Mungwort

THE HARD KIND

Virginia weather was a bitch. Anybody who ever spent more than a few weeks in the Old Dominion knew it. The wild switchbacks from sun to rain to sleet, or tornado to derecho to lowland flooding, or even (in the coastal regions) from snow to tsunami to tropical depression, could induce a kind of barometric whiplash that wreaked havoc upon body and mind, not to mention gutters, siding, and in-ground pools. 

Except for summer. 

Especially in July.

Unlike the arid southwestern deserts, Virginia summers included a healthy dollop of humidity—perhaps not as tropical as Belize or Guatemala or Costa Rica but certainly more intense, for on any given day, from noon to noon, May through June, and July and August too (and sometimes September to boot) the cloud cover burned off by seven in the morning, and the temperature soared to over one hundred degrees, and the humidity hovered around 95%, the misery aggravated, at least in Northern Virginia, by the swamp upon which the nation’s capital had been built. 
And woe to any landscapers, VDOT workers, or farmhands who found themselves digging trenches or laying down asphalt or mowing or picking or pounding or shucking or doing pretty much anything outside when a heat wave struck. Code red air conditions indeed. No amount of hydration could properly replenish a human body in such conditions because such conditions were out of the range of human tolerability.

All hail the great Virginia heatwave! Where footpads burned, asphalt baked, and power-grids browned.

One night at the beginning of just such a heat wave, a semi pulled into the parking lot of the Rt. 1 Diner a few miles south Fredericksburg, Va. Nobody cared about the driver. Nobody cared about his truck. And nobody cared about the girl who, once the semi hissed to a stop, popped out of the cab.

“Thanks, Bobby!” she said.

“You got it, Cece. Be careful out there, kid.”

Cece patted a knife sheathed on her hip.

“You know it,” she said, and she slammed the door shut.

Bobby waved out the driver’s side window and put his truck into gear. Cece watched him rumble away, but then, seeing something she didn’t like, she ran up alongside the cab and pounded on the driver’s side door.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!”

The semi came to another whining stop, and Bobby rolled his window down.

“Dude,” Cece said. “You’ve got brake fluid leaking out the back.”

Bobby leaned out for a useless look.

“Shit, really? I just got that fixed.”

“Well…” Cece squinted down Rt. 1. “I think I know a place. If it’s still around.”

“They’re not gonna fuck me, are they?”

“Nah. Old friend of my dad owns it.”

Bobby shook his head.

“Yeah. I got a haul ass up to Philly.”

“It’s right up the way. Thornburg Truck Repair. Ask for Deandre. If he’s still there, he’ll hook you up.”

“He available 24-7?”

“Last I remember.”

“Alright. Thanks, Cece.”

“Take care!”

Cece watched the truck growl out of the lot, shaking her head as it took the ramp to I-95 instead of continuing down Rt. 1. She checked her phone, tapped at the screen.

“Route 1 Diner. Nine o’clock sharp,” she murmured.

She looked up at the diner. The blinking neon sign on the roof welcomed her with a friendly yellow HELLO. As she watched, the “O” blinked out. She snorted.

“Got that right.”

A blast of cold air hit Cece in the face when she opened the door and stepped inside. She folded her arms over her chest, suppressing an involuntary shiver.

The diner looked like any number of greasy spoons in the world, but only if they’d been decorated in 1974 and never renovated. Dirty linoleum floors, harvest yellow tabletops, avocado green counter stools. The place was nearly empty, too. A trio of giggling teenagers occupied a corner booth in the back, a figure in a sleeveless hoody hunched over the counter, and a man in flannel blew on a mug of coffee near the bathrooms in the corner. But that was it.

“Have you seen my son?”

It was an old woman sitting in a booth to the right. Her eyes were rimmed red, her skin seemed to sag off her face, and her bird’s nest hair was so thin that Cece could see her scalp.

“What?”

“My son. Bennet. Have you seen him?”

Cece turned away. Why had she done that? Rule number one: don’t talk to the loonies. The old woman stared at her for much longer than she had any right to, but when it became clear that no reply was forthcoming, she returned her gaze to the window and continued her lonely monologue.

“… think they can just push me. Take my knife, take my wife, take my life…”

Taped to the hostess stand was a torn piece of notebook paper with the words Ring Bell To Be Sat scrawled across it in red crayon. Cece flipped it up, revealing a tarnished call bell. She slapped it, and a pot in the kitchen crashed to the floor, followed by a man yelling in Spanish.

“I don’t care if you just washed it, Luis!” a woman yelled back. “Maybe if you wasn’t so lazy, you’d’ve hung it up out the way!”

A set of double doors swung open behind the counter, and the owner of the voice, a pile of red hair with a pen clenched in her teeth, poked her head out. 

“Seat yourself, hon! I’ll be out in a jiff!”

The yelling from the kitchen continued as Cece made her way up to the front counter. She aimed for the stool as far away as possible from the guy in the sleeveless hoodie, slung her backpack on the floor, and plopped down. A menu with a splotch of red sauce on it was wedged in a metal holder between a dented napkin holder and a pair of ancient sugar dispensers. She picked it up by one corner and pretended to read. The girls in the back giggled. A knife clinked on a plate. The waitress’s voice preceded her as she bumped open the swinging doors with her butt.

“Your shift don’t end until eight, Luis, so you’re workin’ until eight.” She hefted a rack of glasses in front of her and eyeballed Cece’s menu. “That’s an old one, hon.”

With athletic grace, she set the rack of glasses down on the drink cooler, swiped up a menu from a stack next to the register, and slapped it on the counter. Her name tag read “Lydia.”

“Coffee?”

“Yeah.”

“Leaded or unleaded?”

“Leaded.”

“My kinda girl.”

Lydia grabbed an ancient coffee pot off the burner sitting on the counter without even looking.

“Mind yourself, hon,” she said as she poured. “This one runs hot. Creamer?” 

She was already reaching for the bowl of pods when Cece said, “got any skim milk?”

Lydia stopped and blew a lock of hair out of her face.
“Yeah. In the walk-in.”

She said it as if someone just asked her to unclog a toilet. When Cece didn’t amend her order, she snapped her gum and retreated to the kitchen, bumping the doors open with her hip.

“Luis! You ain’t got time to be sittin’ around!”

The dining room fell silent. Even the giggly girls stopped giggling. Cece craned her neck around to see what they were doing, but the booth where they’d been sitting was empty. Her eyes fell on the guy at the end of the counter. He hunched over a piece of blueberry pie, his arm curled around the plate like a practiced felon. His hood obscured all but the tip of a malformed nose and the glassy surface of a burned chin. Feeling her gaze, he stopped eating and looked up. Cece turned away and studied her reflection in the mirror behind the counter. Okay. Deep breath. Count to ten. Glance to the right. Now he’d turned to face her, a hint of a smile on his deformed lips.

Here we go.

To distract herself from what was about to happen, she pulled a worn postcard from the back pocket of her jeans. On the front, a vintage illustration of the Chatham Bridge drawn in the style of the 1950s. Bel Airs and Hudson Hornets drove across it, going in and out of the city. A couple of skiffs floated below. VISIT HISTORIC FREDERICKSBURG spanned the top, written in bubble letters. Cece ran a finger over the picture. Smiling, then unsmiling, she flipped it over and read the farewell: 
Love, Dad. 

“Been road-dogging it?”

She snapped to attention. Scarface was leering at her. He’d pulled his hoody off, and Cece realized she’d nicknamed him appropriately. Puckered slugs laced the left side of his face, the corner of his dead left eye drooped and pulled down, and the beard he’d grown to cover it all was loose and patchy. 

“No offense, buddy, but I’d like to be left alone.”

“Oh, come on now, little girl. I’m just trying to be friendly.”

“Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you?”

“For a fine-looking filly such as yourself? No way.”

“Not interested.”

Cece folded the postcard and jammed it in her back pocket.

“What you got there?” Scarface asked.

“Postcard from my boyfriend. He’s into Muay Thai, and he’s almost here.”

Scarface slid the fork into his mouth and slowly pulled it out, making hard eye contact the whole time.

“Muay Thai, huh? You must like the rough stuff.”

“Give it a rest, creep.”

Cece cracked her knuckles. Scarface was not to be dissuaded.

“This pie is delicious. Let me buy you a piece.”

“Fuck off.”

“Whoa! No need for that kind of language.”

With a bump and a bang, Lydia backed out through the double doors amidst a flurry of Spanish.

“Cry me a river, Luis.” 

“Hey darlin’,” Scarface said. “Get this young lady a piece of your finest blueberry pie, would ya?”

Lydia ignored him and put a couple of creamer pods on the counter in front of Cece. 

“We only got these little ones.”

“You hear me?” Scarface leaned over the edge of the counter and pretended to read her name tag. “Lydia?”

Lydia lowered her eyes at him.

“You got enough to pay for that first one?”

“What the fuck business of it is yours?”

“Because if you dine and dash on me, I swear to God, I will run you down.”

“Just get her the pie, sweetheart.”

“I already said no,” Cece said.

Lydia’s eyes slid from Scarface to Cece.

“You okay, hon?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“I said I’m fine.”

Lydia snapped her gum.

“Alright, then. You get what you get.”

She wiped her hands on her apron and strolled down to the end of the counter, snatching up a spray bottle and a rag along the way. The smell of bleach tinged the air soon after as she moved from table to table. Scarface tucked his chin, half-watching her as she cleaned. When she was far enough away, he leaned an elbow on the counter and scratched his patchy beard.

“Boyfriend’s late. Maybe he’s at karate class, sweatin’ it up with the boys.”

“Muay Thai.”

“Whatever. He don’t seem like that great of a boyfriend, do he? Lettin’ a pretty thing like you travel around all by her lonesome?”

Cece pulled her shirt up just a bit, exposing the bowie knife sheathed on her belt. Six-inch blade. Hand-carved antler handle. Bone inlay of a blazing sun on the grip. The initials
“C.S.” had been burned into the leather on the sheath.

“Who says I’m lonesome?”

She lowered her shirt without a word and blew on her coffee. Scarface gave her a crooked grin. He ran a finger down the scar that stretched from the corner of his eye into the thatch of his beard.

“Ain’t nothing you can do to me that ain’t been done before.”

Cece scanned the dining room. No sign of Lydia. The old woman muttered at the window. The man in the back looked up from under his cowboy hat, and Cece now saw that it wasn’t a man at all but a woman, a stout woman at that, with broad shoulders and thick hands. She caught Cece’s eye and nodded. Cece looked quickly away.

“You know who you remind me of?” Scarface said. “My sister. She had a little sass to her, too. It was funny until it wasn’t. Had to adjust her attitude now and then if you know what I mean.”

He hopped over a few stools and leaned in.

“That it? You sassy?”

Cece turned to look him right in the eye, a smile creeping up as she tilted forward. She reached up, curled her fingers through his greasy hair, and whispered something in his ear. Scarface’s smug leer turned into a scowl.

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Well,” Cece said. “You like it rough, right?”

Her fingers tightened into a fist, and she slammed his face down onto the counter. Scarface popped up, nose gushing.

“Fuck!” he yelled. He brought his hand up and looked at the blood. “You broke my nose, you bitch!”

With a growl, he lunged for her. Cece leaped off her stool, snatched the coffee pot from the burner, and flung the contents in his face. Scarface stopped short, his hands shaking in midair. 

Then the shrieking started.

Cece shot a look over her shoulder as she fast-walked through the parking lot. The door to the diner was still closed. She picked up her pace, hopped onto the shoulder of Rt. 1, and aimed for an island of trees up ahead on her left. The traffic on 95 whooshed nearby. A siren sang in the distance. Cece rapped a rhythmic mantra under her breath as she walked, the words matching each step.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

A car honked as it sped past, and she jumped.

“Nice ass, honey!” someone yelled.

“Get fucked!” Cece yelled back.

She threw another look over her shoulder. The lot remained empty; the door remained closed

“Come on, dude,” she muttered.

Someone burst out of the entrance. Short, stocky, cowboy hat. The woman who’d been sitting in back. Cece slowed her pace. The woman scanned the area. Caught sight of Cece.

“Hey! Stop!” 

With a smile, Cece trotted forward. She heard a door slam, the roar of an engine. It took a little longer than she expected, but soon a truck growled up the road. Everything about it was black: black exterior, black rims, black roll-bar. Cece stepped onto the narrow shoulder to let it pass, holding her hand up to block the lights, but the truck rolled up alongside, hogging both lanes. The passenger side window rolled down with an electronic whirr, blessing the night with Axel Rose’s screeching caterwaul.

You’re one in a million, babe/Yeah, that’s what you are/You’re one in a million/You’re a shooting star.

The radio cut off.

“You need a ride, kiddo?”

“No.”

“You sure? That guy back there—”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

Cece picked up her pace. The truck matched it.

“Can I help you with something?” Cece asked.

“You’re a ballsy little girl, aren’t you?” 

“Interesting choice of words coming from you.”

“What’s that supposed to—oh, I get it.”

“I don’t swing that way, okay?”

“I ain’t trying to pick you up. I’m trying to help. My name’s Karen. Karen Boemer.”

“Good for you.”

The empty road stretched out in front of Cece. Four lanes, woods on either side. If she needed to, she could just duck to the side, double back, and disappear into the brush.

“Listen,” Karen said. “You did a number on that guy, and guys like him don’t take too kindly to stuff like that. It’s only a matter of time before he runs you down.”

“He’s probably balled up on the floor, crying.”

The door to the diner slammed open, and Scarface lurched out. He scanned the night, spotted Cece.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you, you bitch!” he screamed.

“Don’t look like it.”

“Fuck,” Cece muttered.

Scarface jumped into an old Mazda B-series and started it up. The tires smoked as he peeled out of the lot.

“The way I see it,” Karen said. “You can wind up in my truck, or you can wind up in his.”

Five minutes later, they were barreling down what Cece could only describe as one of the backest of back-country roads she’d ever been on. While there were technically two lanes, it was only in the sense that if pressed, two cars could squeeze past each other with about a foot to spare, maybe less. Not that it mattered to Karen. She hogged the double yellow with every inch of her truck. Trees whipped by in a blur. Cece white-knuckled the panic handle.

“I think you lost him.”

“Can’t be too careful. Guy like that knows these roads better’n me.”

They hit a turn too hard, tires squealing, and the truck lurched onto the shoulder, churning up dirt and gravel. Branches ticked off the side-view. Karen let out a gleeful whoop and jerked the wheel, and the truck popped back onto the blacktop. 

“American made, baby! American made!”

“Please slow down.”

They squealed around another turn.

“I SAID SLOW DOWN!”

“Okay, okay,” Karen said. She eased off the gas. Sixty.
Fifty-five. Fifty. “Didn’t think a girl like you’d be so uptight.”

Cece loosened her grip and let out a breath.

“You don’t know a thing about me.”

“Didn’t mean to offend you.”

“You didn’t offend me. You scared the shit out of me.”

“I apologize.”

“Let’s just get into town.”

“You got people there, huh?”

“Boyfriend.”

“This the one who’s into Muay Thai?”

“You were eavesdropping?”

“It’s a small diner. Voices carry.”

Cece suppressed a grin.

“Thanks for getting me out of there, but I just want to see him, okay?”

“Message received.”

They rode in silence. The trees, tall and dark, canopied the way, blocking the light of the moon. They came to an intersection, and Karen turned onto an even narrower road. Then another intersection and another turn. They passed under a bridge, swung around a switchback, and straightened out onto a long, flat stretch of road. They encountered no other cars, passed no houses. Just woods, woods, and more woods. 

“Are you sure we’re heading into town?” Cece asked.

“Sure as the north star.”

Cece checked her side-view. Darkness and blacktop.

“Good, because—”

“Mind if I listen to some music?”

Karen flipped the radio on without waiting for a reply. The blare of what sounded like a passing train came over the speakers, followed by thumping bass and the unmistakable growl of Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat.

“I saw these guys in ’78. Virginia Beach,” Karen said. “Won tickets on WNOR. Can you believe that? Rouge’s Gallery. I was right. Up. Against. The stage!”

“Mm.”

“Listen, this is gonna sound kinda weird. But are you looking for a job?”

“A job?”

“I saw you hitch a ride in with that semi. I’m guessing you got about, what, ten bucks on you if you got a nickel.”

She hit another curve without braking.

“I’m fine. Maybe you could take it a little easy on the—”

“Honey, I can drive these roads blind in the rain.”

A couple of drops spattered on the windshield.

“Look at that!” Karen cried. “You wanna hear my proposition or what?”

“I told you I don’t do that.”

“Not that kind of proposition. Think of it more as an opportunity.”

“You want me to sell cosmetics for you or something? Build a team of my own?”

“What? No, I ain’t AMWAY.”

Cece put one hand on the sheath of her knife. She eyed her backpack on the mat by her feet. The road twisted and turned and bottomed out. A break emerged up ahead, and they sped out of the forest and out into the open. Boundless fields lined each side. The clouds disappeared, and a full moon beamed down from above. Karen laughed.

“You know what they say: if you don’t like Virginia weather, just wait a few minutes!”

“I’m not looking for work, Karen.”

“Just hear me out. I think this is a job a girl like you would
love.”

“A girl like me?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if anybody’s told you this, but you’re a bonafide badass. The way you handled that creep back there? Shoowee!”

“I didn’t mean to take it that far.”

“He got exactly what he deserved. Like I said, we could use people like you.”

“Okay. I’ll bite. What kind of job is it?”

“The hard kind. You’ll be working the land, serving Mother Nature. But it’s one hundred percent organic, off-the-grid Bohemian living. We even have yurts!”

“Yurts?”

“Yurts!”

“So farming then? You need pickers?”

“Kind of.”

Cece winced.

“What’s the matter?” Karen asked. “You afraid of a little grind?”

“It’s not that. I just finished a two-month maintenance pull in Lubbock. I was hoping to pick up something where I could spend the rest of the summer in the air conditioning.”

“Lubbock! Golly day, you’ll fit right in with us! Got a lot of hard-asses out there just like you. There’s this one girl, Harlow, she actually worked on an oil rig.”

“Harlow? Sounds like a rich girl’s name.”

“Oh, trust me. Harlow ain’t rich.”
Karen glanced over. Cece was still holding on to the panic strap and looking out the window.

“Free room and board. Pay’s good, too.”

“Heard that before.”

“$40.00 an hour.”

Struck, Cece shot her a look.

“Bullshit, $40.00 an hour. For farm work? You’re shitting me.”

“I shit you not.”

“What are you doing out there? Growing weed?”

Karen gave her a double-take, then she started laughing.

“Weed! That’s funny. Weed.”

“’Cause I’m not getting caught up in that shit, Karen.
There’s no wage worth going to jail for.”

“No, we ain’t growing weed. It’s close but—”

“Close?”

“We ain’t doing nothing illegal. I promise.”

“Then what are we talking about? Digging cesspools? Mending fences?”

“Clearing and carving, mainly.”

“Clearing and carving what?”

“Nothing you can’t handle.”

Cece watched the landscape roll by. The air conditioning blasted out of the vent.

“So what do you think?” Karen asked.

Cece thought about how to respond for a moment. Then she said, “you know how many farms I’ve worked on?”

“Two or three?”

“Ten. You know how many of them pay $40.00 an hour? Zero.”

“It’s pretty specialized work. I ain’t gonna lie. It’s a bit dangerous. Think of it as hazard pay.”

“Hazard pay,” Cece scoffed.

“Der’mo. I guess you’re going to be an asshole about it.”
Karen popped open the middle console and rummaged around with one hand, keeping the other on the wheel.

“I’m not being an asshole,” Cece said. “I’m being realistic.”

“Where is that thing?”

“I don’t know what kind of scam you’re running, but you can count me out.” 

“Uh-huh.” 

“So why don’t you pull over and let me out. I’ll hoof it into town.”

“Just got a new one last week.”

A four-way stop appeared up ahead. Karen pressed down on the accelerator. Cece renewed her death grip on the handle.

“Karen, seriously. Slow down.”

“There it is!”

Karen pulled a full-face respirator from the console and strapped it to her head. Cece didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Karen’s muffled voice came out from behind the mask.

“Always hate doing it this way. Dust gunks up my cab.”

Cece lurched for the door handle. Karen hit the auto-lock.

“It’s easier if you just let it happen, darlin’.”

She mashed a button on the panel. A blast of yellow powder shot out of the vents, hitting Cece in the face. Cece’s vision doubled. She felt herself slide down on the seat. Her legs went limp. She rolled to her side and slapped at the steering wheel, but Karen knocked her hand away.

“Double trouble, huh?” she said.

She mashed the button again.