The Second Doublewide on the Right, part 27

I’m Fixin’ To Present part 27 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

Jimmy Ray Hurd had enlisted the aid of Elroy Allday because he drove a truck for a garbage company that picked up and delivered dumpsters, and the mall where his big caper was going to take place was one of the garbage company’s customers. They had a fancy name, something like Waste Consolidators, Inc., or something like that, but Jimmy Ray called it like he saw it—they were a garbage company and Elroy was one of their garbage collectors.

When Jimmy Ray pulled into the gravel parking lot of the 142 Club, where Elroy had agreed to meet him, he spotted his faded blue Honda and found a parking spot two spaces down from it.

It was crowded inside but he immediately spotted his target sitting at a table with a half-empty pitcher on it and with a full mug in his hand. “Hey, Elroy,” Jimmy Ray said as he pulled out a chair.

“Hey, yourself.” Elroy’s greetings were always the same, just like when they had been in high school. “Sit your skinny self down and we’ll get us some wings,” he continued as he waved for the waitress.

Her name was Amber, at least that was what she went by. She pulled out a chair, turned it so that the back of it faced the table and straddled it. “Hey, y’all,” she said, with her order pad in her hand.

“Hey, baby, we need another mug for my buddy, and we want a large order of wings.”

“How you want ‘em?” she asked.

“I like ‘em hot. How about you, Jimmy Ray?”

Jimmy Ray simply nodded his agreement and Amber scribbled their order on a pad, dismounted the chair and went off to get Jimmy Ray a mug and to place their order of wings.

Elroy’s intent gaze followed her all the way across the floor. “Good Lord,” he sputtered. “Can you believe how doggone fine she looks?”

Jimmy Ray admired the way Amber looked also, but he got right down to business. “Elroy, do you remember everything we talked about?”

“Heck, yeah, it’ll be a piece of cake.”

“Let’s go over things one more time. Which dumpster are you going to pick up?”

Elroy took a long draught from his mug, licked his fat lips and said, “The one with the big red X painted on it.”

“And where are you picking it up?” Jimmy Ray continued.

“In the back alley behind that big strip mall in town, just like you told me to.”

Amber was back with a basket of wings and celery and a bowl of blue cheese dressing. “Y’all want another pitcher?” she inquired.

“Heck, yes,” Elroy answered as he emptied the dregs of the current one into his mug.

When she was gone Jimmy Ray asked, “When exactly are you picking up the dumpster?”

Elroy’s lips were shiny with wing sauce when he said, “Dang, Jimmy Ray, can’t you relax for a little bit?”

Jimmy Ray felt the anger and frustration come boiling up inside of himself. He leaned across the table so that his face was about two inches from Elroy’s and very softly said, “Listen you dumb sucker, this is some serious crap and I want to get it right. If you screw it up I’ll find you and I’ll cut you!”

Elroy paused with a wing drum stick in mid air, and with his eyes wide with fear said, “All right, all right, I’m picking it up Sunday morning just as its starting to get daylight.”

“You sure you can get a garbage truck out of the yard on Sunday morning before daylight?”

“Heck, yeah, I got a key to the gate. I been working there for four years now.”

Jimmy Ray had regained his composure when he said, “Last question, where you gonna take that dumpster?”

Elroy sucked a wing bone clean and was reaching for another one as he said, “Gonna meet you with it out behind that old abandoned store 12 miles west of Shady Grove Trailer Park on Hwy. 43. Now, how about my money?”

Jimmy Ray palmed off a folded stack of bills to him and said, “Here’s half of it. You’ll be fixin’ to get the other half when the job is done.”