The Drought

by Patricia Fulton

  Outside the station a single streetlight flickered in the night, illuminating a small section of the parking lot. He watched as a variety of moths, all different shapes and sizes, banged themselves senselessly against the domed light. At the moment, he didn’t feel much smarter.

  He wasn’t any closer to solving this case than he had been on day one. If he had something, anything he could at least go to Elise with a promise.

  *

  Fourth Street was dark and quiet. It was as if Nathan’s news had preceded his visit, casting a somber mood over the sleeping houses. As he made the turn into Elise’s dirt driveway, he saw Daniel’s squad car parked in front of the broken down porch. The tightness in his chest lightened slightly. Nathan pulled his truck in behind the squad.

  The only sound he could hear as he exited his truck was the dull vibration of the air-conditioner. Samson would not be on the other side of the door, barking at a possible intruder and Angelina would never squeal in delight as Nathan came through the door. He had failed the occupants of this house and his failure was a crushing weight.

  He tapped lightly on the front door. While he waited, he envisioned Daniel and Elise in the kitchen discussing Angelina’s fate. Mother’s tended to hold out longer than the strong men in their lives. Elise would still be confident waiting for good news while Daniel, dutiful, pragmatic, would know what was coming and never utter a word.

  He tapped again then jiggled the door handle. The door was unlocked. Stepping into the dark house, Nathan called out softly, “Elise?” No one answered. Soft music drifted through the dark house. Knowing Elise often fell asleep listening to the radio, Nathan walked toward the back bedroom. His earlier vision changed. He realized Elise would have been distraught at the news the search party had found nothing on the third day. She had spent her entire life near the swamps and she would understand finding nothing was as bad as finding a dead body. He expected to find her asleep in the bed with Daniel dozing fitfully in the chair next to it.

  As he approached the bedroom, the music got louder. Pausing for a moment, he took a deep breath and pushed open the door. No amount of time would have prepared him for what waited on the other side. He stood in the doorway, struck dumb by the sight of Daniel taking his sister doggy style. The sensual moans coming from Elise alleviated any doubts she was an unwilling participant.

  Banging his hand against the door, he cleared his throat to let the duo know they had an audience. Daniel, approaching culmination did not stop his intense motion. Elise looked back over her shoulder. She gave a sultry smile as if she’d been expecting him and said, “Care to join us? There’s always room for a third.”

  Nathan stepped back, averting his gaze. His voice was cold when he spoke. “Get dressed. I’m here on official police business.” As he walked down the hallway, the sound of Daniel climaxing followed him.

  Several minutes later, Elise sauntered into the small kitchen where only a month earlier she had reported a missing dog. Angelina haunted the room. Her drawings hung on the refrigerator, a discarded doll lay on the table and her favorite dish and cup were still waiting for her return in the dish rack.

  Nathan was leaning against the counter, his eyes on her empty chair. He could still see her sitting at the table dunking her cookies in milk, her eyes opened wide in earnest as she asked, “Are you going to catch the boogeyman?” Giggling, she faded away.

  He looked at Elise. “I think you should sit down.”

  Sliding into the seat, Elise managed to rub against his arm. He jerked back as if burned. He walked around to the other side of the table, wondering where Daniel had gone.

  In a voice honed from years of police service, Nathan said, “Elise, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I found Angelina.” Here, his voice cracked and he had to stop for a moment to compose his thoughts. He looked at the empty chair, wondering if Angelina would make another appearance, but it remained empty. He finished in a hoarse voice, “Angelina’s dead, Elise. I found her body in the woods.”

  On the way over he had envisioned telling Elise the bad news. He thought at this point he would have been holding her in his arms as the news of her daughter’s death fully registered. Now he held his position, waiting for her to respond.

  Elise stared at him, her expression blank. The bedroom eyes and suggestive posturing were gone. The figure who now sat at the table was a mother who had lost a daughter. Nathan knew shock was natural and usually followed by denial. At some point most parents insisted on seeing the body. He had seen it too many times in his line of work and had experienced it first hand with the death of his own daughter. He felt like a bastard for not walking around the table and offering her any comfort but the image of her and Daniel together was too fresh.

  Elise continued her silence. He was about to offer to go find Daniel when he heard a step behind him. Turning slightly, he felt the sensation of air being displaced. The next instant his head exploded into white pain. The impact spun him back around toward Elise. An odd smile played upon her lips. As he hit the floor he heard Daniel say, “I told you, any dog’ll do.”

  Waiting for him on the other side was the house back in Atlanta. Familiar with the dream he followed the path toward the backyard. Bright colored toys were scattered around the yard, a few discolored from the sun, others stained red by the Georgia clay. He bent down and picked up a blue shovel. He heard a little giggle and the sound of a metal gate scraping open. His heart constricted in his throat. He dropped the shovel and ran toward the pool.

  His daughter wore a lavender swim suit, sprinkled with colorful flowers. It was pulled taut over her plump belly and the elastic edge of a pink swim diaper was visible beneath the suit. She leaned over the pool, reaching. Nathan’s frantic eyes searched the pool. He saw her favorite red ball floating in the middle. Waggling her chubby, little fingers, she said, “Mickey.”

  He called out, “Baby, stay away from the edge of the pool.”

  She couldn’t hear him. She reached again, this time leaning too far over the edge. With a splash she fell into the water. The Micky Mouse ball bobbed on the wave floating further away.

  “No!” He grabbed the fence and started climbing, but for every foot he climbed, the fence got higher until he looked up and saw it ascended straight into the sky. From his vantage point on the fence he could see down into the pool. He saw the lavender suit floating gently toward the bottom. And then he was falling. He fell for what seemed like an eternity. When he hit the ground he expected to hit Georgia clay and smell summer grass but instead he hit hardwood and smelled gasoline.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Reserve, Louisiana

  Jar knew the girl on the other side of the glass was no longer the same girl who had tagged along after Barry and him on the trails of Junction. Her milky gaze and blue skin made him afraid but guilt overrode his fear. Swallowing the saliva in his mouth, he reached out and flipped the thumb locks on the window. Blue tinged lips mouthed the words, “Hurry Jar, we’re running out of time.” He pressed his palms against the glass and slid the window open. She retreated further into the shadows beckoning to him, “Bring the Govi. Hurry.”

  The backpack was hanging on the bedpost in Nathan’s bedroom. He removed the Govi from the bag. When he reentered the living room, he heard Suzy hiss, “Hurry.” The desperation in her voice almost made him slam down the window. He stood in indecision, his mind racing. I don’t have to do this. I can stay here with Nathan and Agador. I’ll be safe. His guilt worked against him. Why should I be safe when Suzy was standing outside the window with fluid squishing just below her skin?

  Muttering, “I’ll come back,” he gripped the Govi. The box felt hot. This heat was dark and unpleasant. It made him feel dirty like the time he and Barry had found a stash of porn magazines behind the dumpster at Faces, one of the bars in Junction. As they thumbed through the pages, he had felt an inexplicable heat surge through his body starting from his groin. Barry had had no qualms about what you were supposed to do
with the heat. He boasted, “Shit these pictures are about to make me cum in my pants,” then he reached inside his loose shorts and started to pull at himself until he grunted in satisfaction. Jar had tried not to notice what Barry was doing but the soft sounds he was making made the heat inside Jar’s groin even worse.

  The truth was he didn’t know how to masturbate. He hadn’t quite figured it out yet and he wasn’t about to try it out behind a dumpster with Barry in attendance. That day he was saved from having to make a decision when Chester, the bartender came out carrying a load of trash and chased the boys away from the porn stash.

  Now holding onto the Govi he felt the sickening heat coursing through his body. His groin tingled in recognition of the mysterious warmth. Not understanding what was happening to him this time either, he shoved his bare feet into his new shoes and unlocked the door. He left his backpack and the Carlton Fisk ball on the bed as a signal to Nathan he had every intention of coming back.

  Outside the heavy air could not compete with the thick heat inside Jar’s body. In the distance, he heard the sound of drums. The blood in his body surged to meet the new rhythm. He followed Suzy through the darkness, a million questions racing through his brain, the first of which was, how the heck did you survive the fall from the bridge?

  But as much as the girl in front of him looked like Suzy there was no doubt in his mind the figure walking ahead of him would be unable to answer any of his questions. The changes in Suzy didn’t stop at her milky eyes or the blue tinge of her lips. Her entire body was bloated, squishy like water was riding right beneath the surface. Her skin, once tan from a long hot summer, was now an odd shade of blue.

  There was no doubt in his mind Suzy Jobes had drowned in the Mississippi River. He couldn’t explain her presence or why she was beckoning him through the night anymore than he could explain why he was following her. He only knew the journey that had started in Junction when Carlton Fisk’s ball disappeared into the drainage pipe was nearing an end. He could feel it in the heat emanating from the Govi and in the rhythmic drums sounding in the distance.

  *

  Griffin watched the two figures scurry away through the darkness. He could have ended Jared Riley’s life the moment he stepped outside, he could have chopped him into little pieces and taken the Govi but the sound of drums in the distance stopped him. The jabbering voice quieted and a deep heat radiated from the handle, tunneled into his palm and moved up his arm. Following the rhythm of the drums he walked toward the woods. Everything was clear to him. His entire existence, every decision, every choice had led him to this moment. The heat coming from the machete soothed him, assuring him his long wait would soon be rewarded. Jared Riley, the thieving little shit, would only be an appetizer.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Reserve, Louisiana

  The smell of gasoline along with the soft crackle and thick heat of burning fire pulled Nathan out of his nightmare in Atlanta and back into the nightmare of Reserve. It felt like his head was pinned against the floor. When he tried to touch his scalp his hand wouldn’t move.

  The crackling sound grew louder.

  He opened his eyes. It took his brain a few minutes to comprehend what was happening, but the haze started to fade. He knew he was lying on the floor in Elise’s kitchen. His eyes followed the length of his arm and he saw why he couldn’t move his hand. Someone had handcuffed his wrist to the gas pipe behind the stove. It wouldn’t take a hell of a lot of strength to break free but the significance of being handcuffed to a gas stove while a fire burned through the house wasn’t lost on him. He felt vibrations ripple through the floor and heard the sound of footsteps. Someone was still in the house.

  Unable to see the figure through the smoke Nathan yelled out, “Come on you chicken shit, why don’t you just finish the job?” His false bravado cost him and fresh pain pounded in his head.

  The footsteps stopped. He heard a deep-throated chuckle. A dark figure emerged from the smoke and squatted into a crouch in front of Nathan. The sound of Jar’s terror stricken voice crying out, “tonton macoute!” went through Nathan’s head. As he watched the dark shadow materialize in front of him, he felt certain he was about to come face to face with the apparition that had haunted his childhood.

  Nute’s wide, smiling face materialized through the smoke filled kitchen. He clucked at Nathan’s predicament, his tongue slipping into his missing tooth socket and sliding across his lips before he spoke. “Look like you needing Nute’s help, mon.” It wasn’t poised as a question or an offer just an observation.

  Nathan stared at Nute as if he had materialized from the shadows. It wouldn’t be the first time. He said, “It was you, in the woods tonight. Agador was tracking you when we found Angelina.”

  Nute’s smile didn’t waver as he assessed Nathan’s cuffed wrist.

  Nathan asked, “You some kind of haint, Nute? Always conjuring yourself up at unexpected moments?”

  “Maybe I be an angel put down on dis fine eart’ to protect you.”

  “Be an angel then and go shut off the gas line.”

  “No time for dat now, mon.”

  Nathan jiggled the cuff against the pipe. “Nute, if you pull this pipe, we’ll both be looking down on Reserve from the heavens above.”

  Nute didn’t respond. Instead he crouched down, took a small round tin from his pocket, opened it and pressed his thumb inside. He smeared soot against Nathan’s forehead, across his brow and down each cheekbone. The thick smoke swirled around them obscuring the kitchen walls as Nute finished and placed the small tin back in his pocket.

  Nute’s long arm snaked across the void between himself and the wall, snapped the gas line and before Nathan had enough time to think, Oh shit, Nute lifted him and carried him across the kitchen. In the next instant they were through the backdoor. Still carrying Nathan, Nute jumped right as Elise’s kitchen exploded. The blast sent them flying across the backyard. Glass and debris shattered outward, following them down to the ground. When they hit the ground, the impact knocked the air from Nathan’s lungs. He writhed in the dry grass for several minutes trying to catch his breath. When he opened his eyes Nute was staring down at him.

  Up and down the street, people dressed in pajamas came out of their homes to investigate the loud explosion. Several people pointed at Nathan and Nute as they came around from the back of the burning house. It looked like they had walked from the fire itself.

  A woman shouted to Nathan, “Is Elise in there?”

  As much as he owed the people a few words of explanation, he didn’t have anything to give. His head hurt, handcuffs dangled from his wrist and from what he could see, his truck was gone. He pushed his way through the growing crowd suddenly consumed by an urgent need to get back to his house and to Jared Riley.

  A collective gasp from behind him made Nathan turn back. Tall flames licked the night sky. Dancing like a dervish they jumped from Elise’s house to the roof of the next. On the other side, dry grass and trees ignited. A few of the neighbors realizing their own houses might be in jeopardy headed back to uncoil garden hoses to saturate their roofs.

  Far off in the distance Nathan could hear the sound of sirens. The fire was going to spread before they arrived. He looked down the street and knew the entire row of houses would be an inferno before the night was over. Everything was dry from the long drought and now the wood was just waiting for a single lick of those hot flames to ignite.

  Ignoring the occasional call of, “Sheriff,” Nathan walked down Elise’s street, away from the fire set with the intention of taking his life. Right as he was considering how he was going to get home Narried Savoi’s tan Cadillac pulled abreast of them and stopped. The cook from the diner was driving. Celest’s daddy, Narried’s son.

  Narried peered out the open window.

  Seemingly unaware of the chaos looming behind Nathan she said, “You don’ look too good but you still alive.” She pushed the door open and slid across the seat making room.

 
Without asking any questions, he slid into the vacated seat and let his tired body sink into the soft leather and closed his eyes. Nute peered into the vehicle and reluctantly joined Narried’s son in the front seat. He looked out of place and stared out the window ignoring the occupants in the back.

  As the car started to move Nathan said, “I need to get back to my house.” His voice was weary. It held little conviction. There had been a point in the night when he realized he was not in control of the unfolding events and was merely riding along on an invisible current pushing through Reserve with a tremendous amount of momentum.

  She replied, “Well, you in luck, dat’s where we headed.” There was a long pause before she asked, “You going to ask me what’s going on?”

  He opened one eye and peered out at her. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

  Smiling, she slapped at his arm. “Ah, you tink you goin’ to go home, grab dat little boy and get da hell out of Reserve, and all the weird happenings jus’ goin’ to disappear.”

  He didn’t respond.

  This time she pinched his arm, giving it a good twist.

  Grabbing his injured arm, he sat up and said, “Jesus, Narried.”

  She nodded and said, “Dat’s right, you sit up nice an tall. Some time ago, I asked you if you would believe the tale of an ol’ womon. What did you say?”

  I said, “I’d try.”

  “Okay.” She shook her finger. “No more time for riddles. Lives are at stake—yours, mine and every child in Saint James Parish.” She gave him a hard look and asked. “Did your grandmother ever mention the name Sansericq to you?” At the shake of his head, she lifted her eyes heavenward. “Truly Ninon this is what you’ve left me with, no history, nothing to prepare him for his role in what is still to come?”