The officer stepped back from the door, and took a deep breath, "Well...I think I'd like to have the driver here join me back at my car, and the rest of you just stay put and don't do anything...stupid, ya know."

They headed back to the car, and Skippy asked me, "What's going on?"
"Hard to tell with these small town, back woods cops...you ever seen the movie, 'Deliverance'"? I answered him.
"N-no, but I've heard my Dad talk about it..."
"Stop it Dad, you're scaring him!" Rachael pleaded.
"Hey, I'm soft, if they get me in an interrogation room, I'll tell them Skippy has been on a one man crime spree across two states if that's what they want to hear! You got any priors Skip?"
About that time a second officer stuck his head through the driver's window of the truck, and he was less aggressive with the flashlight than the former one. "Got some questions for you if you don't mind..." he looked squarely at me.
"Yeah, sure, what do you need to know."
"Who have we got in the squad car back there?"
"My brother Boone, or Brian Daniel...uh, Gebhart."
"and Boone, that's like his street name?"
I suppressed my laughter, Rachael did not.
"No, no...just a family nick name."
"Ok, then...who's the young lady?"
"Rachael Gebhart, she's my daughter."
"So this guy in the back is family also?"
"No, that's Skippy, her boyfriend!"
"Skippy? Really?"
"Yeah really", I shrugged my shoulders, "What are you gonna do?"
It was the officers turn to suppress laughter, and he did an admirable job.
"Who's truck is this?"
"Dale, Dale Gebhart, my youngest brother."
"And the trailer?"
"Darren Gebhart, the next to youngest brother."
"And what is his birthday?"
"Sept 30th 1968!"
"Sounds like I'm in the middle of Billy Goats Gruff!"
"Yep, and I'm the great big Billy goat!"
This time there was no attempt to suppress his laughter, that's usually a good sign.
"Any idea where the serial number is on this trailer", was his final question.
"Not a clue...but that trailer has been in the family for 15 years at least, and we bought it from our friend Matt McPhetridge in Fairland".
"Ok, hang tight, and I'm going to go back here and have a word with my fellow officer."
"What can they get us for?", Rachael commented from the back in a hushed voice.
"At the very least, one taillight out on the trailer, one out on the truck, expired plates, and four seatbelt violations...at the most they could impound the whole lot, and haul us in since we have no proof of ownership!"

Surprisingly, Boone jumped back in the seat a few minutes later, fastened his seatbelt, and fired up the truck.
"We're free to go?" I asked him, as I heard a pent up breath explode from the back seat...I think Skippy had been holding it in since I mentioned Deliverance.
"Yeah, no tickets".
"So our stories matched", I surmised
"No, not exactly", he laughed, "They wanted to know why you said the trailer belonged to Darren, and I said Bradley..."
"Nobody calls him Bradley..."
"Well, it is his first name, so I figured that would pop up on the computer. Then they wanted to know why Skippy was Colton on his driver's license...oh, yeah, here!" Boone handed me back the two AZ IDs the first officer had collected.
"Then they asked me what was going to come back on "Boone" if they ran it through the gang task force computer for aliases and affiliations!"
Boone and I had a big laugh...no one in the back seat was laughing though.
By the time we pulled into Dale's back yard it was 1am, so it felt like a proper pre Drag Week Day. The light was still on under the Gremlin, but Dale was already in bed, and we all called it a night as well.