Southern Gothic

I heard Stephen banging on the inside trunk lid.  It annoyed me, so I turn up the stereo.  The Dixie Chicks sang, "Earl had to die."

I have loved Stephen since we were both fourteen years old, freshmen at Hoyt High School in Hoyt, Mississippi.  His locker was three down from mine.  Already boy crazy, I thought he was the most handsome guy I'd ever seen,  with that black curly hair and those bright blue eyes.

It took Stephen a while to notice me.  Since he was the new guy, he got a lot of attention and I decided to bide my time.  Hoyt is a small town and most of us had known each other since diapers, so new kids were always popular right away.  It didn't hurt that he played football and played it well enough to make the Hoyt Highlander's normally dismal seasons a little brighter.  I don't remember the cheerleaders crying at the end of games after Stephen joined the team, at least.

Stephen's daddy had taken over old Doc Smythe's practice.  It was not a moment too soon since everyone knew Doc Smythe had been nipping the moonshine for so long his brain was practically cottage cheese.  Being the son of the town doctor helped Stephen's popularity too.

I still remember what I wore on my first date with Stephen.  A pair of pressed and creased Gloria Vanderbilt jeans with loafers and no socks, a pink button down shirt and my Add-A-Bead necklace.  Pure Southern Prep circa 1982.  It's a peculiar trait among the women in my family: we can always remember what we wore during important moments such as first dates, divorce court or a particularly good argument.

"Damn him," I thought.  The pounding in the trunk got on my last nerve.  I swerved the big Cadillac over to the side of the road and leaped out, running to the back of the car.

"Stephen.  Knock if off.  Asshole!  You are not getting out anytime soon.  Why don't you say a little prayer cause I am not letting you out and maybe God will.  It'll be a Goddamn miracle!"  I yell at the trunk and pound on it a few times myself for good measure.

When I got back into the car, I took a few deep breaths and lit a ciggie.  I exchanged the Dixie Chicks for Sheryl Crow.  I couldn't bear the thought of listening to a man singing right then.  Sheryl sang, "A change  will do you good."  Damn straight, sister.

I put the Caddie into drive and pulled back onto the road, spraying gravel as I punch the go pedal.  I had it up to sixty before it dawned on me that I had my ex-husband tied up in the trunk and it might not be a good idea to attract the attention of the Mississippi State Patrol, not known for their good humor under the best of circumstances.

I didn't start out knowing what I was going to do with Stephen once I put him in the trunk.  After two hours of hard driving, I knew.  We're going to my family's old camp.  Certain hard truths are going to be spoken.  Best of all, Stephen can't pull any of his lying lawyer bullshit on me, because I've duct taped his mouth.

I take a swig from my Dr Pepper and I cry a little bit.  We used to be The Couple Everyone Wanted To Be.  All through high school, all through Ole Miss, we were golden.  When Stephen got his law degree and we moved back to Hoyt, I'd resisted and begged him to go somewhere else.  I wanted to go somewhere bigger, somewhere with a little culture and decent restaurants and movie theaters, somewhere I could buy nice shoes not from a catalog.  Stephen wore me down, though.  We went back to Hoyt and it was just like high school all over again except we could smoke and drink and have sex and not get grounded.

The trouble started at Ole Miss.  Stephen had always been a flirt but Hoyt was too small for him to run around on me in high school and me not find out.  At Ole Miss, he had a lot of opportunity.  I couldn't keep track of him every second and he knew it.  My sorority sisters had a name for their boyfriends chasing other girls to sleep with:  The Strange.  They were looking for something new and strange.

The first one after we moved back to Hoyt was Della Raines.  What a slut she was.  Always wearing those short shorts, all that makeup even during the day and never wearing a bra.  She hung around out at Charlie's, the pool hall, with all the shiftless hillbillies.  I'd never been in Charlie's in all my twenty-six years until the time I was out looking for Stephen at midnight one Friday and saw his car parked outside.  There was Stephen, with Della Raines draped all over him like a clearance rack suit.

Next, it was Bobbi Cutler.  That was a surprise.  Bobbi was one of my friends.  She taught second grade and I never imagined a second grade teacher would bend over the couch in my husband's law office and beg him to put it in, hard.  I was lucky.  Even though she needed six stitches and I broke her nose, she didn't press charges.  She did lose her job, something about moral fitness.

Stephen and I finally got divorced after twelve years of marriage because I just couldn't take it anymore.  The final straw came when some woman kept calling the house asking for him.  When I'd say he wasn't home, she'd say, "Well, hon, give him a message.  He's going to be a daddy."  It was all a lie, of course, but it riled me up so much I couldn't get past it and filed for divorce.

This being Hoyt, of course I ran into Stephen all the time.  We started talking again.  We dated again.  I fell in love all over.  I was head over heels.

Until this afternoon.

Thinking that I would surprise him, I went to his office with a thermos of fresh brewed iced tea and some lemon cookies.  I went up the back steps, avoiding Myra, his two hundred-year-old bad tempered secretary and opened his office door.  And there was Kasey Lewis, a town cop, with her face buried in Stephen's crotch and his hands tangled in her tacky bleached blonde hair.

Instead of freaking out, I slipped off my sandals and tiptoed over to where her gun belt was thrown on the floor.  I took her gun out of the holster.  I pointed it directly at Stephen's head and cleared my throat.

They didn't hear.  I cleared my throat again and said, "You have the right to remain silent," in my sweetest voice.

Kasey whipped her head around so fast, I thought she was going to bite it right off.

"You.  Stand up," I told her.

"Miss Lizbeth, it's not..."  she started to say.

"Shut up.  Get out," I said.  I started shoving her out the door and down the front stairs, still naked, lipstick smeared all over her chin.  Let her explain that to Myra.

"Lizbeth," Stephen said.  "I'm so sorry.  Let me explain."

Still pointing the gun at Stephen, I thumbed the safety off.

"You're not talking," I said. "You're listening.  And you're coming with me."  I gestured toward the back stairs and he stumbled down them with his pants still undone and halfway down.

When we got to the car, he made as if to get in on the passengers side.

"Nope," I said cheerfully. I popped the trunk.  "Get in, lover boy."

Stephen looked at me blankly.  Still pointing the gun at his head, I opened the tool kit in the trunk and took out a piece of rope and the duct tape.

Now, two hours later, I was at the camp.  I had unlocked the chain and drove the Caddie slowly up the rutted two track.  Stephen had stopped banging a while back.

Before I opened the trunk, I went into the camp and turned on the lights.  I opened a bottle of the fine red wine my daddy stores in the cellar.  After a deeply satisfying glass, I went out to the car and popped the trunk.  Stephen blinked at the flashlight I pointed at his face.  I noticed he has been crying.  This didn't move me since I figured out years ago that Stephen could cry on demand if he thought it would help his cause. This was effective with juries, but not with a pissed off ex-wife who was wise to his theatrics.

I pointed the gun at his head again.

"I'm going to untie your legs so you can walk in.  Don't try to run.  I'll chase you down like a bug and shoot your ass to kingdom come.  All right?  Nod if you understand."

He nodded and I loosened the ropes on his legs.  I heaved him out of the trunk with pure adrenaline and he fell onto the hard gravel.  I kicked him a little with the heel of my sandal.  It felt good to see him wince.  I kept the gun pointed at his head as he walked down the path to the camp door.

Once inside, I motioned him into the tatty chair next to the fireplace.  I sat on the couch, the bottle of wine next to me on the end table.  I poured another glass and sniffed it.

"Daddy has such good taste in wine," I said.  I walked over to Stephen and stuck the glass under his nose so he could smell it.  He fancied himself a connoisseur.  Actually, he couldn't tell Bordeaux from Beaujolais.

"Why do you cheat, Stephen?  Why?  I'm a pretty lady.  I was a perfect girlfriend to you.  I have been a perfect wife to you.  There is not one thing missing in your life.  And still you cheat."

I lit a ciggie and watched his face.  His eyes are large and pleading but like his crying, it doesn't move me.

I patted the gun on the cushion next to me.  "I ought to just shoot your ass.  Get a jury of twelve women and I wouldn't spend one day in prison.  All I wanted was for you to love me and us to get out of the shithole of Hoyt.  You convinced me to move back, so we did.  I put up with your cheating.  I forgave you.  I believed you.  I thought you were going to change.  I thought we were going to get married again and instead, I've just lived a Goddamn honky tonk country song."

I realized I was crying again so I stopped looking at Stephen and drank my wine.  I looked at my perfectly manicured fingers holding the wineglass and they were trembling.  I finished the wine, stubbed out my cigarette and pick up the gun.

The blast is deafening in the small confines of the cabin, but I've never in my life felt so happy and free.

Comments

[Nadine]

WOW. I like it.

[nursenicole]

i like it A LOT! very good, lovey...

[Judy Miller]

Oh yeah!! This is great, wish I had been there to hold her ciggie for her while she took care of business!

[Stacy]

Great ending! I was expecting her to soften up or change her mind... HA!

[Jo Ann]

A GREAT story!
Moved right along to a swift and unexpected ending..

[ronni]

OO! I think it's chilling! Lisa, you have a cheerfully evil mind. I like it.

[loretta]

Very satisfying ending. Good for her. It would have been totally unrealistic for her to chicken out at that point.

[Mgt]

Great story, Lisa. Pity she didn't make him pee his pants with fright, first.

I know, I'm a bit sadistic. I really hate men who dunk their beef around town.

I really enjoyed reading it. Gripped me right the way through.

[Darr]

Great job! I like that we don't hear what he's thinking and saying, that it's all her story.

[Videodrone]

Heh, gotta be careful with those autobiographical vignettes!

Good read, nice pacing, but she didn’t make him suffer enough.

[moi]

Wow, I was taken away. I vote with Mgt on the darkened stain on his non-pants! You go girl! I also vote with Vid on the suffering part. That'll be a challenge to weave in and still have the surprise at the end. xxoo