Jewelweed

by David Rhodes

  “It’s a good guess.”

  “Let’s get the boat,” suggested Ivan.

  “And a reliable thermometer,” August added.

  They ran inside and moved silently through the house, finding their way to the kitchen. Ivan went for the meat thermometer.

  “Oh no you don’t!” yelled Danielle. “Put that back!”

  “We just want to test the water in the pond,” pleaded Ivan.

  “That’s for food,” she replied. “Those disgusting pond germs could kill us all.”

  “But we—”

  “Put it back, Ivan.”

  When they went back outdoors, Wally was on the deck with a cup of coffee. He set down his mug, tucked his shirt into his pants, and said, “Come on, boys.” They followed him into the pole shed.

  “Up there,” he pointed. Ivan scrambled up on the workbench and took down a wall thermometer with a picture of hybrid seed corn.

  The three of them went out and got into the boat. Ivan rowed. Wally sipped coffee and lowered the temperature gauge into the water, calling out the numbers. August wrote them down in the back of a little notebook, inside a little drawing of the pond.

  It took a long time.

  Wally didn’t know anything about the Wild Boy, so they told him.

  “We’ve seen him up close, as close as we are now,” said Ivan.

  “Where does he sleep?”

  “Wherever he wants. And look, he slipped this into my pocket.” Ivan showed him the flat, round rock.

  “Can I hold it?” Wally asked. Ivan handed it over. He rubbed it for a long time with his old fingers. “That’s real nice,” he said. “Real nice. Give me back that notebook for a minute.” August did, and he wrote something down before handing it back.

  “What does he eat?”

  “Mostly roots, insects, grass, and honey, we think, but folks give him other stuff too,” explained Ivan. “August and I are the only people he trusts, though, except for Mr. Hermit.”

  “His real name is Lester Mortal,” said August. “He’s a decorated war hero who fought in three foreign countries and hunts wild ginseng for extra money.”

  “And he lives inside a hill,” added Ivan.

  “I used to know Lester,” said Wally. “He was about ten years younger than me, and probably still is. He worked at the co-op, and then he joined the military after his father died. He was a nice fellow. I’d like to see him again.”

  Just then Kevin came out on the deck with his mother. Amy waved and Ivan rowed over.

  Amy smiled with a pained look on her face.

  “That’s my boat,” said Kevin angrily. He was as white as cooked fish, and still in his pajamas.

  “We know it is,” said Wally. “And we’ve got room for you right beside August here. Come on, Kev. We need your help.”

  When Mrs. Roebuck frowned, Wally added, “He’ll be fine, Amy. He will. Come on, lift that tank down here. August, keep an eye on the tubing. With the four of us, that turtle doesn’t stand a chance in hell.”

  “Wally, don’t talk that way around the boys,” said Amy as she helped Kevin into the boat. Kevin wobbled over and sat next to August, setting the boat to sloshing.

  “Wait,” said Amy, and handed down a big hat to put on Kevin’s head.

  Ivan rowed out to the middle of the pond.

  Kevin asked what they were doing and August explained, “We’re trying to find the location of the highest relative water temperature, so we can better position the necrotic lure.”

  “You talk funny,” said Kevin.

  “I know it,” said August. “My mom says my unfortunate verbal habits make many people uncomfortable. I sincerely hope you won’t feel that way.”

  “I don’t care,” said Kevin, and coughed underneath his hat.

  “Excellent,” said August. “You have a fine boat.”

  “Ivan says you have a pet bat.”

  “That’s true, but I don’t want too many people to know about him, at least not until my application for a wildlife rehabilitation license has been approved.”

  “Stop rowing,” said Wally. Then he lowered the thermometer into the water and read out the number to August.

  “This is the place,” August said. “Each time we’ve sampled this area the temperatures have been higher.”

  “Let’s move the tube over,” suggested Ivan.

  “If we find him, will we kill him?” asked Kevin.

  “That will be up to you, Kev,” said Wally.

  “Good,” said Kevin, coughing again.

  They towed the black tube over to the warm area of the pond and tossed in the anchor. August pulled up the four strings and checked the fish, which were still hanging there white-eye dead.

  “You know what?” said August.

  “What?” they asked.

  “If we duct-taped my flashlight to the tube and taped one of the strings over it in just the right way, a tug on the end of the line would turn on the flashing light, giving us a signal.”

  “Let’s do it,” said Kevin. “There’s a roll of tape in my room.”

  Ivan rowed back to the dock. Kevin told Ivan where to look for the tape, and then on the way back Ivan picked up August’s flashlight and another cup of coffee for Wally.

  Later, while they were taping the string to a little piece of wood that would go over the flashlight switch, Danielle came out on the deck and yelled, her voice jumping across the water.

  “It’s three o’clock, Ivan. You’re supposed to be helping Mrs. Roebuck in the garden. You don’t want me to have to come out there and get you.”

  “All right,” said Ivan, and started rowing back. But then Amy came out on the deck, stood next to Danielle, and they talked for a few minutes. Then they pushed each other, laughed, and Danielle yelled, “One half hour, Ivan—no more.”

  They had just enough time to get everything done. The flashlight was set and aimed at the house.

  When they had finished their work, Kevin went back to his room and Wally went upstairs to take a nap. August and Ivan pulled weeds and dug in the dirt out front.

  Sometime later, Lucky’s shiny car pulled up next to the pole shed. The motor revved up before it shut off. He got out, locked the doors, and walked over to Amy. She took off her gardening gloves as she talked to him. The boys couldn’t hear what they said initially, but they could see Amy frowning and looking at the ground. They were clearly arguing.

  “Where is she?” Lucky asked, raising his voice to an audible level.

  “Inside,” replied Amy.

  Lucky went into the house.

  Amy put her gloves back on, dug a few holes with her trowel, then stood up again.

  “I’ll be back,” she said to the boys, and went in after Lucky. The boys could hear them arguing again just inside the door, but they couldn’t make out the words. Then they couldn’t hear anything more.

  August and Ivan looked at each other. “Go on,” August told him. “If anyone asks, I’ll say you went to take a pee.”

  Ivan went into the house, took off his shoes, walked a little way down the hall, and listened.

  Amy was sitting by herself in the dining room, staring into space. Danielle and Lucky were talking in the kitchen, so Ivan went down and stood near the doorway.

  Lucky said something about government contracts being announced in three weeks. Everything had gone just as he’d hoped, just as he’d planned, just as he’d said.

  “Fine,” said Danielle.

  “We should get together tonight. Go into Madison, back to my place.”

  “Ivan has a friend over. I can’t go anywhere.”

  “Tomorrow night, then,” he said.

  “August is staying until Monday, and those two can get into trouble quicker than politicians tell lies.”

  Then Lucky’s voice changed.

  “You and I aren’t finished,” he said.

  “I gave you back the dress. I had a nice time that night, met a lot of nice people, but—”

  �
�But what?” he snarled.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you again. Never.”

  Lucky stepped closer to her and his voice turned mean. “There’s been a reward offered,” he said. “A big reward.” He waited for her to respond, but she didn’t.

  “A diamond necklace was stolen,” he said.

  “That has nothing to do with me.”

  “What do you think Amy would say if I told her I knew what happened to that necklace? What do you think Buck would say if I told him?”

  Ivan’s mother didn’t say a thing.

  “Ten years in prison, do you hear that?”

  A brief silence followed. “I’ll pick you up next week,” he said.

  When Lucky walked by he didn’t notice Ivan standing against the wall on the other side of the doorway. He lit a cigarette as he went down the hall. Ivan’s mother stayed in the kitchen.

  Back in the garden, Ivan told August everything.

  “What do you think he meant about the necklace?” asked August.

  “I don’t know,” said Ivan.

  “Things often seem worse than they are,” said August. “Don’t worry.”

  “You shouldn’t talk about not worrying,” replied Ivan. “And just for the record, I really hate that guy Lucky.”

  After supper, Kevin said August and Ivan could play one of his video games, so long as they did it in his room. He’d changed out of his pajamas and into a pair of too-big blue jeans and a red long-sleeve shirt. He looked as if he was feeling better, but he still had the hose running up his nose.

  August was no good at video games, and after an hour or so Ivan could see that Kevin felt sorry for him. He set his laptop down and showed August some things he could do to get better scores.

  It didn’t help.

  “You’re hopeless,” said Kevin.

  “My fingers won’t move the way I tell them to,” explained August.

  Amy stuck her head into the room just then, but she didn’t say anything. A little while later Buck came in. August hadn’t met him yet, so he just stared at him.

  “Hello, boys,” he said. “How’s it going?”

  August and Ivan thought Kevin would answer, since Buck was his dad, but when he didn’t say anything August spoke up. “Excellent, Mr. Roebuck.”

  “You must be August Helm,” said Buck, sitting down in the chair next to Kevin’s bed.

  “I am.”

  “I’ve heard a lot about you, all of it good.”

  “I’m afraid I have absolutely no skill in these games, though.”

  “Neither do I,” said Buck.

  “That’s okay for you,” said August. “But at my age a proficiency in fine-motor skills is practically a prerequisite for existing.”

  Buck laughed.

  “He talks funny, doesn’t he, Dad?” said Kevin.

  “He talks just fine. It’s hearing the word proficiency again,” said Buck. “It’s like an old song that hasn’t been played in a long time. Say, is there any supper left?”

  “Mother always leaves some for you,” said Ivan. “You know that.”

  “You’re right, I do, and I’m going to see what it is, if you’ll excuse me.”

  He stood up and headed for the door. Before going out, though, he looked out the window. “There’s a light blinking on and off out over the pond.”

  By the time the boys got outside, Wally was already on the dock next to the boat.

  “Ivan, you and August help Kev down here, and hurry,” he said.

  It was dark, and the air felt heavy and still, as if it were listening. Across the pond, the flashlight was still signaling, its light-lines flashing across the water.

  “Easy there,” said Wally in a low voice. “Easy does it.”

  The boat rocked back and forth as the boys climbed in. Somewhere far away two dogs started barking. August untied the rope and tossed it into the front of the boat. Then he climbed in and pushed them away from the dock.

  The oars slid into the dark water quietly, and Ivan rowed toward the blinking light.

  Wally lit a kerosene lantern and set it in the front of the boat.

  “What if he attacks us?” whispered Kevin.

  “If he does, he’ll be sorry,” replied Ivan.

  “He could kill us all if he wanted to,” said Kevin. “If he thought it was time for us to die, nothing could stop him.”

  “Kevin makes a point,” said August. “There are several unsettling reports of alligator snappers. One gator actually ate a small chicken—after it was dead.”

  “What?” Ivan asked.

  August said he’d read about a farmer in Louisiana who caught an alligator snapper in the swampy land around his farm. After lugging it home, he decided to make it into a gumbo stew for his hungry family. He cut off the turtle’s head and it rolled onto the ground. Then a young chicken came over to investigate and the severed head bit it.

  “Wait a minute,” said Ivan. “How could a head bite something?”

  “Deep reflexes,” said August.

  They pondered that silently for a while. The boat drifted a little, and Wally had to remind Ivan to keep rowing.

  When they reached the inner tube, August snapped off the flashing light. For some reason that seemed to make everything grow even quieter. They could hear the dark water lapping against the boat.

  “Who wants to do the honors?” asked Wally.

  “I’ll do it,” said Kevin. Wally helped steady him as he stood up. August held up the lantern.

  “Is it heavy?” asked Ivan, staring down the string and into the water.

  “No,” he said, and pulled up a gray-white fish head.

  He pulled up the other strings too. The fish had been eaten. Even the eyes were gone.

  “What a ghastly sight,” said August.

  “Do you think he’s underneath us?” asked Ivan. “Right under the boat?”

  “He’s nearby,” said Kevin. “I can feel him.”

  “Me too,” offered Ivan.

  “Me too,” said August and Wally in unison.

  They thought about this while the dark water rocked the boat, and then Wally said, “Well, boys, we’ve got his attention. What’s the next step?”

  “I’ve got an idea,” said Kevin.

  “What?” asked Ivan.

  “We’ll bait the strings again, but this time with the tube closer to shore. And the time after that we’ll put it even closer to shore. Then we can start setting dead fish out on the bank, and he’ll have to come out of the water to eat them.”

  “Excellent,” said August.

  “That’s very good, Kev,” said Wally. “We can even get one of the security cameras from the construction company, set it up with motion detectors, and record him when he comes out.”

  “Should we bait the strings tonight?” Ivan asked.

  The others nodded, and Ivan rowed back to the dock. Kevin and Wally waited in the boat while August and Ivan ran off to the pole shed for more dead fish.

  “Now this is impressive,” said August, looking down into the freezer.

  “No kidding,” said Ivan, and they chipped four of the dead fish off the top and carried them back to the dock.

  After they’d moved the tube closer to shore and tied four more dead fish onto the strings, Wally said he was ready to go to bed. Ivan rowed back and he went inside.

  Kevin, August, and Ivan got out of the boat, sat on the dock, and talked. Kevin told them about a time when the turtle pulled a goose under the water and ate it. August asked Kevin why he thought the turtle was the devil, and Kevin said that when August saw it for himself he would feel the same way.

  “The devil wants to kill me,” said Kevin. “It’s the reason he’s here.”

  “The devil doesn’t usually do that,” said August. “I mean, in Christianity the devil is supposed to make us repent. That’s his only job.”

  “Right,” Ivan agreed.

  “Why do you need extra oxygen?” asked August, changing the subject.


  “I have a congenital defect that makes it hard to get enough. Nature made a mistake with me,” offered Kevin.

  “I don’t believe that,” said August. “Nature doesn’t make mistakes.”

  “It did with me.”

  “No it didn’t,” said August. “The way you are is the only way you could be made. There was no better way for you to be just like you are.”

  “That sounds stupid.”

  “It’s not, though.”

  “August is right,” chimed in Ivan. “Nature doesn’t make mistakes. It can’t.”

  At that point Amy came out. She said Kevin’s tank was getting low. It was time for him to take more medication. The two of them went back to Kevin’s room.

  August turned to Ivan after they were gone. “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing,” said Ivan.

  “Something is wrong,” replied August. “I can tell something is bothering you.”

  “Let’s go back outside,” he continued.

  “You go ahead. I’ll be out in a minute,” said Ivan.

  August went out and Ivan went to find his mother. There was a light on in the living room, but he didn’t see her anywhere. She wasn’t in her bedroom, or the bathroom either. He finally found her sitting in the little kitchen, in the dark.

  When Ivan went over to her she didn’t look up.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “The light’s off,” said Ivan.

  “I’m resting my eyes. Where’s your friend?”

  “He’s outside.”

  “You’d better go out, then.”

  “That turtle ate the dead fish.”

  “That’s nice. Go on, Ivan. Your friend is waiting.”

  “Should I turn the light on before I leave?”

  “Leave it off. I’m resting my eyes.”

  When Ivan turned it on anyway, she just sat there and didn’t look up. Then Ivan turned it off and left.

  He found August down at the dock again, looking over the water.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “Something’s really wrong,” said Ivan.

  “I wish we knew what it was,” replied August.

  “You want to see where I like to sit at night? It’s up here.”

  They crawled under the deck. August agreed that this spot offered a good view of the dock, the pond, and anyone coming and going out the back door. It felt safe and totally fortified.