Just Another Maniac Monday

by Jennie Marts

  She started the pickup again, put it in gear, and slowly eased her foot off the clutch as she depressed the gas pedal. The truck pitched and jumped, then the gear caught and they were rolling through the field. Edna whooped in delight. “I did it! I’m driving.”

  “Now switch to second—pick up your speed, that’s it.” Johnny called out instructions while Edna increased her speed.

  She switched gears and bounced through the field in the old truck, laughing and cheering for herself. “I’m really doing it. I’m shifting. I’m steering. I am driving a truck.” She turned the wheel, heading back toward the house, and drove the truck…right into a huge hay bale.

  “Well, shit!” She clamped a hand over her mouth, looking wide-eyed at Johnny. The truck stalled and died, wisps of hay floating down onto the windshield.

  Johnny looked at her in astonishment, then broke into hearty laughter. “I think that about sums it up.” He rubbed his knee where it had hit the dashboard when they pitched into the hay bale. “Are you okay? Did you hurt anything?”

  Edna looked down at herself and didn’t see any visible scrapes. “Just my pride. And my dignity.” She peered up at him. “Sorry for swearing. That was a little unladylike.”

  He scooted closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulders, and drawing her close to him. “I am the last person you need to be lady-like in front of. In fact, there are a few things I would like from you that are decidedly un-ladylike.”

  The afternoon clouds had rolled in, and a slight breeze blew through the open windows of the pickup. She could feel his heart beat under her hand as she rested it on his chest and looked up into his eyes.

  She had wanted daring. She had yearned for adventure. She was tired of her life being in the grandma gear. She wanted speed and excitement, and this looked like her chance to grab it.

  She took a breath, her voice low, barely above a whisper. “Like what kind of things?” She was answered with a loud crack of lightning and a flash of thunder. She shrieked as another crack lit the sky and fat raindrops hit the windshield.

  “Looks like somebody wants me to take a rain check,” Johnny said, and lifted Edna’s petite frame over his body and dumped her on the other side of the seat. He gave her a quick kiss and slid into the driver’s seat. “Hold that thought while I get us back to the house.”

  By the time Johnny had started the truck and reversed it out of the hay bale, the rain was coming down in sheets. The sky had darkened and was lit with intermittent flashes of lightning as he drove out of the pasture. The field quickly turned to mud and the tires spun a few times as he expertly maneuvered the truck back to the house.

  He pulled as close to the back of the house as he could then took Edna’s hand. “We’re gonna have to make a run for it,” he shouted over the clattering rain on the tin roof of the truck’s cab.

  Edna grinned. This felt like an adventure to her. “That’s okay. I won’t melt.”

  “You are one crazy chick,” he said with a chuckle, then released the door handle and grabbed Edna’s hand.

  Their clothes were soaked clear through by the time they ran across the yard and onto the sun porch. The screen door slammed behind them and they stood, catching their breath, as the rain pounded on the roof of the porch.

  Johnny looked around. “Is this your room?”

  “I guess. It’s where I’ve been staying. It’s cooler out here at n-n-night.” Her teeth chattered, and she rubbed her wet arms.

  He took a step closer and wrapped his arms around her, surrounding her wet body with the warm heat of his. He wiped her dripping bangs from her forehead and laid a kiss against her skin. Holding perfectly still, he kissed her again, gently, next to her eyebrow. Once more, on her cheekbone. Another. The edge of his lip just glancing against hers.

  Her breath came ragged and her chest heaved against him. She arched into him, aching for his next kiss.

  His mouth closed on hers, then he was pulling her tight against him, his arms locked around her, lifting her to him. He feasted on her mouth, her neck, her chest. She clutched at his back with one hand and drove the other through his wet hair, gripping his head.

  This was full speed, and she was no longer in an old pickup, but a sleek race-car rocketing down the highway. Heat pulsed through her body, coiling in her stomach and causing an ache, a need that only Johnny’s touch could fill.

  No longer shivering, her body warmed from desire. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam rise from their clothes. Johnny reached for the buttons of her blouse, glancing first at her for permission.

  She nodded. He undid each button, achingly slow. His skilled mechanic’s hands easily working each button loose. He pushed the wet fabric from her shoulders, and she dropped her arms, letting the sodden shirt fall to the ground behind her.

  She stood before him, trying to act bolder than she felt, knowing the dark outline of her breast was visible through the soaked white fabric of her bra.

  This was the new Edna. The one who wore two-piece swimsuits and polka dots, who drove a truck and had a boyfriend with a motorcycle. She took a deep breath and reached for his t-shirt, pulling the drenched fabric over his head.

  He shook his head, sending droplets of rain from his soaked hair flying into the room. He looked down at her, desire in his eyes but also a look of concern. “Are you sure about this, Eddy? I want you like I’ve never wanted another woman in my life. But I don’t want to pressure you. I am in this thing with you for always. We have plenty of time.”

  She had spent the last several years of her life wasting time. Spending her days trapped in her home with her parents. She wouldn’t have traded those last years of time spent with her dad, but he was gone now and she was ready to live. To experience life and beauty and joy.

  They had only known each other a few weeks, but she knew, as certain as she was that the sky was blue, that she was in love with this man. He awoke a desire in her that she never even knew was possible. She loved the way he patiently taught her things, whether it was driving a truck or explaining how to catch a firefly in a jar.

  He laughed with her, and when they were alone, he talked to her. Really talked to her about his dreams, his hopes to someday have a garage of his own. To get out of Coopersville, out of Kansas. To have a family and be the kind of father that his old man never was.

  She wanted him like nothing she had ever wanted before in her life. He made her feel special. Feel alive.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, laying her lips along his skin, the rain dripping down his neck from his hair. “You are not pressuring me. I want this. I want this more than anything.” She pulled back, looked into his crystal blue eyes. “I want you more than anything.”

  He trembled in her arms and leaned his head against hers. Drawing a breath, he closed his eyes. “I know it seems sudden, but I have never felt like this with anyone but you. I swear my heart fell out of my chest the first moment I saw you at the drive-in. With that lopsided bow in your hair and those funny pink-splotched socks that you acted like you did on purpose. I’ve never met anyone like you. Never given my heart to anyone before. This scares the daylights out of me.”

  Edna touched his cheek. “Open your eyes. Look at me.” She peered up at him, trying to convey the depths of her feelings into words. “Johnny, I’m scared too. But you can trust me with your heart. I promise you I won’t break it. And I will give you mine in return.”

  He looked deep into her eyes, into her very soul. Without speaking another word, he moved back, toed his boots off, and unzipped his jeans. He pushed both the jeans and his briefs to the floor, then stepped free of them.

  All she could do was stare at the beauty of his naked body. He was tan and toned everywhere. The thought of his muscled body against hers took her breath away.

  Reaching for her, he wrapped his arms around her and flicked the clasp of her wet bra. He peeled it from her body, leaving her exposed skin damp and sensitive to the cool breeze coming through the screened-
in windows.

  She pushed back her shoulders, determined to feel brazen and reflect bravery, even as she trembled under his touch. Running his hands lightly down her back, he kissed her neck, her shoulders. He skimmed his hands under the elastic waistband of her shorts and her cotton underwear and across her bare bottom. He slid them down her legs, bending and laying a soft kiss against her exposed belly.

  She shivered, only partly from the cool room. Resting his hands on her hips, he looked up at her, his thick blond hair falling onto his forehead, and whispered sweet words: “You are so beautiful.”

  He stood, scooped her into his arms, and carried her to the twin bed. He laid her across the thick quilt that she had thought so romantic on her first day here. She couldn’t have guessed that pink quilt would be wrapped around her naked body when she experienced a man for the first time.

  The bed squeaked and creaked as Johnny climbed onto it and lay next to her. He laughed. “Not a real smooth entrance.”

  Edna lay next to him, unsure what to do with her hands. She wanted to touch every part of him, but didn’t want to do the wrong thing. “I’m scared,” she whispered against his chest. “I don’t want to mess this up.”

  He tipped her chin so she was looking at him. “Hey, don’t be scared.” A light went on behind his eyes, as if he’d just realized the reality of the situation. “Is this—? Am I—your first?”

  She nodded. Two quick bobs of her head.

  Johnny dipped down and laid a gentle kiss on her lips. “Are you sure you want to do this? With me?”

  The corners of Edna’s mouth tipped up. “I am sure you are the only one I want to do this with.”

  He grinned. “Then don’t worry. There’s no way to mess it up. Sex is messy and noisy and scary and a lot of fun. But it’s also kind of beautiful. Like you. And I will try to make your first time beautiful.”

  Edna’s heart swelled with love for this man who gently took her in his arms and laid a trail of light kisses down her throat. His hands moved lightly across her skin and a delicious quiver ran the length of her body. She wanted him to touch her. To touch every part of her.

  Johnny shifted and rose above her, lowering his body onto hers. She wrapped her arms around his back and pulled him to her. He leaned in to kiss her, and a fire ignited inside of her. She kissed him back with everything she had, feeling him, touching him, trying to convey through her actions the depth of her feelings.

  He feasted on her mouth and groaned in pleasure as she arched up underneath him. He leaned his forehead against hers, his breath ragged, his eyes open and staring into hers. “I want to tell you something. Before anything happens, I just want you to know that I’m crazy in love with you. I have been since just about the first moment we met. I never really believed in all that love- at-first-sight baloney, but that was before I saw you.”

  Edna ran her hands lightly across his back. Everything about this moment was terrifying and exciting. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. He had just told her that he was crazy in love with her. How could that possibly be?

  Actually, she didn’t care. She didn’t care if he only loved her for tonight or for the rest of her life. She was seizing this moment, this one piece of time, and she was holding on with everything she had. “I am crazy in love with you too.”

  He laughed out loud and kissed her again. Lowering his body onto hers, his arms wrapped snugly around her, he moved against her. Then with her.

  The only music in the dim sun porch was the rhythm of the rain on the rooftop. Johnny and Edna found their own music, their own measure of time. The scent of fresh rain and honeysuckle filled the room, and they were lost, in the moment, in each other.

  Chapter Seven

  “I can picture that day in my mind as if it happened only yesterday,” Edna said, a tear rolling down the wrinkled skin of her cheek.

  “So can I,” John said. He stood in the doorway of the living room, the little terrier resting in the crook of his arm. The book club had been so engrossed in Edna’s story that no one had heard him come in.

  Edna brushed the tear from her cheek. “Oh, for goodness’ sake. When did you get here?”

  “I’ve been standing here for a while. The screen was open. Don’t you ever lock your doors?”

  Edna shrugged. “No, it’s a small town, and what if someone needs something? I don’t even know if I could find a key if I wanted one.”

  John shook his head. “Yeah, I get it. I’m from a small town too. I just worry about you being here alone.”

  Edna raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re worried about me?”

  Wisely ignoring her comment, John easily changed the subject. “I like hearing you tell the story of that summer.” He smiled at the book club members. “Although she may have exaggerated my patience and her skill at driving that old truck. She was a terrible driver.”

  “She hasn’t improved with age. She’s still a terrible driver,” Piper said, earning a swat with Edna’s napkin.

  “I’ll have you know that I am an excellent driver,” Edna said. “Other people just don’t always watch where they’re going. None of those accidents were my fault.”

  Sunny laughed and gestured at the empty seat at the table. “Have you eaten, John? Can I heat up a plate of baked ziti for you?”

  John slumped into the chair and set Havoc on the floor. “That would be great. I’ve been running all day and haven’t had a chance to eat. It smells wonderful.”

  Sunny dished cheesy pasta onto a plate, and Cassie got up to serve the pie.

  Edna watched Johnny take the plate and fork from Sunny, her eagle eye scanning for clues. As if the way he took a bite of pasta or how much salt he sprinkled on his food might tell her his whereabouts over the last sixty years.

  John took a bite of ziti and closed his eyes in contentment as he chewed. “Delicious. Just as good as the traditional pasta of Italy.”

  Oh really? Edna thought. Now we were getting somewhere. “Have you spent a lot of time in Italy? ‘Cause that’s not where I thought you’d been the last sixty years.”

  John looked at her, amusement evident in his eyes. “I have spent some time in Italy. I went overseas for a bit when I was younger, and I must say floating down the canals of Venice is pretty close to being in heaven.” He gave her a sideways glance. “Unless you meant you thought I had been in the other place.”

  Edna’s eyes narrowed. “I haven’t decided.”

  His face took on a serious look. “Well, I was there after the war so I spent a fair amount of time in that other place as well.”

  “What parts of Europe have you lived in?” Sunny asked, scratching the ears of Havoc, who had jumped into her lap and was trying to lick her plate.

  “You can shoo him away if he’s bothering you,” John told her, neatly avoiding the question before taking another bite of pasta.

  Sunny nuzzled the little dog. “He’s cute. I like him.” She gestured to Jake, who was quietly observing the newcomer. “John, this is my boyfriend, Jake Landon. He lives next door in the house between Edna’s and mine.”

  Jake reached a hand across the table to shake John’s. “Did you spend a lot of time in Europe? I don’t detect much of an accent.”

  “No, you wouldn’t. I was there a long time ago, when I was a young man and hiding from the world. I’ve spent most of my life back in the states.”

  “Which states exactly?” Edna asked, not even trying to be sly about her curiosity.

  John studied Edna, and his blue eyes filled with sorrow. “I’m sorry, Eddy. I know I’ve hurt you, and I know you have a lot of questions. I was tempted to stay away and let you believe that I really had died all those years ago. But I’m an old man now, and I have questions of my own. You talk about how that summer changed you. Well, it changed me too.”

  Edna listened, and for once, stayed quiet and let John talk.

  “So many things happened that summer. Some that I could influence and some that were completely out of my control. I though
t I was a man by then, but I was just a kid. A boy who had no idea about the real world outside of Coopersville, Kansas. I look back and know that was the best and the worst summer of my life. I met you. I fell in love for the first time. I learned about responsibility and what being a man and making hard choices was all about.”

  John never took his eyes from Edna’s. “I was never good in school, but I was good with my hands and I picked up things quickly. My dad wasn’t good for much, but he was a great mechanic, and the things I learned from him and from your Aunt Janice were enough to help me survive all these years and build a life for myself. I know you believe that I saved your aunt’s life that summer, but really, she helped to save mine.”

  He looked around the table. “Has she told you about the storm yet?”

  Chapter Eight

  1955

  Coopersville, Kansas

  The day started innocently enough, the sun waking Edna as it shone warmly through the screen porch windows. She’d spent her morning helping her aunt around the farm, collecting eggs, sweeping out the muck in the stall of Janice’s favorite mare, and laying fresh hay in its place.

  The heat seemed oppressive that morning, and Edna’s shirt and hair had quickly dampened with perspiration.

  She knew she would be meeting the gang at the lake for the afternoon, so she ignored the heat and worked quickly to complete her chores. The low hum of the engine of Johnny’s motorcycle was a welcome sound, and she called out to Janice that she would be home later that night and not to wait for her for supper.

  Wearing her pink two-piece under her clothes, she grabbed a couple of the oatmeal cookies cooling on the counter, and hurried to where Johnny sat in the driveway. She leaned in, gave him a quick kiss, stuck a warm cookie in his mouth and flung her leg over the back of the motorcycle.

  The vinyl was hot against her shorts-clad legs, but she scooted up against Johnny and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. She loved to ride on the back of his bike. The feel of the engine rumbling underneath her and being so close to Johnny was a thrill like no other.