BOOTLEG LOVE

PROLOGUE PART 2

Ottwell Ontario, 1918... 

            Evangeline watched from the window as Payton cut wood for the fireplace. Placing a log on the tree stump and swinging his axe with all his body in the swing chopping the wood in two with one blow. He looked strong and attractive. It was strange the feeling she had developed for him. Over the last year, she had begun to look at Payton Kingston in a different light.

            She loved the way his dark hair fell in his dark eyes as he worked and the way he would wipe it out of his eyes with dirty, calloused hands. At sixteen, he was as big as any man and strong. He had really begun to fill out. His shoulders were broader, his limbs were stronger, and his waist was narrow. She loved to watch him work. The perspiration beading on his brow, the way his sweaty shirt clung to his body. He invoked strange desires in Evangeline that she had never felt before.

            Only he still looked at her as if she were a kid. Like they were still kids rushing around outside, climbing trees and playing games. Evangeline looked down at her own body. She was thin and short, shapeless like any ten-year-old boy. If it were not for her long golden mane, a person would be hard-pressed to guess she was a girl. 

            “Evangeline!” Her governess snapped. Evangeline looked back at the woman that had raised her and educated her. Her hand was on her hip, and the other was waving at her with disapproval. “You are not even paying attention. This is important. How will you ever accomplish anything if you daydream all day?” She said, coming to look out the window to see what had distracted her pupil. She frowned when she saw Payton. “I see.” She said, drawing the drapes closed. “You know how your father feels about you associating with that boy. He is no good.”

            “He is too.” Evangeline snapped, defending Payton.

            “He is the help.”

            “So are you.” Evangeline barked, causing the woman to stiffen her back.

            “I am trying to teach you how to be a lady, how to be a productive and useful member of society. That Kingston boy will only drag you down. You best sever your twisted relationship.”

            “It is not twisted; we are friends.”

            “Men and women cannot be friends; it is imposable.”

            “Well, that shows how much you know; Payton and I are best friends. Nothing you say will change that. So just do your job and keep your opinions to yourself.” Evangeline snapped.

            Her governess stiffened her back offended and left the room. With her gone, Evangeline stood up and headed outside. She smiled at Payton and waved to get his attention. Spotting her, he buried the axe in the stump and smiled back at her as he wiped the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his shirt.

“You look tired?” She said, coming closer. “Maybe you should take a break.”

            Payton looked at all the wood beside him; he had yet to cut. “I really don’t have the time. Your father wants this cut by dinner.”

            “A little break won’t hurt none.” She said with a smile as she walked over to the bench in the garden and patted the seat next to her. “I am bored. Entertain me.”

            Payton laughed and took the seat next to her. “And how shall I do that?”

            “Tell me a joke?” She suggested scooting closer.

            “I don’t know any jokes clean enough for a lady’s ears.” He confessed. “I know a few dirty limericks.”

            “Ok, tell me one of those.” She said.

            “I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He said, shaking his head. “Your father...”

            “Oh, hell with my father, he never mattered in the past. Why should he now?”

            Payton looked down at his dirty hands as if he knew something she didn’t. “Evangeline, we are different, and you know it. Your father has made that painfully apparent. I need this job.” He said, looking up at her with regret in his eyes.

            “So, what are you saying? That we can’t be friends anymore?” She asked, gazing into his dark eyes. For a moment, she thought she saw something in those deep dark eyes that led her to believe his feelings for her may have changed too.

            Evangeline’s mother came barging out of the house in an absolute rage. Payton came to his feet respectfully, as did Evangeline. Her mother was furious about something, and behind her in the doorway was her governess, grinning a wicked grin. “Listen here, young lady. I will not have you continue to waste your time on w*********h rednecks when you should be learning your studies. You are better than this… this… piece of human dirt.”

            “Hey!” Payton barked, insulted.

            “You stay out of this.” Her mother warned. “You have always been a problem, one I now intend to rectify.” She smiled. “You are fired.” She said flatly.

            Payton looked shocked and horrified. “Fired?”

            “You and your lazy mother.”

            “Lazy?” He barked, stepping forward and causing her mother to step back in retreat. “Listen here, you… sea cow; my mother is a hard worker. She has worked her fingers to the bone for you and your ungrateful family, and you haven’t so much as even bothered to learn her name. You never lift a finger around here because of her hard work. You just sit around on your fat ass running your big mouth. My mother is a saint, and you can take my job and go to hell.” He said, pushing past her and leaving the property.

            “Well, I never.” Her mother grasped her hand at her breast, shocked. She then grabbed Evangeline by the arm and dragged her toward the house. “It is high time we got out of this cursed town and moved.”

            “He was my friend.”

            “He was trash.” She said, pushing Evangeline into the house. “And you will never see him again. Your father is expanding his business, and we are moving up in the world.”  

            Evangeline pulled away, horrified. She couldn’t mean what she thought she did. “What do you mean?”

            “At the end of this month, we are moving to the city. To a much bigger house and a better class of people.”

            Moving? She had spent her whole life in Ottwell, and now she was expected to uproot her life and leave her friends behind. She would never see Payton if she lived in the city. It was true she would never see him again.

***

            Payton had gone for a long walk after he was fired. He didn’t know what to do. He and his mother had lost their jobs, and Trenton had been out of work for months now. They were going to starve to death. Worse, he had burnt his bridges with Evangeline’s family. There was no way they were going to allow her to remain friends with him. If they hadn’t disliked him in the first place, they would hate him now for the things he said.

            Payton wanted to be alone, so he took a stroll through the woods surrounding his home. He was lost in thought when he heard a noise from behind the bushes. It was big, was it a bear? Cautiously he crept around the bushes and stumbled across something he couldn’t believe. It was his brother Trenton who scrambled when he noticed Payton. He quickly tried to hide what he was doing, but Payton had already gotten a good look.

            “Is that a still?” Payton asked, coming for a closer look. “It is! You are making moonshine.” He paused and then looked at his brother. “This is illegal.”

            “I know. Why do you think I was hiding it?”

            “You can’t do this; you could get arrested,” Payton stressed.

            “I know, but it is a stupid law. Really we can die for our country in some godforsaken war, but we can’t have a damned drink.” Trenton barked. “It is ridiculous. There are men coming back from the war, more every day, and they are coming back to a place that has gone crazy with ridiculous liquor laws. With all they have done and seen, don’t you think they ought to have the right to get s**t-faced if they want?”

            Payton stared at the still considering his brother’s point. It was a good one. It was a ridiculous law. Why shouldn’t a man be able to get a drink if he earned one?

            “Payton, think about it. There is money in bootlegging.” Trenton said, coming to stand in front of him. “So much money. We could make a killing. We could finally have nice things, a big house. Mom would never have to work again.”

            That got his interest, his poor mother not having to cook and clean until she was dead on her feet for rich jerks that didn’t appreciate her efforts. Still, it was a crime, but was it one he could break and still live with himself?

            “So, what do you say Payton, are you in or are you out?” Trenton asked, pouring him a mug of moonshine and holding it out to his little brother.

            Payton took the mug and lifted it to his lips, taking a big sip. It was good. Trenton had made a high-grade product. It would sell like hotcakes. Trenton might have stumbled on to an empire. Payton took another gulp draining the mug in one shot. “I’m in.” He said, handing the mug back to his brother.

            Trenton finished up what he had been doing when Payton stumbled across him. They made sure everything was as it should be, and then they headed back to the house. They were less than a hundred feet out of the bush when they heard their mother scream. They both broke into a hard run heading for the house. They burst out of the trees into the clearing to find their mother sobbing hysterically and hugging both her son and her long-lost husband. Remington Kingston was older now with a short beard and age lines on his weathered face, but he was smiling. Colton, on the other hand, had grown into a fine man in the two years he had been gone. The war had really changed him.

            Tempest Kingston kissed her son’s cheek and then her husband’s lips holding both so tight like she was afraid she was dreaming. The long war was over, and both had returned home safely but to what. To a home they were going to lose. To no work, no way to put food on the table, but despite the hardships, everyone was smiling.

            Remington turned around to look at his boys. It had been four years since they stood face to face. He looked so happy and sad at the same time. “Look at you two. You are practically men.” He said with pride. “I have missed so much.”

            “You boys, come inside. I have dinner all ready. It is sparse, but I think we can stretch it to feed everyone.” His mother said, ushering her family into the small one-room shack they called home. Payton and his brothers had been born in this house, but he would be damned if he allowed his mother to die in it.

            They ate their meagre meal and talked about the years they were apart. Neither his father nor brother wanted to talk too much about the war, saving their family from the horrors they witnessed. It was over anyway; it was time to put the past behind them and look to the future. With Trenton’s scheme and quality booze, they could get out of this town and make a real future for themselves. But as they sat and talked, Payton couldn’t help but wonder what his father would think of what they were doing.

            After his mother went to bed for the night, Payton, his brothers, and his father took it outside. Once out of sight, his father took out a small silver flask from his pocket and took a big swig and passed it to Colton, who did the same.

            “You know that’s illegal now,” Payton informed them.

            “So, I have heard.” His brother said, passing the flask to Trenton. “A ridiculous law.” he scoffed.

            “I killed men and watched my friends die. I fought for my country and did despicable things.” His father said. “Only to come home and be told the freedoms I have fought for have been revoked that I can die for this country but not get a goddamn drink. To hell with them. After coming home to ruin and poverty, I need a bloody drink.” He sighed and took the flask back. “I just wish I knew how I was going to put food on the table. Your mother deserves better than this.”

            Payton couldn’t agree more. It sounded like his father felt like Trenton, and he did. “We have something to show you,” Payton said, looking at Trenton, who seemed to understand what he was thinking.

            “What?”

            “It is not here: come with us,” Trenton said, leading them into the woods and straight to his still. His father and brother were shocked to find the still.

            Remington looked at his sons. “You did this?”

            Trenton nodded and poured two mugs handing one to Colton and then his father. “Try it.”

            They both did, and Payton waited on bated breath for his father’s opinion. “It is damn good,” Colton said, draining his drink.

            “What do you think?” Trenton asked their father, who was finishing off his drink and staring thoughtfully into his empty mug.

            It was a long time before he spoke, but when he did, they all smiled. “I think we got ourselves a family business.” The idea was appealing. The four of them in it together. “Just don’t tell your mother.”

            “She is going to ask where the money is coming from,” Payton said.

            “Let me deal with your mother. I will find the right way to break it to her.” He said, holding his mug out to Trenton. “Filler up.”

***

            Something moved past the window, and Payton shot up in his bed that he shared with Trenton. The house was so small there were only two beds. When they were younger, the three boys slept together, but they were too big for the small bed as men. So he and Trenton slept foot to head on the bed while Colton slept on the floor. He had claimed to have become used to sleeping on the ground, having to sleep in dugouts while bombs were going off. They were all drunk and sleeping it off, but Payton had not yet drifted into a restful sleep, and now he was alert.

            He slipped out of bed and stepped over Colton, who was now snoring loudly. He walked over to the fireplace and took down the shotgun that was mounted above the mantle. Checking to see it was loaded, he headed for the door.

            Payton opened the door and stepped out into the night. He looked one way and then the next. He was starting to think he had been dreaming until he heard a noise around the corner. Lifting his gun, he stepped quietly toward the corner and took aim. The intruder jumped, throwing her arms up in the air. “Don’t shoot.” She cried.

            It was dark, but he would know her anywhere. Payton lowered his shotgun. “Evangeline? What are you doing here? I could have shot you.”

            She lowered her hands and threw herself into his arms. Her face nestled into his neck. Payton dropped the gun and held her. “Oh, Payton, it is so horrible.”

            “What is?” He asked, not sure why she was upset.

            “They are making me move.” She said, looking up at him through long lashes.

            Though Evangeline was still so, young Payton felt a bond to her stronger than he had with any other person. He adored her, and he was sure she felt the same way. Although from time to time, he saw more in her eyes. Something heated, but it could just be in his own mind. At his age, it was typical to see heat in the eyes of every female he came across. He was in that awkward stage between a man and a boy. He was not quite one or the other, and his hormones were confusing him, but he couldn’t help but feel like there were more between them.

            “My parents are moving us to the city at the end of the month. Dad is already there finalizing the deal on the house.” She said, clinging to him.

            Was he hearing her, right? Was she leaving Ottwell? Was she leaving him? He felt an overwhelming loss as he held her close. In a week, his only friend in this world would leave him, and he would never see her again. Oh, cruel fate, to take away the one thing that meant the world to him. He looked down into her eyes, saddened by her confession. In those eyes that had smiled at him so many times now, he only saw sorrow. She didn’t want to leave either, but they were both too young to prevent it. She had to go with her family, and he would be left behind and forgotten.

***

            Evangeline stood by the car, watching the road. Payton had promised to come to see her off, but he was late. They were leaving now, and he was yet to appear. “Get in the car Evangeline.” Her brother Winston said, opening the door noticing his little sister seemed preoccupied.

            “Not yet.” She said, watching the road.

            “What are you waiting for?” He demanded, looking down the road at nothing. “What are you looking for?”

            “He promised to be here.” She said.

            “Who? Oh, not that stupid gardener. Why do you waste your time on that trash?”

            “He is not trash.”

            “Yes, he is. He is nothing, and he will always be nothing. Get in the car.” He said, forcing Evangeline into the backseat between him and her other brother James. Her parents were in the front seat. Her father pulled out of the drive and started toward the city. Evangeline looked out the back window wondering where Payton was, and then in the distance, she saw him coming around the bend. When he saw the car driving away, he broke into a run chasing the vehicle. There was no way he was going to catch up, but at least she knew he came.

***

            Payton pushed himself hard, trying to catch up to the car speeding off in the other direction. He was late, he had been forced to stay behind and have breakfast with his family, but he had devoured it quickly and then took off for the Canyon estate only to show up just as the Ford rushed Evangeline out of his life. He ran and ran until the car was so far away it looked like a speck in the distance.

            He came to a stop breathing hard and hating himself. Evangeline was going to think he never came. Payton cussed and kicked the dirt. There went the only female outside his mother that Payton cared about. He would never see her again.