Chapter 14

All three of the Metchettes were waiting for Glen outside the grocery store. Glen had been in the line behind them and was now dealing with the slow checkout girl. Actually, she wasn’t a girl. She was an elderly woman that had coke bottles for glasses. Even though the store had optical scanners at the checkout line, you still had to present the barcode to the reader. Unfortunately, this woman just couldn’t seem to find the barcode. She would pick up an item, examine it for the barcode, present it to the machine facing the wrong way, and then go through the process again. You had to wait for her to make a mistake before she got it right.

He watched with incredulity as she tried nine times to scan a simple can of beans. The woman in line behind him had a young child that was in a cranky mood. Glen knelt down to the kid and said, “I’ll bet you a penny that it takes her more than ten attempts to ring up the next item.”

The kid frowned and looked at his mother, worried about talking to strangers. Seeing an opportunity to keep the kid busy for while, she handed him a fistful of pennies and said, “Take his bet.”

For the next twenty items, Glen and the kid counted attempts to scan in items. Half the time the kid won; a fact that kept him very entertained. The mother smiled appreciatively at Glen while she took the moment of peace to read the National Inquisitor. After about twenty items, the kid said to Glen in a very solemn voice, “She’s kind of slow.”

Glen laughed aloud as he glanced at the woman examining another of his items. At least she didn’t have her hearing aid turned up. He answered, “you’re so right.”

For the next few items, they changed the bet. Glen bet that the woman would require at least fifteen attempts on one of the next five items. Together they kept score. Glen lost the bet by one attempt. He gave the boy a stack of coins. The kid’s eyes lit up as he eyed the candy machine. Finally, the manager came over and sent the woman on a break. He took three minutes to ring up the rest of Glen’s purchases. As he worked, he asked, “Is there any chance of getting Sandra back here? I’m losing customers.”

Glen laughed and answered, “None, I’m afraid to say.”

“Damn. It’s quicker to drive thirty minutes to the store in the next town over than to stand in line here. I know, I did it the other day.”

Glen frowned and asked, “Can’t find anyone else?”

“Nope.”

The manager rang up the total. Glen paid it and picked up his two bags of groceries. He turned to the kid and said, “Next time!”

The kid looked at the handful of pennies, smiled back and answered, “Sure thing.”

The mother smiled and watched as the manager quickly rang up her groceries. She said, “Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. It was my pleasure.” Glen left the store carrying his two sacks. He always took paper rather than plastic. When you have to burn your trash and start fires in the fireplace, paper was a much better choice.

He stepped beside Sandra and said, “Your old boss really wants you back.”

Wanda laughed and asked, “Where did he find her? Turtles R Us?”

Sandra grabbed his arm and said, “I saw what you did for that lady. She would have had a real headache if you hadn’t entertained the kid. You’re going to make a great father.”

Glen laughed and answered, “I was doing it for me. I was about to have a headache watching her work.”

The trio laughed. Sandra went with Cliff to his truck. They got in and headed to the house. Wanda and Glen headed to his truck. An old brown van was parked next to it, which was odd since half the parking lot was empty. He was walking past the van when he noticed the bumper stickers. The whole bumper was filled with right to life and Jesus Saves bumper stickers. His first thought was that someone around here was really religious and then he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He shouted, “Run back into the store, Wanda!”

She didn’t even ask why, but did as she was told. Four men climbed out of the van to follow her. One of them was carrying a board. Glen backed up, keeping himself between Wanda and the men. One of them shouted, “get out of the way.”

Glen, looking at them with anger in his eyes, answered, “I suggest that you leave here, right now.”

The men quickly realized that Glen was going to be a problem and turned their attention to him. As they charged him, he threw both bags of groceries at them. It slowed two of them down for half a second. The one with the board dropped the board and caught a bag of groceries. He dropped the bag and bent down to retrieve the board. The other man had just swatted at the groceries. Cans ended up rolling all over the ground. The new hazard slowed his attackers.

Glen realized at that moment that he was going to die if these guys had their way and committed himself to getting really mean. He kicked one of them in the balls hard enough to lift the guy off the ground. One of the men did the same in return to him. Glen didn’t even flinch as the kick connected with the cup he was wearing. Instead, he whipped the silk scarf from his pocket and had it wrapped around the throat of one of the attackers in two seconds. The knot was tied so tight, that the man went down struggling for his breath. It was now two on one.

The man with the stick swung it at Glen. He blocked it with his forearm. Glen swung his other arm in a backhand motion catching the other man in the head with his forearm. Despite the padding of the sweater, the metal plate that Glen wore under the sweater made a resounding crack when it connected. His forearms had absorbed the force of the blows, distributing the force across his whole forearm. Still they stung.

Glen was now facing one attacker and that guy wasn’t so anxious to attack. He had just broken a board on the guys arm and it didn’t even phase him. The guy he had kicked in the balls was starting to rise, so Glen kicked him in the face. The steel toed work boot that he was wearing inflicted considerable damage on the guy. Glen knew he wouldn’t be getting up for quite a while. The fourth guy decided that escape was the better part of valor and ran.

Glen stood over the remaining three waiting for one of them to make a move. It wasn’t long before the deputy arrived. He surveyed the scene and put cuffs on Glen. He was using the new style plastic cuffs and had pulled them very tight. The deputy grunted, “You’re under arrest.”

Glen hadn’t even been placed in the back of the car when Wanda raced over and began raising hell with the deputy. She screamed, “Why are you arresting him? You’re letting one of the attackers get away.”

The Deputy shouted back, “Shut up bitch or I’ll cuff you and put you in the back with him.”

Wanda spread her legs and put her hands on her hips. She glared at the deputy and snarled, “You and what army.”

She was quickly cuffed and put in the back of the car with Glen. She was very angry and wanted to kick out the door of the car. This was the same Deputy that had given Glen all of the tickets when he had taken her to the hospital. Glen grabbed her and turned her around. He cut the cuffs off her with his knife as he told her, “Calm down. You did everything like you were supposed to. You were magnificent. Everything is okay. I expected this. Deputy Dog out there doesn’t like me. Wait until the Sheriff or the other Deputy gets here.”

Glen watched as the Deputy got on the radio and called in the Sheriff. He stood there like a proud peacock talking loudly into the radio. He talked with the dispatcher long enough, that before he even had replaced the radio in his belt, two other cars pulled up. The Sheriff got out of one and surveyed the area. He went over to the three men on the ground and asked, “Did you request an ambulance?”

“No.”

“You should have requested one when you were on the radio with the dispatcher. Did you check them out?”

“No. I was busy arresting the person that did that to them.”

The Sheriff groaned and examined the men. He stopped at the one of the men and swore when he realized that he wasn’t breathing. He used his knife to cut off the silk scarf and proceeded to attempt CPR. The other deputy called in an ambulance. Once he was done, he took over for the Sheriff. The Sheriff searched the body and pulled out his wallet. Glancing inside, he pulled out the drivers license and saw that the man was Jed Randolf. There was another card that indicated his membership in the Last True Church of Jesus Christ. The death threats that had originated from that outfit gave Glen a very good self defense argument. The man fit the description of one of Wanda’s attackers.

The Sheriff looked up at the first deputy and said, “Well, while you were busy arresting him and talking on the radio, this guy died. Maybe we can save him yet, but I doubt it. He’s already turning cold.”

The Deputy looked stunned and answered, “I didn’t know. I didn’t want that bastard getting away.”

“Was he running away or attacking them on the ground?” At the shake of the Deputies head, the Sheriff turned to the look at the other two on the ground in disgust. They were a bloody mess. The faces were caved in where Glen had hit them. He had broken the bones. He stated, “He fucked them up real good. They’re going to be in the hospital for a long time.”

“Well, he’s a murderer now,” replied the Deputy in self-righteous anger.

Not willing to leap to conclusions, the Sheriff asked, “So did you find out what happened?”

“Not yet. I arrested him and the woman. Then I called you.”

The Sheriff swore as he realized what had happened. The Deputy had talked for at least three minutes with the dispatcher and hadn’t done anything else except stand there. He walked over to the car where Glen and Wanda were being held. He opened the door and asked, “What in the hell happened here, Glen?”

Glen looked at the Sheriff and saw the anger in his eyes. He took a deep breath and stated, “Those guys tried to get to Wanda and finish the job they started the first time. Unfortunately for them, I was between them and her. When they attacked me, I responded with appropriate force.”

“You killed one of them. His name was Jed Randolf,” stated the Sheriff in a tone that suggested that he would be more than happy to have Glen arrested and convicted of murder. It seemed to him that Glen was too eager to kill and that was something he didnít want in his town.

Wanda had looked at the man on the ground and recognized him. She remembered the minutes after Glen had subdued Amos. She realized that she wanted to kick the shit out of the dead guy. She pushed down the desire as she stated, “He was one of the bastards that attacked me last month.”

Glen looked at the Deputy who had been attempting to revive the man. The Deputy had stood up and shook his head. He turned his attention back to the Sheriff and replied, “In a fight of four on one, lethal force by the one is appropriate as self-defense.”

“Four?”

“Yes, four. One of them ran away after seeing the first three go down.” Glen pointed his nose in the direction the man had run.

“Do you have an impartial witness?”

Glen laughed and answered, “I haven’t yet canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone saw it. Deputy Dog saw to that.”

The Sheriff barked a short laugh and then said, “That’s a good description.”

The woman that had been standing in line behind Glen in the store was trying to tell the first deputy that she had seen everything. He was ignoring her and staring hatefully at Glen. The Deputy shouted, “Shut up bitch. I’ll get to you in a minute.”

The Sheriff heard what was going on. He exploded and shouted, “Anderson, you’re fired. Get out of here before I have you arrested for disturbing the peace and interfering with a crime scene investigation.”

The other Deputy had gone over to the woman and started talking to her. It was tough because she was very upset by the treatment she had been given by the other man. She shot a hopeless look at Glen and turned to face the Deputy. The conversation between the two was long and animated. The Sheriff got on his radio. He requested the coroner and a state trooper. He was informed that the other deputy had already requested a coroner.

The little boy from the grocery store came over to Glen. He looked at him with wide eyes at the sight of him sitting in the police car. He asked, “Are you in trouble for fighting?”

“Yes, fighting is not a good thing to do. Always try talking first, do you understand me?”

The boy nodded and wondered if was a good idea to be around the man that was in trouble. Glen noticed and said, “Why don’t you join your mother? She’s probably very worried about you being around so many bad people.”

“Are you a bad person?”

“I try not to be. Sometimes, though, things just kind of happen. It’s sort of like spilling your milk. You don’t want to do that, but whoops there it goes. Today, I spilled the milk.”

The boy looked at Glen and the Sheriff. The Sheriff smiled down at the boy. He told the Sheriff, “He just spilled the milk. Does he have to go to jail?”

The Sheriff, touched by the fact that Glen had let the kid understand the seriousness of the situation without scaring him, answered, “I have to learn if he spilled the milk by accident or on purpose. If it was an accident, he won’t have to go to jail.”

The boy smiled and said, “I saw them try to hurt you. If you hurt them, it must have been by accident. Don’t worry, you won’t have to go to jail.”

Glen smiled and answered, “Thank you. I’ve been real worried and you’ve cheered me up. I think the Sheriff wants to talk to me some more. He’s a good man, so don’t worry about me. Now, get back to your mother and cheer her up.”

The boy went back to his mother as the ambulance arrived. It was fortuitous, since it gave the boy something else to be interested in while his mother talked to the Deputy. The Sheriff went over to the EMS. While the EMS personnel were busy with the two living men, the Sheriff warned them that they were suspects in an assault and needed to be secured to prevent their escape.

Cliff and Sandra showed up in the truck driving too fast. Sandra had started screaming that Wanda was in trouble, so Cliff had returned to the store. However, they had been on a road on which it was not safe to turn around and had to continue on a while before they could return. Cliff got out and walked over to the Sheriff. The Sheriff glanced at Cliff and noticed that he was dressed the same as Glen. He swore when he saw the silk scarf sticking slightly out of a pocket. He said, “Give me the scarf.”

Cliff smiled and slowly pulled the scarf out of his pocket. He handed it over to the Sheriff. The Sheriff examined it and asked, “What in the hell is this?”

Cliff said, “You’ll have to ask Glen. He showed me how to use it, but I can’t remember what he called it.”

The Sheriff led the siblings over to the car with Glen and Wanda. The door was wide open and Glen was sitting there happily with an arm around Wanda comforting her. The Sheriff asked, “Didn’t he cuff you?”

“Yes, but it was rather uncomfortable, so I removed them. Did the same for Wanda. You will notice that neither one of us has attempted to escape.” Glen smiled up at the Sheriff.

“How did you get it off?”

“I cut it off.”

The Sheriff was getting frustrated and asked, “He didn’t search you?”

“Nope.”

“Get out of the car.”

Glen slowly got out of the car. As he stood up, he held out his knife to the Sheriff. He held it by the blade, offering the handle to the Sheriff. The Sheriff grasped the handle and using proper knife etiquette, stated, “Thank you.”

Glen released the blade, giving control of the knife to the Sheriff. The Sheriff’s hand shook as he accepted the blade. He hadn’t even seen it until Glen had offered it to him. If Glen had meant to hurt him, he could easily have done it. He decided to approach this in a less confrontational manner. He said, “Would you mind disarming completely? Empty your pockets, placing the items on the hood of the car.”

Glen walked over to the front of the car. He removed the sheath for the knife. Then emptied his pockets. The roll of quarters made a dull clunk when he set it down on the hood. He emptied his back pockets. When he removed the garrote, the Sheriff raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Glen adjusted the bulky neck of the turtleneck sweater and removed an iron collar. He set that on the hood with a more gentle motion. He then rolled up the sleeves on the sweater and removed the leather armbands that held the metal bars to his forearms. He lifted his sweater and removed a small metal plate that protected his stomach.