The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 53

I’m Fixin’ to present Part 53 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

Standing on Leon’s doublewide steps Candy Sue cautioned him that he ought not to be drinking liquor at the same time he was taking pain pills. “I’m on my way to get supplies for the restaurant and I thought you might need some groceries or something.”

Leon didn’t respond for a moment. Then he said with a tone of bitterness in his voice, “Naw, I don’t need nothing at all,” and he pushed the door closed in her face.

“Well, the heck with you then,” Candy Sue thought as she retreated down the steps. She was halfway back to her car when she heard him open the door again.

“Hey,” Leon called out through the screen, “maybe I could use a few things since you going anyway.”

She turned around and said, “All right, what can I pick up for you?”

“I need several bottles of whiskey.”

“Leon, it’s Sunday. I can’t buy no liquor.”

“Well, how about picking me up a case of beer? That’ll get me by until tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Candy Sue replied, “I can do that, but don’t you need something to eat?”

“Yeah, but I don’t give a dang what. Maybe some bread and some stuff to make sandwiches with,” he said as a crack appeared in the screen door and he stuck his arm out with a bill in it. “Here’s a hundred dollar bill.”

“Don’t worry about the money,” she told him. “I’ll settle up with you later.” The truth was she just didn’t want to get that close to him.

“All right, then,” he told her as he drew his arm back inside. “Just don’t forget the beer.”

It was a good time to be on the road late on Sunday morning. It was a right at eleven o’clock and the traffic was light because most folks were at church. When she passed the new church that had sprung up on Hwy. 86, she noticed that the parking lot, or the pasture that surrounded it, was jam packed with cars and pickup trucks.

She drove on to a wholesale club and and purchased supplies enough to fulfill her menu for Monday and Tuesday. The she stopped at the supermarket and bought Leon some loaf bread, stopped at the deli and got him some nice roast beef and some smoked turkey sliced real thin. She also picked up some frozen meals which he could microwave. Reluctantly, she also put a case of beer into the buggy and headed for the checkout.

When she got there she was forced to park her buggy and wait five minutes before the beer could be legally sold on Sunday.

“Sorry, ma’am,” the cashier had said, “but it’s a state law that we can’t sell any beer or wine on Sunday, until twenty minutes after twelve.”

Traffic was heavy on the way home. She supposed it was because everybody was on their way from church to the buffet, or on their way to the store to buy some Sunday beer or wine. When she passed back by the church she noticed the parking lot was deserted except for one car. She slowed down so she could make sure she really did recognize the vehicle.

Leon was a lot quicker to answer her knock when she showed up with his groceries and beer. She had the case of beer in one hand and three plastic bags containing the groceries in the other when she stepped through the door. She immediately spotted and headed for the kitchen table where she deposited everything on top of it. When she turned to leave Leon was sticking out his hand with the hundred dollar bill in it.

“It wasn’t but thirty-eight dollars, Leon, and besides, I don’t have any change.”

“Well, heck, you burned your gas. Just keep it all and maybe fix me a to-go plate or two from the restaurant. The rest will be your tip. You want to have one of these beers with me?”

All Candy Sue wanted to do was get the heck out of there. She couldn’t believe the old crippled wretch was standing there on crutches with a big white ball on his shot foot and was still looking at her the way he was.

She took the hundred and as she headed for the door said, “Thanks, but I got to get my meat and vegetables in the fridge.”

She was halfway out the door when Leon asked, “You ain’t see Marthalene, have you?”

“No,” she replied, “I ain’t seen her, but I saw her car. It was the only one there. Saw it on the way home when I was fixin’ to pass that new church.”