Chapter 2

"Why can't you be sociable," the belligerent drunk asked.

"Just go away and leave me alone," the young woman replied.

He put his hands on her, which was the step over the line as far as I was concerned. I walked up and showed him my badge. "You need to go on home. You can either leave here now and come back, or you can wait for the manager to ask you to leave in which case you won't be welcome again." I tried to be calm and reasonable.

"Bullshit, I ain't going nowhere," he said

"Sure you are, it's a matter of where and how. You can walk out and go where you choose or you can wait for the manager to tell you to leave. Then it is trespass and that is illegal. So for that I take you to jail.

"You ain't big or bad enough to take me anywhere," he said.

"Sweetie, I been fighting rag heads for the last four years off and on, I won't even think twice would putting your ass in the hospital," I did say it with a smile.

"Then you got it to do." He reached to put me in a bear hug I suppose. I chopped him once in the pit of the stomach and once in the throat. He went down like a tree.

I had been a Deputy Sheriff less than a day. I did not want to arrest anyone so soon. I rolled him over and helped him breath. He was more or less breathing when I said to him, "Now get up and walk out and we will both forget this, or stay and go to jail, your choice."

The man struggled to his feet and then he staggered out the front door. I watched him leave to be sure he didn't change his mind, then I went to Sarah. "Well it appears you trouble maker has called it a night. He might be back, but lets hope not."

It was a strange bed, as well as a new life opening for me, so I slept poorly. I made it to the courthouse on time even though I stopped for breakfast. There was only one cafe in town open at 6AM. I got plenty of looks as I had breakfast. A few of them even spoke to me.

After that breakfast I was absolutely sure of one thing. If I lasted a month, I would be buying uniforms that fit. I looked like a fucking orphan. I pulled into the downtown to begin my search for a parking space.

"If worse comes to worse, you can part at the 1st Baptist Church and walk three blocks to work." Chief Deputy Webster had suggested. It wasn't my plan, but it was a possibility. There was no time limit on the curb side parking, so I worked the Toyota into one of those instead.

Once inside the basement of the courthouse I heard, "Hey Porter come here," I headed toward a deputy with sergeant strips. When I reached him, he added, "I'm Sergeant Michaels I am assigning you to ride with Deputy Letter. Nothing much happens around here, so just take it easy and assimilate."

"Sounds reasonable," I said.

"Here is deputy Letter now," the sergeant said.

So much for a perfect job, I thought. Eddie Letter was about forty or so. He was also very, very close to being bald. Not only all that but he was the owner of belly the size of a steamer trunk. Yes that is an exaggeration, but he was at least forty pounds over weight.

"Come on Porter Let's roll," he said in a strong commander's voice. I had a strong suspicion that most of it was an act for me. He didn't seem like a command kind of guy. "Stop by the armory and pick up a shotgun," he demanded. I'll wait for you at the car."

The shotgun was a really old Winchester Pump. It looked as though it might have been surplus from a federal prison. I have no idea why I thought that, I just did. I also drew a bandoleer of shotgun shells.

"Put it in the trunk and lets go," Letter said.

I sat quietly answering the questions which Letter asked, but not really volunteering anything. We had to take an incident report about a burglary as our first official action of the day. I expected it was the kind of thing that would occupy me most days. We also took a report on a stolen bicycle later in the day. Other than those two we rode around all day just keeping an eye on the county. There was a large land mass but most of it was undeveloped. Land sitting empty was hardly ever of concern to a cop of any kind. It took people to create crime.

Letter and I stopped for lunch at the shopping center near the highway. There was more than one small restaurant out there. Letter wanted Chinese so we had Chinese. I can eat almost anything. I found that I don't care for lamb and goat, but almost anything else I can manage.

Before I knew it the day was over. I left the station and headed back to the motel. I was back in the room before 4PM, so I took a nap. When I woke up I dressed in my own clothes, then headed to dinner.

I found that the downtown cafe was closed, so I drove the mile or so out to the highway junction. People from all over the county came to the mall, so they had restaurants open until midnight. Well one of them was open till midnight anyway.

I had a chili dish at a Mexican fast food restaurant. I was actually surprised by the number of Latino people wandering around the sidewalks. It wasn't wall to wall, but there were a great many of them.

When I got back from dinner, I watched TV till 9PM then I walked through the lounge. The lounge was quiet which was nice in comparison to the night before. My first full day as a deputy sheriff ended at 11pm with nothing significant having occurred.