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The woods weren’t as easy to maneuver through on a four-wheeler as I had thought it would be. The old wooden sleigh I’d hitched to the back of it made it even tougher, dead vines and fallen branches catching in the worn blades so often that I almost left it where I stopped for the fifth time to pull it free. The thought of Jonas’s decaying body laying against mine on the way back was enough for me to drive on, stopping another three times before I finally ran across the creek I’d found the day before. I silently thanked my father for teaching me to leave markings every fifty paces or so when we hunted.
Every hunter can get lost in his own back yard if he doesn’t pay attention… He had warned time and time again when I’d grumbled about having to stop and tie the little orange markers we carried on every hunting trip. I hadn’t had those little orange markers on the way back, so I’d used my clothing instead, starting with my gloves, and then my scarf, working my way down to only the thin t-shirt and leggings I’d worn under the heavy sweater and jeans. The items I would collect on the return trip home, but for now I was grateful that they still hung frozen to the tips of various tree branches pointing me in the right direction.
My breath caught as I rode alongside the creek, careful not to let the tires get too close to the muddy edge. I was a little further down than I had been when I’d first discovered it, but the scent was unmistakable, stronger and even fouler than I actually remembered it. My heart sunk as the dock finally came into view, my eyes scanning the water’s surface for a sign of Jonas or the blue color that had ran so vividly through it the day before. His mourning song continued to echo in my head, but I knew it was only the memory of it, pulling me as it has pulled on me all last night. Maybe I’d scared him with the motor, I realized, braking immediately and switching off the ignition.
“Jonas…?” I called from where I sat, listening intently for anything that sounded like an answer.
Silence continued, unbroken, with the exception of the occasional call of a bird or a chattering chipmunk. My footsteps where plain to see all around the bank, some set deeper in the melting snow than others, but all mine. He hadn’t walked away so where was he? I wondered as I climbed from the four-wheeler, casting a quick glance behind me to make sure I was all alone.
“Jonas…?” I whispered again as I reached the dock, kneeling so that I could look underneath the rotting planks.
My stomach heaved, bile rising in my throat before I could hold my breath against the stench that greeted me. There just beneath the water’s murky surface, hidden mostly by the dock, I caught a glimpse of his face, fully submerged, as was his body.
“Jonas…” I tried again, breathing only through my mouth as I knocked on the side of the dock with my hand.
He’s alive!
I sighed in relief as a tiny splash sounded underneath me, a little further down the dock. His body turned slowly, still fully submerged, but more visible as he pulled himself along the river’s bottom, out into the open.
“Give me your hand,” I instructed, leaning as far over as I could, without actually getting in the water.
For a moment it seemed as if he’d heard me, his injured arm still caught in the mesh trap, reaching, but settling before it lifted the short distance to the surface. I’d hoped that I wouldn’t have to get wet again today, but I’d planned for it, packing an extra change of clothes in the backpack I normally carried my books for school in. I tossed it aside now, removing my coat, and Jo’s borrowed turtleneck sweater before I lowered to the edge of the dock, my booted feet resting just on top of the water. There was no bracing myself for the chilling shock that immobilized me the second my legs and waist were fully submerged, the top half of my body curling against the cold that claimed me as I fought to stay upright.
I was les than two feet away from where Jonas lay on the bottom, but unlike yesterday, there was no warmth waiting to heat my chilled skin as I approached. His essence, as he called it, was barely visible now, the water around him so murky, that it nearly swallowed the thin trails of blue outlining his body. My skin crawled as my fingers brushed his outstretched hand, the outer coating of slime making it difficult to grasp his wrist as tightly as I needed to pull him closer to me. I had no choice but to wade further in, my entire body shaking from the cold as I straddled him, careful not to let my water laded boots scrape across his injured back.
He moved easily at first, his weight lifted by the water as I moved him slowly towards the bank, but our momentum was short lived as his body began to drag along the bottom, bringing forth the first sounds I’d heard from him since I’d arrived.
“Just a little closer…” I crooned now, failing miserably at hiding the repeated gags that seized my throat as his head lifted to the surface.
His electric blue eyes were now a murky gray, clouded over so that the whites were no longer visible when his lids opened fully. His stare was blank, his face translucent enough that I could see the myriad of deep purple veins that ran beneath. What are you doing?! I questioned myself now as I fell against the bank, breathless from the effort it had taken to get him partially out of the water. I had no idea what kind of medical attention he would need, or if there was even anything I could do to help him. He’d said that he needed the salt of the ocean to survive, and the only thing I’d been able to find that came close was a stack of Celtic sea salt blocks that Martin Pernickle kept hidden in the back of the shed for deer season. I’d seen him carrying the big square blocks into the woods, but never knew what they were until I’d stumbled upon them while looking for gas for the four-wheeler. I had two of them dissolving in a lukewarm bathtub full of water back at the Pernickle’s house, but how I would get him there and into it was another issue entirely.
“I’m…I’m going to have to drag you…” I stuttered now, my teeth chattering so loudly that I doubted he understood me. “I’ll back the sleigh up as far as I can, but if you can help…” I trailed off as his eyes closed slowly, his body slack again.
There was no rise and fall of his chest to let me know that he was still breathing, but with him partially out of the water I could now see three tiny slits just below his rib cage on either side. They expanded open every few seconds, releasing a trickle of electric blue fluid down his sides and into the water. Gills…? I wondered with a shake of my head, crawling up the bank and out of the water.
He’d come around again by the time I backed the four-wheeler up, close enough for the sleigh to hang partially over the edge, but there was no response when I explained to him how I planned to get him on it. I expected to hear a scream of pain once I started dragging him by his wrist up the root covered embankment, but he didn’t make a sound. The rope that I’d brought with me, I looped around him once I had him laying vertical against the bank, the other end I wrapped around my own waist for leverage, lifting with every bit of energy that I had left. He was much heavier than I’d expected any man to be, and my back protested as I struggled against the pull that threatened to send us both tumbling back into the shallow water.
“Hold on…” I managed to grit out, more for myself than to him, knowing that he was in no condition to even try and help me.
I pulled and pulled again, turning away from him so that I could dig my heels into the soft ground, inching him up until the top portion of his body lay at the back of the sleigh. Stars dotted my eyes from the strain of lifting so much weight, but I’d made it this far, and was determined to get him up and off the ground. Jo would surely question where her comforter had disappeared too, but it had been the only blanket in the house thick enough to cover the rough wood. I hurried now, throwing it over him and then using the corners to flip him over so that his weight pinned it down. His head lolled to one side, now on his belly as I dragged him the rest of the way up, falling to the frozen ground as soon as the tip of his tail appeared at the banks edge.
My chest had erupted into a fiery burn, sending shooting pains through my sides and back as I struggled to ca
tch my breath. My clothing had all but frozen on my body in the cool winter air, stiff and hard as I struggled to free myself of them from where I lay. I was surprised to find my skin tinged blue and purple, numb to the fact that I’d probably been in the water much too long. It took everything in me to tip toe through the snow on bare feet, the cold threatening to claim me at any moment. The sweater and coat that I’d shed, I donned first, followed by Martin Pernickle’s borrowed coveralls and thick wool socks. It wasn’t enough to warm me instantly, but I felt less chilled as I pulled on the dry pair of borrowed rubber boots I’d found in the shed.
Jonas remained unmoving as I wrapped him tightly in the comforter, rolling him side to side until I’d gotten the rope securely tied in place. The sleigh was low enough to the ground that I only had to get his shoulders up and onto the edge before I used the top loose portion of the thick blanket to drag his body into position. He was heavy enough that I didn’t worry about him falling off, but I knew we would never make it back through the woods the way I’d come in. It had felt like only a couple hours since I’d left the house, but a quick look at my watch told me that I was already four hours in, and only had another four to go before the twins and Roman would arrive on the bus.
I had no choice but to follow the creek, well past the Pernickle’s property line, ending up on the perimeter of a neighboring cow pasture before I could safely maneuver the four-wheeler back in the direction of home.
“Just a little longer… We’re almost there…” I whispered as the drone of Jonas’s song caught in the wind, low, but no longer mournful.
Meant to die, banned from my home, help arrive, please hear my song…