by Kitty Margo
“BJ,” James groaned, falling to his knees on the sharp rocks of the riverbed and not even seeming to care. “I have got to stop! I’ve been walking and trying to keep my balance on these slippery rocks for three hours and I am way past exhaustion. Besides, you know we can’t go any closer to the dam. This is getting too dangerous. What if they decide to turn the water on?”
When no one answered he continued, “We would be covered by several feet of rushing water, that’s what, and there would be no way to get out in time. Duh! ‘Beware the river’ remember! Your mom would have a dying duck fit if she knew we were this close to the dam and you know it. Man, she would ground you until your senior prom.”
“He’s right.” For once Billy was in agreement with James. “This is suicidal. Let’s just turn around and go back.”
“I don’t think the buffalo would like that,” James whispered, rising to his feet. He was focused on the buffalo’s hindquarters as the creature continued steadily moving toward the dam.
“Who gives a flying crap what he likes!” Billy was past the point of caring as well. “Ghost or not, he’s not going to lead me into a death trap. Listen, I’ve been timing him for the last hour. He only turns around to check on us every 10 minutes or so. That’s plenty of time for us to…” Billy gasped and then his terrifying screams echoed across the rocks when he saw the enraged buffalo charging toward him at full speed. Before he could draw breath for another scream, the buffalo stopped, standing face to face with him and breathing hard as steam came out of his nose.
The buffalo’s eyes were bright red and he lifted one foot and began pawing the riverbed. “He’s gonna charge!” Billy shrieked, finding a sudden burst of energy and racing like the wind to hide.
Behind me!
“Then why are you behind me?” I yelped, anxiously moving a few steps away from him.
Ignoring me, Billy turned to the buffalo and with a soothing voice promised, “I get your message loud and clear. Hey, to be honest I’m not even really that tired anymore. Let’s get going, shall we?” The buffalo snorted once more for good measure, turned, and headed toward the dam. We breathed a collective sigh and fell in behind him.
Billy was right.
This could very well be a death trap.
Nonetheless, I had to keep going. I wanted this horrible chapter in my life to end, tonight. After this night I didn’t want to see any more paintings come to life, see any buffalo clouds, hear a buffalo trying to stomp through the attic, or be grabbed from behind by…what…buffalo teeth? I didn’t want to see a buffalo hovering outside my window, and, especially, never wake to find another one standing beside my bed!
“You two go on to the riverbank where it’s safe. I’m the only one he wants. It’s a fact that he’s almost scared me to death several times, but he hasn’t actually harmed me. I’ll be okay.”
“We are not leaving you, BJ.” Billy insisted. “No freaking way! We’re in this together.”
“You are also the only one he doesn’t seem overly fond of, remember?” James reminded me. “Crawling through all of that mud unnecessarily, and a face full of…mucus was proof of that.” Why did he have such a problem with the word snot? “Probably because you’ve ignored him the whole time he’s been trying to show you something of dire importance. I tried and tried to warn you, but as usual you wouldn’t listen. You are stubborn, BJ. Billy is right, for once in his life. We’ve come this far. We’re not going to leave you now. We’re in this together.”
“Look James.” I decided to try reasoning with him. “We already know the buffalo can make paintings come to life, appear in the clouds, levitate, and walk through locked doors. Do you honestly believe a little river water is going to bother him?”
“It’s not him I’m worried about! Of course it wouldn’t bother him. He can just take flight. It would bother you though. And it won’t be a little water either. You know good and well that if they turn the water on, the spot where we are standing will be covered by at least 10 feet of rushing water in a matter of minutes. You couldn’t survive it BJ, even if you are a great swimmer and plan to be a United States Navy Search and Rescue Swimmer one day.”
“The buffalo isn’t giving me a choice. You both know this. Do you think I want him haunting me for the rest of my life? Do you think I could live with that? Never knowing when or where he’s going to appear? Will he tag along when I take Megan Cobb to the eight grade dance?”
“Did you ask her?” they both asked at once, jumping up and down too excited to stand still, momentarily forgetting the buffalo even existed.
“Did you actually get the nerve to ask Megan Cobb to go to the dance with you?” Billy asked in shocked disbelief. “You’re lying, BJ!”
“If Megan Cobb had agreed to go to the dance with you, you would have already (hiccup) posted it on Facebook.”
“Not yet. I haven’t exactly asked her yet.” I would have much rather pulled a wisdom tooth, right there without Novocain, than admit to them that I hadn’t found the courage to ask her. “I’m going to on the first day of school though. Man, I hope I have at least one class with her.” But I didn’t have time to start daydreaming about her now. “To get back to more pressing matters, I just want this entire episode with that crazed beast to end tonight.”
“I know what you mean,” Billy said. “I would probably feel the same way if I was in your shoes. But at the same time you have to realize how dangerous this is. If you don’t make it out alive how are we ever going to face your mom again?” Then he grinned, trying to lighten the mood. “I guess I would have to take Megan to the dance in your place.”
“You do and I will haunt you every second of every day for the rest of your natural life.” He knew from my tone of voice that I meant every single word.
“Wow,” Billy laughed. “Chill out, it was a joke. I’m not messing with your girl.” He winked and cut his eyes at James. “ I intend to ask Amber to the dance anyway.”
You know those Tom and Jerry cartoons where the characters eyes bulge and steam shoots out their ears? We were just waiting for steam to come out of James’ ears. He got beet red in the face, was sending rapid fire hiccups echoing across the river, and trying to call Billy every name in the book, but couldn’t get a word out between the hiccups.
“Calm down, James.” Billy grinned, seeing how upset his friend was becoming. “I was teasing. I would never do that to you either. Dang, can’t y’all take a joke?
“You need (hiccup) to find (hiccup, hiccup, hiccup) your own (hiccup) girl! As if there (hiccup) is one in the entire school that (hiccup) would have you!”
It took several minutes, but when James finally got his voice under control he ignored a still grinning Billy. “BJ, if you insist on doing this you’ve got to promise to be extremely (hiccup) careful and no matter what the buffalo does, don’t do or say anything to get his dander up.”
“He’s right, BJ,” Billy agreed.
“You know (hiccup) he has a short fuse where you’re concerned and I don’t know why you insist on doing things to aggravate him.”
“It doesn’t take much for me to aggravate him.”
“No, it doesn’t. That’s why I want you to promise not to do or say anything stupid.”
“You know, BJ,” Billy agreed. “He’s right, again. As a matter of fact, just don’t talk at all.”
“Yeah, that’s (hiccup) it. Just zip your lips and you should be fine. No problem.’
“Okay, I won’t talk,” I promised, “and you two go stand on the bridge to watch and see where he takes me. You know, in case you need to notify the police or something. You’ll be safe there.” Then I turned, and began walking towards the buffalo. “Oh, if you have to…tell my mom, and Gram and my grandparents…” I stopped, unable finish what I had been about to say.
“We will see you later, BJ,” Billy said. “This will be all over tomorrow, and we’ll laugh about this.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Yeah,” James added. “I bet tomorrow will be (hiccup) a freaking barrel (hiccup) of laughs.
“A barrel of laughs,” Billy echoed.
I felt like men must have felt in the old days when they had to walk to the gallows to be hung.
Like I was walking toward my own death.
Where was this deranged buffalo taking me?
Why did he insist on walking in the middle of the river?
Why me?
Was Billy right, would this nightmare be over tomorrow?
Would I be allowed to live a normal life again after tonight?
As I followed along behind him I had to wonder if I would ever see my family, my best friends, or Megan again.
Chapter 12
I followed the buffalo for another thirty minutes and then the dam loomed ahead of us dark and sinister in an eerie fog that floated across the water. Fog. Just what this night needed! Like it wasn’t already spooky enough and I wasn’t already scared past the point of even being scared. I looked up and saw a single row of nightlights stretching across the top and casting pools of shadowed light over the soaring cement structure.
The dam itself was 152 feet high and 3200 feet wide. 21 floodgates made up the majority of width with 4 gigantic turbines, or water wheels, on the right. It was these water wheels that caused my insides to churn. If one of those turbines were opened, water would come rushing out of the reservoir behind the dam at a rate of thousands of gallons per second. I remembered this from a tour of the dam my class had taken in the fifth grade.
If, by some grand stroke of misfortune, they opened all four wheels at once, well, I wouldn’t even allow myself to consider the possibility. I couldn’t. The floodgates were only opened to release water after a heavy rain and yesterdays rain had been quickly absorbed by the dry, parched ground, so I wasn’t worried about that. But being this close to the wheels gave me the heebie jeebies for real.
Even as I was rolling these thoughts around in my head the buffalo kept steadily walking through the increasing fog that was soaking into my clothes and chilling me to the bone.
We were directly in front of the dam now. Was he going to go around it or did he expect me to scale the 152-foot cement wall like it was an obstacle course? The buffalo didn’t slow down until he stood in front of the first wheel.
Why on earth would he go there?
There was absolutely no reason for anyone of sound mind to just stand in front of a dam waiting for water to come rushing out. Then again, I had no idea if ghosts had sound minds.
Nevertheless, what possible reason could he have for walking right up to the dam? Sure, he was a ghost and didn’t have to worry about dying.
What about me!
Or was he merely trying to decide how to get me around the towering concrete structure? I thought about the millions and millions of gallons of water being held back by the dam and a violent shudder ran through me.
I didn’t know what his plans were, however, since I couldn’t think of a single logical reason to wait patiently for disaster to strike, I quickly decided to go around the dam. I started walking toward the riverbank and praying there wouldn’t be a sudden demand for electricity on a Saturday morning.
The buffalo saw me walking away and snorted loudly. I stopped and turned to see him tossing his giant head angrily toward the dam. Crap!
His eyes were glowing red again!
That was never a good sign.
Let me tell you, you have never really been scared until you see red eyes glowing at you through thick fog at 4:00 in the morning.
“Yeah,” I said, trying desperately to control the trembling in my voice as I looked toward the dam. “I know it’s there. The question is how am I supposed to get around it? You can walk right through it or probably fly over it, but in case you haven’t noticed, I can’t.”
Double crap!
The hair on his back was standing straight up.
He was getting all riled up about something.
I glanced around a couple of times, but my eyes kept roaming toward the safety of the bank some 75 feet away. As my mind filled with the horrible possibilities that could happen, I was constantly praying that they wouldn’t. Throwing caution to the wind, I ignored his furious red gaze and slowly began inching toward the bank.
Was that ever a mistake!
The buffalo definitely lost his cool then and began pawing the ground slinging rocks, muscle shells, and mud all over me. His eyes were even darker red than usual. You can believe that was a sight that will haunt me for the remainder of my days, however few they may be!
Okay, I tried to put aside for the moment how truly dangerous my current predicament was and forced myself to think logically. It was safe to assume that whatever he wanted to show me was in this general area, since he showed no sign of budging from it. I was deep in thought when he must have realized that my mind had wandered to a subject other than him…like…oh… I don’t know…living to see another day!...because he again tossed his head toward the dam and snorted.
I decided to humor him until I could somehow figure out a way to get to the safety of the bank. Couldn’t his little game of charades be played out just as well on dry ground?
As my mind tumbled over one possible life saving scenario after the other the stillness of the quiet night was suddenly shattered by the terrible sound of metal clanging against metal followed by a slow grinding sound.
Unfortunately, I recognized the sound immediately!
It was a noise I had heard many times before when one of the four enormous turbines inside the dam started to turn. Like a film in my mind, I remembered our tour guide’s speech last year. “This dam stores water behind it in the Lake Tillery reservoir. Now, near the bottom of the dam wall there is what we call the water intake. Gravity causes the water to fall through a large pipe inside the dam called a penstock. At the end of the penstock is a turbine propeller, which is turned by the moving water. The shaft from the turbine goes up into the generator, which produces the power. Power lines are connected to the generator. These lines carry electricity to our homes and businesses. Then the water continues past the propeller through the tailrace and into the river.”
He had motioned to the 4 wide tunnels in the wall where the water would come rushing out. “By the way, you don’t want to be playing in the water below a dam when the water is released.”
Whenever I had heard the sound of the turbines beginning to spin before I had been safely fishing from the bank or in a boat with Grandpa.
My eyes seemed to be working in slow motion as I watched the water begin to rise. Without another thought for the buffalo, I ran for my life. The rocks were as slippery as glass. I fell down repeatedly and got back up praying for a miracle that would allow me to outrun the water. It would be the toughest challenge I had ever faced, but it was my only chance for survival. It was only one water wheel. I knew I had a better than average chance of making it to the bank since I was a strong swimmer.
Then, above the loud roar of the water rushing through the tunnel I heard the loud squeaking thump of another wheel beginning to rotate and I knew it was over. I closed my mind to the horror that was unfolding before my eyes.
Beware the river!
Then, as if in a dream, I heard two more loud thumps and realized that they were about to open all four wheels at once. I couldn’t swim against that much rushing water.
And I was directly in the waters path.
Beware the river!
In a daze I watched the rocks around me quickly disappear under the churning water. I was going to die! There was no possible way to survive this nightmare. But even though I was faced with impossible odds, you can believe I wasn’t going down without a fight. I took a quick look around to study the situation, which was grim to say the least.
A railroad trestle ran along the front of the dam and the cement support columns were only a few feet away. Needless to say, they were rough cement and at least 40 feet high. It wasn’t likely that
I could scale one of them in the next few seconds. But that’s about all the time I had. I knew it was my one and only shot as I made a mad dash for the nearest one.
When I reached the base of the column, I stopped in my tracks, completely stunned. I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Talk about a miracle!
There was an old timey rope ladder hanging from the trestle. It was old and frayed and didn’t look 100% reliable, but it was definitely a ladder. “Yes!”
But where did it come from?
I had fished from a boat under this trestle just last week with Grandpa and there hadn’t been a ladder here then. I was sure of it. But thank the good Lord one was here now!
I took a quick glance over my shoulder to look for the buffalo. He wasn’t in the water, so he must have made it to the bank safely. Of course he had! Duh!
Was he the least bit concerned about saving me?
Obviously not!
Just goes to show that whatever he wanted me to see wasn’t so all fired important after all.
I lunged for the bottom rung of the ladder and grabbed it just as the cold water began to swirl around my knees. Struggling to grab the second rung, I gasped and then cringed as the icy water soaked into my Fruit of the Looms, then rapidly advanced to my waist. The rushing water seemed to have icy fingers that clutched at me and tried to pull me off the slippery ladder.
In mere seconds the strong current succeeded in dragging my feet from the ladder as my fingers held on for dear life and I prayed. I reached for the third rung even as I realized it was hopeless. I could already feel my hands beginning to slip. I wouldn’t be able to fight the strong pull of the powerful current much longer.
The ice cold water that had seconds earlier been at the bottom of the reservoir began to lap around my neck. It filed my ears. Then it was sloshing up my nose and I couldn’t breathe. The swift current tore the fingers of one hand off the ladder. I was losing my grip as my fingers slipped off one by one. I couldn’t hold on a second longer. I was going to die while James and Billy helplessly watched.
