Storyville

by Caldon Mull

  “What flood?” Joe blinked.

  “Joe, listen to me carefully.” I blew in my hands to try and warm them. “The last time this happened, we got fifteen feet of raging water here. It’s gonna happen again, soon. How many people you got in the company houses?”

  “About three hundred, kids included.” Joe blinked again “Fifteen feet? How soon is ‘soon’?”

  “Coupl’a hours ‘soon’. What’s the biggest place we got highest up the hills?”

  “Hmm, that’d be the Company Squash courts up atop of Alder street.”

  “There toilets and kitchens there?” I was getting impatient with Joe, but tried not to show it.

  “Yeah, I guess. Not big though, but they got.” Joe nibbled on a hangnail and looked at the dip around the building perimeter that had just turned into a moat. “We got four Hummers and a bus, I reckon we could do two trips to get ‘em all out.

  “Sure. State Emergency services are going to be setting up a relief site at the football field. I guess there will be tents and food there. I guess once everyone is above water, it’ll be easier to manage.” I stamped my feet again, nothing seemed to work. “You just gotta make sure they’re above water.”

  “Yeah. I guess.” Joe stood inert. “You sure about that, Mister Finch? Fifteen feet?”

  “Joe, listen.” I growled at him. “Another two feet and not even the Hummers will be able to drive through this mess. In the fifties it was near thirty feet of raging water. It all comes past here all at once.” I smacked my fist into my palm. Joe started “Like that. Get them moved out of the Compound and uphill, fast. That’s an order, Joe!”

  “Yessir, Mister Finch.” Joe snapped to. “Luggage?”

  “Blankets only. Even wet, they’re useful.” I wondered if he was thinking straight “Joe, tell me what you gotta do.”

  “Evacuate the staff to the Alder street Squash courts. Bring blankets.” Joe repeated.

  “Where else can you take them, Joe?” I snapped.

  “To the football field. State Emergency Services’ll be there.”

  “Good. How much time, Joe?” I pressed him.

  “Couple hours.” Joe had broken into a cold sweat.

  “Two hours, Joe!” I decided for him. “Not a soul in here in two hours! Make sure it gets done, hear me!”

  “Yessir!” Joe straightened his spine “I hear you.”

  “Get to it, then.” I shouted over my shoulder as I started the wade back to my car. I swear the water lapped at my balls on the way back, I tried not to think about the next few hours as I dripped water all over my driver’s seat and reversed back up the tarmac. Locking the four-wheel drive I drove past the high street houses as I saw a dark figure moving along the street to the Sheriff’s house. Dean.

  He waved the torchlight as I drove past, and I dipped my High beams as I drove past. I snaked along the narrow road until I hit the farm road to Bobby’s place. Traction was difficult, but the car handled it well on four wheels. I had to switch my wipers to full speed a few hundred yards from the Town, as well as the fog lamps. I was beginning to feel more and more uneasy about the rest of the night and the prospects of me being wrong.

  Twenty minutes later I pulled into Bobby’s Farm and headed for the Barn he stayed in. I pulled the car up and left it idling again as I climbed up the wooden steps and pounded on the door.

  A few minutes later, sleepy-eyed, he opened the door and let me in. “Hey Andy, a bit late and a bit wet for you, what brings you around this time o’night.”

  “Hey Bobby, your folks in?” I grumped as I entered the large room.

  “Naw, I’m alone here fer a few more days. Whassup?” He stretched, yawned.

  “...” The portable crackled in my top pocket. I held it up, but couldn’t hear what it said, I guess I was just too far out. Whatever it was saying didn’t matter. The fact it was saying something was enough for me.

  “Bobby, pack quickly, enough to cover your nekkid ass, and whatever you have that’s valuable. Turn the stock loose. There’s a big flood heading this way, an’ I’m taking you back to town with me.”

  “C’mon man, you can’t be serious?” Bobby looked me in the eyes “You are serious.”

  “Just do it, and hurry. We can’t have much time left. That was probably Dekker in Dry County telling me the creek has broke its banks.”

  “But Andy... I couldn’t...” Bobby started to dither.

  “Bobby-Lee Hoskins, just get on with it.” I growled at him “I’ll explain when we have time. Which we don’t. Not now. Have time.”

  Bobby blinked at me, looking at the strain in my face, most probably. “Ok, I’ll be a few minutes.”

  “Thank you. Just pile a bag in the back of the Subaru and whatever else is in the main House. Valuable. Small. Small and valuable.” I fretted.

  “The safe.” Bobby said over his shoulder. “I’ll just take the stuff out of there, all the rest is jus’ furniture... and stuff. Nuthin’ really much, actually.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” I snapped “Just make sure your hairy ass is in my passenger seat in, like, twenty minutes.”

  “That’s an original pick-up line.” Bobby tossed a tog bag at me. I caught it. “If I do it in fifteen will you give me a lollipop?”

  “Don’t be a wiseass.” I grinned in spite of myself “If you’re in my car in fifteen I’ll give you a blowjob, just not here, not now. You should really, really try for ten minutes, though. That’s the real money-shot.”

  “Deal, the clock is running.” He grinned impishly “Race you to the car.”

  True to his word, he came loping over inside ten minutes with a canvas bag between his teeth and a bundle in his arms from the main house. “Made it, I think.” he beamed as he settled in the seat. “You gotta pay up now.”

  “I will keep my word.” I grinned as I skidded up his drive. “You can count on it.”

  “Yeah. I know.” Bobby hugged the bundle and the canvas bag “So what’s the big fuss?” I told him as much as I could about the warnings and preparations as I could while still driving as fast as I could. I wanted to get back home and find out what the message had been. I nearly skidded as I rounded a corner and saw deep water covering a dip. I stopped, wondering how deep it was.

  “Man, that’s strange.” Bobby mused “Even in heavy rains that culvert never has standing water.”

  “It’s what I’ve been trying to say.” I tapped the steering wheel. “It wasn’t like that on the way in. How deep you reckon it?”

  “One and a half feet?” Bobby chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Two?”

  “Good enough. I’m gonna power my way through.” I switched to reverse and backed up about fifty yards. “Seat belt, please!”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Bobby meekly clicked it on.

  I gunned the car through and hitting the water was like driving into a wall. I lost all traction on the wheels, but we made it through the ten or so yards without flipping or stalling from the power of the original momentum. I had been worried that the road had collapsed under it and the water was actually much deeper than it looked. I guess we were lucky tonight. The car skidded, but I powered my way back into control and we continued.

  “Yeesh.” Bobby let out his breath in a single sigh. “I’m beginning to be grateful you came to fetch us.”

  “Us?” I saw my knuckles white as bone on the steering wheel, the demister vainly struggling to keep the inside of the windshield clear of the fog from our breath. “What us? I’m pretty sure there’s just you ‘n me here. You bin smoking pot again...?”

  “Ah, no.” Bobby hugged the dark bundle close to him. I wasn’t going to tear my eyes from the road to peer at it, but I gritted my teeth.

  “Bobby, what you got in the bundle, eh?” I grinned tightly “Tell ol’ Andy here, there’s a good boy.”

  “Well, I know ya really don’t like pets, or nuthin’ but I just got her and I couldn’t just leave her. She’s still sleeping off the pill I gave her, thinking the storm would bri
ng lightning, or somethin’.” Bobby started to babble, holding the bundle protectively to his chest “So I thought, y’said to let out the livestock and so it’s Ok, and she’s sorta like valuable...”

  “Bobby...” he wasn’t just talking sense, and he didn’t seem to want to take a breath either. I heard the edge of hysteria creep into his voice. I wasn’t about to lose control of the car to smack him.

  “...but I thought, y’know, there’s really nuthin’ else I got that I could save x’cept Bess here, an’ maybe some of the Bonds the folks hadn’t cashed in yet...”

  “Bobby!” I snarled “Get a grip, whydon’tcha! Who... or what... is Bess?”

  “She’s a Coon Dog, just a puppy really, she don’t mean no harm... Andy, please... don’t...” Bobby gulped and sat very still as I thought to pick up speed, but immediately braked when a section of bank slumped on to the road and oozed out over our lane. Keeping the revs high I squelched the car through the slide.

  I took the silence to reassure him “Bess can stay with us. It’s not like there’ll be much meat on her ‘case we’re bogged down fer a couple weeks. Do better to start with Dean...”

  He missed my joke completely. “I’m gonna lose the farm, ain’t I.” He stared at the wall of water smashing against the windshield, pale faced, stroking the towel-covered bundle.

  “Hope not.” I saw familiar bluffs ghost up in the weak light from my car. We were only a couple minutes away from the Town limits “You insured, right?”

  Bobby gulped, sat still. “Andy, um...”

  “Oh, Bobby, fer fuck’s sake!” I shouted, for no reason I could tell “I’m driving twenty miles faster than I would ever in my life to get us away from what I think is gonna be the biggest flood... ever... ‘An’ I’m out here in the first place pulling your butt out of the middle of a cold hell, ‘cause you mean that much to me! What the fuck’s up wit’ you? I fuck your ass, Hoskins just fucking tell me, fer Chris’ sake!” I glared at him. He didn’t look back, he sat pale and still and reached a hand to up point forward.

  “Oh Fuck! Andy...” He pointed, I sprang my head back instantly regretting my break in concentration to see a huge tree sliding over the road, only a couple feet from the ground.

  “Just fuckin’ duck!” I yelled, swinging the car closer to the bank where it looked high enough to pull through. If the tree were any shorter than say, twenty five feet, it would land its’ root-mass in the middle of the car and crush us like bugs. We had been lucky, so far...

  The support strut on my side buckled and bulged and my side window shattered outwards. My vision spun into thousands of spider-webs of cracking glass and the suspension creaked and bounced to rattle my teeth. The car slewed and the sounds of bending metal shrieked in my ears as my side scraped along the bottom of the sliding tree. An explosion of mud doused Bobby’s side of the car as the ooze cascaded off the top of the bank. I resisted the urge to brake and just concentrated on moving forward before the bottom of the tree slammed us flat.

  We got through alive. The screeching of metal stopped and we were clear. The car whipped side to side for a few yards, engine gunning before I slowed her and just kept going till we were a safe distance. I stopped, unable to continue another mile without some rest. The car idled. Rain spilt into the cab drenching my left side.

  “You Ok?” I whispered, all anger and stress leeched out of me. “Bobby? You Ok?”

  “Yeah.” Bobby sniffed, then started to cry softly, hugging the sedated puppy to his face.

  “Andy, my folks... My Pa... they ain’t comin’ back. See, he’s got Cancer. They been going to the church fer ‘bout a year now, hoping...” He gulped “I dunno what they were hoping... They been sellin’ everythin’ outta the house to pay fer an operation in Miami, an’ when they went... Pa said that even if it worked, he’s gonna stay with my sis and her man rather than return.” His face twisted. “Last week they phoned up... ‘fore the lines stopped working and said they couldn’t do anything more... they’d left it too late. Ma’ll be stayin’ at Shirls from now on an’ I could work the Farm if I wanted it... or I could sell it if I chose... didn’t matter, anyhow... there ain’t nothing left, now...” Bobby sobbed silently, shoulders heaving. “I’m gonna miss him, Andy. We ain’t never bin close the last few years, and when he left... for Shirl’s place, I was real mad at him... and I said... stuff...”

  “Shhhh...” I soothed, leaning my arm around his shoulder and pulling him into a hug. “Shhhh...” I sighed and held him still for awhile. “We gonna get through this, ain’t nothing more that a light breeze outside an’ a bit of wet.” He quietened, started to tremble. I realized he was laughing.

  “You s...sure a master of understatement...” He grinned painfully.

  “Yeah, lets go.” I tried to smile back, but was too tense to pull it off. “Only a few miles or so, let’s give it all its worth.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and swivelled my hips to bring my legs up and pounded the useless windshield out with my boots. “Ain’t nothing made fuckin’ properly anymore, got less than forty thousand on the clock an’ already its’ fucked up...” I grumbled.

  Bobby hooted suddenly, wild and high pitched... but finally finding something funny “You gonna get us wet, you dork!” His wild laughter was infectious. As the cracked glass skipped over the hood, I clicked the car into forward gear and rolled forward, water running into the cabin with both of us hooting hysterically in the middle of the solid rain.

  I pulled into the drive, Dean and Michel sprinted out towards us, through the pounding rain.

  “Jeee-sus!” Dean bellowed, seeing the car. Michel tugged at my door, frantically, then gave up seeing it was buckled shut. Dean pulled Bobby from the passenger seat and I squeezed over. I must admit I was feeling woozy and a little light-headed, but I had been driving all day and was quite tired and glad to be home. The sheer stress of the drive to the Hoskins and back must have been mounting up.

  “Hey, Big Guy, you sure got some story to tell, I bet.” Michel shouted through the noise of the wind and the rain.

  “Yeah, everyone check in?” I mumbled, holding on to him. “Y’know, I hope to God I’m right, cause if I’m jes’ calling chicken, I’ll never live this down...”

  “Nah, God help us, you were spot on.” Michel held me as I slipped in the morass my front yard had become. “We’ll get onto the gravel, you sure do build a good gravel path, my friend.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I groaned, not able to understand why my legs were so rubbery. I clung to Michel as we entered the Living room.

  “Oh, No.” Dean groaned from the middle of the room. “Bobby, thas’ blood all over you! Doc! Doc!” Dean spun around and yelled towards the kitchen “You better get out here and bring your bag!”

  “I’m on my way, Dean” I heard scrabbling from the kitchen.

  “Shit, he’s right.” I squinted at Bobby, his whole right side was darker-wet than his left side. “You hurting?”

  Bobby looked at me bemused. “Nah. Can’t feel anythin’ wrong.” Dean started tugging Bobby’s clothes off until he stood there in his shorts as Doctor Mason bolted into the room.

  “Hey, hey, easy there buddy, I know we ain’t seen each other in awhile...” he grinned tightly as he pressed at his pale, goose- bumped body “No, it’s not me.” He sighed finally.

  “What?” the little man fussed. “I don’t see anything, look at his clothes, this is all on the outside. Who was next to... Oh...” They all turned and looked at me hanging on to Michel. I heard him swallow thickly next to my right ear.

  “Ah, Andy.” Dean licked his lips and took a step towards me, cautiously “You’re looking mighty pale, there...”

  “Heh, no I feel fine, really.” My knees conked in and I half sprawled, hanging from Michel.

  “Ooooh... Doc.” Michel groaned sickly beside me “It’s his head... it’s like...”

  “Stop it.” I giggled as then advanced on me, “Bobby, go put some clothes on... get a blanket for Bess... and...” They were crowdi
ng me, I tried to shake off Michel, but he clung tight “Get away from me...” I tried to push them away with me feet, but they wobbled. Dean gripped my other side.

  “Hold him.” Doctor Mason glared at me clicking open his bag, whipped out a syringe. “He can’t fall asleep... not until I’ve seen the extent of the damage.” Quick as a flash he drove the needle into my arm, my legs caved and I knelt on the floor, Dean and Michel holding my arms above my head. “Oh my...” Doctor Mason sighed. “The hair must come off...”

  “Hoskins, there some clippers in the garage in the dresser next to his PC. You wanna get it?” Michel barked.

  “Right on it.” Bobby loped out, gently lying Bess on the settee. The little tan, black and white pup opened a sleepy eye, blinked and closed them again.

  “How much blood you think he’s lost?” Dean mumbled “He’s really cold and very pale.”

  “Oh, a lot.” Doctor Mason sighed, Bobby dashed into the room brandishing the clippers “probably never got a chance to clot with the water sluicing over him. Hypothermia too, most like.”

  “Stop talking like I’m not here...” I slurred “What’cha doing...” I stared in horror as I saw a long shank of my hair tumble past my eyes. “No! Noooo!!!!” I struggled and raged, trying to twist loose. I wanted to kill whoever was shearing me. I could feel myself split into two parts, the one who was watching, and the one heaving and squirming on the floor.

  “Jeez,” Dean grunted and pressed down.

  “Hold him!” Doctor Mason panted “This is not a normal reaction... Did anyone ever ask him why he never cuts his hair...?”

  “Get Off!!!” I howled, “Get the fuck off’a me. I’ll fucking kill ya, you bastards! You fuckin’ stop hitting him... He’s my Dad, you fuckin ragheads! Come, come! Take me on, you cowardly dogs!”

  “Are you sure he’s sedated?” Michel shouted “I’m not sure I can hold him! Hoskins! Come back here and hold his hips down.

  “Just hold him, I’m nearly finished...” Doctor Mason shrilled from somewhere behind me. “There... It’s a massive tear, all ragged.”