Swinging a sixteen pound splitting axe is damned hard work, but Danny needed the job.
The little 20" chainsaw was sharp and ran good, it had made short work of the huge Fir tree even though as he got to the butt of the thing he had to cut the blocks from both sides because the saw as not long enough.
"100 mile per hour gusts!" The news had said, but now two days later the Sun was out and everything was getting dry again.
Barely 20 years old, Danny was a strapping young man, probably why his phone rang that morning.
Mr. Johnson's big Fir tree was broken right in half about 15 feet off the ground.
Luckily the thing had fallen into his yard rather than on his house.
Cutting up the big tree into firewood was going to be a two day job, and since old man Johnson had offered Danny $300 to do it, that made his day.
Sure, it would have cost probably four times that to hire a professional company but $300 to Danny meant money for parts to fix up his old Chevelle he had been working on.
It ran now, and he could drive it but it was a long ways from pretty since it was three different colors.
Shelly Epperson didn't seem to mind riding in it though. He liked her, besides, she would let him play with her a little bit when they parked after a date.
Danny had been making progress, the first few dates Shelly wore sweaters and a heavy bra that felt like it had wires in it. The last two times she wore a blouse that buttoned up the front and a soft frilly pink bra.
That was cool, he actually got his fingers inside the bra cup and played with her bare nipple a little bit.
On their last date her hand had slid right across the front of his slacks, then she had giggled and pulled her hand back.
Since he had been rolling her nipple just before, he was hard as a rock when she reached down.
He was thinking about that as he split and stacked the blocks of firewood.
Danny had his shirt off, sweating profusely. This was the hard part, splitting the big blocks of wood into usable sections.
The lower blocks were big and really didn't want to split worth a damn. The one he had set on a concrete slab had two big knots right in the middle of it, and he had been belting it for a solid 10 minutes.
Frustrated, Danny swung the hug axe with everything he had. The blade sank in and stuck, he leaned forward and jerked upwards on the handle to get it free, thinking to hell with this. He would just dash home and get the wedge and drive that in, that would do it.
He would have been done by now except for the last few pieces that were being stubborn. He had even given up for awhile and carefully stacked the rest of the wood, old man Johnson had came out and paid him thinking he was about done.
Danny had leaned on the handle to rest for a minute as old man Johnson hopped in his Nash and headed for town.
Then he let fly with that last lick at the block.
Thunk. Nothing.
He jerked upwards on the handle, felt a tug in his right hip. He reached back and rubbed it, feeling a stab of discomfort.
Then it hit him.
The pain was so severe he had to sit down.
Mr. Johnson came back from the store about 20 minutes later, spotted Danny just sitting there.
"What's wrong?" He asked, setting down a jug of milk and a box of pancake mix.
"I think I pulled a muscle." Danny told him.
"Oh, shit. Damn. Come on in the house and let's get you some heat lotion, that works pretty good."
Danny followed him inside, the old man came out of the bathroom and handed him a tube of something. He rubbed it on his hip and back, that helped.
"Better let things just sit for now, no hurry on it." The old man said.
Danny thanked him and went home.
There was no such thing as sleep that night, by morning there was also no such thing as a position that did not hurt.
He called Mr. Johnson to let him know that there was no way in hell he could finish up until his back got better.
"Don't worry about it, I got plenty of wood. Hey, why not go see Mrs. Sykes? She does rubdowns, I bet she can make you feel better."
"Mrs. Sykes? Who is that?" Danny asked.
"She works out of an office over on 8th and main, let me get you her phone number."
"I can't really afford...." Danny started to say.
"On me, hell, I feel bad you got hurt and besides, it's only $50.00. She charges new clients half price the first time."
Danny wrote down the number but was thinking it would be a waste of time.
By afternoon, he changed his mind.
+++
"Oh, yes. You are Harold Johnson's friend? Come on by this evening about six, OK? It's all paid for." Her voice sounded soft on the phone.
The office was up two flights of stairs, there was an elevator but it had a sign that read "Out of order." on it.
Danny made it up the stairs, barely.
The woman that answered the door looked to be at least forty, perhaps older and she was nearly as tall as Danny was.
She wore a light blue smock that buttoned up the front all the way, a pair of dark framed glasses perched on her nose. Her forearms bristled with muscles, she was slender and reasonably attractive for an older lady.
Danny glanced around the well kept living room, there were some photos on a counter of her and a tall man.
"That's my husband Ray, he is at his bowling league so we have the house to ourselves." She said, noticing his inspection.
"Ray usually takes off when I have a client." She added.
