"Have you called Deacon O'Connor today to see if he needs anything?" Lucy Kennedy sang out to her daughter who was watching TV in the living room while she finished up the breakfast dishes. "When he was doing the collection at church yesterday it looked like his knee was giving him trouble, didn't you think so?"
"He always limps like that," Heidi responded, a smile forming as she thought of the old guy who had the whole parish convinced that he was feeble, and while he might not be able to run a marathon or anything he was far from handicapped, and nobody in the world knew that better than Heidi. "I'm calling him now."
"Deacon O'Connor?" Heidi said after the old guy picked up the phone at his end. "This is Heidi Kennedy. My Mom wants to know if you need anything at the store. I think she's tired of me hanging around the house and wants to get rid of me."
"Heidi!" her mother scolded from the doorway as she dried her hands and looked at her pride and joy scrunched in the chair.
"Hello Heidi," purred the elderly man in response. "I was hoping to hear from you today."
"Just butter?" Heidi answered in response to nothing the old man had said.
"I can think of something else I need honey," John O'Connor chuckled. "It's something with flaming red hair, perky titties and a big red bush between those sweet thighs. Can you deliver that?"
"I'll ask Mom," Heidi giggled as the Deacon told her to hush, knowing she was playing with him.
"No problem Deacon O'Connor," Heidi said as she stifled a chuckle while the familiar response to the elder's deep voice ran through her. "It'll take me about a half hour. Okay?"
"Mmmm... it's already pretty hot out. Bet you'll have worked up a sweat by the time you get here," Deacon O'Connor predicted. "Can't wait."
"Okay. Bye," Heidi answered and killed the phone, slipping it in her shorts pocket as she stood up and told her mother, "Deacon needs butter."
"You're a sweet girl to help him out like you do. There's a special place in heaven for people like you," her mother predicted. "But didn't you get him butter last week though?"
"Um - he baked cookies for the Sunday School kids," Heidi mumbled.
"You okay honey? Your face is flushed," Heidi's mother asked as she went by on her way to hop on her bike and pedal into town.
"Maybe I'm going through menopause like you," the girl kidded.
"18 year old girls don't go through menopause," her mother replied in missing the attempt at humor. "Now it's nice that you do things for Deacon O'Connor but don't get underfoot."
'He likes me to play rummy a lot of the time so I end up sticking around," Heidi explained. "I can't say no, and besides, there's nothing else to do around here and he's a nice man. See you later."
As Heidi hoped on her 10 speed and whizzed into town for the butter that wasn't needed the teen ground herself into the bike seat and pedaled hard down the gravel road, the tingling increasing as she flew into town.
***
The tall silver haired man stood at the front door and peeked out the curtains, leaning on the cane that he used mostly as a prop as he waited for his little friend to arrive, his free hand massaging himself through his baggy trousers as he waited.
"Anticipation," the church usher sang off-key to himself as he waited for the neighbor girl to arrive, and just like clockwork he saw Heidi with her red hair flying behind her as she glided towards his house, her ever-present smile as bright as the sun that beat down on her as she put her kickstand down.
"Here's your butter Deacon," Heidi chirped loudly, just in case any of his neighbors were minding his business.
"Thank you dear," he said as she held the door open for her. "Come in and let me give you a little something for your trouble."
"Little?" Heidi giggled as she came inside the modest place. "I never got anything little here."