Daniel Matherton

Daniel Matherton the fourth was riding along on his Harley, when he came across a run down looking trailer outside of Durango in that square state called Colorado. He wasn’t an eccentric rich guy as his name some times implied to people. His family just didn’t have much imagination. His father had been a coal miner and so had his father’s father. Daniel Matherton Jr. was a share cropper and his father had been a house servant to some colonial gentleman or another back when Virginia was a whole lot bigger than it is now.
First born sons all got the name Daniel Matherton. He was toying with the idea of naming his son Eddie, if he had one.
He pulled right up into the front lawn and shut down. Looking around he noticed the lawn needed mowing and the front steps were falling apart. One of the ‘T’ posts for the clothes' line had fallen over and there was of course a car up on blocks in the weed-strewn gravel driveway. The back drop of the mountains and mesa’s was nice though.
“Who the hell are you?” A woman called through the screen door wishing very much that she hadn’t pawned the shotgun. He was a big man, dressed the part too: leather, chaps etc.
Daniel just sat there on his bike fishing through his pockets. $63.57. “Got a lawn mower?”
“Fer what?” Who the hell was this guy, anyway?
“Mowing the lawn.” Must be a wet summer: the grass is thick and green.
“It’s broke.”
“Didn’t ask if was broke; asked if ya had one. Since ya do, where is it?”
“Out back.” She said without thinking, thrusting a dirty thumb over her shoulder.
Daniel IV mowed and mowed, then he weeded. Then he mowed some more. She watched him through the screen door. When he finally shut the mower off she asked him if he’d like a glass of iced tea. He was covered with sweat.
“Yep, I would.”
“Ya can take a shower, but there ain’t no hot water, onna counta the heater’s broke.” The shower was out side like they used to do way back when.
“What’re you gonna do for hot water come winter?”
“Same as last year: git it fixed for it gets too cold.”
He took a long icy shower as the sun was setting. It was summer so the night air stayed warm. The next morning Daniel went into the hardware store and got some info on where he could get scrap lumber. He came riding up with bunch of it strapped to his bike.
There was sheriff’s car in the driveway.
“You got any I. D?”
Daniel Matherton was a lot of things but wanted wasn’t one of them. “This is the thanks I get?” He said eyeing the woman through the screen door. She looked away. She was pretty but cold water adverse so you had to be looking to notice.
Daniel fixed the steps and after tinkering around fixed the water heater too. Just needed draining, cleaning, and he had to mess with the pilot light. She made fried chicken for dinner and asked him if he wanted some. He told her to take a hot shower. She washed his clothes and hung them out to dry after Daniel IV fixed the clothesline.
The next morning he got on his bike and rode away. She never saw him again.