Cody heard the PA speaker at the top of a pole whine with feedback, followed by the voice of the master of ceremonies:
“We’ll be announcing the winners of yesterday’s BBQ contest in about fifteen minutes at the amphitheater. Also, the Dog Agility Competition will start at ten o’clock, and the seats usually fill up by nine-thirty, so get there early if you want to get a seat!”
Cody was standing in line for the ticket machine. The device would charge a person an exorbitant fee in exchange for tickets to be used at the various games, food stands, and events for the festival. Cody had resolved to use every last cent of the $50-prepaid debit card he had been given by the newspaper for “incidentals”. He was going to sample every last fried food oddity he could get his hands on –even if it killed him.
He figured he deserved something good from this shit assignment.
The woman in front of Cody had a screaming baby in one hand, and a massive brown purse made of cracked, worn out leather in the other. She held the baby in the crook of her arm while digging through her purse.
“Dammit! Earl! You’ve still got my debit card!” the woman yelled at a man standing in line for the high striker.
Earl didn’t seem to hear her at first, or he just didn’t want to, because he continued his conversation with a young woman in the line wearing a pair of cut-off jeans, cowgirl boots, and a white tank top. Cody thought the young woman was easily a nine on the ten-point scale.
“EARL!!!” the woman with the baby yelled again. “Stop acting like you’ve got a shot with her, and get your ass over here with my debit card!”
Earl turned around. Cody could see the scowl on his face, but Earl also obeyed. He came to his baby-mamma like a dog with his tail between his legs.
“What the hell baby! I gotta start all the way at the beginning of the line now!”
“Just give me my debit card,” the woman said with a drawl, and shoved her hand in Earl’s face.
Earl looked at her for a moment, then dug into his pocket and pulled out the debit card.
Then Earl turned around and stormed off. He muttered: “Fucking bitch,” as he walked by Cody -but not loud enough for his woman to hear.
Cody then waited another five minutes while Earl’s woman figured out how to work the ticket dispensing machine.
As Cody waited, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced down at it:
Senator Johnston cheats at the BBQ contest. Meet me at the entrance to the haunted house in an hour for details.
Cody stared at the text message. It was from a phone number he didn’t recognize.
Senator Brandon Johnston? Cody thought.
Johnston was the Senator for State Senate District 32, which included Hockharth and a few other cities to the southeast of Austin. Solidly Republican for a generation or more, it had gone narrowly Democratic in the last couple of years thanks to all the northerners and Californians that moved to Austin and surrounding areas. Senator Johnston had been District 32’s first Democrat to hold that office since the late eighties.
Cody felt hard tapping on his shoulder followed by:
“Excuse me! Sir!” a woman said behind Cody. “It’s your turn!”
Cody looked up and saw that Earl’s baby and momma were gone.
“Sorry,” Cody said over his shoulder and walked up to the ticket dispensing machine.
###
The amphitheater was filled to capacity by the time Cody arrived to watch the awards ceremony. The word “amphitheater” was a bit more impressive-sounding than the reality. This part of the Hockharth Eighteenth Annual Barbeque Festival was located in the public park next to the Hockharth Independent School District building, and consisted of a series of three stone arcs at successively higher elevations. The diameter of the largest arc was probably no more than 80 yards. People were sitting on these stone arcs, looking down on a small brick stage slightly raised off the ground. The stage measured about 12 feet by eight feet. During the fall, the student theater group at Hockharth High put on a few plays, but it didn’t otherwise get much use.
“And second place goes to….” the Mayor of Hockharth said from the brick stage, then tore open an envelope, and pulled out a card.
“Jimmy Ray Jones!”
“Oh! Oh!” A full-figured black man wearing a white button down shirt with suspenders and a bowtie stood up. “I don’t believe it!” the man yelled. As he walked to the stage, he pushed his thick coke-bottle-lens glasses back up on his nose, and his big belly bounced in time with his steps.
When Jimmy Ray got to the stage, a young woman standing next to the mayor -Miss Hockharth 2017- handed him a trophy.
“Well Jimmy Ray, after four years of competing, you finally placed,” the mayor said. “Anything you’d like to say?”
The mayor held his microphone in front of Jimmy Ray.
“As a lot of you know…” Jimmy Ray said as he took his glasses off and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief, “…my Momma passed away last month. I wish she could have been here to see this. Thank you so much! I love you Momma!”
The mayor put his arm around Jimmy Ray’s shoulder for a moment, and whispered something to him.
“Let’s all have a moment of silence for Jimmy Ray’s mother,” the mayor said.
Everyone was quiet, and most people bowed their heads.
Cody looked around the audience until he found Senator Johnston, sitting next to his wife, Malary, and their four-year-old son, Brandon Junior. Cody noticed that Senator Johnston’s head was bowed and his lips seemed to be moving in prayer. Malary Johnston stared straight ahead, and seemed about as comfortable as someone sitting on a tack.
I mean Malary Godwin-Johnston, Cody thought with sarcasm.
Mrs. Johnston insisted on the use of the hyphenated last name.
After a minute, the mayor said: “Thank you.”
Jimmy Ray returned to his seat, and was received with numerous pats on the back from the people around him.
“And now, what you’ve all been waiting for,” the mayor said. “First place in the Hockharth Eighteenth Annual Barbeque Contest goes to…” he pulled out another envelope, and tore it open.
The mayor read the name on the card, then looked up and smiled. “For the fourth straight year in a row…” people began to clap and looked at Senator Johnston, who stood up. “Our first place winner is none other than Senator Brandon Johnston!”
Cheers erupted as Johnston walked down to the stage. Cody peered at Johnston’s face as he walked by.
Johnston had a broad smile, and his eyes seemed to twinkle. He walked with a spring in his step.
It’s like this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him, Cody thought. He seems genuinely happy that he won. How could anybody who cheated be that happy about winning?
Cody began to doubt that whoever sent him the text message knew what they were talking about.
###
Cody Lee was at the entrance to the haunted house at the time designated in the text message. He watched as a group of giggling teenage girls handed the person operating the entrance gate a wad of tickets. One of the older girls glanced over at Cody while he was still watching them. She turned back to one of her girlfriends, and whispered something to her. Then, they both turned and looked back over at Cody. He looked away. He wasn’t so far out of his teenage years that girls that age didn’t still fill him with anxiety. He had never dated in high school, and his current relationship with Clementine was only his second.
Cody looked at the people across the way shooting bb-guns connected to a pneumatic air system, allowing for rapid-fire at paper targets. A man in a cowboy hat and boots was chiseling out a nickel-sized hole in the bulls-eye of his target.
Why am I here? Cody thought as he watched the cowboy shoot. If I could just keep my mouth shut I wouldn’t have to do these shitty freelance jobs for the paper. I’d have a fulltime job with a steady income.
But Cody couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Stating the truth was almost a compulsion for him. It all started at a party he had attended right after his second interview at the Austin American Democrat, the city’s largest-circulation newspaper.
Complete Story Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Come-Read-Stories-Outside-Space-ebook/dp/B07D6FXKLT