Sidney's Skeeter Hunt

Skeeter didn't understand why these thoughts should be plaguing her like they were today. She seemed to want to travel back into her life, remembering things she hadn't thought of in years. The faded black of the cross ties she sat on had soaked up the sun's heat all morning and was uncomfortably hot to her ass, but from the top of the wall, she was able to see the traffic clearly in both directions. The sun was hot on her neck and back, reminding her of what an asshole her husband was. Taking a paper towel from her purse she wiped the sweat from her face, remembering the fight, how helpless she had been as he had held her down and cut big chunks out of her hair, using a razor sharp hunting knife.

It had been scary, but deep inside, she hadn't thought he would really hurt her because of what her daddy would do to him. Even though JJ had banned her from coming to his house, he still loved her and hated Big Mike, blaming him for the way she lived today. Big Mike knew where the line was and he would never cross it to have to confront JJ. Thinking of how pissed Big Mike was going to be when he found out about her selling his truck brought a smile to her face.

Skeeter had a habit of twirling and twisting her hair while she thought and she went to do it now, only to be reminded yet again that it was not there. Diane had helped her even the mess out and together they got it trimmed into a pixie like hairstyle, but it was way too short for her taste. Skeeter loved her hair thinking it was one of her greatest assets. It hung six inches below her shoulders long, mahogany red and wavy. Well, it used to hang below her shoulders. That asshole shouldn't have done her that way.

Feeling betrayed and hurt she sat on her wall, nothing more than meat for sale. She was smarter than this. She deserved a better life than this. Her mind kept throwing old memories at her almost like it was demanding to know where and when things had went wrong. How she wound up here selling her ass for ten bucks a throw to feed a drug habit that had already cost her everything. She ran the damp towel over her face a last time before replacing it in her purse. Lighting her last cigarette she peered up and down the highway, seeing no body she knew but it was still early. Looking like a fucking pixie, she wondered if her steadies would recognize her.

The lingering after-effects of the crack seemed to make the sunlight a bit brighter and the colors a bit more vivid. The shit had a speed like side to it, so she was much more alert and awake now since she had enjoyed that little bump. Skeeter smiled to herself, if there was one thing that she really knew it was crack; she had been researching its effects on a person for the last twelve years. The smile vanished as she thought of the cost of that research. She was spared that buzz-killing train of thought by the blare of a car horn. A baby blue ford pick-up truck pulled to the curb in front of her, its driver's window sliding down, a man called out, "Y'all need a ride?"

Meanwhile, six miles out of town in a run down travel trailer ...

Big Mike Bates lived up to his name, weighing in at around three hundred pounds and standing a bit over six feet tall. He was a perfect example of a redneck. He liked to drink but he never knew when to quit, so often he would wake up like this morning. A blood-alcohol test, if Mike had been forced to take one, would have revealed that Big Mike's blood was two times what is required to be a legal drunk's. He managed to force his eyes opened, his glance swept through the small travel trailer that he and his wife Skeeter shared. Where the fuck was that bitch? He got to his feet and stumbled to the fridge.

Opening the door revealed that there was nothing to drink or eat, only a jar of mustard and some ketchup. Disgusted he lay back down on the bare mattress that was the only furniture in the trailer, only to discover that the damn bed was soaked in beer. A six-pack lay on the bed with burst cans scattered about. But there was a can of beer that had not burst open, he popped the top and drank the warm foamy brew.

Awake now he couldn't stop his brain from slowly booting itself up. Memories and thoughts filled his mind causing his light green eyes to jerk fully open. He quickly jumped to his knees and knee-walked across the wet bed to the window where he pulled the sheet that served as a curtain to one side; his truck was gone. He grabbed his pants, almost in a panic now, he checked his pockets. His money and keys were gone, so was the food stamp card. That bitch had robbed him and now she had already had several hours to spend everything they had. He collapsed back onto a dry spot on the wet mattress, the weight of the facts he was facing were just too much for him this early in the morning. What was done was done, the money was gone by now, he could call in and report the food stamp card stolen but he didn't have a phone and his head hurt. Big Mike shut his eyes on all his problems and went back to sleep.

'Driving gives a man time to think,' Sidney thought, 'but most people drown out the quiet thinking time with loud music, or recorded books.' But not him, he let his mind play different situations, like a chess player he tried to predict how to handle a person's expectations, how to satisfy those expectations with the least cost to him. Sidney was a student of human nature, proven by experiments he conducted from time to time.

Sidney made a good living by playing on people's fears. Fear is what makes people buy insurance. He had sold a lot of it and knew how to press a person's buttons, how to build fear into a man or woman, and how to offer hope, at a price of course. Today's experiment was going to focus those skills on some poor little crack whore. He was going to peel away the layers of her pride and self-respect until nothing was left but her naked body and a fist full of money. She would be forever changed by what happened to her this week-end. He wondered if he might also be forever changed. Only time would answer that.

Less than an hour later he found the rotted down remains of service stations that marked the city limits of Piney Beach, Florida. He drove past the abandoned furniture store, past the closed down hospital, deeper into the ghost town that was once a prosperous small town. The strip of hi-way running between the huddle house diner and the Wal-Mart, two miles down the road, was where the whores walked. The boldness of their eyes and their body language, spoke to a man as sure as any red light, to tell you who and what they were. He only saw three on his first cruise down the strip, and they all three looked like high mileage to him. Well he had some time, and there were things that he needed to get done. He could check every twenty minutes and see enough to be able to make a choice.

He turned into the Wal-Mart's parking lot and got out of the car. Opening the trunk he made a last minute check to see that he had everything, he ran down the list as he shuffled the stuff around, making sure he had all he needed. Next he rented a room at the cheapest motel, paying cash and showing his fake ID. He went to the room and set up the three wireless cameras, concealing one under the shelf in the closet where it had a good view of the bed and the table and chairs beside it. Another he concealed in the light fixture giving an overhead of the bed as well as a good shot of the table and chairs by the window. The third camera was hidden inside a box of tissues which he placed on the dresser, facing the table and chair. He opened his laptop and made sure that the light was good and the scene was clear. He put the sex toys in the bedside stand; time to cruise the strip.

***

So ends part three of the Skeeter series, part four is on the way. In part four, Mike gets his truck back and finds out where Skeeter might have gone, Reek learns the disadvantages of low-rider pants, Sidney makes his pitch to Skeeter, and Skeeter decides to enter a 'Crack Whore Olympics' on the internet. It should post with in three weeks from this posting.

This series has my lowest scores, yet is one of my favorite characters, if you like the stories and want to follow Skeeter on her adventures, then please let me know that with your vote, and if you really want to help, leave a comment. Thank you,

Mikey2much