JUDGE HARLOW, THERE'S BEEN AN INCIDENT
"Bessie!" Judith hissed as she stood over the sleeping couple.
She had no idea what time it was, but she knew the sun had just come up. Isaac had woken up with her, as he always did, and now he was outside with the hood raised on the car. Isaac was a hard-working man who never wasted a second of a day. It was one of the many things Judith admired about him.
But now it was time to leave. Any time now, her father would come home from work and if he discovered her missing, she'd never hear the end of it. Ever since her mother died, Judith's father hadn't paid much attention to where Judith went or how long she stayed out. It wasn't that he didn't care, it was that all he did was work just to make the ends meet, along with her brothers, who worked just as hard and as long. In a way, Judith was lucky to have these men in her life who worked hard just so that she could go to school and enjoy her summers at home. She loved her small, testosterone-filled family and she appreciated them more than they could ever know. However, she also didn't want to disappoint her father and she did not want this to be the morning for that to start, either.
"Mmm," Zac murmured, moving his head around in response, but still miles away with sleep. He lay on his back, his shirt hanging wide open, one arm tucked under his head and the other one wrapped around a sleeping Bessie, who rested her cheek soundly against his bare skin. After the romp heard 'round the camp the previous night, Judith was relieved to see that she at least had her dress on.
"Bessie," she hissed again, shaking her gently by the shoulder. "Bessie, wake up, we gotta go!"
Zac murmured again, his time screwing up his face with annoyance. He turned his head toward Judith's voice and removed his arm from around Bessie long enough to wave her away. "Go away, she's fine," he muttered sleepily, his eyes still closed. "Let her sleep."
"We have to go," Judith replied. "I have to get home and so does she. And you have to get to the feed store, don't you forget!"
"Shit," Zac whispered, his eyes opening wider now. He lifted his head and looked down at his sleeping girlfriend. "Give me a minute, will you?"
"Just a minute!" Judith hissed.
Finding herself outside and anxious, Judith joined Isaac by the car as he studied something under the hood. She propped herself against the bumper and crossed her arms over her chest. "Having problems again?"
"No," he admitted with a sigh as he stepped back a couple steps away from it. "I guess I'm just used to waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"Well, that's not a fun way to live your life," she retorted. "If you spend all your time waiting for the other shoe to drop, you'll miss out on all kinds of things."
Isaac was silent for a moment as he ran his hand through his hair and stared hard at the car in front of them. Finally, he turned to look at her, crossing his arms over his chest to match hers. "Judith, am I fun?"
She was caught off guard by his question. "Of course you're fun," she answered.
"Zac called me a fun-sucker last night."
Judith couldn't help herself, she had to scoff a laugh at this uncanny term. "What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'm uptight and I suck the fun out of everything. But I think he's right. And I think you're right. I think I just need to let loose and stop waiting for the other shoe to drop."
She studied him for a moment, remembering the tossing and turning he had done in bed just mere hours ago. Uncrossing her arms, she approached him and slid her arms around his waist. "Oh, Daddy," she said with sympathetic eyes. "Did you get any sleep at all last night?"
"Not much," he admitted.
"All because you think you're no fun?"
"I don't want to be that guy," he replied, shaking his head. "But I just--I mean, someone's gotta be the voice of reason around here--"
"Who's being unreasonable?"
He paused to think for a moment as he uncrossed his arms and wrapped them around his girl. "Um...well. Tay and that engagement, for one thing--"
"They love each other, don't they?"
"It was news to me."
"But they said it, didn't they?"
"Yeah..."
"So why is that unreasonable? People love each other, they get married. Simple as that."
"It's really not that simple--"
"Sure it is. I don't see anything unreasonable about it. I hope he's happy and I wish him all the best."
"Really?"
"Yes. Really. He's twenty-eight years old. People are starting to think you guys are going to be old bachelors for the rest of your lives."
"What people?"
"I don't know," Judith shrugged. "Just people."
"Well. Anyway, I want to be fun. I don't want to be uptight all the time--"
"But you're not. You're plenty fun. You're funny and you're witty and you can drink a man under the table with your eyes closed. And then with that guitar last night..." Judith smiled dreamily at the memory. "And that smile on your face, it was just...you were born to make music, Ike. Music makes you happy. And fun."
Finally, he smiled, and he tightened his arms around her. "I do love making music..."
She grinned back up at him. "I just love to see you smile."
He leaned his head down and pressed his lips sweetly against hers. "You really are too good to me, Princess, you know that?"
Unfortunately, she didn't have time to respond, as her eighteen-year-old little friend finally found her way out the trailer door with Zac close behind. "I'm sorry, Daddy, I gotta go. I gotta get her home and I gotta get back before my old man sees that I didn't come home."
"I'll see you tonight?" Isaac asked quietly.
"I'll count down the minutes," she replied, dreamily.
Maybe Judith's relationship with Isaac wasn't headed for marriage like Taylor's or new and deep like Zac's, but it was all their own and it made her completely happy.
____________________________________________________________________
Bessie felt horrible as Judith drove her home. Her head pounded and her stomach churned and the events from the previous night came to her in blurry flashes. The only thing that made her happy was waking up with Zac, but even that didn't last long enough. She smiled at how adorable he was when his eyes and his voice were heavy with sleep and she wished she could awaken like that every single day.
"I wish I didn't have to leave him," she found herself murmuring quietly. "Leaving him only grows more and more difficult. If my parents ever went out of town, I'd spend the night with him every single night and it would be the happiest time of my life."
Judith snorted in the driver seat as her soft, blonde finger curls blew gently in the breeze from the open window. "Are you sure last night wasn't the happiest time of your life? Because you sure were happy enough for the entire camp to hear it."
Bessie narrowed her eyes at Judith in confusion as she thought for a moment. And then, it hit her. Full force, the memories of...of Zac's pants around his ankles and...and the way she threw herself all over him...
"Oh, my god," she said, hiding her face with her hands. "Judith, tell me it's not true."
Judith laughed. "It's plenty true. 'Oh, yes, Zac, yes! It feels so good, don't stop!'"
"Oh, my god!" Bessie cried louder into her hands. "Oh, Judith, I can never show my face there again! I can't show it anywhere!"
"Oh, pish posh, there were so many drugs around that place last night, I'm sure the only ones who heard or cared were sober and, believe me, that was not many."
Judith's words didn't matter. They didn't keep Bessie from absolute humiliation. On the other hand, though, now that Judith mentioned it, the memories did start to flood in--and she only wished she was that sexually confident when she was sober.
Sober. So last night was what being truly drunk meant. Well, it had been fun, Bessie couldn't deny that. She supposed that maybe her drinking simply heightened her want for Zac and that had been thoroughly enjoyable. However, with the way she felt right now, a part of her wondered if it was worth it.
As they approached her house, Bessie groaned. "Oh, no. I bet Mama's already awake and making Daddy's breakfast."
"Well, at least you get a free meal out of it, right?" Judith smiled.
"Hey," Bessie replied. "Do you want to stay for breakfast? Mama always makes way too much."
"I'd love to! And Daddy would be much more accepting of the fact that I'm at your house rather than where we really were."
Bessie was relieved that her mother was the only one in the kitchen when she and Judith walked in the house. The smells of eggs and bacon nearly pulled the girls into the kitchen with imaginary arms. "Good morning, Mama," Bessie greeted her mother, mustering up as much cheer as she could. "Is it okay if Judith has breakfast with us?"
"Of course it is," her mother said warmly. Then she turned around and got a look at the girls and her smile turned into a frown. "You smell to high heaven of liquor, smoke, and men, Beatrice. Now you two get upstairs and wash up right this instant before your father comes downstairs and gets a nose full. For shame!"
Bessie and Judith widened their eyes at each other and scrambled upstairs so fast, they were practically airborne. They took turns with the bath and Bessie lent Judith a fresh dress and, somehow, managed to beat the judge back downstairs in time to eat.
To Bessie's surprise, he entered the room with a smile and his leisure pants and red, short-sleeved shirt. "I tell you, I think this is the best part of the day, getting to start it off with a table full of beautiful ladies. Wouldn't you three agree?"
"Um, good morning, Daddy," Bessie answered. "Those aren't your usual work clothes..."
"Good eye," her father winked. "I actually decided to take the day off today. I have some vacation time, thought today was a good day to take it."
"Well, it certainly is a beautiful day, dear," Bessie's mother smiled as she served his plate and poured his coffee.
Once everyone was seated, the table fell silent as everyone concentrated on their eating. Several minutes later, the judge broke the silence. "So where's Millie?"
"Millie?" Bessie asked.
"Yes. Millie. I figured the three of you pulled an all-nighter, fooling with hair or makeup or whatever it is you girls do at those things."
"Yes," Bessie's mother interjected, with a much-too-amused raised eyebrow as she sipped her coffee. "Where IS Millie?"
Bessie stole a glance at Judith across the table and then the lines slid smooth as butter right off of Judith's tongue. "She decided not to stay over."
"Oh?" The judge asked, surprised. "You three are like The Three Musketeers, what could possibly be more important than girls' night in?"
"Joey Martin," Judith replied simply.
That deserved a kick under the table and Judith glared at Bessie as she reached underneath and rubbed her shin.
"Joey Martin?" The judge asked, surprised. "And Millie?"
"Guess so," Judith shrugged nonchalantly. "He just came to my house and asked her to go eat with him and off, they went."
Well. Some of that was partially true, so Bessie was at least grateful for that.
Her mother, however, couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. "So Joey Martin likes Millie..."
"Who'da thunk it?" Judith asked. "I even saw them kissing."
"Judith!" Bessie hissed.
"What? I did!"
The look on Judith's face seemed to hold an ounce of truth, so Bessie made a mental note to revisit the subject later. In the meantime, her father shook his head as he shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth. "Well, Bess, I hope you're not too heartbroken over it. At one point I thought you might marry Joey someday. You two were so inseparable."
The thought of marriage suddenly clouded her mind with stars and a mindless smile crossed her face as she speared her own eggs with her fork. "No. I'm going to marry Zac."
To her right, at the head of the table, Bessie's father choked on his food and he pounded his chest for a moment as he coughed. "Excuse me?" He asked when he recovered. "Is there something you need to say to us?"
Caught off guard, Bessie froze in place, her eyes wide at her father.
"Oh, Bessie doesn't mean that, Mr. Harlow," Judith laughed nervously.
"Yes, I do," Bessie replied, looking Judith square in the eye.
"No, no. I mean...well, Mr. and Mrs. Harlow, back when you were young and courting, didn't you just automatically assume that you were going to marry your sweetheart? You never go into a courtship just expecting things not to work out, right? You always hope for the best."
Miraculously, Judith's words of wisdom seemed to calm the judge a little, while Bessie's mother snickered slyly. "How about we not discuss my days of courtship?"
"How about we change the subject?" The judge suggested. "Judith, are you excited about your upcoming semester at school?"
"Oh, absolutely--" Judith started before their conversation was interrupted by a vigorous rapping on the front door.
The four diners looked around at each other as Mrs. Harlow haughtily tossed her napkin onto the table. "Who in God's creation is at our door at eight in the morning on a Monday?"
As she stood from the table, Bessie's father laid his hand over hers to settle her back into her chair. "I'll get it Cathy. You ladies stay right here."
The judge left the room and the three women all leaned in over the table to try to get a glimpse at who might be at the front door. They could hear two men's voices and it was when Bessie heard her own name when she finally stood up and went to the doorway. Her eyes widened at the sight and she turned around and stared at her mother and her friend. "It's Taylor. What is he doing here?"
"Zac's brother?" Her mother asked.
"Yes!"
"I don't know..." Judith mused.
"Bessie?" Taylor's voice called loudly through the house. She turned around and spied him craning his neck over her father's shoulder. "Bessie, come quick. We gotta hurry!"
Alarms went off all over Bessie's body and her heart pounded so hard she thought it might burst out of her chest. With that, all three women hastily made their way into the living room.
"Taylor!" Bessie answered. "What's going on, is everything okay? Where's Zac?"
"Put on your shoes, I'll explain on the way."
"Now, hold it right there," the judge said to Taylor. "You can't just burst onto my front porch and start making demands of my daughter--"
"Judge Harlow, there's been an incident--"
That was all Bessie needed to hear. For the second time that morning, Bessie and Judith flew up the stairs at lightning speeds, shoved pins in their hair, buckled shoes on their feet, and flew right back down.
"I'll get a deputy there," her father was saying. "Cathy, after that, you get on the horn and phone Judith's father. Phone my sister and her husband, phone Joey Martin and his father, phone everyone we know. Son, we'll be right behind you. And tell your brother not to lay a finger on a single thing until the deputies get there, you understand me?"
"Yes, sir," Taylor said obediently.
Within the next minute, Bessie and Judith were flying down the dirt road with Taylor in the driver seat of the brothers' car.
**********
When Taylor slowed the car to a stop in front of Anderson's Feed and Seed, Bessie's jaw dropped as she stepped out of the door and her heart sank all the way to her feet. It was in complete, tragic disarray and destruction, obviously the work of heinous vandals.
"They did everything," Taylor said quietly as he walked up beside her and gazed up at the store. "The windows, the doors...the railings of both porches. And the inside. Jesus, Bess, they practically gutted the place. Didn't steal anything, just destroyed it all."
"Oh, my heavens," Bessie whispered as she covered her mouth and looked at the damage. The windows had been busted in, the glass shattered on the glass door, leaving an empty shell where it used to be. The store's sign was seemingly hanging by a thread, the wooden railings on the porch were completely torn off, and there were multiple colors of paint splattered all over the building, as far as could be seen. And this was only the outside.
"Where's Zac?"
"In there somewhere," Taylor answered solemnly. "When you find him, tell him not to touch anything."
"Until the detectives can get here and take pictures," Bessie finished with a whisper. "I know."
Bessie was almost too nervous to even step on the ground that the store sat on. She crept up the steps and onto the porch and, sadly, didn't even have to open the door--she merely stepped carefully through the frame. Her heart broke all over again at the sight and she swallowed a lump in her throat. The scene was horrifying. Glass from the display cases littered the floor, the shelves were half empty of the merchandise that lay shattered and torn up all over the store. Free-standing displays had been turned over, their contents spilled across the hardwood, and there was hardly a place in the entire store that you could step without disturbing something.
Zac was nowhere in sight, so she carefully stepped through the obstacle course to walk towards the back. Searching the area, she finally found him on the back porch, torn up railings and vandalized walls just like the front, and he sat on a stack of untouched feed sacks, hanging his head. A tear escaped her eye and she wiped it away quickly, choosing to be adult and to be strong for him. Taking a deep breath, she approached him and sat next to him on the feed sacks.
They sat in silence for a moment before his voice came out in a quiet strangle. "If it were me, I'd have done it all. Cut open all the bags, pour all the feed and the flour and the cornmeal all over the place. Then poured water all over it all. Water would have really done a number on top of that stuff. I mean, if you're gonna do it, do it right, you know?"
"Zac," she whispered, slipping her hand into his.
"Did you see it? Bastards didn't even touch the stock room. Who vandalizes a store and doesn't finish the job? Amateurs, that's who. Stupid amateurs."
"You say that like you have experience with this sort of thing."
"I don't. But think about it."
Bessie nodded, choosing to let him have his moment. Whatever he needed to say or do to get things off his chest, she would let him. No matter the words or analogies he used.
She looked up at him and swept a strand of hair off of his face that had escaped his ponytail. Tucking it behind his ear, she reached up and she kissed his cheek gently. Suddenly, he turned his body into her and wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her neck. She slid her arms around him and grazed her nails over his back, letting him hold on to her as tightly and as long as he wanted to. Before she thought about it, not knowing where the words came from, she began to speak softly in his ear. "Sometimes in life things happen that we can't control. Sometimes they're good and sometimes they're bad. And it's okay to be happy or sad about them, or feel whatever these events make us feel. But it's our responsibility to choose how we're going to react to them. That is what the outcome is based on."
"I'm such a failure, Bessie," he whispered into his hair.
"You are not a failure."
"I failed him. I failed Burt. He trusted me, Bessie. This store is his life and he trusted me with it. And I couldn't go a few measly days without--without destroying his entire life. He leaves here to go visit his dying brother, the only family he has left, and now he's going to come home to his livelihood as one big...heaping pile of shit and it's all my fault. Every single bit of it. He shouldn't have trusted me, Bessie. Nobody should trust me. I can't do anything right, I fuck up everything I touch."
"Zac, this isn't your fault," she said, pulling away from him and turning his face to look at her. "Okay? You couldn't control this. You were...well, you were very much with me last night, so it's not like you were even close to the store. And it's not like you hung a big, invitational sign outside or something."
"But I could have done something, I could have--I should have been here."
"Well, you can't sleep here. Mr. Anderson doesn't even sleep here. He has a home, too, you know. This could have happened just as easily any other night he's here."
"Except that it didn't. And it hasn't and it won't. Because the entire town knows Mr. Anderson isn't here this week. This town is way too small for that to not be a known fact. How convenient is that, do you think?"
Finally, Bessie sucked in a breath and she stood up in front of Zac, taking his face in her hands, and pointing his eyes up at hers. "Look," she said firmly. "What happened is terrible and you're upset. And that's fine. But nothing's going to get done about it as long as you're sitting here, moping about it. After all, Mr. Anderson isn't back until tomorrow and, vandalized or not, the store is still your responsibility. So I suggest you get up off your backside, buck up, and take charge of your store and get things right so you can do business again. You're Zac Hanson. You run this place. Until tomorrow, this is your store. So act like it and take pride in it. Fix this."
His deep brown eyes stared into hers for a moment before he stood up and crashed his lips into hers, taking her in his arms again. "I love you so much," he whispered, running his nose along her cheekbone.
"I'm proud of you," she whispered back. "You can do this. You've been through much worse and came out of it, shining."
"Thank you. God, I don't know what I would do if you weren't here right now."
"Come on," she said, taking his hand in hers. "Daddy called the sheriff's department and they're sending someone to investigate. He says not to touch anything because they have to come out and take pictures. Then we can start cleaning up. Okay?"
"Yeah," Zac nodded. "Okay." And then the two of them walked hand-in-hand back inside the store.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Stanley Connors had parked his car across the street of the dirt road that ran in front of Anderson's Feed and Seed. After Billy's mother had received an urgent phone call from Mrs. Harlow, his father had immediately grabbed him up and demanded he ride along to the store with him.
Now the father and son stood alongside each other, each one taking in the scene before them. The store was in complete shambles and Billy bit his bottom lip to keep a reaction from crossing his face. Multiple colors of paint, and what looked like some mud, covered the outside of the building. Billy thought he spied some busted eggs on the siding, as well. The railings on the porch were completely gone, all the glass busted in, the wooden sign hung by a single nail, swinging low enough so there was a need to dodge it when walking past.
People began to trickle in, little by little, some to simply stand and spectate and a few to actually approach the scene and appear to try to help. Word had seemed to travel fast, by way of telephone and home visits and, slowly, the crowd began to grow. Billy's eyes darted around nervously. This was not how it was supposed to happen. People weren't supposed to-- People were supposed to-- Why weren't they ready to lynch Zac Hanson right up?
In the middle of the growing madness, stood Zac Hanson and Bessie Harlow as Zac was engrossed in conversation with a deputy. Billy curled his nose up in a sneer. They looked like a cute, old, married couple, the way she held on to his hand with both of hers in support and her light, brown hair bobbed against her back as she nodded in agreement with every word that was coming out of his mouth. It was sickening.
Suddenly, his father's disgusted tone surprised him and pulled him back to the present. "You idiot. What were you thinking? I said to hit him where it hurts!"
"Um, I'm pretty sure this hurts pretty bad," Billy objected. "A man's pride--"
"No. Haven't you learned anything, boy? If you want to get him back, you have to take away the one thing he can't live without. The one thing that will completely crush his spirit--you have to woo his girl."
Billy looked over at his father, dumbfounded. His girl? Since when was his father any type of romantic? His father's idea of wooing his mother, apparently, was buying her a flimsy bouquet of flowers and a new apron. She always appeared to appreciate it, but the boredom in her eyes was painfully obvious to everyone but his father. It was unfortunate, really. So what the hell did he know about wooing anybody?
"His girl...?"
"Yes," his father replied, matter-of-factly. "Bessie. That's is trigger. His on and off switch. His power button. You rip is heart right out of his chest and that's when you'll have him."
Billy was slightly confused, but he tried to take in his father's words. "And then he'll be just as miserable as I am..."
"Exactly. But you'll have the girl. And without her, he'll just be a nobody again. And then he'll just...disappear."
Billy took in a breath as he observed the goings-on in the store's yard. He looked at Zac, he looked at Bessie, and then he looked around at the wreckage. Something didn't seem to be matching up. This little battle was between Billy and Zac. Getting a girl in the middle of it didn't really seem necessary. At one point, he had intended on using Bessie, but he didn't really see the point anymore. His beef with Zac didn't really have anything to do with Bessie, anyway. It had more to do with the fact that Zac had injured him to the point of threatening his future over something that hadn't been his business in the first place. Coming out of nowhere and stealing his date out from under him, Billy should have been the one kicking Zac in the ribs, not the other way around. And then...Zac had gotten his, so...in essence, what was left in the grand scheme of things? An eye for an eye, right?
"I'm not...I'm afraid I don't understand the, um...purpose of...you know, stealing his girl or what have you."
"Look, son. This stunt you pulled here--while on the right track, mind you--is completely fixable. It's only going to take a few days to clean this little mess up. But on a more personal level, Zac Hanson was a good-for-nothing, has been, former convict that nobody gave a shit to spit on until the judge's pretty little daughter batted an eyelash at him. Now he's got the whole damn town eating out of the palm of his hand. You think anybody would be scrambling around to help his sorry ass if she wasn't around? No. It's that Harlow girl and her daddy. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. And who would he be without the town's saints holding him high up on that pedestal? Nothing more than the low-life, dirty gypsy he really is."
"Dad?" Billy asked, his brain completely mixed up now. "Why do you hate Zac Hanson so much?"
His father looked back at him as if Billy had caught him off guard. As if he needed a moment to search for an answer. Finally, one stumbled out. "Well, hell, son, look what he did to you! Nobody puts my boy down for the count and gets by with it."
"Hm," Billy replied, turning back the still-unfolding scene in front of them. He had to admit, his father wasn't making much sense to him, still. He felt like he'd done enough already. As he watched more people arrive and scramble around to see what they could do to help fix the store he'd ordered to be wrecked, he scene pulled at his heartstrings a little bit. Old Burt Anderson never hurt anybody and the truth was, his store should have never been caught in the crossfire like this. That, Billy regretted.
Maybe it was finally time to end the feud. After all, all Zac had really done was deliver a left hook and a swift kick to the ribs--which threatened his entire football career. In turn, he'd had Zac beaten and bloodied and had the store he'd been in charge of broken and destroyed. Maybe it was just easier to agree to disagree. This was all becoming a bit exhausting.
That was, until the deputy was finished questioning Zac. When he walked away, Zac looked around at his surroundings, his eyes landing on Billy's over his shoulder, his icy, accusatory brown eyes seeping angrily into Billy's veins. Protectively, keeping his eyes on Billy, Zac slid his arm around Bessie's waist and pulled her close, as if to shield her from the monster he'd obviously decided Billy was.
Suddenly, Billy's heart pounded with a rage that he earnestly couldn't pinpoint the direct source of. Oh, no. This wasn't over. Not even close. Now all Billy had to do was watch his back and wait for Zac's inevitable retaliation. Unless Billy could get to Zac first.
"Bessie!" Judith hissed as she stood over the sleeping couple.
She had no idea what time it was, but she knew the sun had just come up. Isaac had woken up with her, as he always did, and now he was outside with the hood raised on the car. Isaac was a hard-working man who never wasted a second of a day. It was one of the many things Judith admired about him.
But now it was time to leave. Any time now, her father would come home from work and if he discovered her missing, she'd never hear the end of it. Ever since her mother died, Judith's father hadn't paid much attention to where Judith went or how long she stayed out. It wasn't that he didn't care, it was that all he did was work just to make the ends meet, along with her brothers, who worked just as hard and as long. In a way, Judith was lucky to have these men in her life who worked hard just so that she could go to school and enjoy her summers at home. She loved her small, testosterone-filled family and she appreciated them more than they could ever know. However, she also didn't want to disappoint her father and she did not want this to be the morning for that to start, either.
"Mmm," Zac murmured, moving his head around in response, but still miles away with sleep. He lay on his back, his shirt hanging wide open, one arm tucked under his head and the other one wrapped around a sleeping Bessie, who rested her cheek soundly against his bare skin. After the romp heard 'round the camp the previous night, Judith was relieved to see that she at least had her dress on.
"Bessie," she hissed again, shaking her gently by the shoulder. "Bessie, wake up, we gotta go!"
Zac murmured again, his time screwing up his face with annoyance. He turned his head toward Judith's voice and removed his arm from around Bessie long enough to wave her away. "Go away, she's fine," he muttered sleepily, his eyes still closed. "Let her sleep."
"We have to go," Judith replied. "I have to get home and so does she. And you have to get to the feed store, don't you forget!"
"Shit," Zac whispered, his eyes opening wider now. He lifted his head and looked down at his sleeping girlfriend. "Give me a minute, will you?"
"Just a minute!" Judith hissed.
Finding herself outside and anxious, Judith joined Isaac by the car as he studied something under the hood. She propped herself against the bumper and crossed her arms over her chest. "Having problems again?"
"No," he admitted with a sigh as he stepped back a couple steps away from it. "I guess I'm just used to waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"Well, that's not a fun way to live your life," she retorted. "If you spend all your time waiting for the other shoe to drop, you'll miss out on all kinds of things."
Isaac was silent for a moment as he ran his hand through his hair and stared hard at the car in front of them. Finally, he turned to look at her, crossing his arms over his chest to match hers. "Judith, am I fun?"
She was caught off guard by his question. "Of course you're fun," she answered.
"Zac called me a fun-sucker last night."
Judith couldn't help herself, she had to scoff a laugh at this uncanny term. "What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'm uptight and I suck the fun out of everything. But I think he's right. And I think you're right. I think I just need to let loose and stop waiting for the other shoe to drop."
She studied him for a moment, remembering the tossing and turning he had done in bed just mere hours ago. Uncrossing her arms, she approached him and slid her arms around his waist. "Oh, Daddy," she said with sympathetic eyes. "Did you get any sleep at all last night?"
"Not much," he admitted.
"All because you think you're no fun?"
"I don't want to be that guy," he replied, shaking his head. "But I just--I mean, someone's gotta be the voice of reason around here--"
"Who's being unreasonable?"
He paused to think for a moment as he uncrossed his arms and wrapped them around his girl. "Um...well. Tay and that engagement, for one thing--"
"They love each other, don't they?"
"It was news to me."
"But they said it, didn't they?"
"Yeah..."
"So why is that unreasonable? People love each other, they get married. Simple as that."
"It's really not that simple--"
"Sure it is. I don't see anything unreasonable about it. I hope he's happy and I wish him all the best."
"Really?"
"Yes. Really. He's twenty-eight years old. People are starting to think you guys are going to be old bachelors for the rest of your lives."
"What people?"
"I don't know," Judith shrugged. "Just people."
"Well. Anyway, I want to be fun. I don't want to be uptight all the time--"
"But you're not. You're plenty fun. You're funny and you're witty and you can drink a man under the table with your eyes closed. And then with that guitar last night..." Judith smiled dreamily at the memory. "And that smile on your face, it was just...you were born to make music, Ike. Music makes you happy. And fun."
Finally, he smiled, and he tightened his arms around her. "I do love making music..."
She grinned back up at him. "I just love to see you smile."
He leaned his head down and pressed his lips sweetly against hers. "You really are too good to me, Princess, you know that?"
Unfortunately, she didn't have time to respond, as her eighteen-year-old little friend finally found her way out the trailer door with Zac close behind. "I'm sorry, Daddy, I gotta go. I gotta get her home and I gotta get back before my old man sees that I didn't come home."
"I'll see you tonight?" Isaac asked quietly.
"I'll count down the minutes," she replied, dreamily.
Maybe Judith's relationship with Isaac wasn't headed for marriage like Taylor's or new and deep like Zac's, but it was all their own and it made her completely happy.
____________________________________________________________________
Bessie felt horrible as Judith drove her home. Her head pounded and her stomach churned and the events from the previous night came to her in blurry flashes. The only thing that made her happy was waking up with Zac, but even that didn't last long enough. She smiled at how adorable he was when his eyes and his voice were heavy with sleep and she wished she could awaken like that every single day.
"I wish I didn't have to leave him," she found herself murmuring quietly. "Leaving him only grows more and more difficult. If my parents ever went out of town, I'd spend the night with him every single night and it would be the happiest time of my life."
Judith snorted in the driver seat as her soft, blonde finger curls blew gently in the breeze from the open window. "Are you sure last night wasn't the happiest time of your life? Because you sure were happy enough for the entire camp to hear it."
Bessie narrowed her eyes at Judith in confusion as she thought for a moment. And then, it hit her. Full force, the memories of...of Zac's pants around his ankles and...and the way she threw herself all over him...
"Oh, my god," she said, hiding her face with her hands. "Judith, tell me it's not true."
Judith laughed. "It's plenty true. 'Oh, yes, Zac, yes! It feels so good, don't stop!'"
"Oh, my god!" Bessie cried louder into her hands. "Oh, Judith, I can never show my face there again! I can't show it anywhere!"
"Oh, pish posh, there were so many drugs around that place last night, I'm sure the only ones who heard or cared were sober and, believe me, that was not many."
Judith's words didn't matter. They didn't keep Bessie from absolute humiliation. On the other hand, though, now that Judith mentioned it, the memories did start to flood in--and she only wished she was that sexually confident when she was sober.
Sober. So last night was what being truly drunk meant. Well, it had been fun, Bessie couldn't deny that. She supposed that maybe her drinking simply heightened her want for Zac and that had been thoroughly enjoyable. However, with the way she felt right now, a part of her wondered if it was worth it.
As they approached her house, Bessie groaned. "Oh, no. I bet Mama's already awake and making Daddy's breakfast."
"Well, at least you get a free meal out of it, right?" Judith smiled.
"Hey," Bessie replied. "Do you want to stay for breakfast? Mama always makes way too much."
"I'd love to! And Daddy would be much more accepting of the fact that I'm at your house rather than where we really were."
Bessie was relieved that her mother was the only one in the kitchen when she and Judith walked in the house. The smells of eggs and bacon nearly pulled the girls into the kitchen with imaginary arms. "Good morning, Mama," Bessie greeted her mother, mustering up as much cheer as she could. "Is it okay if Judith has breakfast with us?"
"Of course it is," her mother said warmly. Then she turned around and got a look at the girls and her smile turned into a frown. "You smell to high heaven of liquor, smoke, and men, Beatrice. Now you two get upstairs and wash up right this instant before your father comes downstairs and gets a nose full. For shame!"
Bessie and Judith widened their eyes at each other and scrambled upstairs so fast, they were practically airborne. They took turns with the bath and Bessie lent Judith a fresh dress and, somehow, managed to beat the judge back downstairs in time to eat.
To Bessie's surprise, he entered the room with a smile and his leisure pants and red, short-sleeved shirt. "I tell you, I think this is the best part of the day, getting to start it off with a table full of beautiful ladies. Wouldn't you three agree?"
"Um, good morning, Daddy," Bessie answered. "Those aren't your usual work clothes..."
"Good eye," her father winked. "I actually decided to take the day off today. I have some vacation time, thought today was a good day to take it."
"Well, it certainly is a beautiful day, dear," Bessie's mother smiled as she served his plate and poured his coffee.
Once everyone was seated, the table fell silent as everyone concentrated on their eating. Several minutes later, the judge broke the silence. "So where's Millie?"
"Millie?" Bessie asked.
"Yes. Millie. I figured the three of you pulled an all-nighter, fooling with hair or makeup or whatever it is you girls do at those things."
"Yes," Bessie's mother interjected, with a much-too-amused raised eyebrow as she sipped her coffee. "Where IS Millie?"
Bessie stole a glance at Judith across the table and then the lines slid smooth as butter right off of Judith's tongue. "She decided not to stay over."
"Oh?" The judge asked, surprised. "You three are like The Three Musketeers, what could possibly be more important than girls' night in?"
"Joey Martin," Judith replied simply.
That deserved a kick under the table and Judith glared at Bessie as she reached underneath and rubbed her shin.
"Joey Martin?" The judge asked, surprised. "And Millie?"
"Guess so," Judith shrugged nonchalantly. "He just came to my house and asked her to go eat with him and off, they went."
Well. Some of that was partially true, so Bessie was at least grateful for that.
Her mother, however, couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. "So Joey Martin likes Millie..."
"Who'da thunk it?" Judith asked. "I even saw them kissing."
"Judith!" Bessie hissed.
"What? I did!"
The look on Judith's face seemed to hold an ounce of truth, so Bessie made a mental note to revisit the subject later. In the meantime, her father shook his head as he shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth. "Well, Bess, I hope you're not too heartbroken over it. At one point I thought you might marry Joey someday. You two were so inseparable."
The thought of marriage suddenly clouded her mind with stars and a mindless smile crossed her face as she speared her own eggs with her fork. "No. I'm going to marry Zac."
To her right, at the head of the table, Bessie's father choked on his food and he pounded his chest for a moment as he coughed. "Excuse me?" He asked when he recovered. "Is there something you need to say to us?"
Caught off guard, Bessie froze in place, her eyes wide at her father.
"Oh, Bessie doesn't mean that, Mr. Harlow," Judith laughed nervously.
"Yes, I do," Bessie replied, looking Judith square in the eye.
"No, no. I mean...well, Mr. and Mrs. Harlow, back when you were young and courting, didn't you just automatically assume that you were going to marry your sweetheart? You never go into a courtship just expecting things not to work out, right? You always hope for the best."
Miraculously, Judith's words of wisdom seemed to calm the judge a little, while Bessie's mother snickered slyly. "How about we not discuss my days of courtship?"
"How about we change the subject?" The judge suggested. "Judith, are you excited about your upcoming semester at school?"
"Oh, absolutely--" Judith started before their conversation was interrupted by a vigorous rapping on the front door.
The four diners looked around at each other as Mrs. Harlow haughtily tossed her napkin onto the table. "Who in God's creation is at our door at eight in the morning on a Monday?"
As she stood from the table, Bessie's father laid his hand over hers to settle her back into her chair. "I'll get it Cathy. You ladies stay right here."
The judge left the room and the three women all leaned in over the table to try to get a glimpse at who might be at the front door. They could hear two men's voices and it was when Bessie heard her own name when she finally stood up and went to the doorway. Her eyes widened at the sight and she turned around and stared at her mother and her friend. "It's Taylor. What is he doing here?"
"Zac's brother?" Her mother asked.
"Yes!"
"I don't know..." Judith mused.
"Bessie?" Taylor's voice called loudly through the house. She turned around and spied him craning his neck over her father's shoulder. "Bessie, come quick. We gotta hurry!"
Alarms went off all over Bessie's body and her heart pounded so hard she thought it might burst out of her chest. With that, all three women hastily made their way into the living room.
"Taylor!" Bessie answered. "What's going on, is everything okay? Where's Zac?"
"Put on your shoes, I'll explain on the way."
"Now, hold it right there," the judge said to Taylor. "You can't just burst onto my front porch and start making demands of my daughter--"
"Judge Harlow, there's been an incident--"
That was all Bessie needed to hear. For the second time that morning, Bessie and Judith flew up the stairs at lightning speeds, shoved pins in their hair, buckled shoes on their feet, and flew right back down.
"I'll get a deputy there," her father was saying. "Cathy, after that, you get on the horn and phone Judith's father. Phone my sister and her husband, phone Joey Martin and his father, phone everyone we know. Son, we'll be right behind you. And tell your brother not to lay a finger on a single thing until the deputies get there, you understand me?"
"Yes, sir," Taylor said obediently.
Within the next minute, Bessie and Judith were flying down the dirt road with Taylor in the driver seat of the brothers' car.
**********
When Taylor slowed the car to a stop in front of Anderson's Feed and Seed, Bessie's jaw dropped as she stepped out of the door and her heart sank all the way to her feet. It was in complete, tragic disarray and destruction, obviously the work of heinous vandals.
"They did everything," Taylor said quietly as he walked up beside her and gazed up at the store. "The windows, the doors...the railings of both porches. And the inside. Jesus, Bess, they practically gutted the place. Didn't steal anything, just destroyed it all."
"Oh, my heavens," Bessie whispered as she covered her mouth and looked at the damage. The windows had been busted in, the glass shattered on the glass door, leaving an empty shell where it used to be. The store's sign was seemingly hanging by a thread, the wooden railings on the porch were completely torn off, and there were multiple colors of paint splattered all over the building, as far as could be seen. And this was only the outside.
"Where's Zac?"
"In there somewhere," Taylor answered solemnly. "When you find him, tell him not to touch anything."
"Until the detectives can get here and take pictures," Bessie finished with a whisper. "I know."
Bessie was almost too nervous to even step on the ground that the store sat on. She crept up the steps and onto the porch and, sadly, didn't even have to open the door--she merely stepped carefully through the frame. Her heart broke all over again at the sight and she swallowed a lump in her throat. The scene was horrifying. Glass from the display cases littered the floor, the shelves were half empty of the merchandise that lay shattered and torn up all over the store. Free-standing displays had been turned over, their contents spilled across the hardwood, and there was hardly a place in the entire store that you could step without disturbing something.
Zac was nowhere in sight, so she carefully stepped through the obstacle course to walk towards the back. Searching the area, she finally found him on the back porch, torn up railings and vandalized walls just like the front, and he sat on a stack of untouched feed sacks, hanging his head. A tear escaped her eye and she wiped it away quickly, choosing to be adult and to be strong for him. Taking a deep breath, she approached him and sat next to him on the feed sacks.
They sat in silence for a moment before his voice came out in a quiet strangle. "If it were me, I'd have done it all. Cut open all the bags, pour all the feed and the flour and the cornmeal all over the place. Then poured water all over it all. Water would have really done a number on top of that stuff. I mean, if you're gonna do it, do it right, you know?"
"Zac," she whispered, slipping her hand into his.
"Did you see it? Bastards didn't even touch the stock room. Who vandalizes a store and doesn't finish the job? Amateurs, that's who. Stupid amateurs."
"You say that like you have experience with this sort of thing."
"I don't. But think about it."
Bessie nodded, choosing to let him have his moment. Whatever he needed to say or do to get things off his chest, she would let him. No matter the words or analogies he used.
She looked up at him and swept a strand of hair off of his face that had escaped his ponytail. Tucking it behind his ear, she reached up and she kissed his cheek gently. Suddenly, he turned his body into her and wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her neck. She slid her arms around him and grazed her nails over his back, letting him hold on to her as tightly and as long as he wanted to. Before she thought about it, not knowing where the words came from, she began to speak softly in his ear. "Sometimes in life things happen that we can't control. Sometimes they're good and sometimes they're bad. And it's okay to be happy or sad about them, or feel whatever these events make us feel. But it's our responsibility to choose how we're going to react to them. That is what the outcome is based on."
"I'm such a failure, Bessie," he whispered into his hair.
"You are not a failure."
"I failed him. I failed Burt. He trusted me, Bessie. This store is his life and he trusted me with it. And I couldn't go a few measly days without--without destroying his entire life. He leaves here to go visit his dying brother, the only family he has left, and now he's going to come home to his livelihood as one big...heaping pile of shit and it's all my fault. Every single bit of it. He shouldn't have trusted me, Bessie. Nobody should trust me. I can't do anything right, I fuck up everything I touch."
"Zac, this isn't your fault," she said, pulling away from him and turning his face to look at her. "Okay? You couldn't control this. You were...well, you were very much with me last night, so it's not like you were even close to the store. And it's not like you hung a big, invitational sign outside or something."
"But I could have done something, I could have--I should have been here."
"Well, you can't sleep here. Mr. Anderson doesn't even sleep here. He has a home, too, you know. This could have happened just as easily any other night he's here."
"Except that it didn't. And it hasn't and it won't. Because the entire town knows Mr. Anderson isn't here this week. This town is way too small for that to not be a known fact. How convenient is that, do you think?"
Finally, Bessie sucked in a breath and she stood up in front of Zac, taking his face in her hands, and pointing his eyes up at hers. "Look," she said firmly. "What happened is terrible and you're upset. And that's fine. But nothing's going to get done about it as long as you're sitting here, moping about it. After all, Mr. Anderson isn't back until tomorrow and, vandalized or not, the store is still your responsibility. So I suggest you get up off your backside, buck up, and take charge of your store and get things right so you can do business again. You're Zac Hanson. You run this place. Until tomorrow, this is your store. So act like it and take pride in it. Fix this."
His deep brown eyes stared into hers for a moment before he stood up and crashed his lips into hers, taking her in his arms again. "I love you so much," he whispered, running his nose along her cheekbone.
"I'm proud of you," she whispered back. "You can do this. You've been through much worse and came out of it, shining."
"Thank you. God, I don't know what I would do if you weren't here right now."
"Come on," she said, taking his hand in hers. "Daddy called the sheriff's department and they're sending someone to investigate. He says not to touch anything because they have to come out and take pictures. Then we can start cleaning up. Okay?"
"Yeah," Zac nodded. "Okay." And then the two of them walked hand-in-hand back inside the store.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Stanley Connors had parked his car across the street of the dirt road that ran in front of Anderson's Feed and Seed. After Billy's mother had received an urgent phone call from Mrs. Harlow, his father had immediately grabbed him up and demanded he ride along to the store with him.
Now the father and son stood alongside each other, each one taking in the scene before them. The store was in complete shambles and Billy bit his bottom lip to keep a reaction from crossing his face. Multiple colors of paint, and what looked like some mud, covered the outside of the building. Billy thought he spied some busted eggs on the siding, as well. The railings on the porch were completely gone, all the glass busted in, the wooden sign hung by a single nail, swinging low enough so there was a need to dodge it when walking past.
People began to trickle in, little by little, some to simply stand and spectate and a few to actually approach the scene and appear to try to help. Word had seemed to travel fast, by way of telephone and home visits and, slowly, the crowd began to grow. Billy's eyes darted around nervously. This was not how it was supposed to happen. People weren't supposed to-- People were supposed to-- Why weren't they ready to lynch Zac Hanson right up?
In the middle of the growing madness, stood Zac Hanson and Bessie Harlow as Zac was engrossed in conversation with a deputy. Billy curled his nose up in a sneer. They looked like a cute, old, married couple, the way she held on to his hand with both of hers in support and her light, brown hair bobbed against her back as she nodded in agreement with every word that was coming out of his mouth. It was sickening.
Suddenly, his father's disgusted tone surprised him and pulled him back to the present. "You idiot. What were you thinking? I said to hit him where it hurts!"
"Um, I'm pretty sure this hurts pretty bad," Billy objected. "A man's pride--"
"No. Haven't you learned anything, boy? If you want to get him back, you have to take away the one thing he can't live without. The one thing that will completely crush his spirit--you have to woo his girl."
Billy looked over at his father, dumbfounded. His girl? Since when was his father any type of romantic? His father's idea of wooing his mother, apparently, was buying her a flimsy bouquet of flowers and a new apron. She always appeared to appreciate it, but the boredom in her eyes was painfully obvious to everyone but his father. It was unfortunate, really. So what the hell did he know about wooing anybody?
"His girl...?"
"Yes," his father replied, matter-of-factly. "Bessie. That's is trigger. His on and off switch. His power button. You rip is heart right out of his chest and that's when you'll have him."
Billy was slightly confused, but he tried to take in his father's words. "And then he'll be just as miserable as I am..."
"Exactly. But you'll have the girl. And without her, he'll just be a nobody again. And then he'll just...disappear."
Billy took in a breath as he observed the goings-on in the store's yard. He looked at Zac, he looked at Bessie, and then he looked around at the wreckage. Something didn't seem to be matching up. This little battle was between Billy and Zac. Getting a girl in the middle of it didn't really seem necessary. At one point, he had intended on using Bessie, but he didn't really see the point anymore. His beef with Zac didn't really have anything to do with Bessie, anyway. It had more to do with the fact that Zac had injured him to the point of threatening his future over something that hadn't been his business in the first place. Coming out of nowhere and stealing his date out from under him, Billy should have been the one kicking Zac in the ribs, not the other way around. And then...Zac had gotten his, so...in essence, what was left in the grand scheme of things? An eye for an eye, right?
"I'm not...I'm afraid I don't understand the, um...purpose of...you know, stealing his girl or what have you."
"Look, son. This stunt you pulled here--while on the right track, mind you--is completely fixable. It's only going to take a few days to clean this little mess up. But on a more personal level, Zac Hanson was a good-for-nothing, has been, former convict that nobody gave a shit to spit on until the judge's pretty little daughter batted an eyelash at him. Now he's got the whole damn town eating out of the palm of his hand. You think anybody would be scrambling around to help his sorry ass if she wasn't around? No. It's that Harlow girl and her daddy. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. And who would he be without the town's saints holding him high up on that pedestal? Nothing more than the low-life, dirty gypsy he really is."
"Dad?" Billy asked, his brain completely mixed up now. "Why do you hate Zac Hanson so much?"
His father looked back at him as if Billy had caught him off guard. As if he needed a moment to search for an answer. Finally, one stumbled out. "Well, hell, son, look what he did to you! Nobody puts my boy down for the count and gets by with it."
"Hm," Billy replied, turning back the still-unfolding scene in front of them. He had to admit, his father wasn't making much sense to him, still. He felt like he'd done enough already. As he watched more people arrive and scramble around to see what they could do to help fix the store he'd ordered to be wrecked, he scene pulled at his heartstrings a little bit. Old Burt Anderson never hurt anybody and the truth was, his store should have never been caught in the crossfire like this. That, Billy regretted.
Maybe it was finally time to end the feud. After all, all Zac had really done was deliver a left hook and a swift kick to the ribs--which threatened his entire football career. In turn, he'd had Zac beaten and bloodied and had the store he'd been in charge of broken and destroyed. Maybe it was just easier to agree to disagree. This was all becoming a bit exhausting.
That was, until the deputy was finished questioning Zac. When he walked away, Zac looked around at his surroundings, his eyes landing on Billy's over his shoulder, his icy, accusatory brown eyes seeping angrily into Billy's veins. Protectively, keeping his eyes on Billy, Zac slid his arm around Bessie's waist and pulled her close, as if to shield her from the monster he'd obviously decided Billy was.
Suddenly, Billy's heart pounded with a rage that he earnestly couldn't pinpoint the direct source of. Oh, no. This wasn't over. Not even close. Now all Billy had to do was watch his back and wait for Zac's inevitable retaliation. Unless Billy could get to Zac first.