Dee’s Ghosts.

Dee hated this time of year. Every time someone coiled up a frozen garden hose the popping and cracking it made triggered the memory of that fateful day that her best friend nearly castrated her crush.

He’d been standing on the second to the top rung of a metal gate and had just put his leg over to go to the other side when Clara pulled his foot off the rung. The popping of his balls as he hit sounded just like those hoses, and Dee had watched in horror as he turned blue while grasping his damaged family jewels.

Clara just giggled as he finally caught his breath and gave a squeaky moan.

Clara was dead now. She’d moved away, and had been brutally murdered in a back alley somewhere. Dee shuddered as she remembered the nightmares she’d had after hearing how Clara died.

She flinched as she got out of her car and her new neighbor coiled the last of his hoses in the front yard. The T-shirt and tight jeans showed just how well endowed he was, and once she got past the ghosts she found herself hoping he was single, until the hose popped again. She fumbled with her keys as he finished then she smiled as he moved inside.

She’d remained chaste for fear of going to Hell for letting herself have sex before marriage. Damned preacher, she thought as she remembered the small town preacher where she grew up. He’d scared most of her friends away from any kind of organized religion. The few he didn’t scare off he impregnated. Now she wondered if anything he said was true. When her parents died, her friend that attended church in a nearby town told her to run, so she’d moved here.

  Dee re-considered walking next door and begging her neighbor to sleep with her. I don’t even know his name! she thought as she closed the door behind her. She would follow her instincts and wait till marriage.

The next day Dee decided to take one last near naked bath in the sun before it got too cold. Her backyard was mostly secluded, the only neighbor that could see her here was the hot guy if he walked out on his deck. Maybe if he saw her skimpy workout clothes she would be a temptation that he couldn’t resist. She chided herself again for entertaining such thoughts. Near naked Tai Chi was her one ‘safe’ form of rebellion against a religion that had been forced on her as a youth. She was willing to wait for the rest.

Dee shook her head as she dropped her robe. She’d been told she was cute, but not voluptuous. Her dark shoulder length hair did little to accentuate her barely there figure. Still, a Tai Chi workout in the yard would feel good. The meditation would help her forget the sound of the hoses and the dark memories that sound triggered.

The cool autumn air kissed her legs, as she finished her workout and looked up to find her neighbor standing on his deck. She blushed as he gave her a thumbs up and disappeared inside his house. She went inside and got in the shower, forcing herself not to fantasize on what might be.

As she turned off the water and toweled herself off, she heard the doorbell. She wrapped her towel around her and quickly moved to the front door. She looked through the peephole, and there was her neighbor. She hesitantly opened the door.

“Hi, I’m Tom from next door.” He held out a single carnation with a note attached. “Thank you for giving me hope for next spring.”

Tom turned away almost before Dee could respond. “Welcome,” she gasped as a gust of icy air went under her towel.

Tom smiled and waved, then moved back into his house.

Dee read the note.

“My wife did Tai Chi.

She died trying to have our first child last spring.

Thank you for showing me that life goes on.”

Dee put the carnation in water and wondered if she dared approach someone who might still be in mourning.

Two days later Fall was over and Dee woke to six inches of snow outside. As she put on her gloves and coat and opened the door she was shocked to see Tom had just finished shoveling her drive.

“I was just going to do that,” she said.

Tom smiled and shrugged as he tossed the last shovel full of snow onto the pile, and moved to go.

“Will you at least come in for a cup of hot chocolate?” she said.

Tom nodded and moved toward her, leaving the shovel by her door.

“I know you’re probably expecting coffee…”

Tom shook his head. “Actually I avoid it as it messes up my mind while I’m writing.”

“So you’re a writer?”

“Technical and marketing writer. I just finished the nights projects and was getting ready to sleep and decided I needed a quick workout before I went to bed.”

Dee nodded as she stirred the hot chocolate mix into the boiling water and handed him a mug.

“So what has you out so early?” he said.

“I have a government desk job.”

Tom looked skeptical.

Dee smiled. “I’m an online researcher for a secret government organization.”

This time Tom smiled. “Does that mean we’ll have super spies showing up at all hours?”

Dee tried to give him her best smirk. “That’s why I have to go to the office, so they don’t show up here.”

“Touché’,” he said, raising his cup. “I should probably let you get on your way to save the world.”

Dee hesitantly took his empty cup as he stood to leave. “Thanks for your help, and I’ll sleep much better knowing I have a handsome hunk next door to protect me if those spies or a damned small town preacher does show up.”

Tom gave an embarrassed smile as he opened the front door and left.

By Halloween the snow had mostly melted and the neighborhood children made their annual trick or treating runs. Just as she was about to turn out the light and lock the door for the night, there was a final ring of the doorbell. Dee opened the door with the candy bowl to find Tom standing there in a tux, looking every bit the James Bond super spy.

“Care to join me for a nightcap Miss Moneypenny?”

Dee looked down and remembered that she hadn’t changed out of her ‘costume’ after getting home from the office. The gray tweed skirt, and black jacket over the white blouse were accentuated with the classic string of pearls. “I thought you’d never ask.”

She grabbed her coat and locked her door as he offered his arm and lead her toward a classic Austin Martin sedan. This has to be a dream, she thought as he helped her into the car.

It was just after midnight when Tom dropped her off and hesitantly kissed her goodnight.

Dee watched Tom move over to his house. This is getting serious, she thought as she got ready for bed.

The next morning when Dee got to the office she learned that one of the men she worked for had died in a car wreck. What if it wasn’t an accident? she thought as she started to tremble. She took a deep breath. She was a simple government auditor, and didn’t deal with spies or double agents, but the man who died in the accident had been a part of her team.

Gina, Dee’s boss noticed her face and said, “Take the day off. You’re far enough ahead that it won’t matter.”

Dee nodded and kept working at her terminal.

“Is there a problem?” Gina said looking over her shoulder.

“One quick thing then I’m out of here.”

Gina put a motherly hand on her shoulder. “Don’t let it get to you dear. Accidents happen.”

Dee nodded as her search for Tom came back negative. The spy talk from the night before had made her imagination go wild. He was what he claimed to be, and it was unlikely she was putting Tom in danger.

“Go home Dee. That’s an order!” Gina said.

Dee hesitantly picked up her stuff and left the office. The sun was just rising as she pulled into her house. Tom would be fast asleep and Dee knew that the best thing she could do would be to just spend the day curled up with a good book and soft music.

She chose a book of ancient Chinese tales hoping to avoid anything that might remind her of work, or Tom. She read till the Chinese characters blurred, and then she closed her eyes. She woke with a start as a chunk of ice fell from her roof. The first day she saw Tom came back to haunt her, but then she remembered the previous night. She was safe and would move on.

By Thanksgiving Dee had forgot about the man who had died, and she and Tom had started having hot chocolate in the mornings before she went to work, and he went to bed. No spies showed up, and Tom confessed that the car was a rental, as part of the costume.

Dee was an only child, and her parents had never been close to their siblings, so Thanksgiving had never been a big deal.

“For my family it is a big deal,” Tom said. “But my brother is, as you say, a small town preacher.”

Dee felt her heart drop. The years of hatred against all clergy she’d kept hidden suddenly came to the surface. The look of disappointment on Tom’s face did little to ease the pain she was feeling.

“I’d hoped this wouldn’t come between us, but I didn’t want to blindside you with it either.”

Dee winced as she looked into his eyes. She felt like she was kicking a little puppy, but that damned small town preacher…. “The only reason I got out of that small town with any sense of honor was because my Mormon friend told me to run.”

Tom smiled. “Would it help if I told you my mother is Mormon?”

Dee shrugged. Even if Tom’s mother had allowed her son to become a preacher, she didn’t know if it would make any difference.

“Mom made sure we lived up to her standards,” he said. “That’s the real reason I don’t drink coffee, and we know better than to preach Hellfire and Damnation.”

Dee took a deep breath. Tom had shown that he was the nicest guy she’d ever met, and didn’t mind the values she’d tried to live. Meeting family would be hard no matter when it happened… “I suppose we could give it a try.”

Tom took her hand and whispered, “Thank you.”

Dee had been surprised when Tom’s brother showed up with a wife and seven kids. “So where is your brother the preacher?”

“He’s a preacher, not a Catholic priest,” Tom said. “He married his childhood sweetheart, and took over the pulpit in a small town a few years back.”

Dee forced herself not to flinch as Brett approached.

“Tom warned me that you’d had a bad experience with preachers. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t like being told I’m going to Hell because I couldn’t help a friend.”

“I teach repentance, and coming to Christ, not Damnation,” Brett said.

Dee was hesitant to believe him, but he seemed to be nice enough.

“No shop talk,” Tom’s mother said interrupting. “You know the rules.”

Dee was impressed with Tom’s mother, and was willing to enjoy the rest of the day. The more she thought about what Brett had said, she realized that she couldn’t have done anything about her childhood crush. Now it was time to move on.

It wasn’t long after Thanksgiving dinner that Tom finally popped the question and Dee said yes. Dee knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but ‘happily ever after’ seldom is, and Tom had helped her conquer her ghosts and was willing to help her make the dream come true.

qed.