Scared Stiff

by Laura Baumbach, William Maltese, Josh Lanyon

  Cody shrieked again, and Robert stared down at him in horror. He was trying to pull the snake off his arm, but it had bitten into his forearm, was hanging on, and Robert was staring into his eyes when they both realized that a third snake had slithered up his chest. The snake reared, then sank his fangs into Cody's throat.

  Robert grabbed the snake, felt the shock roll through his belly when he felt how cold and wet the snake's skin was. He jerked it away, felt the fangs rip through Cody's skin. “Robert. Help me, Robert.” Cody's voice was a whisper, and Robert grabbed for the other snake, the one on his arm, jerked it off and threw it down among the onions.

  Cody's eyes rolled up in his head and he started shaking, then a seizure moved through his body. Robert reached for him, but the force of the spasms threw Robert off him to the ground. “Cody. Hang on. I've got you.” Cody's legs seized, spasms rocking his body until he nearly levitated off the ground. Robert crawled back to him, tried to hold him. “Breathe. Breathe, Cody.” The seizures were too strong, too violent, and Cody's face was shading dark.

  Robert was next to him, trying to hold his head when he saw the first ghost. They looked just like they had in the dream, slimy, evil shapeshifters, claws and teeth, ending as rattlesnakes that moved over Cody's body, tongues flicking in delight.

  "No!” Robert voice was hoarse, filled with horror. He tried to grab them as they moved over Cody's body, but his fingers slid right through them. He flung himself over him, was bucked off, and watched in horror as the ghost snakes slithered around his neck, then slid into Cody's mouth and disappeared.

  Robert bolted for the cabin, grabbed the truck keys. Then he ran to Cody, cursing the slowness of his bad leg, grabbed Cody by his stiff shoulders and manhandled him into the back of the truck. He knew where the ER was, and he could be there in minutes. He floored the truck, tore out across the onion field, laid on the horn when he turned into the ER parking lot on Main Street.

  The EMTs came running, and Robert could hardly speak, his throat was so tight, but he managed to say seizure and rattlesnake bites. Thirty seconds after he pulled up the EMTs had Cody on a gurney, giving him oxygen and helping him breath with an Ambu bag. Robert staggered and fell to his knees, cold sick horror filling his mouth, tried to vomit. But he couldn't, his throat was too tight, too tight, and he wanted to claw at his skin, claw away the images of the snake at Cody's throat, the ghost snakes sliding into his mouth.

  That mouth, Cody's mouth. He could smile so sweetly, he could kiss like an angel, with so much hope. Robert put his forehead down on the pavement.

  It was only a moment before a nurse reached down and lifted him up. “Did you get bit?” He shook his head. “You sure? Better come on in and let us check you. You're looking a little shocky.” She had a sturdy arm around his waist.

  "I'm okay. You need some information? Name, or the, I don't know, insurance, or..."

  "We know Cody. He grew up here. We went to school together.” Robert glanced up into her worried dark eyes. Her skin was golden, and she had a nose like Cody's, long and sharp. He remembered Cody's story about the children who had been hidden. “Come on. I'll show you where you can wait."

  With Val, there had been no waiting. He'd watched him die under the wheels of a drunk driver, tried to die himself, so they could be together. There was no sitting in a plastic chair in an Emergency Room waiting, no praying, no negotiating with God. But this boy, this Cody Calling Eagle, who had come splashing down the Salmon River carrying life like the sun in his chest. Robert could not sit here and watch him die. He closed his eyes and asked Val to come.

  Val, help me. You've got to help me, and help this boy. I don't know what's going on with you. I've got a few questions for you, my man. But do something now. Don't let him die. Please, Val, do something.

  He kept his eyes closed, felt Val grab him roughly, pull him into his arms, press hungry kisses to his mouth. I'm sorry, Robert. I'm so sorry. I didn't know about the snakes or I would have warned you. I've ... Val's hand against his face. Robert, I love you. And I've loved him in ... other lifetimes. I can save him now but I may not be able to do everything. Listen carefully. If he's not himself, you need to be careful. Take him to the medicine man.

  Robert reached for him in his mind, tried to hold him. Val, when will I...

  Let me go now. I love you, Robert. I need to go to him, Akecheta.

  He's Cody, Val. Cody Calling Eagle.

  Your love, Robert. I know. And then he was gone, and Robert felt a yearning, painful squeeze across his chest, hard loss, the hardest, like he was telling Val good-bye for the very first time.

  * * * *

  Another two hours, and the same nurse who had hauled him up from his knees in the parking lot took pity on him, came out to the waiting room and told him Cody would live.

  "We got the antivenom into him, a ton of it, because there were so many bites, but then it seemed like he had some kind of allergic reaction, because he stopped breathing. It only lasted a couple of minutes. We've got the seizures under control. His blood pressure is still sky-high, we're not sure why, but we can control it with medication for now. Anyway, about fifteen minutes he'll be up in ICU, and you can see him for a quick moment."

  "Thanks. Listen, when he stopped breathing—does that mean he didn't get oxygen?"

  "No, no, we gave him oxygen, helped him breathe.” She studied his face. “What are you concerned about? You've been sitting out here, thinking about what you did wrong?"

  "Maybe. Yeah.” Robert shrugged, but the knots in his stomach didn't ease. “I think he wasn't breathing while I was driving him in. I should have called for an ambulance, so the EMTs could give him oxygen on the way to the hospital."

  She shook her head. “You got him here very fast, faster than anyone else could have. You're worried about some sort of brain damage from the lack of oxygen?"

  Robert nodded, and he couldn't hide the tears standing in his eyes.

  She shook her head. “Not a chance. I personally think Cody is too stubborn to ever suffer an injury to his head. Besides, he's never used even half the brains God gave him.” She stood up. “He's my cousin. ICU's up on the third floor."

  Cody was in a small white room with a big glass observation window facing the nurse's station. Tray tables on wheels held monitors with blinking orange and green lights, and the wires snaked across Cody's body to his chest, his wrist, his fingertip. The ugly bite mark on his neck was covered with a bandage, and so was the one on his arm.

  Robert walked over to the bed, put his hand on Cody's thigh. Cody opened his eyes, stared blankly, then just for a moment Robert saw something behind his eyes, something cold and slick and shiny. Cody stared up at him, wrinkling his forehead.

  "How you feeling, baby?"

  "My head's about to split open.” Cody looked down at Robert's hand on his thigh, then stared back up at him, his face like a rock. “Look, no offence, but have we met?"

  Robert jerked his hand away, nearly doubled over from the sucker punch. Cody wasn't joking. He was staring at Robert with an ugly, cold face Robert had never seen before.

  "Cody, it's me. Robert Mitchell. You were out at my place when you got bit by the rattlesnakes. You remember, Cody? We were excavating...” You don't remember me, Cody? You were inside my body three hours ago...

  Cody closed his eyes. “Sorry, man.” He raised his hand, rubbed across his forehead, and one of the little monitors on his fingertip dislodged and started beeping. He opened his eyes and looked at it. “Oh, wait a minute. You're Val's Robert.” He looked around the room. “Was Val just here? I thought I saw him."

  One of the nurses came through the door, turned off the beeping monitor and reset the sensor on Cody's finger. Robert backed up, feeling the room tilt a bit around him. Those eyes, so hard and cold. Were those Cody's eyes?

  Cody looked at him again. His mouth looked plastic, twisting into an ugly sneer Robert had never seen before. “Was there something you wanted?"

  Robert turned a
nd left the room. He looked back through the window. The nurse was asking him a question, and Cody shrugged his shoulders. The nurse turned back to the window, looked at him, frowning. I don't know that guy. I don't know what he was doing here.

  What the hell was going on? Robert took the stairs down to the ER, found the nurse he had talked to earlier. “Listen, I need to call someone. You know the librarian, Lillian Evans?"

  "Sure."

  "Can I borrow your phone book, call her from here?"

  "Come on back.” She took him to an office down a quiet hallway, left him with a phonebook and a phone.

  "Lillian? Miss Evans?"

  "Yes?"

  "This is Robert Mitchell."

  "Robert!” Her voice was warm.

  "Lillian, I'm at the hospital with Cody. He got bit by rattlesnakes, out at my place. Can you ... Please come. I need some help. Can you come right away?"

  They met in the parking lot, and Robert was shocked to see it was dark outside. The hospital seemed like such an all-powerful, enclosed world, it was always a bit of a shock to realize it didn't control time, as well, that time continued on, oblivious to the human dramas happening inside. Lillian wrapped Robert up in a strong hug, patted his back gently. He told her everything that had happened with the field since he had come down for the weekend—finding the red flags, checking with their own metal detector, making the sketches, then digging up the tomahawk this afternoon.

  She studied his face. “So what did you mean, Robert, that Cody wasn't himself?"

  "Lillian, he didn't recognize me. He didn't know me."

  She raised her eyebrows. “This was the same man you talked into fishing naked? He wasn't trying to be funny, or make a joke, was he? Because he was always that kid who would try to make you laugh..."

  Robert shook his head, then closed his eyes tightly against the tears. “He said his head hurt, but it was more than that. I felt like I was looking into a stranger's face. This has never happened before?"

  She shook her head.

  "Would you just go up and see him? Just see him, talk to him, and come back down and tell me if he's ... Cody."

  Her glance sharpened on his face. “Yes, Robert, I will. Wait for me in the lobby of the ER, okay?"

  They walked back inside, and he took a plastic seat, closed his eyes and waited. The throb in his hip was nearly unbearable, and he got up, rubbed it a bit, tried to walk it out. Maybe he'd done something serious to it, torn a ligament or something. Was there any place in a hospital for a visitor to get an ibuprofen? Apparently not.

  Lillian was back within fifteen minutes, and one look at her grim face brought Robert to his feet. She stopped in front of him. “I don't know who that is upstairs. It's not the boy I've known since he was a child, the boy I helped raise. Now I think you better tell me the rest of it. The parts you thought were too crazy to tell me before. Like why Cody saw Val a little while ago, for example."

  Robert nodded. “I'm gonna need to find a medicine man. Val told me we might need some more help."

  * * * *

  He watched her face fill with disbelief and horror. The shared dreams, what was buried in the wild onions. The ghost snakes he had watched invade Cody, the evil spirits of evil men. By the end of the story, the disbelief was gone, but the horror remained. “Robert, my God! What are you going to do?"

  "I don't have any idea, Lillian. I've never even heard of anything like this. And if I had, I would have thought it was bullshit.” He stood up. “Thanks for listening. I don't...” He shook his head, rubbed his hands over his face hard. Exhaustion was making it hard to think clearly, and the pain in his hip was huge, big as the world. He wasn't really sure if he'd be able to walk, and he didn't have any idea where he might have left that fucking cane. Somehow these last hours, these last couple of days with Cody, and he hadn't needed it as much.

  Lillian reached for his hand. “Slow down. You're not alone here, Robert. I don't know what to do either, but I believe you. I believe in the truth of what you saw, and what's happened to Cody. But we need to think carefully about what to do now, how to proceed. Who to ask for help. I know this will come as a shock to you, Robert, but some medicine men are only in it for the money. They don't have ... “she hesitated. “They don't have the true spirit for the work. They may have started with good intentions, but found the work too hard, requiring too much of themselves, so they ended up just going through the motions. Someone like that, he won't work for Cody. We need the real thing."

  "But what do we need? What will Cody need?"

  "A weapon and a shield. An animal spirit to protect him. A medicine bundle. I don't really know. It's tribal, Robert, and I'm not Blackfoot. I know Cody never did any of the puberty rituals, the Sun Dance or his vision quest. He turned to anthropology then, decided to study, rather than believe. His grandfather, he let Cody choose his own path, but I always thought things were a little rough between them, after Cody turned away from his culture. We've got his grandfather's shield at the Historical Society, next to the library. Come see it in the morning if you would like, see his medicine bundle. But ... I mean, Cody can't use his grandfather's shield. Each warrior makes his own. Each man makes his own shield when he returns from his spirit quest, because then he knows his guardian animal."

  "Can I go for him? Can I do it for him, Lillian? Because he's not well enough."

  Her eyes filled with tears, and she reached forward, put her hand against his face. “I don't know. You look exhausted, Robert. Will you go home now, try to get some sleep? He can't go anywhere tonight. We have tonight to think on it."

  When he stood up he nearly fell, had to hold on to the chair to keep his balance. Lillian wrapped an arm around his waist and walked him out to the parking lot.

  "Thanks for coming, Lillian."

  "Call me, or come by the library in the morning. We'll see what I've come up with by then."

  The gas station on the corner was lit. Robert stopped for a cup of coffee and some ibuprofen, and when he climbed out of the truck his leg gave out and he fell to his knees on the asphalt. He stayed there a moment, wondering what he would do if he couldn't get up, the humiliation burning a hole in his chest. He was forty-six, and his life had crashed and burned around him for the second time in a year. He'd worked hard, always, and where was he now? Bankrupt, crippled and in chronic pain, about to lose his home, and now this. This was too cruel, to have a lover for three days. Three? Two days. To fall in love again, when he'd thought his heart had been cut out of his chest. And then to lose it, to lose him.

  He pulled himself upright, hanging onto the door. He shouldn't have tried with Cody. Hope was so risky. He was on his feet now, holding onto the door of his pickup. But how could he have not tried? How could he have not fallen in love, with the joy, with his spirit, with the happiness that burned like a light in his face? He thought about Cody splashing out into the river, raising his arms and shouting, I am the Fishing King of the Salmon River! And, Well, Excalibur? Have we been outmaneuvered?

  No, we have not been outmaneuvered. Robert stared at the gas pump, then made his slow and painful way inside, bought a gas can and filled it up at the pump.

  When he got back to the cabin he could see it was too dark to go into the onion field. His leg was ready to buckle again and he had no way of knowing where the snakes were. But he couldn't leave it. He got some matches from the kitchen, swallowed a handful of ibuprofen dry and felt them hit his stomach like a bomb. He put on his boots, then went back outside.

  He could hear the night noises, rustles and chirps, the wind in the trees, and he thought he could hear the sounds of those cold bodies sliding over each other. He could see where Cody had started digging the hole, and he poured the gasoline in it, then poured more over the onions, spiraling out from the hole. He lit a match, and the flames leapt up, moved across the field, and when the fire hit the gasoline in the rattlesnake nest, he heard a muffled whomp, and the bright yellow flames shot high in the air. The fire ate into the sn
akes, and Robert imagined he could hear them screaming in pain, crawling over each other, trying to escape.

  No escape. There would be no escape. When the fire died down he threw a little more gas in the hole, just to make sure, watched it flare up again, bright against the night sky.

  * * * *

  In the morning he called the hospital to check on Cody, and the switchboard operator put him back to Cody's room. He picked up the phone, sounding like he'd just woke up, or like his head was still hurting. Robert didn't feel so hot himself.

  "Cody, this is Robert Mitchell. I'm just..."

  "Calling to see if I'm still alive?"

  "Yeah, I guess so."

  "I seem to be. Listen, Robert. One of the nurses told me you saved my life. So I should thank you, I guess.” His voice was grudging at best.

  "Don't break a sweat over it, kid."

  "I wasn't trying to blow you off last night. I just didn't know who you were."

  "Yeah, Cody, I got that."

  "I mean, I'm laying there feeling like my head's come off, and next thing I know this guy's grabbing my leg, and you're looking at me like you're ready to grab my nuts."

  "Uh, huh."

  "So do we know each other? What the fuck is going on?"

  Robert felt like chewing glass and spitting it in his face. “You want me to tell you where your secret tattoo is? When you're ready for the truth, Cody, you come find me."

  He slammed the phone down, ignoring Cody's cursing on the other end. This was unfuckingbelievable, and his stomach felt like a badger was chewing a hole through it, and his hip felt like it had shattered sometime in the night. And when he jerked the refrigerator door open and saw a solitary leftover bowl of chili, the misery welled up in his chest and overflowed from his eyes, and he slammed the door shut again and got the bourbon, instead.