Cindy Marshall was queen of her trailer park. As white trash royalty, the guys yearned for her while the women detested her. If you had a spouse while living in that park, I can damn near guarantee he screwed her. Not that she was by any means your run-of-the-mill Park Rat. No, if Cindy gave you a shot, she owned your ass. That is, until the day when her highness grew bored. Then that was it. Your ass was tossed aside for the next sinewy tweaker. It was a known fact that her little clam wouldn’t open for any man in her thrall unless the oxy-eyed queen was supplied with lots of Percocet. I shit you not. That goddamn girl was a fiend.
Kenny Thompson captured the queen’s opiate eye the day he beat in Joey Frit’s face. The fat bastard had spent the better part of a week harassing Leanne Spencer. When he tried to take her pants off, without her consent, she gave him hell. She fought the fucker off, had his skin and blood under her nails when Kenny found her.
Cindy was a sucker for tough guys, but let me tell you, poor Kenny had no clue of that succubus’s power. Then again, looking back on that summer, I’m dumbfounded that the wretched slug made it as far as he did. The kid had grit, no shit. But goddamn, if that fellow did not fall from grace, straight into a heaping lump of dog shit!
Truth be told, I cannot help but feel empathy for Kenny. The guy was decent enough but don’t misconstrue. I’m not excusing him for the shit show that would go down. Had he chosen not to white knight Leanne, I just can’t help but wonder if Cindy would have pulled some other scumbag into her web of shit. Over two days, Cindy and Kenny would be dubbed King’s Creek’s own white trash version of Bonnie and Clyde.
Haywood Trailer Park was having a pill drought. No matter who you asked ain’t nobody had any pain killers. A trailer park without drugs is like a zombie outbreak. Junkies shuffle around in the dust and when tensions rise, the animals just tore into one another. Everybody was desperate, but not as much as Queen Cindy.
“We’re going to knock over the drugstore.” Cindy blurted out to a stunned Kenny.
“Say that one more time.”
“You heard me; get your gun and get off your ass because we’re going for a ride to King’s Creek Drug.” Cindy was on her feet, hopping around frantically. It seemed as if she had just found the solution to all her troubles. Her suitor was less enthusiastic.
“Are you deranged?” Cindy grabbed him by the collar, dragging him close to her mouth, settling her lips on the side of his skull.
“Listen motherfucker, I’ve been pill sick for three fucking days and if I don’t bust down a bean soon, I’m apt to murder a motherfucker.”
Kenny could see the desperation and hysteria that was unraveling. Just minutes ago, he was withdrawing from opiates, despising life, and now he was being pressured into a suicide mission.
“Calm your tits Cindy, we need a strategy. We can’t just saunter in there waving guns around. Don’t you know Carl Shelby has a pump action below the register. It ain’t his first rodeo. He’s seasoned in dealing with pill heads.”
“Don’t call me no motherfucking pill head!” She screeched, whacking him on the back of the head.
“I don’t mean us baby. I mean real junkies. Those who give blowjobs for Roxy 5’s. The point I’m making-“
“Oh, you got one?”
“Listen, we both require a gun for starters. We also need masks.”
“We got some old Halloween masks in Lori’s room, in the closet. And Cody will lend me his Ruger.”
“Well holy fuck, we’re doing this. We’re fucking in this shit.” Cindy glared down seductively at Kenny. She learned that he was a sucker for those green eyes, and she made good use of them whenever she wanted her way.
“Public enemy number one motherfucker!”
Kenny’s blue Mazda crept into the parking lot, and damn if it wasn’t the duo’s lucky day. The place was empty except for Carl and some dopey female pharmacist. The drugstore cowboys put on their Halloween masks and chambered their firearms.
“Ok baby, are you ready for this shit?” Kenny asked anxiously.
“For a pill, I’ll kill any motherfucker in my way.”
“Ok, dial that back a bit. We don’t want to kill anyone.”
“Fuck if I don’t.” She stormed out of the car, pushing toward the store with haste.
“She has lost her fucking mind.” For a millisecond, he considered just saying screw it. He wanted to start up the engine and leave her behind, but she had that fellow wrapped around her pinky. Warily, and with a tremendous sigh, he hopped from the driver’s seat, making a path into the store.
The moment that Cindy bust through the glass doors, she raised her gun and got off two shots into Carl. The tubby fuck dropped dead, a hole in his head and chest. The old man’s brain burst out the rear of his cranium with a sickening mist.
The pharmacist tried to make a run for it. Kenny aimed before unloading buckshot into the woman’s rib cage. Kenny was drawn back. He froze, glaring down at the dying woman. She reached up with a bloody hand while she moaned for “help” in a hardly audible voice. That is, until Cindy fired the kill shot into her right eye.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Kenny shouted. Cindy grabbed him by the arm and shook him as hard as she could.
“Snap the fuck out of it, we need to get the pills.”
Cindy dragged the stunned Kenny by his arm. With her free hand, she pulled open the door while making her way behind the desk. Cindy began scooping up all the opiates she could find, unloading the bottles into a grocery bag. Kenny felt like he was on the threshold of passing out. He had tunnel vision, and all sound was suppressed. Then he watched Cindy raise her gun at the storefront before unloading her weapon. Turning his head, he saw Officer Keller. The poor fuck clutched at the gushing hole in his throat before falling to the floor dead.
“Motherfucker must have triggered some kind of silent alarm.”
Kenny finally tore free from his fog, realizing that they needed to act. “We got to go before more show up.”
And off they went, laughing with frenzied excitement as the Mazda ripped down the street toward Haywood Trailer Park. Back home Cindy immediately pulled a bottle of Percocet from the bag, dumped out three 10 mg pills before crushing them down and sniffing the powder through a McDonald’s straw. Kenny followed suit before crashing on the couch, chuckling.
“We fucking did it.”
“Damn straight.” Cindy sensed movement outside. She rushed toward the window, tugging back the curtains. Pulling into the trailer park entrance was a sheriff’s deputy’s car. “Holy fuck, that pig that we killed must’ve called your plates in. Oh, we’re so fucked.”
“I’m not going to prison Cindy; I’ll die in a storm of gunfire before I ever go back to that fucking place.”
“Ok, ok, think.” Cindy grabbed the pills and her pistol. “Get your gun and follow me.”
The cop was a few houses down, facing away from Cindy’s mobile home. They used this opportunity to escape out the front door. The wild-eyed criminals took off running across three lots before making it to the woods. They watched as two cops got out with pistols drawn, forcing their way toward the front door.
“Let’s go.”
The junkies trotted through the wilderness, making their way toward the river. They were headed to Ethan’s Junkyard. Once there, they quickly scaled the fence and hid in an old conversion van. Over the next couple hours, they snorted pills and poured sweat before exhaustion caught up with them. They slept the entire night with guns in their hands.
Cindy opened her eyes as the sunlight blasting her in the face. Something seemed off. She heard a noise. Was that the sound of footsteps?
“Holy fuck Kenny get up they’re here.”
Kenny woke from his slumber for a total of two seconds before bullets commenced to rip through the van. The lovers thrashed about as blood burst from bullet holes. After a few moments of utter carnage, all was silent. The side door slid open. Outside the van were six deputies. Cautiously they approached the glassy eyed corpses, making sure that they were dead.
This is how the queen of Haywood Trailer Park lost her throne.
John Putignano 