It didn't bother me at all when the construction crews started clearing the land for the new water treatment facility next to the house that Bobby and I had rented out in the country. It was boring out there with Bobby gone all day with his college classes and his part time job. I would have worked too, but my daddy was helping us out financially, and one of his conditions was that he didn't want me to work. Daddy had good intentions, but he was old fashioned in his thinking. I think he wanted me to concentrate on giving him a grandchild, and Bobby and I were doing the best we could in that area. I would have been willing to do a lot more in that area if Bobby had been home more, but there wasn't anything I could do about that.
There was a big shady porch on that old house, and I would sit there sometimes and watch, as the men cut the trees, and then came in with their bulldozers and started pushing dirt around.
One day, when I was inside washing the breakfast dishes, I heard a knock on the door. I looked out the window and recognized the big red pickup truck that I often saw on the construction site. I figured it was the foreman's truck, because the men would get off the equipment when he came by, and he would point this way and that while he was talking to them showing them what he wanted them to do next.
I had never seen him up close, but when I went and opened the door, I saw that he was a
handsome looking man. He was about over six feet tall with a muscular build, a deep tan and thick black hair. He looked embarrassed standing there at the door with his hard hat in his hands.
He apologized for bothering me, and he said he had forgotten to fill up the big water cooler on his truck before coming out to the job site, and he was wondering if I had an outside faucet he could use to get some water. I walked outside with him, and showed him the water spigot out by the well house. I told him he was welcome to use it anytime.
He told me his name was Walter, and I said my name is Janie. I watched him as he filled up his water coolers, and then he said it was nice to meet me, and drove back over to the construction site.
A couple of days later he came back. I was sitting on the porch this time. I motioned for him to go on back to the water spigot, and he gave me a big grin. After he loaded up his water, he walked up to the porch and asked me if I wanted to see something interesting. I asked him what it was, and he said for me to come with him and I would find out. He had me look over into the back of his pickup. There was a wire cage there with a huge rattlesnake in it. I hate snakes, and when it hissed at me, I screamed and jumped back right into Walter. If he hadn't caught me, I would have fallen on my butt, and he started laughing so hard that tears were running down his eyes. I got mad at him then, and yelled at him to take his damn truck and snake and water and get the hell away from me. Then I ran inside the house.
I could still hear Walter laughing as he got into his truck. By then I wasn't quite so mad anymore. In fact, the main thing I was thinking about was what it felt like when I fell back into him with his big hands holding me around the waist. It was a funny mix of feelings.
He did come back, the very next day, and knocked on the door. I opened the door partially, and asked him what he wanted. He said he was very sorry for his behavior the day before, and he wanted to make it up to me. I asked him how he planned to do that, and he said he didn't know. He asked me what he could do to get me to forgive him.
On the spur of the moment, I thought of something that I had been wanting to do anyway. I told Walter that I would like to ride on one of those big bulldozers. He thought about it for a moment, and said that he could arrange it. He said it would have to be sometime after hours though, because of the safety regulations. Sure enough, that afternoon when the men left, Walter drove up and asked me if I was ready.
That was one of the evenings when Bobby worked late, so I said sure. I couldn't believe how big the machine was when I got up close to it. The tracks were as high as my head. I asked Walter how I was supposed to get up there. Without answering, he put his arms on my waist and picked me up as easy as anything, and put me up on the tracks. Then he walked around and came up the ladder on the back of the bulldozer. I could have got mad about that too, but my heart just wasn't in it, mainly because I enjoyed the way he put me up there.
The seat of the bulldozer wasn't wide enough for both of us, but it was deep enough for Walter to scoot back and let me sit in front of him. The loud noise of the motor, and the vibration of the chair frightened me, and I put a hand on each of his legs to have something to hold on to.
After a few minutes, I got used to it, and Walter showed me how to turn the thing by pulling on the levers. It was really something to feel in control of something that powerful. It was also exciting to be pressed back tightly against Walter whose legs were squeezing me to hold me in place.
When Walter dropped me off, I told him that he was forgiven now, and as long as he didn't bring any more snakes, he could come by whenever he wanted. I asked him to wait a minute before he left, and I ran inside and poured him a big glass of lemonade from the fridge and took it back out to him.
I told Bobby about Walter coming over and getting water, and that I thought he was a really nice man. Bobby asked me if any of the construction workers had bothered me, and I said that Walter told them to stay away from here. He said that was a good thing, and it made him feel better knowing that the foreman was watching out for me.
A few days later we had a bad storm front come in. It rained hard all night, and it was still pouring down when Walter drove up around 10 in the morning. I saw him running up toward the house, and I stepped out on the porch to meet him. There was some excitement in his voice as he told me that the creek was rising, and it looked like the road going up to the bridge was going to wash out. The only thing on this side of the bridge was our house and the construction site.
He said he would take me into town if I wanted to go. I told him I didn't care whether the road washed out or not, except for the fact that Bobby might be stuck in town, but I didn't know anybody there, and I felt safer staying here. I told Walter than he better hurry though so he wouldn't get stuck. He said he couldn't go off and leave all the construction equipment. He said he might have to move some of the equipment to higher ground.