AVENGERS: OLD AND NEW

Avengers --  Old and  New

By Forrest W. Schultz

 

     Around here we take care of each other.  As the closest male relative of my widowed aunt, I am her designated avenger, the one commissioned to execute the man who raped her last night.  This man – if "man" he can be called – lives in a different kind of rural "community" – one where the Sheriff knows of the rapes committed by this "man" and his brother, but does nothing about them.
   
  After I arrived at the summit of a high hill about a mile from the brothers' farmhouse at about 10 AM, I set up my high powered telescope to conduct a visual surveillance.  I was not surprised when I saw no one or any sign of activity, because the brothers are not expected to return until shortly after twelve noon.  It is Wednesday, and the town (where their auto repair business is located) is still following the traditional rural Southern practice of closing businesses on Wednesday afternoons.

     I was surprised to see a wrecker truck pull into the driveway at 10:29 AM – why had they come home so early?  But, then I looked closely and realized that this was not the wrecker owned by the brothers' business.  Several minutes after it disappeared from view behind the barn, I saw a young woman cautiously walk out of a door in the front of the barn and make her way toward a small building in between the barn and the house.  She entered this building and positioned herself at a window facing the carport at the side of the house.

     An excellent plan!  If the brothers parked in the carport, this would give the woman a direct shot into the side window of their truck.  Indeed, this is precisely what happened!

     As soon as their pickup truck pulled in and came to a stop, the woman shot and killed both with what appeared to be some kind of laser weapon.  She then ran to the back of the barn, drove her wrecker to the carport, and pulled the pickup truck up onto its bed, and drove out the back driveway for a short distance, then over an abandoned road to an abandoned quarry.  She backed the wrecker up to the edge, and then dropped the pickup truck with its executed rapist occupants down into the quarry where it landed in a lake and rapidly plunged into its depths.

     I guess I just saw a new style of avenger, i.e. one of today's tough new women.  On second thought, tough women are not so new.  Some of those old Mountain Mommas were pretty tough!!


February 21, 2011