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Smashwords Edition Copyright 2018 Pamela Joan Barlow Smashwords Edition, License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Old fashioned love story....

The tale of Tomcat and Duchess spans over fifty years.

Eckward is fifty-plus years old and ready to retire from his long-term working job, not his Bama buddy Teague.

Teague is newly divorced enjoying his solo life of freedom coupled with his twin partnership of fun with his buddy Eckward at the work place.

Eckward and Teague, a pair of FDA inspectors who are both fifty-plus year old dudes, friends, and partners work at the FDA inspection office in metro city Birmingham within the US State of Alabama. They have spent the past thirty years hunting down bugs, leeches, and gamblers.

Eckward plans his ultimate life-happiness relaxing with his family, drinking a cold beer, and watching the sporting game.

This week, in the great US State of Alabama, the top two sporting teams are vying for the National University Championship Football title.

Teague plans his ultimate work-strategy locating one of the twelve sporting game gamblers, residing in Alabama.

**This week, the FDA assignment requires a FDA inspector to swiftly locate and gently remind the Bama citizen to honestly pay all their Alabama state income taxes on any major football gambling bet, if the lucky gambler has** picked the correct winner of the National **University Championship football game. Since, the Alabama governor and Bama congress people want a huge monetary pay increase next year.**

The FDA inspector carries a gun, but does not shoot.

The FDA inspector carries a badge, but does not arrest.

And the FDA inspector cannot ask for any personal data which does violate the privacy rule that has been established by the US Federal Government. As the FDA inspector can become personally jailed inside an Alabama prison plus become fined with a huge monetary penalty coming out from their individual bank account.

Present day and place

Thursday January 7th

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

11:01 p.m.

Apartment of FDA Inspector Teague Haywood

(13 miles, south, from Skyline Restaurant)

Cold temperatures of wintertime and bright sunshine

The entrance door opens.

She enters into a dull tan colored apartment house with a living room space that views the black colored parking lot, a grove of sleeping trees, a skyline of gray colored clouds with parts of sunlight. The apartment contains a small kitchen, a single bedroom, and a single lavatory. She hears a loud country music song, seeing a half-naked man in the middle of the room, pulling off her white leather gloves inside the warm cozy room.

He stands with a chuckle and a grin wearing a blue colored towel around his private parts while presenting two bowed arms out to her, "Otter."

"Teague!" Otter moves ahead and passes the ratty brown colored sofa and two matching sitting chairs toward the book shelf with the radio, stops, and clicks off the loud music.

Teague yells out loud. "My name..." He finds his natural baritone voice, "...sung prettily by one of only two females within the continental USA that I allow to use and to abuse my personal property."

Otter spins around and drops her jaw. "Are you naked underneath that loose hanging towel? And why are you not at work?" Tall and muscular Teague moves ahead and hugs her as Otter back steps with both her raised palms with a sour frown. "And wet. O gawd, you're sweating or sweated during..." She parts her lips. "And you smell?"

"...like soap, good manly-man smell. No perfume here." He points to his crotch, his armpit, and his chest. "Here or here or here..."

Otter moans.

"Tomcat..." a tall, slender red haired and green eyed young adult wears a green colored dress with a pair of beige colored high boots and stands in the bedroom archway, holding a black colored winter coat, smiling at Otter. "O hi, I'm..."

"Bambi..." Teague turns and smiles at the girl.

The girl turns and frowns to Teague, "Bebe! Do you remember last night, Tomcat? Be, be, be mine, baby!"

He moves with a grin to the girl. "Yeah, I remember, Bebe. Well, Bebe has gotta go to work. It's a work day for the worker, right? Right! That works for me, too, Bebe." He touches her arm and gently shoves her to the front door and stops, scraping her tit with his fingers. She giggles. He opens the door with a grin. "See ya next round, darling?"

Bebe moves through the archway with a grin and a giggle. "I can return tonight around..."

He shoves her outside the apartment interior and stares at her ass for the last time, "Working late. I'll call you, Bebe. Bye-bye, darling," He slams the door in her ass and swings with a grin and two bowed arms to her. "Give me a hug, Otter."

Petite Otter shakes her graying blonde colored shoulder length curls as a fifty-plus years old woman, who lives in Birmingham and wears a dull colored pale blue wool suit underneath a white colored winter coat. She sits on top of the torn sofa across from the gigantic television plasma with a sour frown to him. "Why didn't you call me sis, sister, Olivia, or even Mrs. Fulton? All the other words would be preferably properly into my eardrum other than Otter, Teague."

He chuckles. "Don't you remember? I started out calling you 'toter' for all the tater tots we ate, tossed, and loved more than beer bottles, when I was a young buck."

Otter shakes her curls. "No, Teague! I don't remember the _other_ insulting name. Ya know, this is a working day." she turns and views the closed door. "You shouldn't invite playmates over on school days until the weekend, son."

He frowns. "I took a vacation day, so I can play, mommie-bitchest."

"Are you going to wash her sperm off your body? Or will you use the sofa pillow for that task?" Otter turns and views the sofa, wondering if Teague does the wild thing on the sofa too.

"Men leak sperm. Women ooze discharge which is both colored in soft creamy white," he winks at her. "But I can see how you got confused, Otter."

She jabs a finger at his bedroom with a stern face and a serious tone. "Change your towel and your language, Teague! Or I won't provide you lunch money to purchase food today at your celebratory event."

He twirls in a circle with a grin and a chuckle and back to her green colored eyeballs. "I clean. I just emerged from the warm shower when I caught you breaking into my apartment which is against the law by the way. I believe it's called breaking and enter, Otter."

"I have a key that you gave me." She lifts and holds his apartment key near her smile.

"I gave that key to Bobcat, making it stolen property plus breaking and entering, Otter."

She grins, "Me and Bobcat are the same, since we exchanged those bodily fluids long time now at our honeymoon after our legitimate wedding."

"And I secretly happened to know for a fact that those combined body fluid exchanges occurred way long time before that honeymoon and legitimate wedding. But I'll not tattle-tale to our mama and daddy." He spun around and moved ahead with a grin and a chuckle to his bedroom.

Otter reaches over and tosses the blue colored sofa pillow with a frown at the covered naked ass on Teague, missing. He enters and leaves the bedroom door open. Otter smiles, "You do seem happy about your divorce from Zeeta, thou..."

"Three days, nine hours, fourteen minutes, twenty-three seconds, and celebrating..."

"Lucky dog! Your celebrating still continues, at least from my part. I'm taking you to the top..."

"Top of what, Otter?"

"The tall gray bricked eighteen stories Federal Building in downtown Birmingham at a five-star restaurant named appropriately Skyline for lunch with anything for your greatest heart's desire."

"Skyline. I get free champagne..."

"You don't like champagne, only beer."

"Free wine?"

"You don't like wine, only beer."

"Free?"

"Free everything, Teague."

"May I have lobster and steak and beer, mommie-dearest?"

"The dish serves up South Florida lobster tail today for your enjoyment pleasure, Teague."

Teague moves out his bedroom and wears a white colored turtleneck shirt, a pair of light blue jeans, a dark colored wool jacket, and a pair of polished purple, green, and brown cowboy boots with a sour frown and then stops in front of her, holding a long black colored winter coat and a pair of matching leather gloves. "Why don't you call me, Tomcat?"

Otter stands and hugs her brother, pulling back with a grin. "I live in the real world and use real names associated with real beating hearts, not pretend ones, Teague. You never broke your daydream, son."

He shakes his skull. "I don't daydream," he turns and views the empty wall with a grin and a chuckle. "Do I, Mr. Sandman?" He turns and grabs her arm, swinging them around, escorting his sister like a good southern gentleman to the archway.

The door opens.

He releases her arm and swings around to lock the door, spinning back, grabbing her arm.

They move ahead down the breezeway of the apartment building to the lot of parked cars.

Otter shuffles away from her brother and replaces her glove over her naked hands in the cold winter weather and reaches over, touching his shoulder-length silver tinted hair with a sour frown. "Mama told you to cut that horse mane, before you visit her house in Brier this weekend."

He gently slaps her hand away with a chuckle and then dons the winter coat and gloves from the cold air temperatures, "Naw, the chicks love it."

"And I don't either," she giggles, scooting down the stairs into the bright sunlight.

He turns and views her nose profile. "You be my Otter, not one of my chicks."

She laughs, stomping down the last step, moving to her older green tinted four-door sedan vehicle. "I drive."

Teague scoots her sister Otter toward his red tinted sports car with a grin. "Naw, I drive."

"In that car?"

"Naw, babe! That ain't just a car. This is a 'stang', my new baby girl." Teague stops and opens the passenger car door of a new Ford Mustang like a southern gentleman for his sister.

"Be...be..." Otter slides and belts into the seat with a smile, praying he goes the speed limit.

"My latest fuck," Teague grins.

The car door closes.

He back steps with a smile, moving around the front bumper of the car. The driver's door opens. He scoots into the seat and cranks the engine, letting it warm. And then the door closes.

He slides the stick into gear and revs the engine with a grin and a chuckle.

Otter rolls her eyeballs, turning and viewing his nose profile. "Teague, I'm relieved that you feel so comfortable around me to stand almost nude in your bathing towel and curse like a freaking pimp. Where's the money for your baby girl toy, since you're paying college for Kitten?" She reaches and touches the leather on the arm rest with a frown.

Teague steers and drives forward over the pavement to the highway with a smile. "I got a paying job. Kitten got a general scholarship, since she's still a majorette in the marching band for Burn U. The tuition money covers all the tuition and books, as long as, she twirls the baton for music. I only pay for the apartment utilities and car insurance. Mama covers the apartment lease which is in the bitch's name."

Otter grins. "Smooth move! How did you con Zeeta into that one?"

"Kitten did. I just nodded my head up and down, grinning like the devil's son-in-law."

"What about the house? Did Zeeta get it?"

"Hell naw! I don't give that bitch nothing but grieve that was mixed with the fresh horseshit from the cow barn. You know she wanted the divorce? I was happy with her wrinkles, her fake fingernails, and her Swiss cheese ass," he continues to drive with a chuckle.

"You're so sweet and nasty, to boot." Otter frowns. "I'm really sorry that you and Zeeta are divorced. We romped around the old stomping grounds together within our hometown of Brier with you, me, Bobcat, Zeeta, and other high schoolers in Brier."

"The good ole days were fun and gone. Now, my middle age days are here to stay, Otter." He stops and parks the car in the lot at the restaurant, turning with a smile to see her nose profile. "Let's eat."

The door opens.

12:01 p.m.

Downtown Birmingham

Skyline Restaurant

(Three blocks, east, from FDA branch office)

18th floor private dining room setting

The door opens.

The square shaped blue colored painted room displays three walls of undivided windows that view the light gray skyline while sitting down at the dining room table. Standing upright at the window, a guest can see miles of busy city blocks on downtown Birmingham during rain or shine or snow.

The entrance wall is colored in tan and displays the entrance door and rows of dining room chairs for any extra guest plus a high row of clothing racks for each personal item to store during the meal.

Each waitress wears a tan colored uniform and slowly serves the food entrée to each guest at a long dining room table making the space smell like smoke barbeque and spicy baked beans on a cold winter afternoon.

Teague stops and hugs Otter inside the archway of the private dining room with a nod and a smile, draping the coat over his arm, looking to see each face. He waves with a naked free hand. "Welcome gentlemen and ladies to my celebration." He stares at a long eating table that houses each one of his co-workers from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) one of the numerous US Federal Government agencies.

Each co-worker displays a solid colored short-sleeved or long-sleeved shirt with the letters in black ink FDA on the front. Each co-worker wears a pair of dark blue jeans or dark wool trousers with a pair of boots to protect the naked toes as the season is wintertime in Alabama. Each winter overcoat items hang on the side wall clothing rack.

The agency has come a long way with their relaxed and proper dress code, where each FDA inspector agency always wears a shirt that quickly identifies their employer to any friend of the USA or every foe with an illegal crime.

Each co-worker sits in front of an empty plate that is slowly being filled with food from an array of waitresses staring at Teague with a smile.

Teague continues to smile with his happy attitude and pinches the nose bridge on his sister with brotherly fun. "And this is my sister Otter. Otter is paying for everything. So eat, drink, and be merry to celebrate my divorce which became official on Monday."

Thirty plus years old, average height and weight, dark skinned, blonde haired, green eyed and male FDA Inspector code named Duckie sits in the second chair and dives into the food plate with a chuckle. "You are supposed to do your final celebratory thing on the first day of the divorce, Tomcat."

At the queen's end of the dining room table, Bobcat displays a tall and muscular body frame, a pair of brown eyeballs, and a tone of pale skin. He sits down in front of the side wall of windows and gray clouds, diving down into his food plate with a smile, cutting up the meat without viewing Teague. "He's been partying since the first hour of the divorce and beyond into the nightly stars, right, man?"

Inside the second side chair, Duckie looks down with a grin at his plate of food. "O boy!"

Teague moves ahead with his sister and stops, standing at the end of the table, jabbing a finger at each of his co-workers with a nod and a smile. "Otter, I wanna introduce to my buddies from the FDA. Starting on my left at the end of the eating table are my studs consisting of Elf, Duckie, Moose, Ram, Snake, and Bull and going on the opposite side on my right are my little fillies Peacock, Chipmunk, Lamb, and my little Dove," he releases Otter and shuffles ahead with a wink and a grin. "And Bobcat too..." He sits between Dove and Bobcat, diving into the plate of food.

Otter turns and frowns at side chair with Elf. "Hmm! Teague only identifies folks by an animal names. How did you get called a non-animal name Elf?"

Twenty plus years old, male FDA Inspector code named Elf continues to sit and looks up to see Otter, chewing and swallows the food with a grin. "Elf is a non-human name. That qualifies as an animal within Tomcat's sick demented, delusional, destructive, dangerously dirty mind."

Otter frowns. "It's not an animal."

Elf displays a head of cropped black hair, a tone of yellow tinted skin, and a pair of aqua colored eyeballs. When he stands, Elf stands short at five feet and two inches with the set of elevated cowboy boot heels. He says with a chuckle. "He called me that filthy little brown insect cockroach for the first time. So, I cocked his cock for the last time," laughing.

A tall and plump female with short brown hair, a pair of brown eyeballs and a tone of pale skin, she stands upright from the king's head at the dining room table and wipes a face, dropping the napkin into her chair. She wears a red colored pants suit unlike her employee and turns with a smile, extending a handshake and a nod to Otter. "Hi. I'm Lorinda Crawford."

Petite, pale skinned, green eyed, blondish-gray haired Otter turns with a smile to see Lorinda, shaking and then releases the pre-offered hand.

Lorinda says. "I am the district supervisor of this group of brilliant and funny FDA inspectors. Nice to meet you, Otter! You have a real name which might include the surname Haywood, somewhere in there."

Otter grins. "My parents call me, Olivia, and my husband calls me, Mrs. Fulton."

"Fulton!" Lorinda turns and frowns at Bobcat, who sits between Teague and Duckie and then she returns back to stare with a confused brow at Otter. "As in Eckward Fulton, my employee?"

Otter grins. "Ah! Just a light warning here, supervisor Lorinda! He doesn't like for anyone to use that name Eckward. He is named after his paternal grandfather."

"Who isn't in the South? That middle surname southern tradition has been passed down from generation to generation to generation and it still exists here within the 21st Century. My middle name is Totten. Please do not whisper that to Teague! I'm a fourth degree black belt. He might be singing soprano for a couple of hours." She swung around and moves forward, lifting the napkin, sitting with a chuckle back into her chair, reaching for the fork.

Otter moves forward and sits inside an empty chair next to Lorinda with a smile. "Teague doesn't care, since he's tenth degree black belt in martial arts. I promise I will not share. I don't want the boy fired and living with me for the rest of his childish days and nights." She grabs and places the napkin in a lap, reaching for the fork, staring down with a grin at the plate of food.

"Teague will start to call me totter or trotter." She frowns. "Isn't a trotter another name for a horse?"

Otter chews and swallows the food, saying with a grin. "Yeah, trotters are slang for horses, mostly ponies. But that would be better than a nasty brown chipmunk. Won't you agree, Lorinda? I love Teague, but I wouldn't allow him to call me, chipmunk. Period!"

Lorinda chews and swallows the food, saying with a nod and a smile. "I have been called worse throughout the years. Is there a story around Otter? Ah, he couldn't pronounce Olivia. But I can't imagine how he contrived the four letters of Otter out of Olivia. The pronunciation isn't related to my eardrums."

She lifts, drinks, and drops down the hot beverage over the table surface with a smile at Lorinda. "Otter isn't slang for Olivia. We both loved to eat tater tots as little kids. Then one day, Teague gulped one whole and started choking. Being a mean but caring sister, I sucker punched his chest with my fist then he spat the whole tot into my face. He thanked me by calling out in relieve: 'Toter, ya saved me.' We were three and four years old."

Lorinda frowns, "Toter?"

"There's more to the story. I was nicknamed 'toter' for a couple of months, accepting the substitution of my Christian name Olivia forever more or until Teague out grew that phase. Yeah, we both can see that Teague really never grew out of his teen years. Bless their hearts! My mom and dad used Olivia, instead of Toter. So I grew up to be normal and then Teague killed that tomcat."

She gasps. "How did Tomcat kill the family pet?"

"We grew up in Brier, mostly composed of farmlands and farmers, a perfect triangle set between the cities of Athens, Decatur, and Huntsville. Brier is about ninety miles north of Birmingham metro."

"I'm familiar with the local branch FDA Office in Huntsville off of the main highway. Brier is closer to metro city Huntsville rather than Birmingham."

Otto nods. "Our farm like all the other ones has cows, cotton, corn, gardens, and pets, consisting of cats and dogs. My mama would never allow an animal inside the house, so the family pets lived outdoors. My daddy hunted with the hound dogs, killing small stuff like rabbits and deer plus some mean coyotes that attacked the baby calves. He kept tabby cats around to feed off the hand-sized rats and cute gray field mice that attacked the sweet feed for the horses. My daddy taught Teague to hunt. Their trips included Bobcat and some of the other high school hicks on our farm land property. My daddy owns about eight hundred acres of woodlands and farmland."

"If your daddy farms, why isn't Teague there tilling the soil, plowing the stalks, and harvesting the hay? Isn't that his job as first born son taking over the farm?"

Otto chews and then swallows the food with a smile. "Isn't Teague a good FDA inspector for your branch office? I always get the impression Teague loves his job and the work. Since he's never home and continuously talks about beating the bad guys into paper pulp."

Lorinda turns and views Teague, who sits between Bobcat and Dove. Dove displays a slender body frame with long amber hair, a tone of amber skin, and a pair of matching amber eyes, wearing an orange colored long-sleeved shirt with a pair of white winter trousers and matching white colored knee boots while flirting with Teague without eating her lunch meal.

Teague also flirts back with pretty Dove while elbowing easy-going Bobcat. Every person enjoys Haywood's entertainingly amusement, humor, fun, and affection. Teague is a dedicated FDA inspector, one of the best within the US State of Alabama.

Lorinda realizes that devotion comes from thirty years of combined work experience as a medical pharmacist plus a law enforcement officer. And Teague is in line to retire with full benefits from the FDA office along with his buddy and partner Bobcat, if he chooses that path which does seem likely with his recent divorce.

Lorinda turns and grins to the nose profile of Otter. "Very well, outstanding, excellent, awesomeness..."

Otter smiles, "Our daddy always said that boy liked fighting better than farming."

Lorinda asks. "His nickname Tomcat comes from?"

Otter grins. "I digress. Sorry. One day, Teague and Eckward were out hunting mostly for fun and came across a pack of flying squirrels. Teague aimed his gun and shot a couple of them down, scooting to intersect the dead bodies. The squirrel pelts are used in wallets and key chains up in Huntsville, mostly purchased by city slickers who don't know the difference between rabbit, squirrel, or gator. Well, Teague and Eckward discover an old almost ancient farm tomcat at the scene that was sucking on the blood and guts of one of the fallen squirrels. Eckward aims his gun to shoot, but Teague bats it down. The buckshot would damage the delicate pelts of the squirrel. So, Teague stalks to the thing and challenges it over the grand prize. Teague crawls on fours, hissing, pawing, and striking at the old cat. After the dry leaves settled back onto the logs, the cat laid on its side dead. Teague stood up, holding both squirrels by their tails and smiling like the devil himself. Teague wrestled a tomcat, thus inheriting the name Tomcat."

"I'm not much of a country girl being raised in the city. But I can deduct that being scratched by a cat without proper vaccinations can cause some major health issues specifically lockjaw or cat scratch fever."

"Right, Lorinda," Otter smiles. "Teague came out clean from any type of deadly infections. My daddy deduced that the old cat was ailing sick and the vicious romp with Teague just killed its heart into stopping permanently while making Teague look like a fool. But, in the eyes of his hick friends, he is Tomcat," chuckling and eating her food.

Lorinda grins. "I wonder if I could blackmail Teague with that new information."

Otter laughs. "No, he's a redneck. You can't do much with rednecks but love 'em."

"So, based on that tall tale, Bobcat received his nicknamed by wrestling a bobcat in the wild woods. I do know those wild cats are very fierce with sharp deadly claws."

"No. He just shot the gun into the air that scared the poor thing into running back home to his mama." Lorinda laughs as Otter smirks. "That's the honest truth. The little tiny bobcat kitten ran back to his mama."

"They're quit a pair, Bobcat and Tomcat. I admit that they're my best investigators. Bobcat whispers in private company about retiring, since both have served a long time in this field office. I dread the day they do. They're a pair of excellent models to the young inspectors while sharing their do know how's and don't know how's with the flock of youngsters."

"I'll chime in being Bobcat's wife. I whisper those very same secret words every morning before he leaves for work. I realize Birmingham isn't like Atlanta or DC or LA but the shroud of deadly threats does exist here under that ancient one-hundred-year-old overstory oak tree near the Civil War graveyard. I opine to return back home to my home town of Brier. Bobcat's daddy owns a large farm of cotton, a good crop for retirement. He wants to spend easy days with his wife and wants Bobcat to take over the plowing, planting, and profits. We have a son at Burn State, who'll graduate next year..."

"...along with the other two hundred thousand un-employed college graduates without the prospect of work. That means moving back home with their mama and daddy."

Otter grins. "Cullen, my kid has been accepted into the Bama University School of Pharmacy program this fall. He wants to be a future FDA inspector like his daddy and his uncle. We approve, of course, which is part of the sweet whispers about retiring and moving back to the farm, paying the six-thousand-dollar tuition bill while Cullen studies his eyeballs out."

Lorinda nods. "Be lucky! He's looking out for his future and not rocking the baby crib. I swear. The southern society hasn't changed a lick, since my parents graduated high school. Kids get married and then get baby kids and then think about work and then get a divorce."

"I'll chime in again. I'm guilt there. Bobcat and I were childhood sweethearts, if I can use that old fashion term. We fell down literally on top of each other in play recess when I was in the fourth grade and stuck together. We've been married for twenty-five years this year." Lorinda frowns. Otter smiles, "Ah, that look, I'm fifty-two years old with a child twenty-one years old."

Lorinda grins. "You don't look a year over forty. What's your secret, girl?"

"Sex, more sex, and lots of sex," Otter smiles, "I married a country redneck. They only enjoy sports, snacks, and sex all in that order as well," chuckling

Lorinda smiles, "Thanks for the tip of eternity youth."

"Hey. It's always been there. Just do it and do it and do it with a redneck." Otter turns and smile to her husband Bobcat. He turns and smiles at her. Otter signals with a wave that everything is fine to her husband. He returns to eating.

Lorinda asks, "Cullen, is that the name of your kid? He doesn't have a nickname from Teague."

Otter stabs the food with a smile, "Of course, Cub. Cub is the spitting image of his father Bobcat with a head of cropped black hair and a pair of brown eyeballs. DNA is an amazing tool from Almighty God. Teague calls his precious daughter, Kitten. To me, that's more of a true loving endearment for his only child. And his daughter is the spitting of Teague with long blonde hair and a tall, slender body until her biological mother, who is short and fatter than most mama pigs on my daddy's farm."

"At my school, if you were called another name, it wasn't an endearment or love more like a rumble in parking lot during school hours. That insult applied to both females and males. Is this a country farm ritual for substituting perfectly good Christian names with silly nicknames?"

Otter grins. "No. I do not believe so. Teague started calling his person Tomcat after the silly incident in the woodlands. Bobcat, being the true hick along with Teague, insisted everyone call him Bobcat. They were nine years old. My mama thought it cute and complied. My daddy loved his only son, so he complied. Then year after year, the nickname kinda stuck. By the time, we all reached high school as a sorta becoming almost a group of mature adults, you'd think teenagers would grow tire and rid themselves of the silliness but stupid-ness lingered. Teague used Otter at home, at church, at school. My mama thought him dumber than a log. Then Teague showed a swift degree of creativity in middle school by acquiring and identifying his childhood friends by a nickname. I thought it really fun at the time. We had a click of friends with special code names that only we used and communicated among our rebel troops. Ya know high school? By our freshman year, the nicknames stuck forever. Eckward isn't a pretty name by any means and rather funny to repeat vocally until his fist lands in your face. Then he becomes immediately and permanently Bobcat." Lorinda chuckles as Otter smiles. "Teague becomes Tomcat. He even got the school teachers to use the silly nicknames."

"You didn't explain the exact naming methodology of Toter to Otter. Had you been called Otter inside your elementary classroom too?"

Otter shakes her curls. "O that. Once, Teague acquired his nickname of Tomcat which started with the same first two letters 'to.' He didn't want our mama to get his name confused with 'toter' versus 'tomcat.' Then my mama thought him a genius. Teague morphed my nickname into 'otter' for some bizarre outer-space-alien-made-me-do-it-unexplained reason. My school teachers referenced me by Olivia, because I'm a year younger than Teague and smarter than Teague and less trouble than Teague and overall to disassociated me from Teague. It worked until high school. Then we all re-lumped together as a group. Bobcat and Teague are the same age, attending all their academic classes together at good ole Brier High, including me into their chicken flock."

"Tomcat was your leader." Lorinda says.

Otter shakes her curls. "No. Bobcat was the leader of our high school redneck gang. Teague was like the enforcer of Bobcat's rulings. I was part of the click, because I was Teague's sister and Bobcat's cowgirl. Let's see. There were eight of us, Bobcat, me, Teague, Lark, Cricket. She was Lark's cowgirl. They married after school like us. And then there was Bear and Fawn, but they didn't marry each other."

Lorinda says. "That's only seven nicknames. I suspect you left out maybe a country cowgirl, who might possibly be named Zeeta Haywood."

"You're right. I did that on purpose. Zeeta's nickname was the original 'Kitten.' Since, Teague is labeled as Tomcat. Tomcat and Kitten, it was cute, then and now. So, two cats mate to produce a kitten. Therefore, the newborn female became Kitten, compliments of her daddy, resting in the pink blanket inside her nursery bed from the first minute of birth."

"What did Zeeta's new nickname become?"

"The rule of thumb is that one person gets one nickname for life. No changing. No substitutions. However, Teague broke the rule and also created the rule he started by calling his wife, darling. But, now he just calls her, Bitch."

Lorinda spits food and slaps a hand over her giggles. "I'm so sorry. That's so amusing."

"Yeah, the family agrees. Teague and..." she smiles. "For your benefit Lorinda, I will reference the nickname bitch as Zeeta, since that's her proper name. But ya gotta understand that's her new nickname in my family. Teague and Zeeta get hitched right after college graduation five years after high school. Zeeta became a medical nurse graduating from the nursing school in Huntsville while Teague graduated from the pharmacy school in Birmingham."

Lorinda nods. "I understand. Bam U houses all the different medical schools for physicians, pharmacists, and dentists. Nurses must pursue their education at another state institution."

Otter says. "At the mature age of twenty-four, Teague and Zeeta marry and move to Birmingham, pursing their individual careers, setting up a home and enjoying their wedded bliss together. Both adults are doing very well in their careers and home life then Kitten shows up. Both adults are very good parents and good providers for their little Kitten. At her high school graduation, I along with my parents noticed the thick tension in the room from both Teague and Zeeta. Their marriage was on the rocks. They actually tried to stick together until Kitten graduated college so their daughter wouldn't be sad or upset. That failed when Zeeta had that affair with that other guy. And by the way..."

Lorinda shakes her curls. "I promise I won't repeat any of this hidden information to Teague."

Otter grins. "You can spit this into Teague's face. He ain't phony about real facts. He was a devoted husband and is a great daddy to Kitten. I wasn't warning you about not ever mentioning this around Kitten, if ya happen to meet her. She is twenty-one years old too young and doesn't understand the entire wickedly demon tale. And I spell tale...t.a.l.e. Teague wants his precious Kitten both sheltered and happy until she turns eighty years old..."

Lorinda nods. "I can understand being a mother of a couple of precious kitties."

"Short version, I spied on Zeeta, uncovering the ugly truth. It broke my heart. We've known each other since first grade. Zeeta, Bobcat, Teague, and me were thick as thieves in the fight and flight. Teague was heartbroken at first, then angry second, and finally sad third. My mama and daddy came to the rescue. They hired lawyers to sock-it-to Zeeta. Zeeta wanted everything the house, the furniture, the boat, the cars, the bank accounts, the shotguns and the everything. Teague was so dizzy with heartache that he would've given Zeeta anything. However, my parents were unemotionally smarter. The lawyers, I use that word in plural, because she got herself some fancy city lawyers as well. Then all the lawyers could duke it out. Winner takes all.

"Here in Bama, the wife usually gets everything the house, furniture, and the children. Well, Zeeta implemented her getaway plot, a little too late. Kitten had turned twenty-one years old, by-passing any type of financial child support from Teague, one. Two, Zeeta demanded monetary claim of spousal support for her anguished years with her lousy husband, forcing Teague to pay her a monthly allowance for the rest of Zeeta's breathing days. That failed too.

"Zeeta has a college education and has worked as a clinical nurse for many years being able to support her annual expenses. Plus, her only child is old enough to care for herself. Three, Teague supplied proof of the huge equity in the home which guaranteed Zeeta the money she craved. Actually, my parents purchased the house, allowing Zeeta to live there for almost nothing. They don't want their only granddaughter's happy memories of childhood and teen-hood to be totally destroyed which happens in all divorces. Kitten's old teen bedroom and her high school stuff are there, waiting like a clicked portrait in your cell phone in the same condition before starting college. Kitten decided to stay near the campus, renting an apartment that her mama pays. Now, everyone is living happily after ever. Of course, Zeeta ain't ever been invited back to any of my family functions. Thus, her earned nickname, bitch. The end!"

"A sad tale...t.a.l.e.," Lorinda frowns, "Divorce is a nasty business with money as the root cause and the lack of love as the victim."

"Amen."

Lorinda turns and views Teague. "How is Teague doing after his divorce? I'm only being nosy, because I got promoted two months ago to supervise this crew. A good bunch of inspectors, I have keenly observed. I'm still learning the multi-faceted good and bad personalities of the team mates. And Teague and Bobcat intrigue me the most out of the flock of young'uns."

Otter nods. "Teague has bounced back jubilantly. I caught him this morning with a baby. I bet that girl didn't own a Bama driver's license," frowning.

Lorinda frowns. "Did ya check?"

"No. I was too stunned and shocked. But, tomorrow, I will..."

Lorinda frowns, "Tomorrow!"

"Teague has a rotating harem of young females as tattled by Bobcat."

"Does he nickname his new playmates, since he created the rule of thumb?"

Otter slaps a hand over her giggles. "I will be inquiring about that part, as well, tomorrow."

"You don't work like the rest of us, lankies."

Otter nods. "I lucked out being the dumb one within the family tree. Teague actually did get the brains among the Haywood flock. Bobcat and Teague started Burn U together on the football team with a sport scholarship. Then I stumbled into the same college intent upon becoming a teacher. But with partying, no sleeping, and no seeing Bobcat in-between all that was too much coupled with my failing grades. I was placed on academic probation then Burn U kicked me off the campus. My mama and daddy came to the rescue, of course. My daddy had his accountant tutor me about the farm's financial reports while I took accounting courses at the local junior college. I graduated in three years with an associate degree, not really needing any more education, since I work for my daddy. His farm is very profitable and provides a nice living for me." Lorinda frowns. Otters grins, "Ah! And I can see your face. I'm a lucky duck. My parents adore me. My husband worships me and my son loves me. I work from home on the accounting stuff while people like you, Bobcat, and Teague go to office every day to save the world and protect us from harm in the good ole US of A."

Lorinda nods. "Hey! We all work and make a living one way or another. So I'm nosy and curious. Do you inherit the farm or does Teague?"

"Teague will. Bobcat and I have other retirement plans."

"I see very clearly. Teague doesn't have to worry about a family anymore. I guess your hinting that he plans to retire soon."

Otter shakes her curls, "No way! I wished that was so true. It's the opposite for Teague. You're right. He doesn't have the family unit, needing a house, a yard, a sprinkler system, and a mailbox plus trash pick every Thursday morning. He's renting a townhouse down the street, has purchased a brand new sports car, and is dating a harem of hot slutty tramps. What more could an old man ask for? Farm life is hard and long hours from sun up to sun down. The life is also isolating being so far from the city streets and city store conveniences. My mama and daddy love the country, the farm, and the outdoors. They were made by Almighty God to be a pair of farmers. I love the country and miss it but sacrificed lovingly for my husband and my son to enjoy the city life. Bobcat is inching his way towards retirement and back into his first love. Okay. His second love, the land. Teague was almost there with getting Kitten graduated and out of school and off to some job in the city, feeling peace of mind. A daddy had done everything for his child. Then Zeeta comes along and bang, she cold cocks his manhood down into the toilet. Now, Teague has gotten prove all over again that he's a stud muffin even over the age of fifty."

"Ah, the young girls, new car, and..."

"Me. I mean me and Bobcat. Bobcat and Teague are best bros since the age of three years old while peeing on each other's cowboy boots and shooting each other squirrels in the family's backyard with fully loaded BB pellet gun. They're like brothers, act like brothers, think like brothers, and live like brothers. If Teague don't want to leave the big bad city and big bad job, then either will his Bama buddy Bobcat."

Lorinda grins. "Ah, your mission, if you refuse to accept this assignment, Otter..."

Otter winks. "You catch on quickly, Lorinda. I predict by the end of the month you'll be assigned a nickname."

"I concur and hope for the best. I have observed two interesting repeating themes. Teague seems to assign nicknames, using exclusively animal titles. Is there a story behind that phenomenon?"

"That's a very good question which I have never pondered the exclusive use of animal nicknames." She smiles. "He did introduce me to Elf, the short guy at the end of the table. That's survival. Then there's Zeeta but that's payback. If my old memory cells serve properly, there was one other person, who didn't get the animal nickname," she looks and stares down at her food plate with a puzzled brow.

Lorinda grins. "During our conversation, you only say Teague but use the pet names for Bobcat, Kitten, Cricket, Bitch."

Otter looks up with a smile to see Lorinda. "Yeah, I do that to piss Teague off. He loves it that I don't conform to his rules."

Lorinda grins. "Ah, that's how I can learn to control him."

She shakes her curls with a laugh, "Control Teague? Good luck, madam. That boy hasn't changed his manner or mercy in the fifty-plus years. I'm the baby of the family. I have known him since birth and possess personal experience with a couple of skin scars to prove it. He's a great daddy to Kitten and I'd go as far as saying he'd murder for that child."

Lorinda nods. "That mandate comes with the daddy and mama territory. Kitten attends Burn U with Cub. Look, you get me calling out the creative nicknames."

Otter smirks. "Kitten is majoring in Taber Dawson and minoring in biology."

Lorinda nods. "One daughter is a senior and the other a junior. Both are kicking their fannies for not accepting the offered high school AP classes. They could have attended Burn U for some extra academic classes just to touch the blue jeans of Taber Dawson."

"Girls and their heavy non-thinking teen hormones, you do realize that females can't get near the football players during the regular season. These boys are imprisoned inside their steel cages from August until January. No girls are allowed into their private pissing club. I experienced that first hand when Bobcat played football at Burn U. I couldn't see him during the football game and we were engaged to be married. That was part of my failure at Burn U and my emotional depression while these same teen over emotional hormones were thinking Bobcat was cheating on me or didn't love me or didn't want me. But it finally passed."

"Bobcat quit the football team."

"No way! Rednecks only love sports, snacks, and sex. I told ya that first rule ways back. Are ya listening, babe?" She smiles. "Sports come first for a reason. Bobcat was happy, sitting on the bench, watching the game pass him by. Since his daddy had the bragging rights back home in Brier. Either Teague or Bobcat was college caliber football material for the Professional Football League. At our small high school, they were hot shit. When they got to college, they were only small rabbit pellet. They wanted to stay and play, since their daddies wanted them to stay and play. Teague got more playing time being a fifth string quarterback than Bobcat. Teague was called into the game last two minutes in the fourth quarter, so the first string quarterback could brush his hair and pose for media pictures after the winning game. Teague was thrilled for his brief 'three point two minutes of fame.' Our daddy loved it, remembered it, still boasting about it within three Alabama counties. His son was on the Burn U football team that won the National University Championship Football title that year. Rednecks love sports."

"Interesting analogy! Based on your personal experience and current sporting tips Taber Dawson's off limits for any female. Then I shouldn't worry about my girls, after all."

"I don't say that. Football lasts through the fall and the first month of wintertime, then the females attack physically. Bobcat told me stories about one girl after another wanting him along with Teague. Both of them were engaged and devoted to their cowgirls. Bobcat would cut classes on Monday to visit me. Or I would visit him in Birmingham, keeping my man happy and protected. I can't say the same for Teague. He would disappear during my visit with someone. I had a pretty good idea, but I never asked."

Lorinda gasped. "Did Teague cheat on his girlfriend?"

"I didn't say that either. We came from a very small Bama public school. There were forty kids in my senior graduating class, only five of us received a former education after high school. Burn U is not far from the little township of Brier. You can travel without getting tired from the trip and needing a bed to sleep. Teague and Bobcat roomed together. I joined them along with a couple of other folks in my graduating class. But I do sorta recall another kid attending Burn U with Teague." Otter grins. "O well! Just remember, boys will be boys football or not."

Lorinda nods. "Right, that's good advice. How does Teague feel about Kitten attending the same school with Taber Dawson? Taber is a tall, muscular, nice looking teen with globs of shoulder length red hair and a pair of hazel eyeballs as my daughter repeats to me all the time.."

"Sports! Teague adores, worships, loves, and would spit and shin the cleats of Taber Dawson, if presented at the dinner table as the superstar quarterback for Burn U, of course. Burn U is the number one football team in the nation. Guys and sports. Cars and chicks, geez."

"Does Kitten know tall and good-looking Burn U quarterback Taber Dawson from an academic college class or another social college event?"

"From my spying and ease dropping, since the rednecks love to talk about their young idols, Taber Dawson doesn't have a girl. And friends of girls plus girls being friends are not encouraged or supported by the football coaches. Based on these facts, Taber Dawson along with his buddies does adhere very tightly to these rules. Some of the players are hoping for professional football jobs after the winning season, if Burn U can repeat their run of number one."

Lorinda nods. "That's good to know all this boy-football information for my girl-football fan devotion."

"Kitten didn't attend any academic classes with Taber Dawson and has been dealing with Teague's nasty divorce and her mama's temper tantrums and her college classes. She is a senior this year and will graduate in May. I feel certain Taber Dawson is rattling inside her mind way below the surface just like hundreds of other girls at Burn U."

Lorinda frowns. "I'm surprised Teague doesn't encourage his child to befriend Taber."

Otter shakes her curls. "No. Teague likes sports and wants his sporting team to win, but he loves his daughter too much. You don't mix girls and sports. And that is Teague's direct quote who is kinda profound philosophy, coming from a fifty-plus year old biological body with a teenager's beating heart," smiling.

"I do feel more knowledgeable about my daughters attending the local university with lots of hunky single available male sporting icons. I surprised. You aren't quoting stats and barking demographics on the kid, having a son about the same age. Doesn't Cub and Bobcat talk about Taber Dawson?"

Otter nods. "Yeah, they do regurgitating the football stats of passing, rushing, foot-balling. I was a cheerleader at my high school. Ya got to be something in high school or nothing? I cheered at the football and basketball games then graduated and left it all behind, concentrating on college in the accounting field and planning my wedding. We got married right after Bobcat graduated Burn U. He entered the FBI service first and then transferred over to the FDA office at about the same time with Teague."

Lorinda nods. "I have recently reviewed their HR files, trying to learn more about the multi-personalities. Bobcat graduated with a bachelor's degree in finance, joining the FBI Office as a special agent working for three years. Teague studied for two years at Burn U and then transferred to the pharmacy school. That means Teague quit the football team."

She nods. "Yeah, he did. Daddy wasn't happy. These two years that Teague played football at Burn U, they won the National Championship twice in a roll. Teague explained his personal reasons and his job career which my parents both accepted. The power play worked in Teague's favor, because Burn U didn't win anymore championship games for the rest of the decade. My daddy finally forgave Teague for that. Anyways, I mentioned before Bobcat sit warming his ass on the bench. He was a senior playing in one game then got both beaten' and bleedin' in both his face and his ribs. Then he became both wiser and wisdom. He graduated an honor student in finance, making a real person for a real job in the real world."

"Teague graduated and worked for two years as a medical pharmacist then applied and was accepted into the FDA field investigator program, where they received some of the office's highest ranks and honors. You should be proud of them. Teague and Bobcat have been partners for twenty-seven years. And what comes after the awesomeness of twenty-seven years?"

Otter grins, "Retirement, some golf. Maybe, a daughter-in-law and then a little mischievous grandchild or two, those are my personal family plans for our long-time future of happiness together. Family comes first and always."

Lorinda asks. "What is his daughter Kitten academic degree at Burn U?"

"Kitten is following in her daddy's foot pads at Bam U Pharmacy School. This semester, she's interning at one of the local hospitals in the pharmacy department. That's probably why Teague really isn't overly worried about his daughter and Taber Dawson. Once graduated, she'll be employed immediately then her daddy can retire."

Lorinda grins. "Ah. Would Teague like to have Taber Dawson as his son-in-law?"

Otter smirks. "Who's playing the college matchmaker now?"

Lorinda holds the beverage. "Just thinking out loud about my daughter, starting Burn U next year with a stud muffin like Taber Dawson. She'll never pass her English Lit class."

"I don't really know a lot about Taber Dawson's background other then the quick exchange information Teague, Cub, and Bobcat share among themselves during the football season of active games. He attended Burn U as a freshman and was red-shirted. That means he didn't play any football games for the first year of college. As a sophomore and junior, he plays regularly unlike Teague. He was a late minute quarterback on the last minute of the last game for the National Championship football win. Taber has carried the team to four back to back National Championship games and he's back this year, running that same streak. Teague and Bobcat are claiming the victory, waving the flag, and celebrating as the annual national champs just like true dumbass rednecks that permanently reside here in the great State of Bama."

Lorinda frowns. "If he's playing his fifth season at college, he must have graduated with a bachelor's degree and working on a master's degree in something. That's mean he's out of college after the football season terminates. So, I really don't have to worry about Taber Dawson."

She nods. "You're right about that. I do remember seeing his picture, a really handsome boy from Florida, not Alabama. The town is called Palm near West Palm Beach close to the Atlantic Ocean."

"Florida boy, that's mighty intriguing? We don't get outsiders playing in the other's team back yard. I bet he's got some Bama roots in my family tree to come all the way up north here to Birmingham. Grandparents, maybe, I have an idea. I can check out Taber Dawson."

"Can you really do that? Isn't that illegal, Lorinda?"

Lorinda grins. "Just fun, I can justice my actions by explaining that the boy might be a good prospect for the FDA, if he's rejected by the Professional Football League. Good prospects must receive complete and through background checks. I can find out about his folks, grandparents, grades, and the number of church pews..."

She frowns. "Do church pews really have math numbers?"

"Yes, they do for God's calendar book. Who knows Taber Dawson might be a good candidate for the FDA office here in Birmingham? I'm always looking for young talent and new blood. Why not start with a jock, who has some quick brains? You've to be smart to be quarterback."

Otter grins. "Yes. A quarterback must be smart like Teague," she turns and smiles at her brother as he eats and entertains his co-workers with laughter. She turns and views Lorinda. "I'm sorry. I've talked your ear off."

Lorinda turns and smiles to Teague. "I enjoyed your...our conversation, Mrs. Fulton," she grins and views Otter. "Based on current events, our next meeting might be Bobcat's retirement."

She nods with a smile. "Please speak those words out loud around him, beside him, behind him. I beg ya like a starving puppy dog."

02:02 p.m.

Downtown Birmingham

FDA Office Building

(12 miles, north, from Teague's apartment)

Work Room setting

Inside the rectangular shaped work room without a set of windows to see the sun or the clouds, each wall is painted in dull gray hue as the US Federal Government does not hire an interior decorates with good taste.

The floor is polish dark wood that clashes with the long slender rows of Formica purple colored fake wood tables that hold each FDA Inspector during current the work meeting.

The center of the large room contains six long purple colored tables in front of individually padded work chair with a green colored seat without a set of arm rests.

The gray colored entrance wall contains a double wide dark wooden door which is closed for the meeting and a row of individual white colored wooden cubby shelves for individual items that are not allowed on top of the long table with the workers.

Each gray colored side wall contains an assortment of individual black colored computer laptops on top of a tiny work station for use during the meeting and a set of individual filing cabinets with an assortment of office supplies for the worker as well. Here, inside the work room, each worker receives an assignment and gathers information sharing with their co-workers.

The forward wall is covered in a white board for both written information and electronic information coming from the center projector on top of the ceiling.

FDA Branch office Birmingham Supervisor Lorinda stands with a smile in front of numerous rows of long purple tables that holds an individual chair which contains a FDA Inspector. She sits down inside a silver tinted chrome writing desk with a side cabinet and a matching metal chair, displaying all her professional and personal items on top of the desk, nodding with a smile to each person. "Happy celebrate to Tomcat. And thanks for the lunch, Bobcat. Please tell your wife Otter that I enjoyed our chat."

"What chat?" Bobcat sits in the last row on the last table and looks up from his mobile telephone with a puzzled brow to see Lorinda.

Lorinda smiles, "The chat, I had with Otter."

"Uh, ho," Teague sits beside Bobcat and looks down at his mobile telephone with a laugh and a grin.

"There is no, uh ho or uh no or uh doing in here, Tomcat." Bobcat turns and sneers at the silver hair roots of Teague.

"Uh, ho," Teague laughs for a second time.

Lorinda says, "Eyeballs to me. This is Friday. We have work to do to earn our pay even if it is late afternoon with full tummies. Back to work slaves. I have two major assignments for the day. Let me start with some special effects. Eyeballs look at me. Welcome to the entertainment portal of sports betting. With the big championship game next week coming up, there will be legal gamblers and illegal gamblers, meaning the teens that really are teens. The legal age of gambling and drinking alcohol is both twenty-one years old in Alabama. The great news, two of ya'll luck bastards or bastardettes. Don't want to leave any sex out. Two of ya'll are going undercover and playing the ponies for your work productivity jobs. The bad news, the USA spy mission starts today through Monday morning on the Gulf of Mexico."

Twenty plus years, average height and weight, tone of olive skin, a head of dirty blonde hair, and a pair of brown eyes, male FDA Inspector code named Ram wears a purple colored short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans, waving his hand with a grin and a chuckle in the front row purple table at Lorinda. "Me! Me! I wanna go to the Gulf of Mexico. Pick me. Please pick me!"

Lorinda turns and smiles at Ram. "The badder news, ya can't keep any money won during the play scam from any table, any chip, or any card. All of it belongs to Uncle Sam."

Ram drops his arm and shakes his dirty blonde hair with a sour frown. "Not me! Not me! I don't wanna go to the Gulf of Mexico, if I can't play the poker table."

"Help pay off the twenty-four trillion-dollar deficit for the US Federal Government, kid," Bobcat laughs at the rear dirty blonde skull of Ram.

Bobcat and Teague sit in the usual work spot in the last row in the rear of the room near the door together and alone while watching over the new flock of inspectors.

Lorinda says. "Sport betting is the rare legal plus some of the time illegal activity of predicting the results and placing money on the final outcome. You do this all the time at home, in the office, at church..."

"Not at my church..." Peacock sits in the second row of tables and shakes her short brown curls with streaks of purple and red hair color, wearing a pink colored long-sleeved FDA T-shirt and a pair of red colored winter trousers. She displays a plump body frame, a tone of pale skin, and a pair of violet colored eyes.

"At my church..." Bull laughs and lifts a palm near his smile, wearing a white colored short-sleeved FDA T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. He is forty plus years old and possesses an overweight body frame, a tone of dark skin, a bald mound, and a pair of dark blue eyes, sitting in the third row of purple tables, staring at his boss lady.

"Ya should go and church with Bull, then, Peacock." Teague continues to sit in the last row and points at the rear bald mound on Bull with a smile.

Bobcat sits beside Teague and chuckles, "What church do you attend on Sundays, Bull?"

Lorinda frowns. "The concept of sports betting is comprised of game odds, free picks, bonuses, fast payouts, expert analysis, sports trends, and more of stuff that I can't name here and is usually played within a casino environment..."

"... or around the church poker card tables with Bull," Teague chuckles.

Lorinda says. "In the US, it is illegal to operate a betting scheme except in the US States of New Jersey and Mississippi. The National Sporting University League has threatened to ban all playoff football games, if these particular US States bet on any college sporting games especially the upcoming highly anticipated ya know."

Short and brown haired Elf grins to Lorinda. "What do ya know?"

Lorinda turns and smiles to Elf. "Ya know."

Thirty plus years old, plump, pale-skinned, brown haired with purple and red streaks, Peacock grins. "Ya know like I know too."

Overweight and bald-headed Bull grins. "Naw, I don't ya know."

Thirty plus years old, average height, skinny body frame, a tone of pink skin, a head of auburn hair, and a pair of blue eyes, male FDA Inspector Snake stands upright from his padded chair with a smile and lifts both his arms in the air, shouting out loud, "The National University Football Championship game between Burn U and Bam U right here in Birmingham. Yeehaw!"

Lorinda grins. "Sit down, Snake!"

Snake sits with a smile, elbowing his co-workers Elf and Duckie on the front row.

Teague frowns. "Who cares? The Northeastern Mississippi University ain't in the playoffs or vying for the championship today or next year or the year after that."

Lorinda frowns. "We care. Gambling, good or bad, is a national industry of ten billion dollars and growing which peaks..."

"And pinks..." Teague chuckles.

"...peaks asses and pinks cheeks," Bobcat chuckles. "You can bet your mama's hot buttermilk biscuits that corrupt politicians and greedy casinos all over the US are following this news flash to their bankers."

Teague turns and grins to Bobcat. "Keeping us, FDA inspectors employed."

Bobcat says. "And right now, we're employed because the US State governments don't supervise it. Don't tax it. And don't take any revenue from Sport Betting."

Teague nods. "They do care now."

Lorinda nods. "Right, Tomcat. When the businesses in Mississippi start profiting from it, the other US States will follow suite like Alabama."

Teague grins at the gray hair roots on his friend and family member Bobcat. "Keeping us, FDA inspectors permanently employed."

Bobcat grins down at his mobile telephone. "Leading into our more permanent role as investigators of..."

Teague shakes his curls. "Naw, Bobcat. We be FDA, not FBI. There's two different alphabetic letters after the letter F."

Lorinda smiles, "Tracking and tracing the primary bookmaker. This is the person who acts as a marker for the money."

Bobcat grins down at his mobile telephone, "Cute motto, Boss lady!"

Lorinda says. "Which wins either way? Because, the bookmaker gets the money, maintains the spread, and pockets the leftovers..."

Teague turns and grins at the hair roots of Bobcat. "I like left over pot roast."

Lorinda says. "The Federal Wire Act of 1961 prevents bookies from making money on the telephones but that doesn't apply to online gambling. However, the Mississippi legal casinos on the Gulf of Mexico have set up a system of money wagering, yesterday. The online electronic system is fully functional for all gamblers large or small, teen or not right before the big championship football game, making our jobs the watch dog of..." she pauses. "What's the answer, children?"

Teague grins down at his mobile telephone. "In July 2012, three US business companies paid Uncle Sam more then 731 million dollars for dirty clothes basket of money, potting drugs, cracking human bones, and whoring ladies of the evening along with other illegal stuff."

Bobcat reads new text on his mobile telephone with a chuckle. "Tomcat is the Hick Honor Graduate for the day."

Teague stands and slams the chair with a smile to Lorinda. "Who plays the ponies, boss-lady?"

"Tomcat," Bobcat grins.

Lorinda nods, "Tomcat."

Teague raises his arms with his mobile telephone with a nod and a grin. "Me, Yeehaw, me and Bobcat goes to Mississippi to play the ponies."

Lorinda turns and grins to the other inspector. "Sidell and his FDA junior inspector are going to Mississippi for the weekend paid by Uncle Sam," she lifts the objects. "Gentlemen, I possess keys to the secret sports car, numerous credit cards, and play envelope of real money. Enjoy!"

Teague looks down and reads a new text on his mobile telephone. "Hell naw. I wanna go to Mississippi. I'm senior staff member in this here office, Boss lady. I might find a girl and retire there, ending my FDA career with flaming glory."

Lorinda stands and shuffles to experienced Bull, stopping and handing the envelope with a nod and a grin as the other FDA inspectors stand and leave the work room. Then Lorinda moves and stands in front of Teague and Bobcat, handing a second envelope. Teague accepts and flips open the lip of the envelope, looking at the new assignment. Lorinda says, "Your new assignment."

Teague reads out loud the paper. "In the year 2009, the US Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act..."

"Turn the page..." Bobcat turns and smiles to Lorinda.

"Hi...rud...rudy..." Teague sounds out the foreign word.

"Hirudo medicinalis..." Bobcat laughs, "Leeches."

Lorinda says. "I need for both of you to inspect the tiny blood suckers at each hospital around Birmingham."

Bobcat says, "Actually, the more apt description is the tiny vampires for the human race. Notification 510(k) K033391 on January 2004 granted the FDA permission to produce and market as a prescription medical device, the first living organism of maggots. To clarify the terminology, they are referenced as 'medical maggots.'"

Teague looks up with a sour frown to Lorinda and Bobcat, shaking his silver tinted curls and matching whiskers side to side. "Uh ho, the things that fuck dead bodies inside a smelly grave. Naw, I reject this assignment, boss-lady. I wanna go to Mississippi instead of Sidell. I'm lucky at cards, chips, and chicks. I can win lots of monies, paying off US Debt for the next fifty years then my daughter can earn and keep all her pennies and nickels and then retire from working at thirty years old," laughing.

Bobcat chuckles, "In the year 2004, the second living organism was used as a medical device and then cleared by the FDA for aiding and saving a human life was Hirudo medicinalis or medicinal leeches. Let's go, Tomcat. We finish this up then retire for the day."

Teague shakes his curls and his whiskers. "Ah, naw! I ain't touching hi...rudy...dumb thingies, Bobcat."

"We see with eyeballs and not touch with our finger pads." Bobcat turns and spins to the archway with a smile.

Teague turns and swings to the same open archway, cussing behind the ass on Bobcat.

02:22 p.m.

Birmingham Hospital

(Two miles, south, from FDA branch office)

Pharmacy department setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright sunshine

The entrance room holds three walls in mint green hue. Two FDA Inspectors Bobcat and Teague wait outside a secured and locked single red colored metal entrance door, wearing a FDA badge around the neck.

Teague stands beside Bobcat and wears a turtleneck shirt, and a wool jacket, typing a new text on his mobile telephone with a smile. "Where do they come from, Bobcat?"

Bobcat wears a brown colored button down vest, a pair of dark blue jeans, a white colored dress shirt, and a brown colored sport jacket, holding his FDA badge for review near his nose profile while waiting for the entrance into the department, staring at the red door metal. "The preferred habitat is muddy freshwater pools and dirt ditches with plenty of weed growth in temperate climates. Bama has leeches, as well."

The door opens.

A male appears and blocks the archway, wearing a white colored laboratory coat, a pair of brown colored trousers, a pair of brown colored shoes, and a red colored shirt, displaying a tone of pale skin, a head of dark brown hair, and a pair of eyeglasses.

Bobcat grins with a nod to the new male. "Good morning. I am..."

"Busy. Do you have an appointment with me, sir?" The pharmacist frowns without a name.

Teague reads his mobile telephone with a chuckle and a grin. "We are here to see the vampires..."

Bobcat thumbs Teague with a smile and wiggles his FDA badge to the unnamed pharmacist. "My slow partner is referencing the medicinal leeches. My name is FDA Inspector Fulton."

The pharmacist reads the badge, "Eckward." He exhales without a smiling. "Eckward is a very old fashioned southern name even though you are disturbing my very important medical research work."

Teague reads his mobile telephone with a grin, "Must be the good teeth on the leeches, right, Eckward?"

The pharmacist back steps from the archway door and allows the two FDA inspectors entrance as usual. This is a busy time at the hospital with numerous sick and dying patients which requires numerous new and innovate medical treatments and new pharmacual drugs. The FDA agency has picked a terrible time to invade the pharmacy department during the winter flu season.

Bobcat grins to the pharmacist. "And you are...?"

"Busy." He spins around and points with a sour frown at the side wall of dull beige paint. "We have applied and received the USDA permit. See here? The wall holds a nice picture frame. The frame says FDA stamped, reviewed, and approved by the US Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Permit for Medical Devise of Organisms and Vectors stamp dated, this year and signed by our company's medical officer."

Bobcat turns with a smile and a nod to see the same dull beige wall, seeing each nicely mounted metal tinted frame. "Yes sir. This is very good. Thank you for compiling with our request." He returns back and smiles to the pharmacist. "We are not questioning the validation of the permit but are respectful asking to inspect the critters for medical usage."

The pharmacist moves ahead with a sour frown to a closed green colored metal door, "This way." He stops.

The interior door opens.

The dark room is a smaller room with a row of dull shining lamps and consists of shelves of air temperature sensitive medical supplies. On the side wall, three tall orange colored earth ware pottery pots stand at fourteen inches high with a series of tiny air holes that are poked around the diameter underneath a yellow lid with finger holes for lifting the pottery top.

"The vampires," the pharmacist stands sideways to the pots and in front of a metal shelf that is filled with contains of medical supplies while watching the two FDA inspectors.

Bobcat moves inside the dark room, stops, and stands at the last pot, lifting up the lid with a grin. "The first leech therapy was called blood-letting."

Teague moves inside the room, sidesteps, and stands in front of the metal shelves of medical supplies, watching Bobcat do the work. "Blood sucking slides off the tongue better."

Bobcat says. "The therapy of blood-letting was discovered on a set of hand printed documents in the year 800 BC by Sushruta. He described the situation where a set of leeches had blood-sucked on sick person with a skin diseases, sciatica, and musculoskeletal pains. Since 800 BC, there's been found numerous medical documents of leeches with blood sucking methods from twelfth century AD in Bagdad until blood-letting was phased out to the end of the nineteenth century."

Teague chuckles, "Thank you, Lord."

"The invention of microsurgery has revived the critters which provide an effective means to reduce blood coagulation, relief pressure from pooling blood, and stimulate circulation in cases of reconstructive surgery. The reattachment operation is critical for the patient to get the blood flowing inside eyeballs, fingers, and eardrums. The most common complication from leech treatment is prolonged bleeding, allergic reactions, and bacterial infections..."

Teague grins. "And them boogers suck ya dry."

Bobcat says. "Dryness isn't bacterial. That's vaginal, Tomcat."

"O virgin," He chuckles.

"Mature adults measure twenty cementers in length and are greenish-brown with a darker tone on the dorsal side and a lighter ventral side. The dorsal side has red." Bobcat fingers the leech. "You can see the thin stripe with two suckers..."

"I like suckers too, two of them on each side of the female's chest." Teague slams his chest with a fist and a chuckle.

Bobcat says. "The two suckers are located at each end and called the anterior and the posterior suckers."

He turns with a wink at the pharmacist. "I do posterior sucking, as well."

"The posterior end is used for leverage of the small body, whereas the anterior sucker consists of jaw and teeth for feeding. Leeches possess three jaws called tripartite that look like saws with about hundred sharp teeth that are used to incise the host..."

"Victim..." Teague smiles at the pharmacist.

"The incision leaves a mark which is an inverted letter symbol Y inside of a circle..."

Teague turns and watches Bobcat fuck with the leech. "You go first, Bobcat."

"After piercing the skin and injecting anticoagulants and anesthetics, they suck out the blood by consuming up to ten times their body weight in one meal..."

"Hunger boggiers," Teague chuckles out loud.

"They can live up to a year between feeding."

"Thanks for the 411, Bobcat."

"Medicinal leeches are hermaphrodites."

"That's love stuff, right?" Teague grins.

"They reproduce by sexual mating laying eggs in clutches of up to fifty near shaded humid non-water places."

"Too much 411, man, are we done?" Teague stands at in front of the shelves, turning and viewing the closed door.

Bobcat looks up with a smile and a nod to see the pharmacist. "Your vampires are healthy and fat. Thank you." The pharmacist nods. Bobcat replaces the yellow lid. "We'll show ourselves out of the department. Have a good day!"

They exit the dark room and move out inside the lighted hallway of dull beige and busy hospital staff members, veering toward the elevator carriage. They stop and wait. Teague hits the button.

The elevator door slides open.

Bobcat enters and turns inside the crowded carriage, hitting the lobby button with a nod and a smile. "We go home to Brier and start the weekend fishing, buddy."

"Shore," Teague enters and turns inside the carriage, standing with a smile beside Bobcat.

The elevator door closes shut and moves down to the first floor.

At 3:03 p.m. on the first floor hospital corridor, the elevator door opens.

I exit from the elevator carriage, shaking the gray colored gym bag away from my white colored dead fox fur coat, balancing in a pair of gray colored designer knee boots like a southern lady. I move to the emergency department, wondering how a female maneuver in high heels, handbags, and business suits.

I am a physicist of scrubs and sneakers and I am required to wrap my long hair in bun style like my lovely dead grandmother which is covered in a cap plus a mouth mask. I do not really wear the mouth mask allowing it to hang around my neck like a new fad necklace, if I am ever called into the laser equipment room for a computer problem.

I had parked my personal car inside the hospital garage. I had left behind all of my personal possessions, such as, car keys, wallet, driver's license, banking check book, and the ATM bank card. The personal items are safely locked inside my office desk. I reside in a safe neighborhood, but a girl can't be safe enough.

My gray colored hand bag contains three hundred dollars, my personal computer laptop, and a new electronic reading devise. Her brothers had given Nadean the devise for Christmas which contained some novice adventure e-novels written by them. I enjoy reading but don't have much time, since I work sixteen hour days at three different jobs for money.

The tunnel of money debt is seeing the light thou.

My son is graduating college in four months and will get a real job, making some real money. His uncles have promised a new car and an apartment for a year, a graduation gift.

Then I start to save for my retirement of not working.

I move down the hallway floor in a gray colored business jacket and skirt, slowing my pace with a puzzled brow, "Naw! It can't be."

A tall male on my left has a set of cropped blackish-silver hair plus a chin of dark colored whiskers while the tall male on my right is him.

Teague stumbles into Eckward and then halts with a laugh, staring at her. Teague is nicely muscular for an old man of fifty-plus within his chest which is outlined with a red colored turtleneck shirt. He wears a dark blue wool jacket, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a pair of polished purple, green and blue cowboy boots.

No beer gut, babe!

He stands in a pair of polished cowboy boots like a redneck, wearing a head of silver tinted shoulder length hair, instead of his blonde locks from his college days, saying with a smile and a nod. "Duchess, is that you, honey?"

"Teague..." I smirk at my childhood classmate and my former farm neighbor.

"Nadean Garland. Damn! Don't you look hot for an old woman, girl." Teague moves ahead and struts around Nadean, looking her body up and down with a grin. "Do you remember our classmate, Bobcat?"

I cut my eyelashes to Eckward, an older gray hair wrinkled human, like me, "Hey, Eckward!" I refuse to use Teague's childhood silly nicknames.

Eckward smiles with a nod to Nadean and presses down the brown colored vest with a chuckle.

Teague finishes the circle and stands in front of her with a smile and a nod. "Do ya live in B'ham now? Last I heard you lived, not in Brier anymore."

I smile, "Mobile."

Teague struts side to side in front of her with a smile and a nod. "Mobile, that's really down south near the Gulf of Mexico. It's pretty down there too. We'll been to Orange Beach, almost every summer. Hot. Sand. Sun. You are looking good, Duchess. What are you doing here in Birmingham? Are ya staying the night? Friday evening, the weekend, ya know?"

"Physics conference..." I smirk with my new fib.

Teague stops and stands in her face with a confused brow. "Physics, that's a big fancy science word. Are you a nuclear physicist?"

"Sorta..." I smirk again at dumbass Teague.

Eckward leans and pulls at Teague, stretching the jacket that wears no fashionable necktie like a non-business executive, saying with a nod and a grin. "Nice seeing ya, Duchess. Let's go Tomcat. We are finished here."

The short and skinny dark-haired and pale skinned male van driver moves ahead and stops, standing beside Teague, looking at Nadean with a smile and a nod. "We're ready to leave, Dr. Garland. I was told to fetch you for the transport down to Mobile."

I turn and smile to the driver with the fib. "Thank you. I'm ready to leave." I move around the love huddle of Eckward and Teague with a smirk and a nod. Teague always was a wild-ass redneck in his youth, leading the rebel pack into his old age. I look at the far wall. "Nice to see ya'll, Eckward and Teague!"

Eckward and Teague move ahead and stroll to the entrance door of the hospital

Teague swings around and watches her priss with a grin and a yell. "Duchess, when ya come back into town? Call me! My number is. Wait!" He pats his jacket and searches for his mobile telephone, "Gimme your cell number, precious!"

Bobcat pulls and drags Teague by the arm out the entrance door of the hospital. "What's up your ass a flock of crawling black ticks?"

Teague spins around with a smile and moves through the entrance door at the hospital with a grin and a chuckle. "Duchess, she looks great. Pretty. Slim. Damn pretty. Tall. She's tall. Remember? How she grew from short into tall when a junior student at Brier High? She lives in Mobile. Warm there, all the time."

Bobcat shoves Teague to his black colored pickup truck with a sour frown. "Let's go back to the office. Report in and then leave for the day and for Brier. Otter and I are going to see my parents. I wanna go fishing in the pond before sundown. I'm aching for some fresh fried catfish. You want to ride with me or drive your new baby?"

Teague grins with a nod. "Damn. She's pretty after all those years. Some girls go to shit with their bodies. Duchess looks damn pretty."

Each truck door opens at different times.

Bobcat slides in the driver's seat, cranking the engine, "Are your riding with me or driving, Tomcat?"

Each truck door closes at a different interval.

Teague settles down into the front passenger seat with a smile, securing the safety belt, "Driving. You drive to slow, man. You're an old man with old ways and old ideas. Ya need a divorce, man. Make ya frisky like a kitten again."

"I'm a very safe driver. Ask my insurance agent? And I'm married to your sister, Teague. She and I would be really unhappy, if we won't together as a married couple." He drives with a sour frown out of the parking lot and to the office.

Teague laughs. "That's a test, Bobcat. I'm testing your ass of love. Ya passed, man!"
Monday January 11th

08:08 a.m.

FDA Office Building

(12 miles, north, from Teague's apartment)

Conference room setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright sunshine

The new work week starts inside the work room at local FDA office.

Tall, plump, brown-haired and brown-skinned FDA Supervisor Lorinda wears a gray colored business suit and sits behind the chrome tined metal writing table with a smile and a nod. "Good morning, ya'll. This is a new day and the start of the new work week for all of us. I would like to announce. There are no drug raids, no marijuana inspections, or Medicare fraud stakeouts planned for the entire week. And everyone is going to attend the highly anticipated and highly expensive National University Championship Football Game here in Birmingham for free." She hears the employees cheer and clap.

Tall and muscular fifty-three-year old Teague shakes his shoulder length silver tinted curls and sits in the last row of table beside his work buddy Bobcat, like usual, with a sour frown. "There's a Catch 22, folks. Wait for it! The fly ball's landing on top of Elf's new pickup truck." He displays a black colored turtleneck shirt, a pair of dark colored blue jeans, a dark blue wool sports jacket, and a pair of black and green tinted cowboy boots.

"Eat it, Tomcat!" Male FDA Inspector code named Elf doodles on the notepad with the ink pen with a yell and a smile at his FDA ancient monitor, wearing a black colored long-sleeved shirt with the letters in white hue: FDA. He pairs the shirt with a set of faded blue jeans and a pair of red and black polished cowboy boots. Twenty plus years old male displays a head of cropped black hair, a tone of yellow tinted skin, and a pair of aqua colored eyeballs and stands short at five feet and two inches with the set of elevated cowboy boot heels.

Elf sits a few feet in the front row with some of the other junior FDA inspectors tall and plump brown haired Peacock and tall and slender amber headed Dove.

FDA Supervisor Lorinda grins. "Because we're all working the championship game per our boss the governor of Alabama.

"Well, fuck!" Teague looks down with a sour frown to see his mobile telephone.

"Do we get Burn U and Bam U caps and T-shirts too?" Thirty plus years old, tall and muscular male FDA Inspector code named Moose sits on the third row and stares at Lorinda, displaying tone of red tinted skin, a hair of black hair, and a pair of hazel eyeballs, wearing a white colored short-sleeved T-shirt with black colored words: FDA. He pairs the shirt with a set of dark blue jeans, and a pair of orange colored cowboy boots.

Lorinda grins. "Everyone will receive a cap and a shirt with the letters FDA which will be printed in big bold yellow letters over the black cotton plus a slinky non-decorative black silk vest per our boss the governor of Alabama. This cultural..."

"Cut-throat..." Teague frowns.

"This cultural cut-throat competition is the biggest social..."

"Security..." Teague frowns.

"This cultural cut-throat competition is the biggest social and security event of the..."

"Two centuries..." Teague frowns.

She nods with a stern face. "This cultural cut-throat competition is the biggest social and security event of two centuries. Burn U and Bam U will never ever play against each other in a single game in the State of Alabama for a National University Football Championship title. The anticipated spectator count rolls around 150,000 folks. The stadium can hold one hundred thousand with fifty thousand legal loiters."

"With or without clothing..." Teague chuckles.

"With or without guns..." Bobcat frowns.

Lorinda nods. "Next year, all the football competition rules will be changing for some dang reason which is beyond my pay grade. I am so proud of both my college football teams and more proud, serving as one of twelve thousand security chiefs with my little Indians pow-wowing around the Old Gray Man for no trouble. Does everyone understand that nasty word?"

Bobcat sits beside Teague like normal and wears a red colored button down vest over a white colored dress shirt with a green necktie, a red colored sports jacket, a pair of blue jeans, and a a pair of red and blue cowboy boots. He works the math on his mobile telephone. "150,000 divided by 12,000 equals 12.5," he turns and views Teague with a grin. "Can you take on 12.5 drunken Burn U fans by yourself, Tomcat?"

Teague turns with a nod and a wink to see Bobcat. "As long as, the point five don't have a set of roller blades. Yeah, old man!"

Lorinda grins. "I'm glad my little Indians like their new assignment, this week. The big assignment this morning, I'm holding a new listing of gamblers living in the great US State of Alabama."

Teague turns and smiles to Lorinda. "Gambling is legal under the US Federal law, including horses, dogs, education lotteries, bingo cards, and online gambling which a waste of my precious beer and pretzel time, right, Bobcat?"

"Right, Tomcat." Bobcat looks up with a chuckle to see Lorinda.

Lorinda says. "Each US State monitors and regulates the legal gambling laws and codes, making us the oversight big brothers and sisters of gambling rights in Alabama. Some gambling establishments implement a withholding taxes program on the paid out prize monies then cut the lucky winner a paper check for depositing into a legal bank account in their native state. The other establishments pay out the cash prize directly to the player, regardless of their home state. This is us, Teague."

Teague says. "Then the FDA just waits for the timely expiration date. If the prize isn't claimed within the ninety-day period, then the money is forfeited back towards the gambling establishment."

Lorinda frowns. "Good argument, Tomcat. Except, Las Vegas gambling doesn't work like that."

Bobcat frowns. "Big brother gives out the IRS form W-2G for reporting your gambling winnings from your particular gambling establishment."

Lorinda shakes her curls. "Then some or almost all of the gambling winners simply move out of Alabama into Florida to avoid paying Alabama income taxes. The Alabama income taxes are used to pay for the state's government services."

Bobcat chuckles, "I work for the US Federal Government simply housed inside the State of Bama."

Teague grins. "Then the new gambling winner invokes the new estate tax law, giving ten million dollars to any folks he or she favors, including the spouse, before the funeral costs of course."

Short and black-haired Elf lifts an arm above his bone skull with a smile in the first row to Lorinda. "Me! I'll marry you and I'll take your ten million dollars and go par-tee."

Teague frowns. "I'm debating, not donating, Elf."

"I'm paying off the truck note," Elf chuckles.

"Don't really give a shit, Elf." Bobcat answers for Teague with a chuckle.

Lorinda says. "I have electronically zapped the gambling report to your electronic toy which is paid by the US Federal Government. Each team has one name. Find and verify the location of your particular gambling marker and then return back here for lunch. We're having Chinese food and I need to a couple of team leaders for the scouting patrols at the championship game," she sees a set of wiggling arms from the employees with a smile and a nod. "Good. Follow me, please." Lorinda and the FDA inspectors stand and leave the conference room.

Teague stands and slams the chair on top of the tile with a sour frown. "Nadean Garland?"

"Who?" Bobcat stands and reads his mobile telephone with the new gambling report too.

Teague stares down at his mobile telephone. "The name on our pick list reads Nadean Garland. Can't be right, Bobcat? We just saw Nadean Garland at the Birmingham Hospital on Friday. Remember, Bobcat? She lives in Mobile. She told us that she lived in Mobile. She was visiting Birmingham for a meeting and then returning back into Mobile for her home. Do you remember? That little gopher boy told her the vehicle transport was ready to leave for the beach city of Mobile. There's another Nadean Garland in Bama," he turns and frowns to Bobcat. "Who would have thunk it?"

Bobcat stares with a puzzled brow at the address on his mobile telephone. "We have this Nadean Garland's home address of Odum Street in Gardendale, north of B'ham about six miles. The address comes from the Las Vegas Gambling Sporting Center, a reputable establishment. I trust the source."

Teague types on his mobile telephone. "There are seventy-four individuals named Nadean Garland throughout the world. How about that? We know one and we're about to meet a second one. What are the freaking astronomical odds of that happening in Birmingham, Alabama?"

Bobcat shakes a skull, "Can't compute it. Let's interview this particular Nadean Garland. Find out how she's able to place a huge bet of three million dollars on the National University Championship football game?"

They turn and move through the archway, leaving the building, moving to Bobcat's red colored pickup truck.

08:23 a.m.

City of Gardendale

(10 miles, north, from FDA branch office)

Apartment of Nadean Garland setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright sunshine

Bobcat drives from the downtown FDA office and then stops, parking his truck on top of a smooth yellow colored bricked driveway and in front of a three story red colored brick building, killing the engine.

The truck door opens.

Teague scans the building, sliding out the truck, slipping on a long black wool winter coat and a pair of matching leather gloves.

The two truck doors close at the same time.

Teague leads to the building with a stern face. "I would call these buildings a set of duplexes. An upstairs and downstairs building hands two separate entrances for four families with fake wooden façade and a set of large viewing windows."

Bobcat slips off the long brown wool winter coat and a pair of matching leather gloves, moving beside Teague, reading his mobile telephone. "These are very nice duplexes for annual rentals. The complex comes with a swimming pool, a picnic area, a playground facility, two set of tennis courts."

"Who the hell plays tennis anymore?" Teague scans the landscape with a laugh.

"Someone does." Bobcat moves ahead and reads his mobile phone. "Apartment number eight," he looks up to see the rental apartment numbers. "The first building starts with the number one. That's right across from the apartment's management office. I think we should bypass the nasty office personnel and go directly and ask Miss Garland where she got all her green money. If she's a daughter of a Saudi Arabian prince, who lives off her daddy's royal camel spit, then we can let her be."

Teague laughs. "You are right. And I'm a billionaire ready to retire to the farm."

Bobcat and Teague stop and stand together in front the archway of number eight, listening for any violent disturbance inside the apartment like a set of well-trained law enforcement officers first.

They hear the television.

Bobcat turns to Teague with a nod and a fist knock on the door.

The apartment door opens.

A young girl appears in the archway with a smile. Two kids run and hug her legs.

Bobcat and Teague slap on a fake smile. Bobcat holds up a FDA badge for view with a nod. "Good morning, ma'am. We are FDA Inspectors, Fulton and Haywood. Do you happen to be Miss Nadean Garland at 111 Odum Street in apartment eight here in the city of Gardendale?"

The young girl shakes her curls, patting the head of her child. "Naw, I'm Bonnie Rohner. These are my baby girls."

Bobcat says with a nod and a smile. "I am so sorry to disturb your nice morning, ma'am."

Teague looks with a fake smile and scans the furniture inside the apartment for any trouble and the young mother. "Ma'am, do you know a girl named Nadean Garland?"

The young mother shakes her curls with a smile. "Naw, I don't have a friend or relative with that name."

Teague grins. "Thank you very much. We're so sorry to disturb you, ma'am. Have a good day!"

"Thanks." She backs steps from the open archway with the two little girls. "One more hour of TV, then we go and play at your grandmother's house, girls." The little girls cheer out laugh.

The apartment door closes.

Bobcat and Teague back step from the closed door.

Bobcat looks down and reads his mobile telephone. "We've received some bogus data, boy. Nadean Garland must live in another apartment," he looks up and scans the apartments. "Someone typed down the wrong information in the computer and tossed at us."

Teague scans the apartment landscape with a sour frown and a nod too. "Yeah, let's inquire with the apartment management office. They can pull up the proper name and give us the correct apartment number. Figures! The IRS can't do nothing right. We gotta do all the legwork too." He turns and moves with Bobcat to the office building.

At 8:28 a.m. in front of the red bricked three story apartment business office, the dark wooden double wide door opens.

Teague enters the building lobby that holds peach colored matching two chairs, a light wooden office desk, a black colored desk computer, and a set of cheap paintings with bowls of colorful fruits, pointing at the fitness equipment, "A fitness center with free weights and lots of weight machines, it looks like your exercise room, Bobcat."

Bobcat moves ahead and displays his FDA badge with a nod and a smile to the young blonde headed female. "Good morning, ma'am. We are from the FDA, a US Federal Government Agency. We're looking for one of your current residents, occupying one of the duplexes. A female named Nadean Garland. Could you please provide us her apartment number? We have unfortunately received some invalid information mistakenly discovering that she doesn't live in apartment number eight."

Thirty plus years of age, average height and weight, brown haired, pale skinned female sits with a smile and a nod behind the light wooden office desk, wearing a pale blue sweater and a pair black trousers. "I can help ya'll with your request," she turns and types on the keyboard of a laptop and then looks up with a grin to see Bobcat. "Nadean Garland. I have...had...past tense here. She did occupy our residential number eight from the dates of December, the first which was the year before until December, the thirty-first of last year. Then she moved out and surrendered her apartment key. Now, it's occupied by another tenant. Does that answer your question?"

Bobcat nods. "Sorta. Nadean Garland moved out on December thirty-first. That was nine days ago. Did she leave a forwarding address for any of her outstanding bills or a confirmation letter of moving out from your lovely grounds, ma'am?"

"I can check on that," she turns and types again. "Yeah, she did," she turns and writes down the information on a sheet of paper, handing it to Teague with a grin and a giggle.

Teague accepts and reads the paper. "Nadean Garland. PO Box 1960. Birmingham. Alabama. 35209-1960." He looks up with a confused brow to the girl. "This is a post office box, ma'am."

"Yes sir." The apartment manager grins at Teague.

Bobcat points with a confused brow down to the paper. "You accepted a post office box as a forwarding address? Wonder if she owed ya more money or damaged the apartment? You might not collect your monies."

The female apartment manager nods. "We inspect the interior apartment when a tenant gives up the apartment key. We do a quickie visual inspection. If there aren't any broken walls or torn up carpet, we are fine and dandy. Since, we charge a decorating fee to re-paint and replace the carpet for the next tenant."

Teague frowns, "Okay. I learned something new."

Bobcat sits down in one of the two peach colored oversized chairs in front of the office desk, looking up with a sigh and a sour frown. "This doesn't help us much. We're trying to track her down and we were given this particular apartment complex as her current address."

She frowns. "I'm sorry. That's all the information I can release without the proper official legal authority or paperwork."

Teague sits down and leans forward over the desk with a wink and a chuckle at her. "Ya know ya got the most beautiful dancing brown eyes shaped like a baby fawn? Is that your pretty name, Fawn?"

Bobcat leans over to Teague with a whisper. "You're wasting my time. We are done here. Let's return to our office, Tomcat."

She winks at Teague with a giggle. "My name's Tea, spelled like sweet tea."

Teague grins. "Tea, awe! That's so clever and cute like you. Ya know I bet Nadean ain't as cute like you either, darling?"

Bobcat whispers to Teague. "Not working, let's go."

She looks down to the table surface with a smile. "I won't know that, sir."

Teague grins. "Ya know we should compare your beauty to her just to be certain?"

Tea looks up with a smile and a nod. "Well, I guess I could do that. Lemme get her paper folder." She turns and stands, moving to the filing cabinets in the rear of the room as Teague watches her ass.

Bobcat whispers with a sour frown. "What are you doing illegally? We don't have the authority or authorization to hear or see or take this particular Nadean Garland's private and personal information. You learned with me there are new vicious enforceable HIPAA rules marking any and all individuals with prison time and payment vouches for any illegal acquisition, Tomcat."

Teague watches the female. "Was she a good tenant? She rented here for one year, 365 days. Don't good tenants stay for lots of years? Ain't that correct? Can ya check on her financial standing with this Gardendale apartment complex? Naw, but, Tea can. Relax, Bobcat, I got this covered."

Bobcat sits back and shakes his skull. "Why are you doing this to me, Tomcat? When we're so close of retiring and getting our full pension for the rest of our fishing days," exhaling. "Not if we break the US Federal Government HIPAA rule paying off a hefty personal money penalty for the rest of our elderly years inside a US Federal prison to boot."

Teague grins at the female. "We're at a dead end without talking face-to-face with Miss Garland here. I got some deep suspects that she might be involved in some pretty heavy illegal stuff. This pretty thing can give us some more go-go leads. I wanna see if she was or wasn't able to pay her rent and utilities. That's a big deep suspicion."

"That's a pretty good reason Lorinda for breaking the US Federal HIPAA privacy rule on an innocent non-criminal American citizen." Bobcat watches the female resume her chair at the desk.

Tea places and opens the paper folder with a grin. "Hmm. Nadean Garland is starred in a red flag," she looks up with a wink to Teague. "That's not good." She turns and stands, moving to another filing cabinet.

Teague leans to Bobcat with a chuckle. "I still got it."

Bobcat grins. "Ya still got hair lice too. She's too young for ya, boy. She looks early, early twenty something..."

The young girl moves back to her desk and sits, opening and reading a second paper folder. "Hmm. Nadean Garland paid all her monthly rental payment by money order. See here? We keep the top half then deposit the bottom half into the business bank account."

"Is that both honest and common?" Teague looks down and studies the folder upside down.

She looks up with a smile and a nod to Teague. "Yeah. It's legal, honest, and common. The apartment renter usually does that when she or he doesn't have a checking account. Or she or he has a temporary job like a waitress or a construction worker. That might account for why she left after a year. She rented one of the mid-range apartments paying seven hundred dollars per month. That's a lot of money if ya only work a two dollar per hour waitress job plus any table tips."

Teague says with a nod and a smile to get more privacy information without the legal search warrant. "You're very smart, darling. Does your daddy own the complex?"

She shakes her curls. "Naw, the complex is owned by a local family. I work for the management company the owner hired the first of this year in January."

Teague grins. "You definitely know your stuff. Is there anything else in Miss Garland's file that might help the US Federal Government?"

She gasps. "Is she a fugitive of the law?"

Teague nods. "Sorta, we need to hunt her down for some more questioning, ya know?"

She nods. "Yeah, I watch the crimes television programs all the time," she looks down and reads the folder. "Well, she signed her new rental contract on December second the year before. She moved into her rental apartment on December third. She was required to pay the first and last month's rent of one thousand four hundred dollars plus a security deposit of six hundred dollars. She claimed to have two cats that lived with her inside the apartment. She had to provide a pet deposit of three hundred dollars for each cat which is not refunded. She paid a redecorating fee of five hundred dollars. That's not refunded either."

Bobcat frowns. "That sounds like highway robbery."

She looks up with a set of parted her lips to him. "Beg pardon."

Bobcat frowns. "Ya make a person paid all that money just to rent an apartment for one year. No wonder she moved out."

"Actually, it would've been more economical for her to live here for three or so years to offset the overhead expense of the pet deposit and redecorating fee." She looks down and views folder. "Garland didn't damage her apartment on the last day of inspection when she returned the apartment key on December twenty seventh, this year."

Teague points to the money order. "Why's the amount seven hundred thirty-four dollars instead of seven hundred dollars even, sugar?"

She nods. "The Odum Apartments provide sewer and water, but ya have to pay the apartment complex for the usage."

"Another bank robbery..." exhales Bobcat, jolting down his hand written notes. In case Teague can't con the girl into hard copies without a search warrant.

Teague sneers to Bobcat. "Shut up, man." He smiles at Tea. "The amount includes a seven-hundred-dollar monthly rental fee plus the cost of the water and sewer usage. That makes perfect sense to me. Is there anything else that might help us track this fugitive down?"

She says. "The final inspection report reads that she had cancelled. This is not common, but it does happen. The final inspection report reads that Garland turned off her electricity on December first. That means that she asked Central Bama Power to click off her electricity on November thirty. Central Bama Power sent her a final bill for electricity on the month of November only and not for the month of December. Then Central Bama Power clicked the running electricity back over to the apartment complex. We picked up her electricity bill from December first to December thirty first, last year. Her electricity bill total is 28.12 dollars. Wow."

Teague frowns. "In the month of December, we have lots of cold weather spells that needs heat. Are these apartment duplexes that heat and air efficient producing low money bill?"

She shakes her curls. "Not at all, she probably moved out ahead of time into her new apartment, since she didn't renew her annual lease with us. She found a new place just moved it and cancelled the electricity with our apartment complex."

Bobcat points the invoice with a grin. "See ya did lose money not asking for a forwarding address of her new place? Then ya could've have sent her a bill and collected the funds."

She shakes her curls. "That's not how that works. Rental and renters sometimes leave under mysterious circumstances. I've worked for this particular management company for two years. I haven't seen, but I have found renters who vacate and vanish from an apartment in one night. I mean during the nighttime hours, when the management office is closed. The greedy and dishonest renter will move out with not bothering to pay the month's rental or the electricity or sewer and water bill. Therefore, we..."

"...pass the buck down to the other paying renters. The cycle is now complete." Bobcat turns with a sour frown to see the nose profile of Teague. "Are we done here, Tomcat?"

She winks to Teague with a giggle. "Tomcat, is that a nice nickname or a naughty thing?"

Teague grins. "Both. Ya know maybe we can have supper one evening?"

Bobcat exhales. "Before ya'll run off to the motel room, is there any more or additional information on Miss Garland?"

She looks down with a frown to see the folder. "When I accessed the computer her electronic folder is red flagged. We will not allow her to rent here at the Odum Apartments ever."

Bobcat says. "But you mentioned that her security deposit was paid with the amount of six hundred dollars. Why didn't you subtract the twenty-eight dollars plus cents out of that security deposit amount instead of giving it all back to the renter?"

She smirks. "We did. We keep it all, including the pet deposit, the decorating fee, and the security deposit..."

Bobcat frowns, "Because, she cancelled her electricity in the month of December for a total bill of twenty-eight dollars plus some coinage."

She shakes her curls. "Naw, her final inspection report revealed a set of dirty windows, four dirty pan eyes on the oven, a dirty kitchen and bathroom floor, one set of dented blinders inside the master bedroom, and three dirty black spots on the carpet, and three black marks on the wall. All that damaged added up to five hundred and eighty dollars. When we add the twenty-nine dollars to the five hundred ninety dollars, we get six hundred and nine dollars. Miss Garland still owes us nine dollars, but we were kinda even to write that off."

"That's so sweet," Teague smiles at her.

Bobcat frowns. "Ya still reported the nine dollars to the Credit Bureau dinking her good credit?"

She grins. "Yes. We're allowed to report bad rental tenants to help other rental complexes."

Teague turns with a nod and a grin to Bobcat. "And ya should since Garland is a fugitive from the law, Bobcat."

She turns and grins to Bobcat. "Bobcat, is that a nickname too?"

Bobcat sneers at her, "Naw, a vicious warning," he turns with a sour frown to see Teague. "Are we done here, Teague?"

Teague turns with a smile to see her, "Almost, Eckward. Do you have anything else to share, darling?"

She looks down with a stern face to see the folder and with a smile to see Teague. "Based on this folder, Miss Garland is running from the US law enforcement personnel, since she doesn't possess a bank account allowing her to spend money without it being traced. She holds a temporary job like a waitress or something seasonal without steady income, causing her to terminate her lease and move away. And she doesn't want to be found, since she has a Post Office Box instead of a proper street address."

Bobcat frowns. "Miss Garland didn't just beam from an alien ship that was orbiting Planet Earth. Did you meet or talk or communicate Miss Garland, since she moved out last month?"

She shakes her curls. "No. I'm newly placed here last week. My management company rotates us around to the different complexes for vast business experience. This particular complex is very nice here in Gardendale. I like working here. But I don't meet Miss Garland. Sorry."

Bobcat leans to the folder, "Where's? Why isn't there a picture photograph of her current Alabama driver's license inside her personal folder for the Gardendale Apartments?"

She nods. "Ah. You're very perspective, sir. Her driver's license is missing. The owner of the complex used his blood-relatives and some poorly trained employees to work inside the administrative office. They didn't collect the proper legal documents, including the driver's license. We insist upon that procedure now. But last year at this time period, it wasn't required."

Bobcat asks. "Doesn't a business especially a rental housing complex with bad people conduct a police background check on a renter candidate or the prospective family? Or do you not perform a check on credit financial?"

She says. "Yes. We do. No. They didn't practice that either last year. When I came on board, I replaced the incompetent workers and implemented all the checks and balances of new candidate of renters. I also discovered that the incompetent employees were renting the apartments to their friends or friends of their friends to fill the units, because the former employees were paid bonuses when the rentals were hundred percent occupied. I do believe Miss Garland with her mysterious background and shady finances might have been one of the friends of a friend of a friend. That's probably how she ended up here. Then the monthly rent amount was too high, so she moved out."

"That's a very good working theory, Tea." Teague grins to her.

Bobcat exhales. "That's too bad. If you had her driver's license, we could visit her previous residential address, if inside Birmingham then ask her about not paying her monthly December electricity bill legally?"

She smiles. "Just call the DMV. They have a photo ID of her driver's license."

Bobcat says. "Actually, they cannot without a search warrant and lots of red tape. We don't even know what color skin or what age Miss Nadean Garland might be."

She looks down with a smile to the folder and Teague. "Ah, I don't have Miss Garland's forwarding address, but I do have her previous address. It is 222 Valleydale Road in the city of Homewood with a zip code of 35209. That's not in a very good neighbor. As a matter of fact, that's the lower end income bracket for the city of Birmingham. See my theory does come into play. This girl was a friend of a friend of a friend, getting a good apartment at a very expensive price. Then she couldn't afford it. Miss Garland has probably moved back to her own haunt. You should try that rental company named Valleydale Apartments. It's an old apartment complex. I bet they follow their in-house rules and they probably have a photo ID of her driver's license."

"You're so sweet and smart, Tea." Teague grins.

She giggles. "Hey, you can call Central Bama Electricity, too. They'll have a previous address on Miss Garland. She had to pay a deposit fee before she received the electricity."

Bobcat writes down the information with a nod. "That's a good idea. Central Bama Power would have her electricity history of payments for years. Then we can zap into a current address."

She shakes her curls. "I hate to bust your pink bubbles. But Miss Garland doesn't seem like she wants to be found. I've discovered in my work experience in apartment complex environments that the renter can get access to electricity using their newly signed and dated leasing agreement with us, not necessary a driver's license. Since not all folks can drive a car or own a car. But you can try. The other theory here is that she cancelled the electricity bill the month before probably hiding from someone or something. Ya know how criminal operation being law enforcement officers, right, Tomcat?" She winks at him.

Teague grins, "Right."

Bobcat clears his throat, since they are not legal law enforcement officers here.

She says. "That means that the final electricity bill came to this street address and not a previous street address or her new current address. Or it went to her PO Box number."

Teague grins. "The Post Office Box will hold her current address. You can't get a box with a valid and picture driver's license."

Bobcat grins. "Good thinking, Tomcat. And Tea darling, can we receive a hard copy of Nadean Garland's folder please?"

"Shore," She nods and stands, swinging around, prissing her ass as Teague and Bobcat lean over and perform a fist-bump with a smile and a chuckle.

At 9:02 a.m., the apartment complex wooden door closes.

They return back into the pickup truck cab.

Teague wiggles off the winter coat and gloves, sitting inside his seat with a chuckle to see the building. "She's cute."

Bobcat removes his winter coat and his pair of gloves also, sitting in the driver's seat and cranks the engine with a sour frown. "We don't know what she looks like to make..." He turns and frowns at the nose profile of Teague. "O yeah! Tea was very helpful. You need to reward her twice as naughty."

Teague says with a nod and a grin to the building door. "Yup, I will. This post office zip code is right off Greensprings Highway in a not-so-good street district of Homewood. I think our pretty thing has some good instincts. We should drop by the Gents Club and see if Nadean Garland was one of their exotic dancers. They might have an old photo of the girl."

Bobcat backs out of the parking spot, driving with a stern face to the roadway. "We can do that too. But we should contact the DVM download all photos of any female Garland...."

"We can't, Bobcat." Teague shakes his curls. "The FBI doesn't like us, eating in their picnic basket. Remember, it is the two different letters, after the letter 'F?' And we have to get butthole permission from our boss-lady. She doesn't like us, making trouble on her football turf either."

"We're doing our job."

"And our job's to track down a legal gambler who has placed a three million dollar bet on a college game with funds, coming straight from a trustworthy bank investment group. And we gently remind the girl that she resides inside Bama, since the Bama Governor wants a pay rate next year. That's not against any US Federal law. She also might be indirectly connected with the Mob or another foreign investment group that happens to be living in the USA. Since, we house aliens, illegals, and criminals for shitty fun. We don't have a criminal investigation case going on here just some damn mama nose wiping assignment, Bobcat."

"That's a good point, Tomcat. So let's blow Nadean Garland off, go home, and start our Burn U's victory celebration, early. Man. We got another great team, this year."

Teague grins. "And last year, and the year before that, and the year previous to that one that young guy named OT Sims is awesome. His football stats are star shooting to Jupiter this year. He'll be first draft pick and pick-up this spring as a five-star professional football athletic already."

9:10 a.m.

City of Homewood

(12 miles, south, from city of Gardendale)

Gents Club setting

(8 miles, south, from FDA branch office)

Cold temperatures with partly clouds of bright sunshine

"I agree." Bobcat pulls into an empty parking space of black asphalt near a green colored entrance door and stops the truck, killing the engine.

The two car door opens at different time.

The dark brown bricked building is a two-story structure with a covered wooden veranda and one metal closed door without a peek hole but a bulky human body.

The two separate car door closes at different times.

Teague does not wear his winter coat pulls up beside a coat-less Bobcat and moves ahead to the entrance door, getting a nod from the extra-tall and extra-muscular, pale colored, light haired male bouncer to enter the establishment. He wears a serious brow and a dark colored business suit with a heavy black colored winter coat.

The entrance door opens.

They enter into a dark room.

The door closes.

Teague and Bobcat move ahead to a green colored granite beverage bar as Teague points with a smile to a row of empty beer bottles.

"Get it to go," Bobcat scans the bar and Teague.

A tall and overweight male with dark skin and dark hair, wearing a tan colored business suit, the owner of the club appears and stands at the nose profile of Bobcat, scanning the new customers.

Teague sits down at the high stool and reaches over, grabbing a pretzel with a sour frown, "Beer don't taste good in plastic."

Bobcat turns and smiles with his FDA badge to the Gents Club Owner. "Hey there! I'm Fulton from the FDA US Federal Government agency."

"Are you cops?" The owner frowns at Bobcat.

Teague swallows the food and grabs another pretzel, nodding to the bar keeper. "Naw, man! I'm just hungry."

Bobcat says. "I'm looking for a female. Someone suggested to us that she might be a dancer here at your establishment, since she had lived around the area. Her name is Nadean Garland."

The owner shakes skull. "Naw! She ain't one of my named and known dancers here. Is she in trouble, drugs?"

Bobcat says. "Maybe, gambling. Gambling isn't really legal in Bama."

The owner frowns. "Gambling! I don't allow my girls to entertain or collect money or men on the side. The girls usually just dance, getting lots of sweet cash. And I don't want a girl like her to cause trouble in my place. What does she look like?"

"Pretty..." Bobcat fakes a smile with the lie.

The owner spins around and moves ahead to the side wall that contains rows of mounted frames with an individual pretty young adult female. He points at some of the individual photographs. "I got a wall of faces of my girls. Ya can look over here. You can see if ya recognize her and then point her out for me."

Bobcat follows behind the back spine on the owner and stops, standing and stares at the wall of pretty girls with a stern face.

Teague pulls up beside Bobcat and holds a plastic cup and a hand of pretzels, chewing with a grin, admiring all the pretty girls, nodding with a grin.

The owner sneers at the nose profile on Bobcat. "Do you see her among the photos?"

"Naw, sir! Can't say that I do." Bobcat scans each framed young adult female but he does not know Garland's face, turning with a smile and a handshake to see the owner, "You have been a big help, sir. Thanks kindly for assisting us."

The owner grins with a nod, "My pleasure! Come back later when ya'll get off work. Have a beer on me, boys!"

"We will." Teague smiles at the rows of pretty girls.

Bobcat punches Teague on the bicep, exiting the building.

Outside in the parking lot, they slowly move into the bright sunlight and cold air temperatures without snow flurries. Bobcat moves to his truck. "What's inside your cup?"

"Soda. Wanna a pretzel?"

The driver's door opens.

Bobcat slides into the truck, cranking and warming the engine and then scans the landscape with a sour frown. "Naw, we go to the post office hopefully find a real street address on Miss Garland. This particular part of town ain't safe for females, dogs, and small children, mostly druggies, thieves, and low-lives."

Teague opens the door and scoots into the passenger seat. "Lots of unemployment around the area closed shops, closed restaurants, closed stores. I believe these are the Birmingham's slums or slugs."

The door closes.

09:16 a.m.

Homewood Post Office

(6 miles, south, from FDA branch office)

Bobcat drives from the parking lot onto an empty highway with a sour frown. "The city of Homewood is a city of two tales, a rich tale and a poor tale. We leave the slum side driving a few blocks and view the ritzy side. The US Post Office is a small space in the middle of a strip mall of retail vendor stores. Miss Garland had good common sense using a Post Office Box for her mail of bills and important letters, since I would trust a post office worker here with my mail either."

Teague finishes his snack and burps. "How long are we going to chase this girl?"

Bobcat turns off the highways and stops the truck inside the gray colored parking lot at the US Post Office branch, killing the engine, removing the keys. He exhales with frustration. "You insisted that we gather more information on Miss Garland. We gathered. Now, we inspect like good little inspectors, Tomcat. Then we finish this task and go back to the office."

The door opens.

Teague slides and closes the door of the truck.

The door closes.

They slowly move ahead with the winter coat toward the glass door. Teague reaches out and holds the door for Bobcat with a smile. "I'm finished inspecting. We can inspect the fishing hole around lunchtime."

"Sounds like a plan to me, buddy." Bobcat enters first through the archway and moves through the small enclosure.

One side displays rows of tiny and large metal tinted rental mailboxes. The other side displays booth of information about the community and healthy warnings about smoking cigarettes and consuming illegal drugs. One the forward wall, a white colored counter displays three separate windowless booths for service.

Bobcat stops, and stands in the short line to visit with the post office clerk behind the counter.

There are book shelves of red, white, and blue colored mailing materials on the side wall and three post office clerk stations in tan colored uniforms stand in the middle of the wall. The middle post office clerk male motions for the next person in line with a smile in silence.

Bobcat and Teague move ahead and stand together. Bobcat grins and shows his FDA badge near his jaw line.

The grayish-brown haired, elderly man frowns, "Police! What can I do for you, sir?"

Bobcat grins. "I'm Fulton." He thumbs to Teague. "This is Haywood. We're in need of securing the address for a person named Nadean Garland. Her US post office box number is 1960. The zip code is 35209-1960. Is this the correct United States postal office, right, sir?"

He looks down with a nod and a stern face to type on his computer. "Yes. If her zip code has been identified as 35209-1960, then this is our facility. Garland. G.a.r.l.a.n.d...is that the correct spelling, sir?"

Bobcat nods. "Yes, can you tell us from the computer her driver's license address that secured the US post office box number?"

He types with a nod and a stern face. "I can. I'm accessing the menu for that information now."

Bobcat asks. "Do you also retain a photo of the driver's license?"

He types. "No sir. We don't have computer capability to do that for ya. But ya can talk with the Alabama DVM. They can provide a picture ID for ya'll."

Bobcat grins. "Thanks for the info."

He looks up and points to his computer screen. "Here, we go. The US post office box number 1960 and it has been rented to Nadean Garland, since May, the thirty, four years ago. Her account is paid and active on December, the first, last year. She possessed a current Alabama driver's license with a street address of 333 Greensprings Highway. Hmm! That's not a good address for a single female. But, that's the one on her driver's license when she paid and rented the US post office box."

Bobcat nods. "Thanks! You have been a tremendous assistance. Have a Happy New Year, sir."

The post office clerk looks up and smiles at Bobcat. "You, too, next in line please," he waves a hand to the next person with a smile.

Bobcat and Teague leave the building in silence and slowly move back to the pickup truck.

Each truck door opens as a body slides back into the cab. Then each door closes shut.

Inside the passenger seat, Teague pulls out and types on his mobile telephone with a confused frown. "The mentioned apartment is located on the other side of Greensprings Highway. We just passed it before stopping to visit the Gents Club."

Inside the driver's seat, Bobcat cranks the engine. "She moved here first from the town of Wherever, USA and then set up a post office box for her VIP important letters. What do you think, Tomcat?" He jerks the gear and drives the truck from the parking lot onto the highway.

"Yeah, I think so. Since the mail service sucks here in Birmingham. Sometimes, I get my neighbor's mail with his correct street address. Dumbass mail carriers, I don't think they can read shit."

Bobcat drives with a laugh. "They can read shit. They just can't read and match English numeric sequential numbers or alphabetic letters."

"Miss Garland moves from the town of Somewhere, within the USA, and then gets a leased apartment and then gets a driver's license."

"Naw! Miss Garland gets a low paying job from the town of Somewhere, within the USA, and then gets a leased apartment. You can't rent an apartment without proof of a working job with some steady type of income. Then she gets a driver's license for her car. Wished, we know her vehicle then we could contact the DVM or the police. So, when she didn't get her bills from the electricity output, she set up a US post office box. The post office box holds her first address from four years ago. That doesn't make any sense, Bobcat."

"It is not against the law or uncommon for folks using a post office box to secure their shipped packages and important legal documents, instead of entrusting the shitty mail service."

09:21 a.m.

City of Homewood

(4 miles, west, from FDA branch office)

Second apartment setting of Nadean Garland

Cold temperatures with bright sunshine

The pickup truck turns from the main roadway.

Bobcat slams his brakes to avoid another deep pothole in the middle of the gray colored shitty parking lot.

The parking lot stands in front of three buildings in cheap dark green colored fake siding, where some of the siding is detached and drooping down onto the dead grass or the dry dirt.

Teague scans the landscape with a sour frown. "Shit! This entire parking lot needs to be bull-dozed and replanted with a grove of pine trees. I can smell the shit leaking up from the individual sewer tanks from each rental place. Some of the older buildings didn't have proper sewer drainage lines in the early 1930s, when Birmingham was built."

Bobcat parks and stops on top of a flat level piece of the broken gray colored pavement, killing the engine.

Each truck door opens at a different time.

Teague slides out and closes his door.

Bobcat exits his truck and closes the door, following behind Teague. Teague lead to a one story fake dark green colored siding on the squat building with a row of iron rails across each glass pane without his winter coat again.

The single entrance door of solid red metal opens.

Teague enters first with a smile down at the brown colored hair roots on a tall, skinny mink tinted woman as Bobcat follows behind Teague without his winter coat also.

The door automatically closes.

The office space smells like smoke and bacon, the size of large bedroom with dark wood panels holding two naked wooden office desks in the middle of the small room, a card table with a coffee pot in one wall corner and a set of black colored steel filing cabinets on the opposite side wall.

At one of the naked wooden office desks, the skinny middle-aged woman looks up from her black colored computer keyboard on the matching computer desktop with a sneer. "What'da ya want? Are ya the cops? Ya'll look like cops, toting around metal pieces on your hips. Ya cops?" She wears a dark blue sweater, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of brown boots, displaying a head of auburn colored short hair and a pair of green eyeballs.

Bobcat stops a few feet from the office manager and her office desk, leaning into Teague with a smile and whisper. "How are you going to tame this kitten, Tomcat?"

Teague continues to stand and smiles at the new office manager, whispering back to Bobcat. "Hush, boy." Teague holds both his open palms in the air and away from the gun with a smile and a nod to the older female. "Good morning, ma'am. You're very observant. We be tracking a fugitive. And's we be wanting some help, so's the folks are safe and sound tonight here at your apartment complex."

She frowns. "Here!" She shakes her curls, "We gots a runaway from the prison here. Well, I don't need no trouble here, naw, not here. What's his name?" She looks down and types on her computer.

Teague moves ahead and sits down in one of the two empty brown colored hard wooden chairs with a smirk and a nod at her nose profile, "The fugitive is a girl, ma'am. Her name be Nadean Garland, ma'am. Ya know we shore could use some help in finding that girl, ma'am."

The older apartment manager types with a nod and a stern face on the computer keyboard, "Why ya say so? I's don't want a runaway here making trouble here. I's got a Nadean Garland at apartment fourteen. She be on the upper floor in the second building."

Bobcat grins, "We be interested in her forwarding address, too, please, ma'am."

Teague grins. "And, ma'am, all the copied documents that you can spare while we search for her whereabouts. Don't wanna alert the kids or kittens to danger!"

She types with a nod and a stern face on the keyboard, "Danger! Right! Don't wanna hurt the kids or kittens with a runaway," she stands upright from the padded chair, grabbing out, smoking the cigarette. She spins around and enters into a side room, yelling out loud to Teague, "19908, 19908, 19908, here, I finds her papers inside box number 19908." She returns and moves back to her chair, sitting down, resting the box with number 19908 on table surface with a wink and a grin to Teague. "I mark 'em for order. Then I put a number inside the computer name of the current and former renter for order too. Nadean Garland is number 19908." She pulls and reads the papers. "There here be a move-out form when she moved out. She be a good renting tenant, didn't punch the walls with her fists or a dog's skull or a whiskey bottle. There here be a page of payments for the rental. She paid using a money order. She be a good paying tenant. She paid on-time each first of the month with good money. Ya'll can't go wrong with a money order. We gets our money each month."

Bobcat looks down and writes the new information inside his notebook, "The amount of the monthly rental, please, ma'am?"

She says. "She gots a good deal be two hundred dollars, each month. She be here and then moved out. That be noted on the move-out form."

Bobcat asks. "Did she pay monies separate for water and sewer charges, ma'am?"

She shakes her curls. "Naw, it be included in the two hundred dollars rent along with free television services. Our television can hold 900 channels all for free."

Teague grins. "Well I be never leave that nice benefit, ma'am."

She grins to Teague, "Ya looking for a place, cutie?"

Teague grins. "No ma'am, I be taking care of my elderly sick mama."

She nods. "Good, boy, she raised ya right."

Bobcat frowns. "And's he never ever lies either, ma'am."

Teague asks. "And's does it note on the move-out form, if she left a forwarding address? So's we be chasing her ass around the new place, instead of the kids and kittens here."

She says. "She be going. Hmm, she gimme a post box 1960 in Birmingham with zip code 35209-1960."

Bobcat frowns. "Is that common, ma'am?"

She frowns, "Naw, not common, but okay, I like a real street address with city and zip, thou."

Bobcat asks. "Did you meet Nadean Garland?"

She shakes her curls at the paper folder, "Naw! I works here on Monday thru Friday. The other gal works here Saturday and Sunday. She brought her money orders on Saturday morning based on this here paper."

"And's what paper is that one in your hand, ma'am?" Teague asks.

She frowns, "We be needing a deposit before ya can enter the apartment, two hundred dollars. She paid with a money order of two hundred dollars on May, the thirty. Then she told gots a cat. So's she paid with a second money order of two hundred dollars for the cat too."

Bobcat asks. "Does she happen to list her job employer? We have received very little information, ma'am."

She smokes and coughs to see Bobcat, "That no good being cops. Nadean Garland, this be a move-in form for moving into a rental. She's a waitress. Gots no name of the diner," she turns and views the glass pane window, looking through the iron bars. "Probably up the road, there be a pizza place, a hamburger place, a fish place, a chicken place, a donut place. She be real close."

Bobcat asks. "Did she drive a car, ma'am?"

She shakes her curls. "Naw, we don't collect that stuff. She started works on May, the thirty or after or before."

Bobcat frowns. "I don't understand, ma'am. How are you able to rent the rental unit to an unemployed person? Don't you require a steady form of money?"

She shakes her curls. "Naw, money order is always cash. Cash comes from a job like waitress or construction. Don't care. If'an peoples pays all the security deposit first and last month's rent, then we be giving them a rental. If'an not, then we be giving them the boot," laughing.

Bobcat asks. "Do you require a re-decorating fee for leasing a rental unit, ma'am?"

She frowns. "Naw, them folks be lucky to have monies for food. When peoples leaves, we repair and repaint the walls with them big holes sometimes made by two human fists. Hmm! She moved out on October, the third."

Teague reaches out and grabs some of the reports also. "This one states she moved out on December, the twenty-eight. Why is there a different date in your files, ma'am?"

She turns and views the report with a nod and a grin. "This be the maintenance man's watches. Them boys keeps an eyeball out for thieves and runaways. Them be folks that run away in the middle of the night without paying the month's rent. Then the men tattle to me. I call the police. That be wrong for them to leave without paying for their rent monies. This be one of the maintenance man's notes. He told Trix. Miss Nadean moved her clothes and lots of small boxes from her apartment fourteen. And's she sold her furniture to some of the neighbors. Bad. When young girls gotta sell the furniture, they be with child. She has a baby and needs the cash."

Teague turns and frowns at his buddy. "Did you got that, Bobcat!"

He writes with a nod in silence.

She says. "Her stuff be gone on October, the third. She be returned on December, the twenty-eight to give back the key. She a good tenant, pretty much. She paid the rent in December before she moved into the rental. She can move out anytime in December, since she gimme a leaving-note too. The leaving-note says she is not renewing her apartment lease sixty days before December, the thirty-first. So's, this be fine and dandy."

Bobcat asks. "Does the rental unit include a person's electricity, ma'am?"

She smokes and frowns, "Ah! Lookie at this! We gots a call from Valleydale Apartments that be where she moved too. I bet. Ya'll should go there, too. Valleydale Apartments be our competition for renters, too."

Bobcat looks up with a puzzled brow to her. "What does that mean, ma'am? I don't understand."

She rattles the folder. "When ya rent and paid an apartment on time ya credit is good. She paid good every month. Then she wants to move to another apartment complex, so's she fills out paperwork with her current apartment address which be me. Then the apartment peoples call me. I tell them she be a good tenant or bad. Well the Valleydale Apartment peoples calls me, well, they called Trix. Trix writes down the phone call, telling them she be good tenant. Damn. Valleydale Apartment steals my renter. She pays in money order, good tenant."

Bobcat says. "Therefore, you believe that Nadean Garland might have taken a new apartment at Valleydale Apartments here in Homewood on November third."

She points the window with a nod "Yeah, it be down the road on the right."

Bobcat asks. "Do you provide electricity within the rent amount, ma'am?"

She shakes her curls, "Naw! Ya gots to set it up with Central Bama Power. She paid the monthly electric bill to Central Bama Power. But, hmm, this be wrong. She skipped out on paying the December bill. We be paying it in January, the next month, after she moved out."

Bobcat grins. "I guess that you deducted the proper amount of the electric bill from her security deposit, ma'am."

She nods. "Yup! We done that. The electric bill be eighteen dollars and sixty-one cents. Then, we gots to keep the remainder of the two-dollar security deposit too. We keep the animal deposit too. That ain't against the law, since it covers the shit and pee of the nasty beasts. Cats and dogs pee all over the carpet in a rental, so's the two dollars pays for the new paint supplies and the new carpet. Huh, I never sees this before. I guess Trix took care of it. O well!"

Teague grins. "Ma'am, is it possible to receive a photocopy of all these legal documents? It would very nice help in our pursue of the fugitive."

"Well, shore thing, sonny." She stands and turns, moving to the copying machine and returns, handing the stack of paper with a smile to Teague, "There ya be, sonny. Ya think she be back here tonight?"

Teague stands upright from the hard wooden chair and shakes his silver tinted curls, cuddling the papers into his chest with a smile. "No, ma'am. Your vitally important information will allow us to hunt her down this afternoon. You've been most kind and knowledgeable. Ya be having a good day, ma'am." He spins around and moves to the archway.

She grins. "I will. Thanks for stopping and telling us folks about Nadean Garland."

The entrance door closes.

Bobcat and Teague leave the apartment building with a smile and move back to the truck in the bright sun and cold air.

Bobcat says. "You're slick, Tomcat. You can charm a snake."

"I did. She was called, Bitch. Don't you remember, Bobcat?" He sneers.

Each truck door opens at a different interval.

Bobcat enters the cab with a chuckle. "Now, don't be so hard-ass on yourself. Bitch is very happy living in your house in Birmingham and out of Brier."

Each truck door closes shut at a different time.

"Thank the Lord for small miracles." Teague settles in his seat and looks down at the new set of papers. "We should visit the second apartment complex. This girl only lived here for five months."

"Five months outta of twelve months in a year!" Bobcat backs out from the parking spot and then drives forward around each pothole and onto the highway, saying with a huff. "I don't wanna chase her ass around the city all day long."

Teague looks down with a sour frown to see his wrist watch. "The time is 9:50 am. We have done a lot of chasing, since eight o'clock. We're almost done. We bring another piece of information to Lorinda. We tried really hard to find our gambler marker Nadean Garland. Lorinda says okay then me and you call it a day. Go fishing." He stuffs the new set of papers into his worn briefcase that came from his ex-wife for his first job as a medical pharmacist.

Bobcat drives with a stern face to the next apartment complex.

10:05 a.m.

Pickup truck ride of Teague and Bobcat

City of Homewood

(One mile, west, from Nadean's second apartment)

Third apartment setting of Nadean

"I like." Bobcat steers off the highway onto the private drive of the complex following the street signs. The office complex is composed of dark brick which stands between horizontal rows of three story matching buildings that held each rental apartment. A swimming pool and orange colored furniture peeks between a wooden fence that guards the pool.

Inside the passenger chair Teague sit and surveys the new landscape with a smile and a chuckle, "No potholes here within the gray paved parking lot. Head the truck toward the new apartment office of dark brick."

"She moved up. This is much nicer on the outside with actually living and breathing tall trees and green grass and pretty wild flowers."

Teague chuckles, "She got promoted from the toilet cleaner to the shitty dishwasher."

"Probably," Bobcat grins and stops the truck in front of the building parking space killing the engine.

Each vehicle door opens at different times.

Teague slides out and stands next to the open truck door like Eckward.

Each truck door closes shut at a different interval.

At 10:07 a.m. in front of the apartment business office, Teague moves ahead and pulls up beside Bobcat toward the front entrance.

The apartment complex entrance door opens.

Teague enters first, seeing a middle-aged olive-skinned woman on the telephone. The interior walls are designed with light tan colors and brown colored tiny flowers. The floor is wooden. The side wall displays a living room furniture sitting with a long sofa and a side table with an illuminated lamp without a person. the forward wall is painted in dull peach with a single abstract painting that displays numerous colorful horizontal and vertical lines without meaning or shape. The opposite side wall displays a short table with a coffee pot of black coffee, stack of paper cups, a bowl with sugar, a box of creams, and cup of red colored stirrers. A small tray is displayed with colorful donuts.

The door closes.

The female stands from a light colored office desk and wears an aqua colored dress with a head of black head pulled into a bun, saying to the new guests in the Spanish language. "Ole."

"Hello there, ma'am." Teague continues ahead and stops behind two sitting chairs and smiles at the complex manager, standing beside Bobcat

She adjusts her word to English with a Spanish accent. "Hello."

Bobcat lifts and holds his FDA badge with a smile and a nod. "Hi. We're investigating a missing female. Her name is Nadean Garland...g...a...r...l...a...n...d. Our resources indicated that she once lived here about three years ago. Can you provide us with her forwarding address?"

She sits down and turns with a nod and a stern face to her computer, typing. "Yes. I can. Have a seat, sir." She prints off a set of reports, grabbing and spreading the papers over her empty office and reads out loud the typed information to Bobcat and Teague. "Nadean Garland. She moved in here on October, the third and paid her monthly rent of four hundred dollars each month by the convenient and legal money order method. She terminated her lease on December, the thirty-first."

Bobcat looks down and writes down all her verbal information on his notepad. "Do you have a copy of her driver's license? Did she leave a forward address? Did she provide a current employer?"

She looks up with a smile and a nod to Bobcat. "No, there is not a copy of Nadean Garland's driver's license. That is not our typical custom to ask for IDs, since some of our residents do not possess any type of identification. We are only interested in collecting the monthly funds with a check, a credit card, a money order, or a cashier's check but no cash monies. As long as, the money is given upfront then the resident can lease a rental unit. Nadean Garland left a forwarding address of US post office box 1960 inside the city of Birmingham and the state of Alabama with the zip code of 35209-1960. She placed the position of a waitress on her lease application. We require a completion of an application before you sign a rental with us. You may have a copy of all these documents to aid your government search too. Is there anything else that I can do for you, gentlemen?" She slides a stack of papers to Teague.

He reaches and grabs the stack, looking through the papers.

Bobcat looks up with a stern face and points her stack of papers. "Is it illegal not to have a completed application on file with your apartment complex?"

She stands with a sour frown and a matching tone to see Bobcat and Teague. "Do you think me illegal too because I speak the language of Spanish as well as English? Some people do not have life experiences to fill out all the blanks of the lines like a brilliant college education or a soft cushy office US Government job. Miss Garland must qualify as such being only a lowly paid waitress. You have your documents and your information, sir. I am a very busy person. Please excuse me." She turns and leaves the reception room.

Teague and Bobcat look at each other with a sour frown, standing upright from their chair, leaving the office building also.

The door opens.

At 10:10 a.m. the office door opens and blows cold temperatures in each face as Teague and Bobcat move back to the pickup truck and enters the cab.

Teague looks down at the papers with a smile. "You need to work on your people skills, Eckward? That FDA interview sucked worse than the next day's Easter rotten eggs."

Bobcat moves back to his truck with a sour frown. "Shut up, Teague."

They slid back into the cab.

Bobcat cranks the engine.

Teague scans the papers, "Where we are going next?"

"Office," He backs out the parking spot, twirling the truck to the highway over the smooth private roadway.

Teague shakes his curls, pointing in a northern direction. "Naw, not back to the office, we should go the other apartment complex between the first one, second one, and the last one in Fultondale. The new address is 555 Walker Road. There's something shitty stinky here, Bobcat."

"Your shitty breath, Tomcat, that'll go away, once ya brush your teeth and rinse with mouthwash. And we can't find this she-ghost. And we ain't the police. And we ain't the IRS. And we are locating a body, a cold body." He stops at the road, looking both ways for traffic. Clear. He drives onto the highway.

"Drive the truck without the whining, please." Teague studies the papers. "Uh, ho. I see a same pattern here. Miss Garland paid only with money orders like Tea tattled. She uses only cash, needing her cash for a quick getaway to an island or a boat or a private jet plane with her and the baby. Once she collects the three million dollars from winning the championship game..."

"Burn U will win, has always won, and wins again for the fifth time, tomorrow afternoon. Yeehaw!" Bobcat chuckles. "They both are equally matched."

"Not with OT playing, they're un-equally matched making our old alma mater win again." Teague reaches over and fist-bumps with a smile to Bobcat, dropping his hand back down to the papers. "And we got nothing else to do..."

"But go fishing," Bobcat drives in the direction of the city of Fultondale with a sour frown.

10:25 a.m.

City of Fultondale

(11 miles, north, from FDA branch office)

Fourth apartment setting of Nadean Garland

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright sunshine

Bobcat steers his white pickup truck off the main highway and parks inside a nicely black tinted asphalt parking spot in front of the single story tan colored brick apartment building complex. A wooden enclosed blue colored garage dumpster stands at the end of the building with an enclosed swimming pool asset on the opposite side from the front entrance doors. He parks the truck inside an empty parking space between the garage dumpster and the front porch, killing the engine, wearing a stern face.

Inside the truck, Teague chuckles down at the driveway, "No potholes within the paved parking lot here. Head the truck towards the new apartment office of tan colored brick. Have you ever seen tan colored brick before, Bobcat?"

"No."

Each truck door opens at a different interval.

Teague scoots out the door with Bobcat.

Each truck door closes at a different time.

They slowly move across the pavement and then stop in front of a double wide, white framed wooden entrance door.

Bobcat opens the door and enters first scanning a square shaped room of white walls and cheap furniture, presenting his FDA badge near his smile, stopping in front of an orange colored Formica office desk. "Good morning, ma'am. FDA Inspectors, we're investigating a former tenant Nadean Garland. Would you be able to provide us with any information in regard to her transactions with your apartment complex?"

The elderly, gray-haired, overweight white colored female slowly stands upright from her brown tinted office chair, clapping with a chuckle. "Is she under arrest?"

Bobcat nods. "We're just investigating at this point and accumulating all the data."

The apartment manager claps with a giggle. "Goody! Goody! The criminal ain't catch yet. Are you going to arrest her today? Is she a drug pusher or a gun fugitive from the law? Is there an arrest warrant on her ass? If I help you find her first, then do I get an award too, sir?"

Teague sits down in one of two tan colored empty sitting chairs in front of the office desk with a nod and a smile. "Yeah, darling! If we find her first, then I'll make dang shore that you get your true rewards, ma'am." He leans over and slides his business card over the smooth table surface, standing back with a smile.

"Thank you, kindly! Is the reward a lot of money?" She reaches down and grabs, studying the business card with a smile.

Teague grins with a nod at her gray hair roots. "A lot and it is guaranteed, ma'am."

She drops the business card and looks up, lifting both of her palms near her smile. "Hold on, boys! The business office keeps inside the storage room a set of every tenant's apartment paper folders just for an emergency like this one. Be right back!" She spins around with a smile and exits the lobby room, moving back into a rear room with walls of metal filing cabinets and a small kitchette.

Bobcat continues to stand and leans over the silver tinted hair roots on Teague with a sour frown. "There ain't no reward money, Teague."

Teague eye rolls with a chuckle and returns back to view the rear room. "Play the game, Eckward!"

She appears out from the storage room and moves ahead while humming a country song, sitting back down in her chair. She rests the paper folder on top of her office desk and flips through the loose papers with a smile.

Bobcat sits down inside the other empty chair and exhales with frustration, whipping out his ink pen and his notepad for more written information. "Please, if you can just summary all the facts in three sentences or less..."

The female apartment manager reads out loud from the paper folder. "Nadean Garland lived in apartment number thirty-four on the top floor. She is employed as a waitress. Don't give any more information. Ugh. Her credit score is really bad..."

Bobcat clicks the pen for writing. "Credit score! Excellent work, ma'am. What is her social security number please? Since you were required to punch in her social security number for the credit check."

She shakes her curls and views Bobcat, "Yes, sir and naw, sir! We got this new devise, where the new tenant taps in their own social security number. We get the final credit bureau report. Her credit score is 403, really bad. She can't get no car or no house or no bank loan for any loan monies with this bad score of 403. That's why she rents an apartment or she lives on the street corner. And she probably got fired from her job or something like that."

Bobcat frowns, "Thank you, ma'am. Do you have any other information to share with us besides her credit score?"

She looks down and scans the folder. "We use the credit score to figure out her monies. Her monies are bad too. So, we make her pay us with a money order or a cashier's check each month for her rental unit payment. Some folks complain. Some folks comply. Garland pays each month and on time. Well, I become a monkey's aunt, because I ain't a guy."

Bobcat exhales with more frustration and reads his hand-written notes to the silly apartment manager. "And let me survey you, ma'am. Miss Garland left as a forwarding address Post Box 1960 in Birmingham. Miss Garland moved from 222 Valleydale Road in Homewood to rent here in the month of November. Miss Garland paid the rental electricity bill but did not pay it in the month of December. Miss Garland moved out the month of November but returned the key the last week of December. And Miss Garland didn't complete her apartment application with her employer or her driver's license picture. Is the all correct?"

She flips the papers with a nod, "Yeah." She looks up and narrows her eyelashes to Bobcat. "Why do you need my help here, again?"

Teague leans forward with a grin to her. "Because, you have got the prettiest baby blue eyes in the entire state of Alabama, darling." She giggles with a pink blush at Teague.

Bobcat fakes a smile, "Could you explain why Miss Garland's apartment application is incomplete?"

She smiles at Teague. "Well, we are good people here. Sometimes, a person is just out of luck and money. So, we take more chances with the female renters than the males. Since a female usually take cares of a baby or two. Garland wasn't required to fill out the form being a female and a mommy. Anyways, once she got us the required 1,900 dollars in the form of a money order for the first and last month's rent payments, the security deposit, the pet fees, and the redecorating fee, then we moved the woman right into her new place."

Bobcat frowns, "The same ending."

Teague turns and frowns at Bobcat, returning back with a smile at the manager. "Ya know, honey, we could use a copy of these important papers as proof of your sugar sweet co-operation with my employer, the US Federal Government."

She frowns. "Is she a federal fugitive also?"

Teague smirks with a nod. "Yes ma'am! When money is involved, it becomes a federal case."

She gathers up the papers and stands upright from her chair, saying with a nod and a smile to Teague, "Coming right up, darling!" She spins around with the paper and moves back into the rear room again for the copier machine.

Teague leans over and performs a fist-bump with Eckward as they smile and chuckle with their illegal success.

11:59 a.m.

FDA Office Building

(11 miles, south, from city of Fultondale)

Conference room lunchtime setting

The door closes.

Inside the white colored FDA conference room, a long dark brown wooden table stands empty without a sitting chair. Each conference chair in dark brown fake leather with a black padded seat has been removed and is parked along the entrance wall for an upcoming exhibition.

Teague stands at the white tined side wall and hums with delight, punching one of his pre-recorded country songs into the wall speaker system, cranking up the musical song. He shakes his ass and dances backwards from the wall to the wooden table. He spins around and leans down over the lip of the empty table surface, shoving a forkful of food into his mouth and chews the lunch meal. He reaches down and jerks his wore and wrinkled brown leather work briefcase open, pulling out a large stack of papers, standing upright with the pile. He examines the first sheet and swallows the food.

The conference door opens.

His childhood friend and brother-in-law Bobcat enters the room, stops, and cuddles behind Teague with confusion, staring down at the food plate. "What are you eating?"

"Chinese."

Bobcat watches Teague, who separates and places each single piece of paper into a neat row. "What are you doing?"

"Constructing."

Bobcat spins around with a smile and exits the room with confusion for a plate of food.

The door closes.

Teague leans over and shoves another forkful of food into his mouth, chewing the meal, staring a second row of papers. He swallows the food. "Shit! This document should go first."

The door opens.

Bobcat enters the conference room again and totes a plate of food and stops, standing beside Teague, eating the food. He views a row of papers that contain a hand-written label: security deposit, rental payment, electricity payment, application form, and move-out form.

There is a row of hand written papers with the words: Driver's license. Tax forms.

Bobcat chews and swallows the food with a sour frown. "I got us out of this, Tomcat."

Teague points each document. "First, Miss Gambler..."

Bobcat frowns. "Miss Garland."

"Miss Gambler." He chuckles out loud. "First, Miss Gambler used only a money order to pay each security deposit, monthly rental payment, and every monthly electricity bill. That marks her as a criminal, who uses only cash. Only a criminal uses cash and doesn't possess a legal checking account. A three-million-dollar gambling bet on one football team to win it all, this is a ring of professional gamblers, Bobcat. We can't stop now. Someone has to stop Miss Gambler. She probably stole three-million-dollars from a bunch of little old gray headed ladies on the church's bingo night. We have to stop this shit, man."

"I can play cop and robbers until five pm, buddy. That's my quitting time with you. Then I start my fun time with my wife, your sister, the love of my life." He eats and chews the food while staring at the rows of loose papers.

"I wonder if she possessed a landline telephone or a mobile telephone? What else does a person need to live and survival in the world?"

"A working car for a job. Some food for an empty stomach. Clothes for a naked body."

"Right, buddy! We don't know what type of car she drives or the type of food she eats or if she is naked. But we do know death and taxes."

Bobcat grins, "Ah! The death and taxes theme, she probably ain't dead, since she's hiding from getting jailed for her illegal gambling plot. We don't possess her tax forms either, bro."

Teague nods. "Once I convince Lorinda of an illegal gambling plot, we can get her personal permission to contact the FBI boys. They can provide us with all the missing information, her driver's licenses, her filed tax forms, and her car tags."

"Or we let this be die, Tomcat. I don't wanna chase my tail around the bushes for dead squirrels. Sources of electronic and hard copy data costs money even between the US Federal Government departments. Miss Gambler might not be living in Bama, but the Las Vegas Sporting Center took her three million dollars for the bet in Nevada. Miss Gambler might be driving this very moment to Nevada in her stolen car, hoping she wins the gamble and the money. So the worse possible case scenario is that Burn U loses. And then Miss Gambler loses all that money. And we are done here, boy. I wanna go fishing."

Teague says. "Hush, Bobcat. The worser case scenario is that Bam U wins. And then Miss Gambler gets all that money and then runs to an island in the Caribbean to enjoy her free loot. Then the Alabama governor will be asking me about the crime. And I will be saying, 'I will try a littler harder next time, sir.' Then the Alabama governor will smile and say. 'Sorry, you're fired, son.'"

Bobcat frowns. "The governor can't fire us."

Teague thumbs over his collar bone to the door with a sour frown, staring at the rows of papers. "The governor can close our branch office in B'ham and then we will be out of a job along with Lorinda and the young does and bucks. Ya want all our people to lose their jobs, Bobcat?"

Bobcat chews and swallows, staring at the row of papers, "Naw."

Teague taps on one of the stack of the papers. "So, if we screw up or if someone else screws up this FDA inspection, then we take the fall, the blame, and the shit. Man, this is bigger than us, Bobcat. Miss Gambler's taking someone for a ride on the roller coaster of love or hate or pity or revenge. And we are going to find her ass first."

The conference door opens.

Lorinda stands in the archway with a sour frown and parks her hands over her waist, staring at the stacks of paper and the back spine on Teague. "Is that the best explanation ya got for me bending over for the FBI girls and boys, again, Tomcat?" she enters the room and stops a few feet from the back spine on Bobcat and Teague.

The door closes.

Bobcat and Teague spin around to see Lorinda in the archway. Teague thumbs over his collar bone with a smile at the row of papers. "Yes ma'am. Come on in. Look at this." Lorinda moves ahead and stands between Bobcat and Teague in front of the table, scanning the row of papers.

Bobcat and Teague swing around to the table.

Teague points at the first paper on the first row with a sour frown. "We didn't undercover much, boss-lady. We got her name and her four different locations of four different apartments all paid with money orders. Cash."

Lorinda scans the papers with a worried brow and a nod, "Cash. That's one reason. I like to have three stable reasons why I pull additional resources with unfunded monies from my annual government budget."

Teague points with a grin and a nod to another stack of papers. "Her employment job is waitress. Waitress makes two dollars per hour plus tips. So she steals money to gamble away with the hope of striking it filthy rich for life."

Lorinda shakes her curls. "She could afford a studio apartment for two hundred dollars per month as a waitress plus good tips, a negative reason. You are back to zero justification, Tomcat."

Teague points with a smile and a nod to the next stack of papers on the table surface. "She has a poor financial money credit score. Her apartment application form has a credit score of 403, a very bad number. They ran her social security number but didn't write down her social security number, because of all the privacy HIPAA butthole shit from our employer the US Federal Government. She either has declared bankruptcy or has been run out of town without paying off her fashion clothing credit card bills. The retail stores would tattle-tale on her ass. But she did manage to find monies paying in cash for four different apartment locations."

Lorinda frowns. "She is a fugitive running from the local authorities. That makes up three reasons, negating the negative one. You're back up to two reasons. You got one more chance, Tomcat."

Teague points with a grin and a nod to a new stack of papers. "I called the Central Bama Power Company to investigate Nadean Garland's electricity bills. She set up the monthly bills not needing to pay a separate deposit, since the apartment complex guarantees money payment for continuous electricity service for all the apartments, even if a delinquent renter leaves mysterious into the night. All the electricity bills went to her personal PO mailbox in Homewood."

Lorinda shakes her curls. "No. I have a personal PO Box where I live and play within my hometown of Mountain Brook. No go! You lost one reason and back down to one stable reason."

Teague says. "She cancels the electricity bill every single date of November thirtieth which is the month before the expiration of her rental lease agreement, thus the apartment complex has to pay her final electricity bill of December with her rental security deposit. This girl paid through the nose with a set of security deposits and didn't get any monies refunded back to her. I'm talking zero point zero dollars and no cents that was kept by the complex and not refunded back to Nadean Garland. Since the apartment complex found the apartment trashed plus the delinquent electricity bill in December."

Lorinda scans with a nod and a stern face the rows of papers. "I'll give you two reasons for that one, simply because that's really weird-ass. And I'd like to know why Miss Garland..."

"Miss Gambler..." Bobcat grins.

Lorinda laughs, "Clever, Tomcat! You and your silly naming convention. Why Miss Gambler did that too? What's next?"

Teague turns with a smile to see the nose profile of Lorinda. "Yes ma'am. I've saved the 'bestest' for lastest. On one of the apartment applications filled out by Miss Gambler and filed by a resourceful smart apartment management staff member, it showed she moved from Miami, Florida to Birmingham, Alabama four years, seven months ago. The former address is 666 Leonardo Street in Florida. The apartment complex could not verify Miss Gambler as the owner or the resident or whatever at the house, since it was out of the state of Alabama. The apartment complex didn't trust or use the former street address information as long as Miss Gambler paid upfront, before signing for the rental fee and all the required security deposits in a payable money order format."

"A house?" Bobcat places an empty plate on the table surface with a sour frown, whipping out and typing at the tiny keyboard on his mobile telephone.

"Yeah," Teague pulls out and swishes the icon, lifting and pointing at the tiny picture on his mobile telephone. "This is her house. Do you see the pretty pastel pink color with a nice green lawn and a vanilla colored swimming pool? The realtor website can't access any name of the former seller. But the house was sold on May, twenty-eighth, four years ago. Miss Gambler moved into her first apartment here in Alabama on May, the thirtieth, a few days later. Her massive house sold for 3,000,245.97 US dollars in Florida. Take the money and run, baby! Boom!"

Bobcat looks up and stares at picture on Teague's mobile phone with a worried brow, "Whoa the stagecoach, now! Miss Gambler is both mysterious and rich. She has betted her own money on Bam U to win the National Championship University football game, this week."

The door opens.

Tall, slender, amber-headed Dove enters through the archway and wears a pink colored long-sleeved FDA T-shirt, moving directly to Teague with a smile and a rattle with her single sheet of lined notebook paper. "Tomcat, darling! I got you that VIP important information."

Teague swings around with a smile and a nod to see Dove. "What VIP information, love?"

Dove prances in her pair of tight jeans and stops in front of Teague with a grin, rattling a sheet of paper. "I have found and retrieved Miss Gambler's money bank. It's the Third National Bank of Florida, a new financial money chain that is invading the red clay of Alabama. Why would a Florida Bank move from Florida, Tomcat? There are plenty of good Bama banks here. My money's in a Bama bank, darling."

Lorinda turns and frowns at the nose profile on Dove. "How exactly did you retrieve the money bank name for Miss Garland? Please clarify, dear."

Dove smiles at him while learning to ignore her bossy boss-lady like Teague. "I deduced that she would have banked in Florida coming from Miami, since she sold a house there. And there is only one bank here in Birmingham that uses a Florida name, the Third National Bank of Florida. Miss Gambler has a bank account there." She hands the paper to Teague as he accepts and views Lorinda.

Lorinda turns and frowns to Teague. "That's very good detective work, Dove."

Dove says with a nod and a smile to Teague. "Thanks, Lorinda."

Lorinda turns and frowns to Dove. "How did you verify that Miss Garland had opened a bank account there, dear? We don't possess her current street address for her home or a social security number from her tax form provided by the IRS either."

Dove views Teague and flips her hand with a smile and a nod. "It was so easy. I called up and told the bank that I was some type of government investigator, asking about Miss Garland and then gave out all her known past apartment addresses. I received them from Tomcat. I was so clever. Then one of the addresses pinged into the computer system at Third National Bank of Florida."

Lorinda turns and frowns to Teague. "Mr. Haywood!"

Bobcat exhales with a sour frown at the nose profile of Lorinda. "We finished and completed our search for the misplaced Miss Nadean Garland, Lorinda. She can't be found anywhere in B'ham. We've determined that she is a lowly waitress, who moved from job to job, place to place, and town to town. I don't think the IRS dumb shits got the right Nadean Garland. I vote to tin can our FDA Inspection case, since she isn't importing leeches or maggots or bugs. Call it a day, Lorinda."

Teague exhales with a stern face to Lorinda. "I am sorry, Lorinda. I will correct the junior FDA inspector with the proper legal procedure right away for a proper investigation of possible criminals under the FDA umbrella."

Dove pouts to Teague and then Lorinda. "What did I do wrong? I didn't do anything wrong. I was following Tomcat's instructions. Isn't he the head lead of this FDA investigation?"

Lorinda turns and frowns to Dove. "Mr. Haywood did something very wrong. Ms. Beller, a street address for a private residential home of any law abiding American citizen is secret and is not ever shared until the American citizen is placed under suspicion of a charge and then usually is placed under arrest for that suspicious crime. Then the FDA conducts a proper legal investigation with a legal search warrant from a federal judge and not before. Miss Garland has not been found. Her body is not inside a jail cell. She is not under arrest for any type of illegal activity, especially from the FDA. She has placed a large bet of three million dollars which is a concern and not a cause to find and question her ass and not harass her ass."

"O!" Dove turns and frowns at Teague. He nods to Dove, signaling that everything is okay.

Lorinda stares at the nose profile of Teague. "Mr. Haywood will be explaining to you in greatest detail later this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon. Is that correct, Inspector Haywood?"

Teague turns and nods to his FDA boss. "Yes ma'am. I will do that properly after our meeting has concluded with your decision in regard to any further non-criminal investigation of this particular Miss Nadean Garland FDA Inspection case, Lorinda."

Lorinda turns and frowns to Dove. "Damage is done. Miss Beller, the United States Federal Government issued the HIPAA act in the year 1996. The acronym is the health insurance portability and accountability act which monitors all physician offices and medical hospitals, hence all of our work cycles around both physicians and hospitals. Therefore, we are judged by our actions of the act. The act requires that we respect and ensure confidential all protected information when it is transferred, received, handled, and shared by oral, paper, or electronic means. The bank must provide a disclosure form signed by Miss Garland to allow them to share her information, while the FDA must provide a search warrant to accept an American's information like name, address, phone number, email address, bank accounts, age, weight, height, hair color, freckles, and the list goes all the way to the moon. Inspector Haywood has committed a HIPAA violation and will be written up accordingly for that specific action."

"Yes ma'am." Teague nods to the nose profile of Lorinda.

Dove pouts. "Lorinda, I don't understand. Tomcat and Bobcat were scratching like cats around the three other street apartment addresses without a legal search warrant."

Lorinda shakes her curls. "You don't understand, Miss Beller. The IRS provided the FDA with an invalid address for Miss Garland. Then, in proper legal procedure, the two senior FDA inspectors made the proper decision to advance to the next uncovered proper street address. I should close this investigation down. However, we have been blessed with another mysterious lead of the gambling marker named Nadean Garland. The senior FDA inspector will travel to the Third National Bank of Florida and dig out any more information on Miss Garland. Then please report back to me, immediately. So I can make the next decision to contact or not the FBI for any and all further gambling assistance."

Teague nods. "Yes ma'am."

Lorinda spins around and leaves the conference room.

The conference door remains open.

Inside the conference room, Teague reaches and pats Dove on the collar bone with a smile, turning and sweeping up the rows of papers for the new assignment of finding Miss Nadean Garland and dumps into his worm briefcase.

Bobcat reaches and jerks Teague by the shirt collar with a sour frown. "Come on! Let's wrap up Miss Gambler and call it a day and go fishing..."

Bobcat and Teague, they swing around and exit out from the conference room.

The door closes.

01:02 p.m.

Third National Bank of Florida

(Five miles, east, from FDA branch office)

Lobby setting

The exterior building at the Third National Bank of Florida contains one floor lobby of offices but appears two stories high in red brick with a row of columns and a row of dark tinted windows that encircles the entire bank leading toward four matching columns underneath a short veranda over four outside lanes, where a customer inside a vehicle can conduct their bank business through an exterior teller window. The rooftop is black tinted asphalt that gleams in the heated afternoon.

The pickup truck parks on the side gray tinted parking lot and then discharges two unhappy FDA employees Bobcat and Teague with their new FDA assignment.

Each door slams shut a different interval.

Bobcat and Teague move ahead toward a set of glass doors. Bobcat enters first and move into the cool air-conditioned room, stopping beside the first bank teller window with the first bank employee. Bobcat presents his FDA badge for the non-criminal investigation.

Teague stands by Bobcat and holds his worn brown leather briefcase in one hand that contains the papers for their FDA gambler mark Nadean Garland, without his FDA badge.

This has been their partner routine as a FDA inspector partnership for twenty-five years.

Bobcat does the talking. Teague does the listening. And both do the observing.

At the first bank teller window, the bank teller turns with a gasp and nods in silence to Bobcat, calling the bank manager on her landline at the teller window.

The bank manager appears from his office and moves across the floor and stops beside Teague while listening to the FDA matter. He nods in silence and spins around, moving across the floor toward the side wall with a row of individual business offices. He leads and stops inside the open archway on the last row, viewing his employee with a stern face. "Mr. Loyce. These gentlemen have some very important questions about one of your recoveries, Miss Nadean Garland."

At 01:14 p.m., inside the private bank business office of Duff Loyce, he exhales with a huff of concern and removes his pair of eyeglasses, wiping the glass with a cloth, slowly standing upright from his black colored office chair. He stares at the two unfamiliar FDA Inspectors Bobcat and Teague that flank the bank manager. He says with a sour frown. "What has she done this time?"

The bank manager enters the room, stops, and stands behind a set of two empty black colored sitting chairs in front of Loyce's chrome metal office desk.

Bobcat enters the room, stops, and stands beside the bank manager and stares with a confused brow at Loyce, a tall, pale skinned, overweight male, "This time! What does that statement mean?"

Teague enters the room and moves ahead with a smile and a handshake to Loyce. "I'm Mr. Haywood. This is Mr. Fulton. We come from the FDA Inspection..."

"My good gawd! Is this about drugs or drug running? I can't believe Miss Garland has added to her illegal repertoire?" He shakes and then releases the hand, saying with a sour frown to Teague.

Teague back steps and stands beside Bobcat in front of the two empty chairs, saying with a nod and a stern face to Loyce. "I think you should let us ask the questions, sir. And I believe you should start the process by explaining your business relationship with the female named Nadean Garland, Mr. Loyce."

The bank manager points down to each empty chair and says with a nod and a stern face to Loyce. "This is Duff Loyce, a bank recovery money consultant for Third National Bank of Alabama. Our bank has recently invaded some of the major townships here in Alabama with individual banking branches in Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville. We're doing very good business here. I'm original from Florida like many of my co-workers, starting as a bank trainee and working my way up into the banking management. A bank recovery money consultant receives a bad bank customer with a set of their bad finances, before their bad finances inflict damage upon our good company in the way of bank accounts, bank transfers, bank credit cards, bank loans, and such like money financial media. In today's financial society, all banks, including our own corporate headquarters, have overextended bank loans to every low paying waitress and seasonal migrant worker throughout the USA. Miss Garland is one with very bad credit, making her a very bad credit risk. But, with the kind and brilliant assistance of Mr. Loyce, she has maintained a minimum bank account balance with us. She is a ripe candidate for our free recovery program. The Third National Bank of Florida helps her save money, purging her outstanding debt of many, many US dollars, without siphoning off interest dollars from our good customers by using their personal saving accounts. Mr. Loyce monitors her spending and saving, daily."

Loyce frowns and views his manager. "How much personal private bank information am I allowed to share with these fine gentlemen of the FDA, sir? I'm worried about a government private HIPAA exposure for me, you, and the bank, sir."

Teague shuffles side to side, cutting his eyelids to Bobcat with a stern face without a repeat HIPAA lecture again.

The bank manager says with a stern face and a nod to Loyce. "Based on the collected hard evidence from these gentlemen, the situation is very dire, Mr. Loyce. Please provide all your bank information to the FDA about Miss Nadean Garland. You have my permission and the bank's support for the FDA investigation."

Loyce turns and smiles to Teague. "I will be very happy to comply. But all our bank information on every customer is hundred percent electronic. We don't like killing the innocent trees. That rule has been mandated by the corporate office, sir."

The bank manager grins to Loyce. "We have moved away from paper items into the electronic age, painfully. Mr. Loyce will not possess any report printouts in a filing cabinet or a hard copy of Miss Garland's bank information."

Bobcat frowns and views the bank manager. "What about a signature card for opening a new checking account and a valid driver's license for verification of person and all the paper deposits and withdrawal slips of cash?"

The bank manager turns and grins to Bobcat. "We handle the paper items swiftly while photocopying everything and then destroy everything immediately. We don't want any trouble with the US Federal Government over a single HIPAA exposure. Since a single HIPAA exposure could land me in jail with an orange jumpsuit. I don't like good in orange. All these tasks are done at the bank teller line. Mr. Loyce has access to all electronic paperwork and monthly bank financial reports for the last twelve calendar months. If this is not sufficient, gentlemen, then I can request an additional three more calendar years from our computer information systems department. The delay would be only until Wednesday morning. Can you gentlemen wait that long of time?"

Teague shakes his curls with a sour frown to Loyce. "Naw, we can't and won't. We'll take what you got inside your trusty laptop today," he looks down and scans an empty chrome metal office desk plus a dusty business office credence with stacks of papers and three cheap art paintings of trees and flowers on each wall. He wishes that his office desk so clear and neat. He returns and views the bank manager as the lead on the FDA case. "If we need to go back trace another three years of financial history, then we'll return Monday morning. How's that, sir?"

The bank manager nods to Teague and then Loyce, "Very good! Mr. Loyce, please print off all the electronic reports for the FDA right now."

Mr. Loyce turns and smirks to Teague. "Miss Garland pays for a safety deposit box at this bank branch."

Bobcat gasps and views the bank manager. "We need to see that safety deposit box, sir."

The bank manager turns and nods to Loyce. "I can provide both sets of keys to open the lid, since Miss Garland is a high risk credit candidate to the Third National Bank of Florida. What is her safety deposit box number, Mr. Loyce?"

Loyce smiles at Teague, "818, sir."

Bobcat turns and nods to Teague. "That box might reveal a lot of missing information which we can't seem to locate."

Teague nods to Loyce. "Go and view the safety deposit box, first, Bobcat. Find out the contents of the safety deposit box. I'm going to peruse all electronic reports, since we have the services of Mr. Loyce for the rest of the day." He moves ahead and scoots down into one of the empty chairs in front of Loyce's office desk, watching Loyce.

Loyce turns and hums, sitting back down in his black tinted chair, typing on the keyboard of his laptop.

The bank manager turns and leads out the office.

"Shore," Bobcat turns and leaves the office also.

Inside Loyce's private business office, Teague can't see the computer screen but hears the typing and humming actions from Loyce, saying with a grin of excitement. "How many recovery money candidates does the bank help?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin, "Lots."

Teague leans forward over the table lip with a grin of excitement and taps his knuckles to the familiar song coming from the smirk on Loyce while feeling with impatient. Teague is so close to cracking this FDA investigation. Then Lorinda will be happy and Bobcat will be happier. "How many recovery money candidates are assigned to each consultant?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard, "Depends."

"How many recovery..."

The computer printer produces a single sheet of paper with a ding.

"I have successfully retrieved and printed out Miss Garland's oldest bank statement in the month of January, last year." Loyce reached out and grabs, presenting a single piece of paper Teague with a grin and a hum, returning back to his keyboard and types with a smile.

Teague accepts and studies the paper with a confused brow. "Deposit of cash. Withdrawal of cash. Deposit of cash. Withdrawal of cash. I don't see a check payment for a car note or a house mortgage or a bank credit card," he looks up with a puzzle brow to see the nose profile on Loyce. "Every single working American has a car note for transportation and a place for sleeping and a credit card for buying gas and groceries."

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard.

Teague exhales with huff of frustration. "Am I reading this bank statement correctly, Mr. Loyce? This bank statement looks a little bit funny to me."

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin. "Miss Garland pays in cash."

Teague drops Loyce's paper on the table surface and looks down into his briefcase, pulling out one of the apartment applications to compare with the new bank statement. "Why's that, buddy? Can your desk printer print the bank reports faster?" He drops his papers on top of the table surface and verifies the matching PO Box address on both the apartment application and the bank statement. "I know the bank can send financial statements to a PO Box. But I need her physical address. What's her street address, sir?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin. "The desk printer is cheap and slow like a pregnancy cow, as ya'll Southerns say up here. Her address is on top of her bank statement. What has Miss Garland done to call out the FDA on her person? What type of jurisdiction do you have within the financial bank world rim, Mr. Haywood?"

Teague lifts up and pings the paper near his sour frown. "I don't see it here. For her to transfer any amount of monies, it has to be stated here, isn't that right, Mr. Loyce? This statement for January last year doesn't have her social security number displayed either." He views the nose profile of Loyce.

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin. "A social security number is part of the protection information for an American under the HIPAA Act of 1996. You can have that protected number, if you kindly provide me a search warrant for suspicion of her criminal charge at the FDA. Otherwise, I am obeying my supervisor by providing you all the hard copies of her bank statements for the past twelve months."

Teague exhales. "Why does she use only cash? Why isn't there a set of ticks for each payment check for her monthly purchases too?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin. "Part of that answer is within the bank statement itself. This is a saving account bank statement, not a checking account. A saving account doesn't really allow for processing and payment of personal bank checks. Miss Garland pays in cash."

Teague frowns. "You're repeating yourself, buddy. She receives cash and uses cash to pay all her purchases and invoices. How much outstanding debt does she owe?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin. "Her current debt is precisely 2,999,700 million dollars and fifteen cents..."

"Yeehaw!" He points the computer screen with a grin and a nod. "That's what I was looking for. I need a printout of that report, Mr. Loyce."

Loyce hums the song types on his keyboard with a grin. "This is not in report format. I will try to produce a print screen from the computer. Will that help?"

He waves a hand with a sour frown, "Never mind, Mr. Loyce! Now, tell me! Why doesn't her bank statement show me a three-million-dollar deposit transaction here?"

Loyce turns and frowns to Teague. "I beg your pardon, sir."

Teague exhales. "Miss Nadean Garland is under investigation for placing a gambling bet of three million dollars in Las Vegas, Nevada."

Loyce grins. "The last time I read our American laws. It is not against the law to gamble being over the age of twenty-one years old."

"She has placed a single bet of three million dollars on the upcoming championship football game between Burn U and Bam U."

Loyce chuckles, "She's smart. Burn U, based on all the good odds plus the Lord's good blessing, will receive its fifth National University championship football title."

Teague nods. "I'm a Burn U fan too. Miss Garland has placed her three million dollar bet on Bam U."

Loyce frowns. "Hmm, that does not seem quite logically to me."

Teague nods, "Me, either! And I can't find her. She has disappeared off the planet or hiding on the dark side of the moon. I wanna ask her that question too, because, buddy, when someone places a bet against the favored team for a payout of over three million dollars, there's something stinky up the toilet bowl?"

Loyce nods. "My logical argument is that both teams are equally matched. You're just playing with good luck for either team to win."

"One single play could tip the game from one team to the other too. This is the FDA justification for investigating Miss Garland."

Loyce smirks. "Tomorrow is game day, sir. Everyone is off their day jobs and home, partying with friends and family. Maybe, Miss Garland is with her family members for the rest of the week on vacation from her paying job. Alas for me, it is a working day. I am voluntarily sacrificing to work while my co-workers enjoy the championship game."

Teague grins. "You're a great guy, Loyce. Her job? Her employer?"

Loyce chuckles, "She is a waitress at The Donut Hole inside the small city of Gardendale. I have eaten there many times. The sugary white powdered vanilla crème donuts are my ultimate favorite with fresh brewed black coffee. Lots of my co-workers will be attending the game, electing to take vacation time today and tomorrow for the Alabama historical event of two centuries."

Teague leans forward, cutting his eyelids at Loyce's laptop screen. "Know that. Does your computer show a deposit of three million dollars for her within the past twelve months?"

"Searching..." Loyce turns with a grin, humming the song, typing on his keyboard.

Teague leans back and looks down into his briefcase, pulling out each apartment application and reviews. He sees the job position of waitress but not the name of her employer.

The nasty Spanish lady explained that the lowly paid tenants worked seasonal jobs only requiring the monthly payment of cash for a rental.

Teague mentally reminds to inform the IRS of the Valleydale Apartment system of cash collection, believing the asshole owner needs an IRS butthole audit.

So far, Loyce has come through for Teague, providing a valuable piece of missing information for the FDA. Teague can use this new datum to convince Lorinda to continue the illegal hunt of a gambler marker Nadean Garland. He exhales with a huff of intrigue. "How many recovery candidates did you help?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin, "Lots."

Teague leans forward with a smile and raps his knuckles with the familiar musical song on the table surface with excitement and impatience. "How many times per week do you meet with each recovery candidate?"

Loyce hums the song and types on his keyboard with a grin, "Once."

"Do you meet each one at the bank or call the person on the telephone?"

Loyce turns with a grin and points to his laptop screen at Teague. "I believe that I have found your answer, Mr. Haywood. Look at this." Teague stands upright from the chair and moves ahead, standing behind the rear skull on Loyce, staring down at the laptop screen. Loyce turns with a grin and jabs a finger at his laptop screen. "This is a picture of her electronic bank statement right now, this moment, in the month January, this year. There is a single deposit transaction of three million dollars on Friday morning. Hmm! Then Miss Garland has electronically transferred the entire amount of three million dollars to an unknown bank account on Saturday at midnight. I am sorry that is all the information from my laptop."

Teague stands upright and lifts both his arms with a grin and a nod of happiness, back stepping from the rear skull of Loyce. "Bingo was his name. O man! I can tell you where it went to the Las Vegas gambling sports center for her three million bet for Bam U to the win the championship game. Can I get a printout of that, sir?" He claps his hands with a smile and spins around, dancing side to side back to his chair and sits down, stuffing the other papers back down into his briefcase. He hums that familiar song that Loyce was humming also with happiness. His FDA investigation has been solved. Then he and Bobcat can call it a day and go fishing for the rest of the day.

The computer printer produces a single sheet of paper with a ding.

Loyce turns and grabs, presenting the paper with a smile to Teague. "Here, you go, Mr. Haywood."

The bank manager and Bobcat rush into the office and stop, standing a few feet behind the rear skull on Teague.

Bobcat lifts up the object with a smile at the rear skull on Teague. "Tomcat, her safety deposit box is loaded with stolen jewelry. The gems include true emeralds, rubies, and diamonds plus thousands of dollars in cash. I took one piece of jewelry, an emerald gem stone ring to show you."

"What diamonds, cash?" Teague snatches the paper from Loyce and stands upright from the chair, spinning around with a puzzled brow to see an emerald ring in Bobcat's fingers while cramming the printout down into his briefcase.

Bobcat grins. "This girl is dealing drugs or a drug mistress plus a jewelry thief and uses her cash to hide her sorry-ass whereabouts."

Teague gasps in shock and spins around to see Loyce with his new order. "Mr. Loyce, please, can you provide me a thumb-drive with all the electronic bank statements for my FDA review today? I'll return to pick it up in a few minutes," he spins around and nods to the bank manager. "We're going to confiscate all her stolen money and her stolen jewelry for all of her crime charges, sir."

The bank manger nods in silence and spins around with a stern leading both Bobcat and Teague back to the safety deposit wall of boxes.

At 02:02 p.m. at the FDA Office Building, Teague moves ahead with a grin and leads the new group of junior FDA inspectors to the FDA conference room for a team meeting, toting a bag of gem stones with a hum, standing in front the conference table and his supervisor Lorinda.

Tall, plump, dark-skinned, gray suited Lorinda nods with a smile to Teague in front of the conference table. "Tomcat, you have redeemed yourself and my faith in your ass. But, do not push my exit button for a second time. I, unlike the sport of baseball, don't give ya three strikes before hitting the homerun. You screw up again then you get to start your retirement, yesterday."

Teague nods in silence with a stern face.

She sits down at the table with a stern face in silence.

Each FDA inspector scoots around for a chair and sits down, looking at Lorinda. She says with a stern face and a nod. "The hard evidence of stolen gem stones plus hidden cash along with Miss Gambler's high risk status at the Third National Bank of Florida has made the business suites piss and stain their white briefs. Tomcat has provided both legally and illegal about hundred reasons for me to lean over and pull an earlobe of the FBI. Let's be logical here. Miss Gambler can gamble away her house profits, since she has placed a monetary gambling bet. The bet is legitimate. We are tracking her ass down reminding Miss Gambler that she needs to pay her State of Alabama incomes come April, the fifteen for next year. Then we hand it off to the State of Alabama Treasure Department little boys and girls, since our greedy Alabama governor wants a pay raise from the treasure chest. We do this without causing any more major trouble. Tomcat has the baton."

Teague turns and nods to each FDA employee. "She's a ghost floating somewhere inside the red clay dirt of Alabama. I think that makes her our major problem. She might have done the same scan and scat in Florida, thus selling a baby mansion. That house has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, four garages, and four lots of sandy land. Maybe, she married some old sucker and then murdered him and then ran off with his money of the house while leaving his little children and home pets to starve and stray. I don't know. I'll let our boss-lady decide if she wants us to investigate that one."

Lorinda grins. "You're so cute when you're sucking up my air molecules today and the rest of the week, Tomcat. Now you have received your money fund for some new additional information. What do you need from the FBI folks, Tomcat?"

Teague says. "The DMV Florida and Alabama driver's licenses plus car tags, US Federal Income tax forms, and any Alabama and Florida warrants or police records including traffic citations."

Lorinda nods, "Will do. I'll get a search warrant now from the circuit judge before he leaves for the day to start his celebration of the championship game early like the rest of the lucky Alabamians while we work for our pay. Then we'll be good to go, if we happen to locate her hiding nest. As always, please, come and interrupt me with your professional problems," she stands and leaves the conference room with her most trusted and experienced FDA senior inspector Teague in charge.

Teague says. "I need a team to question each one of her co-workers her current employment place, the Donut Hole."

Short and dark haired, junior Inspector Elf looks down and views his mobile telephone with a confused brow, "Which Donut Hole place? There is one located in every village between here and the Florida line."

"That's a very good point, Elf." Tom stands upright from the chair and moves ahead to the side wall that displays a large wall map of Jefferson County, thumbing the map. "I have learned that she was employed as a waitress at the Gardendale location. Let's break into teams..."

Average height, dark skinned, blonde haired, junior FDA inspector Duckie says. "Tomcat, Miss Gambler listed her employment as a waitress on her application at the Green Springs Apartment Complex in the heart of Birmingham. That's about ten miles from Gardendale. Why would a poor, working waitress who makes two dollars-per-hour travel over ten miles to her job? When there is a local Donut Hole around her living apartment."

Teague nods to Duckie. "Let's not question why. Let's go and find out why."

Elf says. "I agree with Duckie. I'm reviewing all four of her application forms where she listed her employment as waitress. This is interesting. She moved into the Green Springs Apartment in the heart of Birmingham and then moved into the Valleydale Apartments in Homewood. Then she acquired a new place in Fultondale and finally the fourth apartment is in Gardendale, ten miles north of Birmingham. I would speculate that she was employed at the local Donut Hole and then transferred to the closest one near her new apartment sight. The Donut Hole is a large profit organization that allows employees to work in different restaurants through the USA. That makes more sense, Tomcat."

Teague says. "We're piecing the slices together like vomiting up the entire pecan pie outside the pan and then slipping the dry pieces into place while the wet piece fossilizes in shape."

Tall, light skinned, muscular FDA Inspector who is nickname Moose gags out loud, "Gross, man! You're the most disgusting human male on the fucking planet, Teague."

"Thank you, kindly." Teague chuckles, "Are we done with the working theorems children? Good. I lead. I'm leader. I want a FDA team to visit each Donut Hole in Birmingham, Homewood, Fultondale, and Gardendale and interview the managers and employees. Then we all come back home to nest, so we can roost about our new information. Get up and go!"

Each FDA inspector stands and exits the conference room for their new assignment of Miss Gambler.

At 04:48 p.m., inside the same white colored conference room with outside cold temperatures of wintertime and parted clouds and dull sunshine, Teague sits at the conference room table with his same set of FDA inspectors, after gathering new information on the assignment of Miss Gambler, and looks with a stern face to each employee. "What we got, homies?"

Bobcat stands in the archway with a sour frown and points down to his wrist watch. "When do we go home, Tomcat? Five o'clock, my work shift is done and finished for the day. I wanna go home. Otter is at your apartment, Tomcat. We can do our hot flash information exchange there. Then I do my body flesh with Otter after our heated working session."

"Too much 411, man!" Teague stands upright from the chair and scoots around the table, moving to each FDA inspector, gathering up the information sheets. He extends a hand and stops, standing beside Elf first, "Okay, Bobcat! Everyone, listen up. Gimme all your reports or folders or stuff, so I can review during my suppertime tonight. Thu, everyone can go home until eight o'clock tomorrow. We will meet inside the work room for the next step in capturing Miss Gambler."

Elf stands upright from the chair and presents a green colored paper folder to his boss with a smile. Teague accepts and then stuffs the paper down into his worn business briefcase. Elf nods. "The Alabama DMV Office told me on the telephone while I wrote it on a sheet of paper. Her current Alabama address is 222 Valleydale Road in Homewood. Miss Garland renewed her Alabama driver's license three years ago. I ain't got no pretty picture photo either, because the Burn U and Bam U fans are gone and at home celebrating the win. The office is official closed at three o'clock for the game of two centuries. However, if I call them on Thursday morning, someone would be happy to help me."

"Fucking shit!" Teague frowns.

Tall and muscular Moose moves from the table and stands short Elf, wearing with a sour frown to Teague. "She didn't change her new and current address when she moved. You're supposed to change it. You have ten days to change and update from an old street address to a new street cited by the Alabama DMV Office. That's against the law. Why didn't she keep her street address updated, Tomcat?" He turns, shaking his skull, leaving the conference room for home.

Average height and dark skinned Duckie stands upright from his chair and moves ahead, joining the small huddle, provided a red colored paper folder to Teague. Teague accepts and places down into his worn briefcase. Duckie nods. "She is a fugitive from the law, as well as, an addictive gambler, as well as, a jewel thief. Tomcat, you called her right as Miss Gambler," chuckling.

Peacock stands upright from her chair and moves to the other side of Tomcat, lifting and presenting her paper folder as Teague accepts with a smile and stuffs it into his briefcase also. She says. "The Donut Hole folks didn't know a waitress named Nadean Garland at any of the stated locations. I left a message with the headquarters in Boston, but everyone had already left for the work day. I'll finish my investigation into his matter tomorrow, Tomcat."

"Thanks, Peacock! Have a nice evening," Teague smiles. She smiles, turning and leaving for home too.

Tall, slender amber haired Dove stands upright from her chair and moves to Tomcat, presenting a pink colored paper folder to him. Teague accepts with a grin and stuffs it down into his briefcase. She nods. "The IRS told me over the telephone the four previous city street addresses. Then I printed them on a sheet of lined paper for ya, Tomcat. I have nice handwriting," she winks at Teague, "Along with a second piece of paper and my personal cell, sweetie."

Bobcat moves ahead from the archway and stops, standing between Tomcat and Dove, saying with a sneer to Tomcat. "What in tarnation for? Now days, everything is computerized with a computer access any type of Alabamian data with ease now."

Dove smiles at Teague. "The locate office at the State of Alabama Internal Revenue Service in Birmingham has shut down its computer and its staff, before the rough and tough championship football game of the century. Everyone is at home inside someone's arms warming up for the game tomorrow afternoon."

Bobcat watches Dove flirt with Teague and exhales with annoyance. "That is typical from the State of Alabama Internal Revenue Service office there in Montgomery, our lovely state capital."

Dove winks at Teague. "The IRS placed me on hold on fourteen times with classical music. Then the IRS telephone computer hung up on me nine times with static and then someone lifted the telephone receiver off the hook without any pretty music three times."

Teague winks to Dove. "Man! Dove should be paid hazard duty for all that extra homework. Thanks for your digits. Maybe, we can do a late dinner tonight."

"Maybe, we can." Dove winks and turns away from Teague, exiting the conference room for her lonely apartment until Teague contacts her for some hot fun.

07:13 p.m.

Apartment of Teague

(12 miles, south, from FDA branch office)

Living room setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright stars

The single bedroom apartment holds a single tan colored outer room that serves as the living room and dining room setting for any social or work event. On the tan colored side wall, a small dining room table of dark wood holds four chairs.

Teague, Bobcat, and Otter greet and meet inside Teague's apartment, sitting the dining room table, working to solve the FDA case with marker Miss Gambler. The table surface is covered in small stacks of colorful paper folders coming from each FDA inspector this afternoon

The front door opens.

"Teague." fifty plus years old, petite, and silver headed Otter sits at the head on the small dining room table with a stern face and uses her pair of prescription eyeglasses, reading each sheet of paper, wearing a red colored sweat suit with a pair of peach colored sneakers.

The door closes.

"Tomcat," Fifty plus years old, tall, slender, silver tinted shoulder length haired Teague spins around from the closed archway and moves ahead with a smile, standing at the light tined low wooden table, slamming down a stack of heated white colored pizza boxes on top of the surface. The low table is acting like an eating table, since the dining room table surface is currently used as an office desk. Teague wears a short-sleeved blue colored sweatshirt with a pair of matching sweat pants and a pair of red colored sneakers.

Tall, slender, black-haired with gray strands, fifty plus year old Bobcat enters the living room from the single dirty bathroom and wears a brown colored sweat suit with a pair of yellow colored sneakers, stops, and stands at the dining room, saying with a sour frown down to the silver tinted hair roots on his wife, "Pizza for Teague. Where's my supper, Otter?"

At the dining room, Otter continues to sit and scans each paper. "This is Teague's apartment, so Teague has called and provided supper for the evening, Bobcat."

Teague sits down on top of the ratty and torn sofa and flips the box lid upright, grabbing and chewing the pizza with his fingers, smiling with chewed food particles at Bobcat, "Pizza and beer. Sit down, Bobcat. We are working late on the missing mysterious Miss Gambler-bitch." He swishes the top and drinks the cold beer.

"Miss Gambler-bitch!" Bobcat frowns and marches to Otter.

Otter wears an assortment of gem stone rings on each finger, a bracelet on each wrist bone, and numerous necklaces around her naked throat with a tiny diamond tiara over her silver tinted hair roots. She looks up and smiles at her husband. "Tomcat renamed her with a proper royal title a few seconds ago."

Bobcat leans down and kisses Otter between the sharp tiara points and her hair bangs, pulling back with a grin. "Is there a Halloween Ball later? You like mighty pretty, princess."

"I couldn't resist the temptation of gems, darling." Otter flutters a ruby ring beside an emerald ring on her jeweled fingers with a light giggle.

Bobcat chuckles and kisses her hair roots for a second time, pulling back with a grin and a nod. "When Gambler-bitch is jailed, the FDA will auction off them gem stones. So, I'll buy them all up for you, honey."

"Can the FDA do that, Tomcat?" Otter turns with a sour frown and views Teague, since she doesn't believe her husband but trusts her brother.

Teague spits out his chewed food particles over his hand, the box, and the table. "Once Gambler-bitch is caught and captured and confessed, she'll have to sale all her assets to pay for a fancy criminal lawyer. The FDA can buy them from her. Then I can buy them for you, Sis," he chews the food with an open mouth of bad manners.

"I'm her favorite man." Bobcat turns and frowns at Teague.

Teague turns and continues to smile with chewed food particles. "I'm her favored male."

Otter turns and smiles at her brother. "That doesn't sound right, Teague."

Bobcat exhales with annoyance at the current FDA assignment and moves ahead, sitting down beside Teague, grabbing a piece of pizza and eats.

Teague doesn't cook, only eats. He doesn't clean either only trashes the plant environment with more plastic and paper dry goods. Teague needs a new wife to realign his earthly priorities and responsibilities.

Otter returns back and points down at the single sheet of paper with a stern face. "First, you own me big time for spending my night with you, instead of fucking my husband."

Bobcat shakes his skull beside Teague on top the ratty sofa with a pizza slice. "Ah, naw. I get fucked. You are my subservient baby-mama." He eats the pizza.

Otter smiles down at the paper. "I am Suburban baby-mama, who works with a day job, not a night job, darling. No sex from figuring out this big mess with a bigger headache. Second, this is really sad, Teague."

"Call me, Tomcat! What is sad, Otto?" Teague eats and listens to his smart sister, who serves as an accountant on their father's farm for thirty years.

Otter stares down at the loose papers. "I have viewed, compared, and reviewed each final move-out inspection report on Miss Gambler-bitch and her numerous occupied and abandoned apartment rentals. Each and every management office from all the different apartment complexes cheated his girl..."

Teague mouth spits his food with a sour frown, "Miss Gambler-bitch."

Otter turns and frowns to Teague. "They cheated his girl out of her hard working money."

Teague mouth spits his food with a sour frown. "Whores get paid lots of money and drugs and fun and more drugs, money, and fun. We're breaking up her fun. That's all."

"She moved first into the Green Springs Apartment complex, renting there for six months. Then she rented into a second studio at the Valleydale Apartment complex which crossed the same time period for fourteen months. Since most rental apartments really require a twelve-month payment system, making the money rentals cheaper for the renter."

"Why did she cross the road?" Bobcat smiles and eats the food.

Teague says. "Why did she pay for two different apartments? Ya can't sleep in two different places unless ya renting one for your Pimp Lord?" He slurps the beer.

"Enough, Teague," Otter frowns at the papers.

"Tomcat..." he spits out the chewed particles with a grin.

"She..." says Otter.

"Miss Gambler-bitch..." Teague mouth spits his food with a grin.

Otter reads the report for all eardrums. "Miss Gambler-bitch left her Green Springs apartment after a fire destroyed the roof top, the internal walls, and the floor. This is the local Fire Marshall's report dated on October twenty fourth. The fire started from an old chimney at the end of the building then spread across the asphalt tiles, burning through the wood and the insulation. Some of the apartments were reported burned while some apartments received slight fire damage from falling fiery ash. Management for the Green Springs Apartment complex will repair the fire damage to each five apartments without charging the renter..."

"...without charging the renter..." Teague frowns.

"Tough shit," Bobcat eats the food.

Otter rattles and views the other documents. "Apparently, a renter is responsible for any type of incident man-made or mama nature-made. It is listed in her legal agreement in paragraph sixteen, section two. So, the best I can figure out here. Miss Gambler-bitch's apartment was one of the five damaged with roof fire that flowed down into her studio apartment which was one room with one shower stall for one person. The apartment probably smelled like smoke and looked like shit. She walked over to the Valleydale Apartments with a good credit rating and rented a new apartment for a new time period of twelve months."

Teague frowns, "She paid for two apartments and two electricity bills all at the same time. How much monies?"

Otter says. "The first apartment monthly expenses were a flat two hundred dollars per month for six months which is one thousand two hundred dollars, including water and..."

Teague frowns. "Otter, I don't have all fucking night. I got a date coming in an hour for my personal fucking lesson. So girl, come and gave me the cliff notes."

Otter exhales. "She moved from the first apartment because of the fire. She paid for two electricity invoices and two monthly rentals. She moved from the second apartment because of the tornado damage. She paid for two electricity invoices and two monthly rentals again. She moved from the third apartment because of third robberies inside her apartment. She paid for two electricity invoices and two monthly rents again. Then she moved from the fourth apartment after a flood..."

Teague mouth spits his food over the pizza boxes with a sour frown. "Bullshit, Otter. You made that one up just for me to feel sorry for the bitch. How can you flood an apartment?"

Otter rattles the report. "She lived on the ground apartment. The apartment complex in Gardendale renovated the top floor level, accidentally busting the water pipes. Her apartment was flooded in the laundry area and the bathroom floor. She moved out three days later after the flood when the apartment complex promised to fix it that afternoon," she removes her eyeglasses and turns with a sour frown to see Teague. "This is criminal neglect, Teague. She is a renter with rights to live in a descent place without fleas, floods, and freaking faults of the management company. I am reporting all this information to the Better Business Bureau."

Bobcat mouth spits his food with a sour frown. "You're not a lawyer, Otter."

Otter exhales. "Well, I wished that I were a lawyer. This poor girl hasn't been given a break in almost five years. I believe that she deserves some good luck now."

Teague frowns. "She's a drug addict, a slut, and a gambler, Otter. You know that _The Good Book_ says that the Good Lord punishes the wickedness. I find that so true here. Miss Gambler-bitch is the wickedness of them all."

Bobcat laughs. "Miss Gambler-bitch is extremely unlucky. I guess that's why she betted on Bam U. What a she-dumbass?"

"She-dumbass?" Teague fist bumps with a laugh to Bobcat.

Bobcat frowns. "Is that it, Otter? I'm almost finished my meal. Now, I wanna fuck."

"Go and fuck at home, man." Teague frowns.

Otter shakes her curls with a sour frown. "No, gentlemen, that is not it. You asked me to review all these financial documents too. And this is really weird."

Bobcat says. "We say sad, weird. I like the word, solved."

Otter rattles and read the new stack of papers. "I have seen every type of financial bank statement on every month for the past thirty years in regard to our daddy's farming bank account, since I balance the revenue with the outgoing expenses. But this particular one is truly different. It shows lots of money deposits and lots of money withdrawals. All the money has been deposited by using the old hand written paper slips plus two electronic deposits every month. Now, an electronic deposit is always from an employer. And the electronic deposit amount always displays the name of the employer. Sometimes, the name is truncated like USA for the United States of America. But this bank statement is missing the employer's name. It states the four capital letters plus a single number TNBF1. Hmm, the same ID is repeated on each bank statement. You have provided me with bank statements from Birmingham, Alabama. This is a bank registered and operated in Florida first. Where are her Florida bank statements? I want to compare the employer ID code to them also."

Bobcat says. "The Third National Bank of Florida is a home-grown Florida bank chain, but any Alabamian can become a new bank customer with a one-hundred-dollar cash or check opening a new checking account."

Teague says. "That's a saving account bank statement, not a checking account, Otter."

Otter shakes her curls, reading the papers. "This is the strangest saving account bank statement I have ever seen this, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine withdrawals of cash. There's no saving account in the USA that lets you withdraw eight times within the month without a penalty or closing your personal bank account down. The bank limits the number of withdrawals for the customer, so they can lend the money out to other businesses in bank loans. This is more than a saving or checking account. My guess is a high-end investment account or a trust fund account. An investment account is open ended, allowing a customer to deposit large sums of money and withdraw large sums of money without paying a monthly fee. That's another thing missing from her bank statement. There is no monthly bank fee."

Teague grins. "As long as, you maintain a particular monthly amount there is no monthly bank service fee. That's explained. Move on, Otter."

Bobcat turns and grins at the nose profile of Teague. "The bank manager hit ya up with the marketing advertisement of the Third National Bank of Florida crap too. I turned his ass down before I turned his ass over the teller counter for a smash-down for the same ploy. Boom."

Teague turns and smiles with food between his teeth to Bobcat. "Yep. It made him feel better and talking a lot faster and providing me lots of useless shit."

Otter turns and gasps to Teague. "You have opened a new bank account with the Third National Bank of Florida. Why, Teague?"

Teague smiles with food between his teeth to his sister. "Tomcat. Just for fun, I might transfer my bank account from the US Federal Government Credit Union, once I retire. Then, I can take advantage of the good financial loan services and purchase a new tractor for the farm," he eats and laughs at the same time as a good Bama redneck.

Otter drops her jaw. "Retire!" She turns and smiles to Bobcat. "Are you going to retire this month too with Teague?"

Bobcat lifts the pizza with a smile and a wink. "End of the year, Otter. Don't get her babbling banter all night, Tomcat. We...him and me...have talked about doing it on December thirty first, our last day together at the FDA inspection office."

"Boom!" Otter raises both palms into the air with a smile and a nod without damaging the gems.

Teague points and flings tomato sauce from his finger at the papers. "Only if we solve the mysterious missing Miss Gambler-bitch, I'm totally stumped on her whereabouts inside Birmingham."

Bobcat turns and frowns to Otter. "She is operating out from the metro Birmingham area. That's why we can't locate her ass here in Birmingham. Tell him, honey!" He turns and frowns at the nose profile on Teague. "So, we can drop this case on Dove. Dove needs to learn about HIPAA rags and legal shit, right, Tomcat?"

Otter turns and reviews the paper, "This girl is a robot or an alien."

Teague chuckles, "Me and Bobcat have been speculating all day, if this chick is white, black, red, brown, or yellow. Otter has determined an alien from outer space. Ain't they pink, Bobcat?"

Otter says. "Every Monday, she withdraws three hundred dollars from her bank account. That's the maximum allowed amount during the day and spends it probably to pay her invoices in cash. Her entire bank financial statement is only deposits of checks or withdraws of cash. There isn't one single written paper check against her bank account for a house payment, a car note, an electricity bill. I've never in my life seen a financial statement like this. Is that strange, Bobcat?"

Teague mouth spits his food with a sour frown. "Criminal, a criminal only deals with hard cash, because only a criminal carries hard cash. The real hard-working Americans deposit their titty bitty paychecks then pay their bills every two weeks. The ones, they can afford anyways."

Otter reaches down and raids the briefcase of Teague, pulling out and resting the paper folder in front of her chest, and flips it opens. "Folder number one is marked Donut Hole. The FDA teams interviewed four separate Donut Hole restaurants and none of the working managers and employees did not realize the name Nadean Garland."

"Lies," Teague mouth spits his food with a sour frown. "Those type of establishments harbor and encourage young drug users. The establishment hires young dumbasses that work like mules when not stoned then pay them peanuts in wages. If one of the stoned waitresses doesn't show up here, then the establishment replaces her with a new sober young dumb ass. And the cycle never ends, folks. The manager's probably her fuck-daddy. He's not going to admit she works there when she's stoned or drunk or puking her guts from whiskey, the next morning. That'd explain her moving from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant. A Donut Hole manager makes about thirty thousand dollars per year, a pretty good living with benefits without a college degree. So she fucks him and spends the night at his nice posh pad."

"Pad?" Bobcat chuckles, "You are definitely aging your face, daddy-o."

"Teague..." Otter reaches and raids his worn briefcase with her ringed fingers again, pulling out the paper folder, resting it in front of her chest and flips it open, reading the contents.

"Tomcat," He smiles with food particles between his teeth to his sister.

"Folder number two is marked DMV Alabama Driver's license. Her current Alabama street address is 222 Valleydale Road in Homewood. That can't be correct. That's her second renter apartment."

Teague mouth spits his food with a sour frown. "Right, sister dear! Me and Bobcat had run around half the city in the cold temperatures while tracking down all her invalid addresses. Jeezus! Ain't there a law that requires a valid Alabama driver's license to match a person's current home street address?"

"Naw," Bobcat drinks the beer and swallows, eating the pizza.

Otter reaches down and raids the briefcase for a third time, pulling out the paper folder over the table, reading the contents. "Folder three is marked Alabama Income taxes. Nothing is here. There aren't any valid green and white Alabama tax forms from any tax years. The note reads that last year, she filed taxes, showing an address of 555 Walker Street in the small town of Fultondale. Huh? I'm getting suspicious now. As an accountant, it's really important to update your financial records with your employer for IRS tax purposes. This girl has purposefully avoided updating her driver's license, her bank statements, and the IRS. The IRS receives an employee's current city street address from the company's payroll records. Nadean Garland has not provided the IRS with her current street address. Hmm! I'm beginning to believe that she is a true criminal who's hiding out from the police in Miami. That's where she ran from, right, Teague?"

Bobcat nods. "Good analogy, Otter."

Teague frowns. "These damn idiots at the Alabama IRS, a copy of her current tax form would tattle her current or previous employer, since the Donut Hole managers ain't confessing the real truth here. We're still clueless about this bitch. I've never worked with such pansies pussies in my thirty years of employment." He exhales with a huff of annoyance and turns with a nod to view Bobcat. "I'm ready to retire after this mysterious mess is solved, yesterday."

Bobcat grins with food particles between his teeth. "The big day, before the big game, Tomcat. Every happy fool has started drinking beer and eating chicken wings, this morning at nine. No one is working at work. However, they are at work but not working. I'm totally surprised we got this much tiny information from them silly pussies. After Burn U wins the championship, the workers will become sobered and then return back into normal. We shove the case to the side until Thursday at ten," chuckling.

Teague frowns. "I can't digest greasy chicken wings at nine in the morning."

Otter smiles, "Yay Teague! And what does Bobcat say about his retirement also? I can bake a batch of store-brought chocolate cookies for your retirement party, tomorrow morning, honey."

Bobcat frowns. "Tomcat, we ain't the FBI, CIA, NSA, or other right mix of alphabetic letters. We investigate drugs that lead to bodies. Then we call in the FBI for assistance of the drugged bodies. We just want the illegal drugs or leeches or maggots," he smiles.

Otter frowns. "Possum pookie on Bobcat! I want both of you to retire, right now, tonight. Let a junior FDA inspector take over this complex FDA case."

Teague smiles, "I like that wise advice, Otter, because a junior FDA inspector is taking over my body tonight in about an hour. Let's get done here."

Otter frowns. "Mama and Daddy said the barbeque starts at two in the afternoon. And Teague, you cannot absolutely bring a slutty date with you to their homestead ever."

"Uh, ho," Teague laughs.

Bobcat frowns, "Otter, darling!"

"Uh, ho," Teague laughs for a second time.

Bobcat points to Teague with a stern face, "Otter, sweetheart. He and I have to go and work the championship game. But I can get you a ticket. I promise in the skybox or the twenty yard-line. Or wherever ya want, sugar?" He smiles.

"I want both of you to quit the FDA, right now." Otter pouts. "I don't wanna be alone inside a skybox or on the twenty yard-line without you, Bobcat. I'll miss you. So I'll drive back home tomorrow morning to our old homestead and watch the game with my elderly, crazy parents."

Bobcat smiles, "She's such a loving supportive adorable cute wifey."

Otter smirks. "That's because me and you don't argue in front of the blood kinfolks, honey. It's rude southern belle behavior. So just wait when we get home, sugar."

"Otter, darling," Bobcat stands with a sour frown. "I sorry..."

Teague stands with a sour frown to block Bobcat from Otter. "Finish this now," he sits with a laugh. "So I can get fucked tonight. And Bobcat don't get any Otter ass," chuckling. "Otter, find me that bank statement in the month of January that showing a three-million-dollar deposit. Then we show that paper to Lorinda tomorrow. That's all the proof we need that Miss Gambler-bitch possessed three million dollars from her dead uncle then pissed it away, after losing her gambling bet. We hand off the case to the FBI. The FBI has bigger and better resources to trace Miss Gambler-bitch down than us, rednecks. The end," He rises and toasts the beer bottle with a soft clank, nodding with a grin to Bobcat.

Bobcat gently clanks his beer bottle with Teague and nods with a smile in silence.

Otter turns with a sour frown, rattles, and flips each piece of paper on top of the table surface. "I have printed out the January bank statement and all the other bank statements, Teague. There is not a three-million-dollar deposit here," she hands and rattles the stack of papers to Teague.

Teague stands upright with chewing and moves ahead to Otter, wiping both of dirty hands on his sweat pants, saying with a stern face. "Yeah, there is one. Loyce showed it to me this afternoon during Bobcat's treasure hunt."

Otter shakes her curls and extends the stack of papers to Teague. "Uh, ho, no, I don't see it. And I didn't recall a deposit of three million dollars. I'm a numbers person, Teague. And that big fat number would have dinged my bell."

Teague snaps his fingers. "Loyce showed me on the computer screen. Bring up the January bank statement." He stops, stands behind her skull, and leans over her collar bone, viewing the screen on her laptop.

Otter looks up and types on her keyboard, pointing to the computer screen. "Okay. Here's the January bank statement."

Teague shakes his curls with a confused brow. "Naw, that is the bank statement for the month of January of last year. Loyce showed me the month of January for this year. Find that one, Otter."

Otter scratches the tiara with a puzzled brow and slams her hand back on top of the keyboard. "Loyce showed you a bank statement for January, this year. But the month of January hasn't ended. There are more bank money transactions for the remaining days of January to record and then process. That's impossible, Teague."

Teague continues to lean down over her collar bone and views the computer screen. "I saw it with my own two eyeballs."

Otter types on the keyboard with a nod. "Yeah, I believe you, Teague. In the accounting world, all money transactions are recorded by computers every minute of the day until midnight of the next morning of a new month. I'm not finding any money transaction from midnight of January first until now." She points to his thumb drive. "This is a copy of Loyce's computer application for historical bank information. Based on all my banking, accounting, and computer knowledge, Loyce can't copy the January transactions from his computer without specific computer programming. That's probably why the electronic report is not displaying here on the computer."

"Ah shit! I need that electronic transaction money report." Teague stands upright and snaps his fingers with a smile. "Loyce printed the January report for me. And I slipped down into my briefcase," he reaches down and dumps the contents of his briefcase over the table with a smile. "There is it. Sorry, Otter. I had the document." He lifts up and reads the paper report with a confused frown. "I don't see a three million deposit inside her bank account."

Otter stands upright from the chair and poses beside Teague, looking at new paper report too. "Are you suggesting that there is supposed to be a deposit of three million dollars on this transaction money sheet?"

Teague says. "And a withdrawal of three million dollars on this transaction money sheet too?"

Otter says. "So, she deposited three million dollars on what date?"

Teague closes his eyelids. "Loyce told me," he opens his eyelids and stares at the opposite wall. "Friday, the three million dollars was deposited on Friday morning and then the withdrawal occurred at midnight on Saturday morning."

Otter looks down to the dirty carpet. "A credit on Friday and a debit on Saturday equal nothing."

Teague turns and frowns at her tiara. "Is that right?"

Otter looks up and grabs the report for review. "Okay! There is no three-million-dollar deposit recorded on the last two Fridays or a withdrawal on the last two Saturdays. This is correct."

Teague frowns. "What? Explain! I saw it on Loyce's computer. Why isn't it on this statement?"

Otter exhales with annoyance and views Tomcat, rattling the paper. "In the accounting world, a deposit is a positive number. A withdrawal is a negative number. When a positive and a negative number collide..."

"It's a negative number, Otter." Bobcat frowns.

"In the math world, it is a negative number. In the accounting world, it is the number zero. You have a glass jar which is your empty bank account. When you place three million colorful marbles into the glass jar, you see the colored marbles. When you remove the three-million marbles, your jar is empty again."

Teague nods. "She emptied the jar of marbles when she transferred her money into the Las Vegas bank account for her three-million-dollar gambling bet."

Otter smiles, "Excellent, Teague, yes!"

Teague frowns. "This doesn't help me in my meeting with Lorinda tomorrow. I still don't have any hard copy criminal evidence. How do I do that, Otter?"

Otter smiles, "I believe truly within my loving heart, dear brother and dear husband, that the Good Lord is telling you to dump this FDA inspection case."

"Come on, Otter, gimme a real answer." Teague frowns.

Otter exhales. "You get the Third National Bank of Florida to slice off some the electronic piece within the current January bank statement and then download it down into an electronic folder or on your thumb drive. The bank can email it to you as your proof of the three million dollars to Lorinda. Ta-da!" She removes all the jewelry and drops each one back down into the cloth bag that came from Teague, becoming plain old Otter again.

Bobcat turns and smiles to Teague. "Then we are done, Tomcat. This is getting to IT complicated for my old brain cells. Do what Otter says. Get us out of this tomorrow, boss-man," chuckling.

"Shore," Teague exhales with a nod. "I'm too old to play with the techie kiddies."

Bobcat asks. "Did we finish analyzing all the FDA folders and the bank papers for our good bye meeting with Lorinda? Is your briefcase emptied, Tomcat?"

Teague spins around to face the entrance door and moves ahead. "Yeah, we are done."

Otter reaches down and raids the bag with the gems, lifting a stack of money. "How much cash is here? Has anyone counted it?"

Teague stops and squats down, placing his worn briefcase beside the entrance door for his work day tomorrow. "Naw! Bobcat didn't steal any of the monies I watched him."

Bobcat cleans up the food boxes and plates, moving ahead into the kitchen for Teague to trash. "Bullshit! You were flirting with the handsome bank manager."

Teague stands upright and chuckles at the front door, "Naw, I was flirting with cute bank teller."

"O!" Otter smiles, "How much money did you steal, husband?" She sits and dumps each money stack over the table surface.

Bobcat returns back into the living room and stops in the middle of the room, slapping his chest with a smile. "I admit that I'm too honest of a man to steal from a criminal."

Otter touches each money stack with a grin, "Ten, twenty, thirty..."

Teague spins around with a gasp, returns back to the dining room, and then stops with a puzzled brow, staring at the stack of wrapped money bills. "You have counted up to thirty thousand dollars, Otter?"

Otter laughs. "Naw, Teague, I've counted up to thirty dollars. The stacks of money are wrapped in one dollar bills. She steals from the elementary school lunch money from minors."

Bobcat stops at the table and laughs in the nose profile on Teague. "Gawd damn! I feel like a shit wad of turds. I didn't notice the money denomination. We need to peddle this case to Elf. He ain't as stupid as we."

Teague turns and points to Bobcat with a smile. "What we, buddy? That word, we, swirls backwards and then around into m.e, me. That means you, not me, dumb ass," he shoves Bobcat sideways from his body for fun, "It's time for you and you to leave my space! My fuck will be here in thirty minutes. I need to shower and change."

Bobcat stands in place and sneers at Teague. "Are you really going to fuck her? We work together, Teague."

Teague smiles, "She is not my junior FDA Inspector. Elf is. So, I can fuck any babe at the FDA. I even riddled it," chuckling.

Otter reaches down and dumps the money back into the cloth bag with the gem stones, seeing a folded letter on the bottom of the cloth. "O! I find a folded letter in white," she jerks the letter into her face. "I find out a letter, Teague," she jerks it open. "O my gawd! Teague! O my gawd!"

Teague and Bobcat stop shoving each other and turn to see Otter. She looks up with a sad pout to see them, rattling the letter. "O my gawd..."

Teague frowns. "What, Otter? Where did that letter come from?"

Otter sobs with her tears and looks down, reading out loud the information in the letter. "The letter was located at the bottom in the bag and attached to the glue from one of the money stacks. This is the baptism certificate for Nadean Orion Garland from Brier Church in Brier, Alabama, who is our Nadean from our Brier." She stares and holds the letter.

"Fuck, naw!" Teague stomps to Otter and stops, looking over her collar bone at the letter too, "Nadean Orion Garland." He turns and looks down at the gem stones, the money, and the bank statements. "Hell, naw!"

She gives him the letter. "Our Nadean is the gambler." Otter stands upright and dashes to her husband sobbing with her tears in the collar bone of Bobcat.

"Hell, naw!" Teague accepts and reads the letter.

Bobcat frowns. "I pulled that letter out from the safety deposit box at Third National Bank of Florida along with the cash and the gems stones."

Teague reaches down and touches some of the gem stones. "I believe you, Bobcat. Because, that son of bitch Loyce has pulled the wrong Nadean Garland bank account. Fucking shit! We saw Duchess at the hospital. She is a working physicist that lives in Mobile. Physics requires an education. Duchess graduated from college. And anyone can own a safety deposit box in Birmingham. Hell, her parents are right up the street in Brier from B'ham. That makes perfect sense. She possesses a bank account shared by all the branches, including Birmingham. And Mobile is right along the edge of the Florida state line. The Third National Bank of Florida is invading all the major cities in Bama. The bank manager told us that this afternoon, Bobcat. Nadean banks there too. That's why son of bitch Loyce fucked up and fucked us, a fucking asshole."

Bobcat frowns as Otter sobs with tears and sadness in his arms. "What about the house in Florida?"

Teague shakes her curls, "Duchess does not live in Florida, Bobcat. She lives in Bama, all her life. Fuck, naw! Son of bitch Loyce has screwed up and screwed us. Fucking asshole! I'm going to bank tomorrow and kick his ass for involving Duchess in this turkey shoot."

Otter looks up and spins around with her sniffs and tears to see Teague. "Are you shore?"

Teague smiles, "Yeah, Otter! I'm certain about Duchess being innocent. She's a sweet girl. We saw her on Friday. She looks damn pretty too."

Otter nods. "Well, I feel much better," she gasps in alarm. "Teague, if the Third National Bank of Florida has accidentally involved Duchess in this financial fiasco, then it could permanently ruin her bank credit kinda like some type of identity thief."

Bobcat nods. "Otter's right. I think we should contact Duchess and mention that her identify has been mistaken for another girl with her same surname."

Teague nods, "Very good point! But, I don't know her contact information like a telephone or a mobile cell or an address."

Bobcat snaps his fingers with a nod and a smile. "I can go back to the Birmingham Hospital and inquire with the Radiation Therapy department. She must've been a guest speaker last week at the medical conference. They would have all her contact information."

Teague chuckles, "Perfect! And I will do an un-friendly visit with Loyce first, then the bank manager second. Damn it! They have both screwed up this FDA inspection. Shit! Lorinda is going to tan my ass for messing this up."

Otter smiles, "Resign tomorrow, Teague! Then tell Lorinda good bye and good luck, baby." She laughs.

Teague smiles, "Otter was always the smartest sibling within the Haywood family. What do you say, Bobcat? We kiss the FDA's ass goodbye and..."

"... go fishing, instead of just a wishing," Bobcat laughs.
Tuesday January 12th

07:45 a.m.

Third National Bank of Florida building

(17 miles, northwest, from Teague's apartment)

Parking lot setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with dull sunshine

Teague drives from his apartment and parks his red colored sports car inside the empty gray tinted parking lot, killing the engine, sitting inside the car. He wears a white colored turtleneck shirt, a black colored wool jacket, a pair of black colored jeans, and a pair of black and white colored boots, sitting on top of the ankle-length gray colored winter coat with a pair of matching gray colored gloves. He could feel the morning cold air on the glass window as his inners was steaming with heated fury at bank employee Duff Loyce.

He stares at the red colored brick exterior walls. The bank operational hours are posted from nine am to four pm, Monday through Friday, but the working staff arrives an hour earlier. He admires the red brick building that greets the bank manager coming into work every morning.

The building looks like an antebellum house with a set of four columns of concrete that are sculpted fluted, not smooth.

Fluting is a popular classical architecture style in the South, copying the ancient Greeks civilization that is long time dead. The column shaft is articulated with vertical hollow grooves called fluting. The wooden square shaft is wider than the top wooden part which looks like Bobcat's childhood home in Brier.

The term fluting also reminds Teague of flute playing.

During high school, his classmate Duchess had played the flute, a woodwind musical instrument without a sticky sweet tasting reed like a clarinet.

Teague played the trumpet.

The flute is a hollow horizontal cylinder of silver with a mouth piece that parallels into the lips like kissing a girl. He remembered clearly. Duchess had played her flute for him outdoors and inside the horse pasture while he pretended to kiss her cute pouted lips.

A flute produces a sound when a stream of air is directed across the hole to create a vibration of air at the hole. Teague had told Duchess that each ancient flute had been made out of tibias, the shin bones on a dead Native American Indian. Then she had quit playing her flute for the rest of the week from that bad-ass moment of old American History.

In the cold morning beside the bank building parking lot, the bank manager stops and parks his personal black colored sedan, sliding out, moving to the entrance door.

Teague scoots out of his car and races to catch the ass on the manager, reaching out, tapping at the collar bone on the manager with a stern face, "Hey, buddy!"

The bank manager stops and pivots with a smile and a nod, wearing a dark blue business suit and a pair of matching shoes underneath a brown colored winter coat with a pair of matching brown colored leather gloves, displaying a head of grayish-blonde head of hair, a pair of brown eyes, and a tone of pale skin. He stares at Teague before reaching the glass doors on the building, "FDA Inspector Haywood, hello! What can I do for you this cheery morn?"

Teague wants to punch the smirked lips on the bank manager but says with a stern face. "I have some vitally important information to share with both you and Mr. Loyce. Is it possible to meet with you, right now?"

The bank manager says with a smile and a nod. "Yes, of course, we can meet especially when it has to do with our banking interest. Have you arrested Miss Garland? You must have invaded her hiding nest? Do you, chaps in the FDA use your hand guns like the FBI when shooting a criminal?" He spins around and moves ahead, opening the glass door.

Teague enters and stands a few feet inside an empty lobby.

The bank manager closes and locks the door shut before the official time to open for each bank customers.

At 8:08 a.m., inside the bank lobby, the bank manager turns and moves to the side wall.

Teague follows the manager again and says with a sour frown, "Sometimes! We don't enjoy doing that. Does Mr. Loyce come in early too?" He turns and scans an empty lobby, hearing the classical music over the hidden speakers.

The bank manager moves across the floor with a nod to the other business offices. "Yes, Mr. Loyce is always punctual, bright and early. Let me announce our arrival, should we? I don't like to interrupt my employee's morning ritual. I'll be right back. Stand here. The other administration offices are specifically locked for bank security purposes. I hope you understand, Inspector Haywood." He does not view Teague, moving ahead to side wall with a closed door on each business offices.

Teague stops and nods with a stern face. "I shore do. I need some cash anyways," he spins around to face the opposite wall and moves ahead to the bank machine, pulling out and slamming his bank card into the slot. He pockets hundred dollars and pivots around to see the bank lobby with a row of teller windows and the closed money vault.

Years ago, Teague had recalled a FDA raid with a different bank president. The middle-aged bank president had purchased a set of illegal drugs from a local drug thug within his home town. Now, the middle-aged bank president was currently serving his time inside the city jail for that illegal action selling drugs to kids around the street corner and at the junior high school crossings.

He and Bobcat had entered into a silver tinted bank vault while seeking and searching for any pouches of hidden cocaine, since the bags of white colored cocaine had been kept inside the office drawer of the bank president. The current and worried middle-aged vice-president of the same bank had been overly concerned that each cocaine cloth bags had been disguised as a bank money bag, since the cloth texture had been similar in both color and material.

Inside the bank vault, Teague had seen the bags of coins, the rolls of coinage, and the stack of US denomination bills. There had been a stack of ten golden colored bars too.

Teague had wanted to purchase a gold bar, but the price tag had been set at 325,600 dollars, US.

A gold brick appeared similar to single red brick for building an Alabama house. This golden brick was larger by two cubic inches based on standard international gold transactions.

A gold brick weighted four hundred Troy ounces or about twenty-seven point five pounds. The gold value varied on a daily basis. This particular day, the gold bar had been valued at eight hundred fourteen dollars-per-Troy-ounce. So, four hundred ounces timed eight hundred fourteen dollars equaled 325,600 dollars for each gold brick, fifteen years old.

Teague had purchased some gold coins valued at fifty dollars for his six-year-old daughter. She had enjoyed the surprise playing with the coins like a dolly until bored.

Then he had deposited the coinage into her college fund. He wasn't trying to encourage his daughter to love money but learn the value of money being a humble, generous, and thrifty guy.

Today, Teague has saved a good nest egg for his future retirement as a working man of thirty years which might be happening, really soon.

Now, Duff Loyce has royally messed up this on-going gambling FDA inspection case. Lorinda will not be happy, probably firing Teague on the spot with the royal fuck up which also has involved an innocent bystander Nadean Garland.

He continues to stand inside the empty bank lobby with a smile thinking of Duchess.

The bank manager returns back to see Teague with a sour frown. "I am so sorry for the delay, Inspector Haywood. I can't seem to locate Mr. Loyce. And I must answer an important telephone call from my district supervisor. You can wait inside Mr. Loyce's office. He won't mind. The door is unlocked, since Mr. Loyce doesn't have a scheduled appointment with one of his recovery candidates. Please follow me." He spins around and moves back to the same side wall with the row of closed doors.

Teague follows behind the manager, "Shore, thanks. Does Mr. Loyce see in person all the participating bank's recovery candidates here at the bank or does he telephone?"

The bank manager leads down the hallway. "Here. The recovery candidate must report with a face-to-face session with Mr. Loyce or face termination of their legal bank account. Then we will confiscate the bank account monies and turn them into the Credit Bureau as bad credit risks. That threat keeps them in line. We're not harsh but just. We value the other American's hard working monies and don't want to toss and lose pennies into the water forever."

"I can understand. So, Mr. Loyce has met face-to-face with Miss Garland."

"Yes, many times, he can discuss her physical appearance. Is that the question you needed addressed and answered right now? Have you found a person and need a physical identification from Mr. Loyce? The Third National Bank of Florida would be both happy and honored to perform that simple task getting that criminal."

"Shore."

The bank manager stops at the open archway and points inside the dull tan colored office with a nod and a smile. "Please sit, Inspector Haywood. I'll be only a few moments. I'd offer coffee, but I'm not a secretary. However, I will be swift. Then we can answer all your questions, once Mr. Loyce arrives. He is probably inside the IT department updating the daily transaction sheets for his work tasks today. Since he and other workers are not really rooting for either Burn U or Bam U as the football national championship as a Florida man like myself."

Teague grins. "That's okay. I drink sweet tea anyways. Take your time. I have all day morning. Then I'm off to the championship game, this afternoon."

"Very well," The bank manager spins around and moves down the hallway to his office.

At 08:17 a.m., inside the private business office of Duff Loyce, Teague turns and scans each dull tan colored wall inside Loyce's office with a whisper, "Son of a bitch." He moves inside to the black colored computer laptop, stops, and stands in front of the item tapping on the laptop keyboard that belongs to Loyce seeing the bank logo with a smile.

The computer is not a security encrypted machine as required by the HIPAA Act of 1996. This must be Loyce's personal laptop which houses his personal information, as well.

Teague is pissed that Loyce has smeared the good name and reputation of Nadean. He slams the ENTER button on Loyce's personal computer laptop. A bank menu appears with a prompt to enter the bank customer's name.

Teague types with one finger, Nadean Orion Garland, and watches the computer think. Then an electronic report appears and displays the name Nadean Orion Garland for January, the first, this year. He leans down and reads the money numbers, seeing no deposit of three million dollars.

His theory was correct that Loyce had selected the wrong Nadean Garland, accidentally giving out Nadean's privately guarded bank safety deposit box number. The gem stones, cash, and the baptism certificate all belong to his Duchess, Nadean Garland from Brier, Alabama. Now, Duchess can sue the Third National Bank of Florida for the big ugly screw up of her privacy data, remembering that one of her smart brothers is an attorney.

Teague slaps the button and backs out from the menu which erases her name from the laptop like he isn't snooping. He back steps and scoots around the office desk, sitting down in one of the two empty chairs in front of the desk. He pulls out his mobile telephone and types a text to Elf at 8:18 am with instructions for the day and then looks up, staring at the far wall with a sour frown.

Bobcat wants to quit the FDA field office in Birmingham today, moving back home to farm town of Brier, Alabama, a triangle of land between Huntsville, Athens, and Decatur. He wants to take over his father's farming business, since his dad is older desiring to do nothing but eat and fish every day.

And Teague feels like fishing too.

He looks down and views his wrist watch with a sneer. The time is 8:38. He stands upright from the chair, moves ahead, stops, standing in front of the laptop of Loyce, surveying the cables of the computer that does not show an outlet connection, making a free standing computer. He reaches and steals Loyce's laptop, tucking it underneath his armpit, turning to the archway and leaves the bank.

09:03 a.m.

FDA branch office

(Five miles, east, from the bank)

Parking lot setting

Cold temperatures with bright sunshine

The red colored sports car is parked in front of the FDA office building which displays three stories of office with rows of concrete blocks in dull beige paint and windows in clear glass pane. Teague stands outside his car and leans against the red paint, wearing his long gray colored winter coat over his clothes, waving a hand and a smile to Bobcat.

Bobcat drives ahead and parks his truck illegally inside a handicapped space beside Teague.

The truck door opens.

Teague moves ahead from the car, stops, and then stands beside truck door, saying with a smile and a nod to Bobcat. "Is Otter off?"

Bobcat slides out from the seat and stands on top of paved parking lot, wearing a black colored ankle-length winter coat, a pair of matching leather gloves underneath a dark blue sleeveless, a white colored dress shirt, a yellow and blue tinted necktie. His feet are covered in a pair of dark blue cowboy boots and a pair of dark colored blue jeans. He says a smile and a nod, "Yeah. She has already arrived at your folks safe and sound while helping with the barbeque meal, explaining my absence. Will you parents be miffed at you missing the football game with them?"

The truck door closes.

Teague shakes his curls, "Naw! My daddy doesn't care about no good game, only the good eating barbeque food. I guess when your bones are older all the priorities change. What about Duchess and her telephone number at the hospital?"

Bobcat laughs. "You wanna it that bad, huh, Teague?"

Teague frowns. "I want Duchess to know about the careless ID thief. That's a fucking serious issue that can become a fucking serious problem for her. I pissed that Loyce fucked me, you, and her over figuratively."

Bobcat nods. "Well, these assholes at the hospital didn't give me her personal information either. Then they sicced their legal lawyer on my ass who escorted me into a private conference room without locking the door. Then she cited HIPAA regulations until I couldn't produce a dang search warrant. Then she invited me back for a tour of the hospital with lunch, if I ever produced a dang search warrant. Damn! Everyone is touchy these days."

"Did you flash your badge?"

"I did everything but shove it up her nose."

"You should always try everything before you quit a job, Bobcat. I thought your daddy taught you that valuable concept."

Bobcat punches Teague's arm. "Fuck off, Teague! Did you shove your boot toe up Loyce's ass?"

Teague laughs. "Naw, I couldn't find the bastard. Then the bank manager took his sweet tea fucking time looking and calling for Loyce. He did everything but burp the bastard. I waited and waited. I stood and stood. Then I grow tired and pissed. So, I compromised," chuckling.

Bobcat gasps in worry and looks down with a puzzled brow, seeing the naked hands on Teague, the hosteled gun on Teague and the smile on Teague. "Compromised, that word means you used your gun or your fists or your brains."

Teague grins. "I used my brains. I delivered all the electronic missing pieces of information to Lorinda, so she can wrap up the mysterious gambling case. We are free to go fishing, buddy, before the big game this afternoon. And I don't wanna attend the game in person rather just watch on dad's big screen plasma with Otter and you."

Bobcat parks both hands on a belt with a sour frown. "We are all assigned drunkard fan duty this afternoon at the championship game, Tomcat. Hmm! I heard the word, electronic. You got the missing information from a computer, belonging to the bank, but you didn't talk with Loyce. You said Loyce blow you off. So, that means you..."

Teague laughs. "I stole it."

Bobcat frowns. "Jeezus! You stole Loyce's laptop from his office desk. Tomcat, have you lost your fucking neurons? How are you going to explain that to Lorinda?"

Teague chuckles, "I'm giving her an early Christmas present and then tell her to kiss my ass. I quit this fucking job, starting my retirement and send out the first pension check tomorrow. Yeehaw! Let's go fishing, Bobcat."

Bobcat frowns. "What about Duchess?"

Teague thumbs back over a collar bone to the truck of Bobcat with a smile and a nod. "Yeah! Let's go and visit her parents in Brier. They can give us her personal contact information. Since I won't be working anymore, I might plan me a trip to the beach in Mobile." He back steps from Bobcat with a chuckle and scoots around the front bumper, opening the door, entering the passenger seat.

The door opens.

09:08 a.m.

Birmingham University campus

(3 miles, southwest, from Birmingham Hospital)

13th floor apartment setting of football player OT Sims

Cold temperatures of wintertime and bright sunlight

I stand in my gray colored business suit and knock on the door with a smile.

The door opens and displays the mother of OT Sims.

OT wears his football jersey, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of orange sneakers, gasping at his mother, "Mama, why are you in a business suit? You like very nice, thou. The color matches your hair and your boots," he leans over and lightly kisses her cheekbone, pulling with a smile and a nod. "Come on in, Mama." He drags her inside and back steps, spinning around, moving ahead to the brown colored ratty sofa. "You told me that you are off work. Why are you going into work today, Mama? I thought you would be off work like the rest of the Alabamians for the big football game today. The game starts at three o'clock, Mama. You deserve a vacation day. Don't you get vacation days, Mama? You should quit and retire. You work too long and too hard. Move over here in the kitchen. I got a big surprise for you, Mama."

I move ahead and sit on top of the black colored bar stool as OT moves into a red and white colored kitchen counter and prepares an individual food plate. I smile and stare at his back spine, "No, sweetheart! I'm not going into work for today. And I do have a vacation day, today. When one of the transportation vans broke down yesterday in Mobile, I elected to stay the night and travel with some of my co-workers very earlier around four o'clock this morning." I yawn and cover my lips. "The sun wasn't even awake. I left my car parked inside the hospital garage. While picking up my car keys, I played your recorded telephone message on my office's telephone for the food invitation. So, I'm here."

OT fiddles with the food and the dishes over the stove with a smile. "I love you, Mama. Good. You're here to stay. Do you go a pair of blue jeans and your cowgirl boots inside your car?"

"Yes, son."

"And how was your work conference?"

"Boring, mostly, I had to attend a face-to-face conference. Now, I am done."

OT slowly turns and moves with two food plates to the light wooden four-person dining room table. "I made us brunch, since I have to eat and then leave for the game stadium. I'm hungry again. I ate breakfast at six am."

I stand with a smile, following behind OT. "You're becoming a wonderful chef."

OT shakes a skull, resting the two food plates on top of each orange colored place mat. "Naw! Some dishes are easy when you're big and hungry. I prepared omelets with tiny onions and green peppers, the way you make it. The guys love my omelets with tiny onions and green peppers, the way you make it, Mama. Let's move to the dining room table. And I decorated it the plates from my great grandmother's china service that you give me. The stone is real smooth and soft."

I stop and view the table with a smile. "You did a fine job on the table. China plates. Cloth napkins. Crystal goblets."

OT turns and assists her to sit down in the chair like a southern gentleman. She sits. He sits down, placing both of his elbows on top of the table surface the way she has not taught him, diving into the food, without a prayer too. He spits out part of his chewed food particles over the plate and the table. "Yeah, I learned to set a pretty table for a pretty girl. Girls like pretty things. Then I get a pretty good fuck from them," laughing.

I look down and view the plate with a red face. "I'm so glad you enjoy updating me on your sex life, sweetheart." I scoop the food and eat.

He looks down and touches his plate with a grin of chewing food, swallowing the food with a nod. "The girls love the baby blue color around the edge with the unique pale buttercup flowers in the middle. I make my angel hair pasta, the way you make it, Mama. Then that girl coos and purrs right into my arms all night long."

"The way you make it..." I stare down at my great grandmother plate, "Uh, ho."

OT chuckles and chews, staring at down at her silvery colored hair roots, "I've heard that saying for years. Where did you learn that musical note, Mama?"

I view my plate. "Catch phrase from your great grandfather Sloan, I do believe. What have you done now, OT?" I turn and scan the rental apartment for any broken white colored plasters or light colored wooden staves made by his Burn U rowdy football friends. I don't see any physical damage. I part my lips, staring at OT.

He chuckles and chews with a grin, "Nothing, Mama! I promise on hearts and artichokes. Nothing. I'm innocent of any and all wrong doings. No cell phone problems. No damaged furniture. No nothings."

I exhale with a puff of relieve, "All right. I believe you, son. You did nothing," I lift a fork to my mouth. "Why I am invited here, today?" I eat and chew.

He smiles. "Because, you are my mama, this is my last ever university football game, Mama. I wanted to spend my last university football lunch with you before I go into the stadium. Inside the locker room, there are meeting rooms, training classrooms, and gathering rooms. We go into a gathering room kinda like a church. We concentrate and focus on the big game. A ritual calming our emotions and burning off hyped energy. Once I'm inside the gathering room, I'm not allowed to talk or contact you, Mama. I just wanted you to know that I'm thinking about the game and you, Mama."

"And what about inviting your biological daddy to your good-bye last ever football game college lunch?" I slurp my food.

OT frowns. "Sevilla is spending her afternoon with my biological daddy. That bitch ain't ever invited to my playground. This is about you and me, Mama. You've sacrificed everything for me. I'm so grateful, Mama. I'm going to help Burn U win its fifth National University Football Championship."

I smile. "I pray for that, sweetheart."

"I know for that, Mama. Man, I got the Professional Football recruiters sending me roses, Mama. It's kinda funny to me. They sent me roses, candy, cards, gift certificates for food, and merchandise just like a fucking secret lover. They can't send me money, thou. That's illegal," he stands and shuffles to the sofa. "They sent the roses to you, Mama. They don't your name. You're so smart Mama not letting any person in the USA know of your existence. Or you'd be bombarded with this shit instead of me. So, they place on the pretty pink card: To OT's Mom." OT stops and holds a set of two flower bouquets in each hand, resting the items near her arm and away from the food plates and turns to sit with a smile. "They're trying to influence you to influence me to go with their Professional Football Team. I'll tell ya a secret, Mama. I'm the number one draft pick in the USA. Me!"

"OT, I'm so proud of all your accomplishments. But you promise to finish getting your degree from Burn U first. Do you plan to accept the professional football position?" I eat and chew.

He nods, "Yes ma'am. I'm going to play for one or two years and start law school. I took the LMAT. I'm been accepted into Burn U School of Law. I wanna earn all my degrees in my youth years like you, Mama. Then I can have fun for the rest of my old age years."

I smile. "That's a wise choice, sweetheart."

OT finishes eating his food and stands with a loud burp while she cleans her plate too. He turns and shuffles into the kitchen. "Mama, I wanna for ya..."

I stand and hold my dirty plate. "I'm clean all the dirty dishes and pans for you, sweetheart. I can hear the stomping of boots in the hallway, OT. Is every player heading out to the stadium for the gathering?"

OT turns and views the door, gently dropping the plate into the sink of water, grabbing her plate and gently drops on top of his dirty dish. He twists to the faucet, washing his hands, grabbing and plowing her dirty hands into the water for cleanliness. OT towers over her with a smile. "Don't bother with the dishes, Mama. I got a surprise for you," he shuts off the water and dries both their hands, wrapping his semi-wet hands around her waist. "I got a maid service, Mama."

"O. That's nice." Now, I have uncovered the new four-hundred-dollar expense from OT's rental apartment invoice that I must pay every month also.

He turns and moves to the sofa. "Let's move to the sofa. I gotta a present for you before I leave for the stadium." OT rushes her to the sofa. She sits on the sofa as he kneels on top of the wild red and purple stripped carpet and looks up with a smile, resting a white colored sealed envelope in her lap. "Mama, this is a ticket for today's game, my last university football game. You're not near the grassy field but along the top tier of metal bleacher stand. Jeezus, one single football ticket is selling for twenty thousand dollars."

"OT!" I gasp.

He smiles. "I asked Vester and Vassar..."

"OT!" I frown.

He chuckles, "Naw, Mama, I really wanted to ask if Vester and Vassar had acquired a couple of championship tickets just for fun. They do seem to acquire some unique toys and tools for entertainment, thou."

"OT!" I frown, "You are to never ever ask your uncles for anything but love. I'm your mama and provide everything you need, since the first wonderful day of your birth..."

"...including your unlimited love. I'm sorry, Mama. It was silly josh. I didn't pay twenty thousand bucks for a single National University Championship Football ticket either. I got it from a friend of a friend of a friend for free. I don't have twenty thousand bucks either. And I would never ever ask Vester or Vassar for anything but their back slaps. So I just fucked an ugly chick and got the ticket for free. The chick wasn't a bad fuck either..."

"OT!" I laugh.

OT turns and grabs the other items, lifting to her with smile. "And I got you some binoculars to see me tackle that Bam U quarterback. I'm going to hit that sucker about eighteen times today to impress you, Mama."

"OT!" I whisper and hold my tears of happiness.

OT frowns. "I'm pissed that my daddy blackmailed you into giving up your football tickets for my games. And I tired of my daddy and that bitch, seeing my real live football performance. I tired of the media reporters, thinking that bitch is my mama. She ain't. You're my mama. I want you to fight your way down to the twenty yard-line. I know that you can fight with your heart and your hands both literally and physically. So, come down to the twenty yard-line. I'll meet ya there right after the football game and jump into the bleachers. Then the entire world will see you and me. My real mama will be hugging me for the winning championship game."

"OT!" I whisper and hold my tears of joy.

OT leans and wraps his arms around her. "I love you, Mama."

"I love you, OT." I whisper and hold my tears of love.

The door sounds with a series o knocks and then opens, revealing an unknown male.

An elderly male wears a Burn U T-shirt underneath a dark blue sports jacket and a pair of tan colored trousers and enters through the archway, staring at Nadean with a sour frown. "OT, boy, you are not supposed to entertaining the company of females in your football suite, especially before the big game. Get your ass to the stadium. We're loading the bus. And who in the hell are you, miss?"

I stand upright from the sofa and hide my ticket, hoping OT isn't going to get into trouble, since family members are not encouraged to bother their sons during the football season.

The elderly man sneers at her, "A reporter! How in the fuck did a reporter got passed our dorm security? OT, son, you're not supposed to talk to any media reporters. Miss..."

"Naw," OT stands with a puzzled brow and spins around, waving both of his hands, strutting to the male. "Naw, Mr. Yates!" He turns and points to Nadean with a smile and a nod. "May I present my mama, Nadean Garland?"

"Your mama?" Mr. Yates frowns at Nadean. "I see your daddy at every football game with your..."

"Naw," OT sneers. "That bitch ain't my real mama, sir. Mama, come over here. I want you to meet Mr. Yates. He's one of the many guys on the University's board of directors being a former linebacker at Burn U, too. This is my biological mama."

I stumble over the floor in my fashion heels with a smile.

Mr. Yates says with a smile and a nod, "I be damn. She is your mama. You and she appear just alike in the face with her silver hair, her gray eyeballs, her coffee skin tone, her tallness."

"I got my tallness from her two brothers. They stand at six feet and seven inches, sir."

Mr. Yates extends a handshake to her. "Howdy do, Ms. Sims."

OT cuddles Nadean. "She's Dr. Garland, being divorced from my daddy. She's a physicist at a local hospital here in Birmingham."

Mr. Yates smiles, "You are definitely a lovely secret from me and the entire world."

OT nods, "Mama don't wanna deal with all that media shit, sir."

Mr. Yates nods. "You are definitely one of the smartest females in the world too. The media reporters are kind when things are going good and vicious when things are going bad. Wait a minute." He turns and frowns to OT. "OT's four complimentary football tickets are located in that one particular section. How come I only see your dad, OT?"

OT nods. "Mama is at work on Saturday, helping dying children at the hospital."

"OT!" I whisper and hold back a smile.

Mr. Yates nods, "My word, that's a noble cause than a silly football game on a Saturday afternoon. So have you been able to attend any of Burn U's games, Dr. Garland?"

OT smiles, "Mama's a graduate of Burn U too. She twirled a baton as a majorette in the Burn U marching band in the year..."

I smile. "Many moons ago, OT."

Mr. Yates claps. "That's wonderful. I have an idea. Why didn't you join me inside the Burn U skybox for the championship game, today, Dr. Garland? It will be a grand event. And OT will be great as always."

I display the envelope with a smile and a nod. "OT has given me a ticket for the game today, sir. That's mighty nice to invite me."

OT nods. "That's a great idea, Mama. And you can see me on the replay television screen over and over, again. And there's food too."

"And alcohol." Mr. Yates nods.

OT turns and frowns to him. "Mama doesn't drink alcohol being a church-person, Mr. Yates."

Mr. Yates bows a chin and uprights with a stern face, "My apologies, Dr. Garland. There will be assortment of food items and beverages, including both soda and water. The skybox is directly over the forty-five yard-line, a clear view of the entire game."

"It is so tempting." I say.

OT frowns, "Naw. It is so attended," he leans over with a whisper into her eardrums. "Mama, I'll feel better knowing you're safe indoors rather than around some drunk college students that vomit beer and spit chewed tobacco."

I smile, "All right. OT has commanded like a prince."

OT nods. "And Mama, stay right here inside my apartment for now. Then Mr. Yates will send the limo to pick ya up in style for my last football game. Ain't that right, Mr. Yates?"

Mr. Yates smiles, "I can do that, Dr. Garland."

I shake my curls, "No, sweetheart. That's very generous, Mr. Yates. I just came back from a work conference as I was away over the weekend. I really need to go home and feed my cats."

OT shakes his skull, exhaling with a huff of annoyance. "Fine, Mama. Feed the damn cats. But come back here and wait for the limo. The limo will drop you off at the steps of the stadium. We won't have to walk from the parking lot. Then it'll bring us back here for our celebration."

I shake my curls. "Sweetheart, the time will be tight along with the tighter security inside the Burn U campus. I don't have a special car pass."

Mr. Yates nods. "Your mama's smart, boy. This is the football game of two centuries, OT. No one is getting onto our Burn U campus unless the Good Lord has sneezed on ya and then maybe not. Once she leaves, she can't return, son."

OT exhales with a huff of annoyance, wrapping his arms around her. "All right, Mama. I will see you on the football field. Enjoy the game. I'm dedicating my 'lastest and bestest' football game to you, Mama."

Mr. Yates nods with a back step out of OT's apartment. "Excellent, Dr. Garland, I'll post your name on the clip board with our Burn U security detail. They stand at the doors to keep pesky invaders out. Just tell them your name Nadean Garland. I look forward to seeing you there, Dr. Garland." He extends a handshake.

I shake and release his hand with a nod and a smile, "I, too, Mr. Yates."

OT hugs and kisses her cheekbone. "I will meet and greet you on the twenty yard-line, Mama. I love you."

I whisper the famous Burn U motto into his face with a smile, "Burn pig! Burn cow! But, Lordy, don't Burn U! And, I love you, OT."

OT chuckles and back steps from his mother, spinning around, exiting his apartment behind Mr. Yates.

I exit his apartment a few second later and follow several feet behind a gang of football players inside the brown colored hallway while watching my son and Mr. Yates disappear down the hallway.

The apartment door closes behind the back spine on Nadean.

10:09 a.m.

City of Brier

(91 miles, north, from Birmingham)

Farm and home of Jadean and Urall Garland

Living room setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright sunshine

The red bricked antebellum house sits on a hill which is the tallest mound within Limestone County and surrounded with miles of red dirt and herd of black and white cows.

Tall, blackish-grayed haired, slender, fifty plus years old, Bobcat gently drives over the smooth driveway and parks on the side without blocking the three-door garage space, sliding out the truck cab.

Tall, muscular, silver tinted shoulder length hair, fifty plus years old, Teague slides out and closes the door, marching ahead with Bobcat to the front door. Bobcat knocks and waits for an answer.

The green colored metal entrance door opens and reveals Teague.

"Hello," Dorcee stands in the open archway with a sour frown and display a short, overweight body frame with short black colored pixie hair style, a pale skin and a pair of green eyes, wearing a short dark blue dress with long sleeves and a pair of green colored socks over each naked foot. "You are Tomcat and Bobcat from my high school. Hey, boys! Come on in." She back steps from the archway and swings around with a smile, moving to a yellow colored sitting chair across from the red colored long sofa.

Teague enters through the archway and moves to the gray colored side wall, sitting down on top of the ugly red colored sofa, smiling at Dorcee, "Hey, Dorcee! This isn't a social calling. It's a business calling. Is Urall here?" Bobcat sits beside Teague on the same sofa and nods to Dorcee.

Dorcee sits across from the red sofa inside a yellow colored chair in the middle of the room and stares with a grin and a giggle at Teague, "Naw! I can handle the business calling. What do ya'll need? Are ya looking for some beef calves? Daddy gots a good herd this year. Except, thou, Daddy don't sale to individual folks usually just the US Federal Government."

Teague shakes his curls, "Naw. We don't want any beef cows. We are looking for Nadean."

Dorcee laughs. "Nadean lives in a hell hole in B'ham. Ya should see it, a tiny one room with four walls and a great big window to see the green forest woodlands."

Teague frowns. "B'ham, do you mean to say the city of Birmingham? I thought Nadean lived in the city of Mobile, which is south from Birmingham near the Gulf of Mexico."

Dorcee shakes her curls, "Naw, she lives in Birmingham in the center of the State, not near any water or cows or us. Why do ya think she lived in Mobile, honey? I don't anyone that lives in Mobile. All my kin lives here in Brier."

Teague turns and views Bobcat with a confused brow. "I thought I heard that somewhere. That's all."

Dorcee giggles. "Hold the ponies! Bless my soul! I know now. You and Bobcat are police officers. I remember that someone told me. So, Nadean, she is in trouble with the police law again. Ain't she?"

"Why's that, Dorcee?" Teague turns and frowns at her. "Again! When was she in trouble before?"

Dorcee grins. "She be in Florida then she be moved back to Bama, running from the law or go to jail. What's a girl going to do, honey? What she done this time? Did she murder someone? Or stole money from the bank?"

Bobcat frowns at Dorcee. "We can't discuss a federal case."

Dorcee lifts and slaps her hands on her dress. "Hot damn! She's going to jail for shore. Ain't she?"

Teague sneers instead of punching the ugly face of Dorcee. "Where are your parents, girl?"

Dorcee grins. "At the bank, my daddy is there and renegotiating the homestead, the farm, and the house. He does this, every year, just to piss off the banker."

Bobcat turns and views each hanging mounted family photo on the gray tinted wall, "And where are your two brothers located at?"

She smirks and flips a hand in the air. "They be done moved out, a long time now," she points Teague. "But, I heard a hot rumor that you have moved back home. Is that right, Tomcat? I heard you be divorced from your wife now."

Teague nods, "Yeah."

Bobcat turns and frowns at her. "And where is your loving husband, Dorcee?"

She thumbs over her collar bone to the window with a smile, "In the back forty for the rest of the day and night too, this farm is too big for my daddy's limited farm hands."

Bobcat frowns. "The farm does well."

She grins. "Yeah, the farm makes good money from growing corn, cotton, and cows."

Bobcat thumbs to the side table with the row of individual family pictures, "And where is your passel of kids?"

Teague turns with a chuckle to see Bobcat, "How many in a passel, Bobcat?"

She grins at Teague, "Five kids. Some married. Some at work. Some in college. The grandchildren are in school for the rest of the afternoon until suppertime," she winks at Teague. "We got some new pear trees in the south cow pasture. Do you like sweet pears, Tomcat?"

Teague says, "Naw! We're here to hear about Nadean."

Bobcat turns and frowns to Teague. "We should come back when Urall and Miss Jadean is presence, Tomcat?"

Teague narrows his eyelids at Dorcee, "Naw. We came out here to hear about Nadean. She moved out of Urall's house right after high school graduation to attend Burn U. Did she graduate the university with a college degree?"

She nods. "Nadean graduated college and never ever returned back home to our daddy's house. She just upped her ass and moved to Miami, Florida with her new fancy schooling degree. She gots a job doing physissy work."

Bobcat says. "Nadean was a physicist at a local hospital in Miami too. She is currently a physicist in Birmingham."

She grins. "Can't you look that stuff up on a police computer database with all the new technology? Do you have a new mobile telephone?" She lifts her mobile telephone to her smile. "I got one of the newest ones with 6Gs and stuff on it. Do ya see here?"

Teague frowns, "Nice, Dorcee. And that was thirty years ago, girl. Computers didn't exist. As two FDA inspectors, we rely on good information from honest folks like you, Dorcee."

She smiles. "Okay. What else do ya'll want to know?"

Bobcat asks. "Please relay any information from high school to present, Dorcee. That would be very informative."

She turns and smiles to him. "Are you still married to that short girl, Bobcat?"

Bobcat smiles, "Happily."

"Are you coming back to live here in Brier, too?" She smiles.

Bobcat nods, "Happily."

She exhales. "Nadean is very secretive, like she's a spy or something. I don't know a lot of her private life in Florida. She don't talk to us about it."

Teague asks. "Did Nadean visit the farm during holidays or summertime?"

She exhales, "Sometimes. She don't come up Christmastime to see us. She don't like the cold weather, ice, snow. Nadean stayed in warm Florida. Call us at Christmas bragging it be eighty degrees in December. Did ya know that, Tomcat? It will eighty degrees in the wintertime in Miami. I visited there one time. Nadean visited sometimes in the summer hot when it be hot like around July. The weather here is sizzling hot like Tomcat or hell."

Bobcat chuckles, "The one and the same."

Teague sneers. "Shut it, Bobcat."

She says. "If Nadean came here, she drove her fancy sports car. That car had three gas pedals."

Teague nods, "The car has a manual transmission. Nadean had learned to drive a stick from Urall."

She smiles. "I guess so. I drive a new car. Do ya wanna see my new car? It has four doors, golden like honey with fancy electronics that talk to me."

Teague shakes his curls. "Naw, Dorcee. Please tell us about Nadean! She traveled in her car to Alabama. Did she travel any place else?"

She nods, "Gawd, yeah! She bragged out the dang item. Let's see. Nadean went all over city places in the USA like Atlanta, Vegas, LA, Tampa, New Orleans. She went out of the USA to Bahamas, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico."

"What in tarnation for?" Teague sneers.

Dorcee waves her hand with a smirk. "Business trips, she claimed. All business, no play. She always works to pay for that great big mansion. Ya should've seen that castle in Miami."

Bobcat nods. "I would be very interested in hearing more about Nadean's mansion in Miami, Dorcee."

She waves her hand with a smirk, "Yeah, Nadean gots a mansion in Miami. O my gawd, her castle, my mama called it that. Nadean's castle had a swimming pool, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, four garages. The property was worth one million dollars. Then, one day, she gets rid of her pretty castle and then moves back here to Bama, poor thing."

Teague asks. "Is Nadean married?"

She shakes her curls. "Not very long and then divorced, just play around with the men. Ya know like a whore."

Bobcat turns with a smirk to see Teague. "You wouldn't ever marry a whore, is that right, Tomcat?"

Teague grins to Dorcee, "Never."

Dorcee turns and frowns at Bobcat.

Bobcat asks. "When was the last time you saw Nadean?"

She grins, "This year, I saw a week ago inside her crappy tiny apartment. She just moved into a new place. I guess running from the law. That's why you are here. Ain't that right, Tomcat? Ya know, she might just up and run away to a new state like Georgia?"

Teague asks. "Did she move from metro city of Mobile recently?"

She shakes her curls, "Naw. She left out of another crappy apartment in B'ham. She's always doing that. She moves into an apartment then trashes it with her wild parties. Her wild parties gots beer and cigarettes. Then she just ups and leaves that apartment without a clue. Then Mama finds out that Nadean has moved into another tiny crappy apartment."

Bobcat frowns. "If you did not approve of her wild partying with beer and cigarettes, why did you visit your sister, Dorcee?"

She exhales. "Mama made me go. Nadean don't come up for Christmas. I just told ya'll that. Ain't ya'll listening to my fairy tale? So, Mama went and surprised her. Nadean was pissed. We just showed up and banged the wood off the door, before she opened it, allowing us into her tiny room. Mama generously gives Nadean presents every single year at Christmas time. But, Nadean don't do the honor. I ain't got a gift from Nadean for almost thirty years now."

Teague smirks. "She be mean to ya, Dorcee, for thirty years."

She smirks, "Naw! It be more like Nadean be poor like a church mouse, as they say."

Teague frowns, "Poor! Nadean is a college educated physicist."

She waves her hand with smile. "Then, she must skip work a lot, not getting paid for being drunk on alcohol. Alcoholics do that."

Teague frowns. "Nadean is an alcoholic too."

She smirks, "Alcohol. Cigarettes. Drugs. No man. No house. No life. No job. No future. Always poor. Always secretive," she points with a smile to Teague. "Tell me, if I'll wrong about Nadean, Tomcat!"

Teague smiles, "Well, I guess our next move would be to see Nadean's tiny apartment in B'ham. Can you give us the city street address, Dorcee?"

Dorcee smiles, "Shore," she stands upright from the chair and moves into the kitchen space on the side wall.

Bobcat leans to Teague with a whisper. "What in the hell...?"

"Not here." Teague sneers. "We're FDA Inspectors, collecting more information."

Dorcee returns and stops in front of the sofa. Teague and Bobcat stand upright from the sofa with a stern face in silence. Dorcee moves and holds the paper in front of Teague's chest with a wink and a grin. "Here, ya go, cowboy!" Teague doesn't touch it.

Bobcat leans and snatches the handwritten note from her hand with a sour frown. "Thanks for the information, Dorcee, you have been a big help."

Teague moves ahead and leads to the front door.

Dorcee turns and moves behind the ass on Bobcat. "Come back anytime, Tomcat! I'll show ya my pear trees. Okay!"

The front door opens.

Teague yells through the archway. "See ya, Dorcee!"

Bobcat moves outside behind the ass of Teague. "Bye, Dorcee!"

The front door closes.

10:32 a.m.

Pickup truck ride of Bobcat and Teague

(50 miles, south, on Interstate 65)

Cold temperatures and warm sunshine

The truck door opens.

Teague slides down into the passenger seat and closes the door, whipping out his mobile telephone, viewing Nadean Garland name on the FDA Gambling Watch List Report.

Bobcat closes the door and starts the engine with a sour frown, looking down, reading the dashboard for any colored lights.

Teague says, "An alcoholic, an addict, a whore, a slut. That's not Duchess. She is..."

"...was a good girl, Tomcat. Thirty years is a long, long time. Sometimes, things change. Times change. People change. Duchess lived in nasty town Miami in Florida. Lots of stuff happens in Florida, not like Bama. Don't you remember, Bear? Don't you remember, Rosaline? Don't you remember that time we were on assignment in Miami? We saw all that nasty mess. Duchess left out here a nice girl from Brier. Those big bad metro cities turn nice girls into something else. Don't you remember? Rosaline lived in nasty town Miami too." Bobcat shoves the gear into reverse, backing out of the driveway, driving straight to the roadway.

Teague stares down at the piece of paper with the new address. "I don't believe any of it, Bobcat."

Bobcat stops and pulls out onto the highway. "I want to disbelief too. We possess hard core physical evidence. Her apartment hopping year after year, who does that action? It's very expensive to move furniture and furnishings, year after year. The best solution is to stay put, absorbing the small annual money increases in the rental contract, saving money and resources." He stops at the traffic light. "No one can find her or track down her ass. Why's that? She sold a three-million-dollar house in Miami, based on her previous street address. Why's that? And Nadean lied to both of us, standing inside the hospital that employs her as a physicist. She told us that she lived in Mobile located on the other end of the state. She lives right here in Birmingham with us. Why, Tomcat?"

Teague stares at her address on the sheet of paper. "I don't know. She must have a very good reason or explanation other than the syrupy flap jacks from Dorcee's chapped lips."

Bobcat drives with a sour frown and a nod. "I admit you can't trust a bitch, who gets pregnancy in high school, marries the bastard, and all the entire passel lives unhappily after ever in her daddy's antebellum house. Good thing. That old house is big and windy like Dorcee."

Teague says. "I don't believe Dorcee."

Bobcat drives with a sour frown. "We go home, get some hot food. We can discuss, trying to prove Nadean's innocence, somehow. How's that, buddy?"

His mobile telephone rings.

Teague swishes the icon and lifts to his ear. "What!"

Pauses and listens to the voice of Elf on the other end of the telephone call.

Teague grins down at the floor mat, "Great job, Elf! You're the man today. Tell you what! I'm going to promote you to me. You lead that expedition and collected all that datum."

Pause.

"Naw," He stares down at his boots, "Me and Bobcat are working on something new. You're the leader, Elf."

Pause.

"You go and search it good. Then, you and the gang report back to the office, we'll hold a hot wash, exchanging all the collected information."

Pause.

Teague chuckles, "Bye, Elf."

Bobcat drives with a puzzled brow. "What's it?"

Teague turns with a smile to see the nose profile on Bobcat. "My little man, Elf, he found the hidden location of the real criminal Nadean Garland. And it ain't my Duchess."

Bobcat drives with a confused brow, "Where? How? When? Why? How much? Share, man!"

Teague smiles, "On the edge of her application form copied from the Gardendale apartment office, there was a set of faint alphabets and letters that looked like a city address. Elf played and punched a combo of letters and alphas onto his mobile telephone's geographical map location app. Then he matched an actually name and street address. If the new apartment complex office manager followed procedure, she would have dialed and dinged the old apartment management to investigate a new renter. Miss Gambler-bitch always moved out in the month of November, like always, after her annual lease terminated the new apartment complex office manager was inquiring about her good payment record, so Elf has found her secret hideaway."

"Where is Miss Gambler-bitch's secret hideaway?"

Teague shakes his curls. "I don't give a damn, Bobcat, so I didn't inquire from Elf that specific address location. Since we're going to Duchess' new apartment instead, because I wanna see Duchess and ask her what the hell's going on here."

Bobcat drives with a confused brow. "Yeah, I agree. What's her address?"

"It is 777 Hart Court in Warrior, a small farm town that is two miles north of Gardendale."

11:01 a.m.

City of Warrior

(50 miles, south, from Brier)

Apartment setting of Nadean Garland

Cold temperatures and bright sunshine

Short, dark haired and yellow skinned, junior FDA Inspector nicknamed Elf stands in the middle of the tiny concrete floor space and scans the room with a confused brow. "Wow! This room is a perfect rectangular. White paint. No art work. No pets. No windows, except for a single sliding glass door, leading out and down into green woodlands."

Short and plump, short brown curls with streaks of purple and red hair color, pale-skinned, junior FDA Inspector code named Peacock moves and steps into the room with a confused brow. "Where's Tomcat?"

Elf smiles, "Tomcat made me boss-man. Scout out. Let's see if we can find some more information about the real Nadean Garland. We're supposed to collect the datum and report back to the office and Tomcat."

Tall, muscular, black-haired, red-skinned FDA Inspector nicknamed Bull shakes his skull, scanning the room too with a puzzled brow. "This is a garage, Elf. Flat. Concrete. Cold."

Average height and weight, dark skinned, blonde haired, FDA Inspector nicknamed Duckie says with a puzzled brow too, scanning the tiny room. "A garage for a midget. My car wouldn't fit inside this room, if it was empty of the three pieces of beaten up furniture. A twin mattress. A tall light wooden pub table with no chairs. Where are the chairs? A ratty brown colored loveseat."

Moose scoots and scouts around the tiny room along the walls. "Naw, Elf. This garage goes lengthwise from the east towards west, not north towards the south. The sliding glass doors replaced a set of operating garage doors."

Bull says. "Damn! Is this even registered as a living residence? My refrigerator is bigger than this place."

Duckie says, "Flat."

Moose chuckles, "Round."

Duckie shakes his skull, "Naw, this space would be labeled as a British flat which is another name for very small tiny studio apartment."

Moose moves and touches the flat counter in the tiny kitchen. "How did Miss Gambler find this private isolated exclusive place? I'm surprised that she hasn't kidnapped the old lady landlord and dumped the bitch in here without leaving the warm heater on. Then she could live and lounge luxurious inside the mansion on the hill. That old woman's both mean and ugly."

Elf says. "Word of mouth, mostly, you can seek out a room within someone's house on the internet, in a renter's guide, or in the newspaper's classified section. A rented room runs you about three hundred dollars unfurnished or four hundred fifty dollars for a fully furnished room which was eighteen-year-old Betsy's sweet purple balloon-patterned bedroom. Mama rented it right after Betsy left for four years of college. I found out from the bitch-landlord that her son works at Birmingham Hospital. He posted the vacant rental space onto the bulletin board inside the Radiation Therapy Department hallway."

Bull shakes his skull. "This rectangular room is about thirty feet across from the east towards west, and twelve feet long north towards the south, and ten feet high from heaven to hell. The room is divided by a square archway between the living room and dining room, sorta." He stands at the archway almost touching the rough concrete ceiling with his middle finger.

Tall, slender, amber-haired, amber-skinned, junior FDA Inspector nicknamed Dove moves and stands near the clothing rack, saying with a puzzled brow. "This room is cozy, clean, and neat. I don't see or find nothing here."

Moose moves ahead and stands in front of the row of silver tinted appliances with a puzzled brow, opening and closing each closet door and side drawer. "I declare the west wall is some type of kitchen space for preparing and cooking meals. The stove top has two working eyes for soups and hot tea. There is a soup bowl for heating soups and hot tea. This girl lives a very primitive life style. There's a baby refrigerator that comes to my ankles with three full bottles of spring water. The counter is both empty and cleaned. There's a stacked set of a washer and dryer," he slams the door shut. "Empty."

Peacock shakes her curls and scans the tiny room near the entrance door. "This is not good, Elf. This girl is on the run, watching and waiting for her millions."

Elf turns and asks to Moose. "What did the bitch-landlord tattle about Miss Nadean Garland?"

"Before or after she fainted?" chuckles Moose with a grin.

Elf smirks, "Before she fainted?"

Moose says. "Well, let's see. I knocked on the new metal red door and showed her my FDA badge and the search warrant. She cursed the word, shit. Then she fainted but Duckie caught the bitch, before she busted her nose."

Dove giggles. "Thanks, Duckie."

Bull says. "Someone should go and check on that bitch."

Duckie grins. "Not I, says the little chicken shit."

Elf stands in front of the sliding glass door, watching the roaming cats. "She has stray cats, probably feeds them," he back steps and then advances forward to the glass. "Do you see this outside on the patio? They're hungry and come running here, when a shadow comes near the glass wall. Animals lounge around, when food is provided."

Duckie smiles, "Aw, sweet! Miss Gambler has a heart but no money."

Bull touches the chair. "Fuck. What's up with that crazy house décor? The four table chairs are facing the wall and are not underneath the table. The back rests are all against the wall."

Elf turns and studies the chair design on the wall. "Hmm! I'd guess that she uses the row of chairs as a set of stools or maybe as a set of tall tables, since this chair holds a set of clean and folded bathroom linens of towels and hand cloths."

Peacock smiles, lifting and holding the clothing item from the hanging rack. "I have pink hospital scrubs. I thought she was a waitress."

Duckie points to the eating table. "There are some papers here in Greek or something weird-ass writing. I can't read it. Miss Gambler must be a foreigner illegal alien."

Elf moves and stops at the eating table, studying the items. "The words are Spanish. Can't ya'll rednecks read nothing but beer labels?" He laughs. "These are legal documents too. I can make out a couple of Spanish words, not the entire group of sentences."

Bull moves and stops at the eating table, looking down at the papers on the table too. "Damn. She can read and write in a second language. That makes Miss Gambler smart, smarter than this. I don't understand why she lives here."

Peacock says. "Some people don't like to flaunt their money, Elf."

Duckie shuffles with a grin and a chuckle into the small archway. "She should flaunt a little more of her George Washington's and get a bigger space. My ass can't find into his bathroom."

Dove laughs. "There's nothing inside the bathroom, Duckie."

"I gotta pee." Duckie shoves his body between the wall and the door.

Dove turns with a stern face to see the nose profile on Elf, "Jeezus! We can't take the baby to the grocery store for peanuts and beers, without any incident, Elf, darling. Go pee outside, Duckie. This spot is very private and secluded for hiding out for being almost a newly rich bitch."

Duckie slides into the bathroom. "I can't fit into the door. What lives here, the seven dwarfs?"

Moose scans the room. "The home was built in the 1970s."

Bull laughs. "People were smaller in the 1970s."

Peacock smiles. "From too much cocaine dope, making their bones retract."

Dove turns with a grin to see Peacock, "Really! That explains my whacky grandparents."

Peacock laughs. "Don't tease Duckie. He's trying really hard to learn plus he admires your balls, Elf."

Elf chuckles, "Thanks, bro. I like your hairy balls, too."

Duckie shouts from the tiny bathroom. "I can't lower my ass down onto the baby toilet. Is there another bathroom? Because this one for a three-year-toddler for learning to piss."

Elf commands, "Duckie, finish your business, so we can do our job."

Moose says. "This girl owns two cooking pans, a tea kettle, and a boiling pot..."

"Boiling point?" Peacock giggles.

"Naw, a boiling pot," Moose says.

Peacock smiles. "Your hillbilly sounds like redneck. Go back to first grade, Moose."

Moose lifts and holds the object with a smile. "No sharp weapons, only a pair of scissors that looks dull, not rusty."

Bull chuckles. "So she left her weapons here."

Peacock says, "Soak them in olive oil that will vanish the rust, making them clean, shiny, and deadly."

Elf nods. "Okay, ya'll. Popeye and Olive oil report?"

Bull chuckles. "New nicknames, please repeat mine. Since I didn't catch it the first time, new boss-man?"

Bull lifts and holds a new object. "Found it!"

Elf turns and frowns to his co-worker. "What did you find, Bull?"

Bull smiles. "A nice set of steak knives. Yeah, baby! These are fine and very expensive, located in the back of the bottom shelf. There seems to be a complete set of fine bone china in the color of pretty baby blue around the edge with buttercup flowers in the middle."

The entrance door opens and reveals a new face.

Teague dashes inside with a worried brow through the open archway and scans the floor and people, moving to the familiar china plate, and stops. He looks down and says with a serious tone. "Her great grandmother's china," he looks up and frowns at the buttonhole on Bobcat. Bobcat is scouting the small space near the sliding doors. Teague grabs and caresses the plate. "Damn." He looks up with a confused brow to see each of his employee. "What in the hell are all of you doing here?" He hands the china plate back to Elf.

Elf says with a smile and a nod to his boss. "I am boss today. Do you remember, Tomcat? I told you on the cell. I found this city street address on the edge of one of her apartment application form. I picked out one or two words and then played on the map app. Then I found it. This is home of Miss Gambler."

Peacock frowns. "How did you recognize that particular plate pattern as her great grandmother's china, Tomcat?"

Teague exhales with worry and scoots around the concrete floor, parking both hands on his belt, "College. What else did you find in here?"

Peacock lifts and holds the object. "There are pink scrubs. Is she a nurse, Tomcat?"

Teague frowns, "A medical hospital physicist."

Bobcat stands near the sliding glass door. "Was there a hospital badge inside there or any other ID about her current working job?"

"Naw," Moose shakes his skull.

Elf turns and points to the table. "There are some papers in a foreign language over here on the eating table."

Teague moves ahead to the dining room table, stops, and stands by the lip on the wood, touching one of the paper legal documents with a worried brow. "Duchess speaks Spanish and French, since first grade. In college, she graduated with a foreign language major."

Elf turns with a confused brow to see Bull, "College! That's becoming a common noun here."

Teague spins around, moves ahead to the sliding glass door, stop, standing beside Bobcat. Bobcat stares down at the cats that patiently wait on food. The food dishes are empty. He says with a stern face and a serious tone to the glass door. "She is long gone, now, Teague. The tiny room is clean. No ID. No electronics. No food. And the cats are hungry," he looks down to see his boot toes. "She left on Friday when we had accidentally encountered her escaping from the hospital at work. She possessed a gym bag of clothes, a hand bag of money, wearing a fur coat. It's cold in Nevada this time of year. Nadean..."

"Naw," Teague exhales with sorry and pivots around to survey the tiny room. Each one of his FDA inspector stands in place and stares at him for the new order. Teague looks down to see his boot toes and returns back to see each employee. "Her name is Duchess. And we are going to find her before the football game ends. Elf, take everyone back to the office and go through all the collective datum piece by piece looking for any type of lead of Duchess' location. Pull our expensive electronic toys paid by Uncle Sam for some county traveling," he turns and views Bobcat and then returns back to see each employee. "We might have to do some searching on the go from home base. Does everyone understand? Good. Bobcat and I have a vague lead to follow. We've be back within the hour. Go! Good luck, ya'll!"

"Duchess!" Bull turns with a confused brow to see the nose profile of Elf, moving through the archway toward his car.

Each assigned FDA car leaves the resident home for the FDA inspector duty as Tomcat and Bobcat leave the tiny apartment and drive in the opposite direction.

12:02 p.m.

City of Brier

(50 miles, north, from Warrior)

Farm and home of Jadean and Urall Garland

Living room setting

Cold temperatures and bright sunshine

Inside the gray tinted driveway in front of the same red colored brick antebellum house, Teague leaps out from the rolling truck, before it halts, swiftly dashing ahead, jumping over each porch steps and then stops in front of the green metal door. He bangs a fist on the front door, instead of shouting and breaking down the door. He respects the privacy of Urall just a little at the moment.

A newer house is built with a metal door and a set of roof tiles rather than real wood which drains the rain water, since wood rots over years on an old dilapidated home.

"Dorcee!" Teague yells out loud and knocks on the door. Bobcat appears and stands beside him in silence with a stern face. Teague yells out loud at the closed metal door, "This is Tomcat! I come back for a second visit. Can I come inside?"

The door opens and reveals Dorcee in the same dark blue dress and a pair of green colored socks.

"Shore, Tomcat." Dorcee stands in the archway with a smile, turning with a sour frown to see Bobcat, "Is Bobcat coming inside too?"

Teague shoves her aside and enters the living room, scanning the room for the owner. "Yes, he is. Is Urall home?"

Dorcee back steps from the door and slams it closed.

Short, dark skinned, and grayed haired, elderly Jadean appears on the side wall inside the open archway and wears her eyeglasses and her bedroom house slippers, staring at her guests. "Who be company here, Dorcee?"

Teague turns with a fake smile and a nod to see her. "Miss Jadean, it is Teague Haywood and Eckward Fulton."

Jadean adjusts her eyeglasses with a smile and narrows her old eyeballs at the two middle-aged young men. "I be slopping the hogs. Ya'll have grown into big fine young men. How a seat on our fine new colorful furniture?"

Teague stands with a fake smile inside the nice living setting with both hands on a belt. "Your new furniture setting is very nice, Miss Jadean. Is Urall here too?" He stares at the older lady with a bun of gray hair and a face of weather brown colored wrinkles that displays a tan and red colored long dress over her tall, slender body.

Jadean turns and looks out the glass window at the sun with a stern face, "Well, it be close to his naptime. He be pulling up in the truck any minute now."

"Teague!" Tall, gray-haired, wrinkled, and elderly Urall appears and stands behind the hair roots of his shorter wife Jadean as Teague and Eckward stare at the gentleman with a head of white hair and a chin of white whiskers on a tone of bronze tinted skin, wearing a brown colored heavy winter coat, a pair of heavy brown colored leather gloves, a set of brown colored wool pants, and a pair of brown colored cowboy boots.

"Yes sir, Teague and Eckward," Teague steps forward and extends a handshake of respect for the elderly couple at their private home.

Jadean moves ahead with a smile and sits down on top of the red colored sofa, patting the new fabric, staring at Teague and Eckward.

Urall moves ahead and accepts a handshake from Teague with a nod and a smile, standing a few inches from the kitchen archway beside the edge on the red colored sofa, "Hey, boys! It has been a long, long time now. Are ya'll visiting with your daddy? Are ya'll staying for the weekend and coming to church on Sunday?"

Teague releases the handshake and slaps his hands on his blue jeans. "Sir, we are here, inquiring about Nadean."

Dorcee swings around with a grin and sits down in the red colored chair, saying to Teague's back spine. "She lives in city B'ham. I told ya, this morn. Do you wanna come and see my pear trees, Tomcat?"

Urall continues to stand in front of the archway and beside the sofa, staring with a frown at Teague, "Nadean! What about Nadean, son?"

Teague frowns. "I'm afraid that Nadean is in some trouble with the law."

Jadean frowns, "Trouble! What kinda trouble?"

Dorcee crosses her arms with a grin and a nod to see the nose profile of Jadean, "Told ya, Mama! Nadean stays in trouble. Good thing, she didn't book a motel room here. Good thing, you told her to get. Good thing, we be in her trouble too."

Urall stares with a worried brow at Teague. "Hush, girl! You tell us the trouble that Nadean's in. Then, maybe, we be sharing some information."

Teague says. "She is involved with some type of gambling scheme. Gambling is illegal in Bama. She has placed a very large amount of monies on the championship game tomorrow."

Urall shakes his skull. "That's not against the law. You can bet in casinos in Nevada or Mississippi."

Bobcat back steps from Teague and slowly moves around the living room setting while gathering secret information like a good FDA inspector. "And you can bet on-line with the same casinos too. Making a bet is not illegal, since Nadean is not under eighteen years old. Her large pool of money is being investigated and questioned. Therefore, we are the FDA..."

Urall frowns, "FBI!"

Teague shakes his curls, "Naw, sir. We work for the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration and we have jurisdiction in gambling matters within the Bama boundaries."

Urall frowns. "Nadean can place a gambling bet, anywhere and anytime. I didn't rightly know that she gambled. But, that be beside the point here. I still don't understand your issue, Teague."

Dorcee smirks with a nod at the nose profile of Jadean. "Nadean does bad stuff all the time smoking, drinking, and now, she gots a new one, gambling. Told ya, Mama! She's a bad apple."

Urall frowns. "Hush, Dorcee. Let Teague talk."

Teague nods. "Yes, sir. Nadean can gamble her heart out. We're required to remind her that all winnings of monies must be filed on her Alabama State and US Federal income taxes, first. Second, we're investigating her large financial money source of the wager. It is just a formality."

Urall frowns. "Then, go and ask Nadean? She lives in B'ham."

Bobcat says. "We are having a little difficulty, connecting with Nadean."

Dorcee smiles, "Ya got her address from me."

Teague frowns. "That's part of the problem."

"Told ya, Mama! Nadean has been gambling again," Dorcee smiles.

Teague turns and frowns at Dorcee. "When was that precise time period that Nadean started gambling, Dorcee?"

Dorcee grins. "O! Four years ago, she gambled away her big house in Miami. Then she came belly-aching and ass-crawling to live with Mama free of charge, again, like a high school fart. Mama was smart told her naw."

Teague frowns, "What, four years ago?"

Dorcee smirks, "Heard tell! She gambled away three million dollars. Get flat broke and broken then moved up here for a new fancy physissy job."

Urall frowns at his baby daughter. "Where did you heard that tall tale, Dorcee?"

Dorcee turns and smiles her daddy, "From Winfred, one time, when he called up here looking for his son. Winfred always liked me and always talked to me during the summertime stays."

Teague turns and frowns to Urall. "Back to Nadean and her gambling problem, she has a single wager on one team to win the championship game."

Urall frowns at him. "Gambling ain't against the law, Teague. So's, why's she in trouble?"

Teague shakes his curls. "Usually, a gambler will follow a particular team throughout the year of the football season, placing a series of large or small bets, depending on the spread of points. Nadean has placed all her eggs in one basket. If she loses, then she will lose a lot of chick eggs, sir."

Urall shakes his skull, "Her money, I can't control what Nadean does with her money. She has a job. She never asks for any money from us."

Dorcee frowns. "Yet, if that girl loses everything that Teague says, then Nadean will be bunking in the den for the rest of her breathing days."

Teague grins. "Sir, as good stewards of the law and the good friends of Nadean, we want to talk to her about this large financial money transaction. We thought maybe she might be visiting ya'll here, since the championship game is this afternoon."

Urall shakes his skull, "Naw, Nadean works all the time. Did you try her work place in B'ham?"

Bobcat nods. "Yes sir. She has taken time off from her employer for the next two days of Wednesday and Thursday."

Jadean shakes her curls looking down at her bedroom slippers and up with a sour frown to see Urall. "Then she be with them, Urall."

"Them who, Miss Jadean?" Teague turns and frowns to Jadean.

"She be with her two brothers." Jadean turns with a sour frown to see Teague.

Teague says, "Vester and Vassar."

Jadean whispers with a sour frown, "Yeah, them."

"All right! Thanks for your time and your information. We really appreciate your information. And we are so sorry to disturb your peacefully afternoon." Teague nods to Urall and Jadean, swinging around with a stern face stare at the front door.

"Hey! I've seen this kid before, the tall one." Bobcat stops with a smile and points to the frame picture, snooping like a good FDA inspector. Either, the family is feeding Nadean information. Or they just don't care about their long-last daughter. He lifts the frame to his face with a confused brow. "I know this kid from somewhere. I've seen his face."

Jadean stands upright from the sofa and dances with a smile and a nod in her slippers, "Orion Tanner Sims, that be Nadean's boy and my grandson."

Teague turns with a sneer and stares down at the black colored hair roots on a short and fat Dorcee. "Nadean has a son. You didn't mention that Nadean had a son, when we were here this morning, Dorcee."

Dorcee stands upright from the chair and smiles at Teague, flipping her hand. "O! That one! It slipped my mind."

"This morn!" Urall turns and frowns at his baby daughter.

"Forgive the child, Teague." Jadean flips her hand with a smile and a nod, dancing side to side again. "That's our only grandson, OT."

Bobcat stares at the picture and gasps in shock. "Geez, OT! OT Sims, his daddy is Winfred Sims," he looks up with a shocked face to see Dorcee. "Geez! I didn't catch the name during the conversation."

Teague moves ahead and stops beside Bobcat, staring down at the family photograph. "That's OT Sims. I'd recognize his body size anywhere. He is Nadean's son. Golly! He favors her in the face too and looks like..."

"Vester and Vassar in the chest and legs," Bobcat points at each limb in the picture.

"He be taller than his two uncles, thou," Urall smiles.

Jadean smiles and dances side to side staring at the nose profile on Teague and Bobcat, "OT, he visited us every year, when he was a little boy, growing into a big strong teen. Now, he busy like his mama, all the time. No time for us."

Teague whispers, "Busy sacking quarterbacks and eating footballs for supper."

Bobcat shakes his curls at the photo. "I don't understand, Tomcat. Why would she be...?"

"Urall," Teague turns and jerks Bobcat by the arm from the table as Bobcat drops the photo back down onto the hard surface. They move ahead to depart from their home. Teague stops and extends a handshake to Urall, saying with a fake smile and a nod to them. "Urall, Miss Jadean, ya'll been a great big help. We just didn't realize that Nadean enjoyed visiting with her two brothers. If I remember correctly, they reside in B'ham, too."

"Not here, ever!" Dorcee shakes her curls with a sour frown, crossing her arms.

"That solves our little issue. We should be locating Vester's home in B'ham. Ya'll have a nice evening." Teague swings around to the closed front doors with a stern face and shoves Bobcat to the front door first. "Bye, Dorcee."

Dorcee turns with smile, follows the ass on Teague and Bobcat to the door, and stops, waving and giggling to them. "Come back, Tomcat! I wanna show ya my pear trees."

"Next time, girl!" Teague stomps onto the front porch with a yell, seeing the new metal front door, the new painted columns, the new glass windows. He has heard some rumors about the Garland boys, which has made them all true.

The door closes.

Bobcat leads and scoots back into the truck, starting a cold engine, without closing the door.

Teague moves ahead and scans the lawn and the house. The truck door opens. He slides into the front passenger seat and slams the door in fury, viewing the house and Dorcee at the front door. She waves and blows a set of kisses to Teague. He growls. "I be gawd damn deep fried. Dorcee's a bitching liar and lady cheat."

"What are you thinking, Tomcat?" Bobcat looks up to see Dorcee wave with a smile from the open front door also.

The truck door closes.

He sneers at Dorcee, "I'm thinking that gawd damn family don't give a shit about Nadean. Nadean didn't place a three-million-dollar football gambling bet from here to Las Vegas."

Bobcat slaps the gear into drive, backing out the driveway. "Horse shit! Her son is OT Sims and he plays for Burn U. Burn U is going to win its fifth National Championship title, five years in a roll, Teague. You know, that everyone is placing a bet on Burn U to win."

Teague turns with a worried brow to see the nose profile of Bobcat. "Then tell me! Why has she betted against Burn U playing on the Cougars to win? That's makes no kinda fucking sense, Bobcat. Shit! Nadean has a four college degrees. She's smart."

"Book smart," He steers to the end of the driveway, stopping and moving onto the roadway, driving slowly through the tiny city of Brier.

"Naw, she's smart-smart. This entire scenario is all messed up, almost backwards. If my son played for Burn U, I'd bet the entire farm house, barns, cows, and cotton on them to win, including the lock, stock, barrel and then the bull's eye. And we can't locate Nadean. She took off work, because she was in a conference in Mobile. Now, no one knows whereabouts of this girl."

"Look up Vester's home address. We go and visit them boys now. I have heard some rumors about them, rednecks."

Teague pulls out his mobile telephone with a nod and a stern face, looking up the telephone number, punching the numbers into the keypad. "And I've heard the same rumors. Therefore, I don't believe Nadean is with them. We go back to her apartment. We call Vester. I also heard that he and Vassar are computer geniuses. We need to break into Loyce's computer laptop."

Bobcat shakes his skull. "That's the dumbest idea, you did. And that's the smartest idea, you proposed. Loyce and Nadean are in this together, Tomcat. Loyce worked for Third National Bank of Florida in Miami, when Nadean lived in Miami at the same exact time period. Then Loyce and Nadean moved into metro city Birmingham at the same exact time period of days and years. That's too much coincidence and too much consequence. Loyce is the money. Nadean is the computer. She's smart-smart."

"I do not believe that crap shit." He hears the phone connection, "Elf?"

Teague pauses and listens to the voice of Elf on the other end of the mobile telephone.

"Where are you at?"

Pause.

"Good! Bobcat and I have some new data to share, not on the cell. But I need you to go and get that laptop from Loyce's off my office desk. Then I want ya'll to tarry your tails out to Nadean's apartment. Do not enter. And bring me a UV light. Do not use it. Bobcat and I are..."

Bobcat says "...thirty-eight minutes."

Teague says "...thirty-eighteen minutes away. And one more thing, I wanna you to go and scare that old bitch out of her residential house. We need more leg room for working in that bitch-landlord's house over Nadean's tiny apartment, yeah."

Pause.

"Naw, man! You can't use your gun. Use your brains or your dick. I don't give a shit. But you scare her into leaving the house for an hour or two. Tell her...?"

Pause.

Teague laughs, "A bomb, that's a cool lie. That bitch'll be in the sunshine state of Florida by suppertime. Good smart thinking. And good shitting fun, Elf." Teague ends telephone connection and looks up Vester's telephone number on his mobile telephone.

Bobcat drives with a sour frown to the roadway at an unsafe speed, "A bomb, are you crazy, Tomcat?"

He punches the number into the keypad, lifting and listening to the ring tone. "That bitch should get some permanent jail time and then bomb her fancy house with her lousy social graces, mistreating Duchess. I don't like her. And I plan to let that bitch know after Duchess is safe and found."

Bobcat shakes his skull. "She is not part of the plot."

Teague says with a smile into his mobile telephone, "Vester."

Teague paused and listened to the voice of Vester on the other end of the mobile telephone.

"Hey, buddy! This is Teague Haywood."

Pause.

"Yeah, I still go by that sissy nickname Tomcat for the lady kitties."

Pause.

"Yeah, a sorry-ass joke! Look, man! This is about Nadean."

Pause.

"Naw, man! I'm divorced about eight days ago from my ex-bitch."

Pause.

"Vester, I believe that Nadean is in some kinda trouble. I know that she trusts you."

Pause.

"Great, man! I'm heading back to her apartment in Birmingham. Do you know the place?"

Pause.

"What! Why not? Never mind! The address is 777 Hart Court in the city of Warrior."

01:07 p.m.

City of Warrior

(50 miles, south, from Brier)

Fifth apartment setting of Nadean Garland

Cold temperatures and bright sunshine

The truck stops. The door opens.

Tall, slender, silver haired Teague scoots out from the truck seat with a stern face and moves ahead in his winter coat, standing in the middle of his team of FDA inspectors. Each one wears a winter coat and a pair of winter leather underneath the FDA long-sleeved T-shirt. Teague turns and stares at Elf. "Is that bitch gone?"

Short and black-haired Elf thumbs back over a collar bone with a grin and a chuckle. "Running for them there hills of Tennessee."

"She don't like water," average height, blonde-haired, dark-skinned Duckie grins.

"And she don't like spiders and snakes," tall, muscular, black-haired, red-skinned Bull laughs.

Moose chuckles, "And she don't like Santa Clause and Elf."

Elf turns and points the house with a stern face and a serious tone. "Our stuff, computers, equipment, the mobile medical laboratory is all set up and ready to go, Tomcat, inside her big pretty house which once upon a time used to be clean house."

"And she got some good cold cans of sodas." Bull smiles and burps, lifting and crunching the soft metal can.

Elf frowns. "What's all this about, Tomcat?"

Duckie thumbs back over a collar bone with a sour frown to the tiny garage apartment. "Loyce and she are working together. She lives inside a partial covered garage, pretending to work a real day job. He has access to millions of free money as a banker. So they are in the isle of beautiful Bahamas, right now, laughing their asses off at us."

Bobcat shakes a skull, "Naw, OT."

Teague shakes a skull, "OT."

Elf frowns, "OT?"

Duckie frowns. "O? T?"

Bobcat nods. "OT Sims."

Teague says. "Nadean Garland is the biological mama of OT Sims."

Elf gasps. "Well, shit! That explains a lot of everything's, everyone's, and every where's."

Teague frowns. "Loyce somehow has stolen Nadean's bank account and used it, transferring a three million cash dollar gambling bet. Then he, someway, set up the gambling bet in Duchess's name. Her real name is Nadean Garland. Now he, somewhere, has stolen Nadean betting her son OT Sims will toss the championship game. The end!"

Bull shakes a skull, "My ass."

Elf points with a nod to Bull, "His ass."

Duckie nods. "He will. I love my mama too. I'd throw a game for my mama's precious life."

Elf nods, "Me, too!"

Two cars stop and slide into two horizontal lines behind Bobcat's truck as Teague turns with a smile to see the two new visitors.

"Who is that?" Duckie narrows his eyelids at the two cars.

Vester kills the engine and slides out, standing upright near the car door at six feet and seven inches of massive muscle, displaying a buzz cut of bright red colored hair, a pair of blue eye, and a tone of pink-tinted skin. He wears a dark blue turtleneck, a pair of dark blue jeans and a pair of dark blue cowboy boots, scanning the landscape property. He turns and nods to his partner/wife Tank standing beside the passenger seat.

Tank stands beside the car door at six feet and seven inches, displaying a head of shoulder length black colored hair, a pair of brown eyes, and a tone of dark skin. He wears a yellow colored turtleneck shirt, a pair pale blue colored and shredded blue jeans, and a pair of orange colored sneakers. He spins around and moves back to the rear trunk, opening the trunk, reaching down. He shuffles the bag and slowly pulls the computer equipment.

His twin brother Vassar duplicates his brother Vester in physical appearance also and copies his brother's movement with his sports car and his partner/wife Duke. Vassar wears an orange colored turtleneck shirt with a pair of faded blue jeans and a pair of orange colored cowboy boots.

His partner/wife Duke measures six feet and seven inches of muscular tone with a head of blonde colored hair, a pair of green eyes, and a tone of pale skin, wearing a mint green turtleneck shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a pair of red colored sneakers, exiting from the passenger seat in the sports car. He moves back to the trunk and opens the lid, pulling out bags of computer equipment, placing all over his body also.

Vester and Vassar move ahead from each parked car and swiftly advance to Teague with a stern face in silence.

Teague stands inside the huddle and wears a smile to each one his employees, "Our free consultants." He swings around with a stern face and moves to intersect Vester and Vassar.

In the same FDA inspector huddle, Elf stares at the sports car with a grin. "That's a Bugatti."

"Booger, which tall boy is named that?" Moose stares at four men taller than him, since he is taller than everyone else at six feet and five inches.

Elf grins, "Naw! The dark midnight blue sport car with the orange interior, the convertible is a Bugatti's signature supercar, the fastest car in the world with a top speed of two hundred fifty-five miles per hour. That fine beauty goes from zero to sixty miles per hour in 2.6 seconds."

Duckie frowns. "Shit! Who are them boys, Bobcat?"

Bobcat turns and stares the two exotic foreign sports cars which are built for riding two persons. "Nadean's brothers."

Elf grins. "The Bugatti is the fastest road-legal production car in the world that was designed and developed by Volkswagen Group and priced at two million dollars with tags, taxes, and toots."

Duckie frowns. "Nadean has two brothers that each drive a two million dollar sports car. Why don't they help her out here with her money troubles?"

Elf smiles, "One single Bugatti fan belt cost 84,000 dollars made of smoked sapphire crystals and over hundred handcrafted parts from stainless steel, solid gold, and titanium. There were forty-four cars available and sold in the USA. And one is located right here in Bama..." exhaling. "The other exotic dolly is a McLaren. Bruce McLaren was born in New Zealand in the year 1937 and died in the year 1970, testing his own car. The McLaren is great power and gorgeous look for another three million dollars."

Bull frowns. "The red paint job with the slick curvy bubble-top over your skull looks similar to the Lamborghini..."

Elf grins, "Except, the McLaren sports care contains a 3.8-liter, V-8 engine with a new titanium exhaust system which increases the engine output up towards 660 ponies."

Bull smiles. "Golly! I want one for Christmas."

Teague stops and extends a handshake with a nod to Vester and then Vassar. Vester shakes Teague hand and then thumbs back over a collar bone to Tank and Duke, who stand behind each open car trunks. "My boys need to set up."

Teague turns and points the house, shouting out loud. "Dove, please, escort Vester's..."

"Partners," says Vester, since he isn't in a good mood for explaining nothing until he hugs his sister.

Tall, slender, amber-haired, and amber-skinned Dove appears and stands beside Teague nodding at the two tall red-haired men in silence. Teague nods to Vester with a stern face. "Please, escort Vester's and Vassar's partners into the main house. They have computer equipment to help find Duchess. Give them anything they need and want. And you stay with them. Because I ain't leaving here, until we locate Duchess."

Dove spins around and motions to the house leading the way in silence. Vassar spins around and thumbs the back spine on the amber-haired female with a nod in silence. Then Tank and Duke move away from an open trunk on each sport car and tote over each bicep and a back spine a massive amount of dark cloth bags with sensitive computer equipment heading toward the front porch on the unfamiliar house in silence.

On top of the driveway, Teague spins away from Vester and Vassar, moving ahead with a stern face to the tiny garage apartment. Vester and Vassar surround Haywood in silence and continue to survey the new environment. Teague stares at the dark green metal door on the tiny garage apartment with a stern face. "That house belongs to Nadean's bitchin' landlord but she be gone now. She doesn't know the situation. And I don't want anyone to know this situation. I believe that Nadean has been kidnapped by a man named Duff Loyce. He works for the Third National Bank of Florida."

Vester says. "Don't bank there."

Teague says. "Don't ever. He somehow embezzled three million dollars, sticking it in Nadean's name. Then, Loyce has directly deposited all that money in a lump sum fashion directly into a Las Vegas betting pool for Bam U to win the championship game via the Internet."

Vester sneers, "OT."

Teague nods, "Right, my new friend."

Vassar nods. "OT can affect the outcome of the game in Bam U's favor."

Teague turns with a grin to see the nose profile of Vassar, "When did you start talking, Vassar?"

"After withdrawing from my mama's home..." says Vassar.

Teague returns back with a sneer and looks ahead at the closed green metal door on a tiny garage apartment with a nod. "Yeah, I have encountered an unfriendly visit with your folks looking for Duchess. They didn't help one lick. And after I find Duchess, then I will be paying them my own unfriendly invitation. Anyways, that's my working theory without working police. I believe that Loyce has already grabbed Duchess from here inside her apartment. And I'm about to prove it to everyone's eyeballs," he raises his palm as Duckie slams it with an object. The rest of the FDA inspectors follow behind the back spine on Teague, Vester, and Vassar in silence.

The apartment door opens.

Teague stops, swings around, and stands inside the open archway on the tiny apartment with a stern face to see each face. "Everyone, please stand back while do my thing. Bobcat, can you close the blinds on the glass siding doors for me, please?" He swings around and enters further ahead into the tiny room. All the other people enter and gather inside the archway of the apartment door.

The door closes.

"Shore thing, Tomcat," Bobcat moves around Teague and stands in front of the sliding door window, pulling over the thick curtain, blocking the sunlight, and spins around, crossing both arms.

Teague moves forward deeper into the room, and stops, scanning the rough white concrete with his naked eyeballs. "Flip off the lights, please."

The room goes dark.

Vester, Vassar, and the FDA inspectors huddle in front of the closed entrance door within the darkness, too.

The UV light switches on, showing a purple hue against the walls.

Teague drops down and braces one hand on the floor with his butt in the air, sliding down into a three-legged doggie pose, moving ass-backward to the front entrance door and the huddle of people with a stern face. He shines and waves the UV light to the left and to the right over dark concrete. There is a four-seated eating table on his left and an open space on his right.

The patio leads into the dull colored woodlands and wildflowers, sloping down into a valley of naked trees of wintertime.

The UV light will highlight any human particles, such like spit, semen, and blood from a human body.

Teague slowly back steps within a bend body, watching the glowing light. The three purple spots appear on his right. "Blood." he says.

Bobcat moves ahead and squats next to Teague and the purple light, scooping one of the blood tears with a cotton swab stick, "Nadean's."

"Yeah," Teague exhales.

Bobcat stands upright and spins around handing the blood stick to Elf.

Elf is a trained paramedic and responsible for medical advice, treatment, and procedure on any FDA inspection case or cowboy. He covers the blood stick with a protected hand, turning to the door.

The door opens.

Elf leaves the apartment, jogging to the house for performing the DNA test with the mobile medical laboratory.

The door closes.

The room is dark.

Teague continues to squat down and stands on his folded hand, shining and waving the UV light again over the concrete and then stops. He finds more blood spots between the open spaces on his left, ramming an ass into the standing bodies with a grunt. He stands upright with a sigh, handing the UV light to Duckie with a stern face.

The lights illuminate the tiny space again.

Teague back steps from the huddle of people and stands near the first blood smear with a stern, pointing at the door. "Nadean is here at her home. Loyce comes to visit. He knocks on the door. Nadean answers, moving to stand about fifteen inches from the door. Then Loyce bullies or charms his ass into her apartment as Nadean back steps from his obese tallness. Loyce lungs a left hand, being his dominate strength at Nadean. Nadean is right-handed. She back steps on her left foot, rearing a right folded fist at the bastard and punches with a sailing arm. Nadean misses. Loyce slams a right fist on her neck as Nadean drops on fours, the palms and the knees, tapping her nose bridge on the hard-ass concrete floor. That's her blood. Not a lot of blood. He doesn't bust her nose. She doesn't blood out. Loyce wrestles and ties her like a hog and totes her ass on his shoulder. Right out that open damn door. Shit. There's no one else that lives within a home-run distance from here."

Tall, light-skinned, muscular FDA Inspector Moore thumbs back over a collar bone to the door with a nod and a stern face. "The main house is isolated with that bitch-landlord, playing the television loud enough for her angels in heaven to go deaf. An atomic bomb could have exploded in the backyard. She won't have heard it."

"Now what, Tomcat?" Duckie looks down and studies the area of blood spots but can't see in the bright overhead artificial lights.

Teague says. "Let's go up to the house. It contains all the computers and monitoring equipment. Let's figure out where in Birmingham that bastard has Duchess hidden."

The FDA inspectors turn and exit the tiny apartment, moving up the hill to the house.

Teague grabs and drags Bobcat out of the apartment room into the sunshine and away from Vester and Vassar.

Vester and Vassar enter the tiny room.

Bobcat turns with a worried brow to see Teague. "Do you think Loyce will harm Nadean?"

Teague shakes his curls. "Do you think Loyce with harm OT?"

Bobcat says. "We should contact the Burn U authorities for help in protecting OT during the football game?"

Teague looks down with a worried brow and studies his wrist watch. "Naw! The championship football game doesn't start for another hour. There is plenty of security around each football player. I am not worried about OT. Let's pray to God for help in finding Nadean."

He frowns. "Nadean might be dead now. You gotta face that fact, Teague."

Teague shakes his curls, "Naw, fiction! Loyce needs Duchess alive. He has or will have to place that VIP cell phone call to OT with his evil demand blow the championship game or else. And OT is going to do just that saving his mama's life. Hell, I would, too. So, we forget about OT. He's safe and plays the last football game of his life."

He frowns. "If OT is accidentally faulted for losing the championship game, his professional football life is over."

Teague frowns. "And if OT accidentally loses his mama, then his entire life is over. Family comes first. And we ain't letting that happen, Eckward."

"I fuckingly promise, too, Teague."

Teague says, "Go up and check on the layout and activity of our Command Center. And call that dumb ass bank manager at the Third National Bank of Florida, let him know that his employee is a bank robbery. Tell him to call the bank robbery crime into the FBI. We get the ball rolling with all possible law enforcements officials for looking out for Duff Loyce. Then, maybe, we'll get real lucky and find Duchess with him or near him in that coon chase."

He nods. "Shore's a good idea."

Teague turns and views the room. "Vester and Vassar need some time, okay?"

"Shore," Bobcat nods, turning and leaving the tiny apartment and moves toward the house for his assignment.

Vester exhales with a huff of worry and stands by the side wall, lifting the cheap-ass thin bedcover from the tiny twin mattress as his eye catches color. He tosses the pillow aside and sees a photograph.

Four-year-old OT, Nadean, Vassar, Tank, Duke, and Vester are posed during Christmas time at the Cartoon Theme Park in Orlando, Florida.

He smiles and spins around to see a portal hanging rack that holds Nadean's clothes, worrying about her whereabouts. He ponders if OT will be living with him forever. He grabs and pockets the precious photo down into his blue jeans with a deep sigh.

Teague enters the tiny room with a stern face, stops, and stands behind the back spine of Vester.

Vassar stands in place on the side wall and slams open the narrow door with a grin and a laugh, "The tiniest bathroom in the world. Do ya gotta pee, Vester?"

Vester turns with a stern face and a serious tone to see Teague. "We didn't know about this place, Teague. Nadean has always been an extremely private girl."

Vassar moves ahead and stands next to Teague with a nod and a stern face. "Nadean would ever never accept charity from nobody either."

Teague nods. "I know I've had one helluva of time, trying to locate her person. And I failed terribly. Duchess didn't do anything wrong here, boys. Loyce is the criminal and Duchess is the victim. I truly don't know if he plans to..." exhaling, "I am not going to let that happen. I fuckingly promise," he swings to the archway with Vester and Vassar leading to the house.

The apartment door closes.

They surround him. Teague says with a stern face. "Duchess has a job. She pays her own way. Based on the sketchy information collected over a two-day period, Duchess married and lived in Miami, Florida. But, I guess you know that being her two brothers. She divorced that ex-bastard husband named Winfred Sims. But, I guess you know that too. Maybe, you, boys can fill in the blanks. Nadean moved to Florida after her college graduation."

Vester says. "Nadean received her first paying job as a physicist at Miami Hospital after she inherited Aunt Collie's house in Coral Gables."

Teague frowns. "Your blood-kin all live in Brier. I didn't know Aunt Collie."

Vassar says. "Aunt Collie lived in Florida, almost all her life. Honestly, we met her two times. She was very similar in mind, body, and soul of Nadean, another mystery for everyone to ponder."

Teague says. "I don't want to ponder Duchess. I wanna find her like now. Okay, Nadean moved, lived, and then sold her house in Miami. She sold that sucker for three million dollars. Now, I can understand. Miami is a high cost of living real estate even drinking water costs money down there. So, I guess three million must be low end for selling houses there. I can guess why she sold the house. Her son is OT Sims. I didn't even know that slick information until thirty minutes ago."

Vester says. "Nadean didn't want any television media attention drawn to her person. OT became an instant football superstar right after his first football game four years ago as a linebacker. She has rights to her privacy. Vassar and I always respected that. Nadean had given Winfred the free football game tickets from Burn U more for invisibility rather than friendship. She didn't attend any of the football games in body either."

Teague smiles, "Duchess is one smart lady. Yeah, I saw OT's daddy with that short bitch named Sevilla," he shakes his curls. "I just didn't put one and one together."

Vassar says. "Burn U is very overprotective of the young athletics. I, for one, applaud that action. These are young teens that need direction and guidance in all aspects of their lives. OT wasn't allowed reporter interviews before the television cameras either. If he had been, you would've recognized Nadean within his facial features..."

"... and his uncles' body size," Teague nods, "Gawd! Is OT tall like ya'll?"

"OT is two inches taller, good nutrition and good genes," chuckles Vassar.

At 01:31 p.m. within the landlord house of Mrs. Abercrombie, inside the dark green colored dining room setting, Teague leads through the front open of the house. Vester and Vassar follow behind. He stops and stands at the long dark wooden dining room table which has been loaded down with a series of beeping computers and numerous sets of ugly cables. Vester and Vassar surround Teague with a stern face in silence. Teague says with a stern face, "Everyone, meet Duchess' biological brothers, twins and gay. So, everyone, get over your fucking prejudices right now, because I ain't taking that shit here and now, while Loyce has Duchess hidden from me. Anyone got a problem with them or me," he looks to each face, saying with a nod. "Excellent! We have the right team for the right job," he looks down to see his wrist watch face. "The game starts in forty-five minutes at two pm sharp. Loyce wants OT to throw the game, so Bam State wins the championship. Then Loyce wins nine million dollars from the Vegas bookies. Not fucking happening on my turf. We are all going to stop Loyce. I don't know who's going to win the championship game. I'm a gawd damn FDA inspector, not a fucking fairy godmother. I would like a status of the situation, ladies and gentlemen."

Elf stands at the side table with a smile and a nod, rattling the paper to his boss. "Tomcat, the spilled blood matches Duff Loyce, not Nadean Garland."

Teague turns and frowns to Elf. "Why is Loyce's DNA inside the FBI database?"

Moose stands and watches Duke, who plays on the computer screen. "Loyce is a banker from the city of Miami. In Florida, these boys treat folks as criminals, first and Americans, second. Last summer at the Third National Bank of Florida, one of their former employees got shot and killed, trying to rob his own bank customer or some bullshit like that. So, the bank headquarters decided to fingerprint and piss test each employees foreverly making Big Brother both alive and well."

Teague smiles, "Good for Duchess! She's a strong girl and possesses a good right hook, busting that bastard's nose holes. That'll help ID his fat ass quickly at the airport hard to miss with a white bandage over your blooding nostrils."

Vassar turns and smirks to Teague, "Really! A good right hook!"

Teague turns and chuckles to Vassar, "A real good right hook!"

Vassar shoves a shoulder into Teague. "I got a good right hook, too, Teague."

Teague shoves a shoulder back into Vassar. "We can ramble later after we beat the shit out of Loyce's face," he turns and views his employees. "Report to me anything good, bad, or ugly."

Bobcat moves into the dining room looking down and disconnecting the telephone call on his mobile telephone, and stops beside Teague. "Fuck. The stupid bank manager of the Third National Bank of Florida doesn't believe me or my story. He thinks his brilliant employee Loyce is home sick with the flu being a hard worker. Loyce called in leaving a voice message at six this morning, coughing and wheezing over his cell. And he doesn't believe that Loyce was involved either financially or socially with Duchess, since Nadean is a bad credit risk to his bank. And he has closed off all the bank services for the rest of the day, since everyone is at the game or watching the game or sleeping through the game which means that we can't access any more business files even with our search warrant."

Vester turns with a grin to see Teague. "That will work to our advantage, Teague."

"How?" Teague turns and frowns to Vester.

Bobcat chuckles, "Hey, Tomcat! That stupid bank manager still hasn't figured out that you've stolen Loyce's laptop either."

Elf says. "I tried getting the local police to do something. They'll not issue an all points bulletin on Duchess until we file all the proper police papers plus produce a couple of eye witnesses like her relatives or her neighbors or her friends."

Vester nods with a smile. "That will work to our advantage, too, Teague."

"How so?" Teague frowns.

Peacock lifts her mobile telephone with a sour frown. "I can't get anyone at Burn U to answer the stupid telephone. The voice mail records: Enjoy the game, Burn U!'"

Bobcat shakes his skull. "Forget it. The campus is sealed up tighter than a virgin's pussy."

Vester smiles, "That will work to our advantage, too, Teague."

Teague shakes his curls at Vester, "How?"

Bull frowns. "Duchess is at the championship football game. Why are we standing here debating?"

Vester shakes his skull to each face. "I do not believe Loyce to be that stupid."

Bull frowns. "Then Loyce is at the game, eating hotdogs and drinking beer, waiting for the ending, so he can claim the nine million dollars. Bam U odds are three to one that they might just beat Burn U by one lousy point."

Vassar says, "I do believe so, except it would theoretically require a battalion of law enforcement personnel to locate Loyce within the crowd of one hundred thousand wild and slightly crazed football fans."

Duckie frowns. "We can't sit here."

Teague commands, "Someone turn on plasma. I wanna watch the game, studying OT's sacking performance. I wanna know if he knows that we know too."

Duckie leaves the room to find the television, whistling an old country song with nervousness.

Vester says, "We are knowledgeable of one item. Nadean doesn't own a cell, computer, landline, television, or any other electronic toy. If she did, the cell would be inside her hand bag or inside her car, since her car is missing with Nadean. Therefore, we have lost a valuable resource. We cannot tag or track her whereabouts with an electronic signal..."

"...like a regular person," Elf shakes his skull. "Duchess is unique. When we get her back, someone give that girl a cell, please."

Teague chuckles, "I will, I promise."

Vassar nods. "Our sister is also very smart. If Nadean is conscious, she will try to contact me or Vester to save her son."

Vester says. "Therefore, we go on the next obvious item. Nadean has been taken and tucked away for safe keeping somewhere within Birmingham. Her missing car is located within the surrounding area. She is not with Loyce. So, we search by computer for any leads of pinpointing her hidden location. Loyce is like any other criminal, who likes familiar landmarks that has been recorded, marked, and measured within his electronic files via pictures, written, and verbal literature."

Elf shakes his skull. "How, Tomcat? That seems more like science fiction to me. Technology is advanced enough. Any computer geek can trace you down on a cell or through the email system. But you're asking each one of us to read through files and files for something of nothing tangible without a clue to what we are locating."

Vester turns and smiles at the nose profile of Teague. "Elf is both perspective and smart, Teague. You should promote him to supervisor immediately."

Teague turns and smiles to Elf. "Shore thing."

Vassar turns with a smile to each face. "We invade all electronic files, since every working person in America is watching the game of two centuries. Tank will attack the Third National Bank of Florida databases, where Loyce works and Nadean banks. Duke will raid the Birmingham Hospital database, where Nadean works," he turns and views Teague. "I need your best geek tech."

Elf raises his palm with a smile and a nod "Me."

Teague points with a nod and a grin to his employee. "Elf, he's the man."

Vassar moves and stands in front of the dining room chair with a free standing computer. "Elf, please, sit inside the empty chair on the fourth laptop. You will invade the Burn U databases, where OT plays football. I'm going to assault Loyce's personal laptop. I need three FDA members paired with each searcher. We find that four eyeballs and two brains are much better than one." Elf moves with a nod and a smile, sitting in front of the computer, typing on the keyboard. Peacock skips and sits in the chair next to Elf, viewing the screen too.

Dove says with a smile and a wave. "Me."

Vassar points the man. "Please sit with Tank." Tank raises his hand, viewing the computer screen.

Dove moves and cuddles on the chair beside Tank with a smile into his nose profile. "Whose wife are you?"

Tank fiddles with the computer with a smile, "Vester."

Dove grins. "Too bad, you're gay. You're a cutie..."

"And rich..." chuckles Tank.

Dove frowns down at the laptop. "What a way to bust my pinky-pink bubble?"

Tank chuckles and fiddles on the laptop. "I'll give you a private ride in my helicopter to our private mountain for dinner with me and Vester. How's that sound?"

Dove gasps, looking up with a smile to see his nose profile, "Private mountain, you own an entire mountain?"

"Gray rock, yellow ridges, and baby blue sky," Tank turns and winks to her. "Plus, a red sunset all on our mountain tonight, after we find Nadean."

Dove smiles, "Shore."

Vassar moves and stands in front of a side table in front of the dining room, looking to see each face. The table holds the laptop of Loyce. "We are looking for common, non-common, anything, and everything," exhaling, "I would suggest at this moment just relax. Let your brain do all the work. If you run across something weird, show Vester. He is the team leader."

Vester moves ahead and stands in front of his laptop with a stern face and a serious tone, "Go and find Nadean."

Tank frowns and points to the computer screen. "Vester, come here. I've accessed the Third National Bank of Florida financial records. Currently, Nadean has a trust fund account at the bank. You only are assigned one with very large amounts of inflow or outflow of liquid cash usually a minimum of one million dollars. I back traced the sell of her house in Miami. She sold and deposited all the money on May 28th. On May 30th, the three million was completely gone from her bank account. Nadean had withdrawn all the monies for a special purpose and then her account was wiped out clean like a thistle."

Vassar turns with a confused brow to see Vester. "I do not know."

Vester nods to his brother, turning with a stern face to see Tank's computer screen. "Can you perform a financial search to answer that question?"

Teague shakes his curls. "Don't bother. That's past history. Did you see anything to pinpoint Duchess?"

Dove frowns at Tank's computer screen. "No."

Tank shakes his skull at his computer screen. "No."

Teague commands the order, "Move on."

Elf raises his hand with a confused brow at his computer screen. "Vester, come here. I've successfully raided the Burn U databases with the help of your sophisticated alien software. And I want my own copy of this good illegal stuff," he points to his screen. "And I can explain why Duchess lived and paid for a shitty ass studio apartment rental for the past four years and seven months."

Teague, Vester, and Vassar move and gather around Elf and Peacock. Elf says with a stern face and a serious tone. "Duchess was required to pay his school tuition, including food and books, since OT was admitted as a transferring junior instead of an incoming freshman. He was awarded an associates' degree in Spanish at the Coral Rock High School in Coral Gables, before he was admitted into Burn U. He's a smart kid! But Burn U refused to award and honor OT's sports scholarship for the past four years. OT graduated Burn U with an accounting degree, two years later and finished up his master's degree in business, last year. Currently, he is working toward his doctoral degree in physics. And OT has been accepted into the Burn U School of Law. He's a really smart kid. But Nadean paid for every damn cent of his college education, but the football jersey on his back. And that boy lived it up right inside a high-rise apartment, an array of electronic toys, and a new sports car. He lived on campus too for sun and fun. And OT likes to hit things quarterbacks, footballs, plaster walls, and telephone poles. The electronic reports come directly from the Burn U campus security department."

Vester sneers. "I wished I had known that particular piece of information. I'd beat OT's ass for that stupidity."

Vassar sneers. "And I'd beat Winfred's ass for that stupidity, too."

Vester slaps the collar bone of Elf with a smile and a nod, "Excellent work, Elf. Please keep digging."

Elf nods, typing on the keyboard with Peacock watching.

Duke lifts and waves his arms with a sour frown. "Here. Come over here." Vassar, Vester, and Teague move and huddle around Duke and Bull. He points his computer screen with a nod. "I've successfully retrieved some useful datum from the Birmingham Hospital database. Nadean was labeled a part-timer, working a regular scheduled shift on Sunday for fours, Monday and Tuesday off work, eight productive hours on Wednesday and Thursday. Saturday, she worked a full eight-hour day."

"Wait!" Teague closes his eyelids. "She didn't possess a television. Fuck. Duchess didn't get to see her own son play football in one damn game." He opens his eyelids to the computer screen

Duke laughs. "That particular hospital department contains the latest state-of-the-art equipment, including plasmas and paid television for the patients' families. Nadean watched her son play football inside the Radiation Therapy department every Saturday. That's why she offered to work on Saturday's. There are not any patients or physicians. She got paid to watch OT and the football game both at the same time in living color. And that television application allowed her to see the games which are not traditional televised. Nadean did not miss a game is the better explanation," chuckling. "She's a smartass just like her twin brothers."

Teague turns with a sour frown to see the nose profile of Vester. "Some of the games are not available on public television, only sitting inside a stadium seat. Didn't ya'll see OT play too?"

Vester shakes his skull, looking at the computer screen. "The Burn U football tickets are very hard to acquire."

Teague elbows Vester with a grin. "You gave your football tickets to your un-loving family members. Awe! Wished I was your brother or sister?"

Vester smiles, "Teague, we never missed one of OT's football games," he turns with a grin and a wink to see Teague. "Let's say that our spy cameras are very good."

Teague chuckles, "Invite me, one day for beer and ball."

"Shore," Vester nods.

Duke says. "The internet and the mobile phone allow for ease of tracking any hot body on the planet, using this juvenile spyware software that was created our competitors, Vester. I checked Nadean's emails on the hospital service account. There are only hospital business emails to hospital vendors or her co-workers. Nadean didn't even ping to OT or Loyce. She must be the only American in the entire USA that has never abused her employer's email or internet services. Nadean is an honest woman."

Teague turns and frowns at the computer screen. "I found out that Loyce monitored his client in person at the bank, every week. Therefore, Duchess met him. He met her. That explains how he was able to come inside her apartment too quickly. And Loyce didn't stalk her electronically, since some of the more current murders and kidnappings are being done by the internet and mobile phone. An electronic trace can be monitored and tracked by any computer. Loyce is both super-smart and super-sneaky..."

"Snaky," says Vester.

Vassar moves and stops, sitting inside the dining room chair, typing on the computer keyboard of Loyce, "Bypassing Loyce's lousy personal encryption. Nadean's personal bank account at the Third National Bank of Florida was accessed by three different sources, including her machine card, her paper withdrawal slips, and an unknown encrypted user. I have quickly de-coded the secret authorization belonging to Loyce. He used a back door in layman terms to enter her trust fund account, since he was authorized to monitor her personal bank account. Loyce made an electronic deposit of three million dollars on Friday midnight and then an electronic transfer on Saturday midnight, therefore negating the money transaction."

Teague moves and stands beside Vassar with a nod. "In mathematics, a plus minus a negative is a negative. In money accounting, a plus and a negative equates to zero."

Vassar types and stares at the computer screen. "Loyce has created a duplicate of Nadean's original and valid monthly bank statement with a set of fake numbers very conveniently with her trust fund account. These types of money accounts handle million to billions of dollars. A bank IT auditor wanted look twice with at a three-million-dollar transaction coming in and then slipping out within a twenty-four-hour period of time. Loyce is a genius. He deposited the three mill and withdrew the three mill, leaving a zero balance. The electronic transactions inside Nadean's original monthly statement are untouched, but the fake monthly statement looks messy and messed up on-line. However, Nadean didn't use the banking on-line system for her banking needs like a regular person. She didn't possess a separate checking or saving account for financial auditing like a regular person. She did withdrawal large sums of cash and paid with money order formats of cash, unlike a regular person."

Tank waves his arm with a smile, staring at his computer screen with Dove. "I grabbed the HR files inside the bank which has led me to uncover Loyce's long-term work experience. Duff is a washed out NSI man."

Vassar turns with a sour frown to see the nose profile of Tank. "Fuck! You're joshing me? I do not recognize that name, Vester."

Tank points the computer screen with a grin and a nod. "He was a brilliant Fortran computer programmer, once upon a time. Fortran is an olden and dead scientific computer language of the 1970s, a petrified fossil like Loyce. He was shifted out of his paying job into an internship without benefits of both vacation and sick pay. Then he refused to learn a new programming skill. NSI give him a couple of badass yearly reviews plus reducing his payroll wages. He left NSI to come and work for the Third National Bank of Florida, boys," laughing.

Teague turns and frowns to Vester. "Didn't you wash out from the NSI too?"

Vester smirks. "Naw, we washed up with the NSI."

Tank says. "Loyce is younger than us, boys. We were out of the NSI when he just started."

Vassar views the computer. "Nadean used only cash and money orders for her living expenses, including rent, food, gas, electricity, and the car note. Her bank financial statement consisted of electronic markers of deposits and withdrawals visible to the naked eye."

Vester types on his laptop with a grin, "Loyce's mistake came when he needed the entire three million dollars transferred at one time from the solo bank account for the single gambling bet at the Las Vegas Gambling Sport Center."

"How's that, buddy?" Teague frowns at the nose profile of Vassar.

"And it was poor timing for Nadean, Loyce, and Teague," Vassar points with a smile and a nod to his computer screen. "Nadean was standing inside the bank lobby of the Third National Bank of Florida, getting cash from the ATM machine at 8:18 am, while Teague was texting Elf at 8:18 am. I accessed your cell records, Teague. Loyce's computer camera was watching and recording the outer lobby. Do you see the video strip on his computer?"

Teague moves and stands behind Vassar, narrowing his eyelids at the still photography on the computer screen. "How do you do that, man?"

Vassar smiles, "Loyce scrambled the pixels of the digital picture like eggs white for his viewing pleasure later at the end of his work day whilest at his home to see in private. So I just made an omelet for my eye viewing pleasure."

Teague frowns, "Dog-gone it! She was right there. I was right there. I could've nabbed her right there."

Vassar says. "Any single money lump sum over the amount of ten thousand and one dollars is tagged for the next business day's deposit, even if Loyce requested the computer to ping the deposit amount at 12:01 am. The three million dollars was deposited on Friday midnight 12:01 a.m. But it didn't leave her bank account until Saturday at midnight at 12:01 a.m. Nadean was leaving for a work conference on Friday afternoon, so she ran by the bank withdrawing money. She doesn't misuse resources, including paper and always checked her balance by electronic pinging from the bank money machine, since she doesn't own a cell phone or a telephone landline. The electronic ping is a frozen picture of time. On Friday at 01:36 pm, time surprised both Nadean and Loyce. Nadean is a creature of habit and her bank statement proves it. She withdrew three hundred dollars in cash money every Monday morning, paying her monthly bills. The hospital uses the payment method of a direct deposit of her payroll check into the bank on Tuesday. And she collects her consulting work checks on Tuesdays, making all the deposits and verifies each one at the bank money machine from the bank lobby in person. Loyce was able to spy on her movement and observe her habit for months, maybe years."

Vester shakes his buzz cut with a sour frown. "Nadean was the perfect victim of an electronic heist."

Teague frowns. "Plus, her son is the infamous linebacker OT Sims, who can affect the outcome of any game by sacking the quarterback and eating the football."

Duckie returns back to the dining room and hums a song with a smile, sitting the television screen on top of another table. "I found a TV." He powers it on, standing to the side. "Hey! The coin toss is done. It's 1:48 pm. Both team captains are running and headed back into the locker room to pray and to prepare for the deadly battle of national champs of university football."

Bull turns and stares at the television plasma too with a worried brow. "Both teams will return to the field in seven more minutes at 1:55 for the football fight."

Vester stands behind his brother, crossing both biceps with a grin and a nod, watching the computer screen. Vassar types with a smile on the computer keyboard. Vester says to all eardrums. "Loyce will call OT with his deadly damn demand within seven more minutes before 01:56. I promise."

Peacock turns and exhales, staring at the television plasma. "Seven is a lucky number, ya know."

Elf turns and types with a worried brow on the computer keyboard, "What we do now, Tomcat?"

Teague moves and grabs a chair, sliding it across the floor and sits in front of the television, watching the championship game, crossing his biceps with a stern face. "We wait and watch, ladies and gentlemen."

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

11:47 p.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT...." I exhale with worry.

Each wire cuts into the ulna or the elbow bone on both of my wrists at my little finger. The ulna is the bony compact tissue. I might bleed to death, if I slice one of my vein arteries waiting for Duff Loyce from the Third National Bank to come back and then murder me.

I tug at the wire on my left ankle bone and feel the burn on my skin, closing my eyelashes, inhaling deeply from the pain. I am strapped down in a spread eagle pose and attached to a set of four wires on each ankle and wrist, feeling a cool breeze over my semi-nakedness as I wear only my bra and my girly panties underneath a soft partial blanket.

Loyce stands beside her bed mattress with a chuckle and a nod. "I know that you are awake, Nadean. You are resting on top of a newly purchased naked queen size bed mattress inside an undisclosed location of a dirt enclosed cavern underneath the red clay of Alabama, without any frozen waterfalls, dear. The Food and Drug Administration has issued a new dosage measurement for the sleep aid zolpidem. The wet mist, I sprayed into your face. It really wasn't fast enough to sedate your tallness. You have an excellent right hook, Dr. Garland," he reaches and touches a busted and bruised nose. "I would punish you for that slick maneuver but the electrified wires are doing that for me."

I tug at the wire on my right wrist bone and feel the burn on my skin, closing my eyelashes, inhaling deeply from the pain.

Wearing a Bam U short sleeved T-shirt, a pair of brown wool trousers, and a pair of green colored sneakers, tall and overweight Duff Loyce watches her with an evil smirk. "Based on the current FDA researched data, when taken at night, the blood levels of zolpidem remain high enough in the morning wake-up time to impair an activity that requires alertness, such as, driving with your hands or keeping your wrists away from a set of four smooth steel wires," chuckling.

I tug on the wire at my right ankle bone and feel the burn on my skin, holding my breath, relaxing my mind and my body from angry and nervousness.

"Be very careful, Nadean!" He smiles. "I read in this medical journal magazine that it takes forty-three muscles to frown like a clown; seventeen muscles to smile silly; eighty muscles to laugh, and forty-nine muscles to cry. And it takes eight muscles to reach out and bitch slap someone."

I exhale and tire of his banter, wishing that I could bitch slap one of his fatty pinky cheekbones straight up to the moon, tugging on the wire of my right ankle bone and feel the burn on my skin. I hold my breath, relaxing my body and my mind again.

"But I would not recommend any laughing or giggling or maybe not any breathing, since the wires are gently gliding across your exposed flesh. To extend an arm, you use four muscles. At rest, the body uses three hundred muscles, pumping red blood into your beating heart or breathing oxygen through your diaphragm or snoring with your tongue movement. Your tongue actually works at night back and forth, draining the salvia from the mouth cheeks. If you turn about in your sleep, which is not highly required with your beautiful shiny decorative bracelets, complements of me, then your body uses the stomach, the arm, or the leg muscles to accomplish that feat."

I tug at the wire on my left wrist bone and feel the burn on my skin, holding my breath, relaxing my mind and my body again.

"The new FDA guideline for the drug zolpidem suggests to administer only fifty percent from the recommended manufacturer medicine dosage of ten milligrams for a girl, because the new research data has proved that a girl takes longer to eliminate that nasty drug out of her female biological system. I wished that I had read that FDA issued monthly informative report before. Then, I would have given you the ten milligrams, instead of five. So therefore, girlfriend, you ain't going be your selfie for a few more hours, maybe not until the late afternoon, since you do not seem to eat enough daytime meals, either. You should take better care of your person, Nadean. After all, you do have a son."

"OT..." I whisper and tug at the wire on my left ankle bone, feeling the burn on my skin.

Loyce chuckles, "Now, I know you truly love and care for your boy OT. Each time you move or grunt or exhale, the wire will burn your skin." He turns and views the new pink marks on her exposed right ankle skin. "You are right-side dominate. Therefore, your right limbs are going to possess more burn marks. The wires configuration is designed to trap you permanently, until I return. If you try to swing a foot from the wire, then your other three bones shift sideways the right way into the individual wiring, thus burning you. I am genius, of course. You stay put. I suggest totally relaxing while sleeping it off until the end of the football game. I would use that little concept called mind over matter, because the wires are going to matter to you, Nadean."

I tug at the wire on my left wrist bone and feel the burn on my skin, holding my breath, relaxing my mind and my body again.

Loyce looks down and punches a number into the mobile telephone in his hand with a smile and a chuckle. "I know that your son loves and cares for his mama. I'm going to call OT on my new mobile telephone. Don't worry, honey. This phone call cannot be traced back to me or to you. I greatly desire for you to instruct OT to throw, toss, or blow the national championship game for Burn U. I cannot guarantee that Burn U will win the championship football title, this year. But I can ensure that Burn U will lose the championship football title this year, since your son is the star linebacker. What do they say about him? O yes. He eats quarterbacks and footballs for breakfast, brunch, lunch, supper, and dinner. That is quite an impressive hillbilly honor from the local rednecks." He lifts the telephone to his eardrum with a smile.

"I agree with the professional sporting announcers that OT Sims can affect with an 'A' for very good. So, OT Sims will affect the outcome of the championship game like lose, when he discovers that his mama is in dire straits. Or the 'bestest' words would be closer to death. Nadean, I see that you are struggling. When you tug on one or two of the thin steel wiring, surrounding a wrist or an ankle bone, it will slice into the skin and then burn it raw. So, please, do not move and breathe lightly, darling," he clears his throat with a smile.

I tug at the wire on my right wrist bone and feel the burn on my skin, closing my eyelashes, breathing slowly and release my fighting fury to survive for OT.

I open my eyelashes, seeing a dirt ceiling, a dirt wall, and Loyce. He holds the telephone to his eardrum, waiting to threaten my son OT with my eternal death, if OT does not blow the national championship game today by five pm in favor of Duff Loyce and his millions of gambling dollars.

I exhale with a heavy puff of angry and worry and feel the burn on my left wrist bone, closing my eyelashes, thinking of emptiness, nothingness, seeing darkness, where no pain or worry or sadness or happiness lives within my active and worried mind.

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on a left ankle bone, relaxing my mind and my body into an event of my childhood.

I slowly exhale and relax, lounging my mental mind on a sea shoreline then on a mountain peak, then in a valley of wildflowers, and finally inside my mother's womb.

I relax and remember the description of my newborn birth.

Nadean Orion Garland was the first born child of Urall and Jadean Garland in the rural town of Brier within the US State of Alabama fifty-three years ago on May, the eighteenth.

Seven days old newborn daughter Nadean Orion Garland

Thursday May 25th

08:08 a.m.

City of Brier within the US State of Alabama

(91 miles, north, from metro city Birmingham)

Physician office setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunlight

"Cold and crying," the mom of Nadean, short, black-haired, and dark-skinned eighteen years old Jadean Garland said with a sour frown, rocking a pale-skinned and black-haired newborn baby between her folded arms, looking up with a stern face to see the physician inside a tiny white colored examination room with a single table and wash sink. "She be a little like one of them midgets and sleeps, not moving all the night and the day then awakes up hungry, wet, and crying. Something's wrong with her, doctor."

The short, bald, dark-skinned physician looked down with a smile to see the pink blanket. "Mrs. Garland, you are a new mama that creates worry and concern over your newborn. But I can attest that babies grow while they sleep into big strong kids." He turned and stared the medical chart of newborn Nadean, "Hmm! She came into the world weighing in at five pounds and six ounces, measuring at seventeen inches, which is very, very tiny for a newborn. She has gained a little weight and looks nice with glowing pink skin." He reached over and unfolded the blanket with a smile and a nod at the pink newborn. "Ah! She's a pretty thing."

"What's a pretty thing?" Jadean looked down with a sour frown at her newborn daughter Nadean.

He reached down and gently patted the black curls of newborn Nadean as the baby kicked and yawned from her newborn slumber. "Endearment mostly, if I had to assign a definition, I would say a property of pretty."

"Pretty means no smarts."

He shook his skull with a smile at newborn Nadean, "Not necessary, Mrs. Garland. There are many women in the big world that possess both beauty and smarts. The combination traits are documented and recorded throughout ancient and present world history."

"This ain't history. This be a doctor's office." She gently rubbed a hand over the skull of the newborn and presented her covered hand to the physician. "Look. Her hair falls out. Something's wrong with her."

He gently rubbed a hand over the skull of the newborn too, holding a set of short black curls with a smile and a nod. "There's nothing wrong, Mrs. Garland."

"I find it all over the place in her crib, on the floor, in her bath water. She be going bald. The baby be a freak like at the circus. She be in a freak show, when she grows up. Make her hair stop falling out, doc?"

The physician gently pulled and rested the newborn on top of the medical examination table with a smile and a nod. "Mrs. Garland, large scale hair loss is quite normal in newborn babies. Her black hair will be replaced, maybe, blonde..."

"Blonde? I ain't blonde. I gots black hair. My mama gots black hair. We all gots black hairs. Ya be insulting me, doc? I be pure in my loins, when I gots married. Yes, sir, I be pure."

The physician touched and examined the newborn with a smile and a nod. "I was explaining that her hair might change color. Mr. Garland has a sister with a head of blonde hair."

Jadean sneered. "Don't see her. How ya know her?"

"I graduated from Brier High School too. I remembered..."

"She lives far, far away from Brier, away from her family. She likes living away from the family. She don't like Bama or her family."

"Your baby is healthy and growing. I would predict that the baby's hair will completely off out and then re-grow within the next couple of month."

"She be bald."

"I promise. Your Pretty Thing will have lots of beautiful hair, Mrs. Garland," the physician lifted and handed the newborn back to the mother with a smile and a nod.

Jadean sneered at her newborn daughter.

Four years old daughter Nadean

Thursday July 1st

11:11 a.m.

City of Brier

Farm and home of Jadean and Urall Garland

Living room setting

Hot temperatures and bright sizzling sunlight

Inside the brown colored living room, I looked up with a stern face to see her for the first time. She was tall like my daddy and displayed a head of long blonde hair, a pair of blue eyes, and a tone of dark skin.

Her daddy reached over and wrapped an arm around her collar bone, looking down with a smile and a nod to see his four years old, first born daughter, "Nadean, this is your Aunt Collie. Aunt Collie flew on an airplane from the US State of Florida. That be far, far away from here, slick. She came to Alabama for your Grandma Garland's birthday party. We celebrate with a family reunion every year around the Fourth of July."

Aunt Collie squatted down in her pretty party dress of pale blue with a smile and a nod at the child. "Nadean, that's a pretty name. I brought you a little gift, a Palomino pony."

"Pony..." I grabbed and hugged the new toy with a grin and a giggle from Aunt Collie.

Aunt Collie reached and patted the hair of Nadean. "The pony has a head of blonde hair with a tone of golden tinted skin, like me and you, sweetheart."

Her daddy squatted with a smile and a nod to Nadean too. "What'da ya say, slick?"

"Thank ya, Aunt Collie," I patted the pony with a giggle and a grin.

Aunt Collie extended her hand with a smile and a nod to her niece. "Nadean, would you like to eat a plate of barbeque with me?"

I nodded with a grin, taking her hand, cuddling my new pony with a giggle.
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

11:50 a.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on my left ankle bone, seeing a dirt ceiling and close my eyelashes, relaxing my mind and my body into an event of my childhood.

Six years old daughter Nadean

Friday August 17th

7:45 a.m.

City of Brier

Home of Jadean and Urall Garland

Living room setting

Hot temperatures and partly sunny with clouds

First day of Brier Elementary School

"Bus," Jadean squatted down and lifted up her six-year-old daughter from the dull wooden floor and away from the active black and white television screen, wearing a sour frown, turning to the open front door.

I continued to stare at the black and white funny cartoons with a giggle and a smile behind the collar bone of my mama.

She stopped and dropped the child at the open front door, pointing at the yellow colored long school bus on the roadway, saying with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Tara and Ashley is on that bus, Nadean. Ya sit between them. Ya hear me, girly? They take ya to school to Mrs. White. She be your first grade teacher. And ya mind your manners and listen to her, girly."

"Don't wanna go!" I turned to see the parked yellow school bus and did not want from my spot and leave old my friends, the television and the blanket.

The wooden front door opened.

"Get, girly!" Jadean shoved her daughter Nadean out the door from the antebellum house with a set of six tall white columns.

The front porch had four windows. Each window was so low that I could climb onto the ledge in my bare feet. And so high, I could stand without touching each side of the window frame. But I was not supposed to do that. Or I would get whipped by my mama's horse riding crop which stung, when it encountered my tender baby skin.

The far window on the second floor of my house was my private bedroom. The far window on the first floor on the ground floor was the sewing room with lots of colored fabrics, sharp needles, geometric shaped buttons, and a sewing machine, where my mama worked to make my party clothes or fix my daddy's work shirts.

I did not play there but got stuck a lot in there, when my mama pinned up my homemade dresses for hemming the fabric. She would stab my legs too. Then I cried. Then she yelled at me and then I left the sewing room for my bedroom on the second floor.

I dashed ahead over the concrete front porch and down each concrete step, racing over the manicured green grass to the yellow school bus, climbing each step alone moving through an empty narrow aisle with a smile and sat between my cousins Tara and Ashley on the school bus. They were older tall girls with black colored hair and pale skin and two cheerleaders at the football game plus my cousins from the Garland family tree. I was used to seeing them at Sunday school class, when I went. But I did not go anymore, since my mama had three more babies. So we stayed home and watched the black and white television device.

07:55 a.m.

Brier Elementary School

(Two miles, west, from Nadean's house)

Mrs. White's first grade setting

Cool morning air temperatures and bright sunlight

Tall and muscular black haired Tara stood from the seat and led her six-year-old cousin Nadean off the school bus and into the red bricked elementary school building, moving down a crowded dull beige colored hallway of small children and parents to the first grade classroom.

I stood at an open archway with a confused brow, staring a white colored room with four walls and a row of high windows on the opposite wall.

Tara shoved Nadean into the elementary room which was filled with an assortment of wooden school desks, tall adults, and small noisy children.

I moved inside and advanced to an empty school desk on the first column, sitting inside the cold wooden seat, cupping both my hands over the smooth surface with a stern face.

In front of the room, a row of individual silver tinted metal chairs stood against the black colored chalkboard, where an array of the biological parents occupied each seat. The parents were all females which represented one mother from one first grader.

In the middle the row, Abby wore a long red dress with bright red hair and a tone of pale skin sitting next to her friend Corene. Abby leaned over with a whisper and a frown to her farm neighbor friend, "Corene, is that Jadean's oldest daughter, walking in front of us and sitting at the school desk?"

Corene wore a yellow colored long red dress with a head of blonde hair and a tone of dark skin, turning to see the brown colored boot heels of the first grader, saying with a nod and a smile. "Yeah, she's a little doll. Isn't she?"

"She's different looking."

Corene frowned with a whisper. "Her appearance is called exotic-looking like a foreigner from that country of Japan over the Atlantic Ocean near the country of England, Abby. You aren't supposed to be envious or jealous sayeth the Lord."

"Just a comment," Abby smirked with a nod. "The child's features are bizarre at best with her frosted hair of silver that matches her hunting gray eyes coupled against her bronze skin. She could be in a horror movie in Hollywood."

Corene frowned with a whisper, "A nasty comment, Abby. Her hair is called platinum blonde. Hollywood movie film stars spend hundreds of dollars to dye their roots that color and hope for the best. The locks of Nadean are truly natural. But I can't figure where it came from on her family tree. She has her daddy's gray eyes plus his bronze complexion. See? There's not much mystery there, Abby."

Abby shook her curls with a confused brow and a whisper. "I don't know about that. Do you know the gossip going around about Jadean? She drunk all the time with that harder stuff whiskey, not wine during the child's conception and smoked like a sailor with five cigarettes a day. I didn't smoke that much a day and stopped, when I found out about Zeeta. Then I started back with one cigarette a day. It helps with the stress of a rising a brilliant and talented child."

Corene parted her lips with a whisper. "Abby. That's just nonsense. Whiskey and cigarettes aren't going to change a child's hair color."

Abby nodded with a smirk and a whisper. "Well, I tell you something did. Jadean has dark midnight black hair like her baby girl Dorcee. That's from her great grandmother Sloan. My mama says that elderly woman was meaner than a rattlesnake."

"Your mama calls everyone meaner than a rattlesnake, including you, Abby." Corene smiled.

Abby frowned. "Dorcee is pretty like Jadean with her black hair and her pale skin on a heart shaped face along with her big green doe eyes. She's going to break a lot of cowboy hearts as a teen."

Corene nodded with a smile, "Dorcee is definitely competition among the pretty cowgirls for drooling cowboys. She is one years old. And the twins are cute as bugs with their carrot top fuzz and tone of pink skin like a pair of baby piglets at two years old."

"Every one of these kids looks different from each other. I wonder if Urall's the real daddy..."

"Abby, stop your gossip..."

"One wonders with a mama like Nadean's Grandmother Garland, who thinks she's the queen of Brier. She researched her family tree and found that she's the thirty-fifth cousin to Queen Catherina Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII. He was king of England a long, long time ago. If really so, she still looks like a coot, wearing that jewelry around her neck, arms, and earlobes."

Corene frowned with a whisper. "Another cat claw extended, Abby. I know for a fact that her sons purchased that fine jewelry of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, jade, pearls, and diamonds from all over the world as World War Two soldiers, giving those presents to their mama."

"She birthed sons like kittens. Urall is number eight of eleven children and the baby."

"Half her children are dead. You should respect her courage and commitment to carry on, without her loving kids, Abby."

"I do, Corene. I'm just commenting on some of our more elaborate citizens of Brier, including Nadean. She favors the Garland's more than the Sloan's. She is so skinny and frail, coming from Jadean's whiskey consumption. And I know that fact. Look at her stumble in her cowgirl boots with those skinny little legs and big feet."

"She's a growing child, Abby. She might be tall like her daddy..."

"Or short like her mama, her aunt, and her grandma. All the females on the Sloan side are short, while the males on the Garland side are blind and tall." Abby chuckled.

Corene frowned, "Is that another nasty comment coming from your parted lips, Abby? I hope you repent in church on Wednesday night."

Abby pursed her lips. "You are snobby, today, Corene. I state a historical fact that every single male on the Garland family tree wears eyeglasses and stands over six feet tall. Mark my words! Those two Garland twins will wear glasses and stand tall."

"I hope Olivia is tall. She has seemed to slow down growing."

"Did she cry when you pulled Teague out the door this morning for his first day of school?"

"Mewed like a kitten for her mama. But her grandma is baking chocolate chip cookies and her grandpa is riding her on the stallion, until Teague returns back home this afternoon from his first day of elementary school. I'm so happy they're close as brother and sister. Olivia will start next year right here with Mrs. White, if Teague and the other cowboys didn't run her off the school ground. I see Stratton, Purcell, Eckward, Brock, and Kersey. These little boys drive their mamas loco. I hope Mrs. White can handle them."

Abby smiled with a whisper. "She's been teaching first grade, since we were seniors and graduated from here, Corene." Corene nodded with a giggle.

"Class," Mrs. White stood upright with a head of gray tinted hair, a plump body frame, and a pair of thick eyeglasses, slapping the wall with her hand and a stern face. "I am Mrs. White like the color white on the wall here."

On the wall of metal folding chairs, Corene frowned with a whisper to Abby. "Did she do that when we were in the first grade, Abby?"

Abby shook her curls with a confused brow and a whisper. "Naw, I think that's a new behavior."

In front of the wall, Mrs. White said with a stern face, "White, the color of the wall," she reached out and slapped the chalkboard next. "This color is black, not white. The chalk board is black. My name is Mrs. White. Please stand from your seat and move to the rear wall," she turned and viewed Abby. "And you, mamas are the new room mothers. Please stay inside your metal chairs against the chalkboard and help me with the roll call. The children will be seated in alphabetic order, starting with the letter A occupying the first seat in the first row until we get to the letter B."

Each first grader scooted out a school desk, turning and moved to the rear wall, stopping and standing in a long line against the fresh white paint with a sour frown.

On the row of silver tinted metal chairs, Corene leaned with a puzzled brow and a whisper to Abby. "Is this normal?"

Abby whispered back with a stern face, "Her classroom."

Mrs. White pointed and motioned to the first grader. "Renita Anderson." The tall girl stared at the teacher with a confused brow, displaying short brown colored hair and pale skin. Mrs. White said. "Renita, please come off the wall and sit here in the first seat by the door. Come on, honey." Renita pranced to the first chair with a smile and a giggle.

On the row of metal chairs, Abby smirked with a whisper to Corene. "Not smart, not pretty, but good limbs for cartwheels. She'll be a cheerleader for shore."

Corene frowned. "Why did you say, not smart? What in the world are you basing your traits on, Abby?"

"Corene, we know every single parent of these children. We all go to church on Sunday morning preaching, then Sunday afternoon lunch, then Sunday evening supper and on Wednesday night singing. We see each other in the only grocery store for buying gas and loaf bread and shop at the same local department store for clothes and furnishings. Then we meet each month at the church's fellowship hall for the school's PTA meetings and farm stuff. On top of all that, we went to school with their parents. And their grandparents went to school with their grandparents. So, my assessment is based on decades of observance and studying their blood-kinfolks."

Corene nodded with a grin and a whisper. "I accept that explanation. Renita's mama was a cheerleader with us. And the tradition must continue at Brier High School."

"Nettie Ayers," Mrs. White pointed and motioned to the first grader. The short girl with long black hair and yellow skin marched to the second chair with a smile and a giggle.

"Pretty thing," Abby smiled with a whisper.

Corene parted her lips with a sour frown and a whisper, "Pretty thing? That word is both disgusting and degrading for a young Southern girl."

Abby smiled. "Naw, Corene! It is a proper method of description. These young girls do not have much smarts, but really cute. Future husbands look for them pretty things to boss around and do their pleasuring."

Corene frowned. "Abby Trummer, are you telling me that little cute Nettie will only be a piece of meat and a taste of pleasure for her future hubby? She might decide to go to college and be a rocket scientist."

Abby smiled, "Pretty thing, first! Nettie might, but her mama ain't. Daughters do exactly as they are told by their mamas. That's the Southern way..."

"Kersey Bibb," Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader. The boy displayed an average height body frame, a head of brown hair, and dark skin, dashing ahead from the rear wall with a laugh and a grin to the next empty school desk.

Abby smiled, "Class clown. His family is wealthier than the Lord. But he's a whacky little boy, not mean to the other kids, but whacky, like he's crazy." Corene nodded with a smile.

"Norbert Blakely."

Norbert displayed a tall body frame, a head of short dirty blonde hair, and a tone of pale skin, slowly moving away from the rear wall, stopping and sliding down in the new seat with a smile and a nod.

Abby frowned. "Ya know that little boy is very odd always staring at..."

"Whacky, odd, bizarre, you've learned some new adjectives, Abby. You have been seeing too many soap operas on TV instead of spending value time with the family." Corene smiled.

"Rosalina Burns."

Rosalina displayed a petite body frame with a head of long brown hair and a tone of dark skin, slowly moving away from the wall, stopped, and examined the new school desk and sitting down, placing her crocheted cloth bag over the school tray with a smile.

"Poor thing! Her mama is an alcoholic. Poor little thing is going to become just like her mama too." Abby nodded with a sour frown and a whisper to Corene.

"Joelle Claiborne."

Joelle waddled on a plump body frame away from the wall with a smile, scooting into her new desk, displaying a head of red long hair and a tone of pink-skin.

Abby sneered. "She is fat like her sisters. There are three others in the family. All of them are started out with baby fat then thinned out as teens, looking pretty. I think that she'll be part of the marching band. Her sisters are also." Corene nodded with a grin.

"Prebble Coggins."

Prebble ran from the wall and slid down into her new school desk with a grin and a giggle, displaying a short body frame with a head of dark brown hair and a tone of yellow skin.

Abby said. "She's friends with the Claiborne girls, part of the marching band too."

"Zondra Durcarpe."

Zondra slowly moved from the wall with a smile and a giggle, sitting in her new desk, cupping her hands over her notebook with a nod to the teacher. She displayed average height and weight with a short black colored pixie hair style and a tone of dark skin.

Abby smiled. "She's smart like her two brothers. Both of them were valedictorian too. One's studying to be a doctor now."

"Stella Ellis."

Stella ran away from the wall and slid down into her new desk with a giggle and a smile, displaying a tall body frame with a head of long auburn hair and a tone of pale skin.

Abby narrowed her eyelashes. "She's not really pretty but has an athletic type. But she ain't cheerleader material. Hmm! I just don't know about Stella."

Corene nodded with a puzzled brow. "Teague doesn't like her. I don't understand his reason. But Teague has good instincts for folks. There must be something there." She watched Stella too and witnessed her son Teague and his buddy Purcell horseplay against the rear wall. They were shoving on each other.

"Nash Ellis."

Nash did not move from the wall until one of the boys shoved his body. Then Nash raced ahead to his new school desk with a laugh and a grin, sitting down, wiggling with a laugh inside the chair. He displayed a head of brown hair, a tone of a pale skin on average height body frame.

Abby smiled, "Redneck extraordinaire! Is his daddy still in jail for beating his mama?"

Corene smirked. "Hattie Jean has a gun, Abby. No one beats on her. That's why Holland went to jail, because she threatened to kill Holland. So, the sheriff arrested him for his protection, not prosecution."

"Purcell Emerson."

Purcell shoved Teague one more time and then strutted down the aisle to his new desk, sitting and slapped the desk surface with both his hands and a laugh. He displayed a tall body frame with a head of red hair and a tone of pale skin.

Abby smiled with a nod, "Football player! His brother is a beasty too. He is located in the second grade. This class might make the football champion playoffs in their senior year."

Corene smiled with a nod. "Tyson'd be tickled pink, if Teague and his buddies brought home the Division I AAA champion trophy to small town Brier. I swear I don't know how the men-folk function without Friday night high school football games and Saturday afternoon college university football games either."

"They would spend more time with us," Abby smiled.

Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader. "Finnis Ferguson."

Finnis ran from the wall and slid into his school desk, beating on the table surface with his hands like Purcell. He displayed a tall body frame with a head of brown hair and tone of pale skin.

Abby said. "That's Margaret's son. She's getting a divorce from Jimmy Dean. Heard tell! Jimmy Dean's moving into the big city, out of the house, and off the farm."

"Her daddy owns all these cotton fields and farmland. Real sad about that divorce, too, since that's so usual here in Brier." Corene nodded with a sad face.

"Flossie Furman." Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader. The short girl slowly pranced from the wall, touching the collar bone of each boy with a grin and a giggle, stopping at her new desk and sat with a giggle. She displayed a head of strawberry blonde hair and a tone of dark skin.

Abby smiled with a nod. "Flossie is like her mama, an innocent silly flirt. That must be a genetic flaw in that family tree. She's a cute thing but not too bright."

"Pretty thing," Corene smiled.

Abby nodded with a smile, "Yeah, she is a pretty thing, but she can twirl a baton like her mama. I see her practicing outside her yard during the summertime. She will definitely become a majorette in the Brier marching band."

"Nadean Garland." Mrs. White pointed and motioned to the first grader with a stern face.

I moved ahead from the wall and stomped to a new school desk, sliding inside with a stern face. I possessed a short, skinny body frame with a head of silver tinted hair to my waistline and a tone of dark skin.

"Pretty thing," Corene grinned.

"Teague Haywood," Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader.

Teague turned and punched a fist into the chest of his friend Eckward, marching forward to his new school desk, sat inside the chair, and slapped the table surface with both palms with a chuckle and a grin. He displayed a tall and slender body frame with a head of blonde hair and a tone of dark skin.

Corene frowned, "Uh, ho."

Abby turned and frowned at the nose profile of Corene. "What's wrong, Corene? Are ya sick feeling?"

Corene shook her curls with a worried brow. "Poor little skinny Nadean, she is sitting directly before Teague."

"Maybe, there's another letter H, before Haywood." Abby turned and scanned each child, "Out of luck, Corene! Teague is the only letter H and Nadean is the only letter G. So it seems like they're made to rumble. And you can't do nothing about it, Corene. She is different from the other kids. If Teague has good instincts like you say, then he'll stay far away from that pretty thing."

"My boy will drive her crazy. I see that I'm going to have a talking to with that young man." Corene nodded with a stern face.

"Shelby Irvan." Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader. Shelby did not move from the wall at first, standing with a laugh and then marched forward to his new desk and slapped Teague on the collar bone. He displayed a plump body frame with a head of bright red hair and a tone of pale skin.

Teague turned around and slapped his hand at Shelby, missing.

Corene frowned. "Too bad, Shelby wasn't behind Teague that'd keep my boy in line."

Abby gasped. "Corene, ya sound vicious. That's your baby..."

"Baby tiger, when fully feed," giggled Corene.

"Danielle Issum." Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader.

Danielle slowly moved away from the wall, sitting in her new school desk with a smile, displaying a short body frame with a head of black hair and a tone of red skin.

"Pretty thing," Abby smiled.

Corene frowned. "Be careful, Abby! She's the preacher's daughter. If Mary overheard these words, she'd faint."

"Warned," Abby nodded with a giggle.

"Purdy Jones," Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader.

Purdy displayed a plump tall body frame with a head of brown hair and a tone of pale skin, slowly moving from the wall, waddling to her new desk and sat with a smile.

Abby frowned, "The second fatso of the class. Her mama is fat. Her grandmother is fat. Her aunt..."

"Abby, God created us different, not the same." Corene shook her curls with a sour frown.

"Eckward Lowman," Mrs. White pointed and motioned with a stern face to the first grader at the wall.

Eckward ran away from the wall and slid down into his new desk with a laugh and a grin, displaying a tall body frame with a head of black hair and a tone of dark skin.

Abby said. "Seeing young Eckward reminds me, I'm supposed to mention the meeting for our men-folk about the new government program. The thing is called the Cotton Research and Promotion Act."

"Is this dangerous for us, folks here in Brier, Abby?" Corene frowned.

Abby shook her curls. "Naw, the program is coming from the US Federal Government."

"Why is a government man coming here to Brier? That must be the first time."

"And the last time, Webster says that this new government program is only for tonight's meeting. He's very excited about it and has called all the Brier farmers to come to the church's fellowship hall after supper tonight at six o'clock. Tell Tyson that Webster wants to participate in the government man's show too."

Corene shook her curls with a worried brow. "Participate in what, Abby? I don't know about this G-man."

Abby giggled, "G-man, that's clever, Corene. Webster explained to me. We grow cotton. So, the government wants to buy our cotton for lots of money. Then it ensures that we got a steady income, every year."

Corene nodded with a sour frown. "That sounds too good."

Inside the second column of school desks, in the chair, six-year-old Teague reached up and stabbed the eraser on her back spine, laughing with a grin, "Uh, ho."

Mrs. White slapped a hand on the white wall for attention as the children jumped up inside each chair. She said with a stern face to her students. "Attention! Each child has been re-seated now. Children and all the room mothers, please stand upright on the floor. Every morning at this school along with thousands of children across the United States of America, we will recite in unison the Pledge of Allegiance to our United States flag. Place your left hand across your chest above the heart. And say with me. I..."

All the students and the room mothers stood and chanted in unison. "...pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

Mrs. White said, "Please bow your heads for the morning prayer, Our Father..."

All the students and the room mothers bowed a chin and chanted in unison. "...who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen."

Mrs. White looked up with a stern face to see the children and mothers. "Sit, children and room mothers."

All the children and the room mothers sat inside a seat in silence.

"Amen. Amen. Amen." Kersey continued to stand and loudly a cheer and a clap.

"Thank you, Kersey. Sit down." Mrs. White ordered and sat behind a long desk, without any papers or pencils or apples with a stern face.

Corene stood and turned, moving to the teacher, leaning down with a smile. "Mrs. White, I believe some of the children are having trouble seeing the writing blackboard. Why don't you place the taller kids in the row of rear seats, while the little ones occupy the closer desks?"

Mrs. White turned and viewed her students with a stern face and a nod. "I agree. We have five perfect rows with five students each. So, I will take the first two rows, shifting the children around. You take rows three and four, Mrs. Haywood."

"Thank you, Mrs. White." Corene smiled with a nod, turning and moving to the third and fourth rows of first graders.

Mrs. White stood and turned, moving to the first row of students. "Kersey, you and Rosaline switch places now." Kersey stood with a laugh. Mrs. White said with a stern face. "Grab your First Grade paper tablet, Kersey, and swap desks with her."

Rosaline stood near her new desk with a confused brow.

Kersey reached over and shoved Rosaline away from his new desk with a laugh and sat, slamming his paper tablet down over the table surface with a laugh and a grin. "I'm hungry."

Mrs. White frowned. "Lunch is at eleven o'clock. Hush, child. Renita, move into Norbert's desk."

"I like this desk in front of my friend Kersey." Norbert slapped the table surface with a smile and a nod.

"Up, Norbert! Please take your paper table with you also." Mrs. White jabbed a finger at the empty school desk. Norbert stood and moved into the new seat with a frown.

Kersey burped out loud and stood from his new seat, turning and facing the kids, scratching his body like a monkey with a set of funny sounds.

All the students sounded with laughter and pointed at Kersey.

Mrs. White frowned. "Hush, Kersey! Or ya get your nose put in the corner for punishment."

Kersey picked his nostrils and ate his boogers, turning to seat at his new desk, slapping his hands over the table surface and chewed his boogers.

Corene strolled to the child with a smile and a nod, touching his collar bone. "Eckward, please stand and move..."

Abby stood, turning and moving to the third row with a smile and a nod to her daughter. "Zeeta, move over here to the front row desk, sweetie. So you can hear and see your teacher better to make good grades." Her daughter stood from her old seat and moved to the empty one with a smile. Her mama straightened the pretty bow around her hairline with a smile.

Corene moved and touched the collar bone of female child, "Nadean, sweetheart, please move..."

"Naw," Teague stood from the chair and reach down, slapping his hand at the other collar bone on Nadean, shaking his skull with a sour frown. "Naw, Mama! She stays right here in front of me."

"Don't you want your friend Eckward next to you, Teague?" Corene smiled down at the blonde hair roots of her son.

Teague turned and pointed to his buddies with a smile and a nod, keeping a hand on the collar bone of Nadean. "Get up Stratton, Eckward and come over here. And redneck Nash, over there, too." Nash turned and waved with a smile to Corene as she turned and smiled at Nash in silence. Teague ordered with a sour frown. "Get up, Stella! Eckward sits there. Ya move over yonder near Waverly."

Stella huffed at bossy Teague, standing and moving to a new school desk.

Eckward stood upright from the chair and moved ahead, sitting inside the new chair, slamming down his new notebook on the top of the table surface and slapped Teague on the shirt with a chuckle and a grin.

Each room mother assisted moving the taller children to the rear of the room and the shorter children to the front of the room. Then all they turned and moved back into the row of metal chairs for the classroom lesson for the first day of Brier Elementary School.

Mrs. White grabbed and held a wooden yard stick, facing the children, slapping it on a line of colorful symbolic alphabetic letters which were glued on the wall above the chalk board. "Children, please sit. And please quiet down. Today, we are going to learn our A, B, C's." She turned and pointed to the letter with a stern face. "This is the letter A for apple. Do you the red apple beside the letter? Say 'A.'"

"A." The first graders chanted in unison.

"Say: A is for apple." Mrs. White banged the yellow tinted wooden yard stick against the upper wall for a second time.

"A is for apple." The first graders chanted in unison.

Teague slapped the collar bone on Nadean and leaned down into her silver tinted long hair. "Hey! What's ya name?"

I leaned forward from his slap and bumped my chest into the edge of the table surface of my school desk without answering.

Mrs. White continue to bang the yellow colored yard stick against the upper wall over the black colored chalkboard again with a stern face. "This is the letter of B. B is for ball. See the blue ball next to the letter. Say: B for ball."

"B is for ball," The first graders chanted in unison.

Inside the student wooden desk, Teague continued to stab the eraser on his new school pencil into her back spine with a giggle and a grin. "Don't ya get a name, girl?"

I rolled my eyeballs, stretching my arms over the table surface of my desk, trying to move away from Teague and the eraser tip on his big first grade pencil.

Mrs. White continued to wear a stern face and banged the yard stick against the upper wall with a stern face. "This is the letter of H. H is for house. See the white house next to the letter? Say: H is for house."

"H is for house," The first graders chanted in unison.

"Teague be my name. What ya called, girl?" He chuckled with a grin, stabbing the eraser tip into her back spine again, touching her pretty silver tinted hair with his other hand.

I leaned over my table surface of my desk with a sour frown, shaking my hair from his dirty finger tips. I knew Teague from all the church picnics and our corn fields. He was my farm neighbor.

Mrs. White continued to bang the yard stick against the upper wall with a stern face. "This is the letter of M. M is for mouse. See the gray mouse next to the letter? Say: M is for mouse."

"M is for mouse," The first graders chanted in unison.

He leaned over his desk surface into her long hair with a chuckle and a smile, "Hey, girl! Ya called Nadean? That be your name. Now, ya know." Teague continued to poke the soft eraser into her back spine with a laugh.

Mrs. White continued to bang the yard stick against the upper wall with a stern face. "This is the letter of S. S is for star. See the silver colored star next to the letter? Say: S is for star."

"S is for star," The first graders chanted in unison.

"Sss... sss ...sss.... sss..." Kersey sounded like a hissing snake, standing from his chair with a chuckle, bowing his arms with a silly grin.

Mrs. White turned and frowned at Kersey. "Kersey, we do not stutter our alphabets."

Kersey nodded with a grin, "Yeah, ma'am. Animals stutter the alphabet, Miss White."

Mrs. White shook her gray colored curls with a sour frown to him. "No, Kersey."

Kersey nodded with a grin, "Yeah, ma'am. Last week, I was on the back porch with my little tiny kitten when our big dog came running around the house corner. My little tiny kitten arched its back and went ssss, ssss and before she could say shit. My dog ate her."

All the students laughed out loud and bounced up and down in the seat, pointing at Kersey.

Kersey turned and bowed at the waist with a laugh and a grin.

Each room mother gasped in a seat, slapping a hand over a mouth with a set of giggles.

Mrs. White turned and banged her yellow colored wooden yard stick on the wall, breaking it in half with a sour frown.

Nine years old daughter Nadean

Friday November 13th

7:07 p.m.

Brier High School

Harvest Moon Festival

Auditorium setting

Cold temperatures and clear night with bright stars

The Harvest Moon Festival was an empty time between the completion of the football games and upcoming exchange of the Christmas gifts. Each school grade voted on a boy and a girl couple to represent their academic class from elementary to high school. Then every mama baked a tray of cookies to sell for raising money. Thus, the academic class and the boy-girl couple with the highest money sale of baked goodies won the title of Brier royalty in the Harvest Moon Festival for the year.

Tonight, the festival had collected and counted all the money from each academic class and was prepared to crown the royalty of Brier elementary, middle school, and high school.

The school gymnasium was painted in dull beige but you couldn't see the painted wall when the rows of orange colored wooden bleachers stood on top of the yellow colored wooden floor that highlighted the basketball surface for each high school game during the season.

"Jadean," Abby appeared in a long brown colored dress and stood inside the open archway on the side of the gymnasium building, where the students entered for each physical education class. She stopped with a smile and a hand wave.

Jadean spun around from the center stage with a puzzled brow and scanned the crowd of students and parents for her name caller, wearing a long dark blue dress with a pair of brown colored boots.

I spun around and immediately found the name caller, staring with a smile at the pretty mother from my classmate Zeeta. I wear a pair of brown colored cowgirl boots and a long tan colored dress.

Her set of big boobs bounced side to side as and short, red haired Abby moved away from the open archway and stopped in front of Jadean with a puff of relieve, smiling with a nod, "Jadean, thank goodness! I found another mama from Zeeta's third grade class. Zeeta has the measles."

Jadean back stepped from Abby with a sour frown, since measles was a contagious childhood disease. She faked a smile with a nod. "O the poor dear child, I hope not too bad. She gets healed soon thou."

Abby lifted up and held a cloth bag near the smile, "Yeah, ma'am. My little pumpkin will get better very soon. But she is scheduled to appear in the Harvest Moon Festival in thirty minutes," she turned and viewed Nadean with a smile. "Can Nadean substitute for Zeeta in the Harvest Moon Festival, right now, in thirty minutes?"

I shook my curls with a sour frown, "Naw!" Since I hated Zeeta first. And, second, I hated Teague more. Teague and Zeeta had been voted as our third grade Harvest Moon Festival prince and princess by our classmates.

"I guess." Jadean frowned at Abby.

I shook my curls and both of my dirty hands at Abby, "It is princess Zita and prince Teague. Naw! Go and get..."

Jadean reached out and grabbed, squeezing the collar bone of Nadean with a sneer, "Hush, girly!" Jadean smiled with a nod to Abby. "Nadean, she be very honored to substitute for poor sick ill Zeeta."

Abby presented several objects coming from a purple colored cloth bag to Jadean with a smile. "Here are both the dress and the shoes and this storage bag."

"Why do me need a dress and a pair of shoes?" Jadean stared down at the two items.

Abby nodded with a smile. "Teague and Zeeta are set to wear matching outfits while they march from each side of the gym's theater stage."

I continued to shake my curls and both my dirty hands with a sour frown at Abby, "Naw."

Abby dumped the clothes back down into the hands of Jadean and swung about with a worried brow for her daughter, stopping and spun back around with a smile and a nod. "Jadean, keep the dress and the shoes over the weekend. I'll get it from you on Monday afternoon. Zeeta is very contagious, right now," she turned and left the gymnasium.

I continued to shake my long silver tinted curls and both my dirty hands with a sour frown and a sissy tone. "I be catching some bad bugs, Mama. Cough. Cough. Getting sick like Zita, now, if I wear..."

"Hush, girly!" Jadean smiled. "Ya can't catch something you ain't near." She reached out and grabbed, dragging Nadean, spinning around to face the smelly old locker room inside the gymnasium building, where the group of older girls changed their clothes for physical exercise.

"Mama!" I moved ahead and whined with a sour frown from the painful hand clamp on my arm and the nasty thoughts of wearing Zeeta's clothes and standing next to Teague.

"Sh, girly!" Jadean moved down each concrete stairs releasing the arm of Nadean and turned, strolling towards one of the open lockers and stopped. She slowly pulled out each item and sat it on top of the wooden shelf with smile.

I turned and skipped around the enclosed locker room with a worried brow while looking for a she-ghost. My school had been built over hundred years ago over a set of dead girl bones underneath the concrete per my smart classmate Renita. Renita said that all the teachers came together and killed all the bad kids for something evil.

Jadean reached down and patted the purple colored dress with a smile. "What a pretty dress? I bet it be mink."

"Naw!" I skipped around the floor with a sour frown and a hiss for seeing Teague too soon and wearing Zeeta's clothing too much. "It...uh...vel-tan..."

"Velveteen. That be a form of the fabric velvet. It feels like a rabbit. O my! The piping around the round collar, both arm sleeves, and the little bow in the middle of the bodice is rabbit fur."

"Why did Zita killed a rabbit to wear on her dress?" I skipped around the room in another circle, looking for the misplaced or sleeping she-ghosts.

"No, silly girly! A hunter with a shotgun killed the little white rabbit. Then a seamstress stitched the fur into the dress. This flock be so pretty."

I frowned and skipped around the room, "Naw!" Sine pretty was sitting down my butthole on top of the second bleacher, tossing a set of individual popcorn kernels at Teague with his school buddies as I laughed at his sucky princely performance within the Harvest Moon Festival.

"Take off your shirt and skirt, Nadean!" She patted the dress with a smile.

I skipped one more round of ghost hunting and stopped, standing in front of Jadean jerking off the shirt and the blue jean skirt, feeling cold in my pink girly panties and my pink and blue cowgirl boots. Jadean reached down and slipped the dress over the skull of Nadean. The dress was soft like kitten's fur attacking my naked skin as and I reached down and smoothed the short hairs up and down on my stomach with both my hands with a giggle and a grin.

"Stop that, Nadean! Sit down on the locker seat. Hold your right foot up." She ordered with a stern face as Nadean slowly scooted backwards and sat down with a giggle, lifting up a cowgirl boot. Jadean wiggled the boot and the sock off, jerking on a white tinted lace sock and a pretty black colored new shoe with a smile.

I dropped the foot down to the concrete with a sour frown, "The shoe is too tight." I leaned over and whacked the shoe bow with a giggle.

"Them white socks be so fancy with a satin bow and a curve of pretty lace." She wiggled the second sock and shoe over the naked foot of Nadean. "Stand, girly!"

I dropped down the second foot with a sour frown and stood upright from the locker seat in a pair of new stiff shoes, suffocating my toe bones, "Mama!"

"Nadean, this be a good thing here. Get ya good with all your school teachers. You ain't a smartie, girly." She smiled with a nod, pressing down the dress over Nadean's chest, shifting the hands over the body of Nadean.

I yelled out loud, "Ouch, Mama!"

She combed out the messy hair strands on Nadean with a sour frown, "You gots a bush of long wild silver wavy hair. Don't you own a brush, girly?"

"Yeah, ma'am!" Since I owned a hair brush but didn't brush my hair, because I was not going to attend church or visit my grandmother Garland at her home for a lunch meal. Jadean continued to run all fingers from the crown down to the curly ends of Nadean's hair.

My long silver tinted hair strands had always fascinated and failed my person, since it was not naturally curly or naturally straight. It was part straight or part wavy, depending on the humility of Alabama at six o'clock in the morning.

Jadean had given up dressing her first born daughter for school each morning. Since, Nadean was first born making the twin brothers birthed second and then third. And baby sister Dorcee was fourth born, who screamed for undivided attention from both her parents all the dang time.

I was pretty independent for an eight-year-old kid, but I had to obey my parents as The Bible stated.

Jadean smiled with a nod, removing her fingers. "Ya look pretty, Nadean. I hope ya win." She grabbed and dragged Nadean by the arm through the locker room, up the stairs, and finally posed her on the gym floor. Jadean patted the arm on Nadean with a smile and exited the hallway moving back into the bleachers with her husband and her other children.

Beside the square shaped archway that displayed the audience inside the gymnasium, Mrs. Clarkson spun around and pointed with a smile and a nod at an empty spot between the second and fourth graders Harvest Moon princesses.

I performed a slow putt-putt toward an empty spot looking down at the white colored bows on the dress as each bow danced side to side. Then I stopped in the right place.

Mrs. Clarkson wore a long red colored dress, a head of short black colored hair, and a ton of makeup that covered her natural pale skin, leaning over the silver tinted hair roots of Nadean with a smile. "You're a little pretty thing, Nadean."

"Thanks!" I defaulted with a whisper to my southern belle manner while fidgeting a body side to side with annoyance of seeing Teague.

On top of the gym surface at the stationary side wooden table, Principal Holden stood upright from his hard chair and wore a red, green, and black checkered shirt, a pair of blue jeans, holding a hand-held microphone with a smile and a nod, seeing the audience, "Howdy there, folks! Welcome to the forty-first Harvest Moon Festival event here at Brier high school." He clapped with the audience with a smile. The applause stopped. He sat down in the chair still holding the microphone, looking down to read the note cards of the students. "Okay! We start the night with the introduction and crowning of the Little Miss Princess and Little Master Prince of the Harvest Moon Festival. Them little tikes come from the elementary school section of Brier high, represented by the grades of one through three. Each boy and girl winner receives a great big golden trophy, donated by Harvey's Hardware Store. Give a round of applause to Harvey, folks!" The audience sounded with a series of claps and then silenced.

He nodded with a smile. "Okay! And an arm bouquet of pretty pink roses for the sweet royal princess, queen, and empress, donated by Alice's Flower Shop. Give a round of claps to Alice, folks!" The audience sounded with a series of claps and then silenced.

He smiled, "Okay! And for the winning places of a prince, a king, and an emperor, a fifth of moonshine," chuckling, "Naw, folks! I'm just joshing there, ya'll. The royal boys get a shiny gold belt buckle sculptured with an Indian head on it. Since, we are the fighting mighty Indian Braves of Brier. Go, Braves! Give a hand to Harvey again for the belt buckle!" The audience sounded with a series of claps and then silenced.

He smiled. "Okay! And that's not all, folks! The pretty royal gal gets a shiny crown, donated by Lawanda's Tea Shop, being modeled by last year's Empress Tianette Barnett. Show 'em, honey! And give a hand to Lawanda and Tianette!" Tianette entered from the side archway and slowly strolled around the parameter of the gym floor with a hand wave and a smile. The audience sounded with a series of claps and whistles and then silenced.

Principal Holden grinned with a nod. "Thank you, Tianette! She is the daughter of Russ and Bloomie Barnett. The royal guy gets a new cowboy hat, a white smooth felt with a black band. The hat and the belt buckle are donated by Garth's Feed Store. He says that ya'll boys can trade up the hat and the buckle for a new pair of cowboy boots, if your daddy agrees to pay the sales taxes. Just come into the store tomorrow morning on Saturday. Give a hand to Garth!" The audience sounded with a series of claps and whistles and then silenced.

He smiled. "The judging has been fair and square, folks. Each winner of each division was determined by the highest number of homemade chocolate cookies sold by all the students in each class. All cookies were sold at ten cents each. And all the money sacks with the dollar and coin cash were turned in, well, to me. Me, Dobbie, and Carson counted the monies, third times. Then we determined each winner. Let's meet all our royal couples first. The first grader little princess and prince couple is represented by Little Miss Elma..."

Clarkson was the fourth grade teacher at Brier elementary school in charge of all the princesses, squatting down on her kneecaps, sweet breathing into the nose profile of Nadean, "Nadean dear! Since Zeeta is sick and you didn't practice the princess walk, I'll give you the instructions. Okay?"

Geez! I will move away from her and trot down into the middle of the floor waiting for the announcement of the winner coming from Principal Holden, hoping it was not my person, because the Brier newspaper totaled ten pages with a front and a back section all inclusive of numerous pictures of children, teenagers, housewives, horses, and the smiling winners of the Brier High School Harvest Moon Festival. You could not find one single article on the latest USA or world new events. Since, there was no room between the smiling faces of Brier jackasses like my classmate Teague Haywood.

"You will slowly walk in a straight line, following the end of the theater stage and then stop and smile. Show your pretty face. Then you turn slowly to your left," she touched the arm of Nadean with a smile and a nod. "That is your left arm, honey. Then ya'll see Teague on the opposite side of the gymnasium floor. He will come from the boys' locker room to meet you. Then you slowly walk in a straight line to Teague, meeting him in the middle of the floor. You hold Teague's hand..."

"Naw!" I shook my curls with a sour frown and a tongue of mouth spit, "I ain't holding Teague's dirty hand for nothing."

"A southern belle is always escorted in public by her southern gentleman, little miss. Teague holds a right arm out. Then you grab it and hold with your left hand. Your mama has taught you this, Nadean."

"Yeah, ma'am!" I surrendered with a puff of annoyance as a true southern belle under distress of the adult supervision.

She nodded with a smile. "Good girl! You and Teague slowly walk towards the center of the gym. Ya'll stand on the head of our mascot, the lonely red brave. Do you understand my instruction, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, ma'am," I frowned.

Principal Holden smiled into the microphone at the table. "The third grade little miss princess representative is Little Miss Nadean Garland, who's the daughter of Urall and Jadean Garland. Pretty Nadean is substituting for Zeeta Trummer, since she got the measles. The Harvest Moon Festival little master prince is Teague Haywood."

I rolled my eyeballs without moving after hearing my name from Holden and returned the eyeballs to stare at the audience inside the gym bleachers. Clarkson gently shoved Nadean forward into the floor. I slowly moved ahead over the open floor and turned a sharp left to face Teague, who stood on the opposite side of the gymnasium floor. I curled my lips sideways refusing to smile at Teague, who wore a stupid grin. However, he looked really cute in his dark red colored sports jacket, a slick black bow tie, a pair of comfortable blue jeans, and his favorite pair of black colored cowboy boots.

They met in the middle.

Teague plowed the bowtie right into her face, standing a head taller than Nadean with a chuckle and a smile, backing up with a wink and grabbed her naked arm.

And then they turned and slowly moved towards the circle that held an Indian face, stopping, standing on top of the feather headpiece.

Teague had rehearsed his prince walk with Zeeta three times, since she bragged yesterday. He knew where to stand as the prince representative of the third grade class.

Teague stopped as the bows on her dress wiggled side to side. He leaned over with a whisper and a smile into her nose profile. "Ya look pretty, Nadean."

"Uh huh," I looked up and scanned for my mother within the audience bleachers.

Teague continued to smile and whisper into her nose profile. "Ya dress shines like purple grapes."

"Nu huh," I turned and scanned the bleachers for my father.

"Ya hair looks like star twinkles." Teague moved closer and cuddled Nadean with a smile and a whisper into her nose profile.

"Ugh!" I turned and scanned the bleachers for my twin brothers.

Teague smiled. "I hope me and you win, Nadean."

I continued to scan for my parents with a smile and avoid his cute smile. "Don't you wanna know about your girlfriend Zeeta?"

Teague smiled. "She gots red bumps over her face and her body. Her mama told my mama on the telephone tonight."

I turned and frowned at his smile. "How do you know?"

He smiled. "Her mama told my mama on the telephone that you and me..."

"Naw!"

"Yup!"

At the wooden table, Principal Holden smiled into the microphone. "This is it, folks. The winners of Little Miss Princess and Prince are Nadean Garland and Teague Haywood from the third grade." The audience sounded with a series of claps and whistles.

Teague dragged Nadean by the arm towards the reward table of gifts and tiaras, since he was getting a new white colored cowboy hat and a golden plated belt buckle. And then they stopped as the old winners of prince and princess decorated their bodies with the prizes.

Blonde haired, pale skinned, tall Glenda wore a pink colored long dress and slammed the set of sharp teeth on the tiara into the skull of Nadean. I yelled out loud with a sneer. "Ouch! That hurt, Glenda."

Last year princess Glenda sneered into the nose bridge of Nadean. "Who cares? You ain't the real princess, Nadean. This be Zeeta's crown."

Teague turned and sneered at Glenda. "Shut your mouth, girl! Before, I pop it with my fist." He curled up a free hand. The other hand held the belt buckle. He wore the new cowboy hat.

"Nadean substitootes for Zeeta," Glenda turned and sneered at Teague.

Teague sneered again. "Nadean is my princess now. So, shut up, Glenda."

Last year prince, taller, pale-skinned, brown-haired Albert turned and sneered at the nose profile of Glenda too. "Shut up, witch!" He wore a pair of blue jeans and a white colored long-sleeved shirt with a red colored bowtie.

Glenda turned parked both hands on her pink colored dress with a sour frown at Albert. "I'm tattling to my mama on you, Albert."

Albert chuckled. "Go and tell, witch! Then my daddy'll beat up your daddy for bad-mouthing me."

Glenda turned and reached out, fiddling with the bouquet of real flowers. "Wrong, Nadean! You supposed to hold the roses in the right arm like a real princess." Nadean fumbled with the long stems of the flowers with both of her small hands. Glenda laughed. "See? She ain't no princess."

Albert nodded to Teague, reaching out, dragging Glenda backwards by the hand. "We're done here, witch."

Teague cuddled Nadean with a smile. "Now, we got to stroll around the gym like a princess and prince."

"I'm not the real..."

Teague moved forward with Nadean, waving the arm with the belt buckle with a smile and a nod. "Yeah, you are, Nadean! Zeeta ain't here. Hold the flowers in the air like ya waving good bye to your mama for school."

"If you let go of my arm..."

Teague pulled her closer to him with a laugh. "Naw! I like holding your arm. Wave like me! But use your right hand and wave with the flowers."

I lifted up the flowers away from my tiara that was pulling at my hair roots. Then I tucked the flowers into my body, since the rose petals were falling from my twirling action.

These were not my roses but Zeeta's. Since my mother had taught me not to touch or harm other people's property or suffer the consequence, a belt whipping.

I danced beside Teague. He continued to wave the belt buckle in the air at the audience, squeezing the blood from her hand with his other hand and stopped, performing a knightly bow. The audience sounded with a series of claps, cheers, and whistles.

Teague lifted upright the torso, turning and moving around the outer parameter of the gymnasium floor with a smile and a whisper to Nadean. "When I stop, again, you belle-curtsey to the folks. I bow like a gentleman. My mama teaches me to do that."

"I..." liked that idea but I was not the real harvest Festival Moon Princess.

"You be my princess, now, Nadean! They like us. Do ya hear the claps and see the smiles?" Teague turned and smiled at her.

"Okay," I surrendered to his cute smile.

Teague stopped and bowed. I curtseyed. He turned and assisted Nadean to stand like his mama had taught him to do also.

They circled the floor back to the trophy table. Teague grabbed and collected both trophies. They spun around and strolled towards a setting of the iron patio furniture which was covered in a plastic pattern of baby green frogs on a white background.

Teague acted the Southern gentleman again, dropping a trophy on each side of the patio loveseat, swinging around and assisted Nadean to climb the raised platform. She twirled around and sat down on top of the soft padding. Teague stood before her, gently grabbing the rose bouquet, placing it next to Zeeta's princess trophy also.

"The patio furniture has been donated by Wally's Furniture Store. Please clap for Wally and new little prince and princess of the Harvest Moon Festival!" Principal Holden said with a smile. The audience sounded with a series of claps, cheers, and whistles.

Teague swirled around and sat down next to Nadean, scooting into her dress with a giggle, wrapping an arm around the frame of the loveseat and leaned over into her cheekbone with a smile.

"Teague," I frowned with annoyance, feeling his sweet breath on my cheekbone.

Holden smiled into the microphone. "Now, the next category is the Junior Prince and Princess of the Harvest Moon Festival. The representatives for the fifth grade prince and..."

"Yes, dear," Teague giggled into her nose profile.

"I should leave and get off the chair and go back..."

"Naw," he looked down and slapped the fabric on the patio loveseat. "Then, I'm all alone with the stupid frogs." He looked up and smiled at her nose profile again. "Please stay, princess!"

"Teague!"

"Please!"

"Okay. I stay."

"Yeah, princess!" He leaned into her cheekbone, sweet breathing onto her nose bridge.

I wiped my face from his warm breath. "I'm getting hot..."

"I'm getting hot, too," Teague leaned so close that his hat presented like an umbrella that covered her sparkling tiara.

"The winner of Junior Miss Prince and Princess Harvest Moon Festival is..." said Principal Holden smiled into the microphone. The audience sounded with a series of claps, cheers, and whistles.

I smirked. "Ya know, gossipy folks'll tattle to Zeeta about me and ya, Teague."

He smiled. "Naw! I ain't doing nothing but sitting by a pretty girl."

"I see you do this thing to Zeeta on top of the church pew, last Sunday."

He winked. "Do you spy on me, princess?"

I looked down with a gasp to see the dress, pawing the soft fabric. "Naw, Teague! I don't spy on your ugly face. But I did see you bump heads with Zeeta on the second pew, far end near the stained glass window on the left side of the church."

He winked. "Yeah, you do spy on me."

I looked up with a sour frown to see his smile. "Naw, Teague!"

Holden smiled into the microphone. "The representatives for the ninth grade prince and..."

"Do you see me do this?" He reached over and held her hand with a smile and a giggle. "Your hands are soft like a kitten's paw, princess."

I exhaled. "Thanks, Teague."

"Your fingers are long and skinny. Do you play the piano too?"

I nodded, "Yeah, Teague."

"I take piano teach lessons after school on Thursdays. Gawd! I hate Miss Ballard. She slams that little baton on my knuckles when I hit the wrong keys."

I giggled, "Me, too! I go on Tuesdays after school. Then my daddy picks me up from school. So, why didn't you quit the piano?"

"The winner of High School Miss Prince and Princess Harvest Moon Festival is..." said Principal Holden. The audience sounded with a series of claps, cheers, and whistles.

Teague smiled, "Naw! My mama says right after the recital. Then I quit for good."

I frowned. "What recital?"

"The Christmas recital."

I gasped. "Do you mean we have to play a whole piano song in front of our folks?"

"Yeah, we play in front of our parents, not the whole town," he laughed.

I wiped my dry forehead with relieve from Teague's words, slapping my hand down into my lap like a southern bell as I has been taught by my mother. "Woo! That's good. I get nervous in front of Miss Ballard. I'll mess up good for shore in front of my parents."

He leaned over and wrapped an arm around the back rest on the patio chair which touched her long silver tinted soft hair and her collar bone, whispering into her eardrum with a smile. "Naw, princess! I bet you'll do good."

I slid to the side while trying to move away from Teague without success. "What song?"

"Jingle bells."

"Mrs. Ballard, she didn't tell me that."

"My mama asked. So I can practice and sound good."

On the wooden table, Principal Holden stood with a smile and a nod from the chair. "Thank you for coming out to support Brier High. Good night, folks!" He moved ahead towards the newspaper photographer with a smile pointing at the row of winners. "I want all pictures of each winner for the newspaper on Sunday morning. All the parents will buy lots of newspaper with the kids, who smile pretty on the front page. First photo is Little Miss Princess and Prince Harvest Moon Festival."

Teague held her hand and stood upright from the chair with a giggle and a grin. "That's me and you."

I stood upright with a sour frown while wearing the tiara. "Teague, I ain't the real..."

He leaned over with a smile and a whisper into her cheekbone. "You are my princess. I am your prince, Nadean."

"I shouldn't be in the newspaper picture..."

He pouted. "The prince will be lonely in the newspaper picture, without his princess."

I frowned. "Zeeta will get mad."

He cuddled her with a smile and a wink, "Naw! I sweet talk with her, make her smile. Come on and stood beside me." Teague released her hand and moved down the steps, spinning around, grabbing up the two trophies. They moved ahead and stood in front of the newspaper photographer.

The tall brown-haired and dark skinned male photographer pointed down at the circle on top of the feather head piece with a smile. "Come over here and stand here, Teague and Nadean!" Teague and Nadean moved ahead and stopped, standing in the circle. The photographer squatted down and shoved the single camera lenses into pair of faces. "Good pose, princess and prince. Say cheese!"

Teague smile and as Nadean laughed, "Cheese!"

The photographer snapped the picture.
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

11:58 a.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"O Teague..." I whisper and feel the burn on a left wrist bone, slowly exhaling, relaxing my mind and my body into another event of my childhood.

Ten years old daughter Nadean

Saturday June 5th

03:03 p.m.

City of Brier

Farm of Jadean and Urall

Cow pasture setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunlight

I patrolled the wooden cow fence and wore a pair of blue jeans, a set of brown colored cowgirl boots, and a red colored T-shirt while searching for any type of bent barbed wire, completing my task which was assigned by my dad for a dish of dessert tonight, after eating my supper. I stopped and leaped off my chestnut colored pony, allowing him to graze as I saw the two approaching figures.

My school mates and my farm neighbors tall, blonde-haired Teague and tall, black-haired Eckward, each were running a horse through the unplowed crop fields on my daddy's property for some cowboy fun. Each one was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white colored T-shirt.

Teague turned and spotted Nadean behind the gate with a grin and a laugh.

I swirled around and jerked my brown colored BB gun out from the pony's black leather saddle. I used my gun to destroy pests that were invading my dad's farmland, including rats, mice, rabbits, squirrels, and Teague. I swung around and swiftly strolled towards the closed wooden gate, swinging my gun low against the leg, so Teague couldn't see my surprise.

Teague and Eckward, they stopped and dismounted a horse as Eckward nudged Teague with an evil laugh and a wicked grin. And then they both advanced forward towards wooden gate and the surrounding wooden railing between the crop field and the homestead yard.

I jerked the gun up at my waist like my dad had taught and pointed it at Teague, since he was meaner than a rattlesnake. Teague stopped with a silly grin, raising both his arms with a laugh. I yelled out loud with a lady sneer. "Don't come any closer, shit ass." I utilized my new word that I had learned from the older girls in high school.

Teague frowned with a snarl. "What did you say to me, girl?"

"My daddy says that I can shoot any trespassers on his land. If you touch that gate, I shoot ya dead, shit ass, and the other shit ass." I did not know if there was such a word as shit asses, so I did not to take the chance of looking stupid, only smart.

Eckward paced forward with a sneer. "Girl, ya said bad words like my daddy. When I said bad words, my daddy whips my butt-hole good. I'm going to whip your butt-hole good, little girl."

Teague and Eckward swiftly ran ahead and stopped in front of the closed gate. Teague crossed his arms, shaking a skull with a chuckle and a grin. "I ain't a trespasser. I'm your neighbor. And I don't wanna touch the rough gate. I wanna touch something softer," chuckling.

I pumped the handle and fired a single BB shot straight into the wooden gate as Teague back stepped from the sound with a sneer. "Girl, do you wanna rumble with me? Well, you get one, now. Get her, Bobcat!"

Eckward turned to the side and ran to the left as Teague turned and ran to the right side of the gate, bolting over the wooden railing. I fired another BB shot hitting the wooden railing next to Teague. He stopped and snarled.

I pumped the handle for another shot with a lady sneer at Teague.

And then a pair of hands reached out and grabbed the gun from Nadean maneuvering from behind her back spine as Nadean kicked a boot heel backwards and connected to something soft. Eckward yelped in pain and tumbled backward, falling down onto his back spine over the soft grass.

Teague dashed ahead to Nadean and folded down, slithering in the air space between the two wooden railings, racing ahead and collided, hugging her body. They both twirled and fell down over the grass. Teague rolled on top of Nadean, stopping and holding her skull within both his hands with a smile.

I smelled a faint ting of peaches coming from his breath, jerking back my hands, my two arms, my two legs, and my boot heels, without success.

Teague rested over Nadean, looking over with a worried brow to see Eckward, since she had hit his family jewels with her boot heel. He yelled out loud. "Are you okay, Bobcat?" Eckward moaned with pain, rolling over the grass. Teague turned with a grin to see Nadean. "Now, I get to hold something really soft..."

"Boy! Get off her right now, before I hickory-switch your butt-hole into bleeding." Urall leaned down with a growl and wore a pair of blue jean overalls and a pair of black colored cowboy boots, jerking Teague up by the collar bone away from Nadean, flinging the kid into the air to the side of the soft grass. Teague landed down flat and rolled over the grass, coming up on one kneecap, snarling at Nadean.

The red colored pickup truck stopped and slide over the gravel side road and as his father started to yellow out loud through the side window in the short distance, "Teague!" Tyson, the father of Teague has seen the fight between the two children, where one was a young girl. Tyson continued to yell loud out from inside the pickup truck cab at his son while seeing the boy over Nadean. He scooted out the truck and raced across the field toward Teague with a sour frown, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a set of red colored boots, and a brown colored T-shirt.

Teague stood upright from the grass and faced his dad jabbing a finger at Nadean with a sneer and a sour frown. "Daddy, she..."

Urall lifted his daughter from the ground to stand, wiping off the dirt and grass from her clothes and her arms with a worried face. "Nadean honey, are you hurt?"

"No, Daddy!" My pride was hurt and embarrassed, thou.

Tyson stopped and touched Teague on the collar bone with a sour frown. "Son, what happened here to cause a scene like this? Did you hit her or what?"

Teague shook a skull and jabbed a finger at Nadean with a growl. "Naw, Daddy! She fired at us with her BB gun. Look over here. See the BB?" He ran ahead towards the wooden railing and stopped, reaching out, touching the BB with the finger.

Tyson spun around with a puzzled brow and followed behind Teague, stopping, examining the wooden railing with a worried brow too. "Teague tells the truth. The boy never lies. There it is." He reached out and rubbed the wood, feeling the lead pellet. "That's a fresh BB shot. That's Nadean's gun, isn't it, Urall?"

Urall leaned down to the ground and retrieved her BB gun with a sour frown, standing upright, checking the fired weapon. "Yipe! Nadean, did you shoot at Teague?"

"Yes." I nodded with a smile.

Urall frowned. "Why, honey?"

I smirked. "You said that I can shoot dead all pests on our land." Both the fathers laughed out loud, turning to see Teague, who fumed with fury at Nadean.

Tyson nodded with a smile, tapping on the collar bone of Teague. "Okay! The war has ended. Boys, go and get back into the rear of my truck. I'll tie the two horses on the tail gate whilest all we trot home."

"Bobcat's hurt." Teague pointed down at Eckward, who was still rolling and moaning over the grass.

"Bobcat, can you walk upright, son?" Tyson moved ahead with a chuckle and squatted down, lifting Eckward to stand upright with a grin.

Urall turned and winked at his daughter. "You be a good cowgirl, honey. I don't think they'll be bothering you again. And you defended your land. I'm proud of ya, slick."

"Thanks, Daddy!" I turned and stared with a sneer to see the back spine of Teague. Teague raced ahead behind his father and spun around, sitting down on top of the lowered tail gate of the truck. I turned a face and mouth spat on the grass, stomping it with my cowgirl boot for his eyeballs. Teague chuckled out loud with a smile and a goodbye hand wave to Nadean.

Friday August 19th

08:01 a.m.

Brier Elementary School

Mrs. Golden fourth grade setting

Warm temperatures and parted clouds of dull sunlight

The first day of school, I limped into my new room of ugly, seeing a wall of educational posters on mathematical factions and the literature poems of some author. Then, I saw a huddle of five ugly unfriendlies, swiftly veering towards the side wall, before the painful man-pull on my arm.

Teague worn a pair of blue jeans, a yellow colored T-shirt, and a pair of red colored cowboy boots and reached out, pulling Nadean into the huddle of kids with a smile into her nose profile. "Say 'hi' in Spanish? Olly," giggling. He was taller in height and broader in shoulders than last year.

I missed the school bus this morning. My mom had driven all of her children to the red bricked elementary school building. My baby sister black-haired and pale skinned Dorcee was beginning her academic bondage in first grade, this year.

"Hola," I corrected his bad pronunciation with a stern face to cute and tall Teague, wearing a long dark green dress and a pair of black colored cowgirl boots.

"Right! Old like." Teague wrapped an arm around Nadean with a chuckle, pulling her into the inner circle, "New year, new grade, new nickname, ya'll! Meet, Duchess. That's Nadean's new nickname."

Short, red-haired, and dark skinned Zeeta wore a pale blue short dress turned with a sneer at the nose profile on Nadean. "Why does she get a nickname, Tomcat? Nadean ain't part of us."

Tall, slender, blonde-haired, dark skinned Teague turned and winked at Nadean with a smile. "She is a duchess for being pretty and proper like all of them princesses that I saw on my television screen during the summertime."

"Nadean," I exhaled and spoke my real name to the dumb fourth graders.

"Duchess," Teague smiled. "I started this new tradition, this new year, on our first day of school. Me is called Tomcat. Eckward is called Bobcat..."

"Grr!" Tall, black haired, pale-skinned Eckward raised both of his hands, scratching the air like a set of pretend tiger claws, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a dark blue shirt, and a pair of dark blue cowboy boots.

Teague pointed with a smile to his girl. "Zeeta is called Kitten."

"Meow," smiled Zeeta.

Teague pointed to his other Bama buddy. "Stratton is called Lark."

"Toot, toot," a tall, brown haired, and pale skinned Stratton laughed. He displayed a pair of dark blue jeans, a red colored shirt, and a pair of brown colored cowboy boots.

Teague pointed to the other girl. "Prebble is called Cricket."

"Twit, twit," smiled Prebble, a short, brown haired and yellow skin. She was dressed in a yellow colored sundress and a pair of white colored sandals.

I frowned at Prebble. "Crickets sing by rubbing their back legs together."

"Twat, twat," giggled Prebble.

I turned and frowned to Teague. "That girl is really dumb, Teague."

"I be called, now, Tomcat. Remember, Duchess?" Teague smiled. "This summer, I killed me a tomcat and earned the right to that name."

I looked down to see the clean floor with a sour frown. "Dead tomcat." I looked up with a puzzled brow to see Teague, "Like a male cat as in a farm kitty that lives off the claw shredded guts of dead little gray mice underneath the barn stalls while the horses poop on their tiny heads."

Eckward playfully slammed a fist with a chuckle into the chest of Teague with a nod. "I got my nickname by chasing away that wild bobcat after all the mama chickens and their chicks outside my daddy's hen coop."

Stratton chuckled with a smile. "And the scary little bobcat kitten went running back home to his mama too."

"Good going, Eckward!" I slapped a hand over my giggles.

"I be called, Bobcat! Remember that girl!" Eckward turned and frowned at Nadean.

The fourth grade teacher stood beside at her short brown colored wooden teacher desk and wore a long orange colored dress, clapping with a smile for attention. "Please, sit down in any student desk. I am Mrs. Green. I will be your only teacher for the entire fourth grade class. And I know each and every one of you by name and by manners, Nash. Your school lessons will include reading comprehension, math tests, and spelling tests along with a couple of new subjects, writing abilities, and science facts. As in past history, the first day of school for all Brier student ends after lunch time. We are having hamburgers in celebration of the upcoming football game tonight at seven p.m. Our first task for the morning will be a short academic test. There are twenty-four students total. I want the first row of six students to stand and follow behind Mrs. Golden. She will lead you into her testing room. Please follow her instructions."

The first row of students stood upright from each wooden student desk and turned, moving out the door, following the fat ass on a pale-skinned, black-haired, and short Mrs. Golden into a new room.

At 08:08 a.m. inside the testing room, Mrs. Golden moved ahead and entered a solid white classroom, standing in front of the black colored chalkboard, saying with a smile and a nod. "Good morning, children. Our first test is reading comprehension. Each child moved to a seat inside the funny looking desk which is called a booth." Each child moved ahead and selected a red colored booth, sitting down. She continued to stand in front of the room. "The booth has three walls in red wood, so you cannot look at each other written work assignment. There is a booklet, a pencil and a sheet of paper for your use. Please flip your booklet over to the first page of the story, read the story and then write in your own words what is happening to the character named Farmer Brown. When you have written the words of your version, please place the papers into the booklet and stand for me to see. You may begin."

I flipped the blue colored paper booklet over, turning to the first page and read in silent.

Farmer Brown owns three beautiful peacocks with bright red, green, and purple feathers that live with the farm chickens inside the hen coop on his property. Today, Farmer Brown will sell the three peacocks to Mrs. Black.

Mrs. Black is the owner of a hat shop on the street of Wilmington Boulevard in the city of Huntsville. She plans to pluck each decorative feather from the three beautiful peacocks and design six elaborate hats for her family relatives, consisting of her Aunt Martha, her niece Helena, her Grandmother Nancy, her cousin Betty, and her great Aunt Sarah for the annual church picnic in the month of September.

Please question the following questions.

How many peacocks does Farmer Brown own? How many hats will be crafted by Mrs. Black? What will be the fate of the peacocks?

Please use the adjective words of elaborate, decorative, boulevard, and beautiful in your essay?

I sat inside the white colored padded booth chair and read the story in silence, composing a short and sweet novelette with a smile on the paper with the pencil.

The three beautiful peacocks which are owned by Farmer Brown outside the city of Huntsville will provide six elaborate hats for Mrs. Black's family relatives.

Mrs. Black will attend in the month of September the annual church picnic for fun and fellowship.

The peacocks will live happily ever after at hat shop which this located on the street of Wilmington Boulevard.

I smiled down at my essay and stood from my booth, back stepping and scanning each rear skull of my five other classmates. I was the first student to finish my complete assignment.

Mrs. Golden approached and touched Nadean on the collar bone with a smile and a whisper. "Turn around and go stand against the wall, without disturbing the other working students, Nadean."

I turned and moved to the far wall with a smile, swinging around and standing in front of it, holding my sheet of paper as more of my classmates joined me.

Mrs. Golden stood on the opposite wall, motioning with her hand and a smile. "Al the students have finished. Nadean, please come and stand beside me and read your creative essay to the class."

I strolled forward to her side and swung around with a smile, looking down to read out loud my story. "The three...be...be..." I stuttered with the new word.

Mrs. Golden leaned over the hair roots of Nadean with a smile and a nod. "Beautiful..."

"Beautiful...pea...peacockies..."

The other classmates giggled.

"Peacocks..." said Mrs. Golden with a confused brow.

"...peacocks which are owned by Farmer Brown outside the city of Hunt...Hunt..." I stuttered the new word also.

"Huntsville."

"Huntsville provide six...e...b..."

"Elaborate," said Mrs. Golden with a puzzled brow.

"...hats for Mrs. Black's family relatives. Mrs. Black will attend in the month of September the annual church picnic for fun and fellowship." Mrs. Golden reached and pulled the paper from the sweaty palms of Nadean, gently shoving her to the chair on the side wall. "Please sit, Nadean. Nash, please come and stand beside me and read your composition to the class."

Nash ran down the aisle and swing around, standing and reading his essay with a grin and a giggle. "Three peacockies..."

"Nash," Mrs. Golden frowned.

Nash smiled. "Three peacocks are beautiful with decorative feathers on the six hats crafted by Mrs. Black, where they all live fat and happy on Wilmington Boulevard. The end."

Mrs. Golden shoved Nash to the chair with a nod and a smile. "Nice job, Nash. Please have a seat. Nadean, please stand and follow Mrs. Blue for more testing today."

07:07 p.m.

Brier High School campus

Musical band room setting

Warm temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I scratched my nose first, underneath my right armpit second, and between the ass-crack of my tights third that rode up and into my butt from the pretend group of needles that were biting into my body. I wore a new majorette uniform, performing a set of one handed flips with my baton, blowing a set of individual pink bubbles.

I was a baby majorette for the Brier high school marching band without a set of glued bird feathers or a series of painted rainbows on my naked face. I wore a sleeveless top which was shaped like a robot plus a skirt that was trimmed in an array of silver one inched itchy fabric which was called eyelashes.

The silver needles were vertical straight eyelashes like a human eyelash as I continued to scratch and itch over my individual body parts, spinning my baton and popping the bubbles.

I stood in a small room with four wall of cold white concrete that stood beside the bigger Music Room of duplicate four concrete walls. I turned my face and viewed a row of bigger baton twirlers, who were called majorettes. Each pretty high school majorette painted red lipstick on their face and wore the same fabric underneath a pair of bulging breasts and a set of long legs, looking sexy to each high school teen male.

The row of majorettes and I were waiting for the Band Director Pole to finish his visual inspection of each individual band member that held a musical instrument that were fidgeting inside the parking lot at the high school.

I was located inside cool an air conditioned concrete room from the heated humid weather as a ten-year-old child without my parents.

Tonight, it was a football game, where the band performed at the half-time show, marching across the field of dirt and blood, playing an array of musical songs. I twirled my baton to each musical song with a fake smile as ordered by my mom Jadean. Or I would get face slapped by my Jadean for not obeying her wicked commands.

I didn't touch anything on my short body, not even my hair strands. My mom had sprayed a half-can of flat beer over my curly locks. It made my silver tinted curls become fossilized until Christmas day.

My curls loved the humid weather and bounced and flew over my eyeballs, my earlobes, and into other people's food plate, if I was close enough for some shooting practice.

My mama painted my dry hair with a comb of wet flat beer and strangled my hair roots with a complete set of fashionable pink plastic rollers and an array of black hair pens until the wet flat beer dried for some reason. Then she ripped out all the plastic rollers from my scalp along some root hair as I screamed for help.

Help never came.

So I watched my curls float down a back spine which lasted for three whole days and nights until I washed my hair on Monday after school or after suppertime or after her yelling.

The building door opened.

Short, red-haired, pale-skinned Zeeta stood inside the open archway. She was the second baby majorette that twirled with Nadean on the football field, because her mom Abby wanted Zeeta to be the only baby majorette, who was twirling in front of the marching band. But the wise old band director Polecat overruled Abby, creating two of them sadly. She moved into the room with her mom Abby.

The door closed.

I turned and viewed the majorette uniform on Zeeta which differed from mine.

Zeeta wore the themed-costume mascot brave from Brier High School. Her outfit was made of soft leather which was shaped like a cylinder with a string of alterative red and white around her collar and a string of fake bird feathers on top of her forehead.

The head majorette had told me four times on the school bus to wear the itchy silver eyelash costume and not the brave costume as I turned and viewed Alice.

The head majorette Alice turned and stomped her pair of shiny white tinted majorette boots towards Zeeta, sneering over the red-haired hair roots of the fourth grader. "You're supposed to wear the silver outfit..."

"That outfit is too small for my baby daughter, Alice," Abby sneered back at Alice and wear a dark blue dress. "Zeeta has grown a full inch, since it was cut and made in the month of May. She has to wear the brave outfit for the football game."

Alice shook her hair sprayed brown colored curls with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Then she can't twirl. We all are wearing the silver uniforms. Because I'm head of the majorettes and I select the outfits for the football game."

Abby turned and frowned at Nadean. "The baby majorettes twirl together. Then Nadean can't twirl either."

Alice turned and smiled at Nadean. "Nadean wears the silver one like I ordered. She twirls but Zeeta can't."

Abby turned and sneered to Alice. "I want Mr. Pole to make that decision, Alice. He is the band director..."

"...with my input. Since these are all my majorettes for each football game."

Abby sneered. "The bigger majorettes belong to you. But the two baby majorettes are too young for a teenage girl's direction. That's why Mr. Pole is in charge."

The door opened.

Tall, slender, pale-skinned, silver-head Band Director Pole stood inside the open archway with a stern face and a serious tone at Abby and Alice. "We seem to have a miscommunication here between someone."

Abby turned and smiled to Pole. "Zeeta can't fit into the silver eyelash custom anymore. The mascots have to twirl in their brave outfits, until I can get her a next one by next week, sir."

Mr. Pole turned and viewed Nadean with a stern face and a serious tone. "Where's your mama, Nadean?"

I smiled, "My mama is sitting in the bleacher stands with my two brothers and my one sister and my one daddy too," giggling.

He nodded with a smile. "Run and fetch Jadean for me!" He turned and viewed Alice with a smile. "Better yet! Alice, escort Nadean down to the grand stands and explain to Jadean that there has been a change in clothing plans. The mascots will wear the Indian outfits." Alice nodded with a sour frown, extending her hand.

I grabbed the hand of Alice and moved out the room, and down to the football field, spotting my mom and my dad inside their seats in the stadium.

Jadean turned and gasped at Alice and Nadean, standing upright from the bleacher seat, running down each row and stopped in front of Alice. Jadean wore a long tan and red colored dress and a pair of red colored cowgirl boots.

Alice said with a sour frown. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Garland. Zeeta can't fit into the silver majorette outfit. Mr. Pole said to get Nadean to change her majorette outfit before the game. Or she can't twirl."

Jadean continued to stand and nodded in silence to the older majorette. Alice nodded with a smile and spun around to face the entrance gate jogging back to the band room. Jadean reached down and grabbed the hand on Nadean, jerking the child toward the gate, leaving the football field. She moved to the white colored sedan car, opening the passenger door.

I crawled into the front passenger seat in silence and actually relieved to rid of the itchy customer. But I couldn't say that to my mama.

Jadean moved around the front bumper, sliding into the driver's seat with a sour frown, starting the car and drove onto the roadway to the house. She shook her black haired curls with a sneer. "That woman! Abby always gets her way come hell or high water. Well, this be the last year you be going to twirl for the marching band. No more! Naw!"

I turned and frowned at the nose profile of Jadean. "You begged me to try-out for majorette. You begged me to twirl the baton. You begged me to..."

She drove with a sour frown. "Don't sass your ass at me, girly."

I looked down with a smile to see the floor, kicking my majorette boots on the seat. "I like the brave outfit better than the silver one. This one itches my...b...body."

She drove, shaking her curls with a sour frown back to her house. "Thank the good Lord! We be close to the school. Ya change your majorette uniform. I place ya in all of them beauty pageants and that baton twirling lessons and that flute playing, so you marry a good man. That be your lesson for the day, girly. Remember? Folks be mean, not good to each other. Ya gotta watch your ass all the time, Nadean. Remember that? A good lesson in life."

I nodded with a smile inside the seat while scratching at itchy majorette outfit.

Thirteen years old daughter Nadean

04:04 p.m.

Saturday July 6th

City of Brier

Fair Grounds livestock competition setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunlight

The competition judging and awarding of each prize had ended four minutes ago. My dad was helping my mom load up all the homemade pies and the cakes back into the truck bed for the trip back home. However, I was leaning against the concrete wall between the set of empty animal pens that had contained a set of baby bulls, since all the bulls were already loaded into the cow trailers. I wore a pair of blue jeans, a red colored T-shirt, and a pair of black colored cowgirl boots.

Teague strutted side to side in front of Nadean in his new brown colored wind jacket, a pair of dark blue jeans, a white colored T-shirt, and a new pair of orange colored cowboy boots. He won third place at the livestock competition with a smirk. "Why do you think we, boys raise babies of livestock for selling at the fairgrounds, Duchess?"

"Money!" I continued to wave the first place financial reward of three five-dollar bills with a smile and a giggle for winning the best cow within the livestock competition. I had competed with all the teen males in the county, including cute ass Teague. He stopped and faced Nadean. I hoped that he would lean down and kiss me, please.

"Yeah!"

I winked with a giggle, waving a single hundred bill for first prize. "I'll get you a soda, a hotdog, and a moon pie, Tomcat, to celebrate my success. How's that?" Teague only addressed Nadean as Duchess which annoyed the horse crap out of her butthole.

His hand slammed into the wall and as his body leaned closer to her nose bridge with a smirk. "Why do you think happens when Mr. Hocks gets home with Betsy?"

"Feed and water her."

"Her! How did you know that it was a girl cow?"

I slapped my chest with a giggle, since Teague was almost kissing my lips, "She is a girl like me."

His face leaned closer down to her nose bridge with a smirk. "Yeah, you are a fine girl, Duchess."

I smiled. "What do you want, now, Teague, my money?"

"Your respect."

"I respect you. Okay. Are we done here, Tomcat?"

"Naw! Betsy is going to be supper steak for Mr. Hocks next week."

I gasped, "What?"

"Yep! Betsy is going to be a plate of steak dinner for a couple of months."

"He's going to..." I sobbed with a distorted ugly face.

Teague slipped both of his two hands around her collar bone with a smirk and a whisper into her cheekbone. "...slaughter Betsy. Yep, he invited me and my family over for the first fest."

"Kill..." I sobbed with tears for my cow Betsy in that slaughter house.

The Hocks family income was killing food animals around the county, packing the fresh meat in a set of square and taped white butcher paper for the dinner table meal.

My dad came home at the end of month in August with a set of six boxes of white square and taped small packages, containing our dead beef cows.

I had raised my cow Betsy from a tiny wobbling four-legged skinny calf when she didn't want to drink the warm milk from her mama's teat. Then I got up at every morning at four am, walking with my dad to help feed baby Betsy as my lazy family siblings slept late inside a warm bed.

My mom was up from her bed, cooking breakfast for all the hungry faces too.

I did not know why I was so emotional and stupid, since I always mentally thought of a different happy ending for Betsy. My cow Betsy would live out her farm life as a mama cow that would birth more baby calves on Mr. Hock's cow ranch.

Then I vividly recalled that short tense conversation at the supper table that stormy evening, my dad had offered for my two brothers to tend the young motherless calf. Vester flat out refused. Vassar said nothing as usual looking down at his supper plate with a sad face. And then my dad turned with a smile and offered me the proposal the same night at the supper table.

Dang! I created the tragic ending for Betsy.

Teague reached out and touched her wet cheek as Nadean sobbed more tears. He smiled. "The nicer word is slaughter, Duchess. Where do you think a beef hamburger and a T-bone steak come from, darling?"

Geez! I knew that beef came from a cow, pork from a pig, chicken from a hen, veal from a lamb, and venison from a deer. I sobbed with my tears and my sissy soprano.

Teague softly said with a smile. "I wanna thank you for participating in the livestock contesting, since you're a pretty brave girl, Duchess. But did you know the cows, the goats, the pigs, and the chicken ain't a set of pets, honey? They are a food source as told in The Bible by Almighty God. So I just wanted you to know that for next year, when you place Betsy's daughter back into the county livestock competition."

Gawd! I was a dumb ass.

My cow Betsy did not have a biological daughter, because part of the livestock competition was selling off all the blue-ribbon prized virgin animals for either making a new baby or eating the fresh meat. I was too upset as I was not able to perform a simple mathematical calculation like one plus one equals two. I slumped down into his chest with my tears.

Teague cuddled Nadean, patting her hair and kissing her temple with an evil smirk. "Are you feeling okay, Duchess? If not, I'm right here, darling."

Fourteen years old birth day girl Nadean

Sunday May 18th

01:01 p.m.

The Swimming Hole

Birthday party setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunlight

The only entertainment establishment in rural farm town Brier was owned by my uncle. My grandmother Garland had twelve children and was going to be eighty-four years old in a couple of more months, since she was born in the last century on August 18, 1888.

In a red colored one-piece bathing suit and a pair of bare feet, fourteen year old classmate Flossie spun around from the huddle of teen girls and gasped in shock, pointing her newly manicured red tinted fingernail at wide glass window. "Honey child, come and look who's walking from a set of two shiny white colored pickup trucks. They're coming in here to your birthday party, Nadean."

I was celebrating with my girls from Brier Middle School. My mom had arranged for the local manicurist to paint each finger nail and every toe nail in a set of sinful fire engine red color or pretty prancing pony pink or slick seductive orange hue along with the local hairdresser to fix each skull of colorful hair roots. Then they would rest and relax by the swimming pool, tanning the skin golden brown in the bright hot sun.

The Swimming Hole featured a large swimming pool, a roller skating ring in aqua and pink hue, row of wooden picnic tables over a patch of torn-up red dirt, without green grass for the little shits that made a big mess with the cake frosting and ice cream drools like my baby sister Dorcee.

Tall and skinny black-haired, pale-skinned Dorcee would turn eight years old in the month of July and then her birthday party would fly outdoors with the big nasty black horseflies, the big green June bugs, and the screaming little girls with a set of colorful balloons.

The Swimming Hole had a set of indoor eating tables for birthdays, wedding receptions, baptism lunches, funeral wake dinners, church afternoon picnics, township lunch conferences, and school parent teacher evening meetings to accommodate all the Brier folks. The Swimming Hole was across the street from the Brier church.

It wasn't built on purpose like that. It happened like that.

I stood in a faded blue jeans skirt, a white colored T-shirt, and a pair of real high heel red colored leather sandals coming from my Aunt Collie. My mom was jealous with the cool gift coming from Aunt Collie which was such a whore-like object. But I loved them. My dad smiled with an approving nod in silence.

Dorcee was numb. She was too young to understand summer heels, painted toenails, and teen emotions.

"What!" I ran ahead with a gasp and then tripped over my new fashion whore-like heel, stopping and staring out the row of clean glass windows, too late.

The entrance door opened. Cute male teens Teague, Eckward, Stratton, and Brock strutted inside with a smile and a laugh through the front door, toting a pink covered birthday gift too.

Flossie reached out and tapped her red colored manicured hand against each white colored T-shirt that held bulging teenly muscles with a smile and a giggle for her attention, accepting the pink covered gift also for Nadean's birthday party.

I scooted sideways and stormed toward the ring leader, grabbing his naked bicep, shoving Teague away from the entrance door, his boys, and my girls. My two twin brothers at nine years old ran ahead and leaped over each pair of boot toes on the other older male teens for fun.

Eckward, Stratton, and Brock grunted and laughed with Nadean's rough and tough red-haired and pink-skinned tall twin brothers, wearing a pair of dark blue swimming trunks, a white colored T-shirt, and a pair of colored sneakers. Urall turned and approached the group of teen males wearing a pair of dark blue walking shorts, a white colored T-shirt, and a pair of bare feet, extending a handshake and a back slap like a proper southern gentleman to welcome them to the birthday celebration.

Teague side stepped around Nadean into the wall corner with a chuckle, swinging her around as she hit the wall with a soft thud. And then they stood in each other face. Teague wore a set of red colored swimming trunks, a white colored T-shirt, and a pair of white colored sneakers.

I leaned into his nose bridge with a growl and a sour frown. "What are you doing here, Teague? This is a private celebration for me."

He smiled. "I'm invited by Urall to entertain your brothers whilest your mama entertains Dorcee and the little runts. And you entertain your girls. I brought you a present."

"Yeah, I saw you give it to Eckward. He placed it in the heap of bows." I didn't miss a thing.

Teague smirked. "You owe me."

I frowned. "Owe you? What in tarnation for, Teague?"

He leaned closer into her nose bridge, sweet breathing mint with a smile.

My girls and I were about to parade outside around the swimming pool for some teen girly gossip time as Teague and his boys showed up unexpectedly.

Teague smiled. "The band uniforms of blue jeans. I got my mama to talk Polecat into letting the kids wear blue jeans during the first football game half-time show last year. 'Cause the warehouse with the old uniforms burned down to the ground, then we got a batch of clothes three weeks later. Remember, darling? And you promised me a favor. So I am here to collect, girl."

"O." I looked down with a worried brow to see my red sinful colored toenails. "I thought you forgot about that."

Teague leaned into her hair, smelling the fresh sense of roses with a smirk. "I never forget, darling."

I looked up with a sweet smirk to him. "Give you a rain check."

"I don't like rain."

I winked. "Well, you can have one of my thirty-six birthday presents, sweetheart."

"Dirty sex..." Teague sniggered with a nod.

I gasped. "Thirty-six birthday presents, Teague. You pick one of my thirty-six birthday presents, now."

"I don't like girly pink. Did you really get thirty-six birthday gifts?"

"There're lots of them Garlands on the Christmas tree each year."

"I just wanna collect one particular Garland." He smirked.

I giggled. "And what you do plan with that particular Garland, Teague?" He did not correct his proper name with his silly nickname, meaning that he liked my flirting action which was harmless.

He grabbed her biceps and shoved Nadean into the cold concrete with a growl. "I want you to pay me my debt."

"Next week..." I bad breathed my three hotdogs with yellow mustard and white onions all over his distorted face.

Teague gritted his teeth, "Now, here..."

"This is my birthday party now, here. Next week, I meet you at the creek bottom for shore."

"I be busy next week, hauling cows into their trailers, but your birthday is an excellent time to collect my debt."

"Naw."

He smirked. "Then I wanna give you a personal birthday present for becoming a pre-teenager."

"I turned thirteen, a pre-teen last year, Teague. I'm fourteen years old today."

"A mature woman, I like."

"And I don't." I smiled with a giggle. My hands and arms were down my side, actually daring Teague to do something to me. All I had to do was shout-out. Then, my dad would come running to my rescue. Teague gently placed both hands and elbows against the wall, boxing Nadean into his body with a smile. I smiled, "Teague."

"My debt," He dipped a face down to her with a smile, tenderly placing a set of pouted lips over her flat lips.

I felt emotions of excitement and heat-ness then felt immediately hot-ness and nervousness. Teague pressed his soft flesh into her softer flesh for her first ever golly kiss from a boy.

" _Nadean!"_ Jadean yelled out loud inside the eating room and wore a long ankle-length yellow dress and a pair of bare feet, _"Come and cut your cake, right now."_

Teague broke the sweet connection and smirked with delight into her pretty face. I blinked my eyelashes open, seeing my classmate and my next door neighbor in a different light. Teague grunted with happiness. "Paid!" I lifted both hands and shoved him from my face, turning and moving from the wall and cute sexy Teague.

Teague yelled out loud with a laugh, leaning against the wall. "The bank's open anytime for another loan, Duchess."

I ran and tripped again on my whore-like fashion heels, hoping my womanly makeup hadn't melted off my heated face.
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

12:05 p.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"O Teague..." I whisper and feel the burn on a left wrist bone, exhaling with a small puff, relaxing my mind and my body into another past historical teenage event.

Seventeen years old daughter Nadean

Wednesday March 2nd

05:05 p.m.

Farm and home of Jadean and Urall

Private bedroom setting of Nadean

Cool temperatures and partly cloudy with sunlight

Inside the bedroom with four walls of pink and red flowered paper at the wooden writing desk on top of the hard wooden chair, I scratched without a set of hair lice bugs but tried to stimulate my gray matter into one single simple idea for the annual Brier High School science fair which was due tomorrow. Or I would face the letter grade of F in my science course plus my mama's nasty look, when I messed up, embarrassing her with my poor academic grades again.

I turned and viewed at the pretty blue sky and the dull sunlight through my second story clean glass window, since springtime had arrived with warm weather, making my boots secretly scream to be freed from the wardrobe closet for some outdoor activity. I would like to go outside and practice twirling my baton or riding my mare down to the creek on my dad's property which was near Teague's horse barn.

I bet that Teague was outside, saddling his stallion for a ride or shooting something for fun with his childhood friend Eckward.

I continued to scribble and pen-doodle a set of imperfect circles over the empty lined paper, hoping my mama didn't barge into my room, seeing the wasted sheet of page or the ink from the pen. She would have a heart attack, fainting and falling over my non-shiny wooden floor for abusing the poor notepaper and wasting poor my dad's hard working money while nagging in my face again.

I was not genius smart, only average something. And I was still discovering my hidden God-given academic talents which were not twirling a baton or winning beauty pageants either.

I looked down to see the series of black tinted ugly doodles and flipped the paper, pen-doodling a square box which was not easy. Then I pen-doodled a figure-eight, going side to side in a smooth motion and ease.

I turned and stared in the reflection mirror, thinking that I could not ask my mom about a science fair project, since she was stupider than I. Not my daddy, since he was busier than I.

So I pondered something average for a passing grade other than the letter grade of F.

I could ask my classmate Teague for a suggestion, since he liked to give me free advice and helpful information. And Teague was really smart, making a ton of good grades.

I looked down and drew an oval, making me think of an egg. The egg made me think of a hen. The hen made me think of supper, since my mama was cooking fried chicken for supper. I smelled the bacon grease coating over the chicken's skin, drifting up into my room on the second level of my house.

I stood upright from the hard chair and wore a pair of blue jeans, a long-sleeved red colored sweater and a pair of orange colored socks, turning to face the closed door, moving ahead with a smile.

The door opened in the face of Nadean.

I stomped out from my bedroom and down the staircase in frustration, entering the kitchen setting and heard the conversation.

At 05:08 p.m. inside the kitchen setting, short, dark-haired, and dark-skinned Jadean sat at the light wooden breakfast table inside the kitchen setting with the rest of her family members, wearing a long green and blue dress and a pair of red and blue bedroom slippers, turning with a smile to see the nose profile on Dorcee. "Dorcee is going to be a great cook and win every 4-H cooking contest in Limestone County," she turned with a sour frown to see Nadean. "What'da ya doing locked into your room, girly?" Nadean pulled out the chair and sat at the table, picking up the fork, eating the food. Jadean turned with a smile to see Dorcee. "This year, the spring pageant has lowered the age limits. There's a junior division, Dorcee. That's you. For the first time in Brier's history, the Cattlemen's Association is sponsoring the spring pageant to include girls with good academic standing..."

"Not Dorcee..." chewed Vester with a grin. He wore a pair of dirty blue jeans, a short-sleeved brown colored shirt, and a pair of naked feet, measuring five feet and nine inches, a head of long red colored hair, a pair of blue eyes, and a tone of pink skin.

At the breakfast table, Jadean sat at the six o'clock position between her two sons. Urall sat at the high noon chair in-between his two daughters.

Tall and skinny black-haired, pale-skinned Dorcee chewed with a grin and sat across from Nadean. "That's never stopped stupid Nadean from winning a crown," she wore one of Nadean's pink colored sweaters, a pair of Nadean old blue jeans, and a pair of red colored socks.

Jadean grinned. "Good social skills and ladylike presentation for the following new categories, Miss Maiden of Cotton, Junior Miss Maiden of Cotton, Diary Cowbell queen..."

"Miss Cow dumb bell queen..." I chewed with a grin.

"Shut up, stupid." Dorcee sneered.

Vester chuckled with food inside his open lips. "What no Miss Soybean queen?" His twin brother Vassar ate the dinner meal but laughed also without commenting around his family members but Vester.

"Shut up, more stupid." Dorcee turned and sneered at Vester.

"Naw, I am the next Miss Cow dumb bell, Miss Horse turd, Miss Farmer's girl. So, I will be it all." I dropped my fork, raising both my hands near my grin, slapping a free hand on Vester with a giggle and a grin. I pointed to Dorcee with a sour frown. "And if you repeat any of this to Teague, I swear to God..."

Dorcee frowned. "Tell Teague! Why does he care about your beauty titles, Nadean?"

Jadean said. "Do not use the Lord's name in vain, Nadean. And you mind own about Nadean's affairs, Dorcee."

Dorcee smiled. "She has a secret, Daddy."

Jadean said. "The secret is that Nadean hasn't won. This is your year to be crowned Limestone County Maiden of Cotton, girly."

I frowned. "Geez! How many tiaras does a princess really need, Mama?"

Jadean yelled with a sour frown. "Don't sass your ass at me, girly."

Urall sat at the head of the table and wore a set of dirty clothes in black and brown, chewing and swallowed the food with a sour frown to his wife. "Jadean, we conduct gracious social manners at the dining table."

Jadean turned and sneered at Nadean. "Talk to your smart ass daughter, Urall. These fine pageantries provide her with scholarship money for the university. Next, Dorcee be entering all them same beauty contests for getting money for college, too. I didn't get to attend. Mark my words, girls. Ya are going to college and make something of your sweet selves."

"I like wiving." Dorcee chewed with a grin.

Jadean nodded with a smile. "Wiving is nice, when married. Now days, there be more social opportunities for young girls like you and Nadean, Dorcee. Ya can be a nurse or a teacher or a secretary..."

"President of the United States..." I chewed with a giggle.

Vester turned and nodded to his dad. "I wanna be rich and have my own business. Then I can be boss like Daddy." His brother Vassar nodded in silence with a mouth of food.

Jadean frowned. "Nadean, after supper, we pin your new pants suit for the Miss FHA Pageant on your body."

I gasped. "I'm supposed..." to do the sewing project with my hands at school and not give it to a semi-professional seamstress like my mama.

Jadean frowned. "Ya supposed to smile and win, that be your slogan, girly."

"Are you going for the title of Miss Cowbell this year, Nadean?" Vester laughed.

I giggled, "Naw, Miss Cow turds."

"Miss Horse patties," Vester chewed with a grin.

I smiled. "Naw, it is Miss Horse crap and Miss Bullshit..."

Dorcee frowned, "Mama, make her stop insulting the beauty pageant that I wanna win."

Jadean frowned. "Stop being a smart ass, girly! Do you hear your first born child, Urall mocking both me and you?"

I turned and winked to my dad. "Between the gasps of laughing air, he don't?"

Dorcee frowned. "Shut up, Nadean!"

I chewed with a grin. "I'm having a little fun..."

"...which ain't allowed at suppertime only in-between food meals," Vester laughed.

Urall frowned, "Boys!"

"Men!" Vester said in an unnatural manly baritone for a twelve years old child, who stood five feet and nine inches tall.

Jadean frowned at Urall and smiled at her twin boys. "Why do you pick on the boys only? Nadean started the whole thing."

I exhaled. "Okay, Dorcee gets to be Miss Cow turd, Miss Horse crap, and Miss Bullshit."

Jadean yelled, "Enough, girly."

I swallowed the food with a grin. "I can be every royal title in America by the time I'm eighteen years old. But I like country princess 'bestest.'"

Jadean stood upright from the chair and wore a sour frown. "Supper's done. Boys, ya clean up the kitchen and feed the dogs the table scrapes." She turns and leaves the eating table. Dorcee stands and leaves the kitchen, following her mama.

Urall wiped his mouth, dropping down the dirty napkin, standing upright from the chair with a smile and a nod to his sons. "Boys, we be going over football stances after you wash the dishes. I got some old play books that ya'll need to memorize for practice."

I slowly stood upright from my assigned chair and wore a confused brow, "Practice to play a song book? Vester and Vassar can play the guitar, banjo, drums, piano, and trombone from the Brier marching band. What musical instrument are you learning to play now?"

Urall smiled with a nod, "Football play books for the upcoming junior football games, next school year in August. The coach told me that practice starts on Monday afternoon, boys."

Vester said. "Yes sir."

I turned and frowned at Vester. "They wear eyeglasses, Daddy. How can my brothers play football with eyeglasses made with real glass?"

Vester turned and moved away from the breakfast table to the washing sink. "These are corrective eyeglasses, sis. Our eyes have grown into our brain. We don't need to wear them anymore. We possess perfect vision."

I frowned at my dad. "Football is mean and messy, Daddy. Remember last year, when that boy got his leg broken, then he couldn't walk for months."

Urall smiled, "Part of the suffering while learning to grow into manhood."

I turned and viewed the back spine of my brother Vester. He was washing the dishes with his twin brother Vassar while doing a better job than my mama. I turned and frowned to my dad. "My brothers are smart. They didn't need to learn football plays. They're going be rocket scientists, sending people to the moon. Football games are for..."

Urall frowned. "I know my boys are smart like you, honey. And they be going to college too like you, honey. But they be going to college and playing sports on the football team. Remember, that senior boy from Brier, he went to Burn U on a scholarship. The university pays for everything the schooling, the food, and the housing. Vester and Vassar can do the same dang thing. Let Burn U pay for their schooling, free of charge. Just like your mama, she puts you in them beauty pageants, but you be going to Burn U free of charge with the beauty scholarships," he shook his skull. "The university is lots of money. Money, I don't have or can't get." He turned and viewed the glass window. "Raising cotton's easy but pays poorly for a large family." He turned and smiled at Nadean. "But my kids are smart and resourceful. Your mama and me want ya to get a good education be something beside dirt farmers."

I frowned. "Nothing's for free, Daddy."

Urall nodded. "You're right, Nadean. Hard work is free." He turned and left the kitchen.

At the wash sink, Vassar leaned over and whispered to Vester. "I like dirt farming." Vester nodded in silence and continued to wash each dirty dish.

I turned and left the kitchen, softly cussing at my dad.

At 05:45 p.m. inside the sewing room, I entered through the archway of the sewing room with a worried brow for my brothers.

Dorcee pranced around the room with a sour frown for her mama to view the length of the dress and stopped. "I don't wanna wear Nadean's dirty hand-me downs. She worn this old dress," she turned and frowned at her older sister, "How many times, Nadean?"

I stopped at the side table, grabbing and pressing the tiara into my skull with a giggle. "Let's see Miss Cow dumbbell, Miss Horse turd, and Miss Farmer girl. That's three. And there's more. I just can't concentrate with all the combs, sticking though my skull." I jerked it off with a giggle, placing it back on the table with the other sewing objects.

Jadean kneeled on the floor and pinned up the long yellow dress on Dorcee. "Nadean has grown another inch and can't wear it anymore. The waist line fits you perfectly but the hem is too long. So I'll cut the hemline to your knees and dart up the armpits, since you're only a pre-teen not a teenager. Then ya'll look like a little porcelain baby doll and win your division, Dorcee."

Dorcee crossed her arms with a sour frown and a nod. "I wanna new dress, Mama."

Jadean crawled over the floor again. "The dress must be made of hundred percent cotton fabric. Or you be disqualified from the princess competition, Dorcee. The yellow tea length chiffon will be adorable over the knee-length crinoline with your black locks floating over the sweetheart neckline. We add my wrist-length white silk gloves..."

"No one wears gloves anymore, Mama." Dorcee frowned.

Jadean stood with a wink and a smile to her baby daughter. "That's our secret weapon in looking like a southern lady rather than southern redneck. Ain't it, Dorcee?" Nadean chuckled. Dorcee reached and pitched three balls of yarn at her older sister, missing. Jadean fiddled and pinned the waist line on the dress. "I'll add a red dyed hunk of cotton bolls around your wrist as a bracelet over the white glove for that touch of cotton which the judges will notice. Ya be sure to win Limestone County Junior Miss Maiden of Cotton, Dorcee. I can feel it in my bones."

"Because it's going to rain, Mama," I smiled at my dark humor, turning to see the dark clouds in the window.

Jadean said, "Lucky for you, Dorcee, that Cherry gots good taste," smiling. "Ya look divine like a goddess, Dorcee. If I had pearl earrings..."

"Grandmother Garland has plenty of jewelry, Mama." I nodded. Grandmother Garland had given Nadean some of fine gem stones, when Urall had tattled all of her good deeds at home, at school, and at church.

Jadean sneered. "Huh! Your Grandmother Garland gives to no one. Take it off, Dorcee. Nadean, take off your shirt and jeans. I be pinning your pants suit next."

I smiled. "Yes ma'am. May I ask her, Mama?" I remove my shirt and my pair of jeans.

Jadean turned and measured the fabric. "Ya can try, Nadean. But that old coot gives nothing to none ever."

Dorcee removed her gown, turning with a gasp to see Nadean. "You're not wearing a bra."

"Close your eyes then." I stood in my girly panties, folding both my arms over the naked breasts.

Jadean turned and frowned to her eldest daughter. "Where's your bra, Nadean?"

"In my wardrobe drawer..." I moved closer to my mama and stopped, feeling the cold air around my nipples.

Jadean frowned. "You wear a brazier always, girly. Only whores walk around, flapping their tits in the air. Do you hear me, Nadean?"

"Yes ma'am." I thought only whores cussed like sailors similar to my mama also.

"Stand still, Nadean. I have sharp needles pinning the fabric around your legs." Jadean measured the fabric.

Dorcee observed with a giggle and a grin at her older sister. "Nadean is skinny like a skeleton."

"Hush, Dorcee." Jadean said.

Dorcee giggled. "And she's short like a midget pony. Ya know, Mr. Hocks owns three midget ponies. Mama, Daddy is going over there for some reason. Can I go pretty please?"

"Please go, runt." I ordered to my annoying sister with a sour frown.

"I'm not the runt of the kitty litter, Nadean. Mama says I be tall...taller than you at nine years old." Dorcee rocked back and forth with a smile.

Jadean nodded with a grin. "She's right, Nadean. Dorcee will be a fashion model, one day."

I smiled. "Since she got no brains to be a rocket scientist."

Jadean pinned the fabric with a sour frown. "Be still, girly. Or I'll draw blood. Go with Daddy, Dorcee. Leave me to my work."

"Yes ma'am." Dorcee turned and ran out the room with a smile.

Jadean smiled. "I'm excited about the FHA Fashion Show, Nadean."

I frowned. "Not me. I do this just to get an A-plus in my home economics class, my first ever A-plus too."

"Nevermore..."

"What!" I cut my eyeballs down at Jadean on the floor, pinning the fabric.

"Zeeta's mama told me that the winner of the fashion show will represent Brier High School's Miss FHA in the Christmas parade."

"So..."

"Then, Miss Junior FHA competes in the Limestone County show. Since the Miss FHA sponsorship offers five hundred dollars in a saving bond for every winner, girly."

"O..." Another beauty pageant as I lived out my mama's dead dream of becoming Miss US of A, because my mama was impregnated by my dad in her senior year at Brier High School at the age of seventeen years old which was tattled by Cherry Hilliard, my first cousin.

"O! Ain't that all you can say, girly? I'm working my fingers to the bone on this magnificent pants suit," she looked up with a sour frown to see the chin of Nadean. "And you say, O."

"O goody." I stared at the chipped paint of the historical out old southern antebellum house. Maybe, I will donor my five hundred dollar saving bond certificate to paint the walls, since my Mama lived here, transforming me into a creature of beauty or in front of the kitchen oven for daily meals.

The sewing room contained a sewing machine between the two windows, so my mama's poor eyesight could see a tiny needle and a tinier strand of thread without injuring a finger pad or two.

I heard, one time, my Mama talked about a seamstress sewing a fingernail into the dress.

Jadean was an okay seamstress, since she was a housewife and mother first and did not depend upon to make a living for the family like Urall. So, she toyed in mending all the family clothes that came from her spoiled brat niece Cherry Hilliard or her other fast-growing Garland cousins.

Since, I grew slow.

Jadean was short and dumpy, so I was short but skinny. Dorcee was both dumpy and tall, so she would be tall and skinny.

"Lift your arms, Nadean. You be short waist like me. I can't where any thick cloth or leather belts around my middle stomach. It cuts off my air breathing, so you be having the same medical problem, Nadean. But ya got a set of long legs. Men like long legs on a girl, girly. You be finding a fine husband with your long legs," giggling.

I did not giggle, because I planned to go to college, finding an education first.

Jadean smiled. "Dorcee's got a pair of short stubby legs from me. I can see that when she walks or prisses. Girls with long legs glide like a princess, while girls with short legs prissy their fanny side to side like a whore."

Jadean called that one right, recalling the short legs on teen-whore Cherry Hilliard and long popular reputation with the boys via Teague's smirk and hot gossip tattle.

"I am done." Jadean unpins the pants. "Step carefully. The fabric is full of sharp pins. And don't mess up my markers."

"Yes ma'am." I stepped out of the pinned fabric cloth over the carpet and to my regular clothes.

"Ya says something about the front of the blouse, Nadean." She stood and moved to the sewing machine to start working on the school homework assignment for her daughter.

I dressed in my shirt and my jeans. "Yeah, I gotta put a design on the front of the blouse."

"What kind of design?"

"I'm doing embroidery in my home economics class with pretty threads of red, green, and sky blue. I was thinking of drawing three sunflowers like an outline of the four petals in red with a green round ball in the center."

"I can outline three flowers. Where? How about on the right breast and then over down under the left breast, then over to the extreme left, right above the waistband."

"Yeah, Mama, you're smart that gonna like real neat. And get me an 'A plus' for school."

She holds the cut fabric in the air with a smile and a nod. "Yeah, you win for shore with that nice set of colorful flowers. Your platform shoes are yellow, right, girly?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Ah, I see where ya got the idea of matching yellow and red. Your platform clogs are colored yellow with two red flowers. Good thinking, Nadean. I get Grandma Sloan to embroidery them flowers for ya. She's talented with her fingers, doing embroidery, crocheting, and needle pointing all the southern belle old fashioned mending techniques. Grandma learned from her mama, your great-grandma."

"I'm supposed to..." carefully saying with a grin.

She frowned, "Too what, girly?"

"I'm supposed to turn my sewn pants suit into the teacher for grading..."

"That's after the fashion show, right, girly?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Once you win Miss FHA, it will be a shoe-in for Dorcee to win Miss Little FHA title in her elementary school. The teachers place that honor on the student, but she's your sister. The teachers like ya, Nadean, being a good kid."

"A good pawn..." I turned and left the room, hearing the song inside the sewing room.

Jadean sung off-key, performing the old church song, working around the house and on her sewing projects, since no one had the heart to tell her the truth.

At 6:06 p.m. at the water creek and pond setting on the farm land of Jadean and Urall Garland among the outside warm temperatures and bright sunlight, I had retrieved the pearl necklace from my Grandmother Garland for the Dorcee's gown with ease and decided to track down Teague for my lazy afternoon. He was busy mending the broken fence post between the farm property lines.

The steam of creek water separated the two farms, but the water flowed on the side of Urall's farm only.

I stopped the truck and yelled out loud from the rolled window that was used to hay the horses in the meadow fields on my dad's farm with a giggle and a grin, "Dumb shit."

Teague stood from the broken fence post, flinging the sweat from his face and scanning the woodlands. "What!"

It worked every time. I scooted out the truck, moving closer to the creek as Teague climbed over the wooden fence with a smile and a nod. I yelled with a giggle and a grin. "Hey, smart ass."

Tall, blonde-haired, dark-skinned Teague wore a pair of dirty blue jeans, a sweaty, dirty white T-shirt, and a pair of black colored cowboy boots, moving closer to her with a smile and a nod without hearing the nasty insult, "Tomcat."

"Hey, Tomcat," I stopped with a smile and a nod, admiring his sweaty T-shirt with an outline of hard muscles on the teen stud. "Can you tell my two brothers about football?"

Teague wiped off his sweaty face with both hands and smiled. "Yeah, I can."

I nodded with a smile. "They started practicing for seventh grade football last week. Can you evaluate their skills and figure out the best positions for my brothers? I was thinking maybe a kicker position for Vester."

Teague winked. "Shore, Duchess. Do ya own a bikini?"

"What!" I parked both my hands on my empty belt loops with a sour frown.

He smiled. "You own a bikini, since I see ya lying on the back porch in the hot sun."

"What!" I parted my lips, slamming my hands down to my jeans.

He winked. "I need payment."

I smiled. "I'll bring you the bikini. But I didn't know you were that kind of boy."

He advanced to her with a sneer. "Fuck! What did you mean, Duchess?"

I smiled, "Ya be liking boys..."

"Naw," He shoved and slammed Nadean into the side of the truck door with a growl. "Naw, I not be liking boys, only girls. So, if you want me to evaluate your brothers than..."

"No," I shoved him off my breasts with a sneer and turned to see the door.

Teague turned and followed her ass to the side door on the truck with a chuckle and a grin. "I'm good at football."

"Asshole! You're an asshole, Teague," I touched the door handle of the driver's side.

"Tomcat. Hey, Duchess! Come and bring your suit. Then we play for while in the creek for fifteen minutes. I promise."

I turned and frowned to him with a puzzled brow. "Fifteen minutes, it takes fifteen minutes."

He winked with a chuckle. "What takes fifteen minutes, Duchess?"

"O nothing," I turned and opened the door of the old pickup truck.

He bowed his arms with a smile and a laugh. "Come on back, Duchess. I'm real good at football."

I turned and smiled at him. "Is that your glorious teen pickup line?"

He looked down to see view the dirt. "Pick up? What the fence post? I just fixed it."

I shook my curls at the teen stud with a giggle. "Teague is the brilliant quarterback for the football team. I just don't get it."

He looked up with a smile at her, "Tomcat. Looky, I help. I promise. Just bring your bikini! I wanna see ya in it. That's all."

I frowned "I'll show off for five minutes."

"Fifteen."

"Six."

"Ten."

"Seven."

"Eight."

I exhaled with a puff of annoyance, viewing the dirt and Teague. "Okay, I'll priss around you for eight minutes. Then, you evaluate my brothers at football." He smiled with a nod in silence.

And I entered the truck, moving back to my house.

At 6:21 p.m. inside the Garland home on the second floor inside the shared bedroom, I stood and knocked on the closed white painted wooden door, turning the knob and entered the shared bedroom of dull beige paint, where my twin brothers lived and learned.

Vester stood in front of the glass window, flipping a silver tinted coin.

Vassar was beside Vester, watching it land into the palm of Vester, saying with a stern face, "Heads."

I had always been curious why Vester tossed that coin in the air, flipping it over his five digits and then tossed it for a second time. When the coin landed, Vassar measured the result.

Vassar said, "Tails."

Vester watched the coin, "Our family is what psychologists call, dysfunctional."

I moved ahead and stopped in front of my twin brothers with a sour frown. "We're all going to die, Vester."

"Heads," Vassar viewed the twirling coin.

Vester watched the coin land inside his palm, "Naw, it's a fancy term, meaning our roles didn't sync together in the proper respective places of mama, daddy, sister, and brother."

Vassar watched the coin, "She dis-fucks-us-all," he paused, "Tails."

Vester watched the coin. "Correct, Vassar. Our guardians pretty much enjoy fucking us over while treating teens like adults. And adults like toddlers."

"That's so true." I watched Vassar and the coin with a nod and a smile.

Vester said. "Anyways, that's a new and upcoming word in the study of human and family behavior. Vassar and I plan to cite the term and our family members in a college paper. That should gain us some national media attention."

I turned and frowned to Vester. "I thought ya didn't want money, fame, only respect."

Vester watched the coin. "I have found that money is highly more respected than respected honor respect, Sis."

"Heads," Vassar watched the coin.

I frowned. "Teague's going to give ya'll pointers in football."

Vester flipped the coin. "We understand football, Nadean."

I exhaled with a puff of worry. "But you must select your proper football position. Teague can guide you into good positions so..."

"She worries that we will get hurt, Vester," Vassar watched the coin, "Tails."

I pouted. "You're my little brothers."

Vester flipped the coin with a stern face and a serious tone, "Bigger brothers both physically and intellectually, Sis."

I pouted. "I am worried about you playing this nose bleeding sport as dictated by our daddy."

Vassar turned and viewed Nadean with a smile and a nod. "Teague could be very valuable, Vester. We can ask him about impact percentages and sprinting times."

Vester turned and nodded to Nadean. "Correct, Vassar. We'll meet with Teague, Nadean. When? Where? What time?"

I swayed side to side with a smile and a nod. "In forty-five minutes, down at the creek bottom. I'll introduce you to Teague."

Vester turned and flipped the coin again. "We know Teague. We all attend church together. His house is behind the fifty-three horizontal rows of Indian corn on our dad's property, sis."

"Tails," said Vassar.

I smiled. "I gotta track him down before your meeting within the next forty-five minutes. Thanks for listening to me," I moved forward and rose on my tiptoes to kiss each cheekbone, pulling back with a smirk. "Teague, he'll be a big help to ya'll." I turned and left the room, moving down the hallway and to my room for my bikini and Teague with a smile and a giggle.

At 06:31 p.m. at the water creek and pond among the warm temperatures and sunlight, the ancient pickup truck in green hue halted. The door opened.

I slid out from the driver's seat, raising both my arms in the air, wearing a long white T-shirt underneath a blue jean jacket, a pair of cut-off blue jeans and a pair of black colored cowgirl boots looking with a smile and a giggle at Teague. "I'm here."

Teague lounged inside the cool water in the creek without a shirtless and with a grin, watching Nadean, "Is it under your shorts?"

I slowly moved with my booted feet to the bank of the creek but not into the water with a sour frown, "Yeah, it be under my shirt and my shorts."

"Off."

"Okay, okay," I slowly slipped off my jacket first.

"Faster, naw, not faster. Slow down, stop."

I frowned at him, "Teague."

He smiled, "Tomcat! Call me, Tomcat. And I want you to strip your clothes like them nasty girls in Bear's magazine."

I frowned, "Teague."

He frowned. "Do it, Duchess! Or no evaluation of my great footballing skills for your dumbass brothers."

"Fine," I dropped both my knees down on the dirt.

"Naw, stand!"

I exhaled, "Teague."

He smiled. "Stand! Call me, Tomcat."

I stood, grabbing my cowgirl boot, dancing around and ripped off my boot and my sock and panted for air.

He chuckled with a nod and a grin inside the cool water. "That's good, Duchess. Do the other one."

I grabbed the other leg and danced around with the other boot and pop it off.

He chuckled with a grin. "I like."

"Tomcat."

"Your shirt off."

I unbuttoned one at a time, watching Teague, who leaned against the muddy bank while watching me. I unlatched the last button and tossed the button-down shirt down to the wet ground, revealing another long white colored T-shirt over my breasts and my bikini with a giggle and a grin.

"Duchess, ya be a tease, girl." Teague leaned forward and then backward inside the creek water with a smile and a chuckle. "A great tease. Take off the other shirt." I dropped my shorts first when my long shirt covered my belly button down to my kneecaps. Teague grinned. "Duchess, you're a pro."

I frowned. "Teague, that's nasty."

"You're making me nasty. Do it, girl! Take off the shirt. Remember our deal?"

I moved near the water. He wasn't the only one, thinking nasty thoughts. I dropped a right foot down into the cool water, since the day was hot. I swirled my naked toes around the water.

Teague watched her foot and licked his lips with a smile.

I slowly removed my foot, letting the droplets attack the clay. Teague watched her foot. Then I slowly lifted my foot and pointed the toes straight down to the dirt even with my ankle as he watched.

I lifted a foot even with my calf muscle as Teague wiggled his shoulder blades. I lifted my foot even with my kneecap as Teague leaned forward, parting his lips. Then I lifted my foot even with my hip as Teague shifted from to the muddy bank through the water to the bank. Then my foot was even with my waist as I cupped the heel.

Teague watched with a smile.

I lifted my kneecap even with my lips, extending the foot upward being a flexible girl.

Teague stood from the water, staring at her foot. I extended my leg up to the sky with a giggle and a grin.

"Duchess..." Teague reached down and flexed his naked biceps beautifully, trying to jump on top of the dry creek bank as a blur of speed passed Nadean.

Teague and Vester fell backward down into the creek water together.

Vassar moved ahead and stood beside Nadean with a chuckle and a smile at the two drowning teens inside his dad's creek pond. "That's a quarterback sack. Is that correct, Teague." I laughed as Vassar turned and winked to her sister and looked back to see the two drowning teens. "My twin brother Vester performed a flawless football tackle. Is that correct, Teague?"

Teague drowned with Vester on top of his skull. Then Vester sailed his body to the side, turning and getting out of the water. Teague emerged with a snort. Vester turned and stood on the edge of the water, crossing his arms with a smile and a chuckle. "I like swimming in the creek. It cools my temper, when I got mad," grinning. "Does it do the same thing for ya, Teague?"

Teague stood upright from the pond and slowly wadded ahead in the creek water, jumping up from the water with a sour frown, standing in front of a taller Vester with a puzzled brow. "Ya grow during the wintertime, Vester."

Vester chuckled. "My daddy stands at six feet and six inches tall. Did you know that, Teague? My mama says that we are still growing might be taller than six feet and six inches tall too. What do you think, Teague?"

Teague turned and bumped his face into the muscular chest on Vassar, who hissed and then calmed with a smile and a nod. Vassar grinned. "What positions do you recommend we play on the football team, after that speculator performance, Teague?"

Teague cleared his throat, turning with a sour frown to see Nadean, "Linebackers, both of you will do well as a pair of defensive linemen, tackling the quarterback."

Vassar nodded with a smile. "Good! That is my conclusion as well. Thanks for personal assessment and years of football experience. We really appreciate your cooperation and time, Teague." He turned and viewed his sister. "Let's go, Nadean. Our daddy told us to hay the cows in this part of the ranch. Bye, Teague." He swung around and moved ahead with Nadean back to the farm pickup truck.

Vester leaned down and smirked into the teen's wet face. "Teague, I want to remind that creek is on our daddy's property. Do remember that please? Right, buddy! Our daddy does not like trespassers on his farm property. If so, sometimes, we got to shoot them critters for target practice while keeping our gun skill perfect." He nodded with a smile, swinging around with a chuckle, moving to the truck with Vassar and Nadean.

Vester and Vassar had ridden the horses bare back to the truck, spying on their neighbor Teague and protecting their sister Nadean.

Spring Break

Friday March 3rd

09:01 p.m.

Sports car ride of Nadean

Warm temperatures and clear night with bright stars

During the annual school break during the springtime days, each school teacher conducted school meetings for the school while each student had fun with a picnic at the church's fellowship hall, the particular night.

I drove back to my home as a flash of red passed my car in the wrong lane. Then the car blazed its set of red tinted bright tail lights, jerking back into the proper traffic land in front of Nadean.

I cursed out loud and slammed down on the brakes, plowing to the dirt and veered right into an empty high school parking lot to continue my heart attack, before I really crashed my car and damage my fragile flesh.

The second car pulled up behind Nadean.

The door opened and revealed a dark shadow.

I opened my door and slid out of my car, hyperventilating with panic and relieve, still running the car engine. I wore a pair of blue jeans, a peach colored shirt, and a pair of white sneakers.

The dark shadow bolted to Nadean with a worried brow and cuddled her, sweet breathing into her cheekbone. "Duchess, I'm so sorry. I just wanted your attention. Are ya going to puke?" She shook her curls, covering her mouth. Teague said with a worried brow. "Are you okay? Do I need to drive ya home? We both live on the same road. That's no problem for me."

I caught my breath with a sneer. "I'm fine." I pulled back from his warm hug and slapped my hands against his shirt with a sour frown as he chuckled. I yell with fury. "Teague, what are you trying to do kill me or something?"

Teague wore a pair of blue jeans, a dark blue shirt, and a pair of red colored cowboy boots and hugged her with a grin and a chuckle. "Naw, I saw your car. I wanted to chat, Duchess."

I pulled back again with a sour frown. "Chat! We just finished chatting and eating and giggling at the church picnic less than ten minutes ago. I was there with you all morning and afternoon and less than ten minutes ago."

He nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I know. But you were way across the room on the other side."

"You could come over any time and chat."

"I wanna tattle that Cherry's gossiping about you."

I frowned "She's my cousin. She talks about everyone, gossips about everyone too. So?"

Teague frowned. "I know. Everyone knows that you don't have a date to our prom. Cherry's going to set ya up with a date for the dance."

My heart sunk down to my toe bones with this unhappy information.

My cousin, short, black-haired, pale-skinned Cherry had set me up once before, when I had turned sixteen years old with permission to date from my parents. She told my parents that I was safe with her and the young well-mannered redneck she selected for me with all of us going on a double date together for a couple of hamburgers and then a Hollywood movie.

The boy had wanted sex, since I was a naive virgin, whereas Cherry wasn't.

I had baled from his automobile being literally dumped from his car, making that decision all by myself. I planned to walk from his vehicle, turning and trotting down a crowded street of Huntsville, walking ten miles back to my house in the rural farm town of Brier.

However, the night had ended well for me.

Her grandfather Sloan had stopped and picked up Nadean from the street curb. Then they had consumed a dish of ice cream and watched a Hollywood movie as her pretend first time date. Then her grandfather had taken her home for the evening which was nothing short of a miracle. Her wise old grandfather had learned to watch and care for both of his teen granddaughters. Cherry was the other granddaughter.

"I..." was shock and embarrassed, exhaling with a puff of worry, standing inside the high school parking lot.

He hugged her again with a worried brow. "I'd take you to the prom, but I'm going with..." Teague frowned. "I can talk to the guys..."

I pulled back from Teague with a sour frown, raising my hands in fury. "No. You will not talk to anyone about any of this. I do not obey Cherry. She is only related by blood, bad blood." I exhaled. "It is no secret in my family about Cherry. Everyone knows but pretends not to know. Ya know? Every family has their black sheep. So the axiom goes. Thanks for telling me, Teague. I really appreciate the warning. I need it to battle with my mama."

"I can talk to your daddy like men-folk do. He'll understand..."

"He will kill Cherry, literally. If my daddy only knew half of the things we..." I exhaled with a sour frown. "Wait! How do you know Cherry? She attends a different school on the other side of the county. Her parents live near the city, not on a farm like us, country hicks."

He chuckled. "Every male knows Cherry Hill..."

"Naw," I shook my curls and my hands with a confused brow. "Her name is Cherry Hillard. See? You do not know her. Is there another Cherry along the county line near Brier?"

He chuckled with a grin. "I like cherry pie. Naw, Cherry Lane. Naw, Cherry Hill. Yep! How's it go! I broke her cherries. Naw, busted her cherries. Naw, popped her cherry."

I parted my lips, "No way."

He chuckled, "Cherrie-o! She's a really good county ho...hold lot...totally opposite of you, Duchess."

"Ya fucked her?" I dropped a jaw.

"And her cherry pie is really good enough to eat, twice," Teague winked.

"Ugh! I'm glad it's night, so you can't see my red face along with the surly slightly curved lip muscle on the left side of my mouth from way too much information flow into my cleared eardrums about you and Cherry, making you a really bad boy, Teague," giggling.

"I can turn up the brights on the headlights..."

"And you are betrothed to Zeeta."

"Cherry ain't." Teague snorted.

I tossed my arms in the air with a puzzled brow. "Enough, cowboy! Ugh! This conversation has terminated. I'm going to the prom, stag. No date. It'll be fun..." exhaling, "...sorta."

"That's my girl. Tell you what! If Cherry shows up at your house with that date, ya bring him to our prom. I'll sucker punch a hole through his nostrils so hard he'll be eating from a straw for six days the same amount of time the Lord took to build His universe."

I shook my curls with a smirk. "Ya don't know Cherry well enough, Teague. I would not make it to our prom with that date."

"O! You're a smart one, Duchess. Then call me and stall him while my shotgun and I arrive to burn a hole in his ass," he laughed.

I laughed with a smile. "You're a sweet cowboy. Zeeta is a lucky girl. But my daddy gets that honor of burning that ass...hole." Teague laughed and hugged her as a set of bright headlights blinded her eyelashes.

A new silver colored four-door sedan stopped, turned, and slammed a set of tiny pebbles over the pavement of the parking lot, killing the engine.

The driver's door opened and revealed a short dark shadow. Cherry scooted around the open door and stood in the bright moonlight, staring at Nadean and Teague with puzzlement.

I turned and dropped down on my knees, squatting in the gravel, touching the tire of my car. "Tire looks good, now, Teague." Teague turned and dropped down with a chuckle next to Nadean.

A pair of aqua and peach colored walking boots crunched over the loose gravel on the high school parking lot and stopped behind the back spine on Teague and Nadean as and her fingernails clicked with an off-beat on each golden bracelet. She wore a peach colored dress.

I stood first and then Teague stood next. They turned around with a chuckle to see Cherry.

I smiled, "Hey, Cherry!"

Teague grinned with a wink, "Cherry Hill..."

I stared at the two young kids, who had mated with each other for intimate fun, since I never had sex with a boy. And I had only been kissed at the age of fourteen on my birthday party and then nevermore.

Sadly, the only other male to touch me was my mama (she wore the pants in the family) and my daddy. My daddy did not do the fatherly kissing thing on a cheekbone or the fatherly hugging thing around a collar bone with any of his blood-children. And my daddy did not dare plant a physical kiss on the face of my mama or another body part in front of his innocent kids.

However, my parents must have performed the 'wild thing' three times, including one of the following at least, kissing, hugging, and mating in private. Therefore, I concluded in my wise but short years of seventeen that this was an old-fashioned southern religious church thing, because my grandparents did not kiss or hug in front of their grandchildren either.

If not for both Cherry's headlights and Teague's headlights glowing over their heads, my spying would be quite difficult.

Cherry stood on one side of Nadean as Teague occupied the other side like a proverbial triangle thingy. Cherry watched Nadean with a left eyeball and flirted with Teague with a right one.

A weird talent to possess, but I digressed.

She batted her two eyelashes, holding both her hands in front of her sundress, ironically knocking against the position of her vagina, looking that right eyeball at Teague. Then she shook her hips side to side, tossing a hip left with the kneecap bend for two seconds, then a right hip bent for three seconds and then started the side to side hip shaky again.

I concluded that it must be some kind of secret code for "sexual mating" that I had missed in my tenth grade health class.

Teague licked his lips and grinned at her, responding to her mating ritual.

Cherry clearly communicated to Teague: Do me!

I could understand her lusty desire as my teen hormones kicked in over the male hunk, making my tail lights flash too.

Teague stood at six feet and one inch of vivacious youth and manly strength with a pair of large hands for holding a football or a girl, since he was the star quarterback of the Brier high school football team. He possessed a head of blonde tinted hair with a set of bangs, a sweetheart shaped face, and a pair of baby blue eyes, drowning out his peachy-rose complexion. His broad shoulders and sculpted biceps were covered with a stark white long john cotton shirt, caressing his muscles, peeking out from his elbows down to his wrist bones which was below a rolled up long-sleeved flannel shirt.

There was not much of dress code in the rural country life style. At my school, the kids had un-officially adopted they own fashion statements.

Jocks and cowboys strutted around in a pair of faded blue jeans and a pair of polished cowboy boots which was paired with a flannel cotton shirt over a long john cotton shirt.

Eggheads and gentlemen wore a nicely pressed dress shirt which was paired with a set of pressed trousers and a pair of polished leather shoes.

Rednecks walked around in a pair of faded and ripped blue jeans, a dirty shirt, and a pair of polished cowboy boots.

"Hi, Tomcat," Cherry turned and smiled at him and then at her. "Nadean, ya got troubles?"

Teague chuckled, "Low tire, but I fixed it good."

"Hmm! You are usually very good." Cherry swung her hands and her hips as Teague chuckled.

"Okay," I clapped with a sour frown before my eyeballs saw something that would never ever leave my brain cells. "I'm fixed up." I turned and moved to my open door.

Teague side stepped and blocked her path with both his hands and his body with a smile and a nod. "Check the other tires, Duchess."

"Duchess!" Cherry parted her lips, turning with a confused brow to see the nose profile on Nadean and then Teague.

"One of Teague's humorous nicknames," I giggled.

Cherry frowned with a nod to Teague. "She's got a nickname too. You gave her a nickname, too, Tomcat." She crossed her arms with a smirk and a nod to Teague, "O! I heard it, now, Duchess and Tomcat. I see a corn field crow pairing. So, Nadean has earned herself a nickname, too. Who would've guessed? Not me! And I bet your mama don't know..."

Teague reached over and shoved Cherry back to her car with a sneer and a sour frown, "Time to go home, Cherry, in your own bed this time for the evening, for some real sleep. I'm fixing the tires, so the car doesn't ride rough. You should clearly understand that mental concept, as well as, the vocal command. Good bye, Cherry Hill!"

Cherry moved ahead and slid down into her car. The door closed. She dropped the window with a smile and a wink. "Call me, Tomcat."

Teague leaned into her window with a sour frown and a sneer. "I got a girl, Cherry. See you not around here ever." He jerked up from her window, standing and turned with a smile to see Nadean.

Cherry cranked and revved the engine of her sedan, turning and spinning the tires out of the parking lot into the street away from Nadean and Teague.

I turned and watched the four-door sedan of Cherry with a puzzled brow. "She's going the wrong direction. Home is the opposite way."

Teague grabbed and tugged Nadean to her car, shaking his skull with a sour frown. "Man. I really screwed up with that bitch. Are you okay, Duchess?" He turned with a smile to see her nose profile.

I turned with a stern face to see Teague. "You should be apologizing to Zeeta, not me. I know how to avoid Cherry and Cherry's tree limbs," giggling.

"Naw," Teague said.

I smiled. "They are just words, Teague. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me. I'm going back home before my daddy's worries and my mama's yells. Bye, Teague." I move into the open door, scooting into the seat.

The door closed.

I turned inside the parking lot, driving onto the main road in front of the school. There was an intersection down the street with a pair of stop signs. The east and west bound drivers had the ride-away to and from the high school.

The road intersection surrounded a section of unplowed cropland, since the cotton had been harvested and delivered to cotton gin for processing, leaving rows of tall and naked stalks of green plants.

Teague entered his car, turning and speeding over the main road of the school. He caught up and drove even with her car in the left hand lane of the main road, turning with a silly grin to see Nadean as his overhead roof lights blinded his right side of the road.

We both veered closer to the road intersection with the two stop signs, since we both had the ride-away to proceed down the road, even performing a set of illegal speeding in the late evening on the empty road.

Then I turned to see a car on my right as the car sped to the stop sign.

Teague drove faster and pulled ahead of Nadean in the left lane.

The speeding car was not slowing down for the stop sign at the road intersection.

I pressed the gasoline pedal, running all V-8 cylinders, accelerating to eighty miles-per-hour over the naked road at night. If I could pass Teague back over the two-lane road, then I would slam on my brakes, forcing him to slow down and see the other speedy car.

Teague blew the horn, holding both his hands in the air from the steering column, wiggling his tongue at Nadean with a laugh.

I saw but ignored his silly mouth movement, speed passing in the right lane. My bumper overtook his front tire, his front bumper, and then his grill.

And then I was out in front of Teague.

Teague released the gas pedal, turning with a sour frown to see the other car in the perpendicular roadway.

I slammed on my brakes. The third car ran the stop sign, touching the right bumper of the Nadean's car.

I spun to the left and pressed the brake, rotating my car in circles. I released the brake as my car moved and headed to the crop field.

And then the car stopped with a puff of smoke.

At 09:16 p.m., in the bright moonlight and stars, inside my sports cars, I saw a scene of blurry darkness through the window of my car.

The door opened in the face of Nadean.

Teague kneeled down and sweet breathed, touching her face without shaking her semi-conscious body with a nervous timber. "Duchess, wake up! Can you hear me? Can you see me? Wake up, Duchess! I'm here. Ya wrecked. The car's wrecked. Are ya bleeding? I can't see without more light."

In the distance, a series of emergency sirens sounded over the country roadways moving ahead toward the two car accident.

The personal tan colored pickup truck stopped inside the plowed crop field as tall, black-haired, pale skinned Eckward scooted out the cab and trotted over the dirt to the wrecked car with a hand wave and a yell of worry. "Don't move her! Let the Zondra's daddy examine her. He works for the volunteer fire department. He knows what to do. He's trained in first aid."

Teague touched her face, smearing her blood over his fingers with a worried face. "Duchess, don't move! Stay still and breathe! Can we hear me? Grunt or moan..."

"What happened?" Eckward viewed the sports car with Nadean.

Teague exhaled. "Cherry ran the damn stop sign, knocking her car into Nadean."

Eckward stood, turning to see Cherry in the distance. "She's okay. Cherry's out of her car, crying. She doesn't look hurt."

Teague touched her face with a worried brow and a sour tone. "And do ya think I give a shit about Cherry Hill!"

Eckward viewed the Cherry's wrecked car. "She's in a tank. That car could break a hole into three feet of cedar block."

Teague touched her face with a worried brow. "Nadean, she's alive and breathes. But she's not really aware of me, my voice, my hands. Get help, Bobcat! Help her! Someone help her!"

Eckward knelt down and stared at an unconscious Nadean seeing the blood on her face with a worried brow. "She's in shock. She needs a blanket." Teague stood and ripped off his jacket, landing it across the chest of Nadean, kneeling back down, touching her face with a worried brow.

The single emergency vehicle stopped over the grass, releasing all the emergency personnel.

Zondra's daddy moved ahead, stopped, and squatted next to Teague with a worried brow. "Let me take over, Tomcat." Teague stood and moved away Nadean. Zondra's father checked her vital signs, reaching out, holding her hand with a worried brow. "Nadean, I got my finger in your hand. Squeeze it! If you can hear me, honey?" He felt pressure from her fingertips and smiled. "She's squeezing. Good, honey. Does anything hurt other than your head? You're probably got a concession and seeing things funny. That's normal. Does your chest hurt? Squeeze my finger for no." He waited as she squeezed his hand tenderly.

He smiled. "Good, she says, no. Squeeze my finger, if you can feel this." He stroked a sharp needle against her skin. "Good, she feels in her left arm. I am doing it again." He stroked the needle against her skin. "Good, she feels her right arm. She isn't paralyzed in her upper body." He stroked the needle on the skin of her leg. "Do you feel this, sweetheart?" He waits. "Good, and this one?" He stroked the needle on skin of her knee. "Good, she isn't paralyzed. We can move her. Let's rip all this metal the wrong way over. I don't care about the damn car door."

The two teenagers and thee adult men grabbed and jerked the car door, shoving opposite of its normal closing direction as it fell over on the ground, exposing the driver's seat.

The fire truck arrived over the grass too.

Zondra's daddy turned with a hand motion and a yell to the firemen. "Bring the cot. We're taking Nadean to the emergency room at Athens inside the fire truck. The emergency room physician should check her over for any internal bleeding or body injuries, since I'm not trained in medical science." He grabbed and shoved Teague and Eckward away from the car and Nadean with a worried brow. "Ya boys, go and get Urall and meet us at Athens Hospital. Tomcat!"

Teague nodded with a worried brow, "Sir."

Zondra's daddy shakes his skull with a stern face and a serious tone. "Do not let Urall drive the truck. He'll be really upset with the bad news but be sure to tell him that Nadean is okay. She just needs to be seem by the doctor for good measure. You drive Urall and Jadean, boy. Can you handle this, son?"

Teague nodded, turning and running back to his undamaged sports car.

10:09 a.m.

Spring Break week

Monday March 6th

Huntsville Shopping Mall (ten miles south of Brier)

Warm temperatures and bright sunlight

I strolled with my mama and my sister Dorcee down a vanilla colored walkway, viewing each posed dummy in a set of new clothes, searching for a long gown for my prom next Friday evening during Spring Break week in the month of March. I wore a red colored dress with a pair of black colored cowgirl boots without a smile.

Tall and skinny black-haired, pale-skinned Dorcee stopped and pointed to the clothing boutique with a smile and a nod. "Mama," she ran and disappeared into the dress shop.

A short male with blonde hair and pale skin stood against a yellow colored solid wall with a smile and a nod in front of a long wooden table, pointing down to each object, saying to the group of other females around the table. "This is the Miss Alabama Cosmos Pageant. The winner is crowned Miss Alabama Cosmos and receives a boatload of prizes, as well as, a crown and a scepter." He wore a gray colored suit with a peach and pink colored bowtie.

Dorcee stopped and pointed down at the shiny tiara with a smile and a nod. "Are those diamonds, Mama?" She wore a yellow sundress from Nadean's closet and a pair of black colored shoes.

Jadean wore a long ankle-length red and tan dress and stopped behind Dorcee with a sour frown to the object. "They be rhinestones, fake diamonds."

Dorcee danced side to side with a smile and a nod, clapping her hands. "Can I enter, Mama? I wanna be Miss Cosmos. What's a cosmos, Mama?"

The male turned and smiled to Jadean. "Cosmos is the princess of the universe. You must live here in the great state of Alabama and be eighteen years old." Nadean stopped beside Jadean with a sour frown. Jadean patted the arm of her oldest daughter with a smile and a nod to the male. "That's you, Nadean."

The male lifted and hold an object with a smile and a nod. "Please fill out the pageant application and provide a one-hundred-dollar non-refundable entrance fee. Then your young miss can enter the pageant being held at the Huntsville Civic Center this week."

Jadean reached and snatched the paper from his hand with a smile and a nod. "Are ya taking girls this late into the week? I gots money."

I turned and frowned at her nose profile, "Mama."

"Hush, girly," Jadean smiled and thumbed over her collar bone to the door with a smile and a nod to the male, "I gots money in my car. I be quick. Follow me, girls." She turned with her girls and moved to the door.

The door opened.

Jadean led her girls back to the white colored four-door family car.

I followed with a sour frown behind her ass, "Mama."

Jadean stopped at the car and spun around with a smile and a nod to see Nadean. "We lucked out, Nadean," she looked down to read the paper. "Ya can win this and become Miss Alabama Cosmos. List of prizes. Ya got a fur coat, made of mink," she looked up with a smile and a wink. "Mink, Nadean, that be very expensive..."

Dorcee frowned. "I wanna win it."

"A diamond necklace..."

Dorcee frowned. "I wanna win it."

"Cash of one thousand dollars and a car," Jadean looked up with a smile and rattled the paper with a nod in the face of Nadean. "This be saving your fanny, girly. One of them prizes is a new car. Ya wrecked your car. Your daddy's upset about it..."

I frowned. "I apologized for the car accident. And it wasn't my fault. Cherry..."

Jadean stomped her boot heel with a sneer. "Ya wrecked that car, girly."

I stomped my boot heel right back with a sneer. "I didn't wreck that car. Cherry wrecked that car when she crashed her big four-door sedan into my little sports car, Mama."

Jadean snarled. "That car be wrecked, not running and not working, girly. You drove that car, girly. That be destroyed and can't be repaired," she rattled the paper with a sour frown. "Ya get a new sports car. Get in there, girly."

I reached down and snatched the paper from my mom, reading the instructions with a frown. "I turn eighteen in the month of May not..."

Jadean turned and opened the car door, reaching inside the compartment, grabbing the metal box of cash. She withdrew the money, turning around with a smirk to see Nadean. "Ya turn eighteen, this year. That's the truth."

"That's still a not..."

Jadean sneered. "Hush, Nadean."

I frowned. "This is about you, not me. It's always been about you, Mama. I did everything you asked, everything."

Jadean shook her curls with a sour frown. "Jesus suffered for you. You suffer for me. That's your lesson here on the planet, Nadean."

"Mama," I frowned.

"Hush, girly! You win and get that brand new car, so your daddy or your granddaddy don't have to get you another one."

I looked down with a sad face at my unpolished cowgirl boots. "I will try."

Jadean frowned at the hair roots of Nadean. "You will win. Just smile and win, girly."

I exhaled with a puff of frustration and a whisper for my eardrums only. "Just smile and win." I spun around and moved back into the store on the heels of her boots, feeling one thousand and one butterflies inside my stomach about the wrecked car, the car accident and the new pageant.

At 10:13 a.m. in front of the Huntsville Dress shop, the door opened.

I entered the store and faked a smile with a sexy southern twang back to the unfamiliar male and the table with the tiara. "Hi, I wanna be Miss Alabama Cosmos, ya'll."

The short male with the blonde haired stared with a smile and a wink at Nadean. "Hey, darling! You are a beauty."

I faked a smile with a giggle. "I am a beauty kitten. That's me. What do I do, sir?"

The male lifted and held the ink pen with a sign and a nod. "Sign this form. Give me hundred dollars and be eighteen years old. That's all, darling."

Jadean stopped beside Nadean, patting the arm of her daughter with a nod and a smile, lifting the wad of cash near her smile. "She's qualifies. And here's the cash."

The male accepted the wad and counted the money with a smile and a nod. "Come to the Huntsville Auditorium on Wednesday night at six o'clock sharp. The judging begins immediately. You are only required to wear an evening dress, any style and any color. Then we crown the winner." He placed the money inside his pocket, looking up with a smile and a nod to Jadean.

I signed the form with my hand writing and handed the piece of paper to him with a sour frown. "That's a church night, Mama."

The male frowned. "I beg your pardon."

I frowned. "Wednesday night. Ya know, lots of folks go to church, eat supper, and sing church songs. That's the night scheduled for Brother Jesus..."

"Okay!" Jadean slapped the arm of Nadean with a smile and a nod to see the male. "Okay. It be okay to miss church for one night, honey. Nadean's an angel in church, a perfect little angel. She never misses church," because Jadean required all her children to attend church every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.

The male frowned and stuck a hand back down into the pocket of his pressed trousers. "Do you want me to return your money since Wednesday is a church night for you, ma'am?"

Jadean shook her curls with a smile. "Naw, Nadean be there all pretty and sweet and angelic."

I turned and rolled my eyeballs, moving to the door, without my mother.

The store door opened.

I exited the store and moved to our old family car for the trip back home to Brier with a sour frown and an upset stomach.

The store door closed.

11:11 a.m.

City of Brier

Farm and home of Jadean and Urall Garland

Bedroom of Nadean setting

The white wooden bedroom door was opened.

"Fuck!" I raised both my arms in the air with the paper, stomping with a loud shout into my private bedroom with wallpaper in tiny pink and red flowers.

Vester and Vassar turned from the hallway and followed Nadean into her bedroom with a worried brow also. each one wore a white short sleeved T-shirt with a pair of cut-off blue jeans and a pair of bare feet.

Vassar spun around and surveyed an empty hallway, gently closing her bedroom door. Vester stood and stared with a puzzled brow at his older sister. "Don't sing that word in piccolo music, Sis. What's wrong?"

I spun around and sat on top of the messy pink and purple bedspread with a sour frown, looking down at my unpolished black colored cowgirl boot toes with a whisper, "Mama, she's black mailing my ass. We're trotting around boutique shops in Huntsville looking for me a prom dress, when Dorcee saw a sign for Miss Alabama Cosmos." I lifted and extended the pamphlet to my two curious brothers.

Vassar spun around and moved ahead, reaching out and snatched it from her hand, reading it with a stern face. And he was very quick with a laugh. "Miss Alabama Cosmos Pageant, this is a great step above the little homegrown local Brier beauty competition, Nadean. You are required to wear a swimsuit and a formal evening gown and a costume of purpose."

"A costume of purpose," I looked up with a giggle and a grin to see Vester. "I represent the small town of Brier, a briar. I'll go as a briar patch, a thorn..."

"A rabbit," Vester laughed.

"A mouse," I giggled.

"A kitten," Vester smiled.

"An angel," Vassar slapped the pamphlet with a smile and a nod to see Nadean.

"What!" I turned and frowned to Vassar.

"An angel," Vassar pointed down to the paper with a smile and a nod. "The pamphlet states that you must represent a symbol of your town. Our town is the first church in the Alabama territory of the year 1813." And only Vassar would remember that silly piece of trivial about small town Brier. He grinned. "You would theoretically become the first angel of Brier."

"I like." I smiled with a nod to Vassar.

Vester frowned. "Nadean, you must live the fairy tale, not read the pages from the storybook. You are not going to win this silly beauty pageant. You are a beautiful girl and smart but lack total self-confidence."

I looked down with a sour frown to see my boot toes and the floor. "Uh, ho."

Vassar frowned. "Her 'uh ho' mice squeaks, when she is confronted with fear of defeat."

I looked up with a worried brow to Vester. "So what do I do?"

"Act your true self, Nadean," Vester smiled with a nod.

Vassar frowned. "Do not let our mama's failure, fail you. She desired all the tiaras that you have mendacious accumulated. Our mama could not as she was pregnant with you as a developing fetus in her senior class at Brier high school."

I parted my lips. "How do knew the truth?"

Vester nodded with a grin. "We are intellectual geniuses, Nadean. Vassar and I know lots of cool shit and nasty secrets."

I smirked. "I wanna hear your nasty secrets."

"Naw," Vester smirked.

Vassar frowned. "You possess what is medical called stage fright."

I looked down with a sour frown to see my boot toes and the floor. "O! That's that feeling when I'm going to puke, but not. When I'm going to stop breathing, but don't. When my heart thumps in my throat, echoing up to both of my earlobes like a cave," I view Vassar.

He nodded with a worried brow. "Yes."

I asked. "How do I overcome stage fear?"

Vester shook his skull. "You cannot without a psychiatrist's medical treatment of hypnosis and prescription medication."

I exhaled. "I'm not sick for a doctor. I just afraid of..."

Vassar frowned. "You are not stage fright. You are stuck with obeying our mama's verbal commands."

Vester nodded with a sour frown. "She rules. Our daddy drools, having no balls to slack her flapping jowls."

I parted my lips, "Vester, you would encourage our daddy to display violence by hitting our bitch mama in the teeth or the nose or the mouth, producing red blood on the clean kitchen floor," giggling.

Vester chuckled. "Naw, I would discourage our mama into displaying violence by hitting our daddy if he ever questioned one of her vicious bitch commands."

I nodded with a giggle. "That's mean."

Vassar grinned. "That's disfucktion, ya'll. Or did she fuck, ya'll?"

I grinned. "Wow! I learned a new weird vocabulary word that I don't really like."

Vester grinned. "That's the intriguing prospect of higher education, Nadean. But we both agree that our mama's interior mad scientist evil motives are pretty good. You have accumulated a massive amount of monetary funding to pay for your post-education college degree at Birmingham University."

I nodded. "Yeah, I have both saving bonds and real cash from my birthday parties and those beauty pageants."

At 04:45 p.m. inside the sewing room, I stood on the floor and exhibited a set of white crocheted rounded caps over each breast which was cross-stitched over the original white swim suit fabric, making my flat breasts look bigger, where the rest of the one-piece bathing suit was a color of solid muddy brown down to my thigh bones.

Jadean wore a long brown dress and snapped, gathered, and pulled the extra brown fabric around my waist, creating a sleek illusion of the infamous tiny Scarlett O'Hara eighteen-inch waistline, sliming the right parts while aggregating the wrong parts.

I looked like a skinny brown stick with a set of two crocheted caps over my two flat breasts, since the color of the one-piece swimming suit almost matched my natural coffee skin tone.

Jadean finished her snapping, turning and placing the scissors on the table and lifted and held a pair of summer heeled sandals of brown mud, matching the swim suit.

I accepted and slipped on the sandals over my naked feet, growing to the height of six feet. "Thanks, Mama."

Jadean moved around and fiddled with the swimsuit on Nadean with a smile and a nod. "The continuous color theme of brown will slim the suit down into your legs, carrying the color, puddling onto the floor."

I giggled. "I thought only newborn stumbling puppies puddled on the floor. O. I get it. A puppy puddled on the swimsuit too."

Jadean frowned. "Don't sass my ass, girly."

Vester and Vassar appeared and invaded the sewing room, holding an armful of items, spreading and placing them on the floor. Vester looked up with a smile and nod to see Nadean. "The angel team has arrived. We are going to create Nadean's angel costume for the Miss Alabama Cosmos pageant."

Jadean looked down with a sour frown to see the loose materials, "From all that mess?"

"Yes ma'am." Vester nodded with a smile to Nadean. "We have all the necessary materials and tools," he held up and snapped the sharp pair of scissors with a smile and a nod.

Jadean turned with a sour frown to the archway. "I be fixing our supper. Come on into the kitchen when your twin brothers finished the construction of them angel wings for us to see, girly."

"Yes ma'am." I answered for my kin.

The white chiffon dress was sliced really close to my fanny plus one inch, exhibiting my long legs. The dress displayed an exposed V-neckline front and back collar which was tied at the waist with a silky satin sash, making an hour-glass figure on my body. My white dress was both sleeveless, without a single decoration. I wore a pair of four-inched summer sandals with a tiny white bow at both of my pinky toes.

I displayed an airborne halo which was made of store-purchased white feathers, not the feathers from chicken farm of Lark's dad. My cool genius twin brothers hand-wrapped and hand-glued each fake white feather around a circular strip of electric wire.

The halo was attached to a cloth fabric leather headboard, hanging behind both my ears and around a forehead. My forehead is covered with a set of my grey bangs, disguising and making the halo float in the air like magic.

The coolest feature of my angel costume was a pair of wings. Vester worked on a right wing while Vester did the left.

A dazzling pure white exuding rhinestone sparkles coupled with sequin flashes of silver light, making a glowingly aura of Angel wings, curving around both shoulders above the dress hem.

Each wing was soldered onto a steel wiring unit. The frame unit was formed by a set of wardrobe coat hangers, where my brothers had straightened and bent into shaped a wire mold over my shoulders and around my armpits disguised by the dress.

Each feather is glued with zillions of baby seed pearls, translucent sequins, and toy fake diamond stones plus a few pewter beds, giving it depth of shadow among the sea of shiny for Dorcee's Christmas present, a jewelry decorating set. Since, Vester robbed the fake gems stones for me.

Vester and Vassar had a good time of designing, decorating, and dolling up the angel wings, making Nadean wonder some interesting mentally thoughts about her brothers.

Wednesday March 8th

06:35 p.m.

Huntsville Auditorium

(ten miles, west, from farm town Brier)

Miss Alabama Cosmos pageant

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I left my house with my entire family minus my father and arrived at the Huntsville Auditorium.

The auditorium was tall and semi-dark with rows of red padded chair and a center stage of wood at the front of the room.

I entered through a side door with my new pageant costume and my new makeup kit, finding an empty wooden dresser bureau, placing each one of my pageant items on top of the smooth counter. I spun around and surveyed the back stage with intrigue while standing in the wrong spot, seeing the group of tall pretty maidens.

"I've heard of you, pudding," A tall beauty contestant said into Nadean's face.

I didn't really enjoy that particular new southern endearment from another southern belle. The geographical place called the South was infamously favored with "them" endearments. The endearments were formed by family, friends, and, sometimes, foes from a set of cute playful nicknames to silly clownish names to puppy-love names to annoying shitty names.

I personally possessed numerous endearing empty sweet names. My mom called me that annoying "girly." My dad said to me that lovely "slick." Teague proclaimed to me that sweet "Duchess." Dorcee called me "bitch" behind our mom's back spine.

The new teen female was tall with a tone of pale skin, a head of black curly hair, and a pair of big breasts inside her Greek goddess golden colored ankle-length dress.

But I had the best tan next to her pale chunky arms. "Me!" I meekly said before starting a fighting rumble of double folded fists as the other ugly contestants huddled around me, mostly her.

All the glittery painted cosmetic eyelids stared at Nadean.

"You are Nadean Garland," sneered the beauty girl contestant.

I turned with a smile to see each unknown belle, "Nadean! And who you are, honey pie?" I began the battle of the endearments, when you didn't know the proper name of the other bitch.

"Antoinette McCravy Donze." She turned with a smirk to see the other eighteen years old females and then returned back with a sneer to Nadean. "Well, sugar, you are out of your league here. We are the pros. This is the big time, babe. You are competing with thunderstorm weathered and rainy seasoned beauty queens from every county in Bama. I was Miss Honeydew, Miss Peach Orchard, and Miss Apple Dumpling."

Gawd! I hadn't entered the pageant for fun and giggles of a fake smile. I was following the order from my mom while hoping to win the car to drive to school.

A short and overweight with black hair and pale skin male, the Master of Ceremonies moved from the theater stage and stopped behind the huddle of teen girls with a stern face and his new order. "Please, dress in your individual costume, ladies. The show starts in thirty minutes."

I exhaled with a puff of relieve that I didn't receive a black eye, before the pageant show, spinning around at my dresser station, changing into my costume.

At 07:07 p.m. on top of the dark wooden pageant stage, the Master of Ceremonies (MC) wore a dark gray suit with a yellow bowtie and started the show, introducing each candidate in some kind of weird order, making Nadean the third contestant without a number or a title, only a name and place of origin.

I waited for the other beauty bitch to finish her vocal introduction as she moved away from the single microphone on the top of a pole in the middle of the stage and then stopped with a fake smile too. I scooted around the dangling dark smelly curtain inside the old auditorium without being nervous, only annoyed at my mom and her continuous selfish ways which had landed my ass into another beauty pageant.

I smoothly glided ahead over the smooth wood in a pair of white colored high heels like a fashion model, seeing nothing but rows of blinking stage lights and then stopped at the microphone as and my eyeballs slowly adjusted to the bright blinking light. "Hi there!" I paused with a fake smile. "I'm your sweet angel," I winked down to row of the judges. "Nadean Garland from Brier, Bama," I back stepped from the microphone with grace and then sidestepped with elegance, swaying the art work contraption to the right and to the left behind my shoulder blades, remembering I'm part machine and part human.

Then I slowly prissed side to side in my white dress while fluttering my white colored wings up and down like a heavenly angel to an empty spot near the first girl, turning and posing to see rest of the costume waltz.

The pair of white wings could not flap or fly but seductively twinkle and flutter up and down as I prissed my ass side to side from Vester's bold advice, bouncing the huge piece of heavenly art work, tickling both of my elbows with the dancing fluffy feathers. I smiled until both cheekbones almost cracked open and bleed while thinking about the college scholarship money, moving away from my mom's house and my mom foreverly and strutted to my spot without tripping in the fashion heels.

I turned with a fake smile into the semi-darkness, looking at each smiling face and pair of white eyeballs for my angel crew. My mom was the hair stylist. My two brothers were the designers. My younger sister Dorcee was jealous mad. And my dad was home sleeping off a full belly of good supper.

Contestant Number Four moved ahead and stood at the microphone as I continued to search the audience for my family members. She smiled into the audience. "Hello, I'm Jean Ann. I'm a beaver from Beaver Dam, Alabama," she swung around and wore a furry brown colored body suit with long sleeves and long pants, stopping on the opposite side of Nadean.

The next girl moved ahead and stood over the microphone, saying in a sexy alto. "Hey! I am Antoinette McCravy Donze. I'm a bear from Bear Cove." She turned sideways, moved ahead, and finally stopped, posing beside Nadean, wearing a brown colored bikini that showed everything but her private parts.

I gave up trying to find my family members, watching the rest of the costume waltz with a fake smile and an occasionally wink when one of the judges admired my wing contraption.

Finally, each southern belle was introduced with a costume and a name, turning with a fake smile and a wink to the judges, posing for the flashes of photography bulbs.

The MC clapped with a smile. "Please provide each girl a clap and a smile back. Ladies, please go and change into your bathing swimsuit next."

The bathing swimsuit competition provided more roars, whistles, and claps coming from each audience member, ending without an announcement of a winner also.

I was beginning to suspect the entire program was a rip off with my mom's hundred dollars and one of the ugly southern belles was the daughter of the MC. So far, there were not any photographs or awards of beauties.

The MC clapped and then said into the microphone. "Ladies, please go and change into your evening gowns next. This is the last leg of the competition with the awarding of the new Miss Alabama Cosmos."

Honestly, I had never heard of the Miss Alabama Cosmos beauty pageant. I spun around and wiggled my ass off the stage with the other girls and back to my dresser station, reapplying more fresh lipstick and a pink rosy cheekbone powder to my sweaty face. I exchanged the swimsuit into a pink pretty plantation dress without a set of sleeves or a collar dressing. I back stepped from the small mirror and looked like I was seventeen years old, because I was seventeen years old. I could see in the background from my mirror the other sexy dresses on the eighteen years old and older mature girls, which was not my body or my mind or my age.

Each dress was a tight sheath hugging-body style with sparkling hues in silver or gold or green emerald or blue sapphire or ruby red or sexy black.

I whispered for my eardrums only. "Yeah, I'm Junior League here."

And some of the girls possessed a sexy alto voice from smoking cigarettes, since Zeeta's voice had changed from a sweet piercing soprano down into a dark mysterious alto from her constant cigarette smoking habit.

On top of the center sage, the short and overweight MC held with the microphone and stared into the audience with a smile. "Welcome back to the final stage! This is the evening gown competition. The first contestant is Antoinette McCravy Donze. She is a bear from Bear Cove."

Antoinette scooted around the dangling dark curtain and wiggled side to side in her golden tinted sheath dress with one shoulder, flipping her black long hair side to side and then stopped, posing with a fake smile and a wink beside the MC.

The MC turned and smiled at the nose profile on Donze. "Your pageant question is: if you were the ruler of the world, what new law would you enforce upon your royal subjects immediately?"

The rest of the females huddled behind the smelly dark curtain, slightly hiding from the audience, listening to her answer.

I stood behind the huddle of girls out of elbow and spiky heel range, without a worry. Vester had researched all numerous responses to the previous popular beauty pageants and had provided me with an overall global answer to any question. I would recite my well-rehearsed response during my turn and finally end the ache within my arches from the pair of heeled fashion shoes.

On top of the center stage, Antoinette faked a smile with hesitation, "Uh. Yes. Of course, as the ruler of the world, I would propose peace on Earth. Goodness to all the people. Yes, of course, I would," she waved a hand and blew out a pretend kiss to the audience. The audience members stood and cheered out loud, clapping for her.

The MC nodded with a smile to the contestant. "Thank you, Antoinette. She is the bear from Bear Cove."

Antoinette turned and guided sideways to the end on the stage, watching and waiting for the rest of the girls.

One of the contestants gasped with shock and jabbed a finger at the wiggling butt on Antoinette. "She stole my answer. That is my answer for my question. Why do I do now?"

The MC tossed a hand to the next contestant. "The second contestant is Cathy Douglas Catskill, Alabama. She was a cat from Catskill, Alabama."

The other girl shoved a distraught Cathy through the dark curtain onto the stage with a giggle and a grin. "Go and fake it, honey!"

I continued to stand slightly behind the huddle of girls and watched from behind the tall dark curtain as the second contestant prissed ahead to the microphone pole and stopped, receiving the same question, answering with the same response, sorta.

The MC interviewed each contestant and finally spun around looking at the last female contestant and smiled into the microphone. "And the last contestant for the night in the Miss Alabama Cosmos beauty pageant is Nadean Garland. She is an angel from Brier, Alabama."

I jerked the curtain to the side with great drama and waltzed ahead, waving my hand with a fake smile into the blinking lights, stopping in front of the microphone pole, without knocking it over.

The MC continued to smile at the nose profile on Nadean. "If you were ruler of the world, what new law would you enforce upon your royal subjects?" The MC repeated the same question for Nadean too.

I continued to smile into audience of dark rows and blinking lights. "Peace on Earth. Good will to all mankind..." I paused. "...and carry a coon dog in the rear of your truck bed and a sawed off shotgun underneath the bench seat." I laughed out loud with the audience members. I had followed Vester's bold advice along with a hand wave and a wink, swinging away from the microphone pole and viewed the perfectly distorted face on Antoinette, who was boldly reacting to my clever response.

The MC nodded with a chuckle and stared into the audience. "Thank you for your creative royal law, Nadean. She is the angel from Brier." He looked down and viewed each judge. "Judges, please, quickly decide the new Miss Alabama Cosmos beauty queen for the evening. While our judges cast their final votes, I would like to thank all our lovely contestants and award a number of prizes. Miss Congeniality will receive an armful of flowers and a knee-high golden plated trophy. This year's winner has been selected and voted by secret ballot, naming Connie Wilmore from Coon Lodge, Alabama. Come on up here and stand beside me, Miss Congeniality Connie."

Connie slapped both hands over her open mouth and flooded her eyeballs with tears, running in place first and then swiftly moved to the MC, accepting her flowers and her trophy.

The MC shifted away from the runny snot on her face and stood in a new spot on stage with the microphone up his nose and a fake smile to the audience. "Each arm bouquet of yellow roses for the winners was provided by the Huntsville Flower Shop. Each trophy for the winner was produced by the Huntsville Hardware Store."

And then a white piece of paper appeared at the edge of the stage from the arm of the head judge.

The MC moved ahead with a smile and leaned down, snatching the paper from the judge, opening the envelope. He back stepped and stopped in front of the table with the other flowers and trophies, and a sparkling rhinestone tiara, reading out loud the next name. "Ladies and gentlemen, the moment has arrived. I am holding the two names, the first runner up and the winner of the Miss Alabama Cosmos. The first runner up will receive an armful of flowers, a knee-high golden plate trophy, a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill, and two thousand dollars in college scholarship money. We here at the Miss Alabama Cosmos support the new opportunity for any and all young girls. First runner up is Nadean Garland."

I did not eye roll or gasp or cry but swiftly moved ahead and stopped beside the Master of Ceremony with great joy of more college scholarship money plus a great disappointment of no new car. So, I will drive my dad's old pickup truck to the school yard in my senior year. The MC handed the envelope of money, an arm bouquet of flowers, and a heavy trophy to Nadean. I accepted each item and scooted away down the edge on the stage, placing the trophy on the floor, waving my envelope as the thorns of the flowers cut into my naked arm flesh wearing a fake smile.

He turned and smiled to the other contestants. "There is one more name on my note card." He swung around to the audience with a smile. "The winner of the pageant will receive an armful of flowers, a knee-high golden plated trophy, a sparkling tiara, a long mink coat, a new car, and four thousand dollars in college scholarship monies. The mink coat is compliments of Huntsville Fur Store. The car comes from the Huntsville Automobile Dealership. Please visit all our listed sponsors for a good deal on furs and cars. And the moment of the night, Miss Alabama Cosmos is Antoinette McCravy Donze." She swiftly moved and run to the edge of the wooden stage, crying with a giggle, waving both of her hands, spinning around, racing ahead to the table. She stopped in front of the table and the MC.

He dressed her black colored hair roots with a sparkling tiara and her naked arm with the flowers, leaving the envelope and the trophy on top of the wooden table.

Antoinette spun around to face the audience and slowly moved into the darkness on the edge of the performing stage, blowing out kisses, nose snot, and eyeball tears over her hand and the floor, spinning around with a smile, slowly moving to the center of the stage for her picture pose with the photographer as Miss Alabama Cosmos.

The Master of Ceremony moved ahead and blocked her advancement at the center of the stage with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Everyone, please, remain in your seats. Contestants, please, remain standing." He waved his arm with the microphone.

I stood in place and looked down, fingering each soft petal on the bouquet of pink tinted roses, wishing that Teague could have seen my sexy swimsuit and my pretty gown. I looked up and narrowed my eyeballs, finding my family members in the audience.

The twin brothers of Nadean were bouncing up and down on the floor, wiggling a set of two handmade signs with her name. I truly appreciated and loved my two brothers for being queerly weird and quirkily genius.

Jadean stood upright from her chair and crossed her arms, shaking her curls. That meant I was definitely driving the old truck to school in the month of August.

Her sister Dorcee was sitting and clapping with happiness, since I had lost the pageant.

On top of the center stage, the Master of Ceremony extended a palm with a confused brow to the winner. "Please, show me the item inside your hand, Antoinette."

"O!" She giggled, placing the object into his extended palm with a smile and a nose of snot. "This is a false eyelash. It came off when I cried my happy tears of joy for winning the Miss Alabama Cosmos tonight. I am so grateful and happy to win and be Miss Alabama Cosmos tonight."

He looked down with a confused brow to see the wet sticky object, "A false eyelash." He looked up with a sour frown and viewed her wet, red colored face. "Does that mean that this eyelash is not part of your natural biological body?"

Antoinette touches her tiara with a smile and a nose of snot to the audience. "A false eyelash is not part of the real me. It has been carefully glued over my real eyelash, making me look beautiful to win the Miss Alabama Cosmos Pageant. I am so grateful to the sponsors and the judges for selecting me as the new Miss Alabama Cosmos pageant. I will do my best job for all of my family and my friends and my..."

No artificial flavoring. No chemical preservations. No fake eyelashes or false boobs or artificial finger nails. Vassar had verbally read each one of the pageant rules to Nadean, since he enjoyed ripping apart the non-beauty components of the Miss Alabama Cosmos Pageant.

On top of the stage, in front of Antoinette, the Master of Ceremony shook his skull, jabbing a finger at the wet sticky object in his palm with a sour frown. "I am afraid that you have broken one of our many rules which is stated within our Miss Alabama Cosmos pageant handbook, Antoinette. This action thus disqualifies you from the pageant tonight. Therefore, you will not be Miss Alabama Cosmos. I am so sorry for the misunderstanding..."

"What!" Antoinette looked up and swung the bouquet of red colored roses at him as the MC back stepped from her lousy girly aim. He motioned for the auditorium security. A set of large four males in a tan security guard uniform swiftly ran from the side wall and reached out, swiftly dragging a sobbing Antoinette off the pageant stage, ripping off her tiara and her flowers from her body. One security guard handed each item to the MC.

On top of the stage, I continued to stand in place and shook my hair-sprayed curls with a sour frown, since I was not tromping around the heated and blinking pageant stage for a second time in my angel costume or the brown muddy swim suit or in four inched fashion heels. I wanted to go home and take a hot bath and eat a piece of pecan pie.

The Master of Ceremony held the tiara and stared with a smile into the darkness at the quiet audience members, saying into the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am so sorry for the misunderstanding. The Miss Alabama Cosmos only will crown a lucky maiden, who is truly beautiful and genuinely natural. Therefore, the first runner up Nadean Garland is the new Miss Alabama Cosmos. Nadean receives the tiara, the diamond necklace, the fur coat, the cash, all the college scholarship money of six thousand dollars, and a brand new sports car."

"Yeehaw," I gasped in shock and lifted both my arms with the floor, wiggling my dress with a smile and a nod of happiness.

Vester and Vassar whipped up their individual homemade sign over their red colored shoulder length hair strands. My mom clapped with a smile. And my sister Dorcee sat in the chair and pouted like the loser that she was born to be.

07:07 p.m.

Friday March 10th

Brier High School gymnasium

Junior and Senior Prom

Cool temperatures and full moon with bright stars

I drove my new sports car to the high school gymnasium, parking in the lot first for a night of dancing, exiting out my new car, waltzing in my pink plantation dress from the Miss Alabama Cosmos pageant with my big bags of stuff.

The gymnasium door was opened and unlocked with the school principal and some of the twelfth and eleventh grade teachers there to assist with the set up of the photographer booth, the food tables, and non-alcoholic beverage tables, before the influx of the rowdy teens.

I moved across the pavement and through the archway, finding an empty short wooden table and a metal folding chair inside the lobby space for my contribution to the Junior-Senior Prom for the night, unloading the contents from my numerous sacks with a smile and a giggle.

Tall, black-haired, and dark-skinned Zondra, the president for the junior class moved through the open door in a mint green plantation gown and carried her two objects into the gymnasium floor and then stopped in front of the food table with a smile. "I brought two set of pretty flowers from the garden."

Tall, brown-haired and pale-skinned Renita was fiddling with the dishes and cups on the food table, spinning around and touched the flowers with a smile. "Do you rob your mama's flower beds? Lordy child, she is going to beat your bee-hindie with a hickory switch."

Zondra frowned. "She can try. But she will never know unless someone that I trust tattle tales to her mama, who then tattles to my mama while they sing at church, tomorrow morning."

Renita shook her hair-sprayed brown colored curls and a pair of pouted red colored lips, slapping her naked chest on the strapless evening gown with her pale blue gloved hand. "Not me, darling!"

Zondra grinned with a nod. "Good to hear, Renita, dear. Now, go and find me some pretty vases for the flowers inside the physical education's office, where the photographer is set to take each prom couple picture and then come back. Then I'll place them around the food table." She rested the flowers on the floor.

Renita swung around and waltzed in her pale blue ankle length dress to the office door on the side of the room.

Zondra spun around and moved over the floor in her mint green plantation dress, checking each sagging paper streamer and a set of colorful balloons over the open interior archways stumbling into the open lobby with a gasp.

I had finish setting up my display on a top of a short wooden table and sat down inside a metal chair behind the table with a smile and without a date.

Zondra moved ahead and stood in front of the table with a confused brow at Nadean. "What are you doing here inside the lobby, sitting all alone a table, Nadean?"

I spread my arms with a smile and a nod over the table of items. "We should elect a junior princess and a prince and a senior king and a queen prom royalty tonight. Ya know we start a new tradition to be carried on by our grandchildren here at Brier High. Does the class president approve?"

Zondra reached down and touched the tiara and the flowers with a smile and a nod, "A junior princess, that's a fine idea, Nadean. All the teens will be happily surprised. Where did you get all the royalty gifts, honey?"

"I used my charms and wits acquiring all the items around town," I smiled with my secret.

"This is a nice bouquet of flowers too." Zondra reached down and touched her naked throat with a confused brow. "Are those real diamonds around your naked neck?"

I smiled, "Yeah."

Zondra grinned. "Your pink dress and the shiny diamonds make you look the 'Good Witch of the South.'"

"I guess that I am. Thanks for the compliment, Zondra. And I'll play the poll taker, getting everyone to vote for their choice of prom royalty," I reached out and patted the wooden box with a smile and a giggle.

Zondra looked down with a sour frown at the box. "Is that a..."

"...box with a round hole, not square. The voting box is for the prom royalty. Do you approve, Zondra?" I smiled with a giggle.

Zondra looked up with a smile to Nadean. "It'll have to do, I guess. Have fun, Nadean?" She disappeared back into the ball room.

At 07:17 p.m. inside the gymnasium lobby, in front of the wooden table, I sat behind the wooden box, handing out a set of blank slips of paper and a blue colored ink pen with a smile and a nod. "Vote for prom royalty tonight..."

Teague stopped and wore a pale blue tuxedo, cuddling Zeeta, who wore an orange colored strapless ankle-length gown in front of the table. He laughed with a smile. "Hey, Duchess! You look purr..." A flying fist of orange fabric slapped his chest. He turned and frowned to down at the red colored hair roots on Zeeta. "What!"

Bear moved ahead from the entrance door and wore a mint green colored tuxedo and stopped with his girl who was nicknamed Fawn by Teague. Fawn wore a silver tinted goddess dress. Bear stared down with a grin at wooden box. "What in tarnation is that?"

I lifted up a set of blank slips of paper and a blue ink pen, saying with a smile and a nod. "Each one of you can cast a vote for a prom princess and a prom prince among the junior students or a prom queen and king in the senior class. Each royal gal gets a glittery crown plus arm roses and the guy gets..."

Lark chuckled. "Beer..."

I shook my curls. "Naw, Lark."

Teague released Zeeta and elbowed Lark with a nod and a chuckle. "If I get free beer, then I will be voting for myself," he spun around to his redneck buddies and slapped his fancy white colored dress shirt with a cheer and a chuckle. "Hear me! Vote me, prom prince for the free beer." He spun back around and winked at Nadean. "Then I'll share with you, Duchess."

Zeeta leaned over and filled out the paper, standing upright, stuffing the paper down into the hole in the box. She smirked at Nadean, "Duchess, she don't drink. As a matter of fact, Duchess don't do nothing," she popped her bubble gum and winked at Nadean. "Ain't that right, honey?"

Cricket popped her bubble gum and filled out the slip of paper, stuffing it down in the hole on the wooden box, smiling at Nadean. "This ain't no politicking, Kitten, just vote. Thanks, Duchess, great idea for making our prom special."

Bear winked at Nadean with a smile. "What does the prom prince get?"

I thumbed the item next to my elbow. "A cowboy hat..."

"...and the lead dance with the prom princess," Zeeta moved sideways and bumped her hip with a wink and a bubble pop into her guy Teague.

Teague chuckled with a wink and a smile to Nadean. "Good enough for me." He slipped the paper down into the round hole and parted his lips. "Is that a..."

"...box with a round hole, not square, Teague. Yeah! You got perfect vision, son. Thanks for prom voting. Good luck, cowboy." I smiled.

Bobcat slipped his paper with a chuckle and a grin down into the hole. "Looks like a bird house."

Bear chuckled with a wink to Nadean. "If it looks like bird house and decorates like bird house, then it must be a bird house. Ain't that right, Duchess?"

I smiled. "You passed your wood shop class with Mr. Ferris. I'm impressed, Brock."

Teague knocked on top of the bird house with a smile and a wink. "I'll see you on the dance floor, Duchess."

I faked a smile. "Doubt it, but a good try. Thanks, ya'll." I viewed the next couple with a smile and a repeat of my string of English words. "Vote here for a prom prince and a princess from the junior class and a prom king and a queen from the senior class."

Flossie moved ahead in a black colored sexy dress and stopped with a smile, patting the orange colored tuxedo jacket on the unfamiliar teen male. "Nadean, this is my date, Michael."

I smiled, "Hey, Michael."

Flossie turned and viewed the empty chair next to Nadean. "And where's your date?"

I winked, "Parking the car at another prom which ain't here."

Flossie leaned over the bird house with a whisper and a confused brow. "What happened to Paul that friend of Cherry?"

I frowned with a whisper to her smile. "We discussed that hot topic in depth last Friday night when you spent the night at my house away from your two nosey sisters. I wanna keep my virginity until my wedding honeymoon. Cherry ain't all that noble."

Flossie popped her bubble gum with a grin. "I'm just asking. Have a good time with the..." she stood upright and looked down with a confused brow, staring down at the wood box. "Is that a..."

"...box with a round hole, not square. You should mention your mystery conclusion to Teague too." I grinned.

Flossie turned and viewed the entrance door into the gym floor. "Why? Is he stag too?"

I shook my curls with a giggle. "Naw, he's with Zita."

Flossie shook her curls with a giggle to see Nadean. "She ain't noble or nice either," she winked to Nadean. "See ya'll later, Nadean."

"Later, Flossie and Michael," I smiled at the next couple. "Vote here for a prom prince and a princess," gasping. "Cherry! What in the hell are you doing here? This is the Brier High prom night."

Cherry wore an ankle-length red sexy gown and patted the black tinted jacket sleeve on the male with a smirk at Nadean. "My prom date brought me. I do declare that you do remember Waverly Rubin."

I turned and grinned to my school mate, "Hey, Waverly."

Waverly bowed his chin with his good southern manners with a smile, patting the arm of Cherry. "Good evening, Nadean." He looked down a confused at the box, parting his lips, "Is that a..."

I touched the wood with a nod and a smile, "Voting box for prom royalty, tonight."

Waverly looked up with a confused brow to see Nadean. "Please, specific the category. I was completely unaware that we selected royalty during the annual prom dance."

I smiled. "New tradition initiated and crafted by me."

Waverly smiled. "You are very creative, Nadean. What must we do?"

"You're very crafty, Nadean." Cherry smirked.

I lifted up a single sliver of blank paper and an ink pen with a fake smile. "Cherry can't vote, since she's not part of Brier student body. But you write down your choice of a prom prince and a princess for our class. The seniors will select a prom king and a queen."

Cherry stared at the tiara in the hair roots on Nadean. "What does the prom princess get a crown or something?"

I turned and frowned at her. "You can't vote, Cherry. Don't you remember? You attend a private school in another city like Decatur."

Cherry sneered. "I'm just..."

"...nosy, as usual," I smiled. "The guy royals get a new cowboy hat from Harvey's Hardware Store."

Waverly turned and smiled to the new black hat on the table surface, "Excellent idea, Nadean!"

I lifted my arm with a smile. "You, guys want real stuff, not glitter. And the girl royals get bouquets of roses too." I pointed to the other items over the table surface.

"The princess receives a pink rose bouquet and a tiara," Cherry turned and frowned at the items on the table surface.

"And a portrait of the royal couples, compliments of the photographer," I smiled.

Waverly turned and frowned at his school mate. "I do not understand, Nadean. I am the treasure of our class. We used all our entire funding for buying the limited assortment of sweet and fruity refreshments and the most valuable catch one set of portraits. The set includes a single five inches by eight inches plus four wallet sizes for each student. The last accounting of funds has been exhausted. We are broke, Nadean."

I parted my lips. "O! I know that, Waverly. I flirted with Harvey at the hardware store for the cowboy hats. He obliged. Then I begged on both my hands and my kneecaps for the fresh arms roses from Flora and her flower shop. She was more than happy to provide. Once, I explained it for our only one-time-ever-prom. Then, I renegotiated with the photographer for two more set of colored portraits just for the future prom royals, tonight."

Waverly smiled with a nod, patting the gloved hand of Cherry. "Nadean, you are fabulous. You must join the yearbook staff for next year. We require raising monies to pay for the production of the yearbook cover by utilizing a set of clever advertisement marketing. You are a natural business woman."

I grinned. "Thanks, Waverly. I..."

"...can tattle how Nadean negotiated the photos for the prom royals. You give up your single set of portraits. Am I right? Why bother getting a picture of a single dole troll at her prom, right, Nadean?" Cherry turned and smiled to the nose profile of Waverly. "Nadean doesn't have a date," she turned and smirked to Nadean. "Do you, dearie?"

I reached with a smile and touched my tiara. "The bold truth is shared and tattled. I am stag," I turned and winked to Waverly. "But, I plan to dance with every cowboy here before midnight. So, save me a dance, Waverly."

Waverly nodded with a smile, "A selfless act for the cause. Well done, Nadean. And you interrupt me any time before midnight."

Cherry parked the other red colored glove on her waist with a sour frown. "Where did all the tiaras come from, Nadean? You don't bother to mention who you conned for those two beauties."

I tilted my head with a smile to Cherry. "O! I donated my own tiaras for the noble cause. I only have about twelve of them, since I win another one last week."

Waverly smiled with a nod. "Nadean is the reigning Miss Brier High, our local beauty queen as well as winning more than a few beauty pageants throughout Limestone County. I saw that you have been recently crowned Miss Alabama Cosmos. Well done, Nadean! Our little town of Brier glows in outer space not just in the great state of Alabama, Cherry. Congratulations, Nadean."

I smiled with a nod. "Thanks, Waverly." I lifted up and handed two blank slips of paper and the ink pen to Waverly, "Are you going to vote?"

"Yes, I'll love to provide my input into our prom royalty. This is an outstanding and social caring idea, Nadean. Thank you so much for initiating the concept. I hope all of the Brier fellow students enjoy their future proms to come," Waverly spun away from Nadean and Cherry, secretly scribbling the names on the two pieces of paper.

Cherry leaned with a sour frown and a sneer over the bird house at nose bridge on Nadean. "You cheated in the Miss Alabama Cosmos contest. The rules state that the contestant must be eighteen years old. You ain't eighteen years old, Nadean. You are only seventeen years old, since our birthdays fall in the same month of May. Ya cheated, witch!" She bad breathed down into the face of Nadean, "Except, I won't tell, if I get something very special."

I frowned. "You can have the tiara."

Cherry grinned with the chewing gum, "Naw, I want the diamond necklace around your neck..."

"Done!"

"I want the mink coat hanging in your closet..."

"Done!"

"And I want the one thousand dollars in cash. That's all just a little tiny small sacrifice for a tea tiny dark black secret."

"Done!"

Cherry lifted up her big breasts from the bird house as Waverly returned to the voting table. He reached and stuffed the slips into the box. She grinned with a giggle. "You are a good cousin, Nadean. I hope that you win more beauty pageants, before you turn eighteen again." She turned with a grin and a giggle to see the nose profile of her date. "Waverly, did you pick your princess?"

He smiled with a nod to Nadean. "Yes, I did. Enjoy your evening, Nadean." He turned and led them through the open archway from the lobby table. Cherry swung around with a sneer and a smile at Nadean, moving into the gymnasium floor.

I smiled at the entrance wall, "You, too, Waverly and Cherry Hill."

Zondra moved out the auditorium and waddled back to the table and Nadean, saying with a smile, holding the arm on her date Winston. "Everyone is present and accounted for here. Did you vote, Nadean?"

I slipped my two pieces of papers and slapped the top of the bird house with a smile and a nod, "Done."

Zondra nodded with a smile. "Great! Me and Principal Holden are going to tabulate the results. Winston, please carry the bird...box. I'll take the crowns, the flowers, and the cowboy hats." I stood upright and aided Zondra to gather the items into her arms. She spun around and entered the gymnasium floor with the soft music. "Thanks, again, Nadean. This is a nifty idea."

"You're welcome." I sat back down in the metal chair at the empty table, hearing the music, pondering my delicate situation.

I pawed my diamond necklace, feeling the smooth cold stones. I would have knocked everyone's cowgirl boots off, if I had worn my Grandmother Garland's entire diamond jewelry collection with the real tiny diamond tiara, the arm bracelet, and the two earrings. She had received the gems from her sons when they toured around Europe, Africa, and Caribbean during World War Two. They brought back the jewelry for her and then she gave them to her granddaughter one piece at a time for being a good teen in school, at home, and in church, since Nadean was ten years old.

I earned my first piece of jewelry and my last, since I must give it to Cherry from her clever blackmailing scheme. She read the fine print on the application form that all contestants were supposed to be eighteen years old. I told my mom that this would bite back. And it bit back at my ass.

My bigger dilemma was the one thousand dollars for the cash ransom. I used the money to pay my own car insurance for my new sports car, my new prom dress, my new prom shoes, and the greedy photographer. Thus, I possessed ten dollars in my new black matching purse.

I had a pink piggy bank of ceramic pottery holding money from many resources of birthdays and beauty pageants. I will bust it open, giving Cherry her extortion monies.

I leaned down and parked my face into the two sweaty palms, knowing that I was spreading bacteria over my skin but who cared. I didn't have a date and not going to get a dance either.

Then I exhaled with a puff of frustration, lifting my chin without wearing makeup.

I stood upright and scooted the chair near the open doorway, watching each dancing couple have fun over the ugly beige and black stripped gym floor. I was only in the eleventh grade in high school but ugly cupid had shot his entire pouch of arrows at each one of my school mates.

Renita and Kersey enjoyed entertaining each other while Kersey acted the fool and entertained everyone too. But Renita did not seem to mind, giggling like a little kid at him.

Norbert and Finnis were inseparable as buddies in the wall corner, eating and laughing. These boys did not seem to hang with any of the other females from any other school grades either.

Joelle grew out of her baby fat and danced with redneck Nash. They made a cute pair. She had tamed his wild side, dancing all over on dirty floor.

Flossie, my friend was looking for freedom, bringing a new guy to her prom.

Teague and Zeeta were eating and hanging with their friends including Lark, Fawn, Bear, Cricket, Bobcat, and Otter, who was Teague's little sister. Bobcat and Otter are setting up wedding plans, after their college graduation.

I did not know Otter, since she was a sports cheerleader with Zondra and Renita.

Waverly Rubin came with Cherry. Out of all the freaking female teens on planet Earth, it had to be my cousin Cherry Hilliard.

The two eggheads, valedictorian Zondra and her future hubby salutatorian Winston danced while planning to marry and then attend college after high school graduation.

The music ended.

Principal Holden in a dark green tuxedo moved ahead and stood on top of the platform stage, dinging a spoon against the punch cup with a smile and a shout out without a microphone. "Good evening, kids. I am glad to see everyone having so much fun. I understand for the first time in Brier High School's history that you have selected and elected prom royalty. I'm very thrilled to be a part of the Brier Junior-Senior prom history. Zondra, do you have the names please?"

I stood and stopped inside the archway, listening and watching too.

Zondra turned and grabbed a tiara and a cowboy hat, moving and standing while handing two pieces of paper to the principle. Principal Holden accepted and read the slips of paper with a smile and a nod. "The prom prince is Teague Haywood."

Teague cuddled and twirled Zeeta around in a circle with a smile and stopped, kissing her forehead, scooting around her to the principal. Zondra handed a new cowboy hat. He grabbed and placed the hat on top of his hair, smoothing the brim for drama as the students sounded with a series of cheers and claps.

Principal Holden grinned with a nod. "The prom princess is Nadean Garland."

I did not move from the open archway.

I was used to my name being called for receiving a beauty pageant crown, but my classmates had voted me as prom princess. I smiled as Teague grabbed the tiara from Zondra.

Principal Holden grinned with a nod. "The prom queen is..."

Teague spun around and moved ahead to Nadean with a smile, stopping in front of her, "Hey, princess! You need your princess crown to become the official prom royalty couple for the evening." He gently sat the teeth on the tiara on top of her hair roots and reached down, grabbing her hand, leaning his face into her nose bridge with a smile. "I like to lead the dance being the man." He turned and dragged Nadean onto an empty gymnasium floor.

Principal Holder turned and smiled with a nod to the DJ. "Start the music for the prom royals to perform the first dance together."

"Dance," I turned and viewed Zeeta, who was not smiling. Then I turned and looked with a puzzled brow, "Teague."

Teague spun around and cuddled Nadean on the dance floor with a smile and a whisper into her nose bridge, pulling her close into his chest, "Tomcat. You gotta call me, Tomcat, during our royal dance. Say it!"

"Teague."

"Naw! Say it, Tomcat!"

"Fine, Tomcat."

He held her closer to his fancy ruffles shirt with a smile and a whisper. "Ya got a pretty southern accent, Duchess, not a twang like some of the hick girls."

"Thanks."

Teague wrapped his arms around her waist with a chuckle. "You grew tall, too," he looked down to see her shoes. "Are you wearing high heels like Kitten?"

I shook my curls with a whisper, too. "Naw, I grew during Christmas break. My bones hurt from stretching inside my skin."

He looked up with a smile and a whisper, "Yeah, I know the feeling. It hurts inside out, not outside in."

"Yeah, it does hurt inside out, not outside in," giggling.

He touched her nose bridge with a chuckle and a grin. "Ya know, me and you are alike, Duchess. We're tall, live on the same dirt road, like riding horses. Now, we are prince and princess."

"Yeah, we are sorta alike me and..."

"Tomcat..." Zeeta appeared on the dance floor and stood beside the collar bone on Nadean with a lady sneer.

I pulled away from Teague with a smile and a nod. "Thanks for the royal dance, prom prince Teague."

Teague smiled with a nod to Nadean as Zeeta moved and stood in front of his fancy ruffled shirt with a sneer, wrapping her arms around his muscular biceps.
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

01:12 p.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"O Teague..." I whisper and feel the burn on a left wrist bone, relaxing my body, thinking about another event within my past teenage life.

Eighteen years old daughter Nadean

01:01 p.m.

Saturday May 19th

Farm of Jadean and Urall Garland

Cow pasture setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunlight

Jadean started her springtime cleaning jot the day after school session ended. Every family member had a work assignment. I was working outside in the grass meadow like a farm hand, since I tolerated grass chiggers and the itchy hay over a set of brown recluse spiders and the spider webs which were planted up into each high wall corner within each unused room inside our antebellum house.

In the meadow, I slowly spread grass seedlings to the left and then to the right, getting my fitness exercise and working on my golden suntan. I wore a tank top and a pair of short tan colored walking shorts with a pair of sandals.

I didn't bother to view the surrounding landscape as I lived and worked on a farm, seeing the familiar scene for eighteen years now. The land was not flat like a pancake as they say.

Each crop field was miles long and wide but slightly curved in certain dirt spots, where the farm tractor equipment didn't have a problem rolling over the slightly curvy land. Each crop field had a purpose to hold and grow a set of food items or cotton bolls. Surrounding each crop field, a grove of thick, lush forest of tall shade trees, low-lying fruit plant bushes, and pods of wildflowers lived and thrived providing fresh natural food for all the wildlife also.

Each grove of forest also marked the owner of the land. Where I stood inside one of three meadow pastures, I could see the miles of red dirt that kissed a grove of lush forest which was the boundary of my father's farm land. In-between the crop fields, the meadow pasture, and the manicured lawn, our house stood tall and wide. Three big red colored barns also stood inside a meadow pasture that housed the herd of real horses and the row of fake horses or each tractor machine from protection of the elements, such like, rain, snow, ice, and hail.

Underneath the house, the barns, the crop fields, the meadow pastures, a bright yellow colored sun without a single white colored cloud beamed down on the Garland farm hands that sweated like a dog in the summertime heat.

The high school session was out for the summer time months of June and July through the middle of August, before I officially became a senior at Brier High School.

I heard the loud roar in the air waves, before seeing the red flash of the familiar sports car. He rolled down the nicely gray tinted paved county road which separated our two farms and then slammed on the brake lights. The car backed up and halted at our stationary metal mail box as I looked up from the meadow field and watched his wild driving performance with intrigue.

Teague exited out from his sports car with a smile, wearing a pair of red colored running shorts and a red colored T-shirt, racing over the manicured lawn toward Urall.

I stood in place and whispered with a sneer at Teague, "Dang! What he does want now?" I jerked a face and my two working arms back down to the seedlings, working and hoping Teague found me completely invisible in the bright sunlight.

He strutted from the car and crawled over the fence post, trucking directly to Nadean as she felt his heat. Teague laughed out loud. "What's your pleasure, Duchess?"

I stood in place and did not body swing to damage a body part with the garden rake, saying with a sneer. "What are you peddling, boy?" Then I looked up with a confused brow and dropped the rake.

Teague moved by Nadean and headed to Urall.

Urall wore a white dirty T-shirt, a red colored cowboy hat, and a pair of blue jeans, sitting inside a forklift, shifting clunks of dirt from the hillside and covered up the washed out soil from the spring rains. Then Nadean covered the new dirt with a plot of grass seedlings and yellow hay strands for growing food for both the cows and the horses.

Teague moved and lifted a hand wave with a smile, "Howdy, Urall."

"Hey, Tomcat," Urall looked up with a smile to see Teague.

I moved and came from behind, shoving a shoulder into the back spine of Teague.

Teague leaned and shoved back into Nadean with a chuckle and a smile "Do you see? Your daddy calls me that infamous nickname too."

I leaned and shoved into him again, seeing a red lipstick imprint of Zeeta with a sneer. "Fudge you, Teague!"

He chuckled with a grin. "Fudge you, too, Duchess!" He turned and smiled to her dad. "Urall, does Miss Jadean have a sack of fudge icicles inside your cold freezer? I suddenly feel like licking something."

I shoved into his shoulder again, moving to Urall and the forklift with a sneer. "Tick off, Dick."

"Blow off, Duchess," Teague turned and smiled at the twin brothers, yelling to Urall. "Ya got the twins working, hauling hay?"

Urall nodded with a smile to Teague. "Hard manual labor expands that lean muscle. Getting them boys some meat on their bones. They grow taller than Johnson grass during the hot summer time months. They stand over six foot and just turned fourteen years old. They be going into the ninth grade too."

Teague turned and winked to Nadean, moving to Urall and the forklift. "They will be playing football this year. Ain't that right, Duchess?"

I shoved a shoulder into him for a third time with a sour frown and a sneer, moving to Urall and the forklift too. "A pair of defensive tackles, ain't that right, Teague? You suggested that important bruising piece of information. And you actually tested that working out theory with Vester. Ya should go and work out with Vassar too, right, Tomcat?"

Teague shoved with a sour frown to the nose profile of Nadean. "Go cook something, girl. I got some private business with your daddy."

I shoved back with a growl and a whisper. "Over my dead body..." I stopped and watched Teague climb onto the lowest step of the running forklift.

Teague nodded with a smile and a shout to her dad. "Urall, ya look real comfortable on that there forklift while operating both the foot and hand pedals at the same time. These gears work together to raise and low the cradle. I can see that. And ya didn't spill a drop of clay dirt."

Urall grinned with a nod to the dirt and Teague. "The Good Lord gives me a gift, I guess. I can operate any piece of metal, cold or heat. Motorcycle. Car. Truck. Tractor. Forklift. Bulldozer. Even drove a semi-tractor trailer for a spill. Not hard. Just gotta be coordinated with some fast reflexes, ya know?"

I crossed both arms, narrowing my eyelashes at Teague, wondering what hard turd was about to drop from his tight ass. Then, I cut my eyelashes to Urall, who nodded with a smile of pride of his talent to drive a variety of big and small transportation vehicles. Then, I swung my face to see my twin brothers.

They were hidden between the forklift and the meadow field, working like a pair of old farm mules, lifting and tossing a twenty-five-pound bale of hay from the rear bed of the truck which was not an easy job to give the cows a night time snack. Urall was correct that the manual exercise would build some muscles on the pair of her skinny skeleton-looking twin brothers. They were not starving. They were taller than every kid between the sixth and eleventh grades at Brier High School. And Urall was correct that they would be taller than him too.

I wished that I could toss a subtle hand signal to Vester for his individual attention, since he did not like Teague either.

Both Vester and Vassar would dangerously ensure that Teague and his sports car left both their daddy and their dad's property's line alone.

Teague nodded with a smile. "Yes sir. I know that I do have fast reflexes for football and other extracurricular sports. Ya sound talented with the rolling machines both fast and slow. Well, I gotta get. That's really good to know all that information, Urall," he turned and jumped down from the machine, moving with a smile and wink by Nadean. "See ya around, Duchess."

I turned and watched Teague. "Daddy, do not..."

Urall wiped the sweat from his face with his handkerchief. "Slick, go down and see if lunch is ready at the house."

At 11:01 p.m. inside my bedroom mattress with the outside cold temperatures and clear night with bright stars, my tummy growled with emptiness, flipping off the pink and purple colored bed covers from a naked body with a giggle. I stood upright on the floor and grabbed my pink colored bath robe, dressing my nakedness with a yawn.

Cherry slept in her birthday suit too, since birth, fibbing about everything she did or did not do.

I had accidentally eye witnessed that epic event at the age of twelve, when I started spending the night at her house, because Jadean could not deal with four of her own children, where Nadean would cause the most trouble.

My baby sister Dorcee was the family cry baby for the most attention and my twin brothers were studious and stared at tons of informational books as two small quiet children.

The bedroom door opened.

I slowly moved through the hallway and down each step, making a tiny squeaking noise on the two-hundred-year old wooden staircase without the she-ghost, turning to side and adjusted my eyeballs to the bright overhead lights from the kitchen.

I heard the faint voices coming from my parents who sat around the breakfast table and then stopped by the side wall, slumping down into the dark corner, waiting for them to leave. I wanted food.

At 11:03 p.m., inside the kitchen setting, at the breakfast table with two adults, Jadean sat in the wooden chair and sneered at her husband. "Why she be driving her new car to Montgomery, Urall?"

Urall grinned. "She's a good driver, Jadean."

"She wrecked her car."

He frowned. "Cherry wrecked both of these cars that collided into Nadean."

"Not the way, Cherry tells it."

He exhaled. "Not the way, Cherry tattles tales it."

"Nadean don't drive fast. Cherry would tattle on her, if she did. And if she did, then the car won't be wrecked. Naw, Nadean don't goes fast."

"Nadean has that new muscle car. It goes very fast. I taught how to drive faster than a quarter horse."

"So's?"

"Jadean, Tyson needs all three loads of the cotton bends hauled to Montgomery. Or they didn't get paid for their cotton this year."

"So's?"

"I'm going to be driving the big rig, hauling the three bends."

"Why's?"

"I can drive a big rig. No one else in Brier can."

"Tyson can hire with his own money some other cowboy."

"I am going on this run, Jadean."

"Why ya so friendly to Tyson and them other farmers, Urall?"

"My business and my personal relationship never changed with Tyson and the other local farmers. We all be farmers, owning and operating our farms here in Brier."

"I don't like 'em."

"Jadean, stop your rivalry jealousy with Abby and the other farmer wives. We all be neighbors, first off. Second off, we all be friends here. Third off, we all went to school here. Fourth off, we all die here too."

She gasped. "Die! Don't wand a curse at me. I be too young to die."

"Then you understand my meaning. The cotton has to be hauled to Montgomery in two working days or Tyson, Webster, and the rest of the Brier farmers forfeit their cotton monies."

"This ain't your beeswax, Urall."

He nodded with a smile. "Tyson says that I can join the US Federal Government cotton subsidize program."

"Why's?"

He exhaled. "Because we need the extra money, I'm tired of asking your daddy or my mama for handouts."

"We all be family here. My daddy doesn't mind helping out. Lord knows the real truth. He shoved me out of the house on my own, making my own living without his help. He owns me lots of years back."

"I love my family but wanna make a living for my family without my kinfolks' money."

"Then you be getting the US government's money for your cotton, instead of selling to the local Cotton Exchange."

He nodded. "I get to sell to the Cotton Exchange plus the US Federal government. Tyson makes any extra sixty thousand dollars a year."

"Naw ! He fibs to you, Urall."

"Naw, he doesn't. He showed me the US Federal government paper check. The US Federal government will buy my cotton like Tyson then sell to them foreign government like Japan."

"The Japs from World War Two? Them are our enemies."

Inside the living room, I sat on the floor outside the kitchen setting with my mental thoughts. Gawd! Jadean was a dumbass, living her mind and her body in past history. She needed to grow up, smell the roses, and see the wrath on the television screen. The television program showed all the current events of wars, starving people in the country of Africa, and all the dead dinosaur bones in a foreign country called Saudi Arabia.

Teague had given a book report in American History on the topic.

On top of the kitchen breakfast table, Urall frowned. "Times have changed, Jadean."

"Like paying them colored folks with real money, not hogs or chickens, working for you and other the farmers."

"We lost the civil war over hundred years ago. They're trying to make a living like me."

"I be part of your living. I do cleaning, cooking, sewing, washing..."

"Ya do, Jadean," says Urall. Jadean became pregnant with Nadean at seventeen years old, so Urall had to marry her.

Inside the living room, I continued to sit on top of the cool floor with my mental thoughts. Dang! I vowed right here not to be a whore like Jadean and Cherry. I vowed right here to be a virgin like Mary in the Bible. And I vowed right here not to fall in puppy love at the first boy that I would date based on his looks or his money. I desired to fall in love with my future husband and not be forced to wed with a shotgun in my back spine.

Inside the kitchen on top of the breakfast table, Jadean frowned. "Ya should show more respect for me, Urall."

"I show just as much respect for you as you do, Nadean."

"What that mean, boy?"

He exhaled. "Jadean, ya pull at Nadean too much with her schooling, her twirling, her friends, her beauty pageants."

"She be dumb."

"She's very smart and very pretty."

"Pretty thing for some other farmer, she be a good wife. Lance Morris is looking for a wife. And ya need more help here..."

"Nadean is going to college. I told her. Ya told her. Ya did a good job, helping her get all that money for her university studying."

"Nadean ain't ever going to the university. Unlike you, I talk to my brother-in-law. He graduated from fancy Huntsville University, making a good living with lots of money for my sister and her daughter Cherry. He told me that a high schooler needs good grades to get into the university. Nadean makes bad grades worser than you did, if I remember rightly," she chuckled.

"That's good stuff to know. She makes the letter alphabet of C's. That should be good enough for schooling. I talked with Morton at church picnic on Sunday."

"She makes the letter alphabet of D's. Dorcee makes A's. My two smart boys makes A pluses, since first grade. My boys be going to college with money scholarships. The university pays for their schooling, all free. Not cost us a dime, Urall. My boys will graduate and become medical doctors then makes millions of dollars. My boys take care of me for the rest of my days."

"Ya need to tell Nadean about the college grades. She can study over the summertime, improve her grades then go to college."

"Nadean's stupid, since the first grade. She can't read."

Urall exhaled. "Nadean couldn't hear with her clogged ears in the first grade. Her tonsils were swollen up something bad that the tissues covered her eardrums. Remember, what that doctor told us?"

"She gots a medical problem. And my other healthy kids get their tonsils out. Cost us some sweet money for that hospital room and paying that doctor."

"Nadean was very sick. Her tonsils would have exploded."

"She got well quick but still dumb."

He frowned. "Nadean wins all the local beauty contests."

"She's a pretty thing. The Good Lord done give me a pretty thing, Urall."

"The Good Lord gave us a beautiful intelligence daughter, Jadean."

"A pretty thing wins just as long as she don't run her pink lips. That be how she won the Miss Alabama Cosmos. She says nothing."

"Nadean can win any beauty pageant."

"Back to your trip to Montgomery, you do not go."

"I...I am going to help Tyson and the other farmers here in Brier. And Nadean is going to drive her car helping me haul all those cotton bolls down to Montgomery. I love you, Jadean. But the Good Lord asks us to help folks. And Tyson has asked us to help him. Good night." He stood from the table, turning and moving to his bedroom with a sour frown.

02:02 p.m.

Sunday May 20th

Brier Cotton Gin

(Two miles, west, from Nadean's house)

Parking lot setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunshine

I slammed the brakes and slide my car over the hard pavement, stopping in front of the yellow colored closed wooden double doors on the cotton gin office, without hitting the row of four thin matching yellow colored wooden porch poles and turned with a smile to see my father.

The cotton gin building was composed of silver tinted metal on each exterior wall and rose up three stories with a row of open windows on the three floor that vented out the heated air during the ginning process of raw cotton bolls. I personally had never seen the cotton ginning process with my two eyeballs, but I did know the location of the cotton gin in my hometown.

The set of double wooden front door was painted yellow for caution of bodily harm by the owner, before entering the building.

In the heated month of May, the sky was pale blue colored with a few white clouds. The air temperature was hot and the wind blew at three miles-per-hour.

The long and wide side yard beside the cotton gin contained flat loose white colored tiny gravel pellets where a row of roofless red or blue trailers stood that contained remnants of tiny strands of white cotton bolls. Each raw cotton boll had been processed and folded inside a square shaped bale of bundled brown fabric waiting for final delivery to the Cotton Exchange Building in Montgomery.

Inside the sports car, Urall sat in the front passenger side with a smile and a chuckle. "Slick, ya could be the first woman race car driver, if ya were not going to college to be the first female rocket scientist."

"Thanks, Daddy." I killed the engine and pulled out the car keys, pondering our visit to the cotton gin. I never came to the cotton gin with my father Urall before. He would come down to the cotton gin and discuss his cotton bales for money each month.

They exited out from the sports car and turned to face the row of Brier farmers and a parked sideways ancient and ugly semi-tractor truck, slowly moving ahead with a stern face. The truck had a faked green colored cab which was attached to three long empty trailer beds, without fruit bends or cotton bales.

I stopped and stood beside my father Urall, who stood next at the end of the long row of farmers, staring in awe at the long transport, hearing the terse conversation among the farmers of Brier.

Each farmer wore a pair of dusty blue jeans, a colored t-shirt, and a pair of brown tinted cowboy boots, staring at the big rig also.

The father of Zeeta, Webster stood between Urall and another farmer, shaking his red haired skull, staring at the semi-trailer truck with a sour frown. "That explosion at the fertilizer plant between the cotton gin and my barn ain't normal. We all know cow shit don't ignite."

The father of Bear, brown headed Owen turned and mouth spat down on the pavement with a sneer, "A set up." He looked and turned to stare at the big rig.

The father of Lark, black haired Evan shook his skull with a sour frown, looking at the semi-trailer truck, "A warning."

Blonde haired Urall leaned over with a grin and a whisper in the nose profile on Nadean. "Tomcat and them other farm teens are inside the cotton gin. Go and see what they be doing, slick."

I nodded in silence and back stepped from the row of farmers, turning and dashing to the front doors of the cotton gin.

On the same row of Brier farmers, the father of Flossie, short brown-haired Lewis crossed both biceps with a sour frown, looking at the semi-trailer truck too. "Them business people in blue suits come by a couple of weeks ago visiting us at the farm. I was nice and polite like my mama taught me, but I tossed them out on their ears. Heard tell! They wanna buy up the lands between the airport and here. They talk about a new part of the Interstate 65 bringing in jobs and new companies. Heard tell! They can't bring the Interstate in, if we don't sell the land to them. We own all this land from here way yonder towards the interstate. So, we be the ones that holds up the interstate throughway between Decatur and Huntsville."

The father of Bobcat, black haired Axson crossed his arms with a sour frown and a nod, looking at the semi-trailer truck too. "Then they be doing sabotage on our buildings and burn them down to the ground. We be forced to sell our land, since we need to feed our families first. Sheriff and his deputies are patrolling our lands. I got Bobcat, Tomcat, Bear, Lark, and some of the other farm boys on horseback at night. We'll catch them boys then serve our justice our way in a manner of time."

The father of Tomcat, blonde haired Tyson turned and frowned to Axson. "Do you thing they be some locals here in Brier town?"

Axson turned and sneered to Tyson. "I think they be some runners from inside the city of Huntsville. Don't know spit about country Brier ways of handling manners or matters or madmen."

Evan reached and patted the faded green metal of the semi-trailer truck with a sneer. "Lookie! They had cut the wires on our three loaned new rigs. But, our old buddy Cochran was shore nice enough to give three more. But, they be in sad shape, of course, since he had to borrow them from the Cotton Exchange Building in Montgomery."

"I get first attack on our old buddy Cochran." Webster turned and sneered at the nose profile of Tyson.

Tyson reached and shoved Webster from his face with a sneer. "We all get a turn on our old buddy Cochran, but first our money. We all got annual invoices of cotton seedlings and tractor notes to pay. Or we all lose our farm equipment. That's first. I don't wanna a nasty word about beating the shit of Cochran right now. That's come later when we be drunk and foolish after the money's inside the bank account. Now, me and Webster have figured out that the temperature gauges don't work proper. Best I can tell. It carries hot, hotter than hell in this summertime weather. We all know mold starts growing at seventy-seven degrees which ruins all our cotton bales fast."

Evan nodded with a stern face. "Hauling temperature of seventy-seven degrees is acceptable but better at seventy degrees, so the cotton doesn't dry out and become hard and brittle, losing elasticity of the fibers for stringing. The same with the sunlight, little or none. The bales will fire or burn at 410 degrees. Mold develops between the temperature ranges of seventy-seven to ninety-five degrees while freezing temps like thirty-two degrees will stop rotting wet cotton from getting damaged and prevent more deterioration of the threads."

Axson leaned over and pointed a finger at Urall with a smile. "Urall, ya can run a big rig. Ya did it in the Bama National Guard right out of Brier High."

Ural nodded with a stern face, looking at the semi-trailer truck. "Yeah, I hauled a similar pig-back system but not with three traitors, thou," he turned with a sour frown to see the nose profile on Tyson. "Is this thing legal, Tyson?"

Evan shook his skull and stared at the semi-trailer truck with a sour frown. "We don't give a shit as long as the three trailers full of cotton bales make it into Montgomery. These bales of cotton be expected at six in the morning, tomorrow. Or no cash for our harvested cotton crop."

"Been awhile," Urall reached and rubbed his neck muscles of worry, turning and staring at the long transport.

Lewis turned and viewed the forklift of cotton bales with a stern face. "We run at night when the temperatures are cooler. The cotton be slightly cold preventing spoilage."

Owen turned and nods to the forklift of cotton bales. "Right, Lewis."

Webster turned and viewed the nose profile of Urall. "Urall, are you in with us or not?"

Urall turned and nodded to Tyson. "Yeah, I'm in. But if ya suspect foul play, I bet we be tailed, once we leave our home in Brier."

Evan leaned over and chuckled to the nose profile of Tyson. "We be getting a personal escort service."

A tall and overweight male moved ahead from the car and pulled up beside Tyson with a chuckle and a grin, slapping the collar bone on Tyson too. "I feel my ears burning. My mama told me that means someone be talking about my butt-hole." Jimmy Ray squeezed between inside the single line of farmers.

Evan moved and slapped the collar bone of the male with a smile. "Jimmy Ray, boy, how ya doing here?"

Tyson turned and smiled to Jimmy Ray. "Are you coming with us, son?"

Jimmy Ray thumbed back at the roadway, saying with a nod and a smile. "Hell, yeah! We be watching your butt-holes until the I-65 river water bridge. That's the end of Limestone County. Lawmen didn't like other lawmen in their dusty territory like a pack of feisty coyotes. So, we slide behind you and shadow the local Alabama State troopers, whilest ya keep trucking down to Montgomery."

Owen turned and grinned to the nose profile of Jimmy Ray. "We be speeding to Montgomery starting at one in the morning."

Jimmy Ray turned and frowned to the farmer, "Ya be blind at night, Owen."

Lewis turned and chuckled to Jimmy Ray and Tyson. "Naw, they be more blind, when we just show up at sunrise. Ain't that right, Tyson?"

Jimmy Ray back stepped with a nod and a smile from the row of farmers, "I be waiting at the corner for you, boys. Ya call me with the exact time for rolling. Good luck to us all."

"Bye, Jimmy Ray." Lewis tossed a hand with a smile.

Tyson turned and nodded with a smile, "Right, Jimmy Ray."

Urall turned and watched the forklift load the cotton into the first trailer, pointing at the semi-trailer truck with a worried brow. "Tyson, what's this thing?"

Tyson turned and exhaled with a sour frown to the semi-trailer truck. "Cochran lent us an eighteen wheeler."

Urall turned and frowned to the nose profile of Tyson, "His daddy comes from the small town of Madison, which is right next door to us, Brier folks here."

Tyson nodded with a grin, "Land of cotton too! He gave us a rig with tandem axle for our extra heavy load of three trailers."

Urall turned and exhaled at the forklift and the semi-trailer truck. "One truck for all that cotton."

Tyson frowned and stared at the rig, "One truck."

Owen dropped and slip underneath the cab of the rig with a shout. "How much does this big rig weigh, Urall?"

Urall exhaled. "The cab is about 16,000 pounds plus an empty trailer is 15,000 pounds. So a whole sixty-five feet long pig-back semi-trailer truck weighs over 30,000 pounds. How heavy are the cotton bales?"

Evan moved ahead and kicked one of the wooden staves of cotton with a smile. "This forklift is holding twenty-five pallets, weighing about 2,550 pounds of wrapped cotton bales."

Urall said with a stern face. "If you add another ten tons of weight, then ya add another hour of driving time."

Webster jabbed a finger at the rig with a stern face. "How long is this rig?"

Urall frowned. "A normal trailer dimension varies a bit but it's about one hundred and eight feet by fifty-three feet by nine feet. The cab length is about twenty-one feet from the center of the rear wheel to the center of the steer plus a trailer of eighty feet. That's makes up the one hundred and eight feet. If I ain't dumb at math or my eyes are too old, then this rig is longer than one hundred and eight feet, Tyson."

Evan jabbed a finger at the rig with a stern face. "The trailers are about sixty feet each, so sixty times three equals one hundred and eighty feet. Then ya add the cab of twenty-one feet and then ya got two hundred and one feet of rig."

Urall reached and rubbed his neck muscles with worry, staring the long transport. "The legal weight per axle for steer is 12,000 pounds. The drives are 34,000 pounds. And a single trailer is 34,000 pounds for driving with the interstate traffic with no extra government permits. That is a total of 80,000 pounds."

Lewis grinned with a smile. "So we got three small trailers about 30,000 pounds. That be a grand total of 90,000 pounds or forty-five tons."

Webster swishes his tongue and mouth spits his tobacco on top of the pavement with a sneer. "Gawd, moving a tank would be easier than three trailers filled with cotton bales."

Urall frowned with worry. "Most engines can be rebuilt over and over sometimes lasting twenty years or longer with roughly one hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand miles-per-annual is reasonably possible. If not possible, the owner usually exchanges them every three to six years, but this thing..."

Owen scooted and crawled out from underneath the cab with a sour frown. "It got an old V8 cylinder engine, Webster."

Urall frowned with worry. "There are a few old V8, V10, and V12 diesels out there but not many, since everyone goes for these V6 in-lines for fuel efficiency. The old series 72-diesel had eight cylinders with two-stroke and four-exhaust valves per cylinder in the heads and intake ports of the chambers. She will travel four to eight miles-per-gallon on average for fuel mileage with a 150-gallon dual tank system. That gives ya 250 gallons of fuel which will take about ten gallons lost gas due to the pickup system inside the gasoline tanks."

Lewis nodded. "Normally, it takes me about 210 minutes or about three hours, thirty minutes to arrive in Montgomery. The Cotton Exchange Station is located east of I-65 on Clay Street right before ya hit the city limits."

Urall frowned with worry. "Our fuel consumption will be affected by the roadway being flat or over mountains..."

Owen nodded with concern. "Ya gotta drive the Appalachian Mountain Passage between the cities of Decatur and Birmingham."

Urall exhaled. "We drive up a set of real high mountains with a real heavy load. This old semi is probably at best six miles per gallon, while a new semi gets ten to twelve miles per gallon heavy on flat ground. Twelve to fifteen miles per gallon with a light load on flat ground. Two to four miles per gallon on a light load, going uphill. Two to three miles per gallon on a heavy load, going uphill. And at an idle speed going downhill with a light load is about thirty miles per gallon."

Webster moved and slapped the collar bone of Urall with a smile and a nod. "We got the right truck driver for the big rig, boys."

Urall frowned with worry. "Once we leave Limestone Country, we go uphill until the city of Jasper using about two miles per gallon. How many road miles from the city of Decatur to the city of Cullman?"

Lewis grinned. "The rural city of Belle Mina to the city of Priceville is eleven interstate miles. The city of Priceville to the city of Eva is fourteen interstate miles."

Webster nodded. "The big city of Huntsville to the tiny town of Eva is thirty-six interstate miles."

Evan nodded. "The city of Priceville to the city of Jasper is forty-two interstate miles."

Tyson said. "The city of Cullman to the rural town of Gardendale is thirty-one interstate miles."

Axson said. "The city of Decatur and the big city of Montgomery is 168 interstate miles."

Owen said. "The city of Jasper to the city of Cullman is thirty-four interstate miles."

Urall calculated the math inside his head with a nod, "Those be the numbers I'm looking for. We will get two miles to the gallon between the hilly city of Priceville and then up to the mountainous town of Jasper. Then we will go downhill into the low town of Cullman for eighty-one miles. If we use two miles per gallon of gas, we waste 162 of the 240 tank which is over thirty percent of our fuel."

Tyson turned and grinned to Urall. "Okay. We stop off at the city of Jasper and fill up and roll down through the city of Cullman, gliding through the city of Gardendale and fill up in the big metro city of Birmingham. The bright lights will disguise our mission since the highway bears avoid the big city traffic."

Urall frowned with worry. "A 240 gasoline tank, if lucky, gets us six miles per gallon. Then we will go forty miles needing more fuel. That's Jasper. So we fill for shore three times in the city of Jasper, the metro city of Birmingham, and the farm town of Clanton right before Montgomery."

Lewis frowned with concern. "So we need some scouts to find some open gas stations for the early morning pre-dawn trip from Brier down to the Montgomery."

Tyson turned and smiled with a nod to Lewis. "Our teens will do the gas hunting for us."

Urall turned and stared at the rig with a worried brow. "This trailer has five axles plus terrible fuel mileage with an ancient engine. On a rig, the governing navigation system is normally between sixty-two to sixty-eight up to eighty-five and to ninety miles-per-hour with a set of normal load conditions. But we be heavy, so we be traveling about fifty miles per hour cruise range." He squatted and pointed the exhaust system underneath the cab with a worried brow. "See the un-muffled engine brakes." Tyson squatted with a nod at the gears in silence. Urall said with worry. "We'll have some problems with noise in parts where city ordinances are enforced by the police."

Evan stood, crossing his arms and shaking his skull. "Naw, not on I-65 with them Smokey bears, the police boys don't give a damn about the noise."

Urall frowned with a nod. "In the small town of Gardendale, we detour off of I-65. We might get pulled over and fined. That's money plus cited some city tickets for air and noise pollution along with that busted light."

Webster lifted and held the masking tape with a chuckle and a grin, "Naw, we taped it good now, Urall."

Lewis chuckled with a nod. "Yup! We fixed it good, Urall."

"Ah, shit." Owen shook his skull with a chuckle and a grin at the fixed tail light of red tape.

Urall pointed to the tires with a worried brow. "Tyson, look at this." Tyson turned and frowned at the big tires too. Urall said. "Cochran called this a tandem axel."

Tyson nodded. "That be the words he used."

Urall exhaled. "Ya got a single axel or a tandem axel. The tandem is being the second axel underneath the truck. See here? A true tag tandem is mainly used on the county's dump trucks and can be lowered or raised to add support for heavier payloads. I suspect that someone rigged this semi for specifically us to use."

Lewis squatted down to the pavement and stared at the axel with a sour frown too. "We use it. It be the only transportation to the Cotton Exchange."

Urall reached and patted the first tire and its sister tire with a worry brow. "The dualies are weak, Tyson. Them two set of tires right here on this tractor trailer is known as double wheels, dual tires or dualies. They are used for safety redundancy, so if one tire blows the other will continue to hold up until ya can repair the spent tire or replace. Someone has messed with the tandem axle. The correct definition of tandem in a semi-truck is a set of two axles with one axle immediately following the other. By distributing the load over two axles, each axle bears less weight. Because, the law limits the amount of weight the rigger can carry on each axle the distribution of the overall weight over all the tires allows greater volume of weight."

Tyson frowned. "So, we got the greater weight on top of the weak dualies."

Urall turned and winked to the farmer, "Ya be a quick student, Tyson."

Webster turned and mouth spat on the pavement, shaking his skull, staring at the rig with a sour frown. Tyson and Urall stood. Webster frowned. "Urall, drive the gawd damn thing into the ground as long as the ground ends at the Cotton Exchange in Montgomery. That's all we ask and pray."

Evan nodded with a smile. "And a prayer is all we got, boys."

Urall turned and smirked at the nose profile of Tyson. "Did your old buddy Cochran mention any type of insurance?"

Lewis shook his skull with a sour frown. "Naw, why?"

Urall turned and winked to Lewis, "I hope he got some, because this piece of shit will run out of steam right after we reach the Cotton Exchange." He turned and smiled to Tyson. "Ya looked worried, Tyson."

Tyson exhaled at the rig. "How much time to stop this rig in forward motion, Urall?"

Urall exhaled with worry and viewed the faded green colored big rig. "The length of time to stop an eighteen wheeler is about forty percent greater than one of them fast muscle cars, depending on the weight of the load, if the car is bobtailing. That's driving without the trailer attached and the road conditions like bad weather and not being pursued by police either. Semis only have ten brakes, not eighteen. An eighteen wheeler is 80,000 pounds or forty tons compared to that car that weighs around 5,000 pounds. If Tomcat or one of them boys gets in my way, I can't stop what happens, Tyson." He nodded with a sour frown.

At 02: 22 p.m. early afternoon, inside the Brier Cotton Gin business office of dull white paint, I sat cross-legged on top of a wooden floor inside the front of the building in the office, studying a map of Alabama on the floor that displayed blue color for water, green color for railroad, red color for the Interstate 65, the longest interstate in Alabama.

Teague wore a pair of blue jeans and a blue colored T-shirt, and a pair of red colored sneakers, crawling over the floor map and pointed down at the first city with a stern face and a serious tone. "All the exchange points are marked and trail down south to the seaside city of Mobile on this map. And each exit ramp is a fixed point. So we use them to our advance and advantage point."

Tall, dirty blonde haired, pale skinned Lark stared down with a sour frown at the map, "How?"

"We plot each attack point using the fixed landscape. I'll been eight times with my daddy hauling the cotton trailers down to Montgomery," Teague turned and smiled at Bobcat. "But, our friend Bobcat goes every single time, since the fourth grade."

"First grade," grinned Bobcat. He displayed a head of black colored hair, a tone of pale skin and wore a pair of blue jeans, a black colored T-shirt and a pair of black sneakers.

Teague nodded with a smile to Bobcat. "There, ya go. You be the boy for the man's job. Close your eyes, Bobcat."

Bobcat shook his skull with a smile, "Naw."

Lark leaned and punched Bobcat on the bicep with a puzzled brow. "Do it, man. Close your eyeballs. What in tarnation for, Teague?"

Teague sat back on his kneecaps with a chuckle and a grin to see each teen face. "Bobcat gets to envision his daddy's cotton haul drive down to Montgomery. Describe each exit ramp using terms like flat or hilly or upgrade or downgrade or open or hidden?"

Lark shook his skull with a sour frown. "They'll grab us at the first exit in the city of Mooresville."

Bobcat grinned with a nod. "Then we should loop-de-doop, fooling them G-men and exit off the ramp in the city of Athens instead."

Teague shook his skull with a smile, "Naw. Pretty near sixteen miles between the city of Athens and the city of Mooresville, that's a waste of time and gas going in the wrong direction for the wrong reason. I trust our sheriff. Jimmy Ray and his boys got all that covered for us going south with their police cars and their loaded guns. We should be good until Priceville, south of Decatur, when the county line changes names. Jimmy Ray has no jurisdiction in another Bama-land county."

Tall, brown haired and dark skinned Bear sat on the floor and wore a pair of blue jeans, a red colored T-shirt, and a pair of white colored sneakers, looking down at the map with a frown. "Mooresville to Priceville is six miles."

Bobcat closed his eyes with a stern face. "I remembered seeing the interstate entrance ramp in Priceville. It is too open and a flat roadway," he opened his eyelids with a nod to Teague. "You can see a truck coming from a one mile north off of Highway 43."

Teague nodded with a smile. "Skip it. That's one safe. What about the Hartselle exit, six more miles south?"

Bobcat closed his eyelids and said with a stern face. "Too hilly, the goose chase will be an uphill climb race for them G-men cars," he opened his eyeballs with a smile. "They will be driving a passenger sedan or a slow truck, not running a fast muscle car like us."

Teague looked down with a stern face and pointed the map. "Right, Bobcat! The next exit ramp is Falkville, seventeen miles south."

"Flat and open," Bobcat shook his skull and blinded his eyeballs again.

"Pass it." Bear looked down with a stern face to see the map.

Teague pointed to the next red box on the map, "What about the town of Cullman?"

Bobcat nodded with a sour frown. "The Cullman exit is different and very well hidden. The road falls down from the interstate bridge exit and it is also a favored Bama highway patrol's speed trap. They just sit on the sloped edge of the entrance ramp like a spider and catch the truckers who go passed the speed limit. And the driver can't see any hidden or stationary cars until you pass underneath the bridge."

Teague tapped the box with a nod and a sour frown, "A perfect trap for dang shore for our convoy."

"What convoy? A convoy is a line of semi big rigs and trucks." Lark shook his skull with a confused brow.

Teague sat back and slammed his chest with a smile and a nod. "Our convoy is us. A choo-choo train of loose muscle cars with the semi-tractor trailer as the caboose that holds our daddies."

"Who's daddies, Tomcat?" Lark frowned with worry.

Teague turned with a stern face to see each teen. "My daddy is the leader, like me."

"I'm leader of our redneck team." Bobcat frowned with a nod. "You be the enforcer of my laws."

Teague turned and nodded with a smile to Bobcat. "Right, you are, Bobcat! But this is an adult team, so my daddy is the captain, leading the convoy."

"Shore," Bobcat nodded with a smile.

Teague turned and nodded to Nadean. "Urall is co-captain..."

"Hell, naw." I stood upright from the floor and shook my curls, crossing both arms with a sneer. I didn't understand my dad's request to accompany him for the cotton haul to Montgomery. But, now, I completely understood the teen meeting inside the office of the cotton gin.

Teague stood and cuddled Nadean with a stern face and a serious tone. "Urall is co-captain of the convoy. Your daddy is driving the big rig, Duchess. Your daddy is the only one that can drive a big rig. He has the magic gift of operating machines. He has volunteered to help us. We Brier folks help each other every day." He whispered. "Duchess, are you going to help Brier?"

I nodded with a whisper. "I am Brier, too."

Teague grinned with a nod. "Damn straight." He back stepped from Nadean, kneeling down over the map. Nadean sat cross-legged again. Teague pointed the map with a stern face and a serious tone. "The bastards will be waiting right here in Cullman for our daddies to pass. But the teens are going to surprise their asses first."

Lark frowned with concern. "How, Tomcat?"

Teague looked up with a smile to see each face. "We drive the bright beams on our headlights up their ass. Duchess leads..."

Bobcat turned and frowned at the nose profile of Nadean. "Why does she lead? Why does she even come?"

Teague reached and slammed his fist into the chest of Bobcat with a sour frown. "Because she's smart, asshole. Duchess leads. Then we follow watching for a trap. Once the trap's springed."

Bobcat said, "Sprung."

Teague lifted and held four fingers with a smile and a nod. "This is the master plan. Four muscle cars. Four drivers. Four CB radios set to channel 777 for triple good luck. Duchess takes the Cullman exit then crosses over the interstate bridge and then plows right back down the exit ramp. But she will be leading the enemy convoy. Then we, three surprise the children."

Bobcat frowned with worry. "And when they get off the toilet from shitting with their loaded shotguns on her ass?"

Teague turned and winked to Bobcat. "Then we implement the U-box formation."

Bear frowned. "What U-box formation, Tomcat? Ya make no sense. There's a drafting concept with the formation of cars in a straight line for saving gasoline and energy used in stock car driving on a race course."

Teague nodded with a smile. "This is my new car formation shaped like the letter U. Duchess leads first, speeding away from the enemy car. Then we smash their birthday party when they give take chase on her."

I frowned with worry. "Me!"

Bobcat turned and sneered to Nadean, "Do you see and hear her? She doesn't need to drive her muscle car. I do it as the 'bestest' driver."

I shook my curls with a sneer, "Bullshit, Bobcat and Bear and Lark! I am the 'bestest' driver of my muscle car. Go to hell, boys!"

Teague chuckled with a smile. "Duchess has debated good her driving claim. Shut it, Bobcat. Then we, three cars surround the last trailing enemy car on each side and rear. The bastard can't drive in reverse on any interstate, only go forward. Then I am co-leader with Lark as my hunter. Lark shoots the bird first and then his hunting knife second, slicing the rubber right off the tire."

Bobcat frowned. "Shotgun's better."

Teague shook his skull with a worried brown. "Naw, they shoot back. And we use some older but sharper hunting knives, Bear."

Lark grinned with a nod. "I like."

Bobcat frowned with worry. "Did you run this hunting knife exhibition passed your daddy for approval, Tomcat?"

Teague nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I did, Bobcat. He liked it and understood it. He'll be with Urall inside the cab. He'll be watching for the U-box formation around any enemy vehicles, since we will be using knives as our only weapons while directing Urall and him out of danger."

And then silence fell inside the room as each pair of eyeballs stared down at the paper map.

I looked down with a worried brow to see my hands, exhaling with a puff of nervousness.

Bear cleared his throat with a meek voice. "What's the next exit, Tomcat?"

Teague pointed down to the map with a stern face. "Jasper to Cullman is seven miles."

Bobcat closed his eyelids. "Cullman to Warrior to Gardendale is hills."

"Naw," Bear shook his skull with a stern face. "Duchess's antebellum house sets on a top of the highest hill in Limestone County. Those are the end points of the Appalachian Mountains."

Teague nodded with a smile. "Bear's right. The G-men won't give chase, since them mountains leads into the hilly city of Birmingham. The B'ham police and Bama patrol bears will give ass on any and all road speeders first."

Monday May 21st

01:01 a.m. early morning

Brier Cotton Gin

(188 miles, south, to the city of Montgomery)

Parking lot setting of sports car and one semi-trucker trailer

Warm temperatures and clear night with bright stars

In front of the grill nose on the faded green colored big rig with three trailers that were stuffed with brown colored bales of white cotton bolls, blonde haired, slender, tall, thirty-four years old Tyson stood inside a large loose huddle of five teens, numerous farmers, and six police officers from the Brier township, saying with a stern face and a serious tone. "Urall drives. I ride shotgun. Scouts in front. Sheriff in rear. Move out." He spun around and moved to the front passenger of the cab.

The rest of the farmers back stepped from the big rig, watching and praying for the safety of the convoy members and the cotton bales. Each teen spun around and dashed to an individual sports car with a cheer and a clap. Each Brier police officer spun around and moved to one of three police cars as a paired team to assist with the trip down to Montgomery.

Urall moved ahead to the driver's seat of the rig, sliding inside the open door, closing the door. He shifted the gears by hand and checked the desk console for a warning light.

The passenger door opened. Tyson slid into the seat, staring at the gear box with a confused brow, "How many gears on this rig?"

The door closed.

Urall fiddled with the gears and checked the console for any warning lights. "Most common amount of gears in an eighteen wheeler is ten forward and two reverse gears, although they can range from nine, ten, thirteen, fifteen, and eighteen gears. This machine is old. Cochran set up us good. There are nine gears, seven-forward and two-reverse. Our night trip is going to be long but downhill."

Tyson turned and frowned at the nose profile on Urall. "Downhill? I don't get it."

Urall pressed and revved the gasoline pedal with a grin. "Once we pass B'ham and the Appalachian foothills, we coast downhill into Montgomery on this ancient truck. Signal the start of the race, Tyson."

"Yeehaw," He leaned out the window and fired his shotgun into the air.

The four teen scouts led the convoy, speeding on the main highway, turning onto the main roadway of Interstate 65.

Three police cars followed behind the rig coming from the farm town of Brier, going to the metro city of Montgomery, arriving before six in the morning of a pretty sunrise, shouting a new day.

02:22 a.m.

City of Jasper

(47 miles, south, from Brier)

Gas and food station setting with the Brier teens

Warm temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I pulled off the interstate first and rolled up the county road and then slowed, seeing an open gas station on the roadside. Teague pulled up behind Nadean on the interstate exit ramp in the darkness.

I veered from the roadway and stopped at the first gasoline pump station, opening my car door.

Teague stopped his sports car at the second gasoline pump station behind Nadean. Lark sat inside the car and communicated the location of an open gas station to Urall and Tyson inside the rig on the CB.

I scooted out the car and looked over to see an empty interstate roadway and the dark sky with bright moonlight, a good night for romancing an ugly rig to Montgomery with a grin and a giggle.

The driver's door opened. Teague exited his car and moved into the store for payment of the gasoline for both cars, returning to Nadean with a smile and a nod. He picked up the pump handle on the gasoline, turning to place gasoline into her car. "I'll pump your gas, Duchess. Good job finding the gas station."

"Part of the plan, Teague, the first picnic basket." I turned and slid down into the driver's seat of my car, waiting for a full gasoline tank from Teague.

Lark left the car and entered the store, returning with a paper bag for Teague, moving to pump gasoline into the muscle car of Teague.

Teague accepted the paper bag, turning and sliding down into the front passenger seat with Nadean.

I turned and cranked the car, driving to the edge of the parking lot pavement out of the way for the rig to gas up and go to Montgomery.

My driver's door opened. I scoot out from the cat seat, moved ahead, and leaned against the front grill on my car, watching for my dad and the ugly rig.

Teague scooted out his car and moved to the front grill too, leaning against the hood, providing a cold soda drink and a bag of potato chips to Nadean.

I accepted the food with a worried brow and turned looking for my dad and the ugly rig. "Thanks."

He ate and chewed with a smile and a nod. "The plan is working."

Bear and Bobcat stopped inside an individual sports car and pulled into the same gas station for a new tank of gasoline too on the same side, getting out, filling the tank with gas, the toilet with piss, and their stomach with food.

At the edge on the tall hillside, I stared into the night seeing a short or tall outline of each dark shadow that represented a shade tree, a low-lying row of plant bushes, a pod of colored wildflowers, and a flat roadway that was cold, empty and black. I continued to stare into the dark seeing some of the stars which represented a planet twinkle above Planet Earth and my hair roots which worrying about the current trip down to Montgomery. I opened the lip on the potato chip bag and continues to watch for my dad and the ugly long rig of three trailers on top of the black roadway, "So far!" I exhaled with worry. "But I'm worried, Teague. We have only driven to the small rural town of Jasper, which is forty-seven miles from Brier within ninety minutes. We still got another one hundred and forty-one more miles to go. Cruising at fifty miles-per-hour, we'll hit Montgomery at seven, instead of six, this morning." I ate and chewed the food, needing the energy for my worries and my drive.

Teague chewed and stared out at the southern roadway also, seeing only dark shadows among the nighttime skyline while making the outline of a tall shade tree and a squat plant brush. He nodded and spat out chewed food particles over the ground. "We'll make it up flying over the high mountain range while going downhill," he laughed. "We have been damn lucky, so far. No cars or G-men are riding on the interstate with us this morn."

I stared at the southern roadway with a worried brow. "This is Monday morning. Everyone is at home inside their warm bed and asleep, then they'll be up later for work or school or play or shopping. Most of the schools get out the later part of the week."

"Jasper to Cullman is fourteen more miles down south on Interstate 65. I'm concerned about the hidden ramp at Cullman. Duchess, you lead. If you find a nasty surprise, you high-tail away from them bastards, speeding faster than light," he scooted and moved closer to her, dropping an arm around her collar bone with a stern face and a whisper. "I promise I'll never let anyone hurt you. Do you believe me, Duchess?"

I elbowed him with a sour frown. "Yeah, I believe you, Teague."

He grinned at her nose profile, "Tomcat. Between Cullman and Gardendale, there's nothing but rolling mountains neither G-men nor Smokey bears give chase on our tails, unless they wanna be crushed flat. Urall can't control the down shifting weight of three trailers even a machine can't protect you."

I chewed and swallowed with a worried brow, looking into the darkness of the interstate for my dad and the ugly rig.

02:23 a.m.

Truck cab ride of Urall and Webster on Interstate 65

(Three miles, south, to Jasper exit)

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

"Why is the engine on the big rig idling like tapping a snare drum in Brier marching band?" Tyson held the door handle with a sour frown.

Urall drove with a smile and a laugh over the dark road. "It's a diesel. The tapping is pretty characteristic noise between the injectors and other metal vibrations more so than the gasoline engines like in Corene's Cadillac."

"Know that, redneck!"

"If I had to guess with this old rig, it's the exhaust brake which is typically a 'jake brake' that makes a lot of fuss which is used to help slow the rig down during compression braking. So, you don't wear out the brakes, when ya don't need too. The jake brake is used a lot going downhill to avoid burning out the brake pads."

Tyson nodded with a smile, "So, the brakes be good."

"Brakes be good. But I don't like this gauge measurement." Urall reached and tapped the glass with his thumb nail and a worried brow. "The CO2, that's carbon. This is the CO2 detector needle inside the truck detecting sudden changes in the location of any toxic exhaust fumes, before the driver passes out and dies in a wreck. The reading is twenty-five which is usually around five. The alarm goes off at seventy." He tapped it twice and gunned the gas pedal with a nod. "Check the muffle in the rear of the rig, Tyson."

Tyson rolled down the window and stuck a face out in the air, pulling back with a grin and a chuckle. "The prettiest midnight black exhaust bellowing out the bottom muffle of our rig."

"Shit." Urall drove with a nod and a grin. "That explains the funny smelly fumes inside the cab. Are you feeling dizzy or weak?"

Tyson turned and frowned at the nose profile on Urall. "Am I going to die?" He shook his skull. "Naw, wait! Cochran is going to die first. Then I'll be sure to follow him into heaven."

Urall chuckled. "Cochran is going to hell, trying to kill some good church folk-men like us, Tyson."

He nodded with a laugh. "True."

Urall reached and slapped the button on the console. "Did ya happen to see them flashers?"

"Naw," He laughed.

Urall reached down and slapped the button again with a sour frown, "A set of four-way yellow flashers like Corene's Cadillac, it is a courtesy for folks to steer clear and give room to us, especially up steep slopes. The semi tends to go much slower than most traffic. I activated them. Did you see them winking at your face, when ya ate that nasty air?"

"Naw," He laughed.

Urall shook his skull with a sour frown, "Another dang problem."

Tyson looked ahead through the cracked windshield with a chuckle and a smile at the clear dark road. "That'll why we drive at night, so the black smoke doesn't attract attention and flashers ain't needed, because we ain't stopping for nothing but the cement dock at the Cotton Exchange in Montgomery. I can barely see the light on the road, so the front head lights kinda work."

Urall drove with a nod and a laugh.

Inside the sports car at the Cullman gas station, teen Lark said via the CB, "Buster."

Inside the cab, Tyson reached over and picked up the CB microphone with a stern face, "Buddy."

Lark said via the CB, "The first picnic basket is full, Buster. Watch for the buzzing fireflies!"

Tyson grinned with a nod into the CD. "And we're hungry, buddy." He dropped the CB down to the seat with a smile. "The kids have found an open gas station in Jasper. They are flashing their lights with the exit point. Our brilliant plan is working perfectly." He turned and stared at the same tree on the side of the roadway with a worried brow. "Urall, I don't wanna be an ass. But are we moving? I feel like I'm stuck on a roller coast in neutral."

Urall drove and checked the gauges with a nod. "When climbing a grade, I have to downshift to get more torque to keep the three trailers moving as fast as possible uphill, not downhill. So your ass feels right, we lost some speed. Yeah. We are moving," he reached over and tapped the glass with a smile and a nod. "The gauge reads forty miles-per-hour."

Tyson exhaled with a huff of worry. "The first of many mountains..."

Urall drove with a stern face. "The engine specs read V8-diesel with 650 horsepower with 3,000 feet per pound of torque at 2500 RPMs. The rig is tossing at 2100 RPMs now, going up the steep grade."

Tyson turned and frowned at the gauges on the desk console. "Are we going to redline?"

"Naw."

"Where did ya get those math stats?"

"Here," Urall reached over and pitched the paper manual to Tyson with a sour frown. "Cochran, he supercharged this dang thing."

Tyson exhaled with a sour frown, "Which will make our road journey expensive in gasoline and long in hours too."

Urall turned and checked the shattered side mirror of the rig. "When the rig speed drops below forty-five miles-per-hour, the Alabama roadway law requires me to put on my pretty yellow chick colored flashers for a visibility warning. Since we are moving a lot slower than the other speeding cars."

Tyson chuckled. "What speeding cars, Urall?"

"The invisible police cars..."

Tyson chuckled. "Naw, if we are tailed by Cochran's boys, then they spot us for damn shore, obeying the Alabama roadway rules."

Urall chuckled and cleared his throat with worry. "What's really going on here, Tyson?"

He exhaled. "It all really started when the US Congress passed the Research and Promotion Act entitling US farmers to experiment with different types of blended cotton seedlings within our crops. The US Federal Government gives you money for your crops without the truck hauling it to the Cotton Exchange for sale and trade. Axson does me a favor hauling my cotton bales down to Exchange every summer for selling."

"Nice."

Tyson nodded. "Cotton is an enormous commodity outside the USA. We export cotton to the countries of England, Spain, France, all over Europe, and South Africa shipped by Uncle Sam."

"American citizens can't do business with any foreign government as stated in our US Constitution."

Tyson grinned with a nod. "You were always one of the smartest students at Brier High, Urall. So, the Brier farmers plant the blended cotton seedlings, then the US Federal Government gives it back in sixty thousand dollar subsidizes per year, per farmer. I suspect that our money deal is too good as seen by some of the local corrupt Alabama government officials. Rumors are flying around that the new roadway interstate exchange will run right through our corn fields from Decatur into Huntsville. The city of Huntsville is growing faster than your sons, Urall. I agree with Owen. I don't wanna sale my land. I wanna live on it and be buried there. I figure that some government officials think if they scare us, then we just surrender and give up."

Urall laughed, "Naw."

"Hell, naw. We, Brier folks are tough like a batch of real patch briers and not moving just keeping growing. All that is good then and now, including the US Federal Government subsidize program. But the cost of cotton seedlings increases, each year plus the cost of repairs on the old farm equipment increases each year. There's only one land. Ya got four kids, Urall. I got two, Teague and Olivia. I'm encouraging Teague to attend college after graduating high school for freeing the land up for Olivia."

"What about her marrying a farmer or a lawyer or a physician?"

"I can't predict the future, Urall. This is a man's world, since Adam ate that damn apple. I worry more about my daughter rather than my son. My son will become something a farmer or a lawyer or a physician. My daughter will be...fill in the blank."

Urall drove with a nod and a smile. "My sons are smart. They are going to college too. My first born, I don't worry about Nadean. She got a good head on her shoulders."

Blue and white lights paired with the sound of sirens blared behind the rig.

Urall slowed the rig and pulled it into the paved roadside, cutting off the engine to hide the bellowing black smoke. "Shit."

The driver's door opened. Urall dropped out the cab, racing to the grill to meet the police car.

The passenger door opened. Tyson scooted out and dashed around the front bumper, standing beside Urall in front of the grill of the rig too.

The Alabama highway patrol officer stopped his police car in front of the rig, sliding out with a sour frown, turning and moved to stand in front of Urall and Tyson, holding his ticket book with a serious tone. "Good evening, sirs. I must tell you. A eighteen wheeler is required to show their visible grill and tail lights blinking off and on going up a mountain side, sir. This is a requirement of both law and courtesy to warn all passing vehicle drivers. I am going to have to write you a citation for not following the law, sir." He looked down and flipped open his ticket book with a stern face.

Tyson elbowed with a chuckle at the bicep on Urall, "I told ya, Urall! We should have used the damn chick yellow colored flashers," laughing.

Urall nodded with a sour frown to the face of the police officer. "Yes, sir."

The three Brier police cars stopped and pulled behind the rear end on the stationary rig.

A set of individual car doors opened and then closed at different intervals.

Jimmy Ray and his three deputies swiftly moved ahead from each parked police car and trotted to the cab. Jimmy Ray smiled with a hand wave and a shout out at the huddle of men, "Howdy there! I'm Sheriff Jimmy Ray from the city of Brier. This is my buddy, Urall." He stopped and slapped the collar bone of Urall with a smile and a nod to the other police office. "Is there a problem here, State Trooper?" He thumbed over his collar bone with a smile. "We are shipping some highly secret weapons for the US Army in Huntsville, Alabama, the secret missile base at Redstone Arsenal. That is why we move the trailers here at night in the darkness."

The highway patrol trooper looked up with a confused brow to see Jimmy Ray, "Sir!"

Jimmy Ray smiled with a nod. "Boy, do ya wanna be part of Alabama's secret mission?"

He frowned, "Sir!"

"Are you an American, boy?" The officer nodded in silence as Jimmy Ray grinned with a nod, "Good! Son, we need to do a pit stop at Jasper and then an escort straight down to Montgomery hauling all this secret government weapons," he reached and patted the grill of the ugly rig with a grin and a chuckle.

The highway patrol trooper shook his skull with a stern face. "I can't go all the way down into Montgomery. But I can take ya'll into Jasper for some gas," grinning.

Jimmy Ray reached and extended a hand shake with a smile and a nod to the trooper. "You are a good-hearted American citizen, boy. Please, lead the way for us, sir."

The trooper turned and moved back into his police car.

Jimmy Ray slapped the collar bone of Urall, turning with a grin and a chuckle, moving back into his police car with his three deputies.

Tyson slapped the bicep of Urall, turning and dashing to the open passenger door too.

Urall turned with a smile, shaking his skull and scooted into the rig.

The door closed.

The trooper pulled out the road first, leading the convoy to the city of Jasper.

02:43 a.m.

City of Jasper

(47 miles, south, from Brier)

Gas and food station setting of Nadean and Teague

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

"Three-speed manual transmission with a floor shifter, sporty steering wheels, bucket seats, and a nice big ugly red colored bird on the silver tinted engine hood," Teague slowly moved and strutted around her parked car with a grin and a nod. "Your new muscle car has got style and sport, like you, Duchess." He stopped and leaned into her nose profile with a smile.

I leaned against the front grill and drained the soda can, burping with a sour frown. "It's a car, Teague."

Teague frowned. "This just ain't no car, babe."

I narrowed my eyelashes at the empty road in the darkness with a worried brow. "Where's my daddy, Teague? It's been too long. We've been sitting here for almost twenty minutes. We were only ahead by ten minutes."

Teague leaned into her space with a smile. "We wait, Duchess."

"Wait for what? I don't wanna wait. I wanna find my daddy. Something holds them up."

"I trust my daddy. Do you trust your daddy, Duchess?"

"Yeah, I do."

Teague turned with a smile and pointed at the flashing blue and white lights of the police car in the dark with a chuckle, "Looky there, your daddy done sweet charmed old Smokey bear into a personal royal escort to the gas station for a refueling job. Let's go, Duchess. We head out and scout the Cullman exit, while our daddies are under the protection of the Bama highway patrol car." He spun around with a smile and dashed back to his sports car.

I exhaled with a puff of relief, spinning around, scooting back into my sport car and started the engine. I backed away from the edge of the parking lot and spun the wheels around, leading the other three scout cars over the roadway and down the interstate entrance ramp to the city of Cullman at illegal eighty miles-per-hour. "Yeehaw!"

03:01 a.m.

City of Cullman

(61 miles, south, from Brier)

Entrance and exit interstate ramp setting

Sports car ride of Nadean

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I slammed down on my brakes, seeing a parked dark shadow in the shape of tan colored four-door sedan on top of the red dirt in the middle of the interstate exit ramp. "Shit!" I shifted into second gear and sped back down the interstate ramp, flying back onto the interstate roadway, yelling a verbal warning into my CB microphone to Teague, Eckward, and Brock. "Trap, Teague!"

And then the tan colored four-door sedan illuminated the head light beams and flying dwon the same interstate ramp, chasing at the set of bright red colored tail-lights on Nadean. The G-men car drove onto the same interstate heading towards Montgomery also.

Static sounded on CB devise.

Teague said via the CB microphone first, "We see him. The G-men and his tan colored sedan is moving down the ramp, tailing you, Duchess. Box formation, boys."

Static.

Bobcat said via his CB, "Box formation."

Static.

Bear said via his CB, "Box formation."

Static.

Teague said via his CB, "Go, go, go, Duchess! We go and take him out right now!"

Static.

Teague said via his CB, "Duchess?"

Static.

Bobcat said via his CB. "She's doing her job, leading the car. We do our part, stopping the car."

Static.

I shifted the gear and drove at eighty miles-per-hour with the bastard on my tail lights and down shifted the gear, jumping to ninety miles-per-hour, hearing each voice on the CB which was wrapped around my throat.

"Go right side, Bobcat." Teague drove his sports car on the left side of the tan colored sedan. Bear drove and blocked the sedan from the rear bumper. Teague said inside the car. "Kill his rubber, Lark," then Teague slid his car around, twirling and driving backward over an empty interstate at three in the morning.

Lark dropped the glass window inside the passage seat and turned with a smile to see the sedan. The driver in the sedan opened his window and stared with a confused brow at Lark. Lark lifted up and showed the hunting knife first and tossed it out his window at the front rotating wheel second.

Teague blew the car horn as the three teenagers separated and split from the wounded sedan. The rubber tire delaminates on the sedan.

Teague, Eckward, and Brock slammed on the brake pedal, stopping and slowing down and away from an out of control sedan. And then sedan spun around and hit the medium dirt safely, stopping.

Bear laughed via his CD, "Great slice, Lark."

Static.

Teague laughed via his CD. "Good job, ya'll. Duchess, are you there?"

Static.

I smiled into my CD, "Yeah!"

Static.

Teague said via his CD. "Slow down, Duchess! We're moving faster than an Apollo rocket ship to catch up with you."

Static.

I shifted into neutral and allowed my car to slow over the interstate for the other teens and yelled into my CB with a grin, "Yeehaw."

03:23 a.m.

Truck cab ride of Urall and Webster

Cullman exit on Interstate 65

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

After filling the tank complete with gasoline and paying the cashier, going to the bathroom, Urall and Webster slid back into the rig cab, slowing driving away from the gas station, down the entrance ramp, and onto the Interstate 65. The big rig cruised ahead and trailed a puff of gray smoke from each exhaust pipe at fifty miles-per-hour.

Inside the racing sports car, Teague said via his CD into the truck cab of Urall, "Buster."

Inside the truck cab, Tyson reached over and picked up the CD into his lips with a stern face. "Go, buddy."

Teague said via his CD, "Clear night! Watch your left for the crying child."

Tyson grinned with a nod, "Gotcha, buddy."

Inside the driver's seat Urall drove with a worried brow underneath the Cullman exchange bridge. "Shit, Tyson. The kids found one of them G-men. This ain't no pretend Hollywood movie set. Our kids are going to get hurt."

Tyson watched the dark road, shaking his skull with a smile. "Naw, Urall. The boys play sports. Little blood. No broken bones. Quick flexes. Sharp minds. Sports prepares a boy to be a man."

Urall drove with a worried brow. "Nadean is my precious daughter."

Tyson turned and nodded with a smile, seeing the ditched sedan. "And your precious daughter is a smart woman, Urall. She's both pretty and smart. She leads the wolf pack for us. She found them G-men, Urall. She's brave. Don't worry about Nadean. That's one gal who can take care of herself. Concentrate on the road, buddy. Get us and this old rig to Montgomery."

03:44 a.m.

City of Gardendale

(92 miles, south, from Brier)

Sports car ride of Nadean

Detour point from Interstate 65 in Gardendale

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I slowed down from fifty miles-per-hour while leading the semi-trucker trailer with my dad Urall and detoured off from Interstate 65, cruising at thirty miles-per-hour which was below the traffic sign. The interstate roadway had not been completed into the next town.

The passage road between the city of Gardendale and the metro city of Birmingham held a big mountain with a grove of shade tall trees and a patch of wildlife which needed to be removed before the road could be built through the interstate roadway, so all the interstate traffic of cars and trucks had to detour off the interstate roadway, running through the farm town of Gardendale for both gas and food.

"Yeehaw!" I screamed out loud inside the driver's chair with a grinned, slapping the steering wheel both my hands, enjoying driving fast. I stopped at the first red colored traffic light, staring at each rear view mirror seeing the parade of three muscle cars and the faded green colored big rig behind me.

Teague steered up her red tail lights and then squeaked the rubber tires almost touching her rear bumper, reversing his car over the street and drove up the other lane, pulling up beside Nadean. Lark rolled down the glass window and smiled at Nadean.

Inside the driver's seat, I turned to see Lark and tapped on the cool electric button. My window dropped down along with my smirk.

Inside the driver's seat, Teague leaned down to see and then chuckled to Nadean. "Duchess, you're doing great. If you finish first, I'll let you kiss on Lark."

"Fuck out, Teague!" I shouted out loud with a sour frown. The traffic light turned green hue. I did not floor it, since I might accidentally draw attention to my cool sports car. Then the cotton trailers won't get through to Montgomery. And my dad won't be invited to join into the Cotton Exchange for the extra money he needed to keep farming and feeding his family in Brier.

Teague was wise also. We both slowly rolled ahead inside our cars, obeying the speed signs.

Bobcat slowly passed Nadean, saying via CB. "I lead. I know this road."

Static.

I jerked the gear stick into neutral and coasted over the roadway, turning to see each brightly neon colored advertisement sign for clothes and food stores. I was not really hungry but more anxious. We had driven eighty-seven miles in one hour and forty-five minutes.

The convoy maneuvered slowly through each traffic light. Bobcat hit the last traffic light, advancing his speed over the posted sign.

I did not ram but charged behind his exhaust pipe with a giggle of excitement.

Tyson said via his CB. "Sirens."

Static.

Teague said via his CB. "Veer right into the hotel parking lot. Stay put. We wait and see, ya'll."

Static.

No one hollered back over the CD and each sports car turned and stopped inside a parking spot at the hotel.

At 03:48 a.m. on the city street, Urall saw the blue and white police lights through the shattered side view mirror, flipping the gears and slowed the rig, pulling into a wide parking lot at one of the tiny shopping malls.

The driver's door opened. Urall slid out from seat, moving to the rear of the rig with a worried brow.

The police car stopped behind the rig. The local sheriff and one of his deputies scooted out the car and stood side by side, moving and stopping at the rear of the ugly rig in the bright city street lights. The sheriff looked up with a stern face to see Urall. "Your warning lights are out on your semi-trailer truck, sir."

Urall nodded with a stern face, "Sorry, sir."

He pointed at the bumper of the rig with a stern face. "Flashing lights are made so a driver can know that your rig is going slower than regular folks. That's required by Alabama law, so you will receive another ticket, sir." The sheriff turned and stared at the rig with a confused brow. "How heavy is that eighteen wheeler vehicle, sir?"

Urall cleared his dry throat. "Different trucks have different weights..."

The sheriff looked up with a sour frown to Urall. "But most are between 15,000 to 19,000 pounds. The most common type on the road is 20,000 pounds, when empty for a single trailer plus the cab. But you, boys seem to have much, much more than that with three full trailers of..."

Urall nodded with a stern face. "Yes sir. We do. A tractor and trailer hauls about forty tons or eighty pounds on the average rig, traveling over our great US transportation system. Now that tonnage is spread over several axles, normally we have five axles, including the steering axle and over the load bed. So we have more axles to keep it close to the required 32,000 pounds per axle. But with a special US Federal Government exemption clause, a driver can haul up to forty thousand pounds per axle with drop axles, spreading the weight out for a heavier load of cotton. This allows us to drive over the 80,000 poundage max with the extra axles."

The sheriff sneered. "Boy, I see that you're carrying over eighty thousand of poundage across this here US highway. This ain't Interstate 65 which is paid with US Federal Government money. This here is our little farm town of Gardendale with no government money for big ass potholes and snaky cracks in the road from..."

Urall smirked. "Officer, please, let me explain. Rigs can be automatic or manual transmission. I prefer manual giving me greater control, better fuel mileage, and more durable. I use a gear ratio of 3:55:1, 3.73:1, 4.11:1 commonly used on all highways and interstates with two-speed rear ends. I obey the speed limit range set between fifty-five and sixty-seven miles-per-hour. After our cotton is delivery to the final destination point, I will be hauling an empty weight of 44,000 pounds. And I operate my rig within the United States eleven hours on duty within a fourteen-hour time window. The trailer tire air pressure reads between 95 to 105 PSI," he pauses. "These are the reference specs of any eighteen wheelers for North America, not Canada."

He frowned. "Canada! Do you drive this big rig for another foreign country, sir?"

Urall shook his skull with a smirk, "Naw, sir. We spotted a Canada driver speeding down the great State of Alabama on I-65, hauling about ninety tons or 180,000 pounds of grade oil, liquid and flammable elements, heading probably down to sunny seaside Mobile."

He parted his lips, "When!"

Urall grinned with a nod. "It passed us doing..."

Tyson nodded with a smirk. "Eighty..."

He frowned. "There's a Canada trucker going eighty miles-per-hour here in Alabama."

"...heading to Mobile, sir," Urall thumbed over his collar bone to the interstate with a grin.

The sheriff and his deputy showed a set of parted lips. Then the sheriff reached and slapped his buddy's chest with a smirk and a nod. "Let's go, Lester! Forget them that traffic citation, boys. Ya'll be good Southerns," he spun around and dashed to the police car with a chuckle and a shout. "Let's go and get us some Yankee boys, Lester. Yeehaw."

Urall and Tyson grinned with a chuckle, turning and loading back into the semi-tractor trailer for Montgomery.

05:51 a.m.

City of Prattville

(10 miles, south, to Montgomery)

Truck cab ride of Urall and Webster on south Interstate 65

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

Inside the cab of the semi-trailer truck, Urall drove with both hands on the steering wheel at a steady sixty miles-per-hour making up lost time with a smile and a nod, "We are almost there to the Cotton Exchange Station with another ten miles or so, Tyson. I can't believe it. And I see a nice sunrise and the high rise of tall buildings of Montgomery."

Tyson held the CD with a smile, saying into the device. "Ten more miles, buddy."

Static.

Inside the rolling sports car, Teague said via his CB, "Hang tight, buster."

I ran up the exit ramp of Prattville bridge inside my sports car, jerking the gear into neutral. There are three parked tan colored four-door sedans parked over the nicely paved road side. I cursed into the open CD microphone. "Shit."

Teague said via his CB. "Duchess, what's up?"

I sneered into the CB. "Another mouse trap," I slapped the manual stick down into second gear, flying down the entrance ramp onto the interstate, passing the three parked cars at seventy miles-per-hour. However, the three sedans were alerted by the sports car but did not chase after Nadean over the interstate roadway.

Teague slowed his speed but passed the interstate bridge with a confused brow, saying into the CB, seeing the red tail lights on Nadean in the lead. "Slow. Slow. We passed them." Then Eckward, Teague, and Brock rolled over the interstate in a row, occupying the new three lanes of no traffic.

Two second later, the old rig passed the same entrance ramp. And then the three sedans gave chase at the rear bumper on the semi-trailer truck.

I viewed my rear view mirror leading the convoy and then slowed. The three sedans were not chasing after my taillights, but my father Urall inside the semi-trailer truck. I couldn't leave my dad to the fight. The old rig was smoking black stinky fumes that I could smell a mile away.

Static.

Inside the truck cab, Tyson grabbed and slammed the microphone into his face, saying with a sour frown into the CB, "Company."

Static.

Inside his rolling sports car, Teague said via his CB. "See 'em. We're coming..."

Static.

Urall reached over and grabbed the hand device from Tyson, slamming it into his lips with a worried brow, yelling into the CB. "Get and go to Montgomery, kids. Get outta here now. Move. Get away from the G-men now. We'll handle this."

Static.

I slammed my brakes as the lead scout car, moving into the smooth median strip and waited with a lady sneer.

Teague drove passed Nadean, slamming his brakes, yelling via his CB, "Duchess!"

Urall passed by Nadean also and continued to steer over the interstate with three sedans in tow.

Teague slowed and moved aside, allowing Urall to pass too while Bobcat and Bear slowed down also.

Then, I down shifted and jumped into fourth gear, driving at eighty miles-per-hour and squeezed my tail between Urall and the three approaching sedans. I followed behind the black smoke. One, my daddy was driving the big rig. Two, I was not leaving my daddy, who was driving the big rig.

The three cars chased after Nadean and Urall as they weaved side to side over an empty interstate, preventing sabotage to one of the big rubber tires on the rig.

I jerked to the right without letting the bastard harm my dad and slammed on the brakes. The bastard slammed his brakes, falling behind my bumper by five feet. Then I remembered from the big Alabama map in the cotton gin floor and yelled into my CB, "Teague, the exit ramp on Coosada is not completed being under road construction. There's no return access ramp back onto the interstate."

Static.

Teague said via the CB. "Avoid it."

Static.

I smiled into my CB. "Use it! I pretend to exit down on Coosada then pull away, before I run out of interstate roadway."

Static.

Teague said via the CB, "Naw! That's two G-forces or more. Duchess, the car can't handle it."

Static.

I smiled into my CB. "A muscle car can, not a sedan."

Static.

Teague said via the CB, "Duchess!"

Static.

I switched the CB channel with a grin, "Daddy!"

Static.

Urall said via his CB. "Yeah, slick!"

Static.

I smiled into my CB. "Daddy, mile marker 176, county road 143 going to Coosada is under road construction. Veer right and then cut back to the interstate on my mark, Daddy."

Static.

Teague switched the CB channel, saying into the device with a worried brow, "Duchess."

Static.

Bobcat listened on the same channel, saying with a sneer into the CB. "Shut up, Teague."

Static.

I smiled into my CB, "My mark, Daddy."

Static.

Urall said via his CB. "Copy, slick."

Static.

I shifted side to side over the roadway behind a plume of blinding black smoke and out the rear exhaust pipes as my dad veered to the right, pretending to exit the side road on Coosada.

The three cars pulled directly behind Nadean, speeding at eighty miles-per-hour for the capture and containment of the load of cotton bales from Brier as ordered by nasty Cochran.

I couldn't see beyond the black smoke, but my dad trusted me to give the word.

Urall hit the exit road on the right, tossing shit onto my wind shield, but I stayed the course. I speed closer to the rig fender, since the pebbles didn't hit into the middle of my window but more along the edges for seeing the road. I looked and viewed the rear mirrors, watching a group of the headlights when the last car rolled onto the smooth pavement to the roadway of Coosada.

The Coosada exit ramp sloped down.

However, the rig was powerful enough to smash the gap of rocks and patchy asphalt, since Urall was an excellent truck driver and understood the rig controls.

I watched the three sedan cars line side by side over the roadway and the media, blocking an escape from my ass, laughing with an evil grin and a chuckle. My left rubber tire touched the exit ramp as I yelled into my CB, "Now, Daddy, cut back left!"

Teague, Eckward, and Brock raced ahead of the convoy out of sight, pretending they missed the exit point too and slowed their cars, sliding and twisted around sideways over the interstate to see.

05:54 a.m.

Truck cab ride of Urall and Webster

(Five miles, south on Interstate 65, to Montgomery

Coosada road construction exit to crop field of corn

Urall drove with a worried brow and a yell. "Hold on, Tyson." He jerked the three gears into neutral and twirled the steering column to the left as the rig squeaked in ripped rubber and screamed in tearing metal over the fenders. The steering column shook like the rig might jackknife.

A jackknife would cause the cab to kiss the first trailer. Then the cotton trailer would not have been delivered to the Cotton Exchange in Montgomery at six in the morning on time.

Urall twirled the steering column to the right, avoiding a deep ditch on the left side of the interstate, roaring the engine, drumming more tearing metal from the sides of the rig. The steel underbelly slowly straightened out over the roadway as sweat poured from his forehead and both his hands.

Urall jerked the three gears into second, fourth and fifth, pressing the gasoline pedal down into the floor, rolling the rig forward down an empty interstate with a plume of black and white steam behind.

I cut my steering column to the left, tapping the stick into neutral and slammed the brakes from fright as my car spun and rotated in a pinwheel of left circles. I released the steering column, the clutch pedal, and the brake pedal, allowing my car to spin left all the way across four lanes of empty interstate roadways, praying silently and cussing out loud with fury.

My car hit the medium pavement on a left rear tire than the clay dirt with a right rear tire, roughly gliding over the grass into the low ditch as my heart tried to blast out of my shirt.

Static.

Urall grabbed and spit on the CB with a worried brow, "Slick!"

Static.

Teague said via his CB, racing down the interstate to the exit point, "Duchess!"

Static.

Urall said with a worried brow into the CB, "Nadean!"

Static.

Teague said via his CB, slamming the brakes with worry. "Duchess, I'm coming back to you."

Static.

I coughed and yelled with a croak of fear, "Fine! Go, Daddy! Get the cotton home now."

Static.

Teague said via his CB, "Duchess!"

Static.

I said with a cough into the CB, "Teague, go with my daddy. Help our daddies now."

Static.

I didn't have time to be afraid or cry, seeing the exit on Coosada. The three sedans slammed down into a field of mature corn stalks from the construction site. My car ran without damage as I slowly tapped the stick into first gear and stomped the gasoline pedal, turning the steering wheel, speeding to catch my dad. The rig bellowed in a plume of black smoke from a raising sun, looking bad and beat.

I feared for my dad's life inside the metal machine. The rig occupied the middle of three lanes, wobbling to the left and cut back to right.

I was not a mechanic. But the underbelly was bleeding black oil and green slimy liquid.

Urall wasn't talking on the CB concentrating on keeping the rig from jackknifing.

I flung the CB devise from my neck, concentrating on my illegal speeding. I passed over the river bridge, turning to see a three-story warehouse structure on the water on my left and swing my eyeballs to see Clay Street exit on my right. The exit street turned to the left and led straight down into the Cotton Exchange Station along the river bank.

Urall shifted into a right lane for a wicked ninety degree left turn and hit the bridge concrete and then the wire fencing with a right tail light, tearing a big hole in the fence and the air currents.

I cringed from the booming noise, following behind the big rig but not too close to feel pebbles of concrete.

Teague had pulled to the side and waited inside the parking lot of the closest building, steering ahead, pulling his car up beside Nadean. He dropped the window and motioned for Nadean to stay back from the big rig. She ignored it. Then he down shifted the stick and roared the engines ahead, racing ahead, pulling ahead of her. He slammed on the brakes and blocked her pathway.

I slammed my brakes without hitting Teague and shouted for my eardrums only without the CB. "Shit, Teague! I'll beat your ass later, after your daddy and mine are safe." I almost kissed the rear bumper of his car with my front bumper.

Teague flipped a hand motion out the window and pointed to the side road.

My eyeballs turned and followed a high buff that stood above the Cotton Exchange Station. The warehouse station rested along the Alabama River. During antebellum days, numerous cotton bales were loaded onto a river flat boat that traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana and Savannah, Georgia.

I turned the car and followed Teague. Brock's car followed behind Nadean. Eckward was last in the sports car parade. Teague turned and parked his car first in the row over the smooth pavement on top of the hillside.

I stopped the car with a sneer and killed the engine, sliding out the sports car, moving to stand with Teague over the high buff of land.

The rig was shiny, ugly in the morning sunrise with a set of broken tail lights and a series of bend metal over the long body frame. Driver Urall slowed the rig going down the steep slope, pressing the brake pedals. However, the big rig was not slowing down.

On top of the cliff hillside, I jerked both of my hands over my mouth with a sob of tears.

Teague leaned over and hugged Nadean as they both watched in silence prayer and bold worry.

The fast speed on the rig plus the heavy weight shimmied to the right and to the left, rolling down the hill as driver Urall held a steady direction with his hands over the steering column. The grill, both headlights, and the engine hood were directly aimed at a one-hundred-foot wide loading platform on the Cotton Exchange Station which was made with tons of solid concrete.

A military tank couldn't bust it.

"Daddy..." I whispered with worry, feeling Teague's gently touch over my heated body of fear.

05:57 a.m.

Truck cab ride of Urall and Webster

Clay Street of Montgomery

(One mile, east, to Cotton Exchange platform)

Warm temperatures and dull red and blue sunrise

Urall slid all gears into neutral, since the rig was nicely rolling down a steep slope under its own power to the loading dock.

Tyson held the door handle and the console dash with a worried brow and a sissy whine. "Urall, stop this thing."

"Can't Tyson. Stow the shotgun. Get down on the floor mat. We're going to crash into that concrete platform. We lost the brakes. I suspect the green stuff leaking over the roadside is brake fluid."

Tyson reached down and unloaded the shells from the shotgun, placing the weapon behind his seat and jumped down over the floor mats. Urall swirled the steering column to the right, forcing the machine sideways, which was the best chance of survival for a human body within a fortress of metal.

The stored trailers of cotton bales would not die but delicate flesh and bones would, if cut and chopped like a T-bone steak.

The rig roughly whipped to the left, wanting to rotate in a circle as Urall cut the steering column about half-way to the right. The rig quickly lined up in a wiggling sideway line parallel to the horizontal docking ramp. The tires were steaming in white smoke, since the rig was confused about going in a sideway direction, instead of a forward or a backward maneuver.

Urall couldn't stop the rig and its impact with the concrete platform but continued to shift his two calloused hands and his set of tired aching biceps to the left and to the right. He saw it with a grin.

The rig was side to side and had lined up the three trailers behind the cab for a sideway collision with the two hundred feet concrete platform on the Cotton Exchange Station.

Urall yelled with a worried brow. "Move over, Tyson. I'm jumping down on the floor too. We be hit with sharp glass and shit. So stay put!"

The rig was fifty feet from the platform.

Urall released the steering column.

The rig wiggled a rear end side to side, but the weight of the trailers coupled with the flatness of the docking lot kept the rig sideways for a perfect collision with the concrete platform.

Urall slid down from the steering column and landed down on top of Tyson with a grunt.

The left rear bumper of the third trailer impacted the concrete first and then the front bumper of the second trailer second as the first trailer split from the second trailer. The front bumper of the cab collided with the concrete next as the second trailer jackknifed to the right.

And then the rig stopped as metal squeaked from the melting heat of two chrome bumpers.

Urall did not move while Tyson cursed.

At 05:58 a.m. at the Cotton Exchange Station which was 188 miles, south, from the tiny rural town of Brier among the outside warm temperatures and dull pink and yellow sunshine, Urall wiggled to the left and to the right, feeling for any broken bones and then stood on top of his kneecaps as his eyeballs peeked over and above the dashboard. Clouds of raising steam drifted up from the engine. He reached over and killed the engine before starting a fire.

Tyson shifted sideways and pushed open the stuck passenger door with a smile for Urall. "Thank you God, Jesus, and Urall."

Urall wiped the sweat from his brow with a puff of relief. "Let's just thank Almighty God and Brother Jesus. Don't do much!"

Tyson wiped the sweat from his brow, sliding out and standing in front of the non-damaged passenger door with a grin and a nod. "But, ya get us here. Good job, sir. Let's go and see Cochran's stunned face." He moved ahead and climbed each healthy step on the side of the docking platform.

Urall slid out the same passenger door with a sour frown and a matching tone, pulling up beside Tyson. "I rather punch out Cochran's stunned face."

Tyson wiped the sweat from more of his body parts with a dry handkerchief. "Now, let us be gentlemen of Brier, before the violence of men."

One of the laughing Cotton Exchange workers in a dark blue colored uniform slowly moved ahead and stood near the edge on the messy broken concrete, holding a cup of coffee with a smile and a nod to two men. "Elegant maneuver, son!"

"Thanks." Tyson moved beside Urall with a grin and a nod over the platform.

Another Cotton Exchange Officer in a tan colored shirt and matching trousers ran from the side door, lifted both arms in the air with a worried brow and then stopped, standing at the edge, jabbing a finger at the broken platform and the steaming rig with a sour frown and a serious tone, "Who? Why? Where? What the hell's going on here? Tyson Haywood, you there, sir. What's this mess doing here? The station platform is busted and broken and falling apart. Your vehicle has damaged the concrete."

Tyson stopped with a slight wobble of shaken nerves with a smooth grin and a smooth timber. "Correction, Arthur. This fine road transport belongs to Cochran Carter from Madison, Alabama. And the farmers from Brier, Alabama have delivered all our cotton bales on time before six o'clock in the morning to the Cotton Exchange Station for our money payment." He exhaled with a huff, wiping the sweat from his face. "And can someone kindly point me in the direction of the men's bathroom, please?"

Urall and the other men laughed their asses off.

Thursday August 16th

07:54 a.m.

Brier High School

Senior year first day of class

Warm temperatures and windy with partly cloudy

I had survived the summertime days and nights from my parents, my sister, and Teague to arrive at my first day, of my last academic year, at Brier High School, feeling excitement and giddiness as a senior student. I drove and parked in my favored spot: first row, five spaces down from the driveway at the school parking lot in front of the red colored brick two story building.

The day was heated hot with a pale blue skyline of scattered white clouds with seven miles-per-hour winds without rain storms.

I displayed my muscle car right next to the other four muscles car, consisting of Bear's neon orange colored Dodge Charger, Bobcat's silver colored Ford Mustang, Lark's puke green colored Nova, and Teague's red Corvette. I parked beside Teague, sitting in silence with a smile, caressing the steering wheel with my naked hands. The front windshield viewed the large red building with rows of large glass windows that represented each middle school classroom on this side of the structure. The building was so tall that I could barely see the blue sky.

My sister and my two brothers had exited out from the car without fanfare moving to their respective academic classes in silence.

Inside the driver's seat, I reached down and cracked open the door with a smile, sliding out and standing near my car. The other school students are slowly moving into the high school or elementary building for the first day of academic school too.

I reached over and gathered my baton and my purse, pulling my head back out from the cab, slamming the door with my hip. I placed my car keys down inside my purse and spun around, slowly moving over the parking lot pavement, prissing over vanilla colored sidewalk and turned with a giggle. I strutted up each concrete step on the grand staircase to the front doors on the high school building.

I parked my car in a space which was located in the middle part of the building, but I preferred to walk around to the front of the school building rather than the other side with the gang of snot-nosed younger pre-teens and teenagers, and all the little elementary kids.

My boot toe hit the flat level porch and as I moved ahead to him with a sneer.

Inside the white colored wooden frame on the open archway of the front doors, Teague Haywood blocked the entrance archway with a bent dark blue jean leg and a polished aqua colored boot toe, saying with a grin and a chuckle to Nadean, "Ya can pass by me for a kiss, sweetheart."

I didn't miss a smooth stride and slapped my twirling baton tip on top of his covered ankle, growling with annoyance at Teague, "Smart ass! I wouldn't kiss your butt-hole for a million bucks, Teague."

He pulled back an arching shin bone into his chest with both pain and laughter turning to watch her priss ahead inside her blue jean skirt and her pale blue and pink colored cowgirl boots, "I'll kiss your butt-hole for free, Duchess."

Bobcat stared at the butthole on Duchess and slowly stood upright from the ratty sofa that lounged on the opposite side wall, where the principle signed each excused absent for a student from school the day before. He scooted sideways and stopped, spinning around, standing nose to nose with a sneer in the face on Teague. "What's that thing with you and her?"

"Nothing," Teague stared at her ass with a smile.

"Man! You watch her, stalk her, and admire her. I wanna know why, Tomcat. You're engaged. Do you remember that tender loving event, a few weeks ago, Teague? What about your fiancé Kitten? What might she think of your redneck behavior?" Bobcat sneered.

"She's sweet." Teague smiled as Nadean disappeared around the wall corner to the homeroom classroom.

Bobcat turned and sneered at the wall corner without seeing Nadean, "Duchess!"

"She's special."

"She's a pretty thing."

Teague turned with a sneer and shoved Eckward from his face with a tongue of sour breath. "What's that mean, Eckward?"

"She got no brains, just property for some cowboy, pretty property for some other cowboy, slick." Bobcat spun around and moved back to the ratty chair, sitting down with a nod, elbowing with his two childhood friends Brock and Stratton with the same conclusion about Nadean.

Teague continues to stand and block the entrance way, propping a bent leg and a polished boot toe back across the open archway, softly sneering at the nasty comment from Eckward regarding Nadean. Later today, during football practice, Teague would get even with Eckward on the practice football field.

The first day of school was both short and slow. Each academic student had to sign up for academic courses and a school locker for the textbooks. Then, at noon time, the entire student body was dismissed for the weekend and the first football game for the year.

At 08:02 am, I waited in a semi-crooked line with the other seniors to rent a red colored school locker for each one of my academic textbooks that I slept inside my locker, instead of my house. I paid for a locker with a smile and returned back to wall of lockers, opening the vertical steel door, placing my majorette baton inside the steel compartment, before my first course, on the first day of school. I swung around and hit a wall of muscle with a sneer, "Teague."

He looked down and smelled her lavender smelled, silver tinted hair roots, wearing a smile. "Duchess, we are sharing the same locker this school year."

I looked up with a smile and a giggle, thumbing over my collar bone to my new locker. "I paid my fifteen dollars and no cents and was properly rewarded with this mathematical locker number, seventeen. The same number as last year, while we were eleventh grade juniors. So, I'm guessing here. You followed the same procedure and get the school locker below me."

"I do like the thought of me being below you, Duchess."

"Teague!"

The school bell rang for the first hour of the first school academic class.

Teague reached over and dumped his paper notebooks down into her school locker with a chuckle of amusement. Now, he would have to wrap both of his arms around Nadean to acquire a new paper notebook for each academic class.

I leaned into his jaw line and smelled his mint breathe with a smile. "I like the thought of you using the top locker, since your skull touches the ceiling. I kindly accept the bottom one, since I'm shorter," I wink with a giggle at the sexy, cute teen male. "How's that, redneck?"

"You're smart, Duchess. How's about we share the same school locker? I get my fifteen dollars back from the school office and buy you a cold dark soda at the afternoon break."

"A cold dark soda costs twenty-five cents, slick."

He looked up with a stern face to the ceiling and down with a grin and a wink to Nadean. "Then I'll buy you sixty sodas which should work until the middle of November, right before Turkey Day."

"How about I move my books down into the bottom locker for nothing?" I winked with a grin. "But you can still buy me a soda for the rest of year just for being sweet."

He winked with a chuckle, "Done deal, Duchess!"

"Tomcat!" A female voice moved and yelled behind the bee-hinds of Nadean and Teague.

Teague blocked Nadean from escaping from the locker with a smile and a chuckle.

I smiled. "Your kitten mews."

"Tomcat!" Zeeta yelled and moved closer to the bee-hinds of Nadean and Teague as Teague continued to block Nadean from escaping from the locker with a grin and a chuckle.

My eyeballs darted to the petite pretty female. "Your cat meows. Zeeta is standing a few feet behind your butt-hole, Teague. She is stomping cowgirl boots toward your butt-hole coming closer. Zeeta looks like she's ready to kick your ass, Teague," giggling.

Zeeta moved and stood at the nose profile of Nadean, popping her pink bubble gum as Teague continued to block Nadean from escaping from the locker with a smile and a chuckle.

Zeeta lifted and jabbed a red colored manicured fingernail at the cheekbone of Nadean, turning with a sour frown to see the nose profile of Teague. "Did ya wash out your ears, sugar? I'm calling ya, Tomcat, sweetheart. Come on and walk me to class."

"Shore..." he winked with a grin. "See ya next bell, Duchess."

One of Nadean's classmates Flossie turned from her locker and dashed to the nose profile of Nadean with a giggle and a grin, looking at the ass of Teague. "What's that all about, darling? Are you and Tomcat mating or something over here in the corner of the school building?"

I turned with a moan and placed my baton inside the bottom locker, slamming the door with my boot toe with a sour frown. "Ugh! I'm sharing locker space with Teague. He's on top. I'm on bottom now. I used to be on top. Then he was on bottom."

Flossie licked her lips with a giggle. "Yummy. I like these multi-visual sexy images. And that's bad in what cute-like way."

I turned and frowned at her nose profile. "How do school lockers get assigned? Do you know? Come to think about it. I had this particular top locker last year as junior and the year before as a sophomore. Who was my bottom mate late year?"

Flossie turned and smiled at Nadean, "Bottom mate, cool vibe. Do I know him?"

I frowned again. "Think with your brain, not your breasts."

"I think they assign lockers alphabetically, Nadean."

I nod. "That's a good logic lawyering defensive point. So, I'm the letter of G for Garland, the only letter of G in our class. Haywood is the letter of H. Are there any other Brier students with the letter of H that come before Haywood?"

She looked down with a stern face to the floor and Nadean. "Let's see 'E', 'F', Garland, Haywood, Henderson. Nothing strange about that sequencing, Nadean," smiling.

I exhaled with a puff of annoyance and swung to our homeroom classroom with a sour frown. "Even the logic is flawless."

Flossie turned and moved with Nadean with a confused brow. "What does that mean, honey?"

I shook my curls with a sour frown, "Nothing, I don't like English Literature."

07:07 p.m.

Thursday December 13th

City of Brier

Brier Christmas Parade on Brier Road

Convertible car setting of Miss Merry Christmas Nadean

Cold temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I sat on top of the convertible rooftop inside a convertible car of bright red hue, freezing my ass off first from the cold weather, wearing a silver tinted tiara while freezing both of my exposed earlobes second. But, my Aunt Collie came through for her favorite niece. She had sent one of her used and older ankle-length silver tinted fox furry coat from her wardrobe closet, after I had won the title of Miss Merry Christmas for the Brier Christmas Parade.

The Christmas Parade event was always held at night with cold weather in the month of December. I understood in the month of December for a Christmas parade; but I didn't understand at nighttime with cold winter temperatures that was freezing the tip of my nose bridge into red hue.

Of course, I would not have entered the holiday pageant, if Jadean hadn't whine worser than Dorcee about the collection of college monies for my college future education.

The sky was so cold and dark that each white colored star double-winked at my face. The single roadway that encircled the town for the parade of floats, horses, cars, and band members would have been jet black hue except each Brier resident stood with a bright flashlight in one hand and a cup of steamy beverage in the other hand. Each flashlight illuminated the roadway and the surface air going up for ten feet, brightening the entire parade route.

A shadow jumped inside the car and sat beside my leg as I turned with a gasp and then frowned with a yell, "Teague!"

He scooted closer with a laugh and cuddled her warm body, wrapping an arm around her fur coat with a smile and a nod, "Tomcat."

I frowned. "Get out, boy."

He reached and patted a naked hand on top of his hand gun underneath his winter coat with a smile and a nod. "I'm your protection, brought my twenty-two."

"Shit! There ain't no attacking Injuns here. They all live in the state of Montana."

"Rednecks live here also."

"Get out!"

"Ah, naw! Zeeta says I can stay."

"Zi-ta," I giggled my nicknamed for Zeeta.

"She's head majorette in the majorette square. You should know that being a majorette in same the majorette square for the Brier Marching Band. But Zeeta always says that you're pretty but dumb."

I frowned, "Well, me and her do both know how to shoot a gun. And she's going to use your twenty-two hand gun on me, Teague."

He shook his skull, "Tomcat! Ah, naw! I got her permission."

"How's that southern belle possible?"

He cuddled her closer to his chest in the cold with a smile. "She told me to push you off the edge of the convertible onto the road pavement then let the horses' hooves stomp your face."

I frowned. "Murder me. Lovely, if you toss me from the warm blanket, then I'm taking ya with me, Teague."

He lifted and reached a hand, patting the arm of her coat with a smile and a nod, "Tomcat. She joshes with you. But, not that coat, is that real?"

"Fox."

"A real dead fox."

I laughed. "Well, when you explain like that, yeah, it's dead on my body."

He patted the coat with a smile. "It's soft."

"My Aunt Collie lives in the warm weather of Miami, Florida. She's married to a doctor. He treats her very well."

Teague continued to pat the fur coat with a smile and a nod. "Wow, I'm learning some slick city ways from you, Duchess." The convertible jerked forward as her body tilted backward. Teague caught her movement and cuddled her closer with a smile and a laugh. "We're off."

I lifted and jabbed a gloved finger to the city street with a sour frown. "Teague, ya got enough time to jump off without rolling like a log on the hard pavement."

He turned and frowned at the moving hard pavement. "Tomcat, I'll bust my face."

"Zita's dream comes true for her, not me."

He turned with a smile and cuddles her into his cheekbone with a whisper. "We've had one fun year, Duchess."

"This is only Christmas. There is five more months of school..."

"Five more months of fun stuff left. Then we start our new life of college."

I said with a confused brow to Teague. "Ya sound sad. I'm very excited about college life in Birmingham."

He exhaled. "I talked with a college recruiter from Burn U. They've offered me a sports scholarship."

I reached and hugged him, pulling back with a smile and a nod. "Congratulations, Teague.

He nodded with a stern face. "My daddy can't stop grinning. He's happily than I. I'm living his dream of playing football at the college level," exhaling. "Boy! I hope I am up to it."

"Ya sound scared, dude."

"These are the big boys, Duchess. I'm shitting scared."

I nodded with a grin. "You're a good player."

"Ya got that right. I'm a...g.o.o.d...player, not a...g.r.e.a.t...player. I will be hitting against some great high school and university football players," exhaling. "Man! I hope I'm up to this."

I frowned. "Ya got a brain, Teague. Just go to academic class and forget football."

"Are you going to forget marching and majoretting?"

I shook my curls with a stern face. "Naw! My grandfather Sloan drove down and then cheered me on at the Burn U marching band majorette tryouts." I exhaled with a nod. "Yeah, he'd be greatly disappointed in me."

He nodded with a grin. "Forget football. Forget the dream. Forget the team. Ah, naw. What are you going to major in at college, Duchess?"

"Foreign language, I can read and write Spanish and French."

He frowned. "What good does a foreign language do here in Brier?"

I winked with a grin. "I ain't coming back here to Brier, Teague. I'm looking and reaching for a star. Once I graduate, I'm leaving Brier foreverly."

He frowned at her nose profile. "What in tarnation for, Duchess? You're blood-family is here in Brier."

"Then I can come visit them as much as I like. Ain't that right, Teague?"

He cuddled her with a wink and a smile. "I hope ya come and visit me too. I plan to graduate move right back to little township of Brier."

"Have a passel of kids?"

He chuckled with a smile, "How many in a passel, Scarlette of Brier?"

I smiled. "Hell, if I know Ashlee of Brier?"

"Four or five."

"Five or six."

Teague nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I want six kids to beat the shit out of Bobcat's six kids."

I shook his curls with a smile. "You ain't going to have six kids, Teague."

"Okay, two boys to beat the shit out of Bobcat's boys."

I giggled. "You are going to have a cute little precious girl."

He frowned, "Dang, girl! You just wanded me a curse, predicting a baby girl."

"Girls ain't bad," I giggled.

"Girls are trouble."

"Girls are pretty," I giggled.

"Pretty girls are danger."

"I pretty," I giggled.

He cuddles her with a smile. "Yeah, you are both pretty and dangerous, Duchess. You did a fine job driving your sports car helping move all that cotton this summer."

"Teamwork, Teague."

He smirked. "Damn right about that! I was stoked for three days after our illegal drag race."

"Did your daddy get into trouble with the Cotton Exchange folks? My daddy crashed that borrowed semi-tractor trailer."

"Broken-down semi-tractor trailer," he shook his skull. "Naw, that government-man got into trouble, thou. He tried to rip the Brier farmers from their legitimate cotton monies. I heard tell that he also went to jail for that illegal act by a judge."

I nodded with a stern face. "Good. Justice was done."

He smiled. "Life is about justice for all of us. Nadean, you and..."

The car halted inside the parking lot.

I stared into his twinkling eyeballs with a smile as his lips moved.

"Tomcat," Zeeta appeared with a sneer and stood at the nose profile on Nadean, since the convertible sports car had completed the entire parade route. But Nadean didn't notice, since she was gazing into Teague's eyes.

My eyelashes blinked back into reality.

I pulled back from his warm cuddle with a fake smile with a puff of disappointment. "Well that was a really short ride. Bye Teague. Night, Zi-ta!" I turned and climbed off the back seat of the car to my sports car for my home.

And then the parade had ended for us.

Friday May 17th

05:05 p.m.

Brier High School Graduation

Humid temperatures and cloudy skyline without bright stars

Teague's farm setting

The tan colored pickup truck stopped.

The driver's door opened. Tall, muscular, blonde-haired, dark skinned, eighteen years old Teague slid out and stood in the grass, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a red colored T-shirt, and a pair of orange colored cowboy boots. He reached inside and pull Nadean across the bench seat, assisting her to stand on top of the moist grass in front his smile.

Nadean was dressed in a blue jean skirt, a pair of pale blue and pink colored cowgirl boots, and a pink colored T-shirt, wearing a smile, smelling his woody cologne.

They had left the school campus after from graduating without honors at Brier High School, tossing off the blue colored graduation cap and gown on the seat of the truck.

The night was dark without a single star that twinkled in the sky and threatened rain. The flat crop field exaggerated each tall and small object like a semi-crooked row of individual dark colored spying ghosts that stared at Teague and Nadean alone by the truck.

I stood in front of Teague and scanned the darkness, recognizing the short stalks of gathered corn inside the field with a confused brow. "Why are we here? What are we doing? Where are we going, Teague?"

He grabbed her hand and spun them, gliding around the truck, saying with a smile and a nod, "My spot."

I pulled up beside his nose profile with a puzzled brow. "Where's your spot?"

He pointed an object at the old truck with a grin and a chuckle. "There, this is my spot."

I frowned, "A rusty broken down pickup truck underneath an ancient two hundred oak tree inside your daddy's unplowed crop field which is right behind my house."

Teague stopped and climbed into the bed of the old truck with a grin and a chuckle, resting on his back spine over the soft blanket, looking up with a smile at the bright clear night of stars. "My spot, I like to watch the zillions of stars at night."

"Star gazing." I stopped and stood in front of the truck with a grin and a giggle, climbing into the bed, resting on my back spine beside him on top of the blanket.

"I bring Zeeta here."

I look at the stars with a confused brow. "Wait a minute! You bring your girlfriend to make out here inside this broken down truck bed."

"More than that..."

I lifted my torso, looking with a sour frown at the blanket between my legs. "Geez, is this blanket clean?"

He lifted his torso, turning and leaning with a chuckle and a smile into her cheekbone. "Ya wanna meet it dirty, with me, Duchess?"

"Naw, Teague." I laughed. "You fuck Zeeta here, watching me dance around in my room."

"Why do you twirl around naked with your tits floppy?"

I parted my lips, turning to stare down into the dark grass with an embarrassing face, "You...you see me naked inside my room."

Teague nodded with a smile and a grunt into the bright stars, "A great turn-on too. I get real long and hard watching you then fuck the shit out of Zeeta."

I covered my face, spreading the germs over my clean face with a whisper. "Why is this important, Teague?"

"With these..." he reached and presented the object to her nose profile.

I released my face and looked up with a confused brow to see the object. "O my gawd, binoculars, you see..." I snatched the binoculars, lifting them to my face, viewing my house ahead of the broken down pickup truck before the rows of short corn stalks with a gasp. "I see my room and the shelf with all my tiaras."

"They shine nice underneath the light overhead lamps. Your tits, I mean. They are pale against your dark suntanned skin."

I dropped the binoculars down to my legs and wore a sour frown, turning with a puzzled brow to see Teague. "O gawd! This is too much, Teague. Why am I here again?"

"Show you my spot, Duchess. We are leaving next week to college at Burn U."

I shook my curls with confusion. "You are a man of few words, Teague. You sit out here and watch the stars and me."

Teague turned and looked down with a sad face, patting the blanket of the truck bed. "I'll miss it."

I lifted the binoculars and viewed my room again with a sour frown. "Watch me like a spider."

He turned with a smile to see the nose profile of her. "I like to watch ya, Duchess."

"Ya know a mama spider saves her young by eating the daddy spider."

"Granddaddy long legs."

I scanned the interior of my room with the spy binoculars with a sour frown. "I said spider, Teague."

"I'm watching the granddaddy long legs nesting in your silver hair."

"What!" I tossed the binoculars from my face on the grass, running all my fingers through my hair and jumped down from the truck bed, running away from the spider, the truck, and Teague. I danced and shook side to side with a new Indian war path dance, "Ah gawd, gawd, gawd! Out, out, out..." I screamed for my guardian angel to assist here.

Teague leaped from the truck bed with a grin and a chuckle, walking and grabbed her throat with a grin, jerking Nadean upright as she cried and screamed. He released her throat and gently brushed the spider out of her hair, pulling her close with a smile and a whisper. "Calm down, Duchess! Its back home. They don't hurt. They don't bite."

I pant with fear. "Teague, Teague, Teague."

He cuddled her into his chest, whispering into her eardrum. "Tomcat, sh! Its home. Sh! You're not much of a country princess."

"I live in the country. I was just surprised. That's all." I pulled back from him with a sour frown. "We...me and..."

"You..." He stepped back with a grin and a nod.

I turned and moved to his truck with a sour frown. "We should get back to the first high school graduation party at Zeeta's house." I wiped the tears of embarrassment from my face.

He exhaled with a huff of disappointment. "Yeah, Duchess, shore," Teague moved and jogged to the driver's seat of his truck.
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

01:29 p.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"O Teague..." I whisper and feel the burn on my right ankle bone, relaxing my mind and my body, thinking about another one of my teenager's memories.

Nineteen-year-old college student Nadean

Saturday June 1st

City of Birmingham

(90 miles, south, from Brier)

11:01 a.m.

Birmingham University campus

Hot temperatures with bright sunshine

Shared townhouse of college students Nadean Garland and her cousin Cherry Hilliard

I slammed the knuckles of my right hand against the shifting wooden front door before I got locked out of my new rental townhouse home. My granddaddy Sloan was paying for the two-story, two-bedroom townhouse as I moved in and prepared for my first day of college at Birmingham University within the city of Birmingham.

The day was composed of heated air and hot weather with a pale blue sky and scattered white clouds. I lived in the city for the first time in my life on a quiet street with rows of tall shade trees and numerous houses with a large manicured yard. The neighbor kids enjoyed playing in the city street as my mean sports car almost enjoyed hitting each new targets on the roadway, but didn't.

The front façade on the townhouse held a single entrance door in black hue and four exterior walls in yellow brick without a garage for my precious sports car but two flat concrete slabs with an overhanging rooftop that made the house ugly but my car happy. The overhang was composed of ugly black metal, where I would not get a wet body from a rain storm either.

I entered the living room setting and halted a few feet from the closing door. The single room was rectangular-shaped with four newly painted yellow tinted walls. I could sniff the paint remnants from last week.

One side of the room held the living room setting with a row semi-crooked furniture pieces consisting of a long pink and aqua colored sofa that stood in-between an individual side table in light wood. A loveseat in matching colors kissed one side table and the side wall. A single lonely aqua colored sitting chair kissed the other side table and opposite side wall. On the entrance wall, a built-in bookshelf contained a large television devise, a stereo system, and stacks of messy musical records.

The opposite part in the large room was wrapped in orange colored kitchen counter fake wood in-between the standard white colored kitchen appliances that included a top stove and oven, a refrigerator, a wash sink, and a dishwasher with upper and lower matching orange colored fake wood.

A dark colored wooden staircase stood on the other side that led to the second floor with two individual bedrooms and one single bathroom that were painted in yellow paint also with a wooden floor.

Inside the living room setting, I continued to stand on top of the wooden floor and cuddled the last cardboard box with my personal possessions from my sports car, yelling out loud. "Teague."

My eighteen years old cousin and newly high school graduate Cherry Hilliard reached with a free hand and touched the slightly tight pale blue colored T-shirt on Teague, saying with a smile and a nod, holding an object in the air inside her other hand. "Nadean, do you remember our darling boy Tomcat?" She looked down with a smile at the plate. "Tomcat darling, this is my grandmother's plate."

I parted my lips with a gasp at the object. "Hey! That's my great grandmother's china bone dinner plate which about hundred years old. Put it back now, Cherry! My maternal Grandmother Garland on the other side of my blood-kin family gave that to me for my high school graduation."

Teague reached and snatched the delicate plate from Cherry, looking and touching the smooth edges with a smile and a nod. "It feels soft like silk, baby blue around the circle and three pale yellow buttercups, very nice, Duchess." He looked up with a confused brow to see Nadean. "Why buttercups?"

"Pretty flowers like me." Cherry reached and touched her big breasts with a smile and a nod, looking up to see his chin of whiskers.

I smiled to Teague. " _Ranunculus_ is a genus of six hundred species of plants, including buttercups with white or yellow petals of five or six. _Ranunculus_ is Latin for 'little frog.' In the southern region, a buttercup is called 'coyote's eyes.' From an old American Cherokee Indian ledge, when the coyote was tossing his eyeballs up in the air and catching them again and again then a flying eagle flew down and snatched them away. So unable to see, the coyote made eyeballs from the two buttercups. Buttercups are poisonous when eaten by cattle, horses, and other livestock with blistering pus on the mouth."

Cherry frowned. "Yucko, Nadean! Tell us a happy story now and break that curse."

I stood and hold the heavy box with a smile to Teague. "The natural buttercups cause dermatitis in humans too. Six petals times three flowers equal eighteen. My great grandmother Garland had sixteen kids plus two adults equal eighteen."

Teague smiled with a nod to Nadean. "Can we eat on your great grandmother's dishes, Duchess?"

"Shore, Tomcat," Cherry shifted her hips side to side with a smile and a nod to his chin, "I'm a great cook. Great wives make great cooks. We have supper here tonight celebrating our first day at college with Nadean's plates. How's that, Tomcat?" She winked at his chin of whiskers, since Teague was smiling at Nadean.

I stood and held the heavy box with a giggle and a grin. "After lunch comes dinner and then comes mama with a baby carriage."

"Duchess, let me get that box for you." Teague turned and gently replaced the china plate back inside the open cardboard box, swinging around, dashing to Nadean. He grabbed the box with a wink. "How about the bedroom just me and you, un-zipping the..."

"How about the floor at your feet? Whilest, I decide what closet for my pair of faded and worn blue jeans?" I jabbed a finger at the floor with a sneer.

Teague dropped the box at her feet, lifting his torso and his smile to her. "How about lunch..."

"Love too, sugar," Cherry turned and chomped on her bubble gum, prancing and bouncing into the ass of Teague with a grin and a giggle. She was five feet and two inches short when she was compared to six feet and four feet of Teague.

And Cherry had left a great big mess inside the kitchen which consisted of a half-eaten turkey sandwich on one of Nadean's great grandmother's china bone plate along with every imaginable condiment created by mankind in the kitchen. Plus, sliced lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced onion, an open jar of dill pickles, an open jar of mayonnaise, an open jar of yellow mustard, and a sack of ten rolls of white bread, all items were scattered over kitchen counters.

Cherry arrived yesterday into the shared townhouse while accompanied by her biological parents as they graciously unloaded a set of two cars and then sweetly loaded her stuff inside the master bedroom of the townhouse.

I, on the other hand, loaded my sports car with all my personal possessions, including three ripped and worn pairs of blue jeans, two pairs of worn and unpolished cowgirl boots, six clean and laundered shirts, a few pairs of girly panties, bras, and a single pair of white long johns, since a pair of long johns for the wintertime season only appeared in the color of white.

I drove down from Brier this morning after getting a kiss peak from my dad, a sneer from my sister Dorcee, two big hugs from my brothers, and a snigger from my mom.

Jadean's parting motherly words spoken to her first born daughter. "Ya fail in schooling. Ya a dumbo like me. And ya be back here next month. Then ya marry Lance Morris and a farmer wife like me..."

My parting daughterly set of whispers spoken with a sneer. "When hell freezes over, Mother!"

Cherry reached over and latched onto the fit waist of Teague with a giggle and woman-pulled him into her big soft breasts as Teague wiggled his eyebrows up and down with a wink at Nadean.

I rolled my eyeballs before the puke came up between my tonsils, since my tonsils were removed in the first grade.

Cherry bounced up and down with excitement. "I wanna visit that haunted place called Scary-side."

I squatted and opened the box to view the objects. "Southside, Cherry. The popular tourist attraction spot is called Southside, not Scary-side."

Cherry had grabbed the master bedroom inside the townhouse with two walk-in wardrobe closets as I received one wardrobe closet. But I was a country princess needing only a pair of cowgirl boots, a pair of blue jeans, and one clean shirt per week.

"I'm scared thinking about it. Do you get scared, Tomcat sweetheart?" Cherry released and scooted around Teague, hugging his side rib cage with a giggle and a grin.

Teague back stepped from Nadean with a wink and a laugh, dropping his arm around Cherry, "Naw."

"That's so nice. You can be my personal escort so no ghosts don't get me," Cherry smiled.

They turned and moved to the front of the townhouse.

The door opened.

I turned and stared with awe or fright or something.

The door closed.

Friday October 4th

06:17 p.m.

City of Brier

(91 miles, north, from Birmingham)

Home of Jadean and Urall kitchen setting

Cool temperatures with bright stars

I parked my dirty sports car inside the busted concrete driveway, which my headlights saw. I knew the location of the broken concrete slabs. I slid out the car and moved ahead like a thief in the night and stopped, standing in front of the ancient door, knocking. The door chime did not work. And I did not officially live here.

The night was warm and bright with millions of star twinkles. The moonlight was bright that beamed down onto the earth which was absorbed down into the country dirt. Here, in Brier, the town was so small that the numerous beams of moonlight bared penetrated the darkness.

During my drive up from the south, I could see the glowing bright lights of Huntsville and a faint light of Decatur. The town of Athens was a single dot of white.

I could smell the sweet jasmine flowers, the fruity honeysuckle vines, the grove of clean smelling pine trees, and each tart cedar tree feeling a little homesick for 1.2 seconds.

The front door opened.

Short, black-haired, slender Jadean stood in the archway inside the living room setting and wore a brown and red long dress with a set of pink and blue bedroom sleepers.

The living room setting was a long rectangular-shaped room that held a piece of ancient crappy dark brown furniture piece such like a sofa, a sitting chair, a rocking chair, a loveseat, a lounge chair on each dull white painted wall but the clean window glass. Jadean said with a sour frown and a sneer, "Why ya here, girly?"

"Homecoming game," I scooted around Jadean with a smile, moving into the kitchen, sitting at the wooden and unclean breakfast table.

My sister and my two brothers were at the high school for the band inspection, before the upcoming football game. One of the neighbors drove my sister and brothers there. Jadean and Urall attended the football game right before the marching band half-time show and then left the school, returning back home for bed and an early morning of farm work. The same farm neighbor brought my sister and my two brothers back home, after the football game for sleep and an early morning of farm work also.

Jadean spun around with a puzzled frown, followed behind Nadean, and then stopped, standing inside the open archway of the kitchen. "Are you preg...nancy?"

I continued to stand and shook my curls. "No, Mama! I am not preg...nancy. I'm a virgin. Believe it or not, I don't date boys. I just drool over their seats after they exit the classroom," giggling.

"Ya chase after boys. That's a floozy. Ya look like a floozy in them boots up inside your ass, girly."

I smiled. "I'm a flutist, not a floozy." I reached out and grabbed some of the cold leftover supper items, eating the food.

"What be that thing on your body?"

I stood upright and twirled around in a circle with a smile and a nod in front of Jadean, "My colorful dress and my pair of red colored thigh-high boots."

She frowned. "Where ya got that thing from the Salvation Army store? It be square shaped in colors of black, yellow, orange and green ugly. I know ya be poor, since I don't send ya money. How do ya eat, girly?"

I smiled. "Aunt Collie sent me all her old clothes and her used stuff, like her purses and her shoes. Me and her..."

She frowned. "Did Collie sends ya money too?"

"No, Mama. I work a part-time job at the college to pay for gas and tampons, since you don't supply used female products for my monthly girly biological system."

She sniffed with a sour frown. "I smell flowers."

I touched my breasts with a smile. "That's called perfume, Mama."

"From where?"

"Perfume, makeup, shoes, boots, clothes, coats which are used, and abused stuff from Aunt Collie."

"She sent ya boxes from Texas. Ya best be bringing all them stuff here, girly. We all share in Collie's treasures. Dorcee needs some new clothes. Be there any diamond rings or necklaces?"

"No, Mama."

She moved and stopped at the kitchen counter, reaching and grabbing the cloth, cleaning the kitchen counter. "Why ya here, girly?"

I sat and ate the food, chewing with a set of good manners, "The homecoming football game..."

"So?"

"Homecoming queen."

She frowned. "Ya ain't the queen."

I laughed. "Naw, I ain't the queen. Rosalina stole the tiara from me." Rosalina was a nice, smart, pretty, and a very good high school friend.

"Rosalina be crowning the next homecoming queen tonight, not you."

"And Rosalina goes to college too. They have an away football game on Saturday afternoon. She's on a bus somewhere in Georgia. She asked me to crown for her."

"Ya ain't the queen."

I turned and frowned at her. "I know that. I am not the Brier homecoming queen last year or the year before or the year before that."

"The year before, you were a junior. A junior girl ain't no the homecoming queen, only a senior girl can be the queen."

"In my senior year, I was one of many homecoming princesses. I got a tiara."

"A little tiny one...," laughed Jadean.

I smiled. "Yeah, a little tiny one, Rosalina called Principle Holden and asked for permission to send a replacement, me."

Jadean cleaned the kitchen counter with a sour frown and a sneer to Nadean. "Ya ain't the queen."

I chewed and swallowed the cold food, standing and wiping my mouth with a smile and a nod to my mother. "Principle Holden called and told me to come on down and take the both cake and ice cream." I turned with a grin and a giggle, leaving the Garland home for the football game.

07:25 p.m.

Brier High School homecoming football game

Cool temperatures with bright stars

Bobcat and Otter snuggled next to each other, since Otter was a cheerleader and a senior at Brier High School. Bobcat wore a pair of blue jeans and a brown colored shirt. Otter was dressed in a long red gown. The homecoming court in their long colorful gown sat in a special section inside the bleachers away from the nosily band and the nosy parents.

Teague wore a pair of blue jeans, a dark green shirt, and a pair of dark blue cowboy boots, turning to rub his cold nose into her naked eardrum with a smile. "I like your perfume."

I stared at the football game with a grin and a giggle, sitting next to Teague in a set of white colored cheap patio lounge chair in front of the game field fence, "Fleur de doux."

He stared at her earlobe with a laugh and a smile, "Turd de toot."

"Sweet flower, ya got a bad draw on your southern redneck twang, Teague."

He smiled. "Girls twang like sweet molasses. Guys draw like a gun from the hostler."

I turned and smiled into his grin. "I ain't seen ya around my townhouse, my classroom, or my football field, Teague. How's school going?"

He exhaled with a sour frown at her face, "School."

"How's football practice going?"

"Practice."

"When will the coach put you into the game?"

"Game."

I reached over and patted his naked hand with my blue colored glove and a sour frown. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't stick my nose up your ass."

He reached over and rubbed her glove with a smile and a nod into her face. "I'd like for you to stick your nose up my ass. It's everyone else's nose that I don't like up my butthole."

I fiddled with my soft leather on my thigh-high left boot with nervousness. "Yeah, I feel many noses up there too, when I come home to visit. I get the same question-answer session too. Except, my dad's only question is: when are you going to graduate the university?"

He grinned with a nod, "Three years and two semesters from now."

I smiled. "My dad is a farmer. He doesn't know what a semester is. He might know what a siesta is, thou."

He leaned into her face with a whisper and a smile. "Ya make me laugh. That's why I love ya, Duchess."

Eckward moved and squatted with a sneer into the rear skull of Teague. "Hey, Tomcat."

Teague continued to smile at Nadean, "Hi, Bobcat."

Eckward turned and stared at Nadean with a sneer. "Where's Zeeta? You're pre-engaged fiancé, Tomcat."

Teague continued to smile at Nadean. "My pre-engaged fiancé Zeeta has college finals this week. She's going into nursing school. She has to maintain the letter grade B or higher even be accepted," he turned with a smirk to see Eckward. "So, she's always studying her ass off like you, buddy."

Eckward frowned at the rear skull on Teague. "Nice to see you, again, Duchess. Don't be late for football session tomorrow morning, Teague."

Teague nodded at Nadean with a sweet smile. "Shore thing, Eckward!" Eckward stood upright from the manicured grass and spun around with a sneer, moving back to his girlfriend Otter on the bleacher. Teague exhaled with annoyance and whispered with a sour frown into her face. "Another nose up my buttonhole."

I watched the ass on Eckward, who scooted away and sat beside Otter at the end of the bleacher, saying with a confused brow. "Bobcat, he's your best friend."

Teague turned and frowned at Eckward while whispering to Nadean. "Best bro, best future bro-in-law, and best seat warmer!" He returned back to see her. "College, it is a lot different from high school, Duchess. There's more pressure studying in both academic classes and football practices. Man! After practice, I shower with cold water to keep from waiting in line for the hot water then hit the bed naked," exhaling. "I don't care. I just wanna sleep."

I winked with a grin to him. "You can come over and use my hot shower, anytime ya want, Teague."

He parted his lips with a gasp, "Really! I can have a hot shower with you, Duchess. I'm honored, fucking honored."

I frowned, "A hot shower with only the hot shower on your naked body, only your naked body, Teague."

He nodded with a smirk. "I wished you lived a lot closer. Then I'd really use the hot shower after football practice. Why are you so far from the college camp grounds?"

"My grandfather rents the townhouse that me and Cherry share. He picked that one, probably at a lower and reasonable rental lease which is far from the campus grounds. I do not pry into my grandfather's business affairs or private affairs or money affairs. He loves me, wants me to finish college, get a good job, and make my own way in this world."

"Yeah, our young generation is more independent than three years ago. Girls got married and had babies. Now, girls go to college..."

"Get a degree and then get married and then have a baby. Some girls follow that slightly old fashion route. I will not. I'm going to finish my degree in physics."

"Physics, what's physics?"

"The study of movement, coming from and coming into..."

"Movement?" Teague chuckled, "Can you study my pen..."

Mrs. Silverman appeared and wore a long dress in glittering silver hue over her tall and overweight body, reaching out, tapping the arm on Nadean, saying with a sour frown and a whisper. "Nadean, you must place a silver tinted tiara on every princess head tonight during the football half time program."

I turned with a sour frown to see each standing princess in front of the marching band, yelling out loud, "Dang! Can't each girl do it herself? Ya know, I'm only the substitute homecoming queen."

Teague lifted a palm near his smile and winked at Silverman. "I'm help too."

Mrs. Silverman turned and frowned at Teague. "Nadean, you are to place a tiara on each princess head right now."

I faked a smile, "Fine." I stood with Teague.

Mrs. Silverman reached down and handed the first tiara to Nadean, dropping her hand and shoved the tiara cart toward the row of homecoming princesses. All four moved ahead and rolled over the grassy field towards each girl.

Teague moved ahead with Nadean, leaning over with a chuckle and a whisper to the cheekbone of Nadean, before the first crowning of the rhinestones. "Why girls gotta win tiaras all the damn time?"

I grinned at the first crownless princess in the circle. "Why guys gotta win games all the damn time?"

"Bragging rights."

"There, ya go. I'm cheering for Olivia to possess the bragging rights for a year."

Teague and I stopped and stood in the semi-wet grass as the announcer called out the first homecoming princess. The girl slowly moved and approached Teague and Nadean, stopping and standing with a smirk. I stabbed the comb of the tiara into her naked hair roots. She turned and winked to Teague. "Hi, Nadean! I see that you finally caught Tomcat from Kitten."

I smiled. "Naw! He's my paid escort for the night."

Teague chuckled. "Hundred bucks gets ya a lot of man until midnight, darling."

A few minutes later and an almost empty tiara cart, the announcer called out the name of the last girl. Olivia jumped up and down in her long red colored gown and celebrated as the new Brier High School homecoming queen. She and Eckward moved ahead and stood in front of Teague and Nadean.

I stabbed the biggest and sparking tiara down into her naked blonde colored hair roots with a smile and a nod. "Congratulations, Olivia." We, four stood around in a semi-circle with smiles and nods.

Eckward reached and hugged Olivia with a smile and a whisper. "Otter..."

Otter turned and grinned to him. "Bobcat..."

Bobcat grinned. "Otter..."

Otter grinned. "Bobcat..."

"O butter..." I giggled. Bobcat turned and sneered at Nadean. Teague laughed. Olivia smiled with too much happy and didn't really care about the nasty jab.

Teague leaned over with a smile and a whisper into the cheekbone of Nadean, "Now, Duchess, we all can't be the queen of Brier." He reached and hugged Nadean with a chuckle and a grin.

The announced said. "That's the end of half-time, folks. Everyone, please move off the playing field for the approaching football teams to continue the homecoming game."

Teague and I turned and moved from the field into a pasture of grass as the local newspaper photographer squatted down in the damp grass under a full moon, a romantic night as I did not have a handsome date, like always.

A tall and slender black haired male photographer motioned with a hand and a smile to Nadean and Olivia. "I want a picture with the old queen and the new queen. Nadean, stand on Olivia's right while placing the crown on her head." Nadean and Olivia moved and posed in place. He lifted and snapped the picture with the camera, dropping the camera with a smile and a nod. "Okay. Give her the bouquet of flowers, Nadean," he lifted and snapped another picture, dropping the camera with a smile and a nod. "Both of you stand side by side. Smile." He snapped the picture, dropping the camera, motioning to the males. "I want the escorts, too. Bobcat and Tomcat, plant your boots around your girls with a big wide smile." He lifted the camera and snapped the picture, dropping down the camera with a smile and a nod. "I'm done with this set of photographs. Old queen, you're done here, too. Thanks, Nadean."

I turned and moved to the nose profile of Teague. He stood and stared with a smile at his sister Oliver. Bragging rights were true and sure.

I leaned over with a smile into his blonde whiskers, without kissing his cute face. "Teague, why don't we all go and get a burger and some fries at Dee Dee's after the photo shoot?"

He smiled and stared at Olivia. "Naw! I gotta do the 'sister-princess' thing with my folks and my grandparents around Brier. All my relatives want to talk congrats, showers kisses, and take pictures of Otter for the scrapbooks."

I frowned. "O yeah," I smiled with a nod. "Then we can all go and get a burger after the football game."

Teague smiled and stared at Olivia. "Naw! Olivia's only seventeen. She can't stay out passed eleven pm even with Bobcat."

I snapped my fingers with a nod. "Right, we're eighteen. We...me and..."

"Tomcat..." Zeeta appeared and stood behind the ass on Nadean, wearing a sour frown and a short purple and gold colored dress with a pair of black colored thigh-high boots that made her still shorter than a midget.

Teague spun around and hugged with a smile on Zeeta. "Kitten..."

"Not me..." I back stepped with a fake smile from Teague and Zeeta.

Zeeta pulled back from Teague, turning with a sour frown and a sneer to Nadean, "Duchess."

I smiled. "Present."

Zeeta sneered. "Why are you here imitating the queen?"

"Thank you," I smiled.

Zeeta frowned. "Betty, be gone for some foolish reason was named homecoming queen last year."

I sneered. "Rosalina, her name is Rosalina, Zi-ta. Rosalina received an academic scholarship to Western Bama Junior College, twirling the baton for the marching band."

Zeeta laughed. "O yeah, lady loser, again! Betty, be gone ain't good enough to go to the big university, settling on a two-year college."

Teague turned and frowned at the nose profile of Zeeta. "Bear goes to the same Western Bama Junior College too. He plays football as a kicker. Bear ain't no loser and is smart too."

Zeeta turned and smiled at Teague. "Do you talk to Bear, sugar?"

Teague shook his skull. "Naw! He's busy like us with classes and practices."

Olivia moved and shoved her way to her brother with a smile, "Teague."

Teague released Zeeta and hugged his sister with a smile. "Otter, you're so pretty, darling. Congratulations, sugar. Let's go and show you off to our mama and daddy." Teague, Olivia, Zeeta, and Eckward turned and left Nadean alone in the field of grass.

I stood in my glittering tiara of silver, feeling shitty like I was phasing. That was an actually scientific term. Phasing was the ability to go in and come out. My mind was phasing from the silly high school atmosphere into the mature college scene. I felt trapped inside a bubble and couldn't pop it to escape to somewhere.

"Catch ya later, Tomcat." I meekly whispered and stared at the back spine on Teague.

Petite, skinny, black-haired, pale-skinned Dorcee sidestepped beside Nadean in her majorette outfit as the Brier marching band swiftly moved off the football field, after completing the marching band half-time show. She twirled the baton with one hand and chewed the bubble gum with her open lips, watching the back spine on Teague with a sneer and a sour frown. "I saw Tomcat kissing your ear."

I grinned and watched the commotion. Teague hug his mother and pulled with a smile, talking to his clan of nice relatives. I nodded. "Actually, Teague was licking my ear and kissing my cheekbone. Does that clarify your visual effect for the Brier newspaper, Dorcee?"

Dorcee turned and grinned at the nose profile on Nadean. "You shouldn't gossip like that, girly. Zeeta is his girl. Teague is her man. They be getting married next year."

"Three years and two semesters from now," I exhaled with disappointment.
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

01:34 p.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"O Teague..." I whisper and feel the burn on my left wrist bone, relaxing into my mind, recalling another teenage memory.

Twenty-three years old daughter Nadean

Wednesday February 1st

06:06 p.m.

City of Brier

(91 miles, north, from Birmingham)

Home of Jadean and Urall

Dining room setting

Cold temperatures and clear night sky with moon light

The ancient wooden front door opened.

I entered inside and slammed the door against the wall, saying with a smile and a yell. "I'm home." I moved ahead and stood inside an empty kitchen setting, back stepping with a puzzled brow into the parlor room of dull whiteness that included a set of furniture that was never used and a grand piano that wasn't tuned for a musical song. I step-sided into an empty living room of dull yellow painted with a confused brow. "Dang," I snapped my fingers with a smile and a nod, turning and invading the dining room.

The dining room of dark wooden panel walls was only used for a special occasion like the Christmas dinner, the Easter dinner, and the birthday dinner.

I stepped and stood inside the archway in the dining room, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white colored T-shirt with a puzzled brow, seeing Jadean, Urall, and Dorcee without my twin brothers around the dark dining room table.

Slender and short Dorcee turned and sneered at her older sister. "Nadean's here."

I moved to the decorated table with food platters, saying with a nod and a smile. "Yeah, Nadean's here. Let's start the party."

Dorcee continued to stand and held the fork of food with a smirk and a nod. "The party started and ended with blazing fireworks. You're late, as usual, Nadean."

I pulled out the chair and sat down with a puff. "Traffic was bad. Classes were long. And I'm slower in my old age," giggling at my lame joke among sour puss faces.

Dorcee smirked. "When ya going to finally graduate Burn U, Nadean? Ya be going to school, since I was in the seventh grade. I be in the eleventh grader, now. That's five long non-suffering years. Mama says ya be a dumbass. Me guessing, she be right all along."

I sneered. "You can add simple math, Dorcee. That public school education is paying off big time," I turned with a sour frown to see Jadean.

Dorcee still held the fork of food with a sneer. "And ya still living freely and fine in that ratty ole townhouse being paid by our grandfather Sloan for five long non-suffering years."

Jadean stabbed the meat with a fork, eating and chewing with a frown. "My daddy paid out of his pant pockets for your schooling, girly. And don't ya be forgetting that, child."

I exhaled with a puff of annoyance. "I would never ever forget that because you remind me every time I can come to visit, Mama."

Jadean looked up with a sneer and a new order. "Ya stop by and visit your grandfather. He asks about you all the time. Ya need to call him or drop a note in the mail. He worries about ya. Go wash up before eating supper, girly."

I nodded with a stern face. "Yes ma'am, I will."

Dorcee held the fork of food with a sneer. "Ya too dumb to graduate, Nadean?"

I turned with a sour frown to see Dorcee. "I'm in..." I smiled with a nod. "You are too dumb, Dorcee." I turned with a confused brow to see Jadean. "Where are the two birthday cakes, the two birthday presents and the two birthday boys?"

Jadean looked down and stirred the food, "Upstairs, in their room."

I frowned with fury. "Why are the two birthday boys upstairs inside their room, instead of eating the birthday dinner inside the dining room on your good china plates like always?"

Jadean looked up ate and chewed the food, "Their choice."

I shook my curls. "Their choice! I understand that their actually day of birth was on Wednesday. I couldn't come home on Wednesday evening. I had classes. But we're celebrating their birthdays tonight on Friday. Vester told me."

Jadean dropped her fork and her mouth. "When did you talk to Vester, Nadean?"

I smiled. "On Wednesday night, I told both of them happy birthday."

"We celebrated the birthdays now. It all be done and over with." Jadean looked down and stirred the food again.

I turned with a puzzled brown and viewed three dinner placements, not five. "Is this the official birthday party for the two birthday boys? And where is the damn birthday presents? And where are the fucking two birthday cakes? And what the hell is going on here, Daddy?" I turned with a sour frown to see Urall.

Jadean sneered. "Don't sass your ass at me, girly."

Urall stirred the food with a whisper, "In their room."

"Fine!" I stood upright and slammed the chair against the wood with a sour frown. "I am going upstairs into their room for a complete explanation, because I am in Burn U law school, becoming a future Bama lawyer. And I betta not need the use of my newly, freely learned college education on a bunch of backwoods hillbillies." I turn with a sour frown, leaving the dining room and hearing with a set of perfect eardrums.

Jadean sneered at the ass of Nadean, "Urall, ya going to let your daughter talk to us like that."

At 06:12 p.m. on the second floor shared bedroom of dull yellow paint with Vester and Vassar, I stomped through the living room and up the staircase, stopping and knocking on the closed door.

The door opened.

I hugged a wall of muscle without extending both my arms around the big bulk with a whisper. "Vassar."

Vassar released her and pulled back without a smile, wearing a pale blue T-shirt and a pair of white colored walking shorts with a pair of bare feet. "Nadean, thanks for coming." He back stepped and turned, leading her to the bed mattress with a red colored bedspread, sitting down on the floor.

I sat on the bed mattress and stared at my two brothers on the floor saying with a worried brow and a serious tone. "Is that bitch treating you well? If not, then..."

Vester looked up with a stern face and a serious tone to Nadean, wearing a yellow colored T-shirt, a pair of tan colored walking shorts with a pair of bare feet. "We are both at the cross-roads in our life, Nadean."

I smiled with a nod. "Don't sound so serious, Vester. You're young, barely eighteen years old and two days. Ya got plenty of time and energy and brains, maybe some more growing to do."

Vester nodded with a grin. "We both have been availed a unique opportunity to work on a grand endeavor that will change the lives of millions of folks throughout the world. The outer space program has provided thousands of new inventions from brilliant minds from breakfast foods to the world wide web..."

"World wide web, is that a new military war in Europe?" I frowned.

Vassar smiled with a nod to Nadean. "It is shared knowledge through a computer."

I nodded with a grin, "A robot, gotcha!"

Vassar turned and smiled at Vester. Vester nodded to his brother and smiled to Nadean. "We have both been accepted into an engineering internship at NSI, the National Space Institution in Birmingham."

I nodded with a grin. "You both have been interning free of charge for the NSI, since the age of fourteen years old, Vester. You both had worked on calc linear regression tables to launch the space rockets from planet Earth."

Vester smiled. "Nadean's smart."

"Like her brothers..." I smiled with a nod.

Vassar turned and smiled to Nadean. "We both are working on a new prototype spacecraft that will launch like a rocket into outer space and deliver a satellite around planet Earth for orbit. Then the space ship will re-enter the atmosphere and fly back down to planet Earth without catching on fire. That is really important. The space ship does not catch on fire with live folks aboard."

Vester smiled with a nod. "We will get paid about nine thousand dollars plus a set of employee fringe benefits, such like, vacation, sick leave, and college paid tuition for the entire years of schooling at Burn U."

I frowned. "You both have received a full time academic scholarship for Burn U in August of this year as a freshman at Birmingham University."

Vester frowned. "Only if, we receive a high school diploma and transfer the academic transcripts from Brier High School in the month of May."

"What the fuck!" I sneered.

Vassar smiled with a nod. "We have taken and passed the GED."

I frowned, "GED."

Vester smiled. "GED is the standardized test which relieves us from the rest of the days of Brier High School."

I parted my lips, "The senior play, the senior prom, the senior fun night, the senior graduation walk ..."

Vester shook his skull. "These things do not really interest us. We are both most eager to submerge into the adult world along with the adult problem solving matters. We both enjoy the new computer scientific work, Nadean. We do not want to be forced to surrender a life-long dream of helping mankind to stay inside a one-dimensional institution of gun-toting and tobacco-chewing rednecks just to get a piece of colored paper."

I parted my lips. "Whoa! You are talking like a college professor. Dang! Your brains have grown up along with your height."

Vassar nodded with a grin. "You are very perceptive, Sis."

Vester said. "The Limestone County School Board of Education has denied our request for a formal high school diploma on a piece of colored paper with the set of sky blue ribbons."

I shook my curls. "You have a good paying job, without the good paying college education. Go to work and to college like other kids. I know lots of kids that have to work to earn money for college, before they can take one single academic class."

Vassar nodded. "We concur with your brilliant suggestion."

I frowned. "What's the problem?"

Vester frowned. "Our mother, mostly, she demands the traditional colored diploma to mount on the living room wall. I find the display both tacky and useless, since we both will accomplish much, much more over a given period time of ten years. Our daddy wants us to play football instead of work a paying job. Our mother has taken away our car, since the car is owned by our father. And our mother has ordered our father to cancel the driving car insurance, meaning we're trapped here at home without transportation. We will be walking to Brier for class time or riding with our mother to school, next week."

Vassar said. "And our father is mad that we are not a tax write off anymore, unlike you."

I nodded with a frown. "Yeah, I get the mad feelings on my return visitation, short and painful."

Vassar said. "Our mother is the dictator and our father is the enforcer."

I nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, I get that feeling, too," smiling. "What do you want to do? Because, I do not give a piece of warm horse crap about what our mother dear desires outside of her black heart."

Vester smiled. "We want to work immediately at full time status at the NSI. We have a pretty reliable transport to work, since Vassar and I have pooled our money resources with your kindly donations. The vehicle looks and smells like cow shit but runs like a race car, after we have slightly modified some metal and rubber," chuckling.

I nodded with a grin. "I'll buy the car from our daddy, putting it in my name while removing his name on any and all risk liability. He will be happy and our mother will be happier with my money too."

Vassar smiled. "And we both have a flexible schedule of full time plus overtime productive hours for working our jobs. And we both are going to start Burn U in the month of March."

I frowned. "How can you start college in the month of March? That's in the middle of the semester between January and May even I'm stuck in law school classes until the end of May before I graduate."

Vester smiled. "Burn U has a separately approved work-ship program, especially with one of the biggest employers NSI in the state of Alabama, first. Second, we both will be attending a maximum of academic and scientific classes, since Brier High School has inadequately prepared us for advancement placement classes in the subjects of science and mathematics. Therefore, we both are required to be present inside an academic classroom..."

"...and debating with the college professors about quantum mechanics," smiled Vassar.

I smirked. "Be nice, Vassar. But how can both of you go to school inside a classroom way down in Birmingham plus work on a job located up here in Huntsville. That's humanly impossible unless you really are a heavenly angel. By the way, I think both of you are earth' angels, guiding and helping me, too."

Vester grinned. "Nadean, you will be a wonderful mother, one day."

Vassar stood on his kneecaps, leaning and hugging on Nadean and pulled back with a smile and a nod. "I feel that you will have a son like me, one day."

I smiled at both my brothers, whom I lovingly cared about more than my parents and my mean sister. "I truly hope I have a little boy. And he grows up to be just like you Vassar, a loving, honest smartass."

Vassar smiled with a nod, "Thanks, Sis."

Vester lifted and pointed at his temple with a smile and a nod. "We work with our minds, not pushing a number two pencil over a piece of paper. We have computers like a machine robot to compute the mathematical formulas from our minds. Work smarter, not harder, Nadean."

I smiled with a nod and a soft clap, "Gotta remember that one. Okay, you both got jobs. You both share a car. You both got school. And you both got a new home. You come and live with me while attending Burn U."

Vassar shook his skull, "Naw."

I smiled with a nod, "Yep."

Vester smiled with a nod. "Yes."

Vassar turned and sneered at his brother. "Naw, Vester. We can live here with a free bed, a stove of free food, and freely not disturb our biological parents, since we will be away from them twenty out of twenty-four hours, working, studying in-between our normal sleeping rituals."

Vester smirked. "Naw, Vassar. We should live with Nadean which will be nice and isolated from our biological parents."

I smiled. "I got that feeling, too."

Vassar turned and smiled to his sister. "I like."

I smiled with a nod and a soft clap. "I love. And you both need a high school diploma to please our lousy selfish parents. That should be easy peasy for a lawyer to solve."

Vester frowned. "You are only in law school, second year. You are not a real lawyer, Nadean."

I smiled. "I know lots of real lawyers. I do declare one of my law professors will enjoy fighting this child abuse. He's big into bruised and abused legal cases. The Limestone County School Board of Education is abusing your gray matter, brains, neurons, no, your intellect."

Vester nodded with a grin, "Excellent defense strategy, Nadean."

I grinned. "That's just the conceptual idea of a non-lawyer. I'll go back to school, talking with my law professor, since I work independently for him as a translator too. I translate his legal documents from English into Spanish and French, using and abusing my foreign brain matter. I'll inquire how to defend your cute asses against the Board of Education, using an abuse claim."

Vassar frowned. "You will be bringing trouble to us with the un-educated and suspicious biological parents."

Vester shook his curls of long red locks, growing over his collar bone. "Tell us more, Nadean!"

I exhaled with a puff of nervousness. "My law professor will be the real attorney here. I will be like the..."

"The assistance coach," Vester smiled.

I nodded. "Correct, Vester. I don't get to call the play or the glory of the game. But I get to do all the shop talk inside the courtroom."

Vassar frowned. "I do know that a licensed lawyer requires money, lots of money for their personal law services for any poor or rich folks."

I nodded with a grin. "I'm free as a student and your sister. In the field of law, the client usually pays the attorney. I'll negotiate with Dr. Hople while providing his legal service for free too."

Vester narrowed his eyelids. "Nothing is free in this world, Nadean."

I nodded with a grin. "I know that. But I'm learning to be a good lawyer and the experience will be beyond the classroom setting of value for me getting a future job. And Dr. Hople is an elderly law professor, doing this partly for fun and partly for teaching. He had served his time in a courtroom, during his early young adult and middle aged years. And I'll offer to translate the future foreign language legal documents for free for a couple of months. That should cover all and any courtroom fees and legal expenses for Dr. Hople's time.

"He's always interested in a challenge in the legal courtroom battle. And you, dear brothers have been denied a proper high school diploma which will be a very good challenge for Dr. Hople. He'll win. And we'll win too."

Vassar turned and laughed to his brother, "And if not, Vester and I play university football at Burn U. Maybe next year, we will help them break that ugly bad luck losing streak for the past three years being denied another University National Championship football title."

Vester raised both his arms with a sour frown and a laugh, "Ah, naw."

Tuesday February 14th

11:11 a.m.

City of Athens

(12 miles, northeast, from Brier)

City Hall location

Courtroom setting of Nadean and Dr. Hople

Cold temperatures of wintertime with bright sunshine

I stood upright in front of the wooden table and fidgeted inside a black colored designer business suit which had been donated by my Aunt Collie who lived in the US State of Florida. She always sent her hand-me-down expensive clothes and shoes, since we were the same height and weight, which I greatly appreciated but never used.

Inside the City Hall on the first floor, the courtroom displayed a square-shaped room made of solid oak wood that looked really dull and unpolished, smelling like bacon grease and cigar smoke.

I was the first chair which was the principal lawyer on my legal team. Vester sat in second chair. Vassar sat next to him with my law professor Dr. Hople at the end of the long table.

Dr. Hople leaned into his hard wooden chair and worn a tan colored business suit with a yellow colored necktie while watching and listening while occasionally passed a hand printed note down to Nadean.

I was nervous and excited.

A squat, fierce-looking, pale colored, slightly bald, older Buford sat in a single chair at the defense table, wearing a gray colored business suit, saying with a smile and a nod to the magistrate. "I am counsel for the Limestone County School Board of Education, Buford Howlett of the Dandy Law Firm based in Athens, Alabama. We have served as legal representations within legal matters for hundreds of teachers and students throughout the great US State of Alabama."

The magistrate was a judge of minor civil matters which do not involve a criminal action and was assigned in a geographical district over a county or two, wearing a black satin robe over his red shirt and pair of dark blue trousers. The male displayed a head of brown colored hair with silver strands, a tone of dark skin, and a pair of blue eyes.

I smiled with a nod. "I am Nadean Garland, the attorney for young masters Vester Orion and Vassar Orion Garland."

The magistrate looked at both lawyers with a stern face and a nod, sitting behind a long naked wooden with a sign of his name. "This is a hearing of determination and it is not an official court of law in a courtroom for prosecution and sentencing of a violent crime. I will hear both sides of the debate. Then I will decide the outcome. The plaintiff will start then each lawyer gets to debate their legal points to me, kinda like a debating forum. At the end, when you both stop talking. I will decide. Is this understood by all parties in attendance?" He paused. "The plaintiff's lawyer may begin."

I nodded with a stern face. "I am present here in this courtroom to encourage other victims of high intelligence life forms to come forward and to help determine how extensive this issue is and fight for your right to be smart..."

Buford laughed with a smile. "Smart ass, kid, this is a kiddie kangaroo court. Miss Garland is not a licensed attorney for the State of Alabama."

I turned with a smile and a nod and pointed at Dr. Hople. "Correct, I am under the supervision of a licensed attorney for the State of Alabama while working on a lawyer degree at Law School of Birmingham University."

The magistrate read the file. "The lawsuit filed on fourteen of January alleges that Brier High School is interfering with advancement of intelligent life forms. The lawsuit alleges that the School will not release within the hands of the Garland boys the Limestone County School Board of Education High School academic requirements. The lawsuit alleges that the School can only issue a valid and accredited high school diploma, while the students are in good attendance for any type of academic credit that will not be false and invalid. The aim of the lawsuit to help other academic gifted students, who are victims of unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices committed by public institution owned by the state of Alabama."

Buford stood with a sneer and rapped a folded fist on the table. "Bull shit."

The magistrate looked up with a smile and a nod to Buford. "I prefer saying horse turd, Buford. Sit your ass down in that chair! You will have your say coming up next. I would like to hear the plaintiff's attorney now."

I exhaled with a puff of excitement and nervousness. "My twin brothers have filed a lawsuit against the Limestone County School Board of Education alleging abuse of intelligence life forms..."

Buford turned with a confused brow to see the nose profile of Nadean. "What in the heaven's name are you doing, kid? How is this possible for a second year law student to appear in a true court hearing along with defending a bunch of high school students?"

I smiled with a nod to the magistrate. "I have filed a legal lawsuit for abuse without recognizing a set of highly intelligence life forms. This particular unique legal law case does not specifically fit into the category of abuse of power or abuse of process or abuse of emotional stress. So I have lumped all of the together for my law defense."

The magistrate chuckled with a nod, "Clever strategy, Miss Future Attorney of Law in Bama."

I sit down in the chair with a stern face like a lawyer. "My twin brothers possess an IQ measurement of 180..."

Buford turned with a sour frown and jabbed a finger at Vester and Vassar. "They are two fine boys out of nine million US adults, who don't possess a high school diploma and are therefore blocked from any type of college enrollment and many employment opportunities. However, there is only one way to test out of high school and it is through the General Educational Development which is called the GED program. The American Council on Education administrates the test. You have to sit at a table in a hard chair in front of a proctor or a test and pass all five components of the test. The GED is recognized by every US State Education Department in the continuant USA, the Federal Department of Education, and more importantly both colleges and employers accept this piece of paper," he lifted and held an object with a smile. "And they have successfully passed the GED on January thirteenth, the date of their official birth at age eighteen years old. These two papers are the GED certificates of Vester and Vassar Garland proof that they passed..."

"...with flying colors. And my twin brothers aced the SAT, the ACT, and the standardized test of geniuses." I said with a stern face.

Buford smiled. "The GED will get them a job. It is not a fraudulent credential. It is worth the paper it is printed on as the axiom goes..."

"...on and on and on like a broken record," I said with a stern face. "And they face the embarrassment of a class reunion in ten years, in fifteen years, and in fifty years, since the GED only states the institution of testing, not their home town school. And they face the frame of a non-colorful ugly green and white sheet of paper on their living room wall, their business office wall or in their mama's den wall too."

Buford frowned. "Magistrate, sir, I conclude that the twin brothers are not victimized by a scan of red and black tape of local county government bureaucracy. The twins have elected to leave their high school environment for a working job at the legal age of eighteen. A noble cause but worthless adventure here in this courtroom, sir. Please dismiss us."

I said with a stern face. "The original GED test was first administrated in the year 1942 during World War Two and was designed to get all the numerous veteran soldiers who had been ripped from their childhood quickly back into a high school atmosphere. Then the devoted men and women could trot on a pathway toward a college or a technical career. Since the year 1942, twelve million people have been granted GED credentials which is the source of the US Federal Department of Education. I know all about the GED program too. And I know about a high school diploma also.

"And I know all about walking down the gymnasium on top of a polished honey colored wooden floor to receive my single sheet of paper, a high school diploma with the colored flags of Bama, a red stamp, my name, and my school."

Buford chuckled. "Imposters abound in the academic world of intelligence life forms, too. And the lowly intelligence life forms are duped into believing this hog wash, today. Well, I don't. Please dismiss this hearing, sir."

I said with a stern face. "The Limestone County Board of Education has denied my twin brothers a set of twin high school diplomas, if they decide to leave their high school in pursue of a dream job at National Space Institution as two scientific engineering intern students..."

Buford laughed. "I don't know how many victims of intelligence life forms have occurred nationwide in our great USA being a unique but clever argument, Miss Garland. But I will be most certain to file a complaint with the state attorney's Alabama office and the Limestone County's attorney's office, starting tomorrow. How's that one, Miss Garland? We can even assign it a committee within the Alabama congress when they come back on session next week."

I lifted and held an object with a stern face. "I present Exhibit A to the court of law. The two pieces of papers are the IQ tests which were administrated by Brier High School for entrance into the Brier gifted program. I hold Exhibit B also. The federal money invoice of Brier High School received for the federal funded gifted program, including my twin brothers and a couple of other highly intellect life forms."

Buford shook his skull. "Sir, Brier High School is not hiding dirty politics about internal disputes, kangaroo disciplinary procedures, discrimination of life forms, altering student academic tests, destroying legal documents, or spying on the private parts of teens inside the school's bathrooms. I again ask this court to dismiss this silly kiddie legal case."

I lifted and held another object with a stern face. "Brier High School is opposing the award of a high school diploma, simply because these boys are minors in their parents' home. They do not have a proper means to support their persons without the benefit of a working job. My twin brothers need a high school diploma with the utmost sense of urgency without making them a victim of a set of highly intelligence life forms. My twin brothers do not shun hard work either. I present Exhibit C. This is a photocopy of their individual high school transcripts from the first grade until present. They are currently in the twelfth grade at Brier High School.

I looked down and read out the wording of the paper. "The first grade comment from Mrs. White for the Garlands twins at the age of six years old states that the boys can read in full sentences at the third grade level and perform math problems at the fourth grade level. I have advised Principal Holden of the intelligence growth potential of the two young minds and recommended one of our high school guidance counsels instruct each boy, each day while inside my classroom. The Brier high school guidance counsel was a retired colonel from the Army military service, holding a doctoral in physics.

"The first grade report card displays a set of 'A' pluses in every course and in every column. This is Exhibit D. The Brier report card from the eleventh grade shows the letter grades 'A' pluses in every course, in every column."

Buford lifted his palm with a sour frown. "I object."

The magistrate turned and smiled at Buford. "And I object to wasting my time right before lunch. We're having meatloaf with raisins. Give them brilliant boys their high school diplomas with the pretty blue ribbons." He turned and nodded to Nadean. "We, here at the Limestone County School Board of Education, greatly support and encourage the bright and brave young men and women in pursue of education and happiness and not detour young kids with a de horse turd of antiquity like Buford. Have a nice day, ya'll. My courtroom is dismissed." He stood from the table, turning with a smile, leaving the room through a side door.

Buford stood and slammed his chair into the wooden table, moving and leaving the room too.

Dr. Hople stood and moved to Nadean, extending a handshake as she stood and shook his hand with a smile and a nod. He smiled with a nod. "You did a fine job, future attorney Nadean Garland. And you won your legal law case with a set of flying colors also. I will see you in your academic class next week. Congratulations, young men. Now, make your sister proud, sirs!" He shifted and extended a handshake to Vester and Vassar also as they shook hands. Then he turned and moved out the courtroom.

I turned with a smile and a soft clap to see my twin brothers.

Vester and Vassar stood and moved, hugging on Nadean. They pulled back with a set of smile. Vester grinned. "This is the best Valentine's Day present ever in the USA history, sis. What do you say that we take our girl out for a Valentine's dinner tonight, Vassar?"

Vassar nodded with a smile, "Our treat, Sis."

I smiled with a nod, "Whoo-woo! I got myself two dates on Valentine's Day."

Friday April 21st

02:12 p.m.

Birmingham University Law School

Picnic table setting of college student Nadean

Warm temperatures and partly sunny

I sat outside within the warm pretty day at one of the naked dark colored wooden picnic tables on top of the slightly yellow and greened tinted manicured grass at the college campus with a tall, slender, blonde-haired Rosalina, who wore a peach colored sundress, a matching pair of sandals, and a matching large hand bag.

In front of the red brick covered Student Building that held the indoor cafeteria of smelly food and an entertainment room with walls of video machines and loud rock and roll music for fun without worry or worrying about your academic class.

Each academic building on the campus was spread over one mile of manicured green grass north towards south and two miles of manicured green grass with pods of short green colored trees west to the east that appeared exactly alike as a tall and wide squared-shaped figure that was covered in rows of smooth red based brick material with tiny speckles of gold and green. The brick was so special that the university had patented the ingredients in the brick mixture for some reason.

If you didn't read or couldn't read the building sign, then you never could attend your class. That was the only method of distinguishing each building during your first academic year.

I wore a red colored sundress and a pair of white sandals, turning with a sour frown to see them. Rosalina turned with a smile to see them too. I exhaled with a puff of disappointment at them standing across the road on the Burn U campus. He was tall and muscular with a head of blonde hair, wearing a pair of jeans, a pale blue shirt, and a pair of boots. She was short with a head of red hair, wearing a white dress. I frowned. "I wonder if Teague sees us across the street here at the table, eating our lunch meal. What does he see in her? She's short. She's smoke cigarettes. She's fat. She's ugly in white."

"Tomcat doesn't see above her 34-double D's," Rosalina ate her food.

"Her big ass 34 double D tits, now, someone tells me." I returned back and looked down at my breasts with a sour frown. "I don't possess double D's or double C's or double B's. I guess I am a double AA. Is that small or tiny or nothing there? So, that's my problem," I looked up with a smirk to see Rosalina. "When did you start calling Teague, Tomcat?"

She returned back to see Nadean and chewed, swallowing with a grin. "Bear says it all the time. I guess I picked it up."

I played with my food and a smirk. "And where is Bear, when he says Teague's nickname all the time, Rosalina?"

She looked down with a blush and viewed her food plate, looking up with a smile to see Nadean. "We went to the same junior college together before transferring to Burn U. He played football. I twirled the baton."

"And I twirled the baton with you, before I entered law school. That's old news. Gimme some newer news. Or when do you have time to get with Bear while he talks about Teague?"

She smiled. "You're famous, Nadean. The method you used to achieve and acquire your twin brothers their individual high school diploma in front of a real live magistrate and filing a lawsuit against the entire Limestone County School Board of Education. That took guts, girl. We study your slick lawyering skill in Professor Hople's lecture class."

"Mixture of gravel and horse shit really. I didn't do much but remind the school board that my brothers did graduate a county public school just a tad early than the official ending of the academic school year. The Alabama law dictated the legal ruling in my favor."

"They live with you still."

I smiled with a nod. "My blood-family comes first; the shotgun comes second. I didn't think you were the type to keep in touch with the Brier patch thorny gossip, Rosalina."

"Bear, mostly, he enjoys visiting his mom and is homesick for Brier," exhaling. "He will be moving back after graduating from the Birmingham University School of Law."

I shook my curls with a sad face, "Ah, shit, I feel a heartache coming on. And you will be moving too where after graduating from Burn U law school."

She smiled. "Miami, Florida, my uncle moved there for both the weather and the work. He's a plastic surgeon."

I grinned. "Gawd! Can your Uncle Dickie get me some breast implants?"

She shook her curls. "No, Nadean! Those things are extremely dangerous. He has lost three patients from that experimental medical procedure."

I frowned. "He still works as a physician."

"Miamians are vane with money and beauty. I'll going to help run his medical practice. He doesn't trust the accountants or lawyers."

"Good plan. What about your love life?"

She exhaled. "I'll survive like always."

I turned with a sour frown to see Teague and Zeeta and then Rosalina. "Why didn't you come with me to Burn U after high school? You could've shared the townhouse with me and Cherry, met some of Cherry's reject rednecks. And believe me? There were a lot of them until her dad jerked her ass from Burn U, leaving me sweetly alone in blissful peace."

"Seeing all you made me think of...." she looked down with a sad face at the food.

I frowned. "I'm so sorry hearing about your mom and your sister. I guess that's why you wanted me to go to homecoming football game."

She nodded. "Thank you." Rosalina looked up with a stern face. "Yeah, it was very hard to face everyone in Brier, the old memories."

I grinned. "Everybody asked about you."

She shook her curls. "Everyone did not ask about me. That's okay with me. I was really shy and awkward in high school. I like coming to college. Everything is fresh and different. And I wanna thank you, Nadean. I consider you my best friend in school. I really appreciated everything you did for me back there."

"Just being a friend."

"A good friend," She smiled with a nod.

I turned with a puzzled brow to see Teague and Zeeta. "I wonder if Teague knows my classes are across the street from his building."

She giggled. "No. Do you spy on Tomcat, every day, Nadean?"

I turned with a giggle and a grin to see Rosalina. "Only with you..."

She smiled. "Zeeta works daily, nightly, and weekends when the boss lady calls while saving her nickels and dimes for their honeymoon to Jamaica and big wedding at the church. Are you planning to attend the grand social affair of Brier, Duchess?"

I parted my lips, "Amazing! How secret information flows one way?"

She grinned. "How many times do you talk with Dorcee?"

"Zero! Life sucks for everyone and is about suck more for Dorcee. She's a true whore like my mama," I cringed with a sad face. "Sorry! I don't mean to insult your memory."

She shook her curls. "My memory can't be insulted. I can change. I couldn't change her. I loved her, since she was my mother. But I have moved on with help and love of Uncle Dickie."

"You don't call him, daddy, or some fatherly version?"

"Uncle Dickie loves me like a daughter. I love him like a father-figure, but he wasn't there each day in my life like a true father. With his wisdom and his guidance, I'm decided to become a lawyer to help folks and not a physician."

"I'm moving far away from here too after graduating from law school to become a real lawyer."

"What about the baby?"

"I am moving far away from the baby."

"Is the baby a boy or a girl?"

I laughed. "Don't give a damn, Scarlett."

"Are your parents happy?"

"They just pretend for Dorcee's sake, making two more mouths to feed. Ah, I can read your mind..."

"Apparently not, slick! Since, I gotta ask my query one at a time. Just tell me everything at one. Before, I shoot you with my thickly loaded ketchup French fry, while I eat my cold hamburger. Since, you possess the wonderful ability to suck down food and talk at the same time, Nadean."

I exhaled with a puff of annoyance. "Okay. Here goes. Dorcee, she quit the majorette squad after the first football game."

"Naw."

"Yeah, of course, she did. At the time, she told my parents that the band majorette sponsor won't break the rule for the makeup wearing and the fingernail polish shine. But the truth is told now. She was about four weeks preg...nancy with the child and the child was causing great waves of puke green vomit..."

"Not while consuming my food, Nadean."

"I thought you were the physician-in-training. Sorry. I forgot. Dorcee experienced bad morning sickness until New Year's which I guess proved she was definitely preg...nancy. She skipped lots of school and get bad grades, but that act wasn't abnormal for her. But when she went from a size one pair of blue jeans up to a size five in the month of March at six months of baby, everyone got kitty-cat curious."

She frowned. "I hate that expression."

"What expression, preg...nancy? My mama asked me that specific question every time that I visited her home during my college days. And the answer was always the same. Naw. I'd hate it too, if I had to get marry by shotgun underneath the two-hundred-year old oak tree at sunset," giggling.

"No, wing ding! Kitty-cat curious expression."

"It's a cool expression like right on, yeah, hell, hell, naw."

Rosalina cheered with a giggle, "Burn U."

I nodded with a smile. "Dorcee is graduating on May twenty second and the baby is due on May twenty sixth."

"Who's the father?"

"Lance Morris."

"She is married to Lance Morris."

I grinned with a nod. "He always wanted a Garland."

She smiled, "Heard tell! Your mom had arranged for you to be the right Garland about five years ago."

I parted my lips. "Do tell!"

"Bear is fountain of old knowledge. He heard a rumor from his mom, who heard from Lark's mom, who heard from Zeeta's mom, who heard from Dorcee."

"I hate that girl." I sneered.

"Don't be that way. She's your only sister. My sister was meaner than a rattlesnake too. But I wished that I had gotten the chance to help her first. Now that's all gone. Where are they living?"

"They wed, honeymooned, and fucked inside the big old antebellum house, taking up the second floor which used to belong to me and my brothers. My parents live downstairs. My dad closed up the hallway between the living room and par-lawd room. Who uses a par-lawd now days? They didn't. That old room smelled before, during, and after the shotgun wedding of eight minutes, thirty-two seconds. And yes, darling, I timed it and then I was outta there."

She dropped her mouth. "Do you time it?"

I smiled. "The purple carnations were making me nausea along with the purple rental tuxedos and the purple cake icing. Dorcee loves her purple. I like pink. My wedding..."

"...to Teague."

I turned with a sour frown to see Teague and Zeeta and Rosalina. "Now, I really want him, desire him, and need him. But my wedding color will be pink. Hey! What do you think? If I ran over and kissed Teague on the cheekbone to piss Zita off..."

"No."

"....to have some fun?"

"No."

"....to have a laugh?"

No."

"...to have some revenge?"

Rosalina frowned. "No, Nadean. Your two brothers are both working and studying at Burn U, too."

I returned with a smile and a nod to Rosalina. "My twin brothers are having a blast at making their academic smart ass instructors crazy, since they got tons of free money scholarships while doing a long-term student internship for the NSI. They're sending space ships into outer space for some dang reason. They'll graduate in another year with me, while I finish up my law degree. Yeehaw," I ate the food, chewing.

"The big letters begin with 'N' and end with 'I.' No surprise there. They're smart..."

"...funny loving and the happiest two critters of planet Earth."

"Heard tell! They lived and slept in the same room in Brier."

"Heard tell, right! Are your earlobes burning, Rosalina?"

She frowned. "That's kinda weird, Nadean."

"My twin brothers have been weird from the get-go, when they both started reading my first grader reader at age four. Okay?"

"That's French fried freaky weird."

I exhaled with a puff of weirdness. "They are both geniuses like Einstein and like their privacy. And I respect that. And I love them from whatever alien mother fucking space ship dropped them down from their native foreign planet, which clearly ain't planet Earth at our doorstep as tiny pinky-pink babes. Even thou, our mother swears to Almighty God, Brother Jesus, and all her heavenly angels that she had delivered them. Vester and Vassar got me out of her antebellum house permanently. Or I would be having Lance Morris' baby instead."

"Cherry Hill!"

I giggled with a nod. "Well, ain't that a blast from our Brier past? I don't fucking know. Do you hear gossip or rumors?"

"I eat, shit, and breathe law for the past year. Your turn!"

"Don't remind me. The first year is the hardest. It's easy breezy now."

"That's good to know. You look skinny, Nadean. Are you eating?"

"Just tired!"

"I worry about you, Nadean. Heard tell! Your parents kicked you out the house and out of Brier, to boot."

I parted my lips. "Gawd! Bear's information is very good. My mother was pissed. One, I didn't marry Lance Morris. And two, I didn't fail in college. And three, her genius boys wanted to leave their home. Our dad was mad that his sons were not playing football for the great Burn U or Bam U or another redneck school in the South. My twin brothers are truly geniuses, avoiding that bloody mess."

"I'm rich, Nadean. My uncle set up a trust fund in my name a long time, before I graduated from high school. If you ever need anything..."

"Thanks. You're sweet, Rosalina. We are doing fine."

"I understand living without certain household items, Nadean. You are my friend from little Brier. We have known each other, since six years old. You helped changed my life."

"Your uncle is paying for your post graduate education. Your education changed you."

Rosalina said. "I meant that my uncle watched over me. But sometimes, an outsider can provide that extra kick of confidence. Nadean, you encouraged me to be a majorette. Then I gained confidence and my class elected me as homecoming queen. My uncle, he couldn't do those things for me." She looked down with a sad face at her food and Nadean. "I'm not trying to embarrass you or me. I just understand when money is tight. Okay?"

I nodded with a grin. "Okay."

"Why did you attend Dorcee's wedding?"

"Saving my mom's butthole, gossip would be flying faster than a pair of wing on a June bugs, if me, Vester, and Vassar were not present at the hottest social event of the year."

She giggled. "Yeah, it did."

I frowned. "And my monthly expenses are nothing. My beauty pageant money covers both my tuition and my books. My grandfather Sloan still pays for the townhouse and the heating utilities. I have a meal ticket for free food at the cafeteria. And I work as a model for beer money."

She giggled. "You don't drink beer, Nadean. I do see your face inside the newspaper. Do you get to keep all these pretty formal evening gowns?"

"Part of my payment, the dress is soiled with my sweat underneath the hot lights. And then, I'm a foreign translator for the International Studies Department at Burn U while working on my doctoral degree in physics."

"How did you graduate with a bachelor's degree so fast? I didn't think you were a genius like your twin brothers."

I giggled. "I'm not. My beauty monies like the school or the school likes my beauty monies. I doubled my course load and the school doubled my tuition for the free money. And I started the summer session in the month of June while Teague was at football practice too. And you were at majorette camp. I finished my bachelor's degree in three years then started on my master's degree in one year at the same time in law school. Now, I'm wrapping up my doctoral."

"Then what, Nadean?"

I turned with a smile to see Teague and Zeeta. "Do you think Teague would notice me, if I was Dr. Garland?"

She giggled. "You wait ten years later to figure out that you wanna fuck him with the baby on the way."

I turned with a gasp and parted my lips. "Zi-ta is preg...nancy?"

She frowned. "When are you going to stop sliming her Christian name?"

I giggled. "When Teague stops calling me, Duchess."

"Tomcat and Kitten are getting hitched after he graduates pharmacy school and passes his pharmacy license."

"Hmm! Maybe, he'll fail his test, then I can have Zita's reject then."

She shook her curls. "Doubt it. Teague really is smart. Who knew? I always that the cowboy a bit on the dumb side. He started out smart, then once he started dating Zeeta, his brain cells went south."

"These sex acts do that to your brain cells."

She giggled. "Don't know, babe. I ain't been fucked yet."

I smiled with a nod. "Join my virgin world. Maybe, we should get fucked then."

"No, sugar, we get graduated, then get married, and then get fucked."

I giggled, "Smart ass."

Rosalina winked with a grin. "Yeah, I am."
Present day and place

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

01:41 p.m.

Hidden underground cave setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"O Teague..." I whisper and feel the burn on a right wrist, relaxing my body as my mind remembers another past life experience as a young adult.

Twenty-five years old daughter Nadean

City of Birmingham

Tuesday January 7th

02:02 p.m.

Shared townhouse of college students Nadean, Vester, and Vassar

(One mile, west, from Burn U campus)

Living room setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime and bright sunlight

The black tinted front door opened.

Vester stood in the middle of the wooden living room floor, wearing a silver tinted Burn U set of sweats with a pair of bare feet, holding an object near his sad frown.

I stomped inside our townhouse with a smile and a nod, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a long-sleeved Burn U tee shirt, and a pair of pale blue and pink colored cowgirl boots underneath the silver tinted fox fur coat, staring at a vanilla colored sealed envelope that contained a hidden letter. "What is it?"

Pink-skinned, tall, shoulder length red haired Vester said with a worried brow and a serious tone. "The owner of the townhouse has listed their which is this real estate property for sale with any future buyer, Nadean. A 'for sale' sign will be placed in the front yard tomorrow morning at eight o'clock."

"What the fuck!" I stopped in front of my two brothers and snatched the sealed envelope, ripping it open, reading out loud with a sour frown the vanilla colored letter. "Any damages sustained during the rental period will be assessed and then subtracted from one time received security deposit of six hundred dollars. Any outstanding financial assessment money will be billed and charged to Percy David Sloan..." I looked up with a gasp and worried brow to see Vester, "Granddaddy Sloan, he can't pay out more money for this dump. Gawd! He's ill with a bad heart now. This bad news will kill him for damn shore."

Pink-skinned, tall, shoulder length red haired twin brother Vassar wore a black colored Burn U set of sweat suit and a pair of bare feet turning to scan the interior wall of dull yellow paint and ratty furniture pieces inside the shared townhouse with a worried brow. "What are we going to do, Nadean? How long will it take to sell this ugly tiny townhouse?"

Vester said with a stern face. "It is a piece of prime real estate which is very close to Burn U. Lots of parents would jump at this hot spot for their academic student. That was the particularly reason almost six years ago why Granddaddy Sloan secured this place. He has been very lucky that Mrs. Crumb has not raised the rental lease payment or sold the place before now."

I viewed the letter and then looked up to see Vester with a nod. "This letter is signed only by Mrs. Crumb. I suspect that Mr. Crumb's dead. Therefore, the bitch wants to release her burden of a shitty dump. She, as the new bitch-landlord, has done nothing to update or repair any features on her townhouse. When Cherry and I moved into the place, it was freshly painted. The appliances were new and shiny. Lucky for us, the flooring is wood. Wood needs to be spit polished like a good worn pair of leather boots at least once per year. And I can't estimate the damages in terms of a money value."

"We have." Vester looked down to read a sheet of paper. "Painting at three hundred dollars; wood polishing at five hundred dollars, and the wall repairing at one thousand dollars."

I exhaled with a puff of worry. "That's about two thousand dollars or a little more. Since, folks love money, especially from a group of poor unemployed academic students."

"We ain't unemployed students. We are working students." Vassar had worked a job at eighteen years old. At the age of twenty-one years old, he will be close to receiving a bachelor's degree in engineering.

Vester said with a stern face. "We might be able to buy the townhouse from Mrs. Crumb."

I shook my curls. "Not with a price tag of sixty thousand dollars."

Vester turned and frowned to Vassar. "The only viable plan is to surrender the townhouse and move back to them."

Vassar shook his red colored shoulder length curls. The two brothers had allowed the hair roots to grow out and down over each collar bone, because Nadean, Vassar, and Vester barely made enough money for food, water, electricity, and gasoline for each vehicle. He said with stern face, "Ah, naw."

I said with a stern face. "Dorcee and her munchkins occupy every room inside our dad's house. She has. What, six kids?"

Vassar smiled, "Five sweet little girls."

I frowned, "Sweet, my fucking ass! Dorcee has never been sweet to my fucking ass."

Vester said with a worried brow and a serious tone. "Nadean, we have no option. We can't purchase the townhouse. And we can't abandon our college educations either. We'll graduate in the month of May with an engineering degree. Then we'll receive a big hefty raise at NSI. But right now, we don't have ready cash of sixty thousand dollars."

I looked down with a stern face to finish reading the letter. "Any outstanding financial assessment money will be billed and charged to Percy David Sloan at five thousand dollars for the estimated payment of phantom damages per this damn letter," I looked up with a sour frown to see Vester. "Who the hell tattled?"

Vester and Vassar said in unison with a sneer, "Cherry."

I exhaled with a puff of revenge and a nod, "Yeah, another bitch in my short term life. Damn, I'm tired of bitches purring my engines."

Vester said with a nod and a stern face. "Vester and I have a very small tiny savings account. We can pull and withdraw our monies to pay the need repair costs to Mrs. Crumb. Granddaddy Sloan doesn't have the money for that either. Then that debt of five thousand dollars will be paid."

Vassar turned and frowned to his brother and his sister. "Where will we live, Vester? The two thousand dollars is almost all our saved funding. Do you have any extra monies, Nadean?"

I looked up with a smile and a nod to my brothers. "Some. That I would willingly share with both of you without delay. Fuck, our mother. If she wasn't such a nasty cunt, then we all could live inside our dad's fancy antebellum mansion like a real loving and caring blood-family. Shit. Heard tell! Our dad got that shitty place on the US historical civil war society book. That means our dad pays nothing in real estate county property taxes to the State of Alabama. And I talked to the Limestone County courthouse clerk and filled out the US federal government paperwork and the application for that prestigious honor. Did our dad thank me? Naw! Did our mom thank me? Naw!"

Vester frowned. "This isn't the issue, Nadean."

I inhaled with a fury of more words. "And our dad receives free money in terms of an annual grant from the US federal government too, when our mother opens the par-lawd room for four weekends out of a fucking year for a civil war showcase. Of course, no smart Brier would parade around on our mom's stark white carpeted floor. Did you see her white carpet at Christmas time? No one's allowed inside that room for the other 364 days in the week."

Vester frowned, "Nadean."

I moved ahead and touched the object with a smile and a nod. "Okay, I'm older and wiser sibling here. We start selling stuff that's not attached to the walls like this here television."

Vassar frowned. "Is that ours?"

"Yeah," I scanned the room with a nod and a smile. "I...we own all the furniture and electronics. I had purchased them over time. The television in my room belongs to Cherry. But, she forfeited it, when she abandoned her college education for fucking over her biological dad. He was highly pissed about her failing grades and falling boys. He jerked her ass out of Burn U with my dizzy head. So, we sell the televisions, the stereo, and the telephones." I grabbed and touched the pink tinted old fashion telephone landline with a smile and a nod. "And I'm cancelling the telephone service too. I really don't wanna talk to our mother anyways," I laughed with my brothers.

Vassar frowned. "I really don't enjoy her terse conversations either. How are you going to explain the immediate termination of communication services?"

I smiled. "That's the beauty, I never do. Heaven forbid that our mother and our dad ever visit us here in Birmingham. They never came to a college football game to see me twirl the baton and I provided a couple of free football tickets for them."

Vester smiled. "We can ask around our work place and see if anyone wants to purchase some or all of the electronic items first. We might get a better deal than advertising to another poor college student."

I nodded with a smile, "Brilliant idea, my brilliant brother! And I'll run around to all the consignment shops around B'ham and sale my line of designer clothes from Aunt Collie and my almost brand new former gowns. I might get several hundred dollars to cover our monthly expenses."

"What exactly are the monthly expenses, Nadean?" Vester frowned.

I moved and marched to the side table with a hidden drawer and sit at the chair, reading and flipping through all the stored paper invoices. "We, now, are responsible for paying the rent, electricity utility bill, the water bill, the telephone service. But, that last one is being cancelled as soon as I call them. Then you can take the pretty pink telephone to your work office tomorrow. Water," I turned and laughed to Vassar. "No more bathing from here on out on our stinky ass bodies," I viewed the invoice with a worried brow. "Okay, the total invoices are about seven hundred dollars-per-month."

Vassar said with a stern face. "The petro gasoline invoice is fifty dollars per month for each car. Both cars are due for an oil change and a tire rotation. But under our new circumstances, we shall delay."

I nodded with a smile, "Yeah, as long as, the car go-goes, we're fine."

Vester said with a stern face and a serious tone. "The grand total is about eight hundred dollars for the remaining months of February until May. Four times eight hundred equal 2,400 dollars. Our saving accounts each have one thousand dollars. There is almost all the money for the next four months to live and survive."

"Woo! That was too close," Vassar smiled with a nod. "The month of January is paid by our loving grandfather. So, we are fine until the month of May and then we will graduate."

"Okay." I nodded with a stern face to my two brothers. "We do not touch the saving account money. We might need it for some type of urgent emergency. That's our backup plan. We plan before we spend," I turned and viewed the January invoices that were not paid. "Yeah, the month of January is paid. We start saving our pennies, nickels, and dimes for the month of February. This is January seventh. The end of the month will come fast and furious."

Vester frowned. "You have missed a big expense item."

"What!" I frowned at the unpaid January invoices.

"Food," Vester nodded with a worried brow.

"The refrigerator's empty." Vassar nodded with a worried brow too.

I turned and frowned to my two smart brothers. "Damn! I hold exactly eighteen dollars and fifty-three cents in my personal bank account. I have a twenty-dollar bill on me and I need gas. Do either of you have any cash in your pockets?"

Vassar patted down his ripped and stained blue jeans, shaking his curls and lifted one quarter with a smile.

Vester frowned, "Naw."

I frowned. "I can sell my jewelry."

Vassar frowned. "What jewelry?"

"Naw," Vester shook his curls with a stern face and a serious tone.

I nodded with a stern face, "Yeah."

"No, Nadean! Our Grandmother Garland gave you all her fine jewelry in good faith for you and not some greedy rich people to enjoy. No, I absolutely forbid it." Vester folded his arms with a sour frown, shaking his curls.

I frowned. "I want to honor Grandmother Garland's memory, too, Vester. But hear me out. If we need money to eat food, I will sell a small emerald ring for something to eat."

Vester nodded with a stern face. "That is acceptable. But we are not in that situation yet."

I frowned. "And we spent tons of our funds on Christmas gifts for our selfish blood-kin-folks too."

Vester said, "Past history. Present solution."

"The five sweet little girls squeaked like little piglets with our thoughtful Christmas presents, Nadean," Vassar smiled.

I exhaled. "I just venting to ya'll. Our parents are..."

"Dis-fuck-tion-ya'll," laughed Vassar.

I laughed, "Hell, yeah, use some of your bank account monies for food."

Vester viewed Vassar. "We should eat at work. It's free."

I viewed Vester. "We ain't improvised, just poor mouse. That money's for food. We have the month of January covered in expenses, right?"

"Correct." Vester nodded.

I nodded. "Okay, use your bank account money. Or I'll sell a piece of jewelry."

"Nadean likes to kidnap, blackmail, and exhort. Does she murder too?" Vester laughed.

"Naw," I snapped my fingers with a smile. "I'll go back to the dress shop. I can work more hours, making some good money, prancing in formal wear. Then I can get some more foreign language legal contracts from Professor Hople. These are big bucks. Then I'll get a slick little job, making more money. I'll working on my doctoral thesis, so I don't need to attend any class room time, only my oral presentation the first week of May."

I smiled. "Between all of our numerous jobs, if Mrs. Crumb sells the townhouse, then we can rent a two bedrooms or single bedroom apartment, pay the electricity, water, gas for cars, and food. That's all. We need to live until May, when we all graduate from college foreverly."

Vassar laughed. "Foreverly?"

I giggled. "A cute word, that means forever and ever and ever. Then, the both of you will get a really good job with really good pay. Someone can hire me, paying me big bucks as a junior lawyer. Then I'll buy this gawd damn bitching house from that bitch. The end!"

Vassar nodded with a smile. "Good idea, Nadean!"

At 02:22 p.m. outside in cold weather in front of Mary's Dress Shop, a standard two story brownish red brick façade and a glass entrance door with two extra-large windows that held the latest evening gowns for a high school prom or a college social event or a wedding occasion which was three miles north from Nadean's townhouse.

The glass entrance door opened.

"Hey!" I moved inside the rectangular-shaped single extra long room space that held rows of glittering ankle-length evening gowns a long steel rake on three walls. I wore my silver tinted fur coat that came from my Aunt Collie and stopped at the counter top with the cashier register equipment, performing a smile and a nod to the owner in silence, like always. Underneath the coat, I wore a pair of blue jeans, a white colored sweater with my pair of pink and blue cowgirl boots.

The glass door closed behind the back spine on Nadean.

A short, elderly pale skinned male with yellow teeth and gray hair smiled with a nod to Nadean. "Pretty thing is here, Ma."

"Pa," the short, elder, pale skinned lady with yellow teeth and short brownish-gray hair came around the wall corner and smiled at Nadean. "Howdy, pretty thing." Nadean really hated that improper name. The elderly lady waved a pale colored fat arm at the young girl and stopped at the counter with a smile and a nod. "Glad ya here, pretty thing. We're retiring, honey. Our kids took over my dress shop."

My heart dropped down into my red colored painted toenails as I whispered. "O!"

A tall, fat young pale skinned female with a head of short red hair stood inside the open archway at the rear wall of cute dressing rooms, moving ahead, shouting at Nadean. "You are one of these majorettes from the Burn U marching band." She moved ahead and stopped, standing beside her mother at cash register counter.

I continued to stand at the counter and frowned, "Many moons ago."

She stopped and leaned over the counter with a sneer to Nadean. "Your skinny ain't needed here anymore."

I back stepped from her bad breath and faked a smile. "Okay. Well, this thing has been fun. Thanks for allowing me to model your pretty dresses." I swung around and faced the door, feeling both belittled and deflated, opening the door, exiting the dress shop foreverly.

The door closed behind the back spine on Nadean.

I marched out from the store in the cold weather with a string of soft curses, a distorted face, and a sour attitude back to my car, sliding inside and raced back home, finding Vester and Vassar at work, since their ugly brown colored almost rusty colored four-door sedan was gone.

I parked my car over the broken pavement of driveway.

At 2:31 p.m. in front of the shared townhouse, the car door opened. I slid out the car. The car door closed behind my back spine. I ran and dashed inside our shared townhouse and up the staircase into my private bedroom. It was the former private bedroom of Cherry with the cracked plaster wall in dull yellow, where one of her numerous and unnamed boyfriends had gotten intoxicated drunk on beer using the solid wall as a punching bag.

Teague had been contacted for body protection of Nadean. Both Teague and Bobcat had arrived for the rescue. Bobcat had contained the nasty guy, carting him out the townhouse, while Teague had stayed behind to protect Nadean.

Then Teague had spent the night on top of the long sofa in the living room, in case, the boyfriend came back, since he had stolen the house key from Cherry too.

The next day, Cherry had arrived back home to the townhouse and blackmailed Nadean again while discovering Teague on top of the long sofa in a half-naked body state.

I had been curled up inside my private bedroom while fully clothed and extremely frightened with a shut and locked bedroom door, but Cherry had used it all to her advantage point as usual. And I had been forced out of my newly painted bedroom into her trashy room.

Currently, I stopped and opened the closet, dressing in one of the donated expensive designer business suits from my aunt. The business matched my silver hair for a stunning professional look of employment.

At 02:35 p.m. within the cold temperatures and bright sunlight, on the opposite street from Mary's Dress Shop, a law firm office was housed inside the same reddish-brown coated façade with a single glass door with two standard glass windows, which was five miles, east, from Nadean's townhouse. I parked my ancient sports car inside a parking spot on the street and slid out looking professionally nervous and pranced ahead into the law office.

The entrance door opened.

I entered with a nervous smile and scanned the receptionist room of dark green walls, dark colored potted plants, and new dark wooden furniture. I stopped in front of a long wooden office desk that held a blonde-haired, pale-skinned tall law office receptionist. "Good morning. I don't have an appointment here today. But I am a newly graduated law student from the Birmingham State School of Law. And I am looking for my very first paying job as a new Bama lawyer. My name is Nadean Garland."

The glass door closed behind her back spine.

The middle-aged blonde-haired woman looked up with a smile and then slowly stood upright from her chair. "Wait right here inside the lobby, I will fetch the owner of the law firm," she left her desk and disappeared through a side door into the hidden hallway.

I back stepped from the office desk and sat on top of a new orange colored cushion inside the new brown colored sofa frame while pondering my shrinking bank account.

I had used all my modeling money to purchase a set of Christmas gifts, since Vester and Vassar had wanted to reestablish the old blood-family ties with our mom, our dad, our younger sister Dorcee, her husband Lance, and their five sweet little girls that had been broken four years ago. I had defended by my two high school brothers from the Room of Imprisonment by my biological parents. Then my mom had kicked her two sons out of her home, but they had come to live with me, while our grandfather had continued to pay for our shelter, the townhouse.

I had foolishly spent all of my foreign language monies paying for fun stuff, such like, new electronics, Hollywood film movies, popular musical records, and eating at fast food joints.

Now, I really needed all those monies back from the past for us to find a new apartment for the present.

The twins were paid nine thousand dollars-per-year. Nine thousand divided by fifty-two week equals 173.08 dollars-per-week. Then, the US Federal Government took thirty percent leaving a grand total of 116.54 dollars-per-week. Their money was used for gas and food and more food for two young adults that stood six feet and seven inches with a constant empty stomach.

So, I could not depend upon the working jobs of Vester and Vassar to pay the apartment rental and electricity utilities.

I might hit the jackpot and really receive a new job as a paying lawyer. Then I can defend the poor people staring with my person and my two brothers. I crossed my fingers and my toes for that chance.

A short, pale skinned, middle-aged male lawyer with brown hair and a full beard stood in pale blue business suit and smiled inside the archway. "Good morning, Miss Garland. Come this way." He spun around and moved down a long decorated hallway of beige paint with numerous pictures of the sandy beach in Mobile, heading back to his private office.

Nadean stood upright from the sofa and scurried behind him. He entered an open archway into a large square-shaped room with beige painted walls, a long office desk and a living room setting on the side wall for a client. He spun around with a smile and pointed down at one of two sitting chairs with orange fabric, sitting in the opposite chair. "Please have a seat. So, you have graduated from Burn U. We all are alumni too."

I rushed ahead and sat down in the pre-offered chair on the edge with a nod and a smile. "Yes sir. Last week, I just took the law bar on Monday."

He frowned, "Monday! We require our lawyers to pass and possess a state license, before we can employ them for a full time position."

"I concur. I will pass."

He nodded with a grin, "Well, that is a noble feat and attitude, young lady. On occasion, however, the freshly law graduate does not successfully complete all four sections on the first try. Therefore, we rely upon the official paper stating you are a licensed attorney for Bama. What is your field of specialty?"

"Tax law, that's a new field there at the Burn U School of Law. So, maybe, I can become a part-time paralegal within your private law firm, doing some research while learning the ropes as they say."

"Tax law is not a popular area of paying legal jobs, since some of the local law firms have a licensed CPA that can be rented for peanuts," he laughed. "Have you interned or worked in the law field before?"

"Not exactly. I converted some legal documents from Spanish into English at the Burn U."

"Do you speak Spanish?"

"And French," I smiled.

He smiled with a nod. "Well, you are very gifted, young lady. But you don't engage any foreign clients, only local rednecks. I am so sorry. Your inexperienced skill set doesn't mesh very well with our established law firm. And we just hired a batch of new intern clerks, who have their licenses. I would advise that apply though the law internship at Burn U, when you have your law license. A law firm will snatch you up really fast. You can continue looking for a job. However, I will advice that any law firm will withhold employment until your secure that license." He stood upright from the orange fabric and extended a hand ending the meeting. "Good day, Miss Garland."

I stood upright from the chair and shook his hand with a fake smile and a bruised ego. "Thanks for the chair...chat, sir." I swung around to face the open archway and held back my tears of disappointment, dashing down the hallway, exiting the lobby.

The glass door opened.

I rushed ahead to my car with a nod and a grin.

The glass office door closed.

I entered my car, driving to Birmingham University campus and visit with my old instructor Professor Hople.

At 02:39 p.m. on the Birmingham University campus, four miles east from Nadean's townhouse, in front of the International Studies Department, the wooden door opened.

I moved inside the familiar reception area that held dark brownish-yellow wall which reminded me of a bowl of vanilla pudding that was covered by three walls of tall wooden cabinets. Over the row of tall wooden cabinets, a line of glass frames was mounted onto the yellow wall that displayed each college professor that worked in the International Studies Department.

I had visited the lobby area for years and ignored the décor, without wearing the fur coat from Aunt Collie as I was heatedly disappointed but I was recovering.

I stopped in front of the receptionist desk.

The department door closed at the back spine on Nadean.

I smiled with a nod down at the familiar elderly, gray-headed woman. "Hi. I'm Nadean. Could you please tell Professor Hople that I'm here today? I'm sorry that I didn't arrange a schduled appointment in advance. This is the New Year where I have had too much fun and celebration," giggling.

The elderly woman looked up and frowned. "Professor Hople!"

I grinned with a nod. "Yes ma'am."

She frowned. "How long has it been seen you have lasted visited with Professor Hople, young miss?"

I looked up with a stern face and viewed the far wall that held numerous glass frames without a face but a college degree of the instructor, looking down with a smile. "I was in contact with him before the Christmas break here at Burn U."

"You are the pawn," someone said behind the butt on Nadean.

I spun around with a gasp and viewed a middle-aged male. "I beg your pardon."

A tall middle age male with a head of black grayish hair wore a gray colored business suit and a smirk, staring at Nadean. "You are the pawn that Hople used to translate the foreign language legal law contracts."

I nodded. "I did translation work for Professor Hople."

He frowned. "You should not announce that information here too loudly. He died before the Christmas break."

"I am so sorry."

"I am so sorry. You were taken, young lady. Professor Hople has a son, who owns his own law firm here in Birmingham. The son acquires clients among the immigrants and foreigners that are employed here in Alabama. Therefore, he needed a person to translate the many, many legal documents. You did that job for peanuts, my dear. A properly bonded and issued foreign language translator receives about two thousand dollars for fifteen pages of legal work," chuckling. "I am guessing here but I bet Hople didn't pay you two thousand dollars in one year." He smiled with a nod. "I reviewed some of your legal work. It's very good. And you're a pretty girl," frowning. "Are you an illegal immigrant too? Your dark skin coloring and silver hair is very exotic for someone living in Bama."

I twanged with my accent, "Naw. Southern belle, ya'll."

He smiled. "You have a beautiful talent. But Hople was illegally abusing you and the legal contracts. These documents are supposed to be translated by a bonded and licensed business company that employs bonded and licensed folks, a Bama state law. If his son is ever audited by the Alabama Bar Association, he'll be in big trouble. Therefore, young lady, you will never come here to the Burn U International Studies Department again. Do you understand me, miss?"

I spun around to view the unknown male and slowly back stepped with a nod and a stern face, hitting the closed door, "Yes, sir. I do. Thank you, sir. I know now. I will not come back here."

The department door opened.

I back stepped into the busy hallway, turning with a sour frown.

The door closed.

I spun around and jogged down a busy hallway with students, saying with a whisper and a sour frown. "Shit. Two thousand dollars for fifteen pages of legal work, I was taken to the dry clothes and washing laundry mat. O well! I've definitely learned a life lesson here. So, I'll go to the hospital now, pleading for a janitorial job for four months."

I exited the building foreverly with a giggle, marching to my car, driving to the hospital for any paying job right now.

At 03:03 p.m. at the landlord home of Mrs. Crumb, which was ten miles, south, from the rental townhouse, outside with cold temperatures with parted clouds without sunshine, the structure was two-stories of red brown brick with a two-door garage and a long front porch with a red colored wooden door and a lawn of dead grass as it was wintertime in Alabama.

I parked the car on top of the concrete driveway and slid out in the cold air while feeling heatedly worried, slowly moving ahead to the front door while double counting the cash wad in my hands. I stopped and looked up, knocking on the weather-beaten wood.

The front door opened.

An elderly lady displayed an average height body frame, a neck bun of gray hair and three missing front teeth peeked around the open door with a sour frown. "Are you a lawyer?"

I smiled. "Mrs. Crumb. No ma'am."

She smiled with a nod and showed her frontal body with a smile to Nadean, wearing a mint green colored wool pants suit. "Well, are you interested in my townhouse?"

"I rent your townhouse. I'm the current tenant, the college student. My grandfather is David Sloan."

She jabbed a finger at the chest on Nadean with a frown. "You own me money. He owns me money six hundred dollars for this month's rent due on the first of each new month."

I nodded with a fake smile. "Yes ma'am, I have the money, cash. May I get a receipt, also?"

She looked down with a sour frown to see the money. "Cash, as in greenbacks, it is in danger walking around with six hundred dollars in cash. Is that real?"

I handed her the wad of cash with a fake smile and a nod. "Yes ma'am. It is. I'll be coming each month to pay in cash for the townhouse rental."

"Why? Ain't ya got a checking accounting?"

"No ma'am. I'm a poor college student. I have a saving account. I use cash to pay all of my purchases. And I can pay you in cash each month. I just need a receipt for the six hundred dollars..."

"Blab! Receipt! The check is the receipt. Where's Sloan?"

I frowned. "My Grandfather Sloan is both elderly and sick. He doesn't live here in Birmingham. He lives in the small town of Brier that is located near Huntsville."

She lifted both palms into the air with a sour tone and a matching face, "Blab. Sick. Blab. Cash. I take your cash," she extended a palm. "Next time, you give me a cashier's cash, acting like cash. I can't tote around six hundred dollars. I'll got robbed or raped. The townhouse is for sale. I'm selling it quick soon as someone gives me a check for sixty thousand dollars. Then you will leave, girl. Gone!" She pulled out and scribbled on the piece of paper the receipt for the cash inside the archway.

I looked down with a worried brow to see my unpolished boot toes. "Yes ma'am, I will leave." I looked up with a smile and a nod to her. "In the meantime, the townhouse is clean and ready for touring."

She torn and handed a piece of paper to Nadean with a sour face and a matching tone, "Blab. You paid for the month January. Hope, I don't see your face in the month of February."

I hoped not either, bitch. I faked a smile. "Bye, Mrs. Crumb. Have a good day."

"Blab," she back stepped and slammed the door.

I spun and raced to my car.

The door opened.

I slid inside with a worried brow, slamming the door. "Do not cry. Pray. Dear Lord, I need some help here. I need a job, any job to pay for a new apartment with Vester and Vassar, my loving brothers. P.S. Please help now. Amen." I did not start the car with a worried soul.

I could not receive any job, without my lawyer license. The bar results would take eight weeks. My brothers could not wait eight weeks. But, the monthly rent was paid for the month of January.

I didn't have the heart to tell Vester and Vassar that I had to cover the January payment for current rental lease with rent and utilities using my money from my personal bank account. Now, I was almost wiped out down to almost zero dollars and cents.

My Granddaddy Sloan was very sick at eighty years old and was going to die soon if my mom's latest information was accuracy.

Everything usually happened in three's. Granddaddy Sloan will die. The townhouse will sell. And we will live on the street like a set of stray dogs.

I beat on the steering column with a sour frown and a yell. "Fuck you, Mama. And fuck ya, Dorcee and your five rotten bratty kids."

Gawd! I was so miffed. I possessed a bachelor's degree in physics and accounting, a master's degree in physics, and almost a doctoral degree in physics. And I had a law degree, not an Alabama lawyer license. And I couldn't find one lousy job while all my previous work contacts had died or retired.

I started the car, moving slowly down the crowded city street, feeling sad. Then my eyeballs glanced at the Help Wanted sign in the glass window.

At 03:23 p.m. in front of the Birmingham Diner establishment which was six miles west from Nadean's townhouse, in the outside cold temperatures with bright sunshine, the free-standing building was composed of yellow painted concrete blocks that was dull with dirt and grim with a set of glass entrance doors and a large parking lot without cars.

I parked the car inside the lot and exited the seat, leaving off the fur coat again, closing the car door.

I slowly moved to the entrance door with a fake smile and tons of nervousness and entered the eating establishment for a paying job. I had been rejected by four different business companies. My bad luck was destined to run away now.

I moved ahead to the counter with the cashier register machine and a box with rows of candy bars, standing in front of an elderly lady, saying with a smile and a nod. I pointed at the sign, "Hi there! I saw the Help Wanted sign in your window. I'm your girl for that waitressing position."

The tall fat elderly woman wore a tan colored dress and looked up with a puzzled brow at Nadean. "Ya waitressed before, honey?"

I smiled and shook my curls. "No ma'am. But I be a quick learner."

"Ya be a student at..."

I nodded with a smile. "Yes ma'am. I be a very poor but studious student at Burn U, getting a college degree like all the other redneck young'uns."

"Hmm. Ya look healthy for lifting tubs of dirty dishes."

I nodded with a smile. "Yes ma'am. I be strong and healthy. I can start right now."

"I need ya, tomorrow. What about ya Burn U classes?"

I grinned with a nod. "I take easy classes like racket ball and dance."

She winked with a laugh, "Ya be a dumbo, but a pretty thing. Can ya add, dearie?"

I grinned with a nod. "Yes ma'am. I can read, write, and add great big whole numbers."

She grinned, "All righty! Ya come here and be here at five in the morning. Can ya remember to do that, honey?"

I grinned. "Yes ma'am. I can remember to be here at five in the morning."

She winked. "Start ya on the morning run. It be early for the real working folks in B'ham, not students. Students come in the middle of the afternoon or at night."

I grinned. "Yes ma'am."

She winked. "Ya need to wear a short shirt with some high heels. Ya got more money giving tips that way and I get more money paying customers. Then, me and you can do a good business together. Waitressing is easy just get the customer's order right, the first time. Then they come back. If ya mess it up, then ya don't come back. Hear me, girly!"

I grinned with a nod. "Yes ma'am." I spun around and dashed back to my car, driving home with a smile and a hum.

At 03:33 p.m. in front of the shared rental townhouse, I parked my car next to the other vehicle on top of the broken concrete slab that didn't' show the growing weeds through the cracks as it was wintertime here. I slid out from the seat with a smile and rushed into the warm house.

Inside the living room setting, I stopped and lifted my arms with a smile and a nod through the archway. "I got a job. Hurray for me!"

The front door closed shut.

Vester sat on top of the ratty dull pink and green flowery long sofa with his college textbooks, wearing the same silver tinted Burn U pair of sweats and a pair of bare feet, looking up with a worried brow to see Nadean. "What kind of job, Nadean?"

I moved ahead and sat down in the ratty chair with a smile. "Waitress for..."

Vassar sat in the loveseat with his textbooks and wore the same black colored Burn U sweat suit with a pair of bare feet, looking up and frowned at Nadean. "Ah, naw! You possess a master's degree in physics."

"...with no hospital experience." I shook my curls with a stern face. "These were the exact words from the real working physicist at the local hospital. I slid into the human resources department at Birmingham Hospital then quickly gained a ripe interview. The physicist liked me but didn't like my 'no experience handling radiation equipment.'"

Vester frowned. "You possess a law degree."

I frowned with a nod. "And I slid into one of many local law firms. No legal license yet. The place won't touch my left breast, figuratively." Vester and Vassar laughed.

Vassar said. "The dress shop work will be more than enough to cover our small invoices, Nadean."

I frowned. "No go either! I got canned today. The elderly couple had given their profitable dress shop business to their fat, ugly, and mean college age girls. The older girl fired me, this morn."

Vester frowned. "I am so sorry, Sis."

I shook my curls. "Naw, I had a good run on the dress shop. My closet is full of pretty dresses. I wonder if I could sale them back to the dress shop for money," giggling.

Vester said, "Probably not! What about Professor Hople and all of his foreign language translation legal work?"

"He di...didn't have any new legal contracts today," I looked down with a worried brow at my hands. "I'll try next week." I looked up with a smile to see Vester, "Big bucks there."

Vester frowned. "You have a college education. What about interviewing for a temporary secretary position at a local company? Then you can quit in the month of June."

I shook my curls. "I'm over qualified, Vester. And we need the fast cash now. A real job takes up interviewing time, where I can be working for waitress tips, tomorrow morning. The owner's placing me in the morning shift."

Vassar smiled with a nod. "Actually, that's a very good work slot, Nadean. The early construction and manufacturing workers are mostly men who eat breakfast and leave a pretty good tip. You will do very well. You're pretty. So, kinda smile and giggle more, then you'll get a better tip."

I looked down with a worried brow to my dirty sneakers. "Good advice. I'm kinda nervous."

Vester frowned. "I'm kinda worried. Are in shape to work on your feet for eight hours, Nadean?"

I looked up with a smile and a nod to see Vester. "Yeah, I feel fine. And I don't have a choice. I don't have time or money to run around Birmingham looking for a job, when I have found one on my first day. This is a miracle. We only have less than five more months. Then we're done with Burn U and start our new lives someplace else."

Wednesday January 8th

05:05 a.m.

Birmingham Diner

(Six miles, north, from Nadean's townhouse)

Dining table setting

Cold temperatures of wintertime with moonlight and bright stars

I moved away from the register counter and pranced in my tight white colored tee shirt, my mini-short blue jean skirt, a pair of red colored high heels and a cute flirt to the dinner table, stopping and winked at each older male. "Hi there! May I take your order, ya'll!"

The four adult men smiled and grunted at the new cute waitress. One ordered the food with a wink. "Coffee and breakfast plate number one."

I wrote down each food order getting them all correct the first time while attracting lots of marriage propositions, date propositions, and butt slaps for the noble cause. At the end of the twelve-hour shift, I held 164.25 dollars in waitress tips with a smile.

I had made an average amount of seventy-five dollars-per-day, working seven days-per-week. I had traded some evening shifts with my co-workers, bringing in about five hundred dollars-per-week for two weeks.

By the end of the month, I had lost ten pounds from my active waitressing and my eating on the run coupled with staying up late while working on my doctoral thesis. I never saw my brothers. They left at five in the morning and returned home at midnight and then slept, starting their ritual over again.

We sold all the electronics and all my designer clothes for about one thousand hundred dollars which was safely stored inside my personal bank account for an emergency.

Tuesday February 2nd

07:07 p.m.

Shared townhouse of Nadean, Vester, and Vassar

Living room setting

Cold temperatures and clear night with bright stars

The front door opened.

I stood inside the archway and viewed the object, wearing my unofficial waitress uniform, the tight white colored tee shirt, the short blue jean shirt, and a pair of red colored high heels underneath the fur coat, saying with a whisper and a worried brow. "No."

Vester wore the same Burn U silver tinted sweat suit with a pair of bare feet and held another new letter, saying with a nod and a worried brow, "The same law firm, the same vanilla colored business envelope."

Vassar wore the same black colored Burn U sweat suit and a pair of bare feet, nodding with worry. "But we paid the rental for the month of February. What did we do wrong, Nadean?"

I dropped the coat down on the floor and giggled, "Yeah, I paid her in cash, again, yesterday. Mrs. Crumb must've sold the townhouse. How many visitors came yesterday?" I spun around and viewed the rows of taped white colored paper at the doorway. "I don't see any red clay dust particles on top of our homemade paper mat from numerous shoe tracks."

Vassar looked down with a stern face to see the homemade paper foot mat too. "We really don't know, Sis. We leave at five am and come home at eleven pm with both work and school. And using my memory banks, I don't remember seeing any red dirt clay on the white paper, since we laid that trap." He viewed Vester. "I do not believe that we have visitors during the daytime hours either."

I returned back and looked down with a sour frown to read the letter. "Because our bitch-landlord has priced her tiny townhouse out of the real estate market, the waitresses that I work with are street smart, not book smart. They told me that this geographical area sells homes around thirty thousand dollars, not twice the sweet price tag. That old bitch's looking to pay out some heavy debt left by her dead husband," I looked up with a worried brow to see Vester. "The NSI is working your asses off. I hope they pay you a good salary, after you get your college degrees."

Vester grinned with a nod. "The exuberant real estate price will benefit our cause of staying. Don't worry, Nadean. Vassar and I have learned some valuable shit that only we know how to do. Once we got that single sheet of paper, it'll be a gold mine for us."

I nodded with a smile. "I'm glad. Ya'll work hard."

Vassar smiled. "Hard work is good for the soul. There's nothing wrong with hard work and an active mind..."

".... only if ya got tired feet." I opened the letter. "Dear, Ms. Garland. Please come at ten on Wednesday, February third." I looked up with a worried brow to see my brothers. "Shit, that's tomorrow. I gotta take the day off work. My boss isn't going to be happy. And I lose a day of cash tips."

Vassar said. "We graduate in exactly fifteen weeks."

I frowned. "The real estate paperwork takes about six weeks, leaving us short of cash and time. And I'm not fixing the wall or the carpet. She can have the entire money deposit of six hundred dollars for that expense."

Vester frowned. "She'll sue our granddaddy."

I shook my curls, "Naw, I disagree as a lawyer, unlicensed, but still a legal Alabama lawyer. Mrs. Crumb wants some fast cash for a lush retirement or her Bingo night at the church. That property townhouse fix is too expensive for our mealy bank account. The new owners can fix it being parents of another group of students anyways. That's the prime reason for selling the prime real estate property."

Vester nodded. "Correct."

I moved and marched to the writing desk, pulling out the draw and the object, turning with a stern face to see my brothers. "I'm reading from top to bottom the apartment legal contract. I'm a lawyer after all, but still not licensed. Maybe, I can find a loop hole, keeping us in the townhouse until the end of May. Or I can charm him into dialing the move-out date at the end of the semester."

Vester frowned. "Would there really be a legal clause to keep us here until the end of May, allowing us some more breathing room?"

I viewed the lease. "Uh, ho," I looked up with a smile to see Vester. "I found something that my brain cells didn't think about. I want both of you to go around this shitty townhouse and write down every single thing that does not work properly, right now. You're future engineers. I trust your judgment and even cite the peaceful fire ants in the tiny yard too."

Vester nodded with a grin. "And we can assign it an estimated repair cost too. I understand your order, Sis."

"Excellent, bro," I turned and moved up to the staircase and my room with a smile. "I got some reading to do."

Wednesday February 3rd

10:10 p.m.

Lawyer of Mrs. Crumb

Law office setting

(Two miles, west, from Nadean's rental townhouse)

Cold temperatures and partly cloudy with sunlight

I parked the car inside the large gray colored parking lot and slid out from the seat, slowly moving to the front at a very nicely manicured lawn of dead grass at the unfamiliar law office campus. I wore a pair of blue jeans, my clean but tight white colored tee shirt, and my unpolished pair of pale blue and pink cowgirl boots.

The entrance door of glass opened.

I entered into a nicely decorated reception space with rows of soft yellow tinted sofas and walls of fresh dark green plants, moving ahead to the pretty receptionist at the office desk with a silly giggle and a nervous timber. "Hey!" I stopped and popped the pink colored bubble gum for annoyance with a grin, "I be Nadean. I be the granddaughter of my grandfather." I waved the business letter like a southern dumb belle with a giggle and a grin. "I got this here letter too. So, I need to talk with someone, too."

The receptionist office desk of polished wooden stood behind a single open archway like it was blocking the entranceway. The receptionist displayed a head of short black hair, a tone of pale skin and wore a long red colored dress and a sneer, slowly standing upright from the chair with a fake smile, extending a hand, trying to capture the wavering letter. "May I see the letter please?"

"Well, I don't know about that. It's my letter." I cuddled the nice vanilla colored stationary into my chest with a giggle.

"I need to see which lawyer is assigned to your case, miss..."

"I be Nadean." I extended the letter to her and popped my formed bubble with more annoyance.

The receptionist grabbed the letter and pulled into her distorted face with a nod, looking up with a smirk to see the young girl. "You are the tenant of Mrs. Crumb. I must inform Mr. Richardson of your presence here. Please excuse me. Have a sit over there on one of the sofas. I will return shortly." She spun around and moved through a narrow hallway out of sight of Nadean.

I paced around the floor with nervousness without sitting but praying for a miracle. So, my two brothers and I could stay inside the tiny townhouse until the end of May for our college graduations and then we would move someplace else.

The receptionist quickly returned back and stood between the archway frames with a wicked grin. "If there is something that you would like to present to me, then you will not have to see the big bad lawyer? Our lawyers are very busy at the moment. We do not want to disturb them until it is extremely necessary."

I spun around and halted, staring at her with a fake grin and a giggle like a high school teen, "Naw."

She gasped in shock. "Well then, you will be seen now. Please follow me." The receptionist spun around again and slowly moved down a decorated hallway in white paint with numerous photographs of flying American eagles and roaring African tan colored lions, arriving at the third open door on the side wall with a smile.

The door was opened.

I entered inside and scanned a room of dull gray with numerous portraits of flying American eagles and dark wooden living room furniture in front of a long dark colored wooden office desk. The desk contained stack of paper and pictures of his family members.

I slowly moved to one of the two chairs in gray leather fabric that was posed in front of a long wooden desk, sitting down with nervousness. I was dressed in my old torn pair of blue jeans, a messy ponytail, and a pair of un-polished cowgirl boots without makeup as I purposefully appeared like a poor starving college student which was not far from the truth.

A short, middle-aged, fat, balding male lawyer did not stand from his gray leather chair but continued to occupy the opposite chair in front of his long wooden office desk beside Nadean, saying without a smile and a formal name. "I am very, very busy. Is there something that you will like to present for me? So, we can meet our meeting short and sweet."

I smiled and chewed the bubble gum, "Naw."

He tapped on a vanilla colored paper folder between obese fingers, saying with a sour frown and a nod. "I have verified that your biological grandfather is Mr. David Sloan, who lives in Brier, not in Birmingham. And he was unable to attend this business meeting due to sickness, but you were suggested to act as his legal representative. Therefore, let us wrap up this business quickly. You had paid Mrs. Crumb in cash for the months of January and February, consisting of six hundred dollars even. First, she kindly asked that you provide her a personal check, a cashier's cash, or a money order, sufficing for the greenbacks. You are a young lady. But, in today's society, cash is not generally carried around which could lead to some type of violent incident. Therefore, Miss Garland, you are to pay the next month's rental payment of six hundred dollars by one of three optional methods, a personal check or a cashier's cash or a money order. All of these former methods can be acquired at your bank for a slight monetary fee. Do you understand me and my request from Mrs. Crumb, who is my legal client?"

"Naw," I acted like a high school student and chomped on the bubble gum as I was really a lawyer, without the license, of course. "I don't understand, but I do read," I lifted up and rattled the rental lease papers which my Grandfather Sloan had signed five years ago with Mr. Crumb. "And I did not read inside my grandfather's signed and dated lease from five years ago that cash is not acceptable as one of many forms of rental payments. Since everyone loves cash, easily acquired and spent. Therefore, I will continue to pay Mrs. Crumb by cash in the form of dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, if I feel like it on the first day of the month, whether rain, sun, snow, or hail. Do you understand me and my legal right as the legal representative of David Sloan, my grandfather?"

He smirked. "You are very smart, Miss Garland. The second item for discussion is the occupation of strange guests inside the townhouse. I understand that there are two males living with you for a couple of years. The signed and dated lease specifically excludes guests within the rental interior. I am afraid that you have violated the leasing agreement. Do you understand me and my request from Mrs. Crumb, who is my legal client?"

I smiled with a nod. "The occupant clause of the townhouse lease is described and limited by all blood-kin of my Grandfather Sloan. The two males living with me for the past four years are my twin brothers, who carry the last name of Garland, like me." I rattled a new set of paper in the air and handed the item to the lawyer with a grin. "I am providing copies of their Bama driver's license for verification and proof. Therefore, I am not in violation of any clause of the signed and dated leasing agreement. Do you understand me and my legal right as the legal representative of David Sloan, my grandfather?"

He frowned. "You are very intelligent, Miss Garland. The third item for discussion is the damage to the townhouse, since Mrs. Crumb is trying to sell the property. You received a previous letter from our law firm with the estimated cost of repairing the townhouse, five thousand dollars even with no cents. The lease agreement allows for collection of any and all damages acquired while being occupied by the current occupants. I believe that you might have read that specific clause within the legal rental document as a smart young college student. Therefore, if you will please hand over a payment of five thousand dollars even by the end of the working day which is five pm today," chuckling. "And you are invited to pay in cash of dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, if you wish. Then, our law firm and Mrs. Crumb will allow you to continue your rental agreement until the termination date," smirking. "Or you have twenty-four hours to remove your persons and your possessions from Mrs. Crumb's townhouse, which is tomorrow morning at ten o'clock. Do you understand me, young lady?"

I grinned with a nod. "This legal document is automatically renewed year by year for five years. The five-year lease agreement will expire on May thirty-first, this year. Therefore, the legal lease agreement cannot be broken until May thirty first, this year, unless the occupant doesn't pay the monthly rental monies on time. I, or my grandfather, had paid each month on time." I lifted up and rattled another set of stapled papers. "This is a copy of all the personal checks and my cash receipts given to Mrs. Crumb for rental payments for the past four years and some odd months to present day. Therefore, your law firm or Mrs. Crumb cannot boot me and my blood-kin out from the townhouse for any financial reason." I lifted and rattled a third set of stapled papers with a stern face and a serious tone. "And the lease agreement also states that the landlord is obligated and committed to repair any and all surface interior and exterior damage and leaks within the rental structure, since she owns the property. And the landlord is supposed to inspect the townhouse, once per year using her own funds or her choice of a hired business company.

"This is my personal inspection list of all the property deficits. I would like to point out that the hot water heater is leaking which is causing a great big mess over the walls and the floor. You can see that I have for your convenience provided an estimated repair cost based on an engineer. A hot water heater is very expensive at four thousand dollars plus some odd cents, including the tank, the pump, the pipes, the valves, the insulation, plus installation service. Of course, my estimation repair cost might be too low. You can inquire.

"My estimated repair cost is included on this paper statement which shows around seven thousand dollars and some odd cents. Therefore, if you fix all my repairs inside the rental townhouse by May thirty first, then I would be happy to pay the five-thousand-dollar monetary repair bill in damages during my rental time period," smiling.

He gasped. "You're a little smart bitch."

I giggled, "Yeah, I am."

He smirked. "There is one more item for discussion, Miss Garland. The lease agreement does allow for automatic renewal year-to-year, included in any renewal is an annual rental increase. Mrs. Crumb has been very kind to you and your blood-kin for the past four years, not enforcing that particular clause. Therefore, she has increased the monthly rental payment from six dollars per month to one thousand dollars per month. You received this letter of notification yesterday. But the letter was stamped effective on February first. Therefore, Mrs. Crumb's enforcement of the one thousand dollars per month rental increase became effective this month which was yesterday. If you could kindly provide me the extra additional money of four hundred dollars even without any pennies by the end of the business day, covering your new rental payment, then you can retain your occupation of the townhouse through the rest of time period until May thirty first. If not, you have twenty hours to leave the townhouse. Do you understand me?"

I lifted up and rattled a set of four crisp new hundred dollar bills without smiling. I thoroughly had re-read the lease agreement six times figuring out the evil plot.

Mr. Crumb was a nice person, not his bitch-wife. Mr. Crumb and my grandfather had a gentleman's agreement, when they shook hands in an old fashion conduct of business in the South, four years ago.

He extended a hand with a sour frown, snatching the four hundred dollars from her fist with a sneer. "You're a little bitch."

I grinned with a nod "You are repeating your nasty complement, sir. And you tell that bitching cunt Mrs. Crumb that we are staying until the end of the lease termination on May, the thirty-first of this calendar year. We will pay the one thousand dollars each month in cash. I will be at her front door at nine in the morning on the first day of the month." I stood upright from the chair with a nod and a smile. "Good day to ya'll!" I spun around and quickly left the nasty lawyer and his annoying law firm.

09:43 p.m.

Birmingham Diner

(Six miles, north, from Nadean's rental townhouse)

Cold temperatures and cloudy night without stars

I stood in front of the owner in my official short blue skirt and pair of red colored high heels with a pout of sympathy. "I understand, ma'am. I'm requesting another day off."

I had wrapped up my business with the sleazy lawyer and ventured into my work, taking over another working waitress' shift during the day plus my regular scheduled work shift during the evening. Now, I needed lots of money to cover the extra expenses of four hundred dollars per month, so I would work a double shift every single day for the money, honey.

And I also planned in advance before my grandfather got sick and my mom refused to help her blood-kin children, taking the law bar examination in the surrounding US States of Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. The legal test questions were almost the same, so I would have multiply legal law licenses, in case I wanted to move from my home state of Alabama. Vester had strongly suggested that idea as a brilliant visionary from a future paid employee.

Therefore, I had scheduled a law bar examination in the state of Mississippi on Monday morning, but I could not be in two places at once. The only expense was the gasoline in the car with a two-hour trip, east of Birmingham. I was smart enough to pay the law bar examination in advance, last year.

The owner of the diner shook her grayish locks and wore the same tan colored dress with brown large dots, every day, saying with sour frown. "Don't run a church service. Run a diner." She held up two fingers with a stern face. "Ya missed two times already, you scheduled work shift...."

"Ma'am, in my defense, I asked to take off two days for work for my school, since I started in January. I am a student."

She sneered, "Ya be a pretty thing and too dumb for school. So, ya gots a boy around here, playing for fun."

I looked down with a sad face to the floor. "No ma'am. I don't have a boyfriend," I looked up with a stern face to see her snarl. "I'm truly studying, very hard. I require lots of time to learn my academic subjects."

She exhaled. "Ya want off," she pointed up to the ceiling with a nod. "Then ya switch up with another waitress on her shift for next Monday. Then ya can have the entire day of Monday off, unless ya wanna quit."

I lifted both my palms with a nod and a fake smile. "No ma'am. I love waitressing here. I love the work and learn a lot. You're a good business owner."

She nodded with a smile. "Good to hear them words, if they be lies. But ya be a pretty thing. My customers like you. You be nice and smile all the time. My customers like girls that smile all the time, so they come back here and eat a plate of food all the time. And ya get the orders right, the first time. I like that. No screwing up expensive food. So, ya go and switch out your work shift with another girl. Then ya can be off next Monday." The owner of the diner spun around with a sneer and moved into the kitchen, looking over the food orders.

I continued to stand and nodded with a fake smile. "Thanks ma'am." I spun around and strolled to the milkshake machine, grabbing an empty paper cup, preparing one. I was allowed to eat food and drink beverages, free of charge. And I ate in-between the meal runs, since I couldn't maintain my weight with worry and stress.

The other waitress working with Nadean was older and more experienced and had been employed at the diner for many years, wearing the same tan colored dress with large brown dots. The owner and she must buy their clothes at the same dress shop. She spun around and moved ahead, gently bumping at the back spine on Nadean with a smirk. "Heard ya! You need off next Monday. I did works on Monday. I take your work shift."

I swung around with a smile, holding the cold milkshake. "Thanks..."

She smiled with a nod. "If ya give me all your money tips tonight," she turned and frowned at the glass entrance doors, "Slow night today on Wednesdays, everyone at church or home." She returned back and smiled at the cheekbone on Nadean. "Ya made good tips. I sees it. Ya smile and flirt with the males. They like that. Them bitch women, they tip nothing, but mouth spit. We gots a deal, sweetie?"

I placed the milkshake cup on top of the counter with a stern face and spun around, moving ahead to the cashier counter, reaching down, pulling out cash from my purse, since I stuffed the wad of cash down into the leather and then count it later, hoping for a second miracle. I counted out fifty-one dollars, which was a good night for a Wednesday evening. Then I stood upright and handed her the cash wad with a fake smile.

She accepted the unearned tips with a laugh and a nod. "Ya be a pretty and smart thing too. Where ya really going, honey? Seeing your man. I gots a man, too. He likes when I surprise him too."

I swung away from the cashier counter and moved ahead to the cookie box and then stopped. The cookie lid dropped on top of the clean counter. I grabbed and choked down a sweet cookie with the sweet milkshake, drowning out my sadness of life at the moment. No man. No money.

The door chime rang.

The entrance door opened.

A gang of four people entered into the diner and moved to the booth for a late evening snack.

The old waitress spun around and stared at the gang of people, saying with a sour frown and a whisper to Nadean, "Dang! A bunch of bratty teens, they leave big messes at the table. They sit in your table section too. Get them out quick! Then we close it down for the night, dearie."

I drunk down the milkshake for more energy leaving the empty cup on top of the counter, spinning around with whisper, "Ah, naw! It can't be." I exhaled with a puff of frustration and faked a smile, prissing ahead to my waitress table and then stopped. I smiled down at the male first. "Hi there, ya'll. Can I take your order, please?"

He looked with a gasp and parted his lips with a smile, trying to stand from the bench seating, wearing a brown colored business suit with a white dress shirt without a necktie, "Duchess!" Teague was trapped between the body on Zeeta and the solid wall.

"Hey, Teague, Eckward, Olivia, and Zeeta!" I faked a smile to each one of my former high school mates as I stood and worked as a lousy low-paying waitress with four college degrees. I held back the tears of total embarrassment.

Zeeta turned and laughed at Nadean, "I be right. Duchess be a stupid pretty thing. You can't seem to graduate college in five years. Maybe, you'll luck out by December of this year, honey."

Teague tried to stand again as Zeeta slapped her arm across the table edge and blocked his body from standing. He smiled, "Duchess, how are you doing, girl? You look really cute. I like your..." Zeeta reached over and stabbed at the tender naked forearm on Teague with a set of her fake long red painted fingernails. Teague scooted back into the wall and away from her set of long red fake fingernails, saying with a sour frown. "Stop crowding the seat, Kitten."

Eckward turned and smiled at Nadean, "Hey, Duchess! We are having two glasses of sweet tea, please."

I nodded to Eckward and turned with a wink and a smile to Teague, "What are you having, Tomcat?"

Teague winked with a smile, "Duchess!"

Zeeta tapped a set of her fake fingernails on top of the table surface, looking up with a sneer and her order to Nadean. "I want a diet soda. He will have a sweet tea. Could you bring us some menus for the dessert tray?"

Olivia pointed at the solid wall with a smile and a nod to Zeeta. "The desserts are listed here on the wall menu, Kitten," she turned and smiled to Nadean, patting Eckward on the arm. "I want a slice of lemon pie please. And please bring two forks, Duchess."

I wrote down the orders with a nod and a smile, "A slice of lemon pie and two forks for both Olivia and Eckward."

Eckward pointed the wall menu with a smile and then returned back to see sneering Zeeta. "There's pecan, apple, cherry, also. Which one do ya wanna stuff your face with Zeeta?"

Zeeta sneered at Nadean. "I wanna a menu. I want the waitress to bring me a menu."

I slipped the menu from underneath my armpit like a good waitress saying with a smile into her face. "There you go, ma'am. The customer is always right. We have pecan, apple, cherry, and lemon pies with vanilla ice cream. We also have fresh baked cookies, chocolate and oatmeal."

Zeeta did not accept the menu but sneered at Nadean. "I want cherry pie, heated with chocolate ice cream."

I shook my curls with a smile. "I am so sorry, ma'am. We don't carry chocolate ice cream."

Teague smiled at Nadean. "Give her vanilla ice cream on the damn pie," he turned and frowned at the nose profile of Zeeta. "And stop being an ass, Kitten."

I turned and winked to Teague, "Which tasty dessert do you desire, Tomcat?"

Zeeta sneered. "Tomcat desires a bite of my dessert, waitress."

"All righty! I be right back, ya'll," I winked at Teague and then spun around back to the counter, preparing each foot plate.

The elderly waitress in the ugly tan dress appeared and stood at the back spine on Nadean with a sneer. "Who they be? Ya know them?"

I giggled with my secret, "They be just some smart ass college students. I like to flirt with the cute males, getting a good tip, since the bitches pay only in mouth spit."

She laughed with a nod, "Ya be a quick study, dearie. And you can keep the tip from the young'uns, tonight. Them bitches control their men. Ya be not getting one copper penny from that gang of kids."

I finished slicing and loading each pie and each cold beverage, lifting up the heavy tray of food with my set of newly formed biceps, burning more energy, slowly returning back to my assigned dinner booth, since the rest of the diner was empty.

Teague shoved Zeeta from their side of the diner booth. Zeeta stood near the solid entrance wall with a sour frown and a soft hiss at Nadean. Teague stood upright on the floor, dashed to Nadean with a smile and then stopped, taking the heavy tray from her arms with ease. He slowly spun around and placed the food tray on top of an empty booth surface with a smile, passing out dishes of dessert to Olivia and Zeeta.

Nadean pulled up and stood beside him. Teague leaned over and cuddled her, as much as, he dared in front of Zeeta.

Zeeta sat back inside the booth, working on the pie with a sneer.

I turned and winked with a smile at his nose profile, "Why you here in B'ham, Tomcat, with your kitten?"

Teague grinned with a nod. "I passed my pharmacy examination getting my license last month. I came into B'ham for a job interview at the Birmingham Hospital."

I shook my hips and my ponytail, batting my eyelashes for fun. "Did you get the job, Tomcat?"

Zeeta chewed and swallowed the pie with a red filling over her lips. "Of course, he got the job. He's very smart unlike a former Brier graduate that can't read an English sentence or add a simple math equation."

Teague smiled with a nod at Nadean. "Man, I have high hopes. The job interview went really well. I was nervous but I think I did well."

I shook my hips into his body for fun. "You'll become a very good pharmacist. I'll get sick just to come to the Birmingham Hospital, Tomcat."

Eckward continued to sit and laughed with a nod. "I'd hold her to that promise, Tomcat. Since Duchess always does what she says." He scraped the last crumbs of the pie with a nod.

Zeeta dropped the fork down onto the plate with a loud tin and snarled at Nadean. "This pie is disgusting. The crust is soggy. The cherries are burnt. And the ice cream is bitter. I want fresh slice of cherry pie, now, waitress."

Olivia turned and frowned down at the empty plate of Zeeta. "You have eaten almost the entire thing, Zeeta."

Teague turned and sneered at Zeeta, reaching out, lifting up a forkful of the pie. He chewed with a nod. "The pie is very good. You need your sinuses cleaned out, Zeeta."

Zeeta sneered at Nadean. "I wanna a newer slice of new pie, waitress."

Eckward scooted out the booth and stood upright on top of the floor, assisting his girl Olivia out from the booth, leaning down with a whisper into her face. She scooted around Teague and Nadean heading to the entrance door without Eckward. Eckward spun around and frowned at the nose profile on Teague. "I drove here to B'ham. We need to go. It's getting late." He turned and frowned at Zeeta. "Get up, Zeeta! It's time to hit the road." Then Eckward turned and smiled at Nadean with a nod. "Bye, Duchess! Good luck in school."

I faked a smile and a nod. "Thanks, Eckward. Bye, ya'll."

Teague spun around and bowed both of his arms for a hug with Nadean. Zeeta swiftly stood upright from the booth and blocked his body, swinging around to his face with a fake smile. "I'm paying for our treat, Tomcat. I got it covered, darling. Go and get into the car like Bobcat says, sweetheart."

Teague winked with a smile at Nadean. "I hope that I see ya'll around Birmingham, Duchess." He moved ahead with a hum.

Zeeta moved ahead toward the counter cashier.

I slowly spun around followed the back spine on Teague and Zeeta to the entrance and exit glass door, saying with a smile and a nod. "Bye, Teague." I stopped and stood behind the counter with the cash register, staring at Zeeta.

Zeeta snarled with fury and tossed both arms in the air. "I am not paying for that piece of crap dessert, waitress. Your service was shitty along with your sucky attitude, waitress. I wanna talk with your supervisor."

I faked a smile. "I am so sorry. The diner is closing, ma'am. And the supervisor is not present, ma'am. I am sorry about your dessert dish, ma'am. There is no charge for the meal, ma'am. But thanks for coming to visit us, ya'll."

Zeeta leaned over with her big breasts onto the counter with a sneer and a sour breath. "And my tip is you stay clear of my cowboy, Nadean. If I ever catch you around him for any reason, I will pull out all that gorgeous hair from your naked scalp and claw out your pretty gray eyeballs from the sockets. Do you understand me, sweetie?" She stood upright with growl and spun around, moving to the closed door.

I smiled at her big ass. "Teague is your man, Kitten."

The entrance door opened.

Zeeta moved with a priss out the door and left the diner.

The entrance door closed behind the ass on Zeeta.

I dropped down behind the cashier counter and held back the tears of disappointment, grabbing and searched my purse. I found my wallet and opened it. I had to cover the non-paid meal of Zeeta's party.

I stood upright and rung up the food purchase on the cash register, paying with my own money.

The elderly waitress appeared and stood beside Nadean, sneering at the ass on Zeeta through the glass door, "Kids, now days, they're spoiled brats. Sorry. Ya lost out on that tip." She reached over and slapped the collar bone on Nadean with a nod and a smile, "But you be okay, girl. And you be honest, paying that owned money. Good thing, ya paid. The owner didn't like cheats."

"I don't cheat." I slapped the cash drawer shut and swung around to clean the dirty table for the last customer of the night.

11:11 p.m.

Shared townhouse of Nadean, Vester, and Vassar

(Six miles, south, from the diner)

Cold temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I parked my car and slid out with exhaustion from the day and the evening's waitress job.

The black tinted front door opened.

I entered inside and spun around, gently shutting the door, slowly spinning around to the staircase for some sleep. Vester and Vassar occupied the sofa and were surrounded by textbooks and notebooks, studying for each examination, wearing the same Burn U sweat suits with a pair of bare feet.

I rushed ahead to the staircase

Vester stood upright and reached out, grabbing one of her arms with a worried brow. "You're very late, Sis. Where have you been? It's passed eleven. We were really worried about your person."

I looked at the unpolished and dull wooden staircase with a stern face, "Lots of dirty dishes and stuff tonight."

Vester spun her around to face him and Vassar with a worried brow. "What happened, Nadean? Have you been crying? Are those tears? Your face is red and swollen."

"No," I looked down at the floor.

Vassar stood upright from the ratty sofa and moved closer to Nadean with a worried brow too.

Vester narrowed his eyelids at her nose profile with a worried brow. "What happened, Nadean? Did someone harm or attack you?"

I viewed the floor with a set of red and swollen eyeballs from crying with a meek tone. "No."

Vester frowned. "Tell us what happened! Or I'm contacting the police. Then we all will investigate this vital family matter."

I exhaled and viewed the floor, "Teague."

Vassar frowned. "Teague Haywood. Didn't he leave Burn U? Did he spot your person at the diner and harmed you, Nadean?"

I exhaled and viewed the floor. "Teague came into the diner for a piece of cherry pie."

Vester exhaled with a nod, hugging Nadean. "Teague is always accompanied with his high school friends Eckward, and Zeeta. They came, too. Correct?"

I nodded to the floor, "Yeah."

Vassar leaned over and hugged both his sister and twin brother with a sad frown. "Nadean, I'm truly sorry. They saw you waitressing your shitty low-paying job, secretly holding four college degrees."

I viewed the floor with a sad face of more tears. "I served their table."

Vester chuckled. "That bastard leave you good tip?"

I exhaled and viewed the floor. "That bitch wouldn't let him."

Vester laughed. "Zeeta will get her just rewards one day. Bad things happen to bad people."

I exhaled and viewed the floor. "I be, not bad."

Vester pulled back with a smile and a nod to see her hair roots. "You are the 'bestest' sister in the entire universe, Nadean. You have sacrificed your time, energy, money, resources, and everything to help me and Vassar attain our dream. We couldn't do it without you, sis. We can't pay you in lots of money, but we can pay you in lots of love. I love you, Nadean." He hugged her with a smile.

Vassar hugged her with a smile too. "I love you, Nadean."

I stood in the hug of four biceps and viewed the floor with a smile and more tears. "I love both of you, too."

Vassar pulled back with a smile and a nod to see the hair roots of Nadean. "But we can make Nadean some supper. We went shopping for food. I'll make you a fresh turkey sandwich followed by a slice of fresh baked pecan pie. You sit at the table. We will be your two personal waiters for the evening, Dr. Garland."

Her brothers released the hug and escorted Nadean to the table as they turned and entered the kitchen making lots of noise.

Her brothers returned into the living room with a smile and a plate of food for her midnight snack.

I smiled at my twin brothers with love.

Tuesday April 6th

10:10 p.m.

Shared townhouse of Nadean, Vester, and Vassar

Living room setting

Cool temperatures and clear night with bright stars

I parked the car in front of the house, sliding out for a night of rest from working another double shift in my blue jean shirt and pair of high heels. Things were moving swiftly for the Garland sub-family in Birmingham.

The front door opened.

I felt the wood on the front door slam into my ass as I saw the object with a worried brow. "Ah, shit!" I moved ahead and stomped to Vester, staring at the envelope. "Why didn't you open it?"

Vassar stood beside his brother in the same sweat suit and a pair of bare feet, surrounding his sister with a worried brow and a nod at the nose profile on Nadean. "Mrs. Crumb has sold the house that would be the most logic reason for sending a business letter to her rental property for her renting tenants."

I exhaled with a puff of frustration and a racing heart. "Naw, do not jump to that dangerous conclusion. Open it first. Read it with your naked eyeballs and your smart neurons."

Vassar said. "No."

Vester said. "You did the terrible honor, Sis."

I exhaled with concern and reached up, touching the smooth material and viewed my brothers with a worried brow. "Okay." I snatched and ripped it open, reading out loud. "Miss Garland..."

Vassar shook his blonde colored curls over his board shoulders with a worried brow. "We are so close to graduating in two more months..."

"Miss Garland, you have been scheduled for an appointment on Wednesday on April seventh at ten o'clock with Ima Gladdson." I looked with a worried brow to see Vester. "Uh ho! I see the lawyer tomorrow. Geez! How much money do we have left in someone else's bank account but mine? I have eighteen dollars and fifty-six cents." Each brother shook a head of curls with a worried brow. I exhaled. "Forget it. I'll think of something when I met with the sleazy lawyer for the second time. Maybe, after my second brilliance performance, he'll hire me for being a good lawyer. He was certainly impressed the first time, when you get a professional attorney calling you, a little bitch three times in a row. Look! Don't worry. We all believe that Brother Jesus takes care of us like we are taught in church, even thou we can't see, feel, touch, or hear his face or his hand right now."

Vester nodded with a grin, "Yes."

Vassar nodded with a grin, "Yeah."

I nodded with a fake smile. "Then, he will. You will complete your college degree and become brilliant engineers."

Tuesday April 7th

09:50 a.m.

Lawyer office of Ima Gladdson

Law Firm office setting

(3 miles, east, from the townhouse)

Warm temperatures and partly cloudy with sunlight

I parked my car inside a new parking lot at the unfamiliar law firm, sliding out and running to the front of the building. The entrance door of glass opened.

I wanted to be early to make a nice impression of being a good rental tenant. So I could plead to stay inside the townhouse for less than two more months. I entered and moved to the receptionist with a smile, wearing a clean pair of blue jeans, a loose red colored tee shirt, and my polished pair of pale blue and pink cowgirl boots. I had sold all my designer clothes for our rent money. I stood and stopped in front of the ancient wooden office desk, saying with a grin and a nod. "Hello, my name is Nadean Garland. I have an appointment at ten o'clock with Mr. Gladdson. I'm a little early too."

The gray-haired, elderly short woman in a dark blue long dress looked up with a smile at Nadean. "Please have a seat. I will contact Mr. Gladdson for you, Miss Garland." She stood and spun around moving down a narrow hallway in silence.

"Thank you." I back stepped into the one of the sofa, sitting with a nervous stomach and a pair of sweaty hands.

The law office possessed an array of warm browns and light tans with a living room setting of two long sofas, two loveseats, and a set of six sitting chairs with a low table in the middle of the room. The table held an assortment of colorful magazines. There was a fish tank of colorful small sized fishes in the wall corner with a book shelf of silver trophies of golf accomplishments in the other corner.

"Miss Garland, Mr. Gladdson will see you now," the woman returned and stood inside the archway. "Please follow me. I will escort you to his office."

I stood upright from the light tan cushions and followed her down a yellow colored hallway, seeing more family pictures on the wall and then stopped at the open door.

An elderly, gray-haired, short male with yellow teeth and a brown colored business suit stood upright from his dark colored wooden office desk with a stern face, moving to one of the sitting chair in brown leather with a hand wave. "Please come inside and sit down. I am sorry that we had to meet this way, Miss Garland. The shared information came very quickly with the final transaction. I hope you can understand my situation."

I moved inside and sat down on the edge of the chair with a stern face and a meek tone. "Yes sir."

He did not sat in the other leather chair but leaned against his office desk, extending a white colored envelope with a stern face to Nadean. "She placed everything inside the letter which is addressed to exclusively to you."

I accepted the envelope with a confused brow. "The letter is addressed to me and not my grandfather."

"I am afraid not. She specifically said to hand the letter to you."

"Yes sir." I looked down and opened the envelope with a gasp, reading in silence.

Nadean,

I am so sorry that we have had to meet under those circumstances for the last time.

You are the heir to everything.

I have always had a tit with my mama too. Bless her soul. I am with her now in heaven as I do believe as a spiritual Christian. I have been watching your progress from a chubby toddler into a lovely adult by way of my brother Urall.

I love Urall, the best of all my siblings. He is kind, patience, and understanding.

I feel you are the best of all your siblings and have all the very same qualities as my brother Urall.

Therefore, my entire estate property belongs to you. I wish you the best, sweetheart.

Love with kisses and hugs, Aunt Collie.

I looked up with a confused brow to see the elderly lawyer. "Aunt Collie has passed away into heaven."

He nodded. "Collie and I attended Brier High School together. She was a delight, but she lived in Miami. Florida."

"I have never been to her house..."

"It is your house, now, Nadean. Collie owned a house, the land property, and a bank account. She sold the furniture. The house is empty. Do you want me to sell the house for you? I can that being a lawyer."

I smiled. "I'm keeping the house."

He frowned. "The residence is located in Miami, Florida."

"I'm moving to Miami as soon as possible. I have a house. All paid. What about, ya know?" I frowned.

He nodded. "Her! Yes, Collie didn't want to burden you, Nadean. I am the executor of her Last Will and Testimony. You are the benefactor. She was cremated and buried within her written wishes."

I looked down to read the letter. "Aunt Collie always did things her own way. I admired her for that."

He smiled with a nod. "Collie was born unto a different age, an age of elegance and simplicity. She liked living her life both simple and secret. She was married and lived to be in her seventies."

I looked up with a stern face to see his smile. "Does my daddy know about this? Her?"

He nodded. "Yes, your entire family has been informed of her demise, not of your gifts. Collie did that, on purpose."

"I completely understand, on purpose. I have burnt my bridges, too many times."

He cocked his chin with a smirk. "You are very young to burn one bridge. You're around twenty-five years and newly graduated from the Burn U School of Law. Collie followed you, very closely."

I nodded with a grin. "Yes sir. I did. What about all the inheritance taxes from the Last Will and Testimony of Aunt Collie?"

"The estate bank accounts have already been robbed by Uncle Sam. Always remember, the US Federal Government comes first and then you come in second." He extended a chuckle and a check to Nadean with a smile. "All the inheritance taxes have been paid. You possess one million dollars with some odd cents."

I accepted and smiled down at the check. "I'm rich. One million dollars..."

"One million dollars is not a lot of money."

I looked up with a grin and a nod to see his frown. "For a poor college grad with fifteen dollars and thirty-eight cents inside her bank account, a million bucks is rich. Where do I sign the release form, sir?"

He leaned across the desk with a chuckle, reaching for the legal papers.

11:05 a.m.

Shared townhouse of college students

Nadean, Vester, and Vassar

Living room setting

Warm temperatures with bright sunshine

I raced my sports car from the law office, slamming the old brakes, sliding next to the old rust bucket car of my twin brothers. Then I exited my car and raced through the door with a smile and my two raised arms, standing inside the living room floor. "We don't have to move out of the townhouse. The lawyer's visit was announcing that Aunt Collie had died in Miami. She was in her seventies, so sad. She left me her house in the big bad city of Miami, Florida."

Vassar stood upright and wore a set of Burn U tee shirt and a matching pair of shorts along with his brother Vester. Vassar moved to Nadean with a set of parted lips, "You're going to move to Miami, Florida. When is this going to happen, Nadean?"

I held the stapled papers next to my grin with a nod. "I presented and passed my doctoral thesis, boys. I am official Dr. Nadean Orion Garland. I am done with my entire schooling. And I'm moving to Miami, as soon as possible. I have a house there. And I don't wanna go back and live with..."

"No." Vassar stood beside Vester with a smile and a nod to Nadean. "You live here with us for a few months. Take some time off of waitressing and studying. You need a vacation, Sis."

I shook my curls with a smile. "No. I don't wanna cramp your style. Both of you haven't dated any girls, since high school."

Vassar nodded with grin. "Work is very important to us, Nadean."

Vester nodded with a grin. "I believe that there is plenty of opportunity for our sister in Miami. You speak a total of three separate and foreign languages. I would suggest that you get a job using your Spanish skills. The hourly wage will be tremendous. And you can obtain work in a hospital setting with your new doctoral in the month of May. There is an immediate need for radiation physicists. The pay will be very good, Nadean."

I looked down with a stern face and shifted through the stack of papers, finding the other letter, reading out loud. "Aunt Collie provided a second letter with major repairs on the old house, mostly the interior. Needs paint. Refurnish the old bathtubs. Polish the wooden flooring. All cosmetic. Then, maybe, I will sell her big house for more bigger monies." I looked up with a sad face to see my twin brothers. "Granddaddy Sloan isn't looking too good. I don't think he'll make it before the summertime days. So I'm going to buy this old townhouse, so both of you can live here."

Vassar frowned. "We will receive a big monetary increase in our new salaries, once we get our college educated degrees. We can purchase the tiny townhouse from Mrs. Crumb with a bank loan."

Vester smiled. "Naw, I want Nadean to give us the house."

I lifted and presented two new objects with a smile to my twin brothers. "I have another present, a late birthday presents." I handed them the objects.

Vassar accepted the object with a gasp. "This is personal check for eleven thousand dollars in my Christian name."

I nodded with a smile. "There is a wealthy man's code. A person can give a family member up towards eleven thousand dollars per year, without paying any type of income taxes, either state or federal. You each will get a check from me this year, next year, and the year after that from the million bucks that Aunt Collie has left me."

Vassar extended his check back to Nadean, shaking his curls with a sad face. "We shouldn't take Nadean's money."

Vester reached out and grabbed Vassar's money check with a smile and a nod. "Actually, we shall take Nadean's money. Thanks, Sis."

I exhaled. "I would split the one million with you, but then we both have to pay big hefty income taxes in both state and federal monies."

Vester shook his curls, "That is pound foolish, Nadean."

Vassar frowned. "And what about giving our daddy some extra monies, too, Nadean?"

I exhaled, "Yeah, our daddy, is he having money trouble with the farm?"

Vester nodded, "Slightly mismanaged."

I frowned. "Damn, he needs a new accountant or a good lawyer." I smiled with a nod. "I think that I'll mosey back home and light a fire under someone's ass with my free paid college education."

Vester frowned. "Did you use all your beauty pageant monies?"

I nodded with a smile. "Every single invisible fifty percent copper penny for books, tuition, golf lessons, swimming lessons, racket ball lessons, flying lessons, including notebooks and..."

"...T-shirts. We found your Burn U and Bam U hidden stash of clothing. We thought that you had robbed the university book store at night like a thief for the worldly black market, needing some fast cash for to pay off the monthly rental and Mrs. Crumb," laughed Vassar.

I smiled. "I brought all that shit for ya'll. Pillow cases, towels, sheets, coats, jackets, hats, all your body clothing needs, you will never need to enter a college merchandise shop again. How are you doing on food?"

Vester nodded with a grin. "We eat all the time. We have paid meal tickets here on campus and free meals at work too, until we have to eat that shitty slop at our mom's house on Christmas day. And Vassar's taking a gourmet cooking class for fun."

Vassar frowned. "Are we going to attend Christmastime dinner and gift exchange, this year?"

I shook my curls, "Naw."

Vester frowned. "How are you going to explain the move to Miami, Florida, Sis?"

I grinned with a giggle, "Job offer, man! I'm smooth with it."

Vassar frowned, "And the free house?"

I grinned. "Our daddy is the only person that remembers that his sister Collie had lived in Miami. Our mom was too jealous, pissing out green pee from her eyeballs. I bet if I asked our mama about Collie..."

".... she'd spit out a set of rusty nails from her ass," laughed Vester.

Vassar laughed. "I'd like to see that fantastic double-feat, Vester."

"Me, three," I laughed and wiped away my tears of amusement.

Vester laughed. "Correct, Vassar! Dorcee can't remember that she has an aunt named Collie with her passel of kids."

"How many kids are in a passel, Vester?" I chuckled.

"Ask Dorcee that particular question?" Vester laughed.

"Five or six..." smiled Vassar.

I nodded with a grin. "I'm leaving you my car. Now, you both can go on separate dates."

Vester nodded with a smile. "Naw, we give our banged up car to Dorcee."

I grinned. "Good point! It can't travel much further than the cotton gin anyways. Thank goodness. The gin is only one-tenth of a mile down from our daddy's antebellum house. Dorcee can bring her husband Lance at baloney sandwich at lunchtime." I sobbed with a set of fresh wet tears, moving and hugging my twins bothers and pulled back with a smile. "I'm going to miss both of ya'll, my baby brothers."

Vester chuckled, "Your bigger brothers, both physically and intellectually, Sis."

I smiled with a nod. "Please come and visit me in Miami."
Present day and place

01:52 p.m.

City of Warrior

(20 miles, north, from metro city Birmingham)

Home of Nadean's landlord Mrs. Abercrombie

Dining room setting with FDA Inspector Teague and her two brothers

Cold temperatures and sunshine

Tall, slender, fifty plus years old, silver head Teague Haywood continues to sit inside a green colored metal folding chair and as it loudly squeaks in metal pain from his tall body while staring at a large thirty-inched plasma television screen on top of the dining room table with a stern face.

Tall, slender, fifty plus years old, black-haired with gray strands, Bobcat continues to sit in a second green colored metal folding chair also which produces the same tiny squeaks of metal pain from his tall body and points at the same plasma television screen with a stern face. "I did not notice any extra guns or extra security guys around the field, the coaches, or the players during warm-up exercises or during the coin toss. Does anyone else have a different feeling here?" He heard silence from each inspector and then nodded with a stern face. "The players have returned back into the locker room," he stood with a nod to see Teague.

Teague slowly stands upright from the metal chair and spins around with a stern face and a firm tone to see each inspector. "We got less than ten minutes before the start of the football game before each team runs back out onto the grass. That means Loyce is going to call OT," exhaling. "I wanna get a call trace on OT's personal mobile telephone. The number is 2055551313."

City of Birmingham within US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from the city of Warrior)

01:53 p.m.

Hidden underground cave of red clay and gray limestone rock setting

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

The mobile telephone rings into his eardrum.

Loyce continues to wear a set of Bam U clothes and smiles with his mental thought of becoming nicely and freely rich with nine million dollars from Uncle Sam within three hours, after the football game ends with the correct winning team. He had borrowed Nadean's personal trust fund bank account for a single money transaction, after stealing money from numerous personal saving accounts at the Third National Bank of Florida.

After Birmingham State University or Bam U wins the national championship football title, Loyce will claim the money in Nadean's name, but not by her person. The transaction will be completed by single mobile telephone call.

Yeah, you gotta love the on-live internet gambling system in the USA.

The two FDA agents Teague and Fulton will find Nadean inside an underground cavern, once OT tattles to the local law authorities, after the championship football game finishes, trying to save his mom's life.

However, Loyce will know if Nadean survives her mouse trap. If she wiggles too much, then the steel wire will neatly slice right through her tender flesh and her delicate bone. Then she will blood to death alone and cold inside the cavern underneath the red clay of Alabama.

Loyce scans the semi-naked body on Nadean underneath the light weight partial white cotton blanket, seeing only four limbs which are naked and exposed to the cool breeze inside the hidden underground cavern, feeling no desire of lust. He had been rejected numerous times by ugly and pretty females. He longs for the stillness of eternal peace alone and isolation for the rest of his years, without numerous television devices, telephones, laptop computers, and human faces.

At 01:54 pm, within the Warrior house, inside the dining room, short, black-haired, FDA Inspector code named Elf continues to sit in the dark wooden dining room chair at the matching dining room table and shakes his skull with a worried brow at the lousy FDA make-shift office and the terrible computer set up, staring at the screen on his FDA issued laptop computer. "I can't do that with this portal computer equipment here inside a stranger's home without the proper antennas and cable wiring, Tomcat. We have to run back to the FDA office..."

Inside the unknown underground cavern, Loyce's mobile telephone connects to OT's mobile telephone call system.

"Got it!" Vassar continues to sit at the dining room table and measures at six feet and seven inches of massive muscle, displaying a buzz cut of bright red colored hair, a pair of blue eye, and a tone of pink-tinted skin. He wears an orange colored turtleneck shirt with a pair of faded blue jeans and a pair of orange colored cowboy boots, typing on one laptop computer keyboard with a smile, switching over to use his more powerful personal computer laptop. "I am tracking OT's cell and he has an incoming call, Vester."

"Snatch it to my cell please." Vester stands at six feet and seven inches of massive muscle, displaying a buzz cut of bright red colored hair, a pair of blue eye, and a tone of pink-tinted skin. He wears a dark blue turtleneck, a pair of dark blue jeans and a pair of dark blue cowboy boots. Vester stands behind the skull on his twin brother, scanning the weird-ass numbers and Greek symbols plus the alphabetic letters from the personal computer code on Vassar's laptop. Tomcat and Bobcat move from the chairs and the television screen, huddling beside Vester with worry. The other FDA inspectors silently stand in a chair or sit in place also listening to the vocal interaction.

"Coming to you, Vester," Vassar nods with a grin and stares down at his computer screen.

The personal mobile telephone from Vester rings out loud with a southern song as each pair of eyeballs watches and every pair of eardrums listens to the one side conversation. Vester smirks and pressed the icon on the mobile telephone exposing the air waves with quiet while making the bastard wait and sweat with worry. He slowly lifts up and presses the mobile telephone into an eardrum, rambling in baritone timber like his blood-kin nephew with a smile, "OT, here."

Inside the unknown underground cavern, Loyce smiles, "Hello there, young man. OT, may I call you, OT?"

Vester exhales, "Yeah, who ya be, sir."

Loyce grins on his mobile telephone. "My name is not important, OT. My message is vitally important, son."

"Message please, sir."

Loyce nods with a grin. "Your mom instructed you very well, son. And speaking of your mom, I have drugged and kidnapped her for my evil plot. I want you to throw the national championship game today for Burn U in favor of the opposing team. I am desirous of win for Bam U as a very devoted football fan and alumni."

Vester sneers into the phone, "Ya be a fucking son of bitch, sir. I wanna talk to my mama, pronto."

Loyce frowns. "Southern gentlemen do not cuss, sir. Now, your mom is safe and sound at the moment. But the next three hours might entail a different fairy tale ending. Now, I will repeat this twice. You will toss the national championship title to Bam U for the win."

Vester growls, "I'll throw the gawd damn championship game, dude. I wanna talk to my mama, now, sir."

Loyce smiles, "Once you have tossed the game and Bam U holds the shiny trophy, then I will text to your mobile telephone, her secretively hidden latitude and longitude geo-physical coordinates for her rescue."

Vester exhales with true worry for the life of his sister. "I understand. I will do that and you do not harm my mama, sir."

Loyce drops the telephone devise from his eardrum, disconnecting the call with a chuckle and a grin.

At 01:55 pm, static sounds over the disconnected mobile telephone call on Vester's phone.

Within the Warrior house, inside the dining room, Vester removes the mobile phone with a worried brow and views each face. "Loyce has drugged and kidnapped Nadean and he has kindly asked that OT toss the game for Bam U to win the National Championship title. Loyce will relay the hidden location at the end of the game." He frowns at Teague. "But OT doesn't and won't know anything has taken place, isn't that correct, Teague?"

Teague nods with a stern face and a serious tone. "Right, Vester! Vassar, gimme some land coordinates! We save Duchess and kill Loyce. And I get to kill the bastard alone. So, all of you just stand back away from flying red blood," he laughs with some of the inspectors.

Vassar shakes his red colored buzz cut, typing on the laptop with a worried brow and a serious tone, "Sorry, Vester! Loyce is a bastard-genius like me and you."

Teague gasps in worry. "Did you track his cell? I saw you typing and recording Loyce's voice message. Where is Duchess' hidden location, Vassar?"

Vassar continued to type on the computer keyboard with a nod and a stern face. "Yes, I had captured his incoming telephone call from his personal mobile telephone 2055557160. I successfully routed the incoming mobile telephone directly into Vester's cell phone. However, the original transmission was pinged from three separate geo-physical locations as I traced it backward. The pings came from Tokyo, Japan, London, England, and then Birmingham, Alabama."

"What!" Teague hisses. "And tell me again! Why can't you gimme the land coordinates with your alien software? The bastard was clearly on the cell for long enough to capture the information."

Average height and weight, dark skinned, blonde haired, FDA Inspector nicknamed Duckie enters the dining room after retrieving a set of additional television sets, strolling through the dining room table for visual verification, spying on all FDA inspectors with a musical whistle.

All eyeballs and eardrums turn and stare at one of the numerous televisions sets of the National Championship Game between the Birmingham University Bolts and the Birmingham State.

01:56 p.m.

City of Birmingham within the State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from Warrior)

Hidden underground cavern with red clay soil and gray limestone walls

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

I hear the one-side conversation from Loyce and tug at the wire on my right ankle bone, feeling the burn on my skin, closing my eyelashes, breathing slowly.

Loyce smiles at an outstretched, helpless, and tied down body of Nadean. "OT understands my simple request. Or I might have to employ the solo but effective sharpshooter at my personal disposal." He exhales with a sour frown. "However, in the end, you will be saved Nadean. Good luck. Good bye." He back steps from her naked bed mattress and spins around, moving through the cavern, leaving Nadean through the secret exit.

I open my eyelashes, seeing a dirt ceiling, a dirt wall, and no sign of Loyce, exhaling with a heavy puff and feel the burn on my left wrist bone. I close my eyelashes, thinking of emptiness, nothingness, seeing darkness, where no pain or worry or sadness or happiness lives within my active and worried mind.

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on a right wrist bone, relaxing my mind and my body while waiting for a rescue from my enemy Loyce or my son OT.

I rest uncomfortably with both my outstretched arms and legs in a spread eagle that is posed on top of a naked mattress, patiently waiting on bank recovery employee Duff Loyce from the Third National Bank of Florida to return back here.

I am secretly located inside an underground cavern inside metro city Birmingham within the State of Alabama, hanging on literally by two wrist bones and two ankle bones until the National University championship football game started at two in the afternoon and ended today at five in the afternoon.

And I silently pray for my son Orion Tanner.

OT is the current superstar linebacker for the Birmingham University football team.

Loyce has threatened to kill OT and his mother Nadean, if OT does not blow the championship game and ensure a huge money payment to Loyce for a gambling bet of nine million dollars on the opposing team Birmingham State University football team as the champs of the national football game.

I do not know the numeric football score or the medical condition of OT, since I am still tied down by two ankle bones and two wrist bones with a set of four individual wires that are mounted and perched down from a dirt ceiling, going down onto a bed mattress. A set of four wires drops down to the bed mattress and then attaches to my flat body.

I am semi-naked, cold, blooding, mad, scared, frighten, and throbbing with intense continuous aching pain. With each shallow of mouth salvia or a single breath, one of four wires slices and then slowly burns into my delicate skin with both pain and blood at an ankle bone or a wrist bone.

I slowly exhale and close my eyelashes, relaxing with my physical body.

My mental mind continues to daydream away the clicking time and the physical pain, concentrating and reliving more specific moments of my past adult life.

Thirty-two years old Nadean and her two-year-old son OT

12:12 p.m.

Saturday March 23rd

City of Coral Gables

Home of Nadean and husband Winfred Sims

Florida room setting of peach walls and tan colored furniture

Hot temperatures and sunshine

The purple colored old fashioned landline telephone rang out loud with a long ting sound on top of the tiny side table on the side wall of peach and next to the television cabinet in light pine wood.

The Florida room contained four peach colored walls inside a long rectangular room that contained the dining room space, the living room, the den space, and the Florida room all in one place.

I wore a pair of pale blue linen walking shorts, a matching short-sleeved shirt, and a pair of bare feet, moving ahead from the gray sofa to the wall and then stopped, standing upright, lifting the telephone receiver into an ear, saying with a smile to the familiar greeting baritone voice, "Hey, Vester!" I stood against the peach wall between the television cabinet and the row of glass windows, staring at my manicured green colored yard. I paused and listened to the voice on Vester on the other end of the telephone receiver. I frowned. "What the fuck? What did she do now?"

Pause.

I pointed up with a sour frown and a nod to the white tinted ceiling planks. "I'm catching an airplane flight. I'll be there in Bama in about four hours. And you tell that bitch, Nadean says to shut her trap, before I pop her mouth with my fist. What is our dad's take on this situation?"

Pause.

I looked down with a stern face to see my bare feet. "He's a silence partner, as usual. And what about that little bitchette named Dorcee?"

Pause.

I exhaled. "It's her bitching, as usual. So, you tell our mama-bitch and that little bitchette Dorcee that I'm driving to the airport, as we speak. That'll scare her shitless and shut her lips too."

Pause.

I smiled down at my bare feet. "I love you, Vester and tell Vassar, I love him, too."

Pause.

I giggled at my bare feet. "I promise. I will not start World War Three. I'm just wrapping up a sea battle in the Caribbean, okay? You're my family, the only brothers that I got and the only ones that I want."

Pause.

I looked up with a sour frown see Winfred. He wore a pair of white colored walking shorts and a matching shirt and a pair of white athletic sneakers frowning back in silence at Nadean. I smiled with a nod, hearing the voice of my brother on the telephone. "Love to both of ya'll too. Hang tight. I'm coming with whips and pistols."

Pause.

"Bye." I turned and slammed down the telephone receiver. "Shit."

Winfred stood in the middle of the Florida room and wore a sour frown to Nadean, holding a water bottle. "The conversation sounds volatile."

I moved and turned with a sour frown to my master bedroom, crossing the archway. "My brothers are getting married next Sunday at our church in Brier."

Winfred followed behind his wife Nadean, shaking his brown haired boney skull with a confused brow and stopped, standing inside their master bedroom. "That's very unexpected and quick. Is it a shotgun wedding as you southerns say and share?"

On the side wall inside the Florida room, across a narrow hallway of more peach walls, the master bedroom suite stood first in a row beside three other bedrooms with an individual bathroom and two walls of glass windows, typical bedroom furniture consisting of a king-sized bed mattress, two dresser chests, and two nightstands in light wood.

I turned and slammed open my personal wardrobe closet door. Our master bedroom had two separate closets for two separate adults with lots of clothing items. I reached out and grabbed a small traveling bag, dropping it down to the floor. I look up and down inside my closet and selected the most appropriate travel items for my sudden trip back to my home state of Alabama. "You could say that I guess. They need me up there to wrap up the last minute details that my mama doesn't want to handle for them, her only sons and my loving brothers."

He frowned at her back spine. "That's so very usually strange. Your mom is usually very cordial and polite to everyone."

I squatted down, loaded, and zipped up a small tan colored clothing bag, standing upright with a sign, swinging around with a sour frown to see Winfred. "Something's up her white lace panties beside her hairy ass at the moment. She refuses to help, because this is quick and quiet. Ya know, my mama only likes things loud and loose."

He frowned. "What about us attending the wedding?"

"We're invited, next week. Vester and Vassar are footing the entire bill as the groom's family which includes both airfare and hotel reservation, since I don't like and don't enjoy and don't stay with my rude and stupid biological parents. Please pick our son OT up from your mama's house. Ya'll both hop a plane today. We can leave OT at my mama's for the week, big boy." I moved and stopped in front of his frown, leaning over and kissed him, pulling back with a wink and a smile. "We can play house, without the baby." I leaned over and rubbed my hands and my body, touching him in the right spots with a giggle.

Winfred giggled with a smile, "All right. I'll catch the next flight. Be careful. Do not upset the family, too much. I love you, Nadean." He kissed her and pulled back with a grin.

"Love ya, too, Winfred! See ya'll later today!" I spun around and moved ahead, holding my travel bag and my purse with money and car keys, through the bedroom, the living room, and the closed door of the laundry room which leads down the stair and into the garage.

The Florida room side door closed.

04:04 p.m.

City of Brier in US State of Alabama

(747 miles, southwest, from city of Coral Gables, Florida)

Cool temperatures and partly cloudy with sunshine

Home of Jadean and Urall Garland

Kitchen setting of dull orange colors

The kitchen space displayed a rectangular shaped which was divided by an ugly long orange colored fake wooden eating bar. One side exhibited all the dull looking white colored kitchen appliances including the wash sink. The other side detailed a dark wooden rectangular shaped breakfast table with six chairs behind the same dull colored yellow tinted wallpaper with pods of scattered oranges in a pile.

I stood in front of the breakfast table and wore a pair of blue jeans, a long-sleeved pale blue sweater, and a pair of black cowgirl boots. I stood beside my older twin brother Vester with a smile and leaned against the peeling dull yellow colored wall that held the scattered pictures of fruit oranges on the side kitchen wall.

Vester wore a pair of dark blue jeans, a white colored tee shirt, and a pair of tan colored flip-flops, displaying a height of six feet and seven inches, shoulder length red colored hair, and a tone of pink tinted skin, and a pair of blue eyes. He stood beside his sister Nadean and wrapped an arm around the collar bone on his twin brother Vassar, who was a duplicate of Vester. Vester smiled with a nod to his parents and his baby sister Dorcee. "We're gay and we're getting married..."

"...to each other," Jadean sat at the dark wooden breakfast table inside the breakfast room which was the other side of the kitchen space and parted her lips, jabbing a finger at each biological son with a sour tone. She wore an ancient red and tan colored wool ankle-length dress and a pair of brown colored socks, a bun of black colored hair with a few strands of gray. Jadean displayed a short body frame with dark, weather skin, and a pair of brown eyes.

I lifted up in the air and then slapped down both of my hands over my naked legs wearing a sour frown. "Gawd! No. Don't be a sick and mental motherfucker, Mama. They each have a partner for sex and love and kisses and hugs."

Vester smiled as he was used to that violent and nasty reaction. "Me and Vassar are gay."

Dorcee continued to sit at the breakfast table next to Jadean and displayed a short, overweight body frame with short black colored pixie hair style, a tone of pale skin and a pair of green eyes, wearing a long dark brown wool ankle-length dress with a pair of long sleeves and a pair of green colored socks over each naked foot.

Her husband Lance was working at the cotton gin down the street and all of her children were playing outside in the slightly cold weather away from the house near the row of barns.

At the breakfast table, Dorcee jabbed a finger with a puzzled brow at each twin brother. "You're gay. He's gay too."

I turned and sneered at Dorcee. "You speak like your chewing these words with a nasty cockroach, bitchette."

"Do not use vile words, slick." Urall shook his skull, sitting at the breakfast table next to Dorcee, staring with a blank face at each one of his biological sons. He displayed a tall body frame with a slender built, a tone of weather dark skin, and a head of gray hair, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a red, brown, and green flannel shirt, and a pair of worn and unpolished brown cowboy boots.

I jabbed a finger at my sister with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Then tell my vile sister to shut her fucking mouth chewing on crow's feet! I ain't taking ya'll's horse crap here. I'm an adult with a higher IQ. Vester and Vassar are two grown adults with extremely higher IQs given to them by Almighty God, Himself..."

"The Bible..." Jadean stared with a sour frown at her twin biological sons.

I nodded with a smile, hugging onto the waistline of Vester. "And Almighty God made all of us equally and lovingly within His seeing eyeballs, not fucking yours." I swing around with a wink and a smile to see Vester.

Vester said with a smile and a nod to his mother. "Thank you, Nadean, for your kind and understanding loving words both wise and just."

I reached and slapped his bicep with a smile. "I love both of ya'll, my gay brothers," giggling.

Vester nodded with a smile to each family member. "We each have met the perfect partner and plan to spend the rest of our lives in happiness. We want to get married next Sunday at the church here in Brier."

Jadean frowned at her biological sons. "This be a total shock."

I eye rolled and frowned to Jadean. "The shocker is that you have refused to assist your sons with their lovely moment in life which has pissed me off to heaven."

Jadean frowned, "Really, Nadean! Ya learned to talkie like a whore? Where be the southern manners I instilled into you?"

I giggled. "They had live and then died in the US State of Florida." I reached and slammed the bicep of Vester again. He chuckled. I said with a stern face. "Don't label people, Mama. Dorcee was a whore, since she was fifteen years old. You love her. Why are my brothers any different?"

Dorcee jabbed a finger with a sour frown at her older sister, "Ya a meanie, Nadean."

"You're a snake, Dorcee."

"Ya be a bitch."

"You're a cunt."

"Stop it, girls!" Jadean yelled with a sour frown at her girls as the cat fight ceased.

Dorcee turned and smirked to her twin brothers. "The majority rule, a democracy wins. It says 'naw' on the church wedding."

I turned and frowned to Jadean. "This house is ruled by a dictatorship. There's never been a democracy here."

Dorcee nodded with a giggle. "It is now."

I moved from the side kitchen wall and stopped in front of the breakfast table, shifting my shoulder purse in front of my face, reaching inside and pulled out a black colored hand pistol from my dark blue tinted purse. I lifted it from my purse for my planned drama show with a stern face, gently resting it on the wooden table with the cold barrel pointed to me. Since it was empty and smelled clean from the metal fluid. "A dictatorship, which is mine," I looked up with a smile and a nod to Jadean.

Jadean swiftly stood upright from the table, slamming the rear of the chair into the dull white colored wall and shuffled from the breakfast table with a worried brow, looking down at the hand gun. "Good Lord, Nadean! Put that weapon down and away from your loving family."

I turned and frowned at the other family members at the breakfast table. "What loving family? I hear a bunch of wussie babies, crying for their spilled milk. What do you say, Daddy?" He shrugged a shoulder in silence. I turned and smiled at my other family members at the breakfast table. "Good. I'm the sheriff here with my cute little gun. We start with requests which will be followed by wishes and then followed by complains next to the last, Mama. And finally the whines come last, Dorcee." I turned with a smile and a nod to see my twin brothers. "What do you request, dear brothers of mine?"

Vester smiled at his mom Jadean. "Our personal effects, such as, photographers and trophies, we couldn't move them during the first exodus, since we moved and lived with Nadean in the townhouse..."

"Pfft!" Jadean frowned at her two biological sons, "That my daddy paid with his last breath and last penny. Then ya'll destroyed and had to buy it for cheap, whilest my daddy died a poor man."

I turned and sneered to Jadean. "Grandfather Sloan didn't die penniless, Mama. And we didn't destroy it. I purchased the townhouse, after I got a good job with my free college education from the beauty pageant monies." I turned with a smile and a nod to my brothers. "The answer is yes. You may take and keep all your childhood stuff. Then I gave the townhouse to both my dear brothers. What else, Vester?"

Vester talked for his twin brother, since the twin Vassar was afraid of his mother Jadean. He nodded with a smile to Jadean. "Vassar and I would like the usage of our mama's good china bone placement settings, since the color selection of the delicate plates is both old and blue for good luck."

Jadean folded her arms, shaking her curls with a sour scowl to her two biological sons, "Naw."

I said with a nod and a smile to Jadean, "Granted, my brothers! Shut the fuck up, Mama. What else?"

Vester pointed to each kitchen wall with a nod and a smile. "We would like some family portraits to decorate our new home with wonderful memoires of our loving family?"

Jadean unfolded her arms, shaking her curls with a sour scowl to her two biological sons, "Naw."

I giggled with a nod, pointing to each wall. "Okay. Just the ones that I'm at my cuteness! Then it will be granted, ya'll. What else, brother dears?"

Vester nodded with a smile to Jadean. "Mama, you are a talented artist. We would like a couple of your individual art pieces for our new home."

Jadean shook her gray colored curls with a sour scowl to her two biological sons, "Naw."

I turned and frowned to my brothers, "Hmm! I can't grant that request, since those are our mama's personal property sorta kinda, since I do understand property rights as a licensed lawyer. But bros, I can help you there. I possess three individual art pieces that were painted by our feisty mother that I'll gladly bequeath to your new homestead. How's that?"

Vester leaned over and hugged his sister with a smile. "You're an angel, Nadean. That ends our requesting list." He pulled back and stood with his twin brother against the dull white colored side wall from years of accumulated cooking grease.

I turned and giggled with a wink to my twin brother Vassar, "How about some new kittens or puppies? I know there're usually a couple running away from mama's hatchet tomorrow."

Vassar chuckled.

Vester chuckled with a smile, "Good idea! Maybe, a couple of kittens for our home with a couple of loving pets."

I turned with a smile and a nod to see Urall. "And let's add the yearly cow meat, well, make that two dead cows. Since my twin brothers eat like a pair of hungry bears. Ain't that right, Daddy?" Urall nodded with a bland face in silence as I say with a smile. "And some pigs for a barbeque and some greens from the house gardens." Urall nodded with a bland face for a second time in silence.

Dorcee continued to sit at the table and exhaled with annoyance. "Why not the rest of the cotton crops, Nadean? You've taken all of our farm goods."

I turned with a lady sneer and a sour frown to see my sister. "Did I ask you a fucking ass question? Naw, I did not, sister-damnest," I turned with a smile and a nod to see my brothers. "What are your wishes?"

Vester turned with a smile and a nod to his loving family. "We wish for our perfect wedding to be inside the church, next Sunday afternoon. We will decorate the church, supplying all the flowers. We have a preacher-woman for our ceremony even though the US Federal Government does not recognize same-sex marriages."

I nodded with a smile to him, "Granted, brothers dear."

Dorcee frowned at her twin brothers. "That's Almighty God's church, not their..."

I turned with a stern face to see Urall. "Daddy, you're an elder or something high up in the church, ain't that right, sir?" He nodded with a bland face in silence. I asked with a smile. "May your sons use the church for their happy union with their partners?" Urall nodded with a bland face in silence. I turned with a smile and a nod to my brothers, "Granted, brothers. What's another wish?"

Vester leaned over and hugged his twin, saying with a nod and a smile to all his family members. "We wish all our family to attend our happy company, next Sunday."

I said with a nod and a smile to my brothers, "I'll be present with Winfred and OT," I turned with a sour frown to see the rest of my family at the breakfast table and my mother in the wall corner. "Who else wants to join me? Daddy will." Urall nodded with a bland face in silence. I say with a grin and a giggle. "And our mama Jadean and our loving sister Dorcee with her entire passel of spoiled brats too. Yay! There will be a full house for your joyous wedding ceremony." I turned and hugged both Vester and Vassar, pulling back with a smile and a nod. "A full antebellum house of belles and beaus for the wedding of the century, next Sunday," I hugged my brothers again, pulling back with a smile. "Do you need help with any arrangements or supplies for the blessed event, Vester or Vassar?"

Vester smiled. "No, Nadean. We have everything planned to the second." He leaned down and pecked her cheekbone, pulling back with a whisper and a smile. "Thank you so much, Sis. Our wedding means so much to us with all our family members happy or not, but you mean the most to us, Nadean."

I leaned over and hugged him with a smile. "I love you, Vester." I turned and hugged Vassar with a smile. "I love ya, Vassar."

Vassar whispered into her ear with a smile. "Thanks, too. I love you, Nadean."

I pulled back with smile and a nod, "How about moving of your personal possessions from this house now or later?"

Vassar and Vester moved out from the kitchen space and advance to the front door. Vester yelled out loud and reached the closed door, "That is taken care of. My boys are coming to the door as we speak."

Jadean, Urall, Dorcee, and Nadean slowly moved out from the kitchen space and huddled inside the wide archway that led into the brown tinted living room space, staring at the commotion.

The front door opened.

Two handsome, tall, blonde-haired men entered into living room and wore a pair of blue jeans, a white tee shirt, and a pair of white athletic shoes, nodding in silence with a smile to each family member, following the back spine on Vassar. Each one quickly climbed the ancient grand staircase within the tense family atmosphere holding an array of heavy emotions.

I nodded to Vester with a smile, "Covered." I giggled and shuffled into the narrow dull white colored hallway that held extra social rooms and numerous framed family portraits, touching each one with a smile and stopped at one particular glass frame with a smile. "O! Let us pick the portraits for your new house. I love this picture of us down this hallway. We're so happy and smiling with no food particles between your front teeth, Vester."

Vester followed Nadean and stopped, patting her shoulder with a smile and a nod at the family portrait. "Dorcee is not rolling her eyes. Daddy is not yawning. Yes. You have a good eye, Nadean. This is the right portrait to remind us of our loving family," he turned and smiled to Jadean, pointing at to the photography. "Is this okay with you, Mama?"

I turned with a sour frown and a sweet tone to see Jadean. "Yes. Our mother is cool with it, Bro. Ain't that right, Mama?" Jadean frowned in silent angry at Nadean. Vester reached and removed the family photograph, leaning and placing it against the wall for the pickup.

I turned with a smile, moving down the narrow dark hallway to a storage closet and opened the door, squatting and rattling the box. "I got another idea for your family portraits, Vester. This here old cardboard box contains all our baby and Brier elementary, middle, and high school pictures. You should take the box home, pull out the photos you like best, and start you own scrap book of the Garland family. Then we can add to it each year your own personal pictures with your loving family. How's that?" I nodded with a giggle, pulling the box from the dark space.

Vester moved and squatted, staring down with a smile at the open box of numerous colored photographs, "Nifty idea, Nadean." He reached and lifted the box into his chest with a smile, sorting through some of the old colored photographs with a set of good memories, turning and moving out the narrow hallway and stood near the front door and watched the moving crew of Vassar and their partners.

I giggled, standing and moving out of the narrow hallway, looking with a smile to my mama and stood beside Vester. "Life's so easy. All's ya'll gotta do is ask and then they give it up, so you can receive it all."

Vassar and their partners toted out numerous cardboard boxes and several cloth bags from Jadean's house and placed inside a set of separate cars, until they had collected all the personal items. On the last trip, their partners did not come back into Jadean's house, but Vester and Vassar stayed, standing next to Nadean.

Dorcee side stepped and sat on top of the sofa, watching Nadean and the other men, sipping on the soda. Her lips stopped sucking and sneered. "You're still a bitch, Nadean."

Vester said with a smile and a nod to his parents. "We've collected our precious items. We're very grateful for the family cooperation. We'll see everyone at two pm sharp next Sunday at the Brier Church."

I smiled at Jadean. "Did you get our mama's china bone eating plates, bro?"

Vester smiled to Jadean. "Yes. Vassar collected the plates for our loving family members to share and remember on next Sunday after our wedded bliss."

I turned and smiled to my brothers. "Excellent! We will all see you next Sunday at two pm sharp at the Brier church for the big marriage day. You call me for anything. I will come right back here in Bama any day or night, Vester." I moved and stood in front of him with a nod and a smile.

Vester leaned down into her face with a smile and a whisper, "Big Sis to the rescue."

I smiled with a wink to his face. "Hell yeah! I'm only a whisper away."

Vester stood upright and continued to stand beside Nadean waving with a silly hand motion along with Vassar's silly hand motion and silence voice to each one of his biological parents. Vester always talked for the twins. "Bye, Nadean, Mama, Daddy, Dorcee."

I leaned over and hugged Vassar and Vester at the same time with a smile and a whisper, "Bye, Vester and Vassar! Say 'hi' to your new partners for me." I pulled back with a wave and a smile.

They left the home of Jadean and Urall Garland for the last time starting their new life.

I spun around to face the entrance wall and moved to the front door, following them, seeing them load the items into their individual cars. All the cars turned and drove away from Jadean's house and Nadean.

The front door closed.

I exhaled with annoyance and spun around with a sour frown and a matching tone to see Jadean. "You must stop labeling people, Mama. It's not right or nice or Christian."

Jadean frowned at the closed door. "And they are Christian?"

I thumbed over my collar bone to the front door with a sour frown. "And they are your two sons that Almighty God made along with each one of us. Jeezus, Mama. Go and ask Almighty God why he did it, because Vester and Vassar can't answer that profound fucking ass God Almighty question."

"I'm truly shocked that my brothers are gay, and they're illegally marrying another set of males in our Christian church here in our Christian town of Brier. The whole town will know and gossip about us and them, Nadean." Dorcee turned and frowned at the closed door, sipping on her beverage.

I moved ahead and sat down inside the oversized ratty brown colored chair with a giggle and a grin, "I've known for some time but living away from them cemented my suspicion."

Dorcee turned and frowned to Nadean. "Why ya not tattle to us then?"

I grinned. "I didn't tattle that you were a teen whore, Dorcee. Did you feel better, girlfriend?"

Dorcee sneered. "Ya be a bitch, Nadean."

The weathered dark wooden front door sounded with a knock and then opened. Two-year-old OT ran inside with a grin and a giggle to his mother Nadean, standing over three feet high at two years of age, possessing a head of long silver tinted curly locks, and a tone of dark skin like his mother Nadean also. He wore a pair of blue jeans, a red colored sweater, a blue colored winter coat, and a pair of dark blue cowboy boots for the winter weather in Alabama.

Winfred entered into the living room and wore a smile with a nod to each family, moving ahead and stood behind OT. "Good afternoon, Jadean, Urall, Dorcee." He wore a pair of blue jeans, an orange colored sweater, and a pair of white athletic sneakers with a dark brown winter coat.

I swiftly stood upright from the chair and spun around, kneeling on the carpet, catching my son. I pulled him to my breasts with a smile, "Hi, OT and OT's daddy!" I leaned down and cuddled my child, saying with a smile. "I love you, cowboy." I kissed his baby face, pulling back with a smile.

OT smiled, "Grrr-ma." Two-year-old OT turned with a grin and a giggle and ran to his grandmother Jadean, giving her a hug at the kneecaps.

I stood and turned, trotting into the kitchen, sliding the hand gun back into my purse, returning to the living room, placing my purse on top of the highest book shelf out of way of the family members and my son.

Jadean knelt down with a smile, cuddling and kissing his face, "Feed the ponies, OT."

OT bounced up and down between her arms with a smile and a nod, "Po-po."

Jadean stood, turning with a smile, holding the tiny hand of OT turn and left the living room.

Urall and Dorcee sat on the sofa with a set of stern faces.

Winfred scanned an empty and quiet living room, thumbing over his collar bone to the closed front door, moving with a confused brow to Nadean. "I saw a parade of cars. Is everything all right in here? The house looks normal." He cuddled Nadean, sitting on the loveseat, leaned down with whisper into her eardrum. "I recognized your hillbilly weapon from the guest bedroom. Why did you bring a hand gun to your parent's house, Nadean?"

I said with a grin and a giggle to all eardrums. "Vester and Vassar are gay and are getting married at the church next Sunday..."

"...to each other?" Winfred frowned.

I reached and slapped his bicep with a stern face, "Naw."

Dorcee giggled. "Winfred thinks like I do."

I turned and frowned to my baby sister, "Jeezus! Dorcee and Winfred, both of you are something different from Almighty God."

"Nadean has parted the Red Sea, chopped down the cherry tree, and saved the cotton crop from the Yankees, because Almighty God told her too. This is ended. Let's eat some supper, ya'll." Urall stood and led into the kitchen with a smile and a nod.
Present day and place

02:05 p.m.

(24 miles, south, from Warrior)

City of Birmingham within the State of Alabama

Hidden underground cavern with red clay soil and gray limestone rock walls

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on my left ankle bone, slowly exhaling, closing my eyelashes. I relax within my aching body as my mental mind daydreams away the wasted time and the physical pain, concentrating and reliving another specific moment from my past adult life.

Thirty-four years old Nadean and her four-year-old son OT

Friday April 21st

12:02 a.m.

City of Coral Gables within the US State of Florida

Sedan trip of Winfred and Nadean south on Interstate 95

Tiara Ball business event

Warm temperatures with bright stars and dark sky

Winfred drove his silver tinted four-door sedan back home to their home in the city Coral Gables from a social dance and dinner engagement at the Miami Hotel, wearing a black colored tuxedo with a pale blue bowtie, saying with a sour frown and a matching tone to the dark roadway but for Nadean. "Why did you dance with Wilson?"

I looked out the front window shield with a smile into the darkness, sitting in the front passenger seat, wearing a fluffy pink colored evening gown with a pair of matching sandals, long silver tinted hair, dark suntanned skin without makeup but slight pink lipstick. "Because, he was a gentleman and asked me."

"You should've turned him down. You act like a..." he turned and glanced at her dress. "Why did you wear that matronly thing?" He returned back to driving with a sour frown.

I smiled and leaned down, rubbing my feet from dancing with a set of numerous males. Winfred did not dance, since he did not have rhythm with the music. So I had enjoyed dancing with every married man, who innocently flirted with me at every single social dance function. I exhaled with exhaustion. "We just attended the Tiara Ball. I saw lots of women wearing this old thing plus a tiara. I'm just fitting in. You told me to 'fit in' and 'be the trophy wife,' Winfred."

He drove with a sour frown. "Why did you lie? Your rhinestone tiara and necklace are totally fake, Nadean."

I shook my curls and stared out the windshield, reaching up, touching the tiara in my hair with a smile. "My jewelry is real. I received all my real valuable jewelry pieces from my real Grandma Garland, my daddy's mama, before she passed away into heaven, when I was a teenager."

He laughed. "That old coot, your sister told me about her. She wore her jewelry around the barn and the chickens and the horses and the cow shit."

I giggled. "My Grandma Garland was a southern lady and the mistress of the cow farm. She didn't work like my grandpa. She enjoyed directing orders from her rocking chair inside her house like a plantation mistress of yesteryears."

He drove with a sour frown and a matching tone. "You make it sound like your farm family grew up during the Civil War, Nadean. For Christ's sake, they're farmers, nothing more or less. They grow food crops for eating."

I smiled into the darkness of the road, "A noble living."

He drove with a sour frown. "And you always come about and question my livelihood."

I said with a puzzled brow. "I thought I was being helpful. I danced with Morgan, too."

He turned and glanced at her nose profile and retuned back to see the roadway with a sour frown. "Matthew. His name's Matthew. Be very careful, Nadean. People get very offended when you forget their surnames or use the wrong one during a social event."

I stared at the road with a nod. "Matthew. Sometimes, we meet so many people that I can't remember their names, only their faces."

He drove with a sour frown and a matching tone. "You must learn to fit the face with the façade. You acted like a whore, tonight."

I dropped open a mouth and turned with a sour frown to see his nose profile. "I beg your pardon, sir."

He drove with a sour frown. "Nadean, you flirted, giggled, and flaunted in that dress."

I frowned at his nose profile. "You told me to fit in."

"...not like a whore," sneered Winfred.

I frowned at his nose profile again. "Stop saying that. I am not that word. I was raised..."

"Pigs are raised. People are reared."

"I was reared as a southern lady. I possess excellent social manners. I was being nice and friendly and joyful and spunky..."

"...spunky like a monkey. Don't be so gleeful. You should act like a real woman."

I nodded. "Okay! All right! I can do that."

"We're going to another ball tomorrow night on Saturday..."

"Well, maybe, you should bring your substitute wife." I turned with a grin and a giggle to see the darkness of the roadway.

He drove with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Why can't you model more?"

I unbuttoned the tight formal gown in the rear of my back spine from eating too much good food at the banquet. "I don't want to model more, Winfred. I have a son that takes up the rest of my un-free time between working and mothering."

He nodded. "You could make more money modeling."

I shook my curls. "Naw. Herman has certain girls for certain looks. I'm just a gown girl."

He frowned. "What does that statement mean?"

I giggled and patted my dress. "I'm tall with a skinny bone type. I look good in hefty fabrics but not necessary a bikini."

He frowned. "You should ask. You should try to model bikinis and whatever else making more money."

I smiled. "We don't need more money."

"I wanna add more footage onto the house, doubling the real estate property value."

I turned with a sour frown to see his nose profile. "Why?"

"There's plenty of yard and plenty of empty space. We could have a grand mini-mansion here in the Gables?"

"Why?"

"For appearance, prestige, or image, pick a word!"

"Why?"

"Not that word!"

I exhaled with a puff of annoyance, turning with a sour frown to see the window shield of darkness over the road. "Winfred, I just wanna watch the free football games on Saturdays, eat hamburgers from Dee Dee's, and not select more petunias..."

"Impatiens, they are a set of little tiny flowers, beautifully landscaping any residential home in the Gables."

I nodded. "That's nice. But, we don't have the extra money in the checking account to do that this week on Saturday or Sunday."

He turned and glanced at her nose profile and returned to see dark roadway. "Why?"

I shook my curls. "I just paid all our bills the mortgage, the electricity, the water."

He shook his skull. "I don't believe you. We both got our bi-weekly paycheck this week. How much is left within the bank account?"

I nodded. "The amount is 128.98 dollars is inside our checking account."

"When did you purchase that dress? How much of my money did you spend?"

"I received it modeling. I receive all my formal ankle-length gowns free of charge."

He grunted. "An unlikely story, I did not notice that our bank account was low."

I giggled, "A likely story."

"If there isn't any money inside our checking account, then why didn't you transfer money from our tiny savings account?"

I turned with a sour frown to his nose profile. "You are responsible for transferring money from the savings account into the checking account. You told me not to do it for that exact reason."

"Why did you wear that dress?"

I turned and touched the ruffles with a smile. "My gown is called a plantation dress with ruffles and bows like a fairy princess."

He laughed. "You ain't no princess, but you might be a fairy like your twin brothers. Am I right, lipstick? Why didn't you wear a sexy dress?"

I looked up with a deep sign and a sour frown to see through the window shield into the darkness of the night. "Because you told me that the sexy dress that I wore last Friday night was ugly, you didn't like it."

He drove with a sigh of annoyance. "My job depends upon impressing a set of new and innocent clients for the bank. That's why we attend all these stupid ass charity balls. If the new clients like me, then they transfer their millions into my bank, and then I get a bonus."

I turned with a confused brow to see his nose profile. "You receive a bonus of dollars. When did that start happening? You opened a new trust fund account for two clients last week, after we attended that silly masquerade ball as Cleopatra and Caesar at the Omni Hotel."

"I used my bonus money for my new car."

I turned and touched the leather console of his new car with a puzzled brow. "O! My name isn't on your new four-door sedan."

"Only my name, you name is on the van, the sports car, and the boat."

I returned back and stared at his nose profile. "Why do we own three cars, Winfred? There are only two drivers in our household. How much is the car insurance for your new car plus the two other automobiles? Where's the limo, tonight?"

"That does not matter to you! I pay my own car insurance for this car. I wanted to drive my new car to the charity ball."

I turned and frowned at the dark road. "O! I see it now. It is with your new bonus monies. Did we report all your bonus monies on our income taxes? I do the US Federal income taxes, since we're married, Winfred."

"You're too skinny. You need to gain weight. Then you'll look sexy in your sexy gowns. And you shouldn't wear high heels either. It makes you look like a skeleton at Halloween," he chuckled.

I turned and gasped at his nose profile again, wearing a sour frown. "Geez! I'm too skinny, too tall, and too pretty. What do you want to be next too short, too fat, and too ugly like...?"

He turned and quickly glanced at Nadean, returning back to see the roadway with a stern face. "Like who? Who are referencing that is too short, too fat, and too ugly, Nadean?"

"I..."

He continued to drove and wore a sour frown. "I wanna be rich, Nadean. I'm thirty-four years old and growing old and older by the hour, the minute, the second. I wanna plan for my retirement but can't with all our suffocating money debt."

"We're an average American citizen with average American debt like a house mortgage."

"You're a smart ass, Nadean." He slowed the speed and turned his sedan into the driveway on their house.

Their house was a single structure made of cider blocks that was painted in bright pink as the city of Coral Gables only allowed pastel colors on a resident or business building. the rooftop tiles were colored in white tinted clay and each outside door was painted in dark green tint completing the sissy looking home. The residential short driveway was paved in pink and beige tinted smooth bricks moving ahead toward a three-door garage structure. The house faced the driveway which was named Leo Street.

Each side view on their house faced an individual city street and a row of tall palm trees. The rear portion on the house displayed a swimming pole which was enclosed by a concrete wall of five feet in the tint of bright pink that matched the house blocks.

Inside the cabin of the car, I turned with a wink and a giggle to see his nose profile. "I used to be a spunky. Remember, monkey and our monkey love, Winfred?"

"No." He stopped with a jolt and parked his sedan next to the babysitter's rusty blue colored compact car at their house, cracking the door open, turning with a sour frown and a sneer to see Nadean. "Do not pay her more than twenty dollars looking after Tanner. Tanner was sound asleep before we left the house..."

"After OT ate all his supper and bathed his body and then heard his favorite bedtime story," I giggled with a smile and opened the door, sliding out, grabbing the long dress hem. I moved around the front bumper on his new sedan car with a smile toward the closed door on our house.

Winfred swiftly raced ahead, stopped, and blocked Nadean before entering the house, sneering with a sour frown, "You are to pay her with a single twenty-dollar bill for her wasted time, Nadean."

I stopped and smiled into his sneer. "Yes, master."

He swung around with a fake smile and slammed open the door, moving inside in silence toward the master bedroom, sounding with a huff and a puff of annoyance. He didn't speak to the nice babysitter either.

I followed behind the ass on Winfred inside our house, moved ahead to the babysitter, and stopped, standing with a smile and a nod. "Mrs. Fina, gracias for watching our precious little angel-boy."

Mrs. Fina, the queen-sized, gray-haired, matronly lady said with a nod and smile to Nadean. "Jhe be sleep, precioso."

"Si, OT is very precious," I leaned over and slipped two one hundred dollar bills into her hand with a smile and a nod, turning and escorting her out the front door. "We will see you for another baby sitting duty next Friday night, Mrs. Fina." She left the house.

The front door closed.

07:02 a.m.

Friday May 1st

House of Nadean and husband Winfred

Master bedroom setting of Nadean and Winfred

Hot temperatures and bright sunshine

The closet door opened.

The master bedroom was a rectangular shaped room with four mint green colored painted walls, white colored baseboards and doors. The room contained a king-sized bed frame on one side wall and a short row tall and squat dresser furniture items on the opposite side.

The entrance door contained two deep wardrobe closets and a single lavatory space in black and aqua tile and paint. The opposite side displayed a row of glass windows that viewed the city street and a row of palm trees, where a long squat table held a vase of flowers.

Winfred stood in front of the open closet and grinded each clothes hanger over the metal pole inside his personal bedroom closet, wearing a brown colored business suit, a white colored dress shirt, a pair of brown colored shoes, and a yellow colored necktie. He shouted out loud with a sneer. "Where are my starched and ironed dress shirts? I need my pressed and iron dress shirts, Nadean."

I heard his voice and yelled out loud a response back from inside the guest bathroom, "All right!"

He moved from the pale blue tinted master bedroom and swiftly advanced down a peach colored hallway and then appeared inside the archway on the gray colored guest bathroom, saying with a sour frown and a sneer. "The cleaners open at seven o'clock. Run by and collect them."

I stood in front of the gray colored toilet with the lid down and wore a pale blue set of hospital scrubs as I was employed as a physicist that calculated an array of mathematical formulas inside the Radiation Therapy Department for each sick child. My five-year-old son OT stood on top of the toilet lid and wiggled sideways with loud laughter, wearing a red colored tee shirt, a pair of blue colored walking shorts, and a pair of bare feet. I continued to clean off from the dirty face on my son from his breakfast with a confused brow. "And you are..."

"... really late for a business meeting in the heart of the Gables. Bye, Tanner!" He leaned over and reached out for his son, back stepping into the hallway with a sour frown and a serious tone. "Ugh! He's covered in dark chocolate."

I giggled, "Chocolate donut."

He said with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Nadean, you cannot feed our child sugar and sweets in the morning. He needs proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins..."

"The donut has fat and salt. OT eats all his breakfast. He's a good eater, Winfred. The sugar will dookie out of him by lunchtime."

"Dookie..." giggled OT.

Winfred said with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Sugar makes kids hyper."

"Sugar takes two hours to run through a kid's biological system. He plays all time long at school. OT needs the sugar for more energy output for a hard day at his office..."

"Where are new set of dress shirts?"

I continued to clean the chocolate from the ears, both the hands, and the smashing lips on OT before his scheduled school session. "I didn't pick up your new set of starched and ironed dress shirts, dear."

He lifted up near his sneer and then slapped both of his hands down onto his trousers with a sour frown. "I ask so very little of you, Nadean. I need to measure my tuxedo dress shirt to the tuxedo trousers, before the tuxedo store closes this afternoon, since the event is today at six o'clock. Why is Tanner eating a chocolate donut for breakfast? He should be consuming healthier entrees like eggs and oatmeal."

"OT consumed two eggs, two turkey bacon stripes, and a small bowl of oatmeal. This is the filling for his tummy. He's like to eat being a growing boy. This is our morning ritual. After he eats and dresses, OT gets a reward for being a good cowboy."

"Cowboy...," giggled OT.

I smiled. "Mama's little cowboy from the city..." I leaned over and kissed his clean hair roots which were not covered in chocolate.

He frowned. "Two eggs, Nadean? That's too much cholesterol."

"My daddy eats three eggs, four pieces of pig bacon, four pig sausage and buttered biscuits every morning, and he's healthier than my mama's prized stallion. Good genes from my side..."

".... your hillbilly side. Tanner is not a hick from the rural country. He is born in Miami, Florida."

"City slicker like his daddy," I smiled at my son.

"Daddy..." OT turned with a grin and a giggle and twirled his dirty fingers to his father Winfred.

Winfred back stepped from his son with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Clean him up, now! You're going to be late for his preschool. Heaven knows that he needs to be academically proficient to attend Harvard."

I smiled. "OT's going to attend Burn U like his mama, graduating without honors too," I reached and lifted his shirt, tickling his belly. OT giggled, slapping her face with his chocolate covered fingers.

He frowned. "Firstly, Tanner is not going to that redneck school. He will best apply to all the Florida Universities, secondly, if he cannot attend Harvard."

I grinned. "He can attend the Miami-Dade University, since he is a true native and not transplant like me."

A popular bumper sticker on some of the vehicles in Miami read: Native, Transplant, or Alien. The reference was a silent message for each one of the illegal aliens swimming up to the shores of Key West that invade the city of Miami, Florida.

Winfred parked both his hands on his hips with a sour frown. "Over my dead body, Nadean. Get him to school and pick up my shirts. The store is open, before you forget again."

I reached the towel and wiped my hands of chocolate, turning with a smile to see Winfred. "I have a suggestion. Why don't you drive by the dry cleaners and try on the trousers with the shirt there? If'an there's..."

He shook his skull with a sour frown. "I hate when you perfuse in your default southern slang. The proper word is 'if' which all by itself, without the other nonsensical syllables."

I reached and lifted OT from the toilet seat and dropped him down to the floor with a smile to Winfred. OT turned and ran through the house into the Florida room. I grinned with a wink. "I do it to piss you off, Winfred, for if'an fun. I'm being playful like a kitten. Meow. What's up your probe, today and last night? You're very un-tight and intense. Is it your working job again, honey?" I moved forward and tried to hug my husband.

Winfred back pedaled from her with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Friday, we're going to the King's Ball."

I frowned, "Another charity gala ball thingy? Can't we skip a Friday night like for the rest of the remaining calendar year and next calendar year too?"

He frowned. "No. I entertain the bank customers, so the entertaining customers will stay with the Third National Bank of Florida, where I have a job to work too. There are lots of changes, taking place at my work."

I said with a puzzled brow, "With you, too?"

He looked down to see his polished worn leather shoes and returned a pair of narrowed eyelids to her in silence, swinging around with a sour frown to the narrow hallway, moving across the floor and to a side door on the far wall of the living room that led into the garage with a shout to Nadean, "Within the entire bank. Pick up my shirts. I'm going to work." He opened the door and left the house.

The door closed.

07:31 a.m.

Dry Cleaner business lobby setting

Hot temperatures with bright sunshine

The glass entrance door into the local dry cleaner business opened.

I entered the store with a smile and held the tiny hand on OT marching to the tan colored business counter. "Good morning! I'm picking up shirts for Winfred Sims." I released the hand of OT as he turned and ran around the open wooden floor inside the lobby of the dry cleaners, wearing with a grin and a giggle.

The young olive skinned female shook her black tinted curls with a smile and wore a tan colored uniform. "Winfred Sims hasn't dropped off any dress shirts here."

I looked down to read the pink colored paper slip. "He ordered six dress shirts both starched and ironed."

She turned and stared at the business computer, typing on the keyboard. "Winfred Sims dropped off six dress shirts last Friday and picked them up on Monday morning."

I frowned to her. "May I use the telephone to contact my husband?"

She nodded with a smile, pointing at the business telephone on the edge of the counter. "Go ahead."

I reached and grabbed the landline receiver, punching and dialing the bank number, watching OT run around the floor. He sounded with a buzz like a bumblebee with a pair of extended arms. The phone connected to the secretary. "Hello. This is Nadean."

Nadean paused and listened to the secretary to Winfred on the other end of the telephone landline.

"Nadean Sims."

Pause.

"Mrs. Nadean Sims, I'm Winfred's wife."

Pause.

"I really need to speak with Winfred. Please see if he's available for my telephone call."

Pause.

"O. Thank you so much for checking."

Nadean paused and listened to the voice of Winfred on the other end of the telephone landline.

"Winfred, I..."

Pause.

"I wasn't rude to your secretary, Winfred. I am..."

Pause.

I frowned on the telephone receiver. "Winfred, I'm a nice person. I'm from the South. All southern belles are nice and sweet. So I politely asked to speak with you."

Pause.

"You're always in a business meeting, Winfred. That's not a shocking surprise to me. I'm at the dry cleaners."

Pause.

"I'm not being rude to you, Winfred. I'm using the dry cleaner's business phone. Where are your dress shirts?"

Pause.

"Which dry cleaners am I at? The address is..."

Pause.

"2198 Dixie Highway near Dee Dee's Hamburgers."

Pause.

"I'm not feeding breakfast to OT at Dee Dee's. I'm trying to pick up your dress shirts, before his elementary school starts at eight o'clock."

Pause.

I looked down and frowned at the floor. "This is the wrong dry cleaners shop. What location are the shirts?"

Pause.

I looked up and frowned at the window of rolling cars and the city street. "2188 Dixie Highway, that's ten city blocks south from here and OT's elementary school."

Pause.

"Okay. All right, Winfred. I promise to get your dress shirts." I gently dropped and rested the telephone receiver down on the hook, looking up with a smile to the nice girl. "I'm so sorry. You're absolutely correct. Winfred didn't drop any of his dirty dress shirts here. Thank you so much for the use of your business telephone."

She reached out and handed an object with a smile and a nod to Nadean. "Here's a coupon. We don't want to lose a good customer."

I snatched the item with a fake smile. "O. Thank you. I'll use this coupon when I return next week. Thanks again for your assistance." I moved and grabbed one of two outstretched arms of OT. He flew like an airplane with a series of burping sounds of a stalled engine. "Come on, cowboy. We ride the ponies south for the morning trail." I turned, strolling to the archway.

The door opened.

Four-year-old OT giggled, bouncing up and down beside Nadean over the sidewalk to the family van. "Po-po, I wanna ride Po-po at G-ma's house on the farm. When do I go, Mama, today?"

"The summertime, this time you can stay a long time with G-ma and G-pa and the pony, sweetheart," I turned with a smile to see his silvery white colored hair roots.

"Po-po, yee-haw," OT jerked from her hand and dashed, stopping and stood in front of the van, reaching and pulled on the locked door handle of the white colored family van.

I smiled at the back spine of my happy son and stopped, opening the van door. OT reached and climbed with his hands and his shoes inside and sat inside his car seat in the front passenger seat. I leaned over and wrapped the safety belt around his little body with care, sliding into the driver's seat with a fake smile. I never wanted my little son to see me mad or angry.

07:56 a.m.

Van ride on US Highway One

(10 blocks, south, from first dry cleaner shop)

Hot temperatures with parted clouds of sunlight

I cranked the warm engine and drove ten more blocks for a second dry cleaner business, where the set of dress shirts had been cleaned and was ready for pickup. Then I heard the set of loud police sirens. I saw a set of blue flashing lights inside each rear view mirror on my van slowly pulling over off the roadway and stopped the van.

The police officer driver slowed and stopped his car behind the van of Nadean, scooting out of the vehicle and moved, stopping and standing at the window of the van driver. He wore a dark blue uniform, a head of brown hair, a tone of pale skin, and a pair of brown eyes.

The glass window on the driver's side dropped down. I turned with a confused brow to see the police officer. "What's the problem, officer?"

The officer thumbed over a collar bone to a short building behind his ass with a stern face and a serious tone. "Ma'am, you blew through a school zone."

I turned and frowned at the white squat building. "A school zone, that is a church building."

The officer nodded with a stern face to Nadean. "The church houses an elementary school too. I clocked your vehicle doing forty miles per hour inside the twenty-five miles per hour zone during the school hours. You are looking at a hefty fine plus you have a set of expired car license tags also."

I gasped. "That's impossible." I lifted the handle and cracked open the door, exiting and standing in front of the driver's door and turned my body with a puzzled brow to see the rear license plate of my van.

"Mama," OT shouted and wiggled his fingers inside the car seat in the front passenger seat of the van.

I back pedaled and turned with a smile and a nod to him. "Okay, baby."

OT kicked at the glove compartment with his big cowboy boots reaching across the cup holder with a pair of his wiggling fingers to his mom Nadean.

The officer leaned around Nadean, saying with a sour frown. "Do you have a baby inside the van, ma'am?"

"My son is four years old in the pre-kindergarten class at Coral Rock Elementary School."

He frowned. "That's about six blocks from here. It is against the law to leave a child unattended anywhere, including a vehicle."

I thumbed back over a collar bone to OT with a sour frown. "He's right there within my eyesight."

"Hmm! If your son is four years old, then he is supposed to be inside a car seat."

"This is a booster chair which fits his large body properly." I thumbed back over a collar bone to the booster chair with a smile.

"All car seats including a booster seat should be in the rear of the vehicle in case of automobile accident. You are driving a newer model van. Does this van have a set of air bags?"

"Yes." I nodded with a smile.

"Please get back into the van, ma'am! I need to see all your car identification information, including your driver's license, the car registration, and the proof of insurance."

I scooted back into the driver's seat with a nod and a sour frown. "Yes. I have all these items." I leaned over and clicked open the glove compartment, searching and scattering the loose items around the space.

He frowned with impatience. "Do you have proof of your insurance card and your car registration, ma'am?"

I searched the glove compartment with a nod and a sour frown. "Yes. All the information is kept here for such an emergency," I exhaled and could not find the insurance car or the car registration.

He looked down with a sour frown and wrote the information inside the police notebook. "Ma'am, I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to pass freely without numerous citations. Speeding in a school zone is four hundred fifty dollars..."

I turned with a sour frown to see his hair roots. "Four hundred and fifty dollars for..."

"School zone ticket..." he thumbed over his collar bone at the building, without looking at Nadean.

OT reached and slapped on her arm with a grin and a giggle. "Mama..."

The officer tore off numerous pieces of papers and handed her the numerous tickets, saying with a stern face. "No verification of vehicle insurance of one hundred dollars. The expired tag fee is one hundred and fifty dollars which does not automatically include the expired car inspection license fine of seventy-five dollars. And you broke the law with the illegal placement of child restraint car seat of fifty dollars."

I nodded with a sour frown, looking down and accepted the numerous tickets.

The police officer back stepped from the van window and Nadean with a smile and a nod, "Have a good day, ma'am."

The van window closed.

Home of Nadean and Winfred

10:02 p.m.

Hot temperature with bright stars and moonlight

The bedroom door closed shut.

I swung around and moved through the peach colored Florida room, seeing an array of bright headlights from the parked sedan through the exposed glass window, turning and running to check on OT inside his bedroom. He was fast asleep.

And I heard the new set of footsteps coming through the laundry room into the Florida room.

I turned and ran into the Florida room, wearing a pair of pink colored walking shorts, a matching tee shirt, and a pair of bare feet.

The side door inside the Florida room opened.

Winfred entered the house with a stern face and wore the same brown tinted business suit without the yellow necktie.

I stopped and stood in front of Winfred with a confused brow. "Hi, honey. You're home, finally. I was so worried. You didn't call me. It's so late outside complete darkness, not even moon light." I back stepped with a worried brow and a serious tone, examining his swollen face and a pair of plumped red lips. "Have you been in a physical fight? Gawd, did someone mug you on the street? What's wrong? You look depressed. Have you been crying? Are these tears?"

Winfred stood in the archway with his brown colored briefcase with a sad pout. "Hug me!"

I leaned over and hugged him, pulling back with a smile and a nod. "Do you feel all better?"

"Shitty damn day!" He scooted around Nadean and moved ahead, placing his worn briefcase against the painted wall of peach. Then he and Nadean turned and moved, sitting at the light colored dining room table. He sat first looking down at the shiny, clean wooden surface with a sad pout.

I stared at his black colored hair roots which were going slightly bald in the rear bone skull.

He exhaled with a huff of defeat, looking down with a sad pout to see his naked hands. "I made a ten-million-dollar mistake today at my work job. I was supposed to record a one hundred-thousand-dollar asset. I may lose my work job. I have spent the past four hours with my supervisor, my director, and my administrator of the bank, looking over my mistake. We're trying to find a solution to hide the error. I failed. The mistake ripples all the way up to headquarters in Tallahassee."

I parted my lips, shaking my curls with a puzzled brow. "Wow! That's a big difference in zeros. But I'm slightly confused here. You don't work in the accounting department at the bank. You're employed by the asset management office which usually does not handle money matters, right? You, as the employee, receive a check and then deposit the check into the client's bank account, right?"

He exhaled with a huff of failure, viewing the table surface, shaking his skull. "Some transactions involve the purchase of the land, the buildings, the warehouses, and the equipment. When a client is bankrupted or selling the business, without paying the bank note, we own the asset or group of assets. I wrote the wrong dollar amount associated with the asset and then the stupid accounting department recorded that number into the financial reports that went straight up to headquarters at the capital city of Florida. I don't understand all the implications, but it might have screwed up the Board of Directors' financial reports also. Every person above me is mad and worried about their bank positions and their work jobs. We'll find out tomorrow what shit happens."

I parted my lips, reaching out, patting his hand with a confused brow. "I will repeat you do not work in the accounting department. Didn't that dumbass bank accountant catch the oversight error? There should be a support document for any type of ten-million-dollar asset that should have been confirmed and verified much like a cash deposit. I don't see the logic in citing you will at hundred percent blame for this incident."

He nodded with a sad pout. "I wrote the number on a business memo and then signed it, without the proper documentation. The accountant punched the number into the computer system for recording the money transaction."

I parted my lips with a worried brow. "Whoa, the horses! That's not good for your legal defense, especially, writing the evidence down on hard copy paper for more physical proof. You're not very good at mathematical numbers, Winfred."

He looked up with a sour frown and an angry tone to see Nadean. "What the hell does that mean not very good at numbers? Jeezus, Nadean! I had a shitty day at work. I come home to happiness. All you can say is you're not very good at numbers, insulting and stabbing at both my character and my heart. We're married rich and poor."

I reached and patted his hand with a nod and a smile. "I love you rich and poor, Winfred. We're not really poor or really rich. We work. We have jobs. I have good job. I can take care of us, if'an something happens and you lose your job at the bank. It's okay, honey bunny. You can find a new job. There are plenty of opportunities in Miami. We'll get through this. No big deal. We're married and share everything, good stuff and bad things," smiling.

He smiled. "If'an. That's so cute when you use your southern charm. That's why I love you along with your precious endearments. You're special to me, Nadean sweetheart. The president, he asked me if I needed a new pair of eyeglasses. I guess he's looking for any excuse to clear his ass too. I can view objects fine. I just need a new brain," exhaling.

I leaned over and pecked his cheek with a light kiss, pulling back with a smile and a nod. "I'm your loving wife. I can fix ya up, big boy, and make ya relaxed and feel good. OT is sound asleep in bed."

He shook his skull with a sour frown. "No. I couldn't get it up, if my life depended upon it."

I patted his hand with a smirk. "That's all mental, babe. My physical activity will make you forget everything."

He stood upright from the chair and scooted away from the dining table, entering the nicely clean and tan colored kitchen. "No! But your wifey support makes me feel better. Now, I'm hungry."

At 10:10 p.m., Winfred entered the kitchen, moving to the tan colored counter, grabbing one of his delivered cold gourmet meal. He swung around to the microwave oven, placing and heated his gourmet meal for supper.

He purchased a set of individual delivered meals from a local gourmet restaurant around the street corner of their house. The delivery boy would leave a brown colored paper bag on the front step every evening with one particular food item. Winfred had a set of particular tongue tastes, enjoying rich food and fine wine.

I enjoyed the beef which was filled with soy and other non-identified stuff inside each totally faked hamburger from Dee Dee's Hamburgers and a cold glass of sweet milk for the lunch and dinner meal.

I did not drink alcohol, because I did not desire the tart taste. I was not really offended by people, who would consume beer or wine, since I was a baptized protestant. The protestant church doctrines tended to frown upon the word alcohol and the action alcoholism for some dang reason.

I stood from the table and turned, dashing and standing inside the kitchen archway with a smile and a nod. "I am happy that you feel better. And, since you're home now, I discovered that my car tags have expired. My insurance card is missing. You..."

He turned with a sour frown to see Nadean, reaching over and opened the utensil drawer, taking a fork and a knife and scooted back in front of the microwave oven, "Your vehicle! You should purchase the annual car tag decal before it expires."

I smiled. "You have always purchased the annual car tag decal for me and you, including both our cars and the boat. The car tag decal displays your birth date in April. My birthday is in the month of May. And you took my paper insurance card to go and get our new annual car tag decals for the van and your car and the boat. Don't you remember? That was on Monday. I got a ticket citation for my expired tags."

Winfred watched the food heat up inside the microwave with a sour frown, standing and waiting for his cooked meal. "Then you should be more diligent, vigilant, and aware of your personal environment. I can't be here twenty-four hours to take care of everything, Nadean. That's why I have a wife to take care of everything. I work a very busy job during both the day and night time hours. You work six hours per day," chuckling.

The microwave oven sounded with a ding.

The door opened.

I frowned at his nose profile. "I'm a mother. I take care of OT between my job hours."

He reached inside and removed the plate of the gourmet meal with a sour frown and a matching tone. "And I'm a dad. I could take care of OT easy, if I only worked six hours in a day."

"I work five hours per day."

He returned back to the dining room table and sat down in the same chair, saying with a sour frown to the plate of food, stirring the heated contents with the fork and the knife. "Yes. That's absolutely correct. I forgot. You only work five hours out of an eight hour working day for twenty-five hours per week out of forty."

I followed his ass and exhaled with a puff of surprise, sitting back down in my same chair. "Winfred, I do work five hours per day for twenty-five hours per week, but I'm paid at one hundred dollars per hour," smiling.

He looked up with a sour frown to her. "If you worked forty hours per week at hundred dollars per hour, then you would make four thousand dollars per week. Or you would bring home a total amount of 208,000 dollars per year. Then I can be a dad and take care of OT, and you can take care of me instead." He looked down with a sour frown at the steaming food.

"My salary calculates into sixty-five thousand dollars-per-year, so I do contribute to our financial household..."

He peeled back the paper from the food plate with a sour frown. "Stop with your hillbilly slang! The word is so. The letters are S and O. So, the word sounds like the action of sewing a dress. I make three times that amount meaning that I contribute three times to our financial household budget the house, the two cars, the lawn, the food, the gas, and the everything. Our debt ratio is out of hand, Nadean. We're drowning in debt. I'm suffocating in debt from our outstanding bills. We can't go any place or do anything, because our money bills have to be paid first."

I reached and patted his arm with a smile and a nod. "Winfred, I don't mind not going to any other physical spaces or places. I love our home. We have a cute little bug."

He looked up with a sour frown to her. "Tanner is not an insect."

I grinned. "That's a figurative expression for cuteness. Why are you so down, man?"

"I do not enjoy your hillbilly slang, and I do not appreciate being insulted, Nadean. I don't insult you or your background."

"Hillbilly slang?"

He looked down with a sour frown and stabbed the food with the fork, lifting the food near his mouth. "Nadean, I'm pointing out to your stupid neurons that we're in some serious financial trouble as the ship goes over a thousand-feet falling waterfall. We must concentrate on our paying off our financial debt before the end of the year or before the end of summer."

"Summertime! OT is set up for summer camp at the Coral Rock Elementary. There's an awesome new camp program to teach the kids about space, space flying, and rocket spaces..."

"I don't want my son to become a silly stupid sci-fi spacer nut like you."

I smiled. "I just need to pay for his reservation. Then he can spend the month of June with your parents, the month of July in the summer camp, and the remaining month of August with my parents in Bama. School session starts back on August, the nineteenth."

He chewed and swallowed the food with sour frown. "Paid with what? How much money is the summer camp? If OT spends time with your parents, and your brothers, and the cows, and the horses, then he spends the equal amount of time with my parents also."

I said with a nod and a smile. "That's okay with me and OT, Winfred. OT loves your parents. They're really close and see OT all the time. I thought it would be fun for OT to play with new folks like some of the kids at my work office."

He swallowed the food and shook his skull. "No, I do not work with your office friends."

I giggled, "Office friends? That's a funny word, Winfred. I don't have any office friends..."

"You are not friends with the employees of your office staff. Why not, Nadean? Are they not nice decent people like my parents?"

I smiled. "You and I misunderstood my statement. Then you like to twist my words around for some reason."

He chewed and swallowed the food with a sour frown, "Like that sissy French word ballet? Why in the heavens is my son, a rough and tough little boy in ballet, Nadean? It doesn't make any sense. Tanner is a male, not a female. You produced a male baby, not a little girl. I know you opined for a baby girl."

I smiled. "I wanted a healthy child, Winfred. I received a healthy boy. One day, OT will be a good football player with great flexible. The hip and leg stretching exercises plus the routine dance steps will aid both his balance and his coordination on the football field. Miss Jennifer says OT is the best dancer in his class."

He chewed and swallowed the food with a sour frown. "He's three years old for gawd's sake, Nadean, not fifteen."

I smiled. "He's four, Winfred. OT celebrated his birthday, last week."

He chewed and swallowed the food with a sour frown. "I swear to the heavens, Nadean. If I wasn't so busy with my professional work, I would remove Tanner from that sissy girly messy prissy stuff."

I frowned. "You are welcome to spend more of your limited time with your precious son. He comes first."

He shook his skull, "Please don't start this here and now tonight with me." Winfred ate the food.

I frowned. "Here and now, tonight's good. The night is quiet. We both are awake and talking for the first time in weeks. I'm casually pointing out that your son should come first..."

He gasped. "I work for a living. I provide our lifestyle with more than water and food. I like to rest and relax on my free weekends."

I frowned. "We jump into your car and visit with your parents in the city of Palmton, an hour's drive for us. Then we stay the entire weekend."

He swallowed the food with a sour frown. "They see OT only on certain holidays. Each weekend, OT takes prissy ballet like a sissy girl, but he's a boy."

I smiled. "And all of OT's balances and twirls are both adorable and stable. He'll be a great goal kicker in college football."

He shook his skull. "My son is not playing sports, Nadean. Sports are too dangerous for young kids. He can play an instrument with some musical friends, and maybe start a rock and roll band. I played the guitar." Winfred ate the food.

"Very poorly..." I giggled.

He turned and frowned to her. "What did you say to me?"

I grinned. "I'm quoting your brother."

"Nadean, I do not like it when you gossip about me behind my ass or with my family members behind my ass."

I grinned. "I didn't gossip. Your brother talks all the time about your childhood when we visit your parents in Palmton. Chill, monkey!"

"Forget the past. Focus on the present. And the present is that I want a money schedule of our household revenue with the associated household expenses. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"That's a start. We will pear down our expenses, eliminating unnecessary money items like the maid service. It wouldn't hurt for you to exercise your ass around the house, cleaning my bathroom and cooking my meals. I don't want Tanner to get any additional fast food junk food meals either, Nadean. He needs a real home-cooked meal like your mama does."

"Well, my mama's home-cooked meals suck like yesterday's Easter eggs. I pay my maid service from my modeling funds. The money comes from my own funding source, not yours, Winfred. And's, I's employed her for a very, very long time, now. She does any excellent job with the house. Don't you think?" I grinned.

He chewed and swallowed the food with a sour frown. "Stop with the hillbilly slang! Tanner is learning three different foreign languages inside his brilliant mind with a proper dialect. He doesn't need your southern slang mixed with his Spanish vocabulary."

"Tanner's language skills are very good for a four-year-old child. He writes and spells in a full sentence with a noun, a verb, an adverb or an adjective. He writes with a pencil the sentence: I love you. Then he wrote the sentence at school: The dog is red. The Miami-Dade public schools are the most superior institutions in the USA. OT will be reading in three languages by the fourth grade. His foreign language abilities will open up a ton of unlimited opportunities for an awesome career as a lawyer."

He chewed and swallowed the food with a sneer and a sour frown. "Lawyer, Tanner isn't going to law school. We can't afford any law school tuition inside the USA unless it is a mail order one. Tanner isn't brilliant. He's average in both intelligence and academics like you."

"I have a law degree, Winfred."

"Pfft! You attended college when the academic curriculum was easy, Nadean. You spent seven years in college, accumulating degrees like a set of marbles and wasting away all that beauty pageant money. Your grandfather secured you a townhouse on campus, so you could twirl a stupid baton on the football field, flinging your ass around and around in front of these drooling footballs players. Yeah, you had fun in college, Nadean. Didn't ya date the entire football team?" He chuckled. "That's ten players, playing with ya? Ya got pretty lucky, being a pretty thing."

"Pretty thing!" I gasped with shock.

"What!" He frowned.

I exhaled with a puff of pain, looking down with a sad pout to see the table surface. "Back home, when a girl's pretty but not smart, she's nicknamed a pretty thing."

"Pretty thing," He smiled and stared at her hair roots. "I didn't have a rich grandfather. I rode in a set of pre-teen, teen, and adult motorcycle races, earning all my free money. Then I paid for all my college classes at the local West Palm University near my house, so my parents won't go into financial debt. A university education is very expensive. Tanner is an oversized child."

I looked up with a smile and a nod to see Winfred, "A big boy."

"An oversized and tall child at four years old, he'll be a fine athletic, maybe the sport of baseball. If he's an outstanding baseball player in high school, Tanner can go directly into full time paid employment. A baseball team takes the best kids from high school and then develops them into professional baseball players. If I'm lucky, I won't ever have to worry about paying a dime of his college education. Tanner will be a baseball star with a baseball career. When he's twenty years old or so, once he's kicked out for being a sorry-ass batter, Tanner will have his own money and then can pay for his own college education. These days ya gotta have a college education or no job." Winfred laughed. "Tanner's future, a baseball half-star and then a working stuff like his dad. I can retire from my banking job, after we sell this house for a few million bucks. Real estate property is the smartest investment in the entire world, Nadean." He ate the food.

I lifted and slammed the wooden surface with both my palms, saying with a sour frown and a matching tone. "OT is going to play sports, the sport of football, not baseball. OT is going to a four-year university for a proper formal education. He needs the diploma for a good career job, Winfred. And he will get a college scholarship."

He reached behind his ass and grabbed his wallet, opening it. He fiddled around inside his wallet and lifted, handing her the object with a bland face. "Here's your car insurance card. Did you get your car tags?"

I accepted and looked down with a confused brow to see my insurance card. "No. I need my insurance card to renew the tags and get the car inspection, before I get the car tags," I looked up with a stern face to see him. "I'm very upset about this, dear. I have to go to work, tomorrow morning. I hope that I don't receive a second ticket," I slid a pile of traffic paper tickets over to the plate of food, since I had placed the stack of tickets there for the evening discussion tonight.

He looked down with a puzzled brow, reading the first traffic ticket with an open mouth. "O my gawd." He dropped his fork, reaching and grabbing the stack of traffic tickets, flipped and read each one. "Ya received a pile of tickets...car speeding, no insurance card, expired tags, and a citation for an illegal placement of the child car seat," he looked up with an angry scowl to see her. "What are you, a murderess?"

"The car seat was moved when you used the van, last night, hauling that set of painted pictures from her house. I don't understand why you purchased all those expensive paintings." I exhaled with a puff of defeat, turning with a puzzled brow to stare at the new art work on the far wall across from our dining room table.

Winfred had purchased a set of the numerous ugly paintings from his secretary at his bank job.

He turned with a smile and a nod to the wall of hanging painted art work also. "I like the beautiful paintings of the ocean, the beach, and the sea life like living here in Miami." He looked back with a sour frown to see Nadean. "Don't make up excuses to avoid a more important matter of my son's safety. You could have killed him, sitting in the front seat of the vehicle. Your new van has a pair of air bags, Nadean. Air bags are designed for adults like me, not children like him. What does it take to get through to you regarding my child's permanent eternal death?" He looks down with a sour frown, flipping and re-reading each ticket.

I turned with a smile to his bald spot on his skull. "You're a little bit over dramatic, dear. When I entered the car, I couldn't move the baby car seat. It's too heavy for me. I was only driving to and from school and asked you to..."

"...put our son's life in danger." He looked up with a sour frown and a nasty tone to her. "You were speeding and ran a school zone. You're a very dangerous driver, Nadean. I've warned you over and over again about speeding. You speed around our nice neighborhood in the Gables. You speed on the interstate to my mom's house. No one makes it to Palmton in less than an hour, Nadean. No one? You're going get killed. Who cares about you dying? You're going to kill my son. I'll delivery my child and pick my son up from school, tomorrow." He dropped the pile of tickets on top of the table, standing and spinning to the kitchen, carrying back the set of dirty dishes to the sink.

I stood and swung around to the kitchen, following behind his ass with a nod and a smile. "I concur. Whatever I must do and sacrifice for you to pick up our son from school and spend your time with him. He eats at the school cafeteria, every morning. His food account is paid and current. You can eat breakfast with him too at the school..."

"No." Winfred stopped and stood, gently placing the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, turning with a stern face and scooting by her and to the spare guest bedroom.

"Where are you going?" I stopped and stood by the stove oven, watching his ass move away from me and down the lower stairs to the third bedroom with a closed door.

He flung both his arms above the bald spot with a nod and a stern face. "I'm going to call my mom. She always helps me through my mental issues."

I frowned at his wiggling ass, "Your mama?"

The guest bedroom door opened.

I rolled my eyeballs with a sour tone, "Fine." I turned and moved to the second bedroom with my son OT.

Winfred always acted like an ass when he was stressed out. His work day had been rough. He never talked to Nadean about his work, about him person, or about his life. Winfred would feel better after talking to his mom plus a stiff alcoholic drink of gin and water.

Then, they did sex.

06:00 p.m.

Thursday May 2nd

Home of Nadean and husband Winfred

Florida room setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunshine

The side door in the garage room slammed opened and hit the concrete wall. I moved from the garage space hallway hearing the washing machine, entered into the dining room space, seeing a set of upright bodies around our dining room table.

"Buffing the wooden floor..." Winfred tapped on a stack of paper on top of the light colored dining room table with one of the three strangers. Each stranger wore a pair of blue jeans and a set of work boots. Winfred was dressed in his black colored business suit jacket with a red and white poker dotted necktie and his black colored dress shoes.

I stopped and stood inside the archway with a confused brow, scanning each stranger, "Winfred!"

Winfred tapped and read out loud from the stack of papers. "You have to sign this document, also, Nadean. We're buffing out the old wooden flooring."

"Why!" I said without my smile in my lovely southern twang.

One of the male strangers turned with a smile and a wink to see Nadean inside the archway.

I came from my third job, fashion modeling, after making 1,000 dollars for easy but exhausting body work. And I wore a blue jean skirt, barely covering my naked butt cheeks, which was made for a younger teen, not a thirty something year old mama of a child. A pair of heeled sandals of naked feet and a tank top, without a bra, baby.

Her mom Jadean was rolling inside her grave from the sight of Nadean, but my real mom Jadean wasn't dead, only dull.

I did not wear a bra to model the fashion clothes, since most of the outfits were gowns for a dance, a prom, a wedding, or a gala entertainment event. Under those social glamour circumstances, the gown had a built-in bra. Or ya just go naked, ya'll.

The photographer Herman had learned and shared in the world of fashion that models modeling clothes with no bras sold fast and furious. Therefore, no bra was supporting my flapping tits inside the white tank top, standing underneath the door archway of our house.

Winfred didn't bother looking at Nadean, only pointed and read the legal document. He did that silly habit especially with a sheet of paper of English words. His index finger followed each line of the sentence from the left to the right like an old manual typewriter and then it returned to the new English sentence.

I giggled with both silliness and embarrassment in front of the rough contract home workers.

"Buffing out the floors will make our home look nice again. That is your answer of why, Nadean." He finger-fucked the innocent paper again.

I faked a smile, moving forward, bouncing my tits up and over the tile floor of pink, orange, yellow, and white geometric figures as the men watched my ass wiggle, probably pig grunting in lusty delight. Winfred should ask for a sexy-walk-discount with my performance for buffing out the wooden flooring too.

I moved and moseyed to our master bedroom, jumping out of my summer heels, removing the tank top and the blue jean skirt. I walked my naked feet to my private walk-in closet, snatching a pink fuzzy bathroom.

Winfred stood and turned, moving from the dining room table, entering their share master bedroom, rattling the legal document and the ink pen in her face with a stern face. "You need to sign. They can start on Friday."

I turned and accepted the items, looking down with a puzzled brow at the paper. "I'm home on Friday from work."

"You're home in the afternoon. They start early at seven then finish by ten o'clock."

"I don't want OT to sniff all these nasty chemicals into his lungs. Remember, when the hurricane came through Coral Gables, last year? Then all the kids get sick with asthma. They will be sniffing a set of disposable gaseous inhalers for the rest of their little precious lives from exposure of harsh air molecules, Winfred."

He nodded with a smile. "Tanner was at your mom's farm, lucky little gator. Tanner is going to be with my parents, this weekend, since you and I are going on a cruise ship for the bank at my work. Have ya packed your suitcase for the weekend trip?"

I frowned and read the paper. "OT is with your parents, this week? I didn't know. We're going on a cruise ship, this week. I didn't know that, either."

"Sign the paper. The buffing will occur on Friday morning. Then we open up the doors and windows, letting all the room walls air out. No harm to anyone's nostrils. I have sinus allergies too. I'd be more worried about my health over Tanner."

I looked up with a grin and a wink to see his sour puss face. "You're any old fart, Winfred. Something breaks down on you, every freaking day."

He said with a sour frown. "I really didn't like it when you insult me, Nadean."

I looked down with a sour frown and scanned the paper. "It's all true. We have been married for seven years ago. Now, you wear a pair of eyeglasses on your eyeballs, a set of steel braces on your teeth, a right knee brace to across the hard sidewalks, can't hear out of your left eardrum, and are going bald in the rear end. Next, ya know, you'll be blinded in a right eyeball."

He said with a sour frown and a snarl to her silvery white hair roots. "Shut your face! Sign the paper!"

I signed with my personal kiddie signature of a cursory capital letter 'N' with a long wavy line. The line represented the other letters of my entire legal married name...adean Orion Sims, since I dropped the maiden name Garland long time ago for two obvious reasons, socially and shitty.

I looked up with a puzzled brow and handed the papers back to him. "Where's OT?"

"Tanner is not here." Winfred accepted the papers, looking down with a smile to verify her signature, turning and leaving their shared master bedroom.

I stared at the wall and pondered that statement, turning and moving to my dressing drawer for a new throng.

South Florida weather was warm in the morning at six o'clock, presenting seventy-five degrees of hotness. Then air temperature raised and peaked around ninety degrees in the summertime.

So, I sweated and smelled between the front door and the car door and from the car door to the front door. At the Herman's Model Studio, his assistant-girls touched and slapped the dress and my body with a pair of cold dirty hands. I always felt like I needed a bath, after coming home from my fashion modeling job.

I started modeling for Herman when I tumbled into the cheerleading thing. I thought it would be fun to be a rah-rah cheerleader for a professional football team, since I liked watching football games over any other sporting event. I couldn't ever play the sporting football as a sissy and sassy girly girl.

And the cheerleading paid off, very well.

I met Winfred or Winfred met me, depending on whose fairy tale you heard last.

I kept modeling for the money, one. Cash was an alley with everything. Two, Winfred was forced to spend time with his only biological son OT, instead of loving his office desk. I worked part-time at the hospital as a physicist, giving me the luxury of living out the fantasy of a housewife and a career girl.

But I was a mother first.

I would drive and escort my son OT to the local public school Coral Rock Elementary School around the corner of our house every work day, tucking him into a school desk with his backpack of food snacks. Then I would drive my fanny to my work job. I worked from eight o'clock until two o'clock, since OT did not want to leave the afterschool play time or the big slide or the four swings or the high monkey bars. So, I left OT until six o'clock in the evening.

"When the yellow ball falls behind that tall building, come and get me, Mama." OT described from his childish point of view, running back and forth over the sandy playground that he never wanted to abandon for food or Mama.

I arrived at 5:58 pm at the school playground for my pickup duty of my son. OT always ran with a smile and a laugh into her arms, giving a wet sandy mouth kiss. Then, we went home for a supper meal and a bubble bath.

Today, Winfred had picked up OT at five o'clock, since he was in charge of playing, feeding, and bathing as I went to model the clothes.

I changed into a new set of clothes, feeling dirty and needing a bath, but the words bothered me: **Tanner isn't here.** I exited the bathroom in a pair of white walking shorts and a yellow tee shirt and stomped on my naked feet into the Florida room, finding all the workers are gone. Winfred was on his hands and his knees inside his business suit, cleaning the low part of the painted wall underneath the mirror. I charged to him with a lady sneer. "Where's OT?"

"Tanner is playing with a friend."

"Who is the friend? I know all of OT's friends from school. I didn't get a phone call for OT to come over to..."

"Reed is a new friend. She lives within the 600 block on Leonardo Avenue at the end of the other street corner. Why are you so bossy?" He grunted and wiped the lower part of the painted wall with a wet cloth.

"I am being bossy. I come home almost night time and my son is missing."

"Tanner has a new playmate. He is a very energetic youngster." He sat back, dunking and rung out all the soapy water from the cloth over the water pail.

I parked both my hands on the hips with a sour frown. "You are supposed to be his playmate, Winfred. You are to spend more tick-tock time with your son. Why are you scrubbing the damn wall?"

He sat back on his knees, jabbing a finger at different portions of the low painted wall. "The damn walls are completely disgusting. There's dried oatmeal here and dried pizza crust there. This is our home. I want our home to be warmth, love, and clean for gawd dawn's sake, Nadean." He leaned over and scrubbed the food stains from another part of the painted wall again.

"I'll tell Daniela to clean..."

"You need to fire Daniela and her incompetent crew of ugly daughters. They're taking you and your money for a ride. How much do you pay them anyways?" He sat back, dunking and rung out the soapy water from the soaked cloth over the pail again.

I crossed both arms with a smile and a nod. "Daniela and her girls have been with me for a long, long time. I paid them, very well."

"For not being American citizens, but illegal aliens, we're going to get into police trouble by paying a group of illegal immigrants, who illegal live in Miami. Then we'll lose our jobs and our house..."

"Naw."

"Do not make that annoying animal sound. Is that the noise of a cow fucking another cow?" He chuckled.

"Don't know. I'm not a farmer, only a brilliant physicist. Where does Reese, Ruby, this gal live?"

He held the soap wet cloth in the air, turning with a smile to Nadean. "Her proper elegant Christian proper name is Reed. She has a four-year-old son too. They both live down the street next to the playground park."

I asked with a sour frown. "I'm marching down there and collecting my son. Did he eat?"

"She fed them."

"Did OT bath?"

"She bathed them."

"Winfred, this is our son, not hers. We are responsible for our son's bodily functions like eating, peeing, shitting, and washing. Jeezus, I'm getting my boy and giving him a bath. And then, I'm talking to you about this entire reckless dangerous subject matter, again, after OT is asleep in bed."

He leaned over and scrubbed the wall with a sour frown. "You're being a shit ass, Nadean. I am more concerned about our boy living and playing with a set of invisible germs and growing degrees of black mold inside our dirty damn house."

"Naw," I spun around and entered my master bedroom, scooting my naked feet into a pair of soft pink colored flip flops, swinging around, prissing my ass across the floor and out the front door of our house.

I faced the pretty pink colored bricked driveway which was called Leo Avenue, a private road for only Nadean Orion Sims.

I marched down a set of matching pink tinted brick steps and plopped a right flip-flop onto the driveway of soft rose pink. The front door stared at the side view of the next door neighbor's rose garden and house and a pink cement guard gate. I swung to the side, flip flopping down the vanilla colored sidewalk.

I stopped and stared at the last residential house on the opposite street corner which was across from the playground grassy park, where OT and I would spend Sunday afternoon on each low swing, the slide, and play the game 'Hide and Seek' between the plant bushes. Winfred would spend the pretty warm day golfing with his clubs or fishing on his boat or working on his sports car.

I turned and climbed up three brown colored brick steps and stomped over the front porch on a single story blue baby painted set of cider blocks with a row of four puny white squared shaped columns. I stopped, beat on a beaten up white paint peeling off the ancient wooden front door, and waited with a sour frown and a couple of soft curse words.

And then I knocked for a second time.

The front door opened.

A woman appeared with a smile and a nod, displaying an average height and weight body frame, a head of short blonde hair, a pair of aqua eyes, and a tone of pale skin. "You must be Tanner's mama."

I gasped and then nodded with a smile. "And you must be from the Deep South. Are you from the State of Alabama by chance?"

She did not extend a manicured hand with a set of red colored polish, since southern belles smiled, not shook. "Naw, I'm from the US State of Georgia. But our two states are really, really close, since we're neighbors. Once again, hi there, I'm Reed Stinger. Our boys are out back in the yard destroying something. Come on in!"

I moved inside and followed her wiggling ass on a set of pale legs in a pair of the shortest white colored walking shorts through a Florida room of solid white paint that had been corded off by a set of real red colored cloth ropes, turning to stare with a puzzled brow at the clean and white nice furniture setting that had not been stained or used for some reason. "I am Nadean Sims."

Reed led with a smile and a nod to the rear patio, "Nice to meet another southern belle in Florida. I moved here after college with my ex-husband. Then he moved back to Georgia to live there, permanently." She stopped and stood at the closed glass door, grabbing the knob.

The patio door opened.

Reed moved ahead, over a vanilla colored patio floor, and then stopped, standing in the ugly yard, leaving the patio door open allowing the bright sunlight and heat to invade the cool interior of the house.

I followed behind her wiggling ass and then stopped, standing beside Reed inside her ugly yard of scattered toys, tall green grass weeds, and a regular ground swimming pole, saying with a smile and a nod, since southern belles did not yell, but smiled, "OT." I squatted down on my kneecaps for his little boy size with a pair of open arms and a smile.

OT heard his name and then stopped playing, swinging around with a confused brow, running with a smile to his mom, "Mama! Mama! This be Reedy. And she be Reedy's mama like you be my mama. I have fun," he shook his skull. "Don't wanna leave, now. Naw! Naw, Mama!" He was dressed in a pair of tan colored walking shorts, a pair of white athetic sneakers, and a dirty white colored tee shirt with a head of long silver tinted shoulder length hair, a pair of gray eyeballs, and a tone of dark skin like his mother Nadean.

Her son Reedy stopped playing and spun around, running to stand beside OT, looking at his mom Reed in silence. He wore a red colored tee shirt with dirt and food stains, a pair of blue colored walking shorts, and a pair of dirty naked feet, displaying a head of cropped brown colored hair, a pair of brown eyeballs, and a tone of bronze skin like his mother Reed.

I grabbed and cuddled his dirty little body with a smile and a soft voice, "Sweetheart, tomorrow is school for you and Reedy."

Reed squatted down and cuddled her dirty son, patting his skull, looking at the silver tinted hair roots on Nadean. "We should get together after school and go to Dee Dee's Hamburgers or some place."

I stood upright from the grass and nodded with a smile, spinning around to face the open glass patio door, gently shoving OT toward the interior of the home. "We can do that but not tonight. OT, let's go home."

OT continued to stand in place with defiance and shook his tiny bone skull, pointing down to the ugly back yard with scattered toys and high green colored weeds, saying with a smile. "Daddy says, I can stay here, tonight."

I grabbed and pulled his tiny naked arm to the open patio door, saying with a fake smile and a nod, "Naw, sweetheart, we can't. We have school tomorrow. He attends Coral Rock Elementary School."

Reed followed behind Nadean and moved to the open archway with a confused brow. "That school is located around the street corner from each one of our houses. Are you paying for the prestige too?"

I gently shoved OT to the open door and turned with a smile to see her, shaking my curls. "Coral Rock Elementary is a free public school. All the programs are free for all local students between the city streets of US-1 and Coco Plum moving east toward west and north toward south between Sunset Boulevard to LeJeune Road. We interviewed for OT to be accepted there. Once accepted, he will enter the Spanish magnet program, enjoying the classes and making new friends, starting next August which will endure his entire academic life until he is eighteen years old."

Reed frowned. "You sound like you've planned Tanner's entire academic future."

OT and I moved forward first through her house as I shook my curls with a smile. "No. I planned out the entanglements of city school crap."

Reed covered both of the earlobes on her child and said with a sour frown. "Do you dare to curse in front of your child?"

OT took off running and through the open front door archway after his new friend Reedy while fleeing toward the front porch.

I returned back with a worried brow and pointed to the open front door, dashing through the archway to the front of the house and the city street, standing on her front porch. I watched OT and Reedy run around the plot of tall green weeds and grass, frowning with annoyance at Reed. "The children are outside on the front porch. I don't cuss in front of my child. I'm merely pointing out that the school system is excellent here in Miami. But I find the teachers are knee deep in butt shit while the school administrators only care about getting promoted to their next school position."

She pulled up and stood beside Nadean, turning with a sour frown to see the nose profile on Nadean. "You sound more angry than bitter now."

I turned and smiled at Reed. "I am very pleased. OT is..."

"OT, I thought his name was Tanner."

"Orion Tanner Sims is his Christian name."

"Orion is a star."

I nodded with a smile. "Orion is an old family name, being from the South. You know how a mama names her kid from some old dead person?"

She frowned. "O yeah, right! So, his father Winfred calls his son Tanner and you call him a set of initials," laughing.

I giggled. "You're slick." I turned with a smile and motioned with a hand at my child. "OT, please, come to me. We need to scoot our boots to home, honey. See ya around, Reed!" I moved down each red colored stone steps and raced forward, chasing after OT over the front lawn.

Reed stood on the front porch with a hand wave and a smile at the back spine on Nadean and OT. "Shore thing! See you around the block, Nadean and Tanner."

I turned and scooted OT faster down the vanilla colored sidewalk to our home.

OT looked up with a smile and a dirty face to see the chin of his mother, "I have fun, Mama. Can I come back to Reedy's house please?"

I cuddled him with a smile and a nod, rushing back to the house, stomping onto the private driveway. "Of course, sweetheart, let's go home and fix you some supper. I bet my bear cub is hungry. Grrr!"

OT ran ahead of Nadean with a grin and a giggle, climbing up the front steps of his house with a rebel yell, "Grrrr, Mama, I be hunger for some good stuff."

I jogged with a smile behind my precious son to the closed front door.

The door opened.
Present day and place

02:12 p.m.

City of Birmingham within the State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from Warrior)

Hidden underground cavern with red clay soil and gray limestone rock walls

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on my right wrist bone while slowly exhaling, closing my eyelashes and relax my painful body. My mental mind continues to daydream away the clicking time and the physical pain, concentrating and reliving another specific moment from my past adult life.

Thirty-four years old Nadean and her four-year-old son OT

07:01 p.m.

Thursday May 22nd

City of Coral Gables in US State of Florida

Home of Nadean and husband Winfred

Dining room setting

Warm temperatures and partly cloudy night with bright stars

I knelt down near at the light colored dining room table on top of the peach colored tile floor, decorating the school homework assignment with my four-year-old son for his pre-kindergarten class at Coral Rock Elementary School. I wore a pair of beige walking shorts, a white tee shirt, and a pair of bare feet.

OT pointed down with a grin and a giggle to the paper poster, wearing a pair of red walking shorts, a blue tee shirt, and a pair of bare feet. "Need hair for the man, Mama."

"Yeah, well, we'll use one of my old dolls for some hair." I reached over within the messy office and art supplies of items on over the tile, finding and grabbed the girly doll. I used the scissors and clipped off some of its black colored hair and then glued it down onto the paper man inside the paper poster, saying with a giggle and a grin. "Too bad, Daddy wasn't here. Then we could use some of his black hair."

OT turned with a grin and a giggle and smashed all his fingers into both the water and sand pails on the floor for fun. "Daddy, yeah! And you be the 'bestest' mama too," he stood upright from the floor and leaned over, kissing her face, flinging both of his hands in the air, getting the floor, the table, and Nadean wet.

I leaned down and kissed his clean hair roots, "You be the 'bestest' son, cowboy."

He returned back with a grin and a giggle and pointed down to the paper poster. "Sand go here."

We covered the paper poster with golden colored beach sand, making a mess over the tile floor of our house. I wiped off the beach sand from his and mine hands on the towel with a smile. "Okay. There's golden sand for the land of Florida, where Columbus landed in America, so the story goes. Lucky, duckie, we live in Florida with real sand for your poster, OT."

OT giggled, "Lucy goosy."

"What about water?"

OT turned and splashed the water bowl with all fingers with a giggle and a grin. "Paint water with finger."

"Yeah," I nodded with a grin.

OT turned and pointed down at painted water of the blue color of the poster.

I smiled, "All done, cowboy. We have tree bark for the ships, fabric for the clothes, and dolly hair for the man, and golden sandy sand for the beach plus some fresh painted blue water. Okay, time for bed. Ya got school tomorrow to present your American History poster to the class and teacher, OT." I stood with a grunt, stretching out my numb limbs from the paint job on the paper poster, slowly turning to his bedroom.

He turned with a grin and a giggle and galloped ahead to his bedroom in pale blue paint and dark blue fabric.

I moved from the hallway and entered into OT's private semi-dark bedroom, tripping over the objects on the floor of his room, holding both my arms parallel to the floor with a stern face, "Whoa, danger, danger, OT!" OT crawled into a smaller kid-sized bed with a grin and a giggle, resting over the dark blue colored bed linens with yellow stars and moons. I squatted down with a puzzled brow and examined each item on the floor, consisting of a pup tent, a ream of rope, and his polished cowboy boots.

OT cuddled the old smelly pale blue baby blanket into his face, resting on top of the pillow, and rolled to the side to see Nadean with a smile. I lifted up each item for a better view with a puzzled brow in silence. OT grinned. "Daddy says, we go camping with Unc and Grandpops, tomorrow."

I frowned down at the pup tent, "Tomorrow is a school day."

OT yawned, "Daddy says, he gets me. We goes to Grandpops then camps. Daddy says, you don't like woods and scared of bears."

I stood upright from the floor and moved over each item, crawling over his blanket and his body with smile into his precious face and a whisper. "That's going to be fun, OT. But, Mama ain't scared of no cats..."

"What cats? Is Toot and Poot coming with us, Mama? Toot and Poot live here with me and you. They don't go outside."

"Yes, Toot and Poot, they are our two house cats. Mountain cats are called panthers that a live in the forest hills of the mountain. Ask Unc about the cats at the campfire, okay?"

"Okay, Mama." He yawned with sleep.

I sat back and covered him with the old smelly baby blanket that was his security item, saying with a smile. "Tuck you in good. Give you a bug hug and wet your face with my spit." I leaned down and spat onto his soft cheekbone as OT giggled. I wiped the spit off and replaced it with my soft kiss, silently praying over my little angel. "I love you, OT." I pulled back with a smile.

OT yawned, reaching over, patting the bed linen next to his face. "I love you, Mama. Lay here with me."

I moved down and rested a rear skull on top of the twin mattress with my son, like always, until he fell asleep for both protection and love, every night.

At 10:51 a.m. the side door inside the Florida room opened.

Winfred stood with a stern face inside the open archway and wore a dark blue pin-striped business suit, a red necktie, and his worn brown tinted briefcase, staring at Nadean.

I sat on the opposite side and moved up from the peach colored sofa with a frown at Winfred. OT was sound asleep as a hurricane could not wake his eyelids. I exhaled with annoyance. "Winfred, I know that you are required to work very late, but it is almost eleven o'clock at night. OT needed you. He lost his lunch box, his jacket. We spent the evening decorating his American History project, without you. Now, I learn from OT that you are going camping with him and your father tomorrow." I stopped and stood a few feet from Winfred with puzzlement.

Winfred said with a sour frown and a nasty tone inside the door archway. "I don't love you anymore, Nadean. I have acquired a divorce lawyer and filed for our divorce of marriage, two weeks ago. You will receive the divorce papers here tomorrow, on Friday. Our marriage isn't working and must end immediately," he moved ahead and strolled around Nadean, heading to their master bedroom.

I posed in place and gasped out loud looking down with a confused brow at my naked toes "Can I?"

He yelled out loud from across the room. "No! That's the latest fad in marriage, a divorce."

I spun around with a worried brow and followed behind his ass. "Can we?"

He shook his skull, moving ahead into their master bedroom. "No, it's over. I want to have fun, before I die," he stopped and spun around with a sneer into her face. "And you're no fun, Nadean. There isn't any more exchange information to tell and discuss." He swung around to the open archway of the shared master bedroom, without moving.

I smiled with a nod, "Fun? We can go to the Bahamas. I'll take off work for three days. We don't have to take along OT. He'll be at your mama's house in Palmton, next week."

He spun around with a sour frown and a sneer to her again. "There you go making a decision, after the fact. Why didn't you offer me a vacation paradise yesterday or the day before or the day before that?"

"I..."

"This is our life, our marriage, a damn day late, a damn dollar short. You're someplace else in the present of life, Nadean. And that place isn't with me."

"I..."

"You don't understand or can't understand or won't understand us. You're busy with OT, with the job, with the house, with the modeling, with everything, but me. We are done. I'm young, thirty-four years old. I wanna enjoy my remaining days of middle age, before I pass into heaven."

"But..."

He shook his skull with a stern face and a serious tone. "There are no more 'buts,' Nadean. Our marriage is finished. The divorce papers are coming tomorrow by a special courier. Or I can deliver them at your work."

"Here."

He nodded with a grin. "Good decision. I'd be very embarrassed, if a set of divorce papers suddenly arrived at my professional work place, too. I'm going to bed. I'm tired of you," he spun around to the open archway of their shared master bedroom.

"But, we've been married for seven years and celebrated our ..."

"...un-happy relationship, last week," He swung around with a sour frown and a serious tone to see her again. "I'm out of this arrangement permanently. Good night! O! I'm taking Tanner to school tomorrow morning and picking him up from school on tomorrow afternoon. He's correct. We're going camping, without you. This is our male bonding time together celebrating the Memorial weekend holiday, without you," he swung around with a smile and a nod to their shared master bedroom, this time.

The shared master bedroom door closed.

I stood in numbness and tears. My marriage was done, finished, and completed without the benefit of old age, separating me from my soul mate. I did not understand. I could not breathe, puffing out a set of shallow air molecules as my tears flew down both my cheeks, down my chin, and dripped onto my blouse.

Some of my tears hit the floor in silent regret.

At 11:10 a.m. I did not need any sleeping garments from now his master bedroom. I would use our guest bathroom, where my personal toothbrush hung from a toothbrush holder with OT's.

Now, OT and I would be a family unit of two people, not three. OT and I would attend all the school functions, church functions, and sporting events, only the two of us.

I slowly swung around and turned to see the Florida room, slowly moving with a slow beating heart inside my chest cavity that echoed between my twenty-four bone ribs.

My marriage was over.

I did not understand. I was the one who had been happily married for seven years celebrating our wedded bliss last month.

I moved across the peach colored tile and slowly turned with a sad face, entering the kitchen, moving ahead. I stepped down a set of three short steps and stood in front of second guest bedroom inside our house, grabbing out for door knob and opened the door. I entered with more sadness and tears.

My new bedroom door closed shut for the night.

Friday May 23rd

Guest bedroom of Nadean

Warm temperatures and bright sunshine with slight breeze

07:41 a.m.

I blinked my eyelashes open and stared at the white ceiling planks inside the second guest bedroom with a floor of matching white tiles. The room was squared shaped of pink paint with a side wall of sliding glass doors that led out into the swimming pool section. This room was really used as the entrance and exit into the swimming pool without getting the rest of the interior floors wet. There was a single bathroom and a tile floor with a single bed and one closet.

No guest ever stayed here until now.

I quietly rested on top of a soft but strange pink colored bed pillow and matching bed linens on top of the new bed mattress with a whisper, "School!"

Outside the second guest bedroom, Winfred stood in place and yelled out loud, beating a fist behind the closed door of the guest bedroom, "Nadean!"

I sat up and jumped from my bed, run, and opened the door with a puzzled brow.

He looked her up and down with a sour frown. "You look like shit, Nadean. I don't want my son to see you like this. What's wrong with you, Nadean?" He wore a brown colored business suit with a green necktie.

I pulled and wrapped the loose lavender tinted bathrobe around my nakedness, looking down with a sad face to see the white tiles. "I'm not recovering very well from losing the love of my life and my soul mate."

He frowned at her silvery white hair roots. "Are you drinking alcohol? Is a pint of whiskey a southern redneck's favorite beverage? Right, Nadean?"

I looked up with a sour frown to his grin. "I do not drink alcohol. I have never drunk a tongue tip of alcohol, Winfred."

He smirked. "I suggest you stick around the house today," chuckling. "The d-papers, get it? The letter 'D' for the divorce papers are arriving by a very special delivery courier unless you want me to delivery them to your professional work office. What's that city street address, again?"

I shook my curls. "No."

Winfred grinned. "This is the best for me, Nadean. I've wasted seven years, the best years of my life. Now, I find I must continue on without my prime years and face my old age with someone else." I sobbed with my hidden tears, holding my nose, since I loved Winfred with all my heart and my soul. He reached and patted her collar bone with a grin and a nod. "Get some rest, Nadean. Please try to stay outta the liquor. It only swells your face. You're a pretty thing, when not drinking or drunk from alcohol..."

"Don't drink." I sniffed and sobbed, wiping my face with the bathrobe sleeve.

Winfred grinned down at her slivery white hair roots. "We can make this process so simple by not contesting the divorce papers. That means we do not argue about any item inside the divorce decree. I had the lawyer draw up it for six hundred dollars. Cheap, cheap like a farm chick. Isn't that right, Nadean? I got it cheap," chuckling. "We just need one lawyer, since they're sleaze bags and expensive. The decree states you keep the van, your personal possessions, clothes, and things. I receive the sedan, the sports car, the boat, my personal possessions, clothing, and other things. We split the furniture items, the bank accounts, and our pension plans. We must sell the house and use the profit to pay our outstanding money debt. Then we will both start with a new slant. That's so easy. This is the current fad. Everyone's divorcing now days. Wait for the special courier to arrive this morning then sign the paperwork. So, we both can get this tragedy behind us, Nadean. This is the start of the USA Memorial holiday weekend. We don't want our divorce delayed, if we can prevent that. Are you listening to me, Nadean? Please look at me."

I looked up with a set of rolling tears and a line of runny snot to see his grin, "OT?"

Winfred grinned. "You are his mother. Tanner lives with his mother, unless you want..."

"OT stays with me."

He nodded with a grin. "Like I say before, Tanner lives with his mother. The divorce decree outlines our visitation rights as stated by Florida Marriage Law. But we can both be civil around this issue. Correct, Nadean?"

"Yes."

He grinned. "Good. Well, that concludes our marriage business for the day," chuckling. "OT and I will be leaving here from Coral Gables and staying with my parents and my family members in Palmton. Don't worry now! Tanner won't miss you, since he'll be having fun, swimming inside the pool. We're roasting hotdogs by the fire and marshmallows later in the evening. And do not call my parents' home with either or ever."

I frowned. "I wanna say good night to OT before he goes to bed."

Winfred grinned. "If Tanner asks to speak with you, then I will oblige him..."

I sobbed with my tears. "I have rights..."

"I have the same rights as Tanner's father as outlined in our new divorce decree. Do not call the house of my parents for any reason ever. My child is safe with me for the national Memorial holiday weekend. Do you understand my words? Since, you are drunk or stoned or something other than being normal. I will swing by here this afternoon and collect the papers from you. I want to file the D-papers before the end of business today at the courthouse, moving along our d-vorce like a horse," chuckling. "Get it? Dash like a horse of d-vorce, of course," he grins.

I frowned. "I need time to read the fine print of any legal..."

He frowned. "It's a standard divorce decree legal document. I just outlined the details of the legal papers. I get my stuff. You get your things plus Tanner. Children belong with their mother." He back stepped, rushing a finger to his lips. "Shh." He turned and moved up the three short steps, through the clean kitchen setting, and stood with a smile, facing the open beige colored Florida room and the hidden hallway of three bedrooms.

I moved ahead and followed behind his ass, standing by his eardrum, hearing with both my eardrums.

A pair of tiny cowboy boots stomped loudly over the wooden floor, since OT was awake and dressed for a day of elementary school by his father Winfred.

"Mama!" OT ran ahead with a grin and a giggle from the side wall hallway to his father, scanning the room for his mother, wearing a white colored tee shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a set of brown colored cowboy boots.

Winfred stared with a smile at OT and stood by Nadean, leaning over with a whisper into her eardrums only. "Sign the papers, Nadean. Don't forget to do that. Or the entire process will be invalid. Then we've to start this procedure again. Do you understand me? Nod your head, Nadean. Let's get this over with and move on with our individual lives. You should hide from Tanner."

I squatted down on top of the tile floor and extended both of my arms, saying with a smile to OT, "Naw."

Winfred squatted down with a smile and a nod to OT, whispering back to her eardrums only. "You're both scary and smelly. Are you drinking? Tell OT that you are sick."

I frowned. "I'm not sick."

He whispered. "Look in a mirror, Nadean. Your face is red and swollen. Your eyeballs are blood shot. Your curly hair looks like a crow's nest. Tell Tanner that you're sick with a cold, before you upset his little mind with unnecessary worry. Tanner is too young to understand or comprehend our marriage problems."

I faked a smile, "Fine."

OT stopped and stood in a pair of cowboy boots and a new pair of blue jeans inside the Florida room, tilting a face with a puzzled brow, "Mama!"

I pulled and folded the robe around my nakedness with a fake smile and a nod to my son in silence.

I had ripped off all my clothes last night, after Winfred had closed his master bedroom door, since I was hot and heated from crying and sobbing throughout the night. My marriage had ended without a gleeful fanfare or a fist fight.

Poof!

Married one day, not married the next.

I reached out and scooped my son up into a hug with a smile. "I love you, OT." I held back my tears of sadness, knowing that my little boy would grow up without his daddy within the same house.

"I love ya, Mama." OT wrestled away from her, pulling back with a puzzled brow and a serious tone. "Why ya not dressed? Time for school, Mama!"

Winfred leaned over and grabbed OT by the arm, pulling him from Nadean with a smirk. "Mama is very sick, Tanner. Look at her red face, swollen eyeballs."

OT back stepped with a worried brow from her, "Uoo, ya be sick, Mama? You be vomiting green sick from your mouth too like some of the other kids at my sick, one day?"

I crossed my arms over my bathroom with a smile and a nod. "I have a little tiny cold. Cough. Cough. I'll be fine this afternoon when I pick ya up from school."

Winfred shook his skull with a smirk to OT. "Mama will not be picking you up from school today, Tanner. You're going to visit with Grandpop Sims this afternoon, including the entire weekend. This weekend is special, because this weekend is a holiday. We all are celebrating the national Memorial holiday with hotdogs, hamburgers, a bonfire, and ponies."

I stood and turned with a sour frown and a sneer to see his nose profile. "What the f...."

"Fun," Winfred stood and stared with a chuckle and a nod down at OT, "Fun. What the fun time, Tanner? You and I will have with Granny and Grandpop Sims plus all your cousins, starting today on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, because you don't have to attend your school on Monday. Right, Tanner?"

OT danced side to side, raising both arms into the air with a grin and a yell, "Yay."

Winfred stepped forward and grabbed OT by the arm, turning and shoving his son to the closed door. The side door inside the Florida room led down the stairs through the laundry room and to the garage space and the vehicles. He said with a grin and a nod. "Let's move, Tanner. Is this his art work for school?" He reached and grabbed the paper poster on top of the dining room table.

I turned with a croaky voice and a smile to see the wiggling ass of Winfred. "OT's completed homework project of Christopher Columbus and the three ships..."

OT skipped beside his daddy with a grin and a giggle to the closed door, "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria..."

"Correct." Winfred moved to the closed door with his briefcase and OT's poster in his hands. "You are a very smart, young man. Let's move, Tanner. I have a business meeting."

The side door opened.

OT turned and stood in the archway with a sad frown to Nadean. "Mama?"

I turned and waved with a set of silly fingers and a silly smile. "I love you, OT. Have fun with Granny Sims, cowboy."

OT frowned. "Will ya pick me up from Granny Sims, tomorrow, Mama?"

Winfred shoved his son into the laundry hallway, leading down to the garage with a fake smile and a serious tone. "No, Tanner. I'll be driving you there. I'll bring you back here on Monday. Then you sleep for a few days and then school will be out. Then we have all kinds of summertime plans."

OT swung around with a puzzled brow to the laundry room, moving through the archway beside Winfred. "What summertime plans?"

They nosily walked and talked through laundry room and down the stairs.

On the side wall, the door closed shut.

Inside the Florida room, I dashed ahead and stopped, standing by the dining room window, sobbing with my tears. Winfred backed out his new sedan from the garage space, taking OT to school at Coral Rock Elementary for the first time.

I felt so helpless and unneeded, watching his sedan disappear around the corner on our quiet city street of Coral Gables. My house lived in a nice friendly child safe city street. No drivers drove fast. Since, they respected the other cars, the other children, the other pets, and each other.

A divorce meant that I would be moving someplace else in Coral Gables which would be close to the elementary school of OT, since he attended a public school, free of charge.

Reed's child Reedy went to a private school around the corner. The private school expenses were twenty thousand dollars per year, without any cents.

I wrapped both my arms around my robe and my nakedness, turning and moving to the old fashioned purple colored telephone on top of the television cabinet and stopped, standing with a stream of tears and a line of runny nose snot. I reached and lifted the receiver of the telephone landline, punching and dialing the familiar telephone number to call my supervisor. I heard the ring and waited on the connection. "Hi. This is Nadean."

Paused and listened to the voice of her supervisor on the other end of the telephone landline.

"O yeah! I usually don't call into work by telephone. So, yeah, something is wrong, Gary. Thanks for asking. OT is sick, this morning. I'm going to see the physician around ten. Therefore..."

Paused and listened.

"I'm glad that everything's covered today. I can come into work on Saturday and wrap up the calcs."

Paused and listened.

"That's a better idea. I can do the work on Monday, since the office is closed being a holiday."

Paused and listened.

"Thanks, Gary. I'll definitely see you on Tuesday morn, nine."

The telephone disconnected.

I sobbed with a stream of hot tears, rolling down a red and swollen face.

I was getting a divorce. My life was shattered. I felt lost and lonely, but I had OT, my little boy.

I turned and scanned with my blurry eyeballs over my house. Clean.

The maid service did a good job. They were a mother-daughter team that cleaned my home and some of the other homes around my neighbor. They were very nice, sweet, professional, and foreign as in illegal. They had cleaned the house, yesterday afternoon. So I didn't have to deal with familiar or unfamiliar company, since I couldn't handle it today. And I couldn't handle any food either.

I returned back into my new bedroom, since I had lied about work, OT, and my sucky life. I couldn't go into work with a red swollen face.

I stomped down the three steps and passed the messy bed without thinking about fixing it pretty. I didn't give a damn. I moved into the bright bathroom mirror, stopping and squirting my sensitive eyeballs from the continuous crying.

The bathroom door closed.

And I turned and stared at a monster.

My face was three times swollen than normal and indented with a set of vertical and horizontal ceases over my two fatty cheeks from sleeping on a set of teary water puddles from my moist eyeballs. My eyeballs were lined with a set of wiggling red lines, looking like red blood but only strained from not sleeping very well.

I cried off and on all night long, being mad, scared, afraid, shock, stunned, and surprised plus thousands of other deep emotions, unnamed. I experienced shock rather than angry and then fright of my future as I was still too stunned to talk to myself, standing and staring at my swollen face of a monster.

I reached down and slapped the faucet water to run, leaning down and washed my face, feeling the cold water, looking up with a set of swollen lips into the mirror as wet droplets fell down into the sink. I whispered. "I don't give a damn..."

I reached over and snatched the towel, drying my face, feeling the same numbness with a red swollen face and back stepped from mirror, deciding nothing. I was not hungry, thirsty, tired, or sleepy. I whispered. "I don't give a damn..."

I turned and left the bathroom, the bedroom, and stomped up the mini-steps into the kitchen.

OT didn't get any breakfast. Winfred would feed him at the elementary school like I did each morning. I could not eat the school food without producing mouth vomit from the nasty smell.

I moved through the dining room and Florida room, stopping in front of the pretty three rows of French doors. One of the patio doors opened. I moved forward over the patio to one of the outdoor patio chairs, sitting inside and leaning back and closed my moist eyelashes to sleep in the early morning hot day in Miami, Florida. I wore my birthday suit.

At 01:03 p.m. the front door opened.

I stood with a fake smile and wore red colored sundress and a pair of bare feet, viewing the young delivery courier boy. "Hey!" A southern belle was always nice and proper even unhappy and divorcing.

The delivery courier boy wore a tan colored uniform and looked down with a grin, reading the information on the package. "Hello. I am delivering a personal package for Nadean Orion Garland Sims. Is that you, ma'am?" He looked up with a smile and a nod.

"Yeah."

He leaned over and handed her the clip board. "Sign here, please."

I reached and accepted the clip board with an attacked convenient ink pen, signing my legal name with a fake smile and a soft tone. "Do I get a copy of the signature page?"

"Yeah," The boy shuffled through the papers on the clip board, rattling the third page of black carbon, showing the precious handwriting with the letter 'N' plus a wiggling line like a slithering snake. The wiggling line represented the other non-descript letters for the rest of her legal name...adean Orion Garland Sims which no one saw or could figure out, without a verbal explanation. He leaned over and extended the paper with a smile and a nod.

I reached and accepted the paper with a fake smile of silence words and a nod.

He swung around, dashing and moving back to his car inside her driveway.

The front door closed.

I stood and ripped open the envelope, seeing a familiar form from my law school days at Birmingham University, flipping to the last page, the signature page. I said with a confused brow. "Winfred's secretary has witnessed for him on the legal document. Witness? Shit." I look up with a sour frown to the far wall. "I need a witness before I can sign the thing. Ugh." I turned and trotted over to his master bedroom for my clothes. "I gotta go to the damn bank. I need a gawd dawn witness signature too. I was a fucking lawyer that graduated from fucking law school. Jeezus, I can't remember anything at the moment..."

08:58 a.m.

Monday May 27th

Charity Coral Gables Hospital

Business office setting of physicist Nadean

Warm temperatures and partly cloudy with sunshine

OT was out of school for the summertime days while vacationing with his grandparents in the small beach town of Palmton, Florida, an hour north of Coral Gables. And I missed him more than usual.

But I had to trot my ass back to work for the money while missing my child during the USA Memorial holiday weekend and recovering from a major change of my life, divorce.

Inside the white colored painted hallway, I slammed my hand at the silver tinted metal frame on the closed door of my private office at my work with the Charity Coral Gables Hospital radiation therapy department, wearing with a stern face at the metal green colored door.

"Where's your wedding ring?" Her co-worker appeared and stopped looking with a puzzled brow at the nakedness on the hand of Nadean on the door frame.

I wore a pair of dark blue hospital scrubs, a white turtleneck shirt, and a dark blue colored skull cap over my hair bun and a white face mask over my nose and my lips. Three body parts were exposed: a pair of eyeballs for seeing, two hands for clearly typing my job work, and one ring finger without my big bulky diamond ring.

I turned with a stern frown inside the face mask to see her puzzled face. "I...divorce."

Her co-worker gasped and shook her dark blue colored skull cap. "O my gawd! You're divorced. How long were your married, Dr. Sims? You're so secretive that I didn't realize you were having difficulties in your private life."

I talked through the face mask and stared at my co-worker. "Seven years, one weeks, eight hours, and forty-three seconds..."

She shook both her skull cap and her naked hands with a wedding band. "O my gawd! You need some major personal counseling. You're in shock like being in a car wreck, Dr. Sims."

"I..." frowned at her, feeling okay but sad.

She shook both her skull cap and her naked hands with a wedding band and a great big diamond ring. "Take my advice! You can't make a simple decision in your state of mind from a divorce. It screws up your mental and emotions."

"I..." frowned and felt okay but confused.

She shook both her skull cap and her naked hands with a wedding band, a great big diamond ring, and a wrist diamond bracelet. "You can talk to Dr. Patterson's wife. She's a certified psychiatrist. You need some major help. A divorce wrecks your emotions. Are you getting the house?"

"I..." frowned and felt okay but frustrated.

She jabbed a finger down to the floor with a stern face and a nod to Nadean. "The bank accounts. That's the really important stuff to get control of during a divorce. Did you get all or part of bank accounts?"

"I..." frowned and felt okay but puzzled.

She smiled. "Are you getting divorce alimony too? You have a child, is that not correct, Dr. Sims? You don't have to worry about solo custody unless you're an alcoholic mom. Do you drink alcohol, Dr. Sims? Or are you abusive to your kid? Do ya beat your child?"

"I..." frowned and felt okay as I did not drink alcohol or hurt my son.

She laughed. "You're a teetotaler. I forget. That'll be good to tell the judge in a court of law for your divorce hearing. Dr. Patterson's wife is right across the street from our hospital. Go and see her! She will fix you right up, Dr. Sims. She takes cash, credit, and our hospital's good insurance. We have a good insurance plan and coverage for lots of psychological sessions."

"I..." frowned and felt weird about an upcoming divorce hearing in a court of law too.

She reached out and patted the collar bone of Nadean with a nod and a smile. "You'll do fine, Dr. Sims. You're a good worker here in the radiation therapy department and nice a person too. You'll get everything, including the furniture, the cars, and the safe deposit boxes," giggling.

I shook my curls and spun around, leaving my office to see the psychiatrist about my upcoming divorce, of course, from Winfred.

At 09:18 a.m., I had walked across the hospital parking lot and arrived inside the psychiatrist office setting with red walls and yellow furniture. "I..." stood at the open reception window and frowned down at the brown colored hair roots on the unfamiliar female office receptionist, who had taken my insurance card, my driver's license, my hospital badge, my heart rate, my pulse rate, my height, and my weight.

She wore a tan colored nursing uniform and looked up with a pair of green eyeballs and a smile leaving her office desk, exiting into the hallway. The side door opened. She spun around in silence and moved down a narrow hallway of dark brown paint with numerous pictures of wild animals.

I followed her wiggling ass down a long, quiet, dark hallway to a new side archway, entering the living setting with a brown tinted sofa and a matching single chair, sitting down on the sofa.

The short, plump, black haired, female physician entered the room with a grin and wore a red colored dress, reading the paper medical chart, sitting down inside the chair which was next to the sofa and Nadean. She looked up with a smile. "I am Dr. Patterson. Welcome to my office, Dr. Sims. I am so happy that you have selected me to assist with your mental and social problems. So, I have learned that you are getting a divorce, Dr. Sims. The nurse took down all your insurance and personal information for my medical chart and payment method. You have the hospital's insurance. This is very good insurance. This is normal for a delicate dilemma like this. You're supposed to be upset and crying. You are suppressing your real feelings of depression, defeat, and defense."

"I..." frowned at her and felt okay but strange.

She nodded. "You feel the need to attack and destroy something and maybe that something has hair and tissue like your ex-bastard husband's skull. This is a very common deep deadly emotion. Don't let it bother you, Dr. Sims."

"I..." frowned and felt okay but confused.

She looked down and scribbled information on a prescription pad over the paper medical chart. "You need a medication pill for sleep, relaxation, work, and dealing with a child. You have a young child. They're monsters when young and especially without any type of supervision of a second adult like the father."

"I..." frowned and felt okay but weird.

She looked up with a smile, lifting and rattling a piece of tiny paper near a grin. "You are depressed, denial, and defeated. I'll have my secretary set a second appointment, tomorrow afternoon. I understand that you are on some type of medical leave from your job and can attend our psychological session on a regular basis. Correct, Dr. Sims?"

"Naw," I frowned and felt okay but puzzled.

She narrowed her eyelashes at Nadean with a stern face. "Is that an animal sound, Dr. Sims? Maybe, it's a digression in your emotions, exhibiting the early symptoms of numbness, depression, revenge."

I smiled with a goofy grin. "It's just a divorce. Everyone does it. Everyone gets one. It's the latest fad for a marriage to divorce, of course."

She frowned at Nadean and then looked down with a stern face, writing information on the top of the prescription pad again. "I'll adjust my clinical diagnosis. You're in deep denial. I'll prescribe a big bottle of anti-depression pills for you to function during the day at work. We don't want to endanger your children at night either." She tore the second slip from her prescription pad, looking up with a smile and a nod, handing to the paper to Nadean. "I want you to take the sleeping pills during the evening when you feel overwhelmed to attack and kill your ex-bastard husband. Okay, dear?" She smiled.

04:01 p.m.

Home of Nadean and husband Winfred

Dining room setting

Hot temperatures and sunshine

I sat on top of a semi-wet red, blue, and yellow colored beach towel that was wrapped around my naked fanny from my swimming fun inside the pool and my sun tanning naked inside the orange colored chaise on my outdoor patio.

I had come back home from my working job around ten o'clock in the morning after visiting that weird-ass psychologist for five minutes with a depression, denial, and defense state of mind. So, I had stripped down naked, trotted, and scooted inside a comfortable orange colored lounge chair, sun burning the nightmare of a divorce from my neurons, my eyeballs, and all the way down to my pink-painted toenails.

I had lounged inside the chaise and the sun, keeping up my golden tanned skin, getting really sweaty and smelly, and decided to make some money. I possessed a law degree and worked on the side, reviewing a set of legal documents in the foreign languages of Spanish and French. I could not speak Spanish or French due to my very good southern twang, so I compromised, reading and writing in both Spanish and French.

Currently, I was eating my supper, sitting at the light colored dining room table, chewing on a candy bar of chocolate, since chocolate cured everything, such as, stress, hunger, headaches, heartaches, divorce, of course.

The front door swing open. Winfred arrived, not his usual time, coming through one of the double front doors.

The front doors were never ever used as since each car was always parked inside the garage space. The side door inside the garage was always opened and used to enter the house through the Florida room from the laundry room.

At the front door, Winfred banged his briefcase around the wooden door frame, using a door key, since both of the doors were always locked and bolted per Winfred. He unlocked the front door, since he could use the unlocked garage door to enter the Florida room.

At the dining room table, I giggled with amusement and continued to work on my computer to make some money.

He entered through the open archway and exhaled with a huff of defeat at Nadean, wearing an usual light brown business suit, a tan and purple bowtie, and a green colored dress shirt. "Nadean, I'm glad you're home right now." Winfred spun around and relocked the front door like an idiot, swinging around, moving to the dining room table and Nadean.

I had moved my personal computer desktop from my office desk in one of the guest bedrooms onto the dining room table to piss off Winfred.

He stopped in front of the dining room table and stood with a sour frown and slid a paper over the table surface to Nadean. "There is some type of new marriage and divorce law. Before we can divorce, we must be assessed and evaluated that our marriage is irreparable. Or heaven forbade and God doesn't bless, then we will be married forever."

I typed on my keyboard with a grin and a giggle. "I professed to Almighty God that I wanted to be married to you forever or until death does us part...until death do us apart...or until death didn't does us apart..."

He frowned down at her silvery white hair roots, "Nadean, stop being a silly asinine loser wiener dog! Our marriage's over. I'm getting along with my new life, once the divorce is approved." He turned and studied the wet towels on the floor and the chair. "Did the realtor call you, today?"

I typed on the keyboard with a sour frown and a matching tone. "I don't deal with that bitch..."

Winfred exhaled with a sour frown, holding his briefcase, turning to stare at her hair roots again. "You must be more tolerate and patience, Nadean. This is the problem with our marriage. Your insensitivity has led to us seeking a divorce. That bitch is going to sell this estate property for one million dollars. We must leave for the marriage evaluation in an hour. Please ready and get dressed."

I exhaled with a puff of defeat, closing down my computer lid, and scooted up out from the chair, standing with a sour frown. All the wet towels dropped down to the floor. And then I turned and wiggled my naked ass with a grin and a giggle back to my guest bedroom to dress.

Winfred frowned at her suntanned naked ass.

06:02 p.m.

City of Coral Gables

Marriage Counselor office setting of Dr. Quinn

Warm temperatures and partly cloudy with sunshine

The building was bright orange color tint.

I lived within the pretty city of Coral Gables inside the warm state of Florida, where all the houses were made from a set of concrete cinder blocks, not mud bricks. The concrete was painted with a tone of lovely shades of pastel colors from candy pink to hot orange to electric blue.

They individually drove and parked moving out of a separate car, advancing to the interior of the building side by side like an old married couple.

Each interior wall inside the ancient building was smelly and old in dull tan tone.

Winfred moved ahead of Nadean to the elevator doors, reaching out, pressing the button. He stood in place and stared at the elevators doors in silence, wearing the same dark blue business suit.

I wore a yellow colored sundress with a pair of matching sandals, pulling up and stood beside him in silence with wonderment. Why were all the elevator door silver shiny hues? Some television and stereo equipment were colored in black metal.

The elevator door opened. They moved and swung around to face the empty lobby of the professional building in silence. The door closed. Winfred reached out and pressed the button. The carriage moved up when the little bell sounded with a ping to the sixth floor.

Winfred led and turned down into an empty hallway of dull tan tone without art work, moving down to the sixth door.

If there were six people waiting inside the reception space, I was outta here, ya'll.

The office door opened.

I stood inside the archway, checking for six patients, seeing an empty reception space and exhaled with a giggle of fun.

Winfred moved and stopped in front of an open receptionist window, leaning down with a whisper and a smile to the pretty female. The female reached and tapped onto a devise without moving or speaking to Winfred.

A few second later, the side door opened.

A tall, slender, elderly male with a head of reddish-gray colored hair smiled with a set of yellow stained teeth, motioning with a pale naked hand down into the dark hallway, spinning around. He moved down to door number two.

I followed behind and stopped with a giggle and a whisper behind the ass of Winfred. "The curse has been broken..."

The psychiatrist entered first and sat down inside an oversized solo leather chair of purple hue.

Winfred and I moved inside one at a time and parked on top of the matching purple colored long sofa at the opposite end, wearing a stern face in silence, facing the psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist nodded to Nadean and Winfred. "Welcome! I am Dr. Quinn. You are getting a divorce. I am so sorry to hear of that bad news."

Winfred said with a sour frown and a matching tone to Quinn, jabbing a finger into her nose profile on the other side of the sofa. "She's absent-minded, misplacing her car keys, her eyeglasses."

I turned with a confused brow to see the nose profile of Winfred, without the finger motion. "I don't wear glasses, but you do, Winfred."

He said with a sour frown, again, "Her sun eyeglasses, forgetting appointments at the baby's dentist, the baby's shots."

I frowned at the nose profile of Winfred. "The baby is a four-year-old child, not a toddler or an infant. And what dang appointment, for OT, have I forgotten?"

"The first day of kindergarten, Tanner was not allowed into his designated selected academic classroom, because she didn't show up at the appointed physician's office for Tanner's immunization vaccinations. I had arranged the physician's appointment for Tanner, but she missed it."

I gasped, "Hh..."

Winfred jabbed a finger at her sour face. "She can't articulate the English language, without butchering the alphabetic consonants. Tanner's speech impediments are horrible."

"I have a southern accent." I frowned. "OT is learning to speak three different foreign languages including southern," giggling.

Quinn nodded and wrote information inside a notebook on top of a small tray inside his lap. "She has blocking. Blocking is a memory malfunction, when the brain tries to retrieve information from the neurons, but another memory interferes. Then, the tip of the tongue literally trips over itself, causing mumbling or grunting sounds from the lips, instead of properly annunciated English words."

I turned with a sour frown to see the big bald spot of the psychiatrist. "What the fuck? Have I clearly pronounced that fucking-ass English sentence for you, Quack, quack Doctor? I'm leaving this stupid silly nonsense conference," standing.

Quinn looked up with a stern face and a serious tone to see the tall woman. "Nadean, if you remove your person from that chair, I will not approve your divorce."

I sat down with a sour frown. "What the fuck?"

Winfred jabbed a finger with a sour frown and a sneer at her nose profile. "Please shush your vile mouth, Nadean. Please look at her dress code. Whore with a capital 'W.' She dresses in this inappropriate manner around me and my four year old son, all the time. This was what Tanner and I put up with all day and night inside our dysfunctional home."

"Dis-fuck-tion-ya'll," I grinned, recalling Vester's clever translation from years ago, which I had found to be so true then and so perfect now.

Quinn turned and smiled at Nadean. "Pardon me?"

I grinned with a nod to the psychiatrist. "A long time ago, I was told the word should be pronounced as disfucktion, ya'll. Or did she fuck ya'll?"

Quinn laughed. "Very good, Nadean, that is very clever. Was it one of my colleagues at the Miami-Dade University?"

I shook my curls, "Naw."

Quinn chuckled. "What animal makes that particular sound?"

I smiled, "A southern redneck with naw sir, naw ma'am, and ah, naw."

Quinn laughed. "Naw, that's cute."

Winfred leaned over with a sour frown and growled into her nose profile. "Doctor Quack, excuse me, Doctor Quinn. She and I, we are the hot topic of this personal meeting conference." He sat back, bouncing into the soft cushions of the sofa with his massive weigh and a sour frown at Quinn. "As I was saying, I have noted that Nadean watches a specific event with me then she summarizes that specific event totally wrong. A good example is the proper names of each wife of my bank professional clients or professional office coworkers. She toots the first name of every known female wrong all the damn time."

Quinn stared at her. "Does she select the right appropriate name for a male?"

Winfred shook his skull, "Nope."

I viewed the far wall with a grin. "I'm good at numbers, not names."

Winfred turned with a sneer to see her nose profile. "And both start with the alphabetic letter 'N' like Nadean."

Quinn turned and smiled to Winfred. "This is another memory failure called mis-attribution. When she collects datum of important information, or in this case an event, she voices the incorrect recollection of another source of datum from another specific event which is totally unrelated in her scrambled neurons."

Winfred turned with a smirk to see her nose profile. "I take your interruption to be not good."

Quinn said. "This brain or memory error of the subject has a profound set of tragic consequences in a professional legal system. The unacknowledged prevalence and misplacement but harmless incompetence will place another person, or in this case Winfred, in a dangerous or embarrassing social situation."

Winfred turned and smiled to Quinn. "She does at that. Nadean also recalls when she has yelled at Tanner..."

I turned with a sour frown and a matching tone. "I do not yell at my child. I do not hit my child. I yell at you, Winfred."

Quinn nodded to Winfred. "Suggestibility is accepting a false suggestion made by others. A memory of a past event is influenced by the manner, in which, that event is recalled without the stored neurons. A recalled memory is incorporated into the total memory recollection by emotions, feelings, actions, and reactions, which is associated with a set of physical attributes of both violent and verbal characteristic, such like, a yelling, a screaming, a hollering, or a shouting session."

I shook my curls at the nose profile of Quinn. "I do not yell at my child. I do not hit my child. I yell at you, Winfred. And I can recall every single instance of the play by play frame with loud sounds, soft touches, and colorful vision..."

Quinn turned and gasped to Nadean. "O my gawd. You have been physically abusing your husband in your marriage relationship for seven years."

I stood with a sour frown. "Hell naw. I weigh 121 pounds, dude. That's on a heavy day, bleeding out while PMS-ing on my monthly menstruation. Winfred is five feet, eleven inches tall, over the weight limit, and tipping the bathroom scale at 272 pounds, buddy. Who's most likely to abuse the spouse here, sir?"

Winfred frowned. "Sit down, Nadean! Tanner and I are tired of putting up with your outrageous burst of self-vanity."

Quinn looked down with a sour frown and wrote information inside the notebook on the tray over his lap. "She has exhibited another memory failure of suggestibility."

Winfred smiled with a nod to Quinn. "Thank you, Dr. Quinn. Nadean drowns in bias of my family, my friends, my co-workers, my job..."

Quinn looked up with a stern face to see Winfred. "Bias is another memory failure. It is a Bible sin when one possesses an angry or jealous feeling of their world, in this case, your personal world, sir. Her feels are distorted memory bits of violence or negative past events."

Winfred turned with a smirk and a nod to see her nose profile. "Nadean talks all the time about her lousy childhood on the farm in the back woods country of Alabama."

Quinn nodded. "Her memories are encoded with feelings of arousal of lust or sad moody emotions which can be tracked backward with fondness or hated to her childhood on the farm. Her embedded negative memories are representative of her above average life in the rural countryside."

I crossed both arms with a nod and a smile. "I possess positive memories of my childhood, my mama, my daddy, and my brothers too."

Winfred laughed. "Nadean admits her bias."

I turned and looked down with puzzled brow at Winfred's new shoes and new suit. "Jeezus?"

Quinn said. "I must admit that Nadean has symptoms of every recorded memory failure but persistence."

Winfred frowned. "What is...persistence?"

Quinn grinned. "Persistence is a failure of a memory system, involving un-wanted loss or love of a set of recalled information, which is usually tragically disturbing for the subject and her family unit or friend block."

"Friend block?" I giggled.

Winfred smirked. "Nadean dreams a set of nightly nightmares during our evening slumber almost every night. Quite annoying! She disturbs the house, awaking Tanner."

I shook my curls with a sour frown. "Hell naw. OT can sleep through a hurricane. He snored when the power transformers blew inside our lawn and our interior house lights went out. Plus, as the 176 miles per hour hurricane winds rattled the window panes from the last hurricane, a couple of years ago, OT doesn't awaken to nothing but the smell of frying bacon."

Winfred turned and gasped at the nose profile of Nadean. "My gawd, you feed our child pork bacon in fat grease. He'll have clogged valve arteries by the age of twelve, ripe for a heart attack."

I turned and grinned to my still married husband. "I don't cook, Winfred. The fast and quick fast food joint Dee Dee's Hamburgers down the street and around the corner prepares the pork back in fat grease, keeping the black and white colored kitchen spotless. And Winfred eats his daily and nightly meals outside the house with his many, many clients, keeping the black and white kitchen spotless, too," giggling.

Quinn looked down with a smirk and wrote information inside the notebook. "I have noted that you use the sterile word of 'the' while describing your home setting instead of the nicer word with 'our.'"

I giggled. "The house, the kitchen, the bathroom..."

"...the smart-ass," Winfred turned with a grin to see her nose profile. "Shush, Nadean."

Quinn looked up with a smile to see Nadean. "The un-wanted remembrance can range from a blunder on the work job or a truly traumatic tragic trot."

"Winfred has the trots." I recalled the day, when he trotted back home, after blowing a ten-million-dollar bank loan on the wrong business account. Winfred didn't lose his job, just his self-confidence. The bank couldn't get the monies retrieved from the foreign country either.

Quinn said. "The trots can lead to a formation of phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and disturbing acts of violence, intrusive feelings of loneliness even suicide."

I giggled. "Winfred's afraid of heights, guns, horses, and me. He's stressed about the job, OT, the money, and me. Winfred's going to be lonely, without a cute wifey. Me!"

Winfred looked down with a sour frown to see the floor and returned back up to see Nadean with a smirk. "However, I am diligently persistence at getting rid of you, Nadean."

I giggled. "Whoa the stage coach! A red flag. Warning, warning. Danger, Will Robinson."

Winfred shook his skull. "Stop, Nadean. You're performing like a circus clown."

Quinn grinned. "Do you want to say something to her, Winfred?"

Winfred grinned. "Yes. The monthly child support check will be sent to the state intermediary service and then mailed to your home address, tracking my financial payment, so there is not any misunderstanding. Also you are required to supply me with your new city street address and telephone number, where Tanner lives."

I nodded, "Fine."

Winfred said. "The Florida visitation schedule requires an alternative weekend with Tanner. I am telling you in advance that Tanner will be with my parents until the sixteenth of June on Monday morning. You will meet me at the grocery store on the side street across from my parents' home community. We will exchange..."

"...the prize. Shore, Winfuck." I giggled.

Winfred turned with a sour frown to see Quinn and jabbed a finger at her smile. "See, how she degrades me? I had put up with this pookie dookie for seven years."

I giggled, "Called more eloquently shit, Winfuck."

Quinn looked down with a smirk and wrote information inside the notebook. "I am writing this all down, Winfred. Please continue."

Winfred said. "You will meet me on the sixteenth of June and not before Monday morning at precisely at seven o'clock, before I am required to go to work..."

"You work in Miami?" I frowned.

Winfred shook his skull with a smile. "I work in Palmton and live there, too."

"O." I frowned.

Winfred sneered. "If you do not follow our court order visitation schedule, then I will be forced to file a contempt charge against you."

"Fine," I rose and slapped both my hands down to my naked legs with a nod and a frown.

Winfred turned and frowned to Quinn. "See how she acts like a country redneck princess?"

"Thanks, buddy," I giggled with a nod.

Winfred exhaled. "Dr. Quinn, what shall I do?"

Quinn turned and frowned to Nadean and Winfred. "You should divorce her ass, as soon as possible, Winfred. I will be filing my official medical report with the legal court of law this afternoon before five o'clock, the end of business day."

Winfred said with a nod and a smile. "Thank you for all your advice and assistance, Dr. Quinn."

Quinn leaned over with a grin and a business card to Winfred, "My pleasure, Winfred. Good luck with your divorce and remaining days of your precious life. And if I can be of service during or after your emotional divorce, please make any appointment to come and visit with me. Here's my professional card. Why don't we set up an appointment next week to discuss your mixed feelings, sensitive sensations, and jumbled emotions? I'm open on Wednesday afternoon, Winfred."

Winfred looked down with a confused brow at the business card and returned back to see Quinn. "Do you really think that I need an independent counseling session, Dr. Quinn?"

I giggled with a grin. "I have something to say about all this stuff. Sucker and Quacker, ya'll live happily after ever." I turned and moved to the closed door, leaving the room with a chuckle to my car.

The door closed.

02:02 p.m.

Friday May 28th

Home of Nadean and husband Winfred

Florida room setting

The side door in the beige colored Florida room slid open.

I sat and worked at the light colored wooden dining room table on my personal desktop computer making money as I corrected each foreign legal document in both the Spanish and French language. I wore a pink colored sundress and a pair of bare feet.

Winfred entered the room and wore a tan colored business suit with a pink necktie, stopping and stood in front of the row of glass window while blocking the beams of sunlight with his wide and thick slightly plump body in front of her face.

I continued to work on the keyboard. "Where's OT?"

"My son OT is located at the grassy park with my brother," he stared down at her silver tinted hair roots. "I'm verbally informing you. I am removing all my personal possessions from this house before something accidentally happens. Please do not interfere. I will be leaving now for the evening, but I will return next week during your absence from our house, while you're at your professional working job." He reached down and touched the dining room table with a nod and a smile, turning and moving to the sofa.

"Information overdrive, Winfuck." I stood upright from the dining room chair and left the computer as Winfred stayed and counted his furniture inventory inside the Florida room. I moved back into my new bedroom, entering the open archway and kicked out my left foot. The bedroom door closed. I moved ahead and slapped my body down on top of the messy bed, rolling to the side to see the French doors that showcased the swimming pool, feeling both depressed and sad. I needed to do something for my temporary depression. I did not shop for clothes, shoes, or even a hand bag, since Winfred had always dressed my body, literally.

He had selected every piece of clothing on my body, in my closet, and in my chest of drawers from my boots to my bras along with decorating the entire house from kitchen to bathrooms.

I was a true redneck belle, feeling comfortable in an old soft slightly tore T-shirt, preferably with the words of my favorite football team Burn U painted across my B-sized breast cups and paired with a set of faded and worn blue jeans which were tucked down into my cowgirl boots.

My country princess image, eons ago.

The weather was too heated in South Florida to wear cowgirl boots. I traded them for a pair of cute sandaled heels with a band of fake gems along with a pair of real diamond earrings, a real diamond ring, and a real wedding band.

I exhaled with a puff of defeat, feeling like getting fucked, since sex made me feel great and sleepy, the great one benefit of being married. Now, I felt like sun bathing, since the heat would melt away Winfred from my active and depressed mind.

I could body tan into a black colored raisin, if I were to rest my naked body every day by the swimming pool.

I found a few ounces of energy and stood from the messy bed mattress, stripping off my clothes, without a fanfare song. I liked to tan in the nude, while the sun colored all the body parts evenly.

I heard his new sedan leave the shared garage, moving to the closed bedroom door and grabbed the cold brass knob.

The bedroom door opened.

I moved my nakedness ahead from my new bedroom setting and up a set of mini-steps into the kitchen space, slamming open the cabinet doors, looking for the suntan lotion bottle and a juice bottle for dehydration. I turned and pulled open the refrigerator door, feeling the ice cold air tinkle my nibbles, pondering the juice selection. I jerked out a beer bottle, since Winfred did not drink beer, preferring wine. His southern Florida dorky friends enjoyed the beer like the southern rednecks of my home state.

I did not drink any type of alcoholic, because the taste was funky, as well as, the barley of beer, the potatoes of vodka, and the sour grapes of wines bothered my tummy with intense pain and suffering.

I turned and dropped the beer onto the specially designed kitchen counter and popped open the bottle. I whirled around my nakedness with the bottle of beer as the wind storm froze my nibbles again. I giggled and tromped by the specially ordered stove top for cooking that I had done once. I had boiled water for hot tea, two years and five days ago.

I stopped and stood in front the specially designed glass cabinets over the specially designed kitchen counter, opening the door, pulling out one of his specially ordered expensive crystal glasses during our engagement period, which I hated with great passion. I selected a beer mug from the cabinet in the hand and turned, staring down at the yellow liquid in the other hand that reminded me of toilet piss, every time.

My brain cells kicked in and decided that I could not carry the expensive crystal glass outside near the concrete pool, without an incident that might involve my red precious blood. I reached and placed the beer mug on top of the counter, reaching and grabbing a paper cup, pouring out the beer. I lifted and sipped, swallowing the tiny taste of beer, violently coughing.

Yup, I hated a bottle of beer even when I was depressed. There was something really wrong with me. When other sad folks got depressed, they drank to drown their sorrow. I concluded that I was not sad but numb, so my emotions hadn't kicked in.

I dropped the half bottle of beer and the full paper cup of beer down to the counter, reaching and grabbing a warm bottle of fresh spring water from Tampa, Florida. I swung around and hit the beer bottle with my elbow as it sailed over the tile floor and hit the wall, separating into two parts, out of bare feet range.

The bottom of the bottle broke off from the concept of cavitation.

The bottle suddenly moved downward as you struck the top. The beer inside didn't move, creating a brief vacuum at the bottom of the glass. The beer caught up with the glass and came crashing down to the bottom like rain drops. The bottom couldn't support the heavy liquid beer and cracked open the bottom of the glass.

"Shit." I back pedaled from the wet spot with a sour frown, staring down at the wet mess, hiding underneath the cute tall two-seater eating table. I found it at a local antique shop in Coral Gables when I first moved to Miami as a single career girl. I reached and caressed the wooden surface with a smile, deciding that I loved this table and suddenly recalled with a sour frown that Winfred was taking his personal possessions and hopefully not my personal possessions too.

I reached and rested the spring water bottle on the top of my cute eating table, turning and pulling out the drawer and scratched inside, finding a piece of paper, a roll of tape, and an ink pen. I pulled out each item and wrote and taped a piece of paper, moving around, and identifying all my personal property in the divorce, of course. Nadean's eating table. Nadean's eating dishes. Nadean's working computer.

I back stepped and smiled at my handy work, leaving out the office supply items on top of my cute eating table.

I reached and grabbed the bottle of spring water and turned, waltzing back down the mini-steps and into my new bedroom, grabbing three of the clean white colored beach towels. I stopped and stood, flinging open one of the side patio doors inside the bedroom, moving onto the patio in my fine nakedness with a grin and a giggle. I wasn't afraid of a peeking Tom or getting arrested for being nude outside of my house. No eyeballs could see passed the solid five feet concrete pink colored wall that surrounded my mini-mansion.

The barely awake and alive ninety-seven-year-old millionaire old man across the street might could see my nakedness, if he lived, ate, and shitted on the second floor of his big peach colored three story mansion.

I stopped and tossed down a dry towel, turning and resting my ass first and then my legs and head over the soft chaise lounge chair.

I pondered my future, without my legal husband, who had turned into the missing Bigfoot monster. I wondered if I could turn him in for the money award with a giggle, mind switching my neurons to the biggest asset and liability, the house.

The cost of the house was ninety-nine thousand dollars which represented a home improvement loan that was used for a pile of new paint cans and brushes, a set of new bathrooms with fixtures, a new air-conditioning system, and a new swimming pool. Our shared married expenses included the van, the boat, and the credit cards, except the divorce decree would separate the assets neatly into his and hers.

The upper patio door opened that led out from the Florida room as there were two entrances onto the swimming pool setting.

On top of the orange colored lounge chair, I flipped over and landed on my stomach burning my naked back spine and a butthole.

The patio door closed.

Winfred stomped down each stair with a sour frown and a shout out, seeing her nakedness, wearing the same brown colored business suit. "Nadean!"

I mumbled into the towel, "What!"

"Nadean!" He stopped and stood with a sour frown over her nakedness.

"What?" I mumbled into the towel.

He leaned down with a sour frown and a matching tone to her eardrum. "Taken up drinking, I see. If you're not too drunk, please clean up the glass in the kitchen."

"What!" I mumbled into the towel again.

"Nadean, I'm giving you one more chance. Come inside and clean up all this broken glass."

I frown. "What!"

"Nadean!"

I mumbled into the towel again. "I'm changing my name after I get divorce you, asshole."

"Nadean, we met with the realtor, yesterday. We're trying to sell the house to pay off our heavy outstanding financial money debts. We don't want a shitty mess inside the interior. This ugly environment will not sell the house."

I smile. "What!"

"Nadean, the realtor has already cautioned us about keeping the residence clean and shiny for potential buyers. Do you hear me?"

I giggle. "What!"

"Nadean, please come into the house. We need to talk." He grabbed and jerked her arm from the patio chair.

I stumbled and rolled sideways, balancing with my legs and my arms into a folded position at my waist, without damaging my face onto the rough concrete patio, sounding with a lady sneer.

Winfred turned with a smirk and a chuckle, moving up the stairs, entering the house through the covered veranda of the patio.

The patio door opened as he entered and then closed shut.

I reached out and grabbed the wet towel, draping it around my body, turning to enter my new bedroom instead. The bedroom door opened. I turned and marched up the mini-steps into the kitchen inside my wet sweaty towel, seeing and hearing my husband.

Winfred stood in front the dining room table, facing the sofa with a sneer and a sour face. "Go back home to Alabama, Nadean! I will provide the one-way air plane ticket. There's nothing..."

I stopped at the edge of the kitchen and gasped with shock at the six broken beer bottles. The broken piece of glass bottles lounged and leaked smelly beer contents over the tile floor which was underneath my cute eating table and against the clean painted wall. I looked up with a sour frown and a lady sneer to his nose profile. "Fuck you, Winfred. I don't break the shitty bottles of beer all over the tile floor. And you tell your gawd damn bitch-realtor to cancel the tour today." I dropped the towel, shoving a finger up my vagina, wiggling it side to side with a grin. "I be fucking myself with my finger like a country hick, since I like masturbating for both lust and pleasurement, because I ain't got fucked in four days from my un-loving husband." I tossed my head backward with a smile and a sigh of pleasure, bending my kneecaps, pushing the same finger deeper into my vagina, fucking myself good.

Winfred exhaled with a huff of annoyance, turning to stare at her finger fuck and her nakedness with a sour frown. "Shush, Nadean. I will repeat in your country hick language for you simply comprehension. You lost. I won. There ain't nothing for you here, honey child." He turned with a sour frown and a nod to see the sofa in the living room. "This is your fault. You are quite right, Nadean. The six broken beer bottles are broken. Do you not remember those particular incidents or accidents? Please forgive her outburst. She needs to take her clinical prescribed psychological medication."

I gagged on my mouth spit of fun, looking down with a cough to see Winfred. He moved forward deeply into the Florida room. I reached down and lifted up the towel, wrapping it around my nakedness, moving forward out of the kitchen, around the spilled beer, and into the dining room with a puzzled brow. I turned and faced the Florida room, seeing Mrs. and Mr. Sims on the sofa.

They stared in shock at Nadean with a set of parted lips and a pair of bugged eyeballs inside a pair of eyeglasses as they were both gray-headed and older. She wore a long tan colored dress and a pair of low heels. He wore a white colored linen suit with a pair of matching shoes.

Winfred spun around and stopped, posing sideways to view both Nadean and his parents with a sour frown and a matching tone. "Do you remember this particular incident, Nadean? Do I need to repeat it? I strongly suggest that you eat your medication from the licensed psychologist to encourage your short term memory. Mother and Father..."

I turned and frowned to see Winfred and his parents. "What the fuck's going on here, Winfred? Hey, ya'll!"

Winfred moved and slammed her collar bone into an empty spot on the near peach colored wall with a chuckle and a grin.

I hit the wall with a grunt and a whisper into his angry face. "That hurt."

Winfred back stepped from Nadean, crossing both arms, turning with a sour frown to see his parents. "I am sorry for this incident, Mother and Father. We must leave. Nadean can't be a civil and proper lady, since she be raised like a redneck hick in Alabama." He swung around and moved to the closed front door archway. His parents stood and followed behind his ass.

The front door opened.

Winfred walked through the front archway with a yell and a grin. "I'm picking up Tanner after school. Remember, Nadean? We agreed in advance yesterday that I'm taking him, starting his summertime vacation with me and my family." He moved down the steps, looking at his mom with a frown and a yell, again. "She missed work and was not being able to retrieve Tanner from his numerous school activities either."

The door closed.

They stopped and entered the new sedan of Winfred.

I stood and watched the sedan disappear from my window view, going around the corner of my house. "Bye-bye, Winfuck!" I turned and moved to the telephone, lifting the receiver, dialing the emergency room 911. I listened to the ring tone and waited on the connection. "Hello, police. I want to report a domestic abuse. My name is Nadean Sims. I was assaulted by my husband. My address is 666 Leo Avenue..."
Present day and place

02:22 p.m.

City of Birmingham within the State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from Warrior)

Hidden underground cavern with red clay soil and gray limestone walls

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on my left wrist bone while slowly exhaling, closing my eyelashes and then relax my body. My mental mind continues to daydream away the clicking time and the physical pain, concentrating and reliving another specific moment from my past adult life.

Thirty-four years old Nadean and her four-year-old son OT

Monday June 16th

Kisla Mountain location

(Three miles, south, city of Birmingham within US State of Alabama)

Home of Vester and Vassar

Cool temperatures and partly cloudy with sunshine

And three miles-per-hour winds south by southwest

The set of double wide glass covered entrance doors opened.

I moved between my two tall brothers Vester and Vassar and wore a peach colored sundress and a pair of white sandals, holding the hand on OT. OT and I entered their three-story pale blue concrete mansion with eight bedrooms and eleven bathrooms first. Vester wore a pair of tan colored walking shorts, a white tee shirt, and a pair of tan colored sandals, veering into the black and red colored kitchen for some cold beverages.

OT wore a pair of dark blue walking shorts, a white tee shirt, and a pair of white sneakers, escaping from his mom and galloped toward the side wall in dark green paint that held a row of delicate electronics, the big screen television first.

Vassar wore a pair of dark blue colored walking shorts, a white colored tee shirt, and a pair of dark blue sandals, running ahead and captured his nephew, hugging OT between his biceps. OT giggled. Vassar said with a smile and a nod into the eardrum of his nephew. "OT, we got lots of places to see and do in B'ham, buddy. Parrots!"

OT giggled, "Yeah."

"Trains!"

"Yeah," OT giggled.

"Flowers!"

"Naw," OT frowned.

"Tigers!"

"Roar," OT laughed.

"Our first visitation with Master OT is the Birmingham Zoo." Vassar turned with a worried brow to see Nadean. "You look pooped..."

"Poop!" OT giggled.

Vassar frowned, "Sorry, Sis!" He tickled OT with a grin. "The tick is quick."

OT turned and punched with a set of tiny fists into the hard chest of Vassar with a grin and a giggle, "Tick!"

I moved ahead with a smile and nod into the grand living room of the house. "Yeah, he likes to repeat all them bad words rapido, Vassar."

OT turned and smiled at back spine of his mom. "Si, Mama."

"Right." Vassar turned and hugged a wiggling OT with a smile. "Okay, buddy. We go to the zoo. Can Mama stay and catnap?"

"Kitty cat," OT turned and scanned the room for the cat.

Vassar pointed with a smile to the back spine of Nadean. "Can Mama stay here at the house? She's tired, OT."

"Yeah, Mama stays. She tires." OT turned and ran to his mama with a smile and a nod.

I squatted down and held out my arms, capturing and hugging OT. "Thank you, honey. You have fun with Tank, Duke, and Vassar. But you are to obey all the rules with Tank, Duke, and Vassar. Okay, OT?"

"Si, Mama." OT said with a grin and a nod.

I hugged him again, stroking his back spine and his hair roots with love. "I love you, sweetheart." I stood upright from the floor and moved to the open front door.

Vester returned back into the grand room, toting two cold beverages.

Vassar scooped and toted OT over his collar bone with a smile. OT laughed with fun. Duke and Tank appeared in a set of summer clothes of pink and pale blue, leaving the house with OT and Vassar for a fun day in Birmingham with OT.

The entrance door closed.

I swung back around and viewed the walls of glass windows that exhibited the mountain plateau, hearing the soft classical music. I spun around and smiled at my younger brother. "I'm so happy to be here, Vester."

Vester moved ahead and stopped, placing the two beverages on the golden tinted metal low table, hugging his sister. He walked backward and sat down on top of red colored long sofa. "What the hell did Winfred do to you, Sis? Ya look beat," he reached out and offered the beverage to her.

I accepted and held the beverage, sitting on top of the softest sofa in the world, exhaling with of puff of frustration. "Beat up." I removed my sandals and touched the smooth wooden floor.

"Did that bastard harm ya or OT?" Vester turned with a worried brow to see the closed front door and back to see Nadean. "I didn't see any physical bruises on OT just the normal boyhood scraps and cuts."

I shook my curls. "Naw, I'm sorry to upset ya, Vester. Winfred hasn't ever harmed me or OT." I reached and placed the cold beverage on top of the side table with a set of shaky hands.

"Please explain your exclamation, since I'm kinda worried now."

I turned and sobbed with a set of hot rolling tears from days of fighting with Winfred and nights of missing my son, wiping off my hand with my naked hands. "I'm so embarrassed and ashamed. I'm divorced today. Actually, nine minutes ago."

"Ah, naw," Vester reached and placed the beverage on the side table, too, scooting over to hug his sister with a worried brow. "Don't be. These things happen to earth angels, too," he exhaled with his sad thoughts.

I sobbed with my tears, wiping off my face. "I know millions of folks marry. Millions of folks get a divorce, too. I'm not the only one."

"But, you're my only sister."

I giggled inside his hug. "We both have a baby sister."

He grinned inside the hug of his sister, "Ah, naw! That bitch doesn't count in my math book."

I frowned with a whisper, "He wanted to have some fun plus he hated my guts. And I have ruined the prime of his life for the past seven years."

He sneered inside the hug. "Fucking bastard, I can hide a body here forever, Sis."

I pulled away with a sour frown from his hug, shaking my curls, "Ah naw."

"Does our dad know?"

I shook my curls, sitting back over the thick soft cushions on the sofa. "Naw, I'll tell our dad when OT turns eighteen. Then I'll tell our mom when OT graduates college. Since we both know that our day never tells our mom nothing. And our mom causes more trouble than a fox inside a hen house. We share joint custody of OT, but he lives with me. That's all that matters to me. Winfred wants to fly like a rock then let him fall hard on top of the Florida sand. I really don't give a damn about him."

He said with a nod and a grin, sitting back inside the thick cushions on the sofa. "Good attitude, Sis."

"I'm visiting you first, little brother, with OT. Then I fly home on Monday night for my paid working job. I live and work in Miami. I love Miami. I love the hot weather. The sunshine. No Mama. I can read your mind, since we speak bro-sis talk. I know that but I have to think of OT. He's only four years old. He'd grow up without Winfred, if I moved up here in Birmingham. Even thou, you and Vassar could easier substitute for OT's daddy and doing a better job, to boot," exhaling. "OT really needs his real daddy even if the man's a jerk."

He smiled, "Good attitude."

"I moved by myself to Miami, without nobody. I'm lucky now. I got OT and you and Vassar and Tank and Duke. Ya know that's all I need," I exhaled with a smile. "My life has been a mess since Winfuck..." I giggled. "Winfuck told me that he didn't love me anymore then slammed the bedroom door."

"Nadean?" He chuckled with a grin.

I nodded with a smile. "I cried that night until morning being broken hearted then Winfuck..." I laughed.

Vester laughed. "No. No. Stop. It's very funny. I burst into laughter when ya say it. Call him right!"

"Right! So, Winfuck...." I lifted my arms with a grin and a giggle. "Okay. Fine. You're a spoil sport, Vester. Winfred took OT to school the next day and stayed at the school, acting like a father for the first ever fucking time."

"OT was happy."

"And I did his American History poster."

He frowned, "For a four-year-old child?"

"The school system teaches four years old to add and count to the number ten."

"That's excellent."

I grinned. "We finger painted Chris Columbus with sand and water and clothes. Chris can't be naked, ya know?" Vester laughed. I frowned. "I was a train wreck, the next day. Crying. Tear stains, the whole nine yards. Winfred presented my poster and OT, taking credit for my homework. I found out on OT's graduation day from pre-kindergarten when he received the first place ribbon on previous International Day at Coral Rock Elementary. Winfred took the blue ribbon to his house, somewhere in Palmton. I wasn't mad but hurt."

"OT was happy."

"Then Winfred took OT that entire Memorial weekend holiday to his family, leaving me all alone, since his birth."

He frowned. "Winfred took OT from you. You said that you're the custodial parent. Shouldn't he have asked for your permission?"

I waved a hand with a sour frown. "It's okay. Winfred can't take OT from me. The divorce decree suggests a scheduled visitation. I just didn't see my child for four long days Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday until after school. Then Tuesday morning was his little pre-kindergarten graduation party with his mini-cape and mini-gown. OT is out of school for the summertime then left with Winfred for OT's scheduled vacation with the Sims family."

"OT has been with both sets of grandparents alone and is in good hands."

I nodded. "I was hurt, I guess. Everyone now wants to see OT during summertime vacation. I predict that all my holidays will be lonely, since Winfred will claim them first."

He smiled with a nod. "Come and see us, Sis."

"I will. Then I finally pulled it together and stomped off to work, occupying my active mind. One of my co-workers noticed my missing engagement ring. I feel the phantom ring on my fourth finger."

He grinned. "Our Grandmother Garland's engagement ring was a big four shiny caret stone. A blind man could see that ring," chuckling.

I reached and popped his bicep with a sour frown. "Vester?"

"He could see it," he chuckled with a nod.

"I've worked for seven years at the Miami Hospital with no contact or conversation from my co-workers. Bam. Everyone knows that I'm getting a divorce."

"Sorry, Nadean. You wear your heart on your scrubbed sleeve."

I nodded. "Sorta. I visited a licensed psychologist."

He shook his buzz cut. "What in heavens for? You're not crazy or mentally unstable."

I exhaled with a puff of frustration, looking down to see my unpolished fingers nails. "I was hurting. I didn't go back to the second scheduled appointment. Then I found out that the dirt bag psychologist charged my good hospital health insurance for the missed second visit. Well, I got her financially. I cancelled the insurance and tattled on the bitch. I didn't get my money back. But it felt good being evil," chuckling.

He grinned with a nod. "Good for you. Do not see a professional clinician, Sis. You're acting normal with a broken heart. That's all."

I smiled. "I will. I came home to an empty house that was heartbreaking. When ya get used to the familiar bodies and suddenly the bodies are gone, it's a little distracting and discombobulating."

"OT shakes a house's walls."

"He brings some much joy to my life. He's my little rock. I telephoned Winfred to talk to OT on Friday afternoon. OT was too busy with the ponies and the balloons. I didn't call back. I didn't want to spoil his fun."

"He loves his mama."

"Then I came home with the furniture all gone."

"Hell, naw."

"Yeah, hell, Winfuck arrived and loaded up a delivery truck with everything that was not nailed down. I'm talking about the living room pieces, the dining room table and twelve chairs, the bedroom frames, including his bed mattress. I labeled the valuable pieces of my furniture: my table, my working computer, and our great grandmother's china place settings. Winfred took the rest of the stoneware, pots, pans, and stainless steel. The ex-bastard hubby cleaned me out, dude," smiling.

He reached over and patted her arm with a nod and a smile. "Sis, I'll take ya shopping tomorrow. Get ya some really pretty stoneware."

I patted his hand with a smile. "I'm not too upset. Part of a divorce is splitting the assets; the set of furniture is labeled an asset. Winfred found and selected all of our newlywed furniture pieces from a local antique dealer in the warehouse district. The stuff ain't true antiques just older, scratched, and dented looking ancient. Winfred got a kick out of lying to people about the old stuff. So it be only fitting that he takes it off my hands and out of my house for free," smiling.

He frowned. "Is that legal? You said today is your official court date, proclaiming your official divorce. Then Winfred technically stole the furniture while breaking the oath of the decree before today's date. You can report and file this thief with your lawyer."

I nodded. "I'm the lawyer. Didn't you remember, hoss? The furniture is a negotiable item in a vicious nasty divorce. OT is not. He took all the furniture. Because Winfred don't got no money, honey for some new colorful stuff inside his new rental place. And I got money, where the sun don't shine! OT's bedroom suite belonged to Winfred's grandmother. He took that piece of furniture with him. But Mama came through. OT has a kiddie fort with a rebel flag made of a double stack of twin bed frames. He'll love it when he returns home, next month. Winfred didn't fuck with the guest bedroom furnishings decorated by my bros."

Vester laughed. "He didn't want our gay cootie germs."

"Thank you, Almighty God, for my gay brothers. I guess so. Your sacrifice had saved my bedroom suite, so I didn't have to sleep on the flooring that night. Son of a bitch."

"Did Winfuck take the swimming pool too?" He chuckled.

I laughed. "No, smartass, it's built down into the sandy ground."

"Just asking..." chuckled Vester.

"Just annoying..." I smiled.

He frowned. "OT has not seen his new fort bed room suite inside your house since the first of June. Why not, Sis?"

"OT was courted off to Winfred's house, until today. Actually, I met Winfred at the airport this morning, after screaming my head off at six this morning. My flight boarded at eight am. Winfred shows up right after the last seats are called. I booked first class seats when I travel with OT. It's easier on me. Usually, we board the plane first as a mama with child, getting him special treatment from the cooing stewardesses, of course, with a wrapped and sterile pillow and a blanket and a cup of water for his fun entertainment. But, of course, Winfred interfered with that fun."

"He interfered with OT's fun. I'm getting a stomach ache, listening to Winfred's bad-ass action coupled with some badass attitude. I think, me and Vassar need to visit Winfred and show that sissy city boy what a badass really looks and feels like."

"Don't you dare teach OT that badass attitude! He's too much physical boy, now. I can't handle a baby badass too."

"Move to B'ham. Vassar and me will make a man out of him, hump."

"Gawd! You're gay, Vester."

"A gay badass. Hmm! A fort bed, that's a great idea, Sis. Maybe, we should build a rocket space cubby for OT. Since, he'll be spending more time with us, learning his badass turkey strut." He chuckled with a nod.

I giggled. "You're too gay for me, bro. I miss OT, but it's nice having some time for me to reflect upon the drastic change in my life. I've been productive, spending all my extra hours working overtime at my hospital that doesn't mind paying me overtime monies. I work on my legal documents, since legal work never stops. And I'm doing more modeling from the photographer that discovered me and..."

"Nadean, I get kinda worried about your health and your sanity. A person shouldn't have to work from sunup to sundown. If you need anything come to me and Vassar."

I smiled. "I work before sunup and passed sundown." He frowned as I grinned. "Don't worry, bro. I'm young, healthy, and smart. This is the prime time of my life. OT is with his loving uncles and then sees his crass G-ma, next month. This is a good time period from me to earn and save some extra bucks for a rainy day. I'm doing good financially. And I will not sacrifice OT for one copper penny. Never, ever, I promise, Vester. If I get stuck, I will call for help. I cross my heart."

"I believe you, Nadean. You don't lie like Dorcee."

"Once we sell the house..."

"Sell the house, why are you selling your house?"

"Part of splitting the assets and liabilities."

"I'll buy your house. I'll place a telephone call..."

I shook my curls with a sad face, reaching and patting his arm. "The house is haunted with old memories of Winfred. I want to make new memories with OT, without Winfred. I'll find another house around OT's elementary school. A house is a house. I'm not selection of a place, just a safe place. OT is learning three foreign languages, Vester. He can speak and understand Spanish, French, and English. He's so smart and talented. He likes to draw. O. When he gets fussy at night..."

"Not with me."

"When your naughty nephew gets fussy at night and don't wanna go to bed, give him his coloring book and his crayons. I placed a new pack of colored crayons along with a new coloring book inside his suitcase. He'll color up the empty spaces, calming down his active neurons then he wanna be held and cuddled like a puppy."

"I like to be cuddled, too."

I eye rolled with a laugh. "Gawd, you're so fucking embarrassing, my gay bro. He has a blanket too required for the cuddle part. Cuddle and snuggle him with the smelly blanket into his face, he likes to chew on the fabric edge. Then he'll fall soundly asleep. And I don't care if he's four years old and big boy. OT is a baby."

"That only needs mega tons of love and attention."

"You're going to be a great daddy. Is that happening soon?"

He winked with a smile. "We're not working on it yet. We're still in the honeymoon stage, darling."

I dropped my head into both my hands with a giggle. "Gawd, I'm so fucking embarrassed with my active imagination."

He laughed. "That's why I don't fuck frisky flirting girls." I looked with a grin and a giggle. Then we silenced. Vester frowned. "There's something else."

"Naw."

"Yes. There is something else that you are not telling me," he leaned with a worried brow into her face.

I exhaled, "Naw."

"Spill it. I know Winfuck didn't threat you, since you own a hand gun and a shotgun which are both loaded and you can shoot better than Scarlet O'Hara. So he must've threatened OT." Vester turned with a worried brow to see the closed door and back to her. "Naw, Winfuck threatened to take away OT from you as a mother. I am correct."

I looked down with a nod and a worried brow to see the cleanest damn floor on the planet. "He did." I looked up with a smile to see Vester. "He cannot. He's a Winfuck. No one will ever take OT from me until that shotgun is emptied and I am dead."

Vester frowned. "Nadean, I do not like this set up. I wish you would seriously consider moving here with me and Vassar in B'ham. I got four men to protect both you and OT. Nothing gets up here unless by copter. Then I bring out the four shotguns..."

I smiled. "Vester, I love you being so psychotic and crazy. Who needs the psychologist, bro?"

Vester frowned. "He comes to your house to pick up OT."

I shook my curls. "Naw, I am to meet him at the grocery store in the beach town of Palmton near his parents' house. I'm familiar with the city street corner, very safe community."

"You are officially divorced. Winfuck ain't allowed near you, Nadean, especially if you are without OT. Hear me?"

"Yeah."

"Naw, do you understand that command? Winfuck is not to be around you, if OT has a scheduled visitation with his other blood-kin. Is your shotgun loaded?"

"Hell, yeah."

"Leave it out. Let Winfuck see it."

I smiled. "Now, you like to call him, Winfuck."

"And you remind Winfuck that you're a country princess that can shoot, spit, and saddle. Or better yet, maybe, me and my three boys will pay a visit to you in July, after you safely drop OT at our mom's house."

I smiled, "Naw, little brother! Winfuck is a big pussy with a little dick. I ain't scared of him. I just afraid of being alone without OT," exhaling. "Christmas is going to be the hardest for me. Because of the visitation schedule, Winfred and I have to split our time with OT on that day and night of Christmas. I get him in the morning this year, while Winfred gets him at noontime. So, there goes my Christmastime," exhaling. "All my holidays too, since Winfred will request every single holiday during the calendar year. I don't really mind. His biological family lives there in Miami. My only family members live in B'ham."

"I wish you would come here," he reached and held her hand with a smile and a nod, "I understand and support that OT needs his daddy." Vester released her hand.

"You didn't need your spineless daddy."

Vester shook a buzz-cut. "Our situation was diff. We were teens, wanting to be men, and we luckily succeeded with both. I give Daddy credit. He pushed me and Vassar into men..." chuckling.

"And he pushed me into being a belle, not a bitch. If I had followed our mama's poor advice, then I would be married to Lance Morris with a passel of kids."

"How many is a passel, Sis?"

I smiled, "Five or six. Well, I don't have to split Christmas time between you, two and our mama anymore. I only present the family part that's shattered and broken. I win. I don't have to see Mama until she begs like a stray staving dog..."

He frowned. "Nadean, this is not about winning. OT is not a trophy."

I nodded. "Right, so right. I mean that my time is going to be very limited. I feel sorry for Winfred. He is all alone, without his house, his son, and his wife. Why would a man do that, Vester?"

Vester frowned. "A man doesn't. A wussie pussy does, Nadean. I hope you don't mind, but I would like to offer some of my advice."

I smiled with a nod. "You're the smartest person I know and are one of the happiest and wisest men on the face of the planet Earth. Hit me?"

He nodded with a stern face. "Nadean, I fear and my guts tell me that Winfred might have tried to dupe you. You're too smart for that. Be aware. He is from there in Miami. You are not. I support you wanting to live down there, since Winfred is OT's daddy. Be careful. And Sis, you are not alone in your life. You live less than two hours from me and Vassar."

I frowned. "Naw, I live thirteen hours away from here in Miami, Florida."

He shook a red colored buzz-cut, "Me and Vassar can jet there under two hours."

"Damn, you be that rich."

He smiled, "Yeah, Sis. Our privately owned business company is doing tremendously well financially. We work to aid people and change lives. We're very proud of our accomplishments. I wish you would come and live here in Birmingham. We could use an honest attorney. We hung the last one underneath the two-hundred-year old oak tree near the flat limestone cliffs," chuckling. "We just cut the ropes..."

I laughed with a smile. "You lie."

"But, I know that you don't wanna do that. I respect that but..."

"I will always ask, if I need it. Okay, little brother?"

"Big both physically and intellectually," exhaling. "Naw, you will not. But, I'd like to ease some of your Christmas heartache that will come this year, since I can't stop your personal mixed emotions."

"Either can I."

"Christmas is Brother Jesus' birthday, not mine, not yours, not OT's. If you celebrate Jesus' Birthday, then you will be teaching OT about spiritualism, instead of materialism. Let Winfred buy the toys and junk. You provide both love and peace. That's all OT needs at this level."

"You're so wise for someone so young, Vester."

He grinned. "And then in his teens, let his rich uncles buy all the go carts, dirt bikes, drums sets, and ponies."

"Ponies?" I frowned.

He nodded with a smile. "Tank wants a herd here."

I turned with a confused brow to see a mountain view through the cleanest damn glass windows on the planet, "Ponies on a mountain peak?" I looked back with a puzzled brow to see Vester. "They would fall right off the mountain side. Then you'd have to shoot them dead before they suffer and die a wicked death."

Vester chuckled, "I think that's the sick-ass point, Sis."

I cringed with a set of curled lips. "Jeezus, I think I need to talk with Tank, before I head back home to Miami."

He smiled. "Ya can't tell me wife what to do now."

"You wear the pants?"

"I parade it all kinds of clothing stuff during sex. You wanna see, Nadean?"

I frowned. "Hell, naw, gawd, you are so embarrassing, Vester."

He chuckled, "Cheered you up, thou."

"Hell, yeah," I turned and pick up the cold sweaty beverage with a smile and a nod. "Tell me about your life, Vester? I don't wanna hear any more about mine. You got a mechanic engineering degree from Burn U, after I abandoned ya'll in Birmingham."

He nodded with a smile. "Vassar possesses an electrical engineering degree. Tank has a chemical engineering degree. Duke has an aerospace engineering degree. And we have been educated all the way up to a doctoral degree in our technical specialties."

"When did you quit the NSI?"

"Actually, the National Space Institute quit on us. They found out our..." he smiled, "...preferences."

I shook my curls. "The US Federal Government can't discriminate against sex, color, religion or creed or other nonsense."

"Gays fall out of that nonsense code."

"They couldn't find out unless you somehow tattle-tailed."

"They planted some female pretty bitch spies that tattled on us."

"Why didn't you sue for sex discrimination or harassment?"

"We did."

I dropped my mouth, "Horse shit."

He smiled. "Horse shit doesn't pay the bills, Sis."

"How much did ya got?"

He laughed. "Lots of good smelling horse shit. It wasn't just against me or Vassar. The lawsuit included Tank and Duke." He lifted and held up four fingers with a chuckle and a smile. "Yeah, ma'am! We fucked the US Federal Government four times. And it was really fun when we won it all."

I nodded with a smile. "Good for ya'll."

"The millions helped us start Orion and Orion Industries."

I dropped my mouth. "Fuck! I've heard of Orion and Orion Industries. I didn't even know that was the reproductive baby of my genius twin brothers."

Vester stood with a smile and extended a hand to her. "We like being anonymous. No one bothers us."

I reached and grabbed his hand with a smile, standing and hugging my brother by the waistline, "Like living on top of a mountain peak."

He moved forward with Nadean as one with a smile and a nod to a three sets of glass patio door on the rear wall that led into the back yard of a green and red colored mountain peak. "I wanna show off our new picnic table underneath the two-hundred-year old oak tree..."

"...with the former attorney's blood stains too." I slapped his chest with a smile and a chuckle.

He chuckled with a smile. "Naw, we got rid of him before the picnic table. Listening to you bitch makes me feel better, because you're strong in both spirit and mind, Nadean. Winfred wasn't your soul mate. I have found my soul mate. It's both wonderful and magically."

"Did I make a mistake marrying Winfred?"

He shook his buzz cut. "Naw, he made the mistake divorcing you, pissing me off, and eventually will lose the respect of his son. Once OT gets older, he'll learn the whole truth, maybe piece by piece. But a snake like Winfuck will always show his fangs, Sis. Your job is to keep OT away from the viper's fangs." He stopped and released Nadean, moving to open the door for his sister and a southern bell with a smile and a nod.

I moved through the archway with a nod and a smile. "Yes sir."

The door closed.

On top of the mountain plateau in three miles-per-winds in bright sunshine with an endless blue skyline, I moved ahead on my naked feet over the nicely manicured lawn on top of a mountain peak with a flower garden, a vegetable garden, and the endless sky. Vester pulled beside Nadean, shoving her body with fun as they both strolled ahead toward the edge of the mountain with a chuckle and a smile.

And then Vester and I stopped and stood on the edge of paradise.

I inhaled the fresh mountain air, filling my lungs with the pure odors of wild plants and flora, exhaling with a smile and a nod to the skyline. "The red land and blue sky mush beautifully together on your mountain peak. What's the christened name?"

"Kisla," Vester stopped and stood beside Nadean, scanning the skyline, the landscape, and the heavens with a smile.

I nodded with a smile. "A Hebrew word for 'hope' associated with the hunter Orion from Greek mythology. My sci-fi reading pays off. The eye view overlooking the back yard lawn just disappears into the baby blue sky of nothingness, kinda like a Hollywood movie."

He reached and grabbed her hand, patting it with a grin. "How's your science fiction novel coming?"

I curled my arm around his arm, shaking my curls with a smile, "Stalled. Since the birth of OT, my life has flipped into overdrive of Mama-ville. I don't have time to eat, less time to write."

Vester used his other hand, pointing into the unlimited skyline with a smile and a nod. "Vassar found this piece of paradise. I concurred. He said that he could touch the face of Almighty God here."

I scanned the sky and the clouds, feeling the fresh thin air on my naked face and arms. "I concur, too. I've heard of a nose-bleed section. How high into heaven are we?"

"The elevation has been measured at 903 feet."

"Why?"

"To use the copter," smiled Vester.

I laughed with a nod. "I forgot about that helicopter, sitting on top of the helio pad. Where are we exactly?"

Vester pointed down around the ground level landscape and the roaring river that you could almost hear in the clouds. "The Appalachian Mountains is an ancient girl over 300 million years old. A band of mountains start at the northern Canadian village of Newfoundland to right here, Nadean," he stomped a bare foot. "We live on the pinky toe of the Appalachian Mountain range. This is the highest peak mountain top of Shelby County in Alabama. The other geographical landscapes of Shelby County are flat like a pancake for both cotton and cows."

I smiled with a nod, scanning the forever clouds, sky, and woodlands landscape which had been personal made and autographed by Almighty God, "Sounds familiar."

"We've seen Mother Nature at work, such-like, beavers, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, minks, hawks, wood peckers, wrens, frogs, turtles, hognose snakes, copperheads. The fresh water streams of Shelby County drain into the Cahaba River which flows along the northern edge of the landscape and then into a southwestern direction. The Coosa River posed on the eastern portion of the county, flowing down southwestern also. The two rivers mix and flow into a major waterway compartment of the Alabama River and then down into the Gulf of Mexico. We're a satellite blimp posted between the Lake Logan Martin Dam and the Lay Lake Dam along the southern flow of the Coosa Riverside. If you drive a car, the closest town is Biana, a sweet population of 3,000 which has grown by four. The flat level topography is stable land for the house that is surrounded by steeping slopes that crash down into the river basin from wild Injuns or wilder Dorcee's brats. The land provides a small space of good crops for cotton and soybeans, if needed to farm for a living. The colored soils of the Coosa River are weathered from pure limestone and red clay soils with silt loam surface layers."

I scanned the river of dirt and colors with a nod. "Looks like the Tennessee River down there," I turned with a smile to see his nose profile. "Does it remind ya of your homestead, Vester?"

He turned and smiled to her. "This is my home. Where's your home, Nadean?"

I smiled. "With OT..."

He nodded with a grin. "Good answer. A short golf tee par three not more than 120 yards with a one-hole dog leg left and a one-hole dog leg right."

I smiled. "Use a two-iron for the deer."

"No herd of deer, but some mean coyotes. I was thinking of hauling some bucks to feed my pet coyote. Sh! Can you hear it?"

"I hear nothing but see the bird of prey."

He chuckled. "That's a shitty vision. Since, a bald eagle sounds like a sissy gay man. There are bald eagle nests nearby along the grove of dead oak hickory trees in the west. There are massive woodland forests of mountain longleaf pine trees and oak hickory trees. The lake has largemouth bass, catfish, and crappie. Toss out a fishing line, you will bring up something to eat for dinner. A small pond for paddle boats, mostly and a canoe."

"Romantic night?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I like the canoe best. Tank wants the ponies plus more pets." He side stepped and dragged her to the picnic table, stopping near the edge and reached, rubbing the wooden surface with a grin and a nod. He turned and sat inside one of the pods, patting an empty seat next to him for Nadean. She moved and sat with a smile, touching the smooth wooden finish. He lifted both his hands and caressed them over the wood with a smile. "Vassar and Tank built it by hand. There are eight pods for each one of us and our future children. The table is rounded, not squared with a set of swirling cords underneath each chair for movement. We spend our evenings here, watching the sun go down, enjoying Almighty God's graceful beauty."

I turned and smiled to see his nose profile. "Since you're planning a baby, I'll be happy to produce a child for you."

He chuckled, "Ya know Queen Anne of England lost her head? She was accused of incest with her brother."

I reached and popped his bicep. "Ya know what I mean, dumbass."

He smiled with a nod. "I know. And I'm very appreciative and tickled that you want to enlighten my life with a child of my DNA. However, I would like to point out that medical research studies have shown that the bloodline of the family becomes weakened and unhealthy when brothers and sisters mate. My sperm and your egg will produce another gay son. Then I'll never have a grandchild," laughing.

I smiled with a sad pout. "I'm butt-hurt but recoverable. If you change your mind, I'm still healthy and fertile. Is Tank going to donate any sperm?"

"I love Tank, but I find that he," he ticked a tongue, turning with a sour frown to see the table and returned back to see Nadean, "...has flaws."

I smiled. "He has feelings, not flaws, Vester."

Vester looked up with a confused brow to see the sky, "Feelings? Ah, that concept is very alien to me."

I frowned, "Why?"

He looked down with a confused brow to see Nadean. "I don't know why. I exceed exceptionally with every endeavor that I pursue. But my feeling seems to steady a path of one dimension."

"You are dimensionally content. Contention is better than sadness, Vester. I find that you are the rock. Vassar is the shovel. A shovel moves up and down and then around and around to accomplish a specific goal. The rock is hard, strong, stubborn, smart ass."

"I vividly see that analogy representation of me and Vassar."

"Just go with the flow of life, Vester. We're only bio-shells looking for happiness in a world of sadness."

"You don't seem your happy self, Nadean."

I exhaled. "I am adjusting to being single again and a single mom. You read about the make-believe social disease but never think that it will apply to you."

He chuckled with a wink. "You should see a psychiatrist."

I felt so comfortable and happy around my brothers, especially closer to Vester. I wished that I could uproot and move to the metro city of Birmingham, living closer to them. But my job and my life rested in Miami. I laughed. "I did and ate him. I ain't going to uproot my life just because I got a divorce. I own a house, a car, a job, and a life down there. I'm done talking about my life. So let's go and eat someone else's life like a swimming catfish." I stood with a smile and a nod.

Vester stood and hugged her with a nod and a smile. "I concur." The twinkle of light blinked throughout the mountain top as the sun started to sink down from the mountain. "Wait." He turned both of them, facing and pointing to the colorful horizon with a smile and a nod. "The sun sits below the western horizon at an azimuth greater than 180 degrees as a result of the planet Earth's rotation. Sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the sun, not the center core. The duration of the day is slightly longer than the night by ten minutes. The width of the sun is unaltered, appearing like a disk, but it is exactly spherical. Therefore, we will see two more minutes of the blue, yellow, and green of a setting sun here upon the Kisla Mountain."

I study the beautiful sunset on an elevated mountain peak with a grin and a giggle. "That ain't romantic, Vester."

He chuckled with a nod. "Tank would strongly disagree with you, Nadean."

Vester and I stood and hugged as two loving siblings between the two-hundred-year-old over story tree and the picnic table, viewing the valley of Birmingham during the sinking sun.

02:20 p.m.

Monday June 18th

City of Coral Gables within the US State of Florida

Home of Nadean and former husband Winfred

Florida living room

I flew home over the roadway on a busy interstate inside a new personal red colored sports car that was purchased and given to me by my two loving brothers Vester and Vassar as a divorce gift from Winfuck. Next trip to Alabama, I was booking their private jet airplane for my faster air flight service to Miami rather than the slower commercial airplane for my next vacation trip to Birmingham.

Then, I would plan a drive down the mountain peak inside Vester's two-hundred-thousand-dollar orange colored sports car to our mom's house within the small farm town of Brier and show off. Jadean would not know or care or bother to notice the car, when her grandson visited.

From the main highway, I slowed the speed and turned the street corner, seeing my house, stopping and parking my car inside the roomy garage and slid out from my new sports car.

Winfred had moved out of the house two weeks ago. And I hadn't seen his ass either.

I exited the garage space and wore the same peach sundress as I did not like to travel with too many pieces of luggage, moving with a single cloth travel bag through the bright lighted laundry room in dull yellow, up the stairs to the closed door, and touched the door knob.

The side door opened.

Within my house, inside the Florida room, I stopped and stood in the open archway with a mouth open.

My cute tall light wooden pub table for two people was located in place of the dining room table that Winfred stole...naw...possessed. It was covered in a pile of my dirty baby blue china plates from my great-grandmother with a set of my new glass tumblers which glowed in some type of used red sparkling liquid. I turned with a puzzled brow to see Winfred and a stranger bitch. "Who is that?"

Winfred stood in front of the eating table with a sour frown to Nadean and wore a tan colored linen leisure suit without a suit and a pair of socks and with a golden necklace around his fat, naked throat. "Nadean, behave! This is Sevilla." He reached out and hugged her collar bone like a lover with a smile and a nod to Nadean.

I grinned with a giggle. "Are you really fucking your secretary?"

"Silent jher, honey. Make jher leave, honey." Sevilla stood upright the chair beside Winfred, coming up to his collar bone, saying in a set of broken English as she was short in height, ugly in her dark tinted, distorted face with a set of big breasts. She wore a short red dress with ruffles around the hemline and a pair of matching fashion sandals on her naked dark skinned feet.

"O! Ya fucking de secretary," I spun around with a grin and a giggle, moving ahead to the kitchen, since my personal bedroom was behind the kitchen wall.

"Jyes," Sevilla grinned with a nod, touching and caressing the naked arm on Winfred.

I moved underneath the kitchen archway with a giggle and a grin, "Jfine."

Winfred turned and frowned at the ass of Nadean. "Nadean, the realtor has been complaining about the shit."

I tossed the small gym bag with my dirty clothes on the floor and swung around with a smile and a wink to see him. "Shit lives inside the toilet, Winfuck."

He jabbed a finger over the hair roots of shorty Sevilla to the clean window inside the Florida room. "The shit is outside near the flowers and bushes. The lawn is shitty smelly."

I smiled with a nod. "Shitty smelly, you learned that term in college. Shitty smelly, gotta remember that vivid description for my sci-fi novel."

"The dog shit in our yard." Winfred continued to jab a finger over her hair roots at the clean window with a sour frown and a sneer.

"Tell the dog owners, Winfred! They allow their pets to shit big old turds in my yard."

"And you're supposed to pick up."

I shook my curls, crossing my arms with a smile. "Ah naw, man, I ain't touching no dog shit. You go and touch it, dude."

"What is that sound?" Mr. Sims sat inside Nadean's new sofa, turning with a chuckle and a smile to see the nose profile of Nadean.

"Southern." I turned with a sour frown to see the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Sims, who sat comfortable inside my new sofa with a set of cold beverages inside my living room of my house. "What are you doing here, Winfred?" I cut my eyeballs back to Winfred with a sneer.

Winfred frowned. "What are you doing here, Nadean? Why aren't you at work? This is a work day Monday."

I smiled. "Duh, dude. I live here, if I need to remind all of ya'll that historical fact, ya fucking rednecks. Gawd, they call me a backwards hick from Bama."

Elderly Mrs. Sims said with a lady sneer to the ass of her son Winfred. "Miss Garland is being both rude and improper. Make her leave, Winfred?"

I turned with a lady sneer to see elderly Mrs. Sim. "Make her leave, Winfried? Babe, you do not live here, either. Your name ain't on the mortgage papers that I signed. As a matter of fact..."

"Nadean," Winfred exhaled with a sour frown. "Please be civil! Or can you try to act like that southern belle your mother had tried to instill into your hick bones? I should call and report your improper behavior to your biological family. They will take action against you for embarrassing them."

I swung around with a sour frown to my bedroom space. "I'm tired. Please leave all of you, folks."

Winfred turned and frowned at the ass of Nadean. "Where have you been, Nadean? I called your work at the hospital. I called your office at the law firm. And I contacted the modeling studio. You have not been at work during the entire day. Where is OT?"

I swung back around with a sour frown to see him and look up to the ceiling with a smile. "In the twenty second state of the USA, it became a US State on December 14, 1819 with the capital of Montgomery. The largest city is Birmingham." I looked down with a wink and a smile to see his face.

Winfred turned red colored with a sour frown and a sneer. "Did you really take and leave Tanner with them?"

I smiled with a nod. "That college education is impressive, Winfuck."

He spat out mouth salvia from his parted lips, jabbing a finger down to the floor with a sour frown. "I demand to know exactly where my son is."

I swing around from Winfred to my bedroom again. Sevilla spoke in Spanish at the ass on Nadean. I mentally translated her Spanish words into English words, saying with a smile. "You be an ugly bitch, too, chica," laughing.

I heard the smash of glass behind my ass, moving through the kitchen, down the mini-steps to my room with a laugh and a smile. "Ya missed, bitch or bastard..."

Winfred yelled at the ass and the hair roots of Nadean. "We are going. But I'm coming back to find my son Tanner."

I sung out loud in my alto timber, marching through the open archways with a smile. "Are you from Dixie? Yeah, I'm from Dixie. And he's in Dixie, too." I kicked the wooden door with my foot.

The door closed.

At 03:03 p.m. the side door inside the Florida room opened and slammed shut as the noise echoed through the house.

Winfred stopped and yelled to the closed bedroom door of her bedroom. "Nadean," he lifted and banged on the door with a fist. "Are you in there?"

"Buy locks," I whispered underneath my pillow inside my soft bed mattress.

"Nadean, are your drunk?"

"Buy milk."

"Nadean, you are stoned?"

"Buy food."

"Nadean, please, answer me!"

"Buy a dog."

"Nadean, where is my son?"

"Buy a vicious dog.

"Nadean, please come out of your bedroom, if you can walk upright like a human being."

I grunted and rolled off the bed, standing with a wobble, wearing the dirty peach colored sundress with a pair of naked feet. I yawned and rubbed the sleepy crumbs from my eye sockets, moving across the room to the archway, touching the knob with a sour frown.

The door opened.

Winfred was not standing there at the bedroom archway.

I exhaled with fury and moved ahead, marching up the mini-steps into the kitchen floor, moving into the dining room, turning and stopping to see my new guests. The elderly Mr. and Mrs. Sims sat in silence on top of my new white colored sofa. He wore a white colored linen suit. She wore a pale blue long dress.

Stranger Bitch in the same red dress stood in front of the double sided entrance doors beside Winfred, touching and caressing his naked arm with a sour frown and a nod. He said with a nod and sour frown to Nadean. "Where is my son?"

I exhaled with a puff of fury, jabbing a finger at his parents. "Winfred, you and these bodies are not supposed to here. OT is not here in Miami. Florida. Please leave."

"Where is my son?"

I grinned. "I killed and ate him," and then I burped with a giggle, "Yummy for the tummy. OT likes it when I do that being a tough little tike. Good bye ex-bastard husband, mama and daddy of ex-bastard husband, and stranger Bitch of ex-bastard husband to you, too, tooting..."

"Jno...," Sevilla spoke, saying something like 'naw' in southern or 'no' in American or 'negative' in science fiction. "Make jher leave, jhoney." She touched and patted his sleeve with a nod and a grin to Nadean.

I pointed with a nod and a smile to the short woman. "I really respect people that can converse in two foreign languages, because my southern accent can't. But she's a hoot, Winfuck. Winfuck and Stranger Bitch, please leave, before I sic the-ain't-got-a-vicious dog but the more vicious Coral Gables police force on ya'll's asses."

Winfred turned with a sour frown to see his mom. "See how she insults me, Mother..."

"Motherfucker..." I turned and grinned to the elderly Mrs. Sims. She didn't smile back at Nadean.

Winfred turned with a sour frown to see Nadean. "We are here to collect Tanner."

I shook my curls, raising a hand, spreading my fingers one at a time. "First off, OT is a boy, not a garbage bag. Second off, OT is visiting with my hillbilly side of his family. Third off, OT is not present anywhere inside the entire US State of Florida. Therefore, Winfuck cannot be here. I live here."

He frowned. "Stop being ridicule and threatening, Nadean. I live here, too."

"Ah, naw," I shook my curls.

Winfred turned and strolled to the new pink colored landline telephone on top of the new short table inside the wall corner. "I'm calling the police. Since, it was your original suggestion. You're insulting me, my parents, and my wife. And you have kidnapped my son," he stopped and stood with a huff, lifting the telephone receiver and dialed the emergency number for the police. He heard the ring, waiting on the connection, turning and whispering into the telephone.

Sevilla jabbed a fake manicured fingernail at Nadean with a set of curls lips of red lipstick, "She poco loco. Jyou be ailed."

I smiled. "It is j-j-jailed, bitch. The letter 'J' is not silent in a string of American words, chica, only the Spanish vocabulary."

The Coral Gable police force was both fast and down the street. A police car arrived within one minute and twenty seconds of Winfred's telephone call. They exited the car and approached the front door.

The door sounded with a knock. I turned with a grin and moved to the loud knock, grabbing the elegant knob. The door opened. I back stepped and motioned with my hand, inviting the two police officers into my house, raising both my arms with a grin and a giggle. "Thank gawd, officers. You have arrived. These fucking illegal aliens are about to kidnap me with their x-ray guns to the moon and into outer space." I spun around with a laugh and moved ahead, sitting inside my new green colored away from the Sims family near my new telephone and my short side table.

The tall, red haired, pale skinned police officer in the tan colored uniform entered the room and scanned each face with a puzzled brow, stopping and landing his eyeballs on Nadean. "What's going on in here, ma'am?"

Winfred turned with a sneer and jabbed a finger at Nadean, moving to the police officers near the front door. "This is my ex-wife. She has kidnapped my son Tanner Sims. We are newly divorced." He lifted a stack of papers near his sneer. The officer accepted and viewed the paper with a stern face. Winfred said with a sour frown and a matching tone. "I am Sims. She is Nadean Sims. Our..."

The short, dark haired, dark skinned police officer turned with a stern face to Nadean. "Where is young Sims named Tanner Orion, ma'am?"

I grinned. "OT is located at his maternal grandmother's house in Alabama," I reached and lifted the telephone receiver. "How about we call OT and ask him?" I punched and dialed the familiar telephone number. My adult family member was quick to answer the ringing tone. I smiled into the receiver, looking at the police officer and the ass of Winfred. "Hey, Dorcee! May I speak with my little angel boy?" I slammed the speaker transmitter on for all eardrums to hear inside the room.

"Hola, Mama," yelled OT via the phone.

I smiled, "Como estas, OT. Daddy's here?"

"Hola, Daddy," yelled OT via the phone.

Winfred turned with a sour frown to see the telephone, the wall, and Nadean. "Hello, Tanner."

I said. "Granny Sims is here too, OT."

"Hola, Granny," yelled OT via the phone.

"Are you having fun with G-ma and G-pa, OT?" I smiled to the two police officers.

OT yelled via the phone receiver into Nadean's living room, "And the ponies."

I nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I like riding the pony too. OT, I'm coming to get you..."

"Naw, not now, Mama! Later right, not now, I be having fun. Gotta go, I'm eating ice cream. Love ya, Mama, Daddy, and Granny. Bye." OT yelled via the phone.

I smiled. "Love ya, OT. Bye..."

Jadean said via the phone, "Nadean?"

"Hi, Mama! Everything's peachy keen fine here in South Florida. Talk to ya, later. Bye, Mama." I slapped the speaker transmit off with a grin, dropping the receiver down to the telephone.

The tall police officer said with a confused brow to Nadean. "Is your little son scheduled to be in Alabama, ma'am?"

I smiled. "Answer him, Winfred?"

"Yes." Winfred stared with a sour frown and pretend set of fireballs at Nadean.

"Then, there is no kidnapping here, sir." The tall police officer turned with a sour frown to see the nose profile of Winfred.

I stood with a grin and a nod, moving and stopped, pointing down and around to all the un-invited guests inside my house. "They are trespassing on my land. I want them all arrested and locked up based on my rights as a homeowner and US American citizen living in Miami, Florida," smiling.

Winfred frowned, "Nadean, stop being stupid."

I pointed to Winfred with a smile and a nod. "Ask him to show you his driver's license, officer."

Winfred turned with a nod and a stern face, pointing down to the floor and at the papers inside the hands of the police office. "I live here. See the divorce decree? It contains our home residential address."

"Ask Winfred Sims for his Florida driver's license, please, sirs?" I nodded to the two police officers.

"Sir, may I see a valid Florida driver's license?" The short police officer turned to see Winfred and extend an open palm with a stern face.

Winfred shook a semi-balding skull with a sour frown. "I own this house." He retrieved and pulled out his wallet, lifting and presenting the license to the police office.

The officer accepted and reviewed the presented license with a sour frown. "Your valid Florida driver's license shows you a resident in the city of Palmton, Florida. This is also in another Florida County, not Dade County of Miami." He looked up with a confused brow to see the frown on Winfred, handing back the license.

Winfred accepted and held his license. "We are selling the house for the divorce."

The tall police officer turned and looked out the window with a confused brow. "I do not see a 'for sale' sign in the yard."

"There ain't," I giggled with my secret answer.

Winfred turned with a sour frown and jabbed a finger at Nadean and then lifted up and rambled inside his worn briefcase. "Nadean yanked it from the grass and burned it. I have a copy of the realtor contract." He lifted and handed another set of stapled papers from his briefcase with a smile and a nod to the same officer.

The short police officer accepted and reviewed the papers with a nod and then turned with a confused brow to see Nadean. "This is a legal reality contract to sale this house on 666 Leonardo Lane. So where's the 'for sale' sign, ma'am?"

I smiled with a nod, crossing my arms. "I pulled it up like Winfred told. Please view the signature line on the bottom of the last page."

The short police officer looked down with a stern face and flipping through the papers, reading out loud. "I see the signature of Winfred Sims," he looked up with a puzzled brow to see Nadean. "Where is your signature, Mrs. Sims?"

"Jyes," Sevilla spoke in Spanish.

The short police officer turned and frowned to Sevilla. "Who are you?"

"Stranger Bitch," I giggled with a grin and a nod.

"Mrs. Sims," Sevilla lifted and slapped her breasts with both hands. They jiggled as Nadean giggled.

The short police officer shook his skull. "The other former Mrs. Sims," he turned with a puzzled brow to see Nadean. "Where is your signature, the former Mrs. Winfred Sims, on this realtor contract?"

I shook my curls with a stern face. "I didn't sign the legal document. I don't wanna sell my house."

Winfred reached over and snatched the paper, flipping through the staples paper with a sneer. "Gimme that! You're a turd, Nadean. She signed this contract along with our divorce decree. This is not the correct copy. I have it in my business office," exhaling. "The house is being sold. She is blocking the sell by not cleaning, pissing on the floor, and..."

"...changing the locks tomorrow, buddy," I giggled with a grin of my new idea.

Winfred exhaled with a huff of frustration. "Officers, she is destroying this house on purpose," he turned and pointed to the object on the floor. "See the broken plate on the floor."

I moved to the broken plate on the floor with a smile and then a gasp, squatting and reaching for some of the broken pieces with a sad face. "O my gawd, this is my great-grandmother's china bone eating plate. O my gawd! This plate is over hundred years old. I would never break my great-grandmother's china bone dishes. She did it." I reached and lifted the largest broken piece of the bone china, standing and turned with a sad face to move and show the short police officer. I fingered at the broken piece. "Look at the date of the baked china mixture."

The short police officer accepted and reviewed the china bone plate with a gasp. "The year is 1832," he looked up with a sour frown to see Winfred. "Sir, I am beginning to believe her words over your story telling. I believe you should leave this house, immediately," he turned with a sour frown to see Sevilla. "Ma'am, did you break this invaluable piece of china bone dish?"

Sevilla curled her lisp with a hiss, swinging around to the front door, grabbing the knob.

The door opened.

Mr. and Mrs. Sims stood and moved to the open archway with a sour frown.

Winfred jabbed a finger at the floor with sour frown. "I have lived here for seven years. I am not leaving this house. We are really selling this house as stated by the Florida Divorce Code."

I moved forward through my house and wiped my sad tears, cuddling the broken piece and stopped, placing it on top of my new low table and stared down at the year 1832.

Mr. and Mrs. Sims continued to stare at the ass of Winfred and sit on top of the sofa with a sour frown.

The tall police officer nodded with a stern face. "Sir, you are correct per the Florida divorce code. The divorcing couple is required to split all assets and liabilities. But under these extreme circumstances, you are married to that woman near the open front doors. Thus, she does not live at 666 Leonardo Lane." He jabbed a finger at the sofa with a confused brow. "And who are the elderly couple near your new wife?"

Winfred swung around with a smile and a nod to the sofa, "My parents."

The tall police officer shook his skull. "They do not reside here, either. Sir, you and all your blood family should leave here. Ms. Sims did not break her great-grandmother's china dish. But I do believe that one of you did."

"I left. Come, jhoney." Sevilla moved down the front steps and exited the house, strolling to Winfred's sedan.

The short police officer thumbed over his collar bone to the open doors with a stern face. "Tell you what? Why didn't we all leave at the same time? Our patrol car is parked behind your vehicle, sir," he turned with a stern face to see Nadean. "Ma'am, thanks for calling the Coral Gable police for your domestic issue. Have a good day." The officers turned and watched Winfred and his parents leave the house and then they exited and left in the police vehicle.

I cuddled the broken dish with a set of tears and a whisper. "Thanks."

At 05:05 p.m. inside the living room, a set of bright headlights glared into the garage door as the sedan stopped with a shriek.

The car door opened.

Winfred moved and stopped with a sour frown, rattling the door knob, banging a fist on the closed front door.

I lived in the metro city of Miami and had called a locksmith to change out all the locks, two hours ago.

Winfred couldn't invade the house again. He shouted with a sneer. "Nadean, open this door. I demand to talk to you."

I opened and blocked the door with my body and a sour frown. "What?"

He sneered. "You think you're cute."

"Naw, a beauty," I giggled with a grin.

"You think you're funny."

"Naw, a bitch," I giggled.

"You think you're smart."

"Naw, a smart-ass," I giggled

"You think you're slick."

"Yeah, slick," I smiled.

He exhaled. "I fucked up missing that you didn't sign the realtor contract. But I have learned that you are a snake."

"A viper," I giggled.

He lifted and shoved a set of new papers with a sneer and a sour frown into her nostrils. "Sign this paper or else? You display that 'for sale' sign or else? You do as I say or else? You think you're getting away with this ploy. Naw, ya ain't using your hillbilly slang. This house is worth one million dollars. I am getting my money, if I have to shove a shotgun up your ass like your hick brothers do. I have learned from ya'll that hicks only like vicious violence." He shoved her backward from the archway, entering through the archway and turned, slamming a fist into the wall. It left a tiny hole, a black mark, and a pile of dropping yellow colored plaster. He back stepped with a smirk and turned, moving to his sedan.

I hissed with a yell at his wiggling fat ass. "Fuck you, asshole!"

Winfred swung around with a smile and a laugh to see Nadean. "I already did you. It was sour. Suck that, sweetheart!" He spun around with a laugh and a smile and entered down into his newer model sedan, driving from the private driveway.

I stood inside the archway with a smile and a whisper. "Naw, ya ain't." I turned and slammed the front entrance door with my foot.

The door closed.

I moved to my work briefcase with a sour frown, pulling out our shared divorce decree.
Present day and place

02:31 p.m.

City of Birmingham within the State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from Warrior)

Hidden underground cavern with red clay soil and gray limestone rock walls

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on my right wrist bone while slowly exhaling with pain, closing my eyelashes and relax my aching body. My mental mind continues to daydream away the clicking time and the physical pain, concentrating and reliving another specific moment from my past adult life.

Thirty-four years old Nadean and her four-year-old son OT

Sunday July 13th

01:01 p.m.

Sports car ride of Nadean

(Six miles, south on Interstate 95, from Palm Beach Airport)

Hot temperatures and bright sunshine

I saw a set of blue lights inside each rear view mirror on my red colored sports car with a confused brow "Shit." I looked down with a gasp to eighty-five miles-per-hour after releasing the gasoline pedal from the flashing color in the mirror. The sports car accelerated so beautifully even for a manual transmission that I couldn't feel one single bump over the interstate roadway. I slowed and steered the car into the sandy medium strip, killing the engine and rolled down the window for some fresh air. Then I reached and cracked open my car door with a worried brow.

The police car stopped behind the sports car.

The police door opened.

A tall, pale skinned, and fat police officer in a dark green uniform exited out from the car and moved ahead, stopping and standing in front of the driver's door with a stern face, a pair of sunglasses, and a wrinkled uniform. "Stay in the car!"

I slammed the door back into the latch as a second younger dark haired and dark skinned police officer curved around the passenger side.

A police cameraman moved ahead and stopped, standing beside the tall and fat police officer, recording everyone's sweaty eye brows from sunshine. He wore a tan colored uniform and a head of brown hair and dark skin.

This was the month of July in Miami, Florida and hot as hell with a cool ocean breeze. I drove my brand new convertible sports car from the airport in West Palm Beach to my home in Miami, Florida. I liked flying an airplane out from the West Palm Airport rather than the over crowded and busy Miami International Airport. I liked the long drive over the smooth interstate to clear the cobwebs from my mind with the mental thoughts of divorce, single, motherhood, and OT.

The convertible top of my sports car was down for fun and sun.

My hair was wrapped inside a baseball cap from the flying breeze, since the wind created a set of split ends and whipped my long curls into my face like a riding crop and hurt like hell. When the car stopped, the hot Florida sun beat down on my face, creating more peddles of sweat that dropped down my naked face, my chin, my neck, and my exposed and naked collar bone. I wore a string bikini top getting a good base tan on my body. My ass was covered in a torn-off blue jean skirt, showing off more leg thigh than legal.

My naked feet rolled around the car floor for a set of heeled sandals that was used to prance onto the airplane from Alabama, because I liked to piss my mama off looking like a tramp but not.

I lifted and ditched the baseball cap, tossing over into the passenger seat.

The tall and fat police officer stood over the driver's window with a sour frown. "ID, driver's license, car registration, and proof of insurance, ma'am." She reached and handed the items to him with a smile. He frowned. "Please step out of the car." He opened the unlocked door for the woman.

I stood and stumbled from the seat, wearing a pair of slip on high heeled sandals over the loose gravel and hard pavement of the sandy medium strip.

He reached and grabbed her forearm with a sour frown and a sneer, before she fell over. She jerked her arm, standing tall and upright in silence. "Are you intoxicated, as well as, breaking the law by speeding? I clocked you at doing ninety miles per hour, so you are going to be arrested for reckless driving, first offense. But it seems you look a little under the weather which could lead to a second offense, drunk driving."

I turned and frowned into his sweaty face and his pair of black tinted sunglasses. "No, officer, I do not drink alcohol of any type. The ground is uneven in my high heels," I pointed down to my pink painted toes, wiggling 'hi' at the police officer.

He grinned wickedly. "Well, I'm judge today, little girl. Ron, paint me a straight yellow line from the front bumper of her sports car to my boot toes here and now, please." The young skinny police office nodded in silence and turned to perform his new task. The fat police officer grinned with a hum into her face. "Hmm, your face is red and swollen? Did you tell me that you do not drink alcohol? Do you like to drink beer rather than whiskey? You're sweating like you might vomit? Does your stomach hurt? Or your head?"

I reached up and wiped the fresh sweat from my brow with a naked hand and a sour frown. "I'm hot from the Florida heat. This is a heated day inside the convertible too. I'll been enjoying the wind and sun, a little too much."

He turned and examined her sports car with a smile and a nod. "Nice ride. Foreign sports job, lots of money. Is this really your car? Or is it your boyfriend's car?"

I nodded with a sour frown, pointing down to the paper work inside his fat hand. "I provided you my registration that matches my driver's license. Both are valid."

"Line painted, sir." Ron moved and stood beside the tall and fat police office with a nod and a smile.

The fat police officer looked up with a grin and a nod to see Nadean. "Good. Please start over there at the beginning of your front bumper and stand in front of Ron and walk a straight line to me and then turn around and walk back to him." She turned and lost her footing again within the loose gravel pebbles, wearing the high heeled sandals and almost fell down over to the hard pavement. The tall and fat police officer reached and captured her naked arm again with a sour frown into her eardrum, before she fell over again. "This is not looking good for you, babe." He laughed.

I jerked my arm away from his loose hand gripe and slowly marched ahead on top of the gravel pebbles, avoiding the sunken holes inside the medium strip and turned, standing in front of the orange colored painted line. I breathed heavy from the heated air and the arching feet inside the heeled sandals plus the annoyance of traffic ticket.

I was tired from traveling by airplane. I left on Saturday morning at five in the morning, because I was anal about catching the first airplane out of the airport, without delays or misplaced pilots.

I awoke at three in this morning for the car drive to the West Palm Beach International Airport, since the Miami International Airport was too close and too crowded for my raw nervous. The flight landed in the metro city of Birmingham, gathering a hype child and then I borrowed Vester's car and drove to Brier, a ten-minute trip. I hand delivered OT to my parents.

I was happy for once to see my blood-kin family as I lied about all the current events in my sorry-ass life. I would rather focus my energy and my voice on OT and his accomplishments of pre-kindergarten in Miami. I didn't tell my parents about the nasty divorce proceeds, since that's my business. I kissed and tucked OT good-night and then rested inside my old bed inside my old bedroom, cursing as day of sunlight broke and hit the glass panes.

I swiftly decided to leave Sunday morning instead of facing my mama and my sister while feeling daughterly afraid of spilling out the truth about my messed-up, sorry-ass life.

When I arrived back at Vester's mountain, he arranged for a jet plane and a nice pilot to fly both of us from Birmingham to West Palm Beach with nothing better to do but whine and cry in his warm loving brotherly arms.

Currently, my red and swollen face contained a set of stained teardrops as I started to walk over the bright orange line and stumbled to the side without focusing on the present. And then I back stepped and start at the front of the orange line again. I was made of mixed up and jumbled emotions of hurt and hate. I stepped forward and then stumbled. I caught my body before hitting ground.

I stood taller, breathing deeper and faked a smile as the tall and fat police officer marked down my actions in his notebook, watching me. I stepped a right sandal ahead and stopped, feeling slightly dizzy from the hot sun and exhaustively tired in my bones from non-sleep for almost forty-eight hours, worrying about OT and dwelling on my upcoming divorce.

"Come towards me. Please keep marching," the fat police-officer motioned with a hand and a stern face. She moved forward in a fluid motion and stomped into his nostrils. He was over six feet which was compared her five feet and ten inches. He smirked into her sweaty face. "Bring me the breathing equipment," Ron moved and returned beside the fat officer, handing a plastic tube. The fat police officer smiled at Nadean, lifting and bumping the devise into her cheekbone. "Place the tube inside your mouth and breathe out. This devise will measure your alcohol intake."

"Please." I smiled.

"What?" He frowned.

I eye rolled as I was not drunk but exhausted. I reached and placed a round tube inside my mouth as fear attacked my body. I breathed and choked then coughed with the plastic down my throat. I removed the tube, feeling a vomit sensation.

The fat police officer shakes his skull. "No, you need to breathe out into the tube. Try this again!"

I breathed a gulp of air, holding it inside my lungs and placed the tube inside my mouth, closing my lips and breathed out as the air flooded the tube and my lips. I felt sick.

The fat police officer jerked the tube from her lips, looking down and checking the gadget. She gagged and coughed, wiping her sweaty face. He shook a skull with a grin. "Not good, the breathalyzer states point ten percent content of alcohol inside your mouth and your tongue. Your tongue likes sour things."

I frowned. "That is impossible. I do not drink alcohol."

He nodded with a smile. "You must have mistakenly drunk something made with a good bit of alcohol. Do you partake of sweet wine coolers or...?"

"I do not drink alcohol. I request another test."

"You get one shot. Now, I must check your body for contraband. Hold up your arms!"

I back stepped with a sour frown, extending my arms. "You have got to be joking, sir? I'm in a bikini bathing suit swimming top. You can see my hairy armpits."

He looked down and marked on the notepad with a smile and a nod. "Yes, you are going to be charged for indecent exposure for a third offense while dressing too semi-naked in the public of children, ladies, and gentlemen. I understand that rednecks like this look. Turn around? I must check the pockets of your blue jeans."

I had forgotten the skirt contained a set of rear pockets, spinning around.

He dug his fingers into each pocket, rubbing her semi-naked ass with a smile and a chuckle. "Nothing." He shouted. "Bring me her purse?"

Ron turned and leaned into the open convertible, grabbing her purse and stood, searching through the contents and lifted with a smile a gun into the air. "Found a concealed weapon, Bruiser." He stood beside the fat and tall police office.

Bruiser grinned with a chuckle and a nod. "Whoa, babe, we hit the jackpot."

I pointed to my purse with a smile and a nod. "I carry a gun permit. So's, I can shoot my gun at a flock of uncivilized hicks for my personal protection." I reached for my purse, but Bruiser snatched it from the other hands, searching the contents too. I smiled with a nod. "Inside my wallet, there is a gun permit, valid and updated."

Bruiser found and lifted the permit near his face. "Gun permit, check. Check the luggage inside the trunk. Your keys." She lifted and handed her car key to Ron as Bruiser ordered with a smile. "Record the trunk contents too."

The police cameraman kissed the lens of the camera with a sour frown, recording the action of Bruiser and Nadean. "I record the driver at all times."

Bruiser turned and frowned into the camera lens. "Go and record the trunk content, now. We might find some drugs then you'll be famous on TV. Always, she's harmless being only a pretty thing."

The camera man dropped the camera and turned, moving to the rear of the trunk with a sour frown.

I swung around with a smile. "Bruce Grand..."

He winked with a grin. "I'm impressed. Ya remember me?"

I frowned. "I'm pissed at your treatment of me. I do remember you, the best man at our wedding, without the beer gut and the shaggy beard. Heard, you got kicked out of the military for being a bad solider, Bruiser. I bet your daddy's mad being a long time veteran in the armed forces."

"Heard you got dumped by Winfred being a back slapping bitch. You were..."

"A good wife..."

"A boring wife, I hear on the juicy grapevine. Well, Winfred be doing well, without your ass...sets. He's president of First Bank in Palmton, boss of everything, now." He reached up and touched her hair with a grin. "Yeah, his new wife fills gold into his treasure chest, instead of platinum for his career unlike some country cowgirl. I warned him about your redneck attitude. He didn't want to hear it until he got burned."

I parked both my hands on my hips with smirk. "He got burned. That's an interesting tale. How did he get burned?"

Ron moved from the trunk of the car and returned, standing at the nose profile of Bruiser, shaking a skull. "The trunk and the luggage are clean of contraband, Bruiser."

Bruiser leaned in and bad breathed into her face. "Search the car."

I back stepped with a frown. "I say no. There is no probable cause to search my private vehicle, without a search warrant. That is the law."

Ron nodded with a smile. "Sure, Bruiser."

Bruiser smirked. "Check her criminal records too."

Ron looked down with a frown and read the police notepad. "I did that, first thing. There are no tickets or outstanding warrants..."

"In Florida, but she lives in Alabama." Bruiser smiled. "Check that US State, too. And call for a backup unit with the drug-dogs and a handler to I-95. We need some assistance out here in the hot sun."

"Sure, Bruiser," Rob turned with a nod and a smile to the sports car, writing the instruction to record the order, moving back to the driver's seat.

Bruiser smirked. "Trusting you, believing in you and your lies, then you used these lies against him. You robbed him of his house, his car, his boat, his bank accounts, and his kid. You know a son belongs with the father, not a cheating pussy ass mama? That's a pretty fancy car there. New?"

I turned and smiled at my new car and back to his smile. "You know a cheating pussy ass mama gets to have her son and her toys, too? I guess you believe them lies, too."

"Propositioned me right here on the sandy side of the interstate, Your Honor. You are unbelievable. Winfred said that you cheated on him with that lawyer at your firm and then stole all the money from the joint husband and wife bank account, before the ink dried on the divorce papers. He couldn't find a trace of the money, but he will. He's a brilliant banker. He'll figure it out. Then he had to sale his new luxury sedan, his nice sports car and nice boat to pay off all your credit card debt that you purchased on his plastic. You got guts, honey. I'd beat your ass first."

I smiled. "Good thing, we didn't marry. Huh?"

He leaned over, reaching up and tried to touch her sweaty face with a grin. "You're a pretty thing and smart but a mean bitch. You hit Tanner and then threaten your son with more violence, if he tattles to his biological father Winfred. Good thing, there's another police officer present here. Or I'll just take you down to the Everglades and beat the shit out of ya. Then let you see how it feels to be a tiny victim."

I felt the victim here, saying with a stern face and a serious tone. "Good thing, there are too many eye witnesses, so you can't do that."

Ron turned and moved from the sports car and returned, standing next to the nose profile of Bruiser, shaking his skull with a stern face and a serious tone. "No citations or warrants on her in the state of Alabama either. And the interior of the vehicle is clean too, Bruiser."

The police cameraman moved and stopped, standing beside the Ron and Bruiser as Bruiser smirked into her face. "What's the ETA on the drug-dogs?"

Ron shook his skull. "The drug team can't come. They're doing a raid in Miami Springs."

Bruiser chuckled with a nod "That's okay. We have matched the physical description of someone recently reported to the police driving under the influence that had struck another vehicle and left the crime scene. Turn around for your arrest," he reached and grabbed her arm, spinning Nadean around as the handcuffs clipped over both her wrists. He leaned into her eardrum with a grin and a whisper. "You are under arrest for...," chuckling. "Let's see how many offenses ring up on your tab, little cowgirl. Reckless driving, possession of a hand gun, excess speeding, under the influence of alcohol, resisting arrest, indecent exposure..."

"Gun running, human trafficking..." I giggled with a grin, since I was a lawful citizen first and a degreed lawyer second.

Bruiser puffed into her hair roots as he was slightly taller with a sour frown and a whisper into her eardrum, out of range of the other police representatives. "Shut up, babe. You're in deep shit, honey. I guess little Tanner lives with his daddy during your incarceration of your ass inside the walls of Palmton, Florida until his graduation day from high school." He pulled back with a smile and a nod. "Let's go and move over my police car. And Ron, watch her carefully for any violent move. One of us might have to shoot the criminal dead," laughing. Bruiser turned and led her to the rear of the police car.

I entered with a smile as my legal calculated a solution. I slid into the rear seat with a smile.

The door closed.

04:04 p.m.

Police department lobby setting at telephone booth

City of Palmton within US State of Florida

(45 miles, north, from Coral Gables)

Hot temperatures and partly cloudy with sunshine

I stood inside the lobby at the police station in the city of Palmton, after being released from the jail cell like a free bird. I held the black colored old fashioned telephone receiver in my eardrum and dialed the hospital office, hoping to reach my supervisor, hearing a recorded voice instead.

The automatic telephone operator said via the telephone. "Sorry. That number is out of area."

"Shit." I slammed the receiver down and lifted it up again, dialing a Bond Bail service vendor, hearing a recorded voice instead.

The automatic telephone operator said via the telephone. "Sorry. That number is restricted for this facility."

"What the fuck!" I reached out and slammed the receiver down onto the hook again with a confused frown and turned and waltzed with a fake smile to lonely and ugly police officer female at the office desk. "Hi! Excuse me."

The fat, older, pale skinned female police officer in dark green uniform was not happy to see Nadean at the moment. Nadean had a verbal and a written format which accursed a fellow police officer brother of both thievery and trickery as she was the newest Witch of the West. Actually, she lived southwest rather than west. The farm town of Brier was located in the southwest direction from metro city Huntsville.

I thumbed over a collar bone to the wall and the wall telephone with a sour frown. "I can't dial..."

She stamped the paper on top and shifted to the side and then stamped the second paper, without looking up to see Nadean. "Only local telephone numbers or you receive an out of area warning."

I nodded with a fake smile. "Yes, I did."

"Only local telephone numbers or you receive an out of area warning."

"Thanks." I swung around with a sour frown and moved back to the wall and the wall telephone, exhaling with a puff of annoyance. I knew one local telephone number, since I lived in Miami, not Palmton, a different county and a telephone area code. "Shit." I lifted and placed the receiver into my eardrum, dialing the know telephone number, hearing the ring and then a connection.

Pause.

"This is Nadean."

Pause.

"I am in a jam..."

Pause.

"Yeah, that's a funny joke. Jam and toast, I like the two food items, too. I'm in jail, Winfred."

Pause.

"Actually, it's false arrest."

Pause.

"There isn't any bail to post on my ass, if I have quoted you correctly from your high pitched squeal like a piglet on my daddy's farm. Thanks for thinking of my fanny, Winfred. Looky, I need a ride home. My car's impounded until I get the money for release..."

Pause.

"You'll come here to the local Palmton jail house. That's wonderful, Winfred. On your way, I'll wait out front. Thanks again, Winfred."

04:44 p.m.

Sedan trip of Winfred and Nadean south on Palmton Boulevard

Hot temperatures and bright sunshine

I moved ahead and stood for two seconds at the street corner like a whore, but not. The same four-door golden colored sedan pulled up and stopped at the curb with the passenger window down.

I grabbed out and lifted the door handle. The door opened. I slide into the soft leather with a sour frown and a whisper, facing the cleanest window on the planet. "Thanks."

Winfred wore a pair of dark blue walking shorts, a red colored shirt, and a pair of dark blue sneakers, driving forward with a smile, staring at the road. "I talked to Tanner. He's enjoying his time with your parents in Alabama. Fed the stallion or rode the chickens? I can't recall what you, hicks do on a farm. He asked about you. I didn't tell him Mama's in jail. He won't understand being only a baby. But I understand clearly."

"I do not need a lecture."

"You're getting one. This is my car and you are in the seat next to me. You were speeding again. Did you hit someone?"

"No."

"No, you did not hit something or you did not kill anyone."

"Naw."

He drove the car with a grin and a nod, looking at the road, "Disorderly conduct of a mother. Disturbing the peace of a mother. Exposure of a mother. All of that makes you a bad..."

"...motherfucker." I giggled. "Yeah, remember that phrase, Winfuck, 'cuz boy, you'll be repeating it soonest."

"Why do feel so upset and mad with me, Nadean? I did not give you all those speeding traffic citations."

I looked at the road, "Naw, because it was your best man Bruce Grand from our wedding, seven years ago."

Winfred drove with a nod and a chuckle, looking at the road. "Yeah, Bruiser's a police officer inside Palmton."

"Inside the city limits of tiny beach town Palmton, very inconvenient for me and my sports car."

He chuckled. "You should learn to stay and play inside your own back yard. Why are you traveling out of West Palm International Airport anyways? You live in Miami."

"OT and I do live in Miami and you do not live in Miami."

His eyelids darted to her and then the road as he sneered. "You stay away from Palmton, Nadean. This is your first warning from me."

I giggled with a nod at the road. "I ain't afraid of you, Winfred."

He nodded with a smile at the road. "You are a most formidable opponent in war, Nadean. But I have allies."

I laughed with a nod at the road. "Bruce Grand has an IQ lower than a dumbass mule on my daddy's farm while serving as the arresting police officer in my upcoming legal court battle. I will file a complaint with the Palmton police department."

Winfred chuckled. "Be honest, Nadean. What in the world would be your legal defense strategy?"

I smiled. "My final response, the number is 82. This is the estimated IQ for the arresting police officer of my semi-naked body on the unlucky day of July thirteenth. He has been given a shield and a weapon by the Palmton police department making life and death decision in terms of protecting and defending your asset. The average common sense person holds a level of 100 IQ points, Your Honor. I rest my case," laughing.

He smirked. "I heard that Bruiser had probable cause which was based on the offense of the offender and it was coupled with the interest of public safety that had warranted a search and an arrest. I heard you were thrown down to the ground and body searched for illegal drugs, Nadean."

I nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I got blue bruises on my kneecaps, too."

He shook his skull, driving with a worried brow, looking at the road. "I fear for Tanner."

"And I fear for you, Winfred." I leaned a blistered and sunburned forehead against the cool glass of the passenger window. "Just drive your new sedan, Winfred. I'm dog tired."

"Nadean, you're starting to show some recklessness in your single bachelorette female middle aged life. I'm concerned your new lifestyle will influence and affect Tanner."

"Nonsense, I admitted that I was speeding in my sports car. I enjoyed the freedom from the cramped city traffic lights, soaring like a bird on the interstate. I was mentally thinking, not concentrating on the physical speedometer. The end."

"You have an arrest record now, Nadean. An arrest record is a very serious matter with the police while creating all types of legal law problems for you."

I smiled. "I have a speeding ticket. My insurance rates will not increase either, since I got an old lady stamp on my ass now. The end."

"When does Tanner come back?"

"You know the proper answer to your question, Winfred. We have established OT's vacation arrangement, since he was two years old with our biological nosy relatives. He gets nine weeks off from his elementary school spending the first three weeks with your family in Palmton. Then, he spends the next three weeks with my family. Then, we entertain him for three weeks until the new school year. Nothing has ever changed for OT. He doesn't understand our divorce or our battle."

He nodded. "I concur. Tanner doesn't understand being four years old. But Tanner will see if his mother is placed inside a jail cell for a nasty illegal criminal record. How are you getting your car out of the police impound lot?"

I stared at the road with a stern face. "My friend Reed will drive me from Miami to Palmton helping me retrieve my car."

He shook his skull. "Your new friend, I don't like your new friend Reed. She's way too wild with her naughty social graces being around Tanner."

I frowned. "She is not a wild animal, Winfred. Reed has a son, too. They're pals at play. Jeezus, we were friends long before our finally divorce. Reed lives at the block intersection of my house of my community in Coral Gables."

He drove with a sour frown, looking at the road. "Since you don't have to babysit our son, I guess you'll be partying the next six weekends."

I smiled. "I guess so, pal."

He nodded with a smile, looking at the road. "I was right about you all this time. And here I'm driving your ass from the prison cell for alcoholic drinking and good time partying while Tanner is away from his family and home life in Florida."

"You're driving me from the Palmton police station for speeding on the interstate. I was traveling over the speed limit in a car, not a bar," I turned and smirked at the nose profile of Winfred. "And here I'm discussing your ass. What calendar date will your whore girlfriend Sevilla be divorced from her legally married husband?"

"What!" He slammed on the brakes, stopping the car in middle of the road inside Palmton.
Present day and place

02:35 p.m.

City of Birmingham in the US State of Alabama

(24 miles, south, from Warrior)

Underground cavern with red clay soil and gray limestone rock

Humid temperatures with damp air conditions

"OT..." I whisper and feel the burn on my right ankle one while exhaling with pain, relaxing my body. My mind daydreams another vivid event from my adult life.

Thirty-four years old Nadean and her four-year-old son OT

03:03 p.m.

Saturday September 7th

Miami Shopping Mall

Retail store setting

Hot temperature and partly cloudy with sunshine

Inside the shopping mall at a women's retail store, I wore a blue jean skirt, a white tee shirt, and a pair of sandals, standing between the two merchandise aisles, extending both arms even with the floor. I watched OT and Reedy for any finger disasters inside the shop.

Reed lifted the object into her face with a smile and a nod and wore a designer green colored sundress with a pair of designer white sandals. "These boots are tres chic. That's French for 'good bargain.' You gotta have these boots, Nadean. They are silver colored thigh-high expensive cow leather boots and match your silver colored hair. Girlfriend, you will never know that your want gray headed," laughing.

I shook my curls and watched naughty OT and Reedy, "Naw."

Reed nodded with a smile. "The response is yeah, yes, right on."

I moved to a pair of wiggling tiny hands with a stern face. "No, Reed. I don't need the boots. No, OT. Don't touch the girly earrings please, sir."

Reed dropped and placed the new box of boots inside the shopping cart. "Yes, you do need these boots," she moved and shuffled to the cash register, "I'll purchase them for you, so me and you can go out dancing the night in hot and heated Miami."

OT reached up and shook on her naked arm, "Mama, I hungry. Hamburger."

I nodded with a smile, patting his skull. "All right, sweetheart! The boys are getting hungry. It's three in the afternoon which is passed lunchtime. Let's go home and get food for the boys, Reed."

Reed stopped the shopping cart and lifted, dumping each item over the store counter with a smile. "Let me pay for all my shopping items, Nadean. Then we go and get food at Dee Dee's, boys," she pointed to the rack of clothes behind the cashier's counter. "These are mine also."

The tall, slender, blonde haired, blue eyed young cashier turned with a fake smile and gathered the new clothes, dumping into a pile. She rang up each price tag with a pinging sound.

I stand between the Earring and Headband shelves, keeping OT and Reedy from eating first, battling second, and tossing third all the custom jewelry from the wooden spikes as the electronic ping sound continued.

The cashier bagged each items. "The total is five hundred and two-seven dollars and eight-nine cents. What is your payment method cash, check or credit card please, ma'am?"

"Credit card..." Reed swished the card as the machine thought.

OT reached and scooped up a new shirt as I turned and frowned to him. "OT, let's place the shirt back onto the table. These are girly clothes."

"Girls," he pitched the shirt down over the dirty floor with a sneer.

I swoop down, refolded, and replaced it on top of the clothing counter with a sour frown, turning to cuddle OT with a smile and then realized Reedy had escaped. "Reedy? Please come back to me."

Reedy shouted in the far distance. "No."

The cashier frowned. "Ma'am, there is a problem. Your credit card is declined. Do you have another one that you want to swish into the machine?"

Reed gasped with a nod. "O. I forget to pay the monthly amount," she looked down and scratched inside her purse and lifted and presented a new plastic card, swishing that card, waiting on the machine.

The cashier frowned. "Ma'am, this one has an issue also. Your credit is denied."

I turned and peeked over her shoulder with a confused brow. "What's wrong?"

Reed exhaled with a puff of frustration, surveying the plastic card with a sad pout. "I'm over my limit. I forgot to pay the monthly balance."

I turned to the sound behind my butthole with a stern face. "OT, please come here. Reedy, both ya'll come back here to me, please, sirs," I dashed ahead, running after the pair of mischievous four-year-old boys.

Reed swished another plastic card with a smile and a nod, watching the cash machine. "Let's try this one."

The cashier stared and frowned down at the cash register. "Sorry, ma'am, that one is denied as well."

Reed exhaled, "Poo. I know I'll call my bank and get the limit upped."

I held two different pair of tiny and dirty hands, moving and stopped, standing behind her back spine with a fake smile. "Let's go, Reed. The boys are hungry for food."

Reed scratched down inside the designer purse for another plastic card, "Just a sec..."

I released the tiny hand of OT, since he would obey my voice, reaching down into a pocket and lifted out, reaching over and swished my personal credit card through the payment machine, before OT tore the store apart, then I would be paying for all personal damages. "There, a gift. Please wrap the clothes. Let's go, boys. We head outside for a yummy pretzel."

Reedy jerked his hand from Nadean and turned away from her, running ahead with a yell and a smile, leaving the retail shop, "Yay."

OT turned away from Nadean too and followed behind the butthole of Reedy with a yell and a smile too, leaving the retail shop, "Yeehaw."

I turned away from Reed and chased after the two tiny buttholes with a sour frown.

03:34 p.m.

Dee Dee's Hamburgers restaurant

Ordering counter setting

Hot temperatures and bright sunshine

At the food order counter, Reed stood behind and patted the rear skull on her son, saying with a smile and a nod to the nice cashier. "My son Reedy would like three hamburgers, two fries, an apple pie, and a large soda."

The short, plump, dark skinned cashier nodded with a fake smile to the four-year-old Reedy, "Three hamburgers? You mean that you want to order three children-sized hamburgers?"

Reed shook her curls, patting the skull of her son with a smile. "No. My son Reedy can eat three adult hamburgers. I want two orders of French fries, two apple pies, and a large soda."

OT stood between Nadean and Reed, turning with a smile to see the chin of Nadean. "I want three hamburgers, two fries, two apple pies, and a large soda, toot."

I squatted and said with a whisper and a fake smile into his dirty cheekbone, "OT. We shall wait for Miss Reedy to finish her lunch order. Then you may order the food, okay?" He nodded in silence, standing beside Nadean.

Reed turned and smiled to Nadean, lifting the plastic credit card. "I got this. Good ahead and order, OT?"

I smiled at the cashier, patting the silver locks of my son. "Please give him one hamburger."

OT stomped a cowboy boot and said with a sour frown to the cashier. "Three burgers like Reedy. We eat the same thing," he turned and growled to his neighbor friend, "Right, Reedy?"

"Grrr," Reedy turned and growled with a laugh to OT.

"Grrr," OT growled with a laugh at Reedy.

I squatted again, whispering with a fake smile into his dirty cheekbone, "OT, do you promise to eat all three hamburgers if I order them?"

OT nodded with a smile at Reedy, "Yeah, ma'am."

Reed turned and looked down with a smile to see the hair roots of Nadean. "What's your food order, Nadean?"

I shook my curls, saying into the dirty cheekbone of OT. "I'll take a bite from one of OT's three burgers."

OT stomped both cowboy boots and shook his curls, since Nadean did not have time to cut his silvery girly locks around his shoulders. "Naw, Mama."

I whispered into his dirty cheekbone for a third time with a fake smile, "OT, are we not taught to share with other folks like Brother Jesus did when he was a young man, too?"

OT softly said, "Yeah, Mama."

I whispered. "I'll like for you to share with me. Is that okay like Brother Jesus does?"

OT spun around with a smile, hugging his mother, pulling back with a smile and a nod. "Yeah, Mama, I wanna share with you, but only you."

"And I only wanna share with you, but only with OT," I stood with a smile to the nice clerk. "I would like to replace his order of flavored soda with three pints of milk, please."

Reed turned and winked at the nose profile of Nadean. "Get him a milkshake?"

I shook my curls. "Too much...s...u...g...a...r...."

Reedy turned and frowned at OT. "That spells sugar."

I smirked down at the dirty hair roots of Reedy. "You're very smart, Reedy."

Reddy punched on OT with a giggle and a grin. "She spells that word all the time."

OT looked up with a smile to see Nadean. "I wanna milkshake, too, Mama."

Reed turned and smiled with a nod at the cashier. "Give Reedy a milkshake and a large soda too. I would like to order a garden salad, a cup of dressing, an apple pie, and a large soda, also."

The cashier smiled at Reed. "Does that complete your order, ma'am?"

OT pulled on the arm of Nadean with a smile. "Pick me a booth, Mama. Don't like the chairs. Let's go, Mama. Pick me a booth, please."

I turned and smiled at the nose profile of Reed, "All right, sweetheart! Reedy, OT is picking out a booth."

"No," Reedy turned and run away from his mother and Nadean, dashing toward one of the brown colored food booths inside the eating lobby. OT turned away from Nadean and chased after Reedy with a yell and a giggle.

I turned and stared at the wiggling butt on each boy. "I got them covered. Can you tote the food tray?"

She pulled out and searched the inside of her personal wallet with a stern face. "Yeah, I'll bring the food tray."

I moved ahead and dashing to the same food booth, stopping and standing over the clean table surface. Reedy had crawled inside the food booth, tearing off the paper and sucking on the drink straws. I turned and stared at the cashier and cash register. Reed held a plastic card in the air, moving her lips. I frowned with worry, "Uh, ho." I turned and looked down with a fake smile to see the hair roots of OT. "OT, you are in charge of the space mission. Reedy is the co-captain. Your mission is to not step out and onto the hot volcanic ash on the floor, okay, honey?"

Reedy turned and frowned down at the floor with a confused brow. "What hot ash?"

OT giggled with a grin, tearing and sucking on more drink straws for fun. "Make believe, the floor's red hot, Reedy. We gotta wait here inside the pretend space ship, the booth for Mama to go and get and bring back the grub."

Reedy stared down at the floor. "O."

I swung around, slowly marching back to Reed and the cashier, stopping and stood at the nose profile of Reed and sideways to the ordering counter. Reed turned and frowned at Nadean. "My credit card limit has maxed out."

I turned back with a worried brow to stare at the boys, who were still waiting inside the food booth for the tray of food. "Pay cash."

She looked down inside her personal wallet with a sour frown. "Nada, I'm poor until the child support check comes next month."

I turned and frowned down at her hair roots. "Child support is for..." I exhaled with a nod. "Yeah, it comes next month. Well, this is my treat today," I reached inside my purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, swinging it into the face of the cashier with a fake smile.

The cashier turned and frowned at Nadean. "The total is fifty-six dollars and eight-two cents, ma'am."

I exhaled with a puff of annoyance, reaching down and pulled out a set of three individual twenty dollar bills, handing the money to the nice and frustrated cashier.

She provided back change to Nadean.

I accepted and dumped the coin back down into the handbag.

Reed and I lifted and carried two trays each, turning and moved to the selected food booth, finding the two boys gone. They had slipped out and ran inside the outside playground area with a high fence without adult permission.

Reed moved with Nadean, looking down at the object with a confused brow. "How can you afford all the great designer purses and clothes, Nadean? Did the bastard ex-hubby paid for it all, too?"

I was taught never ask a female about her age, her weight, or her money, not her designer. I smiled with a giggle. "Yeah, the bastard ex-hubby had really good taste."

The door automatically slid open for each guest.

At 03:38 p.m. inside the playground sand and equipment setting, Reed led into the pretty blue and clear sky of Miami, stopping and stood in front of an empty and dirty outside table with a set of four chairs, placing the food tray on the table and scooted inside with a puzzled brow. She ripped out the paper from each food item. "Your handbag and your sandals are high designer quality. Who was your bastard ex-hubby, Nadean?"

I ate the hamburger, chewing on the side of my mouth, "Just a working stiff at one of the local banks."

She ate the salad and swallowed, "Which bank?"

"Third National Bank of Florida."

She smiled. "I didn't realize bankers make lots of money."

"He was an investment banker. They have access to wealthy people's money making investments for the bank and the rich people. When the investment pays off then they're nicely rewarded. Winfred always loved money," chews.

She nodded with a grin and a wink. "I need to find me a banker." Reed ate the salad, chewing.

I giggled. "That you do."

Reed turned and swallowed the food, yelling at her son. "Reedy, stop playing in the sands and come and eat. You haven't touched any of your food."

I turned with a gasp and cringed in defeat, seeing the sand grains over the boys. Then the two dirty and sandy boys would sit inside the old but clean van of Nadean.

Reed exhaled. "They're getting absolutely filthy. We shouldn't come to this Dee Dee's. Your van's going to get extremely nasty, Nadean," she turned and ate, chewing the food with a nod in silence.

I turned and faked a smile at the hamburger meal. "That's why Almighty God invented car washes, Reed," I ate and chewed, turning to watch the boys.

Reedy played inside the sand box. OT turned and dashed back to the food table with a grin and a giggle, stopping and stood next to his mom Nadean, reaching out and grabbing, cramming half the hamburger and chewed. He stepped backward from the table and turned running back to the large playground slide, climbing up the ladder and chewing on the food, stopping on the top ream, standing and swallowed the food. He slid down the slide, tossing both arms with a smile and a yell of fun, landing on both feet and rolled over the sands for fun, standing upright and wiped off the extra sand that didn't stick to his dirty clothes. He dashed ahead with a grin and a giggle to his mom Nadean and the food table, stopping and stood, grabbing and finished the second hamburger.

Reedy leaned down and stood upright, pitching the sand into the air with a smile. "Don't wanna eat."

I turned and cringed at the entire uneaten food meal of fifty-six dollars and eight two cents that was my hard working monies.

Reed turned and swallowed the food, saying with a smile, "Reedy has the sniffles tossing off a cold from last week. That's probably why he doesn't want to eat right now."

I frowned down at the uneaten food items. "That's good to know." OT back stepped from the table, turning and ran back to the playground equipment, chewing the food, swinging on the monkey bars for fun.

Reedy stopped playing and bent down at the waistline, opening a mouth, vomiting green puke over the sand.

"O my gawd." Reed turned with a gasp, scooting out from the booth, standing and swung around and dashed to her child and the vomit inside the sand box.

I gagged on my spit. The sight and sound of vomit made me wanna puke up my food. I faced the busy roadway, concentrating on the flying cars. There was a red then a green and then a blue one.

OT ran from Reedy, the vomit, and the playground equipment, stopping and stood, sliding into the booth with a grin and a giggle. "Mama, Reedy gots sick. He..." sounded like his uncles Vester and Vassar, the loving twin brothers of Nadean.

I turned and leaned down, hugging and tickled his tummy with a finger and a giggle of love, "Yay, really cool, right, OT?"

He giggled with a grin. "Yay, Mama, really cool, but I don't wanna do that. Don't wanna be sick."

I hugged and stroked his hair like mine with a smile. "Me, either, honey. Let's finish your French fries before we go home. Once, you wash up at home. Then we'll hit the swimming pool for some superman laps, how's that, super boy?"

He giggled with a grin, reaching for the food, "Yay." OT gobbled down all the food.

I finished the beverage.

Reed and Reedy stood tighter inside the hot sands, turning and slowly moved to the food table. She sneered at the food. "We're leaving. Reedy needs a nap..."

"...and a bathe," I giggled down at the food from her son's sick performance.

Reed turned and sneered down at the hair roots of Nadean. "Did you say something, Nadean?"

I dropped the beverage on top of the dirty table, pointing at the unwrapped food with a fake smile. "Are you taking the Dee Dee's food? He can ..."

"He cannot." Reed patted on his skull, shaking her curls with a sour frown. "The food has flu germs over the meat. Reedy can't consume that seriously contaminated unwrapped food. He'll continue to be sick. Don't you know anything about germs and bacteria, Nadean? I do, since I am a nurse at the same hospital with you." She side stepped from the booth and the door, turning and entered the air conditioned room of the restaurant, patting on the skull of Reedy with a worried brow. "We'll meet you inside the van. Is it locked?"

"No." I exhaled with a puff of annoyance inside the seat, scooting from the booth, leaning down and cleaned up the dirty table and tossed away all the unwrapped food with a whisper. "Only that germs and bacteria sticks to the ass, as well."

04:01p.m.

Van ride of Nadean north US Highway One

(18 miles, south, from Coral Gables)

Hot temperatures with bright sunshine

Inside my black colored van, the two children OT and Reed were buckled into the rear bench, seating a set of safely belts for safety.

"Bull's eye, Mama! Reedy hit the side of the door handle with the green vomit. Why is vomit green, Mama?" OT giggled with a grin, kicking the car seat behind the back spine of his mom Nadean.

"Ugh!" I pressed the gasoline pedal with a grunt and a sour frown, driving faster toward my home in Coral Gables.

Reed looked down with a sour frown to see her non-manicured hands. "I'm so sorry, Nadean."

I drove with a stern face. "I'll go to the car wash, today."

Continue the story with Nadean in Pretty Two, the second novel from the series Diary of a Southern Lady...

