Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Mid-Week Words


UFO Bigfoot-
The sun was hot on the dappled leather interior, sweat mopping on the man’s brow. His hands wanted to slip from the steering wheel, but the alignment didn’t need much guidance. Despite its age, the rusting paint, the not at all shiny chrome bumper, the truck still rumbled like a big angry beast, far more lively and easily controlled than the dead one in the back. He eyed the tarp wearily as he shifted into a higher gear to roar faster still up the winding road to great house on the second most unassuming road Finn had driven on. The first most, was of course his own.
But Finn didn’t care about the heat, or the non-existent air conditioning, or the stink that would probably catch up to the corpse eventually if he didn’t get it to the ice barn soon. No, the only thing Finn needed to work was the radio. He smiled wider than most men who were covered in swamp mud and blood and other unidentifiables, and sang along to every word of the old song, drumming along in perfect tandem on the leather steering wheel, occasionally even hitting the dash in a fit of frenzy.
He was still singing, loudly and perfectly on-key, when he finally pulled up to the small guest cottage just beyond the great big monstrosity of the Ketsian Estate. He let the engine rumble just long enough to hear the familiar greeting bark before turning the key over. No sooner did his boots hit the ground than 130 pounds of male pitbull were covering him in more mud and slobber. Rocko was Finn’s second favorite greeting, the big beast laying him in with kisses and whines. He whined a lot when he left on a long job, which Finn thought was hilarious, since he didn’t actually live here.
The young woman on the porch did, tan skin and hard muscles from lifting weights and two by fours alike. Her long brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun because she hated it sticking to her skin, which was only covered by denim shorts and a bikini top. Lily rarely wore a shirt in her own home between the months of May and September. She had a beer in one hand and a tablet PC in the other, going over whatever research Ketsian had thrown together this week. On the table next to her, carefully out of the sun, was her favorite sidearm. Even at home, she still used the extended clip.
"What on earth is in your pickup today?" she asked, not even looking up as he sat down beside her, plucking a beer from the old metal cooler that lived on the deck. That Lily didn’t track every movement Finn made in her presence was a compliment of the highest order, and one he didn’t take lightly.
This was his first favorite greeting.
"You wouldn’t believe me if I told you."
Lily gave him the cop face, which Finn found deeply amusing, as most of the local police force would charge her for laws unknown to most of mankind on sight.
"The locals said it came from outerspace."
"…I’d say ‘you’ve got to be kidding’, but I know you never are. Despite the times I really, really wish you were." She finished off her beer, and simply reached for another. Whatever she was reading about must not have been any good. "But why is it still in your rusty old bed?"
"I got a buyer for it. Is your ice barn empty?"
"At the moment. Why won’t you use yours?"
"You know why. And I don’t want no suit pokin round my home. You’re the only who knows my address, and I intend to keep it that way."
"Technically, you don’t even have an address."
"Or property taxes."
"Yep. Jealous?"
"Always. You can put it in the barn, but if Zell finds it, I’ll tell him you sing every word to Don McClean’s American Pie, and let the redneck backlash fall as it may."
"You’re an evil woman."
Lily smiled, and Finn returned the look in kind.
"You wouldn’t like me if I was anything less. Now go put your corpse away before the stench drives Rocko mad. Last time you came in reeking of swamp ape and that poor creature wouldn’t go swimming for a week."
"Yes ma’m." 




2 comments:

  1. I'm so looking forward to writing these two in the next coming weeks. I know I'm supposed to be rewriting book 1 but what if I did that and worked on book 2, what if

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