Her hair was electric blue, in a straight cut just below her ears. She hated when it was long enough to cover her neck, but not long enough to pin up out of the way. She also hated having to do anything other than wash and comb, so she kept it short.
She also kept her hair short so that it wasn’t awful to deal with when she hit the open road in her 1955 ruby red Thunderbird. At least the last guy she lived with had been good for something. His restoration job was gorgeous. But when she caught him online having some sort of weird sexual orgy with people from all over the world, she knew it was time to pack up and leave. Besides Nellie Belle, a box of books, a box of clothes and a laptop, was all she owned anymore.
Twiddling with the radio, looking for the comedy routine called church radio, which could only be found on the AM dial and was best enjoyed on the back-roads of Middle America, she heaved what used to be an ample bosom in a deep sigh.
The moonlight reflected off the deep burgundy color of her fingernails. She still hadn’t figured out a great story to tell when people asked why she was missing part of her right pinkie finger. Telling them her father thought it would be funny to see what else garden shears could cut was just too painful to relive. Mostly, she shrugged and smiled when asked.
Hating that she was nearly 60 and there was still so much she wanted to do, the trip from Ohio to New Mexico was yet another attempt at sorting things. She had a score to settle with her parents. Her mother died before the score had even been tallied, and one of the things on her long list of things to do before she died was to settle up with her father.
Grinning as yet another preacher profaned the word of God while making a plea for money, her stomach rumbled. “Oh, hungry,” she said out loud. Didn’t seem that long since the last bacon double cheeseburger with onion rings, and the cherry shake had gone down.
And now she was out on a two-lane in god knew where Indiana. A night owl by nature, it’d be another couple of hours before she would be ready to bed down somewhere. It was unlikely there’d be a burger place open at 2 or 3AM. Damn, she was going to have to settle for an energy bar stashed in the Wonder Woman lunch box on the seat next to her. When she stopped for the night, she’d look for WiFi and figure out where the next really great burger place was. The internet was good for things like that.
It was also good for things like talking to people in murky places with even murkier morals willing to help one quirky older woman settle her scores. Her father would never know what hit him. Too bad it wouldn’t get her the finger and the years he took from her back.
22 November 2015
short scene of Claude trying to keep Evie Mae from driving off in Nellie Belle
18 August 2015
There was a loud thumping on her hotel door. Sitting up, grabbing for her dark blue kimono with the ruby dragon embroidered on the back, she hollered, “Coming!”
The thumping continued. “Evie Mae Simon? This is the Union County Sherrif’s Department! Open this door!”
“All right, all right! I’m coming!” Peeking through the eye hole in the hotel room door, she reached up and unlocked the door, making sure to undo the chain. Swinging the door open, she took a few steps back and held her hands in the air.
There were two of them, one so green he looked like he should’ve stayed on the tree a couple more days. His hands trembled slightly as he held her gun on her. At least he has enough sense to take the safety off and hold his finger over the trigger instead of on it, she thought.
The other officer was a woman who looked like she’d seen a thing or two. Evie figured this wasn’t the first rookie she’d trained. The two women nodded at each other in recognition of the hard knocks each saw in the other.
“Now Ricky, calm down,” Sheriff Caine said, putting her hand lightly on his shoulder. “She’s opened the door and is standing right there with her hands in the air. And since Ms. Simon is wearing only a kimono, I think it’s safe to say she isn’t hiding any weapons. You can put your firearm down now.”
Reluctantly, Ricky holstered his weapon and started to say something filled with bluster.
“Ricky, what have I told you about there being more than one side to a story? We shouldn’t always take what we’ve been told at face value, right?”
“But … grand theft auto and assault with a deadly weapon, attempted vehicular homicide …. Sheriff, those are strong charges against this woman.”
Despite herself, Evie Mae let out a little giggle, followed by a moan as she saw the tow truck pull up to Nellie Belle.
Still standing in the middle of the room, with her hands up, Evie said, “I believe everything you need to know is in that folder on the chair to your right. Please don’t let him start hooking up my car just yet. That is a specialized paint job and I don’t want it scratched up unnecessarily.”
The sheriff nodded slowly and said, “Ricky, why don’t you just go on over there and tell Homer to hold off a minute. This lady seems to have been expecting us.”
Glaring at Evie for having taken all his fun away, Ricky broke into a little trot over to the tow truck.
“Now then,” Sheriff Caine said. “Oh, please put your hands down, you don’t need to stand there like that. Ricky’s just eager.”
Motioning for Evie to sit on the bed, the sheriff picked up the manila sleeve and started shuffling through it. “Signed agreement to sell the Thunderbird to Evie Mae Simon. Transfer of ownership. Receipt of sale. Affidavit. Oh, notarized statement of terms of sale.”
Looking at Evie, the sheriff said, “Clearly you didn’t steal this car. But how did you figure you were gonna need all that, and why did you have it ready for us?”
Evie looked Sheriff Caine in the eye and said, “Claude’s an idiot. I figured he’d try something like this when I drove off in Nellie Belle. He was standing in the street yelling and threatening me, like that was gonna make me move back in.” She shrugged, “Documenting everything has kept me out of trouble all my life. Keeping track of the restoration and sale of Nellie Belle was just routine for me.”
The sheriff nodded, and spoke into the two-way radio on her shoulder. “Ricky, tell Homer to take his truck back to the shop. There’s nothing for him to do here.” She looked out the door and saw the deputy throw his hands up in disgust. “Boy, you got some tempering to do yet,” she murmured.
Turning back to Evie, she said, “That explains the grand theft auto. What about the other charges?”
“I know asking you to take my word on this isn’t what I should be asking but he was nowhere near me or Nellie Belle when I backed out of the driveway. He was standing in the driveway next door, drinking beer with Larry, when I left. Claude’s just mad I have Nellie Belle. He doesn’t want her, but he damned sure doesn’t want me to have her either. Some people are just stupid that way.”
“Ma’am, I am going to leave you on your own recognizance. But I want you to come to the station in an hour so we can verify the rest of your story.”
Evie Mae nodded slowly and said, “Yeah, I figured.” Following the sheriff to the door and closing it behind her, Evie leaned against it and heaved a sigh. Good god Claude, I knew you were dumb but really?
After showering and getting dressed, she turned on her laptop and logged into a chatroom.
>Checking in
>You’re late. Everything okay?
>Yeah, I got pinged. C truly is an idiot.
>Grand theft auto and what else?
>Assault with a deadly weapon and attempted vehicular homicide.
>Well now. I’m faxing some things over now that should speed things along.
The conversation ended. Evie picked up her backpack and keys, heading out the door. This should be entertaining, she thought.
22 November 2015
In the Sheriff’s office – Evie tells the full story of how she got involved with Claude and paid him to restore Nellie Belle. Then broke up with him because she realized what a narcissistic prick he was. But Claude is the type who does the breaking up, he isn’t the one who gets broken up with. So now he is after Evie to get back so he can break up with her.
Whenever one of his friends in law enforcement figures out where she is, he gets them to put an APB (or BOLO) out for her. She’s getting tired of it but refuses to sink to his level and retaliate. The males think its fun to harass her, the females understand her plight but aren’t quite sure what to do for fear of losing their jobs or being harassed.
She has a lawyer on retainer who faxes the necessary paperwork to the jurisdictions in which she gets pick up in.
Sheriff is going to do something.
Evie, “Your rookie deputy couldn’t wait to get his hands on Nellie Belle. I could see joy ride all over his face.”
“Yeah, about that. Ricky scratched your paint job. At county expense, we are having it refinished and paying your hotel bill. It’ll be a few days.”
Evie goes back to her room and fumes. Logging in to the chat room, she tells her contacts (who are these people and what do they want?) she will be stationary until Nellie Belle is repainted.
She grabs a book and settles in to read.
Her mind floats to the hallway encounter with her father in his tighty whities, and the many nights which followed.
The night she said, “no, go away” pissed him off. A couple of weeks later, he cut her finger off in retaliation.
Dinner with the sheriff? “I’ve made all sorts of bad decisions because I didn’t now any better and now I’m putting that behind me.”
She leaves Indiana (does it have to be Indiana?) and heads west again.
When she gets to her final destination (does it have to be Albuquerque/Santa Fe?) she takes over nursing her father, who is a paraplegic in a fancy wheelchair. The home care nurses don’t last much longer than a day or two. He’s a complete terror to them. Evie works with the nurses to establish stability. She smiles and pats him on the shoulder every time he is nasty. “There, there dad, calm down.” She cleans up his foul messes and hums.
In her small room, she meditates through her quiet tears. She does her best not to let the bastard know he’s getting to her.
Then one day Claude shows up and decides to stay. The two men bond against their common enemy. They can’t stand each other, no place is big enough for those two egos and the passively aggressively play a pissing game against each other. Together they pick on Evie who says, “I hope you’re enjoying yourselves at my expense.”
She doesn’t tell either of them she plans to stick around long enough to see both of them dead.
She kills them with kindness, but how does she actually do that? Does she just outwait them?
Everything a loving child should do to a dying parent, she does. A pinnacle of virtuosity. On the inside, she burns and often thinks about bolting and just leaving him, and Claude, in their own mess. But love and compassion keep her going. It won’t be long. One day her dad will die because his tricks don’t work on her. Claude will get his karmic comeuppance (what is this?) and she will be free of the two of them, the first and last men to abuse her.
She’s not there for them, or to get revenge. She’s there for herself, to show herself loving kindness, to rid herself of the anger and vengeful thoughts which keep her from moving forward to a more positive life.
She got a breast reduction because she was tired of people only seeing her breasts. And, she’d found after the surgery, her backaches stopped and clothing was easier to buy.