Dave Eggers - The Wild Things

Max backed up. “No,” he said. “I didn’t want that. How did it happen?”

Carol shrugged theatrically. “Who knows? Maybe I know, but maybe I won’t tell. Just like you didn’t tell me you were leaving this island. Are you really going?”

Max nodded.

Carol’s face went soft. “Don’t,” he said quietly.

“I have to,” Max said.

Carol turned around quickly, as if stifling an urge to lunge at Max. He turned back to Max, straining to appear genial. “Okay,” he said, “but will you come over here and put your head in my mouth again?”

Max continued to back up. “No, Carol. I don’t want to right now.” He was intent on creating more space between himself and Carol.

Carol breathed intensely through his nostrils. His face twisted into a pinch. A growl came from deep within. He composed himself and said, evenly, “You’re a failure as a king, Max.”

Carol stepped toward him, baring his teeth. “Look at your fort, ruined, on fire! Is that what you wanted? Look what you’ve done!”

Max stood his ground. “I didn’t burn the fort down.”

“What, you think it’s my fault? It’s my fault that you’re hurtful?” Carol’s eyes were wild. “It’s my fault that this place is torn apart?”

Max said nothing. He took a few steps back. Carol matched each of Max’s backward steps with one forward stride.

“Answer me!” he yelled.

“It’s not my fault,” Max said, and flinched.

“What, it’s my fault that you beat Alexander? It’s my fault that you’re leaving? That you don’t feel safe here? Am I that bad? Am I really that terrible ? Is it my fault your kingdom is a failure ?”

Max plotted an escape. He looked left and right.

“Is it my fault that I have to eat you?” Carol roared, raising his arms. His claws glowed in the firelight.

Max turned to run.

Carol lunged. Max dropped to all fours. Carol missed. Max rolled off the path and scampered off into the woods. He darted through a low, small opening in the dense thicket — too small for Carol to fit through — and now he had a head start. Max ran through the winding woods, Carol’s roaring and heavy footsteps close behind. As he ran, Max had to jump over logs and rocks and duck under low boughs, while he could hear Carol, just behind him, simply steamrolling through it all. Max could hear his breathing, raw and rasping. He was gaining ground.

“Come here!” said a voice, not Carol’s.

It was Katherine, standing in the hollow of a tree. She grabbed Max’s arm and yanked him off the path. She threw him on her back and scampered up the tree.

Carol ran by, growling ferociously. There was nothing left of the former Carol. He was only rage now, all heat and snarl, with the dull and murderous eyes of a shark.

Katherine reached the top of the tree in seconds and Max looked around, at the hills and shores of the island. He felt safe for a moment, but then the tree began shaking. Carol was climbing up, following them.

“Get inside!” Katherine whispered.

“What?”

Katherine had her mouth open, and was trying to shove Max inside.

“Get in!”

“I don’t—”

The shaking grew more violent as Carol grew closer. Max had no choice. He put his arms inside Katherine’s mouth, not unlike he’d done when helping Carol the first night. Immediately Katherine shoved Max the rest of the way in, swallowing him. Max let out a quick squeal and was gone, inside Katherine’s soft stomach.

It was like being dropped into a cloth bag full of wet food. The smell was musty and ripe, a mixture of rotten food and stomach acid. It was dark and stifling, with only the occasional gasp of air or light when Katherine opened her mouth.

Carol thundered close and soon he was on the platform, too, hovering over Katherine. Max felt her leaning back, trying to retain her balance.

“Where is he?” he roared.

Max tried to breathe as quietly as possible.

“Where’s who?” Katherine said.

“Don’t make this worse,” Carol bellowed, now even louder. “Where is he, Katherine?”

“I don’t know!” she shouted, defiant.

“You want me to eat you , too?”

“Go ahead!” she yelled.

Carol shoved her and, with a massive shaking of the platform, Max could tell that Carol had leapt off. But just as Max began to feel relief, there was an explosion of movement and screaming. Carol was back, and the platform creaked and groaned from the strain.

“Give him to me!” Carol yelled.

“He’s not here!” Katherine said, her teeth gritted.

“Wait,” he hissed. “I smell him.”

Max could hear Carol just outside the thin wall of skin and fur that separated the two of them.

“I can smell him on your breath!”

Carol’s huge claw plunged into Katherine’s stomach, grabbing for Max. Max dodged Carol’s paw, jostling around inside Katherine’s belly. Max felt something tense up inside Katherine and suddenly, with a deep grunt of pain, Carol’s hand was gone. Katherine had struck him, it seemed, with all her force, and he’d fallen from the top of the tree, easily two hundred feet down. Max could hear the cracking of branches as Carol descended, trying to break his fall. Finally there was a thump, and a low groan.

“Hold on,” Katherine said to Max, and he felt her leap from the platform and to another. Then another. She jumped high and away, again and again, until Max was sure they had found their way across the island and to safety.

When they were still, Max could smell, faintly, the salt water of the sea. Katherine, with Max in her belly, had escaped all the way to her beach. He was relieved and tired and wanted only to get out and to sail away.

“Is he gone?” Max asked.

“He is,” Katherine said. “We’re safe.”

Max was dazed and short of breath. “I can’t breathe that well in here. Can you get me out?”

Katherine said nothing.

“Katherine?” Max said, louder.

There was no answer.

“Katherine!” he yelled, now pounding on the wall of her stomach.

He began to try to climb the walls of Katherine’s insides, but they were far too slippery. There was nothing to grab onto.

“Katherine?” he asked.

Finally she answered. “What is it, my darling?”

“What are you doing? I need to get out.”

Max heard nothing.

“Katherine?”

There was no response.

“Katherine? Where are you?”

“You’re safe inside,” she said. “I’ll protect you.”

“What?” Max said.

“Don’t you like it in there?” she asked.

“No. Let me out.”

There was another long pause before she spoke again.

“You were a bad king. I can’t let you go.”

“What? I was not a bad king. Katherine, I need to get out.” Max was short of breath and his head was pulsating. “I don’t think I’m supposed to be in here. I can’t breathe.”

“Yes you can,” she insisted. “Why are you doing this to me?” she asked, suddenly outraged. “You don’t love me!”

“That’s not true,” Max said. “Why would you say that?”

“I don’t know!” she wailed.

Max was growing weaker inside, his breathing shallower. He felt very faint.

“Please don’t go, Max. You’re a part of me.”

“I have to go,” he whispered.

There was a pause that seemed interminable. Max found himself growing numb, his fingers tingling, his heart fluttering.

Just as he felt himself dropping into something like sleep, he was lifted toward the light. It was Katherine. She had thrust her arm into her mouth, taking hold of Max by the scruff of his neck. She lifted Max from her stomach and into the air, and carefully deposited him on her lap.