Under the Flag Ch. 1

Tammy instinctively peeked in the rear view mirror a couple of times to survey the boys' expressions as she drove along and saw that each mainly just sat there brooding, watching the traffic and the scenery whiz by. That's when the initial twinges of guilt started eating away at Tammy, hating like hell that she always had to play the bad guy with these things. Brian was correct back at the house, the boys hadn't done anything wrong and with every rotation of the minivan's tires along the city streets, Tammy began to realize her behavior was more out of her own self preservation with her husband rather than any firm belief in right or wrong that she held.

Just as Tammy was about to turn away and refocus her attention on the road in front of her, Jerome's eyes momentarily locked in and caught Tammy looking back at him through the rearview mirror. The moment that they connected visually seemed to last an eternity and Tammy felt her stomach roll with definate uneasiness from the power and purpose of the boy's icy stare.

There seemed to be an intangible knowledge in his glare that told Tammy that the young black kid understood some of the stresses she was under. Sitting there in stone silence, his dark piercing eyes burning a hole in her pysche, Tammy could feel herself start to squirm in her seat from the brief but powerful stare.

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And Jerome did have some grasp of Tammy's dilemma. He had been raised a a predominatly black part of town and had a mother and grandmother around everyday of his life that lectured him on how far his people had come, as well as how far they still had to go, especially in a place still as touched by hatred and misunderstanding as Central Alabama.

Jerome remembered clearly the first time he had been invited by Brian to come over while Brian's folks weren't home. The forebodding spector of the huge Confederate flag hanging in the family's downstairs TV room told Jerome all he needed to know about Mr. and Mrs Scroggins's politics. And as he momentarily locked in Tammy with his accusing eyes, he could clearly sense he was making the petite blonde woman , and mother of one of his best friends, extremly uncomfortable.

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"Right here Mom..take the next left...that's Jerome's driveway," Brian said, interrupting Tammy and Jerome's fleeting visual connection.

Gently tapping the brake and swinging the steering wheel to her left, Tammy guided the minivan into Jerome's driveway. Trying her best to avoid making any sustained eye contact with any of Jerome's neighbors who were out in thier yards, enjoying the late, midfall, afternoon, she instinctively knew her "Soccer Mom Mobile" stuck out like a sore thumb in the impoverished neighborhood. Tammy nerves tingeld anxiously as she tried to get Jerome out of the vehicle as quickly as possible so she could head back into town and get Roger from soccer practice.

Hearing the back door to the minivan swing open, suddenly the appreciative tones of the young black kid registered in Tammy's ears.

She couldn't help turning her head backwards to acknowledge Jerome's polite words. "Thank you Ms. Scroggins for going out of your way to get me home....I appreciate it."

"You're...you're.....welcome...Jerome," Tammy replied with quiet shock.

The wiry 18 year old extended his hand out and slapped palms with Brian as he made his way out the van and headed up to his front door. "See ya tomorrow," Brian said to his friend.

Wasting no time, as soon as Jerome was clear from the vehicle, Tammy put the gearshift in reverse and hit the gas. Backing out of the driveway and onto the pot holed lined street, Tammy and Brian drifted up the highway to pick up Roger from practice, neither saying a word as each wallowed in thier own distinct embarrassment.

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Around the dinner table that night, the air was as frigid as the Arctic. Tammy could tell Carl had suffered a bad day at work from the way he had immediatly gone to the wine cabinet and poured himself a stiff glass of scotch before he even changed clothes. Tammy had learned the hard way that when her husband started on the hard stuff so soon after work that it was best to just stay out of his way.

As the four members of the Scroggins clan sat around the dinner table, everyone ate in silence, the only noises being the clanging of silverware in plates and the sporatic sounds of chewing.

Tammy knew exactly why the boys were as silent as lambs. After the debacle hours earlier and the irrational way she handled it, Tammy was sure Brian had probably vented to his little brother before dinner, thus making it a very tense and quiet evening for everyone.

Nibbling at her tuna cassarole , Tammy knew deep down she had done the right thing to get Jerome out of their house before Carl had gotten home, especially after seeing the mood he was already in.

About the time all four had finished dinner and had started picking at thier plates, the tortured silence of the Scroggins's dining room was shattered by the ringing of the telephone.

"Damn telemarketers,'' Carl spat into his napkin as he wiped his mouth. "Just hang up on them," he added, seeing Tammy start to get up to answer it.

"Hello, " She answered in a hushed tone.

All three men of the family looked up at Tammy as she carried on a brief conversation with whoever was on the other end.

"OK..uhhh...yeah..Well..I guess I can..for how long..OK...I will be there ..Bye," Tammy whispered, before hanging up the receiver.

"Who was that?" Carl asked gruffly.

"Ooohhh..it was work...seems like two girls didn't show up tonight..they wanted to see if I'd come in and work till 9:30 or so," Tammy said solemly.

"What did you tell them?" Carl replied as if he was insinuating that she better had said "No".

"I told them I would," Tammy replied, waitng for Carl to erupt.

Rather than flying off the handle, Carl simply dropped his fork on his plate with a loud thud and shook his head.

"We really do need the money..I shouldn't be gone too late...Boys..You think you could handle the dishes while I get changed," Tammy sighed as she gathered up a few things to take into the kitchen before dressing for work.

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It felt a little odd rolling the family minivan into the dusky Food Lion parking lot at a few minutes till 7 that night. She had worked a few early evening shifts that Summer when the sun stayed up until almost 9pm, but doing it in mid October, the sun had already disappeared over the Montgomery Skyline.

Doing that shift so rarely, it also felt to Tammy as if she was walking into a completly different job because most of the employees working were all foreign to her. After getting her marching orders from the manager on duty and taking her place behind Register # 5, Tammy tried her best to say "hello" to everyone she could so she could learn names.

One of the first things Tammy noticed that was different about working on the night shift was that there were about a dozen or so high school students working for a few hours; cashiering, stocking and bagging grocieries. Undoubtably, Tammy thought to herself, one of those young punks not coming in was probably the reason she had to leave her family at home tonight and come in to work.

Most of the men and women she worked with during the dayshift had families to support, bills to pay and understood the meaning of an honest days work. Tammy could tell immediatly that several of the young boys and girls working around her tonight had no concept of those ideals, they were simply there to collect some easy money to spend at the mall.

Ringing up the steady stream of customers that rippled through her line, Tammy couldn't believe how quickly the time was passing. Looking up at the clock on the wall, she had a hard time believing it was already almost 9. Being the ever faithful mother and wife, Tammy automatically thought about whether or not her sons were doing thier homework and how upset Carl was about having to get up from the loveseat himself to freshen up his own drinks.

She had planned on clocking out at 9:30, so taking a deep breath, Tammy tried mustering the energy the survive the last half hour as her predawn awakening started to catch up with her at that late hour.

After 9, the flow of customers receeded to nothing more than a trickle. Needing something to do to keep from getting even more drowsy, Tammy grabbed a bottle of windex and a few paper towels and started to spruce up her work area.

As Tammy swirled her wet paper towel in quick cirlces along the black treadmill that carried the grociery tems to the register, Tammy couldn't help but notice one of the high school girls on the clock talking to a few young black males near the front door of the store. Tammy recognized the chubby, curly haired brunette named Staci Simmons immediatly. Tammy knew the Simmons family well, at least as well as the gossip grapevine in a town like Montgomery could provide.

Tammy harkened back to her high school days and remembered Staci's Mom ,Patrice, well. Tammy, who was in 10th grade at the time, recalled that Patrice had dropped out of school during her Junior year because of her pregnancy with Staci. Patrice had never found it neccassary to go back to school after the birth of her baby and it wasn't long until the young teenage mother started running with the wrong crowd. A mistake that had led her to various stints in the regional jail for narcotics and larceny convictions.

Unfortunatly, that was also the environment that Staci had been raised in and as Tammy innocently surveyed Staci talking to the thuggish looking black kids, she naturally assumed the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Tammy did her best to ignore the giddy display between Staci and her friends, but she could tell by the way several of the other employees there rolled thier eyes at Staci's behavior, that this occurance wasn't out of the ordinary.

Being the new girl on shift, Tammy didn't feel it her place to say anything to anyone, so she just kept her mouth shut and continued cleaning.

A few minutes later, the 40ish, slightly graying lady working the express lane register politely called over to Tammy.

"Hey Tammy...if you're not busy..thank you can do me a big favor?"

Tammy was sure she remembered the woman's name as Darlene, Darlene Carlsboro.

"Sure..what do you need, Darlene?"

"My register's getting a little low on ink ribbon and I can't find any extra under here..think you could run back to the storeroom real quick and find me a spool..Hell... bring the whole case if you can and we'll stock up all the registers up here.

"I think I can, "Tammy replied with a smile, eventhough she was a little leery because she had never been back there before to find anything. "Any clue where its at Darlene?"

"I believe its in the far back corner near all the cleaning supplies..should be in a small cardboard case that says Ajax ink ribbons...1/4 inch I think," Darlene said to Tammy as she rang up another customer.

Tammy put down her bottle of windex and dirty paper towels and slipped out from behind her work station. She instinctively bowed her head in disgust as she walked past Staci Simmons and her raucous black friends. Real or imagined, Tammy could fell the heat of their stares as she darted past, making her way to the spacious Food Lion backroom to get the register ribbon for Darlene.

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"Where is it...where is it...," Tammy chanted in a hushed mantra as she scanned the jumbled mess of backroom supplies. Pushing boxes back and forth, up and down, Tammy stood on her tippytoes until she finally thought she had found what she was looking for.

"Ooopss," Tammy groaned disappointedly, realizing the case of ribbons was 1/8th instead of 1/4th. "Dammitt..they have got to be around here somewhere."

Tossing the 1/8th box aside, Tammy hoped that the other boxes of ribbons would be right there close to the other ones. As she reached down into the mass of boxes for the next case, Tammy attention was suddenly grabbed by the sound of the storeroom door opening on the other side of the room. For some inexplicable, instinctual reason, Tammy felt her heart skip a beat and the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

Looking down at the way her hands shook a she tried reaching for the next box, Tammy felt an brief sense of relief wash over her when she recognized the box now in her grasp as the same ribbon she had come back for. Almost as quickly however, her irrational fear returned when she realized that she hadn't heard the store room door re-open and then close, signaling that the person that had just come in was still somewhere in the store room with her.

"Don't be so damn stupid Tammy...." She bravely whispered to herself. "It's probably just one of the stock boys coming back to get a mop or a broom or something."

Swiveling her head back towards the main area of the storeroom, clutching the case of ink ribbon in her hands tightly, Tammy was not comforted by the realization that a stockboy, or anyone for that matter, was anywhere in sight.

As her eyes quickly processed the scene, Tammy started taking a few tentative steps forward, telling herself with each breath to "stop being such a big fraidy-cat," as she headed for the towering maze of extra grocieries and empty boxes that blocked her view to the entrance of the store room.

Tammy was sure she could hear the breathing of someone else in the store room, but she tried to convince herself it was just her own nervous breath echoing through the cavernous room.

Then she heard something rattle and stir a little over 15 feet in front of her on the other side of the boxes and crates. "Just rats," Tammy told herself, gulping in fear.

Then it happened. Tammy recoiled in shock when she saw two tennis shoes shoot out horizontally from behind a pile of cardboard like two Nike clad jack in the boxes.

Tammy cowered slightly as she retreated and hid behind several crates about 20 feet from where the two tennis shoes had shot out from. Holding her hand to her chest, trying to calm her heart, Tammy was clueless as to what was blocking her only escape route from the store room.

Jumping behind the sturdy cardboard barrier as if she was an infintryman trying to escape a hail of gunfire, Tammy had to lower her hands down to her knees to keep them from shaking together.

Holding her breath as she looked on, the only sounds Tammy could hear were the sporatic breaths of one or more people about 20 feet in front of her and the dull, incessant hum of the overhead warehouse fan.

"Shit," Tammy murmured, realizing she was now stuck there until either whoever was getting thier rocks off in front of her finished what they were doing or someone else came into the storeroom and broke it up.

Seeing the way the tops of the white tennis shoes poked out from the edge of the boxes, Tammy's first inclination was that one of the girls working the nightshift had decided to come to the back room at that late hour to get some personal jollies on company time.

As she knelt there, focusing her glaring intent ever deeper on the confused site in front of her, suddenly Tammy was sure she heard two sets of voices breathing heavily.

"Ohhhh... fuckin'... Christsakes, "Tammy cursed as the reality of what may be happening smacked her bluntly.

Just then, Tammy saw the rear end of someone's ruffled up jeans spring out from the cover of the boxes, showing itself momentarily before piledriving back forward, out of sight. Tammy put her hand up to her mouth, breathless from what she witnessed.

When the hips of that person lurched backwards again, Tammy could clearly see that the exposed skin along the guy's waist and hips were as black as chocolate.

Her senses fully tuned in, Tammy also could tell that each time those black hips plowed forward, the sounds of the other heaving breath in the store room only moaned out louder. The tennis shoes belonging to that person were also still extended and jerking wildly, as if the possesser of them was being stabbed unmercifully.

Tammy watched hypnotically as those spasming feet raised slightly and then dug into the naked hips of the black man pistoning in and out of her from above. Tammy could also see the boxes that were surrounding the area start to shimmer and shake with ever increasing volatility as the breathing of the two participants reached a vicious creshendo.

Tammy's 36 year old legs strained horribly as she continued to kneel there hidden. Lowering herself as gently as she could onto the dirty concrete floor, she nervously stood there on her knees watching the brief but intense sexual interlude come to a crashing conclusion.

"OHHHHGGGAAAWDDDDDD," "SSSHHIIIITTTT,", """FFFUUUCCCKKINGGGGG.....GGGODDDDAAAMMNNNNNNN," "MMMPPPPHHHHHAAAAAHHHHH," both raspy voices groaned in unmistakably vivid and real sexual release, sighing in a duet of carnal explosion.

Her head pounding and her heart racing, Tammy looked on with numb fascination as the girl's tennis shoes shot high into the air as if they were needles on a compass. Continuing to brutally fuck the girl senseless, Tammy could hear the black boy groan mightily as well as his orgasm continued to roar through him.

As both of their delirious states gradually subsided, Tammy watched as the girl's feet steadily drifted back to Earth, the power of gravity finally overtaking her physical gratification.

A few moments later, the man that was on top of the girl stood back up and into Tammy's clear view. The middle aged married woman's eyes widened graphically as she watched the imposing black teenager fish his still half erect spear into his hand and nonchalantly deposit it back into the unzipped fly of his loose fitting, baggy jeans.

Right after that, the girl he was so forcefully fucking stood back up as well and tried balancing herself on her woozy, chubby legs. It was in fact Staci Simmons, the 18 year old daughter of the girl Tammy had once gone to high school with.

Both kids quickly checked each other's clothes to make sure they were back on straight and then side by side they headed out of the store room as if nothing had ever happened.

Tammy was too numb to initally move, waiting there and counting to 100 in her head instead, before she dared pull herself up and exit the storeroom.

Once she was finally able to move, she methodically made her way up the narrow path between the crates and boxes. Tammy couldn't help but steal a glance at the small covey that the two young lovers had foraged out to do their sick, primal deed as she walked by.

Pushing the swinging door to the store room open cautiously, Tammy made her way back out into the main area of the Food Lion sales floor, weaving tediously through the isles, trying to avoid making any eye contact with anyone who might have known she was back there.

Once she finally reached the front of the store, Tammy politly handed Darlene the box of ribbon that she had set out for 15 minutes earlier.

"Take you a while to find it ,Tammy?" Darlene asked sweetly.

"Yeah..pretty big mess back there...have a good night Darlene," Tammy replied matter of factly as she headed to the office to clock out so she could finally go home and rest after such a long, mind numbing day.

Part 2 coming soon Thanks for Reading