Sweet Sarah's Bluez (Forever Woman Book 2) Read online

  Sweet Sarah’s Bluez,

  (Forever Woman series Volume 2)

  by

  B.L. Wilson

  Sweet Sarah’s Bluez

  Brought to you by

  Patchwork Bluez Press

  Sweet Sarah’s Bluez

  Copyright 2017 by B. L. Wilson.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity in name, description, or history of characters in this book to actual individuals either living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Edited by BZ Hercules

  www.bzhercules.com

  Author’s Note

  Sweet Sarah’s Bluez was written and takes place in a time when technology was somewhat more simple. You will find references to flip phones and people not being as easy to reach as they are now. Social media was nonexistent, at least not like it is in the present day, and most of my characters did not feel incomplete without a laptop. Updating the technology might change the plot elements, so I have left the “old-fashioned” ways untouched and request that you enjoy this bit of “nostalgia” as it is written.

  Thank you.

  B.L. Wilson

  To all the mothers out there who love their sons but raise their daughters. This book is for you. I hope it inspires you to raise your sons too.

  “The pressure of survival in the big city will make you lose sight of your dreams. Hang in there.”

  ~de La Vega~

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Thank You for Reading!

  Links to More Books by BL Wilson

  Chapter 1

  Number one bluez

  After years of skirting around the edges of higher education, Sarah Harris decided to go back and earn a degree. To say she was unprepared for completing the task was putting it mildly, she mused. She was afraid this might be her last chance. At forty-three and degreeless, how many opportunities did she have? “Not many,” she muttered inside the empty cab of the tow truck she was driving. She sighed at the answer to the question as she considered the things she might have to give up to return to school. Lord knows, she was used to sacrificing. That was all she did for her son.

  Isn’t that what parenthood is? she questioned, staring into the darkness from the safety of her truck. When Jeffrey was born, her husband, Big Jeff, made a solemn promise they’d raise this child together. They would provide little Jeffrey with the best things that money could buy. He’d be their crowning achievement. He’d grow up to be a hard-working, respectable, disciplined young man who would make any parent proud.

  Instead, at twenty-three, “little” Jeffrey still lived with her and worked at a part-time job making minimum wage at a fast food franchise that was soon to go out of business. While he still couldn’t afford to move out, he did nothing to increase his opportunities to earn higher wages either. He spoke endlessly about his latest dream of being a promoter. On weekends, he frequented the bars in the area, looking for talent. At least, that was what he told her whenever she asked him for money to pay the unusually high phone bills.

  When Sarah asked him for the phone money, she usually heard, “This group is going to give me the break I need. I can feel it. I just need a little more time, Ma. I promise, I’ll pay the phone bill next week. Oh, lunch cost more than I thought, so can I borrow five dollars ‘til Monday?”

  Sarah scanned the roadway as she looked for the exit ramp. She found it, then continued onto a side street. Lately, her conversations with Jeffrey were limited to, “Ma, can you give me,” or “Ma, I need.” According to her girlfriends, she ought to count her blessings regarding Jeffrey. They said at least he was working and he didn’t do drugs. Somehow, their words just didn’t sound right to her. She wanted more from her son than menial labor and didn’t do drugs. How about “he’s been working at a decent job since he graduated college two years ago and he’s up for a promotion.”?

  Twenty-three years ago, Big Jeff made a promise to her at the birth of their son and they would both live up their end of the bargain. Little Jeffrey had every single educational gadget that came on the market. They bought a house in a nice neighborhood with good schools and set up a college fund for him. They even stopped hanging out so they could spend as much time as possible with their precious little boy, when they weren’t busy working overtime. Sarah and Big Jeff worked overtime weekends and one year they both worked two jobs just to fill that college fund.

  Unfortunately, as Jeffrey turned eighteen, he decided that he could earn a better living without a college degree. He moved out of her home. Then he convinced his grandmother to pressure Sarah into withdrawing his college fund so that he could buy the first of several cars. After Sarah refused, Jeffrey borrowed money from his grandmother to buy the cars anyway. He totaled the first and second cars in six short months, then he used the remaining money to move to Atlanta to further his so-called career in the entertainment world as a record promoter. The business sharks must have seen him coming. Within eight months, he was standing on her doorstep, homeless and broke.

  For months after Jeffrey moved back with her, Sarah cried herself to sleep every time she thought about how hard she and Big Jeff worked to fill that damn college fund. She recalled how they devoted their lives to raising Jeffrey right. They moved into a better neighborhood with better schools and churches, bought anything they thought would make him better prepared for college, and worked all kinds of overtime to pay for it. It nearly drove her crazy that Jeffrey wanted to fritter it away on foolishness. How could he think that higher education wasn’t important after all the emphasis she and Big Jeff had placed on it?

  As much as she needed increased finances over the years since she became a widow, Sarah still couldn’t bring herself to touch the fund because she still held out the hope that Jeffrey would come around to her point of view and attend college. If she withdrew any of the money from the fund, it meant that she’d given up on her son. She wasn’t ready to give up on Jeffrey. She expected a lot more from her son than “he doesn’t drugs do drugs and works part-time.”

  What kind of life did she have? She felt as if she had arrived at a crossroads in her life. If she turned to the right, she’d stay on the same old path and nothing would change in her life. She’d be comfortable in the daily monotony of the sameness. Sure, she’d be bored at times and wonder what if…but a good routine could be comforting in times of stress. Lord knows Jeffrey and her mother, Eula Dean, provided enough stress.

  If she made that left turn at the fork in the road, who knew what was around the corner? Make that right turn and Sarah could see a straight, dusty road extending for miles and unchanged miles. The road on the left seemed as if it started to head into the mountains. Sarah couldn’t see anything but tall mountain ranges as obstacles in the way before she could see the end of the road. Should she make the leftward journey? Was sh
e even equipped for it? If not, would there be help for her along the way? She couldn’t answer these questions yet, but at least she was asking them.

  Sarah sighed. Preparing for the return to school was forcing her to re-examine her life. Sure, she worked for the city’s towing unit now, but she hadn’t always been so fortunate. She recalled that when she and Big Jeff first met, she was cleaning houses for a living. It was backbreaking work and didn’t pay much, but at the end of the day, she knew she’d accomplished something. She liked glancing at the spotless floors, immaculate bathrooms, kitchens, and polished furniture. She liked knowing she was responsible for their new condition. Furthermore, housecleaning didn’t require too much thought and no skills, just a strong back. She liked the idea of using her hands to earn a living. The job had its benefits as well. She could make up her own schedule. She could take time off when she needed. She only had to answer to her own clients. The arrangement suited her fine until she met Big Jeff.

  They met the day her old battered car finally broke down ten blocks from his repair shop. She cancelled her cleaning jobs for the day when the old car sputtered and stopped just before the traffic light on Broadway and East Houston. She got out and raised the hood. She fiddled around with the distributor cap and the choke, figuring if she could adjust the mixture of air to gas that it might start again. Her old buggy had already stopped once this week and that was what had worked before, so maybe her luck would hold again. She knew the car was old, but with her mechanical skills, Sarah managed to keep it running well over three years. That was good, she thought, since the car only cost her a hundred dollars.

  That little trick didn’t work this time. When she turned the ignition key over, the car made a weak attempt at starting, then went dead. Half an hour under the hood with grease all over her hands and clothes couldn’t get the old girl to start. She decided to ask the next car that stopped for directions to the nearest service station. The young man who stopped gave her directions to the shop and then drove her there. When she went inside the service station to find the owner, she discovered the young man that gave her a ride also owned the repair shop. Furious that he hadn’t introduced himself on the ride over to the shop or tried to repair her car, she yelled at him.

  The young man waited until Sarah calmed down before he smiled, then quietly said, “Howdy, I’m Jeffrey Harris. Folks around these parts call me Big Jeff. I reckon you can too. It’s a real pleasure meeting you.”

  Years later, Big Jeff told her that he hadn’t said anything right off because he’d wanted to see what kind of person his future wife was. He’d been across the street when her car died. He watched with increasing curiosity as she popped the hood, then began to clean the distributor cap and play with the choke. That was exactly what he would have done in the shop. He wondered how she knew to do that kind of repair. He looked at the sturdy, big-legged young woman bent over the engine with a new appreciation.

  His daddy always told him, “Son, if you ever lucky enough to meet a woman that ain’t scared to get her hands dirty, marry her, ‘cause that mean she ain’t afraid of a hard day’s work. It’s always good to find that in a womens. You don’t want no lazy witch sitting on her ass all day while you be working. Idleness has its place but not in no wife. Idle womens have time to think. Thinking womens gets a man in a piss pot full of troubles!”

  Big Jeff drove her back to the stalled car. The two of them disassembled pieces of the carburetor, trying to locate the problem but had little success. She finally agreed to let Jeff tow the car back to the shop and work on it, if he’d provide a loaner car. They came to an agreement on the repair costs. She paid him a generous deposit on the amount. Throughout the week, she came by to check on the car early enough to help him analyze the engine and find the problem.

  The young man with the quiet manner began to grow on her, so when he asked her out, she agreed. He was very different from most of the men she knew. Her male acquaintances were loud, boisterous, drank heavily on weekends, and some of the men didn’t work at all. Big Jeff was a nice change from them. He’d found a good location for his garage. He was making a serious effort to succeed with his business. Business was very good. Two experienced mechanics worked with him in the shop during the week. Weekends were busy enough that he’d hired two additional mechanics to work part-time.

  One of the part-timers was a vocational student, Malcolm Scott, who was trying to learn the auto repair business from the ground up. He wanted to start a repair shop of his own one day. Big Jeff took the young man under his wing, taught him what he knew about the business, and became a surrogate father to him. He insisted that the young man remain in school, checked on his grades every semester, and then talked with his teachers when he had problems. Three years later, Jeff attended his graduation and then promoted the kid to a full-time, certified mechanic’s position.

  Big Jeff told her later how he wanted to marry Sarah nearly as soon as he met her, but he took his sweet time asking her. They dated two years before he finally popped the question in their favorite restaurant. He knelt on one knee and presented her with a beautiful engagement ring. By the time Jeff returned to his chair, the entire restaurant knew he’d proposed and Sarah had accepted. The waiters, who had been watching their relationship grow from their first dinner date to their engagement, clapped and cheered, and then brought out a cake to celebrate the occasion. The couple proudly cut the first piece and then shared the rest with the waiters. Sweet memories filled up that night for her.

  Sarah’s mother, being the hard-to-please woman that she was, didn’t approve of her future son-in-law. Eula Dean liked the idea of an honest working man in the family again, but she hated Jeff Harris for allowing Sarah to work as a part-time mechanic in the shop. It didn’t matter to her that her daughter was a highly skilled mechanic that enjoyed the work immensely. Eula Dean didn’t want her daughter working in a repair shop no matter how good she was. She took every opportunity to remind Jeff of her displeasure. She attended Sarah’s wedding under protest and only after a campaign led by her ex-husband and her youngest sister, Hattie Mae, pressured her into going.

  On the other hand, Sarah’s father, Rufus Harris, truly admired his future son-in-law. He thought it was a fine thing that Sarah worked by Big Jeff’s side in the business. Rufus often speculated that had Eula Dean worked with him in his repair shop or shown the slightest interest in the business, they’d still be married, but that was water under the bridge now. The time had come and gone for him and Eula Dean as a couple. It was her time now, Rufus confided to her. He also prayed that Sarah didn’t have too much of her mama inside and more of him. He figured only time would tell which part would win out in her marriage to Big Jeff.

  Sarah recalled that she’d always been good with her hands. When she was a small child, her father’s repair shop fascinated her. She spent hours watching him repair engines, transmissions, and carburetors. As she grew older, Sarah no longer simply watched the repairs but became an active participant. He allowed her to make some of the simpler repairs under his watchful eye. He proudly referred to her as his little helper or the miniature mechanic and bragged about her skills to his friends.

  In contrast, Eula Dean never liked Sarah’s interest in cars. She discouraged it at every opportunity. She said a “real lady” never got her hands dirty. “That’s what husbands and boyfriends are good for …to repair things,” she’d always say and add, “In my day, mens worked and their wives stayed home to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. It was the way relationships were ‘posed to be!” The manner in which she said the last statement left Sarah no room for compromise or discussion about working in her father’s shop, so it became their secret.

  Sarah’s parents divorced when she was about ten. At the time, Eula Dean ordered her never to go near her father’s shop again. Ignoring her mother’s orders, Sarah managed to sneak a visit with her father at the shop twice a week for the next three years until Eula Dean discovered what she regarded as her dau
ghter’s treachery and punished her. She prohibited Sarah visits to her father’s shop unless she accompanied her. Since the repair shop was the last place on earth that Eula Dean would ever visit, she’d tried to eliminate Rufus from her daughter’s life by issuing the restriction.

  However, Eula Dean hadn’t counted on her daughter’s persistent determination to continue being with the sole positive influence in her life. Sarah managed to see her father on the weekends that she could coax her mother into letting her visit Christina Wilson. She and Chris snuck off to Rufus’ shop on Fridays after school, Saturdays, and sometimes Sundays after church. Chris had a crush on one of her father’s young mechanics, so any opportunity to watch him work was fine with her.

  Sarah thought Eula Dean had interesting views on sex too. Her favorite saying to her daughter about sexual matters was, “If you want to keep your credit up, you keeps your skirt down!” Eula Dean didn’t enjoy Rufus’ touch and routinely dodged his attempts at any public displays of affection. Sarah couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her mother hold her father’s hand inside their home or even share a friendly pat on the backside or a kiss. She knew married couples were supposed to be affectionate because she’d seen Aunt Hattie Mae with her husband, Morris.

  While the days were bad between Rufus and Eula Dean, the nights were even worse. Nine-year-old Sarah could hear the frequent arguments about sex through the paper-thin walls of their apartment. She thought her daddy must have done something bad because her mama yelled at him for touching her with his nasty hands! She heard Eula Dean slap Rufus, then burst into loud sobs. Her daddy tried to comfort her mother just as he tried to comfort her when he felt Eula Dean was being too mean.

  Her daddy would say, “Eula Dean, I ain’t him! Baby, it me, your husband, Rufus! Honey Pie, just lets me touch you, please!” He’d beg, “We don’t have to do nothin’. Just lets me touch you. I can make you feel good. You knows I can.” His sweet-talk to her mother continued for the next thirty minutes, then a lengthy silence would follow. Years later, Sarah realized her father probably had gotten tired and fallen asleep unsatisfied.