When It Rains

Hello, happy Monday.  Another week is facing us and here the kids are starting to go back to school.  One of my grandsons actually started last Thursday.  It's still summer, isn't it? 

Ray's reconstructive surgery went well and we have no doctor visits scheduled this week. Thank God we are both healthy because I can't imagine how many doctor visits there would be if we weren't.

It's not rained here in I think the forecaster said forty-three days.  Of course, the forty-three days before that it did nothing but rain.  

Have a good week and maybe I'll get back here before next Monday - I hope to.

It had been raining for days, and the ground was beyond its saturation point.  Rivers and streams were running over their banks and evacuations from low-lying areas had been issued.  Most people complied with the evacuation notice, but there were always a few that hung back thinking they were immune to Mother Nature’s whims.  Sometimes they lucked out and other times others had to put their life on the line to accommodate their stupidity.

Ned Armstrong was a first responder in the small town of Dillard.  He was exhausted; he had been on shift for fourteen hours. He was about to go get some sleep when a call came in that there was a party stranded in their home, and the water was rising fast. He listened to the details as he drove to the location. ‘Hell, I know that address, that’s Ellie’s place. Why the hell is she still there, she knows better.

“I know the place. Put the chopper on alert.  If the creek overran its banks, it’s only a matter of minutes before it meets the lake, and that address is between the two.”

“The chopper is unavailable right now.  We’ll have to try another way,” the dispatcher told him.

“Do we have any boats in the area?”

“They’re all tied up right now.”

“Jesus,” Ned said.  “How the hell are we supposed to rescue someone from land when there is no damn land, only water?”  He said it more out of frustration than anything and really didn’t expect an answer.

 Most of the time Benson’s Creek was a trickle of water that ran behind Ellie’s place. Now it was a raging stream of water swallowing up everything in its path.  Ellie ran an animal sanctuary, and Ned figured that’s why she was still there.  She probably had waited until the last to find temporary homes for the animals, and now she was caught in the maelstrom.

Time wasn’t on their side. He remembered that Dillon Wells lived upstream from Ellie.  Dillon’s place was on higher ground and situated at the widest point of the peninsula. He told the dispatcher to try and reach him and see if he was still in his residence.  If so, he had a boat, and it was possible he could rescue Ellie.  Otherwise, unless he could come up with another solution, she’d just have to take her chances and wait for the chopper to become available.

Ellie Sharpton was a throwback to the hippy days.  She was a free spirit, who lived life one day at a time.  The house once belonged to her grandparents who used it as a summer place.  It had seen better days fifty years ago, but it suited Ellie.  She was okay living without the finer things of life.  The necessities suited her just fine.  She raised chickens, grew her own vegetables and herbs, selling or bartering what she couldn’t use for things she could.

Ned had gone to school with Ellie.  To his knowledge, she had never hooked up with anyone locally.   After high school, she left the area for a few years, and when she returned she moved into the life, she now lived.  Ned’s sister kept in touch with her, but when Molly moved away he hadn’t kept up with Ellie except for occasionally seeing her in the village or when the vet clinic had an animal adoption event.  He knew she had a couple of run-ins with Ted Forrest, the animal control.  He said she was the most stubborn woman on the face of the earth and that he wanted to take her over his knee and give her a good paddling on several occasions.

He was still en route to getting as close as he could when he heard from the dispatcher that  Dillon was on it.  “Keep me posted,”  he told the dispatcher. 

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About two hours later he learned that Dillon had rescued Ellie along with three chickens a dog and a cat and was taking them to a temporary shelter at the school in Jasper.  Ned knew the shelter wouldn’t allow the animals, and if he could get there before them, he’d take them to his place. He had a few animals of his own, and he could always make room for a few homeless chickens and a dog and a cat for a few days.   

When he arrived, he saw Ellie sitting under a lean-to with a dog beside her, a cat on her lap and a crate of the chickens beside her.  She looked placid and serene considering what she had been through. Although soaked to the bone, she sat quietly amid the chaos that surrounded her. 

“Hi, Ellie.”

“Hello, Ned.  I understand you’re the one that suggested Dillon might be able to help me.  Thanks.  I had almost all the animals out, but it got away from me.”

“I figured it was something like that.  Want to load them up and come to my place until things get sorted out.”

“You’re a godsend, Ned Armstrong. Mollie always said you were a good guy.”

“Nice to know my sister likes me.”  He gave her a big smile.  He helped her load the crate into the back of his pick-up and opened the back for the dog.  She held the cat close to her as he opened the door for her to climb in the front.

It took them about thirty minutes to get to his place, and the conversation was stilted.  Ellie wasn’t very forthcoming, and Ned wasn’t the best conversationalist in the world.

He drove into the barnyard, stopped and hauled the crate with the chickens inside.

“I can set up the chickens in a separate pen in the coop, and the dog and cat can come in the house.  Mandy might not like it, but she’ll be okay. Is that okay with you?”

“More than okay.  I had visions of spending the night under a canopy.”

He drove over to the house and pulled up to the back door to avoid any more rain pelting down on them.  They were both soaked, and the dampness was beginning to seep into Ned’s bones and he couldn’t wait for a hot shower and a shot of tequila.

He opened the door to the mud room, and Mandy came to greet him.  She sniffed at Ellie’s dog and the cat who was still in Ellie’s arms hissed at him. 

“Mandy meet Maxie.  She’s homeless at the moment.  Will you be the sweet girl I know you to be and make her welcome.”  Mandy looked at him like she knew what he was saying and backed off and went back to the kitchen. Ellie couldn’t believe how he talked to Mandy, it was exactly how she related to her animals.   Ned grabbed a towel from the shelf to dry off Maxie and handed one to Ellie for the cat. 

“Will your cat behave herself around Mandy if we let her loose?”

“If she’s doesn’t behave, I’ll spank her.”  She laughed 

“You’re the one that needs the spanking.  You waited too damn long.  Do you know you could have drowned today? Not only that but your foolishness put other lives in danger."

He hadn’t heard the whole story when he responded to the call.  Apparently, she had made several trips back and forth and the last time she drove right through a barricade to get back to her house to get Maxie, the cat, and her chickens.

“But I didn’t, and no one was hurt.  What did you all expect me to do,  abandon my animals?  I could never do that.”

“Did it ever occur to you to ask for help?”

“No, because I would have gotten a load of grief from Ted.”

 “Well, the next time, if there is a next time, call someone for help." She could hear the annoyance and fear in his voice and though she didn't regret her decision, but now that the adrenalin rush was over, she did regret putting others in danger.  "The bathroom is down the hall and you can hit the shower first.  There are towels in the linen closet.  Right now I’m having a shot of tequila to warm me up on the inside. It’s been a hell of a shift.”

“Pour one for me too, will ya?”

He poured two shots and Ellie immediately downed one.  “Where’s yours?” she asked when she picked up the second glass.

“You surprise me, girl.”

“We’re even because you surprised me too Ned.”

She emptied the second shotglass and headed off down the hall to the bathroom.  She wasn’t kidding when she said Ned Armstrong surprised her.  She’d always had a crush on him but except that she was his sister’s friend, she didn’t think he even knew she existed back then.  He was still a hottie and she was surprised someone hadn’t snagged him by now.

While Ellie was in the shower, Ned ruminated about Ellie.  There was something about her that intrigued him.  She wasn’t overly pretty or tall or curvy, so it had to be her inner beauty.  He wanted to ask her how she came back to live here in Dillard and why she chose her current lifestyle.  He also wanted to know how she could down two shots of tequila without batting an eyelash and if she was going to live to regret the decision.  He realized he wanted to see if he could penetrate that calm exterior. 

He could still hear the shower running, so he knew it was safe to open the door and put down the clothes he had found.  He could see her through the semi-transparent shower curtain and had the unbelievable urge to push it aside and climb in with her. He could see the contours of her body as she raised her arms to push back her hair and he felt his body react.

“Do you want to join me or do you only want to stand there and watch?”  He didn’t realize she was aware of his presence and he was embarrassed by his voyeurism. He couldn’t make his voice work and he turned to leave the room.

“You didn’t strike me as a coward, Ned.”  He heard her say.  He stopped and started to undress as he answered.  “I’m not,” and stepped into the shower.

He pushed her against the shower wall and told her to keep her hands on the wall as his hands caressed her torso.  Her body trembled as he moved his rough hands down her legs and up her inner thighs avoiding the cleft.  Instead his hands cupped her breasts, teasing the nipples into hard points and flicking them until she reached for him to stop.  He slapped her ass hard.  “I told you hands on the wall.”  She put her hands back on the wall and stuck out her ass and gave it a wiggle.

“Oh, so you like that, do you,” he said as he slapped her ass again. She moaned her pleasure and said “I want that spanking you said I deserved.” 

He wasn’t sure he could bear the pleasure, but he complied, bringing his hand down on each cheek again and again.  He spanked her until her ass was the prettiest shade of red.

He turned her around and went down on his knees. His tongue laved her labia - her moan reverberated around the bathroom. When her spasms ceased, he heard her say “Get up, it’s my turn to kneel.” 

It was his turn to moan.

See you later for more Aimless Ramblings.