The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 74

I’m Fixin’ To present part 74 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

Quantavious Cortex Carter woke up stiff, cold and miserable as he attempted to untangle himself from the rough canvas and find his cell phone before it stopped ringing. He had slept hungry and cold, but he hadn’t slept in jail. The light inside the old abandoned store was dim and dusty, so he had to find his phone by sound and by feel. When he did he saw to his great relief that it was one of his business associates calling him.

Hey, dog, this here is Odell. I need you to place a order with them Mexican devils for dis—–“

“Listen up, Odell!,” he interrupted, “I’m in trouble and need some help!”

“What kind of help? You ain’t been shot have you?”

“Naw, man, I ain’t been shot yet, but I’m on the run from the law and I’m stuck out in the middle of nowhere without no wheels!”

“Which law you running from?” Odell inquired.

“I’m running from the local fuzz, out here in Ocmulgee County, and I’m on foot. I had to bust out my back door about the same time they was busting in my front door. What I need is a ride.”

“I thought you always kept your place clean,” Odell observed.

“I do, but the word is that they planted some drugs in my trailer, and there’ll be a warrant out on my tail before the day is over!”

“I’ll send Draylon for you. You know him, he’s my driver,” Odell told him. “Where you holed up at?”

After Quantavious gave Odell directions to the abandoned store on State Hwy 43, Odell asked, “How long it take to get there from Atlanta?”

“About an hour and fifteen minutes,” Quantavious informed him.

“Draylon will be on his way in a few minutes. He’ll be in the white van. You be looking for him.”

Quantavious shivered with cold, but he did feel some relief after the phone conversation was over. He checked his watch and saw that it was seven o’clock in the morning, so he figured Draylon would be showing up around eight-thirty, providing he didn’t get lost or screw around.

He could see the dust motes floating in the air as the morning sunshine streamed in through the hole he had kicked in the back wall last night. He decided it would be warmer outside in the sun instead of inside the cold and dusty building.

After he climbed back through the hole on his hands and knees he breathed the cold, fresh morning air and sat down with his back to the wall in a position so he could soak up the early morning sunshine, but it was still cold. He wrapped his arms across his chest and tucked his hands underneath them to keep his finger warm.. That’s when he noticed the fresh tire tracks in the weeds again. He got up to inspect them.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that two vehicles had recently driven behind the building. After a close inspection he determined one of them had been a heavy vehicle with double tires and the other had been a light truck, but he didn’t know what to make of it, just so they didn’t come back before his ride showed up.

He returned to his spot in the sun and shivered as he watched the minutes on his watch go crawling by.

He was thinking about some of that fried chicken he had had at Sunday dinner yesterday when he heard the sound of a vehicle pulling off the road. When he got up and peeked around the corner he breathed a great sigh of relief when he saw it was the white van. After glancing up and down the road and seeing it empty, he sprinted to the waiting vehicle.

“Come on man, let’s roll!” he told Draylon as soon as he slammed the door. “Dang, it feels good in here!” Quantavious exclaimed as he absorbed the warmth. “I been freezing my tail off all night!”

Quantavious didn’t know much about Draylon; just that he worked for Odell, and that he was mighty glad to see him. When his nose picked up the provocative scent of warm biscuits, he decided he liked him much more than he thought he had.

“They’s a sack of sausage ‘n biscuits and some coffee in that sack on the floorboard, in case you hungry,” Draylon told him.

“Bless you my brother” Quantavious said as he tore into the brown paper bag. He was biting into his third biscuit by the time they got to Apt-To-Miss.

He was so into the warmth of the van and the taste of the food that he didn’t even realize they were where they were until he heard Draylon say, “Hey man, ain’t that yo purple ride they fixin’ be be pulling out of that trailer park?”

(www.teddunagan.com)