Ken Douglas - Ragged Man

He drove to the motel, stopped at the desk and asked the rouge-faced woman if she knew where he could get a strong bag. She sent him to the kitchen and the cook gave him a gunny sack. Then he went to the dead kid’s room, stuffed the scuba gear into the sack and hauled it out to his car. He sang along with the radio on his way back to the landing.

He made his way to the river landing with the gunny sack over his left shoulder and his right arm through the tube. Once in the water, he set the sack in his lap and floated down river. When he reached the pool where the fishermen were on his first run, he was pleased to see that they were gone. He paddled into the pool and continued on under the overhanging trees to the riverbank. He waded out of the river, squeezing between the copious bushes, where he concealed his tube and donned the scuba gear.

He lowered himself back into about two feet of water, hidden by tree and bush, and waited. Forty-five minutes later his patience was rewarded. He spied Morrow and his friends floating toward him. The two girls with their red and blond hair acting as beacons made them easy to single out. Like a shark, he lowered himself into the water.

Three separate groups of river runners passed him, unaware of the danger he represented. He swam out to the center of the river as the two girls grew closer. The blond passed three feet overhead and he thought of her cover-girl looks as he eyed her legs through the murky water. He let her float on by, waiting, a still predator set on his kill.

The redhead floated over next, kicking her feet and splashing water with her hands. Storm imagined her chewing on her hair and clowning around. Morrow’s friend Ronny floated over with his belly down, paddling furiously with his arms. Storm watched, worried that the boy might see him, since he was floating face down, but the boy was more interested in catching up with the girls than checking out what lay below.

Then came Danny Morrow, sitting in his tube, buttocks hanging down through the middle, arms and legs dangling over the sides. Here was a man without a care in the world, Storm thought, just floating down the river, watching the sky go by.

Storm swam under Morrow’s tube, coming to the surface behind him. He reached out of the water, clamping a strong right hand over Morrow’s mouth and with his left, he brought the Bowie knife up through the center of the tube, up between the young man’s legs, driving it point first into his belly. Then he dragged the head below the water and held it there, to make sure.

He held on to the body as it went through the dancing spasm of death and when it was still, he pulled the tube over to the calm water. He felt a slight twinge of guilt, but he shrugged it aside, and brought the knife around the dead man’s neck, pulling it through, severing the head.

Then he swam back to his hiding place, removing the weight belt, regulator and tank on the way, letting them drop to the bottom of the river. He left the mask and fins at the river’s edge, grabbed his tube and went back into the water, heading for the chute. He gave the tube with the headless body a slight shove as he passed.

He entered the current behind a gaggle of giggling girls from Texas A amp; M. He listened to their banter and smiled when the giggles turned to screams of delight and anticipation as they neared the chute.

He followed them into the churning water, holding fast to his tube as it spun in the spray. He came out of the chute paddling with the current, directing himself to the opposite bank. He dragged the tube out of the water and made his way to the blue bus. He shoved his tube into the back and climbed on board. He took his seat as the bus started and didn’t look back when the screaming began.

Rick woke on the living room sofa to the smell of coffee. He thought about Christina upstairs and he wondered if last night had been a dream.

“ Morning, Uncle Rick,” Torry said.

“ Yeah, morning,” Swell echoed.

“ Morning.” He yawned.

“ We gonna do something today?”

“ Does your mother have anything planned?”

“ Yeah, she’s gone flying.” Torry smirked. “She said you’d entertain us today.”

“ She’s gone flying?”

“ Yeah, on Sunday some people go to church, Mom goes flying.”

“ Every Sunday?”

“ Never misses, thanks to you.”

“ Thanks to me?”

“ Well, you sold her the plane.”

“ How long does she stay in the air?”

“ All day. She says it clears her head.”

“ Yeah. She needs the time to herself, at least that’s what she says,” Torry added.

“ I had no idea.”

“ There’s a lot about Mom you probably don’t know,” Swell said.

“ Like what?”

“ Like she’s in love with you.”

“ Come on.”

“ No, really, she is,” Torry spoke up.

The girl’s words tore at his heart. He thought of Christina as a special person and he loved the twins. They were the children Ann and he couldn’t have.

“ We’re just very good friends.”

“ Come on Uncle Rick, how can you say that?” Torry said.

“ Yeah, especially after last night,” Swell said with a knowing smile.

“ Look, Mom’s back,” Torry said, looking out through the living room window. “Guess she changed her mind about flying.”

“ Went to the airport and came right back,” her twin said.

“ We should go to the mall.”

“ We should go now.”

“ Right.”

The girls grabbed their purses and headed for the front door in time to greet their mother.

“ Hi, Mom,” they said as one.

“ Where are you off to?”

“ The mall.” Torry held out her hand.

Christina dropped her car keys into it.

“ No drive safely speech?” Torry asked.

“ Go.”

“ We’re gone,” both girls said and they were out the door.

Rick watched as Christina closed the door after the girls. She was wearing Levi’s and a faded red tee shirt. Her shoulder length hair was tied back with a matching red bandanna. In the fifteen years that he’d known her, she had never looked better.

“ God, Chris, you look great.”

“ I love you. I’ve been in love with you for years. I just thought you should know.”

It was one thing to hear it from the girls, another to hear if from Christina herself.

“ You don’t have to say anything. I’ve always known you were in love with Ann and that all we could ever be was friends. After she died I was so used to the relationship, you know, the friends thing, that I never imagined anything else. But after last night I can imagine more. I don’t know what exactly, but I can imagine something else.”

“ I love you too,” he said.

“ No you don’t.” She smiled. “Well, maybe you do love me, but you’re not in love with me. There’s a difference.”

“ So what do we do?”

“ Take it one day at a time and see if you fall in love with me.”

“ That shouldn’t be too hard.”

“ Will you keep living in Tampico?”

“ No. There’s nothing holding me there now.” He felt a twinge as soon as the words left his lips.

“ Nothing? How about the girl next door?”

“ There’s nothing between us. And say,” he laughed, “what do you know about the girl next door?”

“ Come on, Judy’s a good friend. They spent last Christmas with us. I know how you love J.P. You must feel something for his mother.”

“ That’s not fair.”

“ Last night was great, probably the best night of my life, but let’s face it, there were times when you weren’t all there. Admit it.”

“ I was there, all there, enjoying every second.”

He saw the lines of tension leave her face and the determined set of her lips relax into a smile and he realized he had a problem. He cared for Christina and was maybe even in love with her, but until she put it into words, he wasn’t aware of how strongly he felt about Judy Donovan.