Point One Zero

Point One Zero

by

Matt McGuire

I used to drink a lot. After I'd left the farm in Carolina, come back from the war and moved out west I'd work all week joining steel and climbing trusses till Friday five o'clock and then I'd take my van down to Parson's and drink whiskey. I'd have a few shots from that bottle of Early Times I kept under the seat next to my be good stick before I got there. Hell, drinks was three dollars and I could do a long way to getting damaged before I got there.

One night I was damn near knee walking and Rat threw my keys somewhere out in the parking lot where I couldn't find them. He said I didn't need to be driving in my inebriated condition. He used them very words: Inebriated condition. I said fuck a knee breed and cut out across the two lane and down through the scrub walking home to my trailer.

I reckon I was I making it all right when them two State boys pulled up beside me and said I oughta not drink and walk on their highway. They used them very words: Their highway. I just said thank you kindly and stepped across the barbed wire lining the black top and headed down the short scree and across the cattle lot in front of the trailer park.

Well, them State boys didn't take kindly to that and they cut the siren on and flashed the blues and said for me to stop my damned ass right where I stood. I just tipped my hat to them and kept cutting across that field. That's when they come in after me. Well, one of them anyway. The other cut the car around and circled to the other side of the lot and pulled right up in front of the court.

Now let me say that I'm first of all a peaceful man. I've seen my share of torn minds and bodies, war and death and God knows enough for you and me and what all. But like I said, I'd had a few too many George Dickels and when that first State boy hit me with that Mag Lite it all just kicked in again.

I broke his arm first and then put his lights out with that flashlight and then when the other one drew down on me I took his pistol away and broke six of his teeth out with it before I put him in a sleeper and left him laying beside the other one. I took both their pistols, emptied them, and threw them out in the cattle lot before I picked up my hat, walked into the court, on into my trailer and laid down and went to sleep.

It didn't take too long before the SWAT team was busting my trailer all to hell to get at me. They gave it to me good and I spent my ninety days before court in the isolation cell with bread, water, and a light bulb for company.

I did two years out of five up in Navajo county at the State Pen, mostly because the judge was a veteran and my service record was in that folder along with my rap sheet. When I got out, Rat picked me up in his wife's Impala and said,

What'll you have Skittle? I got brown, white, and more brown but make it last for the ride.

I don't want a drink. I just want to go home.

Suit yourself, chief. I figured you'd be chomping at the bit for a taste after what all.

Nope, I'm sober and I'm gonna stay that way.

Fine, fine.

You got a extra cigarette?

Rat leaned up to the dash and flipped me out a Marlboro before taking himself one and laying his arm back on the open window.

About thirty minutes of miles and desert slid by before Rat said,

Shame about that bourbon. Hate to see it all go to waste. How about handing me one of them bottles out the paper sack in the back?

I watched Rat suck on that bourbon till the blue lights come on behind us just before dusk. We pulled to the shoulder while Rat stuffed his bottle beneath the seat, cussing and damning his luck all to hell.

That State boy walked up beside the rear wheel well and I could tell we were in for it so I went ahead and stepped outside the car and put my hands just above my chest to take the heat off of Rat.

Sir, return to the vehicle.

Hey buddy it's alright my friend is just a little tired we've been driving all day so why don't you just let us go on down here a piece...

Sir, return to the vehicle, NOW.

That trooper must've been a rookie because he was awful scared acting and had his sights set on me getting back “in that vehicle” so he panicked at first when Rat shifted into drive and sped out of there leaving me standing with my dick swinging and that trooper mad as all hell. It didn't take him long though to take off after Rat and leave me to walk the remaining twenty miles home.

Well, I hoofed it about fifteen till I came to Parson's with Rat's car parked outside and him long gone in the back of that State boy's cruiser. I'd worked up a hell of a thirst and I figured one drink wouldn't hurt a feller. By the fifth round I figured I'd better get good and drunk so I could save up my sobriety for the week ahead of making the rounds of the sites looking for work to keep body and soul together.

I must've had damn near twenty bourbons before I left out of Parson's and headed down the black top back towards my trailer I hadn't seen in two years. I was hoping Curly Bill had paid the rent like he said and I'd have a place to lay my dizzy head. Well, I was cutting along at a clip just stumbling a little bit when that same damn State boy that had chased, apprehended, and arrested Rat about eight hours earlier came pulling up along side of me and cut on the blue lights.

He swung that big Ford cruiser over in front of me on the highway broadside, stepped out and leveled his pistol at me and told me to get my damned ass against the car and put my hands behind my back. I complied at first till he shoved my arm up almost to the back of my shoulder and that's when it all kicked in again except bad this time and I flipped right around and broke that boy's neck like a twig, leaving him in a pile beside the road before I got in his cruiser, drove home, unlocked my trailer and went to sleep.

Well, I reckon that boy didn't deserve that and I reckon a lot of them didn't deserve it neither but I sure as hell do now.

Tomorrow morning I'm gonna walk that long green mile to the electric chair after another five years sitting up here in Navajo county thinking about my life and how the hell I ended up like this. I can't say I've got any wisdom to share other than that sometimes a man is just born into it, into the badness, even though his Mama and Daddy didn't have any augury or premonition of how bad he was gonna be or they would have up and done him in from the get go. Some things there just ain't no answer for and never will be till He splits that Eastern sky.

Well, that's about it I reckon.