I’m Fixin’ To Play Dead (Part 53)

Louise had been arrested and charged with murder in the death of my old friend, ex-con and thief, Leon Martin. And here I sat knowing doggone well that Red Sexton was the actual murderer, but he was dead now, and I was playing dead, so it seemed to me I was in between a rock and a hard place with no way to turn to make things right.

I was sitting at the kitchen table at Sissy’s house feeling as rough as a cob when she got back from following the Alabama Bureau of Investigation to where ever they had taken Louise.

She sat down across the table from me and said, “I had my lawyer meet us there and there was nothing he could do. They’re going to extradite her to Mississippi where she’ll be formally charged with murder.”

I blurted out, “I have to go down there and tell them what really happened!”

“Really?” Sissy incredulously inquired. “How are you going to identify yourself, as Ralph Cooper, as Todd Prescott, as Sonny Boy or who?”

I thought to myself that was a good question before I said, “I don’t know, but I have to do whatever it takes to get her out of this. It’s my fault that she got arrested for car theft in the first place.”

Sissy reached across the table and entwined her fingers with mine and began to attempt to make me feel better. “Listen, Sonny Boy, Louise had rather steal cars than eat. If she had been caught for every one that she ever stole she would be in jail from now on.”

“How was she when you left her?” I asked.

“She’s all right. She’s a tough old bird and has been in jail a few times before.”

That’s when I told Sissy everything. I started from the beginning, about the ancient miracle of the hurricane when I was blown up into a pecan tree, up through the recent miracle of the plane crash. When I finished she knew exactly who I was and everything about my life.

“Who else knows all this?” she asked.

“Just Leon.”

“I said knows, not knew.”

“Just you then,” I told her. “I don’t suppose Leon is going to tell anyone.”

The room had gone dim and I knew it had gotten dark outside. Suddenly, I had the awful thought that she would be going to work soon and I would be all alone again. In as sad a voice as I could muster I said, “I suppose you’ll have to be going to work in a little while?”

“I don’t ever have to go to work, and I’m certainly not going tonight?”

I thought about what she had said for a moment, about not ever having to go to work and asked, “What do you mean you don’t ever have to? You’ve got a couple of nice cars and a nice house. Don’t you have to make payments on them?”

Without any hesitation she said, “No, everything’s paid for. Over the years I saved and invested my money. I didn’t spend it on drugs, booze and sorry men like all the others do. I’ve got almost as much money as you, except mine is in stocks and an IRA rather than in an ugly, old suitcase. By the way, where did you get that thing?”

“I found it in my basement. I think it belonged to my Uncle Virgil.”

She grinned and said, “Well, tomorrow we can throw it away.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve got a nice leather bag we can put your money into before we place it in a safety deposit box. You should keep some out so you can open yourself up a checking account.”

I looked at her like she was crazy and said, “How the heck am I going to open up a checking account?”

She grinned again and said, “With your new driver’s license and some cash. And while we’re at the bank we’ll get you a Visa card.”

I was ecstatic! “You really did that, you got me a driver’s license!?”

She hadn’t stopped grinning when she said, “A social security card, too. It all cost $500. And guess what else?”

I couldn’t imagine what else.

“We’re going to pick them up in a little while,” she informed me. “Bobby said he was fixing to have them ready tonight.”