Evil in the Glades

She opened her eyes slowly, painfully, it was murky and dark still. The dank mud was still warm, the smell permeated everything, movement caught her good eye, the other one was caked with dried mud and had not opened much. Exhaustion had not left her yet, she saw the creature’s outline, he was huge, and she was unable to move at all. The breathing was a rumble and the slow snort meant he smelled her, an easy meal. Sherry never in her life imagined hers would end in the jaws of a monster alligator, she wished now she hadn’t even come around. A tear rolled down her cheek and mingled with the mud, the rumble from the gator was louder, Sherry felt the ground shake, saw the palmetto frond move and a broad snout appeared. Rough and ugly and filled with prehistoric looking teeth, she shuddered as the huge jaws opened slightly.

She wanted to scream, to run, to shoot the beast, but she couldn’t do any of those things, she had lost her stolen gun in the struggle, and her arm didn’t work anyway, it was useless, that last pull had separated her shoulder she was sure of that, there was no movement in her legs and she couldn’t account for why. She was helpless and began to imagine the pain she would have to endure before the beast killed her. Would he bite an arm or leg off and she would bleed to death or would he bite somewhere else? She sucked in a sob and it echoed in her own ears.

The gator zoned in on the sound, Sherry saw the teeth, long ivory daggers, flesh ripping killing machines and shut her eyes as tight as she could. It appeared he was going to simply take her face off, as big as he was maybe her whole head, she was terrified, more terrified than now than over any other event in her life. Silently she asked God for mercy and she fleetingly wondered how much pain she could endure, she now hoped he did tear her head from her body it would be quicker that way.

Suddenly the gator jumped and swung his head at the same time completely missing Sherry. She heard a tap-tap-tap and then a thud as something hit the gator. It swung father away thrashing now, possibly in anger or defense, Sherry couldn’t tell, she tried to focus, she tried moving her leg, it felt like lead, the other one she couldn’t feel at all. The gator rolled hitting her with its massive tail and knocking her to the side.

Surprised Sherry felt no pain, not even in the shoulder she was sure was dislocated. She tried moving her left arm, it had been under her before the gator rolled her, her fingers moved slightly and then nothing. Sherry was confused and the fog in her brain was back. The gator hit her again and this time she ended up face down in the mud, she couldn’t breathe and just before she lost consciousness she felt as though someone or something had lifted her into the air, the last thing she remembered was the slime she sucked in with the lung full of air.

The gator was so focused on his victim he was easily surprised when Drew smacked him, he swung his head mouth open and the loop slid easily over his ugly snout, but then he rolled, and Drew scrambled to get to the woman before she suffocated in the mud. “Not sure why you can’t fight at all, just laying, there gonna let that bugger eat you alive.” He muttered to himself since no one else was listening. She was tall, long legged, but not really heavy, he was glad he was able to snatch her from that brute still fighting with the sapling he had tied it to.

The evening was getting darker, but Drew was not concerned, finding his was back through the palmettos and young pines, this area was on the outskirts of his territory, but he knew he could easily navigate it. He began talking to his unconscious burden, “Damn good thing I seen that fancy car plowing through places it shouldn’t be going, not sure why them fellas was dumping you, but that appears to have been their plan. You sure surprised them when they pulled you out of that trunk kicking and biting. Think you damaged that shoulder when you pulled away, and I don’t know what was in that dart they hit you with but you sure ain’t waking any time soon.” He stopped for a moment and listened making sure she was still breathing. “Well, whatever it was you couldn’t even get away from a twig let alone a gator, peers to me they were trying to off you.” This made Drew stew even more, three men trying to kill one woman and make it look like an accident, he was sure there was something really rotten going on.

Not sure how he was going to handle cleaning this woman up, he stood for a long time on his front porch thinking. Feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun on his back he had an idea. Drew managed to knock one of the cushions off of the porch swing, then gently laid the woman on porch with her head and shoulders on the cushion. Brushing off his clothes he dodged into the house and retrieved his phone. He punched the first number on his speed dial and cradled the phone on his shoulder as he grabbed a lawn chair and headed for the fence.

“Macy,” Drew said as he placed the chair over the fence into the water trough, he had just cleaned it but knew it had been sitting in the sun all day and the water was warm, the horses were out back, he ran and opened the gate. “Macy its Drew I need you, got a woman needs help, how soon?” He listened a moment then sighed. “In the morning then, she seems stable just paralyzed by some tranquilizer, but I think her shoulder is out of place I was hoping we could get that fixed before she woke up.” Drew was now standing over the woman. “Okay then, midnight at the earliest, I will have her cleaned up by then, and dried off . . . yeah the mud over at Little Turtle . . .” He listened again. “Okay, what? Okay . . . everywhere? But . . . but I don’t know this woman.” He listened again, “Okay, okay I will . . . I promise, yes . . . I promise.”

Drew sighed, well he should have known when he decided to bring her home he was in it for the long haul. He picked up the young woman and carried her through the gate then lowered her into the water trough. Mumbling to himself he undid her blouse and carefully removed it. “Stripping a complete stranger, not my cup of tea, why did it have to be a woman,” he had never had a naked woman in his hands before, he didn’t like this at all.

The woman was sitting in the lawn chair in the trough completely still. Deciding there was no danger of her drowning Drew ran to the house and gathered up soap and wash cloths and towels and ran back out. He struggled with her jeans but finally managed to remove them, he washed her face first, gently scrubbing away the muck and then tried washing out her long blond hair, he marveled at the thickness it also made it harder to wash. Drew had carefully placed her injured arm across her lap.

The water was still very warm, though murky now, Drew lifted her partially out of the water. “Damn it soaked through her underclothes, damn that means I have to take them off, damn I can’t . . . damn. Well maybe that stupid bacteria isn’t . . . skin infections. Macy why did you have to tell me all that? Why? Damn . . . damn . . .” Drew continued to swear at his luck knowing full well most men would enjoy such a task. ‘Why did Macy have to stay and watch that kid? Drew get over yourself, the kid needs her and you are being a big sissy.’ The argument with himself continued as he washed.

He noticed her shoulder was turning color, he cradled her gently while he removed her bra and then gently lathered her up, she had full breasts and he carefully washed them completely. He moved on to her underwear and swallowing hard washed her completely. He had been told to now place her in the shower and do it all over again, this time with antibacterial soap, he had some dish soap that would have to work. Drew was afraid she was going to suffer a broken neck before he got done so he wrapped towels around it and set a different lawn chair in the shower and washed her a second time. This time with her head resting on the back of the chair he washed and conditioned her hair he remembered a girl once telling him how important a girl’s hair was to her.

After toweling her dry he wrapped her in a sheet, Drew then placed her on his queen-size bed and threw his mother’s quilt over her. He was still queasy and nervous over washing a strange, but beautiful young girl from head to toe. He stepped outside to clear his head and noticed her jeans and shirt next to the fence. He knew he had no clothes that would fit her so he walked over and picked them up, maybe he could soak most of the muck out, they may stain but they might do until he could get her more somewhere. He hesitated and smiled to himself, he had never really believed his momma when she told him to pray for the right woman and God will drop her right in front of you.

Shaking his head Drew headed to the back of his cabin where he did laundry outside. He prepared a bucket of water and soap and as he started to drop the clothes in, he noticed the back pockets of the jeans were bulging out. In one pocket was a wad of 1,000 dollar-bills, twenty in all. In the other pocket was a small black notebook. He had no idea where she would have gotten that kind of money unless it had been planted on her, or she had stolen it and the book. He put the clothes in the bucket and refolded the money and stood staring at the book. Considering his options Drew decided to make the money disappear for now, he put it in a cookie jar on the top shelf.

Dropping heavily into a chair placed beside the bed he mulled over the black book, turning it over and over in his hand. He sighed and refusing to think the worst of this girl Drew opened the book. There were entries into the book beginning five and a half years ago. There was a date, a name and an amount of money. It could easily have been a record book for a prostitute. He skimmed through looking at dates and amounts, it began with dates close together or on the same day and as it progressed the amounts became larger and the dates several days in-between. He flipped to the final entry, it was about a week ago, the name was scratched through, the amount was twenty-five hundred dollars.

Thumbing back through he noticed quite a few names scratched through. He could not make sense of the names and numbers, but the book gave him the chills somehow. Drew slipped the book under the mattress and sat back exhausted, soon he slept.