September 29 — Saturday — morning
Although the temperatures would rise considerably until late afternoon, a cool breeze periodically refreshed the bright and sunny morning.
As Kelly sipped her second cup of coffee on the porch, she heard a distinctive whirring noise from the woods behind her cabin. It was a familiar sound but she rose to investigate anyway. She’d barely left the porch steps when a large man zoomed down her driveway in a souped-up customized golf cart.
“Wade!” She waved enthusiastically, spilling some coffee in the process. She flung away the remaining liquid and walked quickly toward the powered-up buggy, as it crunched gravel and lurched to a stop. “No trailer this time, I see.”
“Streamlined fer speed.” The chassis and cab were top-of-the-line premium brand, but the engine and transmission were secrets known only to Lawrence Wade Lawrence. The barrel-chested man jumped out of the cart and launched his bear hug before Kelly could put down her empty cup, which clattered to the gravel. “Sorry. Just happy to see you.” He looked down. “Is it broke?”
Kelly bent down and grabbed the cup. “Just bruised a bit. Come on in.”
They made their way up the plank steps in time to see Perra bounding up the hill. With motions that resembled a greyhound and, at times, a third grade child, the little terrier made a black streak up the hillside and was on the porch wagging and greeting her very large Cincinnati friend.
Wade stroked Perra’s ears and patted her shoulders. “This little gal can run!” The neighbor dog sounded an alarm and Perra barked a reply before turning her head. Then she scanned intently toward the east, raised the ruff on top of her shoulders, and scampered back down the steps. Standing on the slope, her legs stiff, she scratched the ground defiantly.
“Wonder what that’s all about.” Wade obviously didn’t see anything amiss.
“Oh, some smell drifted down in the dry creek bed. Or some squirrel ran up the neighbor dog’s tree. Something real important.” Kelly turned. “Let’s get some coffee. Somebody made me spill mine.”
He grinned as he burst through the door and barreled into the kitchen. Wade was not unusually tall — just under six feet — but he was massively built, with thick neck, arms, and legs. He was one of those men who did not manifest any particular musculature but possessed astonishing strength. He could heave a hundred-and-fifty pound stump into a bonfire, but he usually shook hands passively. Wade’s movements were never slow and seldom quiet.
While extracting his personal mug from Kelly’s kitchen cabinet, he managed to clink into at least four other dishes. The spoon clanked in his mug and smacked loudly onto the counter.
“Wade, I declare. You are a bundle.”
“Bundle of what?” When he grinned, his entire face was involved. At present his face showed several days of stubble.
“You growing your beard again for deer season?” She pointed.
“Naw, this is the new movie star look — always look like you fergot to shave yesterday and just might wait ‘til tomorrow.”
Kelly couldn’t tell if he was serious, but Wade had probably already left that subject so she shifted. “That pet hatch you installed has been real helpful, especially to keep her from following my vehicle.”
Wade looked slightly embarrassed at being praised, though his expression lasted only a few seconds.
“So, what are you doing in town? I thought you usually visit about every other weekend.”
“Got three acres to mow and lots of branches to clean up. Must’ve been some big wind around here.”
“So you come down here more than I thought you did.” She eyed him narrowly. “In case you’ve been here on other weekends, I wonder if you’ve heard some noise on Pop’s ninety-nine acres.”
“What kind of noise?”
Kelly put her cup on the small end table so she could use her hands when she talked. “I’ve been hearing loud booms and other muffled sounds that seem like they’re coming from those woods or the meadow beyond. I’ve also caught another hunter, but I know this isn’t hunters, unless they’re carrying cannons.” She had looked away to check on a movement from Gato and then she caught Wade’s eyes again. “Why are you grinning?”
“I ain’t.”
“You sure are. A big pie-eating grin.” She frowned. “What do you know about all those sounds, Lawrence?”
“Shucks, you’re making me spill my big surprise.”
Kelly extended her hand and motioned with her fingers. Come on.
“Well, at first it was just a few leftover cherry bombs and M-80s.”
“I’ve heard of cherry bombs but those booms I heard were more like atom bombs.” She squinted at him. “Wait. I thought those high-powered gizmos had been outlawed.”
Wade grinned. “Well, they’re only against the law if you’re caught with ‘em. If you’ve already blowed ‘em up, nobody can tell a cherry bomb from a farrcracker.”
“One of these days, you’re going to find yourself in some trouble, Wade. You must’ve had a charmed life so far. But luck sometimes runs out.”
“Well, if I hadn’t been given the name Wade, I would’ve named myself Lucky.” He paused like he was trying out the alternate name. “You remember when I went to Thunder Valley last month?”
“Thunder what?”
“Best race track in this part of the country. Bristol, Tennessee. Fastest half mile in the world, so they say.”
Kelly rolled her hand sideways. Out with it.
“You think those old cherry bombs are something. You ought to see what I brung back from Bristol. Most of them races have a big farrworks display as part of the opening ceremony, with the national anthem and such.”
Kelly waited for him to continue about the sounds.
“Well, I got hold of a bunch of them industrial-strength farrworks. I’m talking about stuff that goes hundreds of feet in the air and makes enough noise to wake up the folks in that graveyard up there.”
“As it would have me if I’d been asleep at the time. So these firecrackers-on-steroids — is that what’s been going off on Pop’s acreage?”
“Couldn’t blow ‘em up in Cincinnati.”
“So why didn’t you tell me you were out there blasting stuff? I’ve been worrying and halfway to calling the 9-1-1 folks.”
“Didn’t think nothing about it. Just as natural as a real big belch or a nasty…”
“Thanks for those lovely images.” She gave him another stern look. “You should’ve told me.”
Wade looked suitably chastened but that image vanished in a few seconds. None of Wade’s expressions remained very long. Like his constant body motion, his expressions seemed to lurch about. He grinned again. “That’s what I came to tell you now. And show you some of ‘em.” He looked like he was about to jolt off the loveseat.
Kelly motioned him back down. “And I presume these are strictly illegal for private citizens to own.”
“Like I said, only if you’re caught with ‘em. If I blow ‘em up, they was never here.”
“How on earth did you get them anyway?”
“They had a substitute guard at one of the gates. He looks a little nervous and asks if I want to buy some farrcrackers. I say, ‘What kind’? He shows me. So I say, ‘How much you want’? He says, ‘What’ll you give me’? Now I know you can spend fifty bucks on the Fourth of July and come home with a little bag of junk, so I give him a hundred bucks.”
“Did you transport his illegal fireworks?”
“Got ‘em right outside in my buggy.”
“That’s probably a couple of felonies.”
Wade started to get up again and this time Kelly was too slow to stop him. Both went outside. Perra tagged along, hopped up in the back of the golf cart, and sniffed suspiciously among the shapes beneath an old tarp. Then she wrinkled her nose and jumped back down.
“I made some more improvements in Old Betsey since you last seen her.” He pointed to a button. “That’s my siren.” He pressed it and grinned broadly.
Kelly covered her ears. “Turn that off!”
He did, with obvious reluctance. “You already knew I took off the governor so it runs a lot faster than at golf courses. Well I also found some new injectors and put on a different header, so now this baby runs like a scalded dog.”
“It was already scalded enough, Wade.” She was puzzled. “So what about the fireworks?”
“Oh. Here, under the tarp.” He flipped it back with a minor flourish, revealing several assorted boxes.
“Wade, you’re liable to blow up my cabin with all that stuff. How on earth did that sub guard get hold of industrial fireworks like that?”
“He said they fell off the back of a truck.” Wade tried to keep a straight face. “Works fer me.”
Kelly scanned the array of samples in the rear compartment of Wade’s buggy. “Okay, let’s ignore all the legal issues for the moment. From what I recall of public display fireworks, there’s always a lot of light bursts, or whatever you call those huge flashes of color.”
“They call ‘em paints. I did some research. Different chemicals makes different colors. The way to tell a real expert is if they can make deep blue or dazzling white bursts.”
Kelly’s mouth hung open briefly. “I’m completely amazed.”
“Bet you thought it was harder to make reds and greens, huh?”
“No. I’m amazed that you actually did some research.” She smiled.
“Yeah. Went to the liberry in Lexington.”
“Hold on. You live near Cincinnati. Why’d you use the Lexington library system?”
He sighed heavily. “Well, I started out in one of Cincinnati’s liberry branches, but after I’d asked a few questions about explosives and gunpowder and such, they started giving me the fisheye. So I figured I’d vamoose from there. Went to Lexington.”
“Lexington’s library staff didn’t give you the fisheye?”
“Nope. Some nice lady just took me to the computer and typed up some words and there was couple thousand uh…”
“Links.”
“Yeah, links. So I sat there and clicked on ‘em. Man, I got all kinds of stuff. I was printing pages like crazy.”
“Sounds like you had a very positive library experience.”
“Well, when I went to grab all them pages I printed, the other lady wanted me to pay for ‘em. I told her the first lady said I could access anything fer free.” Wade had a fleeting frown. “So while she was arguing with the first lady about my access, I snatched them pages and took off.”
“So that’s two libraries you can’t go back to.”
He shrugged — he obviously never intended to visit any more library systems. “So anyhow, most of them commercial farrworks are what they call aerial shells. And the stuff inside ‘em — besides the powder — is little cubes or pellets they call stars. What I been doing is taking ‘em apart and separating all the stuff. Gunpowder here, packing there, stars over yonder. Plus, that big old box I bought had about a mile of fuses.”
“I swear, Wade, sometimes following your explanations is just impossible. Why were you dismantling all those brand new illegal fireworks?”
He looked at her like she ought to already understand. “Simple, Kel. I want the sound from the gunpowder explosion to go with my new invention, but don’t want the blast of light, because them burning phosphorous particles is too tricky to handle. It’s kind of like a big chemistry set, but real turbo-charged. And I’m like the scientist dude that does the experiments.”
Kelly mulled over Wade’s project. “And this is what you’ve been doing, top secret, in Pop’s woods?”
“Pop’s meadow. The woods’d be too dangerous to catch farr.”
“Wade, that’s why these are Class Two, or Class B, fireworks.” She couldn’t recall which. “And illegal. Way too dangerous for use by ordinary citizens. I’d sure hate to see you bandaged up with third degree burns on your face, and your fingers all melted together.”
“Thanks a bunch fer that pretty picture.”
“Just be careful, that’s all. I mean, if you insist on continuing these experiments.”
“After you see my new invention working, Kel, you’ll wonder why you ever discouraged me.”
“I’m sure I’ll be shocked and awed. Just thinking about your safety. I hope you’re taking precautions.”
Wade rubbed his arm absent-mindedly. “Yeah, I got precautions: long fuse, light quick, and run like crazy.”
“Stop, drop and roll, Wade.” She shook her head slowly. “If running from long fuses is your elaborate safety plan, you’ll need to remember the fire safety motto. Because you’re going to burn down something. Or burn up somebody.”
Wade shrugged. Even that had extra movement in it.
“Okay. But I’ve heard two kinds of sounds. I guess you explained the loud booms. What was the other one?”
“How did it sound over here?”
She closed her eyes to help remember. “Loud, but muted somewhat. Almost like it was underground. Like a muffled thump, or kind of like whump… whump.”
Wade grinned broadly. “That’s my new invention, Vegge-zilla.”
“Vegge-what?”
“You know that big ole pumpkin cannon out at Deer Holler Farm?”
She nodded.
“That’s what gave me the idea.”
“You’ve been launching pumpkins up in Pop’s meadow?”
“Didn’t have enough pipe fer pumpkins. Mine’s fer smaller stuff.”
Wade patiently explained the length and diameter of his pipe, his clever propulsion system, and the size and type of produce it could launch. Kelly had little concern about the vegetables and fruits, but was definitely worried about his experiments with gunpowder.
“I’m also going to rig up a little maze, a hayride through the woods, and part of a hay bale fort… fer my nephews and nieces, and the kids of my cousins. I expect at least a dozen kids. It’ll be close to Halloween if I get everything ready in time.”
“That’s a lot of work just to entertain some kids.”
“Well, shoot. I guess I like it about as much as them kids do.”
“Just a big kid yourself, are you?”
Wade grinned like a very big kid.
Kelly sneaked a look at her watch.
Wade noticed and went into the kitchen. He placed his mug in the sink with a loud clatter of other dishes.
“So, besides all your scientific and ballistic workings, what’s been going on up in your area?”
“Aw, them gangs and crime. Terrible. You’re lucky, Kel, living out here in the country, aways from all that crime.”
“What about the thugs who busted in on me and Ginny Cable?”
“Well, they came here looking fer her, not you. Right?”
Kelly shrugged and returned to Wade’s original topic. “What kind of crime in Cincinnati? Anything besides the usual holdups and isolated drive-by shootings?”
“Somebody at work told me about a gang busting in on one of them neighborhoods with iron gates. Somebody got the codes somehow. Anyhow, they wiped out every single house in that whole place.”
“Anybody hurt?”
“Some was shoved against the walls… knocked down. One feller got kicked real bad because he told ‘em to get out. One guy got his head busted open.”
Kelly frowned. “Where were the cops? Nobody called 9-1-1?”
“Don’t know. Guess one of ‘em must’ve called but sometimes those 9-1-1 guys put you on hold.”
“Or if there’s a fire or a wreck somewhere, then it takes them half an hour to arrive.”
“Like I said, Kel, you’re lucky living out here where it’s safe.”
“Yeah. Safe from everything but lunatic druggies.”
“If any of them guys comes near you again, I’m going to cut them up and toss their body pieces in that old branch chopper I bought.”
Kelly started to ask why he acquired a brush shredder, but figured Wade’s need for equipment was similar to how some women think of shoes — they always want more. “Wade, the other day Fred Lee seemed to be trying to talk me out of protecting myself.”
“How come?”
“Basically he was assuming that it’d probably only make things worse for me if I fight back.” Kelly gulped. “You know, not that many years ago, they used to teach women to just comply with the attacker’s demands, whatever they were. They said you were less likely to be killed or beaten.”
“Not sure I’d bank money on that.”
“Anyhow, I’m interested in your opinion.”
“Well, I ain’t no trooper. But I tell you this: a feller comes at me and I’m going to get in as many licks as I can, as hard as I can. It don’t matter if we’re fighting fists, knives, clubs, or guns. I plan to give back at least what I’m getting, and likely a good bit more. They might take me down, but it’s going to cost ‘em.” Wade studied her face. “That answer your question?”
Kelly was speechless for a moment. “You know, I think that’s the most words I’ve ever heard out of you, on a single subject, in one paragraph of sorts, without you jumping up and doing something in the middle of it.” She exhaled loudly.
“I guess that’s a good bit different from Fred Lee’s advice.”
She nodded. “I only hope I have enough courage — if the time ever comes — to follow through.”
Wade stood and put a meaty hand on her shoulder. “You do, Kel. You got guts enough fer any six regular women.”
As she was about to ask for clarification, Kelly surprised both of them by breaking out in tears. It wasn’t the hyperbole in Wade’s compliment or his hand on her shoulder. Something about the circumstances they’d been describing just made her emotional.
Wade stood there quietly, hand on her shoulder, until Kelly had cried enough that she could get up and wash her face.
When Kelly returned from her bathroom, Wade was gone.