by DC Alexander
“I tell you what.” I walked around the car and looked at the tires. “I need a car and I aint got much time so I’m gone put it all on the table with you.” I found a rust spot on the front bumper. Most of the paint looked good, this one spot had chrome missing and the rust showed through in an area about the size of a dime. “I aint got much money, it takes everything I got to live with the price of things these days, but I can give you five hundred dollars cash money for the car right now, if you don’t mind some of it in change.” I poked at the rust spot and turned to Carl, “This is a good car aint it Carl? Is it worth five hundred dollars?”
Carl said “I think it’s a good car, it did good comin over here. It’s worth what you pay for it, it aint a new car but it looks pretty good and it runs good.” He didn’t want to get in the middle and make hard feelings. I could live with that.
Sammy shook his head “Miz Rosalee, that just aint right; I can set this car on the side of the road with a sign and sell it today for two thousand dollars. We done come all the way over here and I need the money. I tell you what I can do. I’ll sell this car to you for two thousand dollars. I doin you a favor cuz Carl told me you need it and you did that stuff for Stephanie. I can’t go lower than that.” He tried to look serious, in tune with how good he was treating me. He was pretty good at it.
“I reckon I do without groceries, I can sell some food stamps and get a little more money, I might be able to go seven hundred, but it gone leave me mighty tight.” I opened the passenger side door and looked close at the floor mat. He’d cleaned it nicely and it smelled like pine sol.
He got excited; “I can take this car to the junkyard and sell it for more than that, girl! Jesus in Heaven as my witness, that’s just insultin. You act like you don’t want to buy no car at all!” He stomped around the car kinda fast and opened the driver’s door like he was going to drive away, but he kept an eye on me to see if I was worried. I wasn’t worried and I wasn’t going to come up off more money, he needed to come back with a new offer, that’s the way it goes and we both knew it. He stopped like had a thought all of a sudden and looked straight at me, he said, “It’s a lot of trouble to go to the junkyard and I hate to see this car junked, I make you a final offer, fifteen hundred dollars cash money right now and we done in front of god and everybody.”
I said “I can give you a thousand dollars for that car, I got my savins out yesterday. It’s gonna leave me broke, but I’ll go in the house and get my money and buy this car.” I turned and went up on the porch and he didn’t say anything; I went in and closed the door to get the money.
I got a little cubbyhole where I hide my money and valuables in the kitchen. I use a magnet off the refrigerator to open a piece of the wall. The sheetrock has a metal plate on the back the magnet grabs. I bought it out of a magazine. There wasn’t a handle. It’s just a place on the wall that looks like all the rest of the wall, the edges are irregular and blend in. I pulled out the fireproof box and opened it up. I pulled out the money in mixed bills, I had enough hundreds to do it but I didn’t want to look like I had that kind of money lying around the house. I got the last three dollars in quarters and a few nickels and dimes so it looked like it took my last little bit of money. I put the money in a paper bag and went out the door slowly like it hurt to spend the money. It did hurt to spend it, I played to that.
Sammy was standing there like he was about to leave. When he was sure I could hear him he told Carl “I can’t take no thousand dollars for this car, that’s just a robbery, she need a gun!”
I walked past him to the car and put the paper bag on the hood and said “I got a gun; we can look at it later though. Come over here and lets count this out quick, people would rob us if they seen this money.” I reached in the bag and Sammy came over.
He talked as I reached in the bag, “I can’t take no thousand dollars for this car, I got a family I got to support, they gone think I a fool if I sell this car for a thousand dollars!”
I pulled out some bills and laid them on the hood. When I went to lift my hand he reached out and put his hand on the money to hold it down. I said “How much that is?” and he started counting, he couldn’t help it, it’s just natural.
“That’s two hundred forty dollars.” He was about to say more, but I laid some change out.
“Ok, then this makes it two hundred forty two and a quarter. I can’t …”
I put some more money out there, he counted it, and we wound up with the thousand dollars all lying out there on the hood and he had his hand on it. It made a nice, hefty pile. Once a person has their hand on a pile of money, it is almost impossible for them to turn loose of it.
I said “Ok, there it is; put it in the bag and I take it back inside if you don’t want it.” I got him, he could already see himself spending the money and it’s in his hand. He couldn’t walk away from it.
I said” is this car got gas in it? I aint got no money left for gas.” He looked sick. He said “it has a half tank of gas.”
“Ok, then it’s a done deal.” He pulled out an envelope with the title in it and finally signed the title, then I signed it and we both signed a handwritten bill of sale. He moved slower and slower, but once we signed stuff I figured it was all over. Carl took him home. I guess I did alright.
Carl come back and pulled up to the curb and cut the car off, I opened the door and got in with him, “Let’s try this car out, man, I gotta see how it rides.” While we were driving around I asked Carl if he knew where Earl stayed. He’d heard talk; I asked him to drive by there. The car was smooth, Carl said it had plenty of power and wasn’t smoking. He said “That’s where Earl is supposed to stay, the one with the door. Used to be a meth lab but they moved out and Earl moved in. They got a wire run so they got some lights there, I guess they stealing electric. Somebody should have done burned that place, it attracts the bad ones.”
“Carl, stop here a minute, I want to look at this.” He pulled to the side and stopped; I got out and made sure I could get to my pistol easy as I walked up to the house.
Carl leaned over and said anxiously “Miz Rosalee, what you doin, you can’t get out here, this is a bad place!” It was the middle of the day, I’d be ok, and I had to go talk with Earl.
“You just sit there in the car and wait for me, I be right back.”
He was still talking at me. I walked through the overgrown yard, a trail through the weeds showed where people had been going in and out. The house used to be a nice place with a fence around the front yard. Hedges lined the inside of the fence, a concrete birdbath stood tipped crazily in one corner, too heavy for someone to steal so they tried to push it over . The chain link fence was mostly crushed down and all rusty, the sharp points a case of lockjaw waiting to happen to anyone getting stuck. The house sat up three steps to a big, wide concrete porch. Round columns held the porch roof up, they were white a long time ago, kinda green now with mold. Some of the windows were unbroken, old fancy green shutters hung loose and some of them were missing. It looked like a haunted house, with a forlorn, eerie, desolate feel. It was abandoned by the people it used to protect; it had faltered and was falling into slow ruin. The door still closed tight in the frame, a nice six panel door with two square pieces of glass up near the top. Incongruously strong looking and painted bright green to match the shutters, it was dusty and faded and needed cleaning but it was better than my door still. I bet the hinges were still good on it. I knocked on the door and hollered, “Hello? Is there anybody here?” I heard movement inside.
A man pulled the door open. He was way taller than me, I’m used to people taller than me but he topped six feet easily. He held the door open “What you want?” He wasn’t very polite about it. He was wearing a nice button up shirt and dress pants and no shoes but he looked way better than a homeless man in an abandoned house, his hair was neat and he was shaved and he had cologne on.
“I’m Rosalee, I stay over there in town. I’m lookin for Earl, I b’lieve, the man who been
messin with them little girls over at the school.”
“I’m Earl. Who are you, and what you talkin about? This is the first I heard of it any such a thing.”
“My name is Rosalee. You stop what you been doin and leave them girls alone. We got a good neighborhood and we aint gone have our young uns stole and molested. ” I was polite but I was watching him close; I intended to lay him out if he got frisky. He was big and strong looking though. It would be hard to get a head shot in because he was so tall, I might have to go for his belly or crotch to get him down where I could work on him. A belly shot should work ok.
He smiled real happy and showed his sparkly clean big white teeth, he said “I’m glad you come over, you saved me some trouble, I want to talk with you anyway. Come on in?”
“No, they aint no way I’m goin in there.” I didn’t know who he might have in there and I got room to move out here.
He slid his hand down the edge of the door where he was holding it, then he held his hand out and he had a splinter stuck in his palm. Blood welled up as I watched. “I got a little cut, see?”
“Yeah, I see that. We got an unnerstandin bout them school girls?” I didn’t care if he got a splinter in his eye, I would put one there if it needed it. He was an evil man.
He pulled the splinter out, putting all his attention on what he was doing like I didn’t exist. He looked up at me slyly and grinned, and then he dropped the splinter between us. I watched his whole body, alert for any sudden movement.
When the splinter hit the floor my ears popped with a pressure change, I was enclosed in an invisible wall. I was standing on some drawings on the floor of the porch, a pentagram, a circle enclosed it, squiggles and odd shapes marked the intersections. Earl was talking but I had trouble hearing or something, I couldn’t quite make out what he said. I was relaxed and comfortable, warm, like when I first wake up and I’m enjoying that last few minutes in the bed under the covers. I wasn’t upset a bit and I wondered a little about that but it was far off and not really concerning.
He slapped his hands together and I jerked a little. Maybe I had dozed off. He stepped back and said “Come in” and did an elaborate sweeping bow and inviting gesture he must have stolen from ‘Dancing with the Stars’, and I walked right on in. Something wasn’t right but I couldn’t remember what it was. I ought to be panicky and screaming and hitting. I concentrated on it but I was so sleepy and slow feeling I lost track.
Several people were inside. Some of them were sleeping on an old couch huddled together. A kitchen table sat in the middle of the room and a man sat there with a girl on his lap. He ran his hands freely over the girl, glanced at me and said “That one a little over the top aint she?”
Earl said “This is the one gone save the day. She’ll shape up after a while, I gone fix her right up.”
The other man replied “That aint healthy to be that fat. She might be good lookin if she lost some weight.” He wasn’t much interested in anything, even the girl in his lap. He had her mostly naked. He said “It’s a damn shame they aint no way to make them a little livelier.”
Earl picked up a shoebox off the floor by the table and dug around in it, he come out with a little leather bag like the one Stephanie had worn. He looked at me and said “Come here.” like I was a dog. He was a little impatient.
Nobody talked to me like that, I got pride. I drawed up to show what happened to people who spoke to me like that. It was a shock to find myself standing there in front of him. I was thinking of hitting him in the crotch with my fist, I could see it happening, he put the loop of the thong around my neck and tucked the bag down my front between my tits. I thought of the damage I was doing him but I wasn’t moving and I was kind of sick, I couldn’t remember what was wrong.
Earl said “Go home. I’ll come for you when I’m ready. Don’t touch this” and tugged on the bag.
I went blank. There were little flashes of awareness; I got in the car; I saw us riding in the car, we got home and I got the door open. I was inside the house. Carl talked at me, asked me what was going on, what happened, I don’t remember saying anything back to him. Then Carl was in the house with me. I said “What you doin in here? You can’t be in here, get yo self out.” He shook his head and went out reluctantly. I thought “No, come back, help, something is wrong!” but he was well trained and went out while I was trying to open my mouth. I lost track of what I was trying to say, I couldn’t remember what was so important. I couldn’t even get upset about it.
I went to fix something to eat but I couldn’t work up any enthusiasm. I wasn’t hungry, that bothered me a little but I lost track before I could put any thought to it. I was standing in the kitchen with the refrigerator door open, I closed it and went back in the living room and sat down, it was quiet, the air conditioner was making a peaceful sound and I relaxed. Somewhere way back in me, I was shaking, running, screaming, and scared and that was not normal, I didn’t tend to get scared, I got mad.
I woke up in the chair feeling weak and sick. I felt too bad to do anything. It was dark outside; I must have slept the day away. I couldn’t tell if it was late in the evening or early in the morning. I thought about getting in the bed but it was a lot of trouble.
I woke up in the chair. Bright daylight streamed in the window. I had to go to the bathroom, I was about to bust. I was about to doze back off but my full bladder kept me awake, I had to go bad, I was about to wet myself. The damn front door was standing open a little, I wonder if somebody came in here while I was asleep but I couldn’t get excited about it, I didn’t care. My vision wasn’t tracking well, things went dim and blurry, then came sharper, that worried me and then it didn’t. I made it to the door and pushed it closed and turned the deadbolt.
I stood in the bathroom and it wasn’t all that urgent. I shocked awake, I was on the toilet and my ass was numb from setting there. I got up.
I woke up in the chair in the living room feeling weak and sick and it was dark outside. My belly hurt, I was sick. I flashed on Earl standing in front of me smiling. My stomach heaved. I tried for the bathroom. I was on the floor. I puked, too weak to lift my head.
I kneeled in the bathroom floor falling sideways. It gave me a jolt that almost cut through the dimness. I crawled and squirmed out to the kitchen. The big economy jug of mayonnaise sat on the table, it would get all runny or maybe go bad, I didn’t waste food, I needed to put it back in the refrigerator. I struggled to get to my feet.
Something was terribly wrong. I was sick, exhausted, hopeless. The smell of vomit and rot, the bitter taint of rust and aluminum and body wastes combined and made my stomach heave, there was nothing in me to come up and it hurt. I needed a bath. Bathing…a bath would help, the thought of cool water washing the filth off me pulled, I yearned. If I lay in the tub I’d drown. I had to make it there first. I crawled, wriggled like a snake, rolled and pushed myself along, it helped to have a goal. I came to a little and I was lying in the floor, my arm hurt where it was trapped under me and was kinda dead feeling. I thought about the bath, a shower, and tried to get up, I was weak and couldn’t make it to my feet.
I came to by the tub lying on my face. I reached up and caught the edge of the tub, slow slow, it was so far and hard to move. I pulled and fought my way into the tub, gasping and panting, exhausted, shaking cold and sick. I reached out and turned on the hot water wide open, it was a cold and shocking and I still had my clothes on. I turned off the hot water before it warmed up so it wouldn’t get comfortable, and managed to turn on the cold. I pulled the little thing that makes the shower run and the water started hitting me, the shock helped a little and I managed to strip off my wet clothes. I remembered the girl sitting on that man’s lap. I bet I had the same look, glassy eyed, dull. I looked down at me and I was saggin like an empty balloon, my skin hung loose, it didn’t fit any more. I saw the bag hanging on my chest and remembered Earl putting it on me. It made me sick to look at it, I reached up and grabbed it and it burned my hand, I dropped it an
d my hand was going numb but it wasn’t important.
The cold water was miserable. It was kinda keepin me there. I turned my face up to the shower and drank. It was so good, my throat was parched and dry, my tongue felt like a stick in my mouth. I wasn’t drifting as bad. I needed to get the bag off of me.
I come to sitting in the tub laid back against the end with water hitting me in the face. My arms hung off my shoulders like they belonged to somebody else. The bag around my neck was soaked. Maybe the water would weaken it. I reached for it, I had to twist and lean to get my arm to move, it was asleep and my hand was a club of flesh that I only knew was attached because I could see it.
It took forever to reach my hand to the bag and I couldn’t take hold of it, all I could do was push it around, my fingers didn’t work. I noticed the water in the tub was rising when it covered my belly.
I hadn’t put the drain plug in. Why was the tub filling up? It was everything I could do to lift my head. A bar of soap partly covered the drain. How long had I been in here running the water bill up? No way to tell. I was chilled to the bone and so tired. I had to get up or die, I heaved and twisted and got my legs to move stiffly. I sat up and the water ran off my chest and flat tits, tinged dark black and red and green in streamers, that was a little interesting, oh, it was coming off the bag, the water had covered it.
I heard a dim knocking and banging way off in the distance, vaguely disturbing. It wasn’t important. I ignored it, it was a minor irritation.
I got to my knees and hunkered to rest and the bag swung away from my chest. My head was hanging over with exhaustion and I could see the top of it was open a little and it was partly filled with water, bulging and heavy as a brick around my neck. It was soft leather covered with little fine hairs with tiny droplets on them. The water oozed out carrying the taint. As I watched a big drop formed and fell in the tub. I remembered my hand hurting when I touched it, the little hairs must be sharp.
