by A. American
I gave her a kiss on the top of her head. “All right, I’ll be back later.” She turned and headed back into Rene’s room.
I didn’t see anyone else on the way to Danny’s. The quiet gave me time to think about Reggie and what the hell he was up to this morning, who was on the ATV and why.
I opened Danny’s door as I knocked on it. They were sitting at the bar in the kitchen, eating oatmeal for breakfast. “What up?” I called out as I came through the door.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” Danny asked.
“Wanted to see if we could press your carpenter skills into service.”
He stuck a spoonful of goo in his mouth. “Sure, what do we need to build?”
“A set of stocks.”
Bobbie looked over. “A set of what?”
“Stocks, you know, like from the Middle Ages.” I mimicked the position, holding my hands up near my ears.
“What in the hell do we need that for?”
“Last night a kid was caught stealing chickens. The people called Mark over and wanted him to shoot the kid. Naturally Mark wouldn’t do it, but what else can we do? Then Mark mentioned it as a joke and I said it was a good idea, so here I am.”
“Makes sense; we need something other than execution. Let me finish this and we’ll see what we can do.”
We found enough four-by-fours and two-by-sixes at Danny’s to put something together, but neither of us knew the first thing about building stocks. We leaned against the bench under the covered parking area and sketched some ideas out on a scrap piece of paper. After several variations and still no real idea of how to go about it, Danny said, “I wish the damn Internet were still up, then we’d know what the damn things are supposed to look like.”
“If the Internet were still up, we wouldn’t need ’em,” I replied.
Danny let out a little laugh and shook his head. The sound of a four-wheeler coming up the road caught our attention. Hearing them wasn’t really anything remarkable these days, there were enough of them on our street alone, but it was coming up fast. We looked out toward the road and saw Reggie hauling ass on the other side of Danny’s fence. He stopped at the gate and hopped off. We walked out toward him as he came jogging up.
When he got to us, he stopped and leaned over, resting his palms on his knees and heaving.
“You gonna make it?” I asked.
Reggie turned his head enough to see me and gave me the finger, and Danny laughed.
“There’s someone at the barricade asking for you,” he said.
“Who is it?”
Reggie finally straightened up. “Some big-ass black dude.”
• • •
Thad sat in the truck weighing his options. After all, this was his destination, whether the men at the barricade knew it or not. The two men—one was really a boy, not more than fifteen—looked at him nervously. Both had rifles and while they weren’t pointed at him, they certainly weren’t welcoming. Thad opened the door and slowly stepped out, making sure he kept his hands where they could see them. The two of them immediately stepped back behind the log structure and clutched their rifles a little tighter. Once Thad was out of the truck, one of them called out, “What can we do for you?”
With his hands still where they could see them, Thad replied, “Is this where Morgan Carter lives?” The two men shared an uncertain glance and whispered between themselves. As they were talking, Thad heard a four-wheeler. The two men looked over their shoulders as another man, much larger than these two, pulled up on a quad. The big fella sat there for a minute looking at Thad. He climbed off the machine and walked over to his companions and they spoke in low whispers for a minute. As they did, the big guy would look over at Thad, neither with aggression or invitation. Thad started to wonder if he had the wrong street.
After a few moments of hushed conversation, the big guy walked out toward the road. “You looking for Morgan?”
“Yeah,” Thad replied.
“You a friend of his?”
“Yes, I am. Is he still here?”
The big fella looked Thad over for a second. “You mind waiting here for a minute or two?”
“Not a bit. I’ll be right here,” Thad said and sat on the hood, resting his feet on the front bumper of the Scout.
The big guy whispered a few words to the other two then climbed up on his quad and raced away. Thad sat there as the other two watched him. Thad listened as the ATV went a short distance and stopped. After a brief pause, it started up again, and he listened as it faded away. Morgan, your ass better be here, Thad thought.
• • •
Reggie took me to the barricade and there was Thad sitting on the hood of an old SUV of some kind, made long before the term SUV was ever thought of.
He saw us coming and stepped down off the hood. A surge of happiness ran through me. I hadn’t seen him in a while and it was damn good to see him. Reggie stopped at the barricade and I climbed off before he could. Reggie said, “You know this guy?” motioning at Thad. The other two guys at the barricade looked at me expectantly, and then Danny pulled up and shut his Polaris down.
I looked at Thad. “Naw, never seen him before.”
Thad smiled. “Nice to see you too.”
We met just in front of the barricade and shook hands. He had that ever-present smile on his face, but there was something lurking under it too, something dark.
“Damn, I’m glad to see you,” I said, then looked past him at the old truck. “Are Anita and your son in there?” Not seeing anyone, I looked back at him; his face said it all. “Come on, let’s go up to the house. Leave the truck there for now.”
I asked one of the guys to pull the truck in behind the barricade, then introduced Thad to everyone. Reggie was still giving him a bit of the stink eye, so I said, “You guys heard about when I got shot in the head, right? Thad’s the one who carried me out.” That cleared the air, and Reggie stepped over to shake Thad’s hand.
Danny rode beside us as we walked to the house. I didn’t pry into what had happened and Thad wasn’t offering. He mainly told me about how it had been when he was trying to get home, about a block being dropped on him from an overpass and about killing a man in front of the man’s son. Thad told us about how the boy had walked over and kicked his old man in the ribs, then spit on him as he lay there dying. Apparently the guy hadn’t been a good father or husband. He told us about some raccoons that had gotten in the back of the truck and had scared the shit out of him. By then we were at the gate and I opened it so Danny could go through.
As Danny pulled through the gate, Meathead came running up, his tail wagging, and then he saw Thad. I’d never seen a dog do a double take then backpedal, but he did just that, all the while barking his ass off. Thad smiled and said, “I think your dog’s a racist. He got a hood and shit like that?”
“He used to, but I got tired of washing the sheets. Never mind him, I think he’s retarded.”
“Him or his owner,” Thad said. Danny laughed and I had to smile.
I said, “Hey, I resemble that remark.”
Mel was in the kitchen when we got to the house. “Hey, babe, this is Thad; he’s the guy I told you about.”
Mel leaned against the counter looking at him. “Well, you’re not the little blonde who shot him in the head.”
Thad smiled. “No, ma’am, I’m the big black one that drug his ass out.”
She smiled and walked over to him. She said, “Well, thank you for getting him home,” and reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. He had to lean over so she could hug him.
She said, “Thad, would you like some coffee?”
“Oh yes, ma’am, if it isn’t any trouble.”
Mel poured coffee as Thad, Danny and I sat down at the table. She carried his cup over and set it in front of him, and he thanked her. Danny and I looked at her expectan
tly.
Pointing at Danny, she said, “You don’t drink coffee”—then at me—“and you know where the tea pitcher is.” Thad let out a laugh.
In my best Rodney Dangerfield voice, which was horrible, I replied, “No respect.”
Mel walked back to the island and crossed her arms. “Oh, you want respect, I’ll give you some respect.” Thad and Danny smiled.
I said, “Honey, can’t you wait? We have guests.”
She snatched a scrub sponge off the island and threw it at me as her face turned several shades of red, then left the room. Danny, Thad and I sat and talked for a bit about Thad’s adventures. He told us about his trip home and encounters he had had: the block, the tricycle and some thugs chasing him down in an old Ford. Neither of us pressed him for details.
He ended it with a description of greeting his family in the driveway of his house; after that he was done talking.
To me, Danny said, “Damn, man, sounds like you had an easy trip home.” Thad looked up and I nodded.
“Hate to say it, buddy, but I didn’t have nearly the trouble you did. One little encounter with some good ole boys who tried to shoot down a couple of helicopters, but didn’t work out real well for them. Then I ran into some hippies in the woods, but they didn’t bother me none. I knew your trip to Tampa would be worse than mine, but I had no idea it’d be that bad.”
Thad let out a grunt. “The trip home wasn’t shit compared to what happened after I got there.” He took a sip of his coffee and looked out the sliding glass door. “Morgan, you know there’s a dude in your shop?”
“Oh crap, I forgot all about him. Let’s go outside and I’ll introduce you to Jeff.”
As we were standing up, a ruckus erupted in the back of the house. In a blur of flailing arms and shouts, they boiled out of Taylor’s room.
“It’s my turn!”
“No, you just had it!”
“I haven’t used . . .”
The argument came to an abrupt stop when they noticed Thad. They stood there for a moment staring at him, then looked at me, not sure what to think.
“Hi,” Thad said and waved at them. Danny whispered in his ear, and a big smile spread across his face.
Thad looked at the girls and said, “I think it’s my turn,” and held out his hand for the iPad.
Suddenly none of them wanted it. The two big girls let go of it instantly, leaving Little Bit holding it. She looked down at it, then at Thad, then tried to hand it to one of her sisters, only to find they had both vacated the kitchen. Looking back and seeing they were gone, she quickly set it on the island and headed for the bedroom, shouting a muffled, “You left me!” as the door slammed shut. I doubled over laughing, Danny immediately followed my lead and Thad started that deep bass belly laugh of his.
We were still laughing when we went out the slider onto the deck. The door to the shop was open and Jeff looked up. I introduced Jeff and Thad and told him a little about the walk home.
“Nice to meet ya,” Jeff said, shaking Thad’s hand. Then he looked at me and said, “It’s done and it works.”
“Cool, you know how to use it?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, nothing to it.”
Jeff walked over to the laptop and showed me how to type a message in the text box. “It’s just like texting: just type what you want, hit ENTER and it will transmit.” He hit ENTER on the keyboard and pointed to a little gray box sitting beside the computer. It had two LEDs that started blinking. “See? It’s transmitting now.”
“Looks easy enough. Later I’ll figure out what frequency I need to be on and what to send and we’ll see if my guy is out there or not,” I said.
“Sarge?” Thad asked with raised eyebrows. I nodded.
“Well, Thad, what’s your plan?” I asked as I leaned back on the bench.
He looked down at the ground. “Don’t really have one. I just needed to get gone.”
He didn’t elaborate any further, but he didn’t need to.
“Let’s go see if we can find you guys a place to stay.”
“Is there a deputy here named Mark?” Thad asked.
That caught me by surprise. “Uh, yeah, how did you know?”
“The sheriff asked me to turn over the truck to him.”
Danny’s head cocked to the side. “You met the sheriff?” Thad nodded and Danny said, “And they let you drive away?” Thad nodded again, and Danny raised his eyebrows.
“Well, that makes it kinda easy. Let’s go see him and we’ll talk to him about a house,” I said.
We walked as a group to the barricade. The Scout had been pulled in behind it and Reggie was keeping an eye on it. As we walked up to the truck, Thad motioned to the log barricade. “Y’all need to do some work on this; nowhere to hide.”
“Yeah, we’ve already paid the price for that,” Danny said.
“I’ve got an idea,” Jeff said.
“We’re all ears, man,” I said and he told us he would show us later.
I looked over at Reggie and said, “Hey, man, what was with the body on your four-wheeler earlier?”
“I’ll tell you ’bout it later. Can you drop by ’round suppertime?” he said.
“Yeah, sure, everything all right?” I asked, and he nodded.
We got into the Scout and Danny directed Thad down to Mark’s house. I was looking over the back seat at the guns. I said, “You collected quite the arsenal on your way home.” He looked up into the mirror at me but said nothing.
Mark came outside before we were stopped in the driveway, holding his AR. When he saw Danny in the strange truck, he relaxed. If it was possible, Mark actually looked worse than when I had seen him the other night. After we all piled out and made the introductions, Thad told Mark that the sheriff wanted him to turn the truck over to him. Mark stood there for a moment thinking then said, “And you actually brought it here?”
Thad nodded.
“You two walked home together?” Mark asked, and Thad and I both nodded. Then Mark asked, “These guys staying with you, Morgan?”
“That’s the other reason we’re here. I was hoping we could let them stay in Pat’s house. There’s too many at my place to add Thad and Jeff.”
For a moment he looked shocked. Even Danny looked at me like I was nuts. I said, “It’s not like they’re coming back.”
Mark shook his head and let out a little grunt. “Yeah, I guess not. Whatever, I don’t give a shit. And not for nothing, Morgan, but half the problems you got around here are because of the way you say shit like that. Something to think about.”
I bristled at first, but I knew he was right. I wasn’t sorry about what happened to Pat and her family, but yeah, some diplomacy might be in order.
We agreed to take the truck over to Pat’s old place and unload all the gear, then we’d bring it back. As Mark turned to go inside he said, “Just leave the keys in it.” Then he went inside, the door closed with a loud thunk, and the four of us were left in the yard looking at one another.
Jeff looked over at me and said, “I gotta ask, why aren’t they coming home?”
I looked at him for a moment, then looked at Danny, then back at Jeff and Thad. “They’re dead.”
Thad said, “How’d they get dead?”
Danny replied before I could think of anything. “Morgan shot ’em, right over there,” and pointed at the spot in Mark’s yard.
Jeff said, “Oh, those people.” He hadn’t liked the story when I told it, and it looked like he was liking the idea of living in Pat’s house even less.
We drove the truck over to the house and unloaded all of Thad’s stuff. Jeff said he would ride the scooter down later with all his stuff. Inside, the house was untouched, much to my surprise. The outside, on the other hand, had been stripped of anything and everything that could be used. The woodshed had been nearly full and now wa
s empty. All the feed was gone, as were all the chickens. It was obvious that the place had been cleaned out as soon as we left that day.
In the living room was a large stone fireplace, quite nice actually, and there was more than enough room for the two of them. I told them I would bring some wood down later and for them to come to the house later for dinner. We’d have to figure out what to do about food for them, water too. Danny and I left them to settle in and walked back to his house to continue on our project.
Back at Danny’s house we finally settled on a design for the stocks. We used a couple of eight-by-eights for the upper and lower sections and mounted them on two four-by-four posts for the upright supports. A large strap hinge on one end enabled it to be opened. We cut the holes so they were snug on my wrists and neck, since Danny pointed out I had kind of a big head. A hasp for a padlock finished the piece off. It was getting late in the day, so we decided to finish it the next morning and I headed back home.
On my way back I saw the Scout was back at Mark’s house. Thad hadn’t wasted any time in returning it, and I knew that would go a ways with Mark.
I thought about Thad’s family, and that got me to thinking about losing my own. I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the practical things we had to deal with. Our food would go a lot faster with Jeff and Thad around, and I knew it was past time to start looking at the long term, something I should have done as soon as I got home. Thad and Jeff were coming over for dinner, and it would be a good opportunity to see what we could come up with.
As I got to the paved part of the road, the sound of an axe brought me out of my thoughts. Looking off to the right, I saw the old man that lived there—I didn’t know his name—trying to split wood. I wondered where his dogs were; they were usually out barking at whoever was in front of his place, but not today. The air was crisp as dusk started to fall, and the smell of woodsmoke filled the air. It really made it feel like winter.
Mel was in the kitchen again, poor woman; it seemed like she lived in there now. I said, “Hey, good lookin’, what’cha got cookin’?”