I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a few things and to get some gas. When Jake came out to fill the tank he said he was getting to the place he was almost ashamed to tell his customers how much they were going to have to shell out for a tank of gas because the price is getting so high. The cost just keeps going up with no end in sight. I agreed with Jake it just keeps costing more every week, but I have to use my car to go meet with my clients, so I don’t have much choice. However I am doing more business over the phone when I have the chance.
The light breeze in the late afternoon was cool and damp. It had been raining off and on most of the day. The leaves on the trees were taking on that dull green color they get in late summer and early fall. Some had turned brown and were starting to litter the ground. There was a scattering of brown leaves under the Poplar tree in Jake’s yard. Jake said it wouldn’t be long before he would be raking leaves and burning them. Jake likes the smell of burning leaves though, some years past he has put them in big plastic bags for the garbage pick up trucks when it was so dry he did not want to risk a fire. This year looks to be a wet fall and the risk of a fire getting away at minimum.
Mister Johnson drove up in his old pickup truck and pulled around back of the store as I was following Jake inside. There was a load of wood in back of the truck for the pot belly stove Jake uses to heat the store in winter. Mister Johnson has been supplying Jake with wood for as long as I can remember. Jake and Mister Johnson are good friends and have been for a long while. The only time I can remember that friendship being strained is when Jake decided to replace his old stove with a new gas heater. That caused quite a stir in their friendship for a while. Jake thought a new gas heater would be more convenient with less worry with putting wood in the stove and taking out the ash, but Mister Johnson insisted a gas heater would change the atmosphere of the store and make the place stink of gas. Finally Jake relented and bought another pot belly stove to replace the old one that had seen better days. Everyone knew the main concern Mister Johnson had with a gas heater was not the smell of gas. The problem Mister Johnson had with gas was he would no longer have the opportunity to supply the store with wood for winter heat.
Inside I told Jake I would pay him for the gasoline as soon as I picked up some bread and a few other things. I decided to ask Jake to cut a few thick slices of cheese for sandwiches while I was looking about the store for the things I needed. I saw Ronnie Clayton and Deputy Arnold Suggs talking over beside the pot belly stove and walked over. There was no fire in the stove, but I could see the stove had been used recently, probably to knock the chill out of the store on a few of the cool mornings we have had recently. Ronnie and Arnold looked up as I came over and Arnold stood and shook hands with Ronnie and told him he would let him know if he learned anything. Arnold spoke briefly to me as he headed for the front door.
I told Ronnie I had not meant to interrupt the conversation and Ronnie said he and Arnold had finished their business and I had not caused any problem. They had been talking about an act of vandalism at Ronnie’s house last week. Ronnie said he had gone out to start his car to drive to work in Savannah and discovered the windows on the passenger side of his car had been smashed in. He had reported the incident to the authorities and had gone to talk with an officer after he got off from his job. As it turned out, Ronnie has some idea who could be responsible for smashing his windows. Arnold Suggs had come out to look at the damaged automobile and had promised to investigate. Arnold and Ronnie had been talking as I walked over about what Arnold had discovered so far. There were some more questions Arnold had wanted to ask.
Ronnie seemed more annoyed than angry about the incident. He remembers a time not so long ago when folks just did not bother to lock their doors when they went to bed or when they went to town on business. They went to bed at night with doors wide open in summer and kept them shut in cold weather only to keep the chill out. They were not worried that something would come up missing. People in the city had to worry about hoodlums stealing things, but folks out in this part of the country never bothered with such worrying. Now Ronnie has had his place broken into twice. The first time a few years ago when he came home from work to find his front door broken open and several appliances taken. He reported it to the law and a weekend warrior came out to write down a report. That was the last he heard of the incident. More recently, two men had broken into his place at night when he happened to be there and he had chased them away after getting their names and addresses. He had considered not even reporting the two burglars, considering that nothing had ever come from the first break in, but he had decided the next day to call in to make a report. Now has come this act of vandalism.
Ronnie did not expect much this time either until Arnold came by to ask some questions. Arnold has a reputation locally as a good cop and he has had results with some cases no one else would take the time to work. Ronnie prefers to live out in the country because he does not care for the problems that come with living in the city, but the city keeps moving out into the country and bringing city problems along. Ronnie is of a mind similar to Daniel Boone who is supposed to have said if his neighbor lives close enough you can see the smoke from his chimney, then his neighbor is too close.
Jake had my cheese all cut and packaged, so I paid up and took my things out to the car. As I drove home with my expensive full tank of gas, the sun was breaking through the clouds. But later on in the night it began to rain again.
END
