Second Chance:

CHAPTER 45

After the crash was heard outside the house, Charlie was up in a heartbeat and already grabbing at a pair of pants sitting on the rocking chair in the bedroom. He could see headlights from his window and could see the remains of his fence in the driveway. But apparently the car had hit the large stump of the ash tree he had cut two years prior and destroyed the front end of the older Honda fairly efficiently. He grabbed his jacket and the shotgun out of the closet since he had no idea who it was or what was going on. He met Cindy in the hallway on his way out.

“Call the police and tell them someone just crashed into the fence. Red Honda, but can’t see anything else,” he said.

“What do I do after that?” she asked with fear in her voice.

“Stay on the line and watch my back,” he ordered and bounded down the stairs. Before going outside, he checked just in case there was something else amiss in his front yard. He could see the driver outside the vehicle staggering around and looking at the fence. It appeared to be a drunk driver who had gotten extremely lost. Charlie went onto the front porch with the shotgun in both hands at a high port position.

“Stop right there!” he ordered at the figure who looked to be trying to figure out a way of getting the car off the stump. Charlie could see now the motor was on top of the stump as well as the front end being destroyed.

“Hey mister, I’m kinda lost and think I hit something,” slurred the man as he turned to see Charlie on the porch.

“Yeah bud, you are a little lost. Why don’t you just lean up against your car right there and hold on ‘til help arrives,” said Charlie.

“I can get my car off this and get out of here. I gotta get home,” slurred the man and staggered over to the front of the car. He pushed at it, but ended up slipping on the grass and falling face first.

“Come on now bud. I’ll get you some help out here and get your car moved,” said Charlie in a calm voice.

“Don’t need any help! Just need to get my car off this durned stump,” said the man and attempted to push it again.

“Let’s just remain calm, okay? Your engine is stuck on that stump and you can’t get it off without a tow truck,” said Charlie calmly.

“Don’t need no tow truck, you’ve got a truck, just hook me up and yank my car off it,” said the man.

“Might hurt your car more if we do that. Why don’t we just wait for the tow truck,” suggested Charlie in a friendly voice.

“I’ve got to get home, my wife’s gonna kill me for being out so late,” slurred the man. “Come on dude, give me a hand here.”

“I already called for a truck, just lean up against your car and it will be here in no time,” said Charlie, trying to remain calm.

“You called the cops didn’t you?” slurred the man, turning towards Charlie.

“Nope, just called for someone to help you,” said Charlie in a calm voice.

“You called in the cops! You’re gonna get me arrested!” yelled the man and started taking steps towards the porch.

“Now just hold it right there. I don’t want any trouble,” said Charlie and swinging the shotgun down slightly. The man couldn’t see the weapon because of the dark and his intoxication level.

“Well, you got trouble comin! Callin the cops on me!” he slurred and took additional steps towards the porch.

“You stop right there!” ordered Charlie in an authoritative voice and racked the slide on the shotgun. It gave the man pause for thought since he knew what the sound he heard was, but the alcohol was affecting the higher levels of his brain. He figured he could dash the distance between the two and take the weapon away from this rude farmer.

As the man began his dash, Charlie swung the shotgun towards him and fired off the first round in the barrel, a slug round, into the ground near the man’s feet. The loud blast along with the fire produced by the shot stopped the man in his tracks just as efficiently as if he had been hit with the slug. Charlie immediately followed up the shot by racking the slide again, pointing it right at him and activating the flashlight mounted on the fore end of the weapon.

“Now you listen good, bud. You’re on my property in the middle of the night. You threatened me and charged me. You take another step and I’ll bury you out in my back forty and nobody will ever know what happened to you. The next shot will kill you, understand?” he growled in a low voice.

“Yes sir,” said the man timidly.

“Now you are going to lie down on your stomach, put your hands out to your sides and we are going to wait for the police. Am I being perfectly clear?” asked Charlie in the same growl.

“Yes sir,” the man said timidly again.

“I told you to get down, don’t make me put you down,” said Charlie as a warning.

The man started getting to his knees, but in his drunken state, he fell onto his side. But he did remember the simple instructions given by the mean farmer and rolled over onto his stomach and stretched his arms out. Charlie still had the shotgun pointed in his direction, keeping the flashlight on him as he waited for the Deputies to arrive.

“Charlie? Is everything okay?” Cindy asked from inside the house, sounding fairly scared since she heard a gunshot, but not much afterwards.

“Yeah, they tell you when they will get here?” asked Charlie over his shoulder, but not looking.

“When are they going to get here?” asked Cindy into the telephone. She received her answer and relayed the message. “She said less than ten minutes.”

“Tell them I have the man subdued in my front yard. I’m armed and will be waiting for them,” said Charlie over his shoulder again. “You! Do! Not! Move!”

The man had been trying to lift his head to look at the man to his front. But Charlie’s new orders made him put his head down once again. He heard Cindy telling the dispatcher his message and also informing them he had already fired a shot. Charlie wanted to avoid that part as the dispatcher might relay the shots fired call and generate a lot of panic to the responding patrolmen.

“The dispatcher wants to know if you hit him,” asked Cindy.

“Tell them no. Tell her not to relay there were shots fired,” said Charlie.

Cindy relayed the new message to the dispatcher and was told the Deputies were less than five minutes away now. Time seemed to stand still before the rotating lights on the cruiser were seen through the trees coming up to his house. The car pulled up behind the Honda and one spotlight was put on Charlie and the other on the man on the ground. Charlie relaxed slightly and slung the shotgun over his shoulder after putting on the safety.

“Charlie? You okay?” asked the deputy from behind the car.

“Yeah Dale, I’m okay,” he replied.

“What happened here?” asked the Deputy.

“Drunk wandered down my driveway, went through the fence and hit that ash stump,” said Charlie.

The other deputy was busy applying the handcuffs to the man on the ground and patting him down. He withdrew his head after getting a whiff of the odor of whiskey on the man.

“Whew! He was doing something serious tonight,” said the second deputy as he waved for his partner to help him lift the man to be put in the back of the patrol car.

“Charlie? You want us to call a tow truck?” asked the first as he grabbed one arm of the man. After he was on his feet, they did a quick pat down and found nothing out of the ordinary.

“If you boys don’t mind,” said Charlie.

“I’ve still got the dispatcher on the phone,” said Cindy.

“Ask her to send out a tow truck,” said the first deputy as they walked the man over to the car. His stagger would typically have been comical, but in this case, it wasn’t funny at all. Cindy relayed the request over the telephone and ended the call.

“Looks like he took out a bunch of your fence,” observed the second deputy as he swept his flashlight over the damaged fence.

“Better the fence than the house,” said Charlie.

“Well, that’s one way of looking at it,” laughed the first. “You want to make your statement tonight or come by in the morning?”

“Might as well get it over with tonight,” said Charlie. “You can go on back to bed.”

“After all this?” asked Cindy. She was amazed at the calmness of Charlie after a drunk had run over the fence and threatened him.

“I’m going to just be writing a statement, that’s all,” he said.

“I’ll put on a pot of coffee,” she said and went into the kitchen to start a pot for Charlie and the deputies. The second was out administering a portable breath tester to the man in the back seat. The normal assortment of field sobriety tests were out of the question as the man was clearly not able to perform them.

“So give me the fifteen second version of what happened,” requested the deputy. Charlie started from the time he heard the crash until the time the deputies arrived, telling them everything that happened.

“You mean he charged you?” asked the deputy as another cruiser showed up. “They’re going to take him back to town to process him.”

“Yeah, but a bark from shotgun gave him pause for thought,” said Charlie.

“We can add on assault as well, or attempted assault,” said the deputy.

“Nah, not a big deal Dale. I talked him out of it,” said Charlie as he poured a cup of coffee for the deputy.

“Surprised he’s still alive. Folks out here might not have called us,” laughed the deputy, taking the mug. “You know I picked up your niece a few weeks ago at the gas station?”

“I heard. Not specifically it was you, but I heard about it,” said Charlie.

“Had some boy dropping her off and he split like he didn’t want to be there. Figured it might be in my best interest to give her a ride home,” said Dale.

“I appreciate it,” said Charlie.

“She was going to try to walk home, but I wouldn’t let her,” said Dale.

“She’s stubborn like that,” said Charlie.

“What was she doing out so late anyway?” asked Dale.

“Late date. I already got into her about that,” lied Charlie.

“I shoulda had a talk with the boy about that. Bringing back your niece that late,” said Dale.

“Trust me, already accomplished,” said Charlie with a wave of his hand.

“I’ll keep an eye out on her from now on and if I see him wandering around, I’ll chase him off,” said Dale.

“Appreciate it,” said Charlie as he started writing out the statement after being given the piece of paper by the Deputy. He write out what he knew and went to the time the deputies had arrived on scene and taken over the suspect. After finishing up, he reviewed it before handing over the paper to the deputy. After further review, the deputy clarified a couple of points and had Charlie add them into his statement.

“Where’s he from anyway?” asked Charlie as he finished the answers.

“Johnson City and way lost. He’s part of the transplant community over near Buffalo Mountain and got turned around as best as we can guess. Won’t be driving for a while from now on though,” said Dale.

“No kidding. And I have to replace the fence!” exclaimed Charlie.

“I can ask the sheriff if he wants to put him to work on fixing yours up,” said Dale.

“Don’t bother. I need it fixed sooner rather than later,” said Charlie.

“Something to keep in mind while he’s serving his time with us,” said Dale. “Anything else we can do for you?”

“No, I think we’re okay for the moment,” said Charlie and showed the deputy to the door. After shaking his hand he went back in to find Cindy asleep in his recliner with Spazz on her lap once again. Somewhat of a permanent partner in crime, he tended to follow her around the house when she was doing things and slept on her bed at night. He brought a throw blanket over and attempted to cover her up without disturbing the kitten, but waking him up in the process anyway. He stretched out and looked up at Charlie as the blanket was dangling in front of him. The knotted edging was quickly batted at even though he had just woken up as he figured Charlie had brought him something to play with. Charlie managed to pull him up before he woke Cindy and got her covered up by putting the kitten on his shoulders. Spazz attempted to balance as best as he could before sinking in his claws slightly into Charlie’s shoulders. But Charlie managed to get the blanket on before the pain was too bad and got the kitten back on her lap. He playfully swatted once again at Charlie before purring and knitting on the soft blanket and curling back up to go to sleep. Charlie gave him a good scratching on the head before he went back to sleep.

He headed into the kitchen to turn off the coffee pot and would catch a quick nap himself before starting the day. The adrenaline had finally worn off entirely from the situation earlier and he was crashing back to where his body was supposed to be at. Heading upstairs, he decided a nap might be in order before the morning and set the alarm for an hour and a half from then. As he peeled off his pants, he worried again about Cindy’s safety at the farm and made further plans for places she could bug out to. And in that, he wanted safety in numbers as well as defensive depth. He had someone in mind, but would need to run that by Mitch before acting on it.

********************

“Morning sleepy head,” said Charlie as Cindy stomped into the kitchen after waking on the recliner. She had her early morning grump look and sat down at the table. Spazz peeked around the corner as he evidently was up and ready to play. He had followed Charlie into the kitchen earlier, but had resumed his perch on her lap after he figured Charlie wasn’t going to play with him that early in the morning.

“Morning,” she said with a yawn.

“Exciting night last night,” he observed as he flipped the eggs.

“Just a little,” she remarked before heading over to get Spazz his breakfast as well. Play time could wait until he finished eating. Charlie finished up breakfast and served it up while she finished getting Spazz his breakfast and grabbing the milk from the fridge. After the breakfast, they both dug in and started eating in silence. Charlie could see she had something on her mind, but didn’t ask just yet. Finally, she got the nerve up to say something.

“You uhh, you think you could give me some shooting lessons?” asked Cindy quietly.

“You think you’re ready to handle that?” asked Charlie.

“Well, last night I kind of felt like the fifth wheel. I mean, I felt helpless about the whole situation and didn’t know what to do. I want to be able to protect myself,” said Cindy.

“I think we can arrange something. You caught up on your schoolwork?” he asked.

“For the next week,” she grinned.

“That’s my girl,” he said. “Tell you what. With your photographic memory, I’m going to give you a book to read. You read it cover to cover and answer my questions about it and I’ll start your lessons. Deal?”

“Okay, what’s the book?” she asked.

He went over to the bookshelf in the study and looked over the second shelf until he came across The Field & Stream Firearms Safety Handbook. Taking it down, he handed it over to her.

“There is a lot of good information in there about the safe handling of firearms. Remember the rules of firearms and you’ll be good to go. Now, the shooting lessons will be different, but gun safety rules won’t change no matter what kind of weapon you are using,” he said.

“So this afternoon then?” she asked.

“You think it’s only going to take you one morning to read all that?” he asked.

She gave him the look she typically did when he thought she couldn’t do what she wanted. “Whatcha doing this morning?”

“Going to size up the fence I have to replace and figure out what materials I’ll need,” he said.

“Need help?” she asked.

“Nope, I’ll make the mental list and see what I have already instead of buying more,” he said.

“Sensible. What do I need to do?” she asked.

“Read about firearms safety,” he said.

“Besides that,” she said.

“Just that for the morning. Not a whole lot you can do while I’m looking around,” said Charlie. “You sure you can finish that book before lunch?”

“Ever see me not accomplish something I set my mind to?” she asked, getting more confident by the day.

“Okay, just checking. Pop quiz at lunch then,” he said, hoping he remembered everything in the book as well. He knew she could and would call him out if his information was incorrect. After she walked out scanning the first few pages, he grabbed a second copy to skim over himself. It never hurt to brush up on his own knowledge base.

********************

“So always treat all firearms?” he asked over lunch. He had supplemented the book knowledge with some other lessons that would assist her.

“As if they are loaded,” she said.

“Keep your finger?” he asked.

“Off the trigger until you are ready to fire,” she said with a mouthful of chips.

“When clearing a firearm, you do what?” asked Charlie.

“Safety, magazine, chamber, safety again,” she said. “But why check the safety twice?”

“Some weapons can’t be put on safe until the hammer is reset. Like my AR15 for example. I store it in the ‘rack safe’ condition which means I pulled the trigger on an empty chamber. The safety won’t go on until I pull the bolt to the rear,” he said.

“So you check the safety twice just in case it wouldn’t go on the first time. Makes sense,” she said.

“How do you store firearms?” he asked.

“Firearms should be stored unloaded…but do you keep them that way?” she asked.

“I keep a round out of the chamber, but loaded otherwise. Since it’s typically just me out here, I don’t worry too much about others finding my guns loaded. But it’s something I should have thought about since I’ve had you around. My mistake,” said Charlie. He knew there were serious issues with having an unloaded weapon you relied on for defense. But the difference in storing a firearm and keeping one readily available was huge. He would have to explain that fact to her another time as he wanted to imprint the basic rules of firearms safety to her right then.

“Can’t enforce the rules on me if you don’t follow them as well,” she chided him, thinking she caught him short for once.

“Yeah, you got me there,” he said and continued with his lessons. “Remember your target and what’s?”

“Behind your target,” she said.

“Now why is that?” he asked.

“Because if you miss, you could hit something else,” she said.

“And what other reason?” he asked.

“I…just because if you miss right?” asked Cindy, thinking he might be trying to trick her.

“Well, that too, but for another reason not really in the book. High powered rifle bullets aren’t like the movies. They can and will zip right through an animal and hit what’s behind them. Some bullets are specifically designed to go through body armor and normal flesh and bones won’t slow them down as much. So you need to be mindful of what load you are using when you are shooting at a person or an animal,” said Charlie.

“I’ve got a lot to learn I see,” she said.

“Not really. You’re a quick learner and will be able to pick this stuff up quick,” he said.

“How bad is the recoil? I mean, it’s one thing in the movies and another in real life,” she asked.

“I won’t start you out on anything harsh, I promise. It’ll be something gentle starting out, a .22 rifle, a .410 shotgun and probably a .32 pistol. We’ll figure out what you like along the way,” he said.

“You kind of lost me,” she said.

“Different calibers for different weapons,” he said.

“Got it,” she said.

“You want to learn one in particular first?” asked Charlie.

“Which one’s the hardest?” she asked.

“None are harder than the others, just different skills to apply each,” said Charlie.

“So which one would take the longest to learn?” asked Cindy.

“Again, some folks pick up on it quicker,” said Charlie.

“Okay, which one kicks the hardest?” asked Cindy.

“Probably the shotgun, but I’ll be starting you off with some mild loads,” said Charlie.

“I want to learn the shotgun first then,” she said.

“It’s not easy to start with a shotgun,” warned Charlie.

“Better to learn the hard ones first, right?” she asked.

“Well, all three are challenging. Different kinds of firing for different kinds of systems. Rifle, pistol and shotgun are all slightly different when you shoot them. Same fundamentals, but different ways of pulling the trigger,” he said.

“You’ve lost me again,” said Cindy.

“Okay, shooting a shotgun and leading a target. You’ve got a larger spread on the shot pattern, right? It’s not like leading a target with a rifle. A rifle is one bullet as opposed to a cloud of smaller bullets from a shotgun,” said Charlie.

“Okay, I understand,” said Cindy.

“Again, I’ll start you off easy and work you up to something larger when you get comfortable with it,” said Charlie.

“You have enough ammo to teach me?” she asked.

“More than enough,” said Charlie. “But a quick learner like you shouldn’t need a whole lot of ammo right?”

“Of course not. I’ll be a sniper before you know it,” she laughed.

“Only with your mouth,” he laughed.

“Not fair! I’ve not been sassy in a long time,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll give you that,” said Charlie. “You get your daily chores done and I’ll dig out the stuff.”

“We’re starting today?” she asked.

“No reason to wait. Might as well put your newfound knowledge to work,” he said.

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