The Boat

by Christine Dougherty

  “I’m fine, Sammy, just a headache. I think I’m getting a cold, can you believe it? In the summer? Who does that?” She smiled, but a wince stayed in her eyes.

  “Silly mommies do that,” Sammy said, but her heart wasn’t in it. She’d seen the look on Mommy’s face and it had not been a funny face look at all.

  “Silly mommies, that’s right, ladybug,” she said and took Samantha’s hand in hers. “Ready to hit it?”

  “Ready, Mommy,” Samantha said and her mom smiled at her. Then she coughed. A lot of coughing. Then she was bent over with it and still she kept coughing. Samantha patted her mommy on the back, first very gentle and then harder, smacking Mommy’s back.

  “Ow, Sammy, ow, okay, thank you, but I’m okay now.” She grabbed Samantha’s hand again. “Oh boy, now we’re really late. Daddy will be maddy.”

  Samantha snorted out a laugh at the rhyme, following Mommy to the car. Their car was beat the hell up…that’s what Daddy said. Mommy said that wasn’t nice to say and they’d have a better car someday. When she was done school. Samantha thought it was funny that her mommy went to school. Just like a kid. But Mommy’s school was different, it was to do x-rays and see inside people for cancer or babies.

  They drove away and Samantha waved to the trailer. “Bye-bye house, see you when I see you. Windows down, Mommy?”

  It was hot and humid. Samantha could smell the ocean. Low tide. Daddy said you could always smell low tide.

  “Windows down, Sammy,” Mommy said and hit the buttons for all the windows except for Samantha’s. Sammy liked to do her own button. They drove past their sign–Tuckerton Family Trailer Park–and bumped onto the highway to town.

  “Where is everybody, Mommy?”

  Normally, there would be a least a few people out on a nice day like today. The Kellermans liked to sit outside and watch birds and the Lehman sisters were always in their little kitchen garden, puttering around, as they called it. The park seemed empty.

  But her mommy was distracted, looking from the road to the little flip cell-phone in her hand. “I don’t know, sweets. Eating lunch, I guess. Now why can’t I make a call? I have a signal.” She mashed a few more buttons and then tossed the phone into the open purse at Samantha’s feet. “Grab that if it rings, Sammy; it’ll be your daddy.” She glanced at Samantha and smiled. “You excited for your party?”

  Samantha smiled and nodded, and she had been excited, back at the house she had been…but she wasn’t as much, now. Something was wrong and not just Mommy’s cold. Something was wrong with the trailer park, the highway, maybe everything…her tummy was clenching up like it did sometimes right before her parents had a fight or Mrs. Rafern came out and yelled at her for no reason (Mommy said Mrs. Rafern had old times disease and that made her ‘difficult to deal with’, but Samantha just knew she was a terrifying old lady).

  They pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall five stores wide. Heads Up Hairstyling, Tuckerton Five and Dime, Tuckerton’s Pizza, Dollar (S)Mart, and The Pet Palace. They were meeting Daddy and three friends from her class and their mommies. She was lucky that school was closed for teacher in-service day on her birthday. Otherwise, they would have had to wait until the weekend. Four was too many days to wait.

  Samantha flew from the car as soon as it came to a stop. She danced around to her mother’s side, excited to get into Tuckerton’s Pizza and claim her gifts.

  Mommy had leaned forward, her head against the steering wheel. Samantha opened the door. “Mommy?”

  “Yep, I’m with you,” she said and sat up straight. There were red dots in one of her eyes and Samantha felt that deep shift of unease, like a big, mean snake just waking up in her stomach.

  “Mommy, your eye…what happened to your eye?”

  She flipped the visor down and looked at herself in the mirror, frowning. “It’s probably from coughing, Sammy. That can happen if you cough too hard. There’s really small blood vessels in your eyes, that–”

  “Birthday girl!”

  Samantha turned and here came her daddy from the pizza place. “Daddy!” She ran and jumped into his arms, laughing. Then she remembered Mommy’s eye. “Mommy coughed blood into her eye.” Saying the words made her feel very bad.

  Daddy tilted his cap back on his head and looked to the beat the hell up car where Mommy still sat. “You okay, Melissa?” he called across.

  Samantha’s mommy and daddy had decided to just be friends. Instead of being married. That’s why Daddy didn’t live in the trailer with them anymore. He had an apartment in the town. There was no bedroom for Samantha there, so when she slept over, she slept in a tent, in her sleeping bag. It was so much fun. But she still would rather Daddy had stayed in the trailer with her and Mommy.

  “I’m okay; I just have a cold or something.” She came across the lot, smiling a small smile. “How are you, Mark?”

  “I’m okay. I stayed home from work today, though. Felt like I was getting the flu.” He coughed. “You got the keys?”

  “I do,” she said and dropped them in his open palm with a secretive smile and a small wink. “Come on, Sammy, let’s go inside. Daddy has to get something from the trunk.”

  A twinkle passed between her parents and Samantha was happy to see it.

  “No one showed yet,” Mark said over his shoulder, as he headed back to the car.

  Melissa frowned. “That’s weird. No one called.” Then she remembered how she hadn’t been able to make a call. Maybe something was up with solar flares or something.

  Melissa and Sammy went in to Tuckerton’s.

  There was one man behind the counter. He told them to be patient because he was on his own today. Everyone else was sick.

  Melissa rubbed a hand under her nose and nodded. The pizza place was empty, all ten tables bare.

  “At least we get our pick of seats, right, Sammy?” she said and threw the pizza man a smile, but he didn’t smile back. Melissa shrugged at Sammy and raised her eyebrows, leading her to a table near the big plate glass window that showed the parking lot.

  “Mommy, what about the other girls?” Sammy said. Her dreams of a table full of presents was going up in smoke, it seemed, but she was more worried than upset.

  “Oh Sammy, I know it’s disappointing.” She hugged Sammy to her. “But I bet I can think of something that will cheer you up!”

  She grabbed Sammy by the shoulders and turned her to face the window. “Tada!” she said, exclaiming excitedly.

  There was a pink Schwinn with a white banana seat and big red bow leaning against Mommy’s car. It was the one she’d wanted! She couldn’t believe how beautiful it was, shining in the early afternoon sun. And it was hers! Everyone was going to be so–

  Daddy’s feet were on the ground, sticking out from behind the car. Did Daddy fall down? She tried to ask her mommy, but no words came out.

  “Mark?” Her mommy’s voice was faint, no way could Daddy hear from all the way out there…Mommy wasn’t being loud enough. Samantha felt a swell of desperate anger. She banged on the window, hard enough to make it shiver.

  “Daddy!” she yelled. “Daddy, get–”

  “Hey, now, don’t bang on that glass, little girl; lady, could you keep–”

  Behind Samantha, her mommy screamed, making her jump. It was a long scream, not like when Mommy saw a bug…this was like a scream if the bug was as big as a dog, as big as a lion. “Mommy, what?” Samantha said and then she saw…

  A man had her daddy and was dragging him by the leg–was that man helping Daddy?–and he dragged and pulled and it was like Daddy was stuck on something. Then he came loose and the man toppled over onto his hiney and then Sammy saw her daddy and he looked all wrong. He was all bloody. Then the man put Daddy’s leg in his mouth and bit into Daddy’s jeans but then a woman came from behind the car and she looked mad. But she looked sick, too, like people in hospitals.

  Not sick, dead, she looked dead, but she was moving. And she kneeled down near Samantha’s daddy, almost falli
ng, and she…she…

  Melissa put her hand over Samantha’s eyes and kept screaming. It made no sense, what she was seeing.

  “Lady, what the fuck?” The counterman came over the counter and Melissa stepped back and screamed at him to stay back, stay away from her. He held his hands up at his shoulders, palm out. “Okay, geez, lady…I just wanted to see what was wrong. Are you okay?”

  She screamed again, dragging Samantha away from the window, away from the counterman. She wished she had a knife, a gun, something. Something had gone wrong. Something was wrong. “Call the police!” she said, her eyes wild with panic.

  “Mommy, what happened? What happened to Daddy? Let me see, let me see!” Samantha struggled but Melissa held her easily. She’d never let her daughter go back to that window.

  “Okay, okay, I’m calling the police, okay? What do you want me to tell them? Are you having trouble with an ex or something? Is this a custody thing?” As he walked backward, he glanced out the front window, then he froze. “What the fuck…”

  “Call them! Call the police!”

  He turned back to her, his eyes wide with shock. “Yeah, yeah, I am. I’m calling them.”

  He got no answer. Melissa watched his face go from fear to puzzlement as he looked at the phone in his hand. No answer. But somehow, she wasn’t surprised.

  No police, no help, she was on her own, then. She had to get Samantha back to the trailer. She would figure everything else out after that.

  Trailer, first. Everything else, after.

  She glanced out the window. The dead looking man and woman had fought Mark’s body halfway across the lot like a couple of dogs fighting over a fresh kill. The car was clear. She reached into her purse for the keys and then remembered she’d given them to Mark. They were either in his pocket or still in the trunk lock. Fuck.

  “Do you have a car?” she asked the counterman. He was still messing with the phone and didn’t seem to hear her. “Hey? Do you have a car? Could you take us to–”

  But he was shaking his head. “No, no car; my wife dropped me off today. I can’t get through to her. What’s going on?”

  Melissa shook her head. “I don’t know. But I have to get my daughter home.” She glanced past him to the kitchen. “Do you have a knife?”

  He stared at her with incomprehension. “What’s going on? Why can’t I get anyone on the phone?”

  “I don’t know. Can I take a knife? I have to get my daughter home.”

  “Home?” he said as if he’d never heard the word before.

  Melissa nodded and felt a small shift of relief when he disappeared behind the counter again. He was getting her a knife, then. She glanced out the window again. They were a little farther away from the car, still struggling over Mark’s body. It was like lions or hyenas on the Discovery Channel, she thought absently.

  She couldn’t see the trunk deck from here, but she was pretty sure he’d left the key in it. He always left keys in locks. It was a bad habit of his. One of the things that had gotten on her nerves.

  Where was the man with her knife?

  “Hello? Hey, mister?”

  “Mommy.” Samantha’s voice from behind her, muffled and scared.

  “It’s okay, babydoll, I’m gonna get us back home. Everything will be okay, then. Don’t worry about anything, sweetie.” She brought Sammy in front of her and squeezed her head to her stomach and shuffled toward the kitchen. “Mister?” She got as far as the counter and could see straight through to the back. A door swung in the light breeze. He’d left.

  But a large butcher knife was on the counter. At the sight of it, she felt another flood of apprehension. What the hell was she doing? Samantha. Get Samantha home. Only think about that. Okay.

  She reached for the knife and then squatted down and took Samantha’s face in her hands. “We have to run, baby, okay? Look straight ahead and run to the car. Don’t look at anything else. Just get in the car and close your eyes. Okay, sweetie? You understand?”

  Samantha nodded, her eyes filling with tears. They brought answering tears to Melissa’s eyes. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, babygirl, okay? I’ve got you.”

  Samantha nodded again and Melissa stood and hugged her.

  She pulled Samantha to the door. “Don’t look at anything. Go when I say three. Ready?”

  Samantha nodded, her stomach in such a knot that she didn’t know if her legs were going to go or not. But she would try.

  “One…two…three…” On three, Melissa opened the door and Samantha ran. The car wasn’t far, but she looked for Daddy, she couldn’t help it, she looked and she saw…

  They were eating him. Eating her daddy. As she watched, the dead lady dug the eyeball from Daddy’s face and brought it to her mouth. For a split second, Samantha felt she was seeing herself from her daddy’s eye…her dress and shoes and her face all done up in fear. Then the lady bit down hard and Samantha was seeing from her own eyes again. Everything wavered for a second and she felt dizzy.

  “Samantha, in the car!” Her mother said, hissing it, her voice mad but scared more than mad, and Samantha trotted around the car and jumped into the passenger seat. She couldn’t see her daddy from here unless she turned around. And she wouldn’t turn around. She closed her eyes and clapped her hands over her ears.

  Her mommy was cursing and crying and the car rocked a little as she struggled with something at the back. Then the car tilted as her mommy got in and Samantha was relieved. Her mommy was here. But then the trunk slammed.

  Samantha opened her eyes.

  Daddy sat next to her, his face gone except for one eye and his upper lip and a half moon of skin on his forehead. Samantha felt all the blood try to slam out of her body and she was very cold all at once. She couldn’t scream because her breath was caught in her lungs. Her daddy’s mouth was a red cave, a black cavern coming closer…

  Then her daddy was tilting back the other way, being pulled from the car and she heard mommy screaming. “Get away from her! Get away from her! You bastard! Get away from my baby girl!”

  Then Daddy was gone, and Mommy was in the seat. Mommy was crying and jamming the key in the ignition over and over, and it wasn’t going in. Then Daddy was at the window, trying to bite Mommy and the key went in. Mommy screamed again and hit the buttons and the windows went up, but not fast…not fast enough. Daddy’s head was in and Mommy leaned over onto Samantha and she kicked and kicked and Daddy’s head finally fell away from the window.

  Then Mommy drove them home.

  But home was scary, too. People thumped and bumped at the door and her mommy told her to be very quiet. Don’t make a peep. They’ll hear us and then come in. Trailer doors aren’t the strongest.

  So Samantha had kept very quiet, she’d tried to, but when she fell asleep, she saw Daddy all over again. His face was gone and he was trying to…trying to…

  She kept waking up screaming and then mommy would put a hand over her mouth and whisper to her, “Shhh, babygirl, ssshhhh, s’okay, babygirl, Mommy’s here, Mommy has you, babygirl…” and then she’d feel better and try to sleep again.

  There was light in the trailer and it was morning. Samantha was alone in the bed. Maybe Mommy was making coffee; she made coffee in the morning. Then Samantha had a good thought: what if it had been a bad dream? Just a bad dream and today was her birthday party day and there would be presents and…

  Mommy was dead in the kitchen.

  Dead on the floor with one slipper on and one slipper off.

  Dead with throw up in her mouth.

  Samantha screamed and something bumped the trailer door as if trying to get to her, to save her. But not to save her, to eat her. Like Daddy got eated up. So she stopped screaming.

  She squatted down near her mommy and shook her even though she knew it wasn’t going to do any good. Samantha cried but she did it quietly, the tears falling to her mommy’s face.

  Samantha whispered, “Mommy, please, please wake up, Mommy…I’m scared, Mommy, what shoul
d I do? Mommy? Please, please wake up, please…” Samantha pushed the hair away from her mommy’s eyes, her pretty hair yellow and soft just like her own. “Mommy? Please…”

  Mommy’s eyes were dull, like dirty ice.

  But then Mommy blinked. She blinked and her lips twitched and Samantha thought she should be glad, but she wasn’t glad.

  Then Mommy started to sit up.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Sammy? Honey? Wake up now, sweetheart.”

  Samantha opened her eyes a crack and everything was too bright and blurry. Her mommy was leaning over her, her pretty hair glowing in the sun. Mommy.

  “Mommy,” Samantha said and put her arms up. She was so glad to see her mommy. So glad.

  Mommy reached for her. “No, honey, I’m not your mommy. I’m Candy, remember? You love Candy, right?”

  The lady’s face resolved, coming into focus, and that’s when Samantha remembered everything. She remembered all of it. Daddy and Mommy and the knife she’d found in Mommy’s purse. The big knife from the pizza parlor. She had gotten away from her mommy by using the knife.

  It had been…it had been very bad.

  Samantha sat up quickly and put her arms around Candy. She buried her face in Candy’s neck and cried.

  Candy rocked her, running her hand over and over her hair. “It’s okay, Sammy, it’s okay…I’ve got you, I’ve got you now. Let it out, sweetheart, let it all out.”

  As Candy rocked Samantha, Maggie turned away as her own throat began to tighten. She stumbled to the chair that Steve had occupied only hours before. She felt empty as though she’d just lost something important, something necessary…but what had she lost, really? She was no worse off right now than she’d been ten minutes or even ten days ago.

  Nothing had changed.

  But she cried, anyway.

  Chapter Eleven

  “You’re not going to ThreeBees to take a watch?” Carl looked up at the sun. Early afternoon. It would be at least another day and a half until they knew for sure if Jade was infected or not.

  Steve shook his head at Carl’s question but didn’t look up from what he was doing. It seemed very important to him to finish what he’d started so he continued to curl the jumbled lines into neat coils. Whoever was supposed to be doing this was a dickhead. A lazy fucking dickhead. Steve’s stomach soured. He couldn’t get Maggie’s words from this morning out of his mind.