Page 182 of His Hungry Wolf
“She mentioned that you might be a good person to talk to,” I told him taking the lead.
“I suppose you want to check out the falls.”
“That and other things,” I said looking back at Cage.
“Are you guys ready to go, or do you need some time? Dr. Sonya packed us a little brunch since you missed breakfast. I imagine you two were a little busy this morning?” Titus said suggestively. “I’m just kidding. No need to guess what two good-looking guys like yourselves were up to,” he said with a knowing laugh. “Anyway, did you two want to head out?”
After all of that, I was stunned speechless. He had basically said that he knew we were having sex. As bad as I was with social things, I really didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to that.
“We’re ready,” Cage replied jumping in.
“The falls are beautiful. They are snow-tipped if you pardon the expression. I assume they’re what brought you here?”
“No. We came because we were looking for someone. Or, at least, information on them.”
“Well, the population isn’t that big. Who are you looking for? Maybe I’ve seen them.”
“He has red hair, probably a stubbled beard. It would have been two or three weeks ago. His name was Joe Rucker.”
“No, that doesn’t sound familiar,” Titus replied genuinely.
“Dr. Sonya said she’d ask around.”
“She’s pretty good at that. What do you think, should we go? I have the fixin’s right here,” he said bending down and picking up a wicker picnic basket.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Titus turned and led us outside.
“I hope you don’t mind if we take my truck. It seats three pretty comfortably.”
“No that’s fine.”
“What about you… was it Cage or Quin? Which one’s which?”
“I’m Cage, and this is Quin.”
“What about you, Quin? Do you mind sitting in the back seat? I would suggest that you sit up front with us. It’s a bench seat after all. But I figure you’ll be more comfortable in the back.”
“The back is fine,” I said finding my voice.
“Alright then. Let’s head on out.”
Titus drove us back into town repeating some of the things we had already heard. The school used to be a moonshine warehouse. Glen’s general store used to be the chief moonshine runner’s main office, and that there used to be a wall surrounding the town. From there he made a U-turn and took us past the bed and breakfast.
“Alcohol prohibition ended in the late 1920s, didn’t it?” I asked not having learned about this time in American history at my high school.
“1933,” Titus corrected. “Between 1920 and 1933, this town was the richest little town in Tennessee. The amount of concentrated wealth rivaled that of Beverly Hills or downtown New York City.”
“Then what happened?” Cage asked.
“The same thing that happens to most ideas when their times have passed. People moved on and moved away. There were a few people who stayed. They kept the community going through the dry times. Not alcohol dry times. Those would probably be the wet times for that.
“But the people here did what they could. At one point someone thought they could turn this place into a processing facility for Tennessee whiskey. But that didn’t stick.”
“I don’t know if anything has,” Titus explained. “We’ve seen some growth in population thanks to people like Dr. Sonya. And, every so often we get someone like yourselves who wonder in to see the falls. But, for the most part we like to keep the community pretty tight.
“It’s a safe place to live. The people who run the town do everything they can to keep it that way. So, if you’re here, you don’t have to worry about anything sneaking up on you, if you know what I mean.