Dynamite waited until most of the girls were busy with breakfast before she walked behind the big tent and took off in the golf cart. A maze of utility roads were carved out beside the highway and she drove parallel with it for a mile or so before she pulled off into a meadow and turned towards the gravel lot.
When she was within sight of it she parked the cart in dense foliage and walked the remaining distance.
The lot had once serviced a quarry just beyond it that had been slowly reclaimed by nature since its closing two decades before. Now a handful of trucks were splayed out across it. Orange traffic cones and various pieces of machinery rose from their beds. Two laborers were leaning against one of them. A thermos with steam rising from it resting on the hood.
She continued down a road that quickly opened up to the side of the highway. Up ahead she could see a handful of men in orange vests standing in small circles. A lone worker scraped asphalt with a steel broom just ahead.
The man she was looking for caught sight of her and left his conversation. He lumbered over to her quickly. His long boots walking on heatshimmer with purpose.
"Hey Earl."
The tall man waved her down. Some of those he'd just left turned and looked at them.
"Whatchu doin over here, girl?"
"That how you say good mornin?"
"Good mornin. Whatchu doin here?"
She looked at the others and figured that they still might be in earshot.
"I was drivin down one of them backroads and caught a flat. Thought you might want to lend a lady a hand."
"Shoot. We got some work to get into here."
Dynamite cocked an eye back at the crew standing idle. "If you do it sure as hell ain't gettin done by you all. Come on. Won't take but a minute."
Earl looked at her wearingly. He then turned back. "Gunna help her change a flat," he yelled.
Nods of approval.
They set off back in the direction she came. When they turned a corner Dynamite cupped a hand over her mouth and giggled.
"You came runnin like hell. Whatchu think I was about to tell them boys how much you like hookers?"
"You're a damn trouble maker. And I know you ain't got a flat."
"I'm glad you're catchin on."
"I ain't even sure I wanna know what you're up to."
"Just came to remind you what you been missin."
He stopped. "Hell no. It's too early for you to try and be swindlin money out of me."
She grabbed his armed and pushed him forward.
"You need to relax. The Reverend said we haven't seen much of y'all recently. Told us to give y'all half off for a little to try and get you back in."
"Half off?"
"That's right."
"And you came to see me?"
"Maybe I was just in the mood."
"Maybe I don't give a shit. Not for half off I don't."
They rounded back into the gravel lot. A wide grin spread across his face.
"How'd you get here?"
YOU ARE READING
Conflagration
Mystery / ThrillerAfter his boarding school tuition fund runs dry, Bill Dixon is forced to return home to Schodack, a town under the yoke of a corrupt Sheriff's department and the location of his father's suicide thirteen years before. It is also the home of Meadow B...
