Dang Deleted Scene
When I started writing Dang, I planned for Cindy and Luna to play bigger roles in the story. But once Peggy entered the mix, her character took off and left Cindy and Luna in the dust. Below is a deleted scene from Dang: Episode 1 chapter 4. In this scene, Luna arrives at Cindy and Willem’s trailer with her four boys. This scene alludes to Willem and Cindy not being able to have children. In the final version, I cut the four boys from the scene, added more of Peggy and dropped the fact that Willem and Cindy can’t have children. Let me know what you think. If y’all like this deleted scene I may post more.
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“You watchin’ the news?” Luna yanked her 3-year-old and 5-year-old boys by their arms and forced her way into the trailer. “Jackknife! Noose! Git your asses in here!” she hollered over her shoulder. “They won’t even listen to me anymore if I don’t call’em by their rasslin’ names.” Once inside, Luna and her four boys occupied the trailer like an invading army.
Cindy hated being them. They were a constant reminder of the one thing she and Willem wanted the most but could never have. A reminder of the pain she and her husband experienced five years ago, and a reminder of all the strain, both emotional and financial, she had put on the both of them.
“You watchin’ the news or what?” Luna asked.
“Why does it matter?” Cindy filled a glass of water at the kitchen sink. She didn’t give a shit about Luna and her obsession with the TV.
“Cause Willem took Murven out to the barn to kill ‘em, that’s why!”
Cindy, used to Luna’s crazy assumptions based on the news, took a second to process what she just heard. “Willem did what to Murven?”
“Murven went collectin’ with Willem today. Or at least that’s what Willem said they was gonna do. Turns out Willem was gonna kill Murven and bury him in that shit pile o’ his.”
“The news said that?”
“Yep.”
“Exactly that? That Willem planned to kill Murven?”
“Yep. Basically. They found four bodies in that shit pile and Murven was gonna be number five.”
“That can’t be.” Cindy tripped over the four boys as she tried to get to the TV. “Noose, can you turn on the the news for me, hun.”
“I’m not Noose! I’m Jackknife!” one of the two 9-year-old twins shouted back. “That’s Chainsaw and that’s Gator Bunny.” He pointed to his younger brothers.
“Gator Bunny?” Cindy asked.
“He’s only three. He don’t know how to do rasslin” names yet,” Jackknife replied.
“Whatever. Please just turn on the news,” Cindy said, unable to make it between the three-legged coffee table and the boys to reach the TV.
Noose turned on the TV and switched it to the news. Cindy could see the burned down farmhouse on the screen behind the the reporter. Something clearly happened on Willem’s family’s property. The reporter walked past the farmhouse and to the barn, saying something Cindy couldn’t hear over Luna and the boys. “Quiet!” she shouted.
Noose and Jackknife stood up on the couch and started wrestling, while Chainsaw made chainsaw noises and ran around the trailer. Gator Bunny, not sure what else to do, picked up and threw everything he could get his hands. Luna sat down on the recliner next to the couch and leaned in to watch the news, ignoring all the ruckus. “Boys! Cindy shouted. “Can you please keep it down?”
“No! No! No!” Gator Bunny waved a hammer he had taken from Willem’s tool box on the kitchen floor.
Luna glanced at Gator Bunny, unfazed by his disrespect for authority, then turned and leaned in closer to the TV. Cindy caught a glimpse of Luna’s peek-a-boo tattoo that used to be either a beaver or a rabbit, but five pregnancies and too much fast food had turned it into what appeared to be a road kill tramp stamp.
“Shut up!” Cindy shouted, sending Gator Bunny into a hissy fit. He pounded the hammer on the TV screen, cracking it and killing the reception.
“Look what you made him do,” Luna said to Cindy.
“Luna, tell me what the hell is going on with Willem and Murven, then git your ass out of my trailer.”
“Damn, Cindy! It’s a good thang you can’t have kids! You’d be goin’ straight back to that mental hospital for two more years!
“What did you say to me?” Cindy reached for Luna’s frizzy blonde hair.
“Stop!” Luna started to cry. “I’m pregnant! I can’t fight!”
“If your boys weren’t here I’d kick your ass all over this trailer. How could you say that to me?”
Luna backed away and put up her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. These pregnancy hormones got me on an emotional roller coaster. I’m not responsible for the shit that comes outta my mouth.”
“Whatever,” Cindy said, pulling her own hair. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I will in a minute. Just before your TV broke the reporter said they was packing up and headed this way.” Luna stepped around Cindy. “I gotta run put the ‘for sale’ sign on Murven’s truck. Maybe somebody will see it on the news and wanna buy it. Watch the boys for me.” Luna waddled out the door and down the steps. “Hey, Peggy,” she said when she reached the bottom.
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