The Road to Round Mountain: The Betrayal by (32 page)

The Sheriff had asked that I stay in the office with him  as he asked that Jenny and Gordon go ahead and eat and that  I would be out shortly. They left the office and headed for  the bags of food at the front counter.

The Sheriff hung his head for a moment. I was clueless  as to why he wanted to talk just to me. He brought his head  back up, met my eyes and motioned for me to sit down which  I did. “This isn’t an easy thing for me Billy, but after all the  phone calls, pressure from the political cronies in town, that  I’m being forced to make you leave town”. My jaw dropped  open at the news; I didn’t know what to say, but managed to  squeak out, “Leave town, why”? He looked towards the window then back at me, “Preliminary totals from the damage  caused by you has been put at over 3.5 million dollars, and  that was before the chevron explosion. I have to explain to a  lot of people what happened, and frankly there’s no way to  do that without lying through my teeth. These people that  I’m referring to are the ones that hold my job in their back  pocket and I’m not ready to retire just yet; close but not yet.  Bottom line Billy is that they want you out of town by noon  tomorrow, or it’s my ass”.

“I sort of understand I guess but I don’t understand what  they want me to do exactly”? “What they want is for you to  leave town, they don’t care where you go as long as it’s not  here; they consider you too dangerous to be living here, and  even though you help saved my chaps, I have to agree with  them”. What a sock to the gut, I may have set some shit  on fire and some bad guys got killed, but I thought I was

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helping. I hung my head and covered my face with my hands.

Looking back up at the sheriff, he could see that my eyes  were a little red, “I’m sorry as I can be Billy, but that’s how it  has to be”, as he opened his desk drawer and pulled out the  envelope of money that we gave him from the newly malfunctioning ATM. “Here, you’ll need money”, as he handed  me the envelope. “I can’t take this, I made the ATM malfunction”….. “Take it, I had them check the transactions on  it, and Gordon’s card never went through, so technically it  wasn’t fraud or theft, Just a glitch”, as he winked at me and  waited for me to take the envelope.

“There’s just over two thousand in there, so make sure  that you put that in the wallet I gave you and zip up the  top of it. I hate like hell that it has to be like this Billy, but  my hands are tied. Tomorrow you and I will drive to the  101 highway where the town ends and I’ll have to let you  out there”. “Can Gordon and Jenny go with us”, I asked?  “Absolutely, now go get some grub”. I wasn’t hungry since  he told me the news, speaking of which, how would I break  this to Jenny.

I decided to do it now before I chickened out. I told her

what the Sheriff had said and she tossed down her sandwich

and ran into my arms. I didn’t want her to let go since I didn’t  know the next time I would be able to see her again; although  I knew it wouldn’t be in this town. While tightly holding on  to Jenny, I could see the pained look on the Sheriff’s face as  he stood at his office door.

Jenny abruptly let go, checked her watch and said, “I’ll be back shortly”, and gave me a quick kiss. Late lunch or din-ner didn’t set well on my stomach. My headache was coming

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back with a vengeance, with my mind racing over being displaced twice in a week. Where would I go, what would I do  for money, and I doubt that I would get away with that ATM  trick for very long? I needed a place to stay and more importantly, I needed Jenny. Everyone was quiet as the Sheriff  filled his wife and staff about his decision which brought  tears to Anne’s eyes.

Gordon and I went outside and smoked in silence. The

late afternoon haze was starting to set in as high clouds  blocked the sun the sun from view. The wind started to pick  up as well; a sure sign that more rain was on the way. “So  where are you going to go”, Gordon timidly asked? “I don’t  have a clue; I mean it’s not like something you plan for, I  guess I’ll see where the road takes me”. “Do you think you’ll  ever come back”? I flicked the ash off of my smoke and replied, “I doubt that it will be anytime soon from what the  Sheriff had to say”. “Sucks the big one”, Gordon replied. “I  don’t’ know if I’ll get the chance later, but I wanted to thank  you for being a friend, not just one that would sit by you at  lunch, but one who put his own life on the line. I’ll never forget that, and it’s nice to know that someone has your back”, I  countered. Gordon ran over and hugged me and almost put  his cigarette out in my ear. Well, what are friends for?

He let go of the hug and stepped back to light another  smoke and said, “Did Jenny say where she was going, she  flew out of here so fast I couldn’t tell which direction she

was going”? “No, but she said she would be back, I’m hoping

anyway”, as I looked down towards the end of the street.

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48

we hAd been
 
sitting in the Sheriff’s office for about an  hour when the Sheriff’s wife, Anne came through the swinging gate holding a couple of packages in each hand. I don’t  even remember her leaving. The phone calls had pretty much  died of f except for a few town officials confirming that I’ll  be gone in the morning. That did not improve my mood any.

Anne came in the Sheriff’s office and handed me the

bags she was carrying. “What’s this”, I inquired? “Just some  stuff you’ll need on the road since you’re being banished from  town”, as she gave the Sheriff a hateful sneer. The Sheriff  sheepishly looked up at his wife but did not reply. I opened  the first bag and it had a large backpack. It felt a little heavy  for a backpack, and upon opening I found out why. There  was a pair of sneakers, similar to what I have on plus two  pair of jeans. Wow, that was nice as I looked up at Anne as  she smiles at me, “Go on, and open the others”. I did as instructed and found some tee shirts and socks in one bag. The  next one had underwear which I must have blushed over as

Anne said, “We all need them, and so don’t get modest now”.  I smiled at her then opened another bag which had a rain-proof jacket in it, a must have in the Pacific Northwest. The last one was deceptively light as I opened it and tears almost immediately started flowing down my cheeks. It was photo album, not just any album, but the one my parents had, with pictures of me as a baby and all the way up to my seventeenth

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birthday; plus plenty of photos of my parents. This was the  best gift I ever got.

“I don’t know what to say, except thank you”, as I wiped  some excess tears from my face. One of your neighbors saw  it in your back yard along with some other things, but fortunately, this was intact and I thought you would need this”.  Gordon grabbed my back pack and opened it up, took the  ill-gotten carton of cigarettes and poured them all into back  pack except for one. “I’ll keep this one, I can always get more”,  he said with a grin. The Sheriff joined in as he opened his  desk drawer and pulled out a two pack of disposable lighters  and then pulled out an old knife in a sheath that snaps to  your belt. “Here, you’ll need the lighters, but I hope you don’t  need this as he pointed to the knife. Be careful, it is extremely  sharp”. I noticed that his eyes were red as well but he hid it  by not making eye contact; the old softy.

Faces were drying, smiles were growing and the animosity towards me was not evident in The Sheriff’s office. It was  almost 6:00 PM and the Sheriff was rapping things up as he  and Anne were going to head home shortly. I was looking  over the knife the Sheriff had given me when Jenny came  strolling through the office door with a small bag. I got up  and ran to her and gave her a kiss that I didn’t think I was  possible of giving. It must have been okay as Jenny kept kissing me back. “Get a room”, Gordon chimed in.

We finally quit kissing, not by choice, but I think we were  making the others a little uncomfortable. A jail is not a place  where you would normally partake in some innocent necking. She joined me on the Sheriff’s couch and handed me  the bag she was carrying in. I opened the bag and pulled out

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some fancy phone to which I immediately handed it to Jenny,  “what wrong, don’t you like it”? “No it’s great but I didn’t  want to fry it, you know”, as I pointed to my fingers. “Silly,  here look, it’s got one of those heavy duty rubber protective  cases that construction people use. I also think it should be  Billy proof as well”.

“I don’t get it, why did you get me a phone”? “How  else am I going to be able to keep track of my sweetie”?  Sweetie, I almost melted; I still don’t know what I did to  deserve her. Jenny spent the better part of an hour showing  me how it worked since I’ve never had one before. There

was two things she showed me called Apps, one of which  would show my current location no matter where I was.  The other was more of an acknowledgement thing, that  when I pressed the button, she would receive a notification  that I was okay. She said that it would not run the battery  down as fast doing this so we can keep in contact, plus she  wanted me to call her once a week, after I had a chance to  charge the phone. I was feeling better.

The Sheriff and his wife took off for the evening, only  Deputy Dave remained to remind the public that they were  still open for business. Gordon Jenny and I took our turns in  the shower, which was a good thing since I didn’t know when  my next shower might happen. We went out and smoked  some, talked some, Jenny said that the hospital had given her  the week off due to what happened to her.

It was getting late and Jenny and I decided that the  couch would be our bed for the night as Gordon opted for  the small bed in the back room. Once we got settled on the  couch we kissed, we cuddled and held on to each other in

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hopes that we would not have to let go. Reality was that we  would have to come tomorrow. But for tonight we would enjoy being in each other’s arms. The comfort that she brought  me made sleep come easy.

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49

we were All
 
pretty quiet the next morning as we  knew there wasn’t much time left. The Sherif f came in about

8:00 am and said his good morning to Malory and a late  goodnight to Dave as he was finally able to leave. The Sherif came into his office where Gordon, Jenny and I were sitting  and not talking much, his face looked less puffy than the  night before, but you could tell he was in pain. “Let’s go get  some breakfast”, as he motioned for us to follow. Gordon  had headed for the patrol car but the Sheriff offered, “No car  Gordon it’s just around the corner.”

Just a block down to the left of the jail was in fact a diner.  You would never know that is was, since it was just an old  brick two story building that I thought was empty. There  was no name just a small neon sign in the window that read,  ‘Diner’. Inside was not what you expect from a shabby looking old building, it was spotless and although small with a  counter with four stools, there were six tables scattered about  all of them would seat four.

The Sheriff picked the middle table as an older man with a spotless white apron appeared from the back. “Walt”, he greeted. “Dale”, the Sheriff replied. The gray haired pro-prietor laid down menus and asked, “Coffee”? We shook our heads in agreement as the Sheriff replied, “Four Dale”.

Surprisingly enough I was starving, and asked the  Sheriff, “Is this what they call the last meal”, as I gave the

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Sheriff a smirk? “It’s the least I can do Billy, and just re-member this crap going on was not my idea”. “I know, it’s just been a real bizarre week”. “Thanks a lot”, as Jenny play-fully smacked my shoulder.

The owner came out with four coffees and what I’m

guessing was his wife brought a tray with four plates heaping  full and smelled heavenly. Gordon chimed in, “we didn’t even  order yet”, he stated in a confused manner. “They only serve  one breakfast and trust me when I say once you eat it, you’ll  always remember it”.

The Sheriff was right on in his assessment of the breakfast. Each plate had three pancakes, four slices of bacon,  three eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese sprinkled on top,  two big biscuits with a small bowl of gravy on the side, and  hash browns. It was a feast to say the least. We mainly ate in  silence with the occasional, “damn this is good”, popping out  a few times.

By the time we got done had our after feast smoke and returned to the jail, it was almost 10:00 am. Crap, not much time left.

Gordon, Jenny and I spent much of the time I had left outside smoking, more of a nervous activity more than any-thing. Jenny and I were holding hands when I asked, “So what happens to us”? She gave me a sly grin, “Nothing hap-pens to us, we’re good, this is just a temporary inconvenience until this whole mess is figured out, and then we will be back together”. That was the sound of confidence that I truly needed to hear. “Just one question though, you’re here at the  Hospital, and I can’t come back, so how do we get back to-gether”? “Silly, I can work at any Hospital, it doesn’t have

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to be here”, as she planted a romantic type of kiss that you  might see in the movies. I was good, for now at least.

The Sheriff came out and stated, “Time to roll folks,  it seems that we have the damn media to contend with.

Gordon, you go with Billy and gather his things and load up in the car”. Damn, this was getting too real too quick. Jenny and I hugged each other so tight, but it felt so damn good. I tried to go inside and get my stuff, but Jenny wasn’t ready for that yet. She held on tight but finally gave in knowing that it had to end; for now at least.