Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

Thursday Morning  At around 5 am, Destiny had enough of being cold and cramped up in the back seat of David Lee's car. She gathered up her soft sided bag, and her purse, made double sure that all of her personal stuff was accounted for. Destiny reached over to ever so quietly pull the inside door handle. There were a few early morning birds chirping to each other in the trees. Most of the mechanical click of the door was muffled. Destiny stepped out into the cold morning air, making sure not to make too much noise on the gravel. For the second and last time, she closed the car door with two hands, slowly, holding her thumb on the release button. Destiny pushed the door a bit with her hips to get the door tightly latched without making any extra sounds. She scanned the bootlegger's house for any signs of movement, any hint that someone might be watching. All clear. Destiny stepped on to the grass at the edge of the gravel driveway and started down the driveway and on to the road...

Later That Evening  Back at the bootlegger's house, the Old Man was four glasses of bourbon deep, David Lee Royce was two whiskeys in, plus half a joint. Mama was nursing her homemade gin and asking Destiny about life in the big city. Porch Man drank store bought beer and smoked the other half of David Lee's joint. Porch Man wasn't sure what Billy was up to. Billy would go outside to the porch deck…and smoke something…take a few puffs and come back inside. When he fell into his chair, he'd take a few gulps of Mama's home brew. As the evening wore on, Billy Brown just got weirder and when he talked, you couldn't make heads or tails of what he was trying to say. They all gnawed on some of Mama's pan fried chicken, with a side dish of ripple potato chips. David Lee had stopped drinking at two fairly large glasses of good whiskey on the rocks, but made sure that the Old Man always had a full tumbler of that crappy bourbon going, while they talked. They were just...

Wednesday Night in Beetlebottom  Sheriff Fussfutter pulled into the driveway of the doctor's home, at the edge of town. Abe was laying in the backseat of the police car under a wool blanket. Abe hadn't said much for most of the ride. At one point, after mumbling a few things, and a bit of pain induced moaning, he managed to croak out a groggy, “ Am I ok, Hoods?” Both the doctor and his wife came out to the car to have a look at Abe. Doc crawled into the backseat with Abe and gently probed around the wound at the back of Abe's head. Doc asked for…and his wife brought out towels, warm soap and water, plus a few bandage dressings. Doc quietly asked Abe a few questions, checked over his eyes and asked about any other injuries. Abe kept his head down on the backseat, but quietly appreciated the kind words and touch of Doc and his wife. After a few minutes of examination, Doc told Hoodsdigger that Abe need to go to a hospital in the next bigger town about an hour away, without de...