A Simple Life: Chapter 91 (Patreon)

When I pull up to the newly christened Win’s Garage I find the place changed yet again!  A pair of shiny red twenty foot sea cans had somehow found their way here and were set up at the rear or the building.  They were parallel to the main building with about a dozen feet of space between each.  On the roof of the garage stands Amos watching me drive up and on the top of the first of the shipping containers stood Winona holding some sort of steel frame in place that stretched between the container and the garage.  I park the truck and hop out.

“All good?”  Amos asks.

“Yeah.”  I shoot him a thumbs up.  “Cheryl’s h-home and B-Briar wasn’t late.  I t-talked to my brother Josh too.  W-We’re meeting later this week.”

“Eyyy.”  He looks to his daughter.  “Our guy!”  She just chuckles and rolls her eyes.

“Wh-What’s all this?”

“Storage.”  Winona says.  “Plus a couple of sheltered parking spots for Pops and I.  Cool, huh?  This was my idea.”

“Uh, yeah!”  I pull my bags from the back seat and shut the door with my hip.

“Movin in or something?”  Amos quips.  Before I can answer he claps his hands and holds them up as if to catch a baseball.  It takes a second for me to realize he was waiting for his keys.

“It’s c-camera equipment.”  I say patting my photography bag.  My other bag was, as Winona so forcefully made clear over breakfast, none of his business.  Bundling his keys I give them a toss and, like the nerdy doofus that I was, totally fluff my throw.  One of the keys catches the top corner of the roof to send the jangling mass careening off to the side.  “S-Sorry!”  I expect to be teased yet without any fuss or comment Amos takes a step and picks up his keys and jams them into a pocket and returns to what he was doing.  As I am peering up at him I spot Brutus’ fuzzy head pop up to stare back down at me.  I giggle at the way he cocks his head curiously.  “H-Hi B-Brutus!”  I show him the pet shop bag.  “I brought you presents.”

“You can put those inside.”  Winona says.

“K-Kay.”  I nod.

I hurry into Winona’s suite and drop off my stuff then head back outside.  Coming out the back door I can now see better what they were up to.  The metal frame they were currently putting together would support a roof.  While the front and back of the stall would be open the roof and walls would protect any vehicle parked there from the worst of the sun and rain.

“Hey Sprout.”  Winona deftly tiptoes across the top of the container until she stood over me.  “Come on up.”

“Um.”  I look for the ladder but as she squats down and reaches for me I saw that I had another way up.  Reaching up I take her hands and we grip onto each other tightly.

“Alley-oop!”  She grunts as she heaves me upward in one mighty pull, my sneakers squeaking along the smooth wall of the container as I ‘run’ up its side.

“Woah!”  I catch a bit of vertigo as I suddenly find myself teetering with my heels over the edge of the sea can.

“I gotcha.”  Winona grins as she grabs me and pulls me to safety.  After a sly hug and even sneakier kiss to my cheek so her dad wouldn’t see she lets me go and points to spot nearby.  “You mind holding that?”

“S-Sure.”  I smile and kneel down to do as she asked.

As I hold my spot she and Amos bolt together the frame as she explains to me how Amos had finagled these containers for next to nothing.  “A lick of paint, some PVC canopies, and voila!  Tons of storage and a couple of covered parking bays.”  She says.  “I just hope it doesn’t look too trash.”

“It l-looks good!”  I assure her.  “Certainly b-better than before.”

“Damn right.”  Amos agrees.  He stands, his eyes focused off past us.  “Not sure what we’re going to do with the graveyard though.”

Winona points at her father.  “The rest I don’t care, but hands off the Integra.”

“Ha!  New project?”  He says.  “You ain’t gettin that thing running.”

“Bet ya a steak dinner that I will.”  She says.  “One year and under two grand and I’ll have her purring.”

“Oh no.”  He smiles.  “I know better than to bet against you.  You’ll manage it somehow just to spite me.  Ha!”

“You’re no fun.”  She winks.

Try as I might I can’t stop a yawn from coming.  Winona catches it out of the corner of her eye and glances over.  I smile back, which makes her smile in turn.  Gosh I loved her smile.  With two handy people who knew what they were doing we are able to get the roofs set up in no time.  We all crawl down to ground level then walk out from the building to take a gander at our handiwork.  I could see why Winona worried that it might look trashy but the clean white of the PVC canopies and the bright red of the freshly painted containers that matched the lettering of the new sign actually brought the old place up a level.  With the open bay doors, the tools and equipment inside, and the vehicles parked to the side this place was taking on a whole new vibe.

“I’ve b-been coming here for years.”  I say.  “It looks so d-different already!”

“And we’re just getting started.”  Winona says, her arm slipping around my shoulder.  “We got big dreams for this place.  Don’t we Pops.”

“You know it Winnie-bear.”

“Cool.”  I say.

“Lemme take a look at this Acura.”  Amos says as he starts off toward the line of junkers along the back of the property.  “I might take you up on this wager yet.”

“Just be a minute.”  Winona says as she guides me back toward the building.

I walk along beside her, enjoying the feel of her arm around me, wondering where we were going.  “I c-could get my camera…”

“You.”  She gives me a jostle.  “Are going for a nap.”

“Oh!  I-I-I’m okay.”

“And you’ll be even more okay after a couple hours of shut-eye.”  She leads me into the suite and gives me three simple orders.  “Take off your shoes.  Get undressed.  Hop into bed.”

“I can stay up and v-visit.”  I say.  “R-Really.”

“Humor me.”  She turns to me and runs her hands across my chest.  “Let me get my Mommy rocks off, mmm?”

I giggle.  “Mommy rocks?”

“I wanna look after you.”  She says softly as she teases my bangs.  “Is that so bad?”

“No.”  I smile.

“Good.”  She kisses me.  “Be good for Mommy and maybe later you and Daddy can finish what they started at lunch.”

“Oh!  Yes’m!”

She laughs.  “That’s better.”

My shoes off I walk with her to her bed.  There I undress down to my underwear as she closes the window curtain so that the room was darker but still allowed some of the nice fresh breeze in.  When I slip in under her soft blankets she is at my side, sitting at the edge of the bed as she tucks me in.  I gaze up at her as she tenderly strokes my cheek.

“Need anything?”

I shake my head no.

“Okay.”  Leaning down she places a long kiss on my forehead.  “I love you Avery.”

“Love you.”  I whisper back.

And with that she rises and walks to the door.  There she pauses and looks back at me for a few lingering moments then smiles and leaves the room.  I lay there staring at the ceiling feeling so cozy and so very blessed.  Things just couldn’t get any better than this.

About a minute later the door opens again just a few inches then closes again.  My curiosity is abated when I see Brutus come sniffing around the love seat.  The moment he sees me he trundles right for me.

“Hey buddy.”  I laugh and reach over the bed to scoop him up.  When I have him beside me he rolls to his back and starts to gnaw at my finger as I rub his fuzzy belly.  “You g-got sent for a nap too, huh?”

I pet him and play with him as I listen to the sigh of the wind through the forest and the distant murmur of Winona and her father talking.  Like me the little kitty was one tuckered out fella.  He lets out a big yawn before crawling up my belly to curl up and bed down.  With the occasional breeze wafting across me I stroke Brutus’ downy soft fur, close my eyes, and let nature take its course.

Chapter 92