Wire Mesh Mothers

29

The girl ran toward the car, a bizarre and elated expression on her face. She looked as though a spirit had whispered something quite amazing into her ear and she couldn’t wait to share the message. She tugged open the driver’s door and rolled the window down halfway. Then she reached across Kate, clicked the key backward one turn, and shoved the gearshift into neutral.

What? God, not this…!

Kate bucked in her seat, and drove her face forward, catching her teeth in the girl’s upper arm and biting down through the shirt.

“Bitch!” cried the girl, and she bit Kate back on the face. Kate wailed as the skin parted, but her teeth held tightly. I will not let you do this you can’t kill us this way!

The girl stood straight and struck Kate around the ears with her free fist, then jabbed at Kate’s eyes with her thumb. Stars split Kate’s vision, followed immediately by searing heat. She opened her mouth and let go of the arm. Her head whipped down and away.

God no!

The girl had her hands on the car door now and was pushing it shut. Kate rolled to the left, trying to fall out before the door clicked in place.

“Mistie!” she screamed. “We have to get out!”

The door struck her with force and drove her back inside. The girl grinned through the partially opened window. Kate shoved herself against the door again, and twisted about, trying to catch her elbow against the door handle.

It’s not locked, I can get it open!

The girl laughed, then opened the back door long enough to roll the window down part ways. She slammed the door shut and then went to the back of the car.

“Bye-bye, kids!” she said. “It’s been fun, but not fun enough!” In the rearview, Kate could see the girl leaning against the trunk and pushing. The car inched forward, then stopped. The girl shouted, “Yeah!” and pushed again. The car hesitated, the moved. It dipped its nose toward the lake, and slowly crept down the slope.

“Mistie!” screamed Kate. In the back, the girl was staring out the window, eyes huge. “Mistie, oh, my God! I’m so sorry!”

Kate lay on the seat and kicked at the window. Her Easy Spirit heels slipped on the glass; she shook them off and kicked again with her bare feet. Her bare feet had no strength in them, and they only squeaked and streaked on the surface of the glass.

The car picked up speed. Kate could see the lake looming up, dark blue, immense, like a tidal wave ready to take them down.

“No!” Kate screamed again, kicking, kicking, kicking. She flopped over and tried to shove her head through the half-opened window, but the girl had been careful. It was not wide enough for Kate’s shoulders. She looked over the back. Mistie had drawn up her knees and had buried her face in her lap.

Outside, back up the slope, the girl clapped her hands and stomping her feet.

The car struck the water, not hard, but enough to send a spray across the side windows. The Volvo paused, bobbed, then drifted out until it was away from the bank, floating. Sinking.

“Mistie, I’m so sorry! I wanted to save you! God, help us!” Kate kicked the window again. Again. Her ankle twisted but she kicked again. She held her breath as she did. How long could she hold her breath? How long would she be under the water until she couldn’t hold it anymore? How long until she would take a breath of lake water, and then another?

What did it feel like to drown?

Kate screamed. Mistie whimpered. Above it all, the cheering of the girl on the land behind them.

The front of the car dipped forward. Kate closed her eyes, catching her breath, holding it, then opening them again to find the window and to stomp it.

Water seeped in under the dashboard, dripping furiously onto the floor mats. The car dipped farther forward like a deer taking a drink. The drips became a steady flow.

I’m going to drown first. Me, then Mistie. God, will I go to hell? Is the road to hell really paved in good intentions?

The water through the front, faster now.

Does it hurt to drown? Did Susan Smith’s little boys suffer a long time?

Mistie’s breath hitched, and then the whimpering, louder now. Kate gasped, swallowed, gasped again, as the water outside climbed to window level. She could see the green muck of the lake, bits of algae, bits of grass and tiny sticks and other moving things, creatures too tiny to distinguish, patting against the glass, impatient for company.

“No!”

Kate kicked. The water rose to just below the window opening and suddenly she knew what it was like not to breathe. She couldn’t catch her breath. It was too hot, too closed in, the air squeezed too tightly inside the car.

She sobbed, throwing her shoulder against the window. Maybe glass was more fragile under water. Maybe it would break once the car was filled.

I won’t be able to see!

The car leaned forward, more sharply now, and Kate struggled to get her heels against the floor to stay upright. Water poured in through the front of the window into her lap. She slammed her head into the window, sending sparks into her brain, driving dark splinters into her consciousness.

In the back seat a quivering voice, louder than Kate would have ever expected.

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”

Kate had prayed that with Donnie when he was little.

“If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

“Mistie, I’m so sorry!”

The floor in the front was flooded now, the water coming up over Kate’s legs and to her waist. There was a slice of daylight over the rear of her window, the rest submerged.

Breathe breathe breathe then hold your breath. Breathe breathe breathe breathe!

The front tires of the car struck lake-bottom. It was clearly no deeper than five feet here. But that couldn’t matter, it wouldn’t matter, for children drown in five inches of water and bound women drown in five feet.

The back of the car started to settle. Water poured in through Mistie’s window, and Kate turned to see the girl’s face squeezed up, and her teeth grit against the horror.

The water reached Kate’s shoulders, chin, and nose. She tilted her head back and gulped air. Then it covered her and she thought, How long until I’m dead?

There was a thump, a muffled rush. In the blur of lake water Kate turned to see the back door opening and arms reaching in. The arms took Mistie by the chin and pulled her out through the door as the back was completely submerged. The girl’s legs trailed, kicking weakly. Kate twisted herself about and tried to hoist herself over the seat and into the back. The door was still open, flapping lazily as the car found its place of final rest on the soft lake floor.

Her eyes stinging, her lungs throbbing, Kate wriggled into the back.

Help me help me help me!

She tucked her body, and snapped it outward, trying to move as a fish, an eel, to swim up and away. Her feet slipped on the floor, the seat, seeking purchase. The pressure in her lungs won out; she gulped water and gagged.

No!

A hand then, catching her by the hair and steering her out through the door, up into the light and the crest of the water and the air!

Kate’s head broke the surface and she opened her mouth to drink the air and it hurt and it was incredibly pure and whole.

Air!

She was dragged on her back, bobbing, until her heels caught in a tangle of water grasses. She arched, bringing her legs down and her body upright. The lake bottom was slick, soft. She stumbled, fell forward into the water, and the hand grabbed her hair again and turned her over again. She coughed and spat.

“Guess you forgot about those scarves, huh?” The girl’s voice was close to Kate’s ear. Matter-of-fact. Kate was dragged through the water plants, the mud, up, up.

Up.

And the world swelled, ebbed, folded, and went black.