Chapter 9- Gravitation
T he memory of the feeling of Jared’s weight on top of her made the night restless for Lemon. The idea of him out on the couch, all alone, with that wonderful boner and just enough muscles was driving her insane. When she finally fell asleep, the alarm sounded. She had office hours today. The girls had practice after school, plus her Technician phone was ringing.
“Just fucking great,” she said, grabbing the device. “The answer's a Lemon.”
“A package is arriving today,” the voice said.
“I don't want any more of your packages, thank you very much,” she said into the line. “The last one needs to get the hell out of here after killing my babies.”
“The parts are arriving as we speak. He should be gone by noon. The question is, do you want him to leave?” the voice asked.
Lemon responded with, “Go suck a lemon,” and ended the call. He infuriated her to no end, but more than anything, she despised when he was right. Dr. Myrtle Kainker wasn't sure she wanted Jared to go, at least not until she had a hot, nasty night with him which include a can of whipped cream.
“Dear Jesus, what am I thinking?” she said.
Myrtle showered, dressed, and exited her bathroom, expecting to find him in the kitchen, but he wasn't there. The bedding for the couch wasn't there either. She looked up as the girls came down the stairs, and Helen entered the space from her bedroom.
“Morning,” Helen said, looking about. “I thought Jared slept on the couch. He's up and at'em already?”
Bria asked, “Is he leaving today? I hope he doesn't leave without saying goodbye. I like him. Maybe we can get him one of those tiny houses so he can stay here with us.”
Lemon didn't respond to the girl's constant need for a father figure in her life, which is what had gotten her into trouble. Ayanna wasn't much better, but the past year she'd provided the girls with life skills to work around and through a world governed by men. It didn't seem as if in her nearly thirty-five years she'd done a damned sight better with men herself.
Lemon peered through the curtains of the living room window. Until now, she’d never noticed how sheer the material was or the angle of the couch in relationship to the window. A person standing on the porch could look clearly into her home and see everything, especially if there were a body or people on the couch. The distrusting nature of her soul made her go for her phone.
She opened the camera app on her device. She rewound the recorded footage back eight hours and thirty minutes to the arrival of the Sheriff's vehicle. Lemon closely watched the man in the squad car using high-powered night vision binoculars. His physical reaction to seeing something through the binoculars made him jump out and leave the car. Lemon was furious as she watched the man slink his way onto her porch and stare into the window. He was watching her and Jared.
“Pay attention to the signs,” she repeated snapping. “I sure as hell am.”
She went to disengage the alarm to discover it was already turned off. Again, she checked her phone. The panel showed that she had disarmed it. “What?”
Lemon played the footage from inside of the home, watching carefully as Jared went to the panel, turned off the sound, and entered her pass code into the security monitor. He’d disarmed the system and headed to the barn. Lemon switched screens, watching him check around the floor, under the cot, and even the shower for remnants of him being here at the farm. Finding nothing, he carried his backpack to the truck and tossed it on the back seat.
Helen had taken him into town on several occasions to grab tools. He had also convinced her to get a roadside emergency kit for her vehicle, and he’d purchased one for Lemon and the girls, but handed it to Helen.
“Will you give these to them please,” he told her.
“Whatever is chasing you, can it be taken down?” Helen asked him.
“The bigger concern is will I survive if I try,” he replied, saying no more.
In his mind, the less they knew the better. If his past did catch up, the information each of them knew about him was minimal. He’d told them he had three sisters and one of the sisters had a salon. That was all he’d said, nothing more. They didn't know where he was from since he didn't show the Sheriff his driver's license, but a military ID card.
Lemon wanted some answers. She flung open the front door, stepping onto the porch in the cold wind, which slapped at her face like an interrogator trying to get her attention. Two vehicles were arriving. One was delivering the parts Jared needed to get his truck on the road. The second vehicle was a social worker delivering another young lady.
“Shit, I just can't today,” Lemon said, standing on the porch and feeling the beginning of being defeated.
Helen brought a throw from the back of couch and placed it over her shoulders. “Whatever you need, I got you,” Helen said softly.
Lemon scoffed, “My head examined, that's what I need.”
Helen recognized Pear, the sweeper for the Forbidden Fruits of the Great Lakes. The last time she had seen the woman, was when they shut down a den of horrors called the Field of Flowers. Now, Helen pondered, what did she have in store for Lemon?
“Morning, Pear,” Helen said to the lady as she arrived. Lemon appeared surprised that Helen knew the woman.
“Cranberry. Lemon,” Pear said. “This is Collette Anderson; she's fifteen and your new ward.”
The dirty blond-haired girl didn't want to be here; her cornflower blue eyes said as much. She sure as hell didn't want to live on a farm with a bunch of black women. Her nose was turned in the air as she looked around in distaste.
Lemon spoke first, “You can take her back to wherever you got her and place her under the nasty backwoods rock you overturned to pluck her out. I will not, on this day, or any day, have a chick in my home ungrateful and believing she is better than everyone under my roof. I don't want her. Take her somewhere else.”
The girl's mouth dropped open in surprise. However, Lemon wasn't done. She moved over to get in the girl's face.
“I don't owe you shit. This life doesn't owe you shit. The reason you're here is to give you an opportunity to use your head instead of what is in between your legs,” Lemon said. “You stay here, you go to school, get decent grades, and help around the place. Clean up after yourself, don't steal shit, don't start shit, and don't be a shit. I have enough problems in my life, and your bullshit is not on my Wordle word list for the year. Leave. Be gone. Or stay and act like you are grateful to have a safe place to sleep where some pervert isn't thinking of ways to get you alone to use your body for his pleasures. So, what is going to be?”
“I'm staying,” Colette said, lowering her eyes to the ground.
“Colette, do you intend to trouble me constantly with your nonsense and bullshit? If so, don't let that seat in the van get cold from missing your ass,” Lemon said.
“I'll be no trouble,” the girl replied.
“Are you planning to roll your eyes and neck and suck your teeth when I ask you to do something because if you do, get your ass in the van and be gone,” Lemon said.
“No, ma'am,” Colette replied.
“Bria, Ayanna, come out here,” Lemon called as the girls arrived on the porch. “This is Colette. She's your new sister. Give her the lay of the land and put her in the room with the single bed.”
“Yes'm,” the girls said at the same time. “Come on, Colette; let us show you around.”
Lemon looked at Pear and asked, “How raggedy is she?”
“She needs everything,” Pear said. “Her Uncle, not good. Not good at all. At least he said he was her uncle. We aren't sure.”
“Have you done a pregnancy test, STD screening, and the like?”
“We have. Don't think she's going to be able to have children. Life did a number on her,” Pear said. “Her Uncle was also a racist son of a bastard. Rebel Flags all over his yard and the N-word was used often.”
“Then why in the hell did you bring her here?”
“She needs mothering and a tender touch,” Pear said. “You know how to handle her as we just witnessed. This is where she needs to be.”
Pear's eyes went to Jared. The boxes from the delivery truck were open and Jared went to work on his truck. Item by item, he would install them on the vehicle to make it roadworthy, and by noon, he'd be gone. Pear pointed at him.
“He's leaving. He helped out after the storm,” Lemon said softly.
“He looks familiar,” Pear said, cocking her head. “Okay, here is a starter pack for her. Funds, ID, and the like. Don't know if she's ready for school and to be around other kids in a formal setting, so home schooling may be the path for the next year.”
Helen watched as Lemon didn't blink. Her focus, or at least her attention, was drawn back to Jared. Then suddenly, Lemon turned to Helen.
“I'm adding her to your roster. I have to be at work in twenty minutes and can't take the time off,” she said and jammed the envelope at Helen. “Get her to the store, get the items she needs, then help her set up the room. You said you know how to do that, right?”
“Yes,” Helen replied.
“Also, do an assessment to check her reading level and mental proficiency at simple tasks and following instructions. She is not allowed in my greenhouse or the lab,” Lemon said, sounding angry.
She stormed off, not looking back at Pear and Helen, whose eyes were wide in disbelief. This was a side of the woman Helen hadn’t seen. Initially, she was concerned that Bria and Ayanna didn't interact with Lemon a great deal, and now she understood why. Maybe with Jared leaving, things could get back to normal, whatever that was on the farm.
“Okay, and wow,” Helen said.
“Lemon is a bad muther...”
“Shut your mouth,” Helen said, looking over at her. “That is my first time seeing that version of her. I think I'm scared.”
“She is not one to fuck with, that's for sure. Rumor has it, she grew up on a farm next to the Archangel's grandmother. She and the Archangel have been friends, if you can call it that, since they were kids,” Pear said. “Her lab is deadlier than Mr. Merge's. Learn well from her, but when she tells you to move, duck, or run, don't question, just do as she says.”
“Noted,” Helen said, walking into the home. The entire energy of the place had changed.
Pear paused for a moment, “Cranberry, I wanted to say thanks for the work you did that night, trusting me, asking my advice. It felt nice to be seen. I appreciate you.”
“And I you,” Helen replied. “What we did that night couldn’t have happened without your unique skillsets. Just sharing the love.”
“Love accepted. Take care,” Pear said, leaving them alone. Her mind was full of thoughts and puzzle pieces to organize. The primary concern was Lemon.
The Lemon had soured. Helen wasn't certain if the lemon aid created for Colette would make everyone who sipped it a bit sick. The one thing she knew for certain was that she would take it slowly and cautiously with the woman called Lemon from this point forward.
****
“I 'M HEADED TO WORK ,” Lemon said to Jared. “I assume when I get home you won't be here.”
“Affirmative,” he said, continuing to tighten bolts. “Stayed as long as I could. Probably stayed longer than I should have. I'm grateful. Thank you.”
“And we leave it like this?”
“No other way to leave it, Doc Myrtle,” he said. “Again, I thank you.”
“Will I see you again?” she wanted to know.
“Probably not if I can help it,” he said, stopping and looking up at her. The disappointment on her face meant he needed to be the man she was with on the couch last night. Lemon wanted a conversation with the man who’d pulled her panties to the side and gotten his fingers damp. She wanted to hear from the man who was about to start some shit on the couch and handle her like an inmate fresh from the pen in her bedroom when he finished the interaction. He knew what she wanted to hear. He would say it and mean it. “More than likely, I’ll be back and you will see me again since I sincerely want to complete the thoughts we started last night. I'm fighting it, but I don't think I'm winning.”
“Call first to make sure I'm here,” she told him.
“When I call, clear the house because it will more than likely get loud,” he said with a wink.
“You promise?”
“Yep,” he said, lowering his head to continue working on the truck. “I’m a screamer.”
Lemon stood for a minute, then looked at her watch. “I have to go. Take care of yourself, Mr. Bane.”
He said nothing as she walked away. Jared refused to look up, knowing that Helen and the girls were probably watching him. Life had brought him enough trouble. He was leaving before he became any more comfortable with a warm fire and three hots a day accompanied by delightful conversation and kids sharing snippets from their sweaty, angst-filled teenage day.
“Yeah, getting the hell out here quick, fast, and in a hurry,” he said, waving to the girls as they climbed in the tiny shit mobile they used to get back and forth to school. This left Helen alone in the house with the new girl. “Don't want no part of that either.”
****
I N THE HOME, THE GIRL Colette looked about the bedroom. It was a far cry from the worn-out mattress she slept on the back room of her uncle’s cabin. The spot in the barn where he made her work on gathering money for the things they needed to live was soiled and smelled of human waste. This bed was clean with nice pillows. The dresser had all the drawer pulls, and the room smelled nice.
“The bathroom is in here, and you will share this one with the girls,” Helen said.
“Do you live here too?”
“For now,” Helen said. “Today, you will spend a great deal of time with me. I will take you into town to buy the required items you need like undies, basic clothing, a couple pairs of shoes, that sort of thing. If we have anything left, we may be able to buy a piece of art for the walls.”
Colette eyed her suspiciously. “What do I have to do to earn all of that?”
“Be an upright person,” Helen said. “You're safe here. Follow Doc Myrtle's rules, and you'll be fine. Anything you want me to know about you?”
“Like what?”
“Favorite colors, foods, books you like to read?”
“Uncle Ray didn't like me reading. He said education ruined a woman,” she said. “But I can read some. I'm good at counting money too. I know how to shop a little, but not a whole lot.”
“Okay, we start there,” Helen said.
“You're not going to ask about my Ma? My family? Uncle Ray?”
“Baby, if you're here, that says everything I need to know. I just want you to know you're safe and you can start thinking about your dreams and wishes,” Helen told her. “We will work with you to fulfill them as best we can.”
Colette smiled. Her teeth were not maintained at all. A coating rested over them and the calculus, the hardened dental plaque on the teeth was thick. She was certain Lemon had something in her medicine cabinet to clear away the muck. Helen grabbed her keys to head out the door as Jared was coming in. He stopped in front of Helen, and Colette froze.
“I'm headed out,” he said. “Thank you for everything.”
“Take care of yourself,” Helen said.
“Roger that,” he replied, easing out the door, ready to head towards Cleveland. The girl was a sign he needed to leave. He knew the girl and she recognized him. All he left behind was a dust trail as he exited Lemon's farm.
Helen turned to look at the girl. She'd gone completely white. She was frozen in place. “Colette, are you okay?”
She looked over her shoulder to see where the girl was staring. Her eyes were on the door where Jared had departed.
“Colette, do you know him? Have you seen him before?”
The girl nodded, then passed out on the floor.