Leaving Live Oak

Leaving Live Oak

    Seeing no point in putting off moving to Birmingham, Willa Sue calls a moving company in Jacksonville called, Two Men and a Truck, to ask if they move people long distance?

    "Yes," says the woman who answers the phone.

    "Can your company pack everything up for the people you are moving?"

    "Yes, but that costs extra."

    "No problem. How soon can you move us to Birmingham, Alabama."

    "Let's see, today is Monday. How about Wednesday?"

    "Can you get us into our new apartment by Friday? We have to fly to Los Angeles on Saturday."

    "Yes." 

    'Ok. We are in Birmingham now. We have an apartment rented and ready for us to take possession. We will drive to Jacksonville today and come to your office in the morning and make it official."

    "Okay. Can I have your names and street address In Jacksonville?"

    "Actually, we live in Live Oak, 27 Jaybird Road."

    "Okay, now your names, please."

    "Willa Sue Jenkins and Riley Strange."

    "Come again?"

    "Willa Sue Jenkins and Riley Strange."

    "For real?"

    "'Fraid so."

    "Lawdy mercy! I'm Emerald. This is me and my husband Leroy's company. If it was up to me, I'd move ya'll for free."

    "We will pay."

    "I'd still move ya'll for free, but those two men need to be paid and we also have truck and insurance payments, gas and maintenance costs, and office rent and expenses."

    "We tip good, the two men will be happy after they get us moved."

    "I'll tell them that."

    "We'll see you tomorrow morning sometime, God willing and the creek don't rise."

    "It seems God, or something, is definitely on your side, Sista. My goodness, did you two set things a fire on Oprah, and then you burned everything down on Larry King Live. When's Riley gonna announce he's running for president?

    "Riley is telling me I'm supposed to run for president so he can be 1st husband."

    "You wanna be president, Sista?"

    "No more than I suppose you do. Riley don't want to be president, either."

    "Well, America has gone to hell and somebody's gotta make it great again."

    "Good Luck even Jesus doing that. Look how hard he tried in the Bible and how it went after that."

    "Amen to that, Sista. Still, I think Riley will turn the government every which a way but loose, and that's what's gonna really need to happen. My nephew is over there in Afghanistan. He say it's an awful place, even without the shooting and bombing, which he is seeing lots of up close and personal. He's lost friends there, and he wonders when he's gonna be next? He says America declared war on Islam, a religion that has more people than Christianity. Islam thinks it is supposed to rule the world. Muslim people think all others are infidels. Fighting infidels is God's holy jihad. Dying for God is the highest honor. They are not afraid to die.  And my nephew is over there trying to help some of them beat others of them, never knowing if he's gonna be stabbed in the back when he ain't lookin', or sold out and ambushed and blown up with a road bomb or a rocket grenade. And here President Bush and Vice President Cheney be wanting America to invade Iraq, which don't seem to have had nothin' to do with 9/11. Riley needs to be president, 'cause he's the only well-known, respected white American who ain't afraid to stop Bush and Cheney, and the rich white American men who want to make a lot of money off two wars their white sons won't ever see boots on the ground about."

    Willa Sue is pretty sure Emerald isn't white.

    Willa Sue is pretty sure, if Riley runs for president, he will receive the black and liberal white vote, and It will be a kinda civil war all over again, and before it's all over, somebody will try do to Riley what happened to President Kennedy and his brother Bobby and Dr. King and Malcom X- and Jack.

    And there's the ringer: deep down inside, Riley's burning rage and soul-searing loss over his brother's senseless death in Vietnam. 

    Just as deep down inside, Willa Sue's withering wrath toward President Bush and his brother, Jeb, who prosecuted Riley for saving her life and healing her body and her soul.

    While they are diving to Live Oak, strangerthanfiction.com receives this comment.

Lorraine in Perth, Australia:

The problem is too many Willa Sues and not enough Rileys.