by Tim Green
Ty looked at Tate. “What happened?”
Tate clenched her napkin and gave Troy’s mom a fearful look.
Chapter Forty-four
“I’M SORRY,” TROY’S MOM said to Thane. She wiped her mouth and laid her napkin down on the table before getting up and shouldering her purse. “Troy’s been out of sorts lately. He does this sometimes. It’s nothing to do with either of you, I promise. Tate, you finish your food. I’ll go look for him. I’m sure I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“I should go with you.” Tate began to rise.
“No.” Troy’s mom raised a hand. “Please, Tate. Let me go alone.”
They watched Troy’s mom leave the restaurant and walk past the window, heading in the same direction as Troy. Tate hung her head and poked at a tomato wedge with her fork.
Thane cleared his throat and excused himself to use the bathroom.
They sat silently with the tinkle of silverware and the warm chatter of happy customers all around them.
“Can I help?” Ty asked.
Tate shook her head, and Ty didn’t think she was going to say a word. He sipped his soda and looked out the window, surprised when she did finally speak.
“He thinks he sees his dad,” Tate said.
“His dad?”
“It’s a long story. His parents aren’t together. He doesn’t like to talk about it, so please don’t say anything, okay? I just don’t want you to think he’s weird, because he’s not.”
“Okay, I won’t.” Ty felt a pang of jealousy. He wondered what it would be like to have a girl like Tate defend him for his strange behavior. She obviously cared a great deal for Troy.
“His parents . . . well, it’s really bad between them. I think it’s even possible Troy’s dad does really show up places. I mean—”
Thane walked up and sat down, and Tate spoke no more. The check came, and Thane paid it after asking Tate if she’d like dessert. Just as Thane finished signing the credit card slip, Troy and his mom appeared in the window. Troy kept his eyes down, but his mom waved to them to come out.
When they stood in a small cluster outside the restaurant, Troy’s mom said, “Sorry; Troy saw someone he thought he knew.”
Troy’s mom sounded cheerful, but Ty noticed the lines of worry in her face. Tate put a hand on Troy’s shoulder, but Troy didn’t react. Ty could only wish he was Troy.
“That’s fine.” Thane sounded just as cheerful. “We were just glad to be able to get Tate her dress and have a little lunch.”
“We were almost finished anyway, right?” Troy’s mom sounded hopeful.
“Of course,” Thane said.
Still cheerful, Troy’s mom said, “The Falcons are having a sponsor party at the Florida Grand by the pool. You two are welcome to be our guests if you like.”
“We’re staying at the Florida Grand,” Ty said, hopeful for another chance to see Tate.
“Great, then you’ll join us?” Troy’s mom said. “I’d love to have you meet Seth.”
“Ty’s got film study with his team, but we can meet you after that if there’s time,” Thane said.
In the car on the way back to the hotel, Ty said, “Tate told me Troy sometimes thinks he sees his dad. I guess it’s pretty bad between his dad and mom.”
Thane kept his eyes on the road. “That happens.”
“It was still kind of weird,” Ty said.
Thane shrugged. “I’m guessing that genius thing he’s got makes living a normal life tough sometimes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, sometimes people who are that smart can be a little odd. It’s nothing bad, just that they see things in a different way. You’ve got to take the good with the bad, just like everything else.”
“You think that’s why he sees things?” Ty asked.
“Maybe.”
Ty thought about that all the way back to the hotel. As they walked through the lobby, Ty was ready for a distraction, and he got it when he noticed a small poster board set up on an easel. The easel rested next to a towering white column and it looked like an advertisement for a movie.
MAN-EATERS!
Beneath the word were pictures of giant alligators thrashing the water with gaping tooth-filled jaws. Ty looked closer and tugged at Thane’s arm.
“Can we do that?” Ty stabbed a finger toward the sign.
Thane looked at the poster board. “Man-eaters? Sure. Sounds fun.”
Chapter Forty-five
THEY WERE TOLD TO dress in long sleeves and pants and to wear hats that could be sprayed with insect repellent to keep away the bugs. So Ty felt a little funny walking through the pool area dressed for a safari with everyone lounged out in sunglasses and bathing suits. When he saw Tate, he stopped short and nudged Thane.
“Can we ask Tate if she wants to come?”
“Sure,” Thane said. “You ask her, and I’ll meet you over there at the marina.”
Ty opened his mouth to suggest that Thane be the one to invite her, but his older brother was already on the move, hobbling through the crowded pool area. When he’d blurted out the suggestion to Thane, Ty hadn’t considered that he’d have to be the one to do the inviting. Ty looked around for signs of Troy White and his mom but saw none. He presumed Troy had gone to the Falcons practice with his mom.
Jittery with nerves, Ty swallowed and approached Tate. She lay back in a deck chair with her eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. She wore a yellow bathing suit and her mouth wore the hint of a smile. In the chair next to Tate sat a middle-aged woman reading a book. The woman had stacked her hair high up on her head, and her sunglasses frames appeared to be made out of gold. Ty ignored her and stepped up to Tate.
Ty cleared his throat. “Um, do you want to see some alligators with us?”
Tate didn’t move.
Ty looked around, his already sweaty face getting hotter.
“Um, we won’t be gone long. There’s supposedly some fifteen-footers out there.”
Tate didn’t speak.
“Well, I didn’t mean to bug you,” Ty said. “I just thought—”
Tate yawned without making another sound.
Ty sighed and turned to go.
“She can’t hear you.”
Ty spun around to see the woman with the fancy sunglasses looking at him over her book.
“Excuse me?”
“She can’t hear you.” The woman inclined her head toward Tate. “She’s listening to an iPod.”
Ty looked closer. He studied the long hair framing Tate’s tan face and discovered just a hint of two white wires sticking from her ears. In the beach bag next to her chair, he saw the corner of an iPod peeking out at him.
“Oh,” Ty said. “Thank you.”
He stepped closer and nudged Tate’s foot. She jumped and whipped off her sunglasses.
“What?” Tate glowered at him. “What are you doing?”
Chapter Forty-six
“I’M SORRY.” TY LOOKED at the woman, who ducked back behind her book, then back at Tate. “I just, I didn’t know you were listening to music. I mean, I did know. I just asked you if you wanted to see some man-eaters and you didn’t say anything and I was walking away and this lady told me you didn’t hear me.”
They both looked at the lady. She sat behind her book without any indication she had heard or said a thing.
“You scared me.” Tate eyed him suspiciously. “What man-eaters?”
“Gators,” Ty said, pointing toward the Everglades. “I saw a poster in the lobby. Fifteen-foot gators. They take you out in boats to see them. Thane and I are going. He said I could invite you. Do you want to go?”
Tate seemed to think about it. She picked her phone out of the beach bag and dialed Troy’s mom, asking permission. Tate nodded her head, then she smiled at Ty. “Will we be back by dinner?”
“Sure,” Ty said.
“Did they really eat anyone?”
“I’m not sure,” Ty said. “I read one time about a gator t
hey cut open who ate a dog.”
“A little one?”
“No, a chocolate Lab.”
“Do I need to put something different on?” Tate pulled a beach shirt on over her bathing suit and tucked away her iPod earphones. She was obviously excited.
“Some pants and a hat,” Ty said. “For the bugs. But we can wait for you. Is Troy around? Do you want to ask him?”
“He’s at practice, but thanks. Do you go right from the marina?”
“Yes,” Ty said.
“Meet you there in ten.” Tate hurried off toward the hotel.
Ty didn’t feel the ground beneath his feet, but somehow he made it over to the marina, where Thane already sat in the bow of a long skiff, lying back with his hands behind his head, catching some sun on his face. In the back of the boat a young man stood with drooping shoulders. A messy black thatch of hair hung down, nearly covering his cloudy gray eyes and the metal ball pierced through his bird-beak nose. The ink-black hair made his pale white skin seem whiter than milk. His scrawny legs were only outdone by matchstick arms tracked by green veins. A faded black T-shirt said: “Girls Love Pale Skinny Guys.”
Thane sat up. “Ty, meet Gumbo. Gumbo, my little brother, Ty.”
Ty waved, and the slouched-over young man showed off his buck teeth in what might have been a wince or a smile.
“Gumbo?” Ty whispered to Thane as he sat down in front. “Not much of a tour guide for a fancy place like this.”
“He grew up in these swamps.” Thane spoke out loud, as if Ty hadn’t whispered, and Ty scowled at his brother. “Your girlfriend joining us?”
Ty blushed. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
Thane punched his shoulder. “You know I’m kidding.”
Gumbo picked his nose and looked up at the sky. “Gonna rain, but not ’fore we see some man-eaters. That much, I promise.”
Ty didn’t see a cloud in sight and figured the guy was off his rocker. Tate arrived wearing jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a white Falcons hat. Gumbo fired up the outboard motor and, standing in the back of the boat, used a long steering rod to maneuver the boat out into the main channel. They took a right and wound through a small creek until they came to yet another channel. Gumbo went left this time, then took a second right into another snaky creek.
“Right, left, right,” Gumbo said in his rural Florida drawl. “Easy to get to if you got the guts to do it.”
Ty looked at Thane with concern. Thane winked at him and grinned before he whispered, “It’s just part of the act.”
Gradually, the saw grass turned to brush and then into a full-grown mangrove swamp. The creek narrowed and twisted, and the mangrove trees soon made a canopy above them that reduced the sun to a twinkling. Ty looked up at a branch of one tree and saw movement that made him blink. It was as if the bark were alive. He squinted and peered harder.
That’s when Gumbo reached up and shook a branch, spilling dozens of creepy crawlers into the bottom of the boat. Ty jumped up and back from the scuttling creatures, black as coal and coming his way. The boat lurched sideways and Ty fell.
Chapter Forty-seven
THANE GRABBED TY BY the collar and kept him from falling overboard. The creatures scurried up over the edges of the boat and into the water.
Gumbo howled with laughter. “They’s just spider crabs. Won’t hurt nothin’ a-tall.”
Ty flicked one of the crabs off his pants leg. “Are they spiders? Or crabs?”
“Crabs that look kinda like spiders, don’t ya think?” said Gumbo. “Didn’t mean for you to almost go over. Sorry ’bout that.”
“It’s okay.” Ty wanted to be polite.
Tate snatched up a spider crab and studied it before tossing it overboard and looking around at the branches above. “Wow, look at these little buggers. There’s millions of them.”
Ty wanted to push Gumbo out over the back, but Gumbo’s face suddenly somehow got even paler. His eyes went wide and he reversed the motor with a frantic whine.
“What?” Thane asked, grabbing the edge of the boat to steady himself.
Gumbo pointed at the branches in front of them. “Now that’s something to be scared of. Talk about man-eaters. They ought to change their sign from gators to them critters.”
Ty followed the direction of Gumbo’s finger and blinked twice at what he saw now. Moving across the bridge of branches from one side of the creek to another was a snake as fat as a telephone pole. Juices of fear rushed up from Ty’s stomach.
“What is it?” Tate asked.
“Burmese python.” Gumbo spoke as if talking to himself. “They get up to a hundred and fifty pounds.”
“Is it real?” Tate asked.
Gumbo nodded. “They’s hundreds of thousands of ’em in the ’Glades nowadays. Eat everything. Got a little two-year-old girl last year. Giving the gators a run for their money.”
Ty shivered as the enormous beast slithered away into the trees and wished he’d never seen the poster board in the lobby. Tate seemed fascinated, and even when they continued on into the grove, she craned her neck to follow the slithering shadow.
Finally, they came to an open pool of water. On the far side was another creek, and that seemed to lead to a high spot of ground with real trees. Ty saw the distant glint of metal, a tin roof.
“What’s that over there?” Ty asked.
Gumbo glanced and shrugged. “Old Seminole fish camp. It’s haunted.”
“Haunted by what?” Tate’s voice was full of doubt.
Gumbo shrugged again, unwavering in his story. “Pirates, bushwhackers, bootleggers. Every kind of bad man you can think of. It ain’t just gators and snakes out here in the ’Glades. That’s the history of it. Criminals robbin’ banks and cuttin’ folks’ throats, then takin’ to the swamp for cover. That’s Florida, and these . . . are your man-eaters.”
Gumbo waved an arm toward the sunny side of the open water.
At first, Ty thought they were fallen logs, but he watched close and saw the little evil eyes of the big gators. “This place is crazy.”
Tate nodded at him, but clapped her hands like they were watching a good scary movie.
Gumbo reached into a bag he kept under the backseat and fished out a raw and slimy chicken wing, which he held dangling for them to see. “And now, ladies and gentlemen. The man-eaters . . .”
Gumbo tossed the chicken wing into the air in a great, curving arc. Twenty feet from the boat, before the meat hit the water, the surface exploded with spray, gnashing teeth, and the thrashing snouts of not one but three massive alligators. When one snatched the chicken from the air, the excitement didn’t end. The two others attacked the first, and their tails sprayed water into the air like a rain shower until they finally disappeared into the murk.
“Awesome!” Tate said. “Can you do it again?”
Ty’s fingers clenched the seat beneath him.
“Don’t you want him to do it again?” Tate asked him, her face alight with the thrill of it all.
“Yeah,” Ty said in a croak.
All Thane said was “Wow.”
A dozen chicken wings went into the water, and the show never let up. Tate hooted with laughter and excitement while Ty’s stomach did cartwheels. Finally, the bag was empty and Gumbo reached down to yank on the pull rope to start the motor. Now the gators, floating like submerged logs, completely surrounded the boat. Only the caps of their scaly gray heads and the yellow marbles of their eyes poked above the water’s surface.
Blue smoke filled the air, and the motor coughed.
“Uh-oh,” Gumbo said.
Ty’s eyes widened at the thought of being stranded in the midst of such a horror show. “Uh-oh? Uh-oh, what?”
Chapter Forty-eight
“SHE’S A LITTLE FUSSY is all.” Gumbo looked embarrassed. “I’d appreciate the heck out of it if y’all didn’t mention this back at the hotel. They’re kinda finicky about things like this. Last time I got fired, my uncle had to threaten to shut down their
seafood delivery. My uncle’s with the Teamsters. He knows lots of people.”
“Last time you got fired?” Ty waved the blue smoke away from his face as the air cleared.
Gumbo just stood staring at the motor. “It’s not that it won’t start. She’s just gotta settle down a bit. I flooded her a little.”
As if on cue, thunder rumbled. Ty looked up, and sure enough, without his even noticing it, a towering wall of thunderclouds had crept into the empty sky from the south.
“How long does she have to settle?” Thane still looked relaxed about the whole thing.
“Umm, five, ten, no more than twenty.”
“Minutes?” Ty asked, knowing the answer, but unable to hold his tongue.
“That’d be right,” Gumbo said, still staring forlornly.
Thunder rumbled again, and the approaching clouds seemed to turn grayer by the second.
Tate looked around sadly at the gators’ unblinking eyes. “Wish we had some more chicken wings.”
Thane sat in the bow of the boat, lounging out with his face tilted toward the sunshine. A wind suddenly whipped through the mangroves, hissing like the collective soul of a hundred thousand Burmese pythons. Ty watched as, one by one, the gators’ eyes disappeared beneath the water’s rippled surface. Leaves torn from the mangroves’ branches swirled around them, clicking off the boat’s metal skin. Gumbo checked his watch.
Only when the sun disappeared behind the tower of thunderclouds did Thane sit up straight and look around. Fat droplets of rain began to burst all about them at random moments.
“What do you think, Gumbo?” Thane asked.
Gumbo looked at his watch. “If I do it too soon, we’ll have to wait again.”
Lightning flashed like a blinding white vein. Thunder cracked the sky.
“Can we get into that fish camp?” Thane nodded toward the spot where Ty had seen the glint of a tin roof.
Gumbo’s eyes went wide. He shook his head.
“Well, we gotta do something.” Thane looked up at the rolling clouds.
Gumbo bent over his motor, glanced back at Thane one more time, then pulled the cord.