week 34: The Food Bank & The Drug Dealer

The staff at the Peril County Food Bank was used to seeing around eight hundred families come through their doors every month. Food insecurity had become a huge issue across all of Central Appalachia, and folks in Peril County sought aid anywhere they could. Ray Carter took his mother, Opal, to the food bank on the third Thursday of every month and the two of them would split what they received. 

Jenny Baker, the director of the food bank, stood behind a long table filled with pre-filled boxes near the back of the room. A pair of volunteers sat at the door, helping folks fill out paperwork and sign in. Ray held the door for his mother, a frail woman in her eighties who used a walker to get around. He had offered several times to just go in and get the food box on his own, but Opal insisted on going in herself. “These nice folks are kind enough to provide for the two of us, the least I can do is tell them ‘Thank you’ to their faces,” she would say practically every month. 

There was a clipboard on the table as they entered Ray knew had to be filled out every month. He picked it up and checked the boxes for ‘Family of 2’ and ‘Receives Government Assistance’ with a blue Black Grass Community Bank pen before signing his name at the bottom. 

“You makin’ it alright, Mrs. Carter,” one of the young volunteers asked Opal as she took the clipboard from Ray. 

The old woman smiled, weakly. “I’m still a kickin’. That’s better than the alternative, I reckon.” She rasped out a dry chortle and shuffled toward the back of the building. Ray snagged a rickety shopping cart as they walked. 

In front of them stood a couple in their forties, dressed in designer clothes. She carried an expensive purse while he stared down at what appeared to be the latest model of smartphone. Ray scanned them both from head to toe, thinking that they didn’t seem to be the typical clientele of the food bank. He watched as Jenny greeted them both warmly and slid over a large box of food. The man seemed uncomfortable, Ray thought, as he slid the box onto a flattop cart and started for the door. The woman held her head high in the air, with a feeling of superiority about her. They exited the food bank and Ray watched as they put their food box into the back of a luxury SUV.

“We feed the greedy to serve the needy,” a voice said from behind Ray. He turned to see Jenny’s smiling, if annoyed face. She tossed a bag of dried noodles into the box in front of her.

Opal shuffled a little closer to the table. “Wha’s that, dear?” 

“Nothin’ Miss Opa. Just something we say ‘round here sometimes. Are you all doin’ alright today?” She slid the large cardboard box toward Ray. 

He took the box and placed it inside their shopping cart. “We’re gettin’ by. Y’all are busy today, huh? There’ cars lined up around the block.”

With a quick motion, Jenny turned and ticked off another box on her tally sheet behind her. “Lot’s a folks needin’ some extra help right now, I guess. I’m just glad we’re able to do something.”

Opal reached her thin arm toward Jenny and took her hand. “You’re doin’ the Lord’s work, honey. Don’t you forget that. There might be some bad apples that take advantage. But those of us that really need this sure do appreciate it,” the old woman said just above a whisper. 

“Well, that’s awful kind of you, Miss Opal. Awful kind. Now, don’t forget your cheese and milk over by the cold case as you all go. We’ll see you next month, ok?” 

Ray pushed the cart toward the side of the room, where a bank of three refrigerator cases sat filled with dairy products. A young man handed them a bag of various cheeses and butter, along with two gallons of milk. “Thank ya, sir,” Ray said as he took the items and placed them into his cart. 

The young girl working the front table pushed open the door and let Opal and her son out. “Y’all have a good day, now,” she said as they left. 

The trunk to Opal’s Oldsmobile Regal Cutlass was tied shut with some plastic lawn mower cord. It took Ray just a minute to undo the knot and place all of their grocers inside. Opal took the keys and started the engine from the passenger seat. The A/C was slow to kick in, so Ray had asked her to get it going as soon as she could. They were loaded up and on the road a couple of minutes later. 

Since they were out, Opal wanted to run a few errands. Stops at the bank, the post office, and the County Clerk’s office were quickly planned and executed. Ray wouldn’t let his mother get out in the heat unless she absolutely had do, so she stayed in the cool of the car most of the time. With some cash, a book of stamps and vehicle registration papers all in hand, Ray and Opal headed back to Gunther Holler. 

“You sure you don’t need nothin’ else while we out, mama?” he asked, turning the car onto Main St. 

“Stop by the smoke shop and get me a carton. I’m out at home.” Opal had smoked since she was fourteen and had a cancer scare back in her 60’s. 

After one last stop, Ray turned the Oldsmobile toward home. It was about a fifteen-minute drive, and Opal’s head bobbed a little as she fought sleep. “Tired, Mama?” he asked, knowing the answer. 

She nodded, weakly. “Ain’t got as much juice in me as I use’ta,” she said as she turned the air conditioner down.

Ray took the box of food and the two bags of cheese and milk out of the trunk and walked into his mama’s trailer. “I’ll put all a this up, mama. Go take you a nap.” She nodded in agreement and went back to her bedroom and closed the door. 

Inside the box, Ray found two bags of frozen taco meat, two bags of frozen meatballs, two jars of pasta sauce, four boxes of pasta, four cans of green beans, and a package of bratwurst sausages. He placed all of the items inside June’s fridge and grabbed a Nattie Ice from the compartment in the door. Opal never drank, but Ray always kept at least a twelve pack in her fridge. 

He ripped open her carton of smokes and helped himself to a pack and cracked open his beer. Her trailer had a small wooden deck attached to the back door that had a metal awning covering it. Ray slithered out the back door and plopped down into a sun-faded deck chair next to a small glass table. A brown ashtray with the Best Western logo in the center sat at the center of the table next to a black cigarette lighter. He sat down his beer and lit a smoke before kicking off his old work boots. 

There was a small creek that ran behind June’s house. The babbling of the water was loud enough to be heard all the way up on the deck, unless a car was driving down the holler. Ray sniffed hard and remembered the stench this creek used to carry past his childhood home. Terry French raised pigs at the head of Gunther Holler decades ago and the runoff would wash right down the creek, past this house. The reek of pig shit floating by is something that would stick with Ray until his dying day. On hot days like today, he swore that the smell would come back now and then, escaping out of the old rocks and water somehow. He took another drag on his cigarette and downed the rest of his beer. 

His foot twitched, nervously. A terrible thought had been running through his mind for over a week now, and today it was eating through his soul like a worm through a Granny Smith. Ray had been working as a CI for the Peril County Sheriff’s Department for the past few weeks and hated every minute. Half of the time, he was buying pills or weed from folks he considered friends. He didn’t touch that meth stuff himself, and didn’t feel too bad about buying it from folks to get it off the streets. But a recent run-in with Sam Anderson had chilled him to the bone. Sam was as bad as they came in Peril County, with a rap sheet as long as his arm. Ray had heard that Sam was already being looked at for burning down a house earlier in the year on top of all the drug stuff. And he knew that crossing Sam Anderson was about as bad an idea as you can have. 

It was just a few days earlier that Ray was picking up some beer at the Speedy Quick when he ran into Sam in the bathroom. “Fancy meetin’ you here, Ray,” he had said as they both stood at the urinal. “Not seen you in a few weeks now. You too good to run up and see me or somethin?” 

The last time Ray had seen this man, he was buying $500 worth of pills off of him. It was the second buy that Raul had sent him on with Sam. Ray could feel something was wrong but didn’t want to give anything away. “I don’t reckon, Sam. Why you askin’?”

“It’s jus’ a funny thang to me that you make two runs up ta my place in a month and then I don’ see hide ‘ner hair of ye since. Y’ain’t quit me, now, have ye?” There was a cool menace to his voice that made Ray’s blood run backwards. 

Ray zipped up his pants and started for the sink. “Naw, nothin’ like that. Just been a little short on cash is all.”

The intimidating drug dealer slammed down on the handle to flush his urinal and walked to the sink next to Ray, never looking directly at the man. “Well, if it’s cash you need, why don’t you get me some a yer mama’s Perc’s. I figure she won’t miss around ten or so.” He washed his hands and shook the water onto the floor. “Bring ‘em up to me in a couple days and I’ll settle up with ya. Figure it’s the lease I can do, right?” He turned and walked out of the bathroom, never making direct eye contact with Ray. 

As he sat on the deck, thinking back on that exchange, a fresh shiver shot through Ray’s spine. “He knows. Don’t know how, but he knows I snitched on him,” he whispered to himself, lighting another cigarette. He sat there a moment, trying to force his brain to come up with some sort of solution. “Tell Raul? Naw, he won’t do nothin’! Some other cop? Doubt they’d care either.” Contingency plans raced through his mind. He could come clean to Sam and hope for mercy. 

Ray took a long drag off of his smoke and snuffed it out in the Best Western ash tray. He bolted up and his head began to spin, just a little. Closing his eyes and grabbing the top of the chair, he felt better after a moment. “She’ll never miss ‘em,” he thought. “I can take ‘em and she’ll never know.” He bounded into the house and crept down toward the master bathroom, where Opal kept her meds. Inside the cabinet above the sink, Ray found an orange bottle with about 12 round pills inside. He quickly shoved the bottle into his pocket and closed the mirror shut. 

“I’ll get her some Aspirin while I’m out,” he thought as he headed for the door, hoping beyond hope Sam was gonna be cool.