Chapter 3. Going Home
After some time of uneventful travel—for a change—finally, YEA! YEA! There’s the truck! A big, heavy, dark, and scary weight lifted off me when I saw the reflections off the truck. Although the light was getting dimmer, I still had enough light for me to see the reflectors and I rejoiced a few seconds when I stepped out of the boat on the bank. “THANK YOU, GOD!” I shouted.
Maybe now, this nightmare will end. I guess I under estimated the power in the trolling battery. Even though it was obviously weaker, I guess I could’ve used speed three, at least, and would’ve been out of here maybe an hour ago. Of course, I don’t think I could’ve used the light all the way out. It was already pretty dim. Never mind, now, I was on the bank and if everything went well, I’d be home in less than thirty minutes.
What joy I had when the truck started up and I turned on the headlights. Light everywhere! It felt great and I had nothing but the warm heater of the truck and getting home on my mind. I knew this was too good to be true! RAIN!
Great, now it’s going to rain on me. I swung the truck around quickly and backed up to the incline with the trailer. The incline was about four feet and pretty sharp from the water’s edge to the top of the sparse gravel area where I put in. I wanted to pull the boat up the incline with everything in it, but thought it was too steep. I started unloading everything from the boat and putting it on the ground by the truck. When empty, I planned to pull the boat up the incline. Can’t do that! Too wet now. I tried a couple times, but slipped and fell down. Ouch!, that hurt my rib again. Getting wetter by the minute, I decided to use the tow rope in the truck. I hooked it to the trailer and to the hand hold of the boat at the front. The flashlight was useless by now. Completely dead. Well, all I had to do was load everything up. I could manage that with the night glow and could even turn the truck around if I had to. This was a good plan and it’d certainly save my back trying to pull the boat up the incline.
I got in the truck and slowly tightened the tow rope. The boat was about half way up the incline when the angle of rope and the trailer was too great for the curved hook to stay in the boat handle. I heard a POP! Looking through my mirror, I saw the tow strap flying back to the trailer. Even worse, I saw the boat SLIDING BACK INTO THE WATER!
I slammed the truck in park and jumped out running for the boat. It was sliding down the incline fast. Instantly, in the panic mode again, all I thought about was the boat sliding back in the creek and I had no way to stop it, or, get it back out. The water was way too cold to swim for the boat. My brain was way ahead of my body. I took off so fast, I slipped and fell down, face first. I managed to keep my face off the gravel as I skidded several feet to a stop. Not even hesitating, I jumped back up, running. I jumped off the incline INTO THE WATER and caught the boat a few feet from the bank in the water. I was standing in three feet of water.
It slid back down the incline and turned sideways just a little. I jumped for the front of the boat which made me land next to some bushes and weeds in the water. I didn’t care about the cold water that instantly penetrated my clothes from just over my knees down. I had the boat! I remember thinking the lightning thoughts about how I was going to get the boat out of the creek if I didn’t catch it now. I was mad and had nothing I could blame it on except the incline. Why don’t they just put a ramp here anyway? Why did the rope come off? Why such an incline? Why did it have to rain? WHY? WHY? Nothing was a good answer, and I was just glad I caught the boat before I had to figure out some other way to get the boat back to the bank.
I jerked the boat back toward the bank and started to walk out of the creek. As I turned and lifted one soggy leg to head back up the bank, I noticed something tightening on my right leg. I sort of panicked because I couldn’t see anything and whatever it was, was getting tighter. My mind shot thoughts again like lightning. What’s going on? SNAKES? No!, the pull was in several places and was tightening even more. The more I pulled, seemed like the more it tightened. My mind raced. What’s happening here? I was frozen again, and in a panic. All kinds of things flashed through my mind, but nothing made sense. Crazy things!
All I knew was SOMETHING had my LEG and I COULDN’T GET FREE. Yes, I know inner voice. Alligator? No, it would’ve already started spinning. Limbs? No!, they wouldn’t be tightening the more I pulled. Snakes!, No!, I’d be lifting them even if they were around my leg. Reeds? No!, they’d just pull off. Fresh water ells? Now that was a possibility, but it’d have to be several at the same time. Not likely! All these thoughts flashed in my mind in a split second. My mind was reeling, yet I couldn’t think what this might be. All the while, I was still pulling and it was still tightening.
Flash! My brain had the only explanation. OCTOPUS! That was the only thing that made any sense, and still didn’t make any sense! It can’t be that, this is fresh water! I’ve never heard of a fresh water octopus! Yet, that must be the answer. I felt the tentacles tightening on my leg and felt like it was actually pulling back. I’d seen hundreds of shows where those long sucker-lined tentacles instantly wrapped around a fish. Then, that parrot-like, sharp beak made a deadly penetration. None of this made sense, but something had my leg and that was real! For a few seconds, I went into the survival mode.
I pulled hard and it got even tighter around my leg. I took my left foot and started kicking and dancing around in the water. I was going crazy! I can’t imagine what I must’ve looked like. But, people do strange things in the survival mode. And, they think strange things too. My stomping and kicking seemed to be doing some good. Slowly, I felt it’s tentacles letting go of my leg. I was holding on to the boat and trashing like crazy with both feet as my right leg became more free. The boat and I managed to drift closer to a big bush by the time I stomped the octopus off my leg and I sort of fell sideways into the bush. I didn’t feel anything on my leg anymore and I immediately made for the bank.
The bush was right on the bank so I pushed the boat back on the bank near the incline and started rather fast out of the water. Not being able to see very good, I only saw the outline of the bush. I slogged out of the water still wondering what on earth that could’ve been? The octopus theory just didn’t make sense. My panic mode was back down to at least fifty percent as I kept telling myself to calm down. I don’t know how my heart stood all the pounding I’d given it this night. Plus, I felt like I had a quart of adrenaline still in my blood. On my last step out of the water, WHAT’S THIS?
Something hit me in the chest and I felt something wrap over my right shoulder. Instantly, and instinctively, I grabbed it. It’s amazing all the information you can assimilate in a millisecond. It was sort of slimy yet had texture. It was round and felt muscled. My mind spun back up to panic mode. Thoughts flashed! Another squirt of adrenaline. Bush! Round! Muscled! I’d hit the bush when I was coming up the bank. I knew exactly what this was. SNAKE!
I guess it fell out of the bush on me. What kind? Water moccasin? Water snake? The difference was DEADLY! One had poison, the other didn’t! My survival reaction was to grab it and sling it off. My mind reeled. My inner voice offered the only solution available and I didn‘t like either option. If you grab it, it’ll bite you for sure, and, if you don’t grab it, it’ll bite you for sure! What choice is that? The choice was clear and made in a split second. Since all this thought took place in a split second, I still had my hand on the snake, so I grabbed it and flung it sideways off me, QUICKLY!
I guess the adrenaline made me move fast as lightning too, because by the time I let go of it, I was two steps up the bank and I didn’t have contact with the snake over two whole seconds maximum. I don’t think it had time to bite me, whatever it was. After a couple more steps up the bank, I realized I was still yelling at the top of my lungs. I stopped moving and yelling at the same time. I shuddered all over real hard. This night was unbelievable! “WILL IT EVER END,” I yelled out to the darkness?
I stood there a few more seconds, just trying to collect my thoughts, which w
ere still fragmented and scattered in a twenty five foot circle around me trying to get back to those spinning in my head. There’s not one person on this planet that has these kind of problems, but me! I yelled out loud, “WHY ME?” I stood in silence a minute, just thinking. That felt good and I guess it got rid of some of my panic. I felt the rain gently falling on my face. I heard a few of the night sounds returning. Then, there was a vehicle passing by on the bridge. That was the only vestige of humanity I’d seen since I turned off the highway, seemed like years ago. I reached down and felt of my leg. I didn’t feel anything wrong. My mind briefly went back to the feel of the snake on my shoulder and I still felt it’s strange hide in my hand. I quickly wiped my hand on my pants thinking maybe if I got rid of the feel on my hand, it would erase the thoughts with it. It didn’t. I shuddered again and, finally, thought about loading the boat.
I backed up the truck again and securely fastened the tow rope to the boat. This time the truck jerked the boat up the incline without any problem. I felt better already. I had the boat on level ground and removed the rope. I grabbed the handles on the back of the boat and walked it around to put it in the trailer. I pulled the boat close to the back of the trailer and got in the trailer. I reached down, picked up the boat, and started pulling it into the trailer. I noticed the trailer boards were wet, so I wanted to take it easy. I pulled the boat up and took a couple steps backwards. No problem. The boat was at a sharp angle and on my next step backwards, BOTH feet slipped out from under me. I landed on my bottom. HARD!
The boat fell on my legs and stomach as my feet went under the boat. During my fall, I tensed up my butt muscles before I hit the trailer. BAM! I hit the trailer hard. OOOOCH! I can’t breathe!
Pain shot through my rib cage like you wouldn’t believe. I laid under the half loaded boat and couldn’t move, or breath, and for a few seconds, didn’t even try to do either. The pain from my rib was terrible. I thought I must’ve BROKEN the cracked rib now. I laid there for at least three minutes with the rain falling on me and gradually started taking just a little bit deeper breaths. Finally, I got up slowly and got out of the trailer. I could hardly stand up straight. The pain coursed throughout my body, seemed like. I walked around a little on bent knees so as not to jar my ribs. I sat on the trailer fender until the pain subsided some.
Getting wetter by the minute, I told myself I had to get everything loaded. Then, did what I should’ve done in the first place. I guess this night had really messed up my logical thinking. I grabbed the boat on the front end and pushed it into the trailer. It hurt my ribs, but what else could I do? Loading everything in the truck and tying the boat in the trailer seemed to take forever with the frequent bursts of pain in my ribs.
Finally! I got in the truck and relaxed a few minutes with the heater going. The warmth was indescribable! I didn’t want to move. Safe inside the truck now, I prayed that nothing else would go wrong. After a few minutes, I took off for the house.
On the way home, I thought about how Merlene might react. I could see her waiting in the kitchen when I closed the house door behind me. I imagined how the conversation might go.
“Oh! My God! What’s happened to you?”
Then, she’d grab me by the arm and help me over to the couch, quickly spreading a towel on it to keep it clean. “Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the doctor? You look exhausted! Here, let me get you some water.”
Then, as I recounted all that happened to me, she’d listen with total attention and groan and say “Oh, my Goodness!” as I explained my near death experiences. Her look of concern would change to fright, and horror, and back to concern, as I relived the night. All during my explanation, she’d be cleaning and dressing my wounds.
Well, I made it home with no problems. I left everything in the truck. All I wanted to do was lay down and straighten out on the floor to give my aching ribs some relief. I eased out of the truck and on bent knees, walked inside the house. When I shut the door behind me, it seemed like a ton of fright and unbelief lifted. I HAD SURVIVED SULFUR CREEK!
When I stepped inside the house, Merlene stood there a few seconds just looking at me. Just like I imagined, next would come the sympathy routine.
Then she said, “just look at you! You’re all wet, and muddy, and bloody too! What did you do, fall out of the boat?” Then, looking away, said, “I went ahead and ate supper, I got tired of waiting on you. I knew you’d be late, as usual. Get a plate and warm up whatever you want in the microwave.”
I didn’t say anything. I crept over by the kitchen table and started to kneel down prior to laying down on the concrete floor.
“Don’t you lay down on that carpet with those dirty clothes! I see you managed to tear a hole in your shirt, and that’s one of your better everyday shirts. I guess that blood on your shoulder has set in the shirt, too? You know how hard that is to get out? Why didn’t you wash it out when you got it bloody? I’m going to bed.”
Well, like that presently-current Hertz Rental car commercial, “Not Exactly!” what I imagined.
I was laying on my back by the time she finished. I was just thinking about how lucky I was to have a wife that was always thinking about me. She had to be thinking about me when she fixed the food and while she was eating “alone.” How lucky!
I must’ve laid there for fifteen minutes before I realized how hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten in about ten hours clock time. That’s three days creek time. I had to get on my hands and knees first before I could stand up, but managed to do so without too much pain. I got my plate and started warming up some food. I started taking off the wet clothes. I thought Merlene was asleep, but she managed to remind me to, “put those wet clothes in the washer and you better take a shower before you go to bed.”
Yes, always thinking about me! What a woman!