Maybe this will be a series of fiction. Maybe it won’t. But, this story begins with the fictional post, Expecting the Unexpected. Click here to begin at the beginning. And, thank you. Of all the hundreds of thousands of existing options for entertaining blog reading, I am honored you stopped here and chose me.
It’s too early to be clattering along in the back of this stupid truck. The big clock on the mantle struck 3am right when I closed the back door with a thud. No sense trying to be quiet. My sisters and my momma are awake, scurrying around making her room all pretty for when we bring her home.
Or, rescue her, Dad keeps shouting from the window of the cab. We’ve got to rescue her! I don’t understand why somebody has to be rescued from marriage, but I’m only twelve. I just thank everything I was deemed too young to be in the wedding. Wearing all that finery would’ve made me sweat and squirm and count the seconds until it was over. She likes finery. Maybe that’s why she married him, to have lots of finery. I don’t know why anybody wants to get hitched in the first place, but the whole finery thing seems like a dumb reason to me.
Dad is swerving all over the road, making me fight to stay in position in the bed of the truck. He’s drunker than usual, but I can’t say as I blame him. This whole marital mess with my sister would cause a tee-totaler to thrash through three counties to find a still. I feel warm inside from the several big swigs I took from the jug under the kitchen sink before we peeled off. Dad offered. It’s not like he would let me say no.
It’s hard to study the sky when Dad’s doing his inebriated swerve all over the road, but it’s real pretty. Like the bottom of a pit mashed up with twinkle lights and shards of glass. I wonder if my sister can see them from wherever he’s put her to keep her from leaving him. Maintaining my position up against the back window isn’t easy when Dad keeps yelling and swerving and yelling some more. He’s too worked up. Code for drunk. He should’ve let me drive. I’d get us there without the added drama.
I’m cold. And sleepy. I’ve got school tomorrow, and I know I’m gonna be up all night long. Rescuing her. Going back to the home place. Getting everyone settled. Keeping Dad from killing him. I’m too little to be a take-charge kind of guy.
The old jalopy acts like the rig we use to plough the back field, making ditches in the dirt in front of her place. My head knocks the freezing window glass as we make a trough in the earth to their front door. Headlights illumine the entry and bank of windows. Everything is aglow.
Okay, son. Let’s move in.
I grasp the wood-and-steel in my hands and let my body fall through mist to the ground. Maybe I’ll become a man tonight.
I’m guessing that’s what I’m doing here.
36 Comments
A Shotgun Un-Wedding, a Tennessee tradition….
http://www.trutv.com/video/top-twenty-most-shocking/taser-wedding.html
MTM says you stole his line today, Lou.
Soooo, now I have become the Shadow Ninja apprentice, I am honored, of course.
Or, he has become yours. Or something. 🙂
Beautifully written. So dang descriptive you are. You make things come to life.
This is a pretty lively little story, though. These people are pretty insistent about it. 😉
Yeee haw! See what going to Tennessee does to you? Lord I hate to think what would happen if you spent a week in West Virginia! 🙂
Now what we need is some of that moonshine at the Cootchie party on Sunday.
My one question, are they rescuing the woman from the story yesterday?
Yes, this little boy is the woman from yesterday’s kid brother, and the drunk is her dad.
We do not need moonshine at the party. I do not want to be responsible for that kind of fun.
What? Lou already said he would smoke cigars and do tequila shots with me!
Ha! I would LOVE to see Lou do tequila shots.
Wow! Great piece, you leave me wanting to know more! Does she get rescued, does anyone get hurt? This is really good and I want more!
Tune in tomorrow…….. 🙂
Ok – so yesterday’s femme is today’s rescue-eee, right? Looking forward to the next installment!
That is correct. She is being rescued, if you can call this display a rescue. It sounds like she could just as easily end up shot to me, but we will see what they want to do tomorrow. They make the decisions. I just write it.
Right? Wrong? Whatever . . . coming “to the rescue” is what families are prone to do. Am anxious to see how this one plays out.
Me too, Karen. These are SOME characters. 🙂
Great! Very Fannie Flagg, very Fried Green Tomatoes without so much estrogen.
That’s a compliment, by the way. If I could be any famous writer, I would be Fannie Flagg.
I take it as a compliment, Roxanne. It is hard to write in the voice of a guy or a boy. I am glad this one is believable.
Great write. Excitement builds…
Let’s hope it doesn’t go out with a bang. Ha.
Oh my! OK, I get it. This is a totally different character from the shoe story. And now (belatedly) I get it that yesterday was, too. (Hi, my name is Jessie, I can be extremely slow on the uptake.)
I loved the description of wheeling around in the back of the truck. I worried that Dad would wreck before any rescue could be achieved. I’m not sure a twelve year old would really escape being stuffed in the wedding ceremony in some capacity. Maybe he has bad habits that mean they think he’d ruin a tux? I also thought of the lady in England who dug herself out of a cardboard box after cutting through the duct-tape she’d been imprisoned with using her engagement ring.
The character from yesterday is the girl from the shoe story’s aunt, the one discussed as having had a stroke in the shoe story.
I used to love to ride in the back of trucks. My next door neighbor growing up had a station wagon, and her dad would let us roll down the back window and sit on the door while he drove us around town. The things we used to do that seem so shocking and unsafe today but were SUCH FUN back then. 🙂
Well . . . shave my head and call me curly! That there is some mighty fine writing! 😀
Sometimes these moods smite me. Or the voices won’t leave me be. 🙂
okay, I’m a little dense…help me out here. The woman who coveted the red shoes is the niece of the wealthy woman whose husband is fooling around with a man. And this same wealthy woman is being rescued by her drunk father and young brother? And these fellas are the uncle and cousin of the online shopper????
You are right on all counts except for the relationship of the online shopper to the fellas. They are her grandfather and her father in this fictional tale. I think where I failed with this is in making sure people understood that the wealthy woman post is set in the 1950’s, going back in time from present day. She is the woman who had the stroke in the Stroke of Guilt post. I tried to set the scene by describing it, but I didn’t say it outright. Always good feedback to let me know when I’m not being clear.
HUH? I thought we were just discussing red shoes, OH MY!!
Good Lord, Lou.
aah…thanks for the clarification. your writing is fabulous! You should definitely continue this storyline….
It’s what the Voices seem to want. 🙂
Kettle’s coming to a boil (as I gleefully rub my hands together). Can’t wait to see the smash-up!
Me either. I still don’t know what these crazies are going to do tomorrow……
I love the voice of this new character and I’m intrigued with the way you are rolling out the characters. I’m enjoying! Debra
They’re intriguing me, too, Debra. They really decide what’s going to happen. I just write it. This is the first time on the blog I’ve really let the characters write the fiction. That’s how it happens off the blog. So, your guess is as good as mine as to what’s coming. I’m sitting down now to channel the next installment. (I know that sounds nuts, but that is really how the fiction writing happens for me.)
Excellent.
Thank you, Earlybird.
Comments are closed.