9

am woke in the dawn's early light, he sat down at the table and had a quick coffee. He walked over to the bedroom gave Lydia a kiss as she slept and headed over to the White Rose service station. 

  The first thing Sam saw was Billy's bicycle at the side of the office, "Good boy", thought Sam, "you brought the keys." Sam noticed the gas pumps weren't locked as he walked into the station's office.  That's where he found Billy. His brains were on the floor and blood was on his shoes. Sam grabbed the phone and called the Muhlenberg county sheriff, and he ran back to the house and woke Lydia, called Donald and poured a shot of Canadian Club to ease his mind. 
  The police arrived, and checked everything out. They talked to Sam, Lydia and Donald. 
  Sam held Lydia as she cried about poor young Billy. 
  The county mounty asked Sam if he noticed anything missing. 
"My old Chevrolet is gone. I checked the readings on the pumps and there had been a sale for $10.00, but  the till was open and there was no money in it. 

  Lydia sobbed, "Someone killed my sleepy eyed boy for ten bucks."

   The police left after the coroner had picked up Billy's body. Sam just stood there, gazing through the storm window and downed a couple of slugs from the bottle of rye. He went to the bedside table and grabbed his pistol and the keys to the Caddy.  He had bought that car in a bar one drunken night in Pearl City, while talking dirty in Hawaiian and getting a sideways hickey from a slant-eyed chickee. "Those were the days, I thought they'd never end," thought Sam.

  He sped off in the pink car and drove down by the Green river to see Billy's family. He told them all how sorry he was about Billy and that he would pay for the funeral and a grave at the cemetery down by Avery hill. He held Billy's teary mother and shook the old man's hand and left. 
  Sam drove around the country back roads, taking a swig from the bottle as his anger grew. He looked over at his gun laying on the seat beside him, it seemed to give him a wink from the passenger side. 
  Then Sam saw it. 
  His beat up old car was there, down by the side of the road. Sam stopped the Pink Cadillac beside his old Chevy and asked the two teenage boys if they needed a helping hand. Sam got out of the car, gun in hand and shot the pair as they sat in the car. He reached in and slipped the gear shift to neutral and pushed the car over the cliff into Mr. Peabody's old coal mine. Sam watched with ghoulish satisfaction as the car slipped under the water at the bottom of the pit. 

Lydia always says, "Sam was never the same after that day."

~"the place is yours"

 9