Minnie Winnie by Niles Reddick
B.J. And Sara parked their Minnie Winnie Winnebago in the farthest section of Wal-Mart’s parking lot in Forest City, Arkansas, next to one of the small landscaping trees and shopping cart corral. They'd driven three hundred miles in spring wind gusts through a portion of Texas, the state of Oklahoma, stopping off I-40 to visit the Route 66 Museum, and through most of Arkansas until the sun began to set. The wind had rocked the Minnie back and forth all day and they had lost time and filled the tank twice.
B.J went inside the store to pick up batteries, some crunchy peanut butter, and some antacids. The traffic in Little Rock had activated his reflux. The next day, they planned to follow the pilot wheel signs and travel the Great River Road by the Mississippi all the way to Minnesota. Buying the Minnie Winnie was a way they could fulfill their dreams of seeing America and with automatic deposit of his military retirement and social security checks along with Sara’s, they could do their banking, pay what few bills they had, and keep up with family on their iPad or phone. They'd saved campground fees by pulling into rest areas and Wal-Mart parking lots.
They watched a little news, but retired early and planned to get started come daybreak. B.J. didn’t know what time it was when he heard the crash, but his Viet Nam experiences he often relived in dreams caused him to react and he grabbed his shotgun, flung open the Minnie’s side door and pointed it at the young African American gathering shopping carts. When Chuck raised his arms, the other whole group of carts made a beeline for the Minnie Winnie and put the second dent in his retirement investment. “Sir, I was just getting the buggies. I didn't mean for them to hit your camper.”
B.J calmed a little when he realized he was not under siege by the Viet Kong, just a high school kid making extra money. He put the gun down, told the fellow it was okay, not to worry about it, but Chuck’s heart was beating, he felt it in his ears, and he left the carts and ran inside the store, told his manager the story, and the manager called the police. The officer who was used to at least three visits to Wal-Mart for shoplifting per week wrote the report and then visited the Minnie Winnie and cited B.J. for unauthorized parking and asked them to move on even though it was a little after midnight. B.J. argued with the officer, but the officer told him that pulling a shotgun on the juvenile employee could be grounds for more charges, the employee and manager had decided not to press charges, and it would be in his best interest to move on. B.J. was a little disoriented and Sara was confused when he woke her. As they skirted the guard rail driving down the on ramp, the Minnie Winnie scraped, but he managed to pilot it back on I-40. They stopped at a rest area a few miles outside town and fell asleep to the sound of idling semis that reminded B.J. of the C-130 purring engine on the trip home from Viet Nam.
Niles Reddick is author of the novel Drifting too far from the Shore, two collections Reading the Coffee Grounds and Road Kill Art and Other Oddities, and a novella Lead Me Home. His work has been featured in thirteen anthologies and in over three hundred publications including The Saturday Evening Post, PIF, New Reader Magazine, Forth Magazine, Cheap Pop, Flash Fiction Magazine, With Painted Words, among many others.
Website: http://nilesreddick.com/
Twitter: @niles_reddick
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