Beetlebottom #4 Destiny and David Lee Royce

 Beetlebottom’s Last Gleaming.           

  7 pm on a Beetlebottom Wednesday evening.

 The sun is a low hanging orange ball in the valley haze.

Paula Pissypants and her sister Always Right Rose have just finished a dinner of instant mashed potatoes with lots of butter, boiled weiners with ketchup, and two boxes of macaroni and cheese.

The pots are empty and the plates are cleaned right off.

Paula complains about having to eat the cheaper brands of weiners and bargain shelf mac n cheese.

“ Why don't you buy the good stuff, it tastes so much better?”That mac and cheese that they show on the TV ads, just tastes so much better….like , you know, luxury.”

Always Right Rose was distracted by getting the old TV warmed up for the evening shows. The first show, a must see, really, was a talent show of sorts.

Contestants from all the big cities, like Bumwinkle Falls, Busted Knee Flats and Big Bush, would perform musical acts in front of three judges. 

That show was pretty much the biggest thing on TV. 

As a matter of fact, the show was so big, that a simple little TV could hardly hold it all inside.

Always Right Rose was the Beetlebottom expert on this show. She knew all the current contestants. 

She knew the names of the children of the handsome host of the show.

 Rose was the official voice of “ who's gonna win this week?”

 Always Right Rose took a minute to look back over her shoulder and bring Paula up to speed.

“ Look, girl, you get yourself a raise at that job of yours…or maybe quit buying plastic jewelry at the five and dime store, and we can go top shelf.... Now, leave the dishes, our show is almost on”

( the dreamworld of Always Right Rose)

The crusty old immigrant owner of the auto shop is back at his run down old shack behind the repair shop.

 His hands are perpetually dirty, fingers are big fat sausages with engine block oil and dirt under his nails.Those hands of his could crush a fresh apple, and that thick back and stumpy legs, under the dirty overalls can lift a tractor if need be.

The old guy sits at a dirty table with a plate of schnitzel, a baked potato, and a jigger of home made gin. He sits quietly and eats while sorting bills from the days work.

At one point, he stopped and looked up and around. He thought he heard something outside, but then decided it was probably just dogs rummaging around.

Porch Man and his Mama were inside the ramshackle house, where it was already fairly dark inside. One tall lamp with a stained lampshade and a 40 watt bulb threw shadows on the wallpaper walls.

Mama's second husband sat in a huge recliner chair about twenty feet back from the entrance door.

This guy had a few years on Mama , his wife of about 10 years or so.

So, from here on in, this miserable old bastard is… “The Old Man”

The Old Man was a mean spirited and ugly hunk of meat.

Years before he met Mama at back hills house party, he had what he refers to as “ An Accident”

The “Accident” left the Old Man with a nasty limp and a scar down his face that ran from right eyebrow to right side of his mouth.

The Old Man had moved into Mama's house and used violence and insults to keep Mama and her son, Porch Man in check.

Of course by now, Porch Man was a strapping middle twenty something angry and vindictive asshole all on his own…having spent his teenage years getting hit and slapped by the Old Man. Mama was always telling her son, 

“ You just gotta learn better, ain't nothing wrong with his ways”

The Old Man held court this evening. 

"There's a guy coming by later, he's from outa town..a long ways outa town. We're gonna do business, we've been making pennies and not dollars. After we make our deal with this guy, it's gonna be raining dollars."

Mama blushed with pride that some real money was coming her way, and that her choice of man was bringing it home.

Twenty something Porch Man had some different ideas and dreams of Beetlebottom power and glory.

Sheriff Fussfutter was at home looking at the empty chair at the old round dinner table where his young brother Abe should be sitting.

For the second time this evening he left the house and walked to the back of his driveway.

At the end, was a converted shed where Abe has lived for the last few years. It was a comfortable little space that got the job done. Washing up and bathroom duties were done inside the main house.

This evening, the little cabin was empty, Abe hadn't gotten home yet.That …was not right.

Hoodsdigger went back inside and rang up the owner of the auto shop, who had mopped up dinner and was pouring his second home brew gin.

Hoodsdigger …” Hey, sorry to bother, but did that boy leave work on time today?”

The old car mechanic paused a bit. Unusual question, he thought.

“ Yeah, of course he did. That boy always shows up right on time, maybe a bit early, and leaves every day when I close up. You know that”

Hoodsdigger kinda felt a bit foolish for asking after the mechanic said it so plainly.

“ Yeah, yeah, of course he does. It's just that he ain't come home yet. He missed dinner”

Car mechanic. “That so?”

Hoodsdigger..” I'll go take a drive around, he musta got sidetracked somehow"

 “Car mechanic…”Sure, let me know.”....And a small pause....Car mechanic adds.“ He's a good kid you know, he just needs a bit of time"

 “Hoodsdigger nodded silently without answering and hung up.

Out in that old orchard field, it was getting cold down close to the ground. Every once in a while, a wind gust would blow brown dust around.

Abe Fussfutter was face down in that brown orchard soil. Abe's head was turned to the side a bit. His left cheek was pushing into the soft top layer of soil. Some of that brown soil and dust layer was in his left eye, but Abe didn't know that.

Abe's mouth was open, and had dirt there as well, but Abe didn't know that part either.

The Sony Walkman was on the ground just out of reach of Abe's outstretched hand.The machine had automatically stopped a while ago, and Johnny Horton had nothing to say right about now.

Inside Abe's head, way beyond the bloody wound, it was all black and small.

From far away, really far away…maybe the edge of the world, maybe the edge of the solar system…a voice called out.

It was faint. It was trying to overcome the heavy curtain of deep silence.“ Abraham... Abraham…it's time. Time to get up.Hey sleepy head, time for school…you don't wanna be late”

The person that was Abraham wasn't really there, but the little dot of energy that was that boy, responded.“ Oh yeah, school day, I should get up”

The distant voice pulled closer.“ C'mon, munchkin, your breakfast is getting cold”

Abe's mouth was still full of dirt and drool and a kind of metallic taste when he said “Ok mom”

That little dot of energy fell back into the body that was face down in the field with dried blood caked on the head and neck.

“ Ok , Mom”

Except this time, Abe heard his voice saying that.

Instead of a double thick pillow and a warm quilt, Abe felt cold, tasted mineral dirt, and his left eye was grinding into something hard and unpleasant.

Confusion.

Pieces of Abe's self started to click back into place.

Was this a dream?

Abe tried to escape the dream by pushing up and away from his pillow…to get clear of the bad dream.

He got his arms and hands under him and pushed. 

Dream world Abe spit out what ever that awful gritty stuff was.

His left eye hurt, it was still closed and felt like there was sandpaper in there somewhere.

Abe pushed himself up until he was kneeling, but still hunched over.

If he could just get up high enough and away from the bad dream, everything would be better.

Abraham opened his good right eye and saw brown dirt and yellow grass instead of a pillow, a bed, and a window that looked into the backyard.

Abe couldn't get his left eye open to check if it was going to see something else…that eye was stuck shut and hurt to much to open.

 But, it also hurt too much to keep closed.

Hoodsdigger was about half an hour into driving around looking for Abe at this point.

He had exhausted all the usual places a kid would go to hang out…which wasn't really Abe's style.

Hoodsdigger was motoring down the old dirt road that was more or less a direct path from the auto shop to his house.

He was driving slowly with the window down, momentarily lost in thought, when he saw Abe…or someone that looked like Abe kneeling in the middle of the orchard field.

To himself, Hoodsdigger said out loud.“ Well what the flying fuck is this all about?”

He put out the patrol car in park, and stepped out on to the old dirt road.

“ Abe” he hollered.

The kneeling, bent over person didn't move or turn around.

“Abe!” 

Hoodsdigger stepped onto the orchard field and strides towards what now obviously Abraham kneeling in the grass.

“Abe, da fuck are you doing out here?”

Hoodsdigger was full of conflicting messages dropping all at at once into cardboard box of his mind. 

Anger, fear, puzzlement, concern, small “ r” rage, and again, the muddy soup of confusion.

Abraham heard the calls, but didn't register them as real…or even important right about now.

As he peered through his good eye at the ground, a sharp, penetrating pain exploded into his head. 

It was like he had suddenly got his head squeezed in from all sides…like that big iron vise in the auto shop had a full grip all round his head.

Everything in Abe's unsure world was now dominated by pain.

As Hoodsdigger strode up, he saw the dried blood wound on the back of his little brother's head. 

His thinking went immediately to gunshot wound.“Abe…Abe, what's going on here, what happened?…Abe, say something!”

Abe could hear the ghost mumbling something in the distance, but wasn't sure what it was all about, or whether or not it should concern him right about now.

A pair of boots and brown pants appeared out of the corner of Abe's good right eye.

The intense pain that pushes on all sides of his head, trying to bust out, was all that Abe could focus on.

The ghost with black boots and brown pants was still murmuring something off in the distance.

“Abe, for fuck sakes, say something!”

Hoodsdigger crouched down to try and look directly at Abe's face.

Abe's entire left side of his face was full of dirt, scratched, red and looked kinda bruised or something discolored.

His left eye was swollen shut and had dirt caked all around it.

Abe's right eye looked back at his brother, but didn't see him.

Abe looked at the ghost that was kneeling beside him. The ghosts mouth was moving, but no words came out. 

Abe could hear a loud buzzing noise like when you get too close to big powerlines on a rainy day.

“Christ, Abe, we gotta get you to the doc, this is bad…this is really bad.

Abe felt the ghost magically levitate him high up into the evening sky. 

Abe closed his good eye real tight to push the pain back into his head, where it was trying to escape from.

Without warning, the deep warm dark fell upon Abe, and he fell upwards into the backroom of the universe again.

 Destiny and David Lee Royce.

Just outside the town boundary of Beetlebottom, a car navigated the last few easy curves in the road.

The car was new, it was a deep red colour, and it had an engine rumble that a person could feel in their chest.

The driver was  oneDavid Lee Royce, he was in his late 40’s.

 Twice he had been guest of the federal prison system. In between, David Lee Royce had been in the Army. Truth be told, the Army didn't miss him much since he left.

He had been out and free for about 6 months on this Wednesday Beetlebottom evening.

There were some people far away that wanted to ask David Lee Royce a few questions, but those people were now just a smudge in the rearview mirror.

David Lee Royce was 6 foot 2 inches tall. 240 lbs of prison yard muscle , covered in a mix of military and prison tattoos.

 He wore silver and gold rings on most of his fingers. His hair was black and getting pretty long. Much longer than the head shave buzzcut of past times.

David Lee Royce was hunched over a bit to get his large frame below the low roof of the rumbling muscle car as he steered into Beetlebottom.

Beside him sat his woman, her arm was out the passenger side window getting the last bit of warm evening air.

The name she was known by was , Destiny. Just Destiny…nothing else.

She had a large afro style perm in her blonde hair. Red lipstick and long dark red nails. Large gold hoop earrings dangled from under her permed hair.

For times like this, and a place like this, it was really unusual that she also had tattoos on her arms and each finger.  

She smoked a long cigarillo lazily.

In the back seat was David Lee's nephew, Billy Brown.

Billy had been involved in some low level criminal actions back home, so his parents thought David Lee would straighten him out some.

Billy Brown was world class ignorant, so much so, that he couldn't even fathom how fucking ignorant he he really was.

Billy Brown thought simply that he was right, and everyone around him was plain stupid and wrong.

David Lee sneered at the quiet main street of Wednesday evening Beetlebottom.

“This'll be a piece of cake, they won't know what hit em”, David Lee mused to himself.

David Lee turned left at the next intersection and headed around the winding back road to the bootlegger's house.

Just as a matter of coincidence, David Lee Royce was pulling into the bootlegger's driveway, when Sheriff Fussfutter drove by on his way to Doc's house.

Destiny saw the cop car first. “Shit, it's the bulls, they already know we're here”

David Lee was focused on getting into the driveway and scoping out the nature of the house.

He looked across Destiny and through her side window as the cop car eased by with a cloud of brown dust in tow.

David Lee didn't say anything, but thought…”Nope, not yet, they can't be knowing us yet, no way.”

Hoodsdigger was somewhat preoccupied but did take notice of a shiny new muscle car with out of town plates.

Beyond that, Hoodsdigger’s concern was getting Abe to medical help.

Link to #5

https://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.com/2025/01/beetlebottom-5-you-just-never-really.html