Broken Bricks

She was a homely sort a recluse finding reprieve in the company of her pinto Parfait.  Patricia was sensitive taking up a persona to protect herself from the negative opinions from others.  She had naturally curled often-tangled fiery red hair and dark brown eyes with freckles that covered her pale skin.  Patricia was a sickly girl not having a large bosom she felt inadequate amongst the company of her peers.  When she was a schoolgirl she was often made fun of getting beat up by boys because she was labeled a “cootie” resulting in her peeing her pants several times in the classroom.  At home she was a victim of verbal abuse by her parents who would get into violent fights, usually on Friday nights after payday and a long night of drinking.  When she was fifteen years old she met a forty one year old man who showed her affection. She dropped out of school that year moving in with him after running away during one of her father’s drunken fits.  Her father told her that she was a mistake an egg that had been dropped that nobody wanted to pick up.  Those words hurt her and she ran away but could never get away from the memory.  The words “Cabbage Maggot” bounced around her head on long sleepness nights.  That’s what her mother called her because she said that she was full of rot and that she was a whore for running off with a man that was as old as they were.  It didn’t matter how many pieces of artwork Patricia created and sold she was never good enough. She stopped using the name Patricia shortening it to Patty because she didn’t wanted to be reminded of the voices of her parents calling out her name.  After moving in with her boyfriend there was a battle between her father and her boyfriend and it wasn’t over his age.  Patty was artist a non-official artist she had a natural talent for creating things.  She sold these items at local fairs making a descent living all of her own work.  Her parents had become accustomed to taking half of her earnings finding comfort in having full shelves stocked with food and a fridge full of liquor.  Patty liked the freedom of doing what she wanted at a young age finding liberty in not being self conscious like she was around others.  Her boyfriend Lange was bird like.  Lange Medallion was tall and lanky holding jobs on and off mixed in with a scattered criminal history.

They lived on a farm that Lange inherited from his grandfather.  It was a country town several towns over from where Patty was raised.  The first year living on the farm Patty married Lange got pregnant and had a miscarriage after he knocked her down a flight of stairs.  At first they got along well though Lange was never sensitive and didn’t like to have long conversations.  He chain-smoked Winston Cigarettes and drank nearly a case of Carling Black label or Ruppert beer every day.  Most of the days Lange sat on the porch drinking or hung out at a local bar.  Meanwhile Patty learned how to work a tractor tearing out the old stumps of trees that Lange cut down.  Through the mail she ordered several sacks of hayseed spreading them throughout a five acre parcel of tilled soil.  During that time she had Parfait a pinto that she had traded one of her stick sculptures for.  She hadn’t put much thought into it because she learned to hide away her feelings but she was happy to have a horse that she could call her own.  She never knew much about horses growing up on the property Patty had old horse tack that was better suited for a thoroughbred than a pinto to saddle up with but she taught herself how to ride.  Into the second year Lange was miserable to be around and his alcoholism and abuse made Patty a well weathered battered wife.  Through this time she never drank she was almost eighteen and to an outsider she would appear like an attractive off beat young woman but on the inside she was more like the pile of shattered mason, ketchup, bean, water, and other jars that her husband had started to pile up on the property. She hurt without the ability to talk about her feelings to anyone.  She felt anger resentment all without the will to fight her internal repression.  To take up the space of the feelings that resided in places that she pushed off she created things and worked hard.

On the nice days Patty rode Parfait around the property.  It was a thirty acre plot of land most of it wooded.  She had learned how to handle her horse and with practice earned the trust of her Pinto.  She didn’t have much of her own but her relationship with her horse was a saving grace that helped her to keep herself grounded on the days when there was nothing to look forward to.  As the hayseeds began to grow into full fields of hay Lange would cut the hay with an attachment on the tractor and with an old rusty bay haler that Patty had bought.  Since Lange didn’t work Patty was the breadwinner of the household.  Growing hay was a good way for her to earn money because there were times that her pieces didn’t sell. During one of the county fairs Patty was at her booth.  For this particular event she was selling ez seal mason jars full of different type of flower seeds that she had collected throughout her property.  She had dried herbs for tea and other herbs for holistic healing along with bars of soap that she started to make at home.  During most of these events Lange would hang around wearing a cowboy hat with a feather in it serving as a bodyguard of sorts.  He wasn’t a very cleanly man having a habit of impersonal conversation often losing patience with potential customers.  It was for that reason that Patty often let Lange do his own thing which meant him sitting in a chair holding a cup spitting chewing tobacco in it.

Not long after the event began a young couple walked in browsing the items standing in front of Lange.  The man was of a portly build with a long handlebar mustache and the woman was short with tanned skin.  She had long black hair braided on both sides with feathers sticking out at the bottom.  Lange stood up from his chair after noticing the couple staring at him.  “Are you going to stare at me looking stupid or are you going to buy something.”  The man stood several inches shorter than the almost six four when he stood up straight Lange.  He clenched his jaw along with his hands.  “Is that how you talk to all of your customers?” The man asked.  Lange put the cup down took out a tooth pick cleaning his teeth before throwing the tooth pick over the concession table near the mans feet.  The man huffed, “I can see that you don’t appreciate potential customers.”  Lange smiled, “I like customers just fine if they are going to buy something which is why I asked if you two were going to buy something.”  Looking over to the other side of the concession stand Patty noticed that Lange seemed to be in a heated discussion with customers.  She quickly completed her transaction walking over to stand on the side of Lange.  The couple looked to the young woman with tangled fiery red hair.  She seemed attractive to the portly young man in a lost puppy kind of way.  “Is there something that I can help you with?”  The young tan skin woman with braided hair let out a sigh of relief avoiding eye contact with the tall bird like man.  “We wanted to introduce ourselves.”  The portly young man with the handlebar mustache finished the sentence, “My name is Bony and this is my wife Leona, were the Hoggins.  We have a concession stand a couple of tents down we sell leather good and authentic Indian apparel.”  It might not have seemed out of place to the Hoggins seeing Patty smile but she did and it was something that she hadn’t done in a long time.  Lange made a mean face seeing her reaction walking back and forth behind Patty.  “Normally I sell arts and crafts that I make at home but I’ve stocked up on wild flower seeds and various other flower seeds that I grow on our property along with herbs and organic soap.”  Patty smiled tucking her tangled hair behind her ears.  Lange stood behind her snickering.  “Maybe you can help me with something.”  Leona said “With what?”  “Well I like to go swimming in our pool but every time that I do I get a rash.”  The young woman didn’t know much about allergies or medicine but she had spent a lot of time reading about herbs and natural healing.  “Wait here for a minute.”  She walked along her table picking out a bar of soap.  “I don’t know what your allergic to but if you go into your pool it could be the chlorine I’d suggest that you take a shower right after you get out and use this apricot oatmeal and milk soap it might seem odd but its good for cleaning your pours and leaving your skin soft.”  Leona grabbed a couple of bars along with a container of flowers.  Before leaving Bony Hoggins and Lange Medallion held firm eye contact with obvious tension before the young couple left the concession table. 
At home on the farm Lange was verbally abusive to Patty.  He was mad at her after being nice to the Hoggins.  He made her scrub the bathroom with a toothbrush, paint the porch, and clean out the barn that was full of old things that his parents collected.  Throughout this he observed while drinking beer throwing the empty cans on the floor making her pick them up too.  She couldn’t comprehend why she was being treated so poorly for being nice to fellow trade show entrants. When she started to clean out the barn that is when Lange decided to leave her to do her work.  He sat on his newly painted porch drinking beer listening to an old Zenith radio.  Inside of the barn was a cluster of a mess most of it was junk but she did find some antique items that she knew that she would be able to sell at the next fair along with set of china plates and bowls and a silver set of silverware.  She left them in the barn out of fear that Lange would break them.  Cleaning out the barn took nearly a week and her horse Parfait grazed on grass but it was a relief for her not be around Lange because she didn’t want to take any more abuse.  By the time the next event was within driving distance she had plenty of old nick knacks, dolls, old baseball cards, antique pots and pans, tea kettles, coffee makers, and lots of other items to sell.  Lange seemed non-challant about it all he had a bad relationship with his parents and didn’t think that their belongings were worth anything.  To him any of the proceeds meant that he could afford a steady supply of beer and cigarettes.  Patty had other ideas.  Now that the barn was empty she started to make plans for it.  It was a sturdily built barn with old style construction.  The support beams were thick like old rail road ties along with old unfinished wood for the walls and stalls with iron jail like bars for windows.  She wanted to sand and varnish the wood with thinking of saving up money to buy a couple of cows and a bull along with new horse tack for her pinto Parfait. 

Patty seemed a little apprehensive about the prices that Lange was insistent on getting for the old antique items.  Before the next show she sketched posters touting antique hard to find items.  As they were setting up their tables they noticed that the Hoggins were setting up their concession stand one tent over from theirs.  Lange made eye to eye contact with Bony Hoggins spitting tobacco in a cup before turning his back on him heading back into the tent.  Patty wanted to wave to Leona but Lange shook his head no. Surprisingly they did very well selling a lot of what they had to offer.  There was some haggling back and forth on items that seemed too expensive to the customers but Lange would interfere unwilling to budge on price.  On the last day of the event Leona Hoggins walked over holding a wooden walking stick with a head that resembled a dead goat.  It had leather around its ears with horse manes braided dangling down from its leather strapped ears.  Along the manes were peacock feathers with chickens feet and sea shells.  It seems unreal to Patty without saying a word she held out her hand to her.  “What is this?” Patty asked “A medicine man staff that I made for you.  Put it on your wall it will help you to ward off evil spirits.”  “Are you sure that you don’t want something for this?”  “You did give me something the soap helped with my rash.”  Patty walked to the table-grabbing thick book with a bottle of moonshine in it.  “I want you to have this in return.”  “No I can’t accept gifts”  She looked to Lange who was talking to customers while eying Leona every now and again.  “Besides” she said, “I think that you could use some help in warding off the evil in your life.”  Patty smiled before opening up the book with the bottle of moonshine, “This also helps to get rid of spirits.”  Leona smiled accepting the gift while Patty accepted hers.
Several events passed without seeing the Hoggins meanwhile Patty sold the rest of the old antique items that were in the barn.  Lange seemed content with being able to have a steady stock of cigarettes and beer along with buying himself poker table with a set of chips and cards. He planned on having his friends over once a week to play cards.  Patty wasn’t a fan of this idea because it meant that she had to be the bar maid.  What she did like is the fact that she had enough money to buy a couple of cows and a bull along with trading with one of the other vendors for a used belt sander, palm sander, and several gallons of varnish. Patty kept the staff inside of the barn deciding to put it on the wall in the barn once it was finished.  The first week of poker playing wasn’t fun for Patty with Lange’s friends being crude with their language and sharp with their orders.  Patty had to serve them beer and make them food.  There was one of the Lange’s friends there was seemed different than the others his name was Sal.  He was the son of the owner of the Redneck Reservoir the bar that Lange would often hang out at.  Keeping to herself while the men were playing cards reading a book about horse behavior Patty was lost in reading.When they got hungry she made them battered chicken with home made biscuits and gravy.Sal noticed how quickly and without remarks Patty worked he stopped her after she served them food.  “You know Patty if Lange wouldn’t mind we could use your help at my fathers establishment.”  Lange seemed a little awkward then looked sternly to Patty.  “She is awfully busy here and she does make good money.”  Sal expected hesitation, “How about two days a week, night shifts just for extra money?”  At that time the drinking age was eighteen and Patty had turned eighteen several weeks prior.  Lange was the one to decide, “She’ll work two nights a week and that is all.”  It was decided for her with the unexpected excitement of her first legitimate job. 

The next couple of days passed quickly with Patty working hard sanding the horse stalls while Lange spent time at the bar.  Her arms ached and throbbed from all of the work.  She was beginning to develop a compact frame from the consistent day-to-day life of living on a farm.  The first night working at the Redneck Reservoir she was introduced to Sals father Mann.  He was a bear of a man with a big stomach buckled in by the farmer jean overalls that he wore.  He talked with a deep voice with a slightly southern accent.  Most of the patrons there knew Lange and they were surprised to see how young and pretty his bride was.  She tied her hair in a pony tale and wore long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans.  While she might not have seemed nervous to others she was.  If there was something noticeable about her it was that she was shy never making eye contact with the patrons looking at the floor while she carried beer or food to their table.  The first week she made descent money for what she considered to be easy work.  She wasn’t the most personable and Lange didn’t go to the bar while she worked instead he decided to have poker parties on the nights.  After a couple of weeks she began to familiarize herself with the regulars at the bar talking a little bit more to them.  At home she worked in the barn sanding the stalls high and low using a latter to help her reach all of the places that were out of reach.  When she was done sanding then she started to varnish the sanded wood.  That part of the project she thought was simple herself.  Her pinto kept her company during her time working in the barn.  She found herself talking to Parfait and with those conversations found herself talking out loud some of the things that she had pushed away.  If there was motivation for her to work it was in the words that brought anger and hurt to the surface.  Her nights at the Redneck Reservoir proved to be consistent income coming at a time when there was a several month lapse between fairs that were in driving distance.  After the first month of work she talked to a local farmer that had cattle for sale she bought two cow calves and a bull calf. During the days they grazed on a two-acre plot of wooded fenced area along with Parfait. With the business that filled Patty’s schedule including work nights Lange became more possessive and physical.  Some nights when he drank more than usual he would act on his anger un strapping his leather belt and he would whip her in the back buttocks and legs.  He’d threaten her that if she ever left him or told anyone that he’d kill her.  Those nights she’d cry unable to sleep because of the pain from the beatings.

Patty avoided Lange spending all of her available time inside of the barn varnishing every sanded piece of wood that she could find.  Patty felt dirty she felt dirty inside cleaning everything that had dust on it inside of the barn.  She took steel wool pads to the iron bars of the horse stalls before painting them black. There was an office inside of the barn built in between the stalls.  The office floor was covered with linoleum and when she tore off the linoleum she found that there were oak flooring beneath.  This gave her more to vent her frustrations on taking the belt sander followed by the palm sander to smooth out the gunked up surface of the floor.  Through this time Lange was unrelentingly aggressive with him beating her accompanying his demands because she was not a “good submissive homemaker wife” and that her mother was right that she was a “Cabbage Maggot”.  There was no love left between herself and Lange she decided that her feelings were final but her will was broken and she was fully vested in the house, property, and to her animals.  To her this was prison, a prison of the mind as well of the soul.  Her two days a week working at the Redneck Reservoir went by quickly with her working diligently without conversation or eye contact.  Mann had his suspicions about what might be going on he decided to have a wait and see attitude.  He considered Patty an extraordinarily good waitress she was fully functional.  What he did recognize is that if she showed some charm toward the regulars that she would get more tips. 

One night when Lange was in a mood angry with the politics that ruled the news seeing that Patty didn’t agree with him he decided to use his fists instead of his belt to beat her.  She had two black eyes and broken nose from one of Lange’s wild swings that hit her directly in the face.  She was small standing five foot five weighing barely one hundred and twenty pounds.  That one punch knocked her down to the ground hard, she saw stars barely able to maintain consciousness.  Hovering above was Lange swearing at her with none of the words recognizable everything was a whirl.  When she got up she was full of blood instinctively running to the kitchen grabbing a knife locking herself inside of the bathroom contemplating killing Lange if he broke through.  That night she slept inside of the bathroom filling the tub full of water staying in it as long as the water stayed warm then showered until the water went cold. She laid on the bottom of the tub letting the water hit her.  She shivered full of anxiety eventually vomiting and having diarrhea.  The next morning Lange banged on the door telling her that he was going to knock it down if she didn’t open it up.  He wanted breakfast cooked and he wasn’t taking no for an answer nor was he apologizing for what he had done.  Reluctantly she opened the door.  Lange looked at Patty unsympathetically before pushing her out of the door entrance closing the door behind him.  She cried throughout the day staying in the barn calling into work cancelling her shifts for the week.  During her conversation she talked to Sal saying that she had come down with a case of pneumonia with the possibility of being out for a considerable amount of time.  She avoided contact with Lange for nearly a week after getting beaten setting up a blanket and pillow inside of the office of the barn.  Lange stuck to his usual schedule of drinking on the porch or going to the bar.  The one thing that was different was that he didn’t have his friends over for poker.  Finally after a full week of no contact Lange walked in after Patty as she went into the house to get food.  “I need you to go shopping.”  He told her.  Out of fear she nodded yes but she didn’t want to go out in the public because she had black eyes and a severely swollen nose.  “I didn’t mean to hit you I just lost my temper that is all.” That was the apology that Lange had to offer.  Patty nodded her head grabbing food quickly before trying to get to the door.  Lange grabbed her by her wrists, “What my apology aint good enough for you?”  She froze, “It is I’m just in the middle of working in the barn.”  Lying to him hoping that it would work.  Luckily for her it did,  “I want you to sleep in the bed with me tonight.”  She nodded while avoiding eye contact before walking out to the barn. 
Months passed by without physical incident but she never let down her guard.  They began attending local fairs selling items at their booths.  Patty found herself in an artistic rut unable to create anything that she felt pride in selling.  She did replicate many of the things that sold in past and while they did sell she couldn’t rid herself of the gloomy feelings and thoughts that boggled her.  One night she received phone call from her mother that her father suffered a stroke.  There was an argument between Lange and herself because she wanted to go to the hospital to see him and Lange ran to the car ripping out the spark plug wire.  Patty ran out of the house and into the woods after their argument.  She ran until she was completely exhausted finding herself sitting on the side of an old and winding road.  It was nearly three o’clock in the morning before she saw the lights of a car approaching.  Lange pulled up their vehicle rolling down the window pleading with Patty to get into the car.  Moments later he put the car in park getting out walking around grabbing her by her hair and shoving her in the passenger seat.

Encaged in thoughts she contemplated the uncontemplatable pleading with Lange for him to let her drive to see her father in the hospital, but there was no Leeway when Lange made a decision.  The following night Lange dropped Patty off for her normal shift at the Redneck Reservoir.  Hours later when he drove to the bar to pick her up after her shift was completed he was informed by Mann that Sal had driven Patty to see her father at the hospital.  He thought twice about picking a fight with the barrel chested Mann deciding to drive to the hospital to pick her up.  Lange was drunk taking a twelve pack of beer along with him while driving.  He was covered in grime from working on his car that day.  After driving for a long time crossing the lines in the road he made it to the hospital able to find directions to Patty’s fathers room telling the nurses that he was Pattys husband.  When he got to the room he saw Patty standing on the side of Sal along with her mother and her father hooked up to intravenous tubes and a respirator.  He was in a coma from his stroke.  Patty froze in fear of what might what happen.  “Sal, I’ll drive Patty home.”  Sal looked first to Patty before looking to Lange noticing that he was drunk.  “I’ll don’t think that’s a good idea.  You look like you have had a little bit too much to drink, I’ll drop her off after she’s done visiting.”  Patty’s mother interrupted, “ She’ll stay with me tonight I’ll drop her off in the morning.”  Lange wasn’t happy with the answer leaving the hospital abruptly.  That night Patty slept in her old room and bed sleeping soundly for the first time in recent memory. 
Hiding all of the trauma that she had endured she sat at the dinner table eating breakfast with her mother. 

Quietly eating eggs and toast her mother was the first to talk.  “Your all grown up” She said Patty who took a sip of her coffee remaining silent.  It wasn’t the same with them as it was several years back when she ran away.  Her mother noticed how muscular and woman like Patty was.  Tear drops fell from her cheeks, “Patricia I never thought that we would talk again.”  The sound of her full name Patricia caused her to pout holding back tears.  Patty felt hurt along with a bunch of other feeling that were bundled within her.  She was also hardened remembering everything that unfolded without forgiving her parents.  Her mother reached for her hand, “Please forgive me for letting you move in with a grown man.”  Patty feared Lange and that fear came to the surface because she thought about what she was going to encounter when she returned home. She pulled her hands back tucking in her tangled fiery red hair behind her ears before returning to eat her breakfast, “When will you be driving me home.”  “As soon as you want.”  Patty put her silverware down wiping her mouth, “I’m ready.” 
On the way to home Patty’s mother tried to have a conversation with her one-word responses is what she got back in return.  When she arrived her mother noticed the house and barn along with the animals that were grazing.  Before leaving she insisted on getting a tour of the property.  Waiting on the porch was Lange drinking beer listening to the radio.  He wasn’t happy to see Patty’s mother walking inside with her.  The house was small but it was clean with hand made crafts on the walls.  Her mother was happy to find that her daughter was a good homemaker.  There was something disturbing to the both of them.  There were old cuffs on the table, that looked like there were used to shackle slaves with.  Patty began to talk taking away attention from the cuffs asking her mother to walk to the barn with her.  They walked to the barn and when Patty opened the doors her mother’s demeanor changed.  She told her mother about all of the work that she had done to the barn the cleaning, the sanding, the varnishing then she walked her out to the grazing area with a bucket of grain telling her mother about how she grows and sells hay along with the history of her horse Parfait.  The time with her mother was the most that she talked to another person in a while.  She conversed with her mother as an equal and that seemed odd.  When her mother left she didn’t say goodbye to Lange whom she never liked but she was in tears from the conversation that she had with her daughter.  Patty didn’t cry but she felt full of feeling and resentment over visiting her father in the hospital.  She walked inside of the house to wash her hands in the sink.  Lange walked behind her and without saying a word he picked up the old cuffs bent her over the sink then shackled her.  She struggled and screamed trying to do everything that she could to get Lange to let her go.  “You need to learn to obey my commands when I talk to you woman!” He picked up walking her into the woods where he tied her to a tree shackled.  “What are you going to do?”  “I’m leaving you out here to think about what you done.”  “What did I do?”  “You know what you did woman and what you do and I want you to think about it.” 

Her mind was blank she couldn’t think about anything else except for trying to get break free.  She was shackled and tied to a tree but the one thing that she was grateful for was that she wasn’t beaten or abused.  The silence of being tied up and the soreness from not being able to move caused her muscles to stiffen with exhaustion along with the overbearness of the daytime summer sun.  When night time arrived it was also her night to work at the Redneck Reservoir thoughts about her employment came to the surface.  She laughed to herself considering the position that she was in. At the house the phone rang Lange was sitting on the porch drinking his beer listening to the radio.  Mann was calling because Patty didn’t show up for work.  He had a funny feeling that something was going on because of the conversation that he had with his son along with his encounter with Lange the previous night.  Something that he never done was make home visits for his employees but this case seemed different and he didn’t know why.  He grabbed his vehicle keys leaving his son in charge. 

Mann knew the town just as good as anyone, he also knew the property and the history of the property.  He remembered that this particular property was used during the underground railroad to hide away freed slaves.  When he arrived he sawLange sitting on the porch alone.  He got out of his truck holding his keys in his hands scratching his head when he approached the porch.  Lange didn’t budge.  “Patty didn’t show up for her shift and no one answered the phone is everything alright?”  “Yup everything’s fine” Lange said before taking a sip of his beer.  “Can I talk to Patty?”  “Nope!”  That response made Mann a little bit upset.  “Is there a reason why that I can’t talk to Patty?”  “Yup”  Lange responded taking another sip of his beer.  Mann had patience but he was starting to lose it with Lange.  He decided to further the guessing game, “Is there a reason why I can’t talk to Patty?” Lange looked to Mann took out a cigarette lit up and responded, “She aint home she’s stayin at her mothers house.”  That answer did seem likely but Mann was well weathered and owning a tavern knew people and he knew Lange.  In knowing Lange he knew how he acted and what he was capable of as well as what he had done in the past.  On the other hand Patty staying at her mothers house seemed likely to be true. 
Across the way a little past the barn was Patty tied to a tree extremely thirsty looking at what was going on at the house.  There was a cloth tied tightly around her head covering her mouth she tried as hard as she could to scream but it was to no avail.  She tried gnawing and moving her jaw create some kind of space to scream but she couldn’t.  Feeling hopeless she stopped trying to struggle. 

Mann got back into his truck starting it up not knowing why he decided to angle his vehicle in the direction of the barn putting on his high beams.  At first he didn’t see anything nor did he expect to but then he thought that he saw someone tied to a tree.  Without waiting he put his vehicle into first gear power shifting as fast as his engine would let him he drove forward toward the barn.Tied to the tree was Patty, he grabbed his buck knife that was in the glove compartment running out quickly cutting the rope that bound Patty to the tree noticing that she was also shackled.  Grabbing one of her arms with his bear like paws he lead her to the truck.  In a hurry he turned the truck around before speeding toward the driveway.  There stood Lange holding a rifle taking aim and then shooting.  The first shot missed the vehicle completely Lange noticing that the truck was fast approaching shot again hitting Mann cleanly in the forehead. The unfortunate part for Lange who was drunk was that he was standing directly in the path where the truck was driving.  Patty sitting on the side of Mann screamed in horror as the bullet penetrated the front window hitting Mann in the forehead.  He was dead on impact; handcuffed and unable to do anything about it Patty sat helplessly as the vehicle hit Lange while driving very fast.  The vehicle sped for some distance before colliding indirectly with a tree.  Not wearing a seatbelt Patty flew up against the windshield knocking her unconscious. 

She woke up at the hospital a couple of days later with her mother by her side.  That night when Mann never returned to the Redneck Reservoir Sal decided to visit Patty’s house.  When he drove up that’s when he saw what happened.  Patty was unconscious and unresponsive but she was alive.  He saw that his father was dead along with Lange who was unrecognizable laying in the driveway.  Sal ran inside calling the police waiting with Patty until they arrived.  Patty suffered a severe concussion, a couple broken ribs, and a broken arm but she was spared severe injury.  It was a nightmare of a marriage one that should have never taken place to begin with.  Several months later being fully healed and feeling good about herself for the first in a long time she decided to rent out her horse stalls.  She wanted to formalize herself and property into a business.  She made an agreement with a horse trainer to give her lessons with the intent on showing along with the people that rented tack and board at her barn.  She had a sign put up at the beginning of the property, “Lobbed Logs Barn”  A  week after putting up the sign in drove Bony and Leona Hoggins along with their trailer with two horses that they intended to board at the barn. Patty Medallion slicked back her tangled fiery red hair putting it in a pony tail looking down her drive finally happy with herself.  A couple of years later she sold her cows and bull buying herself new horse tack and an Arabian saddle bred mare where she would later go on to win many awards with.