|
The setting sun projected thick red-orange light through the open windows of the barroom. It cast an eerie glow across the earthen walls as if lit by a bonfire. The patron’s faces were lined with heavy shadows adding an element of anonymity to their dealings. The wind, still warm from the sweltering Columbian afternoon set the jungle foliage dancing as it blew. But the hot air brought little relief. A single ceiling fan in the center of the room, broken, hung askew. Beneath the precarious fan sat a white couple. The rest of the bar’s cliental were dark skinned locals, throwing back whiskies.
The white woman sat with her chin resting in her hand. Her free hand absentmindedly stirred her rum and coke. She wore short cropped black hair and her bored brown eyes hid behind large sunglasses. Her companion sat back, relaxed in a t-shirt and loose-fitting shorts. The hot wind continually pushed his unbrushed hair into new shapes.
“I don’t think this is even coke that they put in this drink.” The woman complained. “More like, syrup. It’s weird.”
“I told you to just take it strait, Shelly.” the man answered. I long silence followed.
The bartender drifted past their table, wiping a glass. The man tapped his shoulder.
“Oh, uh, seenore? Another whisky on the rocks please. You want another, babe?”
“I’m not even drinking this one, and you sound like an idiot. It’s pronounced senior.”
“Jeeze, sorry. OK just the one whisky.” The bar tender ambled slowly back to the bar.
“I hope he heard me right.”
Shelly took a tentative drink of her cocktail, “Well it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you missed one drink… you drink too much.”
“Well one of us has to try and have some fun here! You’ve just been sulking the whole time.”
“Ugh, I’m just tired, Tad. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since we got here. It’s too hot to sleep. It’s too hot to eat. It’s too hot to move.”
“We’ve barely been here two days, and you were already cranky when we got on the plane.”
“I don’t want to fight, Tad.” She mumbled and risked another sip.
“What?”
“I said I don’t want to fight!” she snapped.
“OK, OK.” He raised his arm back in acquiescence as the bar tender returned with a fresh whisky. Tad took a sip. “Uh, this is pretty warm.”
Shelly continued staring in silence at nothing.
“I just want you to be able to loosen up for once. I’m sorry you haven’t been having any fun, really, I am. Let’s go to bed early tonight. We can wake up early tomorrow before the heat, ride the horses down the trail to the river and go for a swim.”
Shelly pushed her drink away, “I don’t know if I even want to swim in that river. Aren’t there like, a million things in that river that can kill you?”
“Well, probably not a million.” Tad grinned.
“I just keep thinking about snakes and leeches and eww, piranhas…”
“Piranhas and leeches don’t kill people. You had all your shots to prepare, so you might as well go for it. This is supposed to be a relatively safe part of the Amazon.”
“We should have gone to a resort.”
They sat in silence while Tad finished his drink and then walked the short distance back to their hut. The sky had turned a dark purple and starlight dotted the dome of night over the jungle. Crickets and frogs filled the air with dissonant chirps and calls and the occasional howler monkey let out a ghostly scream.
The couple undressed, turned off the lantern, and crawled into their cot, which barely held the two of them. In the dark, Tad began kissing the back of Shelly’s neck. She moaned and slid her shorts down. Tad entered her from behind and the tensions of the past few hours melted away while their bodies writhed and danced side by side. Their embrace went on and on as the jungle wailed around them.
Tad pulled out of Shelly to finish. He then started kissing her belly working his mouth down to her lips. Forty minutes later Tad looked up at her in desperate frustration. “Nothing?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Shelly sighed. “I’m sorry, it felt great but…”
Tad stood up and stretched his neck from side to side.
“Don’t feel bad. You know I’ve never had one before. I think you were doing everything right. There could be something wrong with me down there. Maybe it’s time to just admit it isn’t possible for me.”
“Aww man, your body just can’t relax. You’re too uptight. I just want to be able to get you there.”
“I’ve told you before, you’re the best lover I’ve ever had. If anyone can give me an orgasm, you will.”
“But you’ve never even been able to give yourself one.”
“I know.”
The couple fell silent and eventually fell asleep against the backdrop of the whining jungle.
Shelly’s sleep was disturbed by a horrible dream. She was in the examination room at her doctor’s office, seated on a cold metal bench. She was naked. A cone of light shone around her from a single overhead bulb which emitted an irritating insect-like buzz. Outside the cone of light, the room was dark. Looking into the corners revealed nothing but blackness. The hall outside the open door was a poorly lit dull grey and the walls were stained with crusted dull red and brown stains. There was a smell of meat cooking.
She looked down at her body and knew something was not right. It took a moment for it to come into focus. Below her belly button Shelly was covered in skin eruptions; bright scarlet boils protruded out of charred, wrinkled flesh. A few boils had burst releasing trickles of puss. The entire lower half of her body appeared made of old paper, wrinkled and burned.
She looked back through the doorway. “Where could the doctor be?” She thought. Surely, so mutilated, she must be one of the more important patients. Shelly looked back down at herself and a long umbilical cord was stretching out of her. It had the appearance of bacon or beef jerky, with strips of yellow fat. The string of marbled meat sagged down to the floor and led into the hall and out of Shelly’s field of vision. A puddle of grease spread out beneath the cord and occasionally the grease would splatter and pop as if the floor was a great hotplate cooking the cord. She stretched a big toe down to the floor but recoiled in pain. The floor was blazing hot.
The rattling of chains from somewhere down the hall distracted Shelly from the torturous floor. The echoing jangle grew louder, and a wild dog came snarling around the door frame. Its hair sat unkempt in matted clumps and it had a wild, hungry look in its eyes. The umbilical cord hung from the dog’s jaws. It entered the room, unphased by the heat of the floor chomping up the cord as it came, following it like a trail of breadcrumbs. It was now only a few feet from Shelly. She smelled the wet fur of the beast. It snarled and snapped at her loins. She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Shelly woke drenched in sweat. It was early morning. She quietly snuck out of the cot and crept outside. The great lid of night was lifting, and a thin line of light had begun at the horizon. The perennial drone of insects continued, and calls of tropical birds greeted the morning from the jungle canopy. Shelly lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply as her heartbeat slowed. She sat on a large hollow log and slowly swung her feet back and forth through the dewy grass. Glancing back at the hut she could see the silhouette of Tad sleeping in the cot. As she stared at the black lump, she couldn’t help but hate him. In the clarity that sometimes accompanies dark mornings she cursed her unhappiness and herself. Tad’s outline grunted and rose. “How long can this go on?” she thought.
An hour later the two hiked down a short, overgrown path to the creek. They had tied their horses to a post, up at the road. “Are they safe tied up there alone?” she asked Tad. “I guess so.” And he chuckled with empty optimism. Shelly was sore from the ride, but Tad was even more chipper than usual. She rubbed her hamstrings as they walked.
“Gotta throw those ciggies out and get some exercise I guess!” Tad chirped.
Shelly groaned and kicked at the dirt, demolishing a small anthill.
They stripped down naked at the edge of the water. Tad dove in headfirst splashing Shelly. She cursed at him while slowly wading in up to her waist. The water was ice cold, but a purple-grey mist floated above the surface which Shelly had to admit was beautiful. They floated neck deep in the creek as the rising sun warmed the water.
Tad floated behind Shelly with his hands on her waist. He coyly pressed into her rear end. They drifted over to the bank and Shelly laid on her back on the shore. Tad threw her legs in the air. The top half of his body protruded from the water while he went down on her. She moaned and caressed his hair but after a long time spent struggling nothing happened.
“Sorry I’m distracted.” She said.
Tad had the look of sad bloodhound on his face. He lifted himself out of the water and sat next to Shelly.
“I had the dream again.”
“Which dream?”
“You know, the one in the doctor’s office… with the dog.”
“Oh, that one.” Tad was silent for a moment and then added, “Weird.”
“That’s all you can say? Weird?”
“I don’t know what to say! What am I supposed to say to that! Maybe you should talk to a therapist.”
“Talking to you sure doesn’t help.” She mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“No seriously. What did you say?”
Shelly grit her teeth. “Talking to you doesn’t help!”
Tad’s smiling expression wilted. “You don’t even give me a chance! You just sit there sulking!”
“I talk.”
“Not to me! You think I’m an idiot or something.”
“I do not.”
“Yes you do! I can tell. You think I’m a big dope, just because I’m not miserable all the time like you. You can be positive and have a brain ya know!”
“Ugh whatever.”
Now Tad was irate. “Ya know, you’re a real bitch!”
Shelly shivered with anger. “Fuck you, Tad! Yeah, you’re right, I do think you’re stupid. I thought if I kept you around, I might finally get fucked right, but apparently you can’t even do that!”
“I can’t believe I brought you here!”
“I can’t believe I agreed to go with you! I’m outta here!” Shelly stood and stomped back up the trail pulling up her jean shorts
“Who needs you!?” Tad flicked his wrists and dove back into the water.
Shelly stormed back up the trail to where they had tied up their horses. The horses were gone. “Son of a bitch! Idiot!” She marched back down the trail to the edge, relishing her anger towards Tad. She couldn’t wait to make him feel guilty about the horses.
Tad was far out, swimming in the middle of the creek when she returned. She yelled out to him. It took a few tries till he heard her and slowly began paddling back to shore. Some logs had floated down the creek blocking Tad’s path. He bobbed around one log and dunked his head underwater to pass a few more. As Shelly watched from the shore, one log seemed to move faster than the others. It appeared to have different motions from the other logs, like it was swimming. Shelly gasped when she realized what it was. She screamed to Tad again, but it was too late.
With a huge splash of water, the crocodile bit hard into him. It happened so fast Tad didn’t have time to scream. Red blood sprayed as the crocodile ripped his flesh and pulled him under.
Shelly felt dizzy and sat down in the sand holding her head. A moment later Tad resurfaced. His face was a mixture of terror and disappointment. He was covered in blood and one arm dangled by only a few tendons. The crocodile resurfaced and took one final bite, twisting Tad’s head all the way around, and pulled the body down to a watery grave.
Shelly felt a tingling all over her body. Her legs shook. Within moments her entire body was gyrating. An incredible sensation had started deep inside her pelvis and radiated outward. Her mouth opened wide, but no words came out. She could no longer think. It was like an explosion. Shelly screamed in pleasure and threw her head back while clutching at the grass like a lover’s hair.
When the feeling subsided, she was still breathing hard. She lied back in the sand feeling a lifetime of tension slip away. A few minutes later, pieces of her ex-boyfriend floated to shore.
|
