CHAPTER THREE
Date Night
Arwana’s Perspective
Arwana sat with her forehead held in her hands. Severe depression held heavy sway over her.
Yesterday hadn’t gone well at all. Cliff had fled, and for whatever reason the message of the sermon just wouldn’t leave her head.
It just kept echoing over and over through her mind. It was as if it had been tailor-made for her. How did preachers do that?
What a diabolical gift to be sure. Sighing, she contemplated on the fact that there were only three more days left till school began. Things would get hectic then, but until then she had nothing but her thoughts to keep her company.
The door of the school house opened and forcing herself, she managed to glance up. Completely startled by what she saw she abruptly straightened and winced as her chair made a sharp grating noise on the floor.
*********
I viewed her reaction to me with interest. She looked surprised and was I right to imagine, even nervous? Yes, nervous.
Her voice sounding more high-pitched than usual asked, “Hi, uh…. what are you doing here? I mean….. how can I help you?”
Smiling, I asked, “Which way to the hole?”
She blinked dazedly and then her eyes cleared as she said, “Oh, you're here to fix the bad spot in the floor.”
“Yep.” I said laconically.
“The pastor sent you?” She queried, as if she found something wrong with the advent of me being here.
“As I live and breathe.” I said by way of an answer with a gesture to the whole of me.
Arwana now looked completely rattled and giving her head a shake she turned and said, “This way. It’s right over h….. Ahhh!” She exclaimed loudly as looking back at me suddenly with wonderment posing the question of whether or not she was dreaming she fell through the weak spot in the floor.
The building was constructed up off the ground and as it was she would’ve fallen all the way to her thigh, but I had always been known for my quick reflexes. With both hands, I gripped a hold of her beneath her armpits with enough force to bruise her ribs.
Her fall through the floor abruptly stopped and limply she hung from my grasp. She turned her head and it was clear something about me she found to be overwhelming, at least in this moment.
The look she was giving me only built my confidence and dryly commenting I said, “You really didn’t have to play show and tell to prove that some repairs are in order around here.”
*********
Arwana’s Perspective
Arwana looked away, blushing, as he lifted her clear of the hole in the floor, as if she was but a rag doll in the jaws of a mighty dog. The power of his hands was mesmerizing and it had shaken her to the core at the realization of just how powerless she was against this man.
Glancing at him, as he let go of her, she was in time to hear him say, “That was a joke by the way. Are you okay?”
Embarrassment burning into flames she nodded as she limped away toward her desk.
“Oh, I’m fine. Don’t mind me.” She sat down in her chair in complete mortification over what a klutz she had made of herself only to jump startled as she realized that he had followed her.
His face was dead serious now and for a moment she wondered if he planned on murder. She drew back as he kneeled down beside her, which is when she noticed the little drops of blood on the floor.
His hands claimed her calf and he brought her leg forward away from the chair. Her short dress only to clearly revealed the long, bloody scrape going up her shin. How had she not noticed the injury?
“This needs seeing to. Can’t have a one legged schoolteacher now can we.”
“Ha ha, aren’t you a funny man.” She retorted with trying not to let on how the sight of her own blood freely flowing was affecting her.
He looked up then and took her breath away as he said, “No joke. I much rather you have both your legs.”
He got up then and went to a shelf where the school first aid kit was kept. He was back quickly with it and soon making her eyes water as he rubbed alcohol into the wound.
“Holding up?”
“I’m not screaming am I?” She gritted out.
He chuckled and said, “No, but then I haven’t put the iodine on yet.”
At that moment he did that very thing and she cried out from the deeper burn of the iodine. Opening her eyes, she immediately let go of his shoulder, she had somehow come to be gripping a hold of.
Wow, was he solid!
“Sorry, I…. ah”, he was up on his feet and looking at her then and words simply faded from her ability to speak.
He glanced away to the hole in the floor and then back to her, “I need to get some materials that I don’t have with me to fix this properly. Do you mind if the repair waits till tomorrow?”
“Sure. Fine by me.”
He nodded and looked at her more intently and finally unsure of the situation she asked in a small voice, “What?”
*********
I looked away at her question and said while staring at the wall, “It’s come to my attention that you’ve been asking about me.”
My gaze came back to her startled eyes and solemnly I asked, “Are your intentions honorable when it comes to me or excuse my directness are you simply looking to get laid?”
She blinked and quickly looked down. Her hands came to clasp tightly together and I could see that she was in a struggle to speak.
From the looks of it the answer was a mixture of both. She didn’t want to confess to it though, and that was good, because it told me that lying was something still difficult for her to do.
“Arwana?” It was the first time that I’d used her name aloud. I liked it.
She looked up.
“I am an honorable man and I will treat you accordingly. Now, that said would you like to go out on a date with me?”
It was really something to see how quick her head nodded, and then how she followed it up with, “I would like that! I would like that very much!”
“Okay then. How about now?”
“I…. uh…. um…… I’m not dressed.”
“I hate to break your bubble honey, but there’s nowhere in this town worthy of getting dressed up for. Would you like to go fishing?”
She nodded quickly and stood up. I surprised her then, surprised myself actually.
I picked her up. Her eyes were liquid green pools of startlement as I carried her out the door. She opened the passenger side of the truck and I sat her on the seat. She looked completely off her game.
“You’re sure you’re all right?”
She nodded quickly.
“Okay then.”
I slammed the door shut. This time she didn’t jump. Her breasts did, though.
I made my way around the truck doing my best to manage the permanent case of hardness being in her vicinity inspired. All I could say was I hoped God knew what He was doing because I sure didn’t!