Chuck liked the idea of Jeff being with her, but he’d have rather done the deed himself, however, he had his job to do, and keeping his mind on that and the plan had become a full time endeavor. At least that is what Chuck was thinking when the cell buzzed.
“We’ve got trouble, can you…”
“We, what we?”
“Chuck ain’ the time for it, Smadge’s hurt…”
“What’cha mean hurt?”
“Just get here…”
“Where?” She told him as he was crankin’ the car.
He pulled into what was a gravel and dirt drive where Gene was standing
and Smadge was sitting on the edge of the culvert. Smadge stood up as Chuck got out,
“Chuck – I know…” “You know what?” “I know you’re pissed…”
This wasn’t a Smadge Chuck was used to, in fact, almost never did Smadge step it down.
Gene was moving to the back door saying, “Chuck can we talk about it driving?”
“What’s the,” then it dawned on him, Smadge was hurt? She’d said that.
Then he saw why Gene was being urgent- the two guys on the porch- they were moving slowly, blood was all over their faces, Chuck looked at Smadge, and saw his jaw, there was a gash on it, but it wasn’t bleeding, but it had been, it was swelling maybe two inches, it was a cut. It might need stitches?
Getting the car rolling he couldn’t stand not knowin’ “who wants to tell me what went down?”
Chuck was a little leery, those guys looked pretty bad off, he knew Jeff could be lethal; but his real concern was what had he just walked into otherwise?
“ Chuck just think for a minute,”
“I’m trying Gene, I really am.”
“It’s really simple Chuck, you know Smadge, if somebody starts to get cross wise with me, what’cha think he’s gonna do?”
“Yeah well, suppose we start where this ends and work backwards?”
Smadge wasn’t speaking and Gene picked up his slack and it was Chuck who got why, “man your jaws a mess big guy, let’s head to the doc, get some stitches?”
Smadge didn’t say a word, and Gene let the silence give her a chance to think it through it had been pretty confusing from the first moments at the house until now.
Turned out Alan, the shorter guy, wasn’t much for conversation; in fact, he wasn’t much for people being around him at all, and what’s worse, he wasn’t friendly. They pulled into what Gene had been told was where he lived, and right away it was tense.
“Hey, didn't you see the sign,” he hollered at Smadge and Gene as they got out of the car.
“It says, “private property,” it means what it says, so just get back in your car and go on out of here.”
“Whoa there sir, aren’t you the gentlemen I saw drop this at the E-Z mart yesterday,” Gene held up a twenty dollar bill, "wasn't it you- dropped this?"
Alan came toward her, “what E-Z mart?”
“The one in Springhill, just off main.”
“Your sayin’ they knew me, knew where I lived, and I dropped that twenty so you just felt like you needed to bring it out here?”
“That’s it; well," she paused for effect, "part of it- they said your name is Alan?”
“Well,” he reached for the twenty, “that’s nice, didn’t know they knew me?”
Gene let him have the twenty, “look;" Gene dipped her head slightly to allow for being good on the name? "Alan, I don’t wanna seem weird, but, I overheard you talking with a tall guy,”
“That’s Smithy,”
“Smithy?”
“Yeah he’s not here right now, but sometimes he stays here.”
“Heard you and him talkin’ about something about Bossier, some work you were doin?”
Alan stood still and looked at Smadge, looked him up and down, Smadge didn’t care, he wasn’t intimidated by anybody on earth, and this Alan character didn’t mean anything to him at all. Gene on the other hand, well, that was another matter.
“He don’t talk much,” Alan said to Gene,” does he?”
“Oh, he can say plenty if he needs to, so, are you Alan?”
“Yeah, that would be me, so; what’s with this? I’m missin’ somethin’ here ain’ I?” He grinned a bit.
“Uh, well,” Gene filled in the space, “this is Jeff, Jeff this is Alan.” They shook and Gene continued, “we are actually interested in what I think I overheard the other day.”
“Geez,” Alan was grinning, Gene wondered why? “Now I, suppose that I; just have to know what you think that was.”
“Hey what she heard is what she heard.” Alan snapped his head from Gene to Jeff.
“Yeah, that’s right, I ain’ impressed with ya,”
“So what man?”
“So the what is, you better watch how you say what you say,”
Gene saw it goin’ down fast, she cut in, “what Jeff means is,”
“I get what he means,” it was obvious Alan was going the small man’s defensive response route?
“No what I meant is,” Gene didn’t grin, but she was being deliberately light, “I thought you and another man, the one you say is Smithy, thought I heard you talking about working in Bossier, that’s all.”
“Bossier, why would we be working in Bossier? I’m a welder, Smithy is a project super?”
“So you’re sayin’ I missed it and didn’t hear that?”
“Didn’t say that lady,”
“Hey,” Jeff stepped toward Alan,” you didn’t get it or somethin’?”
“Naw I got it,” Alan signaled palm down, “I got it, I just don’t wanna not get somethin’ said what needs to be said, that’s all.”
“Well fine, then, say it.”
“You guys come out here, drive up on our private land, start sayin’ all this stuff, and you wonder how come I got questions?” That was when the van pulled into the drive and Smithy jumped out the driver’s side. He didn’t look happy either, Gene felt like it wasn’t going to go well, she was glad she had her cell with her, and she reached into her bag to get it. When she did that, Smithy pulled a big black gun out of his back, and Jeff reacted. Before Smithy even had it up, Jeff had him on the ground, as he went down, Alan tried to jump into it by running around the back of the car and jumping his back, as he did that, Jeff threw him into the hood of the van, with one foot kicked Smithy in the throat, who started chokin’ and blood ran out his nose, and with the other he straddled Alan’s face with a kick from out of nowhere, Alan broke nose blood too.
Jeff was so much faster than anyone ever anticipated, he was big, but not overly so, strong, but deceptive and intimidating in his strength, he threw Smithy several feet and grabbed Alan by the scruff and literally tossed him like a rag doll a good five feet toward the house. He was between Gene and the two he positioned, so quickly that they didn’t even realize he was punching them, when he was.
Gene wasn’t pleased because her information was gone, they’d never cooperate now, and she’d never know, on the other hand, she had no doubt Smithy might’ve shot them. She couldn’t help but wonder “who are these guys, really, that they’re pulling this?” Her question was a good one.
Smadge threw them onto the porch, kicked each of them into total submission holding their stomachs, and then, like electricity in motion, moved the van into the yard, as he did that, Smithy recovered, took a spike and threw it into the tire on their car, and then he lunged at Jeff. Alan took out the other tire with Smithy’s gun, and the silence after the shot heard Jeff grunting from the spike smacking across his jaw and drawing away skin and blood. Jeff threw a rock of all things and caught Alan square in the forehead, Alan dropped the piece, which is when Jeff knocked Smithy out with a high kick.
As they stopped the fighting, Gene realized they had two choices, she liked calling Chuck better than stealing their van, she felt so weird by all that had taken place, that she barely knew what to say, and so she started relaying what she could of this odd fight to Chuck, “well after all,” she thought, “he asked.”
Chuck realized that he was in no mans land with two people at once, Jeff was hurt, bleeding, and his Gene was bleeding as well, but that was internal emotional bleeding - from fright, what, could he; what, should he, do? “Jeff you need to see a Dr. with that.”
Jeff harrumphed, and Chuck didn’t push it, he knew Gene saw the sense in it. “Gene they probably thought you were going to shoot them.”
“Yes I look threatening, don’t I? That big galloot just don’t know nothin’ he is an idiot, doing something like pulling a gun on us, we were only there to,” her voice cracked, and the enormity of it hit Chuck as well, they came to the left hand turn to short cut past the lake and get to the hospital off 157. Chuck pulled the car over – it would be safe to say that the only one who wasn’t shook up and a bit weepy eyed was the one bleeding a bit.
Gene jumped out the back and killed some grass with some spew- it wasn’t chunky, thank goodness, but Chuck was shaky as well, and then he also realized, they were only blocks from the scene and needed to move, those guys might decide to come after them? “Let’s get goin’ Gene, I don’ want no more trouble than we already have.”
He got them to the hospital, the emergency room was around back, it was not so easy to explain an injury from a fishin’ accident, but that’s the one they used. All the while being slightly on their guard, but the two nut jobs didn’t come after them. Jeff wasn’t concerned about that, he was in pain, but Gene was and it showed as she constantly looked out the air doors to see if they’d been followed. Chuck didn’t try to talk with Jeff much, what was the point? “I do appreciate that you were there, and my God, what might he have done?” Jeff couldn’t really answer so he grunted. It was odd but somehow Jeff’s grunt carried the message that this was a damn mess, and they all realized that Chuck had started a ball of mess rollin’ and now it wasn’t going to stop. What they were uptight about wasn’t the mess, but what might come next?
