#85
"Hey Pete, your loosing your cool, guy. I didn't spray you with skunk, your ma didn't either," Ev reprimanded Pete, as the now enraged man swung on him again. "Don't do that, knock it off."
Gasping while he pulled back for another punch, Pete was fuming. "I'll tell you what I would like to knock off. Your head! That's what!" Pushing his fist where he supposed Ev's head should be, Pete's blow was blocked by a strong arm. SMACK! Ev landed another hit squarely on Pete's jaw.
"Com'on man, give it up," Ev tried to reason with the enraged Pete. Ev shrugged, looked at the window where Evie was watching, turned back and hit Pete the second time on the jaw. The bigfoot impostor went down with an oomph.
"Evie," her neighbor called her outside. "Sorry you had to see this, but I'm taking Pete in to see Will. I don't want him around here. I think he's unstable, and capable of doing harm to you and the kids. If need be," Ev stopped to catch his breath, "I'll press charges and keep him in jail for a couple of days."
Evie looked sadly at her son. "Thank you Ev. I feel rotten about this, but I think your absolutely correct."
Acting like Pete was a sack of feed, Ev dumped him in the passengers seat and took off for town.
"Wow, did you see that?" Brett was impressed as all get out with Ev's fighting ability. "He really smacked dad a good one."
During the fight, Benny, Clora and Sandra withdrew into the kitchen, standing close to the stove with Benny out front of the group.
Visibly upset, they grouped tightly together. Benny had a piece of stovewood hidden behind his back, and Clora had Evie's cabbage stomper gripped with both hands.
Seeing the children's reactions was more heartbreaking to Evie, than watching her son get the snot beat out of him. Strangely, none of the children had an emotional tie in with the whipping Pete received. None of the four seemed to care, and Evie filed that away for future thinking. There was something she was missing in the whole equation here.
Evie had been in the house long enough to recognize the signs of a very careful and throughly done
search of the entire place. That had to have been Pete; most likely looking for the money. Evie stood at the sink, slipped her shoe off and felt for the hiding spot seam with her toes. It was there, nice and tight. She smiled slightly, quirking her mouth against the hurt that Pete's behavior stabbed in her heart.
"How about a treat for lunch?" she asked the children. Purposely not calling attention to their behavior, she set a loaf of bread, mayo and a package of sliced baloney on the table.
"Yes," four voices sounded in unison. They were tickled to be eating something they really missed having.
Ev picked up Pete by the scruff of his neck and marched him into the jail. Leveling a dour look at Will, he jerked his head toward the interior cells and pushed Pete hard. Pete stumbled forward, catching himself on the cell door. Across the hall, Betty crossed her cell to stare through the narrow window.
Ev turned his head to listen to the vitriolic spew coming from the woman's cell. Shaking his head at the display of useless language he walked back to the office. "I want to charge him with assault and battery. Evie is my witness, the children also."
Will nodded, fingering through his stack of papers for the proper form. Truth be told, he was glad to have Pete back in jail where he could keep an eye on him.
Dr. Phillips stopped to check on Zander. The thin child was sedated, motionless and depending on machines for everything going in, and coming out. The vitals were what he expected. Experience told him that if they removed the vent tube, Zander wouldn't breathe on his own. "Continue on," he told the haggard looking nurse that had pulled a double shift. Numbly she nodded. They were so short handed that an operation of this magnitude, put extra responsibility on everyone.
Patty sat in her dorm room pouting. There wasn't anything else to do. This was the most bored she had ever been in her life. There was no music, no TV, no talking. It was NO everything with few exceptions. She had the most hideous yellow jumpsuit she had to wear. There was no makeup, her hair had to be cut short or kept in a ponytail. It was disgusting beyond belief. Her dad was a jerk. Her brother was a jerk. Her mother was a jerk. Patty teared up at the thought of her mother. Mom sure hadn't been fair, running off like that, acting like a stupid teenager. And the worst part of all was the food they expected her to eat. What crap that was.
She had smarted off at the matron again, so here she was, confined to quarters. Today was the day they were going outside to clean the grounds and she couldn't go. Tears trickled down her cheeks, and immense pity flooded her being. Patty felt like her life was ending.
Claude lay in his room suite at the roadhouse. Dark glasses shading his eyes in the darkened room. "Do you need anything," the sultry female voice purred. Sarah came into the room with a damp cool cloth for his forehead.
"No," Claude sighed a big one. "Your a lot classier than Betty, you know."
"I do have class, Claude. I was born with it, and have lived in it all my life. A woman of class can always recognize a man that appreciates it," she purred again suggestively. It was hard not to gag at the lingering skunk smell on the man. It was easy for a woman of class to tell a real life jerk, when she saw one.
Being mistress of the roadhouse reaped Sarah the benefits she enjoyed having. No walking her guts out to find a woman who wouldn't acknowledge her. No scrounging for any scrap of food she could find; no sleeping with one eye open, terrified at every little noise. She had luxury, food, wine and stability for the first time in a long time. As long as Betty stayed where she was.
It didn't seem impossible to leave Betty in jail. Classy women always have a plan, she congratulated herself. Always.