Dark Mountains (3 page)

Chapter 4

“Yee-haw!”  The battered 4x4 barreled through the mud at the edge of a rising stream. Huge chunks of mud and sand flew in every direction, sticking to everything it touched. The last three days of non-stop rain had the streams crowding at their banks. Every spot of earth not covered in grass was becoming a pit of slurping, sticky mud. The rust-spotted Chevy never slowed down as it reached the worn-down wooden bridge, angry, brown water sloshing right beneath it. The bridge groaned as the truck slid across it, narrowly missing the unguarded edge. I struggled to keep my hold on the doorframe as the lumbering beast I had the bad luck to be riding in, slammed into another water-filled mud hole.

“Dammit, Libby, slow down!” I hollered over the loud exhaust. She glanced at me slyly, her mud-flecked, auburn hair swinging over her shoulder.

“More fun this way!” She yelled back, shifting the truck up another gear. I knew the mood she was in. We were almost seventeen and Libby was pissed. She was taking out her anger on the back-woods trails and I was regretting volunteering myself to tag along.

She had just broken up with her boyfriend at school a few hours before. He was a burly senior who just happened to be the star quarterback for the varsity team.
She’d found out he was sleeping with the varsity cheerleading captain. Libby was furious. Not only because he had cheated on her but because his only excuse for it had been because Libby wouldn’t sleep with him.

I was proud of Libby for standing up for herself and being different from all the other girls. She
didn’t care about popularity or sleeping with the hottest guy. To Libby, sex was too important to waste on some zit-faced jock that wouldn’t remember her ten years from now.  She had always said she was waiting for the man she would spend the rest of her life with. I’d secretly hoped that man would be me.

I’d
known that all the other girls at school made jokes about Libby behind her back because of it. I think she must’ve known what was being said about her but that didn’t stop her from sticking to her beliefs…or breaking the quarterback’s nose in front of the whole varsity team.

Libby had confronted him while he was at practice about the rumors
she’d heard. I stuck around, just in case she needed me to defend her honor. I should’ve known that Libby could stick up for herself just fine.

“I didn’t want to cheat on you, Libs.” He tried explaining in a petulant tone. “But you wouldn’t put out and I’ve got needs.” The resounding crack of Libby’s fist connecting with his face echoed across the football field. I could hear the jock crying all the way to the locker room.
We’d walked off the field as the other players laughed, already joking that their star player had gotten the shit kicked out of him by a girl.

So now, I was riding shotgun to Libby as she tore through the rain-slick hills. She was just venting her anger on the male race in general, which made me flinch. I could hear Libby cursing to herself over the snapping branches and torrents of water hitting the windshield.

“I’m going to do a huge story on teenage sex and popularity…” she mumbled, referring to the internship she was doing at the local news station. “And I’ll make sure to point out that men think with their…well not with their heads!” She shouted.

She finally slowed down as we reached a more heavily wooded area. The muddy trail curved around like a snake so she shifted into second and settled into a safer speed. Libby had bought the rusted truck at an auction with her hard-earned money from the paper route. It
should’ve been destined for the junk pile but Libby wanted something to call her own so I tirelessly helped her get it into running shape.

“Why is it that you’re the only guy in this damn place that treats me good?” She asked, clenching the steering wheel. “I know you’re
my best friend and all but God, why can’t everyone else be like you?” I stared out the windshield, my mind screaming at me to tell her it was because I liked her and because I wanted us to be more than friends. I wanted to tell her that she deserved better than some hillbilly jock with a brain the size of a pea. That she deserved me. But my teenage self-esteem was smaller than the fuse of her temper.

“Huh?” She asked, elbowing me in the ribs.

“I dunno,” I answered, rubbing my side. “Maybe it’s ‘cuz you do everything better than them and they’re jealous.” I thought it would be better off being a smart-ass if I couldn’t be brave. When she snorted at me I added, “I only treat you better because I can still do everything better than you.” I gave her my best cocky, sonofabitch look and flexed my arms.

“Hah!” She laughed, pushing the truck faster up the slippery hill. “Yeah, well, I can sure as hell drive
better!” She answered, flipping her hair back over her shoulder.

Not a second after Libby had shut her sassy
mouth, the truck suddenly left the woods, flew over a water-filled ditch, swung onto the highway and narrowly missed the Harlan County Sheriff’s cruiser. Libby cursed as she downshifted and came to a sliding stop in the middle of the road.

The sheriff opened his door with a look of pure mad on his face. He ambled right over to Libby’s window, slowly took the cigarette
he’d been smoking out of his mouth and smiled. I swear my jaw hit the floorboard. Libby reacted the same way.

“Out joy riding?”
He asked, an eyebrow raised. Libby recovered first, stuttering excuses and apologies but the sheriff just held up his hand until she quieted. “Don’t say another word, Elizabeth Michaels,” he said sternly, flicking his cigarette to the ground.

“I got a complaint about you a little while ago,” he told her, his drawl thick as he spoke.
“Seems to be that quite a few people witnessed you physically assaulting one of the football players at the school.”

“Sheriff, I…” I tried interrupting but he held up his hand again, cutting me off.

“No trying to stick up for her this time, Cole,” he told me, looking back at Libby. “I questioned the alleged victim, who happens to be sporting a broken nose and two black eyes, and he told me you punched him in the nose.” Libby said nothing but I saw her jaw clench as if she was biting her tongue. “When I asked him what kind of motive a sixteen-year-old girl could have to attack a good-sized boy like him…he just shrugged and said it was personal.” He looked at Libby, waiting to see if she’d say anything. When she stayed silent, he continued. “So I asked the victim if he was punched in the nose because his girlfriend found out he’d been cheating on her but he pleaded the fifth. So I asked him if he was holding an icepack on his groin because the other girl found out that he had a girlfriend. He pleaded the fifth on that too.” I snorted out a laugh and tried to cover it with a cough. Libby went ahead and laughed, making the Sheriff raise an eyebrow. “Since the victim wouldn’t answer any of my questions I had no choice as to not file any charges.” Libby let out a relieved sigh at the news. The Sheriff leaned against the door, a wicked smile on his face.

“But trail riding without the proper equipment, now that’s a
ticketable offense.” The Sheriff continued to smile as Libby sucked in a shocked breath. “First of all, your headlights aren’t working which is illegal regardless of where you’re driving. Second, trail riders are required to have a working C.B. in case of an emergency.” He pointed at the jumble of wires lying where the radio should have been. “Third,” he added before Libby could make any excuses. “If you’re close to the road, you need to slow your ass down. You could’ve hit me, Libby, or anybody else for that matter. And to top it all off, neither one of you are wearing your seatbelts.”  I grabbed for my belt the minute the words were out and he just shook his head at me.

“Now I could write more than a few tickets for you today and the fines would add up to quite a bit,” Both me and Libby started to protest but he held up his hand for a third time. “But I’ve decided to let you off with a warning since I did the same exact thing when I was your age.” He rubbed his jaw as
we both let out a collective sigh. “Except,” he added, eyeing me. “I was the one driving and the girl was riding shotgun.” I blushed, completely un-manned.

“You two had better be careful from now on,” he lectured, chuckling at my red face. “No sense in getting hurt for having some fun when it’s muddy. And we wouldn’t want your parents finding out either.” Libby cringed. “Now get on home before you get into some real trouble.” Libby buckled her seatbelt and reached down to shift into gear.

“One more thing, Libby,” the Sheriff added, coming back to her window. “You sure throw one hell of a punch.” He tipped his hat and went back to his cruiser. Libby blushed at the unexpected complement and slowly pulled away, making sure to use her turn signal.

I watched the Sheriff from the side mirror as he got back into his car. He always caught us when we were doing something wrong but we never seemed to get into any trouble. Libby drove carefully and when we
couldn’t see the Sheriff’s cruiser anymore, I looked back at Libby with a cocky grin on my face.

“Better driver than me, my ass.” I taunted. We laughed the rest of the way home.

Chapter 5

Later that summer, we were helping her Pa bale hay for extra cash. It was a hot, sticky task that we
didn’t enjoy but we kept our mouths shut and worked until sunset. Libby would catch the hay as it fell from the baler and I would stack it behind us. I could tell Libby was getting tired, we’d been working almost eight hours, and I knew she wasn’t about to ask her Pa for a break. I tapped her shoulder and told her to take a water break. She nodded, wiping the sweat off her forehead and reached for the jug. When she came back instead of handing her the bales to stack, I hauled them past her and stacked them myself. She gave me a hard stare and started to argue.

“Don’t worry, Lib. We’re almost done,” I told her. She finally leaned against the stack of bales, letting out an exhausted sigh. I worked
like that for another hour, making Libby sit back down when she tried to start stacking again. As we got to the end of the field and the tractor slowed, I reached for the last bale of hay, glad to be done.

I heard the ghostly rattle before I saw the snake. I froze, the hay bale in mid-toss, every nerve in my body screaming in fear. From the corner of my eye, I saw Libby jump up with a scream.

“Pa!” She yelled for her father while stepping towards me.

“Don’t,” I shouted, my muscles quivering from the weight of the hay I was holding up. “Stay still, Libby.”

The Copperhead was the biggest I’d ever seen, lying coiled in the spot where the hay bale I was holding had been. Its head was up, poised to strike. I felt the wagon stop and heard Libby’s pa climbing down. I didn’t take my eyes off the deadly snake that was staring me down. I knew that the venom from a snake that size would kill me before we could even make it to the hospital in Middlesboro.

I stood as still as I could; sweat making itchy paths down my back. Jack
son climbed onto the wagon next to the baler, eyeing the snake, then me. He moved slowly, taking in the scene. Libby was trembling as she watched the snake and me. She looked at her Pa, hoping he would help me.

Libby’s pa just stood there, staring at me. Another stream of filthy tobacco flew from his mouth. I saw his face, almost smiling, and I knew that he
didn’t care if the snake bit me or not.

Libby
must’ve realized that at the same moment as me because I could hear her starting to whimper. I looked down at the snake and then back up at Libby’s pa. Then I looked at Libby and heard her pleading with me to hold on. My arms were burning and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold the bale up much longer. If I moved, the snake would strike, sinking its deadly fangs into my skin.

“Please, Pa,” she whimpered, her eyes begging him. “Help him, please.” He spit again but
didn’t answer. Libby looked back at me and I knew instantly what she was going to do.

“Libby, don’t,” I begged, my voice full of fear. Eyes locked with mine, she took a step forward. The snaked hissed, its head moving with Libby’s movement. Jack
son stared at Libby and then back at me as Libby took another step forward.

“You’ve got to jump fast, Cole,” Libby whispered as the snake shifted its gaze from her to me. “It won’t be distracted for long.”

“Libby, no,” I begged again. My arms were shaking now. Fear welled up in my throat as Libby took another step.

“Stop!”
Jackson shouted, making Libby jump back. “Move again and I’ll tan your hide so hard you won’t sit for a week.” Libby’s face paled but she didn’t move. Jackson climbed onto the wagon without fear. The snake was still watching me as my arms shook.

He reached out just as my arms gave out and the hay bale dropped. The snake lunged towards me, fangs out. Jack
son grabbed its head just before it bit into my leg. I fell backwards, landing hard on my ass. I shoved myself further back until I was up against the stack of hay. Libby rushed over to me, her hands going to my shoulders.

Jack
son still held the snake, its jaw snapping. He stepped towards us as he caressed the snake’s head. He knelt down, snake in hand, until he was eye level. The snake’s gleaming fangs were inches from my face. I felt the bile rising in my throat as little black dots flashed in my eyes.

“You afraid of snakes, boy?”
His voice was cold and empty. “Hmm?” He looked at me, his eyes dark and calculating.

“Yes’sir
,” I whispered my voice barely audible.

“You’d better be,” his voice was menacing as he ran a finger down the top of the snake’s scaly head. “Keep your hands off her.” The threat in his warning was unmistakable as his eyes moved to Libby’s hands, still clenching my shoulders.

Jackson stood up slowly and stepped off the wagon. He laid the snake on the ground and it slithered away, silent and docile. He turned back to us, spitting into the dirt.

“Get off, both of
ya,” he growled, jerking his head. “Go home.”

Willing my muscles to move, I scrambled up, stumbling to the edge and jumping down. Libby followed me as I ran to the edge of the tree line. Her pa climbed back onto the tractor and drove it slowly out of the field.

“Cole?” Libby put a hand on my shoulder but I shrugged her off as I walked towards the trees. When she started to follow, I turned quickly and yelled.

“Stay!” I saw her shrink back, quickly dragging her eyes to the ground. I wanted to apologize but my need for keeping her away was stronger. I half-ran to the nearest tree, bent over and promptly threw up everything I had eaten that day.

When my stomach was empty, I gagged, heaving until the last of my strength left my body. I stumbled back and collapsed in the tall grass. I felt Libby’s hand grip my shoulder and turn me towards her. Her face was pale but her eyes were strong as she forced me to look at her. I stared at her, seeing the fear leave her eyes, replaced by sorrow. Not uttering a word, she wrapped her arms around me. My exhausted body gave up as I leaned into her. She laid my head on her chest and I did something I swore I’d never do in front of her. I cried.