Saving Daisy

John was a thirty something business owner; general construction, married young and divorced within a couple of years. He was now a happy bachelor and doing okay for himself knocking down a cool 6 figures, living in one of his spec homes and doing what he had always wanted. He didn’t go out that much because all it meant to him was another hassle like before and he had enough hassles to last him a lifetime.

He had gotten quite a reputation around town for being a darn good builder and it was well disserved. He had always had this knack of knowing what looks good and how to build it and he used that knack to build his business very nicely. He also had even ventured out into custom building for the wealthier group in his town. With the rewards and the accolades came the added pressure of proving that he knew what he is doing and not making any bad mistakes. So far so good and he intended to keep it that way.

John had grown up in a blue collar family, his father worked at the mill and his mother was a waitress down at the local diner. He had gone into the diner regularly to have his breakfast and to flirt with all of the local girls. There was just one back in those days and she caught his eye big time. Well, his Momma warned him not to get involved “with that one” but he paid her no mind and before you could shake a stick at him, he ran off and got married to the little tramp and well, the rest is history.

His Momma died of a heart attach a couple of years later and his Papa never got over it and when to join her a year later at his own hand. All of a sudden, John was left all alone as a framer for a local builder and when the builder decided to retire, John was the first in line to take over his business.

John had learned his trade well and could not only frame up a good, square house, but he could, string wire, do his own plumbing, roofing and rough in work and have it ready for the professionals to come in and sign it off for the inspections. The only thing that he was lacking in was the finish and trim work so he hired himself the best man in town, Bill Wilson and his business was off and running. Of course, over time, he needed someone to oversee everything and to make sure they were all working off the same page, so he hired a third, a crack notched foreman name Carl to fit that bill.

It was on a Wednesday morning, having their weekly business breakfast, that a certain girl caught his eye. It isn’t as you might think because he had seen this little girl for over a year and he thought of her as if she was his own. Daisy was her name and she had just graduated high school and was thinking about heading to the local community college or about going to beauty school to become a beautician. She wasn’t going to work at this here ol’ diner for the rest of her life and she had the ambition to do whatever she wanted.

She was always bubbly and cheerful whenever he had seen her but on this particular morning, something seemed amiss, you know, something wasn’t just right. He was staring at her with his attention on her face and then it hit him like someone had hit Daisy, giving her a black eye.

“Daisy, darlin’, come on over here and let me take a good look at that eye of yours,” he said with concern in his voice.

“What, oh that, it’s nothing really, it’s just where I ran into the door last night in the dark,” she said in a sheepish sort of tone to her voice.

Bill scoffed and said, “Well, you’d think that you would know your way around the house in the dark wouldn’t ya?”

Carl smiled and returned his attention back to his notebook but John wasn’t quite convinced, not yet anyway so he pursued the matter a little further. “Let me that a look at that,” he said encouraging her to come closer for another, closer inspection.

“John, I said no, it’s really nothing,” she said in a huff but John was too powerful for her feeble attempt to hold him off as he looked at it closer. He saw that her whole side of her face was bruised and swollen under the makeup that was applied over it and the abrasion crept up to her eye. She also had a little swelling over her cheek bone.

“My God Daisy, you must have been running it get such a bruise!” he declared. “Are you sure you ran into a door last night?”

John thought for a second and then he saw red. “Daisy, now tell me the truth. Did Billy Joe hit you last night? Did that no account son-of-a-bitch do this to you? Tell me the truth now Daisy, did he hit you?”

She didn’t say a word, she didn’t have to; she just covered her tears and ran to the back of the diner.

Daisy had been just like anyone else as a ten year old when her Daddy got caught in the grinder at the mill and died on the spot. Her Momma had raised her the best she could but she just couldn’t make ends meet, so a couple of years later, she married this lazy bastard Billy Joe Morgan and that was the end of Daisy’s happy childhood.

Billy Joe had worked for John’s old boss before he retired and had framed along side of John. Well, worked is a generous statement, because Billy Joe usually showed up drunk every morning and was useless by the afternoon. When the boss had to fire his lazy ass, Billy Joe turned around and collected Workman’s Comp on him and he finally was classified as 100% disabled to this day. Daisy’s Momma was run over by a hit and run driver a couple of years later and the driver of the car was never discovered. The poor girl had to live with her step father Billy Joe until she could afford to move out.

He often wondered about what went on in that house at night but he didn’t feel that it was any of his business, but seeing this bruise on Daisy’s face that morning was more than he could handle so he suggested that the three of them at the table needed to pay Billy Joe a little visit.

Now neither Bill nor Carl were little men, in fact, John was the smallest of the three, so they were an imposing force when they showed up at Billy Joe’s house that morning. They rousted him out of his stupor as he finally came to see who was pounding on his door.

“What the fuck do you want?” he shouted through his front door.

The trio pounded again their answer. So Billy Joe made his second mistake in as many days as he opened the door and glared out at the people interrupting his sleep.

“Oh it’s you. The biggest piece of shit this side of the tracks,” he said in recognition of John’s presence.

“Good to see you too,” John said with a calm mean tone to his voice. “We’re here to ask you about little Daisy’s bruise on her face. You don’t know anything about that now do you?” John asked.

“What did that little slut tell you anyway. That I hit her? Well I did. She sassed me, right to my face. She told me to go to hell so I gave her what for,” he said in drunken slobber. “What business it is of your anyway?”

“Oh, I was just wondering because she was all bruised this morning and I just couldn’t believe the story that she gave me about running into the door in the middle of the night so I thought that I would come out to see what you had to say about it and now that you have confessed then I think that I can go,” John said, seething at the sight of this scum.

“Go to hell John,” Bobby Joe told him flatly.

I looked at him directly in his blood shot eyes and said, “Now that’s what you said that she said to you last night that caused you to hit her in the face. So I think if it’s good enough for you then it’s good enough for me,” as he unloaded on him with his fist to his ugly face.

He fell flat on his back as John asked the other two men standing on the porch, “Guys, don’t kill him but make him wish that he was dead,” and slowly turned to walk back to his pickup. He didn’t hear the cries that came out of Billy Joe’s mouth but he knew that he would have to stop by his friend the sheriff to tell about how poor Billy Joe fell down the staircase at his house.

The trio went back to the diner and John told Daisy that she didn’t have to go back home after she got off from her shift and that he would be by to pick her up and take her to his spec home to stay for awhile. He had made sure that Billy Joe would never hit her again and that she could now rid herself of him and start a new and better life for herself.

That was how it started and for the next couple of years or so, they lived a life of total harmony with one another in a truly brother and sister existence. He bought her everything she needed so she didn’t have to go back to her old place and she soon placed the terrible few years through her teenage life behind her.

They moved out of and into other houses depending on whether each of his homes sold or not, but she didn’t seem to mind the gypsy life just as long as she didn’t have to go back to Billy Joe and his drunken fits of anger. She was just thinking about going to school when everything seemed to change.

After a lot of moves, John decided to build him a more permanent home and he had just finished the project and they had moved in less than a week. It was a single story abode, a split plan with his bedroom on one side of the house and the other two bedrooms on the opposite side and both sides had their own bathrooms. The main part of the house was in the center so that was where they spent most of their time when they were home.

It was a Saturday mid-morning and John had an appointment to attend a third showing of a custom build home and he was right on time for it when he pulled out of the driveway. After traveling about 5 minutes towards his appointment, he suddenly realized that he had left the file for the project on his desk in the office/den and he needed it to make any notes or changes that the client might want to make. He turned around in the middle of the street and sped back towards his new home.

He parked his pickup and ran into the house to retrieve his forgotten file and as he entered the office, he heard the water running in his bathroom which was right next to the office. Thinking that he left the faucet running or something like that, he opened the door between the office and the bathroom and got the surprise of his life.

There standing under the rain shower head, was Daisy, naked as can be with her head pulled back under the water spraying out of the nozzle, facing his direction, taking a shower in his bathroom. “Why is she in my bathroom?” was the first thing to come to his mind but the second was “My God, she’s completely naked!”

He turned to leave but she opened her eyes and let out a scream and immediately covered herself with her hands and arms. Turning around, completely mortified about being caught in his bathroom, she screamed, “John, what are you doing here?”

“I forgot, ah …, I just came back, ah …, what are doing, ah …, I’ve got to go,” he shouted as he turned and ran out of the bathroom and out to his waiting pickup.