This time Rudy sprinkled
the water on with a different, spicier smelling branch. The steam
and heat was about double the intensity as the first
round.
I shuffled further back
from the stones until my back hit the wall of the tent. The tarp
stung my back with its heat. I wondered if it came close to
melting.
“
You can lie down,” Rudy
said in the darkness as the steam grew stronger, the hissing noise
filling the space above us. “You too, Dex.”
I lay on my side, wanting
some respite from the heat. I immediately regretted it. Yes, it was
a smidge cooler but I was covered in sweat from head to toe and
having to lay down on the dirt floor, I was pretty sure a layer of
mud now covered my side.
I felt Dex moving around
beside me and suddenly one of his arms landed on my
head.
“
Hey,” I cried
out.
He giggled, his voice heavy
and breathy. “Sorry. Not much room here, kiddo.”
He adjusted himself but
ended up propping himself up on his elbow just behind my head. It
felt nice knowing he was there, in the darkness, at my
back.
Rudy went on to recite a
few more prayers. His words slowly faded and I could almost see
them floating up with the steam to the roof of the hut.
“
So,” he said slowly in
English, his accent thick at first. “You two aren’t married, are
you?”
Uh. Busted?
“
How could you tell?” I
asked sheepishly but with great effort. It was becoming harder to
talk.
I heard Rudy snort for the
first time. “I do not need to be a medicine man to see
that.”
I could hear Dex breathing
behind me. He wasn’t saying anything. What could we say
anyway?
“
For one,” Rudy went on,
“your wedding rings left no tan lines on your fingers. Which means
that you don’t usually wear them. For another, you do not act like
a married couple.”
“
What do we act like?” Dex
asked. Oh man, Dex, why did you have to ask that? I did not want to
hear the answer.
Rudy was silent. Then he
said, “You act like people who are forever on their first
date.”
If I had any doubt that
that was true, it was quickly erased by the imminent awkward cloud
hanging over our heads. I kind of liked that analogy Rudy used. I
certainly felt it. But it probably didn’t do me any good in Dex’s
head.
Yet, I felt him move behind
me until his mouth was behind my ear.
“
How’s our date going
then?” he whispered. I could hear the lightness in his
voice.
“
It’s
like
Groundhog Day
,” I answered back without turning my head. I kept my eyes
focused on the stones.
“
It’s good,” Rudy said. “I
know you did all of this on behalf of the Lancasters. I’m sure some
would frown upon that but I can see that you didn’t want to offend
them and acted out of the goodness of your hearts.”
Yeah. That was it. But that
reminded me.
“
Do you know if Maximus is
still in town?” I asked. It occurred to me that Dex hadn’t heard
from him at all that morning.
I could almost hear Rudy
nod. “Yes he is gone. He was sorry to go but he couldn’t
stay.”
My heart felt a bit heavy
at that, like the last chance to get out was gone and a helping
hand had vanished. As much as I trusted Bird and Rudy, Maximus was
an outsider like Dex and I, and even though he obviously came into
this situation with his own agenda, I still knew he was on our
side. He had been looking out for me, if not Dex.
Rudy went back into the
chanting and prayers for a while. I was starting to get incredibly
thirsty. I could hear Dex panting heavily behind me. If I wasn’t so
damn uncomfortable , I would have gotten some pretty sexy thoughts
from that. But alas, I could barely move or breathe without feeling
gross and exhausted. Maybe all the toxins were coming out of my
pores, along with the so-called evilness.
“
OK,” we heard Rudy say. He
patted on the side of the tent.
“
Time for a break, Bird,”
he called out. We waited for the zipper to open. There was
nothing.
Rudy cleared his throat and
shuffled towards the tent door, yelling louder, “Bird, please open
the door now. We need water.”
The only sound was the
hissing of the rocks. As they glowed redder and redder, the sound
got louder and louder. I had a funny feeling. They shouldn’t be
getting hotter, should they?
Rudy sighed, annoyed. “Must
have gone to the washroom.”
In the darkness we heard
him shuffle away from the fire, then it sounded like he was trying
to unzip the tent door from the inside. I waited for that loud zip
of serrated teeth and the blinding flash of light but there was
nothing. Only the suffocating darkness.
Rudy mumbled something in
Navajo and started pulling at something. The tent
rattled.
I felt Dex straighten up.
“What is it? Do you need help?”
“
I should be OK, it’s
probably just stuck. It’s an old tent.”
Suddenly the rocks hissed
loudly, louder than it had ever been. I turned to look at them.
They glowed brighter until every single rock in the pit was a fiery
piece of hot scarlet. They hissed and steamed as if someone was
pouring buckets of water on them. They hissed and steamed as if
they were angry at us.
“
What’s going on?” I cried.
I leaned back and felt Dex put his hands on my arms, pulling me up
slightly so I was back on my heels.
Rudy started chanting very
loudly in Navajo. The rocks were now giving off enough light that I
could see his hazy, grainy figure off to the side. He was facing
the fire and waving his arms at it, yelling unrecognizable
words.
The rocks only hissed
louder and the heat that came off of them felt like an invisible
hand coming to choke me. Sweat piled off my forehead and stung my
eyes.
Then the walls of the tent
started shaking violently. The willow branches overhead creaked and
groaned.
Rudy crawled for his bag
and his bucket of water. He took the bucket of water and turned it
over the stones in hopes to put them out. Only no water came out of
the bucket. No, it wasn’t water at all.
Hundreds of small scorpions
came tumbling out of it, landing on the stones and making a dash
towards us.
I have never moved so fast
in my life. We screamed bloody murder and jumped to our feet. My
head collided with the low ceiling and I heard more branches crack.
I didn’t care. We had to get out of there, even if we took the
whole tent down with me.
“
Don’t panic!” Rudy yelled
at us.
Too fucking late. I
couldn’t breathe, I could barely see. We were trapped. I blindly
tried to run into the walls to escape. I could feel the scorpions
pinching at my feet with their little claws, aware that those
venom-tinged hooks were waiting to jab me at any second.
Dex started breaking the
branches off the walls, as eager to get out of the tent as I. I
joined him, hoping from one foot to another, and concentrating on
getting out of there, futilely grabbing at the walls in the
darkness.
“
Do you have a knife?” I
cried at him.
“
Does it look like I have a
knife on me?!” he yelled.
“
Hold on, I will get rid of
them,” Rudy said, his voice high and tight. I didn’t believe
him.
I heard him reach for the
sage branches behind us. Then he gasped. Something dropped to the
ground with a
thunk
. Too heavy to be a branch. I was scared to turn around and
look, so I called out, “Rudy?!”
Nothing. Nothing but the
distinct rattle of a rattlesnake’s tail amongst the hiss of the
rocks. I started to think it wasn’t the rocks hissing at all. I
wanted to cry.
Instead I propelled my
energy into getting the tent down. I ripped a branch down with Dex
and there was enough support gone that the side of the tent started
to cave in.
“
Now we run, ready?” Dex
yelled, grabbing my hand. Was I ever. It was pitch black, I was so
hot that I didn’t think I could manage another breath and we were
surrounded by scorpions and perhaps a snake or two. If I didn’t get
out in three seconds, I would lose my mind forever.
We took a few steps
backwards, careful not to step on the stones but unfortunately
unable to miss the sting and crush of the scorpions beneath us. I
ignored the pain and together we ran straight into the wall of the
tent.
As hoped, it started to
give and we could feel the rest of the twigs and branches snapping
as the tarps came loose under our force. We ran feebly, awkwardly,
for a few seconds, going nowhere, until it finally gave away. We
plunged forward. I almost lost my footing as the sheet covered me
like a heavy blanket and weighed me down but Dex pulled me along
and soon we were free. The tarp fell behind us and we were running
into a supernova of bright sunshine.
We ran for a few feet
before collapsing on the ground on our knees. Our hearts could not
take a moment more. I rolled over, trying to catch my breath and
take in the comfort of the open world. Dex got on his fours and had
a coughing fit.
When I felt well enough, I
looked behind me at the tent. It was completely flattened. Bird was
nowhere around but Rudy was still under that tarp. As much as I
didn’t want to go back, we had to help him.
Dex had the same idea. We
got up and approached the tent, our senses heightened.
“
Rudy!” he cried out. We
stopped above a shape in the tarp. It looked like a body lay under
it. I was afraid to look but we both picked up the tarp, expecting
the worst.
There was nothing under
there. The bucket was there, but the bag was gone. There were no
scorpions, no snakes, and no Rudy.
“
What the fuck?” I swore and
put my hand to my head. I looked over at his pile of clothes,
neatly stacked next to ours. Where was he?
Dex was just as
perplexed.
“
I don’t like this,” he
said.
“
What? What’s going
on?”
“
I don’t know but it’s not
good. Not good.” He looked behind him at the house and nodded at
it. “Come on, let’s see if they are inside.”
I followed him into the
house. The backdoor was still open so we let ourselves
in.
I gasped as we turned into
the kitchen.
Boy Boy was standing on top
of the kitchen table, growling at us. The raised, tough hairs on
his back gave him a porcupine effect, and his teeth snarled into
vicious points. His eyes were as wild as I’ve ever seen on a dog
before.
“
Hey Boy Boy,” I said softly
but didn’t make any movements.
“
We can’t even be sure
that’s a dog anymore,” Dex whispered into my ear. It sent a chill
down my spine. What if it never was a dog? Oh god. What if that was
a skinwalker the whole time and he offed Bird and then did
something to Rudy?
Dex pulled me back towards
the door. “We need to leave now.”
I nodded and slowly walked
backward. The dog continued to stand on the table top, growling
like a lawn mower. Drool dripped off of its fangs and fell to the
table top with a sinister splash.
We stepped outside and
closed the door gently until it latched with a click.
WOOF!
Boy Boy jumped up at the
window, inches from my face, snarling and snapping. I screamed in
surprise. Dex ran for the side of the house and pulled me
away.
We rounded the corner and
saw Bird’s truck still in the driveway. Both their cars were
there.
We hopped in the red truck
but of course he hadn’t left his keys in the ignition. If this were
a movie it would have been a different story.
“
Shit, shit, shit,” I said
hitting the dashboard.
“
Calm down,” Dex said and
started ripping wires out of the area beneath the wheel.
“
Are you kidding me?” I
asked. How did he know how to hotwire a car? Oh, nevermind.
Probably took auto-theft classes along with his years of theater
school.
“
It’s an old truck,” he
mumbled and concentrated. I looked out the windshield. I saw Boy
Boy standing by the side of the house, staring us down. He must
have gotten out somehow. I pictured him getting on two legs and
physically opening that door, paws on the handle.
“
Um,” I squeaked to Dex,
“could you do that any faster?”
Dex paused, then kept
going. “The dog’s out there isn’t he?”
“
Uh huh,”
I said through clenched teeth, not wanting to make a single
movement. I realize it wasn’t like
Jurassic Park
, and just because I was
still that didn’t mean he couldn’t see me, but it still felt better
to be on the safe side.
“
Okay, I think-”
“
Dex!” I cried. Boy Boy made
a sudden dash for us and leaped onto the hood of the truck, its
nails screaming across the paint job.