Coming Home (Norris Lake Series) (7 page)

"Could you get Cat and yourself another beer and sit over hear next to me?" Rodney asked Sarah.  Rodney had met Sarah at a party last Friday night and really had a crush on her.  He hoped the beer would make him feel less nervous and help him to contain the anxiety he was feeling having her so close within his reach tonight.  “Hell, this could almost be considered a date,” he thought to himself. 

"In a minute," Sarah said staring out into the darkness. "Don’t you all think that it is kind of scary out here this time of night? Maybe we should go back and tie up a little closer to the dock." 

"You’re so silly, Sarah," Cat said as she reached for her beer.  Sarah sat down next to Rodney. 

Suddenly there was a splash.  "Oh Wheeee!  The water is so cold,” Beth squealed. "Michael how could you?" 

Michael smiled and made a shoving motion towards Beth.  "I had to get you into the water somehow.  How else could I help warm you up?"  Michael lowered himself in the water and pulled Beth towards him so they were both holding on to the swim platform suspended in the water.  Reaching her arm around her shoulders, he pulled her close and kissed her.  With one hand he held on to the platform and held her close with the other. 

“Get her, Michael,” Rodney hollered.

“Yeah, get you some, Michael,” Sarah shouted. 

Cat eyed Michael and Beth making out against the houseboat. She sure hoped her old brother knew what he was doing. Changing the subject she turned to Curtis, who had been quiet for the last few minutes. 

"Curtis, I heard you put in an application to go to Duke University over in North Carolina.  What are you going to study?" 

Curtis stared at his open beer can for a moment then looked out at the quiet forest surrounding the lake.  "I really want to major in wildlife and fisheries, but my dad is pushing me towards pre-law.  He wants me to follow in his footsteps and be an attorney." 

"It sounds like it would be more fun to major in forestry than in pre-law; how boring,” Cat agreed.  "I think you should be able to do whatever you want with your life." 

Curtis turned to Cat and smiled tentatively as if suddenly at a loss for words.  Cat returned his smile and shifted closer to him putting her hand over his.  Nervously he leaned forward; then she did too and their lips brushed.  Curtis put his arm around her waist and pulled her close kissing her deeply.  She moaned as they leaned into one another mouths hungry for more.

Sarah leaned around to get her towel and moved closer to Rodney, her leg brushing his.  Rodney put his arm around Sarah’s shoulders and pulled her up next to him.  They looked at the interlocked couple and followed suit.

The four teenagers sat on the side of the houseboat drinking beer and passing the night away with talk of dances, their future and upcoming parties.  Curtis looked over at Rodney and Sarah.  They had moved from the edge of the houseboat and climbed up on top deck for a more private setting.  Curtis and Cat remained behind giving both couples the privacy they wanted. 

"Cat, do you want another beer?"  Curtis asked as he got up and walked to the cooler for another one himself. 

"Yes, please."  A loud splash sounded about 50 feet from the boat towards the mouth of the cove. 

‘What was that?" Cat asked anxiously. 

"Just fish feeding; it is nothing to be worried about,” Curtis replied standing up to look out into the dark. "I’m sorry you got left with me Cat.  I know that you didn’t expect this tonight." 

"I am having a good time, Curtis.  Don’t be sorry,” she said as she gained courage.  "Did you know that I had a crush on you when I started school this year?" Cat said softly.  "I used to come up and talk to Michael just to try to get you to notice me,” she laughed.  "You didn’t." 

Curtis looked at her in astonishment. "I admit I didn’t think of you as a girl then.  You were just Michael’s kid sister.  Anyway, a year ago, it would have taken a miracle to get me interested in anything except fishing and hunting.  But you know what?  I would have made an exception for you if I’d known."  He smiled at her and sat back down.  "I’m not too good at this kind of stuff, you know.  I usually run out of stuff to say to most girls.  You’re different though”. 

Cat smiled to herself and placed her hand over his.  Just then they heard Michael’s shouting loudly.  Curtis and Cat turned toward the sound and could hear several splashes and the sound of someone swimming. 

"Beth, come back,” Michael screamed. 

Curtis grabbed Cat’s hand pulling her to her feet and they both ran to the back of the houseboat. 

"What happened?" Curtis asked. 

"She got mad at me and swam off towards the shore,” Michael alleged.

"Why did she get angry?" Cat asked. 

"What’s going on down there?" Rodney said leaning on the ladder rails on the top of the houseboat.  Sarah appeared at his side adjusting her bathing suit. 

"Nothing. Beth just got mad at me,”  Michael said and then yelled into the dark. "Beth come on, baby.  Where are you?"

"It is just a few yards to the shore and Beth’s a good swimmer,” Cat stressed.  "You need to go get her though and make her come back to the boat.  I don’t like the idea of her out there in the dark by herself.  Why don’t you two go help find her?" she said pointing to Michael and Rodney. 

"No. I’ll just go.  I need to talk to her anyway.  We’ve got some things to work out,”  Michael answered. "Y’ all stay here." 

"Ok. Yell if you need anything,”  Rodney agreed, glad that he wasn’t going to have to interrupt his night with Sarah. 

Beth swam towards the shore the cold water making her gasp.  It seemed much colder out there than when she was pressed up next to Michael and the houseboat.  All the beer had made it difficult to coordinate her movements and she forced herself to concentrate on the row of trees on the shoreline. 

She and Michael had been arguing about her condition.  They had both known that she could be pregnant when she missed her period, but had been praying that it was just late, as it had been in the past.  Yesterday, she bought a home pregnancy test yesterday and held her breath as she watched the water turn blue.  It was positive and now there was no hoping or praying their way out of the fix they had gotten themselves into. 

As she got to shore, she realized that the tears still coursed down her cheeks.  She stood thigh deep in the water, holding her arms tightly against both the cold and the knowledge that Michael had not meant it when he’d said they’d get married if she found out that she was pregnant.  Of course, he’d said it when they weren’t sure.  Now that they knew, Michael wanted her to get rid of the baby, an abortion was his solution. 

Turning to face the houseboat she could hear Michael and the others yelling her name.  How in the world was she going to tell her parents?  Her mother would be understanding, but her father wouldn’t be.  He hadn’t liked Michael from the first and had often told her that he would kill Michael if he ever did anything to hurt her. 

Even though Michael had hurt her, she still loved him so much that it made her heart sink into her chest.  She could almost feel herself dying thinking that she and Michael may not be together forever.  It was the short sightedness of youth in which now loomed large; next month was far in the future.   Six months seemed a long time and a year was a life time, Two years from now was plainly unimaginable. 

Goosebumps formed under her skin as a cool breeze blew in from the lake.  About 15 feet from her she heard splashing.  It must be Michael coming to beg her to come back.  She knew he’d come. 

"Michael, I am sorry I swam off like that.  I’m just upset about all of this,” she whispered still unable to see through the dark blanket of night.  The splashing started again behind her.  Startled, she turned expecting to see Michael standing behind her.  He was always one for sneaking up and pulling tricks on her. 

“Don’t you ever run away from me like that again!” he said menacingly.  She could hear the grinding of his teeth and the muscles working in his jaws as he spat out the words.  His face was contorted in a black rage.  He grabbed her upper arms and held her face close to his own.

“You have to get rid of it.  A baby will ruin my life.  Think about it,” he said shoving her away from him.  She lost her balance and sat down heavily on the bank in the wet grass catching herself on her elbows and palms.  “Get rid of it or I will and you won’t like it, if I have to do it,” He threatened. 

“But, Michael, you said that you loved me.  I thought we would get married….” Her words drifted off into the night, she grimaced and then covered her face in her hands great sobs heaving from her chest as if a dam had just released its floodgates. 

“I don’t care what you say.  I won’t,” she cried as she grabbed a nearby tree and pulled herself up onto her feet and stumbled through the woods, the tears blurring her vision.  She ran for ½ mile through the woods heedless of the consequences. Heaving, gasping for breaths between sobs, she slipped.  Suddenly tripping she went down on all fours, breaths caught in her throat surprise turned to consternation.  A figure emerged out of the darkness.  She wasn’t sure if it had come from the land or the lake. Her mind couldn’t even focus on what the figure was. Tired from her forced flight she blinked rapidly. It was as if she had seen a spirit. She had three options she thought as time ran in slow motion.  She could scream, except her throat was so tight suddenly that she could hardly even breath; she could run, but her whole body was paralyzed with fear or she could just quit. 

A loud splashing could be heard toward the shore as if someone was running through water a couple feet deep, accompanied by Michael’s shouting. The teenagers all looked at each other in surprise as Michael ran toward the waterline from the woods. 

Frantically, he repeated himself, "Please, y’all, help me.  I can’t find Beth.” Michael turned and ran back into the woods.  He ran erratically for a hundred yards and then stopped.  Barefooted he could feel the cool wet dirt between his toes.  Peering into the pitch black, he hungered to hear any sound.  There, over to his left.  It was a movement through the trees.  He took off again towards the sound.  His friends disturbed by his wild eyes.

In the distance Beth could hear the boys swimming towards her and Michael’s shouting as if it were a long way off but knew that she wouldn’t be saved.  No one could save her now.  So she chose to quit.  Her mind shut down and real darkness covered her world, as she fainted.  As the blows came, her last thought was that at least she wouldn’t have to tell her father about the baby now.

"Rodney, come on, something happened to Beth,” Curtis yelled as he dove into the water. 

Surfacing, he turned to Cat, "You and Sarah stay there on the boat.  Don’t you two dare move."  Rodney dove into the water, with Curtis close on his heels, struggling to follow. 

Rodney and Curtis swam to the edge of the bank and stood as soon as their feet were able to touch the soft brown mud of the shore.  They waded through the water trying to run in hip deep water splashing their hand in front of them with swimming motions as if that would help propel them forward at a faster pace. 

Rodney reached the bank first.  “Come on Curtis, move it!” he screamed and then turned toward the tree-lined bank trying to focus in on the impenetrable darkness. An eerie green glow radiated from the woods; pulsing yet hard to pinpoint its source.

“Michael, where are you, man?” he yelled through cupped hands at the top of his lungs. 

Just then Michael appeared to their left as if spewed forth from the woods.  He was breathing heavily as if he had just finished a marathon. 

“Hey man, I can’t find Beth anywhere” he coughed out bending over to catch his breath.  “You gotta help me find her”.  Michael turned to go back in the way in which he had come out disappearing barefooted into the weeds, his footfalls silenced by the moss on the bank and the blanket of pine needles from the surrounding trees.  Their low limbs reached themselves downward touching the boys as they entered the forest, the trees limbs like fingers searching through their clothes and hair. 

“How do you know she’s this way, Mike?” Curtis questioned all three boys pushed their way through the trees.

“I thought I heard her voice come from this direction,” Michael answered stopping abruptly.  “I don’t know where though.  Beth!” He hysterically shouted. “Answer me!”  He paused as if searching for the next steps to take.  “I saw someone out here too,” Michael continued.  Curtis said, “Yes, we heard someone running through the water at the lake’s edge too.”

“Who was it?” Rodney interjected as he stood his ears aching to pick up any sound able to penetrate the night. 

“I’’ bet it was that freak, Stephen. I just know it. Beth!”, “Where are you?” Michael yelled once again.  He was answered by silence. There was no sound, not even the wisp of the wind in the pines, nor the sound of crickets, only the far off lapping of the lake against the shore.  It was as if all of the sound in the world had been erased leaving behind a vacuum that absorbed the thin taste of moonlight barely penetrating the thick forest. Beth was gone.  The silence was ominous.

That evening and into the next morning, the whole town searched for the missing girl.  “I can’t believe this happened," George
Springer said to his partner as they looked along the lake shore for Beth Kane, the sheriff’s only daughter. 

"Me neither.  I don’t know what I would do if something ever happened to my wife or kids,” Deputy Tom Moore answered peering into the deep woods hoping to catch sight of Beth.