4: Robbie Comes to Town, by Free

 

 

Murder and Mayhem at Cherry Creek Episode 4 By Free

 

 

 

Robbie Comes To Town

 

 

         Robbie was baptized, Roberta Lee Tyler, the 6th child of 8 born to Juanita and Robert Tyler. Robbie got lost in the bunch and very often totally forgotten about.  When dinnertime came, no one did a head count so she missed quite a few meals. Perhaps this was why she was so small. By the age of seven, she had learned how to be invisible. It came in handy when she wanted to get the scoop on one of her siblings. She imagined all sorts of things and often played out entire plays inside her head.

      

         Being a 'skinny thing', as her father would say, she found it very easy to slip in and out of a room with hardly a trace.  By the time she was 11, no one noticed her at all. That's when the plan began formulating in her mind.

      

         From some spare parts she'd found at the local junkyard, she began building her get-away car, well bike as it were. Johnny Jay, from next door helped her every afternoon after school. They spent hours-scrapping parts and building. She told him her plan to run away. But she called it, "Git away". Johnny never believed she'd really go. He just liked her a lot and thought she had a great imagination.

      

         "Johnny", she would say, "I gotta have this done by summer. I got me a date with destiny."

      

       "Yeah", he'd said laughing, " you're not goin' anywhere on this scrap heap."

      

       "Just you wait and see J.J., she barked, flashing angry eyes his way, " I'll show you whose goin' where!"

      

       "Where the heck ya goin' anyway? Johnny asked, "You aint got no money er nothin." He kicked an old pop can off the road, waiting for her to answer.

      

        She turned a grease-smudged face towards him. "Don't you worry none Johnny, I got plans."

      

        "Well, like I said RT, you ain't gonna get too far!"

       

        When summer break came, she was well prepared for her trip. Johnny tied old coffee cans and soup cans all over the 'brand new', old bike. There was a place for everything, right down to her pen and pad. She rolled up a blanket and one small pillow into a tight bundle and strapped it to the back of the bike with old belts. Johnny found a moldy saddlebag from the barn out back. A little cleaning up and oiling and it would do nicely to put her clothing into. The bag was secured across the milk crates that were positioned one on each side of the tires. With everything in place, she had only to wait for the last day of school.

      

           On the morning she was to leave, Johnny had agreed to meet her out at the barn where no one from their houses would see them. Barely light outside, they stood with hands on their hips looking at their masterpiece.

      

           "Well J.J." she said, "Today's the day I begin my new life. When I get were I'm a goin, I'll send ya a letter OK?"

      

           "Dang RT, I never thought you'd really leave. What you gonna tell yer folks?" he said sadly.

      

           "Heck fire JJ, wouldn't matter what I said, they never hear me anyway!" she said frankly,  reaching in her pocket bringing out a small stone she'd found down by the creek.

"Here JJ, this is for you. It's real special so don't be a loosin it or lettin ever body look at it." she said sternly."

      

           Johnny looked hard at the stone in his hand noting how it sparkled in the early morning sun. "Are ya ever commin back RT?" He asked with sad eyes, rolling the stone around in his hand.

 

           "Oh sure, I'll be back, just as soon as I make a name fer myself, I'll be back and tell you  who I am. " She laughed feeling quite proud of herself.

      

           She gave him a quick hug, and hopped on her get away bike.

      

           "Bye JJ", she called, "don't ferget. Don't tell nobody!"

      

          Johnny watched as she rode the rickety old bike down the dirt road towards the highway. He began to wonder if it was really happening. "Bye RT" he called. "Don't forget to come back."

      

          Two weeks latter, she's folding up papers for her delivery route in the small town of Cherry Creek. This was the place she'd heard about a year earlier when she was eavesdropping on a conversation at the drug store while her parents argued over laxatives. A man clad in suit and tie was telling a pretty young woman about all the money he was gonna make "over there at Cherry Creek". He said "there wasn't a riper cherry in the country just waitin to be picked". Robbie thought to herself that day, "I love cherries."

      

          She tucked her hair up under her hat and peddled into town. The town folk of Cherry Creek paid little attention to the scrawny kid wearing dirty dungarees and a baseball cap riding the strange bike, She just peddled down the street like she'd lived there forever, waving hi and smiling big. Odd thing was, people waved back.

       

           She followed her nose to the scent of cooked food. God she was starved. After nearly 3 days of peddling and only a few candy bars and some peanut butter sandwiches, she would give anything for a real slab of meat.

      

           "There it was", she thought, looking up at the neon sign, ' Fat Sally's'. She pulled to the back of the building and propped her bike up against the old wood walls. The screen door was open just a crack so she creeped in to have a peek. She couldn't believe her eyes. There on the stove was the biggest burger she'd ever seen in her whole life. Now the problem was how would she get the darn thing.

      

           As she began to work a plan out in her head a big fat cat brushed against her leg scarring the bejesus out of her. She jumped back, tripping and falling right into a 5-gallon can of lard. "Damn", she whispered to herself as she eased herself out,  "this aint good."

       

           She heard a womans laughter heading her way. She darted behind a rack full of old newspapers and magazines. Holding her breath she noticed the cat was meowing at her feet. She gave the cat a kick as gently as she could, but the cat seemed to like it so she kicked a little harder but it came back again and again. Afraid she was about to be found out she gave the cat one more swift kick. She couldn't believe her eyes.  She'd kicked the cat right into the bucket of grease she'd just pulled herself out of. The cat scrambled out atop a bag of garbage scattering cans all over the floor.

      

           "Hitchcock, what in tarnation are you doing? The woman shouted.

       

           It was about that time that she leaned a little to heavy on the rickety old rack of papers. All of a sudden, she heard the woman let out a blood-curdling scream. When she opened her eyes, all she could see was legs, arms, and lips. She heard words come out of that woman's mouth she'd never heard before. 

      

          "Hey you!" the woman called, seeing Robbie turn to run. "What in blazons are you trying to do, kill me?"

          

          Robbie ran through the kitchen grabbing the burger as she went. She never broke stride hitting the front door like a Brahma bull in a dog cage. Around the building, she ran to where she'd left her bike, and stopped dead in her small tracks.

      

          Some old guy was kneeling down looking at her bike. He was dressed up in grungy coveralls that appeared to be as much garage grease as cloth.

      

          "Hey, boy," the man smiled. "This here your bicycle?"

      

          Robbie just stared, expecting any moment to feel that lady grab her from behind.

      

          "These wheel bearing are way too loose," the man was saying. "Get yourself killed with wheel bearings this loose."

      

          Just then, the back screen door flew open and the restaurant lady stepped out. "Scotty, you know that boy? You send him in here to destroy my kitchen and steal you a hamburger?"

      

          The man she called Scotty looked quickly at Robbie and the squashed hamburger in her small hand. He looked up at the lady who was standing with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. He looked back at Robbie and gave a wink.

      

          "Sure do, Miss Abbey," Scott drawled. "Something the matter?"

      

          "Then perhaps you will not mind paying for that hamburger?"

      

          "Well, can't say that I know the boy all that well," Scotty answered with a big smile leaking out onto his face. "Say boy," he said, "why don't you introduce yourself to Miss Abbey."

      

          So, that is how Robbie came to Cherry Creek and met both Miss Abbey and Scotty in about the same moment. Miss Abbey asked Robbie to come back inside the kitchen. Scotty said he was taking her bike down the road to his garage and fix the wheel bearings.

      

          "You come on by and get it just as soon as you and Miss Abbey finish up swapping lies," he grinned.

      

          "Young man," Miss Abbey said as Robbie came back into the kitchen, "if you wanted a bite of food, why didn't you ask?"
            

          Robbie looked at the woman real funny. She talked just like her teacher's back home did.

      

          "I'm sorry ma'am, I just thought maybe you wouldn't miss one burger." She said, looking down.

      

          "Well son, just you come on inside here and we'll have a little chit chat.  Maybe see about working off that burger you stole. Or would you rather I call Deputy Beauregard?"

      

          "Oh no ma'am" she said looking at the woman with her saddest eyes,  "I can work real good."

      

          That was how her new life began in cherry Creek. It was a day she would never forget.

      

          Robbie waited for a few days before telling Ms Abbey that she was a girl. She figured it might pay off to let the woman think she was a boy. All she needed was to be put in one of those frilly dresses and be sprayed down with that fancy perfume. Ms Abbey did insist that she take a tub bath.

      

           From that moment on, Ms Abbey and Robbie had an agreement of sorts. Ms Abbey would give her leftovers from breakfast, lunch and dinner.  In exchange, Robbie would do some chores around the place.  Only problem was Ms Abbey seemed to think Robbie needed more 'education'.  Robbie liked to read so it wasn't so bad, and besides she got to read all the new mysteries that came in by post. But her favorite read was the local newspaper.

      

           After Robbie had settled in to her new home, Ms Abbey talked to the owner of the local newspaper about giving Robbie a job.  The early morning paper delivery was her first real job at age 12.