by Chris Bostic
“Maybe you did.” Her eyes narrowed.
“Nah, I’m just…I dunno. Half sick, or half-drunk already.”
“Either way.” Vic shrugged. “It’s just you. I’m used to it.”
“Say what?”
“Shoot, I know you better than you know yourself. You always punch back, and I was kinda out of line back there talking about your man first.”
“Huh.” I hadn’t thought much about that, and I sure didn’t want to devote more time to a dead end. “Then let’s not talk about them. They can entertain themselves.”
“Looks like it.”
We laughed as Vince apparently had decided to take over the cooler bar and mix up drinks for the whole boat. Trench Coat popped his head over the side rail long enough to give him a thumbs up, and he carried on.
After hooking up the soldiers with a couple beer cans apiece, the boys worked on the miner and Plain Jane. I wasn’t sure she was even old enough for alcohol, but the offer from Pete seemed to cheer her up. Not enough to keep her from jabbing her companion, though.
“At least someone offered me a drink,” she told him. “But no thanks.” Her smile was a little too big and toothy. “I’m not supposed to be drinking unless there’s a water in there. I could go for some of that.”
“Sure. I’ll see what I can find,” Pete replied, and started digging through a different cooler.
Jane followed his movements like a hawk. That drew my attention. My focus really ramped up when she brushed her long blonde hair out of her face and sat up taller. The boring t-shirt stretched across her chest and became far more flattering than I’d expected.
The way Pete smiled back when he handed her a bottle was almost enough to bring me out of my seat. The rocking of the boat kept me planted.
More like bobbing. It reminded me of the time Pete had taken me fishing at his grandpa’s pond. We’d seemed to have brought all the best gear, but maybe not the skills. My city boy had talked a big game about how to cast the fancy reel and work some kind of crazy giant spinning lure, but he’d balled up the line on his first cast. After that it had been back to the pushbutton type of reel that I’d used as a kid.
Even that hadn’t been great. Eventually we’d gotten some worms and bobbers in the water and must have missed a couple dozen fish before one finally hooked itself. Little fellow must have had a death wish.
If Pete and I ever got lost in the wild together, I felt certain we would starve. Yet we’d managed to finally hook a couple more that day, which had to be just shy of a miracle. God only knows how the last one had even bitten the hook; it had been so small. A little bass, his grandpa had told us. Big mouth for such a little body, which Pete thought would be a good comparison to his fiancée. That had been his second strike that day.
Good thing he didn’t strike out. This old softball player was liable to say or do something I might regret. He had a way of pushing me to my limits only to save it at the last minute with a wink or a joke. If all else failed, that grin of his could always do the trick. But what would happen when nothing worked?
I spun the engagement ring around my finger. I’d only had it a few weeks, but somedays it felt tighter than others. Today the fit wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t ready to slip off—yet.
“Grace.” Vic nudged me harder. “I said Grace.”
“Amen. Can we eat now?” I joked, because that one was always good for a laugh.
“What rabbit hole did you go down there?”
The same one every time. The whole is Pete really the right guy for me trap. I kept spinning the ring, looking down at my lap while the boat lumbered onward like a drunken sailor. Drift to the left, shudder back to the right.
“Grace?”
“Nothing. Just thinking about going home.” It wasn’t that far from the truth. Big decisions were looming, like moving in together before the wedding next summer.
Sunlight beat down on my diamond. I stared into the glare just to feel it shine. The burn eased for a couple seconds when we passed under a pair of identical interstate bridges, but I kept looking at the stone. It sure was a pretty ring. My boy did a good job on that one.
“I’m not sure we’re gonna make it,” Vic said with an odd hesitation in her voice.
I wanted to say, “Me either,” but she wasn’t talking about my relationship. Instead I went with, “No worries. If the guys are wasted, I can drive home. I don’t need to drink anymore.”
“I mean yeah, but it’s not that.”
I looked up from my ring and couldn’t see anything but a bright white glare in my pupils. Blinking didn’t help.
“The engine isn’t running, is it?” Vic pointed to the front of the boat. “And the dude in the blue shirt is soaking wet.”
I still couldn’t see that great, but I could hear well enough to know the first statement was true. “Shit. We’re stranded?”
“Maybe worse.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“Me either.” Vic shrugged. “I ramble when I’m nervous.”
“Then don’t be. This is gonna be fine.” I didn’t exactly believe that, and looked to my fiancé for confirmation. Except he wasn’t there to ask. He wasn’t handing out drinks anymore either. “What the hell? Where’s Pete?”
Vic pointed to the back. “I’m not sure. I think maybe he’s peeing over the side.”
“Classy. That’s my boy.”
It was something completely out of character, so it seemed like a good time to teach my man some manners. I stood up and instantly regretted it. When the boat lurched, my stomach swirled, and I doubled over for a second.
Vic hopped up to steady me. I could feel nothing but a heavy lean to the left that threatened to bring me to my knees. So I went to sit back down and stumbled, banging my shins against the bench. I crumpled onto the boat deck.
A hand grabbed me, fingers digging into my upper arm. “Easy, ma’am.”
I squinted up into the sun and could make out only the outline of a bulky figure. Definitely not Pete. “I’m good. And I’m not a ma’am.”
“Let me sit ya back down.” The deep voice echoed inside my brain. The man remained clamped on like a vice.
Vic tried to butt in. “Thanks, but I’ve got her.”
“It’s no problem, ma’am.”
The guy’s body pushed up against mine. The sweet smell of cologne let me safely assume it wasn’t the miner. When he moved to where I was shaded from the sun, I opened my eyes to see brown and camo.
“No, no, soldier boy.” I felt for the bench and tried to pull out of his grip. “I’m good.”
About that time, the motor grumbled and came back to life. We jostled on the deck, and that gave me the opening I needed to slip through his grip and back onto the seat with a thud.
“That’s better,” I mumbled.
The guy wouldn’t leave. Vic tried to get between us, but he kept crowding me. I leaned to reach around him and grabbed Vic’s hand.
“What’s going on here?” Pete shouted, fists clenched.
Footsteps pounded on the deck. I saw Vince rushing over to defend my honor too, and really wished this day would start over—especially when the other soldier came charging to back up his buddy.
“Whoa, there!” shouted the miner. Even he stood to come over toward us. “Break it up.”
The loudspeaker crackled. “…get on the same side!”
“Don’t!” another guy shouted.
The motor cut out. Pete staggered and bumped into the back of the soldier. Someone slammed into the railing, and we all rolled to the same side like marbles. I slipped off the bench.
My shoulder crushed against the seat, until I was practically crammed underneath like an airplane carry-on.
Vic screamed.
Someone splashed.
“Man overboard!”
A deep pitch was followed by another splash, then a dip. Water poured over the side, and not from someone falling over. We were going down.
“Bail out!” Pete gripped my arm, pulling me to my knees. “I got you!”
A wave smashed into my chest, knocking me loose. My hand slipped from Pete’s. The boat rolled from underneath me, leaving me as a bobber in the water.
CHAPTER 3
Coolers drifted like buoys marking the demise of the pontoon. It still floated though—sort of. If you consider a boat half in-half out of the water as floating in any useful kind of way. Definitely not seaworthy.
As soon as I spit out a mouthful of nasty river water, I got busy yelling, “Pete! Vic!”
No one replied.
I dog-paddled in a circle. My beating heart pushed aside any queasiness. Funny how that works.
Someone popped to the surface, splashing me in the face. I wiped my eyes to find Pete next to me. He was frantic.
“Where’s Vince?”
He ducked under before I could answer, then shot right back up again.
“I don’t know where anyone is,” I replied, then quickly took that back. “Looks like Blue Shirt’s still hanging onto the boat. No sign of Trench Coat.”
“Okay.” Pete reached out for a cooler rolling by and pushed it over to me. “Hang on, okay?”
I grabbed the handles and nodded. “Where you goin’?”
“To find the others.”
Faint splashing sounded from behind me, closer to the river bank. I spotted the two soldiers reaching the shore and watched them climb out. They left us out here.
It was enough for me to want to go the other way. I kicked my feet and tried to follow Pete.
He was too fast, so I settled for slowing to yell for the others. A girl’s scream came from downstream, but it wasn’t my best friend.
“Dammit, Vic!” I yelled, panic surging. “Where are you? Vic!”
She finally answered, “Here! Hurry!”
“She’s on the other side of the boat,” I called to Pete. He was so locked in that I doubted he could hear me. Or he was ignoring me like usual.
With Pete headed downstream toward the girl and a bunch of floating coolers, it was up to me to go to Vic. I flailed my feet, pushing my cooler in front of me like a kindergartener’s kickboard. Thankfully it was a big one to help me stay afloat, but also a little too large to see around very well. I had to stop every now and then to watch where I was going.
I almost ran into the side of the boat right where Blue Shirt hung on like a wet, long-haired rat. He seemed out of it, so I kept going right past without acknowledging him and grabbed onto the bottom of the one still working pontoon tube.
The boat listed so hard to the left side that only half the deck was above water, but it seemed like it wasn’t going to go all the way under. As I held on with one hand to take a breather, I tugged on it. The boat didn’t even move.
I decided to come back and help Blue Shirt later. Or not at all. Vic needed me, and he sure wasn’t helping by sitting there sunning like a turtle on a log.
“I’m coming, Vic.”
“Hurry.”
With a scowl at Blue Shirt, I shoved off the boat and made it the rest of the way around it. In the middle of the river, Vic thrashed her arms, bobbing up and down in the water like a broken jack-in-the box.
“Hang on.”
“To what?”
“It’s an expression,” I barked back and went into overdrive. My lungs felt like they’d explode, a fire burning in my chest, but I got to her before she went under.
I shoved the cooler toward her.
“Grab a handle,” I managed between gasps. “Your Uber is here.”
“Not…funny.” She panted from the exertion too. “But thanks.”
“Where’s Vince?”
“I…dunno.” Her eyes showed more fear than I’d ever seen, as well as wet trails down her cheeks that didn’t look like river water. “I don’t even know if he can swim.”
“Of course he can.” Or so I assumed based on his physique. Then again, I’d been all around the boat at that point and had seen nothing more than Blue Shirt clinging to the side. Now that guy was gone. I’d never felt more alone. “Oh, shit. Wait here.”
“Huh?” Vic mumbled.
I left her on the cooler and shoved off. I wasn’t about to go far, but I swam until I could catch a glimpse around the boat to downstream.
A body floated face down in the river. A large body, clothed in lots of blue denim. The miner.
Fuck. I turned back to Vic. “You need to go!”
“Where?”
I looked at the closest bank, which was more of a vertical bluff. Where there wasn’t solid rock showing, a wall of slick mud rose a good thirty feet. No way we were getting out on that side, and no point staying by the boat.
“That way!” I pointed back to where I had seen the soldiers headed. It was flatter there; no trouble to get out. “I’ll meet you. Just keep hold of that cooler.”
She answered me back, but I was too busy yelling for Pete. No point wasting time with the miner face down.
I gave it everything I had to get to him. I tried to swim like an Olympian, powerful arm strokes, feet kicking, face down, breathing in the wake, but I didn’t make it thirty yards before I sucked down another mouthful of that putrid river.
I came up sputtering. Then coughing. Eyes burning. What a horrible way to die.
A body bumped into me. I didn’t care who it was, I was grabbing a fistful of shirt.
“Grace. I got you.”
“Vince?”
“Yeah. You’re okay.”
I wiped my eyes and was never more thankful to see his face.
He wrapped an arm around my waist to steady me, and I didn’t care, at least so long as I needed to catch my breath. It was his other hand that shocked me. Damned if he wasn’t cradling an aluminum can to his chest like a precious child.
“A beer, Vince? What the fuck?”
“Oh, this?” He rolled to the side to show me a whole case under his stomach like a paddleboard. “Floats as good as any cooler.”
“I’ll be damned.”
“Maybe if we don’t get you outta here.”
I struggled against him. “We need to get the miner. He’s gonna-”
“Relax.”
That really pissed me off. I was about to knock him over the head with his beer can when he pointed. “Your boy has him.”
“What? How?”
“He went back after he got that girl.”
“We need to help him.”
“We nothing. I need to get you outta here, then I can help him.”
“I can swim,” I protested.
“It didn’t look like it. You positive?”
I failed at holding back my annoyance. “Damn right. Let me go!”
“Are you s-” The look I shot him cut that question off. “Alright. Take Vic back and I’ll help Pete.”
“Fine,” I said, and begrudgingly headed for shore. It wasn’t long before I almost caught up to Vic who was making slow progress.
“Doing alright?” I called ahead.
“Peachy. Grab ahold.” She stopped so I could swim up next to her. Good thing too. I had never been more winded.
When I finally caught my breath, I sighed and said, “Damn, that’s a big river.”
“Didn’t seem that way from the boat, did it?”
“Hell, no. I’m beat.”
“I thought you were in shape.”
“Not for this.” I shook my head, nearly spraying her face with water from my hair. “Whoops. Guess I better spend more time in the pool. This is brutal.”
“Yeah, it is. Cardio is not for me.”
We chatted about nothing for a while just to keep our spirits up as we worked our way across the river. I kept looking over my shoulder at the guys, and audibly sighed when I saw them coming toward us with the miner balanced between the two of them. It seemed like they were closing on us fairly quickly, which was a relief.
Turning back to the bank, I made sure we were headed for the open spot. Though densely covered in trees
, seemingly for miles, a small rocky patch awaited us next to a narrow creek that joined the big river.
“That’s where we’re going,” I told Vic.
She was quickly running out of energy and barely managed a nod between languishing breaths.
After checking on the guys again, I scanned the bank for a sign of the soldiers. Though positive we were headed where I had seen them what seemed like an hour before, there was no sign of them.
Maybe they went back to help the girl or Blue Shirt, I assumed. At the same time, I could only wonder about Trench Coat. Creepy guy, for sure, but that didn’t mean that I wanted divers to find him at the bottom of the river.
“I don’t know…where half the people…are at,” I mumbled between breaths.
“This is so messed up,” Vic whispered.
“Yeah it is.”
If we ever got to shore, I didn’t think I would have any strength to go back and help the guys with Miner. Thankfully, it didn’t look like they needed any help.
We made it to about fifty feet off the bank when I caught a shadow moving in the woods. Then a second.
Brown shirts stepped through the brush onto the gravel bar. About damn time.
The thinner one spotted us and waded right out into the river. He said something to the stockier guy, and he followed.
In seconds, they were practically to us. To think they could swim that well and had left everyone out to suffer. Livid couldn’t have adequately summed up my feelings.
The thinner guy called, “You okay?”
When I nodded curtly, he took off to go on to the guys.
Stocky guy slowed, and said,” Give me your hand.” He was obviously directing that to me, and I wasn’t about to take any help then, or ever, from him.
“Get outta here.” I motioned with my head. “That guy needs way more help.” When he kept dog paddling in place with a dumb look, I snapped, “Or go find someone else. People are missing!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Still he lingered. “You sure?”
“I can damn near stand up now.”
“Just go,” Vic said. “Help someone who needs it.”
The guy finally relented and took off after his buddy. I blew out a frustrated breath and launched into my latest tirade. The curse words didn’t stop flowing until my feet touched bottom. Then I dragged the cooler a few more feet until Vic could touch ground too.