by Nick Younker
“Can you smell that?” Candy said.
Sandra sat there with her hands on the steering wheel. She smelled the same thing.
“Yeah. I’m fucking starving, Mom! Let’s get home and eat.”
“Let’s go. We’re gonna need our strength tonight because we’re heading west to the riverboat casino. No more wasting time with these small town hacks. It’s time to cash in.”
Candy noticed Sandra’s eyes after she said it. The whites were changing. Not getting darker, but lighter. There was a clearer presence in the white and she could even see what appeared to be tiny vessels. They were in a 3D like image, suspended in a hazy liquid, attached to other parts of her eye. But she could care less about it. All she wanted was to get to that casino tonight and possibly retire.
Sandra put the car in drive and wheeled away. They both looked back at the docks as they were leaving, trying to figure out where that delicious, foreign smell was coming from.
* * *
Arn and Harry both awoke to the sound of a car crossing the parking lot. They saw the Chevy Caprice pulling through and exiting the docks. They were both hungry as hell and Harry felt around his body, giving himself a physical.
Erin and Perry both awoke and found themselves covered in their own vomit and waste. Arn held his arms around himself and shivered. The temperature was 55 degrees and his body felt pre-hypothermic.
They looked around and could see a few people coming out of their houses in Squaw Creek, bundled up in winter coats and appearing severely jetlagged. Harry people were probably going to be crowding into Amy Strange’s office at the East Jamison Medical Center. The least he could do was to get the four of them feeling better, somehow.
Harry stood up and said, “Let’s all get back inside the Stow. We need to get ourselves warm and cleaned up before we get any sicker.”
They all got up and followed him. Just as Sandra and Candy had, they quickly picked up on the strangely attractive smell coming from the river and realized how hungry they were. Arn came out in front of them and used his keys to unlock the door and let everyone in. He went to the thermostat and turned the heat on.
“Arn, do you have anything to eat in the kitchen?” Harry asked.
Perry was holding Erin by her waist and one hand, trying to help her the best he could to get her to a table to sit down. Arn gave Harry a thumbs up.
“Yeah, I think we have some hamburger meat. It’s raw, though, so we’ll have to cook them,” Arn replied.
“Let’s do it,” Harry said, and patted Perry’s back. “We’ll be back in the kitchen if you need us. We need to get some food in our stomachs.”
Perry waved him on and paid strict attention to Erin, who seemed to be faring worse than the rest of them. Her eyes were turning strangely clear in the white and her body wasn’t retaining any heat. She should be shivering right about now, but her body was too weak. Her mind seemed to be a little scrambled. She had not spoken anything, just replied with nods and simple headshakes.
This worried Perry. She was a small woman with a tiny frame. He needed to warm her up and get some food in her. He himself was hungrier than he’d ever been, but he needed to feed Erin first.
“Can we get some hot food out here?!” Perry yelled into the kitchen.
Harry walked out of the kitchen with a frozen burrito in his hand.
“Is she getting worse? I can always throw this in the microwave. I’m not sure how old it is, though, and it might taste horrible. Not to mention the fact that burritos are a horrible food to eat when you’re ailing.”
Perry looked at Erin and she shook her head no. “No, just get those burgers on the burner as quick as possible.”
“Is the ’Bend open?” Harry said.
“No, they’re closed because of opening day,” Arn said from the kitchen.
Harry walked back into the kitchen and started helping Arn.
Erin suddenly stood, and Perry stood with her. He put his jacket around her. She started smelling around the room and walked to the side door that led out to the dock. Perry followed her, smelling the same thing. Erin walked outside onto the dock. She kneeled and reached down and felt the cold water. She quickly pulled her hand back in pain. The cold shot through her with a jolt. She reached her hand up to her mouth and tried to exhale warm breaths on it, but then the smell intensified. Perry kneeled behind her and wrapped his hands around her shoulders. She stopped breathing on her hand and considered something she had never considered in her life.
Perry turned her to face him, her river-wet hand was still near her mouth. He looked deep into her eyes. He knew what she wanted. He wanted it, too. All logic had told them their entire lives to never ingest anything from the Ohio River, but there was something about it that had sweetened to their tastes. The smell led to a pure desire, unnatural to the common folks who resided along the Ohio River. Neither one of them wanted to do it, but there was nothing else they craved more than to taste it, right at that moment. A tear rolled from the changing white in Erin’s. She could see the same thing in Perry’s eyes, but their minds had yet to reconcile with the truth of their desire. It was like betraying everything they were, everything they had come to know.
Erin slowly put one finger in her mouth. The beads of water disengaged from her finger and rolled down her esophagus, bonding to the surface of her throat tissue.
She pulled the finger out of her mouth and Perry saw it happen. The white in her eyes changed like a dissipating storm cloud. Tiny blood vessels emerged through the clearness, appearing out of nowhere. He could see tiny cells running through them, carrying blood to the eye. Feeding it, and then taking away the waste.
Perry had never witnessed such beauty, such a metamorphosis. Her eyes had retained the central iris color, but they were now immersed in a translucent mass that left the center more exposed.
He reached both hands into the water and cupped them, bringing a larger sample back up. He wanted so badly to drink it himself, but instead he offered it to her. She lowered her head into his hands and drank all of it, and then flipped her head backwards as if she had just snorted a line of cocaine.
Perry reached down and did it again, this time drinking the water himself. It was invigorating, satiating. He ran his hands through the water.
That’s when it came to the surface and gave Perry the shock of his lifetime.
***
2
Jeff Stark had not slept well the night before. The thought that he had raped a man hadn’t sat well with him. But he also thought about what Bret Holder had done to Derri Emmons, and it seemed to weigh out equally in his mind. It was a burden he would have to carry for the rest of his life, but it was worth it to have seen Derri peaceful the night before. She might have been banged up a little, but she wasn’t going to spend her life in terror of that man.
Maybe I should go look for him. Make sure that he isn’t stewing for revenge. If so, he could take it out on Derri and the whole thing would have been for nothing. It angered him to think about it, but it still weighed on him.
He was still awake at 6:45 a.m. when Cliff Holder came barging into Derr’s office like a maniac on a power trip. Stark rose to his feet, his weapon drawn.
“What the fuck do you people think you’re doing up here in Fuckstow!” Holder yelled, completely ignoring the gun Stark was pointing at him. For all Stark knew, Bret had gone home and told Daddy what happened to him last night, and Cliff Holder was there to shoot him.
“You care to elaborate on that, slick?” Stark said, still aiming his gun at Cliff.
Cliff shook his head and approached Stark, shoving the gun away from his face.
“Was it you or that good-for-nothing lefty piece of shit Derr?”
“You had better get to the point before I bullet in you, old man,” Stark warned as pointed the gun back at Cliff.
That didn’t sit well with Cliff Holder, and his voice took on a more threatening tone as he spoke.
“Come downstairs and I’ll show y
ou, tough guy!” Cliff said. He walked down the stairs and around to the grain silo, where a man was unloading grain from a short-haul truck. Stark followed, firmly holding his service revolver. A pungent, repulsive smell filled the air; he immediately attributed the stench to the river. Awful smells came off the river three or four times a week, but this one was enough to make him a little nauseated.
“This man right here has been working double and triple hauls because of you self-righteous cocksuckers. I want to know which one of you fucking pissants spoke your left-winged gospel to my driver yesterday. That motherfucker brought my truck back and said he was done until he got paid more for the hauls. He also told me that he was convinced by the Fogstow cops. Now, you tell me if it is was you or Derr,” Cliff said.
Stark put his gun back in his holster, relieved.
“This isn’t our problem, old-timer. Go somewhere else and take care of your business,” Stark said as he turned to head back.
Cliff grabbed Stark’s shoulder and whipped him around.
“Don’t you turn your back on me, you little worm!”
Stark grabbed Cliff’s hand and twisted it easily, forcing Cliff to double sideways in pain.
Cliff started to reach behind his back for a concealed gun when a voice emerged.
“It was Derr,” said Bret Holder in a soft, weak and shy voice. He was covered in dank soot and blood stained the legs of his jeans. He was still barefoot, just as Stark had left him the night before, and his body was so pale and weak-looking that he appeared on the verge of death. Stark released Cliff, who was looking at his son with shock.
“It was Derr, Dad. I heard him through the cell window yesterday, just before I got out,” Bret said.
“What the fuck? What the fucking fuck! What in the hell happened to you, boy!” Cliff exclaimed.
“Well, no one showed to pick me up last night, so I had to stay here,” Bret said as he cast a glance at Stark. He quickly looked away, scared.
Cliff walked up and put his hand gently behind Bret’s neck. He could not quite figure out what to say to him for a moment, so he just went with what was obvious.
“Let’s just get you to a hospital, boy.”
Bret slowly shook his head yes. He kept his eyes down as he walked around to his dad’s extended cab truck and got in the passenger’s seat.
Stark watched them drive away, and then he went inside and gave Linton a warning call from the office. He had to use a handkerchief to mask the nasty smell rolling over the town.
***
3
Bob Stamps had set out early from Patoka that morning with the kids. As much as he would have loved to stay with them, he just didn’t see the point in forcing them to do something they obviously didn’t want to do.
He had stopped off the highway and taken Sebby out for a couple of casts in the Ohio River, but nothing was biting, so they just packed up and continued back toward Fogstow. Ellen stayed in the back seat and slept as they rolled down Highway 66, en route to home.
“Hey, Dad,” Sebby said.
“Yeah, buddy?” Bob answered.
“Let’s just try to go back when the weather gets warm, next spring or something. We can probably catch some fish then.”
Bob rubbed his head and smiled.
“That sounds good, Sebby.”
Ellen was waking up in the back seat. They had passed through Derbie. Next stop: Fogstow.
“Can we go eat at the ’Bend, Dad?” Ellen asked, hungry and tired.
“I think they’re closed, sweetheart. But I can cook you up some bacon and toast at home. I also have some syrup — you can dip your bacon in it,” Bob said as he looked in the rearview mirror at Ellen, hopeful.
“No. I’ll just go back to Mom’s. I want some of the leftover lasagna she gets from the store.”
“How about I go and get you some lasagna from the store and make it up for you? It’s real easy and it comes in a frozen box, so it won’t take nothing.”
Ellen thought about it for a moment while she stared out the window at the sun, which was perching over the horizon.
“No. I want to go back to Mom’s.”
Bob let it go. He didn’t want to upset her while she was tired.
He faced back toward the road and saw a black extended cab truck heading directly at them. It was in the wrong lane and he had nowhere to go but the shoulder of the road, which dipped off at an incline. He quickly swerved the wheel of his Wagoneer to the right, and they bounced off the shoulder and down an embankment. The Jeep safely made it into the gully, but had not lost enough speed to avoid the dead-fallen tree that was pointing straight at them. The Jeep plowed into it and a long, hard branch speared directly through the windshield and into Bob’s neck.
* * *
Cliff Holder was making his way west down Highway 66 when he looked over at his son with disgust. That little pussy let someone beat the piss out of him last night. There’s no doubt about it. He is such a disgraceful piece of shit, always drunk or stoned, or on whatever the fuck they’re into these days. He looked back at the road for a minute and then cracked his window and pushed the cigarette lighter in on the ashtray. He pulled a cigarette out of his pack and leaned down with it in his mouth lighting it with the truck utility lighter.
When he sat up, he found he was in the wrong lane and heading straight for Bob Stamps’ Jeep Wagoneer. He tried to swerve back into his lane, but the Jeep had already swerved off the road and down the ditch.
Cliff turned around to look and then turned back to the road.
“What happened to them?” Bret asked.
“Nothing, boy. They’re fine. Let’s just get you to a hospital and checked out.”
Bret tried turning around to see for himself, but the Jeep was too far off the road for him to make anything out. He turned back and huddled against the door. He tried to sleep, but he was in too much pain and he was also ravenously hungry.
* * *
The Jeep had come to a stop with the tree limb firmly embedded through the windshield and Bob’s neck. Ellen was frantically crying in the backseat and Sebby sat in the front seat, in shock.
“Da-Da! Are you okay? Dad?” Ellen said.
Bob was only partially conscious. He couldn’t move, and although he couldn’t see or feel it, he was fairly sure there was a lot of blood.
“Da-Da! Please answer me!” Ellen cried from the backseat.
Bob came around a little more and Sebby saw his Dad’s eyelids moving.
“Dad! Dad, can you heard me?” Sebby asked.
Bob couldn’t move and could barely talk. The tree limb was firmly lodged in his neck. He spoke with a raspy, labored voice.
“Okay kids. It’s going to be okay. Dad needs your help right now. Can you both do something for me?”
Sebby nodded yes and Ellen climbed forward from the back seat and whispered yes in Bob’s ear.
“Okay, sweetie. Here is what I need you to do. Dad can’t move from this spot right now because of the tree branch. It could also hurt me to move, so I need you two to walk into Fogstow. It’s only a few hundred feet up ahead. Dad needs you both to walk and get Chief Derr for me. Tell him what has happened and he will come and help me,” Bob said.
“Yeah, Dad. We will. No problem. You just stay right here and we will go get him,” Sebby said in a worried voice. “Just stay here and we will be back in jiffy.”
Bob knew that his situation was dire. He could not feel anything below his neck and he saw Sebby looking down with fright, likely seeing the blood that just kept flowing.
He realized he probably wouldn’t make it out of this and he didn’t want the kids to watch him die. Despite their mother’s coldness, those two kids had very kind hearts. He just wanted them to grow up with the least amount of pain as possible.
“No, buddy, I don’t want you to come back with him. Just call your mom to come and pick you up and let Chief Derr come and help me by himself.”
Ellen leaned forward, tears rolling down her face.
She leaned her head on Bob’s right ear.
“I don’t want to leave you, Dad. I won’t leave you,” Ellen whispered.
“I know you don’t want, to sweetheart, and Dad loves you very much, too. But I need you to go with bubby. I need you to both go so you’re both safe on the road. You can both look out for each other on the roadside on your way in. Please, honey, go with your bubby.”
Ellen sat there, cuddled against her Dad’s only good side. Sebby didn’t want to leave him either, but he knew he had to get him help. He also knew his Dad wanted him to take charge and get Ellen to come with him.
“Come on, Ellen. We need to go now before he gets worse,” Sebby urged, yanking on her sleeve.
Ellen wouldn’t budge. Sebby hated to do it, but he pulled her out of the car and she screamed as he walked away with her. She kept screaming back at her Dad.
“Dad! Da-Dad! I love you, Dad!”
***
4
Linton and Kelly lay peacefully sleeping when the faint sunlight began filtering through the shades on the window. A knock at the door awoke Linton. It was Carolyn.
“Yeah, Mom,” Linton said from inside the closed cabin.
“Deputy Stark is on the phone and he said he needs to talk to you. Don’t worry, I won’t come in. Just come to the door and grab the portable,” Carolyn said.
Linton slid his pants on, cracked the door open and took the phone. Kelly slid up in bed and leaned against the back frame with the sheets pulled over her breasts. She felt a little embarrassed, but Carolyn did not look inside. But she knew Carolyn knew there was a good reason not to look inside, which made Kelly self-conscious.
“Thanks, Mom,” Linton said. He closed the door.
“We’ve got homemade donuts in the house with fresh glaze,” Carolyn called as she stepped off the porch.
Kelly shivered in the bed at the rush of cold air that had come in when the door was cracked. It had gotten considerably colder out, and she was definitely underdressed.
