For most unfortunates, it’s not easy to make a living in southern Missouri in 1959. But not for me; I am a bootlegger. I make my living distilling, selling and delivering illegal whiskey. I share these dusty roads with everyday folk — truck drivers, farmers, firemen and Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown. Day in and day out, on the desolate country roads north of Joplin, we breathe the same dust and kick up the same gravel; the dogs that chase my old truck run down his patrol car. The Sheriff wants me in jail almost as much as I don’t want to be there.
It really is quite ironic. Johnny Mack and me went to the same school. It seemed we were always chasing the same girl or competing for the same position on the football team. It was a competition only in the sense that there were two of us vying for a position that Johnny Mack never won. He was always coming in second. In June of 1944, I commanded a company of Paratroopers who dropped into Normandy and took them all the way to Paris for the liberation of France. Johnny Mack took a bullet in his buttocks on Omaha Beach. Six weeks later he was back on the farm nursing his backside.
So here we are, fifteen years later, and Johnny Mack still keeps coming in second.
This part of the state is crisscrossed with dusty farm roads and telephone poles that stretch as far as the eye can see. I was on my weekly run to Joplin with 50 gallons of whiskey in the tank and my partner, Pete Lawson, tailing about a half mile back. Out of nowhere, Johnny Mack whipped in behind me, sirens blaring, red lights flashing, and that big black Dodge throwing off pebbles like an Ozark Mountain landslide. Suddenly he did something he’s never done before. He shot at me and actually hit something important.
My left rear tire exploded and the old Ford pick-up flipped over once and landed with the tires pointing straight up like a dying cockroach. I took quick inventory of body parts and was relieved to find myself mostly intact and, other than a few scrapes and bruises, unhurt.
The smell of whiskey filled my nostrils as the product poured out around me. Johnny Mack walked over from his patrol car, leaned over, peeked in the driver side window, and through a big smile said, “Well, Mister High and Mighty, you’re in a predicament now, aintcha!”
I didn’t want to give the asshole satisfaction of knowing he had me, but it’s not like I had much of a choice considering my upside down situation, so I just shouted, “Okay, Mack, you got me, now help me out.”
“I don’t think so,” he said, stood up and kicked gravel into my face. “It ends right here, right now. I’m tired of chasin’ your ass all over south Missouri.”
I watched as he pulled a fat cigar out of his shirt pocket and survey the road north and south. “Someone will come by later, find you right here, overturned and burnt to a crisp.” The extent of his smile betrayed the level of his pleasure. “The Joplin headlines will read — Pineville war hero dies in fiery highway accident.”
He was getting ready to light that cigar when a sniper’s bullet silenced Sheriff Johnny Mack forever and he collapsed in a heap of dead lawman.
I pulled myself out of the overturned truck, plucked Mack’s unlit cigar from his lifeless fingers and dug around in my jacket pocket for a lighter. A minute later, Pete’s Buick screeched to a stop right beside the dead Sheriff. He shouted out the open window, “Sorry about that, Captain, but from where I sat, it looked like the Sheriff was about two seconds away from lighting a bootlegger barbeque.”
During the war Sergeant Lawson had been the best sniper in the battalion. He had my back from the day we landed, to the morning we rolled into Paris. So, when I needed a partner for the whiskey business, someone to handle security, he was the first person I called.
“You saved my bacon one more time, Pete.” I took a moment to light Mack’s cigar and looked down at the sheriff, his blood spilling out on the Missouri back road. I took another puff and added, “You know, if Johnny Mack had to come in first at something, I’m glad it was dying.”
Mickey Mills has been writing over twenty years as a motor-sports freelancer. His recently completed first novel, HAUNTING INJUSTICE, a paranormal suspense/ghost story, is being prepped for publication at CreateSpace and will be available early in 2010. Currently, he is elbow deep in the second book of the series. He hosts a writer’s group at Multiply.com. When not writing, Mickey can be found exploring the country on PEARL, his Harley Davidson Electra-glide, or researching his next project. He is an engineer by education — a writer by passion.
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30 Responses to “FIRE ON FALCON ROAD • by Mickey Mills”
Comments
« SHE’S FIXED • by Claire Webber | Home | January’s Table of Contents »
December 30th, 2009 at 12:18 am
[...] 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment Look for my short story Fire on Falcon Road to appear today at [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Great story, great writing. 5 stars.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Love this – 5 stars from me!
December 30th, 2009 at 4:25 am
I had trouble with the time tense. The story takes place in 1959 but is written in the present tense; other then that the story is tight and set up well. It’s well written. I gave it five stars.
December 30th, 2009 at 6:44 am
“big black Dodge throwing off pebbles like an Ozark Mountain landslide”
What a terrific line.
Bo and Luke Duke on steroids. Good story, overall.
–John
December 30th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Great! Loved it! Five gallons of moonshine from me.
December 30th, 2009 at 6:55 am
“Heap of dead lawman” – what a great line. Film noir meets the backwoods.
I love it!
December 30th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Not quite my can of Coke.
Sorry.
December 30th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Great writing. I could see it all play out in my mind. Can’t wait for your book, Prodigal Scribe.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:04 am
what a great ride, from the beginning to the last line clincher. Loved it all.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:43 am
a nice write mick ..the imagery works well and having grow up in area where this sort of thing goes on even to today is believable..working in the constraints of a 1000 words the story was well developed as well as the animosity of the protagonist and antagonist …nice job
December 30th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I agree with gator Mickey. You paint a colorful but true picture with your well chosen words and the plot is solidly carried out. Love your writing here and in the past. Is there a way to pre-order that new novel?
December 30th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It read like the “coming attractions” outline to a upcoming movie. . .which I would have loved to seen. This would be a better full-length book than a flash. It just doesn’t quite work that way , for me.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Good story. Thanks. I enjoyed reading it this morning. Could use a line edit, but that’s minor compared to the enjoyment I got from reading it. Seems death always one-ups someone.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Your characters are rich and colorful. I found myself inside of the story watching the whole thing unfold. Jealousy is a powerful motivator. I felt the animosity between the two characters almost as though I were experiencing it myself. Any story that can bring me into the emotions of the characters is a good story. Great job!
December 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Another brilliant story, Mickey! Loved it!
December 30th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Nice way to start out the day. Good story, well written, thanks Mickey.
December 30th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I liked this a lot. Crisp, clean prose, good characterization, and an engaging story. And the tense isn’t an issue since the time frame is set up front.
5 stars.
December 31st, 2009 at 9:03 am
Thanks a lot for the comments. I don’t normally write in first person/present tense, so this was a challenge. I feel honored to be among such great writers here. Thank you EDF for showcasing my work.
December 31st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Great story. I found myself a bit jolted at what seemed like a change in the language used by the characters. Word use like ‘vying’ for a spot and over-describing ‘distilling, selling and delivering’ rather than simply saying ‘I make my living bootlegging’. Just a little clean up work. Good job.
December 31st, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Nice work. I like the characters and development.
December 31st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
nicely done, Mick….I found myself enveloped by the imagry…..again, your writing reminded me of a short film…..happy new year, brother
December 31st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Great characters, great story. I have to say to the guy that was put off by the year 1959, and the use of present tense, that he made no sense. Why can’t you write something present tense in another time? I believe this is more of a period piece than some old timer telling a story.
Again, great work, H.M. Hope to see more from you.
December 31st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Bravo Mickey! Loved it from beginning to end. Your good guy is extremely likable, and your bad guy is extremely…not. Lol! Like so much flash fiction, it definitely has the potential to become a longer piece. Would love to see these characters develop more in book form. Great job!
January 1st, 2010 at 3:04 am
I saw a movie years ago, about a couple of amicable country rouges drivin house tom house , sellin their ‘shine. and this story just brought back the memories of that movie.
Brilliant read, I have no critisizings of it….
to me, it was a great piece, creating the images in my mind as I read…….
January 1st, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Hi Mickey
This is an interesting and well written story, and I like the setting. The finale is certainly final!
My one reservation about the story is that I was left with a lingering unanswered question – which is why did the protagonist take to a life of crime after the war?
January 1st, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I guess I would say to that…
Times were tough in south Missouri after the war and the need was there. I took it to be the protagonist was also an opportunist. A lot of men came back from the war and took to the shadier side of life. I also hoped the reader would infer that the community liked my guy a lot better than the Sheriff.
January 1st, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Mickey, I like the voice in this story and how it sounded as if he were recounting this story in a bar over beers. I also liked the flow, and the end made me physically nervous. I hope to read more from you!
January 11th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Solid story. Very well told.
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Nice short story-Look forward to reading more of your work.