Head Lightin'

"I know right w'ere they was. Back when we was teenagers J., my husband," here she clasped her hands together, lowered her head and opened her eyes to emphasize the clarification, then she cocked her head back up, splayed her fingers back out and continued... "and them used to go head lightin' down there."

Mrs. C runs a country store and diner in the Pine Belt...and tells stories. This particular story had been set off by some very dark news but, we've had enough of that for a minute or two.

Mrs. C's in her early 50's probably and has an exquisite Southern accent...Mississippi accent. It's not deep but it's round and has developed a fine vibrating patina that's priceless. She's not a big woman but she's got a wide frame that gives her an erect appearance. When she speaks, she cocks her head back slightly. Her eyes are half closed above high flatish cheek bones...split by a slight, smooth flowing, Roman nose.

Even in a pink t-shirt and jeans it's hard to deny the regal air of it...but the warmth of her voice and regular bursts of laughter keep the stuffiness cleared out. When she lowers her head...her eyes come on like high beams.

"I tried to tell 'im they'us gone get in trouble down there but, he couldn't resist it. You know they used to be hundreds of deer down there at night."

At this point she must have sensed that there were a few people who hadn't cottoned on to what they were doin (which seems impossible to me considering the crowd but*...I think she was right) and so she explained...

"B. drove while J. would hang out the passenger window and shoot to the left. The Kendall boy would ride in the back, leanin on the roof and cover the right. They just couldn't stay away from it."

"Anyway, one night me and J. was supposed to go on a date. I waited and waited but, he never showed,"...she cleared the air with a wave of her fingers, lowered her head and lit up..."donch you know I got my little panties in a wad over that."

"Weeeell...they shot 'em a deer that evenin'. Got him loaded up and jess before they's about to get on the highway...Game Warden cut on his lights. They made some sorry attempt to explain but he stopped 'em cold and told 'em he knew exactly which one of 'em shot 'im, where they shot 'im, and how they shot 'im."

"Kendall, he come from money, he thought he'd jess write a check and that'd be the end of but, no...they didn't like them boys. They confiscated the truck...it was B's Daddy's truck...the guns and fined them boys Fifuh-Teeeen Hundred dollas a piece...Fifuh-Teen Hundred dolla's."

Well satisfied that she had once again gotten to tell her old man "I told you so"...she sucked on her teeth and gave a little rumble of a laugh. She told me to come on back to the kitchen. I nestled in, I've seen bigger kitchens on fishing boats, next to her daughter and started cookin'. The daughter was haggard but cheerful enough...she's probably a few years older than me.

"Now don't you pay all the attention to her...jess 'cause she's young."

Laugh's probably still bouncing off the yellowed walls in the place.

I love my job.

*There may or may not have been a time when my Daddy may or may not have hunted coons in the woods, at night, with somebody who may or may not have been carrying a flashlight.