Well This Is Just Swell
Chapter 7: Paybacks
Hilery wasn’t with Cooter. No, the girls who had attacked Bo had been released on bail. The swelling had gone down earlier that morning, so she was doing a little damage control. She had pulled up outside of Sandy Mae’s house and was currently sitting on her hood, waiting for the strawberry blonde woman to come outside. She had a bow and set of arrows in her hands… and the arrows were tipped with dynamite.
Finally, Sandy Mae came out, angry to see the other woman on her property. “Hello Sandy Mae.” Hilery said coolly. She had somewhere to be, namely a date with another man. She had been playing Bo while Bo played her.
“Hilery.” She said, walking past her to get to her car.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She said as the strawberry blonde put her hand on the door handle to the car.
“And why not?” she asked, turning. She turned in time to see Hilery light one of the sticks of dynamite and shoot it into the open window of the car. Sandy Mae immediately hit the ground. The car went sky high in a ball of bright, red fire and dark, black smoke. The young Davenport woman smiled and went around to the open trunk of the teal Mustang. She deposited the arrows and bow before walking over to Sandy Mae who was struggling to her feet. She stuck her hands in her back pockets and studied her.
Sandy Mae growled several nasty explicatives at the other woman before she charged Hilery, who stepped out of the way, tripping the other woman. Said other woman landed face first in a muddy puddle.
“Now, I’m going to make this simple so that there’s no misunderstanding. Go near Bo again, and it’ll be you that’s being blown up by dynamite instead of your car. That goes for your friends too.” Hilery replied as Sandy Mae was getting up. The blonde raised an eyebrow as the other woman spit on the ground.
“This isn’t over.” snarled Sandy Mae.
“I assume not.” Hilery responded. “However, unlike you, I ain’t a coward. I don’t shoot people in the back.” She paused. “And by the way, aren’t you under house arrest until you go to trial?”
“Shut up.” Sandy Mae said.
“I think we’re done here.” Hilery said, turning to walk back to her car, Jumper.
“We are far from done! Hey, I’m talking to you!” Sandy Mae yelled. Hilery flipped her ‘the bird’ and climbed into her car before driving away. As she was turning out of the drive she passed a US Marshal’s car. They had apparently been nearby, monitoring Sandy Mae. It made her laugh.
Later that day Hilery was working on Jumper when Cooter entered the barn on their property. He watched her for a moment, thinking about how quickly she had gone from an awkward teenager to a beautiful young woman. She was beautiful and it was time she blossomed. He walked up to her and looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing.
“Tune up?” he asked.
She wiped her brow with the back of her greasy hand, stood up straight and turned to look at him. “Yeah. She needs it.” She looked at her hands and let out a sigh, grabbing the rag from the engine block. She knew she had the grease on her face too, but wasn’t worried about it at the moment. She wiped her hands off and studied her cousin. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“Yeah.” Cooter replied. “Are you going to the dance on Saturday?”
“Probably not. Probably gonna go over to the Duke farm and hang out with Bo so he don’t get lonely. You know I never go to those shindigs.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I just heard from Luke; Bo is still going. He’s taking Kendra.”
Hilery paused at that news, her eyebrows shooting up. Then she recovered and shrugged. “Oh well, guess I’ll just get a tub of ice cream and watch a movie.”
“Hil,” Cooter said, pulling Hilery into a hug, “you need to go; have some fun. It’ll do you some good Lil’ Cousin.”
She hugged him back and was silent for a moment before she responded. “Cooter, you know I don’t own a dress.” She told him. “And I don’t own makeup, or a curling iron, or anything like that.”
“I have a few dresses in the attic which were your mother’s.” He replied. “And I’m sure we can do something about makeup. I know you know how to use it, ‘cause you wore it for your senior photos a few years ago.”
“Only ‘cause you made me.”
“Yeah, and you looked very pretty.” Cooter chuckled. “And don’t you have a set of hot curlers?”
Hilery visibly deflated. She had lost the argument. “Fine, let’s go see what the dresses looks like… but don’t expect me to dance, or interact.”
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