Veiled Eyes

  Explosives, Anna. It was another thought pattern, one she didn’t recognize, all slurred as though the sender was drunk. All the explosives didn’t go off, right?

  No, more than half of them didn’t. Sebastien said it was because the det cord must have gotten wet. A vision of a jail appeared in Anna’s head. Bars blocked her view. Someone was snoring behind her. What the—?

  Oui, Sebastien was always a poor explosives man. Once he almost blew up his own foot. Never had the respect for the power of the bang. You know I shouldn’t be able to help you like this, but the entire family is broadcasting like a satellite dish, non?

  Alby? What are you doing in jail? Anna dog paddled. I don’t have a lot of time for an arbitrary discussion. I got big troubles.

  Oui. Oui. I can feel it. But you can use the explosives to blow the cracks bigger. There’s only a little problem with that.

  The explosives, Anna sighed with the pleasure of a new doable idea. Excepting that I don’t know jack diddlysquat about explosives.

  Alby’s thoughts were dismissively patronizing. Tut. Well I do.

  Alby, tell me what to do quickly. The clock is running down.

  * * *

  Gabriel was peripherally aware of what was happening. He was digging with a small collapsible military shovel that someone had produced out of the back of a truck. It was less than the size of a dessert plate but he was making some progress. Then he froze. The explosives, Anna thought blissfully. Excepting that I don’t know jack diddlysquat about explosives.

  Then came Alby’s response. Tut. Well I do.

  Alby, tell me what to do quickly. The clock is running down.

  Non! Gabriel would have screamed it if he could have. Non! Anna, you’ll blow yourself up. Alby, don’t do this!

  Someone put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, and he angrily shook it off. He resumed digging, brushing the dust off his face with a forearm. “Trust Alby,” came Lee Vildibill’s calm voice. “He was an expert in explosives when the mine was closed. He could have worked anywhere in the country, but you know why he didn’t wish to leave the lake.”

  The water’s rising, Gabriel. Anna’s thoughts were serene, accepting. Ten feet, and I won’t have any more air. I can try this, or I can drown. The opening is blocked by a ton of salt rock. We have to try.

  Don’t you die on me, Anna! Gabriel returned, finding a new source of anger from which to draw.

  Anna’s thought was amused. I’ll do my best. There was a hesitation. Whistling man. The nickname was meant to be reassuring but came out heartfelt. Tell me what to do, Alby.

  Safety cord will burn underwater, Anna, came Alby’s immediate response. For someone who had consumed an amazing quantity of alcohol his thoughts suddenly became remarkably organized. Find some of the safety cord that isn’t ignited, if you can. There will be secondary fuses on the ends of the det cord which did not go off. We’ll use that to blow it up. Did he use dynamite or something else?

  I wouldn’t know dynamite if it bit me on the ass, Alby.

  Okay then. Float on over to the ceiling and find some of that stuff what ain’t blown up, and I’ll tell you ‘xactly what to do with it.

  Anna was following Alby’s directions when the walls began to shudder again. It was a rhythmic thud, as if something was beating on a drum. Instantly it reminded her of her first time inside the mines where something huge had stirred in the shadows of the tunnel and caused a great boom of noise as it moved. It was as if it had waited for Anna to come, and it had waited for Anna to return.

  She hesitated and thought, What the hell is happening up there?

  Gabriel didn’t answer right away. The family was waiting, expecting something new to occur, as the earth was going to renew its frantic struggle to overcome man. The earth is shaking again. They say the lake is draining away into a great hole even while the rest of the lake turns in a great swirl. Two news copters from Shreveport are lighting it up with spotlights. Everyone at the festival can see it.

  That’s not the earth shaking, Anna thought. Someone’s knocking at the door. She dismissed it even while bits of salt rock rained down upon her head, and she worked, holding the flashlight between her shoulder and neck and frantically kicking her legs to keep her afloat.

  When she was finished, Alby thought, You’ll have five seconds, Anna. With nothing to light it, I can’t do no better. Sorry gal. Cover your ears after you pull it and kick off. The water will protect you some.

  Anna, came Gabriel’s warning thought. Regret floundered there, accompanied by the pain of impending loss.

  Don’t, Gabriel. Anna plugged the hole with the same putty she’d pulled out and grabbed the flashlight with her left hand. Don’t have time for regret. She took a deep breath and yanked at the fuse igniter that had been attached to what Alby had told her was C4 in the holes. There was an immediate smell of sulfur, but she was already turning away, her feet shoving her away from the wall, her arms speedily pinwheeling her body as far away as possible. Her feet kicked once and then twice. There was a countdown in her mind. She wasn’t sure if it were Gabriel or Alby or someone else.

  Five. She kicked again hard and found something in her path. It was the top of a vehicle that was still floating close to the surface. Four. Anna found the strength to shove herself across the roof of the car. Three. She dipped under the surface of the water. Two.

  There wasn’t a one. The C4 blew up.

  * * *

  The ground shuddered again, and Gabriel stopped moving. The little shovel dropped to the ground and he waited. There were distant screams. The people at the festival were thinking it was some kind of terrorist event and other bombs were going off. They were half-correct, anyway. There was an intense pressure that he felt, Anna’s pressure. Something shoved against her body and cartwheeled her head over heels until she smacked against something else. The flashlight dropped out of her hand, knocked by something she never saw and then came utter blackness.

  Gabriel dropped to his knees. He closed his eyes and wished for the moment to pass him by so that he would never be in that place again. Then his eyes shot open. He glanced around him, looking at men and women who were frozen in place, waiting, watching him. “Oh mon Dieu!” he cried out.

  * * *

  Anna floundered in the water. There was a terrific force that shoved her body away, thrusting her into something else. The water rippled under the surface. Something knocked against her hand, and the flashlight plummeted away. She shot upwards, powerless to stop herself and found a tiny air pocket in the apex of the excavation. Full of salt dust, she choked on the air as she breathed it in. It began to settle after a moment and she blinked several times, trying to adjust to the darkness.

  It wasn’t completely dark. Anna blinked again. There was a light that was sporadically filtering through a large hole that she’d created. It fluttered as if someone was casting a light around searching for her from above. It wavered and flickered but stayed bright.

  The chamber was full except for Anna’s little pocket of air. Her entire body hurt, and she thought her eardrums might have burst, but she was alive, and there was a great hole through which light was showing. She took a deep breath, pushed it out, and took another one. A third one, pulling all the air she could into her lungs, she ducked into the water headed for the hole surrounded with a halo of bright white light.

  Anna kicked as hard as she could. She exhaled a little as she went up, passing through areas of collapsed mine where the salt had systematically been removed, and only salt pillars had remained to hold up the weight. The light became brighter, and an inane thought crossed through her mind. Have I been down there all night? Is that sunlight above?

  She kept kicking. The light became even brighter. Then something large moved above her and came between her and the light. For a second, Anna thought it was a piece of debris, but the light billowing down from above disclosed its specific shape and its identity. In shock, she opened her mouth for a second and closed it just as fast to preven
t her air from leaking away. She floated in space, stunned into motionlessness for a moment.

  A dozen feet long, as big around as an elephant’s belly, it obscured everything and paused above her.

  Goujon’s yellow eyes burned at her in the blackness of the lake. A leisurely flip of his tail, and the light reappeared, causing the great fish to vanish into the blackness. Anna forgot to kick. She exhaled a little air, a remnant of her training from that day of Resort Scuba diving, and resumed her ascent. Looking up at the light so far away, it seemed like it would be forever before she reached the surface.

  Then a great shape moved to one side of her, and the giant catfish was beside her, one eye upon her rising figure. Anna forgot to kick again. A slimy surface touched her skin as he slowed to a stop beside her. His fantastic whiskers tickled at her flesh. Not at all afraid, one of her hands went out to touch him. As soon as her fingers touched his smoothly scaled skin, he moved, swifter than she would have ever imagined. One second he was at her side, a vast behemoth with eyes the color of a burnished coin, the next he was under her, pushing her upwards.

  Helping me, Anna thought curiously. He wanted me to discover the Benoits’ secrets. It was he who pounded on the walls, crumbling the earth away. Her body rushed upward, propelled along with unimaginable force. Her lungs burned with effort. She was almost out of air. Then her head popped out of the water, and she took a wondrous gulp of air. It was like manna from heaven.

  She looked around her inquisitively and found she was floating in a great crater, sixty feet in diameter and growing. It was the top of the collapsed mine and the bottom of the lake. A new level was forming. Water spilled in over the edges of the crater, a gigantic circular waterfall, gradually filling the crater. It roared around her, the cry of a colossal animal, while she bobbed up and down in the center of it, relatively safe from being pounded by the rushing water.

  Anna tried to look into the water around her, but she already knew that Goujon was gone, exploring the realms of his new kingdom.

  Far above her head, two helicopters circled, the sources of light that had guided Anna. Their spotlights were focused on the crater and the massive event that was taking place. One spotlight flittered over her, stopped abruptly and swung back to her, fixing squarely on her form. Anna floated in the water, incapable of doing anything else. Suddenly a car seat made of vinyl and foam bobbed to the surface beside her. She sighed. It was ragged and looked filthy, but it would support her until someone managed to pull her out. She hooked an arm through a hole in the upholstery and let her aching legs rest from their concerted efforts.

  Anna?

  Still here, Gabriel. Anna’s thoughts were weary. These life-threatening things. I think we need to stop these. They make me very tired. You won’t believe who swam by to give me a hand. She almost chuckled. Not a hand. A fin. No, a tail. The spotlights were blinding her, and she blinked for a moment. She waved at the helicopters to let them know that she really needed assistance.

  Huh?

  Gabriel, there’s a really big hole in the middle of the lake.

  Yes, I noticed.

  I’m in it. Dog paddling. Get me out. Did I mention that I love you?

  I’ll be right there. I know you love me, just the way you know that I love you too.

  Anna sighed again. He could feel her innate relief. He knew that while she was not out of the soup yet, she was out of the depths of the mine and far safer than she had been. He almost felt like whistling. Go ahead, she urged him. Whistle. You have a nice whistle.

  Anna. Shut up and dog paddle.

  So she did.

  Epilogue

  Saturday, March 20th

  It’s said that a young woman can bring the rain by dipping a twig made of oak in shallow water and sprinkling it over dry land.

  “It’s raining again,” said Anna. She stood on Gabriel’s porch and looked out over the lake. In the last month the water had filled up the great depression of the collapsed mine, and then to everyone’s surprise, it had risen over the crater, and the lake had begun to fill again. An early season of rain had helped. In a few more weeks the lake would almost look the same as it had before. Its only difference was that it was hundreds or so feet deeper.

  “Good,” said Gabriel. He sat down in the Adirondack chair and stared at Anna. She wore a blue dress that complimented her curving figure, and he was suddenly reminded of how grateful he was to have her. A vision of her being pulled up out of the crater by the Coast Guard’s rescue unit came to him, and she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

  “That was hardly the worst part,” she said.

  His lips tightened for a moment. It was all worst. “At least the tourists have started to trickle off now. The reporters have gone on to their next big story.”

  Anna chuckled and turned her head back to look at the rain coming down. “I’ve heard more than a few of the family complaining about the sheer number of visitors to the area. Come to see the lake that drained away down a hole. Right in the middle of a Mardi Gras festival. It makes for a great story.”

  “And Jane came charging up that very day,” added Gabriel, “wanting to know why I’d thrown you down into a mine. She was determined that it had to be all my fault.”

  “She thinks I’m keeping something from her.” Anna rested a hand on the column that supported the roof of the porch and smiled out at the rain filling the lake. “She was so shocked when she saw the footage of the Coast Guard getting me out. Didn’t even recognize me at first. Wanting to know who hit me in the jaw.”

  Gabriel muttered something under his breath. Anna’s smile increased. She said, “I’m sure you could have rescued me, if you’d been given a little more time.”

  He muttered something else.

  Anna said, “What?”

  “I said, I called the Coast Guard.”

  “And a damn fine job you did too,” she said sincerely. Anna continued to gaze at the lake, wondering if she should tell Gabriel a really big fish story. He caught the thought.

  A really big fish story?

  Almost as big as your boat.

  Gabriel frowned. He looked around her lovely form at the lake. I don’t know how many fish are left in the lake now.

  One anyway.

  Gabriel shrugged behind her. She felt his movements rather than saw them. Phideaux was playing on the lawn trying to bite raindrops. The dog bit at a rain drop and then bounced off, all cream- and cinnamon-colored fur.

  “You know, you haven’t fixed my truck yet,” he said.

  “Uh – maybe if you could find it first.”

  “Well, the elders have got you so busy practicing with your gifts anyway. Which reminds me, you know Lee Vildibill? He’s got a cancerous lump on his arm. You need to tell him about it. If he gets it taken care of in the next month, it won’t be a problem. I caught that the last time you were working with him.”

  Anna turned around and plopped herself down in Gabriel’s lap. “That’s a useful gift.”

  Gabriel made a face. He reached up and toyed with the black pearl hanging around her slender neck. “Sometimes. Last week you were talking to Jereme, and you don’t want to know what’s going to happen to him.”

  “What?” She poked his chest. “Something bad?”

  “Let’s just say the next time he fools around on his girlfriend, he’s going to wish he looked a little closer at the ‘girl’ he picks up.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Oui.” Gabriel kissed Anna’s ear. “I’m going to have to learn to keep my mouth shut.”

  Anna leaned back against his chest and let him nibble along her earlobe. “You know I dreamt of a funeral last night.”

  Gabriel froze. “Really?”

  “Yes. Maybe you did too.”

  “I admit nothing,” he said resolutely.

  “Your mother hints every time she sees me. She thinks it’s me who’s holding back.”

  Gabriel sat up straight, and Anna almost fell off his lap. She grasp
ed his biceps and pulled herself back upright. “It is you who’s holding back,” he protested vehemently. “I’ve asked you a half-dozen times.”

  “You know,” she said as he settled back in the chair. One hand stroked her hair gently. “I’ve been wondering something.”

  “What’s that?” Gabriel was eyeing her delectable earlobe again.

  “So what happens when I give birth to a child?”

  Gabriel turned her head with his hand and stared intently at her ingenuous face. “Are you pregnant?”

  “Just wondering. You know. I felt your pain in your palm. You felt the scratch along my arm, among other things. They say that giving birth can be very…painful.” Anna was the epitome of innocence.

  “I think I’ll visit China,” he said at last.

  Anna smiled to herself. “Look,” she said, “a rainbow. You know, seeing a rainbow while it’s still raining is supposed to be good luck.”

  Gabriel tightened his grip on Anna and muttered, “We’ll see about that.”

  – THE END –

  About the Author

  C.L. Bevill has lived in Virginia, Texas, Arizona, and Oregon. She once was in the U.S. Army and a graphic illustrator. She holds degrees in social psychology and counseling. She is the author of Bubba and the Dead Woman, Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas, Bubba and the Missing Woman, Veiled Eyes, Disembodied Bones, and Shadow People, among others. Presently she lives with her husband and daughter in Alabama and continues to constantly write. She can be reached at www.clbevill.com or you can read her blog at www.carwoo.blogspot.com.

  Other Novels by C.L. Bevill

  Mysteries:

  Bubba and the Dead Woman

  Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas

  Bubba and the Missing Woman

  Brownie and the Dame (A Novella)

  Bubba and the Mysterious Murder Note

  Bayou Moon

  Paranormal Suspense/Romance:

  Lake People Novels:

  Veiled Eyes (Lake People 1)

  Disembodied Bones (Lake People 2)

  Arcanorum: A Lake People Novel (Lake People 3)

  The Moon Trilogy: