D ‘n ‘a “the mountain”
Okay. Beckie’s friends, Rhona and her boyfriend, Chuck, arrive at this house in a small town Georgia village. She’s riding with them. She’s visiting her friends Louemmie and Gina.
They’re talking about piercings as our story opens, moving from a truck parked outside to the window and into the middle bedroom where Louemmie has just talked her sister into going first.
“Closer to God” is playing while Chuck readies Gina’s upper ear; they’re talking about facial paralysis from bad piercings. Beckie teases Gina, “little Momma,” about being the buttoned-down one, getting this done! She figures, although she has just met Rhona’s new boyfriend, everything will be cool. Beckie notices the ouija board sitting out while Louemmie comes in with something for them to drink from the kitchen. She tells them to make themselves at home now and get anything else they want themselves. Becky brings up their previous sessions on the board, which Louemmie characterizes as haunted by an idiotic spirit named Walrus, the mention of which gives Becky chills, since it has spelled out a message recently that it wants to take Becky! She then mentions that she shouldn’t even let Becky on the board, since she is not saved.
(that’s about two pages of drawings, btw, as are each of these segments)
“Don’t believe in that stuff.” Beckie scoffs.
“There!” says Chuck. “This alcohol astringent seems to be working okay, since we don’t have alcohol. The hole looks okay.”
“Yeah,” says Beckie, “except for the blood.”
“Shut U-up!” says Rhona, who steps over to Chuck’s shoulder. “Did you tell them what time we’re gonna be there, baby?”
“Yeah,” he replies, “I got time to do your friend here.”
“Well, her mom’s in the living room,” retorts Beckie, “are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Oh, she won’t mind,” Louemmie says, “whatever money we girls can work up on side is good for the whole family’s cookie jar! Ah-hah-haha!”
“Louemmie’s terrible,” Beckie says, laughing.
“So what got you into the ouija board?” Chuck asks Louemmie as they start her ear piercing.
“Oh, weird shit’s been around me as long as i can remember,” Louemmie says. He steadies her head for the piercing. “Our fans kept turning on and off mysteriously over at our house on 227---our Dad was preaching at the time, and he eventually got mad at us for turning the fans off and the house being really hot when we’d get home on Sundays...this happened more than once, and not just on Sundays, but that was what really ticked Poppa off! Heheh! Are you gonna do this, man?”
“I’m ready if you are,” Chuck replies.
“I don’t think she’s going to call him, really,” Beckie says to Rhona. “I wouldn’t! Not after embarrassing ME all over school over HIS stupidity!”
“She just didn’t know him that well,” Rhona replies.
“Yeah,” says Louemmie, “we just left that board out, I guess Gina did it. Didn’t know she’d bring friends, but that’s cool, I like knowing everyone. Well, not everyone, but –he-heh! Cough! You get me.”
“I don’t know how you’re not screaming out in pain,” says Rhona.
“I’ve got a really high threshold for pain,” says Gina.
“Not me!” says Louemmie. “Y’all gonna have to deal with it if I scream, I know I ain’t gettin’ killed but I’m a complete pussy when it comes to pain, ask Gina!”
The others laugh. Louemmie’s howls are the center of attention.
“Yeah,” replies Chuck. “Oh, I’m finished.”
“You two need to come out with us to this spot out near Coosa,” Rhona says. “It’s so pretty.”
“A picnic! Cool! “ exclaims Beckie. “At least Daddy keeps me in a car that runs, you should ride with me.”
“You know, our Dad might be able to look at your car for you,” says Gina.
“Could he really?” replies Rhona. “Seriously? My brother looked at it but he couldn’t figure it out. I mean, it needs a break job, definitely, but I don’t know why it’s cutting out. Old, I guess.”
“Oww! Huhhuhheh...Poppa Bear loves looking at stuff, especially if he gets to rescue somebody as a bonus! I can call him in the middle of the night and be like, ‘Papa! Come get this thing! I just wanna come home! Heheheh!”
“That’s pretty cool,” says Rhona.
“Why don’t you come by early tomorrow afternoon?” says Louemmie. “ I think he’ll be up...sometimes his alarm will go off for like an hour, you have to go pound on the door and yell, “Papa! Get up!’ Hahaha! I get like that, too, working dumbass late shifts for Milton. But if I ask him he’ll at least take a look at your truck.”
(A tiny devil sits next to Chuck’s ear and whispers, “man, this is your chance! You need to take this opportunity to get control of things.” There is a halo with a Vacancy sign hung inside.)
“Yeah,” says Chuck, “you should bring the board. It will completely rock. Are you a virgin? (to Gina) You seem like one. (in other direction, towards what could be any of the other three girls) No way are you a virgin...”
“You talkin’ to me, or her?” asks Beckie.
The next day, outside, the three way for the sisters in Beckie’s car (model?).
As Gina comes out the front door, her mother calls to her in the living room, and asks her to fix her “a Co-ooke.”
From the backyard, Louemmie can be heard loudly telling her father goodbye while he works in the garage, with the door open. “Be safe!” he says. “I will, Daddy,” she replies, as she walks over to car, climbs into the back seat, while Rhona and Chuck sit in the front seat.
“I got that board, too, Chuck,” Louemmie says with enthusiasm. “Your car’ll be fine where it is, Dad said he’d look at it in about an hour, while there’s still plenty of light.”
“Thanks!”
“What convinced you to buy one and figure it out?” says Chuck.
“Actually, nobody’s asked me! HAhaha!” Louemmie replies, tossing back her hair. “I think it was an incident with a swinging door, at that same house I told you about, 227? Okay, it was like, we’d ask questions, and the door would swing, like two for yes and one for no, I think. Something like that. Now this only happened the one time, and it must have been about fifteen or twenty minutes. I don’t think we ever tried it again, but I can tell u it scared the fuck out of us! Hahaha!”
“So what’s that got to do with the ouija board, then?” asks Rhona.
“We went out and bought it the next day! It may have been even THAT day, but we didn’t need the door again, we wanted more than limits of yes and no.”
“Sorry!” Gina says, running across the yard. She stops to make sure the gate locks, as Beckie cranks up the car without a hitch.
“Hits off smooth,” Chuck remarks.
“Yeah,” replies Beckie, as Gina climbs in back with her sister.
They take a right out onto highway 101, as “Operator” by Jim Croce plays on the radio, with the sisters singing along.
The next shot is on another back road, and they are engaged in conversation, which means Louemmie is saying something...
There’s another shot from Gina’s perspective Oh! We’re almost there? I didn’t even know what road we were on. I’m terrible with directions.
“I’m glad we all got together like this,” says Rhona. “It’s not easy to make good friends sometimes. You guys all went to school together, right?”
“Yeah.” (“no rain” by blind melon is playing on the radio.) Gina sings along as a joke:
“And I like watchin’ the pu-ddles gather...boogers!” (everyone’s laughing as we see car turning right.)
BECKIE: Is this Huffaker Road? This is the way to the mountain where we’re going, right?
RHONA: Is this the way to the Seven Bridges Road? I heard it’s somewhere out here in the country.
BECKIE: I hear there’s a satanic church hidden out there!
CHUCK: If you keep going down Big Texas Valley Road, you get over in Armuchee. That’s where you find
CCC Road, tucked away behind 27 North.
LOUEMMIE: Really? I didn’t know the directions, but our brother did that one. He said what they say about it is true: if you drive the six bridges on the way out there, there will be seven then on the way back. He’s smart, so somethin that didn’t make sense that he saw with his own eyes creeped him out! They went back and tried again, and it happened again!
GINA: Bubba knows some people who say they are into Satanism and other things. I think some of his friends in Rome are some pretty crazy people, but that’s just from hints, I’ve never been up to his new place. I figured, after that last time at home, he’s ready for space!
LOUEMMIE: If this is Huffaker Road, we’re actually pretty close! Yeah, I think it’s in town, that way.
GINA (leans out the window): I’m waving to him: hey, Bubba! Hahaha!
LOUEMMIE: Hope you’re having fun, miles away!
RHONA: Is he your older brother?
BECKIE: Yeah, Timothy graduated from Rockmart, too, the year before Louemmie.
RHONA: So you guys are all like a year apart?
GINA: We’re stair steps.
CHUCK: I thought y’all were twins when I met you.
LOUEMMIE: Hahah! Lot of people think so! We ARE the same age for eleven days.
GINA: Maybe I was your twin for eleven days, too! Somebody was.
LOUEMMIE: Yeah, they thought Mom was gonna have me and a boy at first. He was the first brother to move out, I guess! Hahaha! Is that awful?
BECKIE: Her parents tried every form of birth control and those kids just Kept coming. Me, I’m adopted, I wouldn’t know! Maybe someday!
RHONA: Your Mom musta liked babies! I hope she did.
GINA: Oh, that’s where I get MY love of babies! Momma used to have visions about babies---this was all family---she would have a dream about someone getting pregnant, and then she’d tell them about it, sometimes before they even knew! She would dream the sex of the baby before it was born, too---once she said it was a girl when the doctors said it was going to be a boy, and she was right! Hahaha!
RHONA: Your Mom can leave me out of her dreams for now! I’m not ready!
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