Free Dom Wars Round Three by Lucian Bane

with his weird smiling face and wide eyes.
    I looked around at the rundown place. The lights were on in two windows unfortunately. He could be drunk. "Let's get this over with."
    We all got out and I reached for Tara 's hand which she accepted with a strangle hold. We walked up to the old rickety porch and thankfully the ferocious pit bull I'd imagined charging out of nowhere never came. The sound of music made its way to us from inside and I listened.
    Blues?
    I looked at her. "Is he…black?"
    " Yes," she whispered.
    Oh fuck. "Add that to our worst-case scenario. Three white strangers. On his property. Uninvited. In fucking Alabama."
    Steve made the sign of the cross and kissed his fingers then boldly knocked loudly on the wood door frame before taking two quick steps back.
    The music stopped suddenly and I was sure we all held our breath. Uneven footsteps grew louder and we all took another step away from the door.
    A light came on overhead from a naked bulb and the door opened. The whites of his eyes came first followed by his towering frame. She forgot to mention he was a giant.
    "Mr. Sennat?" Tara waved.
    His eyes narrowed as though the name irritated him. "Who the hell are you? What you want?'
    "It's me, Tara, from elementary school! Um. I was just…in the neighborhood and wanted to see you."
    " Tara who ?"
    " You were the janitor at my school. A great janitor, wow. I remember how amazing you kept that place."
    " I was fired from there. A little white brat got me fired, lied on me."
    " Ohhhhh right! I remember that! I knew her."
    " Maybe you was her best friend." He opened the screen door to reveal a massive wall of shirtless black muscle. "What the fuck you doin on my property? You don't look like girl scouts. You better not be Jehovah's Witnesses either, I'll fuck you up. Blaspheming sons-of-bitches."."
    " Indeed," Steve said. "No, not Jehovah's Witnesses. Catholic. I am."
    He glared at Steve. "Now there's a brood of snakes. Biggest cult goin." He eyed me next and nodded. "What about you white boy? What God you serve?"
    Shit. I raised both hands in surrender. "I…haven't really made it that far yet."
    He gave a light harrumph and looked at Tara next.
    "I just need to talk to you Mr. Sennat. For a few minutes and then we're gone."
    " For what ? To tell stories about me?"
    " No, no, no." Tara shook her head. "Just…I need to make things right."
    " Right." Like he'd never heard the word before.
    " I'm…the girl that um…that um…"
    " Spill it lady," he growled.
    " I'm the girl that…knows the girl that got you fired."
    I gave a mental eye roll as the man stared at her for many seconds. I wished to hell I knew what was going through his mind before he acted on it.
    Hadn't Tara said he'd become a drunk? Funny, I didn't smell booze on him. And he was clean-shaven, with neatly trimmed graying hair.
    He opened the door wider and stood aside. "I got a few minutes."
    We all walked into his house. A bare bulb hung from the ceiling, but the light inside came more from a pair of antique-looking glass wall lamps, one above an armchair, the other over one end of a couch. A scarred coffee table sat in the middle, with an ancient television on a stand opposite the chair. The large wood-burning stove in the corner could heat both levels of the house.
    The front room looked the same as it might have forty years ago, judging from the wallpaper covered with giant faded peonies. I almost missed that I'd slipped back into the vernacular of my childhood. I glimpsed a kitchen through the doorway before us, worn, but immaculate, from what I could see. A door by the single chair led to a dark room.
    Mr. Sennat waved us to the couch and we sat. I kept hold of Tara's hand, and she didn't resist, just sat there staring around as if she'd been dropped on another planet unexpectedly.
    Our host dropped into his chair and waited, elbows on his knees. From the scowl he wore, he expected we were there to bring his peaceful little world crashing