Tuckaleechee

As soon as Lynnette got the call she began researching where her grandparents had been buried in the Tuckaleechee Primitive Baptist Church cemetery. She looked up Tuckaleechee, it meant "Happy Valley" in Cherokee. The stories of those hollows didn't seem very happy to her. She had a dim memory of her grandmother's funeral. It was the only time she had ever set foot in Tennessee in her life. She was eleven at the time. Her cousin Rollie was there too. They became instant best friends. However, when he dared her to touch their grandmother's corpse, she reached up and opened one of her dead blue eyes, proving she had no fear of anything, poor Rollie took off running. He kept a wary eye on her after that. Still, he took her fishing and showed her how to string corn on her hook instead of a worm. He was two weeks older than her and felt responsible as the older cousin. He also warned her about snakes.

When Aunt Mamie died she must of told the social worker to call Lynnette. This was something Lynnette couldn't understand. She had kept in touch with Rollie, calling periodically so she could tease him about his accent. He gave it right back. Rollie hadn't talked to Aunt Mamie in over ten years. "Nettie, she went up on that mountain and we never heard from her again." He said. Lynnette was puzzled. The social worker Miss Pam had told her there was a home and five acres of land. Aunt Mamie was ninety-two years old. Rollie told her she ought to drive down from Wisconsin to see it and look for a will. Lynnette went ahead and made arrangements for Aunt Mamie's burial at Coker Hill.

Driving through Kentucky made Lynnette nervous. When she saw the moon rising over the mountains, it looked huge. She thought, "Wow, it really is blue!" Blue and ominous. She felt silly. Still, it felt good to get out of the ice and snow so she put it out of her mind. The mountains were beautiful even at night in the moonlight.

Rollie offered to drive Lynnette to Aunt Mamie's cabin on the mountain. As he drove, they talked. "What do you think she left us?" Lynnette said as she gripped the truck's armrest. Rollie was steering Big Red as fast as he dared up and down the winding mountain passes. "Probly nothin." He snorted. "But it's worth a look." Lynnette sighed. She pictured old 1970s cassette tapes and Avon bottles. Aunt Mamie collected both she remembered. "I hope there's some family photos." She replied. "You know there won't be any money." Rollie laughed. "We couldn't win a fortune if we was the only ones playing the lottery." Lynnette laughed. He was right.

"Now look at this." Rollie said as he point Big Red onto the gravel road that began the climb up the mountain. An older pickup truck appeared out of nowhere and began to follow them as close as it could get. Rollie eyed them in the rearview mirror. Lynnette noticed the man was steering with one hand and talking into a radio with the other. A walkie talkie. His truck was kicking up gravel. Just as suddenly, the truck disappeared off the road. A minute later, another one came peeling out behind them. They were almost to the top. As Rollie pulled up in front of an old dilapidated trailer, the truck kept going on down the road to the dead end turnaround, revving his engine menacingly as he did so. Rollie jumped down. His pistol on his waistband with his hand on it encouraged the driver to keep on going. Lynnette looked closer and saw a chubby dirty woman with stringy long hair plastered up against the driver. Repulsed, she grabbed her purse. Taking her own pistol, she slipped it into her back waistband. She called out to Rollie, "Are we here? Is this it?"

Rollie was a big man. Intimidating. Years of shoveling coal had put some muscle on him. Lynnette felt safe and was glad he had come with her. He handed her the key to the trailer. Miss Pam had left it with him for her to collect. She pushed the old wooden door inward. The first thing to hit her was the smell. She had waited two weeks to come down here because she knew from Miss Pam that her aunt had been dead a while in the house. Rollie let out a noise "Whooey!" he exclaimed. Lynnette started picking her way down a little trail that cut between boxes, garbage, old mail, magazines, newspapers, old laundry, and buckets. She began to unconsciously count the five gallon buckets as she walked by. All were lidded. She stopped counting when she got to twelve. By then, she had arrived at the back door. She opened the door and almost fell out! Rollie grabbed her just in time. There were no steps. She looked down with Rollie looking over her shoulder. There was an enormous pile of human waste!

"Oh my God!" She yelped as she covered her mouth and nose. "This is just crazy." Rollie was already looking at the kitchen sink. "Let me just..." as he tried to turn the water on. Nothing came out. Turning from the kitchen, Lynnette began to maneuver into the bedroom. It was dark. She avoided looking at the camp bed where her aunt had died. She edged over to an old dresser with several drawer fronts falling off. Pulling out a bottom drawer, it balked. She yanked harder. The drawer came all the way out. A musty smell rose up. Lynnette looked at her hand. A rusty red sludge was all over it. She wiped it on her jeans. She peered into the hole where the dresser drawer was supposed to be and saw a beat up green metal box. Reaching in she got her hand around the old metal handle and yanked it out. Rollie yelled out from the other room, "Watch out for snakes!"

Rollie called out "I can't take this stench anymore, I'll meet you outside!" Lynnette turned and slowly picked her way through the piles of garbage. Holding the box above it as she stepped. She could hear one of the trucks had come back and was racing up and down in front of the trailer. "Oh this is just too much." she thought as she went. Taking one hand she reached back and felt the gun. Feeling better she emerged into the sun and fresh air on the front step. Rollie was standing by the back of Big Red. Both hands were on his waist. "We got to go sis." was all he said. She didn't disagree. As they drove down the mountain she saw that greasy woman again She was sitting on a rickety wooden porch in a faded glider. She had a shotgun laying across her knees. Lynnette waved and smiled. No response. Well, at least not from the woman, her goat grazing by the fence lifted up his head and made a squealing noise as they went by, "And don't let the gate hit ya where the good Lord split ya" she imagined he was saying.

Rollie forced the lock off the metal box. Eyes big, his mouth fell open in surprise. Bundles of money were neatly stacked. There were multiple ID cards with variations of Aunt Mamie's picture with fake names on them. And there was a little black book. It looked fairly new. Lynnette opened it up. Written on the pages were names and dollar amounts. It didn't say why or if the money was owed or collected. Rollie was busy counting money. The lists went on all through the little black book. Lynnette felt sick inside. She looked at Rollie and said, "I think this is drug money. We should take it to the police." Rollie took a deep breath. She handed him the book. "Do you think she wanted to be a part of this?" Rollie shook his head, "I don't know. Could be she needed money, could be they made her do it. Either way, no one would suspect a little old lady of being a dealer. Drugs is bad around here. Real bad. We just buried my nephew from an overdose a month ago."

There was twenty thousand dollars in that box. "We can't keep it Rollie." Lynnette said. "If we do, they will come after us." Rollie said, "If we go to the police they will just keep themselves. They don't make much money and half the time they are in on it." Lynnette felt another wave of nausea. Her lips were tingling. She couldn't seem to get that smell out of her nose. Rollie lived three hours away from Aunt Mamie's house and they hadn't been followed. She just wanted to go home. "You keep it Rollie, or you turn it in." She said suddenly. "I don't want nothing to do with it. I went there looking for a will, not having to make one for myself!" Rollie smiled. He patted Lynnette on the arm and said, "Why don't you go take a shower and throw them clothes in the garbage."

Lynnette was waiting at the top of the on ramp to get on the freeway to go north when she heard an engine revving behind her. She looked into her rearview mirror. A young man was grinning at her like cheshire cat. He revved the engine again. His head was shaped like a Jack O' Lantern. His greasy hair hung over his eyes. Lynnette moved her car up closer to the one in front of her. He revved his engine and this time brought the car even closer almost hitting her bumper. Lynnette glanced over at her purse. Her pistol handle was sticking out of it so she could grab it quickly. She gazed steadily at the grinning face. Suddenly, the light changed to green. She went straight and the grinning pumpkin went left. She let out a sigh of relief. She wouldn't miss Tennessee.

Her cell phone rang. Her husband's cheerful voice boomed on the other end, "Well what did you find? Did you get anything from the old bat?" Lynnette grimaced as she replied, "I got nothing honey, nothing." "Are you kidding?" He said. "I'm not." She replied. "I got nothing and I'm happy about it." I'll be home in about 9 hours. Love you!" She could hear him say "Love you" in a dejected tone as she tossed the phone onto the seat. She turned up the radio. Dolly Parton's song "Smokey Mountain Memories" was playing. She began to sing along as she drove home. The tears sliding down her cheeks were for Aunt Mamie. She would never know if her Aunt wanted to live like that or not. "Rest in peace Aunt Mamie," she prayed, "Rest in Peace."