“Ruth Ann, would you please help us!”
She didn’t move. She’d caused Shirley this anguish; to get in her way now would be dangerous. Shirley loved Eric, more than she herself could ever love any man.
Shirley was more than willing to risk getting shot for Eric. Ruth Ann couldn’t think of anyone for whom she would risk her life.
Except…
“Ruth Ann, you better get out here!” Estafay shouted. “He’s going fast.”
Again Shirley screamed and this time the door opened and took longer to slam shut.
“I’m going out there,” Ruth Ann said.
“Ruth Ann, please,” Leonard said. “We’re doing all we can to keep Shirley in, you know we’re not letting you go out there. She has a gun!”
“Estafay!” Ida shouted. “Estafay, this is Ida. Listen to me. There’s no money, no money at all. It was a lie. Do you hear me? A lie. I made it all up. Stop this foolishness!”
No response from Estafay. Eric screamed again.
“Let him go, Estafay!” Shirley cried. “Please! Please, Estafay! I’m begging you! Oh God, please, Estafay! I’ll give you all I have… just let him go! Please! I’m begging…”
Her voice gave way to loud, gut-wrenching sobs and she collapsed onto the floor.
“Robert Earl!” Ida said. “Robert Earl, you take your butt out there and talk to your wife! You hear me! Go out there and talk to your wife!”
“Momma, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Robert Earl said. “She sounds awfully upset. What if she shoots me?”
“Get out there!” Ida shouted.
Just as Eric started slipping into unconsciousness, Estafay stepped off his foot. The heat reduced a few degrees, yet still burned like hell. He looked up at the stars, blinking in a strange pattern, one section sparkling and then other sections following suit.
A footstep sounded on the porch. “Hey, honey. It’s me! Robert Earl. Don’t shoot!”
“Robert Earl, help me! She shot me!” Estafay kicked his foot. “Ohhhhhh!”
“Shut up!” To Robert Earl: “What you doing out here? I thought you went to Greenville to look at a snake.”
“I went there and saw a good one. Didn’t have enough money to buy it. Honey, you didn’t bring my Smith and Wesson out here, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. It’s the Colt, the rusty one.”
Robert Earl stepped closer. “You didn’t neuter Eric, did you?”
“No. Such a small target I never would’ve hit it.”
“What?”
“My aim was low.”
“Honey, what’s this about?”
“Are you still with me, Robert?”
“What are you talking about? You know I am. You’re my wife.”
Eric’s heart sank.
“Good,” Estafay said. “I knew you would be. Who else is inside?”
“Shirley, Ruth Ann, Momma and Leonard.”
“Leonard? What’s he doing in there? Not a problem. Robert, we need to burn the cabin down.”
“I’ll go tell Momma them to come out and we’ll burn it down. All this time you just wanted to burn the cabin down. I told Shirley there was a simple explanation for this.”
“Robert, we need to burn it down with them inside it.”
“Do what? What did you say?”
Eric salvaged a sliver of hope.
“Robert, we can’t let them go. They’ll go straight to the police and we’ll go to jail for a long time.” Pause. “And we won’t get a dime of the money.”
“Estafay, there’s no money. Momma told a bald-faced lie to get us visiting her and Daddy.”
“If she’ll lie about one thing, she’ll lie about everything! Go set the cabin afire and I’ll take care of him.”
A long silence. A cricket fiddled near the porch. A mosquito stung Eric just below the right eye; he didn’t feel it.
“Fuck!” Robert Earl said. “Estafay, honey, this ain’t right! I can’t do it!”
“Why the potty mouth?”
“Sorry, honey. They’re my people. I’m related to every one of em. I can’t burn em up. Imagine the nightmares I’d have.”
“I’ll do it! Like I have to do everything else. Can you shoot him, or is it asking too much?”
Robert Earl sighed, as if she’d asked him the fifth time to empty the trash. “He’s not related to me. If he dies Shirley will be highly PO’ed. You should’ve heard her in there a while ago. We’ll have to live the rest of our life watching out for her. We might have to leave the country.”
Eric heard Estafay breathing hard through her nose.
“Plus,” Robert Earl continued, “Sheriff Bledsoe gave me a heckuva pass on something I did a long time ago, before I met you. He told me the next time I got into any trouble would be the last time. I burn somebody I’ll be looking at the electric chair. Besides, Estafay, it just ain’t right! Did God tell you to do this?”
“Was it right your family treated me the way they did? They didn’t know me, didn’t know me from Eve. When decent people meet someone the first time they just say hello, or they don’t say anything at all. Your daddy called me a name to my face, Robert. Ruth Ann fell on her knees laughing. Were they right to treat me the way they did?”
“No, they weren’t right. I hate it happened just as much as you do.”
“Enough talk, let’s get this over with so I can go home and cook supper.”
“Estafay, I… I can’t do it!”
“Go home then!” Estafay shouted at him. “Go home! I’ll handle this myself. Take the roast out the freezer when you get there.”
Wekeee! Wekeeee!
Eric looked and thought he saw something move near the side of the cabin.
“What was that?” Robert Earl said.
“A bat,” Estafay said. “Go home. I got work to do.”
“Aw shucks, Estafay. Why don’t we both go home together and forget about this?”
“Robert, I’m going to explain it to you one last time. I shot this whore here. Everyone in there knows I shot him. They’ll tell the police and we—you and I!—will go to jail.”
“Eric,” Robert Earl said, “you wouldn’t sic the police on Estafay, would you?”
“He’s lying,” Estafay said.
“Eric, you promise?”
“Cross my heart, on my momma’s honor!”
“See, Estafay, he’s not going to the police.”
“Go home!” Estafay said. Kapoooow!
“Ohhhhh!” Eric shouted, and then realized she hadn’t shot him again. He looked toward Robert Earl’s shadowy form… gone. He heard footsteps fading in the distance.
“Alone again, you and I,” Estafay said. “The time has come for us to go our separate ways. Anything you’d like to say before you go to hell?”
“If you kill me I’ll come back and haunt you! I swear I will!”
