THE TEMPTING

by D. M. Pratt

  “So, why on earth are we going to Thibodaux Hospital?” Cora said.

  Cora spread pâté on fresh French bread and nibbled on black olives, ham and creamy cheese. Eve barely touched anything.

  “Eve? Talk to me,” Cora insisted.

  “I have trouble sleeping and I keep having these horrible dreams … nightmares.”

  “Nightmares?” Cora asked.

  “They don’t come just at night either. I’m having hallucinations, Cora. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, they block my vision and split my head open like an ax.”

  “What is it you see?” Cora asked.

  “I don’t know. I can’t see anything specific really, nothing that makes sense, but …” Eve stopped.

  A horrendous panic filled her. Her throat closed off. She couldn’t breathe. Eve rose to her feet. The world disappeared into a wash of bright yellow and white light. She felt her hand reach out to touch the smooth trunk of the tree. She knew it was there, that it was real, but she wanted to be touching it in case she suddenly couldn’t see it. To make sure it was there … no, to make sure … she was there.

  “Eve, suga, you are pale as a ghost. Sit!” Cora was on her feet.

  Cora stepped over the sleeping children and went to grab her friend to keep her from falling.

  “Breathe!” Cora said as calmly as she could.

  Eve gasped. Tears filled her eyes. A loud ringing filled her ears to the point of pain. She turned to look at Cora, but saw only the slashed face she’d seen in the glass door of the Trauslen, with rivulets of blood pouring out of each gash. Eve was trembling. She covered her eyes with her hands.

  “Dear, lord, tell me what is happening,” Cora said.

  Eve shook her head and pulled away. She stepped outside the thin mosquito veil and felt the full force of the air against her skin. She stumbled down to the edge of the lake, dropped to her knees and splashed cool water on her face. Eve gasped, sucking in huge gulps of air while the ringing slowly subsided and the harsh glare of the hideous light faded.

  “Eve? Eve? Can you hear me?” Cora said.

  Cora had followed her. She was standing next to her. Eve covered her ears to muffle the sound of Cora’s voice. It replaced the ringing in Eve’s head. Cora knelt next to her.

  “Okay, how long have these … headaches been going on?” Cora asked.

  “I don’t know. Since I woke up from the coma, but they’re getting worse. Oh, Cora, I think I’m losing my mind. Dr. Honoré wants to put me on medication,” Eve told her, still trying to control her breathing.

  Cora thought about the using the breath-in-the-ear trick, but wanted Eve to answer her first. This whatever was happening was too important to repress.

  “Does Beau know about these episodes, Eve?” Cora asked.

  Eve didn’t answer. The look on her face said everything.

  “Eve, sugar. You have got to tell him about this.”

  “Not until I understand what is happening to me. Please promise me you won’t say anything. Promise.”

  “That is a shitty promise, Eve Dowling,” Cora said with a huff.

  “I know and if you weren’t my best friend in the world, I wouldn’t ask it, but you are and you must promise you won’t say a word to Beau. He has enough on his plate with all the legal binds his grandfather put him in. The anniversary of his sister’s death is coming; Philip, the house and we have a wedding and a christening. I just can’t share this with him until I understand what the hell it is. Please, promise me,” Eve said, tears welling in her eyes.

  “Alright, alright, I will, but I won’t like it,” Cora said. “But you have to tell me what you see in the visions. I think that’s a fair trade. The truth for a lie,” Cora said.

  Eve looked at her friend. She felt as though she had to make a confession of these frightening and absurd visions. The words balled up in her mouth, dry and ugly.

  “Last two times … I saw you. Someone was hurting you. They cut you there,” Eve said pointing to her face. “…on your chin. Cora, I think they were trying to kill you.”

  “Sakes alive! Who? Why?”

  “I don’t know or maybe I don’t want to know,” Eve said.

  “Who did you see?” Cora demanded.

  “It’s not a ‘who’ it’s some kind of a ‘what’,” Eve tried to explain.

  Cora looked at her and the look said it all.

  “Please don’t look at me like that. I don’t know if I’m going crazy,” Eve said.

  “You told me once your grandmother died in an insane asylum,” Cora reminded her. “I’m not like her. This is real. Yes, it’s crazy, but there’s a part of this that makes it—me—feel like I’m standing at the edge of a very real sanity. I’m not crazy. Cora, I’m sure whatever it is… it’s not human and I think it has something to do with Beau and his family,” Eve said.

  Cora pulled back from Eve and then her eyes darted away. Cora knew some secret and Eve could see she wanted to share it. Something in Eve knew it was about Beau, about his family.

  “Tell me! Please,” Eve begged.

  “Oh, Eve. They were old rumors… gossip as old as the city of New Orleans,” Cora started to say, when they both heard a deep, primal hiss. Both women turned and there, on the bank of the lake, an eight-foot-long alligator lay motionless, barely ten feet from the children. It was a massive, green-scaled monster with its jaw hinged wide open, staring at Philip. Philip stood staring back through the mosquito netting from the center of their sanctuary.

  Chapter Ten

  The burning sting of an adrenaline rush hit Eve so hard she didn’t even remember getting up and running. She was already in full stride, heading for her son, when logic caught up with her. What she would do when she got there wasn’t even a consideration. Save her son was all that rang like a deafening claxon through her mind. Cora opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She was frozen and silent.

  The gator attacked, its squat legs moving in a blur so fast it was at the netting before Eve could get there.

  “Here!” Eve shouted at the monster.

  It didn’t even acknowledge her presence. The huge, scale-covered body lunged into the netting. Its snout, front feet and claws stuck in the fabric that by some miracle tangled, caught and stopped the alligator inches from Philip.

  In that surreal, merciful instant, Eve was there. She entered through the other side, grabbed Philip and then Delia, who was now standing … calmly watching as if a happy little puppy was rolling over and over as if to play with them. Both children had the same tranquil air about them. Eve, however, was in full panic mode. She handed Delia to Cora who had somehow found her legs and was standing next to her. Even with the panicked energy exuded by their mothers, the children didn’t make a sound. They kept their eyes on the gator as he struggled, flipping and spinning. Eve and Cora, the children in their arms, backed out of the netting.

  No more than two feet away, the gator, trapped in the net, flipped over again to its feet and lunged. It ripped the netting, his dense weight snapping the tree limb with a loud crack. The limb fell. It slammed down hard on the gator as he lunged again for Eve and Philip. She stumbled farther back. Cora stuck her arm out and braced her friend. Eve found her balance and with the children in their arms, they ran as fast as they could to the car.

  The wet and slippery earth made it harder to run. Cora’s foot sunk into the mud and she and Delia were dragged down, she struggled to protect Delia as she slid in the wet slime desperately trying to get her feet back under her. She fell again.

  “Eve!” Cora screamed.

  Eve turned back to see the alligator, tangled in the netting, dragging the tree branch, clawing through the mud, relentlessly pursuing them. Caught, hobbled, but so powerful even with the limb dragging a few feet behind, it still kept coming.

  Eve raced back to help Cora.

  “Take Delia,” Cora shouted.

  “Get up!” Eve shouted, trying her best to pull them all the while keeping her eyes on the al
ligator.

  “I twisted my ankle,” Cora shouted. “Get them in the car and get out of here!”

  Eve looked up. The alligator was gaining. With Philip in one arm, she grabbed Delia, raced to the car, threw the children in the back and closed the door. Eve raced back to get Cora. She and the alligator were no more than six feet apart. Cora struggled to her feet, hopping forward on one foot, she slipped and fell a second time. Just as Eve reached her, so did the gator. Jaws open, it lunged and snapped. Eve jerked Cora away as razor teeth bit through a sliver of Cora’s calf. Both women fell backwards into the mud. The gator advanced again. Eve and Cora scrambled back, desperately trying to regain their footing. The alligator, wild-eyed, with the taste of blood in his mouth, hissed and lunged for them. Eve saw the dragged tree limb catch in a tangle of roots and jerk the alligator back like a wild dog on a leash. It snapped, chomping at the air again and again, inches from the two women, but the net held. Eve was on her feet and pulling Cora. The car was only few a feet away. Behind them, they heard a roar… a howl of excruciating pain along with bones snapping and flesh ripping and then … silence.

  Eve was too terrified to look back. All she wanted to do was get herself and Cora into the car. When she reached the door she saw both Philip and Delia standing in the front driver’s seat. Eve jerked the passenger door open and shoved Cora inside. Cora lifted Delia into her lap. Eve raced to the driver’s side, scooped Philip into her arms, jumped in and slammed the door.

  Breathless, Eve looked out, but she didn’t see the alligator advancing.

  “Where is it?” Eve said.

  “I don’t give a shit. Drive, damn it!” Cora shouted, tears streaming down her face.

  She looked at Philip and then Delia. Totally calm, Philip climbed up into her lap to look out of the front windshield.

  “Please, Eve! Go!” Cora shouted.

  Eve’s hand reached to start the car. She pushed the button. Nothing happened.

  “No! No, no, no!” Cora shouted. “I took the keys because they had the little wine opener on the ring.”

  “What! Where are they?” Eve demanded.

  “Out there.” Cora said pointing back toward their picnic.

  Both women looked out the window.

  “Are you kidding me?” Eve said.

  “I’m so sorry,” Cora said, tears flooding her eyes. “What are we gonna do?”

  “I have to go get the keys,” Eve said.

  “No!”

  “Cora, we have no car keys and no phones. Your ankle is twisted and you’ve been bitten by a goddamn alligator, which leaves me one option unless you can give me another.”

  Cora was silent.

  “How’s your leg?”

  “What?”

  “It bit you?”

  Cora looked down. She was bleeding. It was more like a vicious scrape and tear than a bite, but she was definitely bleeding.

  “Hell, my ankle hurts so bad I don’t even feel my leg,” Cora said.

  Eve grabbed the diaper they’d used to wipe their tears of laughter away and gently wrapped and pressed it on Cora’s leg.

  “I gotta get the key.”

  The two women looked at each other and then joined Delia and Philip to stare out the window.

  “Take the tire iron,” Cora said. “Now I know why my daddy always carried a gator gun in his car. And be careful. It’s slippery as a mud slushy out there.”

  Eve nodded. She reached down to flip the latch that released the trunk. Slowly she opened the door.

  “If I don’t get back …” Eve started.

  “Shut the hell up and just get your narrow ass back here,” Cora said. “I will not explain to Beau I let you get eaten by a damn alligator!”

  Eve kissed and then lifted Philip up and slipped out from under him. She stepped back onto the soft ground. It was when the mud squished between her toes that she noticed she’d lost a shoe. With one bare foot she limped her way back to the trunk and opened it. Eve and Cora exchanged a look as Eve raised the mat and took the lug bar and the handle to the tire iron. The lug bar felt heavier. She took both.

  “Be careful,” Cora called out.

  Eve took a long deep breath and closed the trunk. Slowly, cautiously, she walked back up a small mound of earth she hadn’t even noticed before. She turned back to the car, realizing once she reached the other side, she would not be able to see Cora and the children and they wouldn’t be able to see her. Her heart quickened. She turned her face forward and crested the little hill. She could see the white of the netting. It was still, frighteningly still. Beyond she could see the banyan tree where they had laid down their picnic. She moved closer. Her eyes locked on the bundle of netting. Within a few steps, she noticed something about the netting. It was covered in blood. Behind the bubble of white cloth that caught the breeze, Eve could see a lump of blood, guts and bones, flattened into the mud. As she got closer, the alligator’s lower jaw, twisted and jutting out of what remained of its skull reached up out of the mud. Eve walked past and looked down at one of its dead eyes. It stared out from the flattened carcass. It looked as if a giant foot has stomped down on the alligator’s body with as much force as a human foot decimating a huge bug and squishing it into pulp and goo.

  Eve pulled the tire iron and lug wrench closer as she looked around.

  “Eve!” Cora’s voice called out from beyond the little knoll. Eve stood on her tippy toes and looked back. She could barely see the top of the car windshield. She could see Cora’s head and a bit of Delia on the passenger’s side. She caught Philip’s hair and eyes, standing in the driver’s seat, holding onto to the wheel, watching her with that calm expression.

  “It’s dead. I’m okay,” Eve shouted.

  “Then hurry, please,” Cora shouted back.

  She looked down one last time at what remained of the gator’s skin, blood, guts and bones, mashed into the mud. She turned to the trail of stuff that had gotten caught in the net and gathered as much as she could putting what she could salvage into the two carry car seats; purses, sunglasses, keys of course, bottles, baskets, toys. She left the food and took the drinks and the basket.

  Eve headed back to the car. She slowed to stare in disbelief at the remains of the alligator. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she stopped, setting the carry seats down and dug in her purse for her cell phone. Eve snapped several shots from various angles before she headed back to the car.

  Her mind kept flashing back to the image of the alligator as she opened the trunk and loaded everything up. She strapped the kids into their car seats then turned her attention to Cora. Her leg was bleeding badly. They exchanged glances in silence, grateful to all be alive. Gathering the keys and her phone, Eve slipped behind the wheel of the car and pushed the start button. The bayou was as still and quiet as if even the wildlife knew something was wrong.

  “Was it gone?” Cora asked.

  “Not exactly,” Eve replied.

  “Either it was gone or it was there.”

  “It was dead,” Eve told her.

  “Dead? How?” Cora asked.

  Eve handed her the phone. A perplexed look of confusion traveled across Cora’s face. Cora’s leg was seized by a stab of pain so debilitating she dropped the phone so she could grab her leg.

  “Owww,” Cora moaned as she squeezed her leg to quell the pain.

  “We’re only a few miles from Thibodaux Hospital. Let’s get you in there and get that looked at in case of some weird, nasty gator, swamp infection,” Eve said as she drove back to the highway.

  “Gator bites are the least of our problems. Sides, alligators have the purest blood on the planet. They have over twenty antibodies. I read they want to use their blood to cure super viruses including HIV,” Cora said, babbling to help take her focus off the pain.

  “Well, well, Cordelia Belle Bouvier, have you been studying medicine behind my back?”

  “I’ll have you know I dated two doctors and a Rhodes Scholar with his own pharmaceutical company.
Things rub off when you have to talk between sex. Especially when they need recovery time, thank you.”

  The two women gave each other brave smiles. Cora reached down and picked up the phone. The photo of the gator on the screen stared back at her.

  Cora looked at it for a second and then closed her eyes.

  “Oh, my lord. What in tarnation could have done that?”

  “I don’t know,” Eve replied. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Eve sat on the waiting room couch of Thibodaux Hospital’s emergency room. The children slept sprawled out on either side of her breathing softly, peaceful and innocent. How innocent though were the questions that pricked at her. The way Philip and Delia stood, fearlessly staring at eight feet of flesh-ripping, reptilian beast that would have gobbled them up in one quick bite. But it hadn’t. There was the mosquito netting, the rope and tree limb, she and Cora, a combination of luck … perhaps. But what killed it like that? It had been squashed dead by a ton of invisible what crashing from the sky. Eve looked down at her beautiful son. She ran her fingers gently through his curls. What happened was an enigma, one more piece of a puzzle without answers now more complicated and confusing than ever.

  Eve was grateful they were all alive. That was the most important thing, wasn’t it? They were alive and safe. Perhaps the odd vision of Cora being hurt was a premonition. She was attacked by something that wasn’t human and an alligator is definitely not human. Dreams use symbols. Right? Maybe she was a psychic now, the coma awakening some dormant part of her brain. Maybe she had a vision and it saved them. It was sort of good logic although she’d never in her life shown any signs of psychic ability. Today it would have to be logical enough. Why didn’t it make her feel better?

  Her head hurt again. The headache was coming back. Eve slipped out from under the children’s sleeping heads and made them a pillow of her jacket. She covered them with their traveling blankets and stood, reaching up to take a long stretch. Her muscles ached from the adrenalin rush that had slammed her body. She was certain she would feel even worse tomorrow. She’d washed her face, legs and arms as best she could. She found a few scars from the fall and her clothes were still caked with dried swamp mud. There was nothing she could do about that until she got home.