All Them Things

©thesetwothings.com

Part One

Slim put his name on things. That’s the kind of man he was, which meant that you knew what type of childhood he had. The type where there were too many siblings and cousins and neighbors. The kind where nothing was yours. So now he puts his name on things. Tools, children, women. His name was written on the handle of his broken hammer. Two of his children were named Slim (junior and the third). Three women had tattooed his name on their bodies. He wanted to own as many things as he could.

The last time Slim’s mom asked him what he wanted to be was because she wasn’t happy with who he was. The last time his mom asked him, he’d told her he wanted to be an encyclopedia salesman. This had been her favorite answer. She thought it meant that he was interested in knowledge and truth. She thought that it meant he was a go-getter. She thought that it meant he wanted to be better at talking to people. But it was really just because he saw a man down the street give the encyclopedia salesman a glass of water and a full pack of Chesterfield cigarettes.

He was trying to be a good person, even though he didn’t know what made a person good. He thought that since he was trying (he did still get out of bed in the mornings) that he was good. He tried to say hi to dogs that passed him in the street. Sometimes he even knelt down and patted their heads. He worked hard enough that he would sweat and that seemed good. He’d come home from work smelling like horses and dirt. And that seemed good. He thought about love from time to time. He thought of love like the darkness of night after a sunset. It settles on your life in rhythms. It makes familiar things unrecognizable. His mom would have told him that love is like the morning sunlight after a sunrise, after a long, dark, lonely night. Even without love, he felt like he was living in the daytime. In the sunlight.

His closest friend was named Mountain, but some thought his name was Mountin’ because he’d spend the night with just about any woman in town. Mountain came by and told them they had a job.

“They’re supposed to give us two hundred bucks,” Mountain told Slim.

“Two hundred each?”

“Of course not,” Mountain said. Slim scratched at an armpit.

“Okay, what is it?” Slim asked.

“Some guys have a crate that needs to be moved from one place to another place.”

“Okay, I’m in,” Slim said as he snapped his fingers.

“You don’t know how big it is. Or how far we need to move it,” Mountain said.

“How big is it?”

“It’s big enough that we need a truck and maybe even a trailer.”

“Okay. How far do we have to move it?” Slim asked.

“We have to move it out of the county. It doesn’t matter where we take it, he said, as long as it’s out of the county.”

“Oooookay. We just drop it on the side of the road outside the county limits?” Slim asked.

“We gotta bury it,” Mountain said while putting his hands in his pockets.

“You didn’t say anything about burying it.”

“I know.”

“Were you going to?” Slim asked.

“I don’t know.”

“If it’s big enough that we need a truck and maybe even a trailer, will we need a backhoe or something to bury it?” Slim asked.

“I would think so,” Mountain said.

“Where are we gonna get a backhoe?” Slim asked.

“I was thinking we just drive where we’re gonna drive, and once we’re out of the county, we start looking for one. If we head toward Rock Springs we’re sure to find someone with a tractor we could borrow.”

⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿

The next morning, Mountain pulled up in a truck that Slim had seen before. Slim stretched his arms and smiled wide as Mountain pulled up.

“I went by my uncle’s late last night. He’s still out of town!”

“That’s good because all the trucks I checked last night were locked.”

“Things work out. You know I’m always saying that.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that before.”

“I’m sure I’ve said it before.”

“A lot?”

“Maybe not. But I swear I’ve said it before.”

“Whatever.”

“Listen, I was thinkin’ we should just go over there and see if it would fit in the back of the truck.”

“That makes sense. It sure would be nice if we don’t have to track down a trailer.”

Slim and Mountain jumped in the truck and drove south to a spot near the train tracks. They both appreciated the truck’s air conditioning.

“Can we swing by my mom’s house,” Mountain said as he turned off the main road toward his mom’s house.”

“We don’t have time, Mountain! We’re already a half hour late,” Slim said.

“Dammit, you’re right,” Mountain said as he flipped the truck around and headed back toward the rail road tracks. I was just hopin’.”

“Why do you have to stop by there?” Slim asked.

“She went to the doctor yesterday and she was supposed to call but I haven’t heard from her.”

“Why’d she have to go?”

“I don’t really know. Chest pains or something.”

“Well, we can go by when we’re done. Tonight, on our way home.”

“Yeah. That’ll work,” Mountain said with a smile.

They pulled up to the the warehouse next to the rail road tracks and saw the crate sitting just inside the fence in the lot. Slim had never seen a crate like this one. Probably four foot wide by six foot long by six feet tall. And it was painted black. Mountain parked the truck and as they walked toward the crate, three men walked out of the warehouse. It wasn’t hard to see that each man had a gun on his belt. It wasn’t supposed to be hard to see, Slim thought.

“Well, well, well. I wasn’t sure you were actually gonna show, Mountain,” one of the men said as he walked out. He had sunglasses on, and he rested his arms on his hips.

“I told ya I’d be here,” Mountain said.

“I told you to be here at one o’clock,” the man with the sunglasses said. Mountain just shrugged his shoulders. Slim looked over at the crate and tried to focus his eyes. He realized that it wasn’t painted black. It was covered in flies. He heard them the same time he realized what they were.

“Why’s it covered in flies,” Slim asked? Mountain looked over at the crate.

“Well, they say bury the things that attract the flies. That thing’s attracting the flies so it needs to be buried.”

Slim didn’t want to think too much about what that meant. He just wanted to get the money and get out of there.

“We’re just supposed to see if it fits. We ain’t ready yet,” Slim whispered to Mountain. Mountain shook his head.

“What’s going on?” the man with the glasses asked. “I like to think we’re like a bunch of old ladies over here. We don’t like secrets.”

Slim tried to smile, but he couldn’t.

“Oh, don’t mind my friend, here,” Mountain said. “He was just making sure I was gonna give him what I’d told him I’d give him for the job.”
“Are there some concerns?” the man with sunglasses said.

“No, no. No concerns, Sir,” Mountain said.

“If you’re sure…” The man with sunglasses looked around. “If you’re sure there are no concerns, we’ll get the forklift out here to load this in your truck,” the man with sunglasses said.

“Load it up,” said Mountain.

To be continued.