The Norphlet Mafia, Chapter 10, post 13

Chapter 10 The Plan We followed the Little Rock man out of the cafe, and watched as he roared off, turned the corner at Hill Kennedy’s Grocery Store, and parked beside Mrs. Graves’ front gate. “Humm, he staying with his aunt,” I mumbled to the others. I’d just thought of a plan, and we needed to meet. “Hey, let’s go over to the breadbox at Echols Grocery and talk. I just thought of something that might keep us all out of reform school.” Well, that really got everybody’s attention, and when we sat down, they were all ears.” “It’s real simple, guys: Marshal Wing is really mad about this guy coming into town like he gonna show us hicks how to solve the Chihuahua thing, so he’s not about to help the guy. That just leaves us and him. All we have to do is run him out of town. Bubba helped, but we have to really do a bunch more, if we’re gonna get out of this mess. This is what we're going to do tonight—after midnight. I want John Clayton to bring a big, heavy-duty tow sack. And Ears, your daddy does logging so you bring two, long logging chains, and I’ll bring some good canned dog food.” “What on earth are we gonna do with all that stuff?” asked John Clayton. “Look, it’d take too long to tell you right now. Y’all just bring the stuff and meet me right after midnight across the street from Mrs. Graves’ house.” “I ain’t gonna be a part of this,” said Ears. “Okay, Ears, if going to reform school is what you want to do, then just stay home, but if you want to get rid of that sorry guy who’s trying to send you there... show up with those logging chains!” “Come on, Ears, it's him against us!” said John Clayton. Well, after I promised we weren’t gonna kill any dogs or hurt anyone, Ears agreed to bring the logging chains. On my way home, I started wondering if my plan was a little over the top, but then I thought about this guy coming all the way from Little Rock just to try and put us in jail. That’s when I decided that this was war—us against him. And from what I know about wars, I figured a first strike was a really good idea. & I was standing across from Mrs. Graves” house at about 15 after 12 that night, holding a bowl of special dog food, when Ears walked up dragging two long chains. A few minutes later John Clayton sauntered up carrying a big, oversized tow sack. We were ready to set up the “run-him-out-of-town-quick-trick.” I said, “Ears tie one end of a chain to the guy’s front bumper and the other end to Mrs. Graves's front gate and make it kind of tight. Then take the other long chain and tie it to his back bumper.” “What do I tie the other end to?” he asked. “Nothing right now. Wait until me and John Clayton get the next part of the plan ready.” “John Clayton, get your toe sack and hold it over the opening of the doghouse. I’m going to beat on the back of that doghouse, and when all the dogs run out into the tow sack, bring the sack of dogs over to the man’s car. “And Ears, when John Clayton has all the dogs in his tow sack, tie the other end of the chain around the doghouse real good, and leave about eight feet of slack. I've got a clothes hanger to unlock the car. We’ll put all ten little dogs in the man’s car, and then I’ll put this store-bought special dog food in his car.” “Okay, Richard, I kinda get the chain part, but ten dogs in the man’s car ain’t much of a deal,” said John Clayton. “Nope, it’s not much of a deal, but with this special dog food, it becomes a big deal.” Special dog food?” “Uh huh. How about dog food mixed with castor oil?” “Wait a minute, Richard. I think that’s way over the top,” Ears whined. “Of course it is, Ears, but we have got to do something big to let the guy know we’re serious.” “Yeah, and when we get to reform school, we can tell all the other criminals how serious we were.” “Okay, if y’all are chicken, then just go on back home. I can take it from here.” Well, there was some standing around whining, but finally everybody said they’d stay, so we started getting the trick ready. Heck, it really went quickly. John Clayton put that sack over the entrance to the doghouse, I whammed it on the back of the house, and we had a sack full of Chihuahuas in about three seconds. Ears dashed up, tied the chain on the doghouse and John Clayton brought the sack of dogs over to the man’s car. I had the door unlocked in no time. We put in the special dog food, and then turned the dogs loose in the car. They were lapping up the dog food when we left. Of course, when I planned the trick and got everything ready, I wanted to see what would happen when the dogs turned up missing and the guy took off in his chained-up car. I figured it would happen about 8 o’clock the next morning when Mrs. Graves usually feeds the dogs, and I was gonna be watching from behind some bushes across the street.