Madison's Halloween Predicament -- Chapter 5

[Johnny Lawrence]

Chapter 5



A little over two miles down the twisting blacktop, and the dense forest gave way to a beautiful, picturesque town. Classic Americana, but with a distinct southern flavor. Norman Rockwell meets Smokey and the Bandit. The entire place was suffused with a feeling of familiarity, for more reasons than one. This was Everytown, USA. She'd seen places exactly like this in a million movies and TV shows. Mayberry. Hooterville. Hazzard County. Sweet tea and friendly folk, kids in overalls with fishin' poles.

The other reason for the familiarity, of course, was that this was the town from the videos. Madison recognized it immediately. The blue and white water tower was visible from her car. It was over on the other end of town, but she could just make out the top of it from where she sat.

"Well girl, here we are."

She took a deep breath and continued into town. She had expected a tiny place, a few ramshackle houses and threee or four vacant stores with cracked windows. But clearly this place was larger than that. It looked thriving, in fact. This town was home to a few thousand people, at least.

She drove slowly down the road, examining the two and three story brick buildings that lined either side of the street. Hand-painted signs decorated the large picture windows. Leroy's Barbershop. Merton's General Store. Carl's Diner. Most of the businesses were closed. Not permanently, they were obviously well maintained and operational. No, they were closed because it was Saturday.

Parking spaces abounded, diagonal ones directly in front of the stores. Madison pulled her car into one and put it in park. She was going to explore this place on foot. Better to inspect the town, be able to look in the windows, get a sense of what this place was like and where Kristen might have gone.




Ricky Anderson and Mel "Junebug" Wallace were the volunteer deputies on duty when Madison's red BMW first appeared in town. Quite a few of the young men in the area were volunteer deputies. The arrangement worked for everyone. The Sheriff got a lot of extra manpower that he didn't have to pay, it gave the boys something to do, and helped to keep the peace. The only critical part of the whole deal was the need to keep a strict schedule. The town only had so many police cars, and if you let 'em, you'd have fifteen different guys trying to make an arrest at the same time. And that would just be downright unprofessional.

Despite the lack of pay, there was no shortage of enthusiatic youngsters lined up to serve the community. The perks were outstanding, including free coffee and donuts, and the chance to bring "dangerous lawbreakers" to justice. It was this *hands-on* experience that a lot of the boys craved. Not much happened in the town otherwise.

The expensive red car with the pretty brunette in it attracted the attention of all sorts of people. Before she had even parked, more than a dozen townsfolk had spied her, including five volunteer deputies. All were curious as to who this newcomer was, and why she had come to Doeville. All were wondering where the deputies were and whether this woman would soon be stopped.

And at that very moment, Ricky and Junebug were parked on a dirt road down by the creek, drunker'n a hoot owl and sleepin' it off.

Jim Butler and Billy Johnson were next up, but their shift wouldn't start for another hour twenty. The two were sitting in Carl's Diner, not in uniform yet, eating a couple of pieces of cherry pie and staring right out the big picture frame window. Little Miss Tight-Ass walked right by, clearly searching for something. She inspected every building, peered into every window. She was up to something.

The woman walked by Carl's and turned to look in at the customers. She locked eyes with Jim and then Billy. Jim nodded his head to the woman, never breaking eye contact. Billy took a big bite of pie, slowly savoring it. Mouth full, he gave her a big smile where he tried to keep his mouth closed and still chew. Billy's momma had raised him with manners. He held his fork up in the air and gave it a little wave at her.

She walked past the window, and the two men looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Wonder where Ricky and Junebug went," said Jim to no one in particular.





After maybe half an hour, Madison had returned to her car. Walking was tedious and there were no clues that she could see in the few blocks that she covered in the "downtown" area. Progress would be faster if she would just drive. She didn't know how much daylight she had left. This time of year, she figured the sun would set earlier, but it still looked like late afternoon. 'What time does the sun set?' she wondered. But there was zero cell service out here, and she'd left her copy of the Farmer's Almanac with her horse-drawn wagon and hand-cranked radio. Still, no point in wandering around and getting stuck away from the car after nightfall. It can come up on you faster than you think.

She backed her car out of the parking space and slowly drove down the road. Without consciously realizing what she was doing or why, Madison kept the car under 15 miles an hour. As ridiculous as the idea was, better safe than sorry. 'I'm looking for Kristen,' she would have told herself.

The town center was about 6 blocks long and 3 blocks wide. Larger than she had initially thought. From there, the roads went off into neighborhoods. Small little country houses (crackerjack box houses, her mom had called them) on three sides, with the larger and wealther houses on the North side. No big plantation houses or anything, just larger and nicer than the others. Her own home was the equal or better of anything here in this town.

But nothing sinister or mysterious jumped out at her. There was the water tower, and she was sure she had glimpsed several of these buildings in some of the videos. However nothing stood out in her memory, or seemed especially important. Madison took a slow right towards the wealthier side of town, and then promptly slammed on her brakes.

There it was, right in front of her. A big, ornate three story limestone structure. It was the courthouse. The courthouse from the videos.

She collected herself for a moment, and then pulled the car over to the side. She didn't bother with a parking spot, she just lined it up next to the curb. Nobody was parked on this street anyway. Her hand pulled the door latch and she rose out of her seat, eyes never leaving the imposing monument before her.

The building was in the center of a large block, set back from the road maybe a hundred feet. Green grass, trees, and benches made the area around it seem like a park. It was obviously originally intended to be the center of a town square, but the rest of the downtown had developed to the south.

Madison left her car parked next to the red brick two-story with a faded Royal Crown Cola advertisement painted on the side. The ad looked like it had been there since we fought the Jerries, but Madison only glimpsed it. She walked past the building and directly across the blacktop road behind it without even looking for traffic.

Her gaze was affixed on the old WPA era courthouse. She had practiced in well over fifty, all over Indiana. She had an eye for them. This was definitely the one from her fantas... from the videos. A large bronze statue of an old timey fellow with a bushy mustache stood on a marble pedestal in front of the building. Madison walked past it, barely paying it any heed. Likely some Civil War general or something. No, she was interested in something else.

Madison walked to the right and began to work her way around the building. 'Where is it? Where is it?" Every side had a commemorative decoration of some kind. A large set of bushes with a big stone in the center, and a cannon perched on top. A plaque reading "here we drove off the damn Yankees" or whatever. This kind of crap was common around small town courthouses.

She made it almost all the way around before she saw it. There, on the west side. A big heavy set of wooden stocks. The curious woman walked over to them. They were set on a slightly raised platform, with steps leading up to them. They looked sturdy. Secure. And were positioned at exactly the right height for...

A sudden feeling of uneasiness ran through Madison, and she turned and looked over her shoulder. Far down the street was an older woman walking a tiny dog. A man in an apron had come out the back door of the diner and dumping trash into a dumpster. And way up the street, the two guys she had seen in the diner were sitting on the hood of an old car, one laughing at something the other had said. Nobody was within a football field of her.

Madison turned back to the stocks and ran a hand over the wood. It was solid. No way this was historical, it felt like it had been put in place yesterday. An iron latch connected the upper post to the lower. No padlock was on it. For an instant, Maddie had the urge to unhook the latch and try to raise the upper post. While it looked heavy, she was sure she could lift it. She visualized herself bent over at the waist, wrists and neck trapped in the cutouts.

"I could just try it out," she said aloud. Of course she had no intention of locking it closed on herself. Or even lowering the top beam. She could just raise it up, place her delicate skin on the rough, hard wood, and see how it felt. If Kristen were here with her, they'd take turns, being sure to take plenty of pictures for their social media accounts.

Tentatively, Madison ran her fingers along the cold iron latch. It swiveled up and down easily, as if it had been recently oiled. Just to see, she pushed up on the wood. Wow, it was heavy. She would have to really push hard to lift the top beam. If it were to somehow close while she was testing it out, there would be no way she could open it again. She wouldn't have the leverage. They wouldn't even need the iron latch, or a padlock. Her thighs squeezed tight, the crotch of her jeans rubbing against her pleasantly.

"I wonder what else from the videos is here in town?" Obviously she should check all those places. Kristen would have. Didn't one of those end with the woman forced to be a waitress at the diner? Madison hadn't thought to look when she was staring in the window. 'Excuse me, any slutty waitresses dressed like porn stars in here?'

She forced a chuckle out of herself. Ha ha, very funny Maddie. But the presence of the courthouse and the wooden stocks had thrown her off balance. She hadn't expected to find any of this here. It was all so odd.




A few blocks down, Jim Butler and Billy Johnson checked their watches. Almost time for their shift to start. Just a little longer.

"She looks like she's good to go," said Billy. Sometimes you got one that was just primed for it.

"Oh no doubt," grunted Jim. They'd been watching her for the last ten minutes as she fondled the stocks in front of the courthouse. "You ready to pull her over? That car ain't parked legally."

"We still got a little bit. Besides, I gotta take a leak. I hate havin' to pee during one of these things. Caint enjoy it."

The two men chuckled, then slid off the hood of the '73 Chevy and climbed inside. It started up and they slowly angled down a side street, taking them out of the view of the woman. There was no real rush. They'd be back in a few minutes and then the fun would start.

[ZeeChromosome]

"She didn't bother with a parking spot, she just lined it up next to the curb."

Heh. Heh-heh. Hehe-heh-heh...

Gee, I hope that doesn't become a problem.