Read Online BAD TRIP SOUTH by Billie Sue Mosiman - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Billie Sue Mosiman
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we’re going to go around, bud.”
“ What’d you say? Pull over, Heddy!”
“ He’s jerking you around. Shut up, Jay. You’ve done enough today. Jay, you grab this wheel again and I’ll fucking kill you myself.” Heddy drove through the ditch and onto the highway again, the back bumper dragging the ground as it cleared the ditch. A car or two had passed, but no one had noticed the commotion in the field.
“ You want to go around with me,” Crow said, in a different voice, a low growl of a voice, “and I’ll take your balls for a necklace. Don’t mistake me for one of your small town candy-ass pussies you put your chokeholds on and beat senseless with a nightstick. You underestimate me and you’ll find yourself in a grave, friend.”
“ Listen to him,” Heddy said. “He’s not lying to you.”
“ I’d like to take my chances,” Jay said.
“ No. You wouldn’t.” Again Crow bopped him in the back of the head with a closed fist. “And if you don’t shut up, I’m going to make Heddy pull down some back woods road so I can put a bullet between your macho-man eyes.”
“ Daddy, don’t,” I said, getting really scared.
“ Jay, please,” Mama said, sighing so hard it filled the whole car.
Jay nodded as if to say Okay. Okay, for now. Okay, but I’m going to take the little creep down when I get the chance, just you wait and see.
#
HEDDY knew if they headed south for the border from St. Louis, they would have been caught on the road right away. It’s where they would be expected to go from the Long Horn Caverns.
Driving into the state of Kansas was to throw off the tails and to find a circuitous route down south. It was also a way to get to say goodbye to her mother. She didn’t love her. Well, she guess she did, in a way, but the woman was her entire family, the only one she had, and if she was going to leave the country, she had to say something to the only family she knew.
It took longer, going west then south, but it was the only way to stay away from the cops. By now they must have plastered Crow’s image all over the papers and the television news.
“ Crow, tonight you have to change your looks.”
She was driving south across the state now and bored with the flat land, the vistas of green summer fields. She had no idea what was growing there. The closest she’d ever been to a farm was the St. Louis zoo.
“ Why’s that, baby?” Crow asked. He had snorted another hit of crank. He sounded like a kid on a drunk. It made her want to reach into her purse and take a sip of Jim Beam. But she never did that in front of people. She’d do it when she could stop for gas and go alone into the bathroom. And she’d take more than a sip, by God. All her nerve ends screamed for the bitter fire of whiskey.
“ People know what you look like by now. Some store clerk or gas station jockey’s gonna make you.”
“ I don’t wanna cut my hair,” he said.
She glanced in the rearview mirror at him. Eyes dancing, those heavily lashed black eyes. His skin so white it was almost blinding. Black beard stubble on his cheeks. And his hair, wavy and long and black as night. She liked it a lot, long hair was her thing, but on Crow it had to go.
“ Doesn’t matter what you want. We have to shave your head.”
“ What?” He came up in the back seat, eyes menacing now. “I said I ain’t cutting my hair.”
“ Yes, you are.” She would brook no argument on this. With his head shaved, he would look completely different. And she had to get those earrings out of his ears.
“ Heddy, I know you’re trying to help, but I’m telling you right now, the hair’s staying.”
She grinned at the road ahead. He’d do what she said. He knew he wasn’t going to make it without her. He would still be in Leavenworth if it weren’t for her. She was the brain and much as he might protest, he listened in the end.
She saw a Gulf station and slowed. “I’ve got to get gas and take a piss. You watch
“ What’d you say? Pull over, Heddy!”
“ He’s jerking you around. Shut up, Jay. You’ve done enough today. Jay, you grab this wheel again and I’ll fucking kill you myself.” Heddy drove through the ditch and onto the highway again, the back bumper dragging the ground as it cleared the ditch. A car or two had passed, but no one had noticed the commotion in the field.
“ You want to go around with me,” Crow said, in a different voice, a low growl of a voice, “and I’ll take your balls for a necklace. Don’t mistake me for one of your small town candy-ass pussies you put your chokeholds on and beat senseless with a nightstick. You underestimate me and you’ll find yourself in a grave, friend.”
“ Listen to him,” Heddy said. “He’s not lying to you.”
“ I’d like to take my chances,” Jay said.
“ No. You wouldn’t.” Again Crow bopped him in the back of the head with a closed fist. “And if you don’t shut up, I’m going to make Heddy pull down some back woods road so I can put a bullet between your macho-man eyes.”
“ Daddy, don’t,” I said, getting really scared.
“ Jay, please,” Mama said, sighing so hard it filled the whole car.
Jay nodded as if to say Okay. Okay, for now. Okay, but I’m going to take the little creep down when I get the chance, just you wait and see.
#
HEDDY knew if they headed south for the border from St. Louis, they would have been caught on the road right away. It’s where they would be expected to go from the Long Horn Caverns.
Driving into the state of Kansas was to throw off the tails and to find a circuitous route down south. It was also a way to get to say goodbye to her mother. She didn’t love her. Well, she guess she did, in a way, but the woman was her entire family, the only one she had, and if she was going to leave the country, she had to say something to the only family she knew.
It took longer, going west then south, but it was the only way to stay away from the cops. By now they must have plastered Crow’s image all over the papers and the television news.
“ Crow, tonight you have to change your looks.”
She was driving south across the state now and bored with the flat land, the vistas of green summer fields. She had no idea what was growing there. The closest she’d ever been to a farm was the St. Louis zoo.
“ Why’s that, baby?” Crow asked. He had snorted another hit of crank. He sounded like a kid on a drunk. It made her want to reach into her purse and take a sip of Jim Beam. But she never did that in front of people. She’d do it when she could stop for gas and go alone into the bathroom. And she’d take more than a sip, by God. All her nerve ends screamed for the bitter fire of whiskey.
“ People know what you look like by now. Some store clerk or gas station jockey’s gonna make you.”
“ I don’t wanna cut my hair,” he said.
She glanced in the rearview mirror at him. Eyes dancing, those heavily lashed black eyes. His skin so white it was almost blinding. Black beard stubble on his cheeks. And his hair, wavy and long and black as night. She liked it a lot, long hair was her thing, but on Crow it had to go.
“ Doesn’t matter what you want. We have to shave your head.”
“ What?” He came up in the back seat, eyes menacing now. “I said I ain’t cutting my hair.”
“ Yes, you are.” She would brook no argument on this. With his head shaved, he would look completely different. And she had to get those earrings out of his ears.
“ Heddy, I know you’re trying to help, but I’m telling you right now, the hair’s staying.”
She grinned at the road ahead. He’d do what she said. He knew he wasn’t going to make it without her. He would still be in Leavenworth if it weren’t for her. She was the brain and much as he might protest, he listened in the end.
She saw a Gulf station and slowed. “I’ve got to get gas and take a piss. You watch
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