Chapter 9

“Let’s move this stuff from the back seat into the trunk,” Donny said stretching his sore back.

He had been riding in the back seat, while Vincent had been driving.

“Thank God. I was getting tired of sitting back there with all of that gear,” Vincent said.

The camping gear, clothes, and food had taken up most of the back seat. It had not been entirely comfortable riding back there.

“We all took turns,” Rose said.

“You’re all smaller than I am,” Vincent replied.

He was feeling a little surly after driving for so long.

Pepper said, “What are you complaining about? I’ve been stuck in the trunk for two days.”

“If you want to complain, we can let you ride the rest of the way in the trunk,” Donny said.

They had taken a lot of care to make sure that Pepper didn’t suffer too much in the trunk. They had taken breaks every two hours to give him a chance to walk around, rehydrate, and take care of his bodily functions. During the heat of the day they had put a bag of ice in the trunk to help cool him off.

“I’m not complaining,” Pepper said frantically.

He thought that another hour in the trunk would kill him.

It didn’t take too long for them to transfer the gear from the back seat to the trunk. Pepper, still wearing his wrist cuffs, stood and watched them work. It had become obvious over the past two days that none of them were strangers to hard work. He couldn’t believe how easily Rose pitched in to do physical work. He hadn’t heard her complain once about something being too heavy.

Holding open the door of the car, Donny said, “You get to ride in the front seat from now on.”

For the first time, Pepper wondered why they would let him ride where he could be seen by other folks. Almost as if reading his mind, Vincent said, “We’re about an hour from home. We thought you might like to know exactly what you’ll be facing in case you try to run off.”

“People will see me,” Pepper said. Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth he wanted to kick himself. He wanted people to see him. That was his best chance of getting out of this mess.

Rose laughed and said, “Don’t worry. These are our neighbors. Half of them are related to us by blood, or by marriage. Everyone out here already knows all about you. You’re the guy who screwed over Sonny.”

“A lot of folks are wondering why we didn’t just kill you,” Vincent said.

Donny gestured to the front seat while he said, “It was the preacher who suggested that an act of contrition would cleanse your soul.”

Rose said, “It’s a real shame you don’t believe in God.”

“He’s a crutch that the weak use, because they aren’t strong enough to face life’s challenges,” Pepper said.

He had been incredulous when they had said grace before eating.

“We’ve heard you say that a couple of times,” Vincent said shaking his head.

Vincent thought it was strange how people could believe in human organizations and not God.

Holding up the ankle cuffs, Donny said, “We’ve got to put the hobbles on you.”

“Why?” Pepper asked.

“You’re going to be riding in the front seat. We wouldn’t want you to get any funny ideas,” Donny answered.

It didn’t take long to get Pepper ready for the last leg of the trip. Sitting in the front seat, he looked around at his surroundings. After the first day in the desert, the wooded area was a relief. At least it didn’t look so desolate.

Once everyone got into the car, Donny sniffed the air.

He said, “Oh man, you stink.”

“What do you expect? I’ve been in the trunk of a car for two days,” Pepper said.

“We’ll just keep the windows rolled down,” Donny said.

He rolled his window down before starting the car. Rose and Vincent followed suit. Vincent then leaned forward and opened Pepper’s window. Once he was sure that everyone was ready, Donny pulled out onto the dirt road.

“It sure will be nice to be home,” Vincent said looking out the window.

Pepper stuck his head out of the window. After so much time spent in the trunk, it was nice having a fresh breeze blowing in his face.

Donny said, “You can say that again.”

Rose said, “I can’t wait for a hot shower and a soft bed.”

Turning onto a paved road, Donny said, “Back that way is the highway we were on. It’s about a mile away from here. About thirty minutes up the road is our home town.”

Pepper looked at the speedometer and said, “You’re driving sixty miles an hour.”

“That’s right. It’s only thirty miles up the road from here,” Donny said. He pointed to a house and barn when they drove past. He said, “I see that the Hendricksons painted their barn.”

“They were out there working on it when we headed out to Los Angeles,” Vincent said. “We stopped to chat for a bit when we were leaving. Dale said that he had a number of boards that were beginning to rot and had to be replaced.”

“He should have painted it last year,” Donny said.

“Well, he had that accident, and couldn’t do it last year,” Rose said justifying Dale’s lack of action in taking care of the barn.

Donny said, “He could have asked for a little help. I would have shown up. We all helped bale his hay last fall.”

“He didn’t want to impose when it could wait,” Vincent said. “He felt bad enough when Nancy and I stopped by to replace his hot water heater.”

Pepper asked, “You drove thirty miles to help that guy out?”

Vincent said, “No. We drove fifty miles. Dale Hendrickson is my wife’s uncle. He’s family.”

As soon as he heard the word, ‘family’, Pepper shut up and looked out the window knowing that future discussion would not achieve anything. Family justified a whole lot of things with these people. Back at home, he would have hired a painter to take care of the problem. He had a feeling that they would have laughed at the whole idea of doing that.

He was beginning to understand that he was entering an entirely different world now.

Donny pointed to another house and asked, “What do you think is going to happen to the Mueller place, now that the old man has passed away?”

“I heard that Skip Marks is thinking about buying it. He finally got around to asking Valerie to marry him, and wants to get his own place,” Vincent answered.

“Really? How much are the Mueller kids asking for the place?” Donny asked.

All of Mueller’s kids had moved out of the area more than thirty years ago.

Rose answered, “I heard that they wanted a million five.”

“What?” Pepper asked.

His little store in Los Angeles had cost a third of that. He couldn’t believe that these hicks were talking about that much money.

Vincent said, “He’ll probably get it for a million three.”