Box

9

Dr. Gideon Box.

Deputy Scooter Bing kicked the chair out from under me to start the hanging, but the beam couldn’t handle the weight, and broke. I fell to the ground. There was a split-second pause before the roof came crashing down.

It wasn’t much of a roof, but it was board and tin and heavy enough to kill me. I counted my blessings at having cheated death two times in the space of thirty seconds. As I pulled the rope off my neck, Trudy ran into the barn yelling, “What the hell happened? Is everyone okay?”

She saw me moving around and said, “Where’s Daddy?”

Turns out Deputy Bing was alive, but his right leg was trapped under one of the rafters. Trudy and I pulled it off him and found his leg was broken.

“Other than that, is he okay?” Trudy asks.

“Yeah, but we should get him to the hospital.”

“Daddy?” she says. “You got what you deserve for tryin’ to hang my boyfriend.”

She unhooks my cell phone from his belt and gives it to me.

“You’re not gonna leave me here, are you?” Scooter says.

“I’d take you to the hospital, but sure as shit you’d just wind up throwin’ poor Dr. Box in jail. So we’re gonna leave now. I’ll call an ambulance to take you to the county hospital. And tomorrow I’ll call to make sure you’re okay. But we’re gonna head out now.”

She looks at me and says, “Are you fit to walk?”

“I’d be fitter if he hadn’t kicked me in the nuts.”

Trudy said, “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, sugar,” he says. “But I’m afraid you’ve got yourself a bad doctor.”

“Time will tell,” she says. “Let’s go, Doc.”

“It’s been a pleasure,” I say to Deputy Bing as I step over his body.

“She’s a good girl,” he says. “Don’t treat her badly.”

I wait till Trudy’s nearly out the barn before whispering, “Every time I fuck her I’ll think of you.”

I get about ten feet before he says, “I’ll be sure to tell Darrell you said that.”

I stop and turn. “Who’s Darrell?”

“You’ll see.”