Knee High

1966

You know, there's a whole hell of a lot more to Georgia than just Atlanta. Heard some sissy bastard call it 'Hot-lanta' once. Shit head. Up here, right close to the Georgia-Tennessee border, there's some mountains, a crisp clear fall day would just take your breath away. Lot of times? In the winter? We even get us some snow around here.

Anyway, I'm sitting here, got my feet up on the desk; my boots is still mighty new and hurt my feet something bad. Cathy Sue is sitting at the front desk, studying the True Star newspaper real hard; headline says JFK ain't dead. According to the True Star, the U.S. government's got him in some secret laboratory high up in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

"Kitten," I said. "You got know that's just plain horse shit."

"Nuh uh," Cathy Sue said. "Says it right here. That weren't him in Dallas. That was some Russian spy trying infiltrate the U.S. Government but the CIA fount out 'bout it and put a stop to it real quick like."

Kitten's what I call Cathy Sue Kattes. Her last name's pronounced 'cats' but she's only four foot nothing; girl can give my cock a good licking and never have bend over do it. So like I told her, she weren't tall enough be a cat. She's still a kitten.

Buddy's out on patrol. That's more horse shit; he's over at Happy Café, drinking their nasty ass coffee, eating their day old doughnuts and trying get Norma go with him for a little ride. That's fine; North Georgia Savings &Loan's right across the street. The Phillips 66 filling station's next door to the café. And the Winn-Dixie grocery store's right across the street from this trailer. That pretty much covers this whole town other than Miss Kandi's and that's just right down the street a bit.

"If that was true, Walter Cronkite would be telling us all 'bout it," Earl Stuebbens called out.

"Says he's been sworn to secrecy," Cathy Sue yelled back.

"Well, wish Kennedy'd get his carcass back in the White House; that jackass LBJ's dragging this country right to Hell with him," Earl said.

"Hey, Earl, you 'bout sober nuff drive yourself on home?" I asked.

"Yes sir," Earl said. "How drunk'd I get this time?"

"Oh, not too bad," I said, getting to my feet.

"I owe anybody?" Earl asked as I unlocked the cell door.

"Nope. Figure Kitten got to you afore you got too stupid," I said.

"Where you put my keys?" Earl asked as he shuffled out of the cell.

"Secret place you ain't never going find them," Cathy Sue said, turning the page on her True Star rag.

"Aw, come on, Cathy Sue," Earl whined. "You know Paula's 'bout have that baby. I needs my truck."

"Then maybe ought not be drinking so much, huh?" Cathy Sue opined. "Keys in a real secret place; bet you never figure it out in a million years neither."

"Hey, Earl?" I said, putting my feet up on the desk again.

"Yeah?" Earl asked, tearing his eyes from Cathy Sue's cute little titties.

She's wearing her khaki uniform shirt and got the first two buttons undone. The fan is going full blast, but really? All its doing is pushing hot air around as it goes back and forth.

"Think of looking in your pockets?" I suggested.

"Cathy Sue, you a mean, mean little girl," Earl said, pulling his keys out of his pocket.

"I aint no little girl," Cathy Sue said, blue eyes all squished up and bottom lip sticking out a mile.

"And ain't is not a word," Earl said. "Now, where'd I leave my truck this time?"

"Right out front Miss Kandi's," Cathy Sue said.

Miss Kandi's was in the part they called 'Nigger Town' because it was where all the coloreds lived. Only time we cops went on down there was when some white folk got a bit out of hand. Most time, when some colored boy got out of hand, they just handled it on their own. Only time we got involved with colored stuff was when one of them up and killed another colored.

"Aw hell, what I was doing there?" Earl said, shuffling to the door.

"Same thing Paula done said when I asked her she want come get you," Cathy Sue yelled as Earl opened the door of the trailer.

"Aw, you didn't, huh?" Earl whined.

"And close that door. Letting all the flies in," I yelled.

When he shut the door, Cathy Sue unbuttoned another two buttons, showing off her cute little bra. She used a manila file folder to fan herself; had be about 90 degrees outside and weren't much cooler inside.

"You didn't really call Paula, huh?" I asked, watching her cute little titties bounce as she fanned herself.

"Naw, but ought to," Cathy Sue said. "Know, Happy Café's got them that window unit? Why we can't get us one them air conditionings?"

I shrugged my shoulders. Our governor, Carl Sanders seemed to think that a window unit weren't needed; said it was a luxury. Uniforms, our two patrol cars, couple or three.357s and three twice barreled 12 gauge shotguns was what we could afford and that was what we got.

"And quit looking at my boobies," Cathy Sue said, holding down the page of the True Star rag when the fan breeze whirred past her desk.

"Kitten, you know ya'll got cutest little titties I ever seen," I said.

"They ain't little," she said. "They a c cup."

"Bra says twenty four B," I said.

"It were marked wrong," Cathy Sue lied.

"Kitten, you lying and you know it," I laughed.

"Keep laughing, ya'll ain't never going see them again," Cathy Sue said, mean look on her face.

"Like your hair like that," I said, getting to my feet.

Cathy Sue's got her long blonde hair back in a ponytail. Norma, over at the Happy Café got her hair up in this beehive kind of thing. Paula, Earl's wife, and my ex-wife went and spunt nine bucks get her hair done up in one them bouffant. Nine bucks. That's part the reason she's my ex-wife. Other part is she couldn't seem stay out of Earl's bed, or Jonesy's bed, or Lester's bed.

Earl thought he was only one getting into Paula's drawers, so when I tossed her fat can out my trailer, he stepped up and took her on as his own. Maybe he ever sobered up, he'd come to figure out, that baby she's carting around might not be his.

But Cathy Sue's hair is just natural. It hangs down to her waist and when it's hot like this, she keeps it off her neck by doing it up in a ponytail. Makes her look a lot younger than nineteen, I tell you that.

"Hey!" she yelled out when I gave her ponytail a little yank as I walked by.

I'd waited 'til we bounced Earl on out of here; I'd started fixing out dinner while he was in, I'd have make him dinner too. Let him go on home and eat whatever Paula could wrestle up.

In our kitchen, I poured myself some coffee. It's been sitting in our percolator probably about four, maybe five hours now, so it's real thick. Shit, put enough milk in it, it'll be just about drinkable. But since it's the last of that pot, I go ahead and fix up another pot.

"Hey, Kitten, want a sandwich?" I yelled out.

"Yeah," Cathy Sue called back.

I made us two sandwiches using up the last of my world famous meatloaf. My secret? I mix in two big old tablespoons of yellow mustard and about a teaspoon of brown sugar. And I do not put catsup on it neither. Kathy Dawn, Cathy Sue's momma does that and it's just nasty, all burnt up tasting when she brings it on out.

"Buddy called in; he's going on dinner break," Cathy Sue informed me when I brung our two sandwiches out.

I snorted; Buddy's been on dinner break for the last three hours. His big old gut's been bellied up to the counter at Happy Café since he went out on patrol.

Cathy Sue gave out a big old squeal when I bit her on the back of her tiny neck. She slapped at me, but I was too quick for her. I grabbed her hand and gave her a kiss on her little cheek.

"Quit!" she giggled, rubbing her face. "Need shave that ugly mug of yours. And, God, how you can stand drink coffee hot like it is?"

Cathy Sue went into the kitchen and grabbed herself a Fresca out the ice box. She used drink Orange Nehi, but one day went to put on her dungarees and couldn't button them. So now she drinks that nasty diet stuff. I tell you, I was in a desert? And some camel humper was giving Fresca away for free and told me the next drink was a hundred miles further and they was charging twenty bucks for it? I'd crawl the hundred miles, twenty bucks in hand.

Another reason Cathy Sue quit drinking Orange Nehi; we had us one them Atlanta jerks come in, ordered up a big steak at the Happy Café and then said he'd left his wallet on his dresser at home. Jonesy dragged him in, screaming and yelling he was going pay for his dinner, he just needed go on home and get his wallet.

Anyway, this Atlanta jerk saw Cathy Sue swilling down an Orange Nehi and told her it was the right drink for her, since she wasn't about knee high to him. Got it over the wire, after we run the tags on his car he'd done this at a few diners up and down Georgia and South Carolina. He'd come in, order their biggest ticket item, then wouldn't have the money to pay up.

But then Jonesy and Buddy also started calling Cathy Sue 'Knee High' and she don't like it one bit. So, she pulls the tab off that can of nasty Fresca and chomps her way through that meatloaf sandwich and a bag of Dickey's Potato Chips.

We call Jonesy that 'cause his name's Linus Eldridge Jones. And according to Jonesy, Linus and Eldridge are nigger names. Few of the colored boys down at Miss Kandi's tell me its fine with them if no one thinks that Linus Eldridge Jones is a nigger; they don't want associate with him neither.

Jonesy is the owner and cook of Happy Café. He's a decent cook, a pretty good businessman, but is an asshole to anyone comes around him. I walk into Happy Café and everyone calls out 'Hey Sheriff' and it's all fine and good. Jonesy calls out 'hey Sheriff' and somehow makes it sound like he's taunting me.

Buddy called in and told Cathy Sue he was back on duty. Course, Buddy tuck all of the hour for his dinner break. I wonder if Norma tuck her dinner break at about the same time. Course, Jonesy only gives her thirty minutes, so she'd have to run out, give Buddy a little nookie, then hustle her big backside in, grab herself a bite, then be back on the floor, pouring coffee and taking orders.

Now Cathy Sue's in the back of the True Star, you know, where they have all them ads for art school, diet and exercise programs, diet pills, that kind of junk. She'd sent in five dollars once to one them companies promised give her bigger boobs in just a few weeks. You figured right; what come in was a box of tissue paper for her to stuff her bra.

"Kitten, you had big old boobs, you'd be falling on your face whole time," I told her. "Good God Almighty, what you want more boobs for? You perfect enough just like our good Lord done made you."

That was the first time we kissed. I mean, I'd tuck her to Happy Café a couple times. Even tuck her to the next county over to a picture show; we seen that 'Mary Poppins' one. Let me tell you, that was a good one.

But telling her she got nice boobs, just right for her got me a kiss curled my toes right up. Taking her deer hunting with me got me a kiss and a good handful of them titties. Skinning and dressing up the nice buck she brung down got me a kiss, got them nice titties out where I could see them, and got me a blow job just 'bout took the hair off my balls. When I put up the stuffed and mounted head of that eight point buck in her momma's trailer, Cathy Sue wiggled out them dungarees, and after I nibbled on her sweet little honey pot, she put me on my back and squatted over me.

Good God, that was the tightest and hottest fuck I ever had. Paula liked to fuck; part of the reason she was fucking everybody minute my back was turned. Cathy Sue liked to fuck too, but her fucking was all about making me happy, not making herself happy.

And, yeah, I knew all about how Paula was like before I even married her. We all went school together in Lincoln High School. Since I was the oldest one in our class 'cause I got held back one year, I was first one got his own car. Minute I pulled up in that '47 Desoto Suburban, Paula plopped her can in the seat next to me and put her hand directly on my cock. That was the way it was, until Jonesy got himself a LaSalle and Paula was out of mine and into his. And Jonesy just gives me that smirk made me want kick his car into next Tuesday.

And when Earl Steubbens come up in his own Desoto Deluxe and gave Jonesy a big old smirk, Jonesy did kick Earl's can. When I became a police officer, one of the irst tickets I ever give out was to Jonesy; he knew he was in a school zone, he knew the speed limit was twenty. But he figured since we'd gone to school together, I'd let him fly by.

"You just doing this 'cause I tuck your girl," Jonesy yelled at me.

"Nope, Linus," I smiled. "I'm doing this 'cause you was speeding, in a school zone. And you ain't never tuck no one from no one else. I told Paula I was done with her lousy blow jobs. That's when she up and went off with ya'll."

"I learnt her how suck my dick just fine," he smirked at me.

"Agreed," I said, handing him his ticket. "Said she needed one lot smaller than mine practice on. So, thank you for that. Have a pleasant afternoon, Linus, and don't be speeding no more, hear?"

And first time I brung Earl in for being too drunk even stand up? His momma said I was just doing it 'cause Earl tuck Paula away from me. I smiled and told her I wasn't punishing Earl for taking no one. Letting him keep Paula was punishment enough. I brung him in 'cause he were falling down drunk.

Nope, it weren't no surprise to me, catching Paula with her skirt up, some other guy's cock in her hairy box. Right after we all graduated from Lincoln, Paula wanted go to the State Fair up in Nashville, Tennessee. The Georgia State Fair weren't nowhere near us. Jonesy had moved on and taken up with Sally Miller who was just a skinny little thing; hell, her glasses weighed more than she did. And Earl had smashed up his Deluxe, drunk as a skunk.

So Paula gave me a blow job, and I always wondered, why it's called a blow job? There's no blowing to it. Well, other than me blowing my load. Hell, maybe that's it. Makes 'bout as much sense as any other explanation, I guess.

And next thing I know, there's nine of us crammed in my car, plus me and Paula and we're heading up to Nashville. I pay her way in and we got on the Ferris wheel and man! That thing went up 'bout a hundred feet off the ground and you could see for miles. We went on the Tunnel of Love ride and made out hot and heavy; Paula's got some pretty big titties. And then all of a sudden, I can't find her nowhere. I mean, one minute, she's right next to me and I'm trying win her some stupid stuffed dog and guy asks me if I want try again and I turn to ask Paula just how bad she wants this stupid thing and she ain't there.

I looked everywhere and couldn't find hide nor hair of Paula anywhere. I got me a lemonade, man it was some hot out there. And when I turned to give the guy the glass back, right over his shoulder, I seen Earl and Paula coming out the Tunnel of Love. That was bad enough, but I seen her trying real quick put her titty back into her bra and Earl's zipping his trousers up.

I got the others together and told them, they wanted a ride home, we was leaving now. That made all them pretty mad but weren't none of them mad as me.

I weren't a total jerk. When we got home, I called Mr. Whitaker and let him know his daughter was still at the State Fair and he could go to Nashville he wanted get her. Man, he was some put out. And so was Paula when she and Earl was looking all over find me or any of our friends and all of a sudden, there's her daddy squawking 'bout he was missing roller derby on the television.

"Why you done that? Leave me there?" Paula wanted to know.

"Why you was in the Tunnel of Love sucking Earl's dick?" I asked.

"I what? I, Billy, I weren't doing no such thing," Paula tried convince me.

"Seen ya'll coming out that Tunnel of Love; you putting your titties back in your bra, him zipping up his trousers," I stated. "Got any more them lies wanting tell me? No? Okay, 'bye then."

Jonesy up and joined the United States Army, Lester followed right behind him. Michael Patton went to Purdue University; he was a real smart guy. Wanted study them computers. We called him 'Space Man' 'cause computers? That stuff was science fiction all the way. Earl somehow got into Georgia Tech; never could figure that one out.

Me? Uncle Jimmy got me on as a patrolman. He was my momma's older brother, but when we was in uniform, I weren't to call him 'Uncle Jimmy' at all. In uniform, he was just Sheriff Brown and nothing else.

That ticket I gave Jonesy was right before he went off to Basic Training. Bringing Earl on home to his momma's happened right after he got bounced out of Georgia Tech. And before Jonesy or Lester done their four years, I was Sheriff. Uncle Jimmy, Sheriff Brown got called down to Miss Kandi's; a few colored boys had tuck offence to some white boys wanting them some nigger poontang and one them colored boys pulled a gun.

Seeing a white man in uniform gave one them white boys a bit of courage and he started running off at the mouth. The colored boy with the gun squeezed off two shots, just intending put a scare into the dumb ass white boy. First bullet struck the metal leg of the stool the white boy was perched on and ricocheted, hitting Sheriff Brown in the left thigh. Bullet cut the large artery in the leg and smashed up Sheriff Brown's thigh bone. Uncle Jimmy died right there, on the dirt floor of Miss Kandi's jive shack.

The second bullet? Ned 'Noddy' Hollister will never look for nigger poontang or white poontang or any other kind poontang ever again. Hell, I ain't even sure how he pisses with that stump he calls a dick.

The colored boy got hung the day after his trial concluded. I mean, shit, he was guilty. Even the three serving girls and Miss Kandi testified to that.

But I got appointed Sheriff; Bernard Enchin actually had him a felony so couldn't be appointed Sheriff and Clay Young was almost sixty years old and Judge Frankel said he was too old for the job. Lenny Broussard quit day after I got my badge and we ain't found his replacement yet by that time.

Buddy Thomas was my first hire. Bernard decided he'd move on to South Carolina; his momma still lives here and he pokes his ugly head in here whenever he visits her. Timothy Hill was my second hire. There weren't much left in the budget, but we needed us someone could handle the phone if we was all out, so that's when I up and hired on Cathy Sue Kattes.

Right at five on the dot, Buddy waltzed into the trailer. I mean, the military don't keep time good as Buddy does. Boy ain't never a minute early to sign himself in and ain't never a minute late to sign himself out. And I'm willing bet his car ain't used up more gas than what it tuck get him from here to his seat at the counter of Happy Café. I'm also willing bet Buddy ain't tuck time put even one gallon gas into the car, even with Lester's Phillips 66 right next door to Happy Café.

Timothy weren't but 'bout a minute behind Buddy. He signed himself in, checked he had his baton and whistle and 357 in his holster.

"Jenny Lou called by asking 'bout you," Cathy Sue said as she turned last page on that True Star rag.

"Not funny, Knee High," Timothy spat at her.

Couple months back, Timothy had pulled over a mighty cute blonde; Jenny Lou was speeding on Henderson Road. She offered him a blow job for not getting a ticket. Timothy agreed and she started give him a first class blow job.

I still wonder why it's called a blow job. I had read some book about a big whale once for Mrs. Newsome's English class. Damn, now that Mrs. Newsome was some gorgeous, you hear? Anyway, in the book, they said, 'thar she blows' and I 'bout lost my mind; I just couldn't stop giggling over that 'Thar she blows!' saying.