Gateways. Part 30

"Just toys." Jack seemed tense.

"Do you mind showing me one?"

A heartbeat's hesitation, then Jack said, "I guess not. But we'll need a knife to cut the tape."

"I'll get one."

Tom found an old serrated steak knife in the kitchen drawer, but by the time he'd returned, Jack had the smallest box already open.

He held up a folder with a curved blade. "I forgot I had one in my pocket."

Inside, Tom saw an odd-looking stuffed toy, some unidentifiable little animal a little bigger than a football. "What's that?"

"It's a Pokemon. This one's Pikachu. They were all the rage with kids a few years ago."

"But why are you buying them?"

"I'll probably wind up giving them to a local kids' charity."

Tom shook his head. What an odd man his son had turned out to be.

4.

Jack found Carl waiting on the street outside his trailer park in knee-high green rubber boots; a short wooden paddle protruded from his right sleeve.

"Where's the boat?" Jack said as Carl slid into the pa.s.senger seat.

"It's waitin'. A guy I know's lettin' me borrow it." He stuck out his hand. "My money?"

Jack handed him an envelope. "As promised."

He'd come down with about a thousand in cash. His deal with Carl was going to leave him short, so he'd stopped at an ATM for an advance on the John L. Tyleski Visa card. Another envelope with the balance of the fee was tucked into a back pocket.

Carl checked the contents. Didn't take long to count five bills. The reverent way he touched them made Jack wonder if Carl had ever seen that much money at once.

"I hope I ain't makin' a big mistake," he said, still staring into the envelope.

"Don't worry. A few hours from now you'll be sitting in front of your TV with another one of those in your pocket."

He sighed and folded the envelope. "Okay. Let's go."

As they pulled away, Jack noticed high chain-link fencing disappearing into the foliage; a rusted length of chain with a beat-up NO TRESPa.s.sING sign spanned a gap that looked like an entrance.

"That the quarry I've heard about?" Jack said.

Carl nodded. "Some company carved a mess of limestone blocks outta there, then went outta business."

"What's it like down there?"

Carl shrugged. "Just a big hole in the ground. Used to have a big pool of water in its bottom, but not this year."

"Much security?"

"None I ever seen. You can't steal a hole in the ground. Kids sneak in there at night to drink, smoke dope, and screw. Never seen anyone kick 'em out. Why you so interested?"

"Just curious."

Jack hoped it wouldn't be necessary, but if worse came to worst, he might have use for the quarry.

He followed Carl's directions, turning this way and that, heading in a generally northwest direction. Along the way he saw a black bird with a red head pecking at something on the side of the road.

"Christ, that's an ugly bird."

"That's a turkey vulture-'TV,' for short. Right homely, aren't they. Good thing about them is they clean up roadkill. They do such a good job that round here we call roadkill 'TV dinners.'" He snickered. "'TV dinners.' Get it?"

"I get it, Carl."

The vegetation became reedier as they rolled along. Finally Carl pointed to a small building with a big AIR BOATS sign. Another, smaller sign-not much more than a slim board with a handwritten message-had been tacked to the bottom.

CLOSED DO TO DROWT.

Jack wondered what the owners were doing with all this extra spare time. Playing Scrabble maybe?

"We're going on an air boat?" He'd seen them whizzing across the Everglades in movies and nature shows and had always wanted to ride one. "Cool."

"Can't use no air boats when it's this dry. There's enough water in the big channels, but the little ones-forget it."

Jack followed Carl around to the rear of the shack where a beached canoe waited on the mud.

"That's our boat?"

"That's her," Carl said with a grin. "She ain't too pan-o-ramic, but she's got a motor."

Jack looked at the tiny, odd-shaped hunk of steel clamped to the right rear stern.

"You call that a motor? I've seen bigger eggbeaters."

"Don't knock it. It's better'n paddlin' the whole way."

Carl stepped into the water and pulled the canoe off the mud. He hopped into the stern seat and used the paddle jutting from his right sleeve to steady the boat. Jack had no choice but to wade in, sneakers and all, after him.

"Didn't you bring no boots?"

"Ain't got no boots." There I go, talking like him again.

Jack was calf high in water before he reached the canoe and eased himself onto the forward bench. Carl primed the motor, then: a couple of quick pulls on the cord, a cloud of smoke, a bubbling clatter, and-hi-yo, Silver-they were off.

Jack looked down at the sodden legs of his jeans, and his once white sneakers, now tinted brown with mud. His feet squished and squeaked inside them.

Swell.

"This channel's usually so much deeper and wider this time of year. And most of this saw gra.s.s is half underwater." He shook his head. "Man, we really need us some rain."

Jack looked up. A lid of clouds had moved in, hiding the sun and the sky, but none of them looked like rain clouds.

"What you need down here, Carl, is a big storm, a hurricane to dump a load of water. Maybe Elvis will take care of your drought."

"I'd go for a tropical storm, okay. You know-thirty-five-or forty-milean-hour winds and a ton of rain. I could handle that. But no hurricane, thank you. I was here when Andrew came through and I don't never want to see the likes of that again."

As they slid along, Jack heard a call and response of throaty roars from either side.

"Those alligators?"

"Yep. Bulls callin' from their gator holes."

"What are those grunting sounds? The females?"

Carl laughed. "Naw. Them's pig frogs. Got the name cause they grunt like pigs."

Jack noticed lots of snails, with sh.e.l.ls maybe an inch to an inch and a half across, floating near the surface. The tops of some of their sh.e.l.ls broke the surface as they clung to underwater growths. He saw little pristine white beads lined up on blades of saw gra.s.s and asked Carl about them.

"Those're snail eggs. Cormorants love the snails. Use the hook on the end of their beak to yank them from their sh.e.l.ls."

A goose-necked turtle with a smooth brown sh.e.l.l and an uncirc.u.mcised nose stuck its head above the water and looked at him.

"h.e.l.lo," Jack said.

The turtle ducked away.

"That's a soft-sh.e.l.led turtle. Gators just love love to catch those. Gobble them up like crunchy tacos." to catch those. Gobble them up like crunchy tacos."

Jack slapped at his neck. He didn't have a long-sleeved s.h.i.+rt so he'd sprayed on lots of repellent, but it didn't seem to be helping much.

"How can you stand all these mosquitoes?"

"All? You kidding? This is a good year, a You kidding? This is a good year, a great great year for mosquitoes. The drought dried up most of their little breedin' pools." year for mosquitoes. The drought dried up most of their little breedin' pools."

If this is a good year, Jack thought, remind me to stay far away in a bad one.

He reached out a hand to grab a few of the long thin blades of gra.s.s brus.h.i.+ng the side of the canoe. A sharp sting made him s.n.a.t.c.h it back. He looked and found long scratches across his palm.

Carl laughed. "Now you know why they call it saw gra.s.s." He swept his paddle around in a wide arc. "Pa-hay-okee."

Jack remembered Anya using that word.

"Indian, right? Means 'river of gra.s.s' or something?"

Carl grinned. "Hey, you been studyin'."

A river of gra.s.s... sea sea of gra.s.s was more like it. An ocean of browned saw gra.s.s swept away in all directions, dotted here and there by islandlike hummocks of cypress, oak, and pine that looked like giant green mushrooms sprouting from a dead lawn. He hoped it wasn't dead. Just sleeping. of gra.s.s was more like it. An ocean of browned saw gra.s.s swept away in all directions, dotted here and there by islandlike hummocks of cypress, oak, and pine that looked like giant green mushrooms sprouting from a dead lawn. He hoped it wasn't dead. Just sleeping.

So flat, so like he'd envisioned Kansas might be. Too open for Jack. He was used to living in steel-, concrete-, and gla.s.s-lined canyons. The horizon seemed so far away here. Who needed a horizon anyway? Horizons gave him the creeps. He could live very well without one. In fact, back home he did.

Why on earth would anyone want to live out here? No deli, no pizza delivery, no electricity to keep beer cold. Like living in the Dark Ages.

Carl said, "I got Miccosukee blood in me, you know. At least that's what my momma told me. They've got a reservation north of here off Route 41, and even a casino, but I ain't never been to neither. The Miccosukee's on my momma's side. Don't know bout my dad. My momma met him at the lagoon. I hear he didn't hang around after he seen me. Just took off and we never heard from him again."

Jack flicked a glance at Carl's covered right arm. Should he ask about it?

Maybe some other time.

Instead he said, "So there's been people living around this lagoon for generations?"

"Yeah and no," Carl said. "The only people livin' there now are the kids of the ones who used to live there. Everybody moved away when we was itty-bitty babies because they thought the lagoon was makin' us all strange. But we kids came back."

"Why?"

"Cause I guess we didn't seem to fit no other place."

Jack tried to think of a delicate way to say this. "Because of the way you all looked?"

Carl shrugged. "Some of that, maybe. But mostly because the lagoon seemed right for us. It felt like...home."

"You moved out, though."

"Yeah. But not far. That's why I wasn't too excited bout goin' back. I'm afraid I might get sucked in again."

"So how many live there?"

"Bout twenty. We're all bout the same age too, give or take a couple years."

Jack ducked as a big bird with an enormous wingspan swooped above them.