Redemption
Chapter 12

Copyright© 2017 by MysteryWriter

cabin tents rented for $25 a day summer.$30 a night winter rate
trailer rentals: larger $75 mid size $60 small $50
John Boyd 28yrs old
Gabby Boyd 25 yrs old.
Alice Boyd current owner of the Gatehouse
Edwardo world famous catfish chef (according to mom)
Joy and Jen wait staff for Alice Boyd’s catering
Jasper Amos hunter, guide, knife make
Sylvia Amos sheriff’s detective lieutenant
deputy Angie Davenport
Janson Marshall Angie’s husband.
Marion davenport Angie’s mom
Clyde Summers suicide victim
Edward Gaines suicide victim while serving time with John
Max Bork Gabby’s fancy man
Willow computer geek
Tom Jasper’s cousin and half ass builder
Martin cameraman
Vanessa producer
Walter Pickering Vanessa’s boss
Lamar the mechanic and junkyard owner
Everette mom’s new bf
Greta a camera person for Country channel
Manson country channel lawyer
Joyce Reedmon TV personality
Dawn Goldman ex-con
Mark Herman corporal with highway patrol.
Lucy Lovett Wedding photographer.
Tommy Lovett her ex
Sandra Lovett her 13year old dau.


Thursday and Friday were ordinary days. Not much had changed. My work around the campground had changed. It was easier and quicker otherwise nothing changed.

“John can you get by without me tomorrow night?” Dawn asked.

“Sure, what’s your plan,” I asked her with some concern in my voice.

“Your mom has a job for me tomorrow. It’s actually two jobs. She has a job at six and another one at nine. The nine o’clock one is in the Yurt. The six is just a buffet in a church basement. Some of your catfish fillets,” Dawn explained. “Your mom wants me to go from the Church to the Yurt to set up for some kind of big family reunion or something like that.”

“Okay is someone going to give you a lift to the Yurt. I can take you to work and come get you when it’s over. What I can’t do is drive you from one location to the other,” I said.

“I know, I was hoping I could borrow the micro van?” she said.

“Dawn, you know that thing is not reliable,” I said.

“I have a cell phone. You can come get me, if I have trouble,” she said.

I knew it was some kind of test. If I trusted her, I would give her the keys and wish her well. I had no reason not to trust her. I decided that now was the time to fish or cut bait.

“Okay, just so you know, if you don’t make it home or call by midnight, I’m going to report the truck as stolen. I will not be part of your drug problems, or whatever else you are into. So take the truck to the job, but be home my midnight,” I said.

“Yes daddy,” she replied with a laugh.

“Well tell Mom you are going to have wheels,” I said. “The truck is more dependable so take it. I won’t need it that late at night.”

Dawn helped me with the campground Friday and Saturday mornings. She also helped me run the fishing lines Friday but she was too pushed for time to help Saturday afternoon. When I returned from the river run, she and the truck were gone. I had tied the kayak onto the roof of the Metro. That night I stayed at the Circus tent and cleaned the fish from that day’s run.

After that I went to the Titan and drank coffee. I scrubbed myself in the shower before I dressed for bed. I was in the sweat suit before I returned to the trailer. I checked into the pro/con website after I read the news.

It was a bit of a bore, so I didn’t stay long. I turned my attention to archived TV shows. I found one a year or two old with a lot of drama. There were thirteen episodes that I could watch, so I watched a couple of those and then bookmarked the home page. I planned to go back to it the next time I was totally bored.

I forced myself into bed at 11PM so I wouldn’t appear to be waiting up when she returned, if she returned. I managed to get to sleep before she arrived home. I didn’t look at the clock. The rattling of the, light in the ass, trailer door woke me. When Dawn came to bed, she smelled of fried fish. Fortunately that was all she smelled of. I know it was stupid, but I felt she had past the first of many tests to come.

I awoke early that Sunday morning, and had the coffee pot going for at least an hour before Dawn awoke. She joined me at the counter where we ate our meals. I had some day old cinnamon rolls from the bakery section of Walmart. Since I had heated them in the Titan’s tiny microwave, they weren’t bad at all.

There were only two missing before she tore off one. She also poured herself a cup of coffee with sticky fingers. She was never a great conversationalist in the morning. That Sunday morning she was worse than usual.

“Hangover?” I asked.

“I wish that I had an excuse for how I felt. I’m suffering what a six foot tall person’s exhaustion would feel like in a little person’s body. I just can not remove my head from my ass,” she explained.

“You stay here and rest, I can get the trash without you today.” I suggested.

I knew there would be a lot of it, since it was Sunday. A lot of Jasper’s people would have left already. I had learned to shut out the sounds of car doors slamming all hours of the night, so I slept through it. When I finished loading the truck, I drove it straight to the Dumpster Dump to make my deposit. From the dump I drove to my mom’s house.

As I past the front of her house I saw a large SUV in the drive. It has to be the Dog Doc’s car, I thought. That being the case I just continued to drive until I reach the campground. I pulled into my parking space in front of the Titan and just sat in the truck. I had no where else to go and since it was chilly, I went inside.

I stayed on the computer with headphones while Dawn slept all morning. I got my morning news fix while she recovered. I even returned for one episode of the TV drama I had started the night before.

Dawn woke naturally at 2PM, which was also the warmest part of the day. I watched her droop around the small trailer while glanced at the online TV show. She drank even more coffee.

“Dawn is there anything you need to tell me?” I asked.

“Are you asking me if I got high last night?” she demanded.

“I am. I am not accusing you, but I’m asking you,” I said.

“No I did not, I’m just tired,” she said.

“If you say so,” I said ready to change the subject. Since I couldn’t prove anything, I had to trust her. That was if I decided to have a relationship with her. A long term relationship was still very much in question.

“Yes I do say so,” she demanded. “I worked my ass off for sixty bucks and I’m exhausted, That is what is wrong with me.”

“You do know that is what people around here would call and average days wages. So don’t blame your expectation on our way of life,” I said. “Maybe you are not ready for the straight life yet.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m not ready yet,” she said.

“I have to take a run up the river. You stay here and recover. Think about what you want to do. Since I already have the kayak tied to the micro van, I’ll take it up river. I would like the truck key back.”

Dawn threw it at me. She would have gone into another room to hide, if there had been another room. Since there was no place to go, so she sat and glared at me until I left.

The trip up river took two hours, so I managed to work out my aggression on the kayak paddle. When I finally got back to the campground, I was ready to make peace with Dawn. She was nowhere to be seen. I drank a cup of coffee by the heater, then went back to circus tent to clean and fillet the catfish.

When I returned to the Titan, I was chilled and tired. I was no longer interested in Dawn’s problems. I was worried about getting warm first, then I would begin thinking about dinner. Maybe after all that I would give Dawn some thought. Then again maybe I would take the path of least resistance as I usually did. That is also known as the coward’s way out.

After I got warm I stripped off my smelly clothes and dressed in clean clothes. I know I was supposed to take a shower, but I really didn’t feel like it. When I was in clean clothes again, I carried the smelly ones to the shower room. I tossed them into the janitors sink then reached into the corner for my hand held mixer, a broken boat paddle...

Just a small amount of the liquid detergent, which I used in the shower, was enough. I let the clothes soak in the water after I stirred them about a minute. I went inside the Titan to drink more coffee and work on dinner.

I heated one of the frozen Mac&Cheese dinners. I also tossed some of the cocktail shrimp from mom’s left over bag into the plastic dish. I sat down to eat alone while my clothes soaked. The soaking clothes were part of my routine. On the deck there was one of those umbrella looking clothes racks.

After dinner I went back to stir my clothes. Then I got them as dry as possible by hand. After that I hung them onto the rack to drip dry as much as possible. I finished all my boring housekeeping, then I moved to the computer. I went onto the news site first, then to the pro/con site.

I passed some time in all those sites before I got the least bit worried about my missing truck. Inside I knew when I came back from the river, that the missing truck meant Dawn was gone and wasn’t coming back. I needed to report the truck stolen, and Dawn as a missing person. I didn’t because I wanted to give her a chance to return on her own.

My plan was to give her until noon the next day to return with my truck. At midnight I fell into the bed exhausted. I was hoping she would come in sometime during the night. When I awoke the next morning I realize Dawn and my truck were gone possibly for good.

My guess was that Dawn had stopped by Walmart on the way home from her catering gig and had a new key for the truck made. I hated to admit it, but she had obviously played me. At least I had been played by a pro, not some punk ass kid.

I got all the trash into the Metro, but it filled the little thing up completely. It was a good thing that I didn’t need to go too far, since it blocked the rear view mirror. It was a bit harder to get the Metro empty than it was to empty the truck.

I really wanted my truck back. It wasn’t just that my ego was crushed, I really needed that truck. It would make my work harder without it. Yeah I was also pissed because she played me. Noon came and went, but I didn’t make the call. It was really too late to make it after two days, so I went up river without calling the Sheriff’s office.

It took me a little longer than usual. The weather had turned out to be one of those warmer than average days. There was also no wind to lower the ‘feels like’ temperature. The water was calm even around the streams and branches which fed the river. I set most of my limb hooks around those stream and branch junctions. Since the water from the streams and branches carried food into the river, they were good spots to set a limb hook.

When I returned home, the truck was not to be seen. It wasn’t as if I had expected the truck to be sitting in the parking space in front of the Titan. Even so I was still disappointed that the space was empty. I had to file a police report about the truck in order to avoid responsibility for what Dawn or someone else might do with it. The truck was of no use to Dawn anyway. Without a title she couldn’t sell it. I decided to give the issue one more day to settle itself. Noon the next day was my deadline. I didn’t expect to see Dawn or my truck again period. What I didn’t want was to have her and my truck involved in an accident. I sure as hell didn’t want to be sued.

It was simply self preservation that made me file the police report. I had no expectations of seeing the truck again. When I got word about the truck two weeks later I was surprised.

“Mr. Boyd, this is Corporal Herman with the state highway patrol,” the voice said.

“Okay, is there anything I can do for you?” I asked.

“Well we found your truck burned out on the north side of Greenville,” Herman said. “It’s out on highway 61 just out side of town.”

“I see was anyone with it?” I asked.

“No, it appeared to be abandoned. We were going to have it towed to a salvage yard,” he said. “But since you are close, we thought you might want to make your own arrangements.”

“So not only is my stolen truck junk, but I’m going to have to pay to have it towed away?” I asked.

“Yes sir you are,” he replied.

“Wonderful,” I said.

“I can have our driver tow it to a salvage yard,” Herman said.

“Of course you can,” I said. “I’ll have a man come for it. Could you email me the GPS coordinates instead?”

I thought to ask about Dawn but didn’t. It wasn’t like her to burn the truck. Drive it till it ran out of gas and walk away yeah, but burn it didn’t sound like her at all. My next call was to Lamar, who agree to get it for the junk and fifty bucks for the gas and time.

I thought about Dawn all day. I tried to decide what I should do. I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be helping any more ex cons, or women from the Internet.

Fortunately mom didn’t lose anything in her attempt to give Dawn a chance. I decided to cut my loses and to ignore any attempt by Dawn to contact me. I decided that my love life was better left in my own hands, rather than take a chance with a sketchy woman. The next woman I dated would get vetted a hell of a lot better, that was for sure.

I had fallen into a new routine with the arrival of spring. Pending any rain or freak weather incident, I was on the river twice every day. Once right after my trash pick up and then again before dark. Once a day in the evenings I process the catch from both runs.

 
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