A Drink with the Deacon

"Can I help you?" The woman who asked it was just a few years older than Sheffield. She was too young to be his mother.

"I came to look at the car Ma'am. I spoke to Mr. Sheffield at the office."

"He did tell you that we will accept cash only?" Like her husband she was putting me in my place.

"Ma'am, I am getting awfully tired of that. I came to town to buy a car. I brought the money with me to buy a car."

"I am sorry young man but you just don't look as though you have that much money." I nodded. I removed the roll of bills from my pocket.

"Would you like to count to make sure there is enough here before I ask to start it?" I had intended to make her feel bad. She didn't seem to notice.

"No, I think not," I looked at her for about two seconds just to size her up. She was a woman with features as sharp as her tongue.

"If the car runs, you have it priced right to sell," I suggested.

"The car runs quite well I believe. Our son drove it during college. He moved to California, so we bought him a new car out there."

"I see. I would like to start it, if you don't mind," she nodded her head. Starting the car was not as easy as T models usually are. It took some fiddling with the ignition to get it started. I allowed it to run while I checked out the engine. To find the engine so obviously in need of cleaning was surprising in so expensive a car. It was possibly why the car was priced so low.

After it warmed up, I asked, "I would like to drive it around the block a couple of times. How do you want to work that? You don't seem to be very trusting." I smiled to lessen the impact of the words.

"I certainly don't think leaving your car would do." She smiled at me but not to lessen the impact of her words. The smile was friendly for a change.

"If I can't drive it, I won't buy it." I lowered and latched the side engine cover.

"Well I suppose I shall have to ride with you." She smiled again as she climbed into the car. Since it was an open topped roadster, she had no fear of being seen with the young stranger. I was probably close to her son's age.

As I drove around the block a few times, I made the decision to buy the car. I had plans for it. Even though the kid had abused the car it would do for what I wanted. I pulled onto the Elm street after my test drive.

"Could we drive just a little longer?" The voice belonged to Mrs. Sheffield.

"Of course, is there anywhere you would like to go?"

"Actually there is. Just go back to the main road then turn left out of town." She looked boldly into my eyes.

It was well after midday when she handed me the bill of sale for the car. She even agreed to follow me home to deliver it. The thirty minute errand took quit a bit longer. After she left, I got busy because I knew my time was running short. In the waning light I set up the ambush. After the ambush was set, I moved the older more abused T to the rear of the property. The speedster sat in the drive just the thing you would expect from a man with new found wealth.

It took them two more days to find me. I was a little surprised that it took so long. I had left a wide enough trail for them. When they came, it was in three cars. I was never sure exactly how many men came for me, I had hoped it would be the whole gang including the boss. I continued in that hope until the end.

Firefights don't really last all that long. As was the case the last time they came for me, the road was mined. After my first encounter with the gang, I was surprised they rode right into it. The mines in the road got only the lead car. I had spaced them wrong. A dozen men tried to climb down from the other two cars.

I laid 300 rounds from the Lewis heavy machine gun on them. It was a slaughter only two of the men were still alive after the pan on top of The Lewis was empty. I had practiced changing the pan so often that I had a full pan on The Lewis before they reached the woods. I suppose shooting them in the back wasn't very sporting, but it was safe.

I waited until The Lewis cooled, before I went to check the bodies. Once I was sure they were all dead, I returned to the house. I tossed a few hundred bucks from the suitcases into the house then walked away. When I got to the older family T, I hit the detonator. The house when up in a fire ball as the two gallons of gasoline added its fuel to the dynamite explosion.

I tugged on the wire to get all that was left of it out of sight. I tossed all the evidence of the explosion into the old smoking T model Ford family touring car. I drove the high clearance T through the field until I was past all the destruction. Once I was clear of it all, I began my drive South.

I dumped the car in the first town I came to with a railroad. I bought a ticket to Florida. I got off the train in Tennessee. I bought a car from an old lady whose husband had died two months before.

I spent six months laying false trails. When the six months that I had allotted myself for the subterfuge ended, I began thinking about starting a new life. How I wound up back on the farm is still a mystery to me. I guess I stayed because my brother, his wife, and their five kids had moved to Greensboro to work in the mills there. I settled in to raise kids. And no, Thelma wasn't the mother of them. A local girl got that honor.

The end.