the back of the biker, reached under the arms in front and lifted. When the face rose, clear of the water and mud, I used my gloved hand to wipe the mud from the eyes and mouth to open an air passage. I held the body to see if there was any evidence of breathing. I determined breath when the person gave a harsh cough that expelled mud and yellow water. I lowered my hands, turned the body and lifted it to my arms. I thrashed about in the mud as I fought to hold the slippery biker. I scuffled my feet forward without lifting them to keep from losing purchase on the concrete street surface. I stepped up on the curb, crossed through the river of mud by sliding my feet along the side walk until I reached my walkway. I tussled with the slick body, slipping and sliding while ascending the steps in my mud-laden rubber galoshes. I was exhausted when I finally reached my front entrance. Now I had a decision to make about entering the house with masses of wet mud on both myself and the biker. I looked around. There was no one in sight, no evidence I was being watched, and the rain so heavy no one could have seen us unless they had been on the porch with us and that was a lifesaver. I laid the unconscious body on the doorstep, stripped my clothes and piled them near the window wall. I stooped, began undressing the biker and when I removed the helmet, wet, muddy, medium-length blonde hair fell out and I discovered, to my complete surprise, that the body I was uncovering was that of a nubile young female.
When all her clothes were off, I picked her up, went directly to the shower, warmed the water and stepped in still holding her body. I sat her on the shower floor, shampooed her hair twice to rid it of the mud, scraped the mud away from her face and neck and scrubbed her from top to bottom. I moved her to the shower seat and did the same cleaning job to myself. I was doing my feet when she roused, opened her eyes and stared at me. She said nothing, just sat and stared at me. I assumed she was in shock from her tumble. I sat my clean foot down, put on my most friendly smile and said, "Welcome back to the World, Miss. Do you feel all right? You had quite an experience in the street just a few minutes ago. I thought I had lost you."
She began crying. Her heavy sobbing upset me, so I knelt in front of her, took her hands and said, "It's all right. You're safe now. The rain is still coming down, but we don't have a problem in here. I'm Rory. I'll take care of you until you can get out on your own. I'm sorry, but your bike is ruined. Your front wheel went down inside the sewer where the lid had washed away. Please, stop crying. There's no need to be upset."
Through her sobs, she managed to stutter her reply, "Thank you, Rory. I thought I had died."
"You would have if I hadn't been at the window watching the rain and saw you fall. Why were you out?"
"My manager closed the store and told all the employees to go home. I don't have a car so I had to ride my bike when the store closed."
"What's your name? I can't keep calling you Miss." I laughed in an attempt to relax her somewhat.
"Tina. I'm Tina Shaw." She stuttered as she still sobbed
"Okay, Tina Shaw. Let's get out of the shower and dry ourselves and then I'll find you something to wear until I can wash and dry our clothes." She tried to stand but couldn't. I pulled her up, and held on tightly as she was still extremely weak from her near drowning.
I dried her and then myself. She showed no resistance at my rubbing the towel over her nude body. She was completely compliant, turning when I asked, raising her legs, when I had her sit as I dried her hair and pronounced it squeaky clean again. I hung the towels to dry and then I led her to the bedroom, pulled out a blue dress shirt with long tails and put it on her to wear as a gown. I led her to the bed, laid her down and went to get a small whiskey and a glass of water. When I returned, she had turned to her right side and was quietly sobbing again. Rather than sit on the bedside, I sat on the floor, handed her a tissue and urged her to sip the whiskey and chase it with the iced water. She complied, made a face at the first sip, gulped the rest down and drank the balance of the water. I sat and held her hand. Her stomach rumbled so loudly that I could
hear it over the roar of the rainfall pounding the roof. I released her hand, went to the kitchen and heated a large can of chunky beef and vegetable soup, took a few crackers from the box and fed her the entire bowl. I said, "My, My Tina, you were starved after your near-death episode, weren't you?"
She nodded her head slightly and answered, "I didn't eat breakfast to keep from being late for work. I live over two miles from the store and it takes a while to go by bike. When the rain started, I couldn't get to the deli so I had no lunch. Thank you for the soup and crackers." I grinned and responded, "Tina, you rest while I check our clothes. I'll be back in a short while. Okay?"
I had on shorts, no shirt or shoes when I stepped out the front door and was lambasted with the frosty, wind-blown rain. Two pieces of mud-free clothing, her panties and my boxers, had been blown away and was nowhere in sight. I pulled the remaining mud-laden clothes closer to the brick wall at the door and quickly got out of the storm. I knew I couldn't put those in the washer. I would have to rinse the mud in the bathtub before they could be washed. I went to the bathroom and discovered muddy water in the tub where the flooding had backed up the drains. I ran to the kitchen and put the plug in the sink drain to keep it from filling the sink with mud. There's was nothing I could do with the shower to stop the flow once it began. I opened the storage closet and took an armful of towels and began to stuff the towels around the glass door hoping to keep from flooding the bathroom. My confidence in being safe was quickly vanishing when I realized that these other hazards come into play.
The icy chill had flowed through me and I began shivering. I put on a sweatshirt, made coffee and sat at the kitchen table warming myself sipping the hot coffee and mulling my options. My plan was to gather all the vessels I could find: waste cans, trash cans, the recycle bin, the one large boiling pot I had and whatever else I could devise to hold wastewater until it could go down the drain. I spent the next half-hour lining them in a row along the kitchen wall. I knew I could dump them in the overflowing sluices running at the sides of the house, so that meant we could continually empty them. I kept the cleanest one, the boiling pot, for fresh water to use for personal hygiene purposes, like brushing our teeth and washing our faces.
I went back to the bedroom and saw that Tina had drifted off to sleep. The long shirt I had put on her had bunched at her waist and was exposing her lower body giving me an excellent view of her lovely, clean, glowing butt. I had been too busy when I showered and dried her to take closer notice of her shapely body and gorgeous private parts. Now that it was calm, I was most impressed with what had spread itself before my eyes. Being a male, seeing what we males love the most, I was uncontrollably becoming aroused. The longer I stood there, the more it was causing me pain as I remembered the loneliness I am suffering in this isolated small town. Reluctantly, I spun on my heels and went back for another cup of coffee, but this time with a full
shot of Jack Daniels Black to calm my nerves over what I kept thinking while ogling the naked Tina Shaw.
As the day began to fade away, I turned the lights on in the living room only to see them flicker a few times. Tina was still asleep when the knock came to the front door instantly shocking me. I looked thorough the peephole and saw an army uniform knocking. I opened the door and listened as he told me that the power company was being forced to shut down its generating plant. At nine o'clock, power would no longer be available. He asked if I wanted to be evacuated and I shook my head no. I then answered, "I have made preparations to be okay for at least four days unless the rear of the house is breached, which I don't expect to happen. I have enough food, bottled water, and emergency lighting to last four days. I moved here from hurricane country and learned to always be prepared for this type of disaster. Thanks. I'll contact you if things change."
He looked at the other three men with him and shouted over the whistling sounds of the wind-driven downpour, "We have at least one well-positioned citizen. When this is over we need to have him as part of our
preparedness team." I nodded and said, "Llet me know if you mean it." He saluted me and the four of them slid off in the mud covered walkway to knock on other doors.
My lights went out well before nine. I had the flashlights ready. I went to check on Tina and saw that she was in the same position as before. Poor lady was really whacked by her day. She's young and probably had never lived through this type of natural disaster. I went to the kitchen, had a sandwich, the rest of the coffee, another Jack Daniels with water and without anything else to do, I stretched out on the leather couch to rest from the day's activity. I lay there thinking: Maybe fate put me at that window at the exact time she tumbled. It answered my prayer for someone, anyone, to be close to and care for. She's not too young for me. Maybe I can develop a relationship with her and finally break my loneliness. I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen.
Ultimately, the rhythmic patter of the rainfall on the one skylight dome over the couch lulled me to sleep. I awakened with a start, springing upwards in the dark to see what was pulling my foot. In my sleep weary stupor I had forgotten that Tina Shaw was in the
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