{"id":3374,"date":"2014-05-12T11:16:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T15:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=3374"},"modified":"2014-07-11T16:29:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T20:29:28","slug":"mas-rifle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/miscellaneous\/mas-rifle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ma’s Rifle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late one night, at the cabin way up north, we heard a truck coming along the driveway when a truck wasn\u2019t supposed to come.\u00a0 My mother pulled on her boots, loaded her rifle, and told us, \u201cStay in the house, kids.\u201d\u00a0 Then she stepped out on the front porch with her gun and our dog.<\/p>\n

\"Cabin\"My brothers stayed in the bedroom, but I crept to the kitchen window and peered over the sill to see her standing under the porch light in her Lanz nightgown, with her long black braid falling down her back.\u00a0 Our golden retriever was normally too good natured to be a threat, but as he stood beside her, facing the drive, he wasn\u2019t wagging his tail.\u00a0 The pick-up truck\u2019s lights swung around the last curve and cut across the pump in the front yard before the truck came to a stop in the gravel.\u00a0 Its engine was still running, and three men were crowded in the front seat.\u00a0 As the driver opened his door, staticky country music and laughter came out with him.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow are you doing?\u201d the man said.\u00a0 He was a tall, clean-shaven man in a black shirt and jeans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can just get back in your truck and keep driving,\u201d Ma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this here\u2019s the end of the road.\u00a0 I hear there\u2019s a pretty woman lives at the end of the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

She lifted her rifle to her shoulder and aimed it at his boots.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, wait a second.\u00a0 You know how to use that thing?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to go,\u201d Ma said.<\/p>\n

The dog growled.<\/p>\n

The guy lifted both his hands and took a step backward.\u00a0 \u201cI was just looking for Howie.\u00a0 Is he here?\u201d<\/p>\n

She aimed the rifle higher.\u00a0 \u201cOne.\u00a0 Two,\u201d Ma said.<\/p>\n

The guy scrambled back into his truck, swearing as he slammed the door.\u00a0\u00a0 The wheels spun streaks in the gravel as he reversed and then headed back down the driveway.\u00a0 That was when the dog started barking, loud and fierce.\u00a0 Ma reached down to pet his head.\u00a0 When the sound of the truck was gone entirely, she came back in the kitchen door and turned on the overhead light.<\/p>\n

I was still hunkered down by the window, afraid to move.\u00a0 She braced the rifle across her knee and took the bullets out.\u00a0 Then she gazed across at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are your brothers?\u201d<\/p>\n

I pointed back towards the bedroom.<\/p>\n

She gave me a little smile.\u00a0 \u201cYou scared?\u201d<\/p>\n

I nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, too,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cCome on.\u00a0 Back to bed.\u00a0 They\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you have killed him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t need to, did I?\u00a0 Come on.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, I never knew when they\u2019d come back, or if they would, but I knew Ma was ready.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t mess around, my mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late one night, at the cabin way up north, we heard a truck coming along the driveway when a truck wasn\u2019t supposed to come.\u00a0 My mother pulled on her boots, loaded her rifle, and told us, \u201cStay in the house, kids.\u201d\u00a0 Then she stepped out on the front porch with her gun and our dog. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-3374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-childhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3374"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3571,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374\/revisions\/3571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}