The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 57

I’m Fixin’ To present part 57 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

Jimmy Ray Hurd sat in his truck in the parking lot of the Waffle House and watched the darkness fade away into a drizzly dawn. It was good that it was raining. He liked the rain because you could hide in it almost as well as you could in the dark. But he had no reason to hide anymore because he had cleaned out the big pawn shop across the street and all the loot was stashed in a dumpster with a red X spray painted on it in the alley behind the strip mall waiting for Elory to come pick it up with his big dump truck.

Gracie, the waitress in the Waffle House, had been correct. Cars and pickups were beginning to fill the parking lot. He needed to get the heck out of there soon, but he wanted to see Elroy pull his big truck into the alley across the street first. What if the sorry, fat rascal didn’t show up?

There wasn’t anyway he could haul that duffle bag out of that dumpster by himself, but he for dang sure didn’t plan to leave it there. He might just have to drive his truck in the alley and do some dumpster diving and somehow get that bag out of there and onto the back of his truck. He might get away with it in this drizzling rain.

But heck, that’s why he had hired Elroy, so he wouldn’t have to take a chance of getting caught. What if his truck broke down while he was in there? Then he would be dead meat.

It was daylight now. The rain was dribbling down the window of his truck, plus it had fogged up inside and he couldn’t see. He used his sleeve to wipe the fog off the window, but he still couldn’t see clearly so he rolled the window halfway down and stared out into the wet morning mist at the little empty street next to him and the gaping opening of the alley across from it where the fruit of his labor rested.

In his frustration at Elroy being late Jimmy Ray slid his hand into his pocket and stroked the smooth sides of his long switchblade knife as he silently cursed Elroy and thought about how he ought to use it on his accomplice’s fat neck.

The soft sound of the rain pattering on the roof of his old truck soothed the fatigue in his bones and the worry in his mind. His eyes burned so badly that he thought he would close them for just a moment or two.

Jimmy Ray didn’t realize he had drifted off until the screeching sound of the air brakes on the huge garbage truck jarred him awake. The first thing he did was look at his watch.

“Hell fire!” he hissed when he saw that it was almost eight o’clock and realized he had been asleep for almost an hour and how late Elroy was. He was for sure going to slice his neck now, but first, he still hoped to get away clean with the loot.

The rain had diminished to a fine mist, and he could see the yellow taillights and the red brake lights as the truck slowed and pulled into the alley across the street. It had an empty dumpster aboard it which would be left to replace the one with the red X on it.

He couldn’t see down the alley but he could hear the grinding of the motors that lowered the empty dumpster and heard the thump of it as it hit the pavement. Then he heard more grinding and banging noise as he supposed Elroy had hooked up to the designated dumpster and was raising it.

When at last, mercifully, the truck emerged from the alley and pulled out onto the street Jimmy Ray breathed a long sigh of relief as it passed by with the red X clearly visible. Still, he was furious with Elroy for being late. He had planned to have the duffle bag on his truck and be on the way to his storage unit by now.

As he started his truck’s engine he was seriously thinking about slitting Elroy’s throat once they arrived at the meeting place out on Hwy 43, but he knew that wouldn’t do because that waitress at Hooter’s, and who knew who else, had seem him with Elroy, which would eventually lead to the law to come snooping around.

Besides that, he knew that wasn’t going to happen because he was a thief and not a killer. No, he didn’t have that in him, but what he would do was scare the heck out of him so he would be sure and keep his mouth shut.

Jimmy Ray didn’t let the garbage truck’s tail lights get out of his sight in the misty morning rain. They had to go down Hwy 86 and through Apt-To-Miss to get to Hwy 43. When they turned onto it and passed the trailer park entrance he found himself wishing he could pull in there and drive up to his trailer and go inside and slide into his bed and go to sleep.

But he knew he had a ways to go before the job was fixin’ to get done.