Chapter Five

THE FOLLOWING DAY I reluctantly returned to McGerber’s farm to finish drenching his sheep. My stomach clenched and I threw up yellow bile. I guess a near death experience will do that to you. I expected McGerber to pop up or the bull to finish what he’d started. It helped that Petey and Lewis were there when I arrived and McGerber was nowhere in sight. Petey, Lewis, and I drenched the rest of McGerber’s sheep. The sheep were protected from worms, but they were still owned by one.

In celebration of our completed task and brief association Lewis had brought a six-pack of Coors beer in a cooler. I didn’t care much for the taste of beer but joined them anyway. Had I ever in my life sat on the tailgate of a pickup drinking beer with two men? No, I hadn’t, but there we sat in the back of Lewis’s battered, dark green Ford truck. To me the beer lacked flavor, but the sweet thought that our beer drinking would probably irritate McGerber helped me finish the can I’d started.

“This is our last day working for the old man too,” said Lewis. “I don’t think he’ll throw us any going-away party though. He’s been flitting around like a mother hen. He said his brother’s here for a while.”

“I didn’t know McGerber had a brother,” I said. “He seems a one of a kind—a broke the mold sort of thing.”

“I haven’t met him, but McGerber bragged that his brother—Ward, or Ralph? Anyway, he’s some sort of bigwig or other. Wears a suit and struts about.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m not sure what he’s talking about. That brother is around here some place, but I wouldn’t know him from Adam other than he’s about the same size as McGerber.”

“I don’t feel good that those guys are going to be here with…”

Before Petey could finish his sentence, Twitch came barreling up the drive in his Jeep. No surprise. He must’ve gotten the message on his office phone the night before. I didn’t exactly lie or anything, but I may have said that McGerber tried to kill me by closing the barn door and blocking my escape from Killer the bull.

Twitch’s Jeep had barely come to a stop before he leaped out of it and asking after McGerber.

“Where’s the son of a bitch?” Twitch’s face was flushed.

“This should be good,” Lewis said to Petey. “Nothing’s as fun as watching a good beating.”

Twitch didn’t have to go searching. McGerber flew out of the house and across the yard, through his white picket fence gate. He moved one gear slower than the vicious bull ran after me the day before.

“You have no business here,” he said, waving his arms and shaking his finger. “I don’t want you on my property, Twitchell. I’m busy. My brother Warren is here, and I have…” McGerber stopped speaking as the tow-headed waifish girl, Addie, came up beside him. She smiled in the direction of Petey, Lewis, and me. She wrung her hands as she fidgeted with the tent of a dress she wore.

Twitch stood his ground and stood toe-to-toe with McGerber.

“I don’t give a flying”—Twitch glimpsed me and Addie—“I don’t give a flying fig whether you want me here. Did you tell Lorraine to dehorn that maniac bull of yours?”

“Well, it needed to be done. Now you get off…”

McGerber hit the ground and I swear I never saw the punch that dropped him. He grasped his jaw with one hand and leaned on his elbow in the gravel drive. His gray comb-over flopped across his reddened face until he swept the oily hair back in place. He stayed down but yelled from the ground.

“Lewis, Petey, you saw what he did. Call the sheriff. This man assaulted me!”

Addie had flinched and covered her mouth with her hands, but she quickly knelt by McGerber.

Petey and Lewis slipped off the tailgate and put their empties in the case.

“I’m a spectator, but never a witness. Looked to me like you fell,” Lewis said. “Probably your age. Careful you don’t break a hip.”

Petey tipped his hat to Addie while McGerber remained on the ground. Petey and Lewis got in Lewis’s truck. Petey waved the bull horns at me as they drove out of the yard.

“I’ll mail you your bill and I suggest you send your check promptly.” Twitch stood over McGerber. “If I have to come out to get it I’ll bring Lorraine’s dad with me and you can bet he won’t stop by punching you once. Hell, he’ll probably shoot your head off with his shotgun.”

“How dare you threaten me,” McGerber said.

“I’m not threatening you. I’m giving you fair warning that when you endanger this young woman for your sick self-righteous amusement you’re inviting wrath you cannot fathom. Hell, if I told her momma she’d kill you with her bare hands.”

Twitch waited as I gathered my gear and packed it in my truck. I drove out of the yard. In the rearview mirror I saw Addie lean over to help McGerber stand. She dusted him off. McGerber put an arm around Addie’s shoulders as she helped him walk to the house as dust distorted my view. What is that old self-righteous fart doing with a high school girl living in his house?