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?"
Reek did laugh out loud now as he said, "No man, she paid the interest up front with a fine ass blow job." Reek's friends joined in the laughter when he told Big Mike, "She gonna owe me another one in two hours and another after that for every six hours I keep this truck. So if you don't want your old lady getting spoiled by all this black cock over here you better come give me my money and get your truck." Reek hung up.
Reek would've choked on his laughter if he could have felt the heat and strength of hate and bloodlust that washed through Big Mike's soul at the thought of his sweet Skeeter on her knees before a nigger, sucking on his cock. Mike slammed the phone down so hard that the lid came off the battery compartment and the batteries were thrown across the room, one of them rolling down the hall. He sank into a chair and held his head in his hands. A low pitiful moan came from his mouth as he held his head in his hands, a sound more mournful than anything found in the wild, because only man can love that deep.
Big Mike let himself remember what life had been like before Skeeter, how empty and lonely his life had been. He knew he was just a big dumb redneck, he knew that everyone said that he was retarded, and too dumb to learn. But Skeeter had read books to him and helped him to be smarter, Skeeter had taught him how to look out for himself. Skeeter loved him, she had told him so. He tried to remember the things that she had told him, he remembered her saying that his emotions were so strong because his heart was bigger than his brain. He remembered her saying that he had to try harder to let his brain have time to work before he let those strong heart feelings get him into trouble.
"Get a grip, I need to get a grip, I need time to get a grip." He said the mantra that Skeeter had taught him to himself, and felt it take effect. Mike felt himself relax. "Get a grip, I need to get a grip, I need time to get a grip." He got up and found the pieces of the phone and put it back together again. Putting the phone back together gave him something to do with his hands while his mind chanted the mantra until he felt better.
Big Mike settled into his chair and sipped his coffee, forcing himself to calm down. Skeeter always told him he was smart but he couldn't do a lot of shit at one time. So big Mike sat there and sipped his coffee while his slow moving mind figured out what he needed to focus on. He couldn't find Skeeter without his truck and Reek had his truck. He didn't have any money so he was going to have to take the truck by force or find a way to steal it back from Reek.
Once he understood the problem he was okay and he understood the problem he faced now. He pictured Reek's little shack at the end of that dirt road, the kids up front, the woods all around, Reek and his two or three friends. Once he had hunted in that area it seemed to Mike that there was an old logging trail that came within quarter of a mile of Reek's place. Mike had drained the pot of coffee and wasted over an hour before he came up with his plan. He would ride over there and make his plan then, but he would take some stuff with him when he went.
Years ago his grandfather, an avid bird hunter, had sawn off the barrels on his double-barrel twelve gauge shotgun, he was half blind and couldn't shoot birds any longer. He was gone on overnight trips sometimes and wanted something for home protection, something he or his wife could point in the general direction of whatever you wanted to shoot and feel sure to hit something. After the old man had died they had kept the gun in a trunk in his father's room, where he also found a box of double 0 buckshot shotgun shells. Mike took a pocket full of shells and then loaded both barrels of the gun. Close up, both barrels would be like a canon's blast, across a yard or large room it would be more like a claymore mine. Either way it was something that might change the minds of most men about wanting to fight.