The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 59
I’m Fixin’ To present part 59 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:
Jimmy Ray Hurd was thinking he might have to go ahead and slice Elroy’s neck after all, but then he didn’t know how to operate the controls of the garbage truck. So, he took a deep breath to calm himself before he said, “You don’t have to leave the dumpster, you dummy! I just want to get something out of it and I can’t do it with it sticking up in the air. Okay?”
“Well shoot Jimmy Ray, why didn’t you just say so. Ain’t no need to get all worked up,” Elroy said as he climbed back into the cab of the truck and began to pull levers and handles and push buttons.
Jimmy Ray stepped back and watched as the humming and grinding noises started and the metal box began its descent to the ground, where it made a firm thumping sound when it finally got there.
“Come on back,” Jimmy Ray called out to Elroy, “I’m gonna need your help.”
As soon as he pulled the gaping side door of the dumpster open Elroy stuck his head in the dark opening and said, “What you got in this here dumpster, Jimmy Ray?”
Jimmy Ray pushed him aside and peered into the dim interior of the dumpster, and to his relief, he saw the outline of the duffle bag. He stepped back and said, “There’s an old army duffle bag in there and I can’t lift it by myself. I need you to climb in there and lift it out to me.”
“Whoa! Now hold on a minute, Jimmy Ray! You never said nothing about me having to climb inside of no dumpster. Heck fire, there could be some big rats in there. I’ve seen ‘em before!”
Jimmy Ray had had enough. He pulled his big switch blade knife, flipped the lock, pressed the button and the deadly blade leapt out poised a quarter of an inch from the tip of Elroy’s nose.
Elroy immediately dived into the dumpster, and didn’t waste any time once he was inside. Jimmy Ray could hear him grunting like a fat hog as he struggled with the duffle. Once he got it on the edge of the door Jimmy Ray grasped the strap and pulled with all his might while he instructed Elroy to push.
When half of the bag was hanging on the lip of the dumpster door Jimmy Ray hopped up onto the lowered tailgate of his truck and gave a mighty tug and the bag tumbled out onto the back of his truck where it landed with loud clanging and jingling noises.
Elroy tumbled out of the dumpster, huffing and puffing and asked, “What in heck you got in that bag, Jimmy Ray?”
“Nosey people get their noses cut off,” Jimmy Ray responded.
“All right then, the only other question I’ll ask is can I please have the rest of my money?” It ain’t my fault for being so late. You remember Amber, that girl who works at Hooter’s? Well I’ve got myself hooked up with her and she don’t get home until about two in the morning. I didn’t get hardly no sleep last night and I had a hard time getting out of bed.”
Jimmy Ray grudgingly counted out five one-hundred dollar bills into Elroy’s hand while he asked, “You remember everything I told you?”
“Yep, gonna take this truck and dumpster back to the yard and nobody will ever know I been there. I’ll be back at Amber’s place before she even knows I got out of bed.”
“You might want to take a shower first,” Jimmy Ray told him. “She might not like the fragrance of Old Dumpster.”
Jimmy Ray watched the garbage truck’s tail lights disappear in the misting rain while hoping he would never rue the day that he hadn’t cut his accomplice’s fat throat. Then he headed west on Hwy 43.
He was feeling better as the miles clicked off, but he was still jittery from being up so long, coupled with the stress and tension he had been under.
“Almost done now,” he thought as he punched his code number into the key pad at the gate of the mini storage center. It was almost ten o’clock, but the place was deserted. He drove down the narrow concrete street between the rows of storage units until he got to his.
Once he got the door open he backed his truck up to the entrance. He hoped one of them dang bullets wouldn’t go off when he drug the bag off the back of the truck and it hit the cement floor. None did, and he dragged the bag inside, lit a lantern he kept there and closed the unit door. Then he remembered he had forgotten his gloves and had to go through the process again.
An hour later he had 130 handguns and the ammunition packed up into five manageable boxes. The only thing left was a pile of glittering broken glass among a great tangle of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, watches, rings and other assorted jewelry, some of it with gleaming, precious stones which he knew was worth a great deal more than the guns and ammo.
He placed the loot, broken glass and all back into the duffle, rolled it up in a tight bundle.
The bright light outside burned his tired eyes, but he knew he had one more stop to make. He for sure wasn’t going to take the bag full of precious jewelry home with him. But he did know the perfect place he was fixin’ to stash it.
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