Chapter 13

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 son Jude

I spent my days working the line of catfish limb hooks. I had set those in the river, before beginning a half ass relationship with Lucy, and trying to handle an occasional visit from Angie. All that seemed to satisfy my need for drama, in my personal life at the moment at least.

Don’t let anyone tell you that single women are the only ones who need drama with their sex. Single men create at least half the drama. Sometimes even when things run along smoothly, men just have the need for some added excitement. We don’t even know why it is that we do something stupid. I sure as hell have asked myself at least a hundred times, ‘why the fuck did I do that.’

It usually takes me at least two weeks, or much more time to realize what an ass I have been. There is nothing about me that would make a woman want to trail after me, so once I fuck up, I usually just have to move on.

The reason I bring this up is that I suggested, if Lucy wanted more adventure in out sex life, she should probably try someone else. Absolutely no one would have expected her to rise to the challenge. Hell she didn’t just rise to it she embraced it.

“You really wouldn’t mind, if I slept with other men?” she asked. “Even if you weren’t present.”

“I don’t want to be there. We can discuss it after the fact, if you feel the need, but no I don’t need to know about it in advance,” I replied.

Thus began my worry about sleeping with Lucy. She assured me she was careful about her choices. Even so I worried about how careful her chosen lovers were about their choices. When anyone went down the swinger’s road, it was like a spider’s web of sex partners.

There had been no significant changes in my life at the beginning of my forth winter as a free man. Even though the temperatures was reasonably mild around Thanksgiving day, I dressed in a second layer of clothing. When I head up the river any night after sunset the two layers became three.

The morning of Mom’s Thanksgiving dinner, I got a call from Angie Marshall. “Guess who is sitting in a holding cell inside the Sheriff’s Greenville substation.” She asked.

“Not my mother again,” I said with a laugh.

“No, but almost as surprising it is your girlfriend the preacher’s ex-wife. You are still balling her?” she asked.

“Why in the world do you have her?” I asked.

“She was arrested in a special pre-Christmas sweep. It was called operation Kiddie Porn Big Sweep. I don’t know everything, but I do know she was picked up last night at a club offering adult entertainment staring minors,” Angie said with a smile in her voice.

“What the fuck was she doing in a place like that,” I asked.

“She was wearing a little black mask and nothing else. She was on her knees in front of a fourteen old boy. You can imagine the rest.” she informed me.

“God, what the hell?” I asked.

“Frankly, I thought you might know,” She said.

“Well I don’t know. Can I speak with her?” I asked.

“No she is on her own for now. She has invoked her right to a lawyer before questioning. Her first call wasn’t to you I presume?” she asked.

“Fuck no it wasn’t. I wonder what her damage control will include,” I asked.

“Probably first move will be to sever the relationship with the ex-con in her life. John I can’t help you with this,” Angie said. “You may take some heat. You will for sure be investigated, so clean up your life and forget me. Sorry hon you are always fun.”

The phone went dead before I could answer her. Just getting the ‘heads up’ was a break. From my previous life, I knew way too much about police stings. I wouldn’t be falling victim of one this late in the game. I routinely said no to most sketchy things, but now it would be no to every shady thing which came along.

Since I had promised her, it was a good thing that Mom’s dinner wasn’t at all shady. At least I couldn’t imagine her being involved in anything illegal. The turkey might have been smuggled across the border, but I doubted that.

I had time before lunch to empty the trash in the campground, so I did it. The campground trash was always inside plastic bags, so it wasn’t even a smelly job. I loaded the Metro Micro Van for the trip. It was loaded down with trash as it was most days. Business was booming for Jasper’s hunt club and Mom’s Catering Service. I had even arranged for Tom, Jasper’s cousin, to build two new cabins in the next few days. I chose that over resurrecting the Gatehouse.

The county had added two more dumpsters to it’s Dumpster Dump and emptied them an extra day per week. It seemed that there were more businesses doing what I did those days. I was expecting them to bar us from the Dumpster Dump at any time. They had discussed making us purchase a dumpster of our own. The county promise that the new system would pay for itself in time saved by the user. I didn’t believe that for a minute.

I thought about that during the trip it helped to keep my mind occupied. Since there was nothing I could do for her, I didn’t want to think about Lucy. When I returned to the Titan, it was 10AM. In the summer months I would have driven to the public boat launch to go up river. That day was not only Thanksgiving, it was also my self declared first day of winter. The winter schedule called for only one trip up river per day. That one trip would be set at the warmest two hours of the day, if possible.

That Thanksgiving day it wasn’t going to be possible. Since dinner was set for 4PM, I had to leave for the river’s public launch area by noon. The warmest temperature was usually at 2PM. My consolation prize was that I would be in the outside shower during the warmest part of the day.

The trip up river was routine even though it was a slightly earlier than expected. I dropped the harvested fish into the large refrigerator inside the Circus tent. Since several of my grocery items shared that refrigerator, the outside of my Duke’s Mayonnaise jar smelled of catfish. So did my pickle jar. I had already asked Santa Clause for a 14 cubic foot refrigerator freezer for my storage building outside the Titan travel trailer. That tiny trailer was what I called home temporarily.

Mom was Santa, so I expected to get it, in the form of a Home Depot gift card. It seemed a good time to enjoy the thought of a closer trip for a frozen mac and cheese dinners. Anything to keep Lucy’s plight out of my mind. No matter how busy I kept my mind, the image of her giving head to a kid crept in. I couldn’t even decide how I felt about it. I did wonder whose idea it was. Lucy had slipped so low on the sexual deviant scale, I wasn’t at all sure I could face her again.

The immediate problem was facing mom and explaining why Lucy and her son weren’t going to show up for dinner. I figured it would take the whole two hours I had left just to figure out what to say to the guests. I doubted anyone else knew about her detention. It might or might not be on the TV news, but I hoped the details wouldn’t be known till after Thanksgiving at least.

I pulled the local news up from the Jackson TV station. There was nothing about Lucy on it. Maybe I can lie my ass off, I thought.

I had to wonder what the blow back on me would be. Some people would be happy to swear I knew what she was doing. Truth was on some level I guess I did know she had sunk pretty low, but I didn’t know how low the bottom was. I still knew it would take years for the stink to wear off me. I was innocent of any involvement, but I guess I was guilty of some prior knowledge. If not that then other shady things Lucy had slipped into. I just had no idea of the depth to which a ‘goodie two shoes’ could sink.

I also had no idea what I could do to save my reputation. Since I had a reputation for selling several drugs which were not only used to mellow a person out, but could also be used to date rape women. I knew better than to try to be proactive. I did my time, but that record was going to always be with me. I was pretty damn sure that some cop, somewhere, had my life under a microscope at that very moment. It was just a matter of time before I got called in for an interview.

I was afraid they would pull me out of my mom’s Thanksgiving Dinner. I shouldn’t have worried. The vice cops had real fish to fry. They might or might not ever get around to me.

The dinner at mom’s started at 4PM. Dad was in attendance with yet another younger woman, and the dog doc was there for mom. Once again I was alone for a holiday meal at mom’s house.

Mom caught me away from everyone else and asked, “Where is Lucy. I thought for sure she would be your plus one?”

“She is kind of tied up,” I said without any further explanation.

I was home by 7PM. I had purposefully left my phone at home. I had messages from: Deputy Angie Hamilton, Lucy Lovett, and Detective Sylvia Amos. I had a pretty good idea what each of them was going to say.

I returned Angie’s call first. “Hello,” I said into the phone.

“I can’t talk now, but I’ll call you later,” she whispered.

I wanted to throw the ‘Iphone knock off’ at the wall, but I didn’t. I called Lucy at home. “Hello Lucy, you okay?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. I’m home and that’s better than that cell which smelled strongly of bleach,” she said.

“I’m sure it is. Do you have a lawyer yet. If you don’t I can call mine for you,” I offered.

“I know a lawyer from the Eros club,” she said.

“Do I want to know what that is?” I asked.

“Probably not,” she informed me. “He specializes in this kind of thing.”

“What kind of thing is it?” I asked.

“I’m sure the cops have talked to you, or are planning to talk to you,” she replied.

“I haven’t heard from them. I honestly have nothing to tell them,” I said.

“If they haven’t talked to you, why do you seem to know so much?” she asked.

“Confidential informant,” I replied.

“Angie Marshall?” asked.

“No, why did you single her out?” I asked.

“I know you used to date her. I expected she would enjoy spreading shit about me,” Lucy said.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” I said.

“Well I just wanted to let you know that I’m home, but you need to stay away. They are probably going to try to pin some drug thing on you,” she said.

“Okay, if you need anything, that won’t throw me in the shit with you, just call,” I said. I know it sounded like a cop out, but it was how I felt. I was not going back inside with a kiddie porn tag on my ass.

My final call was to Sylvia the detective who had harassed my family for years. “So what can I do for you Detective Amos?” I asked.

“Why don’t you come to see me tomorrow,” she suggested.

“Sorry, I have work to do. You can come arrest me, if you don’t mind talking to Marcy our family lawyer,” I suggested.

“You need to get ahead of this,” she said.

“I am ahead of it. I had nothing to do with anything. Anyone who tells you different is lying to you,” I said as I broke the connection.

It was a chilly morning the day after Thanksgiving, and the Campground was almost full. All of the cabin/tents were rented plus the smaller trailer. I not only had to empty trash, I had to pull the one of the hundred and twenty pound gas tanks, then I had to carry it to the LP gas refill point in Greenville.

The two chores got delayed because of a late start due to my general depression about Lucy. Since I was wallowing in pity at that moment, I also thought about Dawn. I wondered how she was doing. I checked the pro/con website often just to see if she passed through. She either never did or I missed her. I got my fishing trip in late enough for it to be uncomfortable.

For the next couple of weeks, I continued to fish and to help mom with the cooking for her catering business. She had branched out to several different menu items during the last few months. Thanks to Edwardo, there was now a Mexican Buffet choice on the menu. Mom also added a barbecued beef option. Those moves left me with declining sales of catfish fillets.

It was shortly after Thanksgiving when I went looking for new outlets for the Catfish. None of the alternatives sounded simple enough, while also being profitable enough to allow me to maintain my current lifestyle. There was a farmer’s market alternative, but that required me to deliver to the market, or to be home, and available for special early morning pickups. Neither of those options appealed to me.

I was minding my own business, which at that moment happened to be the loading of trash, when Edwardo drove up in his rusty black pickup truck. He stepped out of his truck and shivered. There was for sure a chill in the early morning air.

“JB,” he said. He had started calling me that for god only knew what reason.

“Edwardo what brings you here?” I asked.

“I wanted to see how much your place had changed. It is a little larger I see,” he said pointing at the two new cabin/tents.

“Yes more work for not much more money,” I said. “So what can I do for you.”