Five Miles to Paradise

42

I had been pushed, pulled, and bullied out of the boat and into a rundown shack. 

So tiny was the land it stood upon, I thought the house might sink under our weight into the swamp. The floor boards were spongy, and the whole room felt wet and moldy. It was a one-room affair, and not a very large affair, at that.

There were no curtains on the four little windows, not that curtains would have given the room a lived-in look. And they were so grimy that I doubted if soap and water had ever touched their glass panes. The glass itself in the windows was very old, for I saw bubbles here and there in it. When I looked out, I got the distorted, wavy view that reminded me of carnival mirrors. The dim light the dingy windows let into the room was weak and gloomy.

There was a pallet in one corner, a small handmade table and a couple of handmade chairs. There was an old glass oil lamp sitting in the middle of the table. The air was rank and stale, and the room had the closed smell of a grave.

Clancy shoved me toward one of the chairs.

"Sit your black arse down," he said, "'n don't cause me no trubble."

I did as I was told. My hands were still tied, but when I sat down in the chair, Clancy produced more rope from some cubby in his overhauls, and he tied my feet to the front two legs of the chair. Their rough wood chewed into my skin, but I remained silent.

"Dat oughta keep ya outta my way," he said.

With that, he kissed me squarely on the lips and left.

I could smell the foul mixture of alcohol and rotten teeth that Clancy's saliva left under my nose. I wanted to vomit, but I needed to think, to try to figure out a way to escape this tiny little prison of hell where Clancy had brought me.

Oh Heck, I prayed, if you're out here somewhere, please, please, please be careful.

I looked about the room that was now my prison cell.

If Clancy hurt Heck, or worse still, killed him, I decided I would rather die, too. 

Clancy was evil, and whatever he was planning for me and for Heck was going to be something I did not want to live to endure.

I tried to wriggle my hands free from the cords, but the boys had tied them tightly. My feet were just as tightly bound.

I felt like a caged animal, waiting for the ax to fall, the blade to slice, the final bullet that would end it all.

I heard a twig break. For a second, my hopes soared, but then, I realized it was probably Clancy blundering about outside.

I wondered how much different things would be if his nephews had not been forced to drive Miss Nell's fine car home that fateful night. It seemed like a lifetime ago. But, I mused, if all that had not transpired, I would have never met Heck.

I smiled, in spite of my circumstance, for Heck Waterstim had been like a bright and shining light in my life. No, I decided, all the Clancies in this world were not worth the little fingernail clipping of a man like Heck Waterstim.