The Shack series

Chapter 4

"I have real problems."

"Surprise. Surprise. We all have real problems. I have a salvage yard to run, but I can't because my crazy-b***h ex-Damm-wife is making me jump through Damm hoops, finding her psycho daughter, for something I have every Damm right to. Everybody has real problems. You want to solve your problems, find something you're good at and work at it."

"What does she have that you want?"

"My grandfather's g*n. He carried it in World War Two, my Dad carried it in 'Nam, and I carried the damn thing in Somalia. The b***h said she'll give it back to me if I bring you to her."

She sat silent for a long moment. "You really have a salvage yard? Like old cars and stuff?"

"Yes, like old cars and stuff. A junk yard."

She stared out the window. "That's kind of neat. Probably all kinds of cool stuff to do."

"It's a lot of hard work."

"It'd still be neat. You could make stuff. I bet you made this car there."

"More or less. I started with just a frame."

"What is it?"

"A '79 Ford Cobra."

"I made a sword in metal shop at school. It was cool, but I got suspended."

"I guess you probably should have checked with the teacher to see if you were allowed to make a sword."

"They were more upset that I broke in to use the equipment in the metal shop."

"Why didn't you just take metal shop?"

"They wouldn't let me; the classes were at the same time as remedial English and remedial math. They weren't going to let a retard take metal class anyway."

"I don't think you're supposed to use the word 'retard' anymore."

"I can use it all I want, I am one." She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth.

I couldn't help myself, I snickered. Then she giggled. Pretty soon we were both laughing until tears were coming out of our eyes.

I finally stopped laughing. "It's been a long Damm day, I needed a laugh."

She giggled a tiny bit more. "Mine hasn't exactly been sunshine and roses, Peaches."

I chuckled. At least she was game. "Jesus. You reek. You still want to clean up, we're close enough that maybe Sheree could let you use the shower in the office at the Quickmart."

"I don't have any clothes. Asshole."

"There's a dollar store a block from the Quickmart. It's open pretty late, I'll run in and get you some clothes. What size are you?"

"Size 12, in Girls. But nothing with Damm flowers on it."

I wasn't worried about her running for it, if she hadn't gotten out of the harness when I was dealing with the shitheads, she wasn't getting out now.

When I came back to the car I tossed the bag in her lap.

"Seriously? The jeans are okay, but a unicorn shirt and Disney panties?"

"It's what they had; it's a dollar store, not Macy's."

"Jesus. I'm going to die of embarrassment."

"That's what they had, unless you would rather keep smelling like a urinal. The paper towels and cleaner are for your seat, you pissed it, you get to clean it."

She grumbled but nodded.

I pulled up in front of the Quickmart, then went around to get her out of the harness.

"Behave. Sheree's my friend and she doesn't need any of your shit."

"If she puts up with you, I don't see how the hell I could make her life worse."

"Shut up." I pushed her ahead of me.

Sheree smiled as we walked in. "Whatchadoin?"

"My niece here needs to use the shower in your office."

Sheree narrowed her eyes at me, but pulled the office key on a huge block of wood out from under the counter. She started to hand it to me hesitantly, but I waved her off. "I'd rather you showed her where it was."

Sheree looked a little relieved. "I will."

I looked at the girl. "Remember what I said. Don't start any trouble."

She grimaced and gave a sarcastic salute. "Yes, sir."

Sheree walked her to the back, then, a few moments later, came back out. "She's not really your niece, is she?"

"She's my ex-wife's daughter. She ran away and I had to go pick her up. She can't slip out back there, can she?"

"Not unless she can squeeze through the half inch steel mesh bolted over the windows. Family's always a pain in the a*s. I've had to post bail for my cousin Shelly about five times. She never pays me back." She paused, puzzled. "I didn't think you were on speaking terms with your ex."

"Yeah, I'm not, and it's just been one of those fu... damn days."

Sheree reached over and touched my hand. "We did have a rough start this morning, didn't we?"

I could see something besides sympathy in her eyes and felt, for a second, that maybe the day wasn't total s**t. Then the door dinged behind me.

"Hey, Sheree, I need a can of Skoal."

Sheree rolled her eyes. I looked back over my shoulder at Ronnie Pelton. He looked at me and grinned "Hey, Junkman, you look like s**t. Run into a door?"

I watched him push up to the counter and his cologne washed over me as he leered down Sheree's top while she fished out a can of Skoal. "Great knockers. Better'n the Grand Canyon."

I looked down at his work boots, spattered in white paint.

It'd just been one of those Damm days. Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed. For anybody.

I grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face onto the counter as hard as I could, then kicked the side of his knee so that it folded inward.

He began to scream, but as he fell I slammed his face into the counter edge again, knocking him out cold.

I let him crumple to the floor as Sheree stood up straight and leaned over to watch him drop with one eyebrow raised. "Wow. If you're defending my honor now, you best plan on hanging out here a lot. These jugs of mine attract a lot of attention." She looked at him carefully, studying the pool of blood spreading out from his flattened nose. "At least till word gets out anyways. You don't do things halfway, do you?"

"It's not that..." I caught a disappointed look flash across her face. "Not all that anyway. Shithead here is one the idiots that robbed us this morning."

"You sure?"

I pulled the back of his jacket up and pulled the Glock 19 out of his waistband, cleared it and dropped it on the counter. "Same boots, same shitty dollar store cologne, same damn gun."

Sheree nodded, picked up the phone and began dialing. Too many numbers for 9-1-1. "Hey Ed? Yeah, your cousin Ronnie? He's the sonovabitch that robbed us this morning. Same g*n, same boots, same cologne. He'll be here, Les just kicked the s**t out of him. It'll be a while 'fore he wakes up. Yeah, I'll tell him. Family is a pain in the ass."

She hung the phone up. "Big Ed'll be over here in 'bout fifteen minutes to take Ronnie for a little talk. Says you can have a free soda if you want."

Delaney walked out of the office and leaned over to see what Sheree was looking at. She stared at the guy on the floor then looked up at me. "Jesus Christ! Do you think you could actually go a whole Damm hour without beating somebody up, and maybe, just maybe, not burning or shooting something?" She turned to Sheree. "You should know he has really, really, serious anger issues."

Sheree smiled at her with syrupy sweetness. "No man is perfect, Honey. They need women to keep them on the right path." She turned towards me. "Speaking of which... this morning, I got the impression you were about to ask me out on a date."

"I was going to ask you what you were doing on Friday."

"Well, lookitthat, my schedule is open." She looked over at Delaney. "Men can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes. I was fixin' to hit him over the head and drag him back to my cave if he didn't take the hint or couldn't get the words out."

Delaney giggled, sounding, for a change, like a kid. "I'll try to remember that."

I looked at both of them. "Is that part of what they teach girls when they take them out of class in sixth grade?"

They both started giggling at that.

A few minutes later, Big Ed finally arrived with a couple of his kids, both of them every bit as big as he was; he shook his head at us as his kids dragged a still-unconscious Ronnie to their truck. "Family is a pain in the ass."

Sheree, watching Delaney eat her third hot dog and sipping her Coke, smiled. "Sometimes."

****

There was an almost comfortable silence as we went along the final leg of our route, but eventually Delaney reached over and tapped my arm.

"I know mom took everything from you while you were in the hospital. I know it's bullshit, but she makes it sound like some kind of escape from Alcatraz. How did she get you to let them take Tara and Tiffany?"