“Stormy” Pt. 14- Advice and hesitations

Jake drove the old pick-up slowly when they left the party, hoping to talk to Tom on the short ride. Tom however sat slouched in the seat with his hat tipped over his eyes, and to Jake he was in all appearances asleep. He tried anyway, just to hear it if nothing else. “Tom, I did something with Stormy today.” “What’d ya do?” came a low rumble from beneath the hat. “I… I kinda used my arm on her. She seemed to like it though. Is that bad for her, do ya think?” Jake worried in his voice. “Not if ya cleaned up good first, and didn’t push too far. You gotta know when to stop, when you feel it stop. She’s a big girl though, you ain’t likely to hit with yer hand.” A brief pause, then “Ya screw her yet?” “Um, I… No, she’s kinda too tall for me.” Tom laughed through the hat brim, “Boy, ya stand on somethin’! A handy bucket works, one ‘a them wide based feed buckets worked well fer Lilly an’ me. You shower first though, make sure yer clean for her, an’ clean her too, she’ll enjoy that. Do a good job, an’ she might let ya when she ain’t in heat too!” “I didn’t know. Uh, can we talk about something different now though?” Jake was embarrassed now, blushing a fair bit. Tom didn’t reply, just sat saying nothing for a bit. Suddenly he began to sing, soft and easy, “Born to lose” slid through his lips. Jake drove along, enjoying his friend’s voice. Tom finished by catching a flipped cigarette in his mouth and lighting it. Jake, not wanting the music to end, sang out with “Easy Loving” and Tom joined in through the smoke. Tom decided the boy was still unsure of him, and kept the singing going the rest of the ride. He waited till they were unhitching the trailer to drop his big bombshell. “Jake, son, I want ya to quit that job of yers. Yer better’n muckin’ stalls and ya need ta provide better fer Stormy.” He waited, and when the kid stayed quiet, he offered “I want ya to come and work fer me son, learnin’ to train and run the farm. I never have had a Farm Manager, and think I should. I’m slowin’ down some these days.” Jake remained quiet, surprised by the offer, till he finally said, “I’ll have to think about it a little Tom. That’s a helluva offer, and I’d have to give them some notice. They’ve been good to me.” “Sure, boy, sure. Just let me know.” Tom had hope in his voice, but worry too. What if the boy didn’t take the offer? He hadn’t been feeling too well lately, and he really wanted Jake near him just in case. He didn’t have anyone else, after all. Jake let it hang from there, but he thought about the offer on the drive home, and slept badly pondering it all night. For a week the offer filled his head with every stall he cleaned, and at home as he built a new wall on Stormy’s shelter. Tom passed a nervous week too, wondering what Jake would decide, and worrying about his own decision. He’d put off any ideas of going to a doctor long enough, he thought, and called the local VA hospital to rectify that. He’d had two appointments before that morning, one with a GP, and a consult with a specialist who viewed his x-rays. This morning was something they called a Cat scan and Tom nervously lay on a sliding table half listening to the pretty girl tell him how it worked and what to do. When asked he told them about the hip and leg implants, and got somewhat scared, but the girl said it’d be fine, they weren’t going that low. The stuff they put in his arms burned like cheap whiskey, Tom thought, but he gritted his teeth and held on. In under 5 minutes they were done, after he slid in and out of the machine twice over. “Well, what ’id ya see?” The girl laughed, “The Doctor will look at the pictures, and you’ll get a call in a few days, Sir.” “Great” Tom reflected, “Two or three more days of worryin’, Why not and what would they find?” “And how many before Jake makes up his mind?” also crossed his thoughts. Suddenly though, Tom didn’t want to know either answer. He felt tired, really tired and it all frightened him. To be continued…