by N. Godwin
As their chaos resumes, I step away quickly and retreat over a sand dune to hide out of sight as best I can and still keep an eye on Naomi and the boys. I sit halfway between the SEALs and the morons, hidden in the sea oats and dunes. I sit watching and waiting, praying that these awful people will prove me wrong and show a shred of human decency, or, more likely, drink themselves into oblivion.
It doesn’t surprise me when Rudy sits the kids fifty yard or more from everyone else, half way between me and the sanctuary of the cool water. I watch as he takes a small plastic rake and makes large circles around Naomi and the boys in the sand, going around and around them, drawing his boundary lines. When he finishes he stands back to examine his security device, knowing no small feet will dare venture outside his circle. He wipes his hands on his cutoffs and says something to them as he turns and jogs back down to the beach, his buddies, and their beer.
I watch as the children sit in the ninety-eight degree heat, a hundred yards from the water, no shade, no drinks for thirsty mouths, no anything except his anger. And I force myself to concentrate on my list so I do not overreact.
I will it with all my might until I think on how summer is zooming by and I need to stick to my objective. Today is the perfect time to study Horst, who is Number 7. With a little alone time I can better tell what my lesson is to be with this one and what deadly sins he harbors, and this thought makes me chuckle and shake my head because, don’t you just know, whatever his secret sin turns out to be it’s got to be funny or ironic or beyond my humble understanding. Besides, if lessons were to be learned from past mistakes, it most likely will turn out to be some odd prejudice I harbor or share with him, I have no doubt.
I chuckle and shake my head realizing that in order for me to study Horst up close and personal, I actually have to hang out alone with him first. And if I can’t even hang out with someone harmless like Horst, it was going to be almost impossible for me to balance getting close enough to study a beast like Harold Hawkings VI without dying in the process. I know beyond a doubt he is the intended Number 13 on my list, all the signs pointed there, and, like it or not, if he turns out to be the one then I’m going to have to find his Achilles’ heel eventually...
What if he really turns out to be the one? Then what?! There’s absolutely no way I could kill him, that scenario is way too far above my pay-grad! Even the very thought of him makes me shudder.
I was hoping he had packed up and left, but nooooo that would have been too easy an out for me… No, instead, here he is again, at my beach. I inhale deeply and close my eyes. I inhale deeper this time, surprised by the musky scent carried on the breeze. I can suddenly smell him again. I freeze and hold my breath in anticipation of the sting and keep my eyes closed tightly shut.
“Shh, Helen, don’t get spooked. It’s only Rawly, the man you find physically repulsive, remember?”
I inhale sharply as he moves my hair aside and presses a cold drink up against the back of my burning neck and rolls it slowly all around my neck and shoulders. I can feel his heat as he slides down behind me in the sand and carefully drapes his long legs outside mine without touching me. His body cast a huge welcoming shadow and shelters me from the path of the blistering midday sun, and his warm breath tingles against my ear and the side of my face.
“You’ve been sitting out in direct sunlight for over an hour, without a hat. You’re too hot and need to hydrate to bring down your body temperature.”
There is something instructive and yet intrusive in Rawly’s voice and his audacity grates on my nerves, straight down into my toes as he massages the cold bottle across my burning skin. I shiver from the sensation because his face is too close to mine. He leans over me suddenly as he lowers the drink from my neck and twists it open, then hands me the Gatorade.
“Drink,” he says, and I do.
Rawly puts a baseball cap on my head as I take a huge gulp and begin to choke on the freezing drink and get an immediate brain-freeze. “Drink slower,” he instructs me firmly as I cough and try again. “If you’re going on a stakeout you need to come prepared.”
“Wasn’t planning on it today,” I say with a shrug as I continue to take small gulps from the drink.
Rawly leans down over me until his face is just beside mine. “God, you’re incredible,” he whispers in my ear.
“Nope, just mad,” I say as I move my face away, but only slightly, begrudgingly accepting his inviting, albeit conditioned, shade.
He follows my line of vision down to the shoreline. “Those are scary people down there, Helen. They’re the worst kind of parasite.”
I nod my head and agree.
“Aw, poor, Helen, I thought you knew, you can’t change the world.”
“Just my little corner.”
“You really believe that?”
“Don’t you?”
He laughs softly and shakes his head and leans even closer in to me and unzips one of the many pockets on his board shorts. I notice his watch. At least I think it’s a watch, except it has all these amazing knobs and thingies. He pulls out sunscreen and pours some into his palm then rubs his hands together and reaches towards me as if he intends to slather me down. Even with sunglasses on, I can tell he notices my furled eyebrow and how I’ve gone all stiff beside him, and he hesitates, stopping short, momentarily confused.
With a deep sigh, he hands me the sunscreen and begins wiping the lotion from his hands on his burly arms and shoulders instead. He watches me closely as I slather the welcome lotion on my hot arms and shoulders and face, down my neck and over my chest. I can’t see his eyes because like mine they are hidden behind reflective sunglasses.
“I--Damn,” he whispers then clears his throat. “I find it hard to believe you can’t see we were made for each other!” His anger is followed by silence. He watches as I rub lotion on my thighs and he moans loudly and looks heavenward. “Tell me the gods don’t have a sense of humor,” he insists. “They conspired against us and came up with…this, all this.”
He laughs bitterly and I notice Rudy and his buddies exchanging terse words down by the water. I look over at Naomi as she and her brothers sit perfectly still, staring at the cool, forbidden water.
“So what?” I ask Rawly with a shrug as I notice the kids are crying again.
“So what?” He sounds confused by my question.
“Yeah, so what if we were made for each other, big deal, so what?” I shade my eyes and watch the children cry and bite my bottom lip trying not to do the same.
Rawly pulls his glasses down, studying me as if I’m an idiot. “Well, first we might actually derive pleasure from one another’s company,” he says slowly. “A radical concept to you, I’m sure, but highly logical to the rest of the world.”
“Uh huh,” I say watching the boy lay down in the sand, head first in Naomi’s lap, “then what?”
“Love each other till we die?”
“Ah, the happily-ever-after scenario,” I say tsk-tsking and sitting up. The men have all gone in the water while their women sit drinking on the shore. “Do you have a magic marker handy?”
Rawly pats his pockets muttering intermittent criticisms and words of awe as he holds out a black marker. As I reach for it he keeps hold and we tug for a second. His voice lowers and becomes stern again. “No, be still and listen! Only a fool places herself in unnecessary danger, and only a bigger fool does it without the proper training.”
“Whatever… stay put,” I warn him as he finally relents and let’s go of the marker.
“You are the most stubborn person I’ve ever met!” he says, standing as I stand. “You’re amazing; sloppy but a natural.”
“Stay!” I wag my finger at him. I turn and run down the dune quickly.
“Those are wild animals down there!” he yells behind me. “You’re way out of your league!”
I arrive by Naomi’s side and she barely looks up as I crouch beside her and begin talking rapidly. “Don’t be afraid, Naomi, I’m Jimmy-Sue. Rudy
doesn’t have the right to hurt you or your brothers. It’s against the law,” I say softly trying to get her to look at me. “There are people you can talk to about this, like your teacher—any teacher, your school nurse, or another adult you can trust, like a minister or a friend, like me.”
She looks up suddenly with eyes so full of terror I realize she hasn’t absorbed a word I’ve said. “You done messed up the sand!” she shrieks. “You messed up his sand!”
“Naomi, listen to me. I can help you,” I promise, crossing my heart. “I will make it happen somehow and he won’t be able to hurt you anymore.”
“Oh no!” she cries.
I follow her gaze down to the gulf and realize Rudy has spotted me and is coming in quickly from the water. I grab the magic marker and write my phone number on the bottom of her foot and the HRS hotline beneath it.
“I’m, Jimmy-Sue Maddox,” I tell her quickly as I stand. “Hide this number. Call if you need me, day or night. Tell me you understand.”
Naomi just watches in horror as Rudy and his friends rapidly approach. “Go way!” she cries. “Oh, go way!”
I turn to sprint back up to the safety of the dunes and to the safety of the giant man waiting back up there, but I can’t see Rawly anywhere. I hesitate for a moment trying to decide if I should head horizontally towards the shore instead, anywhere there are other people present. But my hesitation costs me and before I can make a safe exit, Rudy suddenly sprints into my side view.
“You again?!” Rudy explodes. “What in the hell are you doing with my kids? You some kind of faggot?”
I smile sweetly. “No, Jehovah’s Witness.”
“Ah, Christ, even over here?” he moans.
“She was just askin--”
“Naomi, how many times I got to tell you to shut the fuck up you stupid, little, bitch?” he yells as the two other men surround us, and Naomi picks up the crying baby and uses him as a shield.
“I was just asking her about the Lord,” I say as serenely as I can muster. I look at the angry men. “Jehovah can always help. Have you talked to your maker today and asked for His grace?”
“Have I what--?!” Rudy sputters as his friends erupt into hysterics. “Kids,” he says without removing his eyes from my breasts, “ain’t gonna hold it against you this time. Seeing how this girl here is obviously nuts!” he laughs.
They all laugh as Naomi closes her eyes in relief.
“Give these children some water,” I say. “Give it to them now.”
“Crazy bitch has been in the sun too long!” one of the men howls.
“Nah, she just wants a piece of us, all of us.”
“Hey, let’s baptize the nutty bitch!”
“Won’t nobody notice.”
“Come on, angel,” Rudy says grabbing me roughly by my arms and propelling me down to the shore. “Let’s see if you can walk on water.”
As they drag me down the shore and into the water, Rawly’s hat and my sunglasses fall off around our feet and disappear under the waves. “Let go of me!” I yell and slap at the big, ugly, one with the naked tattoo as he reaches around my neck and yanks me along. I can’t catch my breath from his choke-hold and from the pain of his touch.
“Wanna take her top off ?”
“After we baptize her!”
“If she’s plastic, she’ll float,” Rudy laughs.
My face is pushed under water and I realize I’m not so much mad anymore as I am scared. So much for my stupidity factor! I choke on the burst of salt water as it floods my nostrils and stings my lungs. Another rough hand yanks my swimsuit top off me. I fight back and try to find my footing so I can push off the bottom but three sets of hands are pulling me back up and touching me all over. I struggle with all my might to get a breath of air. The shock of warm sunlight on my naked breast stuns me and I try to cover myself as they immediately dunk me back under.
“Shit, I’m getting a hard-on,” one of them says and he pulls me back up to let me breathe a moment then dunks me back down and holds me under. I can hear their muted laughter under water.
This time I swallow more water than I can safely handle and I resurface spitting out briny water and gasping for air, my lungs bursting and constricting in spasms. In between my gasps I hear their terrible laughter and a roar of thunder from the cloudless sky. The salt waters stings and blurs my vision and I can only see too much bright light and hear more thunder. I can feel its vibration in the water and on the air, and I suddenly realize there is a battalion of lights surrounding us in every direction as I struggle against the moron trying to push me back under. Somehow I manage to scratch my nails into the flesh of his tattoo, trying in vain to jerk his hand away from around my throat so I can catch my breath.
“Let her go, scum!” I hear the deep, booming voice command from heaven above and I almost cry in relief.
I hear another angry voice repeat the order, and another and another, and another still. My captors and I look up all at once and Rawly is looming over us on his futuristic wave runner surrounded by a flotilla of his men, who have in turn surrounded me and the morons in a wide circle, and each and every one of Rawly’s men is wearing the expression of a lethal man well provoked. Rawly’s face is contorted into the mask of a brutal warrior and it immediately stops the morons in mid-dunk.
“Who you calling scum, mother fuc--”
“Uh uh uh,” Rawly cautions him. “Not in front of the lady.”
The men stare one another down for a short moment before Rudy decides to smile. Not even a drunken moron could look this armada in the face and swear. “We was only playing with the little bit—ah, I mean lady,” Rudy offers.
“Bitch scratched my arm and made me bleed!” the ugly tattooed man says as his fingers tighten around my throat again. I cry out as he shakes me and drags me deeper out over my head.
“You’re a dead man if you move another inch,” Rawly warns the moron and blessedly he stops to reconsider as I cough and gasp. “Touching her alone is reason enough for me to kill you, scum, let alone assaulting her,” he tells my captor in a calm voice as I hold on to the moron’s hands struggling to find my breath and keep my head above water. “Let the lady go. Do it immediately and back away slowly. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
For a moment while his men rev their engines on cue, I think Rawly might be willing to risk me in order to get to kick some low-life butt because the SEALs look like they would all enjoy a fight to me. I notice how Rawly’s powerful body is coiled so tightly I expect to see him spring at any moment. His huge hands are flexing around the gears of his wave-runner as he smiles menacingly at the moron. I notice that despite everything he isn’t even breathing heavy, not a twitch, and I envy his power in that moment. The moron suddenly drops his choke hold on me and pushes me away from him, out even deeper.
“Jerk!” I gasp as I slap the moron’s hands away.
I am in way over my head trying to dog paddle and keep my breasts hidden at the same time, while still trying hard to catch my breath and breathe normal again. My throat is bruised and constricted and the waves are slapping me in the face so I keep swallowing water and gasping. My eyesight is confused, making daylight dark and Rawly a bright phoebes entity. He throws me a silver lifesaver connected to a long rope.
“Helen, slip your arm inside the lifesaver. There, now hold on and try to breathe normally,” Rawly instructs. “Ssh, calm down and try to breathe. Slow down a little. Yes, like that, now, just hold on, baby-girl, and stay right where you are, and try to keep breathing steady. Are you okay alone there for two and a half minutes while I take out the trash? Nod your head yes if you are.” I nod my head and when he sees I am breathing better he turns his attention to Rudy. “Now, scum, give the lady back her top. I saw you put it in your pocket.”
Rudy responds by immediately throwing my swimsuit top in Rawly’s direction instead of mine, and I groan as I hang on to the lifesaver and try to hide my breasts from all of them. Rawly’s hand flashes out and catches the
soft, white, spandex in midair just before it can hit his face. As he wrings it out in his fist he regards the morons and smiles darkly over them.
“That wasn’t very nice of you boys, now was it?” He glares harder and “Tsk tsk-tsks” them. “Seems to me, you guys are bloodsuckers who get-off on hurting helpless people.” There is a soft deadly pitch to Rawly’s tone.
“I’ll bet they kick their dogs,” another SEAL says from behind me.
“And their wives,” another says.
“And these idiots thought they were going to unwrap our package,” the extremely tall black one says and guns his engine as he moves in dangerously close to the ugly man with the gross tattoo.
“I think we need to teach the three of you some manners,” Rawly finally tells his captives while his men rev their engines. “That’s our job, scum, to teach evil people like you how to behave.”
“Booyah!” they shout.
“Now, just for fun; in less than two minutes we’ll know your name, address and where you work. Tell me that isn’t fun.”
All the sailors check their watches and in eerie unison rev their high-pitched engines louder as they snap into instant activity and begin to move forward in perfectly metered harmony to a music only their ears can hear. Rawly is checking something on his wrist.
“You ever play any water polo?” Rawly asks the morons as he clicks something on his watch. He looks up in mid-adjustment of another gadget on his other wrist. “No? We’re going teach you. First lesson-- you’re the ball!”
The SEALS suddenly close in on us in one rev and surround the three, quickly-sobering men with surgical precision. They shepherd them away from me slowly, while one by one, they drive straight for a moron’s head then, at the last possible moment turn away while the morons scream for dear life.
Rawly watches them play until they’re about twenty yards away from the two of us then he pushes something on his watch and his men stop on a dime. He looks over at the towering black man, the one I now remember seeing a few weeks ago on the beach with him. “Tell us, Merlin, what did you get?” Rawly asks as the man dunks Rudy’s head under water.