Post Seventeen - Exploration - Estacado Heart (c) 2013 J. Scott Vernon DRAFT

Post Seventeen - Exploration - Estacado Heart (c)2013 J. Scott Vernon DRAFT

Mr. Jackson stood from his desk and walked over to the computer Kaci was cussing. The new program, Pagemaker 1.9, wasn't easy to learn on the new MacIntosh, but it was better than anything else they had to work with while developing the Yellow Jacket Yearbook. The students enjoyed it much more than Word Perfect or the new MicroSoft Word. It could do cool things graphically, intuitively. Kids liked placing pictures and the ability to draw circles and boxes. They drew lots of boxes. The clunky square mouse took getting use to and tracking the little arrow was different than finding a nondescript blinking cursor.

Kaci was having difficulty getting a Yellow Jacket clip art onto the ad she was designing. Mr. Jackson leaned over her shoulder and took the mouse in his hand. Just as he did that Kaci caught a wiff of his scent. He didn't wear cologne, nor deodorant. He didn't smell of body order. It wasn't unpleasant. It wasn't like the Old Spice scent of the other male teachers and it wasn't the overwhelming bouquet of the boys who bathed themselves in Calvin Klien's Obsession to cover the locker room's systemic stench. It was different. Natural. She had not smelled a man like that before.

He began to move the mouse around and said,"I see the problem. You have the clip art directory disk in the disk drive. You need to eject it and insert ClipArt Disk number 23 in the disk drive. The image you want is on that disk."

Kaci wasn't listening as Mr. Jackson provided technical assistance. She had closed her eyes gently and inhaled. Mr. Jackson's natural, musky scent floated across her nostrils. She absorbed him in a momentary escape. As Mr. Jackson touched her shoulder and said,"You're good to go, just place the image from the disk 23. Make sure it is a bit mapped file,"  Kaci shuddered, her mind, again, wandered to a different place. A place she knew little about, but longed to explore. "Oh, ok, what do I need to do?" she said. He patiently explained again.

Dusk was settling on Llano. Katy Jo had left a hour earlier. She and Hank were meeting at Dairy Queen before she went home. Their rendezvous were becoming more frequent. Her parents did not know of her exploits with a boy - yet nearly everyone at school knew the truth. What they did not know, they made up. Small town gossip.

Kaci had made good progress and finished the full-page ad for Ratliff Chevy-Buick. It was a productive session and she was tired. Kaci shut the computer down and told Mr. Jackson how much she accomplished. He was impressed. "Good job," he said, "You are workhorse. I don't know what I would do without you on the yearbook staff." Kaci smiled and took another deep breath. "See ya tomorrow Mr. Jackson," she said as she walked out of the classroom.

The parking lot was empty. Only her ranch truck and Mr. Jackson's tan 1988 Volvo 240 DL sat under a lone spotlight coming from the top of the gymnasium. As Kaci turned the switch to start her truck, nothing. Not a sound. The old tired battery was dead. Kaci hit the steering wheel in frustration. She was no mechanic and didn't know what to do. The guys at the ranch always took care of the vehicles. All she ever did was put gas in the truck from the 500 gallon tank they had by the ranch shop. She never cared the cost. Dad took care of her.

She returned to the classroom where Mr. Jackson was straightening the desks and erasing the chalkboard. He too was finished for the day. He was ready to get home to his small rented house, light up a joint and drift into his own special euphoria. It was his daily routine. On the weekends he would often return to Austin and catch up with friends on Sixth Street, listen to music and smoke the really good stuff. He felt alive in Austin.

"Mr. Jackson, my truck won't start," she said. "Really? What's wrong with it?" he said.  He wasn't very mechanical at all, except when it came to computers. He was a peace-loving, dope smoking, English teaching nerd. He was not a mechanic. He did offer a suggestion.

"Is your battery dead?"

"I don't know," said Kaci, "Maybe."

"I don't have any jumper cables. Do you?" he asked.

"Not here. We have some at the ranch," Kaci said.

"Well that won't do you much good. Probably just as well. I am not sure how to use them safely anyway," confessed Mr. Jackson. "I can give you a ride home, you can get your truck tomorrow."

Kaci didn't think long about the offer and said, "Really, you would do that? Cool." The excitement of being close to him, smelling his scent was palpable. Her palms began to sweat.

"Yes, let's go," said Mr. Jackson. No one in Llano drove a car like his. It was a box on wheels. Most everybody else drove pick-ups and 4-wheel drive flatbeds with headache racks. Some had wenches on the front bumpers. Most all had hay, t-posts, barbed wire and a dog in the back. Mr. Jackson had a pine tree hanging from his rear-view mirror. He had a stack of books in the back seat.

As Kaci got in she noticed it right away. The car didn't smell like a pine tree at all. It had a different aroma. A staleness of smoke and weed. In the ashtray were the remnants of a joint. Kaci had never smoked weed but she knew what it smelled like. She had smelled it be for when she gathered at the river with her friends. It wasn't something that captured her imagination. She declined all offers for a toke from her friends.

Mr. Jackson noticed Kaci saw the joint in the ashtray but made no attempt to hide it. He simply said, "It helps me relax." Kaci nodded in understanding. She watched how difficult it was to manage the students in the yearbook class. She might smoke weed too if she had to put up with some of the knotheads put in the class by the counselors.

"Have you ever tried it," asked Mr. Jackson. "No," she said, "but its cool, I don't care if people smoke dope." Mr. Jackson smiled. He appreciated her non-judgmental outlook.  Mr. Jackson said "Do you mind?" as he reached for the joint. "Nope," she said as he pulled it to his lips and lit the end and took a big drag. He closed his eyes, held his breathe and leaned back in his seat. Another day was over.

When Mr. Jackson exhaled smoke filled the car. Kaci inhaled, then coughed. And laughed.