Free Sunday Morning: A Damaged Novella by Bijou Hunter

overdrive. I didn’t know what his ideas
entailed, but I figured they were bigger than finding a new apartment.

15 - Kirk
    J odi finished her junior year of high school while
carrying my son. We still didn’t know the gender, but I felt in my bones that my
woman was carrying a boy.
    Each morning, I woke up and watched Jodi sleep. Her
blonde hair usually covered her face, blocking the sunlight. She always slept
on her back, with her hands resting next to her shoulders. Looking so
vulnerable, Jodi needed more than Chesterfield offered.
    The town wasn’t the worst I’d seen, but the schools
were bad, the people were rude, and violence broke out randomly. For my woman
and son, I expected more.
    Ideas spun in my head for a while before I made my
move. I wasn’t scared as much as wary. I knew the men in Memphis could help me.
They might also shoot me where I stood. I never feared dying before, but I had
people to take care of. Death was no longer an option.
    Arlo James was a roly-poly shaped guy I met back in
juvenile hall. He and his buddy Jeff Goldstein broke into an old lady’s house
on a dare. They got caught and spent three months locked up. Both were soft,
rich boys perfect for beatings. More than once, I stepped in to help them.
Mostly, I liked pounding on people and helping them gave me a reason.
    Even with a plush fucking life, Arlo grew up to be
cold inside. He was quick to kill if he could make money and take territory. He
remembered how I helped him out in juvenile hall and gave me a chance to help
him again when he took power in Memphis.
    After all of these years, we retained a sort of
friendship. He used to call on us to do his dirty enforcement work. Though not
as much anymore. There were other clubs with harder members, willing to do
uglier things with better results. The Chesterfield Vandals made messes when
Arlo wanted precision.
    In late June, we met for lunch at a barbecue joint
in Memphis. He brought several big guys along, but they sat near the door and
gave us privacy.
    “I have a kid on the way,” I said after a few
minutes of chit chat. “My woman still has a way to go, but I’m thinking about
the future.”
    “Children are a blessing.”
    I thought about how Arlo remained childless and
realized he and I weren’t so different. We thought our world was too ugly for
families. Jodi changed my way of thinking.
    “There’s a college town in Kentucky run by a small
group of moonshiners. They run drugs too, but they started out as moonshiners,
and they don’t have the brains to do much more. They’re small and disorganized
but violent,” I said and then got to my point. “With your help, I want to build
a new club, take over that town, and give my family a quiet place to live.”
    “What’s in it for me?”
    “The college town has untapped potential. Taking it
would give you a pathway to expand your territory outside of Tennessee.”
    Arlo tapped his fork against his plate. “Tell me
about the club you’re building.”
    “I’d take a few guys from the Vandals. They’re
older and less impressed by our leadership. I know other guys around Chesterfield and in Tennessee. They’re not in clubs, but they’re loyal. Smart guys with
experience.”
    “Think your current club will give you trouble?”
    “I don’t think they’re smart enough to know to give
me trouble. They think of the club as a social thing. The business side doesn’t
interest them. It’s like the fucking Boy Scouts with pussy, drugs, and booze.”
    Seriously considering the plan, Arlo scratched his
balding head and frowned. “Will the moonshiners be easy to remove?”
    “No, it’ll be bloody, but they have no reason to
see me coming. They’re like a lot of crews in Kentucky. Disorganized, only
thinking about this job or that mark. With the right kind of leadership, Kentucky could belong to you.”
    “What do you need from me?”
    “Money and weapons. I can bring the guys. Once
we’ve removed the moonshiners,