The front door of the trailer opened and closed with a slap. We could hear very well through the thin walls of the house, meaning they could hear us too if we made any noise—what if we sneezed or coughed?
“I see you got this place cleaned up as usual,” said Stephanie’s mother, Susan.
“You got yourself a regular little housekeeper,” a gruff man’s voice said. “Rich people pay a lot of money to have somebody clean up their mess.”
“Look here what Bill got me,” said Susan.
“That’s pretty,” said Stephanie.
“It’s called a mood ring. It changes colors according to what mood you’re in. See, it’s dark blue now. That means I’m in a good mood.”
“It’s dark blue because you got me, Baby,” said Bill.
“You got anything to eat around this shack?” he continued. “I’m starving. Since you’re such a good housekeeper, Little Stephanie, why don’t you fix us a bite to eat?”
“Don’t be so rude to her,” said Susan.
“I’m not being rude. I just thought that since she don’t have nothing to do all day but clean house and watch TV, she could fix us a sandwich or something.”
“You better be nice to her because she’s going to be a rich big shot one of these days. She ain’t going to be like the rest of us. And you might need somebody to take care of you when you get old.”
“She’ll be rich if they start paying waitresses big bucks at the truck stop diner. And the way I’m living, I’ll be lucky to see fifty, anyway.
“So what’s to eat around here? My stomach’s starting to growl. You know I get grouchy when my stomach growls.”
“There’s some bologna,” said Susan. “We could make some bologna sandwiches.”
“I guess that’ll do if you ain’t got filet mignon,” said Bill. “You got anything good to drink around here? I’m in the mood for some Southern Comfort or some Jack Daniel’s. Nothing like some good whiskey to wash down a cheap-ass fried bologna sandwich.”
“I’ve got the good stuff,” said Susan. “I got some Maker’s Mark, picked it up the other day just for you. That stuff’s expensive.”
“Ain’t you sweet. You know how to treat a man right. You keep that up, and you’re liable to get on my good side.”
“I thought I already was on your good side.”
“You’re liable to get on my better side,” he said and laughed. Susan laughed too. Stephanie didn’t.
Like most kids, I wasn’t patient with sitting still for very long, and I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable inside the stuffy closet. The urge to stretch my legs and move around was becoming almost painful, but I was afraid that moving too much would cause something to topple over, and we would be discovered. The smell of the frying bologna was making me hungry, contributing to my misery. There was no way of telling how long we would be imprisoned there. Someone turned on the eight-track player, and Hank Williams Jr. started singing “The New South”. This at least gave us a little break because we could now make a little bit of noise without being heard.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Charlie whispered.
“Number one or two?” I asked.
“Number one, thank goodness not number two. We could be stuck here for hours.”
“You’ll just have to hold it for now.”
“I don’t think I can. What if my bladder burst?”
“Oh, it won’t burst. My mom’s made me wait for hours before when we’ve been on long trips, and nothing happened.”
“I’ll try to hold it, but I won’t be able to for long.”
From the kitchen we heard Susan talking. “Stephanie, how many sandwiches do you think we need? I’ll probably just eat one. How many will you eat, Bill?”
“About two I guess.”
“So why are you trying to fry the whole roll of bologna?”
Stephanie said, “I’m pretty hungry. I figure I’ll eat about three sandwiches. That’s why I’m making so many.”
“I think your eyes are bigger than your stomach,” said Susan. “Now you’ve done wasted a bunch of bologna that I had sliced fresh at Piggly Wiggly.”
“Oh, I’m sure I can eat all of it,” said Stephanie.
“I can see Stephanie’s not like her pretty momma,” said Bill. “When she gets your age, she’ll be lying on the couch too fat to get up, collecting a welfare check, and eating buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Won’t nobody want to marry her.”
“If you don’t stop being mean,” said Susan. “You can talk about anybody you want to, but don’t talk bad about my Stephanie. She’s all I got.”
“All you got? What the hell am I, Duck Soup? I guess since she’s all you got, I can just head out. I can see I’m not needed around here. I told you I didn’t like children when we started dating. I’ve learned to tolerate Stephanie just because she keeps her mouth shut most of the time, but since you think she’s all you got, I’ll just get my ass out of here.” The door slammed.
“No, don’t go!” cried Susan, nearly hysterical. The door quickly squeaked open again, and the sound of the loud motorcycle vibrated the trailer. The music in the background added to the madness. “I don’t want to live without you, Bill.”
“Well, if you’re going, grab the whiskey and let’s go,” Bill yelled. “We can get some real food in town.” The motorcycle revved up.
The music stopped. “I’m sorry, Stephanie,” said Susan. “But I have to go. I’ve got to make this relationship work. You know you’ll always be my number one, don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Stephanie.
“I love you, My Little Doll.”
“I love you too, Mommy.”
“Let’s go!” yelled Bill. The door squeaked shut, and the motorcycle noise grew suddenly louder then faded away.
I felt embarrassed and sad for Stephanie. We climbed out of the closet, and Charlie ran to the bathroom that was located across the hall from the bedroom. I walked to the living room and found Stephanie sitting on the couch crying. Not knowing what to say, I sat down quietly beside her.
“I’m sorry I lied,” said Stephanie, continuing to cry.
“About what?” I asked.
“My momma’s not rich. We just live in this junky old trailer.”
“I didn’t figure she was,” I said.
“I guess you hate me now.”
“It don’t matter to me. I like you just ‘cause you’re Stephanie. And you know what?”
“What?” asked Stephanie, drying her tears.
“I bet you’re going to be somebody important when you get big.”
“You really think so?”
“I’m sure of it,” I said.
“You’re so nice,” said Stephanie.
“Thanks,” I replied.
Charlie walked out of the bathroom and into the living room and said, “I don’t know about y’all, but I’m starving. I’m sure glad they left. My bladder would have busted if they’d stayed much longer. Now we can eat some of them sandwiches.”
“I fixed some extra sandwiches; I guess you could say a bunch extra now. My mom thought I was crazy for making so many sandwiches, but I was going to sneak them to you just like a good spy would do.”
“Good work, Detective,” said Charlie.
“A spy’s not the same thing as a detective,” I said.
“Whatever you call it,” said Charlie.
Stephanie went to the kitchen and put some sandwiches on three plates. She opened a bag of potato chips and filled three glasses with ice cubes from the freezer, filling the glasses with Coke from a returnable glass bottle. We took our food and drinks to the table and sat down and ate like hungry mice.
“You know, I don’t much care for your mom’s boyfriend,” I said.
“Yeah, he’s a real jerk,” said Charlie, his mouth full of food.
“I don’t like him either,” said Stephanie. “I wish my mom would get rid of him. I don’t get to see her half the time since he came around. She’s always run
ning off somewhere with him on that motorcycle. I hate motorcycles.”
“I like motorcycles,” said Charlie, “but I can’t stand your mom’s boyfriend even though I’ve never actually seen him. I can tell he’s pretty sorry just by the way he talks.”
“Yeah, I can too,” I said.
“My mom just likes him because he’s good looking. I wish he was as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside, then my mom would know what a bad person he is.”
Suddenly the loud blaring of a horn interrupted our conversation. The chairs we were sitting on vibrated, and we could hear dishes rattling in the cabinets.
“What in the world?” I said.
“Remember, I live next to the train track,” yelled Stephanie.
“How do you sleep at night with all that noise?” asked Charlie in a loud voice.
“Oh, I’m so used to it; I don’t pay it much attention.”
The train passed by, and an almost tangible quietness briefly filled the room. We finished eating our dinner and went to the living room area. Charlie and I sat down on the couch, and Stephanie sat in the chair across from us.
“I’m full as a tick,” said Charlie, holding his stomach.
“I ate too much, myself,” I added. “I think those were the best bologna sandwiches I’ve ate in a long time.”
“We’ve got to plan this out,” said Charlie, changing the subject. “They’ll be looking for us soon, probably already are. I know they’re looking for you, Brian, because that’s why my mom took off so quickly this morning, to go help look for you. We’ll be in big trouble if they find us. We’ll all spend the rest of our lives grounded.”
“How did I get everybody in such a mess?” I asked, running my fingers through my hair in distress. “And the worst part is Hazel would still be alive if I had just listened to my grandmother. I deserve to be in trouble. I should probably just turn myself in.”
“No, don’t do that,” said Stephanie. “We’ll help you. It’ll be fun. We’ll be like Bonnie and Clyde.”
“And who will I be like?” asked Charlie.
“I guess you can be Jessie James or somebody,” replied Stephanie.
“That doesn’t make sense: Bonnie and Clyde and Jessie James. I guess you and Brian can ride away in a gangster car, and I’ll follow behind you on a horse.” We all laughed.
“So how will you be able to get away to help us without anybody noticing?” I asked Stephanie.
“That won’t be any kind of a problem. My mom stays gone a lot. She’s either working or with her boyfriend. She says I’m getting big enough to watch myself. I can just leave a note telling her I walked to the store or something. Anyway, Truck Mountain is not too far from here. And I can buy the food and supplies at Fred’s Market. It’s just up the road from here on the way to the mountain.”
“Yeah, that’ll work great,” said Charlie. “I wish my mom would let me do what I want to like yours does. My mom treats me like a kid.”
“The problem is,” I said, “we’ll have to go to the other side of town to get to the road that goes up Truck Mountain. That’s going to be hard to do without someone seeing us.”
“That’s not going to be a problem,” said Charlie. “That same road comes out on this side of the mountain, right up the road here. We don’t have to cut all the way through town. If we go up the road here to Fred’s Market, cross Highway 31W, keep going for a little bit on this road, then we’ll come to an old dirt road on the left side. There’s a gate that blocks cars and trucks from going on this road, but we’ll climb over it.”
“How do you know about all this?” I asked, amazed at Charlie’s wealth of knowledge.
“My grandfather lives down the road here, so I go by there all the time, been up there once.”
“I wonder why someone drove a truck up there and left it,” said Stephanie.
“Someone must have drove that truck up there a long time ago and broke down, and it’s been there ever since,” said Charlie. “My dad said they were looking for oil at one time but never found much, so they just quit using the road after a while. There used to be a mean old man that owned the mountain and lived up there. He probably died a long time ago, though. Now I bet he haunts the mountain.”
“I hope we don’t see his ghost up there,” I said, my eyes getting bigger.
“I’m not scared of such a thing,” said Charlie.
“Me neither,” I said nervously.
“We better wait until it starts getting dark before we leave, or someone will see us,” said Charlie. “We’ll cut across the fields; that way no one will drive by in a car and spot us.”
“How will we be able to see?” I asked.
“For one thing, I brought some flashlights, but also there’s a full moon out tonight. Me and my dad were looking at it last night. It was so bright it looked like daylight. We’ll have to walk by moonlight at least part of the time so no one will see us. It’ll be full for a few more days, at least.”
“How do you know that?” asked Stephanie.
“Because that’s how the moon does. It starts out a little sliver, called a crescent moon, then each night it gets a little fuller, until finally it’s full, and then it starts to get smaller again. My dad said, if you look closely, you can see a man up there looking down at you. I looked but couldn’t see him.”
“Wow,” I said, “I didn’t realize the moon did that. It makes sense, though, because sometimes the moon’s bigger than it is at other times.”
“Look!” said Stephanie, pointing at the television.
I gasped when I saw what was on the screen: side-by-side pictures of Charlie and me; then there was a picture of the front of my house. Two police cars were parked in the driveway with flashing lights. Charlie hurriedly turned up the sound, but by then the news woman was asking the weatherman if there was any rain in the forecast and was blaming him for messing up her weekend last week.
“The police and everybody are looking for us,” said Charlie. “This is crazy. I didn’t know we were so popular.”
“Oh, this is terrible,” I said, sitting down on the couch and putting my face in my hands. “I’m in such trouble; I’ll never get out of it. What a mess. I can’t believe they actually had our pictures on the news. I mean, there were two police cars right there in my driveway.”
“And I’m in big trouble too,” said Charlie. “They had my picture right there beside yours, so I’m in it just as big as you are. We’re two outlaws on the run. Just think of what a mess we’d be in if you had actually committed a crime. I can’t believe they’re making such a big deal out of this. We need to hide for sure now. It’s going to be a while before this mess settles down.“
“I wonder if I’ll get my picture on TV too,” said Stephanie. “This is so exciting.”
“Exciting!” I restated, indignant. “My life is over, and you think it’s exciting.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“It’s okay. I’m just upset is all.”
“Yeah, I’m upset too,” said Charlie. “This is a big mess you’ve got me into.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve dragged you both into this, and it’s my problem. You can call the police if you want to and turn me in.”
“I would never do that,” said Stephanie.
“Neither would I,” said Charlie. “You’re my best friend, and best friends stick together.”
“You’re my best friend too,” I said.
“Whose best friend am I?” asked Stephanie.
“You’re a very good friend,” said Charlie, “but girls can’t be best friends with boys.”
“That’s true,” I said. “If you were a boy, though, you’d be my best friend too. I like you a lot even though you’re a girl.”
“Thanks… I guess,” said Stephanie.
“Like I was saying,” said Charlie, “we’ll have to wait until it gets dark before we head out. Stephanie, if I give you twenty dollars to buy us some food and stuff, do you
promise not to steal it?
“Of course I wouldn’t steal it. Why would you think such a thing?”
“Just because Brian saw you steal that light-switch cover thing at Square Deal.”
“You better shut up!” I said angrily. “You just better shut up. I told you not to say anything about that.”
“I wasn’t trying to steal it. I was going to pay for it when I had the money.”
“Well, I don’t want to wait until you get rich to get my money back. I just want you to promise me you won’t steal it.”
“I told you not to say anything about that,” I said. “You stole that money from your mom, so you’re not any better than Stephanie.”
“She’s my mom, so it’s not the same thing.”
“It is too the same thing,” I said.
“So I guess y’all think I’m just a lowdown crook now,” said Stephanie.
“No, Stephanie,” I said, “I don’t think that. I believe you’ll pay it back.”
“I don’t think you’re a crook either,” said Charlie, “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“You are sorry for bringing that up,” I said. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“I won’t bring it up again,” said Charlie.
“You don’t have to; it’s already been brought up. But I guess I can forgive you if Stephanie can.”
“I forgive you,” said Stephanie. “But there’s really nothing for me to forgive. I shouldn’t have took it to begin with, so it’s my fault. If you think about it, I wasn’t really stealing it. I was going to pay for it when I got the money. I was just wanting to get it before they stopped selling them.”
“I say we just forget it and move on,” said Charlie.
“That’s what I think too,” I said.
“Me too,” said Stephanie.
“Good, it’s settled then,” said Charlie. “Now we can get back to planning…”
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