Chapter 7
Brodie stared at the garden hose and then at the open-air bathroom that the tornado had left behind.
The electricity had been cut off. That meant no hot water.
But the shower would still be better than what came out of the well, which would make an Eskimo shiver.
As crazy as it was, the tornado had left the shower curtain draped around the bathtub still, so he would have a little bit of privacy.
“I hear that cold showers are a good thing,” he muttered, and then remembered that he was supposed to call Audrey about Pansy. Instead of calling, he texted: Pig is in the house.
He got an immediate response: Keep it there.
Pansy raised her head up from the corner and grunted at him when he peeked inside the trailer. He pointed at her. “Don’t you dare make a run for the door when I open it.”
He stepped outside, made sure the door was firmly latched, and sat down on the porch step. “Cold shower or really cold garden hose?”
Or you could forget either one and just curl up in all your filthy clothes, the pesky voice in his head chuckled.
“It’s not funny.” He stood up and crossed the yard to the bathroom.
He stepped up over the splintered floorboards and into the tub.
He pulled the curtain and stripped out of his dirty jeans, boots, socks, and underwear.
He put his phone in one of his boots and then tossed everything out onto what was left of the bathroom floor.
He would have made his mother proud for not throwing swear words out into the open air when the water hit his body.
Truth was that the stream coming from the showerhead was so cold that he couldn’t utter a single word.
He had to clench his jaw shut to keep his teeth from chattering.
He washed his hair and rinsed but there was no repeating.
He turned off the water, threw back the curtain, and threw one foot out onto the floor.
Before he could pick up the other one, what felt like an earthquake jerked his feet out from under him.
Splintering wood and pipes being jerked away from the tub made for a deafening noise.
Then in an instant was total silence, followed by cold water spraying everywhere.
For what seemed like an hour, but in reality couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, he tried to collect his bearings.
Finally, he figured out he was sitting down with one leg hanging over the edge of the old green tub and the other stretched out to the end, and the busted pipes were shooting a jet of water straight up into the air.
He eased up and bent at the knees—nothing was broken.
The tub was sitting flat on the ground, so he didn’t have to step out on the rotted boards.
Naked, shivering, his pulse racing, he grabbed his boots and made a beeline for his truck.
He grabbed his toolbox from the back floorboard and found a crescent wrench.
Then he hurried out to the road and turned off the water at the meter.
He had just settled the cover back and started jogging toward the trailer when the dark clouds above him opened up and raindrops the size of silver dollars poured down on him.
He slung open the trailer door and stopped just inside the trailer.
Pansy waddled across the floor, smelled his feet, and went back to her corner.
Brodie grabbed a fluffy throw from the bench that circled the table, wrapped it around his body, and sat down with a thud.
When his teeth stopped chattering and his body quit shivering, he dried himself off with the throw and padded back to the other end of the place.
He found a T-shirt hanging in the closet and jerked it over his head.
He opened all the drawers under the twin bed before he found a single pair of clean underwear and the beach shorts that Knox wore on their last vacation with their mother.
That was it as far as clothing went, but at least he wouldn’t be stark naked when his brothers arrived the next day.
Brodie sighed when he crawled into the bed and drew the covers up around his neck; he closed his eyes and let the warmth lull him into a deep sleep.
He dreamed of Audrey running toward him with her arms outstretched, the skirt of her sundress and her dark hair flowing in the wind.
When she reached him, she jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist. Their lips found each other in a fiery-hot kiss.
He backed up and sat down under the apple trees that were filled with pink blossoms, which told him that everything in his dream was happening in the spring.
He awoke with a start, his eyes darting around the room to see if Audrey had come home with him after the make-out session in the orchard, but the only thing he found was Pansy rooting around the room looking for food.
“No truffles here,” he said as he sat up, “but I will see if we can find a store that’s open so we can buy you some food.” He slung his legs out over the side of the bed, stood up, and retrieved his phone from his boot that was still parked beside the door.
“Good grief, Pansy!” he said when he checked the phone and realized that it was past noon. “I missed church because of you.”
The pig just grunted and kept searching around the small trailer for something to eat.
Brodie opened the dorm-sized refrigerator and found two withered carrots, a six-pack of warm beer, and a jar of dill pickles.
He tossed the carrots on the floor and Pansy gobbled them up, then went back to her bed in the corner.
“You sleep right there, and do not use any part of this trailer for a bathroom. When I get back, you will have a collar and leash, food, and a dog bed to sleep in if I can find one,” he said as he shoved his feet down into the dirty boots.
“I hope my wallet is still in my jeans and that my money and credit cards aren’t ruined. If so, you might have to starve.”
He caught his reflection in the long mirror on the back door of the tiny bathroom.
His T-shirt used to be red, but now it was something between orange and pink.
With all the white splotches, Brodie figured it had lost a battle with a good amount of bleach.
The shorts were bright blue with pink flamingos all over them.
Dirty boots added enough to definitely give him the homeless look.
He opened the medicine cabinet and was relieved to find toothpaste and a couple of brand-new toothbrushes. There was no comb or brush, and his dark hair was beyond what could be called bedroom hair.
He made sure the door was closed tightly, straightened his back, and walked out to the place where the old tub was still sitting on the ground. His jeans had landed in a way that folded several times over the back pocket, so his wallet was only slightly damp.
With the way his luck was running, he sent up a silent prayer of thanksgiving that his truck even started.
He had full intentions of driving all the way to Bowie to the Walmart store and hoped that the folks there had seen enough strange people coming in and out that they wouldn’t call the police.
But when he passed the feedstore in Nocona, he noticed that the front door was wide open.
He whipped into a parking spot and crawled out of the vehicle.
“Well, look what the cats dragged in, or should I say the pot-bellied pig,” Audrey said as soon as he walked inside.
Why didn’t I go on to Bowie? I do not need this today! he groaned to himself.
“What are you doing here?” Brodie growled. Was there no place in the whole of Montague County where she wasn’t there, or was she stalking him?
Hettie stepped out from behind her. “Buying more plants for my flower bed that your pig rooted up and made a terrible mess of.”
Both women looked as if they had just come from church.
Audrey’s hair was twisted up in a knot on top of her head.
Her denim skirt accentuated her waist and rounded hips, and just looking at her made Brodie’s mouth go dry.
Not a single hair escaped Hettie’s braids, but that didn’t surprise Brodie.
Nothing, not even a strand of hair, would defy her or Aunt Bernie—not if they didn’t want to wither up and melt into nothing more than a spot on the floor.
“Well, you ladies have a good day,” he said and grabbed an empty cart.
When he found the right aisle, he tossed a bag of pot-bellied pig food into the cart, along with a harness and leash and a fluffy bed that looked like it might be the right size.
He was on his way out when he saw that Hettie and Audrey were right ahead of him in the only open checkout lane.
The lady rang up two flats of flowers and a rose bush.
“I’ll pay for those,” Brodie called out.
The disgusted look the woman gave him left no doubt that she didn’t think he could afford one of the candy bars beside the counter, but she simply nodded.
“You should since it was your pig that tore up my tulips,” Hettie declared.
“Yes, ma’am, I agree, and I will,” Brodie agreed and pushed his cart ahead when they moved away.
Hettie had almost reached the door when she turned around and shook her fist at him. “And you better get that fence fixed today, or else I’m going to sue you for destruction of property.”
“Now, Miz Hettie, judging from the fact that the barbed wire is on my side of the property, I’m sure that Ira put the fence up.
That means it’s mine and not yours to sue anyone over.
I’ll fix it when I’m ready to do so, or I might just tear it down.
It’s an eyesore, and I don’t have any cattle to keep inside my place, so I don’t need it. ”
She narrowed her eyes so much that they disappeared into the rest of her wrinkles, and she shook both fists toward him. “Fix it!”
Afraid that he would give her a heart attack if he argued any more, he just smiled and tipped an imaginary hat toward her. “Can I take you ladies to dinner at the Dairy Queen?”