Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 23:08:30 -0600
From: Retta Michaels <rettamichaels@gmail.com>
Subject: Rural - Rural Love - Chapter 6

Rural Love
By
Retta Michaels

Disclaimer:
If you are under the age of 18, or live in a locale which cannot legally
read these stories, please leave. Your presence here jeopardizes those of
us who can legally read these stories. Please come back when you can
legally read the stories and we will all be glad to have you.

Note from Retta:
The story is starting to pick up speed now, I'll do what I can to make
things easier to understand and to read. I realize I was off into the
land of "he said", "I said". That should be improving now.

Chapter 6:
When we got to the house, Uncle Nick took me up to my bed. He sat me on
it and said, "Billy, you take a nap, I'll be up to get you."
My voice was tired and yet, in a pouty voice, "I wanted to play with Jr."
"Jr. will be downstairs waiting on you when you wake up."
"Could he take a nap with me?"
"Honey, I don't know if Jr wants to take a nap, but I'll ask."
"O.k."
My spirits seemed lifted with the hope Jr would come up, but I also knew
he might not want to take a nap.
I kicked off my shoes and lay down. Uncle Nick covered me up with a
blanket. He kissed my forehead and said, "Billy, I think you gave them
enough to catch the guys, I'm just so sorry you had to go through this."
"Uncle Nick, I really thought I started the fire and those guys saved me.
I didn't know they did this."
"I know Billy. I know."
He turned and went out the bedroom door.
"Uncle Nick?"
"Yes hon, could we start closing our bedroom doors? If mama and daddy had
shut theirs, they'd probably be alive."
"Yes hon, we'll start doing that. I admit our door handle to our bedroom
gets used as a coat hook. That's going to change."
He left and shut the door behind him which made me feel better.
I was just starting to get about to sleep when I heard the door open and
a few moments later, I felt weight on the other side of my bed.
"Billy, I'm going to take a nap with you."
"O.k., get under the covers here."
"You smell like smoke."
"Yeah, I had to go into the house."
"I'm supposed to take a nap with you and got told we're not to be playing
or talking. Let's talk when we wake up. You look tired."
I rolled over and hugged him. "Jr, I'm glad you're here."
"I like you Billy. You've got smudges on your face."
"Oh, maybe I need to take a shower."
"No, just go to sleep. If they hear us up here, I'll probably have to go
back downstairs."
"Can I hug you and fall to sleep that way? I used to like to do that with
my mama."
"Yeah, you smell like smoke though."
"I'm sorry."
"It's just strange. I'll get used to it."
I don't think I heard him all the way, I was asleep.
When we awoke, I could smell something cooking. I started to get up and
looked out the window over Jr's shoulder. It was dark out. I wondered how
long we had been asleep.
Jr woke up and said, "What you doing?"
"I woke up, I've got to go pee."
"Me too."
"Let's play water wars."
"What's that?"
"I'll show you, but we can't make a mess."
We went to the bathroom and I said, "O.k., we pee at the same time and we
see if we can pee in the same spot. It's like a canon. We imagine we're
fighting a war and that spot is our enemy."
"Cool."
I started peeing and he did too. It was hard to concentrate as I looked
at his peter. It was the same size as mine. I looked down at the spot and
realized I was away from his.
"You're losing."
"Yeah, I looked at your peter."
His suddenly veered off course.
"Now you're losing!"
"Yeah, I just looked at your peter too! We're the same size."
"Well, we're the same age."
"My dad's is huge!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, we were out on the tractor one day and he had to pee. I saw it."
"I've only seen yours."
I ran out of pee, so I stopped and zipped up.
"I'm going to take a shower, then I'll be downstairs. Would you tell
Uncle Nick and Aunt Paulette what I'm doing so they will get me a towel.
Mine's not on the bar."
"O.k."
"You can shower too if you want."
"I don't know if they'll let me."
"Ask Uncle Nick."
"O.k."
He left and I started taking off my clothes. Uncle Nick came in and said,
"I forgot to put the towel on for you. I'm sorry."
"No, you forgot, that's o.k."
"Are you alright hotshot?"
"Yeah, my head doesn't hurt as bad."
"O.k., if it gets to hurting again, tell your Aunt Paulette and she'll
get you an aspirin. I'll get your clothes for you."
Jr came into the room and started taking off his clothes. "It's O.k.!"
"Yippee! We'll have some fun, my tonkas are over there."
I turned on the water and got under it. Jr stepped in and said, "Ooh,
it's cold!"
"Yeah, it'll warm up."
Just then it warmed up.
"We'll only get to play for so long before it gets cold again, so we have
to wash our hair and our bodies before the hot water runs out. It's not
fun to do in the cold. You shiver."
I got the shampoo and accidentally poured too much into my hand. "Here, I
poured too much, I'll put it on your head."
"That feels good, put yours on so I can scrub your head too."
I did and as he scrubbed, it did feel good.
"That's neat, we could scrub each other's bodies too!"
"You wash me and I'll wash you."
He grabbed the soap and started even though we hadn't rinsed off our
heads. I was afraid of getting soap in my eyes. "Jr, let me rinse so I
don't get soap in my eyes."
"O.k., I wanted to wash you so bad, I forgot."
"I understand, I want to wash you too, but I want to see you when I wash
you."
I stuck my head under the water and soon was rinsed off. When I came back
out from the water, he stuck his head under the water. I soaped up the
wash cloth and with a great amount of giggles, began to soap him.
"Wait!......Wait!" he sputtered, I already was washing his butt.
He was laughing, "That tickles!"
Uncle Nick knocked at the door and said, "Boys, you need to get out of
the shower as there's someone here that wants to speak to Billy."
We looked at each other and he said, "Billy, you still have smudges on
your face, let me wash them off."
He washed my face and washed my neck. It really felt good. "Maybe we can
shower again before we go to bed so we can still play tonkas."
"O.k., I wonder who it is that wants to see you."
"Maybe it's Ben, he was real nice to me today."
"Well, you better hurry up then, what am I going to do while you talk
with him."
"I don't know. Maybe you can talk with him too."
"I don't know anything."
"No, but you can sit with me."
We got out of the shower and new sets of clothes were laying out on the
bed. We swatched each other with our towels and somewhere in all the
playing, we managed to get dry enough to put the clothes on.
When we were dressed, he said, "Run a comb through your hair boy, you
look a mess!" He giggled, "My dad always tells me that."
I went in to comb my hair and he followed me. I combed mine and then for
fun, I turned and combed his.
"I could have done that!"
"I wanted to. It's fun taking care of you."
"O.k., as long as I can take care of you too."
"O.k., let's go downstairs."
When we went downstairs, a man I'd never seen before was sitting at the
kitchen table. I went over to Uncle Nick and stood by him.
Uncle Nick turned to me, "Billy, this man here is Clyde Cramer, he's the
Prosecuting Attorney."
"The what?"
"He's the man who is going to see those men who did this to your mom and
dad go to jail."
"Oh good, because I want them to be punished."
Clyde spoke, "Billy, can we go to the living room to talk?"
"Can Jr come with me?"
Uncle Nick said, "Billy, this isn't play time, Jr needs to stay in here
with us."
"He wanted to go in there and take care of me."
"Clyde is it alright with you if Jr here goes in with Billy?"
"I don't see any problem with it. Everyone can come in if they want, I
just want Billy to be more comfortable. There are quite a few questions I
will need to ask."
"I'll go in, but everyone else can stay out here except for Jr. Paulette,
do you want to come in?"
"No, Jr will be with him, but if he gets upset, then come get me."
I looked at her and said, "I won't."
We went into the living room and Mr Cramer sat down on the sofa. "Billy,
would you come over and sit next to me?"
"O.k., Jr, you can sit on this side."
"That's good. Well, that's what I want to talk with you about. I
understand you had quite a day."
"Yeah, it was the first time since the fire I got to go home...but it's
not home anymore. It was sad."
"Yes, I imagine it was."
"From what I hear, you remembered quite a bit of information. My reason
for being here is I need to get questions asked so when we take the men
to trial, you won't have forgotten what we talked about."
"I doubt if I forget what happened."  I looked at him and thought he was
stupid.
"Billy, time has a way of making us see things differently. People can
say something or you could hear something in town and it could change
what you thought happened. The reason I'm here is to make sure we have
you answer the questions so the men's lawyers can't make you think things
differently when we go to court."
"O.k., we did something like that in school. We all lined up and then the
teacher said something to one person and that person said it to the
person behind him until we got to the end of the line. It was funny
because what the teacher said was "My dog has brown socks." and by the
end of the line, Jeremy Sanders said "His horse had a long tail." I
started to laugh remembering it.
Clyde Said, "Billy, yes, it's something like that, is it alright with you
if we video tape you answering the questions?"
"O.k., I'm glad I combed my hair." I giggled looking at Jr. "I'm glad I
combed Jr's hair too!" Then, I really giggled.
Mr Crane laughed and said, "Well, we're glad you did too. I'll set up the
video camera over there and ask the questions. It shouldn't take me very
long."
He went over and took out a suit case. When he opened it, Jr and I went
over to look. He had a tripod like what my daddy used when he worked with
his rifles right before deer season. He'd practice and make sure his
telescope got so it'd show him where he was going to hit the deer.
Mr Crane put the camera on the top of it like daddy did the gun and then
took a remote control out and hooked it to the camera. He said, "Billy,
when I go over there, tell me if I'm all in the picture."
He went over and sat down and then I saw his head was partially cut off.
He said, "Would you make it so my head is in the shot?"
I looked at it and then made an adjustment, at first the camera went down
and then I figured it out and then it went back up until I got Mr. Crane
in the shot to where his head wasn't cut off.
"O.k. It's looking good now." I felt proud he had me help.
"That's good Billy, see, the camera isn't something which you should be
afraid of is it?"
"No, it's just a camera."
"What I'm going to do next Billy is I'm hooking the camera up to my
laptop computer. That way we can see ourselves. It makes a better
impression on the jury if we watch it as we talk so they think we're
looking them in the eye as we speak. So, be sure to watch the laptop,
o.k.?"
"Yeah, My mom had jury she wore all the time."
"No, that's jewelry, a jury is a group of people who all sit and listen
to the evidence and make the decision if the person is guilty or not."
"They're guilty, I saw them!"
"Billy, we need the jury to hear that because they didn't see it. They're
counting on you telling them what you saw."
"O.k., because I saw a lot."
"Well, let's set this up and then you can tell them, O.k.?"
"O.k., but Mr Cramer?"
"Yes, Billy."
"They killed my mom and dad I want them to die. The Bible says and eye
for an eye, so I want them to die....well, all except for that guy who
broke in my window and saved me. I don't want him to die. They didn't
have to do that to my mom and dad."
"O.k., I'm glad to hear that Billy because I think I'm going to ask they
die for this. You could have very easily have died too and will have to
now live without a mommy and daddy, so I don't want them to have a chance
to ever get out."
"Me neither because who knows what they'd do to someone else."
"Yes, and we don't want that."
By this time, Mr. Cramer had the laptop hooked up and turned on. I turned
to Uncle Nick, "Can I get a laptop?"
"Maybe when you're older."
"O.k."
"How about if we get you a desktop first and put it in your bedroom?"
"O.k., because then I could do my homework on it and send it directly to
the teacher's computer for her to grade."
"We'll tell your Aunt Paulette as I'm sure she knows quite a bit about
those sorts of things. She has one in the office for her to put things
into for the taxes."
"Oh, that would be good. Maybe we should get one for Mike so he can take
care of things for my farm too."
"We'll check to see if Mike thinks he needs it."
"Daddy has one over at that farm he works at now."
"Well then, I guess that decides it, we'll go shopping for computers
soon, o.k.?"
"O.k."
Mr. Cramer sat on the sofa again and looked at the laptop. "Billy, you
want to come over and we'll get started."
"O.k.."
"When we start, you just look right at the picture of us and answer."
"O.k."
"Now, before we start Billy, we're going to make all the funny faces we
can because once we start, we need to be serious, O.k.?"
"O.k., Jr, come over here, we get to make faces!"
Jr came over and we were really getting into making different faces and
all the animal noises we could think of while we did it. We did that for
a moment and then Mr Cramer said, "O.k., We need to get started."
In making the faces, I'd gotten up and had been acting like a dinosaur,
so I went and sat back down.
Mr Cramer started, "We're here today to do a deposition in regards to the
house fire which occurred on January 17th of this year. With me, I have
Billy Jacobs."
"Billy, speak up nice and loud to the camera,  and would you please tell
those who are watching your full name and your age please?"
"Billy Jacobs, I'm 8 years old."
"We need your full name, Billy."
"It can't get any fuller, It's Billy."
"Did your daddy and mommy name you William?"
"No, they named me Billy. William is stupid. That's why I like Billy."
"Oh, o.k. Billy, I guess I now know your opinion of William, let's just
hope we don't have anyone on the jury named William."
"Well, he probably thinks it's stupid too and prefers to be called
Billy."
He chuckled and said, "You might be right." Under his breath he said,
"Lord help us."
"You said we needed to speak up loud and clear and if you're prayer
starts off  "Lord, help us", I need to bow my head."
He laughed and said, "Let's get to the next question and forget the
prayer. Billy, in your own words, can you describe what happened the
night your house burned down."
"Well, I was asleep and something woke me up. I saw a bunch of smoke and
suddenly the window in front of my bed just exploded inward. It scared
me, I nearly peed the bed. Then I saw a guy and got real afraid because I
thought he was breaking into my bedroom. I lay really still because I was
afraid. He finished busting out the window and then said, "Your house is
on fire, I'll get you out of here!"  really loud. I could hear a bunch of
sounds like a bonfire and a sort of roar, so seeing the smoke, I knew
what he said was true. He lifted me out of bed, but  before he did, he
pulled up the sleaves of his denim jacket and I saw the tatoo on his
forearm of an Eagle.
He had black hair and a full bushy beard. I knew because it tickled when
he bent over to pick me up. He smelled of pipe tobacco, that vanilla
kind. He took me over to the window and handed me out to a littler guy
who wore glasses who was wearing a red Nike shirt.
The guy in the red shirt took me and then put me down on the ground. He
had light brownish blond hair. I was in my pajamas and barefoot. I looked
at the guy in the red shirt and he had blue jeans on that had one of the
skoal can marks on his butt. He had boots on that a Harley rider wears,
the kind that has a strap and a motorcycle on it. The boots had a lot of
mud on them and he was complaining about it a lot to the bushy beard man.
The guy who had saved me came back into my bedroom and said, "You dumb
fuck you killed them, they're both dead." to the red shirt guy. The denim
jacket guy came out of the house and they took me to the tree over by the
road in the front yard.
When I got there, a man in a long black trenchcoat that looked bluish
greyish black was over by the shop door entrance of the barn and he was
yelling at the man in the red shirt telling him to hurry up and get on
the 4 wheeler.
Th 4 wheeler was camouflage and had a trailer on it that was black with
white wheels. I could tell as the light out by the pump house showed the
whole parking area. The 4 wheeler was parked over towards the tree where
daddy used to hang deer and butcher animals with mama. The man who was in
the trench coat at sometime came over to the front yard to get the guy in
the red shirt as the guy in the red shirt was looking at the house
burning. He was cussing the red shirt guy and saying for "Jimmy" to get
his ass on the fucking 4 wheeler as they had to leave. Before he went
over to the 4 wheeler, he grabbed the flowers out of mama's planter and
put them in the left pocket of his trench coat. He must've been left
handed as he did it with this left hand.
The trenchcoat guys was named "Tooter", I remember it because I thought
of him being named after him farting a lot. He had long black stringy
hair, like that one guy on Harry Potter. He had a cut hand! I just
remembered that! His right hand was cut! He must've been the one that
killed Bessie my cow!"
By now, I was crying and I felt Jr slide over to me and hug me. Mr Cramer
said, "We can stop for a break if you want to Billy."
"No, I've got a few more things to say and then it's done. The guy who
had saved me was out at the front to the house cutting and pulling bushes
away from the front of the house. Jimmy went to the four wheeler and got
on and it drove through the gate by the barn and across the pasture.
That's when the fire truck pulled up."
The guy in the denim jacket took me over to the fire truck to get warm
and told me to stay in it as I'd be in the way. I remember the man in the
denim jacket went in my bedroom with a fire hose as the others went to
the other end of the house. I wonder why he went in that way when he knew
my mom and dad were dead? He must have wanted to act like he was saving
them."
"Is there anything else you can tell us Billy?"
"Yeah, the man in the denim jacket, to me he was a hero and I wanted to
tell him thanks, but if he was a part of the guys that killed my mom and
dad, he's no hero. That's sad. He just wanted me to think he was nice."
"Billy, you've done a wonderful job tonight. If we have any more
questions,  I'll be asking them to you, O.k.?"
"O.k."
He pressed the remote control and the screen of the laptop went black. I
looked at Uncle Nick and said, "Something tells me the guys name who
saved me is named Ray."
"Close Billy, his name is Gray."
"You know him?"
"Yes, he's my age and I went to school with him. I'm willing to be the
guy who was with him in the red shirt is named Jimmy Darnell. They were
always around each other and the description sounds like him."
Mr Cramer nodded and said, "Tooter is the nickname of someone who is
Darnell's cousin. He's a real piece of work. I've had dealings with him
before and have sent him to prison before. It should be easy to call him
in for questioning. Gray is being arrested tonight and with luck, they'll
bring in Jimmy. Jimmy's a good kid, but from what Billy says, he just got
himself into a whole lot of trouble."
As Mr Cramer talked, he was putting away his camcorder and the tripod. Jr
was over watching him. I went over to Uncle Nick and hugged him. He
lifted me up and said, "You did good again. I'm proud of you."
"I just wish it was my daddy saying that, but he never said anything like
that."
"Your daddy had his own way of saying things Billy. He couldn't tell
someone he loved them or give them a compliment, but he'd do something
for them that let the person know."
"Well, he always said I was too little to do anything with, so I guess I
was too little to love."
"Well, your mom said she loved you, so you knew she did."
"Yeah, Mom showed me she loved me and said it a lot. She even would put
raisins in my oatmeal raisin cookies in the shapes of hearts. She said it
was so I'd know she loved me inside."
I started crying again and Uncle Nick hugged me. Mr Cramer came over and
said, "Billy, you've been so strong and I'm going to do everything I can
to make sure those guys know they did something really bad to you."
He spoke to Uncle Nick, "We have a fund for kids like Billy which
provides for his care. You and Paulette need to contact them so you are
reimbursed."
"That's o.k., we don't need charity."
"Son, it's not charity. It's a fine added onto fines everyone has to pay.
The people who do bad things to other people are the ones who are the
ones who ultimately have to pay. These guys who did this aren't ever
going to see the light outside of a prison, so it's no use for them to be
ordered to pay restitution. But they will pay one hundred and fifty
dollars for each victim they have, so that's times three in this
situation."
"Make that times four, they killed my cow." I said sniffling. "Bessie
didn't need to die. She was a real sweet cow. She always come over to the
fence to meet me."
"I'll do what I can to be sure they're charged with cruelty to an animal
Billy. The law doesn't provide a death penalty for killing someone's pet,
but I think the jury won't even bat an eye on finding them guilty. They
each have pets and know what they mean to them......And, I'd say killing
an animal is pretty cruel treatment."
"Yes, they cut her head off."
"Billy, don't think about that."
"I try not to, but I try not to think about a lot of things and it
doesn't happen. I still think about it a lot."
"I know Billy. Just remember your mama and daddy and the good things
which happened. I'll take care of the bad things."
He looked at Uncle Nick and said, "I sure wish I had that recorded. That
kid would've ripped the hearts of the jury out of them."
"He's a good kid. He even wants Gray to know he appreciates him saving
him."
"I'll see he gets that appreciation when I'm there to witness his miranda
rights being read to him. He left a trail a mile wide telling us he was
there. The phone company GPS tracking showed he made a phone call to
someone from that location about a half an hour before the phone call to
9-1-1. I've got all the evidence I need to go get the warrants. I just
needed Billy's statement to confirm things and give me more evidence."
"Did I help?"
"You did great Billy, you gave us plenty of help."
"Well, I'm glad because my mom and dad would have been upset to be robbed
and have Bessie killed, but they would have forgiven them. They don't
even get a chance to forgive them for killing them. Mom always told me to
forgive people and I try, but I don't think I can forgive them."
"Billy, I doubt if a jury will either. Let's just make sure of it."
He carried his suitcase to the door and said goodbye to everyone. After
he left, Uncle Nick said, "Let's get some hot chocolate."
We made up our cups with marshmallows in them and Aunt Paulette ladeled
the cups full. We took them to the living room and Aunt Paulette said to
me, "Billy, Jr is going to stay here tonight. His mom and dad have
already left. We all think it will be a good idea for him to sleep with
you so you have someone to hang onto."
"I think that's a good idea to. Can we take another shower so we can play
tonkas?"
"How about you bring the tonkas down here to the living room and play
with them in here."
"O.k., come on Jr, let's go get them."
As I ran out of the room, I heard Uncle Nick say, "That fucking Gray
Daniels..."
Note From Retta:
Those of you who've been patient in waiting for this chapter, I really
appreciate it. I know I said I'd be getting 2 chapters a week, but it
looks like one is more realistic. I apologize
From My Keyboard To Your Heart,
Retta
RettaMichaels@Gmail.com
Copyright Notice - Copyright © November 2007 by RettaMichaels
The author, RettaMichaels copyrights this story and retain all rights.
This work may not be changed or duplicated in any form, media, - known or
unknown -- without the authors' expressed permission. All applicable
copyright laws apply.
Disclaimer: All individuals depicted are fictional, and any resemblance
to real persons is purely coincidental
--
Here is a list of stories I've written and where to find them:
With Love - Nifty - Beginnings Section
Rural Love - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com
Write Me A Love Story - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com
To Love Him - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com
Military Zone - Nifty - Military Section
Evan - Nifty - Beginnings Section
RettaMichaels does not support nor endorses any articles posted upon
GayAuthors.org. Any posts which are on  that site should be duly ignored
as their website is not courteous enough to close that account for a
copyrighted author.