All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky

38

I didn’t know where he came from, or why he hadn’t heard us before, unless he was sleeping sound in his truck, but when we came out from the back of the house and our group scattered to the woods, the truck lights came on, and Big Bill opened the door and stepped out.

He had a shotgun, and he jerked it to his shoulder and fired. The blast went by us and the shot rattled around in the woods back there, but it didn’t hit us.

“He ain’t playing none,” Gasper said. “Run for it!”

We broke away from where he was shooting, but that carried me and Jane and Tony and Gasper into a section of woods where there was water. Soon as we hit it, we had to slow down. It came up to our knees pretty fast. We hadn’t even known it was like that back there.

Tony and Jane were ahead of me. I looked back. Gasper had fallen behind. Big Bill stood at the edge of the water. We were moving between the trees, but were still within gunshot range.

The shotgun roared and I could hear pellets slapping trees and sprinkling in the water, and I saw Gasper twist and go down. I admit, for a moment I thought about charging onward, leaving Gasper. I admit that, because Jane and Tony were ahead of me, and I feared losing them. But it was only for a moment. Gasper was one of us, and I couldn’t leave him behind. I turned and splashed back toward him, going fast as the water would allow.

The shotgun was a double-barrel, and that had been two shots, both triggers pulled at once. I saw Big Bill snap it open and I glimpsed the empty casings popping out of it and then I saw him pull fresh shells from his pants pocket. I grabbed Gasper and got him up and we kind of stumbled together toward a tree that was twisted with moss and vines. I got us behind that, and as we went onward, I tried to stay in line with it.

Behind us, Big Bill had entered the water and was coming after us, cussing and sloshing along.

“Can you run?” I said.

“If I could run,” Gasper said, “I’d be running.”

“You got to try.”

“I’m trying. You think I don’t want to run? You think I’m not trying? I’m hit pretty good.”

I took us out into the darker part of the woods, and when I looked back, Big Bill was coming right for us. I was glad the hound wasn’t with him.

As we sloshed along, I found that though the water looked shallow, it was pretty deep. It wasn’t long before it was over our knees again. One of Gasper’s legs wasn’t working, and I was holding him up as best as I could.

There was splashing behind me. I looked back. Big Bill was gaining on us, but I kept weaving us in between trees so he couldn’t get off a good shot. I saw him raise the gun to his shoulder once, but we got behind a tree and he didn’t fire.

I looked around for Jane and Tony but didn’t see them. Good, they had gotten away.

“Let me go,” Gasper said. “Doing like this, he’s just going to get us both. You can get away.”

“I’m sticking,” I said.

We went between some trees, and then there was a large patch of moonlight on the water, and we could see the image of the moon there. It was like it was floating in the swamp. I heard a splash and saw the wet darkness ripple.

I stopped moving. Something swam right by us, mostly under the water, but not completely. It wasn’t something small. It wasn’t a fish. And it wasn’t a snake.

Turning, I saw Big Bill wading into the water, pointing the shotgun at us.

“Looks like you’re about to end your employment,” he said.

I flinched, halfclosed my eyes, waiting for the shot.

And it came.

But I didn’t fall.

I looked at Gasper. I still had my arm around his shoulder. He was still standing.

Big Bill wasn’t, however. He was being knocked backwards by something in the water. The shotgun had gone off and scattered pellets in front of him and all across the moonlit water, but not at us.

He dropped the gun and screamed. It was the kind of scream that crawled up my back and went along my neck and settled at the top of my head. He went backwards swiftly, and when he did his hat went flying. Something rose up between his legs and bit him there.

It was an alligator.

The next instant the alligator went under with him and the water churned. Once, the body of Big Bill broke the water, still in the alligator’s jaws, and then he went down again and didn’t come back up. The water was churning, and I thought in the moonlight it looked a little darker, like something was leaking up from the bottom to the top.

“Come on,” I said. “We got to move.”

We waded across the water, and it got deep. I wasn’t a swimmer, so Gasper helped me, using one leg and one arm to swim. He said, “You got to move one of your arms and both your legs.”

“I’m holding on to you,” I said.

“That’s why I said one arm. I can’t use my right leg, so you got to help. Kick, for heaven’s sake.”

We halfway argued all the way across the water, to where the trees grew thick and the water was shallow once more. After slipping down a few times, we managed to finally get up, and with my arm around Gasper, we moved deeper into the woods, where the moon didn’t shine. Finally we came to a low tree covered in moss. It had some good limbs, so I climbed up in it, held my hand down, and helped Gasper up.

There wasn’t enough light to really see. We mostly did all this by feel. We weren’t far above the water, but at least we were out of it. A bullfrog bleated and crickets sawed at their legs, and somewhere a night bird called.

“You saved my life, Jack,” Gasper said.

“You ain’t taking good notes, Gasper—that was you who helped me swim across that sinkhole. I haven’t never really swam before, just paddled.”

“Trust me, Jack, what you did, I don’t call that swimming.”