car the following day.

*********

Six years have now passed.

*********

Sharon, as it turned out, was much smarter than I had realized. She was a natural when it came to medicine. She worked very hard and was now a licensed RPA. The local hospital wanted her on staff for the emergency room. She accepted.

I knew Sharon's work schedule like the back of my hand. I always tried to have a good evening meal ready for her at the end of her shift. That meant that the evening meal might be at six in the morning or at midnight. In any case I had it ready and sat down and ate with her when she came in. I had been faithfully doing this for the last six months. It was now mid October and getting colder outside.

I didn't know it yet, but the schedule was about to be badly broken. On this particular day I expected Sharon home at midnight. As usual she had phoned just before she left the hospital. By twelve thirty I was beginning to worry a bit. By one a.m. I was very concerned. I was startled by the knock on his front door at one twenty. When I answered the door there was a friend of mine, Bob, who was a deputy sheriff who happened to go to our church.

"Mornin' Jim."

"Come on in Bob. Your visit doesn't have anything to do with Sharon's being late tonight, does it?"

"I'm afraid so, Jim. This is the hospital's pay day. A couple of large, really nasty, thugs thought that they could use her money better than she could. She didn't want to let them have it. They beat her pretty badly. She's in surgery right now and is expected to survive. We found her check with at least one of the thug's prints, in her blood, on it. I just didn't want to have you hear it on the news or by telephone. By the way, the only reason she will survive is that one of our routine patrols saw the fight in process and stopped it. Deputy June recognized the thugs. They are bad news! The idiots tried to run and the deputy used her patrol car to stop them. They both have broken legs from where the bumper hit them."

"Come on into the kitchen, Bob. There is a pot of relatively fresh coffee and I think I can find some of Bolton's wonderful doughnuts for us."

"Thanks Jim, I could use that right about now."

"Did the hospital say when she should be out of surgery?"

"No, only that she would spend the next few days in intensive care so that they can keep an eye on her. Those two sick bastards were carrying eighteen inch pry bars as well as hunting knives. They were packing firearms but hadn't used them. If the deputy that got them had stepped out of the car they would have hurt her or probably gotten away. They've tried to attack deputies in the past. June thought discretion was the better part of valor and used the car to take them down. As shift commander I agree with her completely. We know these two thugs. We believe, but cannot prove, that they have killed witnesses in the past, but this time their luck ran out. We got part of the attack and their faces and weapons on the dash cam. Legally they are toast."