Chapter 2

The next day Larry packed what little he thought he would need into his old Ranger 4X4 and headed off into the sticks. His grandfather left a whole section of land to Larry when he died and now Larry was going to use it for the first time in his adult life. He and his grandfather had hunted and fished on it for years when he was younger but he had not even been there in the ten years since his grandfather passed away. Many times he thought about selling the place but since he didn’t need the money he kept it. Now he was glad he had.

When Larry arrived at his place he found what he expected. The land bordered a national forest and was overgrown completely. The old trail into the land was so overgrown he couldn’t even drive down it. Larry pulled off the road and made his camp in a small area he cleared for that purpose.

The land was only a few miles from the small town of Harrison, AR bordering the Buffalo National River. It had a small stream or large spring flowing out of the mountain near the center of his land and rushing down a rock strewn stream-bed to flow into the Buffalo River a short distance away from the southern boundary of his land. He intended to live alongside the stream near where it flowed out of the hillside. There was a significant drop in altitude at that point that he intended to take advantage of. There were the remains of an old gristmill and dam there. He was going to rebuild the small dam and harness the waterpower to generate his own electricity. He intended to have the water tested by the state and if it was potable he would use it for drinking also.

Early the morning after he arrived Larry had a light breakfast and packed a small lunch before beginning his walk back into his land. He followed the old trail marking a way to be cleared so he could drive back to his planned camp spot. It took him over two hours to walk the ¾ mile to his planned camp spot. Part of the time was spent moving some brush and rocks from the trail so he could clear it easier and part of the time was spent on small side jaunts. Finally he came to the spot he remembered, a small natural clearing near the stream. The clearing had become slightly overgrown in the years since he was last there. It was still a good place for his camp, however, and would take only minimal work to make it useful once again. There was even still a small amount of grass growing that would make a lawn when he cut it down. He could still see the faint line of the old road leading away from the mill.

The next week Larry spent clearing a trail back to his future home site. Many of the small trees he hooked to a chain and pulled up with his truck. Some of the larger ones that were in the way he cut down with a chain saw then cut up into wood as he did the larger dead limbs he found in and near the trail. By the time he got his truck back to his campsite he estimated he had three cords of firewood cut, stacked and ready to be used during the upcoming winter. He knew he needed a lot more wood than that, but it was a start.

On the day he finally got his truck back to the campsite, Larry gave himself a break. He spent the remainder of the afternoon just laying around and enjoying the peace and quiet of nature. Later that evening Larry walked along the small stream and made his plans for the location of his generating station beside the dam. He finally decided his initial idea of building the dam on the site of a much older one that still partly blocked the stream was the correct one. He knew current laws addressed damming and changing free flowing streams but he believed he could get by with the work for several reasons. One reason was his isolation precluded anyone catching him. The other was he felt he could claim he hadn’t really changed anything, rather, he just repaired an existing structure that was grandfathered from before the current laws and regulations went into effect. At least that was his story and he was sticking to it.

Larry spent several minutes planning his work and making a list of materials he would require for the job. By the time he was done, he knew he had several thousand dollars of material to purchase. He decided to tell anyone who asked that most of it was to build a small cabin of natural stone to live in. Who would know some of the cement and mortar went into the repair of the dam? No one unless they actually came up to his place and he didn’t plan to invite any guests to his little abode. Well, maybe his parents but they sure wouldn’t tell.

Early the next morning Larry drove into Harrison on his shopping trip. His first stop was a little hole in the wall bait shop that had a reputation for serving an excellent breakfast and burgers for lunch. When he arrived the place was packed with roughly dressed men and a few women eating the wonderful smelling breakfasts. Larry had to wait almost 15 minutes for a seat before he could order.

When the waitress came to his table Larry looked up to see a rail thin young woman in worn clothes and stringy hair. To his disgust, she had two or three visible bruises on her arms and a yellow place on her face from a healing bruise. She didn’t look him in the eye; rather she just stood looking down waiting on his order. Larry said, “Coffee, black, Denver omelet, hash browns and wheat toast, dry.”

Without a word the young woman turned and went into the back room where Larry could see an older heavyset man working at a stove. There was a younger woman helping him and washing dishes by hand also. The waitress gave the man the order and returned with a cup and coffee pot to pour Larry’s coffee.

Larry finished his first cup of coffee just as the waitress delivered his meal. Once again, she said nothing when she approached his table and placed the food in front of him. She poured another cup of coffee without asking and turned to leave. Larry felt himself becoming angry at her surly attitude but said nothing. He picked up his fork and got ready to eat his meal. His toast was laid on the side of his plate and he moved it to make room to eat his meal easier. As he picked it up he saw it was buttered.

Larry looked up for the waitress and called her over. She came up to his table reluctantly, timidly and stood looking at Larry. He said, “I ordered wheat toast, dry. This is white bread and has butter on it. It is so soggy I couldn’t eat it if I wanted to. Please take it back and bring me the toast I ordered.”

The young woman looked scared as Larry talked. She looked around and whispered, “Please Sir. Can’t you just eat that? I’m sorry Bert made it like that. I did tell him to make dry wheat toast. Honest I did.”

Larry felt his temper surge, a not uncommon occurrence since his wife was killed, and said in a louder than normal voice, “No. I want my wheat toast like I ordered.”

As he finished speaking, Larry felt a presence to his rear and turned to find the cook standing there looking on angrily. The young woman blanched. She seemed to almost shake and her eyes watered. The cook looked at her and snarled, “Get your ass into the kitchen and make this gentleman the toast he ordered right now.” He reached out and pulled on her arm to get her started. Larry noticed the noise in the small dining area dropped to almost complete silence when the cook spoke. Several of the men and a couple of the women there looked upset, a couple glared at Larry.

The cook turned and wandered back into the kitchen carrying a full cup of coffee, the apparent reason for his foray into the dining area. When he arrived in the kitchen, Larry heard him yelling at the waitress, “You stupid cunt. I don’t know why I keep you around. You can’t even get a simple order for toast right.” Larry heard a smack and the rattling of metal, then some almost silent crying.

When the waitress came out of the kitchen the side of her face was bright red and tears were running down her cheeks. She moved slowly to Larry’s table and sat the saucer with his fresh toast beside his plate. She whispered, “I’m sorry sir. Here’s your toast.”

Without thinking, Larry reached out and grabbed her arm as she started to turn away. He said, “Did that asshole just hit you over the toast mix up?”

The waitress looked quickly back into the kitchen and jerked her arm from Larry’s grasp as she said quietly, “NO. I just stumbled and fell against the uh, against the refrigerator. I’m a clumsy bitch at times.” She then almost ran back into the kitchen where Larry once again heard raised voices.

Larry finished eating his breakfast and enjoyed another cup of coffee before deciding it was time to go. As he stood to leave one of the other customer’s grabbed his arm when he walked past his table. The man looked up at Larry and said, “I’ve seen ya around town some. If you intend to keep taking meals here you need to understand some things. You don’t do anything to cause Liz any problems ya know? Most of the time if something’s wrong, ‘taint her fault anyways but she’s always the one that suffers for it.”

“You mean he beats her? That isn’t right. Why doesn’t someone do something about it?”

“Cain’t. Time or two the law came and got him but she won’t file a complaint. Always says she’s a clumsy bitch and fell or sumpthin.”

“Then why do you all keep coming back here?”

“Food’s good and prices are the cheapest in town. Oh, by the way, I hope ya left a good tip fer Liz. He don’t pay her, says her room and board are all the pay she gets. We think he even takes some of her tips but we don’t know. Anyways, tips is all the money she gets for her personal needs.”

Larry muttered, “Fuck,” as he turned and threw another dollar on the table to go with the tip he already left.

As he walked past the man that stopped him he heard a quiet, “Good man.”

Larry spent most of the day in town making his purchases. On the way from the little bait shop/cafe to Lowes he drove past a business that sold ocean going shipping containers for storage. About a block past the lot he yelled “Crap” and quickly turned into a parking lot. When he exited the lot he turned to back track until he reached the lot with the containers in it.

When Larry got out of his truck he was met by a smarmy looking, greasy haired young man who said, “Hep ya?”

“Maybe. I’m living back in the woods in a tent enjoying nature and fishing. I would like something a little more substantial than a tent for my hunting and fishing cabin. I saw your containers and thought one of them would be perfect for my camp. What do you sell them for and do you deliver?”

“Well now, we can deliver if ya want us to. The first ten miles is free then we charge $1.00 a loaded mile over that. As for the cost of the container, it depends on the quality of the container as well as the size. What were ya thinking about there slick?”

Larry walked around and looked at the containers. Some of them were in really poor shape, dented, rusted and even warped. One or two had holes in them. One looked as if the contents had burned. Others looked almost new. They appeared to come in two or three sizes. He asked the prices on one of the nicer containers.

The man pulled a sheet of paper from his pocked and matched the number on the container to the number on the paper then said, “I can let ya have that one for $5,750. That’s a one time use 40 foot long by 8 by 9 feet. If that’s too much for you I have some pretty good 20 footers for $2,250 and one nicer 40 foot one for $4,495.”

Larry walked up to the containers the man pointed out as being cheaper and looked them over. He turned back to the more expensive one and said, “I’ll take this one if you drop the price to $5,500.”

“Oh, I can’t do that. I just work here. You’ll have to talk to the boss about cutting the price and he aint here right now.”

“Well, I tell you what, why don’t we just give him a call and see what he says about it.”

“Well, if you insist but I know he won’t drop the price for ya.”

Larry followed the man into the office and had to push some dirty rags off a chair to sit while the kid made his phone call. When the phone was answered, the young man told whoever was on the other end about Larry’s offer. Larry heard him say, “Yeah, I know. I told him you wouldn’t drop the price but he insisted I call ya. Ok.”

The salesman turned away from the phone and looked at Larry then said, “Boss says hell no, he won’t cut the price. Now, do ya want the container or not?”

“Well, how about free delivery? Can he at least do that for me?”

The salesman put the phone back to his ear and asked about the free delivery, then he said, “Ok, here he is,” then handed the phone to Larry.

Larry took the phone and said, “This is Larry Saunders. I was wanting to do a deal on that one trip shipping container.”

“Yeah, ‘swhat Seth said. Look, the price is the price on that one. It’s a great little container in tiptop condition. Water and air tight, one use container. Ain’t no way I’m gonna cut that price none.”

“Look, we both know you’re in business to make money. I have the money, cash money right here, right now. Tell ya what, you deliver it for free to my site, pour concrete footings to set it on and tie down to as part of the deal and I’ll give the full asking price.”

The man laughed and said, “Boy ya just don’t give up do ya? Nope. You got the price.” Larry heard the click as the man hung up the phone. He handed the salesman his phone and stood.

The salesman looked up at Larry and said, “Told ya he wouldn’t deal. Now, ya want the container or not?”

“No, I don’t suppose I do. Thanks.”

Larry made his purchases and arranged for delivery of his building materials. From the Lowes store he went to a Wal-Mart Super center for groceries then returned home.

For the next six days Larry worked on his dam project. His first order of business was to construct a diversion for the stream so he could repair the existing dam. That was a lot of digging and back breaking manual labor. He had to dig the trench then pour the concrete and install a gate in the trench. After the concrete cured he could finish digging out the trench to connect to the flowing stream and he would have his diversion. He made very certain he had the trench deep enough so the entire flow of the stream would be diverted when he was ready to begin work on the dam.

Finally he diverted enough of the flow he could pour his concrete and repair the damaged dam. While he was waiting on the ground to dry enough for him to pour the concrete he made another trip to town for groceries and more building supplies. He still did not know just what he was going to do about his more permanent place to live but he knew he was going to stay there for some time. To his surprise, he was almost happy. Oh, sure, he still thought about Sharon and missed her but the hard physical work and the pleasure he got from seeing his dam grow were helping him heal.

On his way into town, Larry once again stopped in the bait shop for breakfast. The same young woman waited on him. Larry could see fresh bruises. He made his order and sat drinking coffee while he waited on his breakfast. This time when it arrived it was correct. He smiled at the woman and said, “Thanks,” then dug into his meal with gusto.

To Larry’s surprise, when he looked around the small dining area a couple of the men there nodded in greeting. The man that told Larry about the waitress actually lifted his hand and gave an anemic wave. Larry completed his meal rapidly and threw down a $3.00 tip for his $8.47 meal. He paid at the cash register and walked outside.

His truck was parked on the side of the building. Larry had his truck door open when he heard yelling coming from the back of the building. “You stupid damn cunt. I’ve told ya and told ya to keep the door closed on the trash bin. Look at this damn mess where the critters got into the trash. After we close tonight I expect ya to pick all this mess up and clean the area. If it’s not shining tomorrow morning it’ll go harder on ya than it will this morning.”

Larry heard a loud slap and falling material of some kind then the woman was screaming and crying. Larry rushed around the building and grabbed the cook as he started to hit the waitress again. The cook turned to look at Larry and said, “You best get your ass outta here and mind yer own bidness asshole. You been nothin’ but trouble since ya first come to my place. Now git.”

The cook jerked his arm from Larry’s grip and turned to the cowering woman again. He raised his arm once more to hit her when Larry’s barely controlled temper exploded. He once again grabbed the man and pulled. When the man was facing him he slammed his left fist into the blubber the cook called his belly. When the man bent over as the air whooshed out Larry let his right go into his face. The man straightened back up then fell back into the pile of garbage from the overturned cans inside the enclosure in which they were stored.

The young woman looked at the fallen cook then Larry as the tears rolled down her face and her shoulders shook from her sobs.

The cook slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position. He glared at Larry then turned to the waitress and snarled, “That’s the last straw cunt. Get yer ass outta here. I don’t need the likes of you around here no more.” He then turned to Larry and snarled, “You get your ass outta here too. I don’t wantta see ya in here no more. Ya come in, I won’t cook yer food and I’ll call the law to get ya out. Now, git, both of ya.”