Frannie burnt the meatloaf.
She didn’t burn it on purpose of course. Frannie loves meatloaf, and she knows how much I love her meatloaf. It’s my favorite meal of the week really. So it isn’t her fault that she done burned it.
It’s that damn Ernest (he likes to be called Ernie) Ringle from next door. He’s always got his nose in everyone else’s business. Ernie’s pushing at least seventy five. I don’t know for sure and I ain’t never asked because I don’t really care to tell you the truth. But Ernie comes over and knocks on the door.
What did he want? I ask Frannie when she tells me why the meatloaf got burnt up.
“He wanted to know if I seen any rats in the yard,” she says.
“Why in the hell would there be rats in the yard?” I ask her.
She shrugs and gives me the look I know means she thinks my question’s too stupid to answer. “You gonna let me finish telling you what he comed over here for or not Lyle?”
So of course I roll my eyes and wave my hand at her. “Go on then.”
She says, “I told him I ain’t seen no rats. But I says to him, well Ernie, ever since old Ms. Winters died two doors down, ain’t no one been taking care of her yard and that grass is real high now. You know she didn’t have no kids or family or nothing Ernie.”
Frannie says that set Ernie off and he said he was gonna go on down to old Ms. Winter’s house and have himself a look at her yard. And if there was rats in there, he was gonna call someone.
Frannie asks him who he’s gonna call and Ernie says he don’t know but he’ll figure it out.
After that, Frannie goes back to watching her soaps on TV while the meatloaf cooks in the oven.
“It weren’t but five minutes later and I hear the most godawful hollering I ever heard Lyle.”
Now I’m interested in the story. Up to this point I’m just mad my meatloaf’s burnt up. But now I’m interested.
Frannie says she went out to the front porch, and there’s Ernie, running up the street. He runs right up onto her porch, his face all red and he grabs her arm. “Frannie, you gotta come see. Oh lord, I ain’t never seen nothing like it. Come on Frannie.”
So of course Frannie goes with him. I ask her what she did that for. She says, “Well why wouldn’t I go with him Lyle? He’s an old man, Lyle. He was upset. So of course I go with him.”
I roll my eyes again and Frannie ignores me and continues.
“We let ourselves right into Ms. Winter’s yard from her side gate. And Lyle, he was right. I ain’t never seen nothing like it. There was rats back there. A bunch of them. They was everywhere. They was in the yard, on the porch, everywhere. I swear it. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t believe no one said this thing. But I seen it.” She shakes her head.
“But what about the meatloaf?” I ask.
Frannie sighs. “I’m telling you about a yard full of rats and all you can ask is about the meatloaf?”
“I’m hungry Frannie! I done worked all day long, and now I’m hungry, and you’re sayin’ we ain’t got no supper so what am I supposed to do?”
And now Frannie is all worked up. “All you care about is your stomach. That’s all you got me here for. That’s only reason you married me ain’t it Lyle? Five years of marriage and all you care about is what I cook you for dinner.” She starts smacking things around the kitchen. The kitchen smells like burnt meatloaf.
Now it’s my turn to sigh. “Oh, for cryin’ out loud Frannie. Fine. I’m gonna go out and get us some dinner. Alright? I’ll go out and get us some dinner.”
And Frannie turns to glare at me. “Maybe I wanna go out to dinner. Maybe I wanna go out to a restaurant. Don’t you want to take me out? You don’t want to be seen with me or something now? You just want to keep me in this kitchen?”
I throw my hands up in the air. “Fine! We can go to a restaurant. Fine. I don’t care. But let’s go, I’m starving okay? I’m really starving.”
Frannie huffs. “I can’t go out, I ain’t ready. I’m still in my house dress. And I gotta fix my hair up before I can go out. I can’t go out looking like this Lyle.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, Frannie. I’m just gonna go get us some food. Okay? And I’ll take you out this weekend. Okay? We’ll go out bowling and to that pizza place you like this weekend, okay Frannie?”
Now she’s happy I agreed to take her out this weekend. “Alright. That sounds fine with me, Lyle.”
“Great. I’ll be back in a few.” I hurry out of the house and back to my truck before she can stop me again.
Rats. I can’t believe it. There ain’t no way there are rats like that. How would that many rats get back there?
Except…
I think I know exactly how them rats got there. I been trying not to think about it for the past couple weeks.
But now it’s all I can think about. See, I was coming home from work one night. It was pouring cats and dogs. It rained so hard I couldn’t hardly see the road. I wasn’t even driving fast. I was thinking about maybe taking a few days off the next week for a little fishing trip. That’s what I was thinking about when the bicycle appeared in front of me. I slammed the brakes on but it was too late. The road was slick from the rain and I hit that bike. I heard a thump, and then another thump and then the truck stopped.
The windshield wipers were going, and everything was shiny out the windshield. I sat there, holding the wheel in both hands.
I thought maybe I was in shock. Did I just see what I thought I saw? Because I thought I saw a man’s face seconds before he disappeared.
Thump. Thump.
I shoved the door open and jumped out into the pouring down rain. And laying on the road behind the truck, I saw him.
Everything in a red glow from the lights on my truck.
I hurried over to the mound on the ground. The bicycle was all wrecked up and bent. And the man lying there on his stomach.
I turned him over. “Hey!” I said over the rain. “Hey, you okay?”
I don’t know why I said that, because it was pretty clear he wasn’t okay. When I rolled him over it was all I could do not to throw up. His face was all smashed up. There was blood everywhere. His jaw looked like it wasn’t all the way connected to his face no more.
I ain’t never seen nothing like it.
There weren’t no one else around. I looked both ways, didn’t see nothing. It was dark, it was raining, I was on a side road that ain’t busy.
So I made up my mind.
“I’ll be right back. Stay here. I’m gonna go get help okay? I’ll be right back.”
I don’t know if he could hear me or not. He wasn’t moving.
I jumped back in the truck. I got it in my head I’d hurry on to the gas station and use the payphone there to call for help.
But then I got another thought in my head.
Ain’t no one seen me do it. Ain’t no one knew it was me. But what if I got in trouble for driving away? Even if I was going to get help? The guy was dead. I was sure of it. He didn’t move none. Didn’t make a sound. He had to be dead. Which meant I’d killed him. I’d killed him with my truck. I got out of the truck again. I walked around it, looking it over. It didn’t have hardly no damage. A little scuff mark on the grill, that was it.
I got back in my truck and watched the rain fall.
I got out of my truck again. I shoved the tailgate down and tossed the bent up bike into the back. Then I lifted up the man and dragged him up into the truck bed as well. He didn’t make a sound. He didn’t even move none at all. I couldn’t look at his face, it made me so sick to see his jaw hanging off.
I shut the tailgate and got back in my truck.
At first I didn’t know where I was gonna go. I thought I might take him on to the hospital. But I still didn’t want to get in trouble. Then I thought I could use that payphone at the gas station still. Call for help. But what if they blamed me?
In the end I headed home. But I couldn’t tell Frannie. What would Frannie say?
Just before I got to my driveway, I saw old Ms. Winter’s house. Dark as the night. No lights on. She’d died months ago. I went around the block and drove up the alley behind our houses. I stopped outside her back gate, took a look around. The rain made it hard to see, and I didn’t see none of my neighbors.
It didn’t take me long to dump the bike and the man in the backyard. He was dead. I knowed he was. So I put him under the big oak tree in her yard. Then I got back in my truck and drove on out of the alley and around the block again and right into my driveway.
And now there are rats.
I decide I’ll just head into town and get some food from the Big Boy. They got good fried chicken and that sounds about right to me, starving as I am. Plus, they got that fudge cake Frannie likes. I think I’ll take her a piece and she’ll be happy with it. I don’t wanna think about them rats no more.
Back at the house, Frannie’s on the phone when I get in. I put the food on the table and grab a beer from the fridge. “A hundred rats, I swear it, Shirl. I swear it was a hundred if not more.”
She’s talking to her best friend Shirley and I take a long swallow from my beer bottle after I pop the top. “Food’s gettin’ cold,” I say loudly.
“Shirl, I gotta go. I’ll call you later.” She hangs up the phone on the wall and sits at the table.
The fried chicken is good, not as good as the meatloaf woulda been but a man can’t be picky.
“Where you think all them rats is coming from Lyle? It’s a lot of rats. I swear if one gets in here I’m gonna lose it. I will just lose it.”
“I don’t know Frannie. Why you worrying about it? It ain’t our problem.”
“It’s gonna be our problem if them rats spread and get into our house. Then it will be our problem. I’ll tell you this right now Lyle. If I see a rat in this house I’m not staying. I’m not staying here while there’s a rat in here. I’m gonna go down to the Motel 6 if I see a rat in this place. I’m telling you right now.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, Frannie.”
Just after I sit down in front of the television, and Frannie is washing up the dishes, there’s a knock on the door.
It’s Bob from down the street. He’s got his raincoat on and a flashlight in his hand. “Lyle, Frannie, you hearing about these rats over at Ms. Winters’ place?”
“Come on in, Bob,” Frannie says, all eager like she’s been waitin’ for an excuse to gossip more about them rats since I don’t wanna talk about it. “You seen ‘em too?”
Bob shakes his head, water dripping from his raincoat onto our good floor. “No, but Ernie’s got half the neighborhood riled up. Says we oughta do something before they spread.”
“Like what?” I ask, not really wanting to know the answer.
“Well, that’s what I come to tell you. Ernie’s called the county. They’re sending someone out tomorrow morning to take a look.”
“County? What’re they gonna do?”
Bob shrugs. “Exterminator probably. Maybe health department folks. Ernie says it ain’t natural, that many rats in one place.”
Frannie’s nodding like one of them bobblehead dolls. “It ain’t natural, Bob. I seen it with my own eyes.”
After Bob leaves, I can’t focus on the television no more. Frannie keeps talking about the rats, but all I can think about is the county coming out. They are gonna find more than rats.
“I’m tired,” I tell Frannie. “Going to bed.”
I don’t sleep a wink that night. Just lay there, staring at the ceiling, listening to Frannie snore.
Morning comes, and I’m at the kitchen table with my coffee when I hear the commotion outside. Blue lights flashing through our front window.
“What in the world?” Frannie says, coming in from the bedroom in her robe and slippers.
We step out onto the porch, and there’s two squad cars and a van that says “County Health Department” parked in front of Ms. Winters’ place. Neighbors are already gathering, watching.
Ernie’s out front, talking a mile a minute to one of the officers. He points at the backyard, and they follow him around the side of the house.
“Let’s go see,” Frannie says, already tying her robe tighter.
“Nah,” I say. “Let them handle it.”
But Frannie’s already halfway down our steps, so I follow her. What else can I do?
By the time we get there, a small crowd has gathered. Officer Mendez, who I know from the VFW, is keeping everyone back. “Please stay clear, folks. Just stay clear.”
“What’s happening?” Frannie asks Mrs. Hill from across the street.
“Don’t know,” she says. “But Ernie was going on about rats, and now the police are here.”
I stand next to Frannie, hands in my pockets, trying to look just as curious as everyone else. Just another neighbor wondering what all the fuss is about.
It ain’t long before we hear the shouting from the backyard. Then Officer Mendez’s radio crackles, and he gets a serious look on his face. He disappears around the house.
Twenty minutes later, they string up yellow tape around Ms. Winters’ property. “Crime scene,” I hear someone whisper.
Another police car shows up. Then an ambulance, but they ain’t in no hurry. Then a black van with “Medical Examiner” on the side.
Frannie’s beside herself with excitement, talking to anyone who’ll listen. “I told you there was something wrong with them rats. I told you!”
I stand there, watching. When Detective Reynolds shows up—I know him too, from high school—he starts asking if anyone’s seen anything unusual lately. When he gets to me, I just shake my head.
“Nothing unusual, Lyle?” he asks.
“Just the rats,” I say. “Frannie saw ‘em yesterday with Ernie. I was at work.”
He nods, writes something down, moves on.
By lunchtime, they bring out a body bag. The crowd gets real quiet. I hear Mrs. Hill start crying, even though she don’t know who it is.
Detective Reynolds addresses the crowd. “We’ve found human remains in the backyard. We’re treating this as a suspicious death. If anyone has any information, please come forward.”
Nobody says nothing.
“How long you figure that body’s been there?” Bob asks nobody in particular.
I put my arm around Frannie when she shivers. “Come on,” I say. “Let’s go home. Nothing we can do here.”
Back at our house, Frannie can’t stop talking about it. Who could it be? How’d they die? “You think it was murder, Lyle? You think someone killed that person and dumped them there?”
I shrug, flipping through channels on the TV. “Who knows?”
“Well, I hope they catch whoever did it,” she says. “Imagine, a killer right here in our neighborhood.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Imagine that.”