Savage Gerry by John Jantunen

Author:John Jantunen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2021-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

27

Thunder had been rumbling after him ever since he’d left Clayton back at the camp. But it wasn’t until the deer path had led Gerald to a mud-rutted quad trail on the south side of the lake that a four-pronged fork of lightning quartered the darkly frothing sky. At the trail’s end he could see the orange of a school bus blocking his way. That told him he’d come full circle around the lake and he stood there for a moment feeling more lost than ever now that he knew exactly where he was.

Hey you!

Gerald spun towards the water, seeing a man standing in an aluminum fishing boat, twenty feet from shore. He was holding a rod with its line trailing into the water behind him and wearing a faded orange life jacket over jeans and a black sweater. It didn’t take more than a second glance for Gerald to know there was something off about him, it being in the low-thirties with lightning flaring on the horizon, and him dressed as he was and standing in an aluminum boat with the waves dashing its hull, making it jostle and bob so it looked like at any moment the man would be pitched over the side.

Hey yourself, he answered.

Whooer you?

The boat was drifting closer and Gerald could now see the man’s face was oddly elongated, like someone had squeezed his head in a vice. A ragged gash cut his forehead almost in half as if his fractured skull had pierced the skin while they’d done it and his mouth was agape, a trail of drool spanned from its droop and draining onto his lifejacket, which is to say he posed about as much of a threat to Gerald as a piece of driftwood washed up on the shore.

Gerald, Gerald called back to him as if it was the most natural thing in the world, saying his own name. Whooer you?

The man all of the sudden grinned wide and looked over his right shoulder, dusting his knuckles against his life vest as if knowing his name was a feat of great distinction.

Trent, he said. Whadya doing?

I was thinking of maybe going for a swim.

A swim?

It came out pinched and he shook his head with the alarm of a dog shaking a bee off its ear. Holding his hand out, he then pointed at Gerald with a chastising finger.

No swimming allowed!

I must have missed the sign.

The man’s gape returned for a moment and then he held his hand up again, this time pointing towards the sky and waving his finger like some scientist in a moment of divine inspiration.

Leeches, he said.

There’s leeches in the water?

Leeches, the man repeated. Eeew.

Thunder rumbled and the man’s eyes grew wide, but it wasn’t the thunder he was worried about.

Uh, oh, he said. Darlee’s mad.

The words were barely out of his mouth when a woman’s voice was calling out from behind Gerald: Trent!

Darlee was stalking up the quad path — a woman in her mid-to late forties

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.