"Who's that?" My grandmother shouted, not trusting a four AM knock at her kitchen door.
"Mamma Billie it's me, it's JJ."
The kitchen light went on and the door opened and there was Mamma Billie, bleary-eyed in her red terrycloth robe and her famous pink fluff slippers. She wasn't happy. "JJ getcher ass in here. Whatd'ya doin' knockin' on my door at this time a night? You fuckin' crazy?" She shut the door behind me and her mood softened a bit as she looked me over. I had been crying and I was as scared as I've ever been in my life. I guess it showed. "Sit down JJ." She said, pulling a chair out from the kitchen table and sitting in the one next to it. "Whatsa matter?"
"Oh Mamma, I'm in big trouble, I done something really bad and I don't know what to do." I shook my head and looked everywhere except at Mamma Billie.
"Well don't keep me in suspense," she said, "what the hell happened?"
"I shot Roy Mamma -I shot him dead."
"What?"
"He was all fucked up and he came over looking for my mom, but she wasn't home. I told him she wasn't there but he didn't believe me and he was hollering and threating me. He got so worked up he busted in the door of the trailer and I shot him through the neck with my riffle. He bled to death in the kitchen."
Mamma Billie took all this in without showing any reaction. "Did anyone see?" She asked after a moment. "Were there any neighbors around?"
"Gillins was home, but they don't poke their nose in anyone's business. They sure wouldn't think nothing of hearing a gunshot. Only other trailer near ours is aunt Wendy's, but she's hardly there anymore."
"So what'd you do after you shot him?" She asked.
"Wrapped him up in my old tent," I said, "dragged his ass to the back of my truck and then mopped up all the blood."
"You get it all?"
"Shit yeah, mopped it three times an' then swiffered it too. I was so scared Mamma, I didn't know what to do, but then I remembered how you always said that if grandpa ever showed up again how you'd shoot him inna head an' dump his body down the abandoned mine in Karsh Hollow." I looked at her. "I'm sorry Mamma Billie, I know this aint your problem, but I didn't know where else to go."
"Is his truck still at your place?"
"Yeah."
"Are his keys in it?"
"They must be, they weren't in his pockets."
"Alright," Mamma Billie said, "listen up. Yer lookin' at 25 to life for this JJ, yer in some deep shit. You bring this mess to my doorstep at four in the morning an' you want me to help, well if I help you I'm looking at eight years as an accessory. Family's one thing, but risking eight years in the pen is another..."
"Please Mamma Billie..."
She held up her hand. "I'm gonna help you JJ, but I jus' want you to understand that I aint doin' it out of the goodness of my heart. If I get you outta this, yer ass belongs to me, understand?"
"Mamma Billie you know I'd do anything for you."
"We'll see." She said. "There's a half a joint in that ash tray on the counter, you smoke on that while I get dressed. Yer gonna need some weed in you for what we gotta do today."
We made it down to Karsh Hollow just before dawn and used the wheelbarrow to haul Roy's ass down into the abandoned mine. The local kids had the fence all tore up, so it wasn't hard getting through. About a quarter mile into the mine, Mamma Billie's flashlight hit a yellow gate with a big warning sign on it. She yanked the gate open and pointed her flashlight down into the darkness. "Four miles." She said. "Straight down. Been flooded down there since the eighties. They'd dynamite this whole network before anyone would go pokin' around down there. So dump that sacka shit and lets get outta here."
I upended the wheelbarrow and Roy's body, still wrapped in my tent, slipped out into the dark. I didn't hear him hit the water.
The rest of the day was spent losing Roy's truck. She drove it out of town and I followed her all the way to a black ghetto outside of DC -a five hour ride on the back roads we took. Mamma Billie left Roy's truck in front of a housing project with the window half open and the keys on the front seat. We drove home on the interstate.