Free That Night at the Palace by L.D. Watson

faded powder blue Model-AA Flatbed rolled up the dirt road. Cliff sat in front with the Chief while Jesse and Jewel rode in back.
    “Pull over to the right where the roads intersect,” Cliff instructed.
    Jefferson didn’t know what the kids were up to, but knowing Clifford it probably wasn’t good. Obviously there couldn’t be too much mischief involved, or else they wouldn’t have invited the Police Chief. The chief had to admit that he was both a little flattered and entertained that the three kids chose to include him in one of their little escapades. Still, as he pulled the truck to the side of the road, Jefferson couldn’t help but fear that giving Cliff Tidwell and his two accomplices a ride could cost him his job.
    As Cliff climbed out of the truck, Jesse and Jewel were standing on the flatbed scanning the area for witnesses.
    “Anything?”
    “No, we’re clear,” Jesse replied as he climbed down.
    Jewel stayed in the back of the flatbed while the two boys pulled the tarp off the watermelons. The three had worked out their plan as they walked home. In order not to raise suspicion in case anyone found the watermelons, the boys followed their normal routine of working at McMillan’s. At around noon the three would have a soda across from Anna-Ruth’s (that was mostly for Jesse). Then they would head over to the domino hall where, if he held to his normal schedule, they would find the chief, and Cliff would talk him into giving them a ride in his truck. Once they were out of town, the rest would be easy.
    “And as soon as Mr. McAlister notices that his crop is missing a couple of hundred watermelons, everybody in town will come after the three of us,” Jesse said, putting an ending on Cliff’s plan.
    “Don’t you get it?” Cliff argued, “Jefferson is our alibi. No one is going to accuse us of stealing watermelons when everybody at the domino hall knows we were with the police chief.”
    Of course, Jesse and Jewel knew full well that, chief or no chief, if Mr. McAlister notices those watermelons missing, those two boys would get the blame.
    When Jefferson stepped out of his truck and saw the enormous pile of watermelons, he almost blew his top, “What have you three done?” he said, almost yelling.
    “Jeez, Jefferson, do you want the whole town to hear us?” Cliff scolded.
    “You three are going to get me fired. Jeremiah McAlister will be in my office screaming to have you kids arrested.”
    “All we’re going to do is haul them down to the shantytown. Besides, he can’t blame us. Everybody in town saw us leaving with you,” Cliff reasoned.
    “That’s the part that’ll get me fired.”
    “Oh, come on, Jefferson,” Cliff went on as he and Jesse began picking up watermelons and handing them up to Jewel, “You said yourself that you’d help those people if you could.”
    “I didn’t say that I’d commit larceny, which is exactly what this is.”
    Jesse and Jewel began to laugh a little, knowing that the chief had lost this battle to Cliff before it even began.
    It became obvious to Chief Hightower as he watched that the kids had no intention of stopping. Realizing that he was involved whether he wanted to be or not he said, “Well, if we’re going to do this let’s make it quick. Cliff you get in the ditch and hand them up one at a time to Jesse. Jesse, you hand them to me and I’ll hand them up to Jewel.”
    In moments the four had the truck loaded. The kids covered the watermelons with the tarp and tied it down. Then, all four hopped into the cab and the chief drove the truck right down Main Street and out to the highway and then up the old dirt road to the shantytown.
    #
    The people of shantytown stayed back at first as the three kids pulled the tarp off the watermelons. Usually when they encountered a police uniform it was to beat them and drag them off to jail or beat them and run them out of town. Either way, it involved a beating.
    The boys seemed unaware of the situation,