CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Happy birthday, kiddo.”
My eyes fluttered open. After a night of listening to the coffins, followed by restless tossing and turning due to over–exhaustion and nightmares, I must have fallen asleep during the wee hours of the morning. Now that it was brighter in the tent and Dex was gently shaking me awake, I wanted nothing more than to keep on sleeping.
But, as he said, happy birthday. I was now 23 years old. My birthday had totally slipped my mind last night.
I groaned and rolled over. Dex was kneeling in front of me with a goofy–looking grin on his bruised face. In one outstretched hand he held a paper plate with a Twinkie on top. There was a lit cigarette sticking out of it.
I burst out laughing. “That is the most ghetto birthday cake I have ever seen.”
“Well, I didn’t have cake and I didn’t have a candle but I thought this might do. Just don’t blow out the cigarette or you’ll get ash everywhere.”
He plucked the cigarette out of the Twinkie and stuck it in his mouth.
“Mmm, Twinkieliscious,” he said with a smile. I sat up, still giggling, and he handed me the plate. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a good laugh.
I picked up the Twinkie and took a bite. Dex blew the smoke away from my face.
“How is it?”
“It’s a Twinkie,” I told him. “Where did you get this, anyway?”
“I took a few from Zach when we left. I already had one this morning. Was saving it for a special occasion. Oh right, that reminds me.”
He disappeared out of the tent for a second. It was then when I noticed that aside from being 23-years old now, something else was different. The wind had eased up to a steady but less–ravaging gale and the rain was nowhere to be found. It was a few degrees warmer as well, which wasn’t saying much.
He came back inside and handed me a hot cup of coffee. “Spiked with the last bit of Jack D.”
I took a sip and coughed. “This is sad. This is probably the most American birthday meal you could have.”
He smiled at that and sat down in front of me, puffing away. He was in better spirits than he was yesterday, or even the day before. He still looked tired and washed out, though, and his nose where I had hit him was swollen and tinged with yellow and purple that was reaching up for his eye. His beard was getting pretty impressive. He was starting to resemble a ragged mountain man. Maybe he could have his own outdoor adventure show where he wrestled raccoons.
“How are you feeling? I’ll need to change your bandages,” I reminded him. He rolled up his pant leg to show me. The dressing was soaked through with blood. Ew.
“I’ll live,” he said nonchalantly, ignoring the seriousness of the wound. “You just eat your birthday breakfast first. How are you feeling? Do you feel any older?”
“Yes. I feel disgustingly older.” Not only was my head still a bit achy from the hit yesterday, my limbs and bones throbbed mercilessly. On top of that, I felt absolutely gross, having not showered for days. Last night I even forgot to brush my teeth or wash my face. I guess in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter, but in the ugly light of morning things were always a bit different.
I finished the Twinkie, not knowing what it was going to do to my stomach. We had barely eaten anything yesterday.
“Oh,” he spoke up, pointing at me. “I have something else for you.”
He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a purple Silly Band. It was in the shape of…well, actually it looked quite phallic.
“Um,” I stammered, trying not to laugh. “Cock and balls?”
“What? No!” he cried out and did a double take. “It’s an anchor.”
I took it from him and slipped it on my wrist, “Sure it is, Dex. What were you trying to say with this, huh?”
“Well, I thought I was being poetic by saying I could be your anchor. But if you want to make this perverted, you know I’m game.”
I chuckled at that but didn’t forget what he meant by it. He could be my anchor. I hoped he would be. I didn’t plan on taking the bracelet off, ever.
I wanted for us to stay in the tent and continue joking about things and pretend we were having fun on a camping trip and that everything was going to be OK. But from the way his brow furrowed as he put his cigarette out on top of his black combat boots, I knew things were going to get serious.
“Do we have a plan yet?” I asked quietly.
He nodded. “It’s a long shot. But after we get me all cleaned up, I think I might be able to patch together the tear on one pontoon by sticking all the remaining bandages across it.”
“How would that help? Isn’t it deflated?”
“Not all the way. It would be enough to prevent some water from seeping inside. Then we lose the motor. Leave it on the beach. We take only what we need from here. Just one bag between the both of us. You might have to lose some clothes, I don’t know. Go as light as possible. We’re going to get wet. It’s going to suck. But if we can use the Zodiac as a raft, we should be able to make it to be the boat. Use it like a boogie board and kick our way over. The wind has died. The swells aren’t too high. There’s only fog. I think we can make it.”
I pondered over what he was saying. His voice was optimistic but it still sounded like an extremely desperate attempt. I guess things were getting desperate. I didn’t want to spend another minute on this island and each second I was awake and past the frivolity of my birthday “festivities,” the reality of what was going on was sinking in fast. Just because everything was fine at the moment didn’t mean it would be fine in five minutes. Whatever tied me to the tree, whatever was out there and after us, they would come back.
“What about the coffins? They floated. Couldn’t we carry one across the island and–”
“Coffins are gone,” he said flatly.
“What?”
“Go and see for yourself,” he nodded at the tent flap. “There isn’t a trace of them. Vanished. Like we never saw them last night.”
“But,” I said cautiously, “you know we saw them, right?”
“I know.” He sighed, scratching at his beard. “Really wish I could shave this thing right off.”
“You could always do it Crocodile Dundee style with the hunting knife,” I suggested lightly.
He smiled. For just a wonderful second. It slowly faded from his lips, turning sad like his eyes. I wanted to apologize to him for the way I had been acting but I couldn’t find the nerve or the words. Maybe he was thinking the same thing. I wanted to crawl over to him and kiss him, scratchy beard and all, and have him make me feel like everything was going to be all right.
He picked up my backpack that was behind him and tossed it at me.
“I’ll give you ten minutes. Get ready and fill half of it with only what you really need to bring. Nothing heavy if you can help it. I’ll go clean myself up.”
He took the first aid kit and exited the tent, leaving me to wonder which clothes and items I was going to have to leave behind. My boots were heavy, but I wasn’t going to part with them. I’d be wearing them anyway. My beloved Chucks wouldn’t make the cut but I had more pairs at home. Neither would my yellow peacoat, my pajamas or my two other pair of jeans. I slid into my cargos (they were somewhat expensive), put on my favorite Alice in Chains tank top, my hoodie and a light leather jacket. I put some of my makeup in the backpack, thankful for the waterproof plastic bag it was in, and my own underused point and shoot camera and I was good to go. It was a shame to leave everything else but the sacrifice would be worth it if we could get off the godforsaken hellhole of an island. Hell, Dex would have to leave his tent and camping equipment and that wasn’t exactly cheap.
When I was done I brought the bag out of the tent and did a quick inspection of Dex’s wounds to make sure he wasn’t cheating himself.
“I much prefer it when you’re the nurse,” he said, wiggling one brow as I made him lift up his shirt. I did my best to ignore him. His self–bandaging job looked fine and he still had a lot of bandages and adhesive tape left over in the kit for the Zodiac repair job.
I quickly brushed my teeth and combed back my greasy, dirty hair into a tight bun and was good to go. The old Perry would have been wincing at being makeup free around a guy, but if this weekend taught me anything, it was that vanity was no longer ruling my life. And that raccoons were evil.
Dex filled the remainder of the backpack with the library books (“don’t want Zach to deal with overdue fines”) and the Super 8. I observed the campsite to make sure we weren’t missing anything.
He was right about the coffins being gone without a trace. The curve of the beach looked unblemished except for a few new pieces of driftwood and washed–up clumps of kelp. The fog looked like it had settled in even closer, like it was giving the island a frothy hug, but the color was light and airy and the wind was down to manageable gusts. It really was the perfect window to try and to leave through. We might not have another chance.
“Ready to go?” he called out from behind me as I stared at the beach.
I turned and nodded. I had a funny feeling it wasn’t going to work out quite as he hoped. It’s almost as if we couldn’t say goodbye to this place, despite how desperately we wanted to.
We walked as quickly as possible across the island. Despite the change in weather, the forest looked extra foreboding. The dead branches reached into the sky like skeleton arms, the shadows seemed to quiver out of the corner of my eye, and the moss looked less like vegetation and more like the green guts from an impaled monster. The last few days of rain had done a number on the ground, turning the trail into an obstacle course of limbs and mud that sucked at our feet. It got worse as we approached the glade.
At one point my foot went through the ground and the mud sucked me in all the way to my knee. Well, there went my expensive pants.
“Dex!” I cried out. I put my hands on the firmest part of the mud and tried to push myself off. “Little help?”
He stopped and came over, trying to pick up my hands while not getting stuck himself. He pulled at me but it only made my arms feel like they were going to pop out of the socket.
“Ow!’ I whimpered.
He bent over, wrapped his arms around my leg and started to pull me up that way. If I wasn’t starting to feel panicky, I probably would have laughed at the way we looked. He grunted and with a powerful tug, my leg came free with a huge suction sound. I almost fell face first into the mud but his arm shot out and brought me upright.
“I gotcha,” he said. We looked down at my muddy leg with interest. I could feel the cold sludge seeping down into my socks. Ugh.
It was an uncomfortable, uneasy walk the rest of the way. Adding to the discomfort of mud squishing between my toes was the horrible feeling that the Mary Contrary might not even be there. If it was somehow still afloat after yesterday’s storm, that would be a miracle indeed.
I watched Dex’s face as we got close to the coast. Between nervous chewing and the intensity of his pupils, he was probably thinking it too. If the boat was gone, we were pretty much dead.
I pushed the thought out of my head and told myself I would deal with it when I had to deal with it. It kept the terror in check.
As soon as we reached the coastal path, Dex sprinted forward a few steps to the treeline and peeked through the branches.
“Hallelujah,” he yelled.
I ran up and joined him. He put his hand on my back as I leaned over and peered through the spaces in the trees. The boat was there. It was a miracle.
We went back on the path and hurried along until we were on the beach and sprinting towards the Zodiac joyously. The Zodiac looked the same as we had left it, no further damage done, and though it seemed that the Mary Contrary’s anchor was no longer working and the boat was wriggling back and forth with the waves, the rope’s tether to the shore was still intact. >
We looked at each other, both shining jubilant smiles.
“I think we can do this,” Dex exclaimed.
“Me too.” And I meant it. Maybe it was possible to say goodbye to this nightmare after all.
“We’re going to make it after all, kiddo,” he said as he reached forward and tipped up my chin. His fingers felt warm. I thought maybe he was going to say something else but we just stared at each other for a few beats, all smiles and unsaid words.
“OK, I’ll get started on the Zodiac,” he said, letting go of my chin and kneeling down to snap open the first aid kit. “Can you go check on the rope, making sure it’s not about to give? If you can tighten it or do another loop around the tree, then do it. We don’t want it floating away while we are making a go for it.”
I told him I could, bringing my eyes up to the cliff top. It didn’t seem like it would be that hard to get to and Dex had done it with ease the other day.
“You might want to wash off your leg first,” he said, eyeing the mud. “You don’t want to slip.”
That was true. Even though I didn’t want my calf and boots to be soaking wet, it was better than the mud.
I walked over to the water and tried to catch my muddied leg in the incoming tide. The waves on this side of the island were almost nonexistent compared to the east side, which made it seem even more likely that we were going to get our asses out of there.
I undid my boot and slipped it off. I reached over into the water to use it as a scooper. As I did so, I saw the reflection of a tall, menacing form standing over me from behind.
I gasped and spun around, almost losing my balance in the numbing surf. There was no one there. Dex was busy emptying out the kit and wasn’t even paying attention to me.
I looked back at the water and cautiously dipped in my boot. I carefully sloshed the water around, making sure the mud was coming out before I splashed some of the water on my leg. It was as cold as anything. I hoped when we launched the Zodiac, we would reach the boat quickly because being in the water for more than five minutes meant certain hypothermia. It was amazing I didn’t catch anything the other day and I was only in the water for a minute, tops.
I scooped up water once more and was about to re–douse myself when I saw the reflection again. My lungs seized in fright but I didn’t turn around and I didn’t make a noise. I slowly splashed the icy ocean on my calf while keeping my eyes focused on the reflection. Because of the waves, I couldn’t see it clearly but it was the same person I had seen briefly in the forest. Blonde beard, large frame, black jacket and white shirt. He raised his arms behind me and had a piece of roped rope spun tightly between his hands.
I screamed and whirled around, expecting for the rope to come down around me, but just as it happened before, there was no one there. Now I had Dex’s attention and he was looking at me quizzically.
“Cold water?” he asked, though from his tone I knew he thought it was more than that.
“Sure is,” I squeaked out. I pulled myself away from the water and sat back on the pebbles, quickly jamming my cold boot back on. My foot was sufficiently frozen now but I just had to deal with it. I tied the laces up as fast as my cold fingers would allow and got back to my feet.
Dex was still staring at me.
“How’s it coming?” I asked, trying to sound breezy.
He frowned. “It’s coming. You better go check on the rope.”
I smiled in response and started sprinting down the beach towards the cliff. I felt like we were running out of time and seeing that man’s reflection in the water just added to that feeling.
The cliff wasn’t as challenging as it looked from far away. It wasn’t that steep and was a gradual climb, save for a few places where I had to haul myself up onto the rocks and boulders. It didn’t take long for me to get to the top, where the yellow rope was clinging onto the arbutus tree for dear life, and the tree in turn was clinging on to the soil.
I looked down at the view, the spread of beach beneath me, Dex busy patching up the half–deflated Zodiac, the boat attached to the land only through a single twisting rope. The backdrop of the scene was the fathomless fog that seemed to lick at the sides of the boat from time to time.
I inspected the rope along its length and the way it was wrapped around the tree. Dex had done an amazing job the first time around because I couldn’t see a single weak point or fraying anywhere. As long as the whole tree didn’t give way, I think we were going to be OK.
“You’ve seen him.”
I jumped, my heart almost coming out of my throat, and looked behind me. There was a strange, murky shimmer in the air and Mary stood between the view of Dex and the beach, hands on her hips, looking strangely authoritative despite her wispy figure.
It gave me the creeps. It always should have given me the creeps but now that we were so close to leaving, I wanted to forget about Mary and everything else. Yesterday, talking with her, the whole thing seemed like some weird sort of trance I was sucked into, just like my leg was inhaled by the mud. Now I felt more in control, mentally, and ready to move on. I didn’t want to lose that again.
So I didn’t say anything to her. I just went back to looking at the rope, hoping that by ignoring her she would disappear.
She didn’t.
She took a step closer. “You’re not going anywhere, Perry.”
Just hearing her say my name was chilling, maybe even threatening. It didn’t really sound like a threat but I had to look at her to make sure. Her one visible eye through the glasses seemed innocent enough.
“Dex and I are leaving soon,” I said to her. “As soon as he is done patching up the Zodiac.”
“That’s what you think,” said Mary.
“That’s what I know,” I replied on the defensive, feeling anger rising through me.
“You’re starting to see John now. Soon your Dex will too.”
“The tall guy with the blonde beard?”
“Yes. That is John. The lepers will be next. Then Dex will believe you but alas, it will be too late.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked, not sure of not wanting to believe her myself.
She pursed her cracked lips and thought that over. “I know things. I’ve been here a long time. This is how it always works.”
Always works? There were others like us? I didn’t want to think about that; it was too much of a mindf*ck.
“Well. I don’t see anyone else here. Who is going to stop me, you?” I said, taking a step toward her. With her tiny, frail body, I knew I could hurt her easily. But then again, she was already dead so, really, what harm could I do?
Mary laughed; it was shrill and worrisome. “Not me. Dex will.”
I cocked my head and looked over her shoulder at the beach. Dex had stopped what he was doing and was kneeling on the pebbles, head turned in my direction and watching me. I wondered if he could see Mary.
“How…why…why on earth would Dex stop me, stop us, from leaving?”
“He’s going to think of a reason. He may not know the reason right now but it will come up, and you’ll have to go back to the campsite.”
I shook my head and then stopped, suddenly self–conscious that it might be a one–way show that Dex was witnessing from far away. I decided to play Devil’s Advocate.
“All right then, Mary. Say we go back to the campsite. Then what?”
“You both will become sufficiently paranoid of each other. He’s going to accuse you of being ill and you’re going to accuse him of being ill. That’s when John will appear. Maybe San too. When you are both alone and at your weakest. If not them, then the rest of the lepers.”
“Why? What did we do to them?” My voice was becoming higher by the second.
“It’s about responsibility, my dear. No one has ever claimed real responsibility for what happened here. I tried to fix it but look what happened. They turned on me. They killed me.”
“I thought John killed you.”
“This place killed me. There are wrongs that need to be righted and these souls won’t rest until that is done. This place is too close to the black and white world. It’s the responsibility of humankind. It’s a shame it got passed on to both of us. It’s a shame for two 23-year olds. We were so young.”
That caught me off guard. How did she know it was my birthday? And what did she mean “were”? I swallowed hard and tried to concentrate on something else. The sopping wet sock inside my boot. The feel of the smooth arbutus tree bark that I had one hand against. The smell of rain, even though there was no rain.
“I’ll be seeing you on the other side,” she said with a quick smile that slid easily over her missing teeth. “One more time. I’ll have something you’ll want to know.”
Not if I can help it, I thought.
She looked down at her dress, tugged at the skirt of it, straightening out her bodice and walked timidly into the trees that led up the rest of the cliff, as if she was strolling off to church. I had no urge to stop her. I did have the urge to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.
With Dex still watching me (seriously, OK, I’m talking to myself, get over it and get back to work), I scrambled down the cliff as quickly and carefully as I could. As soon as my feet hit the stones on the beach, I was off and running toward Dex at full speed.
“How’s it coming!? Let’s go now, shall we!” I yelled, coming to a stop in front of him, pebbles skidding everywhere.
He blinked hard a few times. He had been in the middle of removing the engine from the back. The tear on the left pontoon had been patched up and a million bandage wrappers littered the bottom of the Zodiac.
His lips formed to make words but nothing came out.
“What? You need help?” I asked, and bent over in front of the engine, working the vice back and forth, loosening it. As I did so, I kept my head down and said, “Yeah, I was talking to Mary. Not myself. Though I can tell you still don’t believe me.”
With a few yanks, the engine came loose and Dex was there, helping me lift it off the back of the boat and onto the beach.
“That’s fine. Thanks,” he said monotonously. I eyed him quickly. I could see he was having a battle in his head of what to think and what to say. Obviously he didn’t see Mary. It didn’t matter. We could deal with my apparent psychosis later.
“Are you ready?” I straightened up and tried to get the urgency across.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said. He lightly kicked the left pontoon. “Are you ready?”
“F*ck yes. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Dex gave me a quick (but noticeably wary) smile. “I’ll pull from the front if you push from the end.”
I moved into position behind the Zodiac, my hand placed firmly on where the engine used to be. He picked up the backpack and put it on his shoulder.
“Are you sure the Super 8 will stay dry in there?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if he had a special bag around it or if he was going to wear the backpack on his head so it didn’t get wet.
“It should be OK, as long as the pontoon holds out,” he said as he started to pull the front of the boat along. It moved awkwardly, like we were dragging a dead body. “The only thing I’m worried about is the film if…”
He trailed off and stopped pulling. He let go of the boat’s front. His face was awash with panic. For a second I thought he saw something in the trees behind me but after a quick look, that wasn’t it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked slowly. A sickly feeling started to creep throughout my veins.
“We have to go back.”
My eyes widened. No. No, no, no. This wasn’t happening.
“We are not going anywhere,” I said, half inhaling my words.
He looked terrified, to say the least, but he stood his ground. “No, we have to go back, Perry.”
“We have to go back? What the f*ck, this isn’t an episode of Lost, Dex!”
“The film! I left the film cartridges in my other bag. I changed them over this morning. Without that film we don’t have a show.”
I let go of the Zodiac and stood up. Shocked. Enraged. “Screw the show!”
“Sorry, kiddo,” he said, coming around the boat and heading off toward the trees. Toward the rest of the island and all the horrors I knew were hiding there.
I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t. It really was a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. I had to do something.
This time, instead of thinking about doing it, I did pick up a rock. I flung it at him. It hit him square in the back.
“OW!” he cried out and spun around like a cornered animal. “What the…did you just throw a f*cking rock at me!?”
“I had to! Please, forget the film. We have to leave now. We have to leave right now!” My voice was reaching epic dog whistle proportions.
“You stay here,” he said angrily, feeling for his back where I had hit him. “Please, just stay here and stay out of my way. I’ll be back.”
I shook my head violently and ran after him. He started running too, to get away from me, but I grabbed his arm roughly and pulled on him hard. I hoped he could see the pure panic in my eyes.
“Mary said this would happen, Mary said…,” I stammered.
“Now you’re just babbling,” he admonished me, trying to swat away my arm like I was some sort of fly or pest.
I pulled on him harder. “Please Dex, please don’t do this, we have to forget it, we have to leave now! Right now! Right now! Right now!” I started screaming it. His eyes went wide, unsure of what to do with me, but he quickly composed himself and put my face in his hands. He looked deep in my eyes. >
“I’ll be right back. You can’t stop me. We need that film. We are f*cked without it. Without it, this whole thing would be for nothing.”
It didn’t matter to me. Nothing else mattered except getting off the island alive. Oh, if only he had seen Mary, seen what I had seen, then he’d know.
I started crying. It was really the only thing I could do. He took his hands off and rolled his eyes.
“Not going to work. Now please let go, or I’m dragging you along with me,” he threatened, the niceness gone from his eyes. He wasn’t going to let up. I began to think about all the things I could do to get him to stay. I could pick up the nearest heavy rock and hit him over the head with it but then what? I couldn’t paddle both of us to the boat.
“Are you shitting me? Are you seriously thinking about bashing me over the head?” he asked incredulously. He had followed my eyeline to a barnacle–covered stone that was just large enough to do the job.
I bit my lip.
“Unbelievable,” he spat out. “You need to get a f*cking hold of yourself.”
And at that he flung his arms out of my hands with whip-like ferocity. “Now you can come with me or stay here. Your choice. But those are your only two choices.”
He adjusted the backpack angrily, then turned on his heel and marched off into the woods. I looked at the Zodiac and Mary Contrary and prayed both of them would be there when we returned. If we returned.