Cyclone Rumble

by J.P. Voss

  10

  I ran out of the Federal building and got the hell out of San Berdo. After I cleared the city limits, I punched the gas and didn’t let up until I saw a sign that read Barstow 15 miles. A few minutes after that, I pulled over on the side of the road and started to cry. When it dawned on me that mommy wasn’t around anymore to make it better, that I was eighteen now, and it was time for me to be a man, I slapped myself in the face a few times, then got back on the road more determined than ever to get Morgan out of jail.

  I made the eastbound transition to Highway 40 and pulled off at County Rd. 1712. I drove around the back of Tubby’s Truck Stop and parked by the cinder-block pumphouse. My Masterlock was still on the door, or at least one that looked like it was. I reached in my watch pocket and pulled out the key. It slipped right in, but it wouldn’t turn. “That was too good to be true.”

  The pumphouse had to have been searched. Morgan’s Norton 650 is probably in some impound yard alongside his piece-of-shit Chevy truck. I’ll deal with it later.

  I found Dessie in the Truckers Only section sitting alone in a booth, filling saltshakers, with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth. I sat down, and the ash from her cigarette fell in her lap. Dessie came out of her seat like a praying mantis. Her bony fingers clutched my shirt collar, and she dragged me off like she was about to eat me. She pulled me into the Women’s Bathroom and locked the door. “What in the hell did you boys get yourselves into?”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  Dessie frowned. “Ain’t that just like a man. Caught red handed, and you still won’t fess up.”

  “Don’t you believe me?” I tried to look like my feelings were hurt. “I thought we were friends?”

  She mussed my hair and said, “We are friends sugar. I’ll bet I’m the best friend you have around here.”

  “I hope so, because I need a friend right now.” I stepped to the sink, splashed a little water on my face, looked for a towel, and then dried off with the bottom of my t-shirt. “Have you seen Harper? I really need to talk to her.”

  “Seems like everyone wants to have a conversation with that young lady. I’ve been questioned by the local cops a half dozen times. And there’s been a good looking FBI Agent by the name of Andrews asking about her.”

  “Do you know where she is?”

  “Disappeared into thin air.”

  “What did you tell the cops?” I asked.

  “Not much,” she replied. “I told them she was a good worker who got along with the customers…and how she didn’t seem like the criminal type.”

  “That’s all?”

  “I answered their questions. And I told them what I’d heard Harper tell other people. She told everyone she was from Dallas. You knew that. And how the Greyhound Bus she was on broke down, and how they towed it into Tubby’s for repair. She just happened into the diner for a 7-Up. When she saw the sign advertising for temporary help, she asked about the job.”

  “Did she fill out a job application?”

  “Tubby told the police she did, and that he just couldn’t find it. I know she didn’t. All she had to do was smile, and the job was hers.”

  “Don’t they take taxes out of her paycheck? You have to fill out some kind of paperwork for taxes when you get a job.”

  “Tubby didn’t pay her with a check. She lived in the trailer rent free, and the tips were hers. The job was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement. Birdie, you remember Birdie, the big Negro woman with the Louisiana drawl. She stayed there. When her mom got real sick back in Bogalusa, she went home to help. Tubby promised Birdie her job back when she was ready. Harper wasn’t supposed to stay more than a few months.”

  “I didn’t know that.” I sat down on the toilet and rubbed my temples. “I wonder why Andrews was interested in Harper. What did he ask you?”

  Dessie pulled a lipstick out of her sock and dabbed a little on her lips. “That Andrews is a real good looker, but I didn’t fall for it.” Using the lipstick case for emphasis she said, “You know I was born and raised in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. My daddy used to make sour mash, and I’ve got a natural distrust for Revenuers.”

  “I was born and raised in San Pedro, and I don’t trust them either. What did you tell the FBI?”

  “The first time he came in, I gave him the same story I told the police. When he came back, he told me that FBI officials had contacted every O’Neal family in Texas. And not one of them had a family member with the first or middle name of Harper. He wanted to know if I could think of anything else. He was a persistent little bugger, so I told him about the problem Harper had with Lance McCord. I figured that would keep him running around in circles for awhile.”

  “Who’s Lance McCord?”

  “He’s the Big Mucky Muck out at the mine.”

  “Is that the guy Harper’s married to?”

  Dessie let her rear end rest against the sink and started to laugh. “Who told you that whopper?”

  “Morgan told me Harper was married.”

  She held up her right hand, palm out, with three fingers pointed upright, like she was administering the Boy Scout Oath. “Do you swear you’ll never repeat what you’re about to hear to another living soul so long as you live?”

  I stood up and returned her salute. “I do.”

  “Harper is married, but it ain’t to that blowhard Lance McCord.”

  “She never told me she was married. Does everyone else know she’s married?”

  “Nobody else knows she’s married. We had a few beers after work one day, and she opened up some. That’s how I know. Your asshole brother only found out because he forced the issue.”

  “Who’s she married to?”

  “I don’t know who. Harper didn’t tell me his name. She did say he was a no-good two-timing cowboy who made a living riding wild bulls on the rodeo circuit. Said the marriage barely lasted six months, and that she’d already filed for a divorce. Poor girl started to cry when she told me how her mother had warned her not to marry him. That’s why she took the job at Tubby’s. She was on her way back to Texas, but she didn’t want to face her mother. She needed time to think.”

  “I wonder why my brother thought she was married to the boss?”

  “I might of had something to do with that.”

  I clamped my hands firmly on her shoulders, swung her around in a tight circle, and sat her down on the toilet. “You need to tell me everything you know. I’m serious. You can’t hold anything back.”

  Dessie’s tired-brown eyes lightened up and she gave me a maternal look. “I’m not so sure your tender young ears should hear this kind of thing.”

  “I’m not a kid anymore. I turned eighteen in county jail. I took all the State Troopers, Sheriffs, and the FBI could throw at me. And I didn’t back down. I’m a man now Dessie.”

  “Well I guess you are,” she said with a big wide grin on her face. She stood up, clamped her hands on my shoulders, swung me around in a tight circle, and sat me down on the toilet. She leaned her butt against the sink and pulled a pack of Old Gold cigarettes out of her apron. Using a cigarette for emphasis she said, “I swore I would never tell anybody this, but this is an unforeseeable situation.” She looked up at the ceiling. “God forgive me for breaking my word.”

  Dessie lit a stick match with her fingernail and took a couple of humungous drags off her cigarette. After she’d gathered her thoughts—she said, “I told you how there were sparks flying between Harper and your brother.”

  “I don’t understand how that happened. Did Morgan hypnotize her or something?”

  “She looked hypnotized,” Dessie said. “He definitely put a spell on her.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “You may not know this, but your brother is a regular Knight in Shinning Armor.”

  I laughed so hard I almost fell on the floor.

  “Go ahead—get it out of your system. You’re just jealous.”

  “I am not.”

  “Then st
op acting like a fool, and let me tell you what happened.”

  I didn’t like the taste of it, but she was right, so I sucked it up. “Give it to me straight—I can take it.”

  “The whole thing started one night after Harper had been working here for about a month. We were both working the swing shift, and things had been pretty slow. Harper was looking a little melancholy, so I told her she could go home early. She walked out around eleven and showed back up about a half hour later with your brother in tow. She didn’t even look like the same girl. She had the brightest eyes, and the biggest widest smile you’d ever want to see.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m getting to it.” She doused her cigarette in the sink and dropped the butt in the wastebasket. “When I saw them come in, I had to stick around and find out what happened. Harper and your brother set up camp in a booth out front and talked until two in the morning. When your brother finally stood up and told her he had to be at work in three hours, and he’d better go home and get some sleep, I conveniently arrived at the table. He offered to walk her home, but Harper was still bright eyed and bushytailed, so I told him not worry about it, I’d watch out for her. He didn’t seem to like the idea, but Harper nodded her approval, and he reluctantly left us alone. After he left, I asked her right out.”

  “Asked her what?”

  “What in the hell happened? That’s what.” Dessie turned and examined her teeth in the mirror.

  “What did she say?

  She turned back to me and said, “The girl didn’t say a word. She turned and looked out the window and watched your brother walk across the parking lot. Her eyes glazed over like a love struck teenager.”

  “You’re right. I don’t think my tender young ears can take this.”

  “I’m just getting to the best part.” She lit another Old Gold and blew smoke out her nose as she talked. “At first, I couldn’t understand what Harper was telling me. She said that earlier, after she left work, three men out in the parking lot had accosted her. She didn’t look like a girl who’d been accosted. She went on to tell me how three drunken truckers herded her between two tractor-trailers and corralled her. Harper said they were fat slobs with bad teeth and unbelievable BO. They wanted her to have a drink with them, and when she said no thanks, they started getting unruly, invading her personal space, trying to force the booze on her. That’s when Morgan walked up. I guess the biggest one of the bunch told Morgan to mind his own business, and that if he knew what was good for him, he’d scram.”

  “Morgan doesn’t scram,” I said. “What happened next?”

  “This is the part I liked best. It wasn’t so much what happened next, although it is a good story, but it was the look in Harper’s eyes as she told me. I could tell that poor girl was struck by love, and there wasn’t a darned thing she could do about it. I believed I was looking at the happiest tortured soul on the planet.”

  “What did she say?”

  “I guess the biggest of the three gorillas made the mistake of throwing a punch. Harper said your brother knocked him unconscious with one shot to the jaw.”

  “Yeah—Morgan’s got a hammerhead overhand right.”

  “Then the other two turned on him. Harper said Morgan didn’t back down an inch. He hit one of them in the gut, and the lollipop dropped to his knees. I guess the last guy was the smart one. He held his hands up and surrendered. He started walking backwards, Morgan took a step toward him, and he turned around and ran.”

  “I would of done the same thing as my brother.”

  “I’m sure you would of Duff.” Dessie started to take a puff on her cigarette and stopped. “That deal with the three drunks put the hook in her, but what sealed her fate, was when Morgan saved the kitten.”

  “I heard about the cat. A couple people over at the trailer park told me they watched him shimmy up the power pole and rescue a little kitten. I got to admit, that took some balls. That first outrigger must be thirty feet up.”

  “I thought Harper was going to swoon. Normally—that’s a good thing, but it’s a tortuous thing for a woman that’s already married.”

  “I get your drift.” I tried to take one of Dessie’s cigarettes, and she swatted my hand away. I rubbed my knuckles and said, “What’s the deal with Lance McCord?”

  A gentle rap on the door was followed by a soft voice asking, “Dessie?”

  Dessie called out, “I’ll be right there.” She doused her smoke and slammed the butt into the trashcan. “Lance McCord is a blowhard. He got fresh with Harper one night, so I told him he’d better watch out. I let him know that Harper’s boyfriend was a big strong ex Marine who worked at the mine, and would kick his butt if he didn’t watch out.”

  “Morgan did get fired because of Harper.”

  “No. Harper didn’t have anything to do with it.” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to make this fast. Lance McCord’s granddaddy was Milford W. McCord. In case you don’t know it, Milford McCord was a turn of the century carpetbagger who made a fortune swindling ignorant Indians out of their oil leases. I don’t know much about the rest of the family, but a little birdie told me Lance had been arrested in an Oklahoma City hotel room with a couple of underage girls and some marijuana. The family had enough pull to get the whole thing swept under the table, but the Oklahoma City Police were still pretty unhappy with Lance’s past behavior and general disregard for law and order. Rumor has it, the family wanted to let things cool down, so they decided to exile him out to the mine. I guess they figured even he couldn’t get in any trouble out here in the middle of nowhere. Sure proved them wrong.” She took another deep breath. “He’d only been in Barstow a few days when he came in and got fresh with Harper. I didn’t even know who he was. I didn’t know his family owned the mine, and sure didn’t know he was going to fire your brother.”

  “So Morgan did get fired because the system sucks.”

  “No. Your brother got fired because he’s got a hammerhead overhand right.”