Taboo (Merle Dixon x OFC)

Chapter 16

After Merle and I stopped at Dunkin Donuts, we back to my house and gathered what I wanted to bring on our little trip. Mama had been excited about our little getaway to the Dixon cabin. She had insisted we take a bunch of the fruit and food she had bought, which was nice. We only had to stop and get a few other things to go along with what she had given us. We didn't buy any meat. Merle had said we would just hunt for what we needed.

I was satisfied with his suggestion. My daddy and the Dixon's had taught me how to shoot guns and hunt long ago, just in case. We always seemed to get something. If it wasn't a deer, it was a few rabbits or squirrels, and those animals made a fine stew. Stewing was always left up to Merle because he was really good at it. He and Daryl had made countless stews out of the animals they killed over the years, and I always enjoyed them because they were tasty and filled with good veggies.

Our long ride to the cabin had been relatively quiet. We spoke to each other every once in awhile, but mostly sat together in comfortable silence and watched the mountains develop around us. That was one of the things I loved about Merle. We could just sit together and not say a word, and be totally content with each other. Both of us were caught up in our own thoughts, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. We had a lot to think about. Our developing relationship, our past times at the cabin, and my daddy.

Sweet nostalgia overcame me as Merle turned onto the overgrown dirt road that led to the Dixon property. It had been in his family for three generations. First, it had belonged to his grandfather, then his old man, then it was passed to Merle rather than Daryl after their old man died since he was the older of the two brothers.

Merle and Daryl had been born there, but Merle left to join the military at a young age, leaving Daryl behind with their old man. This place was in the middle of nowhere, so he moved after he returned to get closer to civilization, taking Daryl with him.

Now, Merle came here when he got sick of the human race and for illegal moonshine creation and distribution. He was here a lot more than folks were aware of. He came here at least twice a month to do business with the moonshine. I only knew about it because my daddy had helped him with it, and I had been around it my whole life. You had to be especially close to the Dixon's to have any knowledge about this place at all. No one knew about it. It was like their hidden dirty, little secret.

I realized as Merle coasted to a stop that this place was rampant with good memories of my daddy. Merle had brought me here to get me away from the horrors of life without my Daddy, but I was going to constantly be reminded of him by simply taking a look around.

Daddy was everywhere. He was sitting on the front steps of the cabin, drinking a beer and sharpening his knife. He was under the hood of Daryl's truck with him and Merle. He was out back in the shed tending to moonshine.

The cabin was old and run down on the outside, but you could see several spots where Merle and Daryl had fixed it up over the years. They always said it would be like new one day. All electricity ran by gas generators, and all water was pumped out of a well in the ground out back.

Merle had fields of fruit nearby he used to make moonshine with. He had quite the green thumb. He also grew marijuana up here in an undisclosed location. The weed he grew was some of the best I had ever smoked.

"Daddy's memory is everywhere here," I said softly after a few seconds of looking around.

He used to sit on the front porch swing and smoke. I could still see him sitting there, puffing away while he looked over the property with that hard look on his face that he always had. He always looked so mean, and maybe he was with other folks, but he had always spoiled me and my Mama rotten. I had been his little ray of sunshine and he had loved my Mama unconditionally. We were the only ones besides the Dixon's who could make him smile and laugh.