The Second Doublewide on the Right:(Part Five)

Yeah, Quantavious knew Deputy Murphy’s schedule backwards and forward, and most of his habits. He had an uncle who was a detention officer at the Ocmulgee County Jail, who kept him well informed.

Just before he reached his trailer Quantavious noticed one of his neighbors, the one who resided next door to him. It was Jimmy Ray Hurd, who was out in the yard working on his ragged old 1971 Ford pickup truck.

He had gone to school with Jimmy Ray, but they had never hung out together, or anything like that. It seemed like every time he saw him he had his head underneath the truck’s hood, and didn’t hit a lick at anything else, like a job.

Then he was pulling in behind his trailer. After he gathered up the to-go boxes, he walked around to his front door, climbed the three steps and unlocked the door with his right hand while he held the Styrofoam containers with his left, cradled to his chest.

Sherika and Jernika were sitting and waiting for him at the kitchen table when he walked in and deposited the containers in front of them.

Quantavious had been raised just a few miles south of Apt-To-Miss, and he appreciated good country cooking, so he was stunned when Sheika popped open the lid of her container and said, “What this mess is!?”

He didn’t even have time to respond before Jernika opened her plate and chimed in as she stared down at the collard greens, “Thought you was gonna go get us something good to eat? We wanted some Whoppers and some fries, or some pizza. Anything would have been better that whatever this stuff is!”

Quantavious regained his composure and said, “You got to drive all the way up to the interstate to get stuff like that. This here is some good local food. Next to them greens is some pinto beans. They both tasty, and they good for your system.”

“Shore would like to have a bucket of chicken,” Jernika whined.

Sherika was still gazing down at the container when she asked, “What’s that white stuff on the big part of the plate?”

“It’s gravy,” he responded.

“What’s it on top of?”

“Chicken fried steak.”

“Well, is it chicken, or is it steak?”

“It’s steak, but it’s battered and fried like you do chicken,” Quantavious told her with a tone of irritation in his voice. “Just taste it, it’s good. It’s all good stuff like my grand momma used to cook.”

The twins, in their state of hunger, picked up the plastic silverware and began to taste small bits of food. Quantavious went to the fridge to get them some cokes and by the time he served them the girls were dousing everything on their plates with hot sauce from a bottle of Texas Pete, and then proceeded to consume the food like starving young wolf cubs.

Quantavious was hungry too, but he wanted to wash his hands first. His grand momma had taught him to always wash his hands before eating. When he got to the bathroom the first thing he noticed was one of the girl’s open handbag lying on the counter. He quickly turned the lock on the bathroom door and began rummaging around in the bag looking for a wallet.

Once he found the wallet it didn’t take him long to locate a driver’s license. It was Sherika’s, and he just about had a heart attack when he saw her birthday on it.

Quantavious was good at math and it only took him a moment to figure out she was barely 17 years old. His hands were shaking as he replaced the wallet into the bag. “I got to get ‘em out of here!” he thought out loud as he quickly washed his hands. But still, he knew he had to wait until after dark so no one would see him with them. He had brought them in at night and they would have to go out at night.

He consoled himself by knowing they didn’t know his last name. In fact, they didn’t even know where they were except in some trailer park.

When he returned to the kitchen he wasn’t very hungry anymore. Food was the last thing on his mind at the moment. What he was thinking about was all of the many felonious charges which could be levied against him and what it would be fixing to be like to be a registered sex offender.