Case Knives, The Sawmill and The Supervisor
This Is An On-Going Short Story Fiction Series
By Wild Bucks
Sawmill supervisor Raymond Richards sat at his kitchen table in his brand, spanking new doublewide trailer in the south part of Muhlenberg County, Ky., after a long day at work. He was extremely proud of his new trailer as the all stainless steel kitchen appliances sparkled in the background behind him where he was sitting.
A young insurance agent name Bill Lester who was fresh out of college from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., and was a very naive and gullible but a friendly fellow who was trying to make his way in the world by selling life insurance and cancer policies as his first job right out of college in 1988. As Bill sat next to Raymond, Raymond held up his left hand and said to the young sales agent, "You see this middle finger?
"Yes Sir, I do" Bill answered.
"I lost half of it in a saw at the sawmill in Greenville," Raymond said.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Sir," Bill said.
"You don't have to call me Sir," Raymond said.
Then Raymond pulled out a big clear plastic bag of marijuana out of a desk drawer next to the table and picked out of a large bud of weed with green and purple looking looking hairs sticking out of it. It smelled heavily of Christmas tree pine needles. Then Raymond pulled out some rolling papers from his front shirt pocket and began to roll a joint.
"Man, this stuff is sticky. They call it skunk weed," he said as he began breaking off the bud into tiny pieces onto the paper laying flat on the table. Then he began to roll it up. As he stuck the joint in his mouth, he pulled out a Bic lighter, lit the joint and took at big hit with his mouth and lungs.
All of sudden, a humongous cloud of smoke came billowing out of Raymond's mouth and he began choking and coughing. He face was turning red and he said to Bill, "You want some?"
"Nah, I'm good, Sir" Bill said.
"Come on, it's really good. It's kickass. And don't call me "Sir", remember?" Raymond said.
"No, that's okay. I'm good. Really. And sorry about calling you Sir," Bill said with a little and uneasiness and assertiveness in his voice at the same time.
Bill had a young wife and baby in a small but fairly decent apartment back in Bowling Green which was about sixty miles southeast of the small-town of Greenville. Greenville is the county seat for the good folks of Muhlenberg County. Muhlenberg County was known as the king of coal producers of Western Kentucky back in its day or at one time, one of the largest coal producing Kentucky counties west of the Mississippi River. And supposedly, there were more millionaires in this county at one time than anywhere else in the United States during the 60's, 70's and 80's. Also, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Fossil coal burning plant is in Paradise, Ky., in the southeastern part of the county on Ky. 431 highway between Central City to Russellville where one of the largest electric steam shovel in the country was owned and used by Peabody Coal Company.
As Raymond continued to smoke the joint of marijuana, he eyes started turning glassy and red. He reached over to stereo cassette deck player and put on some Pink Floyd's "The Wall" using a big set of Hi-Fi speakers on the kitchen counter. Young Bill was quite sure to make of all of this. He was starting to get a little worried. He didn't know where Raymond was going with this. Bill had seen some of his fraternity brothers back at college smoke weed at the fraternity house but he never really paid much attention to it because it was not his thing and was really never around it much.
Then Raymond got up from the table and said, "Here, let me show you something. Follow me." He took Bill to a back hallway where he opened the door to a back bedroom where he had a big black pit bull dog chained to the floor. The dog was growling and barking while showing his big white teeth. He was guarding several big pound bags of weed on the bed and there stacks and stacks of Case knife sets everywhere in the room. Case knives are known to be the Cadillac of pocket knives in the knife world. But Raymond literally had hundreds and hundreds of Case knives in boxes everywhere in the room. On the bed, under the bed, on top of the dresser, in the closet, in the bottom of the closet and top of the shelf in the closet. He had some of the most expensive Case knives sets you'd ever buy. Even some with diamonds in the bone colored handles. American and Patriotic knife sets, Christmas and Holiday knife sets, Halloween and Thanksgiving knife sets, John Deere knife sets, fishing and hunting life sets and even sawmill knife sets.
When they got back to the kitchen, Raymond offered Bill a bourbon and coffee. Bill declined the bourbon but took a cup of coffee with cream and sugar in it. After they started drinking their cups of coffee at the table together, Raymond looked Bill in the eye and said, "I am going to be honest with you. Even though, I am a supervisor at the sawmill, I am also a drug dealers. And with my profits, I invest in Case knives as a coverup. Everybody thinks I'm part-time flea market dealer on the side"
"I'll tell you what I will do for you. I'll buy some life insurance from you and one of your cancer policies. But you have to buy a Case knife from me and I'll even give you a discount. And also, if you tell anyone what I just told you what I really do for a living, I'll have you cut up into pieces at the saw mill!" Raymond told Bill in a dead serious tone of voice.
So Bill agreed and hurriedly pulled out the paper work and applications to be filled it out. Then he had Raymond to sign them. Bill picked out a Case knife which acted like he liked. It was a "Texas Jack Toothpick" with a red bone handle and then paid Raymond for it by pulling out some cash out of his wallet after he received a 10% discount. Then they both stood up from the kitchen table, shook hands and Bill was out the door. Later on he delivered the polices but decided not to go back inside. Bill just stayed on the front porch.
32 years later, the Case knife that Bill bought from Raymond still sets in a little stand on his desk in the office at his home. Bill no longer sells life insurance but works at Ace Hardware as a manger in Bowling Green where they sell Case knives. As for Raymond, Bill read in the Bowling Green Daily News several years ago, that he was murdered at a saw mill in Greenville and cut up into pieces. Obviously, Police suspect foul play. But no arrests have been made in the case to this date.
“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”
