Wheels of Steel, Book 1 (21 page)

~Oh my god, that was CRAZEE, TOP! I never heard of Dubstep before. I wanted to get up and start dancing. Thanks for the education, now I’m off searching for more Dubstep! Sweetheart in HC~

~You never heard of Dubstep? It’s been around for over ten years. There are some really good artist out there; Mt Eden, Enigma. Here take a link to this one. TOP~

They sent messages back and forth like that for a while. Robin suddenly felt bad for not revealing her real identity. She should have told him who she was yesterday…now it was just plain awkward. Should she just keep playing that she didn’t know him? If she told him who she was now, he’d probably be mad at her. But she had a purely selfish motive for hiding her identity; she liked talking to him like this and when he talked to her as his aid he wasn’t very pleasant.

So who would it hurt if she just didn’t ever tell him?

~Sweetheart, do you have a yahoo or MSN messenger that we can chat on? It would make it easier to send messages back and forth~

~I don’t have anything like that. Hold on, I’ll download Yahoo~

Robin had never chatted before. She did the download, following the prompts and ten minutes later sent Top a friends request wondering if he hadn’t bailed out and went off to do something else. But then he accepted it and Robin felt herself smiling broadly.

~So you have never done a chat on the net before?~ He asked.

~No, never. There’re little smiley faces all over~ She sent him ten emoticons.

~LOL, how old are you?~ Robin blanched. What should she say? Should she tell him the truth?

~Why?~

~You’re either too old to be familiar with chatting, or too young~

~Good point. How about I’m just too…out of touch? I’m older than 18 but younger than 30. How’s that?~

~Cool~ He sent her a thumbs up emoticon which caused her to smile again.

~So…why are you talking to me? Don’t you have a million fans to chat with?~

There wasn’t a response for a long time. Robin hoped she didn’t come off as self deprecating; like I’m a loser and you’re a star. She was just curious. Why talk to her when there were over a hundred thousand hits on his latest video and probably hundreds of people to chat with?

~You make it seem like talking to you is a waste of time. You’re interesting~

She sent him a crooked smile emoticon.

Chapter 17

Jason spent the evening chatting on line. He liked talking to the girl and though he could have done things like asking her for her real name or what part of Hamilton County she lived in, Jason didn’t. In some ways, her talking to him online meant that she wasn’t constantly looking at his jerking muscles or struggling to understand his sometimes slurred speech.

Jason felt that he could be more himself then his cerebral palsy allowed people to see. So they talked about impersonal things like music. And as much music as he sent, she still asked for more. She couldn’t believe that a 19 year old white guy knew more about hip hop then she did. He pulled up links to rap tunes like KRS-One Boogie Down Productions, or explained that he was loving a beat from a Jazz musician by the name of Bob James and this tuned called Nautilus. Then she’d get so excited and say that her mother used to play that song when she was a kid. Sweetheart’s enthusiasm kept him online chatting well into the night. And then she said, I gotta get up for church tomorrow so I better go. He said ‘goodnight Sweetheart’ and she sent him an emoticon kiss.

He felt very good when he signed off and went to bed. He dreamed that he and Sweetheart were sitting right next to each other listening to music, only Sweetheart looked a lot like Robin.

***

Robin dragged herself out of bed. She had talked to Jason until after midnight and now she was paying the price. Church started at eleven but Mama liked being there by 10:30 so she was forced to get up early enough to be presentable.

“Robin.” Mama beamed when she opened the door. “You look gorgeous.” She received a peck on the cheek even before she could step into the house. Robin grinned. She thought her mother was the one that was gorgeous and she loved when she was happy and upbeat. She was tall, with honey skin, grey eyes—she was more fit then Robin ever had been. Her Mother did everything that a person ‘should do’; from exercising, eating right, and of course—going to college and getting an acceptable job.

She stepped into the comfortable house, her eyes automatically moving to the photographs of Daddy. It didn’t make her that sad anymore, but she missed him not one ounce less than she had on the very day that he had left them. After the service they went to Perkins for brunch, and while they waited for their order Robin decided to tell Mama of her decision.

“Mom, when did you want to go to the Bahamas?”

“I was thinking right after Christmas.” It was October now so that was more than two months. Her mother gave her a hopeful look.

Robin sighed. “I want to go with you.”

Mama made a happy whooping sound. “Oh Robin! Are you going to be able to get off work?”

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I’ve never scheduled a day off in all of these months, so I’ll make it my Christmas leave. Besides, I’m not working at the restaurant anymore, so it’s just Pinnacle.”

Mom’s arched brow rose. “Oh?”

Robin cleared her throat. “It was too hard working two jobs.” She peeked at her mother preparing for her to bring up, once more, that she wouldn’t have to work two jobs if she had a college education. But Mama just listened with interest.

“Working as an aid pays more?”

“Yeah it does. And I can get more hours.” She shrugged.

“How’s that old lady?”

“She’s not doing so well. She had to be placed in an Elder Care Facility. I’m working with someone else now.”

“Oh? Who?”

“I’m working with a young man who has Cerebral Palsy.”

“Oh, that’s so sad.”

“It is, but he can do most things himself.” Robin began warming up to the conversation. In the past they couldn’t talk about her job without Mama ruining it by bringing up something unpleasant. Robin told her about how talented Jason was and how he had created music that was very popular. But Mama didn’t understand YouTube so didn’t take the fact that he had over 100,000 views as the big accomplishment that it was.

“Well how old is this boy?”

“Nineteen.”

“Nineteen? That’s a man. What do you do for him? You don’t have to…bathe him or anything, do you?”

Robin’s mouth opened and she thought suddenly of touching his penis. Her cheeks felt warm. “No. I just…make sure he doesn’t have complications when he’s having a seizure. And I help him around his college classes…” Her voice suddenly trailed off as Mama flashed her a piercing look.

“You mean, this boy, with Cerebral Palsy goes to college?”

Robin looked at anything but her Mama. “Cerebral Palsy doesn’t mean that he’s mentally retarded. It just means that he can’t control his muscle movements.”

Mama twisted her lips but didn’t speak whatever was on her mind, which most obviously was why a boy with Cerebral Palsy knew to go to college while her own daughter didn’t.

But her mother surprised her by just changing the subject all together. “I’m really happy you’re going to the Bahamas. It’s going to be so much fun! This can be like…a new start to everything, you know?”

Robin gave her a wide-eyed look. “I think so, too, Mama.” She smiled and it was the most real smile that she’d given her mother in months.

When Robin got home that afternoon she was excited at the prospect of chatting with Jason and listening to some good music. She changed into shorts and a t-shirt and carried the laptop to her bed where she plumped her pillows and got comfortable.

She logged into Yahoo and saw the smiling icon that let her know that Jason was signed on.

~Hey, what’s up?~ She typed.

~Hey Sweetheart. How was church?~ She couldn’t stop grinning at the way he referred to her as Sweetheart.

~Good. Thanks. Are you working on music?~

~Kinda. Just digging for breaks~

~What’s digging for breaks?~

~Basically…I’m listening to music trying to find the right sound, beats etc~

~Haha. We do that every day. Find anything interesting?~
Immediately two links appeared. They were two old school rappers that she had never even heard of. And when she mentioned that, he was amazed and proceeded to ‘school her’ on the origins of rap, naming people that she was amazed he would even know; Like Big Daddy Kane and Slick Rick.

~Do you only listen to black music?~

~Girl, you amaze me. Music doesn’t have a color!~

Robin chuckled.

~You know what I mean~

~No, to the first question, Yes to the second~
He sent her another link and she immediately began playing it. It was…opera.

~What the-?~

~Don’t type. Listen~
She did as he requested. She leaned back against her pillows and watched the video. The man’s operatic voice was against a funky beat and she was amazed when she felt chills running up her spine. What the hell was this?! It wasn’t opera exactly. She tried to make out the name; Vitas-Lucia Di Lammermoorr (il dolce suono).

~What the hell was that, TOP? It was awesome! I got chills!~

~LOL. It’s called Tripopera~

~YOU’RE MAKING THAT UP!!!~

~Lol. No I’m not~

~I’m going to find SOMETHING that you’ve never heard before~

~That would be great! Go for it~

They talked for several hours, about nothing more benign then music--until she begged off in order to go to bed.

~Work tomorrow?~

She hesitated.

~Yeah~

~What do you do?~

She didn’t like this; she didn’t like this at all. She had never lied to him during this entire time that she’d chatted with him. The only lie she’d told was the lie by omission. She obviously couldn’t tell him the truth about what she did if she didn’t want him to figure out who she was.

~I work in the restaurant business…so talk to you tomorrow?~

~Sure. I’ll be on in the evening after I get home from school and take care of some things. Have a goodnight, Sweetheart~

~You, too, TOP~

Whenever he called her Sweetheart it made her smile. No…it made her more than smile; it made her heart flutter.

***

The next day Robin was excited to see Jason. It seemed that it had been forever since she’d last seen him when it had only been two days. She retrieved his braces from the trunk and hurried up the walkway. She rang the bell, trying to keep her face from lighting up when the door opened.

“Hi, Robin.” He said as he wheeled away. He had barely looked at her.

She stood there on the stoop, quiet for a moment. “Good morning.” She finally mumbled to herself. She shut the door behind her and followed him into the kitchen.

“Thanks for bringing those.” He wheeled up to the table and continued eating his Cheerios. “Can you make some coffee, please?”

“Sure.” She placed the braces on the table and began the process of boiling water in the kettle. “So how was your weekend?” His eyes stayed glued to the newspaper.

“It was good.”

“Oh.” She measured out coffee into the press. “Did you make any music?”

He glanced at her. “No.”

Disappointed at his bare minimum answers, she moved about the kitchen; collecting his travel mug, cream and sugar. When he didn’t try to continue the conversation she decided to just shut up. Why had he been so talkative on the internet? Because he was talking to someone other than her, that’s why…