“I know who that man is! Don’t mean Bailey Joe Williams ain’t lousy at his job,” Ms. Audrey said, arranging her napkins and plasticware beside her container of food.
“Well, I didn’t say he wasn’t.” Derry smiled. “I just felt obligated to point out the family connection.”
Audrey and Jessie laughed, and Lauren smiled as she bit into the mac and cheese, then the yams. Chewing slowly, she groaned, savoring.
She couldn’t remember how many months it’d been since she had a down-home meal. Full fat, fullshuggah….She snorted.
I’ll eat better tomorrow,she promised herself. She’d been sustaining herself on fast food and junk food since she left home, but it wasthismeal that she would blame for her weight gain, she decided, shoving another spoonful into her mouth.
“Give me my money, Ms. Green!” Derry said. “What did I say, huh? The best.”
She reached for her bag with one hand and for the mustard greens with the other. She didn’t give a fig about losing this bet.
She sighed and moaned again as the flavors in the greens filled her mouth.
“You know, I only hear that sound when I’ve given my woman some good, good lovin’,” Jessie said.
“Which means unlessin’ he’s watching some sex show,” Derry said. “He ain’t never heard that sound.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about Derry; my girl don’t leave my house until she’s had her good time. Only problem is that she’s gotta get there fast because my momma don’t let me have guests over after her bedtime.”
Lauren swallowed her laughter and almost choked. Jessie couldn’t have meant to say what he said out loud.
Watching the three of them talk and tease made her smile. She suspected this was how they regularly were with each other. When was the last time she and her family had been together like this? When had they stopped prioritizing spending time together? Hell, even when they were together, it was different, always this underlying…tension, and she now realized it existed even when she was young.
For fifteen minutes straight, the deputies tried to one up each other as Ms. Audrey pretended to discourage them, yet her mm-hmms and instigating comments only sent the deputies’ stories into the realm of unbelievable. Lauren smiled but began to believe that after witnessing her moment of despair in the cell they were trying to lighten her spirit, lessen her hurt and rage.
“What the hell is going on in here?”
Lauren’s gaze narrowed but she held on to the faintest smile as both deputies stood abruptly, silenced by embarrassment and fear.
Ms. Audrey efficiently packed away her meal and placed it back in the bag. She folded her arms across her desk and gazed up at her idiot boss like an innocent schoolgirl who hadn’t been right in the thick of their foolishness.
Lauren continued to eat as if Sheriff Stillwater didn’t exist. She broke the silence by asking, “What do you think is going on, Sheriff? I mean really, with your position one wouldthinkyour observation skills would be a damned sight better than they are.” Then she looked beyond him, drawing attention to the fact that a certain elderly woman was not in his custody.
“You can’t identify a whole drunk driver and, gasp”—she wiped her mouth and shut the lid on her food—“you don’t even recognize people having a cordial meal together. You should be on yourkneesthanking them for saving your crooked ass from a lawsuit instead of acting like they’ve done something worse than extending courtesy to a stranger.”
“Audrey, isn’t it after your quitting time?” he asked, ignoring Lauren.
“Well, will you look at that, I hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed. I guess I’ll gather my things and make my way home.”
Ms. Audrey moved so slowly she might as well have sat back down to watch what would happen.
“Derry, why is she out of her cell?” the sheriff asked.
“It’s not actually mine,” Lauren stated.
“Well Sheriff, Ms. Green hadn’t eaten and she wanted her phone, and I didn’t want to give it to her but she’s not under arrest, then she threatened to sue us?—”
“More like pointed out some facts,” she corrected.
“Then she pointed out some facts, and we gave it to her because I ain’t got no money to pay for getting sued, you know I don’t,” the young deputy said pensively.
“We were going out for our evening meal, and we invited Ms. Lauren to join us since she’s been on the road so long,” Deputy Jessie stepped in.
The sheriff looked at his three staff members thenfinallysettled his murky, weird-colored eyes on her.
“Woman, the day I get on my knees and ask for thanks is the day you leave my city and promise never to come back. You’re free to go Ms. Green. Derry, take her to her car.”
