Creepers (7 page)

Yancy didn’t want to do this any more than he had wanted to go to old man Dixon’s.  He just couldn’t figure a way out of it, not yet.  Something bad was coming, and Yancy was right in the middle of it.  It seemed to him now that getting out of town wasn’t just a good idea; it was a necessity.  He just needed to stall things until he could get to Terri.  He needed to stall the Ungers.

Yancy drove on with his mind racing.  Soon he came to a clearing where the Friday before they had had a good time shooting beer cans.  Toby and Tom Unger were already there and appeared to have finished off a couple of six packs while they’d been waiting.  Yancy pulled up and stopped beside Toby’s truck.  It was lifted and sat on big mud tires, and towered over Yancy’s old Nova.  Yancy swallowed hard and got out of the car.

“Hey Toby,” Yancy said, “hey Tom.”

“Where you been asshole?” Toby Asked.

“Yeah,” Tom added, “you been diddlin’ Terri this whole time?”

“Shut the fuck up Tom,” Yancy said angrily, “I’ve been with old man Dixon this entire time.”

Toby gave him an incredulous glare and said, “This whole time, you and old man Dixon?  What did he say?”

“He kept going on about the blacks doing something to Ricky,” Yancy replied.  “He insisted that the preacher and his church had something to do with it.  He kept talking about getting the Klan involved.”

“Damn straight,” Toby said, nodding.  “It’s about time we took back this town.”

“Damn straight,” Tom agreed.  Toby looked over at his brother, irritated.

“Are you two serious,” Yancy asked, “Do you know what that means?”

Toby shrugged and said, “Yeah, we are finally going to do something about all of these niggers around here.”

“War,” Yancy shouted, “It means war Toby.  Is that what you really want, to start a race war?  We know most of the blacks in town.  We know their families.  Could you really hurt them?”

“I don’t know any of their kind,” Toby said with a snarl, “All I see are coons taking our jobs and dirtying our women.  They’re vermin Yancy, and you used to know that.”

“I never did,” Yancy said.

“Bullshit!” Toby barked, “That’s bullshit, and you know it Yancy.  You were there every time we fucked with one of ‘em.  You joined in the same as us.”

“I only went along because of Ricky,” Yancy pleaded, “We all did.  None of us wanted to be on his bad side, so we went along with whatever he did.  Listen,” he tried to explain, “Ricky was the one.  We all just followed like sheep and tried to keep our heads down.  It was better we did what Ricky said, then have him do it to us.  You know that.”

“I know I hate them niggers the same as Ricky does,” Toby said.

“Yeah,” Tom added.

Toby continued, “Ricky was mean for sure Yancy, but he never made me do anything I didn’t want to do.  And I thought you were with us.  This whole time you’ve been lying to us, you sonofabitch.  Well, if you’re not with us, then you’re against us.”  Toby glared at Yancy and said, “All this time I thought we were friends.”

“We are friends,” Yancy pleaded, “Toby we’ve known each other since we were kids.”

“I know we have,” Toby replied, “and that’s why I’m not going to beat the shit out of you now.  But, it’s over Yancy.  I don’t ever want to see you around again.  You better not tell anyone what’s been said either.  You get a pass tonight Yancy, but that’s it.  As far as I’m concerned you’re no better than any other nigger lover.”

Tom piped in, “Toby; this ain’t right.  We all grew up together…”

Toby cut him off.  “Shut it Tom,” he said, “he’s made his choice.”

Tom gave Yancy a sorrowful glance then looked down at the ground.  Mumbling, he said to Yancy, “Bye Yancy.”

“This is wrong Toby,” Yancy said, “You’re wrong.”

Toby replied, “Just get out of here before I have to break my word.”

Yancy climbed back into his car and fired up the engine.  He pulled slowly out of the clearing, repeatedly glancing in his rear view mirror.  Half expecting them to come after him, it wasn’t until he came to asphalt before he relaxed somewhat.  Yancy had wanted all of this to end, but not like this.  He didn’t mean to alienate himself or worse yet, become an enemy.  However, that is precisely what had happened.  Right now the Ungers were his enemy, and soon he figured, would be Donald Dixon.

How had he never seen it?  Toby Unger was every bit as evil as Ricky.  He had the same hatred and loathing, even the same mean streak.  Yancy guessed that Toby had always just been in Ricky’s shadow.  He thought then of Tom and that sorrowful look on Tom’s face as he had pulled away.  Tom had always followed his older brother like a puppy, but that look said a lot to Yancy.  Tom didn’t seem to have quite the same hatred as his brother.  Yancy felt sorry for Tom just then.  He hoped that things might change for Tom, but he knew they never would.

Things never changed in a small town, at least in this small town.  Lusaoka had been pretty much the same since before Yancy was born.  With the same hatreds and the same small minded people.  The families never seemed to change much either.  You were born into a way of life, and you died in that same way of life.  Yancy was caught in it too.  It was like a trap.  It was a trap in which he was struggling to get free.

Yancy drove on, towards home.  It was getting late; he was tired, and he had to work tomorrow.  Today had been a very long day and so much had happened.  Yancy was also afraid.  He was afraid of what was coming and what he might have to do.  It all made his head hurt.  Yancy had severed his ties with his old ways, or they had severed their ties with him.  Either way, however it had happened, Yancy was now free of the Dixon men and the Unger boys.

Maybe free wasn’t the right word, he thought.  He would only be truly free when he had left this town.  Perhaps a better word was untangled.  Yancy had been tangled up with Ricky and Toby and Tom since as far back as he could remember.  Once you got in you couldn’t get out, but now he was out.  He was out of their inner circle, and Yancy liked that feeling.  He took a deep breath, a cleansing breath.

Yancy figured that tomorrow after work he would finally go and see Terri Dixon.  He no longer needed to go see old man Dixon any more than he had wanted to.   Yancy was sure Toby Unger couldn’t wait to go and tell him what a traitor Yancy was.  That was fine; Yancy decided.  It meant he wouldn’t ever have to see the old man again.  Even if it meant he would be in the old man’s sights.  Yancy smiled.

Now he could concentrate on other things, like Terri.  He would finally be able to tell her all of the things he never had.  He could tell her how he felt about her and his plans for the future.  Yancy wasn’t sure if he could tell her what was coming, but he had to try.  Moreover, he needed to try.  As hard as it would be he needed to warn her of the storm that was coming.  He had to explain it.  He needed her out of Lusaoka, and he had to protect her.  Yancy realized just then that he had to protect the reverend too. 

***

Toby watched Yancy until he could no longer see the lights of his car.  He turned towards Tom and saw that Tom had been watching Yancy leave as well.  In Tom’s eyes was a sadness that Toby also felt, but would never admit to.  Losing a friend is hard, and Yancy had been a good friend.  Then, to have Yancy turn his back on them like that made it so much worse.  He felt betrayed, and that pissed him off more than anything.  It was a betrayal that cut him deeply.

In his heart, Toby felt anger and a twinge of sorrow.  It was only because it was moderated with that twinge of sorrow that he hadn’t acted upon it immediately.  Toby reasoned that a betrayal was just about the worst offense one friend could perpetrate on another friend.  He felt the anger well up inside him, and it pushed out any sorrow that might have lingered.  At that moment, Toby turned and punched the rear fender of his truck.

“Damn you Yancy,” he mumbled.

“It just ain’t right Toby,” Tom said.

“Shut it Tom,” Toby replied.

Tom continued, “It ain’t right, and you know it.  Yancy’s our friend.”

“Shut it now Tom,” Toby said, irritated.

“Yancy’s our friend,” Tom repeated.

“I told you to shut it!” Toby said as he grabbed Tom by the shirt.  He threw Tom to the ground and Tom landed flat on his butt.  The look of hurt and surprise on Tom’s face was almost comical, almost.  “Yancy made his choice Tom,” Toby continued, “and it wasn’t us.  Okay?”

Tom sniffed a couple of times and stifled his desire to cry.  He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt and said, “Okay Toby.  So what are we gonna’ do now?”

“I’m thinking,” Toby said.  He leaned down and extended his hand to his brother.  “Here,” he said, “get up off the ground.”

Toby helped his brother up off the ground then leaned back against the fender of his truck.  He thought long and hard about all that had just happened.  It didn’t change anything he decided.  He knew that Yancy wouldn’t rat them out.  If for no other reason than he was afraid of them.  They would just have to do everything themselves.  It made it a little harder, that was all.  He turned and put his arm around his brother’s shoulders.

Toby said, “It doesn’t change anything.  We’ve still got to do what we’ve got to do.  I’ll continue checking out the blacks, and I want you to go keep an eye on that preacher and Terri.  Check out that church too; see what you can find there.  Ricky’s got to be around here somewhere, and someone’s got to know what has happened to him.”

“You want me to go check out that church tonight Toby?” Tom asked.

Toby thought for a moment then said, “No, not tonight.”

“Are we going home now?” Tom asked as Toby climbed up into his truck.

“Not yet Tom,” Toby replied, “we have an errand to run first.”

“Okay,” Tom said as Toby turned the truck around.  Tom thought about his brother as they drove on to run their errand.  He loved his brother, but he could be so hard headed some times.  Tom figured that this stuff with Yancy would all just blow over.  He knew Toby would eventually cool down, and they would all be shooting cans again.  Tom didn’t think about Ricky.  He didn’t want to.  Tom didn’t like Ricky.  Up to now, he didn’t think Toby did all that much either.

Toby glanced over at his brother; he had been so quiet since they left the woods.  Toby loved his brother, but he could be just so damn irritating at times.  Toby knew Tom wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was smart enough, and boy could he fix an engine.  Toby smiled just then.  Tom was a gentle soul and would do whatever Toby asked him.  That would make it a lot easier; he decided.  That would make everything that was coming a whole lot easier.

Evvie White lived about a mile up the road from the White Apple Baptist Church.  She played the organ there every Sunday and her beautiful baby girl Precious sang in the choir.  Precious was hardly a baby; she was nearly seventeen, but Evvie would always see her that way.  Precious was truly a gift from God and had the voice of an angel to prove it.  She was also the only thing worth a damn that Evvie’s no good man had given her.

Jasper had filled Evvie’s head with all kinds of lovely words.  He had told her how much he loved her, and how beautiful she was.  To Evvie, he had the promise of a life she had never known.  So she had let him bed her down.  Then as soon as she turned up pregnant, that worthless Jasper didn’t even have the time of day for her.  Come to find out, he had been bedding down several of the fine ladies around town, and Evvie wasn’t the only one who was pregnant.

As it turned out, Evvie was the only one that had kept her gift.  Be it from the likes of Jasper or a prince, life was a gift from God, and you just couldn’t get rid of it.  Now when Evvie saw those other women around town they would look away.  Too ashamed of what they’d done, she supposed.  However, Evvie bared them no ill will.  The way she saw it, she had won, and they had lost.  She had won with her beautiful little Precious.

Evvie had finished her nightly chores and sat in an overstuffed chair in the living room, reading her bible and waiting for her daughter to get home from work.  Waiting for Precious was pretty much what Evvie did most every night.  She would get home from her job of cleaning houses around 6:00 pm and make dinner for Precious and her for the following evening.  The dinner she had made last night would be reheated for them for supper tonight.  Then she would do the laundry or clean the house, whatever needed to be done.  She would sit down with the good book for an hour or so, and then Precious would be home.  The two of them would enjoy the meal Evvie had prepared the night before, do the dishes and then go to bed.

It was the same routine they had shared since Precious had started working.  It was not that much different than it was when Precious had started school, the big difference being when they ate.  Everything that Evvie was, revolved around her Precious.  She didn’t approve of Precious working, but they needed the money.  Sweet Precious was going to school; she ran track, worked, and participated in the choir.  She truly was a gift from God Evvie decided.  It pained her to see Precious missing out on things, friends, dances, boyfriends.  In the end though, Evvie knew that Precious would be rewarded.

***

It was nearly midnight by the time Toby and Tom pulled off the road at the turn off to Evvie White’s house.  Toby backed the truck into a small clearing where vine covered trees mostly obscured them from the road to the right.  He had barely shut off his engine and lights when Toby saw headlights coming down the road from the opposite direction.  He grabbed Tom on the shoulder and pushed him down in the seat.

“Get down,” Toby exclaimed as he also hunkered down in the seat.  Toby peered through the gap between the steering wheel and the dash as the car drove past.  It was a police car, and it had to be coming from that preacher’s house he guessed.  There was nothing else down this way, not past this point at least.  Toby breathed out a sigh of relief.  It didn’t seem as though they had been seen.

Toby inched his way back up in the seat and stared down the road to the right.  He half expected the cop to be coming back, and he was thinking up excuses.  His mind racing for ideas, Toby licked his lips and gripped too tightly onto the steering wheel.  After a moment, his hands began to ache, and he loosened his grip on the wheel. 

“Did he see us?” Tom asked, his voice trembling.

“I don’t think so,” Toby replied.

“Was that a cop?” Tom asked.

“Yeah,” Toby replied, “I think it was that half-breed deputy.”

“We better go home,” Tom pleaded, “in case he saw us.”

Irritated, Toby said, “If he’d seen us he surely would have turned around.  Grow a pair Tom.”

“Okay Toby,” Tom said sheepishly.

“Besides,” Toby continued, “we’re about to have us some fun tonight.”

“Yeah,” Tom asked, “are we still gonna’ teach that black girl a lesson?”

“That’s right Tom,” Toby said, “she’s going to get a lesson like she ain’t ever had.”

“I just don’t think we should do this tonight,” Tom argued.

“It’s happening little brother,” Toby said angrily, “it’s happening tonight.”

“Okay,” Tom relented.

“And get your mask on,” Toby added as he donned a pillow case with eye holes cut in it.

***

Precious White finished her shift at the local burger joint and headed home.  She was beat.  Her practice had run long, and she was nearly late for work.  On top of that she had a ton of homework to do.  Precious drove home on auto-pilot, oblivious to the world around her and thinking about her homework.  It was late, and she was so tired, Precious didn’t know if she had the energy to finish her homework tonight.  She thought about it some more and decided she would do half of it tonight and the rest during study hall in the morning.

Happier but still on auto pilot, she finally reached the turn off to her home.  Precious barely noticed the big four wheeled drive truck parked at the edge of her long driveway, until it pulled out in front of her.  She slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel hard to the right.  Her tires slid on the gravel road of her driveway, and she skidded off into a ditch.  The engine revved for a moment then died.

Her heart pounding and her hands shaky, Precious held on tightly to the wheel until her mind caught up to what had just happened.  Only then did she exhale.  “Damn.” Precious muttered under her breath.  She took a breath then looked around and saw that her books had tumbled into the passenger floor board, but that was all.  Precious heard a deep rumble and looked up into the rear view mirror as the headlights from the truck came up behind her.  Their dusty yellow light illuminated the interior of her car and momentarily blinded her.  She could barely make out the shapes of two people approaching her from either side of the truck.  Precious took another, deeper breath.  She was still trembling.

Finally, the two figures reached her doors on both sides, and Precious relaxed.  She turned to speak to the one at her window and only then did she notice that person was wearing a mask.  Terror filled her instantly, and as the panic welled up inside her, it forced its way out her throat as a scream.  However, her cry was caught short when a powerful fist connected with her jaw.  It rattled her skull and sent her over into the passenger seat.

Lying in the passenger seat, semi-dazed, she glanced out the passenger window to see the figure there also wearing a mask.  More terror filled her, and as Precious started to scream again, sparks of pain shot through her jaw as she opened her mouth.  She screamed anyway, and both doors flew open.  Precious felt hands grasping at her legs, and she kicked as hard as she could.  Then she felt a hammering blow to the side of her head, followed by a cracking sound.

The baseball bat had hit Precious squarely in the temple, and immediately her world began to spin.  She stopped kicking her legs and let out a small whimper, and then her world went completely black.  Precious was as limp as a rag doll and the two figures struggled to pull her from the car.  Eventually, the two figures stood looming over Precious’ limp form lying in a ditch. 

The figures waited for Precious to come around and then she discovered that her mouth had been taped shut.  She was lying on her back in the bed of the truck, and her hands were tied behind her.  The two figures punched and kicked her in the stomach, breasts, ribs and legs.  Every blow that landed shot a jolt of pain throughout her body.  Every blow brought with it and expletive and other remarks from the two figures.

“This is for Ricky Dixon,” figure one yelled.

“Return him, or there will be more,” figure two screamed.

“Tell all your nigger friends their kind ain’t wanted here,” Figure one continued, “Tell them all it’s only gonna’ get worse the longer Ricky is missing.”

“Yeah,” figure two added, “worse for all of you.”

“You better not report this either,” figure one continued, “or we’ll come back and string you up.”  Figure one paused for a moment and then added, “and your mother too.”

Eventually, the pain had become so severe that Precious started blacking out again.  She would come in and out of consciousness for the remainder of the ordeal.  Every time Precious would begin to come to one of the figures would punch or kick her until she blacked out again.  Every time Precious would come around she would see or feel another piece of her clothing being ripped off.  At some point, in a far off place, Precious knew that she was naked.

She was naked, and she could feel one of the figures climb on top of her.  Precious’ mind was in another place, and she let it stay there.  She didn’t want to know what was going on to her, inside her.  Precious thought about her mother and her homework; she thought about choir.  She thought about anything except what was happening to her.  She barely noticed the argument the two figures had, or when the second figure took his turn, barely.

Then it was over.  Still fading in and out of consciousness, Precious’ life would pass by in short flashes.  They were fragments of the scene unfolding.  Being untied was just a dream.  Being dragged from the truck back to her car was only a hallucination.  Lying in the front seat of her car was a mirage.  The two men driving off was some impossible vision.  Only this hadn’t been a nightmare, and Precious slowly pulled her legs up to her chest in a fetal position.

Dazed and confused, Precious lay there in her front seat curled up in a ball and sobbed.  One eye had swollen shut, and her hair was matted to her skin in dried blood.  In her mouth, she could taste blood, and her jaw hurt so badly she couldn’t move it.  Every bit of her body ached, and her breathing was raspy and challenging.  Precious was not sure how long she lay there, but she didn’t move until her mother found her.

***

Evvie was worried.  It was not like her Precious to be late, and certainly not without calling.   This was one of the few times that she had wished they got cell phone reception.  Evvie could stand it no longer, and she finally called the burger joint, but they told her that Precious had left there nearly two hours ago.  Evvie’s worry soon turned to panic.  Something had happened to her baby, her Precious.

“Dear Lord,” she prayed, “please bring my baby home to me.”

Evvie paused for a moment as if she half expected the Lord to answer her prayer.  With no reply but the impossibly loud sound of a ticking clock on the wall, a determined look came across Evvie’s face.  She gently laid the bible she had been holding on the entry table and quickly snatched up the car keys that were there.  Evvie headed out the door in a flurry, her house coat bouncing in the breeze.

As she drove the quarter of a mile from her house to the end of the drive, wild thought ricocheted around her head.  Every thought was more perverse than the previous one, and it caused her panic to grow even more.  Evvie’s panic equated to speed, and she kept muttering to herself under her breath, “dear Lord, dear Lord, dear Lord...”  In her state and the dark of the night, she nearly missed the back end of the car sticking up out of the ditch.

Evvie slammed on the brakes and slid on the gravel road.  Her car skidded sideways and came to a stop in a cloud of dust just past the back of Precious’ car.  Evvie barely got the car into park before she had the driver door open.  The panic in her hit a crescendo by the time she made it to the ditch and Evvie fell down an embankment.  She found herself in a dry gulley looking up at the stars.  Faster than she had moved in years, Evvie hauled herself up beside the car door.

When Evvie looked inside the window, her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach.  Her fear at the sight of her daughter was that she was dead, but then Precious moaned.  Evvie yanked the car door open and climbed in behind the wheel.  At first Precious pulled away from her touch, but then her good eye recognized her mother, and she began sobbing again.  Evvie pulled Precious up to her and held her tightly, issuing words of comfort.

“There, there,” Evvie cooed, “Mama’s here.”  She tried to brush back Precious’ hair where it had stuck to her face in the dried blood, but couldn’t.

“Why Mama?” Precious muttered.

“Shhh,” Evvie replied, “hush baby.”  Evvie held her tightly and stroked her hair.  Precious buried her face in her Mama’s shoulder and continued to cry.  Eventually, the tears subsided and Evvie was able to coax Precious out of the car.  With her arm wrapped around her bare shoulders, Evvie directed Precious to her car and together they climbed the embankment.  Once inside her Mama’s car, Precious finally stopped crying.

“We have to get you to the hospital,” Evvie said.

“No,” Precious pleaded, “take me home.”

“No child,” Evvie replied, “you need to see a doctor.”

“I can’t Mama,” Precious continued, “I just can’t see anyone right now.  I just want to go home.”

“But you’re hurt,” Evvie responded.

“I know,” Precious replied, “but not that badly.  Can we go tomorrow?  Right now, I just want to go home and take a shower.”