by E. C. Marsh
“Right over there.” I pointed to the bank, to a spot where a large sycamore was leaning precariously over the water. I couldn't see the person any longer, but I felt very uneasy. Tom scanned the opposite bank, then finally said, “OK, let's just go back, babe.” He helped me off the concrete, but not without scraping his knees.
In the water and out of sight of the bank, he quietly said, “You know, it could have been a military patrol just passing by, checking on their perimeter. It's really okay. I doubt that either two-legged or four-legged animals care about what we were doing tonight.”
I let myself slip into the cool waters, deep, well over my head, until I could no longer hold my breath.
“I thought you said we were past Camp Crowder?” I reached down and carefully massaged my sore ankle.
“I just hope the creep enjoyed the show.” I said when I came back up, spitting out river water. “And next time we decide to fuck on concrete, lets at least bring along a boat cushion or two.”
We returned to the camp. Sandy and Ralph were still sitting by the fire sipping beer.
“You two have fun?” Sandy said, raising the can of beer in greeting.
We both laughed. “You ought to give that a try sometime.”
But Sandy just shook her head.
“No, I think I'll pass. You two look too beat up. Just look at your legs. You're lucky they don't have piranhas in this river.”
I had to admit we did look a little rough in the light of the fire, but considering, …..... I caught myself smiling.
We dried off and I cleaned the abrasions with some antiseptic wash and put on some antibiotic ointment.
When the fire finally died down, we crawled into our tents for the night. It was quiet around us. I remember thinking that we didn't tell the others of our encounter with the stranger and probably should have, but I fell asleep before I could worry about it.
Chapter 11
10:50 p.m.
Ken Messer found it difficult to feel comfortable surrounded by these 10 young strangers, although they seemed to enjoy his company. They had been warned that no open fires were permitted down range because of the current drought. So much for a weenie roast, he thought. The young men did not appear upset by the news at all. When it started to get dark, they all gathered in the center of their little camp. Out of nowhere, coolers appeared, filled with soft drinks and assorted munchies.
Before long, he found himself involved in a conversation with a young soldier named Randy. A skinny, awkward young man with incredibly long legs, he was fascinated with the fact that this corporate big shot from far away Seattle was out here in the woods with him. Randy had grown up not too far from here, the fourth child in a family with ten kids.
“My childhood would have made a good country song,” he said with a smile. “We was dirt poor. We ate what we grew in the backyard, shot in the woods and pulled out of the water. I laugh when I see them tourists coming into the area with their fancy fishing gear. They fish for fun -- we fished for food. It's different when your belly's empty.
“Pa didn't do much, he was a logger in his younger days. Then he hurt his back real bad and that put an end to the loggin'. Ain't nobody wanna hire a logger with a bum back. My Momma, she was always so busy either havin' babies or takin' care of us, she didn't hardly have no time for nothin' else. Rarely even went to church on Sundays. You know, I wonder sometimes. My Pa, his back it was always hurtin' him too much to work for a livin', but it sure didn't keep him from gettin' Momma pregnant. I left home when I was 15. I just dropped out of school; I had no more time for that nonsense. I went to St. Louis and I found me a job. Wasn't much at first, but I got better. Last year I got me my GED, and I moved over to Holsum. You know, just up the road, just ten miles or so. That's where I joined the Reserves and got me a job fixin' diesel trucks. That's my job in the Reserves too, fixin' the big rigs. This weekend, I'm doing something else -- for fun. I told my first sergeant that I didn't wanna be a grease monkey this drill weekend, I just wanted to do something different.” He laughed. “I shoulda kept my big mouth shut. Look at me, huffin' it with these grunts, pulling guard duty.” He made a face.
“Have you thought any further about going on with school? May be on to College?” Messer asked.
“Me, College?” Randy laughed and slapped his thigh. “My Momma would like that one. No, I don't see myself as college material. I don't need it anyhow. Besides, my Pa says all them college boys are just a bunch of fagots anyway. Nope, I don't wanna have anything to do with that.”
Sunday
Ken Messer was wide awake at the crack of dawn. Actually he had not slept at all. He had not been prepared to spend the night in the woods, and did not bring a sleeping bag or bedroll with him. Not wanting to impose on the young soldiers, he selected a fairly smooth tree and sat leaning against it. Although he did doze off and on, he did not sleep and subsequently was not in a very good mood by daybreak. But that did not deter Randy. He came over with a stainless steel mug full of steaming coffee.
“Brought you some coffee, Mr. Messer.”
“Hi there, Randy; I asked you to call me Ken.”
“Oops. Sorry, Ken. I wanted to tell you something last night, but you was already asleep.”
“What's up?”
“Well, you said we's the only people out in these woods, on account of your company doing some testing, right?” Messer nodded. “Well, I did see some other folks out here last night. Was pretty interesting, you might say.” He blushed.
“Where did you see these people?”
“Well, I went on down to the river. You know we're not supposed to smoke around this electronic equipment. I wanted to have me a smoke. Well, I was just lighting up, you know. Then I hear some voices, somebody talking. And I see this man and this woman in the moonlight. They was on this old boat dock, and they was, you know,” he blushed, “they was gettin' it on.”
Messer looked at him, startled.
“You mean to tell me there were people on the river, and you watched them make love?”
It was Randy's turn to blush again.
“Yes, Sir. I sure did see that. I didn't mean to, it just happened. And when I realized what they was doing, I couldn't just leave. I'd have made noise and disturbed them. So I just waited until they was finished and then I left.”
“Did they see you?”
“Naw, I don't think so. Pretty cool though.”
“I'm sure of that.”
Messer didn't mean to sound sarcastic, but all he could think about was their final instructions. If people were on the river, could they have been in their testing area? They knew nothing about its effect on humans. Oh shit, he thought. Finally he pulled out his satellite phone and dialed. Jeff answered: “What's up?”
“You are not going to believe this. We have civilians out here.”
“What?”
“You heard me. One of the guys, spotted civilians last night. He didn't want to trouble me, but he told me this morning. Now what?”
“I don't know. I think we need to find them, find out how much they know, what they saw, that sort of thing. I'll let Jonathon know. Come on back to the lab. Shit.”
Chapter 12
Sam must have been the first one up.
I felt as if I had only slept moments when I heard him calling our names. When I opened the tent flap I was greeted by the golden light of dawn and the scent of fresh coffee. Although I am not a big coffee drinker, I do like my cup of coffee in the morning and the aroma gets me going.
There was a mist rising from the river, and the leaves on the bushes next to our tent were glistening with fresh dew. I stretched and poked Tom in the ribs.
“Come on sweetie, coffee’s ready”.
I heard Sam rummaging through the supplies and listened to the clatter of pots and pans. I crawled out of the tent, slipping into my shower shoes I had stashed outside. My bladder was signaling me that it was high time to pee and nodding a still sleepy greeting to Sam I stomped off
into the direction of our designated latrine.
When I returned, Sam had a mug of steaming coffee already poured for me, and Tom was just crawling out. We were hearing signs of life from Ralph and Sandy as well.
“How’s Marty” I asked Sam.
“Well, she was still sleeping when I got up a little while ago. I didn’t want to wake her up. I think she’s better. She sure slept soundly, all night.”
But when I checked on her, Marty looked obviously worse than the night before. I had considerable difficulty turning her on her back and barely managed to get a response from her. When I finally did, it was all incoherent babbling. Her pulse was very irregular and very fast. Most of the swelling and redness was gone, leaving her skin loose, wrinkled and looking very old. She didn’t respond to anything I did, and when I tried to spoon-feed some fluids into her, she did not swallow letting the fluids run out of her mouth.
Outside the tent I heard bacon sizzling and Tom taking egg orders from everyone. He loves to cook breakfast on these trips. But this morning my heart just wasn’t in it. I couldn’t believe what was happening with Marty and I couldn’t understand it. I had never seen anything like that before. Not knowing what else to do, I held her hand and stroked her now wrinkled up face and whispered, “It’s gonna be ok, Marty, we’ll take good care of you. Just rest and relax, we’ll get you home in no time.”
When I finally felt that she had settled down again, I joined the group by the fire.
“Marty is in big trouble, guys.”
They looked at me.
“I can’t figure out what it is. But I know we have to get her off the river and to a hospital pretty fast. I think she’s had maybe some kind of wild, bizarre reaction to meds. Who knows? She’s pretty unresponsive now. We need to get her out of here, fast. We’ve got to get some help and we need to get fluids into her. And we need to do this fast.”
I didn’t need to say more. Gone was yesterdays care free float. We were packed up in no time and back on the river, fiercely paddling with the current, not saying much.
Although I was worried about Marty, I still was fascinated with our surroundings. Everything looked different, the trees were covered with brownish orange leaves, looking like early fall and the vegetation as a whole was strange to me. I was looking for my dragonflies, but there were none. And that bothered me for some reason.
I don’t really like those bugs, I think they are ugly yet fascinating, but I didn’t see any. Nor did I see anymore little turtles sunbathing on the fallen logs along the shoreline. To me it felt as if we were in a different world. Very strange and very silent. Ralph and Sandy were up ahead, holding on to something on the shore, signaling and pointing. We paddled faster and pulled alongside of them well ahead of Sam. Ralph was waving his arm.
“Look at this” he said. “This isn’t supposed to be here. I reviewed Sam’s map and there is no mention of this mess.”
We all sat there and looked at the rippling water, I could see several large tree trunks half submerged and thought that this could become dangerous. I’m not a very confident canoeist. But Tom, my rock, said it would be ok.
“Just get speed and watch out for those logs in the water and we should be ok.”
We agreed that Tom and I would go on ahead and Ralph would wait for Sam. Then Sam would follow, and Ralph and Sandy would bring up the rear. Tom repeatedly told them to be sure and keep a good distance between each other.
And off we went. It was a pretty wild ride. At least from my point of view, we barely missed a couple of logs and only missed them because Tom and I were both paying attention to what we were doing. Next was Sam with Marty. I was very concerned about them. Tom and I had enough trouble and it was two of us, but Sam was alone. Should their canoe flip Sam would be ok, the water wasn’t very deep, but Marty could be in real trouble.
Sam had just started when I watched Sandy push their canoe into the current as well. Behind me Tom was swearing. I was holding my breath. Although I couldn’t hear what Ralph was saying, based on his gestures I doubt it was friendly.
Of course the inevitable happened. Sam, not knowing that someone was following closely, slowed to move around a log. Ralph was yelling something at Sandy and she turned around. In a split-second they flipped and the upside down canoe hit Sam broadside and flipped his canoe. There was nothing we could do but sit and watch.
The water was only thigh deep and they all had their lifejackets on, but Marty was in obvious trouble. While everyone came up sputtering and screaming, she floated without a sign of struggle face down toward us. By the time I realized that, Tom was already racing toward her. I had more trouble going against the current, after all I am a lot shorter than he is. Tom reached her and pulled her up. She hung in his arms limp, a wet rag doll. Sam watched, but was still too far away to get to her. Tom signaled me to just stay and headed back toward me and the shore.
Together we worked on Marty. We opened her airway, she still wasn’t breathing but I could feel a faint pulse. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she coughed and coughed and was breathing again. Not real deep, but better than what she had been doing.
Sam arrived, towing his upside down canoe followed by Sandy and Ralph. They didn’t talk to each other. Oh shit, I thought, that’s all we need right now, a major blow up. We have flipped canoes before, have lost stuff before and have learned little tricks from it. Above all, pay attention.
Once we were assured that Marty was breathing, we helped Sam turn the canoe over and get all the stuff out. Then we turned Ralph and Sandy’s over, but it was empty except for the cooler.
No one spoke at first. Ralph and Sandy had carried most of the foodstuff and cookware, while Tom and I had the tents, sleeping bags and clothing. Sam had carried only his cooler and our air mattresses, which he used to make a bed for Marty. Finally I couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“What the hell did you two do? What the hell were you thinking?”
We all turned to Sandy. She just shrugged.
“Come on, nothing ever happens, I just didn’t want to be bothered with tying all that stuff down. What’s the big deal anyway? Marty is obviously ok and the rest was just food, we won’t starve, we’ll be home in a couple of hours. Lets not make a big deal out of nothing, ok.”
“It is a big deal!”
I was very angry.
“Marty is not ok, she almost drowned and she is still out of it. She needs medical attention and she needs it fast. And although we will be home in a little while, thanks to your stupidity we can’t even boil water for a lousy cup of coffee.”
I walked off to look after Marty. No way am I ever going on another outing with Sandy, I thought, no way! She is so inconsiderate, so oblivious to her surroundings she will get someone hurt. Ralph is married to her, he has to go places with her, he has no choice, but not me. Nope, no more.
Marty looked peaceful, she was breathing more regular now, but still shallow and way too fast. I grabbed the sleeping bags but found only one that was dry. What a way to find out that your waterproof bags leak. I removed Marty’s clothing and wrapped her in the dry sleeping bag. Even in 90 degree weather you should preserve body heat and besides it made me feel better. Then I walked away for a little solitude, therapy.
Tom saw me walking away and when I turned he nodded. He understands me and my way of dealing with life’s frustrations. I need a few moments of solitude and letting things come back into focus.
Cutting through some bushes I found myself on the other side of what seemed to be a small island. This side had a nice sandy beach, the river had almost no current, seemed dark and deep and must have been about 100 feet wide. Really more like a little lake. I thought about the group fighting on the other side and Marty.
I was very worried about Marty, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. At first she seemed to have been sunburned, but by this morning she didn’t look sunburned at all anymore. She looked wrinkled, dried out and leathery. She looked very old. Maybe
it is the combination of antidepressant and sunbathing I thought. They do put warnings on these medications to stay out of the sun, but if that’s what happens, they should really emphasize the warning more.
I started pitching little pebbles into the water, but my mind wandered back to my earlier observations. The vegetation was different. The trees looked wrong for the season, their leaves with touches of brown, red and orange , the bushes I had walked through looked more like oversized weeds than any bush I had ever seen and there still weren’t any bugs anywhere. Although I was troubled by my observations, I felt calmer and more in control of myself and decided to return to the group when I heard shouting from their direction. I couldn’t make out what was being said, but the tone was very angry.
I hurried through the brush, furious at everyone by now, here we are knee-deep in trouble and these guys can’t keep from fighting with each other.
Chapter 13
