As Jay slipped into the passenger seat, he picked up Mary’s improvised pillow. “OK if I use this?” Mary nodded and Jay stuck the rolled up coat behind his head and leaned back. With nothing to do for the moment, he was suddenly aware of how exhausted he was. He closed his eyes and fell asleep quickly, dreaming of black-clad motorcyclists chasing their car through rocky desert. Mary kept her eyes on the gravelly road and tried to avoid the worst of the potholes.
Less than an hour later Jay awoke with a start as the car stopped abruptly and Kip groaned in the back seat. "Shit, this is just what we need!" Mary muttered. Jay looked out and saw a fallen Live Oak blocking their progress.
“Sorry, Kip,” Mary called as she jumped out for a closer look with Jay close behind her. She assessed the obstacle and shook her head. "We've got to move it because we sure as hell can't go over it or around it!” Noticing the charred and cracked base, Jay commented, “Looks like a lightning strike.” She and Jay grabbed a limb and yanked, but even with their combined strength they couldn't budge it.
“Aughh,” Jay gasped as he straightened up and took several deep breaths. “Feels like I pulled a muscle.”
Mary turned back toward the car. “Good point, we're just going to hurt ourselves trying to move it by hand. Pop the trunk and get out the heavy rope. Let’s use the Caprice’s horsepower to move this enough to squeak past.”
Jay reached in and pulled the trunk release. As he swung the trunk lid open and grabbed the rope, he asked, “What if we still can’t move the tree?”
“Then we'll spend an hour backtracking and take a road even worse than this one. God help us if that road has any problems!"
Jay tied the rope just below a fork in the tree. "Shall I tie the other end to the front bumper?"
Mary grimaced. "Not unless we want to rip the bumper off. There's a heavy-duty towing ring welded onto the frame. It's about five inches in diameter located about eighteen inches behind the center of the bumper. If you crawl under the front there you'll see it.”
Jay soon had the rope tied off underneath. He walked to the far side of the tree as Mary put the car in reverse and pulled the rope taut. He watched the tree for any movement and called out, "Nothing yet, give it a little more power."
At first it seemed as if their ‘tree vs car’ event was going to end in a draw. Then the tree moved a few inches. “It’s starting to move. Try a little more gas.” The tree bumped slowly across the gravel road. “OK, we can squeeze by now.” Mary glanced at her watch. “Almost forty-five minutes wasted and we still have a ways to go!”
When they finally reached the cabin, Jay thought, Looks pretty ordinary to me. But as ry pulled around the back, he couldn't hide his surprise. "What the hell!"
The cabin was almost twice as big as it had looked from the front. The back half of the cabin was indented a few feet on each side to make it less visible from the front. So the builders hadn't bothered to disguise its formidable construction. The walls were concrete with small steel barred windows and the door was welded steel.
Mary laughed at Jay's reaction. "Yes, that is how the whole building is constructed, not just the back. When they were done building, they added a facade of split logs on the front and sides to make it look less imposing. The original owners apparently thought of it as an above-ground bomb shelter. Dad bought it for a song from the estate when they died.”Jumping out of the car, Mary told Kip, “Give us a few minutes to get set up for you, OK?" When Kip nodded weakly, she gave him an encouraging smile and closed the car door.
As Mary walked briskly toward the cabin, she reached into her pocket and produced a pair of unusual looking keys. In their years of doing burglaries Jay had never seen keys like these.. She used one to open a lock at the top of the door and the other for a lock at the bottom. Swinging the reinforced door inward, she entered with Jay at her heels.
(c)
2013-14 Charles E. Pierson All Rights Reserved
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