I am not participating in NaNoWriMo (my daughter is) but I have been inspired. This is where I will post my ‘novel’ for now.
The sweat ran down her face, stinging her eyes. Renae adjusted her bandana and went back to the job of emptying the dryer. As if the day wasn’t hot enough, spending the hottest part of it in the laundromat was enough to make someone wish they were dead. She could always count on the Virginia summers to make the upcoming fall semester of school look inviting and pleasurable. Three loads done. It only took five hours. Did she really have anything better to do? Her boyfriend Mike had moved back to Kansas after leaving the Navy. She could call him, but it wasn’t like they had plans for a date night. There was work, there was watching her roommates party and there was more work.
There were few things that could top the nauseating heat and humidity inside the laundromat. Her car was one of them. The little silver Civic, with it’s hatchback and crank windows, resembled a Coors Light can on wheels. It had a manual transmission and a FM radio. A vehicle with air conditioning was a lofty ambition for a college student. She chucked the hampers of unfolded clothes into the trunk. Her bare thighs almost melted to the vinyl seat as she took her place behind the wheel. What she wouldn’t give to have a washer and dryer at the house. Cara was supposed to be getting them a used one but excuses seemed to be the only thing Cara could produce. Maybe she shouldn’t have moved off campus. Maybe her mom was right. She should have just come home for the summer; saved her money and continued living in the dorms. Why did she move out again? She didn’t even like her roommates. As she pulled around the corner into her neighborhood the driveway came into sight and she noticed a strange blue pick up truck backed up near the basement door.
Cara skipped down the back steps, meeting Renae at her car. It seemed Cara’s dad had finally loaned her the truck so she could go procure the household a washer and dryer. The issue now was getting it in the house. Renae giggled to herself at the thought of their two male roommates squealing tires trying to get away before Cara arrived. She couldn’t help but notice that they were no where to be found. Those two good for nothing womanizers certainly weren’t going to help unload the appliances; they still took their laundry home to their mama’s to wash.
She was often the one to step in and bring home a solution. Her roommates would good at buying whatever was needed but if something came along that needed ingenuity or resourcefulness it was Renae that came through. Being poor will do that to a person. You learn to use what you have with creativity. Renae may not have personally known guys willing and able to help them, but she had friends who might. She ran inside to get the phone, her heat induced lethargy falling away in the excitement of never having to trudge to the laundromat again. A few calls made back and forth and sure enough, Renae’s friend Meghan was on her way over with James and Ryan. Cara brought out the beer, the college student standard gift of thanks, and joined Renae on the back porch.
The conversation was light. Renae asked Cara about the washer and dryer. Cara thanked Renae for finding help. Maybe after a beer or two the chatter might pick up but these two had never been exceptionally friendly. Cara was bossy and controlling. Renae just needed to be out of the dorms and did not want to go home. She needed to be somewhere quieter, with a few less freshmen. She needed to be able to cook her own food and have her own room. Moving off campus did not fill any of those needs. The two boys renting the rooms upstairs were constantly having parties, with Cara, and inviting every freshman girl they could sweet talk into crossing the main road to get to the house. It was rarely quiet. Cara’s stringent “cooking schedule” to ensure no one was trying to cook simultaneously guaranteed two things: Renae never ate when she was hungry and five days out of the week she got served food she didn’t like to eat. Some nights she longed for access to the dining hall. Her room was the tiniest room in the house. It had two doors, one to the living room and one to the bathroom, which seemed optimal at first. Trying to study with one drunk girl giggling outside one door, and another vomiting outside the other is impossible. The lease was only for a year, she had two months down already. She could tough it out.
Meghan arrived first. She probably spent more time walking to her shiny red Geo Metro then she would have spent just walking to the house. Meghan wasn’t going to arrive anywhere on foot. Her little red car fit her Micky Mouse personality and she went everywhere in it, never mind how far away the parking lots were from the dorms. She hopped out of her car, curly shoulder length hair bouncing up and down in it’s ponytail. Meghan was most likely hanging out in her comfy pants when Renae called yet she arrived stressed in style for the washing machine install party. Conveniently forgetting her fiance, Meghan joined the fun just for the eye candy. James was not hard on the eyes. He was sweet and a little preppy in his dress. He was very country in his personality. Full of yes ma’ams and big smiles and acting like a regular cowboy, James made all the girls swoon. Renae couldn’t deny that she was happy Meghan had called James for help. James was fun to be around. If it weren’t for Mike, Renae would be visibly swooning too. Meghan stayed standing, positioning herself like a runway model, working to make the sexiest visual pose for the truck turning into the driveway.
James and Ryan walked up to the girls, Meghan did the introductions, and Cara pointed to the blue pick up parked by the basement door. Renae thanked James for coming and offered him a beer for his trouble. The boys slid the not-so-gently used appliance across the bed of Cara’s father’s truck bed. The metal on metal sound echoed through the neighborhood and the girls squealed as they covered their ears. The washer was carried down the concrete steps and through the tiny doorway and nearly dropped into place near the faucets. A brief moment of silence, where James looked at the girls and the girls looked back confused, was all that those boys needed to know that actually hooking up the washing machine would also be their job. James didn’t even ask Cara for tools. Short on time and concerned they would be pink and miniature sized, he headed for his truck to get his own tool box. Renae and Meghan had returned to the yard, giggling and gossiping, waiting for the job to be done and the beer drinking to begin. Meghan talked about Jonathan , her fiance, signing up for classes at the community college,and Renae talked about Mike and how he was hoping to enroll at the community college in Kansas. Renae was doing the best she could to be supportive of his move back to his hometown. She only had one year of college left. Then she could join him, or maybe he’ll give up on the family farm and move back to Virginia. If she had stopped trying to convince herself, and Meghan, that this long distance relationship would be fine she might have noticed Ryan watching her. He hadn’t stopped looking at her since they pulled up in the driveway.
