Blood in the Woods

by J. P. Willie

  We ended up at a small hill that overlooked the creek; its steep decline dipping down into the copper-colored water. The only things on the way down the hill were small branches, roots and thin, wiry weeds that stood around about a foot high. The hill we stood upon on was at least a good twenty feet up from the creek, but the murky water that flowed steadily below looked deep enough for us to jump straight into.

  And so, Jack and I pulled off our shirts and shoes and hung them from one of the branches conveniently provided by a nearby tree.

  “You ready?” I asked, my heart pounding with excitement.

  “You?” Jack nodded.

  “Oh hell, yeah,” I said.

  I wiped my sweaty palms on my shorts and placed my strong foot behind me, like a track star waiting for the shot to be fired.

  “One... two...” Jack counted.

  But before he could finish I yelled, “three!”

  I pushed off with my right foot, and felt myself falling through the air. I brought my left leg up into my chest and landed a near perfect can-opener into the water. And when I came back up, Jack was resurfacing as well, shaking his head like a dog to clear the water from his hair.

  “Man this water feels good!” I gasped.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m glad the water was deep enough. We would’ve been fucked if it wasn’t,” I said, realizing what we’d just done wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

  “No shit,” Jack said with a wide grin.

  We swam downstream for a while, until the water became shallower and we were able to stand up. We had hit a small mud bank in the middle of the creek; with all sorts of rocks and sticks accumulated upon it, as well as a few fish skeletons. I stood up on the mud bank and let the coolness of the stream roll over my feet. I leaned my head back and looked into the overlapping branches that hung above me, and they looked like they were trying to wrap themselves around each other. It all provided good cover from the sun, but hot rays of sunshine still pushed their way through.

  “This is awesome, huh?” Jack breathed.

  “Yeah, it sure is. I’m really glad we found it.”

  We waded back into the deeper part of the creek and swam down a little further, scouting for another place to jump off. We stopped in a dark part of the water and I went under to test out the depth, resurfacing quickly to give Jack my report.

  “I can’t touch the bottom right here. This is a good spot,” I told him as I trod water.

  “And that looks like a good spot to jump from.” Jack pointed to a small cliff on our right.

  We swam over to the cliff and pulled ourselves up by the tree roots that grew from the side of a monstrous piece of earth. It felt like climbing a mountain instead of a cliff, so I made sure I had proper footing before moving up to the next root or flat edge that lay within reach. It took about five minutes for us to make it up to the top, and when we stood there we were sweating again. I walked over to the edge and looked down.

  “Holy shit. This one looks way higher than the other one,” I said.

  Jack walked over and poked his head over the side and when he was leaned over, I grabbed him by the waist and gave him a good shake.

  “Stop, asshole! You’ll make me fall!” Jack barked.

  “Come on, I won’t let you fall. You should know me better than that.”

  Jack took one more glance down at the creek. “I didn’t think it’d be this high.”

  “Well, it is. And the only way down is to jump. You game?” I asked my friend.

  Jack just nodded his head in agreement, but I could tell he was truly nervous about this one.

  “You want to do it together, or do you want me to go first?”

  “Together,” Jack said boldly.

  “Okay, then let’s do it.”

  We both walked up to the edge of the cliff and Jack glanced over at me.

  “You sure it’s deep enough?” Jack asked.

  “I’m sure,” I said with confidence. “Rhine Road Boys for life, right?” I said with a quick grin.

  “Rhine Road Boys forever,” Jack replied, and I heard some confidence back in his voice.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  “Always,” Jack replied.

  We didn’t even count to three that time – we just jumped.

  I came up from under the water laughing and spraying dark brown water out of my mouth, and when I looked over, I saw that Jack was laughing, too. I was glad that we both were okay, and now we had massive bragging rights; it had been one hell of a drop – it had made my balls rise up into my stomach on the way down – but now, we were safely in the creek again, treading water.

  “Wow,” Jack said. “What a drop.”

  “I know, but wasn’t it awesome?”

  “Yeah, it was pretty awesome,” Jack agreed.

  As we talked, I felt something rub up against my legs. At first, I thought it was Jack, since he was floating only a few feet away.

  “Are you kicking my legs?” I asked him.

  “No. Were you rubbing against mine, though?”

  “I was not,” I protested, “That’d be so gay.”

  “Well, something was rubbing up against me.”

  “Me too.”

  Suddenly, and as if from nowhere, a water moccasin – one of Louisiana’s most venomous snakes – popped his head out of the water right between me and Jack, and I damned near Hershey-squirted myself.

  “Snake!” Jack screamed at the top of his lungs, but I was already halfway back to the shallow part of the creek.

  I swam as fast as I could, and when I was able to stand, I ran. I made it back to the mud bank, my heart pounding like a jackhammer. Jack came running up close behind me, red in the face from laughter. “Oh my God! You should have seen the look on your face. It was hilarious!” Jack ragged on me. “You looked like Jesus running on water.”

  “Shut up,” I joked back, my heart still thumping. “Those damned things can kill with just one bite.”

  “I know,” Jack said, taking a seat on the mud bank, “but it really was funny as hell.”

  “It was pretty funny,” I agreed, “I think I shit on myself though.”

  “That makes it even funnier!” Jack bellowed, and he rolled around on the mud bank with laughter.

  I laughed along, until I got to the point where I couldn’t breathe; it was one of those really good laughs you get once in a while. I really hadn’t shit on myself, but I was damned close – like I’ve said before, I hate snakes.

  Once the last bit of laughter was out of our system, we made our way back up the creek from where we’d entered. We scanned the bank for our shirts, and finally we laid eyes on the hill we came down.

  “I think we came in through there,” Jack said.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure. But where the hell are our shirts?”

  “Maybe they fell off the branches?”

  As we made our way over to the hill to climb back up, I heard the bushes up top shuffle around.

  “Quiet,” I commanded, and Jack stopped dead in his tracks.

  We heard the sound of people walking above us – couldn’t tell how many, but I was sure there were at least two. A dog barked, and we heard the sound of muffled voices. We stood there, perfectly still and watched as our shirts went flying over our heads and into the creek.

  A female voice then spoke, “looking for these?” The voice didn’t sound like an adult at all.

  “Who’s up there?” I yelled.

  We listened at more shuffling and movement above us, until finally, our mystery guests revealed themselves.

  Krystle came sliding down into the creek, with Angela following hot on her heels, both wearing long shirts that went almost to their knees. And as they made their way toward us, the dog up top began barking again, like he was warning them to stay away.

  “Be quiet, Shadow,” Angela demanded, and the dog fell silent.

  “Were you guys scared?” Krystle was trying to hold herself back
from laughing.

  “No,” Jack said, although I think we could all hear the relief in his voice. “takes a lot more than our shirts getting thrown into the creek to scare us.”

  “Whatever. You guys were scared. I don’t care what you say,” Krystle said, crossing her arms, clearly proud of getting somewhat of an upper hand on the two of us.

  “What are you doing here?” Jack asked them.

  “I’m staying the night at Angela’s,” Krystle said, as if that somehow answered his question.

  “How did you guys find this place?” I asked.

  “Wow, got any more questions?” Krystle snapped.

  “My dad has taken me back here a few times,” Angela answered.

  “Plus, we saw you guys going into the woods, and decided to come look for ya’ll.”

  “Well, you found us, but we’re leaving now,” I said, trying not to look at Angela.

  “Aw – come on, Jody. Please don’t leave,” Krystle begged me. “We came all this way ‘specially to find y’all.”

  “We gotta get back home,” I said sharply. “My mom is probably going ape-shit crazy right now wondering where I’m at. We’ve been gone a long time, so I’m sorry, we can’t stay.”

  “That’s too bad,” Krystle was disappointed.

  I didn’t make eye contact with either of the girls as I began climbing my way back up to the high ground. I turned to look back, to make sure Jack was following me, but he hadn’t moved an inch. He was just standing there with his jaw hung open like an old man at a strip joint, watching Krystle and Angela peel off their long shirts to reveal their bathing suits.

  This caught my attention as well, and I watched as the girls threw their long shirts on the bank, giggling in the process as they walked side by side, avoiding the deep part of the creek. Both wore two piece suits – Krystle’s black-and-white striped, and Angela’s, multi-colored.

  I snapped my fingers loudly and Jack jolted out of his trance. “Come on, Jack, let’s go,” I said.

  Jack stood stock-still and shook his head.

  “Come on, Jack,” I growled and bit my bottom lip.

  I knew I was acting rude, but if any other girl besides Angela had shown up with Krystle, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave quite so badly. Our relationship hadn’t ended on a good note; I was a total asshole to her when we broke up. But, I was only twelve years old and I didn’t know how to deal with my feelings, let alone relationships, so I’d acted like a complete douchebag.

  “They’re in their bathing suits,” Jack whispered up to me.

  “I can see that, Sherlock Holmes,” I whispered back.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Don’t be a prick, Jack.”

  “I’m not; didn’t you see Krystle in her bathing suit?” Jack asked me.

  “Yeah.”

  “She looks so hot.”

  “So?”

  “I think I’m gonna go talk to her.”

  “Damn it, Jack. Momma’s going to beat the hell outta me if I don’t get back soon. She’s probably blue in the face blowing that whistle of hers right now.”

  “You should have stolen that whistle off her years ago like I told you.”

  Angry at Jack, I threw my arms down to my sides and took several more steps forward, but I couldn’t do it. I really wasn’t too concerned about getting in trouble; I was just using it as an excuse to get away from Angela. I still liked the girl, regardless of the fact that I had a girlfriend already.

  I let out an aggravated sigh and turned back.

  “Come on, Jody,” Jack pleaded with me, “I’d stay if you wanted to go talk to a girl.”

  “I know,” I said, feeling like I wasn’t being the greatest friend.

  “Well, you gonna get back in?”

  “Sure.”

  I got back into the creek and Jack threw his arm around my neck.

  “Thanks, Jody.”

  “You’re welcome, but this better be worth it,” I joked.

  We caught up to the girls and Jack quickly went to work on Krystle. As I watched him flirt with her, I thought back to not so many years ago when he didn’t even like talking about girls – and now he was putting expert moves on Krystle. While all this avid flirting was going on, Angela never strayed more than five feet away from Krystle, and I hoped it wasn’t because of me.

  We’d had a bad break, there was no getting around that, but I didn’t like feeling like I had leprosy or something equally unpleasant. So, as Angela kept her distance from me, I returned the favor and ended up being the goober trailing the three of them as we all swam back up the creek. Although I was confined to bringing up the rear, it wasn’t all bad, for every time the creek became shallow, we all had to stand up. This meant, of course, that I would get a good look at the girl’s backsides – especially Angela’s – and several times I think she even caught me checking her out.

  As we got closer to the small cliff that Jack and I jumped from earlier, Jack and Krystle started roughhousing in the water. Jack picked Krystle up by the waist and threw her into the deep end of the creek. Angela just stood by and watched the shenanigans, and all I could do was sit back and laugh, because yeah, it was funny. Jack beat on his chest like King Kong and leapt on top of Krystle, and she’d let out one of those high-pitched screams that all but made your ears bleed, and then dunk his head under the water – it was a joy to watch, seeing my best friend in the world looking so damn happy.

  Once Jack and Krystle got tired from goofing around, we all swam in the deep end under the cliff where we’d seen the snake.

  “Did you guys go up any further than this?” Krystle asked.

  “Nah. This is the spot where a snake screwed everything up for us,” Jack said.

  “Oh my God! There was a snake swimming in the creek with you guys?” Angela squealed.

  “He wasn’t swimming with us – he just sorta showed up and ruined the party,” Jack replied.

  We all laughed – except for Angela; I guess she had a worse phobia than me when it came to snakes.

  “Let’s go up a little further and see what’s down there, Jack,” Krystle suggested.

  Jack shot me a nervous look. I knew full well what was going on, and I think Jack did too, because he had the what the fuck do I do now look written all over his dumb face.

  “Um – Jody, you want to come too?” Jack asked, blushing.

  “I’d rather stay here,” I played it cool.

  “Okay,” Jack said, “but if I find something cool up there, I’ll be sure to come back and get you.”

  “Sounds good,” I said and dove under the water.

  When I came back up, I wiped the murky water from my face and saw that Jack was walking ahead of Krystle a little. She was not too far behind, walking backwards and shooing Angela away with her hands like she was a bothersome fly. Angela stomped her feet and walked away with a flustered look on her face. Moments later, Jack and Krystle made it around the next bend of the creek and then they were completely out of sight. Angela stood in the middle of the creek, arms crossed, frustrated and not wanting to be left alone with me.

  I took a deep breath, swam over to the shallow end and stood up. I ran my fingers through my hair, spiking it up. I knew that if I actually talked to Angela, I probably wouldn’t like what she had to say to me, but I was dying to say something to her. So, I sucked it up and walked over to her.

  “Hey,” I said quietly.

  “Hey,” Angela replied, keeping her back to me.

  “So, you’re still mad at me?” I went straight for the elephant in the creek, so to speak. “Is that why you haven’t said a word to me this whole time?”

  “What do you think, Jody?”

  “I don’t know,” I raised my voice a tad. “We haven’t said a word to each other since we broke up.”

  “And you think I should’ve been talking to you?” Angela uncrossed her arms and adopted a defensive posture. “You said a lot of hurtful things to me that day, Jody. Things I haven’
t forgotten. And then, breaking up with me after we’d been together for so long, you asked Laura to go out with you!”

  “You broke up with me, remember?” I hissed, “I wasn’t the one that wanted to break up. I believe it was because your Mommy and Daddy forced you to do it.?” I thought I sounded smart, like they do on the soaps, but I guess I was coming off as more of an asshole.

  “I didn’t want to,” Angela said her eyes glossy. “But I did. And ever since we’ve split, I’ve had to watch you walk through the halls holding hands with Laura like I never even existed!”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “Then tell me what it’s like,” Angela demanded, “do you not really like her?”

  “Of course I like her.”

  “Well then, tell me how much you like Laura. Tell me how long y’all stay on the phone talking to each other on the weekends,” Angela ranted. “Tell me anything.”

  “I haven’t stopped thinking about you, Angela,” I yelled, silencing her rant. “Just because I’m going out with Laura, doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings for you. I think about you all the time.”

  “And I think about you all the time,” Angela said and started to cry. I walked over and placed my hands on top of her slim, bare shoulders.

  “I didn’t mean any of those things I said to you, I was angry. There’s been some things going on in my life for the past couple of years that you wouldn’t understand.”

  “We’ve all been going through things,” Angela retorted; she had stopped crying.

  “No doubt about that,” I agreed wholeheartedly, “look,” I brought my hand under her chin and raised her face until she was looking me dead in the eyes, “I’m so sorry that I hurt you, Angela. Can you not be mad at me anymore, please?”

  “Sure,” Angela said, letting loose a long sigh.

  “Good, now come here,” I smiled warmly at her.

  I pulled Angela into a tight hug and she wrapped her skinny arms tightly around my waist. As our bodies pressed closely against another, I brought my head down to her shoulder and squeezed her tighter. Her hair smelled like raspberry, and I felt her heart beating against mine as I swayed with her in my arms, like we were dancing a slow dance and time seemed to stand still.

  I felt Angela’s arms loosen around my waist and she leaned back as we continued to rock slowly from side to side. The sun was blazing hot on our bodies, and dragonflies buzzed and skittered over the water, searching for small insects. She brought both her hands up to my face and ran her fingers through my spiked hair.