Rafe Venable kicked a fat rock in the red dirt road. It scooted like a frightened jackrabbit into a ditch and disappeared in a miniature whirling dust storm. Most every morning he walked the mile from his shotgun, sideboard house on Fancher Road to where it runs smack into Interstate 75, a characterless stretch of highway snaking southward from Cedarville, a hilltop Tennessee town that tetters on the edge of poverty along the Georgia line.
Rafe enjoyed watching the big boatlong cars sail down I75 toward Daytona Beach. Sometimes women laughed and men pointed to the lanky, redheaded country boy sitting on a wood crate beside the busy interstate highway. At times Rafe answered by hurling mouthfuls of unintelligible words at the faces blurring past him. That was all right. Rafe knew they couldn't hear him, but it made him feel better to clear his lungs and holler in the face of the rushing wind from the fast moving cars. He felt big and important. His head waggled arrogantly as if in victory over some unseen foe.
"You should have seen the traffic today," Rafe said to his younger brother, Odie. "They was so many of 'em it looked like a herd of cattle moving down 75. One of these days, Odie, we going to be in that herd, heading south for Daytona. We gointa come outta these hills and head for Daytona. I read the other day in Bullhead Johnson's barber shop in one of them True Detectives about racing dogs in Daytona."
"You got so you stay out on that road all the time now, Rafe, countin' 'em cars." Odie looked at his brother from across a rickety table that rocked back and forth each time his elbows moved. He sopped redeye gravy with a fat buttermilk biscuit stuffed with a piece of fatback that still had several stiff hog hairs protruding from its skin like a threeday stubble.
The hot kitchen, where the Venable boys' mother, Maude, worked when she wasn't washing someone else's clothes, smelled as if the dough, fatback, gravy and coffee had been mixed in a large iron kettle, the kind used for making soap and boiling shirts. This steamy mixture hung in the air and covered the room in even aromatic layers, like a fogbank on the Catalpa River.
"Yeah, I'm going to stay on that highway 'til I come up with a plan of how we can get outta this sawdust pile. Get us down to Daytona," Rafe said, easing himself behind Odie's chair to get at the stove. He flipped a piece of cold, gray fatback onto a plate and dripped brownspeckled gravy over the curling fat striped sparsely with lean.
Rafe said, "I bet ever one of them cars has rich people in 'em. I bet they got more money than People's Bank. I heard Rudy say t'other day that he know'd of a man once't who came in for a fillup in one of them lizardlong black cars. He said that feller had a wad of money big enough to set a wet mule on fire.
"He was talking about how much cotton he had bought that day, Rudy said, and how much money he had made on futures. Remember that, Odie! We got to get us some futures.
"Anyway, Rudy said this fella had made a thousand dollars that very morning while he was driving to Daytona! Why, he wadn't even in his office, Odie!"
Odie grunted, looked at his brother and licked a brown splotch of gravy that had dripped to his chin. He sniffed hard, then he half emptied his iced tea glass, holding the longhandled teaspoon to one side of the glass with his index finger. Odie always left his teaspoon in his glass. It helped to keep his tea cool, or so his grandfather had said. Whether it did or not didn't matter; it was the tradition that counted.
Rafe continued, "Rudy said he paid for his gas with a hunnert dollar bill. Rudy said he had to send Muley over to Leonard's Feed and Seed and then to Ruby's Cafe to break the hunnert.
"That's what I want, Odie! A hunnert to pay for gas. Make Rudy sweat to break it.
"Whooooee! Ain't that somethin', Odie. Ain't that some thin'?"
Odie gulped the rest of his tea and then drug his sleeved arm across his mouth and under his nose, the sleeve performing several functions at once.
"Well," said Odie thoughtfully, "if'n you so smart, how you suphose we gointa git to Daytoni so we can git all them hunnerts? And what we gonna do for money once't we get there? You ever think on that, Rafe? You ever think what we gonna do?
"And while you're working on that one, why don't you think of somethin' for us to do right here and now, now that the sawmill is closed. What we gonna do 'bout that? You gonna get one of them fancy folks in one of them lizard cars to tell us?"
Odie sniggered, pushed his chair back and eased his large, lumpy body away from the table, punishing the chair as he scrapped it across the floor.
Rafe didn't seem to hear Odie. He never listened to him much anyway, as Odie wasn't able to fine tune his thoughts. Rafe just looked through him most of the time, as if staring through a faded window curtain.
Occasionally Odie received a flash from deep in the mulch of his brain, and each stayed with him until another glow came along. Measurable blips in Odie's head were infrequent; when one did occur, it was a great moment within him.
Rafe walked down to the highway every day now to think. He kept the wooden orange crate with its gaudy, peeling blue and orange "Florida Oranges" label, hidden in the tall, brown roadside weeds. Occasionally he stretched out on his back, crossing one foot over the other, using the crate to prop his head. Other days he rested his chin on the crate's flat, flimsy top and felt the breezes as the broad beamed vehicles skimmed on the high winds.
Slowly, an idea began to take shape, emerging from the back of his mind, walking toward its surface and sprouting into full flower.
"Hits just another one of your schemes, Rafe," Odie said when Rafe began to explain his Daytona plan.
"'Member the last time? Whooeeboy, you fixed us real good then. 'Member?" Odie asked as he stomped the dirt in the bare
front yard of the Venable home. Odie's dog, Forgot, yawned and stretched his way from underneath the skinny house, dragging his hind legs until his rear end cleared the beams. His ribs cast rippled shadows along his bony sides. Odie clicked his tongue and Forgot tailwagged toward him.
"The cartopcarryeverythin' was goin' to revolutionize the car industry, you said. Said it would sell like beer at Betty's Place. 'Carry all your belongin's on the top of your car in the EZCarryEverythin'.
"Another thang, Rafe. That thang was built out of press board. It was so damn heavy it needed a team of mules to get it to the car. Then you needed block and tackle to get it on top of the car.
"Hit just crushed the top of papa's old car like it was alumnum," Odie said.
"What the hell. Papa's car didn't run no way. It just set there on cement blocks. No motor, no nothing. This is different, Odie. If we can just get to Daytona where we can bet on them racing dogs. It's called parimating, or parisomething. Anyway, the dogs chase this here little rabbit around a track. You bet on which one of 'em dogs is gonna catch that little white rabbit first. They's about eight or ten dogs and one itty bitty rabbit.
"They's this one race where you figure which two of 'em dogs is gonna catch the rabbit. We can make a lot of money, Odie. There ain't nobody knows dogs like us." Rafe peered at his brother through half shut eyes.
"We don't know nothin' about no racing dogs, Rafe," Odie whined as he dug black dirt from underneath large, fishscale sized fingernails with the blunt head of a broken knife blade.
"Odie, we know dogs. Dogs is dogs. It don't make no never mind what size, shape or speed they come in. Dogs is dogs, whether they chasing birds, coons or rabbits," Rafe said.
"How many times you and I been huntin'? How many dogs you trained to point a bird and fetch it oncet it's shot?
"Anybody that can train a dog to point a bird in a bush and
fetch it in his mouf after it's been blow'd outta the air sure as snuff can tell which one of 'em dogs is agoin' to win a foot race around a little ol' track in Florida."
"I dunno, Rafe," Odie said scuffing his feet in the dirt. His forehead wrinkled into a hound dog frown as small mushroom clouds of dust sprang up around his ankles.
"I guess hit sounds right. I know dogs like I was one. I can look at 'em and tell if'n they birdy or not. It shouldn't be any differen' that with birds."
Rafe smiled, showing black holes in his teeth.
"Birds, rabbits. They all game. It's the same, Odie. You take a dog. He smell a bird or a rabbit. It all smell the same."
For the next several days Rafe worked on his scheme. Like a carpenter, he would add here and take away there. Odie watched as Rafe scribbled notes on bits of paper.
Watching Rafe write set off eruptions in Odie's stomach for when Rafe began licking the end of a lead pencil and scratching on scraps of paper it usually meant that life for the Venable boys was about to change; not always for the better, but it was definitely going to change.
Rafe wrote on anything he could find: pieces of brown paper bag; scraps of paper blowing along the highway; green receipts from Ruby's Cafe that said, "Thank You, Call Again. Eat Merita Bread," on the back side .
Once he had a plan well formulated, however, Rafe always had a hard time finding all the notes he had written. At times it would take him as long to find the many pieces of paper as it had to devise the plan in the first place.
After an all night search for the confetti that made up the Daytona scheme, Rafe laid out the pieces on the table, arranging the paper slips as if they were parts of a puzzle. Finally, he was ready to bring Odie into the act.
"We goin' to Uncle Pete's place and fix up his moonshine still. We are afixin' to go into the moonshine business and stay in it long enough to get two bus tickets to Daytona and some spending money. Venable shine always was the best in Fancher County," Rafe announced that morning.
"Odie, I want you to go to the barn and begin tearin' down the boards in the mule stall. Let ol' Buckethaid run loose in the yard. He ain't going nowheres anyway. Nobody else would feed him."
Odie's face was as blank as if every single thought he'd ever had had been erased. Then he smiled. A fire from far off had been lit and his big neck bulged in and out. It did that when Odie became excited.
"I heard Roy Rowdecker say just t'other day he could sure use some good shine at his place on the county line,"
Rafe elaborated with joy.
"The stuff he's gettin' now ain't worth pouring on the ground. Said he tried to give it away to the boys over at the ore pits. They spit it out and almost busted his head in! They cussed him out and said that stuff tasted like parrot piss."
"But, Rafe, we don't know nothin' 'bout makin' no shine. Uncle Pete always made it. Him and papa. They was good at it, but we ain't never so much as made a drop."
Rafe blinked. That was the smartest thing he had ever heard his brother say. Then he snorted and shoved Odie toward the barn.
"I ain't got no time for arguing, Odie. I'm going to Logan's junkyard to find some tubing. You go to the barn, tear down that stall and meet me at Uncle Pete's old place when you're through.
"The sooner we can get the still up and arunnin' the sooner we can sell the shine and get our Daytona money. I figure it will take a hunnert to get us there, a hunnert to live on 'till we start makin' money off'n the dogs and a hunnert to start bettin' on the dogs."
The fear and uncertainty lingering in Odie's mind lifted,
budged at last by Rafe's confidence and enthusiasm. Three hundred dollars was more money than either of them had ever seen. And it was a fact that selling moonshine was about the fastest way of making big money in Fancher Countyif you didn't get caught or killed first!
Odie slapped his thighs at the thought of that much money and he smiled at his older brother. "Daytoni, here we come!" he said as he lumbered off in the direction of the barn. Rafe watched his brother's big shoulders swaying to the rhythm of his long legs.
Poor Odie never had been quite right in the head, Rafe thought as he headed for the junkyard. It must have been because mama was so weak and tore up inside when he was born. The story was that Odie had just plopped out of mama like a ripe pear onto the kitchen floor, like she just couldn't contain him no more. That's why mama always told me to take care of Odie. She knew he would be able to understand some things, enjoy personal thoughts, but that complications beyond the physical or on more than two parallel planes would confuse Odie. And, too, mama had worried that people would make fun of Odie. They did.
At Logan's, Rafe foraged through the backs of several tubs, toilets, sinks and the guts of other plumbing discards in the junkyard before locating enough tubes for the still's main nervous system. To build a really good still, one that would have the county boys bragging, you had to start with copper tubing.
Uncle Pete always said anybody can make shine, but it takes right smart thinkin' to make shine somebody can drink. You do that with copper tubing. It don't matter what you put the mash in. It's the copper that adds the golden honey touch. And, of course, Uncle Pete's recipe.
"That'll be ten bucks, Rafe," said Birdie Logan after weighing Rafe's selections.
Rafe looked at the price list written in pencil on a smudged piece of cardboard tacked inside the junkyard office.
"I ain't buying but just a coupla feet, Birdie, not the whole damn yard. You don't need to go chargin' so much for copper. Christ awmighty, Birdie, you'd think it was gold!"
"Well, hit is gold, Rafe. I know what price it ought to fetch. If'n you want it, then it is ten dollars. If'n you don't, just leave it where it is. Copper is good for lotsa things, Rafe. That's why it costs so much. When nobody wants it, you can't give it away, but right now seems like everbody is needin' copper.
"Hoddamn Christ Awmighty," muttered Rafe.
"Tell me, Rafe, what is it everbody's doin' with copper tubing all of a sudden? Am I missing out on somethin'? You think maybe they's a war a'comin'? Or is everbody goin' to indoor plumbin'? Somethin's happenin'," Birdie Logan said.
A flush played across Rafe's face. He shifted to one foot.
"You mean lotsa folks been buyin' copper from you?"
"Yep. Just about ever day. I can't figure it, Rafe. Can't figure it at all."
Rafe dropped the copper onto a greasy bench. "Neva mind, Birdie. Don't think I need this tubing afterall. Be seein' you."
Rafe started for home. No wonder Rowdecker is getting bad shine, he thought. Everybody in the whole damn county must be making it. On the other hand, if there are that many stills cooking in the county, the sheriff must be a pretty busy man these days!
Rafe walked to the Interstate and Fancher Road. He pulled up his wood crate and thumbed a pencil from his shirt pocket. He pulled out a scrap of paper he had found on the side of the road and began to scribble furiously.
If there are that many stills, then I bet the sheriff's running shiners every night, Rafe thought. If he's out every night through the swamps, that means most of the time somebody is taking potshots at him through the bushes. That means he's probably going through a lot of runners.
A moonshine runner is a peculiar breed of person. There are few requirements, but two main elements are that the runner be fast and not too smart. Some moonshine runners are legend in Fancher County. Others didn't live long enough for the word to spread.
Critical to the runner's art is that he chase the shiner until the shiner becomes too tired to continue. Just as a pack of wolves dog a deer, the runners take turns. Usually the sheriff starts out with his fastest runners, and as they tire, he works his way down to the least fleet of foot. That way, he is sure to keep the shiners moving and as they slow, at least he will have a runner capable of staying with them until the winded whiskey maker crumples into a heap. The sheriff then strolls up to a scene of great heaving and huffing and claims his prize and all the glory, hauling his catch off to jail, as though he himself has bagged the big game singlehandedly.
Rafe dusted the seat of his pants and headed toward Cedar ville to see Sheriff Tate, a man of slow and deliberate speed.
"How's goin,' sheriff?" Rafe asked as he entered the sheriff's office. He often stopped by to chat with Sheriff Tate and listen to the police radios as they spattered fried electric chatter.
It made Rafe feel important to carry the conversation at Ruby's Cafe with things he had heard over the police radio. Everyone said Rafe was a good talker, especially when it came to repeating police lingo. He often ended his sentences with "ten four."
"I'm fine, Rafe, just fine," Sheriff Tate said. "What can I do you for? Odie ain't drunk and on the loose again, is he? The last time I had to pick him up he damn near tore up my squad car and three deputies to boot. You get that big sumbitch started and it takes a wagonload to haul him in."
Rafe shuffled his feet and stuck his hands in his pockets. He was embarrassed by what the sheriff said, but it was true. Odie didn't get drunk and crazy often, but when he did he was as mean as a yelloweyed dog.
"Naw, sheriff, Odie ain't drunk. He's over at the barn working. Building a new hog stall. We afixin' to get us some hogs. Polan Chinas and Durocs. Goin' to fatten' 'em up, take 'em to the sale in Cross City."
Sheriff Tate smiled. He knew the Venable brothers didn't have enough money to buy hog feed, let alone Polan Chinas and Durocs. Hell, nobody in Fancher County had that kind of money these days. Not since the sawmill shut down.
"Well, Rafe, what's on your mind?"
"Sheriff I just heard about how you been out a lot at night, and I was wunnerin' if you was out chasin' shiners?"
"Where'd you pick up that load of intelligence, Rafe?" the sheriff asked with an illdisguised snort.
"I dunno, sheriff." Rafe ruffled his hands in his pockets as if chasing down some loose change. "Heard it probably at Rudy's. They's always somethin' big bein' told there. You know how it is.
"I just thought maybe if'n you was runnin' shiners you might need some good chasers. Me and Odie are waitin' on our hogs to come in and we could use a little extra money. If'n you was runnin' shiners, that is."
"Yeah, Rafe, I been runnin' shiners. But you know run nin' shiners at night can be awfully mean work. The last time I
used a runner, it was the Hankshaw boy. The shiners beat him bad
once they caught up with him. His face looked like he had stuck
it inside a sackful of bees. I never did find out who did it,
either."
Rafe shuffled his shoulders. He didn't say anything at
first. He and Odie had never been shine runners before, but he'd
never wanted to go to Daytona Beach before. The dogs were
calling, hard.
"Well, I just thought if you needed some good runners, me
and Odie was available. Just for a little while, though. Soon as
our hogs get here, we got to get to fattenin' 'em up.
"Odie's a good runner, you know, sheriff. Sometimes he
chases rabbits for the fun of it. And he don't mess around once't he latches hold to somebody. He just goes ahead and dusts their
head for them, then goes out and grabs hold somethin' else to
bust."
"Okay, Rafe. It's your hide. I'll pay you and Odie twenty
five apiece for each shiner you run down tonight. Meet me about
seven and we'll head over to Black Duck Slough. The Youngbloods
have been over there making some bad stuff in lead pipes.
"They know I know, but I just haven't been able to catch
'em. Junior Youngblood said the other day that if he caught me
messin' in the slough he'd blow my head off. That Junior is as
mean as a swamp moccasin with a toothache.
"Evertime I get close, they signal and move that damn still, which them shrewd bastids got sittin' on pontoons, back into the
marsh just as pretty as you please. The marsh just swallers 'em
up. But, you wait, I'm agoin' to get them boys, or die tryin'."
"Tonight. Seven."
As he left the sheriff's office, Rafe mentally clicked off
how many shiners he and Odie would have to chase down to earn the three hundred.
If'n we are lucky tonight, Rafe calculated as he hurried to
Uncle Pete's barn, maybe they will be six of them Youngbloods at
that still. We could get our Daytona money in one night!
"You can quit pulling down the stalls, Odie," Rafe said as
he entered the barn. "I got us another job. We goin't to run
shiners tonight for Sheriff Tate. If'n we can get six of 'em
that'd be enough for the bus ticket to Daytona and enough to bet
on the dogs with!"
Odie stared at Rafe for a moment. When the questionmark
completely formed in his mind, he threw down the hammer and began to stomp on it.
"Hoddamn it to hell, Rafe! 'Bout the time I get the stall
tore down so's we can build our own still, you come in and tell
me we gonna break up somebody else's! Hoddamn! Hoddamn!
"And what's more, you know damn good and well that we ain't
never run no shiners. What would papa and Uncle Pete think if
they knowed we'd become shine runners?"
"Damn it, Odie! papa and Uncle Pete never wanted to go to
Daytona, either. 'Sides, we can get twentyfive apiece for ever
shiner we help the sheriff catch. They's at least ten of them
Youngbloods makin' shine over in Tugaloo Marsh. Sheriff Tate said they was hold up in Black Duck Slough.
For one of the few times in his life, Odie Venable was about to say something that was more than profound. It was a solid gold fact. "Chasin' some of them Youngbloods is one thing, Rafe. But
when you begin runnin' after old Junior Youngblood, you done bit
off a chunk of trouble. Junior Youngblood, he don't run.
"He's tougher'n one of 'em big marsh snappin' turtles and
strong enough to tear up a anvil. I saw him bust up Betty's Place one night. He chunked Hank Jolley right through the window like
he was a spear.
"He grabbed Lud Johnson by the hair of his head and ran him
around the table like ol' Lud was a wagon tongue. Lud was
hollerin', 'Whoa, Junior! Whoa, Junior!' It didn't do no good.
Ol' Junior jest led him 'round and 'round 'till he jest about
yanked all the hair outtrn' ol' Lud's head. Lud ain't got that
much hair to lose."
If Rafe was listening to what his older brother was saying
it didn't appear to faze him, for all Rafe could think of was
cashing in on six Youngbloods in one night and then making tracks the next day for the riches of Daytona Beach where fast dogs race for fast money.
Promptly at seven, Rafe and Odie met Sheriff Tate and three
deputies on the edge of Tugaloo Marsh. Flatbottomed jonboats
banged into each other as the big men tried to ease into them.
"The secret is to be as quiet as night," Sheriff Tate said
as he watched Odie fall and stumble into the bow of the first
boat. "Odie, you sound like a leadfooted mule walking on a tin
floor. You got to be quitern' that, else old Junior will hear us
a mile off."
The sheriff grimaced, shook his head and motioned for Rafe
to untie the boats and shove off for the slough. Rafe tripped
over the sheriff's foot and sprawled into one of the deputies.
The men tumbled inside the boat in an explosion of arms, legs and muffled cries. The boats bucked loudly into each other.
After an hour of rowing, the men could see lights shining
through the woods like swamp gas. The Youngbloods had set up
their still on Turkey Island in the hourglass shpaed slough. The
fire that made the big boilers glow looked as if it had a halo
around it. Sheriff Tate put his finger to his mouth as the two
boats glided into the east side of Turkey Island. Rafe and Odie
were the first out.
"We'll get 'em to runnin', sheriff, and then you just follow in behind and clean up," Rafe said as he struggled to free first
one foot and then the other from the sucking bog that grabbed
forcefully at his brogans. Each time he snatched free, his foot
made a succulent popping sound.
Rafe grinned at the sheriff and stared down at the dripping
mess. Both shoes were covered with muck and each time he took a
step a squishy symphony played beneath his feet. The sheriff
rolled his eyes and shook his head. He began to wonder why he had ever hired the Venable boys as runners. There are some universal
truths in Fancher County. One is that you don't employ the
Venable boys for intricate jobs that require finesse.
"How many of 'em you reckon they are?" Rafe said as he shook black clods from his shoes. It had not occurred to him until just then that the Youngbloods were plentiful in Fancher County, that
there were about as many Youngbloods as there are kudzu vines in
Tennessee.
"Oh, I'd say no more'n a half dozen or so," the sheriff
said. "The others have probably already left to make today's
deliveries."
"Well, so long as they ain't no moren' six or so. Me and
Odie can handle that," Rafe said, silently praying that Junior
was in the group taking the new shine to Cedarville, though he
knew good and well the Youngbloods would leave Junior behind to
protect the still.
"Me and the deputies will move in quick in the beginning and start shootin' up in the air to get their attention," Sheriff
Tate said to Rafe and Odie. "That'll probably scatter some of
'em, and that's when I want you to start arunnin' 'em down.
We'll get a few on the first flush, but you and Odie will have to run the rest of 'em."
The men moved to the outer rim of the Youngblood camp, as
sticky fumes from the boiling mash filled the night. Birds
roosted in the trees, and a night orchestra was playing softly in the underbrush.
A loud blast from the sheriff's service revolver tore
through the night. A very different and heavy sound quickly
offered a rebuttal. Sheriff Tate froze. A cell of doubt beamed in his head, for it was clear that instead of running, the
Youngbloods were not about to depart. They were shooting back.
Roar upon roar of double barrel 10gauge shotguns rippled
in waves across the island. Roosting turkeys flapped heavily
from the tops of water oaks, shaken from their sleep.
Stunned by the gunfire, Rafe looked around in a panic for
his brother, only to find Odie nearby but up to his chin in stump water. When he managed to free Odie the two began running hard
for the boats. Rafe made quick, swift pumping movements with his
legs while Odie leaped in long strides.
"I tol' you ol' Junior would be trouble," Odie fumed as they ran for the jonboats. "I tol' you, Rafe! Them's 10gauges they's
firing. He's shootin' with them ol' hogkillin' guns."
Rafe's face was white. He hadn't counted on the Youngbloods
using guns. Sheriff Tate hadn't said anything about gun play. As
far as Rafe was concerned, the deal was off. It was time to leave Tugaloo Marsh, Black Duck Slough, Turkey Island, and possibly
Cedarville.
As Rafe and Odie drew within a few yards of the boats, a
crackling blast parted the sawgrass behind Odie and lead shot
sprinkled black holes in his cotton shirt, leaving powder marks
on the ragged cloth.
For a few seconds, Odie swayed to and fro as though he had
just risen too quickly from a rocking chair.
"Hits awright, Rafe. I ain't hurt much," Odie said as Rafe
grabbed his brother and tried to pull him along.
"That ain't the worst part, Odie," Rafe panted.
"That came from Junior! He's right behind us!"
Odie's stride gained new life. His legs began to gobble up
the boggy ground as he raced his brother for the jonboats. His
arms pounding like tiny pistons, Rafe bounded quickly in a fox
like dash after Odie, who now skimmed across the swampy surface
like some great and graceful bird.
As they reached the boats, Rafe pushed Odie into the nearest one. Odie sailed through the air and bellyslid headfirst and
crosswise into the boat, banging across the first seat, ripping a two inch gash in his chin. Odie flailed his arms and legs like a pinned bug, kicking free the sheriff's second boat, which had
been carelessly tied to a rotten stump.
Rafe plunged into the water, shoving ahoy the jonboat
containing his brother. "Keep your head down, Odie!" Rafe
whispered needlessly to his dazed brother as the boat slithered
toward open water.
The other jonboat had begun to bob gently, its nose caught
on a slight breeze blowing through the sawgrass. A snatch of
current moved it from shore and toward the Catalpa River.
"What we goin' t'do for Daytoni money now, Rafe?" Odie said
as he stretched, trying to look over his shoulder at the many
pellet marks. Failing in that contortion, he held his bleeding
chin with one hand and his shoulder with the other. He looked
like a swami in prayer as opportunity outpaced ability.
Rafe pushed hard on his paddle, using it now like a pole in
the shallow water. Off in the distance came the clean, sharp
reports of the sheriff and his men firing revolvers at the
Youngbloods. Boom! The big 10gauges thundered in response. Rafe
winced each time he heard a boom. He whistled in reverent respect at the firecracking pop, pop, pop of the revolvers.
"That sure is some fight the sheriff and the Youngbloods
have goin'," Rafe said with awe. Odie had finally begun to survey with his fingers the dents scattered from his shoulders to his
waist.
Rafe listened intently as the firing intensified. He could
tell the sheriff and his men had begun to make their way to where the boats had been tied up. It sounded as though the revolvers
were firing less and the Youngbloods' 10gauges were letting all
hell fly loose. That must mean, Rafe thought, the sheriff is
running out of ammunition. The Youngbloods, on the other hand,
were obviously well armed.
"What we gonna do now, Rafe?" Odie repeated. "We done lost
our Daytoni money."
Without missing a beat in his poling rhythm, Rafe looked
down at his older brother whose shirt was in tatters.
"I been thinkin', Odie. Chickens. We goin' into chickens,
Odie." Rafe worked the pole in the night, moving the Venable boys further away from noise in Black Duck Slough.
"Chickens?" Odie shouted. "Hoddamnit way to hell and back.
We don't know nothin' about no chickens, Rafe. Except that you
fry 'em up real good and eat 'em. What we gonna do with chickens, Rafe? Just answer me that."
"We gonna get us a rooster and a hen and we gonna start
raising' little chickens, Odie. That's what. There's just a whole lot of folks eat chickens, Odie. Ever Sunday all you see is women fryin' up chickens.
"Interstate 75 is loaded with chicken trucks, headin' north. What you think all them chickens is for? We are gonna open us up
a chicken stand on the side of 75 and sell fryin' size chickens."
Rafe poled the boat into the Catalpa River, and though he
didn't know exactly where they were, he knew the river would
eventually take the boat downstream to Cedarville.
By dawn Rafe and Odie reached the bridge below Cedarville
where they pulled the boat up onto the bank.
They had been nearly consumed by carnivorous mosquitoes on
the trip home. Rafe tried to joke that the mosquitoes had been
the size of chickens, but Odie hadn't appreciated the humor. The
mosquito bites made worse the peck marks in his back from Junior
Youngblood's 10guage loaded with birdshot.
Rafe bought some used crankcase oil at Rudy May's and
treated Odie's back before they walked into Cedarville to see
about buying some chickens from Ruby Walker.
Ruby always kept several chickens in her backyard to cook
for her cafe customers. Once before, Rafe had worked a chicken
deal with Ruby, until she learned that Rafe was selling her the
same chickens over and over. After she bought a chicken from
Rafe, he would return to Ruby's chicken pen, steal another
chicken and head back to consumate another sale.
Ruby almost took Rafe's head off with a meat cleaver when
some regular customers told her what Rafe was up to. Everybody
got a big laugh out of Rafe's chicken selling abilities, even
Ruby after a few days.
As Odie and Rafe walked along Main Street they learned that
Sheriff Tate and his deputies had not returned from Black Duck
Slough. The mayor of Cedarville had called the state police
headquarters in Cross City and had asked for a search party.
There was a rumor the sheriff and his deputies had been killed.
Someone had found an empty flatbottom boat near the Cedarville
bridge and there were splotches of blood on the boat seats.
Shock rolled through Rafe. He looked up to see Odie heading
for Ruby Walker's chicken pen. Just then did he realize that he
and Odie had left Sheriff Tate and the deputies stranded in Black Duck Slough with one boat. Or, at least he thought there had been one left. He had not noticed the sheriff's boat floating off as
they escaped the hot blasts from Junior's shotgun.
Rafe knew that Sheriff Tate was not a very understanding man in these matters, and that once he finished with Junior
Youngblood, he would come looking for the Venable boys with a
vengance.
"Odie," Rafe yelled. "We gotta go. Leave 'em chickens be."
"Hoddamn, where we goin' now, Rafe? I thought we was goin'
into chickens. How we gonna get Daytoni money if'n we don't get
some chickens to sell, Rafe?"
"Drop them birds, Odie. We gointa Daytona right now," Rafe
hollered as he started for Uncle Pete's, waiving his arms for
Odie to follow.
"Right now, Rafe? How we gointa to get there, fly? What we
gointa do for dog money once't we get there?"
"We are gointa get Uncle Pete's old mule. We are gointa ride Buckethaid to Daytona, Odie. That's what.
"We are gointa ride that old mule to Daytona, then sell him
for glue. Then we gointa bet on them dogs, Odie."
Odie dropped Ruby's chicken and began to follow his brother.
"What if'n Buckethaid don't want to go to no Daytoni, Rafe?
That possibility had not crossed Rafe's mind. He was too
busy thinking about two other pressing matters: Sheriff Tate and
Junior Youngblood.
Both of them would be after the Venable boys now the echoes
had surely died on their war in the marsh. Furthermore, Rafe
didn't want to be around when Junior learned that it had been his idea to go into the shiner running business, starting with the
Youngblood still.
And the sheriff, Rafe figured, would be mad enough to lose
the keys to every door in the jailhouse once he found his way out of the marsh and recuperated from all those mosquito bites and
any damage from Junior's 10gauge.
"'Sides, Rafe, you know how Buckethaid is. He can't go for
long without taking a crap. We won't be two miles before he will
be producing them big piles. Once't he starts, there's no
stoppin' him. You know that."
"Then, Odie, we will go into the mule manure business right there on the side of I75. We'll roll them chips up into little
squares and let them get real hard. And then we'll sell them to
them tourist in them lizard cars for genuine Tennosea dried elk turd key chains."
Odie blinked and looked at his younger brother with great
wonder. He shook his head in admiration.
"Whoooeeboy! Mama always said you was a smartun', Rafe. I
know'd you'd come up with a way for us to get to Daytoni. Who
else but you would ever think of makin' money off'n mule shit!"
