The first shot sounded right outside the house. Aiden had been staring at the ceiling all night and was delirious as he threw back the shades to April’s bedroom window and saw Thad standing in his boots and underwear on the porch of his trailer waving the long, shiny revolver above his head like he was flagging traffic. Julie Dietz and the fat girl were in the yard. Julie was doing her damnedest to pull clothes over her bones, while Thad yelled something too muffled to make out from inside the house. April had just gotten up and was in the shower singing “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy” at the top of her lungs.
The gun’s report had barely finished bouncing around the cove when Aiden came onto the stoop. The second shot hit the ground like artillery just to the right of Meredith’s feet, and Aiden heard the bullet whiz up past April’s house and bury in the hillside by the radio tower.
That’s when Julie Dietz rushed Thad. She made it up two steps before he kicked her right square in the stomach and sent her sliding on her side across dew-covered grass. His boot came off as he kicked, and though she coughed like she just might hurl, Julie Dietz crawled in a frenzy, grabbed Thad’s boot from the base of the steps, and threw it out into the yard. That’s when the third shot came. Grass and dirt clods blew up just on the far side of where Julie Dietz stood. She twisted and grabbed her left arm.
The bullet must’ve winged her because she didn’t go down, but she screamed, “You shot me! You shot me!”
“Next one’s between the eyes!”
Loretta Lynn was on the porch beside Thad and she yapped as loud as the rest of them. Julie kept screaming, “You shot me! You shot me!” and Loretta Lynn darted down the steps, bit into Julie’s ankle, and started to tug at her leg like a rope. Julie punted Thad’s dog into the side of the trailer, and Loretta Lynn thudded against the aluminum like a dirty snowball. The pup limped back onto the porch, panting so hard that it looked like she might trip over her own tongue. The dog had one burst in her and was spent.
Aiden knew Thad wouldn’t have exploded so violently if Julie Dietz had stabbed April thirty-seven times in the stomach with a shiv, but the fact that she’d touched Loretta Lynn pushed him over. He marched down the steps and into the yard in nothing but that yellow-tinged underwear. Hobbling with one untied boot, he rose and sank with each set of strides. She cowered just as he hammered the barrel of that pistol across the side of her face. She was on the ground and he straddled her around the rib cage, slapped his empty hand back and forth about her face as if he were shooing flies. Julie’s head flipped side to side with no restraint. She was unconscious.
Aiden had almost forgotten about Meredith until then. The girl had the size for middle linebacker at any school in the SEC, and when she blindsided Thad in the back, he howled in pain. The two of them rolled around in the grass for a second or two before she mounted him and rammed him again with her shoulder as he tried to regain ground.
Thad no longer had the gun. Meredith had knocked the revolver loose when she tackled him. From where he stood, Aiden couldn’t see it, but the revolver had to be on the ground somewhere near where Julie lay cold in the yard. Up until then, he’d kind of enjoyed watching it unfold. He’d warned Thad to tell those girls to shove off and Thad hadn’t listened. But the fact that the gun was no longer in his hands left the door open to disaster. The fact that any minute Julie Dietz could come to and find that revolver right beside her with two more shells to give meant things could turn ugly fast. It wouldn’t take but one squeeze of the trigger to field-dress him, leave his brains and blood dripping down the side of that trailer like rust stains running from screws.
Meredith hammered away at Thad’s face as Aiden started barefoot down the hill. Damp grass squished between his toes and his heels sank into the soft ground that rose between the trailer and house. The driveway cut a wide switchback around the hill, but he walked that slope at least twice a day, having long since scored a trail into the ground. He was almost down the bank when Julie Dietz squirmed on her back like a waking baby. She rolled onto her side and found the revolver within reach. Julie took the gun in both hands as she staggered to her feet, and Aiden jumped the split rail fence and rushed to catch her.
Slowly making her way to where Thad was being pounded, Julie aimed as best she could, and Aiden got to her just before she reached them. He grabbed hold of her wrists and lifted the gun into the sky. She pulled the trigger and a bullet fired off into the fog, the barrel hammering back into her forehead, her wrists too small to handle the recoil. Digging his fingers into the tendons of her wrist, Aiden forced her grip loose. He took control of the revolver, shoved her to the ground, drew sights where she lay, and told her to stay put. Tears and blood streamed down her face. Her left eye had already begun to swell, a mound of tight, shiny flesh along that whole side. Blood ran down her arm where the bullet had grazed her. Fear turned her into a statue.
Aiden walked behind Meredith and pressed the barrel into the base of her skull. “That’s enough,” he said. She clobbered Thad once more across the face and Aiden jabbed the barrel into the soft place at the tip of her spine. The click of the revolver being cocked froze her solid. “I said that’s enough.”
Her hands pressed into Thad’s shoulders, pinning him to the ground, and she stayed there panting until Aiden told her to rise. He thought it amazing how slow people moved when a gun is aimed at them. She came off the ground and he kept his distance in case she got stupid. Aiden ordered Meredith to stand beside Julie, and Meredith did as she was told. Thad was on his hands and knees beside him.
“The two of you need to just get the hell on out of here,” Aiden said. No one spoke another word. He just motioned down the drive with the pistol.
Julie Dietz spit a thick line of blood in front of her, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, the whole left side of her face swollen ripe as a purple tomato. Meredith was still sucking air. They both turned and trod down the gravel. The fog held tight to the mountain and the morning sun shone like a flashlight through smoke. Aiden never took the gun off of them until they disappeared behind the laurels hedging the drive.
“What the hell happened?” Aiden asked.
“That scraggly bitch was trying to steal what was left of that gram you give me.” Thad was resting on his knees, trying to brush the grass from his arms and shoulders. He winced and rubbed at his back. “She gave it to that fat one and that fat one shoved it down her britches.”
“That girl was giving you a run for your money.” Aiden started to laugh and Thad stuck out his jaw with anger.
“Well, goddamn, that bitch had me by a hundred pounds. Easy.”
“That she did.”
“That Julie hit me in the back with a frying pan when I was inside. I’m telling you I can’t hardly get up.”
“She hit you with a frying pan?”
“Why, yes. Goddamn cast iron,” Thad said. He stood up and walked over to where his boot lay at the base of the trailer, and Loretta Lynn hopped down the steps to stand at his side. “Then when that fat’n hit me . . .” Thad stood there shaking his head and rubbing at the base of his back. “I’m telling you my back is about to give out.”
Aiden reached into his pants pocket and drew out his pack of smokes. He lit one and started to laugh.
“It ain’t funny.”
“I don’t know about that.” Aiden held out his pack of cigarettes and offered one to Thad. “You’ve got to admit, that’s pretty damn funny.”
“What?” Thad took one of the USA Golds and bit the filter between his teeth.
“That girl having you on the ground about to beat your ass.” Aiden laughed so hard he could hardly get the words out. “I told you those two were trouble.”
“Well, you was right, by God.” Thad huffed through his nose and smiled as he shook his head. He walked over to the steps and sat down on the edge of the porch. Loretta Lynn put her front paws on his leg and leaned up toward his face to get him to pet her. “Did you ever talk to Leland?” Thad asked.
“Yeah,” Aiden said.
And the two of them just sat there smoking cigarettes as the sun burned off the morning.