A month into the new year already? Laura shoved Snatch’s head against the wall.
The impact dazed him and he peered through tunnel vision with his teeth clenched. His temples shook like drum heads stretched too tight.
“Was that a threat?” Laura asked.
Snatch didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer. His mind raced and sent words to his mouth, but the single impact of his forehead against the wall left him speechless, stunned; her action surprised him, shocked him.
She shoved his head again. This time, he pushed back and kept his head from bouncing against the wall. He turned and shoved his weight against Laura.
“Stop it,” Snatch insisted. The dull sound of his voice slapped against the walls with the same uncontrolled, stilted behavior as a fish pulled from the water and thrown on a wooden dock.
Laura wrapped her hand around the two sets of handcuffs where they came together between Snatch’s hands. She shoved her gun into its holster.
“You’re a big boy,” she said. “We carry two sets of handcuffs for big swamp-fed inbreds like you.”
Snatch felt the cold pinch of the cuffs against his wrist and his lips curled into a sneer to show his yellow teeth. Laura’s words surprised him as much as her physical abuse.
“Why are you so mean?” Snatch asked. The grumble of his voice muffled the sounds of his voice, almost as if the shape of his tongue hindered his voice rather than enable it.
“Twice now you’ve attacked me, Edgar. Twice. And you ask me why I’m so abusive.”
She pulled the cuffs and led Snatch toward the front door.
Snatch followed without a fight. The empty couch where Mother should be, sucking on a bottle of alcohol, sat empty and wrinkled. He looked at it as Laura led him through the den and into the kitchen.
She reached around him and pushed the front door open.
Snatch stood at the threshold, inside the farmhouse, for a few seconds. Laura pushed against his back to urge him through the door. Snatch was a wall. Unmoving, unwavering. He stood in the doorway until he was ready to step through.
He stepped outside and walked toward Laura’s patrol car.
“This is your last chance to reconsider what you’re doing,” Snatch said.
The cuffs trembled on his wrists as he spoke. The sound of his voice shook his entire body.
“Shut up, Edgar.”
Snatch stopped at the car and chose not to move again. He turned and looked at her.
“I know you don’t want me to tell your friends about us,” he said.
“I said shut up.” She opened the rear door of the cruiser and pointed at the backseat. “Get in.”
Snatch looked at the seat and then back at Laura. He strained his wrists against the pair of handcuffs.
“If I said no?”
“Let’s not do that,” Laura said.
Sweat dripped off the tip of Snatch’s nose. He turned and faced away from the car. He twisted his lips into a sneer and looked down at Laura.
“Just leave me alone,” Snatch said. “That’s all Mother and me ever wanted. To be left alone.”
Laura looked up at Snatch and shook her head. Her hand rested on the revolver in her holster. “I have a job to do. Yes, I overstepped boundaries before, but it doesn’t change how things are. You assaulted me. Twice. It’s the perfect reason to bring you in until we figure out what the hell’s going on with you.”
Snatch mulled over her words. His steely gray eyes focused, lost focus and focused again. He leaned down to look directly into her eyes, at her level.
“Last chance.”
Laura stepped away from Snatch and pulled her revolver from its holster. “Get in.”
Snatch inhaled the air and smelled a mix of his own body odor, the fields and the swampy air. He stared down the barrel of the revolver and pictured for a moment if Laura actually pulled the trigger.
He had no doubt, she could pull that trigger two, maybe three times, before he could rush her and slam a shoulder into her face. He wondered if it felt anything like a sledgehammer crushing a skull. Would a bullet create the same widespread damage? He stared into the dark recesses of the barrel and licked his teeth one by one.
“Get in. I will shoot you.” She tipped the barrel of the gun up for a moment to assert the gun’s power in the situation.
Sweat rolled down Snatch’s face and neck; it pooled in his collar and dripped slowly down to the small of his back. The salty perspiration stung in his eyes and burned tiny cracks in his forehead and nose, cracks from weather exposure, dry skin and bad hygiene.
Laura used Snatch’s words against him.
“Last chance,” she said.
Snatch strained against the cold cuffs around his wrists. Despite the humid heat of the day, the cuffs chilled his hands and sent shivers through his flesh. He stared into the gun.
His mind ran through the possible options. Each one ended poorly for him. Most scenarios he considered ended with someone scraping his brain into a coroner’s bag. Still, he stood strong in front of the car.
Laura lifted the gun and fired a single shot into the blue sky.
The sound of the gun echoed through the fields and shocked Snatch. He shuddered and jerked back. He fell against the car and pushed himself up. His ears rang, his eyes teared and his temples pounded. His throat felt as if he’d swallowed rocks.
“Get in the car, right now!” Laura shook the gun and leveled it right at Snatch’s chest.
Snatch shuddered and eyed the pale smoke that curled from the revolver’s barrel.
“Don’t be stupid, Edgar. Please, please, please don’t be stupid.” Laura switched tactics and pleaded with him. “Just get in the car.”
Snatch knew she didn’t want to kill him. He wondered though, was she just threatening him, or would she actually pull the trigger?
“You might be stronger than me, Edgar, but don’t test your strength against a bullet.”
The cold cuffs cut into Snatch’s wrists and he sunk into the cruiser’s back seat. He bumped his head against the car’s ceiling and shook back and forth to work his large frame into the vehicle.
He pulled his legs into the car. His eyes never left Laura.
She leaned down and looked into the car at Snatch. “Good decision,” she said. “Now, let’s go see if we can figure you out.”
She closed the car door.
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http://www.kayceemjett.com Teresa Toten
