The Devil's Pet

Chapter 8

March 2001

It was time for Sunday breakfast at Momma’s and Earl knew he’d better show up. So he had his girlfriend drop him off a ways up the road. She wasn’t ready to meet Momma, not yet anyway. Most of his girlfriends weren’t right for him in Mamma’s book. But he felt stronger about this one than any of the others so he wanted to take his time and do it right.

As he rounded the last corner on the dirt road before Mama’s trailer he saw Brian’s black BMW parked out front. Shit, he thought that son-of-a-bitch got there ahead of me again. Earl looked for signs of anyone else but it was all the same as when he left last night. The ancient single trailer with faded aluminum siding and a rotting wood deck in front was as familiar to him as his face in the mirror.

The dirt road opened up to a circle of grass on the side of the trailer with a fire pit in the center. Earl stopped before he could be seen from the house and had himself a long relaxing piss on the remnants of last night’s fire. Voices drifted out from the kitchen window so he snuck up and peered in unnoticed through the back window.

He saw Brian reach over the table and snag a piece of bacon from the platter chewing as he talked, “Hey Mom what’s this I hear about Earl having a new girlfriend? Perry told me she’s goes to Walker College, most of those Walker girls won’t even give me a second look and I have a law degree, but this is Earl’s second one. Makes me wonder, do those girls just like to have flings with the bad boy town folk before they settle down with Mr. Right?”

Verla Whitehead took a drag from her Newport and waited a moment before answering her oldest son, smoke filtering out through her mouth and nose as she talked, “College girl, huh? Yeah, Earl came home one day going on about some nice girl he met down at the park pond while he was fishing for Bluegills. It doesn’t make sense, some stuck up college girl having anything to do with the likes of him. But I seen them both together a couple times so far.”

“Do you know her name, have you met her?”

“Angela, her name is Angela but he hasn’t brought her over yet to meet me. Must be too good to come to the trailer and meet Earl’s Mama. Just like the last girlfriend he had, I don’t think I even knew about her until they broke up, which is never long for Earl.  I swear that boy needs to learn to appreciate me more.”

“I know her, that’s the girl Tommy Glick dated about a year ago. He said she was from some place out East, Connecticut I think. She was out here last summer to visit for a few weeks but her parents split up and they sent her here to stay with her aunt, Mrs. Pickens. I talked with her at a party one night last summer, she’s a real looker and smart too. Yeah I don’t get it either Mom, why would she be interested in Earl?”

“Well, Earl says they’re in love but you know how he talks a lot and he’s usually full of shit. It hasn’t been but a month or so since he started up with her. Besides, after she sees how he spends his free time, which is most of the time, she won’t be so interested anymore. All he does is a lot of nothing. He doesn’t have a steady job but he still can’t get anything done around here, I mean just look at the grass in that yard, and do you think he would mow it without me having to get on him about it? This trailer could use a good painting, the front stoop is rotten and the coons are always in the garbage because the bins are busted. But he eats my food, drinks my beer and steals my cigarettes. I’ll tell you what, I wish I had never given birth to that boy in the first place, and that girl, she’ll find out soon enough just how worthless he is.”

As the words left Verla’s mouth Earl stepped through the screen door carrying a six-pack of beer with one finger slid through an empty plastic ring, the missing can tilted up high and tight to his face. He pretended not to notice what they were talking about. He had lots of practice at that, pretending not to hear insults. Brian and his Mama were always giving him shit, putting him down, he had grown up with this.