Imagine That (Short Stories) by Leon Rice (essential reading .txt) 📖

young families that were just starting out in life - at a cheap price.

As John entered the house, Kim looked up from her TV show, “Hey John ,” she said. “How was your day?”

“It was alright; we were very busy -- made lots of money. How are you
feeling today?” He gave Kim a kiss on the forehead and at the same time thought, “Man have I got a secret; you wouldn’t believe what happened to me today!”

“I’m OK,” she said. “I think I’ll be able to take the baby from your mom real soon. The doctor said he thought I was coming along well. Like we talked, I’ll be able to go back to work in a month or so. The doctor said I could get up and move around tonight. Your sister Mary said she’d be over in a little while to fix dinner. I think she said she was going fix pork chops.”

Kim had been confined to bed since the baby was born. They had opened up the hide a bed in the living room for her to sleep on. John had been sleeping in the front bedroom. The neighbor lady, Ella, had just left -- she had been there all day, taking care of Kim. That’s the way their neighbors were, always ready to help a friend out; also, it enabled them to be totally knowledgeable about Kim and John ’s business.

“Had a flat today,” John blurted out. “Got soaked changing it. I was pretty mad about it too. Hit a pot hole over on main street.” His short, Neanderthal, guttural, sentences were factual and to the point; despite of, or maybe because of, his encounter with Barb, he found himself in a sullen mood; this wasn’t going to be as easy as he had at first thought. How could he cheat on Kim. “What if she did that to me? I don’t think I could handle that,” he thought . . . . He always felt better after a shower. . . . “Maybe that will help,” he thought.

“I think I’m going to take a shower before Mary gets here,” he said. He always had a clear head after a shower. He’d have to think long and hard about this development with Barb . . . .

Kim was half listening while watching the TV. She waved a hand at John , without looking away. Oprah had just ended and Jeopardy had started. She was totally engrossed in the TV.

John opened the basement door, after getting his clean clothes, and skipped down the steps. The shower was in the basement. There was no shower enclosure though - just a shower head sticking down out of the floor joists, and a drain in the floor. The basement was practically empty except for the coal burning furnace and a large pile of coal in the coal bin. Soot covered most of the floor and walls; actually, it was more like a cellar than a basement. Kim and John had approached old lady Houser about updating the heating system, but she had declined. The musky smell of coal and mildew permeated the air. Spider webs hung from the floor joist in silken handy-work patterns made by the tiny, creatures of the dark reclusive spaces of the cellar.

He hung his towel on a hook, laid his clean clothes on the steps, and turned on the shower. They had unbelievable water pressure; the water came out so strongly that it stung the skin when it hit you, like thousands of bee stings. The bare light bulb shown dimly as John disrobed and stepped in to the shower. He began to sing to himself; he wasn’t much of a singer but he made up for it with enthusiasm. His mother had always told him the cleanliness was next Godliness; he didn’t know about that - religion didn’t really impress him very much - all he knew was that he felt wonderful after a good hot shower.

He stood motionless under the steaming deluge of hot water for a very long time; he began to relax, but his thoughts drifted to Barb and he wrestled with his desire for her. “Why would he do such a thing?” he thought. He pictured himself in the bedroom with her; he imagined that he watched her undress; he imagined that they embraced, and caressed gently; their passion for one another grew to it‘s pinnacle, and they reached climax simultaneously. As he continued to shower, he realized that he had become sexually aroused. “What the hell am I going to do!”

“He knew that he knew what he wanted to do with Barb, but what was this feeling of guilt he felt - just the thought of having sex with her made him feel guilty - little own actually consummating his desire. “What kind of crap was this?” he thought. He supposed he had spent too much time around his mother; these feelings were definitely of his mothers ilk and her puritanical existence. “ Damn it, just damn it, that’s all!” he fumed at himself. “What the hell am I going to do?” he thought again. Finally, he supposed that he really loved Kim more than he thought. Betraying a trust - that was it - betraying a trust - that was what was at the heart of what was bothering him.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the news had come on the TV and Mary, John ’s sister, had arrived. She placed little Davie on the bed next to Kim. He googled and awed at Kim. He was a wonderful bundle of joy and his existence brought much happiness to everyone.

“There’s my little man . . . . How are you doing, you cute little punkin. Momma missed you today.” She picked him up and gave him a kiss on the cheek and nuzzled his face with her own.

“What have you been doing today? Did you miss momma?”.

Mary was in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

“I brought you a couple of magazines to read, Kim. ‘Us magazine and Psychology Today.’”

“John had a flat today . . . . Big news huh?” Kim said sarcastically. “Said he got really mad about it.” Luckily for John she didn’t know about John’s other news.

“Well that don’t surprise me at all . . . . He can be a real hot head. When is he going to go up to the mine and put in his application? Daddy said they’d hire him for sure. (It seemed that everyone wanted John to get a better job than driving a taxi.) He’d make a lot more money. I don‘t know what he‘s waiting for.”

“Well Mary, he’s wantin to work on that part time insurance agent job,“ replied Kim. “He thinks he can make pretty good money sellin insurance.”

“If you ask me, he needs to go to work in the mine with daddy,” Mary snapped back, “He‘d have a real good job up there.”

Mary was four years older than John and felt that her vast experience in life qualified her to tell him what to do. John usually took whatever she had to say with a grain-of-salt. In other words, he flat out ignored her.

* * * *

There was a garage door in the back wall of the basement. When John finished his shower, he put his pants on and opened the garage door. The yard opened up beyond the back of the house; it was green and lush. John sat down in a lawn chair, with remnants of unresolved sexual arousal, and lit a cigarette. “What a day,” he thought. He always felt good after taking a shower -- refreshed. “Life is good.” he thought, “really good, but what about Barb?” He was in quite a quandary.

John’s dog Lucky was in a pin at the back of the yard. He was a red haired cocker spaniel -- 2 yrs old. Lucky barked and ran back and forth in his pin, trying to get John ’s attention. “Shut up Lucky,“ he yelled at the dog, heading down through the yard to let him out. The rain had stopped, but the grass was wet and cool on his bare feet.

Once free, Lucky ran full out, as fast as he could, around the perimeter of the back yard. He ran past John over and over again like a bull charging a matador. John went into the storage shed and got some dog food for Lucky; he filled his water bowl from the faucet next to the shed and headed back toward the house.

Mary had been watching out the back window; she commented to Kim, “You should see Lucky run Kim; he’s running like a bullet shot out of a
gun.” She yelled out the window, “Dinners almost ready John ; come on in.”

John and Lucky went into the basement and John closed the garage door. Lucky beat him up the stairs and waited for him to open the door at the top. Once in the kitchen, Lucky barked and ran back and forth from Kim on the hid abed to Mary in the kitchen; finally, he stopped next to Kim on the hid abed, bowing down on his front legs, he began to bark at Davie.

“Now you leave Davie alone,“ John snapped at Lucky. He swung at Lucky and he cowered and ran to the kitchen. His exuberance left Lucky spent on the floor, with his tongue hanging out, and he panted heavily; his spittle dripped onto