It was a hot summer's day. Not one of those muggy, humid, days, but one with a dry heat. Still plenty hot though. I needed to do my weeks shopping so I headed down to the local supermarket. No problems inside the supermarket because it was air-conditioned, but outside in the parking lot it was a scorcher. You could feel the heat radiating up off the pavement. I could even feel the heat through the soles of my shoes.
I did my shopping and there was a lot of it. Even before I'd finished my rounds I'd decided that I was going to go for home delivery. I was all for some hired peon doing the toting while I stayed in the house and kept cool. Of course, I had to take the frozen stuff with me but that was easy enough.
"By the way, Emma," Suzy, my checkout girl said, "we have a new delivery boy. His name's Billy-Bob."
"Sound like he's a hill-billy," I said with a smile.
"Funny you should say that. He is. He turned up a couple of days ago looking for work. While he was waiting to speak to Joe the Robinson boys decided to cut up rough. You know how they get."
I agreed that I did know how they got. Pig-headed jerks at school and pig-headed jerks now that they'd left school.
"Anyway, Billy-Bob suggested to them that they were being rude and needed to calm down a little."
"And I bet that went down like a lead balloon."
"Uh-huh. They cut up rough. The trouble was that Billy-Bob cut up rougher without any trouble whatsoever. He just barged between them, put his arms around their waists, and started squeezing. They tried to hit him and he just squeezed tighter. He also very politely suggested that they might want to calm down. When he let go they both dropped to the ground and were very calm. They gave Billy-Bob dirty looks but stopped mucking around and left."
"What does this Billy-Bob look like -- a gorilla?"
"Funny enough he's probably smaller than either of the Robinson boys. But stronger. A lot stronger."
"Well good for him. We've needed someone to put those two in their place. Hopefully they've learned a lesson."
"Learned a lesson? Emma, we are talking about the Robinson boys."
I laughed. After that I gathered up my bags of frozen things and left Suzy to finish bagging and tagging everything else. I then headed home to put away the frozen things.
Suzy had warned me that there were a number of deliveries to be made and to not expect mine until after lunch. She was quite right. I'd just finished lunch when I heard the old truck that the supermarket used for their delivery runs. Everyone knows that truck. It's probably fifty years old and it looks it. It's a wonder that it still runs, let alone runs well enough to carry loads, but it manages.
I opened up the front door as the truck pulled up and watched as this kid got out. When I say kid, that's what he looked like, but he must have been at least eighteen or there was no way known Joe would have let him drive the truck. Very conscientious about his legal responsibilities is Joe, taking care to ensure that the supermarket wasn't going to get sued for something silly like letting a minor drive.
I was willing to admit that Suzy was right when she said that he was smaller than the Robinson boys but that was height-wise. Across the shoulders I was willing to be that he was a lot wider. He had a short-sleeved shirt on so I could see that he was muscular. It was no wonder that he'd brought those idiots into line. He was blonde and quite handsome. Okay. A lot handsome. He'd be a real killer when he had a few more years. Who was I kidding? He was a real killer right now. One thing that was noteworthy was the look of total innocence on his face. That face absolutely shouted that I'm naïve and a virgin.
I was only a couple of years older than him, would be my guess, but I was married so naturally knew what was what where men and women were concerned. I'd be willing to lay long odds that Billy-Bob didn't.
"Hi, I'm Emma," I said, strolling over to meet him. "You're Billy-Bob I take it?"
