Great place to collapse continued

     The ride up the mountain was a quiet one. Evie was enjoying the scenery and reminiscing. Dillon was enjoying watching her. 

     The house was just as Evie remembered it. It was small, just like hers, but with a high porch. The structure was covered with tar paper. There was no grass in front of the house. Chickens, ducks and turkeys roamed freely. 

     Dillon looked around without seeing anyone. He walked over to what looked like a clearing. Even with heat radiating off the trees, this scene was breathtaking. He could see for miles. Toward the middle of the landscape, God had thrown a hand full of blue paint; Elkhorn Lake. Beautiful. He wondered if Smith would allow him to propose to Evie here. It would be perfect. He inhaled a deep breath before his world turned to black. 

     Evie jumped from the suv, screaming his name. Fowl scattered in every direction. His skin was hot to the touch. “Dillon.” She called his name in a panic. 

     Time had not been kind to Smith’s voice. She sounded like she had smoked a carton of cigarettes a day, “get him out of the sun.”

     On the side of the house where he fell was a tree. Together, they drug him into the shade. “Dillon Jackson Pace when I get you off this mountain, you’re going to the hospital.” She ran to the suv retrieving the bag she had brought. A few bottles of water and the nasty stuff. 

     Smith came round the house packing a 5 gallon bucket and some towels. “Thank you.” Evie took off his uniform shirt before laying a wet towel on his chest. Then she tried cooling his face. 

     Smith sat up against the house, “you’re Jack’s daughter?” She growled.

     “Yes. Evelyn.”

     “Your mom was a bitch.”

     She continued dipping the cloth when it got warm and dabbing Dillon’s face. “You’ll get no argument from me.”

     “You move back home?”

   “You know this.” Evie rose to her knees with her hands on Dillon’s chest as she looked directly at the old woman. “I have heard rumors that you have been talkin’ about my return. And not in a pleasant manner.”

     She spat on the ground, “no shame I guess in tryin’.”

     “Not that it’s any of your business,”

     Dillon touched her arm, “Evie.” He moaned. 

     She worked quickly to get the nasty stuff in his mouth. Followed by a small amount of water. 

     He woke as dusk was approaching. The grill of the suv shimmered in the setting sun. A wolf sat, panting at his feet. Panic ran through his already stressed body. He tried to move his legs. Evie could feel his breathing increase. “Dillon?”

    It took him several tries to sputter out, “w w wa, wolf.” 

     She saw that his eyes were fixed on his shoes. There was no wolf. But in his head, it walked up the length of his legs, sniffed of his hand, before sittin’ beside Smith.

     “Seein’ things.” Smith hissed and spat again. Evie wiped again at Dillon’s face before rewetting the towel she had covering his chest. 

     Dillon woke shivering. The sound of crickets filled his ears. Evie had her head lying on his shoulder curled up at his side. He liked this. He placed a gentle kiss on top of her head, before pulling her in closer. “I love you” poured from his lips. 

Great place to collapse

     Clint called in. Dillon rolled his aching body out of bed. What was he thinkin’ yesterday? Instead of Evie being kind to him, she should have kicked his hindquarters. Stupid man. 

     Yesterday, it was 102 in the shade. Today, it was 110. Temperatures had steadily been climbing. Everyone was complaining.  What could his office do about the heat? Today would have been the perfect day to sit in a cruiser on patrol or in the office doing paperwork. That didn’t happen. It seemed like all the calls were outside. 

     Porter had started a brush fire while burning trash. Dillon hated to give him a ticket. But the area was under a burn ban. “What’m I supposed to do with all this trash? Landfill started chargin’ 100 bucks.” He raised his voice but didn’t shout, “for garbage.” A long breath escaped him, “livin’ on a fixed income. You pay my garbage bill.” Dillon only charged him half the ticket. He knew the judge might charge Porter all of it. “You know what I’mia gonna do with this?” He shook the ticket angrily at Dillon. “Use it for shootin’ paper.”

    Dillon wouldn’t go in Evie’s house. He smelt like sweat and smoke. 

     She laughed as they set on the porch with glasses of water. “I haven’t heard shootin’ paper in years. Do you get to go home now?”

     “No, I need to check in on Smith.” Dillon almost dropped the glass. 

     “Can’t someone else do it?”

     “The last time I was up there she chased me with a broom. Imagine what she’d do to Bradley. Maybe it will be too hot for her to work up a fuss?”

     “Am I allowed to go with you?” He just stared at her, unable to say anything. Her gesture was incredibly kind. “Dillon, you need someone to go with you. You can barely hold your head up.”

     She was right. He was exhausted. “That would be nice.”

     “Give me 10 minutes.” She paused, “would Porter really use the ticket as tissue?”

     “I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

     When Evie came back out Dillon asked, “who’s been mowing your yard?”

     “Me. I bought a little battery powered mower. It will mow 30 minutes.”

     “If you ever need or want any help, just let me know.”

     “Thank you,” she smiled. 

Stupidest thing ever

     Dillon woke shivering. Almost to the point of convulsing. A blanket was being wrapped around his shoulders. 

     “Here, you need to drink this?” He couldn’t hold the cup. His hands were shaking too bad. She gently took the cup from him, holding it to his lips. 

     He gagged, “that’s bitter.”

     Teka snorted in the background. “It could be worse. You could be in the hospital with an i.v. stickin’ out of your arm.”

     As he looked around, she had built a small fire. Teka was hitched to one of his new fence posts. “How did you score a Friday off?” She asked in a teasing manner. 

    This drink hit his hot stomach and he almost threw up. “Tolliver needs Sunday and Monday off.” He gagged. 

     “This means you won’t be in church.”

     “I know.”

     “You need to sip at this as often as you can.” 

     “How did you find me?”

     “Have you not figured out yet,” she said playfully, “Teka is a smart girl.” The horse snorted. 

     He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders. “When we were growing up, what did you dream about being?”

     She sat at his knee, facing him. “I don’t remember havin’ any specific dream. All I knew is, I didn’t want to be here.” She sighed, “I felt like a bird in a cage. Dad was always makin’ sure I got to experience stuff.”

     “You never showed it.”

     “I always felt empowered around you. Neither you or dad ever laughed at my silliness. Or shot me down as a dream filled girl.” He looked at her like she was stupid. Not knowing what she was talking about. “Sip.” She smiled, noticing his expression. “I loved my mother but she always made fun of me. Nothing I did was ever right. Good enough. The only time she was ever proud of anything I did was home ec. I don’t remember you havin’ specific dreams. But sheriff fits the Dillon I knew more than a farmer/rancher.”

     “I like it out here. It’s calm. Sheriff is a livin’ to make this possible.” He took another sip of the nasty liquid from the cup. “I feel grounded out here.”

     A curious cow meandered over toward them. It stood off, in the shadows chewing its cud. 

     “Think you are able to make it home?”

     “I’ve slept outside before.”

     She stood, extending her hands to him. He stared at her with amusement. They both knew full well she couldn’t pull him up. “You need to get out of those wet clothes. Take a shower. And eat something, even if it’s apple sauce.”

     He smiled despite himself, she really did care. That was never the question was it? “Yes, mam.” He staggered to his feet. 

She didn’t want me

     Dillon had been dragging his feet for years over a hole in the fence. He owned the property beyond the break. The goats and cows didn’t seem to mind each other. The supplies had been purchased. Just hanging out in the barn where Teka lived. Waiting. 

    He hooked the trailer to his truck with growing aggravation. With each turn of the crank, he fussed at himself. Fool. Don’t do this to yourself. Fool. Stop thinking. 

     He tried, in vain, to rid his mind of thoughts to do with Evie. Teka watched him go to this corner of the barn, get a tool, throw it on the trailer, each time shouting. Get a tool, throw it on the trailer and shout. 

     The old truck roared to life. A faint hint of honeysuckle clung to the air in the cab from Evie. It filled him with a desire. A longing. At the same time broke his heart, making him sad. 

     He really shouldn’t be out here on the hottest day of the year doing this. He really should have told someone what he was doing. He really should have help. “Nah.” He hissed. The truck stopped at one end of the break. 

     First, he laid out the rails. Two for each section. Next, the posts. The level headed Dillon told himself, ‘you can’t do this in one day.’ The I’m hurt and upset Dillon said, ‘watch me.’ 

     Each post got a four foot hole. The baked earth was not giving up easily. He pounded the post hole diggers into the ground. At first, he was screaming in his head, ‘she didn’t want me.’ Another aggressive thrust, ‘she moved off to the big city to chase her dreams.’ With each attempt at digging brought another remark, ‘what dreams?’ He admitted she was fantastic with Teka. And they won ribbon after ribbon. But what dreams? She had never shared with him any specific dream she had as a child. 

     He just kept going back to, ‘she didn’t want me.’ Each hole, after the post was in place got some quick drying concrete and dirt. 

     ‘She didn’t want me.’ How many times had he replayed the day she left Sunshine Valley in his head? How many times had he wished he’d stopped her? Followed her. Forbade her to leave. Right, he scoffed. “Like I had the power.” SHE DIDN’T WANT ME! 

     For hours he had been out in the hot sun. There wasn’t a dry stitch of clothing on him. Even the elastic in his socks was wet. He glanced at the shadow created by his truck. A cool shadow. Beckoning him to sit and cool off. As he sat down he said it again, “she didn’t want me”. He worked himself up again. Was angry and hurt, all over again. Back to the baked earth.

     Just when he thought he had worked out his feelings, they came roaring back. 

     “She didn’t want me.” He said it out loud. Finally working up the courage to scream it to the sky. The grass. His truck. “She didn’t want me!” 

     His hands started shaking. He crawled on his hands and knees back to the shadow of his truck. 

Tell me about the voice 

     Sheriff Pace was lying on his stomach on a bluff overlooking Coal Town peering through a telephoto lens. He knew the DEA had 2 agents in Coal Town but he had no idea who they were. 

     He hated this community being called ‘Coal Town’. Everyone goes through bad stuff from time to time. Coal Town collected the bad. The ugly. The desperate. Not just from Sunshine Valley. People from all over the U.S. had been arrested coming and going.

     Twice a month, he and Bradley would take turns watching Coal Town. A fear lived in him that they would have to bring another officer in on the watch. Since inflation had gone through the roof, the population of Coal Town seemed to be growing. 

     He wouldn’t allow his deputies to raid Coal Town. If the state or the feds wanted to, more power to’em. His deputies would get people coming in and out of this community.  He wasn’t naive enough to think that all the bad would stay contained. It did spill out. But at least here, people had access to water and shelter. He was adamant that they be supplied with clean needles, narcan, blankets (when the weather turned). 

Social workers, volunteers, church ministers were free to visit anytime they liked. 

     His dad had been a raging alcoholic. Looking back on it, his mom may have suffered from postpartum depression. Not having money for doctors, because his dad drank it up, his mom turned to whatever she could find. The last time he stepped foot beyond the community boundary; this 24 year old, newly minted sheriff went to retrieve his mother’s body. No one knew she had passed. His father was so drunk, he had no clue she was dead. 

     His phone vibrated in his pocket. “Sheriff Pace.” It was Sheriff Milo. Dillon let out a long sigh, “he’s out?”

     “No. No. Oh, no.” Milo apologized. “No. I’m calling on a personal matter. Dillon let his breath out. Relieved Greenroll was still behind bars.  “I’m calling to ask,” he cleared his throat. “The lady that answered the phone, what can you tell me about her?”

     Dillon thought for a minute, Margaret? “About all I know is that she’s a widow. Her husband’s been dead about 2 years.”

     Milo laughed, “that’s all I need to know. Thanks.” And hung up. 

     Dillon laughed to himself, you go girl.