The Devil Walks Among Us; Book l - Completed 4/21/22

Patience is a Virtue

January, 2019

Sitting impatiently on her toilet, Mia looked at the test next to her, hoping that the result was negative. After some persuasion from her coworkers as to why she wasn't feeling the best, she began to agree that taking a pregnancy test was enough to soothe her frantic thoughts.

Hearing Michael down the hall, she decided to exit the bathroom in hopes of easing her mind by playing around on her phone, seeing a usual text from her brother and a few group message texts from her friends.

She smiled at Michael, who had looked to come back in from doing a few things outside, judging by the smudges of grease on his pants and dirt on his jacket. "What've you been up to?" She giggled.

She watched him shrug before pointing to the backyard, seeing the small project he had been doing to the tractor, hydraulic oil buckets and a grease gun laying on the top of a barrel. She admired how handy he had become, always beating her to the daily chores around the barn and the house. Although she was the one who went to a normal job every day, she was the one who felt lazy. Michael had been doing almost everything around the house, except laundry. Laundry wasn't his favorite thing as he could never figure out the washing machine.

Although she had never heard a peep come from his mouth, she felt she was able to communicate with him with no confusion as his body language was the best way to communicate with him, although the occasional messages he would send her on her phone were always a treat.

He gave a weak smile before opening his palms to her, his leathered and calloused hands caked with grease and dirt from his work. She looked down at them, knowing exactly what he had been planning to do:

She had just gotten out of the shower and he was dirty... He was about to, or was thinking to, rub the grease all over her to aggravate her.

"Don't even think about it, Michael." She warned, ignoring his 'or what?' expression.

After a few minutes, she had began to make her way back to the bathroom to see the results of her test when her phone rang. Seeing that it was Big John, she sighed, knowing he was naturally prying on her as Mia had hinted she was seeing someone, but she never told him who it was, although she knew her secret would come out eventually. "Yes?" She answered sarcastically.

"You sound out of breath... Did I interrupt you of something?" He poked.

"Please, you're the one to talk. Every time I call you, you give me the whole 'man if only I could give you a sign that I have a cowboy hat hanging on my door' attitude!" She giggled.

"Fair enough. What're you doing?"

"Cleaning up around the house. Nothing fun. You?"

"Well, I was going to see if I could come over later. Little John is working second shift today and I'm going to be bored and I haven't seen you in a while."

Mia's jaw dropped as she had no clue as to how she would keep Michael hidden, "Uhm, sure. I'm going grocery shopping after school traffic dies down so I should be home in time." She lied.

"Okay, cool. I'll bring a movie."

"I guess you're not caught up on new technology, huh?" She chuckled.

"You know me - I like staying old school."

"If you say so. I'll talk to you later."

"Alright. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Sighing, she hung up the phone and leaned against the kitchen counter, looking up to see Michael staring at her, his head tilted. "I know you're not going to like this... I-I wasn't thinking... But I knew he'd be onto me if I told him no, I-"