CARBON COPY

Chapter 2: One Hell Of A Welcome Home

Chapter 2: One Hell Of A Welcome Home

The West Pasture, The Talton Residence, Keedon, Georgia.....(1992)

      Dirt and dust filled the air as the silver car made its way up the long dirt road that led to the pasture where The Talton residence had been smack in the center of a large area with multiple dirt paths that ran back to other properties that belonged to both J.W's father in law, Walter McCormick and his rather spirited mother Norma Jean Talton. His property had been smack in the middle, a kind of strategic choice on the part of his wife when the house was first built for them at the beginning of their marriage. Wilma Jean wanted to be close to her family home and J.W. had wanted to be near his mother, especially since his father had long since passed away.

The blow to the family had been severe especially when it had taken place when J.W. was just nineteen years of age and he'd been in something of a dark place until Wilma Jean happened to shift his focus. The two of them had known each other for years given the fact that they had been neighbors for as long as she could remember. J.W. in those days hadn't paid much attention to the little girl that had been crushing on him since she met him in person. He seemed to have blinked and she'd been a hell-raising teenager in her own right while he'd been a young adult and still very much reeling from the tragic loss of his father.

His then girlfriend at the time, Stacy Clark had been the worst kind of companionship, mostly out for sex and the perks of being around a charismatic lad like J.W. He had made the mistake of rejecting her for a nightcap and she sought to get her kicks elsewhere, elsewhere happened to be in the arms of Wilma Jean's boyfriend at the time Russell "Rusty" Vickerson, whom J.W. had a continued rivalry with even in the present day despite being six years older than him.

Rusty resented J.W. for impregnating a then sixteen-year-old Wilma Jean during a drunken night where he'd gone to an old barn to sleep off his alcohol due to knowing all too well his mother wouldn't allow him to enter her house past the hour and loaded up on booze. Rusty had made the mistake of rejecting a very impressionable Wilma Jean due to her not wanting to rush into sex so soon after dating. Impatient he dropped her off on the side of the road when one of their makeout sessions didn't lead to the sex he wanted due to her protests and took off drunk and embittered.

Heartbroken, Wilma Jean ended up waiting out a storm in an old abandoned barn where a heavily intoxicated and heartbroken J.W. had taken up for shelter for the night. Wilma Jean had more or less wanted to prove Rusty wrong who had accused her of being a prude and ended up rolling about in the hay with J.W. who wasn't aware that she'd been there physically and assumed he'd been dreaming when he inadvertently took her virginity and subsequently got her pregnant all in one night.

Rusty slept with Stacy and regretted it the moment it was over and done with as he had not performed as well as his mind had anticipated he would and she wasn't shy about hurting his feelings for wasting her time. He tried to find Wilma Jean who later refused to even speak with him after her night in the barn with J.W. Her childhood crush on him reignited following their encounter. J.W. found out he'd slept with Stacy and broke up with her on the spot while punching Rusty's lights out for good measure.

The subsequent weeks that followed had seen Wilma Jean finding out through great difficulty and fear that she'd been pregnant and her father and J.W.'s mother aiming shotguns at the rather clueless J.W. who had not recalled even sleeping with Wilma Jean in the first place. They got married of course and J.W. didn't have any objections even if they expected him to and he'd been head over heels in love with Wilma Jean McCormick, now Wilma Jean Talton ever since.

Witmore was born some months after and the rest was history as far as their relationship had gone.

In the present, J.W. had been gripping the bag in his lap as Ed Earl pulled up to the end of the road and his house. It was a modest-looking three-bedroom with a large front porch complete with a swing. Vast fields had been between each house putting more than enough distance between them for personal privacy and being close enough to offer assistance in times of need. Ed Earl's car came to a stop and the moment it had and the dust settled, J.W. opened the passenger door and stepped out.

The moment his boot hit the dirt the front screen door had opened to a resounding crack and his rather furious wife had come out front wielding a sawn-off shotgun and aimed it right at him as he threw up his hands and tossed the bags onto the ground kicking up a bit of dirt as one bullet missed him by miles, mostly due to Wilma Jean making it so. She'd been a crack shot otherwise and narrowed her blue eyes at him from up top on the porch.

"You've got some nerve returning here six months after taking off you no good cheating bastard!" she shouted angrily aiming her gun.

J.W. sighed noting his wife's rage and fierceness all at once.

"Well hello to you too Darlin," he said holding up his hands as he looked up at her.

Ed Earl had ducked behind his car not wishing to have anything to do with Wilma Jean and her shotgun.

"Don't you Darlin' me you no good cheater," growled Wilma Jean before eyeing the bags on the ground. "What's in the bag?"

"Money Darlin'," replied J.W. still with his hands in the air. "And it's legal."

Wilma Jean narrowed her eyes at him as he inched his way toward the black duffle bag and proceeded to walk it up the steps of the porch as she trained her shotgun on him. He unzipped it and tossed it onto the top step getting her undivided attention as Ed Earl eased his way back into his car.

He started the engine and took off back down the dirt road as J.W. continued to talk to his wife.

She looked down at the money and glared at him.

"This what you took off for?" she asked with an arched brow.

"I got a job on an oil rig Darlin' saved every penny until I came home to you and the boy," explained J.W. with something of a charming smile despite holding his hands in the air. "All for you woman, six months of work non-stop."

J.W. looked around for a bit and didn't see his truck parked where he usually left it.

"Where's my boy?" he asked letting down his hands as Wilma Jean lowered the shotgun.

"As far as I know he's at school if he knows what's good for him," replied Wilma Jean looking over the money in the bag.

She'd been skeptical about her husband's activities as of late but they needed the money and had plenty of bills that needed to be paid off.

"Is that right?" asked J.W. with an arched brow as he casually moved toward his wife taking the shotgun out of her hand and pulling her into a long-awaited and intensely passionate kiss.

Try as she might to stay angry with him, Wilma Jean knew all too well that she never could and he had known it too. A haze of lust had overtaken them and J.W. had turned on the charm full force as he gazed into the blue eyes of his wife making it clear that she'd been the only woman he wanted.

"I think it's high time we spend some quality time together Mrs. Talton, wouldn't you agree?" he asked.

Still susceptible to the never-ending charms of her husband and longing for him after his six-month absence, Wilma Jean had been putty in his large rough hands as he managed to get her, the shotgun, and the duffle bag full of money into the house.

A series of heated kisses passed between them as J.W. kicked the front door closed and turned his attention to his lovely young wife in full.