Chapter 19

The three occupants of the rusty old truck were spellbound. Whatever was in the woods was something they had never seen before. It walked upright, like a man, with a slight bend at the top of its back. If it was a man, it needed a shave in the worst way.

But this was no man. Squiggy had seen some scary men in his life. This thing took the case.

"What is that?" May asked. She put her hand on Squiggy's thigh and squeezed. For a second, he forgot about the creature. May's hand was fairly close to his Mister Bojangles.

"Ah," he said. "Uh, I don't know. Let's shoot it!"

"Wait," Mule yelled. "That might be a bigfoot!"

"Ain't no such thing as a bigfoot!" Squiggy hollered, still somewhat distracted by the location of May's hand. If he could navigate a couple of inches, she would be in business.

"Is too!"

"No there ain't." Squiggy tried to slide down in the seat a little bit but her hand went with him, still high on his thigh, but not making contact.

"What's that then?" May asked. She was wondering why Squiggy was squirming. May thought it might be because he was scared, then looked down and saw where her hand was located. She slid her hand off his leg. "Sorry, Walter."

Squiggy groaned. So close, yet so far away! May came close to visiting uncharted territories for her. "Uh, it's okay."

"I bet that there's the bigfoot that took my daddy!" Mule added.

"Ain't no bigfoot took your dumb daddy," Squiggy replied. He missed not having May's hand on his leg. Squiggy thought about grabbing her hand and putting it back down there. Some girls didn't mind. He doubted that May would go for that move. She used to give him a terminal case of blue cods, teasing him just enough that Squiggy thought they would go to town, but always hitting the bypass at the last moment.

He was just glad she had not accidentally put her hand on Mule's leg. May would have never been the same.

"You don't know that!" Mule answered. The thing was still standing at the edge of the woods looking at them. Psycho was still in the back of the truck, now whimpering. She had never been afraid of anything before, but was terrified of whatever was out there. They caught a smell of something bad.

"Was that you, Mule?" Squiggy asked.

"What? That smell?"

"Yeah."

"Naw, I figgered it was you or June."

"It's May, not June," she said. May was scared, both of the thing in the woods and how close she got to Squiggy's package. She had almost liked it, but couldn't do anything like that with a man until they were married. At least that had been her standing orders in the past.

"Sorry," Mule said. He started to say something else about the creature, then remembered something he was going to ask Squiggy. "Hey, I didn't see no toilet in your cellar."

"So?" Squiggy asked. He didn't like where this was going.

"So, what do you do when you gotta go?"

"I go."

"But where?"

Squiggy didn't want to answer that question. May would not be impressed if she found out that he grew really close to nature when it called.

"To town," he answered. It wasn't true, but it did sound better than saying he made his deposits back behind the shed. That was another reason he didn't want them to venture all that close to the storage building. He had not bothered to dig a hole lately to bury his droppings and a swarm of flies were rather fond of the area.

"That's gotta suck. Where do you shower?"

"Truck stop. They got towels and everthing!"

"Wow!" Mule thought that was pretty cool. He would have to try that out sometime. The hot water heater at his house had been out for almost two months and he was tired of taking cold showers.

The thing roared one last night and slipped back into the trees and the forest.

"Dadgum!" Mule said. "I oughta follow that bigfoot feller. He might lead me to my daddy!"

"I reckon if that thing took your daddy, he was probably lunch."

Mule looked rather sad. "You think he ate my Daddy?"

Squiggy realized he should have not said that about the bigfoot eating Mule's father. Even May got a little squeamish over that comment. "Mule, that thing ain't ate your daddy. I imagine he's off shacked up with some skank."

"He wouldn't leave Mommy for some skank!"

"Whatever. Would you wanna be married to her?"

"Mommy?"

Squiggy nodded.

"Naw, that wouldn't be right," he answered. "I don't figger a person can marry their own mamma."

May looked down at her watch. It was getting close to time for her dinner. Plus, she didn't really enjoy this conversation. "I'm ready, Walter."

Squiggy's jaw fell wide open. She had never said that to him before. He put his arm around her and looked over at his friend. "You need to get outta the truck for a while."

"How come?" Mule asked. The thing still might be out there.

May wondered why Squiggy was pulling her close, then figured it out. "No, Walter, I meant to get on back to town. I'm going to be late."

"Oh," he said. Mule was starting to get out of the truck. "You don't gotta get outta the truck, Mule."

"Naw, I will. I'll ride in the back with Psycho." Mule slid out of the truck and went around back. It apparently wasn't easy to get in the back with a broken leg. They heard him grunt and groan a few times until Mule got situated. "You can go now!"

Squiggy slowly started to drive away, pleased that May had stayed next to him. His arm was still around her and she didn't seem to mind. As they got on the highway, Squiggy wasn't positive, but thought May had moved a little closer. He was driving much slower than normal, not wanting this to end.

As they past the dollar store and the closed down grocery store, May put her hand back in the same location it was earlier. She shouldn't do this, of course, but all the excitement of the day was getting to her. Squiggy was breathing heavier now and she realized the reason why.

May slowly moved her hand up his leg, almost too close. Squiggy was driving slow enough now that some kid on a tricycle could smoke them. They were just a block away from the church. Squiggy was about to go into a coma. It was warm in the truck, but he started shaking.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded several times, his head going back and forth like it was a bobblehead. Oh, she was close. He took a quick glance down and saw her pinky was centimenters away. Squiggy let his hand slide down from her shoulder. He was almost touching her breast and she hadn't blocked him!

May wished she didn't have to go eat with her family. She looked down at him and saw he was rather excited. They were at the turn to the church. May looked into the parking lot, next to her car and saw somebody standing next to her car.

She stopped the travel of her hand and slid across the seat to the window. This was not good.

"I'm sorry," Squiggy said. He had actually gotten in the area code of her right bosom and thought that must have offended her.

"Look," May said and pointed next to her car, a small import parked near the back of the lot. There were only two autos in the parking lot. Her car and a Cadillac that was parked next to it.

"Uh oh," Squiggy said. He recognized the car and the person next to May's Honda Civic.

It was a woman, a thin stern-looking one wrapped up in a long coat that reminded Squiggy of a flasher. Her hair was blowing in the cold air, matching the icey look on her face. He drove over next to the car. The woman started advancing on them, moving rather briskly with her arms crossed. It was easy to see she wasn't happy.

"Howdy!" Mule said from the back of the truck. The woman didn't respond. She walked directly to the passenger side of the truck and opened the door. Her eyes were like slits. As she breathed, it looked like smoke was coming out of her mouth.

"You!" she said, pointing at Squiggy with the finger of her right hand covered with a leather glove.

"Uh, how's it going?" Squiggy asked. May's mother hated him with a passion and was not happy to see her daughter in his truck.

"I never expected to see this!" the woman added. Squiggy thought she had some serious anger management problems that needed to be dealt with. "Maybelle! Get out of that nasty truck!"

She saw the beer bottles scattered through the floorboard along with other assorted trash and spit cups.

May looked sadly at Squiggy and climbed down out of the truck. Mule poked his head through the sliding glass window.

"Wanna go ridin around with us?" he asked. The woman ignored his request. "My name's Mule. Wanna know why?"

May's mother, Arlene Alice, turned toward Mule's head. "I've heard why they call you that! I don't think it is appropriate, young man!"

"Huh?" Mule asked. Nobody had ever said his name was not appropriate before. "You needs to chill, old woman."

Squiggy would have laughed, if this wasn't so bad. Arlene looked at him like Squiggy's father used to glare at him if he ate the last biscuit without asking.

"I have called her father," Arlene said. "He is going to take care of this. I've told you never to have anything to do with my daughter."

"Don't figger it's your call," Squiggy said, a comment that did not go over well.

"I do!" Arlene yelped. "My daughter is too good for you! Just look at this! You're driving an old beat-up wreck with who knows what in the back. You are a mess and not good enough to even talk to my daughter."

"That ain't a nice thing to say," Mule mentioned. He looked over at Squiggy and saw the sad look on his friend's face. "You oughta tell him youse sorry."

"Did you actually say the word 'youse'?" Arlene asked.

"Uh, yeah."

"White trash! You're both white trash and my daughter will not be a part of it."

"Boy, youse a bitch!" Mule said. It was obvious the woman was not used to being addressed in this fashion.

She started to say something, then heard another truck pulling into the parking lot. It was a big Dodge with the four doors, decked out with every attachment known to man. The truck pulled up beside Squiggy and the door opened even before the truck came to a stop. Out popped a little man wearing a cowboy hat, boots that almost seemed too small for an adult's feet, along with the full cowboy attire. His jeans were tight, failing to advance beyond the beer gut that hung over the man's pants.

He had a beard that was a mixture of colors. The man actually looked like the Yosemite Sam character that Mule enjoyed watching on the cartoons. He advanced toward Squiggy and actually started rolling the sleeves of his shirt up.

Mule giggled. "Look at the little feller!"

The man cast Mule a dirty look. He was too intent on getting after Squiggy instead.

"Get out of your truck, boy!" he said. "I warned you about staying away from my Maybelle!"

Squiggy shook his head and opened the door. If he was mad instead of sad, Squiggy would have gone for the man with his patented eye gouge. May came running around the truck. "Daddy, leave him alone!"

"Get in the truck, honey!" Jimmy Alice hollered. "I'm gonna teach this punk a lesson."

"No!" Arlene shouted. But it was too late to stop Mule from hitting her husband over the head with his crutch.

Chapter 20