Winter Season

Angry family

Friday evening Esther drove Oscar to the school board meeting. It was his intent to plead with the full board not to have Duke charged but to give him community service. He had already talked with the superintendent and several of the board members but had to take it to the full board.

He was still very sore but was doing better. He knew it would be a hard sell because the superintendent was irate about the matter.

On the steps to the school board building Oscar saw his nephew Larry. He sat down beside the small boy who looked like he had lost his best friend. “What are you doin’ here kiddo?”

He pushed a clump of mud around with his shoe. “I’s got in tro-ble in schoo.”

“How come?”

“Dis fuck calls me a tard so I calls him a fat fuck. He try to hit me. Him fat. Slow. I kick him in the balls. Fat fuck.” The little boy continued pushing around the clump of mud.

“What are you gonna do?”

“Maw says I got to pol-a-gize to fat fuck so they let me come back.”

“Doesn’t sound to me like you’re sorry.”

He jumped to his feet. “Why he call me tard? Dat not nice.”

“No, it’s not.” Oscar looked down at Larry’s feet. He was wearing a child size pair of cowboy boots. The once silver point guard was caked with mud. “Were you wearing those boots when you kicked the other boy?”

Larry grinned as he looked down at his feet. “Ball busters Dor say.”

“I know being called a name hurt your feelings. And it wasn’t nice. Those boots could have done some real damage to the other boy.”

Oscar could tell Larry was thinking. If he started to say something different, he stopped himself. Finally he blurted out, “vhat you do here?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Were yous whore?”

Oscar was in shock. “What?”

“Maw calls lady from Santa’s day whore. Wur she at?”

“Well Larry, first of all she’s not a whore and second who’s with you?”

“Piece of shit drive off on own. Dor run ater it. Maw gotta piss.”

About that time, the loud bang from a vehicle backfiring pulled Oscar’s attention to Doris droving Oat’s beat up old truck toward the building.

“Oh.” Oscar mindlessly voiced. He knew now why he didn’t have contact with his family. They were a hot mess. He didn’t mind the old truck. Old clothes. He grew up in the same environment. What his family had evolved into was beyond his ability to comprehend.

Esther was walking up the side walk talking to a uniformed state trooper he didn’t recognize.

In anticipation of her arrival, he stepped down to the bottom step to walk in with her. A shout startled him and he turned to see Priscilla as she hit him in the side. Had she been hiding in the bushes? “You da reason my mans a criminal now!” She hit Oscar where the tray had sliced him. “Fucker!”

He screamed falling to his knees. It was too late to protect himself. He could feel the blood running down his side. She got in three good licks before Esther and her friend could reach him. Chet came running out of the building as did Pam.

“Why Pussy do dat?” Larry asked as Pam hugged him up.

She glanced back at Oscar, “asshole. You get what you deserve.”

Chet put Priscilla in cuffs, read her her rights as he put her in a cruiser; bringing Esther his first aid kit.

Esther pulled up Oscar’s shirt. Not only had Priscilla reopened the wound, she had made it bigger.

“What?” Esther asked, “Was her purse full of rocks?”

Her state trooper friend opened the purse. “Yes.” At some point, she had emptied her purse and filled it full of gravel.

The sound of breaking glass startled everyone, Pricilla had managed to kick the bars over the back window loose, using them to bust out the back window. Still screaming profanity.

“Oscar,” she called his name. “Talk to me.”

“Ess,” he hissed.

“Chet called an ambulance. Just hang in there, okay.”

Winter Season