Under the Canopy (8 page)

He cocked his head at me, one eye spying on the float. 'What do you mean?'

'You know what I mean. Why did you come here in the first place? It can't be just money.'

Edlon inhaled some air, held it inside, thinking and then puffed. 'Why not? I need some dough. But you're right, it's not my only reason.' He paused. 'I'm scared.'

There was awkward silence from me. I didn't know what to say.

Edlon glanced at me, checking that I was still there. 'That's right. My life was planned out. Kindergarten, school, college. I marched through it without a goal and then BAM! I'm on my own with nothing to do. My future was obvious — job, marriage, retirement. Funeral. I felt like a cog of society.
Click-click, good job, Edlon, here's the promotion.
I didn't want none of it and just took myself out of the system.' He looked at me. 'Army is like another planet. In our cases, literally.' He chuckled. 'I bumped here and there and ended up in this hole. And stayed.' Edlon was looking into the distance, oblivious of me. 'It's good here. You'll see in the spring.'

My head had started to thicken from all this talk.
How did it come to this? Just yesterday I didn't want to see him, and now we were having this "talk to your hand" conversation. The fucking fishing trip messed us up. Or was it just me? Was it all planned by Edlon to get into my head?

My escalating paranoid thoughts were swept away when my float started to bob up and down.

Edlon stretched his neck and looked at the swaying float. 'You got it! You got it! Pull, for fuck's sake!'

I raised the end of my rod into the air and felt some force oppose me. The tip bent towards the unwilling catch. I heard the reel click away and caught the handle.

Edlon tucked the handle of his rod under the seat, fixing it in place between the floor and the boat's side, and jumped to my help. It mostly consisted of yelling at me. 'Play the line!' he shouted into my ear.

At first, I didn't get what he meant and continued to pull, but when he smacked me on the shoulder and shouted 'You'll break it!’ the message came home. I lowered the rod and softly let go of the reel handle. It rotated like crazy until I caught it.

'Now,' Edlon said, licking his lips. 'Lower the rod almost horizontally and retrieve the line.
Slowly.
Don't let the fish get the upper hand.'

I started to rotate the handle towards me. It went hard and slow, with steady clicks, but it went. The fish was moving closer to the boat.

'It must be something big,' I said in a strained voice. My right arm was getting numb. Was that supposed to be so hard? I got a feeling that we were doing something wrong.

Edlon dropped his hands on the boat's side and leaned forward. 'Going good. Almost there.'

I saw a dark-gray back appear out of the water, a sharp spine fin rose up. Yes, it was big. Five cornsticks did their job.

'Whoa,' Edlon turned his excited face to me and then looked back at the fish. I wished he helped me, but NO…

The fish was so close now that I could see its dumb face. It looked right at me. The sight must have scared the animal because it bucked and swerved to the side like it was electrocuted. The rod nearly flew out of my hands. The reel clicked, but I stopped it with the lock. There was no turning back now. The fish started to swim back and forth at the end of the line, splashing and foaming the water. It pulled so hard that I had to press myself into the boat's hull. The metal hit me, not hard, but enough so I would wince. The fish looked at me again and snapped its mouth. At that point, I got sick of the thing. I leaned back, put one foot on the hull and jerked back with all my body force.

I fell back. The fish was snatched out of its element and dangled in the air. My rod propped itself on the floor, and for a moment the fish hung over me like some fucked-up vision. Then it fell on me.

The beast, no less, was about two feet long, with spiky fins all over it and thick as a log. Its eyes bulged with dumb hate of all sentient beings, and the mouth snapped its short sharp teeth. My hook stuck out of the corner of the maw. When the fish hit the boat, I regretted that I caught it. Edlon yelped and jumped back. The fish started to thrash on the floor, beating me with its tail. I scrambled to my feet and backed away. The fish went at me, as if it knew where to channel its rage. I started to hit it in the face with my jackboot.

'STRIKE IT, EDLON!' I yelled. The fish bent its body, and its jaws snapped around my boot. I couldn't feel the teeth, not yet, but they were coming.

Edlon stood in hesitance, not quite knowing what to do, and then he went into action mode. He jumped over the fish, grabbed the rifle and started to hit my catch with the butt. His face went red from the work, he began to puff, but the fish wouldn’t let go and only tightened its grasp on me.

'Oh, fuck it!' Edlon said and turned the rifle.

'NO!' That was all I managed to say before Edlon shot the fish in the head. The beast immediately calmed down and released my foot. The boot was ruined. Another one...

Edlon smiled to me and wiped sweat off his forehead. 'There. Good catch.'

I looked at the dead fish. 'A-ha.' I heard a faint gurgling. Then Edlon noticed it too, and we exchanged understanding glances. I kicked the fish to the side, and there it was. A tiny hole in the hull with water coming through it right into the boat.

'Shiiit,' Edlon said through his teeth. He looked at the rifle and then dropped it on the seat, as if he had nothing to do with it.

'What are we going to do with it?'

'Ah, nothing?' Edlon shrugged to me and then dropped into the driver's seat. The boat throbbed and then lifted into the air. I watched the leaked water mixed with fish blood flow outside through the hole.

'What will we say to the guy, you know,' I wiped my nose.

'Who said he should know?' Edlon peered at me like a fish. 'He won't even notice it. These things are all in holes anyway.' He made a dismissive gesture that denied any argument.

I sighed and looked at my catch. 'At least, we have the fish. How do they cook it?' Edlon approached the catch and didn't say anything. That was extremely suspicious. 'Edlon, is it edible at all?' I suspected the worst.

Edlon nodded. 'Yeah, it's edible. But it tastes like shit. Literally.'

'So why did we catch it?!'

Edlon looked at me and shrugged. 'For fun. And memories and stuff. You know.'

I looked at him from under my brow.
Was he joking? Some fun it turned out to be! The beast ruined my boot. But he was right, I'd remember this fishing trip for years. I coughed, then chuckled and then started to laugh. Edlon grinned and joined me.

When the laughing fit was over, I wiped a tear out of the eye and gestured to the fish on the floor. 'So what will we do with it?'

'Dump overboard. It's the river, after all. Someone will eat it. Fish, crayfish and other things. Nothing is ever wasted here.'

Yes. The fifth rule — don't waste material. How could I forget. 'Let's take a pic first.'

'Alright.' Edlon grabbed his rifle and the rod. No one had coveted his bait, and that was for the better. One fish was enough.

I unbuckled the wrist communicator and put it sideways on the dashboard. It would take the picture and send it to the computer. I pushed the button and went back. We had fifteen seconds.

'Take the rod,' Edlon said.

I forgot about it completely. The rod was lying on the floor, abandoned. I picked it up and stood near the fish. Edlon was holding the fish by the tail with one hand. My palm joined his there, and we lifted the catch into the air. We smiled and looked ahead. The communicator clicked. The picture was taken.

'Alright,' Edlon said, beaming. 'Now let's get rid of it.'

We carried the fish to the water and dumped it into the drink. Its heavy body exploded the surface into water spikes and went down like a rock. Almost instantly, it disappeared out of view in the dark.

I walked to the dashboard, picked the communicator and put it back. 'Have any heart for more fishing?' I said with a grin.

Edlon glanced at the rod and back. 'Not really. That was a bit too much.'

'Did it go like that with Tolek?'

'Nah. Much quieter.' He looked sullen for a moment and then it passed. 'But I regret nothing. Send me the pic.'

'Sure.'

I stepped out of the cabin and heard a shout from behind me. Edlon already looked in that direction and grabbed his rifle. I glanced there too and felt my skin prickle.

Green-alabaster figures of the natives could be recognized from afar.

I instantly remembered R'lok and his manhunters. I never told anyone about that episode.

'The fuck are they doing?' Edlon said and looked at them through the gunsight. The rifle was turned sideways and used as a looking glass. I unbuttoned the coat, took out the goggles and pressed them onto my eyes, telescoping on the scene.

A group of four aliens ran out on the bank. Three were half-naked and had body paint on them, they were obviously men. Among them was a woman, at least I supposed it was the female of the species. She was fully dressed in a furry leather coat and had a more slender build. All four were carrying weapons, three spears and an ax. By their tensed postures I surmised that they were fleeing from someone or something. They glared around and behind them, their backs were crouched, and their feet stomped on the earth, ready to run.

When they emerged out of the green, two men turned towards the forest and lowered their spears. They were expecting something. A taj? Or enemies?
The woman ran to the brim of the water, stepping on the thin ice. She looked to the other bank, covering her eyes with the palm. The last man went straight for the bushes to the side of the group. He scanned the area, looking for something on the ground, and then stopped. There it was. He cried, calling the woman to him. When she came, the woman dropped her ax on the ground. They crouched and picked something out of the grass. When they lifted the thing, I saw that it was some kind of boat. Alas, I didn't see it fully then.

The moment the pair dragged the front end of the alleged boat out of its resting place, one of the guards yelped and collapsed backward, his spear bouncing off the ground and rolling on the ice. He had an arrow growing out of his eye. The other guard yelled something and ducked, protruding the spear forward. The pair hastily jerked the boat forward and dropped it.

There was ruckus somewhere beyond the green. Even from the distance, I could hear shouting and snapping of twigs. The guard lunged forward, piercing the unseen enemy with his spear. I never saw him again. The enemies emerged from the under-tree darkness into the open. As I suspected, they were other aliens. They looked the same as the warriors I saw.

The first one came forward and looked around. That was his mistake. The remaining man made a brief but mighty shove, and the end of his spear entered the enemy's neck and exited on the other side. One pull backward, and the tip was free, now colored yellow. The enemy dropped dead where he stood. His comrades went out to join the fight. There were three of them, soon joined by the fourth. They looked straight at the man and the woman before them and started to disperse, surrounding the pair.

'They will kill them,' I said, stating the obvious.

'Yep. None of our business.' Edlon kept watching the show.

The woman saw the reinforcements and jumped for her ax. At the same time, they attacked. The man stabbed one attacker in the chest, taking him out for good and dropped the weapon in favor of his ax. Another attacker tried to pierce him with his spear, but the man evaded it, guiding the tip into the ground with his hand. He lunged to the side and struck the enemy in the face. The dead body sank down, still holding the shaft. The man turned to the other attackers and jerked his ax free out of the skull.

Only he didn't. It stuck. The other two saw that and used the moment. Acting in unity they bored their spears into his stomach, lifted the struggling man into the air and dropped him. The man rolled towards the water and broke the ice with his body. The guts spilled out of the split stomach. The ice was turning yellow around him.

The woman had retrieved her ax and turned to face the attackers. They said something to her, but her reply was no more than a cry. They stopped the conversation at that. The woman pounced on them, raising her ax high, trying to bash at least one skull. She didn't succeed.

The man she jumped at danced backward and caught her on his spear. For a moment, she twisted in the air just like my fish. Then he dropped her in the grass and finished with several stabs. The other man was oblivious of that and had his back completely turned on the scene of the massacre. He seemed to be looking at us. When his comrade was finished with stabbing the woman on the ground, he walked up to the watcher and said something. The watcher slapped him on the chest with the back of his hand and then pointed to us. Now both of them were examining the boat.

I got an eerie feeling from that and dropped the hands with goggles. Was their eyesight that good? I wondered.
When I looked into the goggles again, there they were, staring at me, as if we were face to face.

'Fuckers…' I heard from the side and turned.