chapter 133

word count: 1676

while catching mrs. dunn unawares was not as difficult as tobin and his boys had originally thought it might be,, the battle was not yet won.. yes,, they had managed to get the duct tape over her mouth easy enough,, but getting her into a chair,, and restraining her there was proving to be much more difficult than it should have been..

for a seemingly innocent enough looking old lady,, this broad knew how to put up a fight.. as tobin stood,, gun drawn overseeing his two henchmen as they struggled to keep her in the chair long enough to secure her flailing extremities and restrain her there,, mrs. dunn kicked and scratched and contorted herself in ways a woman of her age should never have been able to achieve.. 

finally, tobin,, having seen enough,, jumped in and slammed the butt of his gun across the back of mrs. dunn’s skull, rendering her deathly quiet,, and helpless enough to be secured in the chair without further ado.. he hadn’t really wanted to hurt the old lady,, and had she cooperated,, and acted like the little old lady she was,, he wouldn’t have chosen this way of subduing her,, but by tobin’s unethical standards,, every second counted,, and the battle with this little lady was cutting into the time he had to work his magic on detective miller,, who after all,, was his intended victim.. 

once they had mrs. dunn subdued,, securely fastened to the chair,, and silenced,, at least for now,, tobin signaled for one of his accomplices, rodney the rooster, (as he was dubbed due to the fact that he had started his career in crime as a look out and would crow like a rooster to signal the guys actually doing the job actually if anything had gone awry and they needed to back off) to move silently toward the living room and get a status on buzz.. 

as rodney the rooster stealthily peeked around the corner,, he saw a scantily clad buzz, reclining in his favorite chair,, wearing nothing more than a ‘wife beater’ tee shirt,, and a pair of sweats, one leg cut off above the knee to accommodate his newly wounded leg.. he was paging through what passed as a newspaper these days,, and sipping on a cold beer.. by all appearances the scuffle in the kitchen had gone unnoticed,, and it looked as they still had the advantage of surprise.. 

rodney nodded to tobin,, cluing him in that it was a go,, and the threesome silently made their way to the entrance way that lead from the kitchen to the living room.. 

tobin entered the living room,, his henchmen dutifully on his six.. 

“well, well, well,,” he sang out as he entered the living room.. “look s like the new albany’s finest,, isn’t doing so well….” 

before he even had the words fully out of his mouth,, buzz triple tapped him in the heart directly through the newspaper.. 

with the advantage of surprise still on his side,, buzz emptied his SIG into the henchmen,, none of them a kill shot,, but he put enough of a hurting on them to buy himself enough time to slip the clip,, and jump into a standing position.. he kicked tobins weapon out of reach and delivered a skillful shot in the direction of each of the prone men, as he screamed “drop your fucking weapons!!”

in one seemingly choreographed movement,, buzz kicked rodney’s  side arm out of reach,, and armed himself with the luger that still lay at his feet.. 

when the uniforms finally arrived,, buzz still stood over tobin’s lifeless body,, his SIG trained on rodney,, and the other man’s luger pointed directly at his head...  

the uniforms sauntered to the door,, and rang the bell,, as far as they knew they were here on a security detail and nothing more..

“take it down!!” buzz yelled at the unsuspecting officers,, who responded immediately by bringing the door crashing off its hinges and onto the living room floor.. 

“i got this!” buzz yelled out to the uniforms as they entered guns drawn,, at this point ready for anything.. 

“my housekeeper,, they got my housekeeper!! they’ve restrained her in the kitchen.. one of you check her  out,, and the other throw some cuffs on these maggots before i change my mind and put a live one through each of their heads!!”

***

if the truth be told,, trudy’s little encounter with father brown in the confessional had kind of pissed her off..  the sisters were kind and understanding,, everything they said to her came by way of a suggestion,, whereas father brown had been less than complacent,, even rude,, telling her to shut up and all,, only to follow it up with a penance trudy had no intention of fulfilling.. 

as she exited the confessional,, she shook it off well enough that none of the sisters seemed any the wiser.. but she harbored her distaste for father brown,, and decided that even though she had confessed her sins,, and as a result was supposedly absolved and in a state of grace worthy of accepting the sacrament,, if it was father brown who was dishing it out,, she was having no part of it.. 

she would cross that road when she came to it,, and by then she would have worked out a story to explain her noncompliance to the sisters,, without directly pointing the finger at father brown.. 

when trudy reentered the kitchen following her confession,, the faces of the sisters glowed with exuberance.. it seemed as though each of them found a sense of peace (or was it conquest) in knowing that trudy’s sins had been absolved, and she was now in a position to begin again,, a brand new life in god’s good graces.. 

“we’ve prepared a lovely dinner.” sister terese said invitingly..

“please come join us in god’s bounty.” sister martha said as she guided trudy to the farm style table.. 

“everything on the table here tonight we either grew or raised ourselves.. we take great pride in our ability to remain self-sustaining, and even greater joy in being able to share it with you..”  remarked sister rebecca as he took her seat nearest trudy on the hard wood bench.. 

the feast was abundant.. there were oven roasted chickens, fresh beans, collards and sweet buttered acorn squash.. milk was  the beverage of choice,, and it was of the unpasteurized version.. trudy had never tasted anything like it before.. true,, she had never been what one would call a milk drinker,, but perhaps that was because it had never tasted like this.. 

“today was a rather unusual day.. we are not often blessed with the presence of a guest,, and therefore built the majority of our day around your being here.. tomorrow i am afraid we will have to revert to our regular daily schedule and we are hoping you will be willing to take part in our humble daily activities with us..” sister esther instructed them as a group,, and they all nodded in agreement when she got to the part about trudy’s joining them in their normal daily routines.. 

“you see young trudy, ( wow trudy couldn’t help but think to herself.. no one had called her young in quite some time).. we are a community of farmers.. our vocation is to nurture all that god has given us,, and often to do so we find ourselves engaging in what some may believe to be tasks of tedium,, but to us it is the work of our blessed lord.. we take it very seriously.."

“you slept through the majority of the chores today,, but tomorrow you will be expected to do your fair share..” sister rebecca concluded in a somewhat motherly tone.. 

“we believe that idle hands are the devils plaything,, and there for, come sunrise you will be included in our routine daily tasks..” chimed in sister ruth..  “ i was hoping you would take pleasure in joining me in the gardens tomorrow,, as sisters rebecca and sister esther will be away on a mission of mercy,, and i will be alone in tending to the gardens in their absence.. “

“well sure.” trudy acquiesced clearly having no idea what tending to the gardens might entail,, but willing to give anything a try.. once..

as the meal concluded,, it became evident that cleanup was done as a group effort,, as each sister carefully washed and dried her own dinner service.. sister ruth washed the pots and pans as the other sisters fell into step wiping counter tops,, shining appliances,, sweeping floors,, returning items to the cupboards and the small ice box (and i literally mean an ice box)..

trudy looked on in amazement as everything just seemed to get done,, quickly and efficiently.. in fact she was so caught off guard as to the ease of operation with which the sisters saw to the task at hand,,  that she really didn’t stop to think what part she should have been taking in all of this.. 

it was then that sister terese approached her with a large cast iron pot filled with what appeared to be a full days vegetable trimmings and table scraps.. 

“these will need to be delivered to abraham and sarah.. they are anxiously awaiting their arrival no doubt.” she said as she handed the heavy pot off to trudy and began walking toward the back door.. 

“abraham and sarah??” trudy looked puzzled.

“why our hogs of course..” sister terese continued,  “you will find their pen just up the path,, to the left past the facilities.. careful now,, don’t lean in too far,, sometimes they can be rather,, shall we say,, over exuberant??”

a titter of laughter rose up amongst the sisters and willed the cool night air in the kitchen.. 

“you’ll be needing this..” sister rebecca said as she handed trudy’ a lighted coal oil lamp,, which trudy struggled to take from her without upsetting the contents of the heavy cast iron pot..

with that,  sister rebecca swung the kitchen door open wide and trudy disappeared into the dark moonless night..