Ed Thornton had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. He enjoyed his uncomplicated lifestyle. He firmly believed that any man could be happy as long as the essential elements were present. If he could work enough to feed his family and pay for his beer, if his kids were healthy, if his dick got hard when the old lady was horny, if the fish were biting in a nearby hole and his pickup wasn’t broke down, life was good.
Ed was the king of his little corner of the world. The kids could romp and run free without some bitching neighbor pounding on his door to complain. He and his wife could cuss each other to high heaven without some interfering asshole calling the cops, and there was nothing to stop Ed from walking out into his back yard to take a piss any time he wanted. Pissing outside under God’s glorious sky gave Ed a sense of pioneering freedom.
The kids and Ed’s wife, Sandra, steered clear of his back yard haven, as if sensing Ed’s territorial need for a place of refuge. Ed had his private place fixed up nice. He had a battered leather seat from a totaled pickup to sit on. There was a carpet spool table where Ed could sit his beer. The roof of his patio had blown into Ed’s back yard during a tornado three years past. Reasoning the original owner wasn’t likely to knock on his door asking,” Do you have my patio roof?” Ed had attached the covering to his doublewide.
He was leaned back in his comfortable pickup seat waiting on Sandra to finish cooking the twenty-one pound turkey he had bought for their Thanksgiving feast when the urge to piss struck. It was a lovely time to piss. From overhead golden bolts of sunlight shot through billowy clouds as if the Good Lord himself was smiling on Ed’s private corner of the world. Ed sat his beer can down on the spool table and then walked to the privacy fence separating his property from Jennifer Singleton’s. He unzipped. Hearing the soft pleading voice coming from the other side of the fence, Ed stopped despite his bursting bladder. It didn’t seem right somehow to piss while Adam Singleton was praying. Poor little fellow had enough problems without Ed taking a leak during his prayers.
Half the neighborhood thought the kid had something to do with the murders on Aluma Cove. Ed knew better. That kid wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“It’s Adam, God,” Adam said, jarring Ed into the present. “Adam Singleton. I have to tell you something important.” Adam’s voice grew softer, causing Ed to move closer to the fence. “I’m scared, God. You know Miss Alma got dead. Now Mr. Ledbetter got dead. I’m scared Mother and me will get dead too. I love Mother, God. I don’t want her to get dead.”
Poor kid, Ed thought. Over there with just his Momma to protect him. No wonder he was scared shitless. Jennifer Singleton was a looker all right, but Ed wouldn’t wager two cents on that fine looking bitch in a catfight.
“Father got dead when I was two. You know, Jesse Singleton up in heaven with you, so we got no father to make bad people go away,” Adam continued. “Will you watch our house, God, and make sure the bad people go away?”
Ed’s eyes watered slightly. The pollen, Ed assured himself because in Ed’s world real men never cried, not even in their backyards with nobody around to see. It weren’t right for the boy to be so afraid. He had to do something to help the little guy. This murder business in the cove was bad enough on the normal kids. Ed’s own children had started coming in before dark every evening, Even Boomer who wasn’t afraid of shit. But Adam Singleton wasn’t playing with a full deck. It had to be even scarier for him.
An idea began to take form in Ed’s beer fuzzed brain. The Good Lord would understand his deception. He knew Ed Thornton was a good man despite not seeing the inside of a church in more than twenty years.
“Adam,” Ed said in his deepest voice. “Don’t you worry anymore little guy. I’ll be watching your house.”
There was a pause. “Is that you, God?” Adam asked in awe.
“It’s me little guy,” Ed answered.
“You never answered me before,” Adam said.
“I been busier than a one arm paper hanger, Little Guy. There’s lots of trouble in the world, you know,” Ed replied.
“You think you’ll be here listening ever again?” Adam asked.
Ed thought for a moment. He couldn’t stand at the fence all day just in case the boy decided to pray. A man had to work to support his family.
“Tell you what, Little Guy. There’s a lot of stuff for me to do during the week days what with people getting’ sick and all that starving goin' on over in them other countries, but if you need to tell me something, you can come to the fence around this time every day. Just give a yell and I’ll come a running long as I ain’t tied up with no hurricanes or floods or nothing like that.”
“Really, God?” Adam asked.
“Damn straight,” Ed answered.
“And you’ll watch my house and keep the bad people away?” Adam asked, needing to be reassured once more.
“I’ll watch your house and you don’t have to be a scared no more,” Ed promised.
It was a promise Ed intended to keep.