As a kid I had taken for granted that my grandfather had taken the two weeks in the summer I spent with him off work. When my mom had said he owned a construction company, I had taken it to mean he lived a life of leisure while people worked for his company. When I had moved to Chicago after college, it was with the thought that I would be close enough to visit him as often as I wanted.
I had come for the weekend with the idea that I would be able to surprise him, spend the weekend with him. My boss had let us have Friday off to 'get ready for his huge Halloween bash'. The other employees said Halloween was his favorite holiday and he made a big deal about it every year. I begged off the party and headed the 90 minute drive to the small town my grandfather lived in.
What I had very quickly discovered was that my grandfather was a ridiculously busy man. He still worked his ass off every day with his company, going from site to site, meeting with his forement at a place where they all came to lunch every day.
That's where we were now, a hole in the wall bar and grill that was full of rough-in construction workers and the foremen. Spending time with my grandfather meant riding with him in a truck to his jobs.
The other thing I discovered was that as much as the man loved his grandkids, he wasn't much of an adult grandkid person. He was from a different generation, a man's man. He had no idea what to do or say to a young woman. So he didn't. I rode with him quietly, chatting awkwardly about my job, about school, about things that he had little understanding of. He spent most of his time driving on his cell phone, yelling at or talking to his employees.
I was sitting alone at our table while he table hopped from foreman to foreman and workers that he knew well. I was feeling a little awkward and neglected and out of place. I watched him move around the room, the giant of a man who I had idolized as a kid. He was a real live John Wayne, a no BS man who everyone loved. Coming to see him every summer was my favorite two weeks of the whole year.
I sighed and turned back to my table and looked up at the man at the bar who was looking me over. He was youngish, older than me but younger than most the men my grandfather was talking to. He had long brown hair, the top and sides tied back, and he was covered in tattoos. He was cute in a bad boy way, tall and skinny with his wiry muscles showing in a t-shirt with the arms cut off and open down to his waist. He also knew how attractive he was as he gave me a smile.
I looked down quickly, not wanting to encourage him. It didn't deter him, he stood up and came to my table, leaning down. "Hey there. Can I get you something? A drink?"
"No thanks, I'm good," I said politely.
"Need some company?"
"Oh, I'm ok, thanks," I said, lifting my book and showing it to him.
"A reader huh? A little out of place here? What brings a girl like you to a place like this?"
"I'm just waiting on someone," I said, my smile strained.
"You have plans tonight for Halloween? I'm going to a huge party, you should come with. Kegs, bonfire, a great time. Give me your number and I will text you the info."
"Oh, no thank you," I said, dropping the smile altogether. "I don't live around here, I am just visiting. Excuse me please, I am going to get back to my book."
He stood back, holding his hands up in an 'I give up' gesture. He went back to his chair, finished his drink, then went out the side door to the parking lot. I sat there staring at my book for a while longer, but I was getting frustrated. Twenty minutes later, I was beyond frustrated and I couldn't take the smoke anymore. I thought all businesses in the country we no longer allowed to let people smoke inside? This place hadn't gotten the memo. Maybe that's why all these people came here, it surely wasn't the food.
I got up with my book, looking around for my grandfather. He was in a very heated discussion with a table full of men. He wouldn't even know if I went outside to breathe some fresh air for a while. I stepped out the side door and looked down the side to see if there was a place to sit down. It looked like there was a place to sit around the back of the building, some old chairs. I headed back there, stepping over old wood slats and other junk in the back of the building, trying to make it to an old picnic table behind the pile.
Pain lanced through my foot and I cried out as I went to my knees and turned, trying to see what was wrong. There was a small board nailed to my foot, the nail deep in my instep. I let out another cry of shock as I moved my foot and the whole board moved with me, shooting pain lancing up my foot.
"Be still! Holy shit girl you got it good, didn't you?" the skinny guy from inside asked. "What the hell would possess you to walk back here in sandals?" He picked me up with ease, carrying me back through the wood pile to an old pickup with the passenger door already open. He set me down and took a knee, looking at my foot. "Shit! Ok, hold on. I have a first aid kit in the glove box but I need to elevate your foot before I take this out or it will bleed like crazy. Turn around here and put your foot up, I am going to shut the door so you can lean on it and come around, ok? Watch yourself a sec," he said, closing the door and hurrying around. He jumped in the drivers side and leaned over me to open the glove box. He pulled out a box and grabbed up a roll of blue paper towels, pulling a few off of it. He put them under my foot as I swallowed and panted. Blood made me sick, faint. My own blood made me panic. He pulled off a couple more and lifted my leg up high. It should have occurred to me that lifting my leg up that high would give him a show up my sundress, but I wasn't thinking about it at all.
"Ok babe, this may be a little uncomfortable... uhh, you good? You are really pale. Are you gonna puke? Pass out? Babe? Look at me and tell me your name?"
"Cassidy," I whispered.
"Ok, good. You good? I'm about to pull this out, it's gonna bleed. Cass? Look at me? You good?"
"I don't like blood."
"I can see that. Ok, turn away now and I will take care of it, ok? Look back there, through the windshield. See that old house back there? I grew up with that kid, he was a real prick, used to call me all kinds of names and tease me about being so skinny. There, it's out, you're good, see? I'm putting pressure here for a little bit, keeping your leg up above your heart. I'm gonna wrap it after I hold it a second, ok? Cass? Look at me?"
I looked at him, my head still swimming. The pain had been awful, but feeling it slide out had almost made me pass out. His eyes were on mine, but I saw his gaze drop as well as his concerned look went to interested. His eyes dropped from my chest and I was vaguely aware of his eyes down between my legs, at my exposed underwear. I swallowed and pulled slightly on my foot, wanting to put my legs together and hide myself.
"Easy babe, you're ok. Just hold still and let me make sure this doesn't bleed too bad. Here, I have tape here, I am going to wrap it. Ummm... you probably need a tetanus shot too. I should take you on to the hospital real quick. Just lay back and relax babe, I'll get you squared away. Easy girl, just sit still," he said, holding tight to my ankle as he started the truck. He pulled out and I twisted, trying to yank on the handle of the old truck.
"That one is broken, babe, it only opens from the outside. Just be still, I got you. Relax."
"Take me back!"
"Calm down babe, it's ok. I'm gonna get you taken care of."
"Please take me back!"
"Stop struggling, you're going to make the bleeding worse!" he said gently, but his grip on my ankle was iron. "Shit! It's bleeding through!"
I felt and then saw the blood running down my leg and between the pain, my panic and the blood, I passed out.
I came to as the truck was stopping, almost falling off the seat into the floor of the truck. The skinny man caught my hip, barely saving me.
"Good, you're awake now. You really don't like blood, do you? Here, babe," he said, opening his door and getting out. He pulled me across the seat by my ankles, then caught me around the waist as I was starting to try to sit up. "I got you, just be still," he said gently, picking me up and carrying me. I saw then that he had pulled up to a house and he was carrying me inside.
"Take me back!" I pleaded, trying to push out of his arms.
"Shh, babe, it's cool," he said placatingly as he took me inside. The house was new and nice, but it was mostly a shell. There was a single old thrift store couch, a nice TV and that was it for the living room. He set me on the old couch and grabbed one of the side cushions, putting it under my foot. "Just lay back."
"Please take me back!"
"Easy babe, we are going to have a talk, me and you," he said, sitting down and pulling my cushioned foot into his lap. "I'm offering you a life lesson here. Look around you. Not one single person saw me take off with you. No one knows where you are. You don't have a purse, a phone, nothing. If I were the asshole you seem to think I am, I could do anything I wanted to with you right now. No one would ever know. You took one look at me and wrote me off as a scary, dirty, creep. Not your type, not good enough, whatever. Then I helped you anyway after you blew me off."
"I didn't blow you off! I told you I was waiting on someone!"
"Babe I was there for almost an hour before I stepped out to wait outside for my crew. You were alone the entire time. You weren't waiting on someone, you were just being a bitch."
"I told you I am not from here! I was waiting for my grandpa to get done! He was there and I was waiting for him to get done talking."
