My Little Gem

For some reason, this story has become an absolute pleasure to write. I wanted to share this latest part with you, as it follows the first two chapters very closely. For those that haven't read the first two chapters, I hope you'll do so, just to familiarize youself. Hopefully, it will be worth your time. Thank you so much for spending time with my stories!

****

I went inside my apartment and closed the door before I read the note. It wasn't much, being a short receipt. It was from Gem. It told me to read my text message. My phone was still on the charger where I'd left it before visiting Jenny. I thumbed it up.

'Hey, tried to call. Livy borrowed her mom's car,

so we stopped by. I'm sorry we missed you and I

feel bad about what happened. If you want to talk,

just text this number, it's Livy's, and she will

reach me. Mama took my phone away. :(

PS, don't call her until after school's out! '

Never a dull moment all of a sudden. I'd heard someone knocking on a door while I was at Jenny's and had I had my phone, I would have..I don't know what I would have done. All I knew was that I was really, really tired and tomorrow was a work day, with night school after.

****

"Hello Theron," she cooed sweetly.

"Um, how'd you know it was-"

"Oh, Gem put your number in my phone in case you called. So, how are you?"

It was Tuesday, me inbound from the quarry, tired and dusty. The days were still hot, especially sitting at red lights. That's when I decided to call Livy's phone. I just wanted to know what happened and that Gem was alright. That's the background.

"I'm good. Sorry I wasn't around when y'all stopped by the other night. You're Livy?"

"I'm sorry, what? The bus driver just went over this awful bump! He does it every day! You were sorry?"

"I said I was sorry to miss you y'all and you're Livy, right?"

"Yep, that's me. Gem's sitting with me. Here she is, hold on!"

I could hear student chatter and brakes squeaking, then Gem was on.

"Hello you!"

"Hey, been a while. You Ok?"

"I guess so. There's a lot to tell but I'd rather not talk about it right now, if you know what I mean." She giggled, "Lots and lots of ears. Are you home?"

"Give it ten minutes or so."

"Ok. Gimme thirty. I'll call you."

****

I'd cleaned up and changed into my gym shorts and a fresh T-shirt while my leftovers were warming. Harvey, my squirrel, came by looking for popcorn, which I now stocked, thanks to Jenny.

I really didn't know what to say or think. Vicky having a copy of my sext with Gem had serious implications, if she decided to put it out there. I mean, how stupid could I be? Imagine her sending it to my boss, my instructors, my buddies, yeesh!

It just came down to being young, dumb and full of come. I sighed mentally. It would be best to just do what Vicky demanded, take the hint and let history begin on the whole thing. But then I thought about Gem and how she-"

My phone buzzed.

She said simply, "I got her to erase it."

Progress. "Did she send it to anyone?"

"She says she didn't, but wanted to after you laughed at her. Did you?"

Relief, "What, laugh? I might have grinned at her for calling the kettle black and being all indignant."

A brief pause, then, "Mmm, I think she didn't realize she had feelings for you in her own strange way. I mean, she NEVER acted jealous of you, 'till now. That's all it is. Jealousy. Dot dot dot."

Harvey was back for more popcorn. "Yeah, it's news to me too." I pushed the screen open and fed the squirrel. Down on the street I saw Jenny, in her scrubs, getting Jimmy out of her car. I sighed. "So, I just wanted to ask-"

"Theron, can we come over?"

"Now?"

"Uh-huh, soon anyway. Livy's going to her grandmother's in town and can drop me by, unless..Theron, I'm so embarrassed! I just want to see you. Is that Ok?"

I gave the squirrel more bits and closed the screen. On the street, Jenny was talking to an older couple on the sidewalk, nodding at Jimmy, who had discovered pine cones.

Life just wasn't being simple now. The big head said I needed to study and not think about personal stuff. But, it's not always in charge, so my mouth said, "Sure. Come on by." We rang off, leaving me to think about Gem's phone and who might be looking at it. At least one problem had been addressed, but I had a problem with thinking of Vicky other than as just a party girl. She'd had her say. If she wanted to show out, she'd could do it on someone else's dime, not mine.

****

I was desperately trying to understand my study notes from the night before when I heard her knock. Or rather, them. Here they were, spare, coltish Gem, all brown eyes, long straight hair along with her friend. After a tight clinging hug, she introduced her friend.

I took Livy's hand in mine, bringing her in. Stepping back, I realized that she was a good bit taller than Gem, which really meant she was more normal size girl than the little fawn I'd been carousing with.

She looked kinda Cherokee, at least she had a great tan, long black hair, with blue eyes flanking a pert nose and a big wide smile. I liked her turquoise earrings. She was long, limber of frame, average up top, but her bottom would've had me following her through a grocery store. Long legs went up to tight (defining!) linen shorts, under an athletic dept. T-shirt. Open brown sandals showed nice feet, and painted toe nails. She gave me the once over too. In fact she really looked at me to the point of being obvious, until she half waved, "Guys, I'm going to run over to Gram's house and drop off her stuff. I shouldn't be too long." She nodded at me with just a flicker of a smile on her way out.

As the door shut, Gem followed me into the kitchen. Her jeans were snug on her little tail, so cute, even cuter, me knowing what was inside. Her pink peasant top had little red kangaroos on it, all cavorting and happy. I could see her points were free and firm underneath, being impervious to gravity.

She kissed my ear as I was bent down retrieving the tea pitcher from the fridge. "I've missed you," she whispered. She licked my ear lobe. "Miss me?"

I shivered, "Yeah. Been a strange coupla weeks, I know that. Does Livy know our, uh, details?"

"Oh yes, absolutely! That's why I recorded you doing, you know, the thing. I mean that was SO hot! I was out on the porch, sharing it to her after we hung up and I'd finished cleaning the kitchen. I didn't know Mama was looking out the window at what I was doing. Caught! In the red! Arrrgh!"

(!!!) Do you ever have a time when you don't know which thought to think first? I was a mental scrapyard, TMI.

I slowly crawled out of the rubble. "Ahh. Ok, the girl that was just here has seen me doing myself?" Numbly, I reached down the ice cube tray. "And you're good with that?"

Gem nodded, eyes shining. "She's my bestie, Theron. She'd share with me, if something like that happened to her."

"So the circle keeps widening, plus your mother has seen the video."

She shrugged, "I'm so sorry Theron. Really, I am. That's how Vicki knew, Mama told her." Gem looked up at me, her nose wrinkling as she giggled again. "I don't think Mama was real proud of seeing it at all. She's going to give my phone back next week, but she said I'd best not be doing that anymore or I'll be totin' the bill, her words." She smiled enigmatically, rubbing her foot on the table leg.

We took our sweet teas to the living room. The night had cooled and a slight breeze pushed through the curtains, bringing with it the muted sounds of traffic and normal life.

Gem trailed her fingers across the old console stereo. "You have a nice place, Theron? Did Vicky come here a lot?"

"Some. More so after my roommate moved out." I sighed, "I think a lot of the time she was just escaping her life. I don't think she knows where she wants to be."

Gem nodded, "We used to be a real family. I mean, even on post it was fun growing up. Mama used to laugh and make clothes and casseroles. Then Daddy got deployed a third time and didn't come back to us." She looked upwards the way girls do to keep from crying. "We were just planets around his star and it all just fell apart. Vicky was really Daddy's girl. She's never been the same. You just have to look over her, Theron."

I nodded, embarrassed of my words and unwittingly stepping in it. I crossed over to the window and took her in my arms, saying nothing. The moon had risen enough to be seen over the courtyard at the end of the street and a man was unloading groceries from his trunk across the way.

She looked up at me, brown eyes swimming. "You probably need to look over me too."

I leaned over, gently meeting her lips as the old console quietly sang something old, real old.

She cleared her throat with a 'hmm' on the end of it. "I'm sorry about getting maudlin, probably not what you expected." She sipped her tea. "Anyway, I've got you all to myself and here I am being-"

"More than one dimensional?" I gave her a squeeze, "We are what happens to us and left to our own devices, it's always a crap shoot."

We piled up on my old couch. Gem slipped off her sandals and tucked in under my arm.

She squeezed my arm. "Aren't you the philosopher tonight? I must tell you though.."

WLW broke for a commercial, fading in here and there, static, who remembers AM?

"Theron. Hey, What century are you in? Do you really listen to Opry?"

My turn to laugh, "The tuner knob's broken. It is what it is. But I think you want to be kissed, don't you?"

A flash grin, "You're getting warmer, sir. We might even.."

My mouth covered hers. She rose up, giving as good as she got, a dance of tongues, a reaffirment of longing and a confirmation that what was done in the past's fleeting moment was not an aberration. I touched her jaw as we kissed, as if to coax her delighted response.

She patted my shoulder gently, as if she understood my intention.

We broke to gain air, her brown eyes level and calm as the moon shone in, lighting her hair, the flaring of her nostrils and the purposeful jut of her chin. She reached down to hold my tumescence, the uncontrollable result of our embrace. Very quietly she spoke, yet in a firm voice.

"Theron. I will give myself to you. Not tonight and not in a rush. But it will be you."

And as the old stereo lumbered back into life featuring another oldie, she laid bare my needfulness and took me into her mouth as I visited the pretties under that peasant blouse. It didn't take long. It never does when you want it to last.

And as I was frozen in the moment's rapture, I got a glimpse, just a glimpse of life's portent. And as my life's renewing essence flew out of me, I realized how much I was yet to know. The gift given from above, which waxes eternal, finally ebbed, leaving me with my shorts at my knees and my issue on my belly. I watched my vision return and questing lucidity, strove to speak.

Her finger halted my lips. Gently, "No, that's the one you wanted, I could tell. Talk later, float for now."

We sat, side by side after she retrieved a hand towel from the kitchen.

"Do you want your tea?" Gem shook the glass, the melting cubes tinkling.

I slaked myself, gasping is a thirsty business. I brought her mouth to mine, tasting myself and tasting us. It was the end's repair, more poignant by her whisper in my ear.

"Livy's outside. I shouldn't make her wait much longer.."

At the door, we held both hands in each of ours, a better understanding before embracing, then parting wordlessly.

****

A deluge broke upon us at midweek. The skies just opened up and poured without letup. The foreman broke us out at noon and sent home all the loader operators. At least I got paid 'till five o'clock, could have been worse. But for hours, I had sat, staring out at the rain from the windshield of my huge bucket dump, the Caterpillar engine idling with no trucks to load. I thought about a lot of things, about the sisters, Livy, Jenny, my pickup needing an alignment and of course, geology.

A fellow operator and I talked back and forth on the two way. He was the same age as me, but married with twins, another in the oven. He always seemed cheerful enough. As we bounced down the gravel road to the highway, I reflected on his welcome home today versus the silent apartment awaiting me. But, there's always a twist..

Jenny parked behind me in her battered Toyota. She beeped and waved through her fogged up windshield. We met up in the foyer, me soaked, her not so much. Women have enough sense to use an umbrella. We chatted as we leafed through our junk mail.

"Howdy stranger. I think you're supposed to wash your clothes when you're not wearing them!"

"Don't I know it!" I saw she wasn't wearing her usual scrubs, "So where's Jimmy?"

"Being doted on at daycare. My mom's going to pick him up for me and keep him overnight."

"Ok. So what are you going to do with yourself?" I discovered my electric bill hidden amongst the sales fliers.

"I might have to work this evening. New client. My last one was moved into assisted living. I'll miss her, she was sweet. So how've you been?"

"Dry, until today. Other'n that, about the same. I'm gonna go change. Good luck with the new gig." My work boots made squishy sounds as I climbed the staircase.

Jenny ascended with me. "Hey, get done and stop by if you want. I've got enough vegetable soup to share. I made it over the weekend."

I hung my clothes on the shower rod, watching them drip. I didn't have what it took to go down to the basement and use a dryer. Besides, I only had maybe two quarters left in the laundry jar. That vegetable soup was sounding better and better.

I'd laid my phone out on the vanity. It rang, skating on the marble, first time in days. It was Vicky, at least it was the car wash number where she cashiered. I grinned, thinking about how busy she probably wasn't.

But I didn't answer. My mind was smooth. I didn't need a riling.

****

The door was slightly ajar at apartment 22. I smelled the wonderful aroma before I even tapped on the door.

She opened, "There you are!" She glanced at my hair, "Soup's ready, Hmm, come in the bathroom with me, we'll dry your hair."

I sat on the commode seat as she dried and styled my hair. I didn't mind. After all, there were those amazing boobies, as she called them, on her skinny frame and incidentally at eye level. She had a comb in her mouth as she blew and fluffed, and glasses pushed back above her forehead.

"I oo is tuff evy ay, usta enny ay." She blew some more, layering in the back.

I chuckled, "That's the worst come on line I've ever heard."

She took the comb out, stylist she. "Annie loved to have her hair done. So every morning after her tea that's what we did." A critical gaze, "There, that'll do. See what you think."

Adonis I ain't, but she'd made a go of it anyway. We adjourned to the eat in kitchen. She had cafe curtains over the window, looking out at the gray and the blowing rain. I thought about Harvey and hoped he was in his hut, safe and dry. I thought about the girls riding that bumpy school bus later today and wondered if the weather would ease.

A distant train horn came to me from the switchyards, where men worked regardless of what the heavens heap. Then a steaming bowl appeared under my nose, followed in rapid order with a wedge of cornbread. We ate and talked and my insides warmed. Perhaps some might define contentment as a full belly, good company and no immediate plans.

Jenny had a knack of making things easy. I mean, she could make a ladderback chair comfortable. We sprawled on her couch, feet up on an ottoman and visited. She was curious about me and repaid me with highlights from her past. I liked the way she touched my arm when she made a point. As we talked and laughed together, I wondered if this was a sense of what old marrieds achieve.

Jimmy was a late in life baby. The father wasn't in the picture. I learned that I'm very poor at judging a woman's age. Jenny had recently turned 38.

Time flew by and the rains eased, although the winds still roared, rattling the windows, and the skies stayed gray. Jenny had to get ready for work and I went home to my silent apartment to make sure the oak outside my window still stood.

I hadn't realized that Vicky had left a message when she called. I watched school kids returning home from my eyrie as they walked, bent against the wind and fleetingly thought of Gem. The message cued up.

Then, "Hey. It's me. Look, I'm sorry I said what I said. That shit just flew all over me and it still bothers me some, Ok?" Vicky paused and I could hear the rain pounding the metal roof at the car wash. "I just didn't realize you actually mattered this much. I wanted you to know that..I guess that's all. Bye."

I found some more quarters in my night stand, enough to do a couple of loads, so baskets in hand, I went downstairs, into the bowels of the building. Here it was quiet, just the hum of the machines, the smell of detergent long since seeped into the surroundings. I sat with my head lolled back on an old leather chair, donated probably when Reagan was President and tried to think about nothing for a little while.

My phone rang as I was coming up the backstairs with my laundry. I set them down at the landing. Jenny, "Hey, the agency didn't call." It came out in a rush, "So..my night's kinda free since Mom's got Jimmy..I'm sure you're busy though, but.." I sensed she was nervous.

"I'm sorry, I have all this laundry to fold. I doubt I'll EVER get it all done."

She chuckled, "That's about the goofiest invitation I've EVER gotten. Help is on the way."

I heard her laughing as we rang off.

****

I left the door open and plopped the baskets on the couch. Presently, Jenny yoo-hooed, stepping in carrying a bowl.

"Hidy-ho! I brought popcorn in case you need a little something. Oh gosh, you can't just leave clothes thrown in a basket, Theron! They'll get all wrinkled and creased."

Me, sheepish, "Um, normally I do better. Guess I was just daydreaming, not paying any mind to things." We started folding.

"You know, you didn't ask about my husband."

I shook out a shirt, "Are you still married?"

"Mmm. On the fence, kinda. His parents send money to help out with Jimmy, which is good. I don't know what they'd do if I signed the final paperwork. I stopped going to see Keith a year ago. I mean, I look back now and don't know why I ever went." She stretched my jeans, muttering, "I might have to iron these for you."

"Keith's the husband? Where is he?" I glanced over and saw her face cloud up. "Oh hey, never mind, too much nose, sorry-"

"No, no, it's not that, Theron. I just remember that on my thirty sixth birthday, I learned I was finally pregnant and the court sentenced Keith and took him away. It was..not the best birthday. It's embarrassing." Jenny hugged a towel to her chest and took a deep breath.

She felt like a bird, almost weightless as I pulled her into my arms, "Hey, hey now.."

"He liked to drink. I begged him to ease up or go to meetings. He had a good job. Our new house, it was a pretty yellow house we had, Theron. And then, one night, he ran into somebody and they-well, they didn't make it."

My lethargic console chose that moment to lumber into life after some hours of silence with a song from Buck Owens and the Buckaroos.

We both stared at it.

"Theron, does that thing even know what century it's in?"

I shrugged, reaching for the underwear stack, " Did break the mood. It comes on when WLW powers up. Otherwise, not so much."

She shook her head. "Does the TV work?"

I pointed at the rabbit ears, "Depends."

She stood on tippy toes and kissed my neck. "Theron, what century are YOU in, hmm?"

I really hadn't noticed what Jenny was wearing until we were putting things in my closet. She caught my look and grinned. "You like my domestic mode? I didn't think to change. After six, I think comfy." She had on a blue duster and honest to goodness bunny slippers. She pulled out some sweatpants, "Here, put these on for me."