It had been two hours since the last time Big Mike opened his eyes; rolling over he re-discovered the spilled beer and cold, wet mattress that shocked him into full wakefulness. Sitting up and looking about the place, he saw Skeeter's pretty hair was everywhere, but Skeeter was gone. Soon enough he began to remember the events of last night: and his discovery this morning that he had been rolled by his wife. Skeeter had taken his money, his truck, and the food stamp card, which had almost a hundred bucks on it.
Anger began to build within him, but Big Mike didn't have the booze working against him today, and he was able to force himself to think about other things until he calmed a bit. Running his hand through his head of untamed red hair, he stepped out of the trailer and walked barefoot, his boots in his hand, across the backyard to his dad's house to use the phone, not wanting to use the last few minutes he had left on his cell. When he found that bitch, she was going to pay for this.
Even as he thought the thought he knew he was lying to himself. He couldn't hurt Skeeter, every time he tried it, he hurt himself more then he hurt her. He loved her too much, and he knew he would never be lucky enough to find another Skeeter. While Big Mike would never win any scholarships, he was not stupid. He was wise enough to know, he wasn't very smart. Knowing this allowed him to learn how to take things slow, so his mind could keep up. And he divided everything into three groups, things he knew, things he thought he knew and the things he knew he didn't know. At the very top of the list of the things he knew, was that he needed Skeeter. He had to get her back.
Nobody was home at his dad's house, which was a relief; he had hoped they would have left for work by now. There was coffee, he poured a cup and sat down.
He picked up a pencil and started to make a list, his writing shaky and unsure, looking like something a second grader might do. He made a list of the people she could run to, he then went back down the list putting a check beside each name that Skeeter had fucked over lately, that shortened the list considerably.
Big Mike stared at the list of names, there were a lot of things that Big Mike couldn't do but there were a lot of things he could do very fucking well. One of those things was hunt and another was trap, when it came to understanding the swamps and woodlands that surrounded him, few could match him. Skeeter was like a lion in the desert, all he had to do to find her was watch the water holes.
Big Mike tore up the first list and made another one of everybody she got drugs from, and like on the first list he checked off the names of people she had fucked over lately. He had three names left, he picked up the phone, Reek's was the first number he called. The phone rang twice before it was picked up. "Yeah?" a bored voice asked.
Big Mike hated to call around hunting for Skeeter. It made him feel ashamed to show how little control he held over her. A husband shouldn't have to be hunting his wife all the time, but he had to find her. "Hey, Reek, have you seen Skeeter today?"
Reek knew who it was when he heard the 'Andy Devine' tone of voice, like he was trying to talk and take a hard shit at the same time, giving Big Mike's voice a high pitched, straining quality. Reek put him on speaker and motioned to his two friends to listen.
"Yeah, you calling about the truck, ain't you cracker? Your wife done come and gone several times last night, she left your truck on the last trip for four hundred worth of rock"
Big Mike thought for a long moment, the silence hanging heavy like a wet veil, as Big Mike wondered if his Skeeter would sell his truck. Would she do that to him? He remembered the pile of red hair on the bed when he got up, he thought that maybe he remembered cutting it with his knife; if he had done that to her, she might've done this to him.
Reek's voice on the phone interrupted his thoughts as he asked, "You still there white boy?"
"Yeah I'm here," Big Mike mumbled and then he had a thought. "She can't sell my truck, it's my truck, in my name not hers." Then Mike put it together, Reek was trying to fuck him. "Why would you buy a truck that wasn't hers to sell? You're smarter than that ain't you?"
Reek had all he could do not to laugh as he said. "I didn't buy the truck, I just loaned some money on it until you could pay me back. After the way you had treated her I thought that somebody should help her out and you know how helpful I can be."
Mike knew what he had to do, but he didn't know what to say. After a moment he asked "So, you're telling me that I owe you four hundred dollars, and you have my truck?" Then Mike had a smart thought, he could make Reek think everything was okay and maybe he wouldn't be looking when Mike got to his house. Big Mike's face was split by a smile; it was not often that he felt that he was smarter than the person he was talking to, but he enjoyed that feeling today when he asked, "I owe you any interest?"