Savage Land (2 page)

Coley had never been around other people much and strangers tended to make her shy and withdrawn. Her quiet ways usually made people forget she was there, which increased her reserve. Almost hypnotized by the back and forth sweep of the wipers, she remembered the day she had been helping Danny go through their mother's trunk about a week after the funeral. Coley hadn't quite understood his excitement at finding that letter at the bottom of a pile of old photographs. With painstaking care he had written this unknown relative, saying a silent prayer that she hadn't died already. When the reply and invitation came just a week ago, Danny had walked into the restaurant where Coley had a job as waitress and, with a jubilant air of satisfaction, told her to quit. How he had hated her working there and the off-colour remarks his naive ‘little’ sister was subjected to. He didn't like the idea that Coley, marked for future beauty in his eyes, should lower herself to serving people who weren't fit to serve her. His conviction had deepened when he had caught Carl making a pass at Coley.

Another roll of thunder reverberated out of the hills, drawing a terrified gasp from Coley. Glancing over at her tightly clasped yet trembling fists, Danny fortified his confidence in his decision.

'We've got to forget everything we've left behind us,’ he said. ‘This is our chance to start a whole new life, to make something of ourselves with nobody around to tell us we can't do it.'

'But we could have done that in San Antoine,’ she replied, gazing earnestly at her brother. ‘With me working, we would have had enough money to get a nicer apartment, and later I could have got a better job. And you had so many friends there.'

'I couldn't stand you working in that place,’ he declared vehemently. ‘And the thought of you marrying one of those “friends” and having a bunch of squalling brats running around makes me sick. No, when you marry, it's going to be somebody respectable who can give you your own home and nice clothes. He's going to be good and decent, not someone like Carl.'

A shudder quaked through Coley as the repulsive memory swept through her. How she had tried to forget that night when Carl had taken her home, saying that Danny was going to be late. She had tried to be polite despite her inner revulsion of him, because he was Danny's friend. She could still remember the way his dark eyes had raked over her as he unlocked the apartment door and barred her entry with a tanned arm. Numbly she had stood silent, a crimson blush coveting her face. She could still hear his mocking laugh as he teased her about her unkissed lips before slipping a slender arm behind her back and drawing her to him. She had tried to push herself away from him, but he had only laughed and forced her face to his. The naked lust in his face had terrified her, but she had been helpless against his animal strength. The opportune arrival of Danny and his strident yell broke the one-sided embrace. In a tightly controlled temper, her brother ordered Carl out, but not before he had winked cockily at Coley.

A fresh onslaught of rain stirred Coley out of her reflection. Silently she watched the headlight beams pick out another water crossing ahead of them. The angry black water swirled menacingly before them as she felt Danny change gears in anticipation. Again in the middle of the crossing were markers with water churning below the three foot mark.

'Danny, it's too deep!’ she cried. ‘We'll never make it across!’
 

Her brother's face was ashen as they inched their way through the water. Her breathing stopped while the swift current swayed the back end. They were almost on the other side when the motor died. Gasping, Coley turned her terrified eyes to Danny and watched him vainly attempt to start it again. It was no use. The dull hum of the starter foretold the futility despite earnest pleadings from the driver. In a fit of anger, Danny jerked the key out of the ignition and looked at Coley sitting petrified on the opposite side of the car.

'I'm sorry, Coley,’ he muttered. ‘We'll have to leave the car. Let me get out my side first.'

Rolling down his window, Danny squirmed out the narrow opening into the swirling dark waters. Coley watched him make his way through the driving rain around to her side. Storms had always terrified her and being stranded afoot in one of such violence sent an earthquake through her body. Bravely she crawled through her window to Danny's waiting arms.

'I can walk,’ she protested faintly when Danny continued carrying her until they were out of the stream. Watching the rain stream down his troubled face as he stood her up, she added, ‘I'm all right, Danny. I can make it.'

He smiled proudly at her already rain-soaked head inches below his before searching the cloud-darkened countryside. His gaze stopped at the faint outline of a plateau with an overhanging section of rock.

Pointing towards it, he instructed, ‘Do you see that place where the rocks jut out over that high area? I want you to go there and wait for me. I saw a lane back on the other side and it might lead to a house and help.'

'No, Danny, let me come with you,’ Coley cried. ‘I'm not a child, I can make it.'

'There's no sense in both of us going,’ he replied. ‘I'll come back for you just as soon as I can.'

He didn't give her any further opportunity to protest, but immediately waded into the swollen waters of the crossing. Coley stretched out her arm to him, then drew it back to cover her mouth as she watched him disappear into the flooding waters. He was swimming now as a glimpse of his white face appeared to her in the midst of another flash of lightning. The swift, churning current dragged him downstream, but her impatient eyes saw him reach the other side and struggle on to the bank. Gratefully, Coley saw him wave that he was okay and cup his hands to call to her, but his voice was carried away by the thunder. He was probably reassuring her that he would be back, and she waved in answer. Then he was gone, swallowed up in the blackness of the land.

Silently she stood watching the empty road until a bolt of lightning crashed again to the ground, jolting her out of her immobility. Conscious of her sodden dress and the chilling cold creeping into her bones. Coley struck out for the shelter Danny had pointed out to her. It looked farther away now than it did before and she cast a rueful glance down at her sandals as she set out. Determined not to lose her way, she picked out landmarks, a yucca plant here, farther on a willow, all in a straight line with her destination. Her long legs doggedly placed one foot in front of the other ignoring the slippery, muddy ground.

Four times Coley stopped and wiped the rain from her face to peer through the sheets of water at her goal. Panting now with the cold beginning to chatter her teeth, she pushed on until she reached the bottom of the hill. The slope up was a lot steeper than it looked. With water oozing out of the spongy ground, she knew she would have to crawl up the hill. Coley gazed back forlornly to the road, but her vision was obscured twenty feet around her by the rain. She couldn't even see the top of the hill except when the lightning illuminated the sky with its eerie forked tongue. Sighing her despair, she turned to the hill.

If only she could have gone with Danny, she thought, but she knew she would never have made it across. She couldn't swim.

The slick-soled sandals couldn't find a foothold in the slimy hill, reducing Coley to clawing her way with her hands and pushing herself up with her knees. Her new nylons were in shreds and her best dress stained with mud. Her breath came in panic-born sobs as she fought to keep herself from sliding back. She was almost at the top. Gasping in the rain-laden air, she dug her long fingers into the ground to pull herself closer.

A hand grabbed hold of her arm; another caught her under the opposite shoulder and she was on top! A faint laugh escaped between her gasps for breath as Coley took a muddy hand to wipe the hair out of her face. ‘Danny-made it. He's already here,’ her thoughts cried.

'Oh, Danny!’ she sobbed aloud, just as a silver-gold tongue of lightning licked a nearby hill. The words froze in her throat. Standing before her was a tall, dark form with a cape billowing sinisterly about him, a hat pulled low on his face, but not so low that Coley couldn't see the short stubble of a dark beard and the haunting hollows of his eyes during that brief flash. Behind him loomed a shiny black horse, his head tossing and his hooves pawing viciously at the ground.

Recovering her wits, Coley managed to stammer, ‘My br-brother went ... our car...'

'I saw it,’ was the abrupt reply. His voice was deep and sharp.

Coley watched in petrified silence as the stranger swung into the saddle. Was he going to leave her? Nudging the prancing horse over beside her, he lowered a shiny-coated arm to her. Frightened, she started to step back.

'Come on!’ Impatience growled through his words. ‘We can't stay in the rain all night.'

He didn't really expect her to get on that horse, she thought. She'd never been on a horse in her life! But common sense had moved her hand into his and she was effortlessly swung up in front of him.

'W-where are we going?’ stuttered Coley as he tucked the front of his rain slicker, that she had thought a cape, around her to afford her as much protection as was possible from the downpour.

'There's an old lineshack on the other side of the hill,’ he replied, an arm holding her slight, boyish figure closely to him. He nudged his horse into a walk and despite the strength of his arm, Coley felt her perch, so high off the ground, rather precarious especially with the rolling motion of the horse's shoulders.

The warmth of the stranger's body slowly seeped into her, though she shivered helplessly in her wet dress. His broad shoulders dwarfed her with their immensity and her rain-soaked brown hair felt the occasional brush of hair from his unshaven chin. Coley's heart pounded wildly at the closeness of the forbidding stranger, compounded by the violent storm that turned the most innocent objects into sinister shapes. The splintering crashes of lightning, the death drums of the thunder and the rhythmic slush-slushing of the horse's hooves were the only sounds to accompany the rainfall.

'What—what are you doing out here?’ Coley finally asked, almost suffocated by the quietness of her rescuer.

'Looking for dumb animals.’ His reply was sarcastic and sharp.

A spark of indignation flamed briefly in Coley before she asserted, ‘My brother went to get help. He'll be back soon with someone to help him pull the car out and get it started.'

'Not in this weather he won't,’ his voice growled just above her ear. ‘Besides, I saw your car floating away just before I saw you. The water's too high now for any kind of travelling, so wherever your brother went, he's stranded for the night the same as we are.'

Through the gruffness and censure of his voice, Coley recognized an educated tone and considered her companion in a new light. She started to speak again, but stopped when the looming outline of a building appeared before them. Halting his mount in front of the gloomy shack, the man lowered Coley to the ground before he dismounted to nestle her under the crook of his arm, his slicker an umbrella over her head. He half carried her beneath the overhang where he stopped and put a shoulder to the swollen door. Grudgingly it opened, yawning its blackness in their face. Hesitantly, Coley followed the impatient beckoning of his hand into the void. Her bright, wondering eyes peered uselessly around as she clutched her arms tightly about her while the stranger walked directly to his left where the scrape of a match gave birth to a light. It flickered dimly for a moment inside the chimney of a lantern before spreading its cheerful rays to all but the darkest corners of the room. Coley watched numbly as the lantern was carried over to rest near the centre of the room. Without wasting motion, the stranger knelt before the fireplace and after the first crackle of flame devouring paper, began adding wood from a nearby box. As soon as it was sufficiently started not to require his attention, he turned to a makeshift bed near the fire, pulled off a blanket and tossed it to the girl shivering before him.

'Get those wet things off and wrap yourself in this,’ he ordered before walking to the door.

'Where are you going?’ Coley gasped, detaining his arm with her hand.

The searching probes of light sifted through the shadows on his face revealing the previously hidden features. Her eyes widened as she saw the jagged scar across his left cheek. Startled, her gaze flew to his eyes to find that the dark shadows of the storm had hidden two piercing blue diamonds now gleaming down on her with their coldness. In a trance she noted his nostrils swell in anger before the grim mouth opened to reply to her question. She swiftly withdrew her hand from his arm, knowing her expression must mirror her surprise and horror.

'I'm going to take care of the horse,’ he snapped.

'I'm sorry,’ Coley murmured, ashamed of her unspeakable cruelty when she let him see her shock at his disfigurement, but the door had already slammed shut.

Glumly Coley turned back towards the fire, idly twiddling with the blanket. That was a rotten way to pay him back for helping, even if it was unintentional. If what he said was true and Danny hadn't been able to get back, she would have spent a very miserable night out in that storm. Now there was the warmth of a fire and a roof overhead, such as it was. With a shudder Coley glanced ground the dismal room.

She slipped off her wet sandals and placed them by the hearth to dry. The zipper of her flowered dress refused to budge and only after she had contorted her long arms into several ungainly positions was she able to unzip it and fight herself out of the clinging wet garment. Carefully she placed it on the back of a chair near the fire. Now that the car was gone it was all the clothing she had. The remnants of her shredded hose she peeled off rather sadly, using the more substantial portions to wipe the mud from her slender legs before tossing the ruined nylons into the fire. Shivering with the cold, Coley gathered the blanket around her and moved closer to the fire's heat. Little rivulets of water trickled from the curling strands of her hair on to her angular face where she impatiently brushed them away.