Ten Mile River by Paul Griffin

Author:Paul Griffin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV000000, JUV039000, JUV039070
ISBN: 9781921921032
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2009-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

13

The water was black.

The tide slurped Ray out into open river so cold it burned. A slick animal grabbed his legs. Eel?

The blue folks.

‘Ah!’ Ray screamed underwater, regretting the scream for the air it had cost him.

Not the blue folks. José. He pulled Ray upward.

The J-man yelled underwater, then above water as he and Ray broke the surface, ‘—on’t let go of that thing!’

‘What thing!’

‘The hawser, man! In your hand! Gimme that.’

Ray had been holding the towrope the whole time. He and José reeled in the boat.

‘How we get up and into it now?’ José’s teeth chattered.

Ray’s teeth too. ‘Here’s how we gotta do it—ah! Cold!’

‘How? How we d-do it?’

‘You one side, me th’other. Pull up the same time. So’s we don’t—’

‘So’s we don’t tip it,’ José said. ‘Ah! Daaag! Hoooo chu-hilly!’

‘You laughin?’

The tide pulled them fast into the middle of the river. José swung around to the other side of the rowboat. ‘Ready? One, two, three.’

They kicked up and pulled. José grabbed the seat bench and humped himself into the boat. Ray, much heavier, pulled his side down into the water. José leaned back to balance the boat as he grabbed at Ray. Ray swung up into the boat, but the boat had taken on water, three inches by the time it sloshed and spread over the boat’s floor.

Ray didn’t know what was worse, being in the river or on it. The wind sizzled him in his wet clothes. He puked what was left of the morning’s pancakes into the river. José chucked up Cap’n Crunch.

‘Where’s the oars?’ Ray said between coughs.

‘I left ’em back in the shed. Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t think we was gonna put the boat in the water, Ray.’

‘Sure, why would a boat go in water of all things?’

‘In Febriary, asshole?’

Ray paddled with his hands, but the water was too cold. ‘Burns!’

‘Get your fool hands out the water. We’re the tide’s boys now. Freezin to death out on the river. That’s just lame with no glory to it.’

Ray punched the gunnels. ‘Why’d you have to jump in?’

‘Scarface don’t play, baby. The Scar gets his friends to where they got to go, word up.’

‘Hate you, man.’

‘Yeah, and I’m thrilled with you.’

‘Yo, I just rode a half year a juvie ’cause you just had to get a goddam used Ninja!’

‘I didn’t tell you to drive into a tree! Raymundo of Ten Mile River, patron saint a the fuckin squirrels.’

Ray swung at José, José ducked, swung back. The boat rocked, the boys stilled and stared at each other. Ray laughed and cried.

José just laughed. ‘Help me roll out the tarp.’

They rolled out the tarp, used it to bail the water, doubled the tarp, huddled under it back to back, shuddering. José took off his jacket, then his shirt.

Ray howled.

‘Go ’head and fun me, but you oughta do the same. Get some a that water off you.’ José wrung out his shirt over the side.

‘My blubber-a keep me warm. Good day to be a fat boy.

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