Post by Cannonball on Oct 6, 2006 14:41:48 GMT -5
Sam's eyes slowly opened.
He had the most throbbing headache, but as he looked up at the hole he'd created in the roof of the barn, that wasn't entirely surprising. He must have punched through it at a heck of a pace.
So much for using his mutation to get to the nearest town quickly so he could sort out the damaged to his engine which had decided to throw off the fan belt. Anxious, tired, irritable, Sam had decided to employ his abilities to hurry things up. Only...
...it had been a long time...
And the whole 'stopping' thing was still a problem. Although he wondered as he sat up, dazed, did crashing into a barn count as stopping?
A young woman stood gaping at the barn, the washing basket dropped at her feet and fallen over so that the wet clothes had spilled out onto the dusty ground.
It felt like a scene from a movie or something as she padded over very cautiously to open the doors.
What could it have been? A meteorite? A bomb? Fireworks gone wrong?
"Superman?"
Well, that was a little silly. Elly poked her head through the door curiously, looking around.
With her parents away for a week, Elly had been given responsibility over the farm. It wasn't so hard - all she had to do was check on the chickens and keep the house in order, but apparently she hadn't even managed to do that.
"Dad is going to kill me."
What it was, in fact, was a very dazed, embarrassed looking blond man wearing jeans and a t-shirt, sitting up on a pile of hay, a number of cuts on his face and arms.
He looked up as the door opened, panic evident on his face. How the hell was he going to explain this one?
... Apparently it was Superman. Blonde superman, in jeans instead of tights.
He'd been cut, obviously when he'd come through the roof. Elly was pretty sure that Superman didn't get cuts. She did her very best to ignore that he'd come through the roof when she looked at him, her face full of concern. Some of it was for her own hide - her father was going to be so angry, and what if blonde-Superman wasn't actually super, but... You know, bad?
She pushed the thought away. Surely he'd have hit her directly rather than the barn if he wanted to hurt her.
"Are you alright?"
Sam looked up at the young woman, looking faintly distressed. He stared up at the hole in the roof. It wasn't that big a hole, roughly the width of his body, but still.
He looked back at the young woman.
"I'm fine," he said. "Least I think so. I'm real sorry about this, if ya want, I can repair the damage..."
"Uh...."
She just blinked at him for a moment.
"You're bleeding."
There was a first aid kit in the house. Should she really say that, though? What if he was a crazy axe-murderer? What if he made a hole in the roof of the house to get in there? She could just imagine.
"Why are you in our barn?"
Why did you come through the roof?
Oh boy.
Sam put a hand to his face and discovered that he was, in fact, bleeding, mostly superficial cuts from wood splinters. He sighed heavily. May as well just be up front about it. If she was part of a mutant-hating or burning cult, he'd deal with it as it happened.
Slowly, he got to his feet and wobbled around a bit briefly.
"M'name's Sam Guthrie," he said, his Kentucky accent broad. "I - ah - I'm a mutant. I sorta...lost control an' crashed. Into ya barn. I'm...sorry."
"Oh."
So he was like Superman. Maybe.
He still looked... well, like he needed to lie down. One would suppose that running into people's barns would do that though.
"I'm Elly."
She gazed up for a moment at the hole in the roof.
"My dad... well, you're lucky he's not home for another three days."
Not so lucky for her, but maybe she'd be able to figure something out in the meantime. Some kind of story that would end with her not being in trouble.
Things looked grim.
"I can fix that hole up proper, Elly, I'm real sorry." He looked terribly, terribly guilty. "Don't ya worry yaself about it, I'll get right on it."
Two steps forward made him realise how dizzy he was, however and he leaned against a joist to support himself.
"I might need just a couple moments to sort m'self out, though, ma'am."
"I'm not a ma'am." A peal of laughter escaped her - Elly had never been called ma'am in her life. She wasn't refined enough for that.
Cautiously, she stepped forward to peer at him.
Holding out a hand, Elly did her very best not to look as though she thought he might bite her arm off or something. Because she didn't think that. Not exactly.
Well, he looked normal enough. And if he was planning on fixing the roof...
"Come inside, I'll get the first aid kit and you can have a sit down. Do you want something to drink? Coffee? Soda? We don't have anything stronger..." Even though it was only a few months til her twenty-first birthday, her dad had locked up all the liquor. Could she be blamed for wanting a stiff drink after seeing a guy put a hole in her roof, though?
"Don't drink anyway, thank ya, ma'...uh...Elly. But coffee would really help right now." Sam gave her his surprisingly easy and decidedly handsome smile. "My car broke down out in the middle of nowhere, and I thought I'd try to be clever and get myself to town real quick. Guess that's the price I pay for not practisin'..."
He flushed slightly and allowed her to help steady him. He didn't get the feeling he was badly wounded and he certainly wasn't concussed, but he was feeling very shaky after employing a power that had been all but dormant for nigh on five years.
"Uh..."
It was possible that she was struck dumb by the handsome smile, but maybe it was more the idea that he'd flown around and hurtled into her barn without having practised that was bothering her.
"Well, we're not too far from town... I can take you in the rest of the way, but..."
Elly's eyes strayed back to the roof.
It wasn't until she was walking him out that she saw the washing still lying in the dirt.
"Damn."
Well, she'd be doing another load of washing later. Her own fault for dropping it. Even if she had just seen Superman fall into her barn.
"C'mon, I'll fix you a coffee." Nodding to the back door, Elly wondered why Sam Guthrie even had a car if he could fly along like that.
Probably had something to do with his rather badly-placed landings.
He spent a good half hour doing nothing but apologising.
It was evident from his tone that he was clearly distressed by the damage and inconvenience he had caused and even after Elly had washed the worst of the blood off him and extracted several wood splinters (most of which made Sam yelp), he remained looking deeply upset.
Every other sentence was 'sorry'.
She made him a cup of strong, sweet black coffee which he drank gratefully and in about thirty seconds despite its heat. Being a near-permanent night shift worker when he'd been down the mines, he'd long ago developed an asbestos throat.
"If I could trouble ya for another coffee, Elly, I'll get right up there on that roof an' fix it up. I'll pay for any materials ya need to get a full repair, of course..." He'd already written down his phone number. "Ya could - uh - always say I was a crop duster pilot an' I lost a barrel out my plane or...uh..."
Making excuses had never been his 'thing'.
"It's no trouble."
He'd been a bit of a wuss about the splinters - it was just too cute. She had to do her very best to be nonchalant about the phone number he'd written down. He had to be a good five or six years older than her, after all - and the only reason he'd done it was in case there were any problems fixing the roof.
Didn't change the fact that he was cute, though.
Making him another coffee, and pouring herself another soda, Elly sat down opposite Sam and slid his drink across the table.
"Might have to go into town for some things, but I'm sure it'll be easy enough. And you can get... What was wrong with your car?"
"It threw its fanbelt," he said, glumly. "Not a major issue in itself, but it's an old car and it's not easily replaced, I'm afraid. I'm sorta hopin' to find a breaker's yard where I can find somethin' that'll do the job 'til I can work on it properly."
This time, he drank the coffee more slowly and looked out the window. The skies were threatening rain. "I should get the worst of that damage sorted before the heavens explode," he mused.
"There's some supplies and things in the back of the barn - hopefully there's going to be enough for now..." If need be, they could always patch up the worst of it with some plastic sheeting til the rain abated.
Drinking down her soda, Elly wandered back out to the barn, picking up the now-dirty washing on the way and leaving it just inside the door. The skies did look fairly threatening, but she was sure they'd be able to manage.
A box at the back of the barn, tucked under a bench with the tractor supplies, held all the spares they'd had from last time there was a big storm that damaged the roof.
"Uh, how are you going to... get up there?" She wondered if he'd fly back up and make more holes or something.
"The old fashioned way," he said, with a sheepish grin. "Ya gotta have a ladder around here somewhere."
Not too long later, the man was on the barn roof, nails in his teeth, a hammer in hand, making an exceptionally good job of the temporary repair. "It'll sure stop anythin' bad comin' in," he shouted down. "That should hold up long enough for ya to get a proper repair guy in."
"Alright, well... Thanks Sam."
A few pitter patters gave a very clear message - they were about to have a long and probably very heavy rain dumped over them, which meant that Sam really should get off the roof anytime and at least try not to injure himself for the second time that day.
Elly thought that perhaps this was the strangest day she'd ever had in her life. A mutant had crashed into her barn. From above. Putting an almost Sam-shaped hole in the roof.
"Come on down, we should go inside."
Wait out the storm, then she'd take him into town to look for his fanbelt.
The man slid easily off the roof and took the few remaining nails out of his mouth. "Ya got no idea how sorry I am," he said, still mortified as the rain began to come down. "If ya drop me off in town, I promise I'll be out ya hair an' never destroy anythin' again."
Poor Sam felt dreadful about the situation and it only served to remind him that perhaps he should have practised with his mutation more.
"Ah, see, the old truck doesn't do so well in this weather. Windscreen wipers and demisters are usually handy during the rain."
She shook her head with a small smile. Neither of them worked - her parents had taken the good car when they'd driven up to her Aunt Annie's.
"'Fraid you're stuck with me for now - but I'll take you in as soon as the rain stops."
Elly really couldn't imagine him going in on his own steam after the barn. Frankly, he was lucky that he hadn't landed where all the gardening tools were kept - lots of pointy things in there.
"Did you want another coffee or anything?"
"I'd love one," he said, but then his face fell. "Best not. Too much caffeine, ya know, makes me a little crazy." He gave her that charming smile again and stared out the window at the rain.
"Want me to take a look at ya truck's electrics as well?" he offered. "I'm pretty handy with vehicles, to tell y'all the truth. Seems like the very least I can do for ya."
"Sure."
She felt like he was trying to repay an obligation that she really couldn't see. Yeah, he'd fallen through the roof - but he'd fixed that up well enough.
"Not right now or anything though."
Even if it would mean him being outside in the rain, dripping wet...
Blinking, Elly looked back at Sam with a slightly bewildered expression.
"So, how long...?"
Wait, was that really polite? She changed the question quickly.
"You're not from around here, are you? What brings you through our way?"
"I'm travellin' to New York," he said. "To see my little sister who's at school up there. Guess I shoulda taken the plane or somethin', but figured the drive would be relaxin'." He laughed, ruefully and ran his hands through his hair.
"Got THAT wildly out, didn't I?"
She couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.
"Yeah, I'm thinking that you might have made the wrong decision there. Couldn't you just... you know, make your own way there?"
Elly supposed that putting a hole in his sister's school was even worse than putting a hole in some random person's barn, though. Probably just a little more difficult to fix, too.
He grinned. "As ya saw, I ain't really all that good when it comes to usin' my other methods of gettin' around. Trust me, the ol' girl is the safest method."
The blond man chuckled warmly. "Thank ya," he said, simply. "I know there's plenty of folks who'd not entertain havin' a mutant in their house. Ya done been right kind to me, Elly, an' I sure do appreciate it."
Laughing again, Elly shook her head.
"Don't think my dad would have done the same thing, but then he wouldn't have got the roof fixed, would he?" She flashed him a pleased smile.
"Besides, ain't nothing wrong with being a mutant. You're not that different - as far as I can see you're the same as the rest of us, just happen to have something extra. If god made me run faster than other people, then that's how I'd be. Made you a mutant - seems like the same thing, to me."
Mutant rights weren't exactly big in hicksville, nowhere - but Elly didn't understand what all the fuss was about.
"Still," he said, smiling at her. "It makes a nice change, trust me." He stared out at the rain some more. "I should call my sister, tell her I might be a li'l bit delayed, I guess."
"Well, there's a phone in the hall."
Lordy, but her father was going to kill her when he saw a damaged roof and a long distance phone call.
"I should put this washing back on, anyway."
Leaving with a smile, she busied herself in the laundry to give him some privacy. Elly didn't have any siblings, but it just seemed like the thing to do.
"Don't ya worry," he said, " I have this cellphone thing-a-ma-jig." He waved it at her and grinned. "Paige is sure gonna be ticked at me."
With that in mind, he went to call his sister.
He had the most throbbing headache, but as he looked up at the hole he'd created in the roof of the barn, that wasn't entirely surprising. He must have punched through it at a heck of a pace.
So much for using his mutation to get to the nearest town quickly so he could sort out the damaged to his engine which had decided to throw off the fan belt. Anxious, tired, irritable, Sam had decided to employ his abilities to hurry things up. Only...
...it had been a long time...
And the whole 'stopping' thing was still a problem. Although he wondered as he sat up, dazed, did crashing into a barn count as stopping?
A young woman stood gaping at the barn, the washing basket dropped at her feet and fallen over so that the wet clothes had spilled out onto the dusty ground.
It felt like a scene from a movie or something as she padded over very cautiously to open the doors.
What could it have been? A meteorite? A bomb? Fireworks gone wrong?
"Superman?"
Well, that was a little silly. Elly poked her head through the door curiously, looking around.
With her parents away for a week, Elly had been given responsibility over the farm. It wasn't so hard - all she had to do was check on the chickens and keep the house in order, but apparently she hadn't even managed to do that.
"Dad is going to kill me."
What it was, in fact, was a very dazed, embarrassed looking blond man wearing jeans and a t-shirt, sitting up on a pile of hay, a number of cuts on his face and arms.
He looked up as the door opened, panic evident on his face. How the hell was he going to explain this one?
... Apparently it was Superman. Blonde superman, in jeans instead of tights.
He'd been cut, obviously when he'd come through the roof. Elly was pretty sure that Superman didn't get cuts. She did her very best to ignore that he'd come through the roof when she looked at him, her face full of concern. Some of it was for her own hide - her father was going to be so angry, and what if blonde-Superman wasn't actually super, but... You know, bad?
She pushed the thought away. Surely he'd have hit her directly rather than the barn if he wanted to hurt her.
"Are you alright?"
Sam looked up at the young woman, looking faintly distressed. He stared up at the hole in the roof. It wasn't that big a hole, roughly the width of his body, but still.
He looked back at the young woman.
"I'm fine," he said. "Least I think so. I'm real sorry about this, if ya want, I can repair the damage..."
"Uh...."
She just blinked at him for a moment.
"You're bleeding."
There was a first aid kit in the house. Should she really say that, though? What if he was a crazy axe-murderer? What if he made a hole in the roof of the house to get in there? She could just imagine.
"Why are you in our barn?"
Why did you come through the roof?
Oh boy.
Sam put a hand to his face and discovered that he was, in fact, bleeding, mostly superficial cuts from wood splinters. He sighed heavily. May as well just be up front about it. If she was part of a mutant-hating or burning cult, he'd deal with it as it happened.
Slowly, he got to his feet and wobbled around a bit briefly.
"M'name's Sam Guthrie," he said, his Kentucky accent broad. "I - ah - I'm a mutant. I sorta...lost control an' crashed. Into ya barn. I'm...sorry."
"Oh."
So he was like Superman. Maybe.
He still looked... well, like he needed to lie down. One would suppose that running into people's barns would do that though.
"I'm Elly."
She gazed up for a moment at the hole in the roof.
"My dad... well, you're lucky he's not home for another three days."
Not so lucky for her, but maybe she'd be able to figure something out in the meantime. Some kind of story that would end with her not being in trouble.
Things looked grim.
"I can fix that hole up proper, Elly, I'm real sorry." He looked terribly, terribly guilty. "Don't ya worry yaself about it, I'll get right on it."
Two steps forward made him realise how dizzy he was, however and he leaned against a joist to support himself.
"I might need just a couple moments to sort m'self out, though, ma'am."
"I'm not a ma'am." A peal of laughter escaped her - Elly had never been called ma'am in her life. She wasn't refined enough for that.
Cautiously, she stepped forward to peer at him.
Holding out a hand, Elly did her very best not to look as though she thought he might bite her arm off or something. Because she didn't think that. Not exactly.
Well, he looked normal enough. And if he was planning on fixing the roof...
"Come inside, I'll get the first aid kit and you can have a sit down. Do you want something to drink? Coffee? Soda? We don't have anything stronger..." Even though it was only a few months til her twenty-first birthday, her dad had locked up all the liquor. Could she be blamed for wanting a stiff drink after seeing a guy put a hole in her roof, though?
"Don't drink anyway, thank ya, ma'...uh...Elly. But coffee would really help right now." Sam gave her his surprisingly easy and decidedly handsome smile. "My car broke down out in the middle of nowhere, and I thought I'd try to be clever and get myself to town real quick. Guess that's the price I pay for not practisin'..."
He flushed slightly and allowed her to help steady him. He didn't get the feeling he was badly wounded and he certainly wasn't concussed, but he was feeling very shaky after employing a power that had been all but dormant for nigh on five years.
"Uh..."
It was possible that she was struck dumb by the handsome smile, but maybe it was more the idea that he'd flown around and hurtled into her barn without having practised that was bothering her.
"Well, we're not too far from town... I can take you in the rest of the way, but..."
Elly's eyes strayed back to the roof.
It wasn't until she was walking him out that she saw the washing still lying in the dirt.
"Damn."
Well, she'd be doing another load of washing later. Her own fault for dropping it. Even if she had just seen Superman fall into her barn.
"C'mon, I'll fix you a coffee." Nodding to the back door, Elly wondered why Sam Guthrie even had a car if he could fly along like that.
Probably had something to do with his rather badly-placed landings.
He spent a good half hour doing nothing but apologising.
It was evident from his tone that he was clearly distressed by the damage and inconvenience he had caused and even after Elly had washed the worst of the blood off him and extracted several wood splinters (most of which made Sam yelp), he remained looking deeply upset.
Every other sentence was 'sorry'.
She made him a cup of strong, sweet black coffee which he drank gratefully and in about thirty seconds despite its heat. Being a near-permanent night shift worker when he'd been down the mines, he'd long ago developed an asbestos throat.
"If I could trouble ya for another coffee, Elly, I'll get right up there on that roof an' fix it up. I'll pay for any materials ya need to get a full repair, of course..." He'd already written down his phone number. "Ya could - uh - always say I was a crop duster pilot an' I lost a barrel out my plane or...uh..."
Making excuses had never been his 'thing'.
"It's no trouble."
He'd been a bit of a wuss about the splinters - it was just too cute. She had to do her very best to be nonchalant about the phone number he'd written down. He had to be a good five or six years older than her, after all - and the only reason he'd done it was in case there were any problems fixing the roof.
Didn't change the fact that he was cute, though.
Making him another coffee, and pouring herself another soda, Elly sat down opposite Sam and slid his drink across the table.
"Might have to go into town for some things, but I'm sure it'll be easy enough. And you can get... What was wrong with your car?"
"It threw its fanbelt," he said, glumly. "Not a major issue in itself, but it's an old car and it's not easily replaced, I'm afraid. I'm sorta hopin' to find a breaker's yard where I can find somethin' that'll do the job 'til I can work on it properly."
This time, he drank the coffee more slowly and looked out the window. The skies were threatening rain. "I should get the worst of that damage sorted before the heavens explode," he mused.
"There's some supplies and things in the back of the barn - hopefully there's going to be enough for now..." If need be, they could always patch up the worst of it with some plastic sheeting til the rain abated.
Drinking down her soda, Elly wandered back out to the barn, picking up the now-dirty washing on the way and leaving it just inside the door. The skies did look fairly threatening, but she was sure they'd be able to manage.
A box at the back of the barn, tucked under a bench with the tractor supplies, held all the spares they'd had from last time there was a big storm that damaged the roof.
"Uh, how are you going to... get up there?" She wondered if he'd fly back up and make more holes or something.
"The old fashioned way," he said, with a sheepish grin. "Ya gotta have a ladder around here somewhere."
Not too long later, the man was on the barn roof, nails in his teeth, a hammer in hand, making an exceptionally good job of the temporary repair. "It'll sure stop anythin' bad comin' in," he shouted down. "That should hold up long enough for ya to get a proper repair guy in."
"Alright, well... Thanks Sam."
A few pitter patters gave a very clear message - they were about to have a long and probably very heavy rain dumped over them, which meant that Sam really should get off the roof anytime and at least try not to injure himself for the second time that day.
Elly thought that perhaps this was the strangest day she'd ever had in her life. A mutant had crashed into her barn. From above. Putting an almost Sam-shaped hole in the roof.
"Come on down, we should go inside."
Wait out the storm, then she'd take him into town to look for his fanbelt.
The man slid easily off the roof and took the few remaining nails out of his mouth. "Ya got no idea how sorry I am," he said, still mortified as the rain began to come down. "If ya drop me off in town, I promise I'll be out ya hair an' never destroy anythin' again."
Poor Sam felt dreadful about the situation and it only served to remind him that perhaps he should have practised with his mutation more.
"Ah, see, the old truck doesn't do so well in this weather. Windscreen wipers and demisters are usually handy during the rain."
She shook her head with a small smile. Neither of them worked - her parents had taken the good car when they'd driven up to her Aunt Annie's.
"'Fraid you're stuck with me for now - but I'll take you in as soon as the rain stops."
Elly really couldn't imagine him going in on his own steam after the barn. Frankly, he was lucky that he hadn't landed where all the gardening tools were kept - lots of pointy things in there.
"Did you want another coffee or anything?"
"I'd love one," he said, but then his face fell. "Best not. Too much caffeine, ya know, makes me a little crazy." He gave her that charming smile again and stared out the window at the rain.
"Want me to take a look at ya truck's electrics as well?" he offered. "I'm pretty handy with vehicles, to tell y'all the truth. Seems like the very least I can do for ya."
"Sure."
She felt like he was trying to repay an obligation that she really couldn't see. Yeah, he'd fallen through the roof - but he'd fixed that up well enough.
"Not right now or anything though."
Even if it would mean him being outside in the rain, dripping wet...
Blinking, Elly looked back at Sam with a slightly bewildered expression.
"So, how long...?"
Wait, was that really polite? She changed the question quickly.
"You're not from around here, are you? What brings you through our way?"
"I'm travellin' to New York," he said. "To see my little sister who's at school up there. Guess I shoulda taken the plane or somethin', but figured the drive would be relaxin'." He laughed, ruefully and ran his hands through his hair.
"Got THAT wildly out, didn't I?"
She couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.
"Yeah, I'm thinking that you might have made the wrong decision there. Couldn't you just... you know, make your own way there?"
Elly supposed that putting a hole in his sister's school was even worse than putting a hole in some random person's barn, though. Probably just a little more difficult to fix, too.
He grinned. "As ya saw, I ain't really all that good when it comes to usin' my other methods of gettin' around. Trust me, the ol' girl is the safest method."
The blond man chuckled warmly. "Thank ya," he said, simply. "I know there's plenty of folks who'd not entertain havin' a mutant in their house. Ya done been right kind to me, Elly, an' I sure do appreciate it."
Laughing again, Elly shook her head.
"Don't think my dad would have done the same thing, but then he wouldn't have got the roof fixed, would he?" She flashed him a pleased smile.
"Besides, ain't nothing wrong with being a mutant. You're not that different - as far as I can see you're the same as the rest of us, just happen to have something extra. If god made me run faster than other people, then that's how I'd be. Made you a mutant - seems like the same thing, to me."
Mutant rights weren't exactly big in hicksville, nowhere - but Elly didn't understand what all the fuss was about.
"Still," he said, smiling at her. "It makes a nice change, trust me." He stared out at the rain some more. "I should call my sister, tell her I might be a li'l bit delayed, I guess."
"Well, there's a phone in the hall."
Lordy, but her father was going to kill her when he saw a damaged roof and a long distance phone call.
"I should put this washing back on, anyway."
Leaving with a smile, she busied herself in the laundry to give him some privacy. Elly didn't have any siblings, but it just seemed like the thing to do.
"Don't ya worry," he said, " I have this cellphone thing-a-ma-jig." He waved it at her and grinned. "Paige is sure gonna be ticked at me."
With that in mind, he went to call his sister.
