Bent Creek by Marlene Mitchell

Author:Marlene Mitchell [Mitchell, Marlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Davis Studio Publishing
Published: 2014-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Rachael put the last of the skins over the cases of whiskey and jumped into the driver’s seat of the truck. “You git out of thar, Rachael. I’m drivin’,” Jesse said.

“Not this time. I still need the practice. I gotta larn how tah drive real fast.” She shifted the car into gear and it began to roll with Jesse still hanging on to the door. “I swear, Rachael, you are jest gittin’ too big fer yer britches.”

Clyde was waiting for them to arrive as usual. Pulling around back, Rachael went inside. “We only got eight cases this week. Do you want them?”

“Yeah, I reckon I’ll have tah settle fer them.” Clyde replied. “Where’s Nevers? This is the second week in a row you two have been makin’ the delivery. How sick is he?”

“He ain’t sick, Clyde, he’s dead,” Rachael blurted out. “He done died three weeks ago. He was up at the still and he dropped a box of glass jars on his arm and cut himself real bad. Damn fool bled tah death.” Jesse let out a loud gasp at Rachael’s confession to Clyde.

Clyde stared at her. “You go on. He’s dead. Is that a fact? Yer lyin”.”

“No I ain’t, Clyde. It’s the truth. Me and my kin are gonna be runnin’ the still as soon as we get a plan. So, you got a choice. Keep yer mouth closed and we kin go on and do business as usual or we can jest put an end tah the business all together.”

“You wait jest one minute, Girl. You come in here tellin’ me this story and I ain’t even had time tah ponder on it.”

“We need the money, Clyde, jest like you and this has got tah be kept a secret. If anyone else finds out about Nevers, his wife, Lily will lose everythin’ and I suppose the rest of us will go tah jail. So what do you say, Clyde?”

Clyde grinned. “You sure have got some mocksey for such a youngin’. But I ain’t settlin’ fer no second grade swill. My customers are reel particular. They’d have my head if’n I tried tah pass off some bad stuff on them.”

“I ain’t got time tah be a youngin and don’t you worry none, we’ll be bringin’ you first class stuff, maybe even better than what you got from Nevers. Do we have a deal?” They agreed on the same terms that Clyde had with Nevers. Instead of bringing in the skins, the cases of moon would be covered with produce. No one would ever suspect a couple of young holler kids to be runnin’a still.

“Sometime I may bring in a load of chickens. I gotta make sure that no one gets suspicious.” She tucked the roll of bills into her pocket and headed for the truck. She felt as though she was going to be sick to her stomach. It was a hard day and there would be another one to come. The jars at home were empty. Not a drop of moonshine in any of them.

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