I gave a low whistle. This was big news. The son had been a real tragedy; I had gone to his funeral. Mike had loved the boy, even though they had often fought, and had been crushed after his death. It had never even entered my mind that he would ever have intentionally killed the kid. The boy hadn’t been Mike’s biological son, he had been adopted, but you never would have thought it to see the two walk through the woods together. The kid was growing up, and therefore sometimes the two butted heads, but never to the extent that they would have ever come to anything. Mike being drunk while out hunting with his son seemed a bit more likely but he was a sure shot, even drunk I couldn’t see Mike ever hitting something he hadn’t meant to. No, I believe with all of my heart that Mike was telling the truth about his gun accidentally discharging while he was carrying it. It had been an old gun, and not properly taken care of, it was fully likely.
“What’s going to happen to Mike’s neighbor?” I asked.
“Not sure yet,” Paul told me. “That’s what everyone wants to know. I mean they were drunk and it wasn’t on purpose but the man still killed Mike. I hear his lawyer wants to plead self defense, that Mike was endangering his life so his neighbor was within his rights to kill him. It could go either way I guess. No matter what though the man better get out of the area, unless he wants Mike’s daughter gunning for him.” I nodded. That family was the sort that would meet violence towards their family with violence and the daughter had loved her father very much. Mike had been good to his kids; say what you like about the man himself.
“So any news about the family, is the daughter on the war path?” I asked Paul.
“Well, right now they are still feeling the shock so I don’t think so. Besides, I think they’ll let the state do its thing first.”
“That family has such bad luck. First the son and now the father, just the daughter and mother left right?”
“Yeah, maybe the mother will keep her daughter from going vengeance crazy, it would be sad if the daughter did something regrettable.” Paul sounded doubtful and I knew why. Both the son and the daughter had inherited Mike’s quick temper and stubbornness, something that their mother didn’t have. If the daughter did decide to do something it was very doubtful that her mother could stop her even if she tried. Mike’s wife had always struck me as a very sad and put upon woman, who let everyone do what ever they wanted. With Mike gone I couldn’t help but wonder how she would handle their remaining child.
“So anything else big happen while I was gone? Floods, fires?” I asked. I was getting kind of annoyed by the way I had to ask for people to tell me these things. I had been riding the bus for years now, hadn’t I earned the right to know when something happened to one of the usual group, even though I was kind of an outsider. I have already acknowledged that I am not really one of them, I am over educated, overly successful; own a car, things like that. Well you know how it is, there’s a class difference that I can’t manage to past with them. Paul makes good money, I know this for a fact, but I don’t bother asking him where it goes. It isn’t into buying himself any form of transportation other then Baby, I do know that.
“Nothing else really happened. Isn’t that enough?” he asked. I had to admit he was right. That was enough excitement for any community and probably anything else that had happened had been drowned out by the noise about the murder.
To be continued...
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