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CHAPTER ONE
COASTAL MISSISSIPPI -- Thursday, July 18, 1:00 pm
Dustin pointed his finger in the six-year-old's face. "This is as
far as you go, Paul--I mean it."
Paul stared at the finger, and then past Dustin to the river spreading
out across a wide channel behind the teenager's back. Nearer the water a second teenager
smiled at the confrontation as he unbuttoned his shirt. Dustin looked at him. "You
going to help me, Skip?"
"You're the one who let him come with us," Skip said.
"Tie him to a tree."
Paul narrowed his eyes. Dustin tried again. "I know you can swim
fine, bud, but I told your mother you wouldn't go near the water."
"What about you?" Paul asked.
"I told her you wouldn't go in the water, not us,"
Dustin said.
Paul stared past him again. Across the river a heron suddenly flapped up
into the bright sunlight. Curving its long neck back into an S above its body, the bird
turned across the vast expanse of marshland extending out from the far side of the channel
toward the long Interstate 10 bridge in the distance--and Paul's gaze followed the bird's
flight.
"I've got some gum," Dustin said.
Paul's eyes went to the pockets of the teenager's jeans. Dustin pulled
out a flattened pack of Wrigley's Spearmint. "I'll give you this now and buy you a
sucker the next time I'm at the store."
Paul weighed the offer with one eye nearly closed. He held out his hand.
Dustin said, "You promise?"
Paul nodded.
"He's lying," Skip said. He had his shirt off now and was
stepping out of his jeans.
Paul reached for the pack.
Dustin pulled it back.
"Promise," Paul said in a low voice.
"I heard a big bull alligator got after some people here
yesterday," Dustin said.
Paul smiled mischievously.
"He knows you're lying now," Skip said. In his undershorts
now, he stepped to a frayed rope hanging down from a limb of a tall oak leaned out toward
the river. Catching a grip high up the rope, he took a step backward, then jumped off the
ground and sailed slowly past the bank, dropping into the warm brown water with a splash,
sending ripples fanning out in wide circles toward the center of the channel and back
against the bank.
Paul took the gum. "I'm warning you," Dustin said. He slipped
his T-shirt off over his head. Paul, pulling a stick of gum from the pack, theatrically
stuck his foot out closer to the bank.
"Paul."
The boy smiled.
Dustin slipped off his jeans. "You stay here and I'll let you take
a drag off a cigarette when we finish."
Paul pulled his foot back and began to unwrap the gum. Dustin caught the
rope and, stepping back a couple of feet, jumped and grabbed it higher and swung out past
the bank. Reaching the peak of his swing, he kicked his feet over his head and
somersaulted backward into the water.
A large black Labrador trotted out of the trees behind Paul and stopped
by the boy. It wagged its thick tail as Paul patted its head.
Skip splashed water in Dustin's face.
The Labrador edged closer to the bank and barked loudly.
But the dog wasn't looking toward the boys. Instead, its muzzle was
pointed downstream in the direction the river dumped into the Sound and, beyond that, the
Gulf of Mexico. A hundred feet in that direction, the water sloshed gently against the
bank.
The Labrador barked again.
Dustin got his hands on Skip's head and pushed down. Laughing, barely
able to get a breath before he was dunked, Skip disappeared under the surface. Dustin
splashed away from the spot so Skip couldn't grab his legs. Near the bank, he turned and
waited for his friend to reappear. The Labrador barked again. Now it was looking directly
at Dustin.
Skip did not reappear.
A few seconds more.
Dustin's brow wrinkled. Slowly, he began to breaststroke toward the
spot. He began to stroke faster. The Labrador barked repeatedly.
Close to the spot Skip disappeared, Dustin took a quick breath and dove
under the surface.
Paul walked past the Labrador to the place where the bank started
sloping steeply down to the water.
The dog came up beside him.
Paul looked at the foil wrapper from the stick of gum. He used his
finger to shape it into a trough and sent it sailing toward the water. It curved in the
air and landed at the bottom of the bank, where it sparkled in the sunlight.
Paul stared at the shiny scrap for a moment, then turned and, moving his
leg backward down the slope, caught a grip on the edge of the bank and began sliding
toward the water.
* * *
Carolyn Haines leaned back from the ledger sheets she worked on at the
desk in her study. She slipped her glasses off and fluffed her hair off her neck. She
looked toward the thermostat next to the glass doors leading out onto the sun deck, then
stood and walked to the control.
She adjusted the temperature and started to turn back toward her desk,
but hesitated, and looked toward the doors. She listened for a moment, then walked to the
doors and slid the glass back.
Duchess's loud barking reverberated through the trees between the rear
corner of the house and the river.
Carolyn stepped out onto the sun deck and looked through the thick
growth.
"Paul," she called.
She waited a moment. The labrador's barking grew more agitated.
"Paul! Dustin!"
Duchess's barked at a feverish pitch now.
* * *
Duchess, her forepaws in the mud at the edge of the bottom of the bank,
her head and neck stretched out over the water, barked rapidly, one sharp sound after
another. Paul stood next to her. "Stop it, Duchess," he said.
She didn't.
He pulled at her collar. "Duchess."
She suddenly moved sideways, bumping into him. He barely kept his
balance. "Duchess," he said, frowning down at her. She barked toward her
left now. Paul looked toward the center of the river. Then he looked down the channel to
his left. His eyes narrowing, he pulled a wad of gum from his mouth and looked up the bank
to his right. Twenty feet out in the water in front of him, a gentle swirl twisted the
surface and a faint ripple moved in a line toward the bank.
"Paul!" Carolyn yelled as she came out of the trees.
"You'll fall in!"
He looked up at her as she slid awkwardly down the bank and grabbed his
arm. Tugging him back up the slope, she saw his questioning expression. Somehow she knew
it wasn't because of her pulling. At the top of the bank, he looked back at the river
again.
Her gaze followed his.
"Dustin?" he said in a low voice.
Carolyn looked at the clothes scattered under the oak. Her eyes went
back to the water. She looked down the river with the current and upriver to her left.
"Dustin?" Paul said again.
He kept staring toward the center of the channel.
Carolyn brought her hand up to cover her mouth.
-- (c) Charles Wilson. All Rights Reserved.
