Chapter 6

I'm gonna jump ahead about seven years now, and you wouldn't believe how much everything has changed! First off, Sheriff Ames insisted the business and all the federal licenses be put in my name when I turned twenty-one. He said there was too many drys still around and ownin' a distillery caused him grief every time he hadda run fer office again every two years.

I asked him, "Why doesn't one of the other investors want to put it in their name? They got more money invested and a lot more experience runnin' a business than I do."

He kinda chuckled at that and said, "Well, that's just the problem, Willem. Them guys all know how to cheat the books. I trust you 'cause you built it up from scratch and besides, you done right by Cassie and her young'uns n' that makes you a good, honest man, t' my way of thinkin'."

I felt a little guilty 'cause I wasn't as honest as he thought I was. "Um, Sheriff, Ames, when I come out here, I was on the run from the law. It wasn't no big thing, just petty thievin', but I ain't no angel. So are you sure you want my hand on the controls?"

Well he just busted out laughin'. "Hell, Willem, don't ya think I know all about that? When a stranger shows up n' decides to stick around, it's my job t' find out who they are and what they're up to. It didn't take me more'n a week t' trace you back to Charleston. If you hadn't been such a good man to Cassie n' her kids, why I would've had you in the lockup the day after I learned about you. No, yer a good person at heart, n' I feel like I can trust you to be honest with me n' the other investors."

Well, we wasn't the biggest business in the county but we was doin' all right. The distillery where we made the whiskey was built on the pasture and the storehouse and bottling operation was right next to it. Me and the kids still lived in the house but two bedrooms had been added to it so Sue Ellen and Charlie had their own rooms. On top of that, I had a guy come out and rewire the whole place so the wires was all behind the walls. We had a telephone, an icebox and a kerosene stove. I reckon Cassie would've felt like she was in hog heaven.

And speakin' of the kids, Sue Ellen was fifteen comin' up on sixteen and turnin' into a fine-lookin' young lady. The more she filled out, the more she started lookin' like the image of her mama. Sometimes when she walked by me, I'd have to look twice to make sure I wasn't seein' Cassie standin' there. I'd have to turn and look the other way 'cause my eyes would get all watery.

And smart? By the time she turned fifteen, she was already in the eleventh grade! Mr. Williams, the high school principal kept askin' me if I was gonna send her off to college when she graduated. I told him I sure wanted to but that it was gonna be up to her.

If she did go away to college, I was gonna have to hire someone to come in and help me with the books. Sue Ellen had been watchin' over the money comin' in and goin' out since she was twelve, and knew all about how the business was run from buyin' sugar wholesale to sellin' the whiskey to distributors in three states. She showed me and the sheriff how she kept track of the books and we knew we couldn't do it any better so we just let her keep on doin' it. I don't know what the other investors woulda thought of that but we never said nothin' to 'em and they never asked. As long as they was gettin' their share, I guess they didn't have no problems with how we run the business.

And little Charlie wasn't so little any more. He was thirteen and it was plain to all of us he was gonna be a big, strappin' man. He was already almost as tall as I was and he wasn't skinny, either. Between playin' football at school, workin' hard in the garden after school and helpin' us move barrels of whiskey around on the weekends to earn some spendin' money, the boy had some meat on him.

He did have one little problem but we worked it out. I got word from Mr. Duncan that some of the other kids in school was afraid of him 'cause he started in bein' kind of a bully, pushin' the littler kids around and stuff like that. Well, when I heard that, you can bet we had a heart to heart real quick. I didn't have to whup him or nothin', but he knew I'd tan his backside just like his mama would've if I ever heard even one more story comin' back from the school. I tole him that since he was bigger and stronger than the other kids, it was his moral duty to look after 'em and to set an example for 'em. He took it to heart and settled down right quick.

Well, it was about that time when some things started to happen that gave me cause to worry. Sue Ellen started to behave different around me. It wasn't nothin' big but she started doin' stuff that didn't seem quite right, me bein' her stepdaddy and all. I know it ain't all that unusual fer little girls to love their daddies a lot, but sometimes I thought she took it just a little too far. I might be sittin' at my desk in the office or maybe restin' on the couch at home listenin' to radio shows and she'd come in and plop down in my lap and put her arms around my neck real tight. She'd hug me and kiss my cheek and say things like, "I love you, Willem. You must be the best daddy in the whole world."

Now, that might not sound so strange to you but it was the way she said it that got me to worryin'. She'd snuggle real tight, pushin' her tits agains' my chest and whisperin' in my ear like she was tellin' me a secret. I'm ashamed to admit it but sometimes when she did that, she'd make me get a hard on. You know I love that girl more'n anything else in the world, but it didn't seem like the right way fer her to behave toward the man who was supposed to be bringin' her up to be a proper lady. The problem was I was half way afraid to say anything fer fear of embarrassin' her or makin' her think I didn't love her. I was plumb stuck fer a solution.

Well, one day I was sittin' at my desk lookin' over a shipment of a hundred cases of pint bottles of whiskey to a distributor down in Tennessee. I called Sue Ellen in from her desk to make sure my numbers agreed with her numbers before we loaded up the truck. She came around beside me and leaned over the manifest to check it out and I scooted my chair back from the desk to giver her room. I guess she musta' took that as an invitation 'cause she just sat right down in my lap and put her arms around my neck and said, "Looks OK to me, Willem."

Then she kissed me! I don't mean a little peck on the cheek like she usually done but a real kiss, hard on the lips! And she just held it like she wasn't gonna let it go any time soon.

About that time, Sheriff Ames walks in the door and just stands there gapin' at us with this look on his face. Sue Ellen smiled at him and said, "Hi, Sheriff. How you doin' today?" like it was nothin' at all. Then she bounced up and headed back to her desk.