Flood

by Joseph Monninger

  “Take it to the bank,” Ellis said, trying to sound like a rapper. He only managed to sound ridiculous. Still, Kuru laughed. It had been a while since she had last laughed. “To the bank,” Ellis said again, but this time it wasn’t funny. It was just stupid, but she didn’t mind. She kept laughing anyway.

  Carmen heard the helicopter and looked out the window. She couldn’t see it. But Alice hopped to the kitchen window and caught a glimpse of it as it continued over the city. Alice hooted a little with her face still pointing toward the window. The hoot woke G-Mom, who simply turned to get more comfortable in the recliner. Carmen kept the baby in her arms.

  “They saw us,” Alice said. “I’m positive.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “I saw one of the soldiers in the doorway or hatch or whatever you call it. He made an okay sign with his index finger and thumb. You know.”

  Carmen watched Alice make the okay sign. She couldn’t help but make it back.

  “It’s about time someone came looking for us,” Carmen said. “Not to sound too annoying about it, but come on. We’ve been here a couple days already.”

  “I think it’s big,” Alice said, “bigger than we might know. I bet they’ve been crazy busy rescuing people.”

  “You’re probably right,” Carmen said. “I suppose I sound ungrateful. I didn’t mean to be.”

  “No, I get what you’re saying. It’s all pretty weird.”

  Carmen tucked the baby closer. Her neck felt better. She liked Alice. Alice was friendly and helpful. She checked the apartment against snakes on a regular schedule and she brought food to the baby whenever she was asked. Nevertheless, Carmen didn’t know what it was, but she couldn’t quite get a lock on Alice’s background. Every time she asked a direct question of Alice, Alice managed to avoid answering it. When she asked about the band, or about school, Alice’s answers didn’t stack up. Carmen had started to think that Alice didn’t have an address, or a place to call home. Maybe she lived out of her car, or maybe she lived somewhere in the abandoned building next door, but whatever it was seemed to embarrass Alice. Alice didn’t volunteer anything, that was for sure, but she asked plenty of questions about Carmen and her life. It was strange.

  But one thing was sure: She loved Zebby. She spent a lot of time on her knees next to the pig, giving him bites of food whenever he would accept them. Having a pig didn’t exactly fit the profile of a homeless person, but then again, it didn’t fit the profile of a rocker either. Alice’s situation felt muddy to Carmen.

  “How’s Zebby doing?” Carmen asked, mostly to make conversation.

  “He’ll be okay, I think. He’s still in shock a little.”

  “I guess we all are. So what will you do about your car? When the flood’s over, I mean.”

  Alice didn’t look at her, Carmen noted. She kept her eyes down on Zebby.

  “I guess get it towed or something. Maybe the town will just take it. If I can take the tags off it, maybe I’ll just abandon it. I doubt it will start after all that water.”

  “What kind was it again?” Carmen asked.

  “A Subaru Impreza.”

  “Good car?” Carmen asked, registering that Alice had said a Volkswagen before. A Jetta.

  “Pretty good. I guess not good enough.”

  Carmen waited a moment before she asked the next question.

  “Are you homeless, Alice?” she asked, deliberately softening her voice.

  Carmen couldn’t tell if she had overstepped or not. Part of her wanted to suck the question back in because it was none of her business, but another part, a deeper part, didn’t like thinking of Alice being all alone. She watched Alice closely. Alice didn’t take her eyes of Zebby. At the same time, Carmen realized her own fear of the shower curtain counted for nothing compared to Alice’s situation.

  “Not really,” she answered finally. “Kind of between homes.”

  “Were you living in your car or something?”

  Alice didn’t answer. She shrugged and kept petting Zebby.

  “I’m sorry if I am too nosy,” Carmen said. “I know I can be at times, but I didn’t mean to be in this case. Honest. I just like you and I was worried about you.”

  “I’m okay,” Alice said. “But thanks.”

  “So were you going someplace when your car got trapped?”

  “To my brother’s,” Alice said. “In Iowa.”

  “You don’t live with your parents?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Okay,” Carmen said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “It’s all right. My brother is in the service. The army. He has room for me.”

  “Good. I’m glad to hear that.”

  “They didn’t want me living there anymore,” Alice said. “It’s a long, dismal story.”

  “That’s your business. Sorry.”

  Alice didn’t say anything. She pet Zebby slowly and carefully, as if getting his hair properly combed was the most important thing she had ever undertaken. It reminded Carmen of a little kid playing with sand on a beach.

  “They don’t like Zebby, either,” Alice said. “They wanted to give him away.”

  “To the humane society?”

  “To a dog food company,” Alice said, and it took Carmen a second to realize it was a joke. “No, they knew a guy who had a farm. A friend of my dad’s. They wanted to put him out to pasture with the guy. I told them to forget it. Zebby is my friend. Turns out he would have been saved a lot of trouble if he had just gone out on the farm. He would have avoided a snake bite and some cracked ribs.”

  “Will your brother let him live with you?”

  She shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we, Zebby?” she asked her pet.

  “I don’t know if we’re going to be much better off than your situation,” Carmen said. “I think this apartment building will be condemned.”

  “I hope for your sake it’s not.”

  Carmen didn’t know what she felt. Everything seemed jumbled up, but at the same time she didn’t think a new start would be a bad idea. At least their apartment wasn’t flooded the way Kuru and G-Mom’s was flooded. At least she and her mom and Juan had that much going for them.

  “How did you know I was between places to live?” Alice asked. “I thought I did a pretty good job of covering myself.”

  “Just a vibe. And you changed the make of your car when you mentioned it this last time.”

  “I’m hitchhiking, actually,” Alice said. “That’s why.”

  “With a pig?”

  Alice shrugged again.

  “I didn’t say it was easy,” she said.

  Ellis saw Big Monte as soon as they stepped through the doorway of the apartment building. Big Monte was unmistakable. He was huge, for one thing, and more alert than any of the other snakes. At least that’s the impression he gave. He was a mottled green-and-black color and thick — thick as a leg, thick as a pot roast. Big Monte’s head appeared long and smooth, a bicycle seat, and his eyes, unblinking, flickered with cunning. Big Monte understood a few things. That was clear with just a glance.

  He lay on the staircase in between the safety of the apartment and the sodden ugliness of the bakery level. To get to dryness, to get back to the second floor, they had to get past Big Monte.

  “That’s him, isn’t it?” Kuru asked.

  Her voice sounded shaky. Day nodded. Ellis nodded, too. Ellis couldn’t say if Kuru’s shaky voice came from fear or from being frozen. It was horribly cold in the water and each one of them had taken on a constant tremble. They had no choice. That had to get out or freeze.

  “That’s him,” Ellis said. “Big Monte.”

  “He’s horrid,” Kuru said, her voice chattering.

  “He’s pretty magnificent, really,” Ellis said. “He’s a killing machine.”

  “Is he going to come into the water after us?” she asked.

  “Probably not,” Day said. “He’ll probably just stand his ground on the stairs.”<
br />
  “And if we go near him …?” Kuru asked.

  “It’s not a good idea to go near him,” Ellis said. “He’ll be territorial. And he’s probably a little panicked with all this cold water. Or maybe not. He was caught down in the Everglades.”

  “He lived wild,” Day said. “Probably about ten years. Then he’s been in captivity for about five more years. Maybe longer. You don’t want to mess with him.”

  “What do we do now then?” Kuru asked. “We have to get past him.”

  “We should wait until he leaves,” Ellis said. “Just wait and see what happens.”

  “It’s too cold in the water,” Day said. “We can’t wait that long.”

  “We can throw some things at him and see if he’ll move away.”

  “Why not try to kill him?” Kuru asked. “I mean, can’t we do something like that?”

  “With the ax we could, maybe. But if you missed and just wounded him, you’d be in a world of trouble.”

  Ellis studied the snake. If the snake wanted to, he could enter the water and disappear. He could go through the water faster than they could track him. Plus, he could hold his breath for a long time. Advantage, Big Monte. Once he was in the water, anything could happen, although Ellis still doubted Big Monte would have any interest in them. They were too big and too many. But if they backed him into a corner, or made him feel threatened, the result wouldn’t be good. Not good at all.

  “It’s like a dragon tale out of a book,” Kuru said. “He’s a dragon guarding his hoard and we’re the travelers trying to get past.”

  “We could throw some things at him and see how he reacts,” Ellis said. “Just small things to get him thinking. We don’t want to go to war with him.”

  “If he comes in the water …” Kuru started, but didn’t finish.

  “I’ll grab some plates and things,” Day said. “Grab things that are heavy enough to send out vibrations when they land. Snakes live with vibrations. Their hearing isn’t much.”

  “They’re deaf, pretty much,” Ellis said. “Grab some pots, too.”

  “If he goes after one of us, will we be able to pull him off?” Kuru asked.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Ellis said. “He’s unbelievably strong. We had to handle him one time to put him in a larger cage. Teddy helped and we got tossed around until his brother showed up. If his brother hadn’t come along, it wasn’t going to be good.”

  “So maybe we should just leave him alone,” Kuru said, clearly uncomfortable. “Maybe we should find somewhere else to be.”

  “Where?” Day asked. “We don’t have anyplace to go. They’re expecting us back.”

  Day sloshed into the bakery. Ellis stayed to keep an eye on Big Monte. Kuru didn’t move one way or the other. Big Monte was Teddy’s favorite, Ellis knew. After the tough guy who had bought him brought him back, Teddy had contacted a local zoo about Big Monte, but the zookeepers had not been too excited about the prospect of a large, wild-captured python. Too unpredictable is how they phrased it to Teddy. Ellis knew Teddy took the zoo’s reluctance as a compliment. Big Monte was too crazy wild for a zoo, but he, Teddy, could handle him. That stoked Teddy whenever he mentioned it.

  Day came back with an armful of glasses and small saucepans. He handed them out. It was easy enough to target around the snake, Ellis knew. But how the snake reacted was going to be anyone’s guess. They wanted to discourage the snake without challenging him.

  “Let’s stand together so we look even bigger,” Ellis said. “If he goes after any of us, then he has to coil around us all. We’ll stand a better chance that way.”

  “He’s tracking us,” Kuru said. “His eyes follow us. He knows just what we’re doing.”

  “Of course he is tracking us,” Ellis agreed. “Wouldn’t you if you were in his place? It’s three against one. In the wild, he probably would have already taken off by now. Just disappeared in the underbrush.”

  “He’s so big,” Kuru said. “It’s sick how big he is.”

  “He’s double the size of the one we took off Zebby,” Day said. “At least double.”

  “Big Monte is king of the jungle,” Ellis said. “He’s the beast.”

  Then he lobbed a pan near the giant snake. The pan made a loud noise when it landed, but the snake didn’t move in the least. Day threw a glass that shattered in a thousand pieces. Kuru threw another pan and this one hit the snake at the midpoint of his body. Big Monte moved a little at that. He flickered to life and coiled slightly.

  “He’s coming to,” Day said. “He’s probably cold and a little sluggish. Hate to wake him.”

  “Should we hit him, or just land things close?” Kuru asked.

  “You can hit him. Just don’t chuck it at him hard. Easy does it,” Day said.

  Ellis couldn’t read the snake. Most snakes, he figured, would have already been in retreat. But not Big Monte. Big Monte stayed on the staircase with his body rolled together like a fist. Ellis had read a lot about snakes, but you could never know everything. Besides, snakes had personalities. Some proved to be docile and nearly stupefied, while others, like Big Monte, had a chip on their shoulders. Big Monte didn’t take anything from anyone.

  “Oh, I can’t stand it when they move,” Kuru said, her eyes fixed on Big Monte. “Creeps me right out.”

  “It’s kind of beautiful, really,” Ellis said, tossing a plate near the tail of the snake. “I think it is, anyway.”

  “Powerful,” Day said, his voice clipped a little as he threw a pan toward the snake’s head. “All muscle. That’s how they look to me.”

  Kuru’s voice suddenly went up an octave.

  “Is he coming into the water?” she asked. “He’s coming into the water, isn’t he?”

  “Don’t panic,” Day said. “It’s okay. He’s got to come into the water to pass us.”

  “Let’s just back off,” Kuru said. “This is crazy.”

  Ellis watched carefully, trying to read the snake’s attitude. What an amazing creature, he thought. Big Monte was powerful and precise in everything he did. He uncurled slowly, but really, when you analyzed it, he simply let his head fall with gravity toward the water. He became limp and rigid at the same time, if that were possible, like a hand lowering to come back up in a punch. His middle coils simply floated down off the riser, and his tail trembled a bit as it went free from the balusters. You could be mesmerized by a snake, Ellis saw, by the fluidity of the movement. You watched the center of the snake, marveling at its solidity, and in the process you lost track of the head. Then the head came toward you, jaws wide, gums and mouth roof white with a black line across the lips, and the snake hit with such violence that it could puncture a hole through the fender of a car. Sometimes, Ellis knew, the force of the bite alone stopped the heart of a rabbit or small mammal, exploded the vessels and eyeballs of its victims into a balloon-like pop even before the snake coiled over it and crushed it.

  All of that passed through his mind in an instant.

  And then the snake put its head in the water and started moving rapidly at them.

  Carmen heard the scream through the building, through the rugs and wooden floor, through the water that drenched everything, through the couch and the soft body of the baby, Juan. The scream went up and up and up, and she saw the tone register in G-Mom’s expression. No one said anything. But Alice jumped to her feet, her movement so sudden it made Zebby grunt and try to get to his. He stumbled a little and then found his equilibrium, and that would have been a triumphant moment in any other situation, but not now. Now he looked like he wanted to run, and Carmen didn’t blame him.

  “That’s Kuru!” G-Mom said, her voice betraying more alarm as she deciphered her granddaughter’s voice. “She’s downstairs.”

  “I’m going to check on her,” Alice said. “Watch Zebby, please.”

  “Hurry,” G-Mom said.

  “I’ll go, too,” Carmen said. “You have the baby, G-Mom.”

  The sound of Kuru’s voice made it impossi
ble to stay in the apartment. Carmen had to help. That was all there was to it. The soreness in her neck no longer mattered. It had all come down to this, she knew.

  Alice tore open the door and clumped down the hallway, her big boots impossibly solid. Carmen did her best to follow.

  The scream came again. It came over and over. Something horrible had happened to Kuru, Carmen understood. She had never heard anyone scream at that level before. There was no mistaking it for anything but life and death in the balance.

  “What is it?” Alice yelled.

  Then apparently she saw.

  “Oh, geez!” she said, and she rushed down the stairs.

  When Carmen made it to the top of the stairs, she looked down and couldn’t at first make out what she saw. Bodies, certainly. And water thrashing around. The afternoon had grown tired and the sun that came in weakly illuminated the scene. She stood for a long ten-count before she saw the snake twined around Kuru’s body. Before she saw Ellis and Day pulling at the snake.

  Then she met Kuru’s eyes with hers. It happened only for an instant and she could not say with absolute certainty that it happened at all. But it felt like it did. She saw Kuru come up for air and she saw Kuru’s eyes go soft, not wide and alarmed as Carmen would have expected. No, Kuru had given up, had acknowledged the superior strength of the snake, and she appeared almost calm in her surrender. Kuru was done. She was done.

  Carmen went down the stairs as fast as she could. Her neck hurt and her body felt unused to movement, but she had to help. She had to do what she could. The snake looked endless in its coils. It looked heavy and dense and it reminded her, for a flash, of a long, knitted scarf on a cold day. It wrapped around Kuru’s throat and shoulders, around her waist and arms, and she watched as Ellis pulled at the snake’s tail, trying to free Kuru, but the snake simply jerked and writhed and yanked Ellis back and forth. Day had his hand on the snake’s head, right behind the skull, but he couldn’t seem to pry the teeth off Kuru’s thigh. He kept shouting to lengthen the snake, lengthen it, but no one seemed to know what that meant.

  Carmen stepped into the water and put her hands on the serpent. Alice already had her arms around the snake and her cheek down against it, trying for leverage.