Melody watched as a grey suv sped along the narrow holler road. It stopped in front of the Everett’s’ trailer, and a tall blond man got out and knocked on their door.
Melody reached the porch steps before the door could be answered.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m here to meet the Everetts for a documentary I’m working on,” the man said. “Marty Williams.” He extended a hand.
Melody did not return his handshake.
“The Everett’s are pretty private. It’s probably best you leave.”
Undeterred, Marty knocked again.
Linda Everett opened the door and peered out. “Yeah?” she croaked.
Marty repeated his spiel. After several seconds, Tommy and Joey, Linda’s brothers, came to the door too. They were trailed by Peanut, the family’s ancient fat chihuahua.
“We don’t know nothin bout no movie,.” Linda finally answered.
“You all don’t have to talk to him,” Melody interjected.
Linda looked them both over and shut the door.
Marty shot Melody an annoyed look and walked back to his car. “I’ll be back,” he said.
“I’ll be here.” Melody pushed her hair out of her face and stood as tall as she could until the suv turned and left.
She walked next door to her house and returned to filling water buckets. She wanted to get the dog runs cleaned and the fosters fed before the rain. Those people, she thought.
It was not the first time outsiders had turned up to try to get a gander at Wise, Kentucky’s infamous inbred Everett family. There had been a magazine article done about them last year. Ever since, once a month or so, some idiots would turn up wanting to capitalize on them, save them or just be nosy.
They do about as well as some others around here, Melody thought. They did not deserve to be the butt of jokes or a carnival act for something beyond their control. Besides Melody took them groceries and dinner a few times a week. They did not need outside help.
Melody was carrying buckets up the hill when Linda called out to her. “Who was that fella?”
“Just more of the same. I’d just ignore him if he turns back up,” Melody said.
Linda nodded and went back in her house, nudging Joey and Peanut back inside. Linda, although somewhat limited, was the highest functioning of the three and was her brothers’ caretaker. Melody noticed she looked extra tired. I’ll take them over some of my sourdough bread later, she thought as she shoveled poop.
An hour later, Melody was just sitting down to read her latest book when she heard car engines heading through the holler. She glanced out the window and saw Marty’s suv followed by a sheriff’s patrol car.
Shit, she thought. She grabbed a loaf of bread and headed back next door.
“Hi, Dave,” she greeted the deputy.
“Melody, I got to let him be. He’s not trespassing yet,” Dave said.
Marty knocked on the door. This time, Linda answered immediately. She looked at Marty, Melody and Dave. “Come on in then,” she said.
“You don’t have to do this,” Melody said.
“Might as well get it over with,” Linda said, taking the bread Melody handed her.
Melody shot her eyes at Marty and turned on her heel toward home.
“Just stay cool,” Dave called to her before leaving. “I don’t want to have to come back out here.”
Melody ignored him and went into her house, but she kept an eye on the house next door through the window.
Twenty minutes later, Melody heard a door open and footsteps outside. Then Marty was on her porch knocking on the door. She answered without a word.
“I just wanted to let you know I don’t have bad intentions,” Marty said. He handed her a card.
“That’s got my YouTube channel and podcast info. Take a look.”
Melody nodded, took the card and closed the door. She thought about tossing the card into the trash can, but instead she laid it on the counter. She had transport for two dogs heading to rescue in the morning, and she needed to get crates set up in the car for the little hound and the pit mix. She had retired here for the peace and view, but she had gotten involved in animal rescue after seeing so many animals in need in the area. She loaded the car, made herself a sandwich, curled up on the couch with Patches, her calico cat and fell asleep before reading five pages of her book.
Marty took it easy on the narrow, twisty hollow road, but he gunned the engine once he reached the main road. He wanted to make it back to his motel before dark.
This day had turned into a much longer one than he had anticipated. At least he had Linda’s signature as guardian on the interview contract so that he could share whatever he ended up recording on his Youtube channel. After meeting the Everetts, he could spend the night working on tomorrow’s interview questions for the family.
He called Lina, his production assistant, on the way.
“I finally got the contract signed,” he stated. “I’ll email Will when I get to my room. Can you give him a heads up though?”
“Sure. No more problems?” she asked.
“After getting the sheriff to send a deputy out, no. I’m working on the neighbor.”
They exchanged pleasantries on the LA weather and its superiority to Kentucky’s still humid fall before hanging up.
Marty got back to the room, ordered a pizza and opened a beer. He powered up his laptop and began typing interview questions from his notes. He had interviewed Skid Row addicts and prostitutes, as well as addicts and people down on their luck throughout Appalachia. His goal was to continue making a good living, but he liked giving people a chance to be heard too. For many of those he interviewed, it was probably the first and only such chance they got.
Linda woke up early, before dawn. Peanut was nudging her hand with her fat, white face and needed to go out.
“Alright, I’m coming,” she said softly, trying not to wake Tommy and Joey. Her day would be that much longer and harder if they woke up this early.
She opened the door for Peanut and lay back down on the couch. Before she could get back to sleep, Joey started stirring on the recliner.
“Go back to sleep,” Linda told him. “It’s not morning yet.”
“Gotta pee,” he said loudly.
He came back from the bathroom and sat on the recliner, but he was soon up again.
“Hungry,” he said.
“Ok,” Linda said.”I’ll get up and make you something to eat.” She knew she would not be getting any more sleep this morning.
Marty arrived at the Everetts’ mid-morning to find the whole family minus Linda on the front porch. Joey was coloring, and Tommy was stroking Peanut’s silver face and staring into the distance.
“Hey, guys,’ he greeted them.
Joey glanced at him and said hey.
Linda answered the door before he could knock.
“Good morning,” he said. “Should we get started?”
Linda nodded and brought her pop bottle out to the porch.
“Ok,” Marty said. “To get started, Linda how long have you guys lived here?”
“All our lives,” she said.
“So you lived here with your parents?”
She nodded.
“Who’s the oldest?”
“I am, then Joey and Tommy. I’m 61.”
“How do you make ends meet?”
“Well, we get by. We get food stamps and disability on them.”
“So you’re doing ok then?”
“It gets hard sometimes. I have to get a ride to town to the store. Sometimes I take cans I keep and turn them in for money.” She pointed to two large garbage bags filled with cans and plastic bottles in the corner of the porch out of range of a leak in the roof.
“So you have some people helping you?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Melody gives us a ride sometimes. Or the old guy up the road. Course I always have to take them to keep an eye on em.”
“I bet that gets tiring,” he said.
“Aw, we do ok.”
“Tell me about your family growing up.”
“Well,” she said, “we were always poor, but we had enough. Daddy worked the mine and momma kept house.”
“How far did you go in school?”
“I went to ninth grade. Joey went to junior high. Tommy was in special classes in elementary, but I can’t remember how long. Joey, do you know how far you went in school?”
He grunted.
“That’s ok,” Marty said. “So Joey and Tommy receive disability payments. What were they diagnosed with?”
Linda thought. “I’m not sure. Mental,” she offered.
Marty swallowed. “Were your parents related?”
“They were double first cousins. They knew each other all their lives,” Linda said.
“That’s nice…do you think that’s what caused Joey and Tommy to have some issues?”
“I don’t know,” Linda said, seemingly considering the information for the first time. “Maybe, I don’t think so.”
“Ok, anything else you want people to know about you and living out here?”
Linda paused. “It’s pretty out here. You can fish or hunt or just go for a walk. And it’s quiet too. Most people don’t bother you.”
“What about this area in general?” Marty asked. “Do you think things have gone downhill since most of the mines closed?”
“Yeah, it’s sad,” Linda said. “You can’t make a living anymore. Most of the younguns get on them drugs if they stay round here too. Just ruins em.”
“I bet. Well thanks,” Marty said. “I’m gonna go through this footage and see what we got, but I might have a few more questions.”
Marty said goodbye to the family.
Marty saw Melody loading pups into crates in her car when leaving the Everetts’. He waved to her as he drove by, but she looked away.
Linda left the boys on the porch and went into the kitchen to start a pot boiling for lunch.
Mel's Musings (aka bersain1) 