Charles Willeford - The Way We Die Now

Tiny Bock heaved his bulk from the sandchair.

He stood silently in the clearing for a momentlistening, but all he could hear was the whir of insects and thescuttling of a few foraging wood rats. He folded the redand-greenwebbed chair, took it to the black pickup truck and threw it intothe back. He opened the cab door on the passenger's side andreached for the paper sack on the seat. There were two bolognasandwiches wrapped in oil paper and two hard-boiled eggs in thesack. He unwrapped one of the sandwiches, noticed that the lunchmeat had turned green on the outer edge. He rewrapped the sandwich,put it back in the sack, took one of the hard-boiled eggs. Hecracked open the egg and peeled it, but when he split the egg intwo he realized that the yolk had turned purple and there was astrong smell of sulphur.

Twenty feet away a raccoon, also smelling theegg and the sulphur, rose on its hind legs and waved its forefeet,sniffing the air.

Tiny Bock noticed the raccoon and placed thetwo halves of the egg on a tuft of grass. As Tiny moved to the cabof the truck the raccoon, a female, scurried forward and scooped upthe two egg halves. The coon took the two halves to a muddy pool ofwater and rolled the egg in the water to wash it preparatory toeating. Tiny Bock, who had taken his shotgun from the cab of thetruck, fired once. Eight of the twelve slugs hit the raccoon,reducing it to an unrecognizable spot of fur and blood. Bockreloaded the shotgun before replacing it on the gun rack above theseat.

Listening again, Bock could hear the airplanesound of the airboat long before he saw it. Then he spotted theboat; it was returning to the hammock from a different directionthan he had expected, but Chico de las Mas was heading unerringlytoward Bock and the parked truck. Skimming across the wet sawgrassof the Everglades, it resembled a giant but harmless insect.

Skidding the aluminum boat sideways, Chicostopped short of the dry brushy hammock. After Chico turned theengine off, and the whirling propeller had run down, Bock said,"What took you so long"

"Had a hard time finding a deep enoughsinkhole. But it won't matter. When the rains come this wholearea'll be under a foot of water. You won't be able to drive out tothe hammock here for another six months. I thought I heard ashotgun, but I wasn't sure."

Bock grinned and pointed to what was left ofthe raccoon. "I shot a coon."

The two men pushed the airboat into theclearing and well into the brush on the other side. Chico chainedthe prow of the boat to a cypress tree, and then padlocked thechain. They climbed into the cab of the truck. Chico took the wheeland drove across the dry sands, avoiding occasional puddles, towardthe dirt and oolite access road, some ten minutes away. The accessroad had been built illegally by a group of Naples hunters almostfive years ago in the Big Cypress. They had also planned to build aweekend lodge, but their plans had fallen through, so now the road,a foot above the water level, was a road to nowhere.

"There's blood on the front of your shirt,"Bock said.

"I know." Chico took a bloody Baggie out of hisshirt pocket and handed it to Bock.

"What's this"

Chico laughed. "A bonus. Remember the tall one,the one they called C'est Dieu I cut that out of his asshole."

Bock removed the soggy wad of money from theBaggie, tossed the Baggie out the window. He unfolded and countedthe money. "One ten, and thirty ones. Forty bucks. Did you cut theothers"

"Didn't have to. I've been watching them close,and no one ever let old C'est Dieu out his sight. Always one or twowith him. So I knew he was holding it for all of 'em."

Bock folded the bills and put them into hisback pocket. "There's a couple of bologna sandwiches left in thesack if you want 'em."

"Sinking Haitians in a swamp is hard work, Mr.Bock. I thought we'd drive into Immokalee and get a decent meal atthe cafeteria." Chico slowed down, ripped off his shirt and tossedit out the window.

"Why not But you won't be able to eat in thecafeteria without a shirt."

"I'll buy a T-shirt at the sundry store. It'sno big deal."

When he reached the access road, Chico got ontothe raised road without any trouble using first gear. The road ranwest for two miles before it met the state highway. Chico turnednorth and headed for Immokalee.