Gator Boy Read online

  “We right on his ass now,” said Nonette. “Dat bastard’s not more den five minutes ahead. We got him now.”

  Seeing all they needed to see, they turned and ran back to the boat and were off.

  “Hit it hard, Sher, an’ we’ll catch his ass right now,” said Nonette.

  Only minutes later Nonette hollered, “Dare’s goes dat son of a bitch,” pointing to a large ripple moving ahead of them at high speed. The chase was on, quickly covering several miles of bayou.

  The gator, tiring, hoping to pull the same trick on them that he had played on Delacroix Fontenaux, suddenly stopped, dropping to the bottom of the bayou. Jed started to slow.

  Nonette, shaking her head no, reached down and pressed his hand down to full throttle.

  “But we’re gonna lose him,” hollered Jed.

  “Dat’s what he wants us to tink. Oh dis is a smart one. I seen dis before. When dey get tired some time dey just drop to the bottom. When you stop, dat gator come up an maybe take dis boat apart; and maybe alla us wit it. But we keep going an’ don’t stop, guess what? Now he’s chasing us. Dat means we his next stop. Dis is it, Sher.”

  “How long do we go on like dis before we stop?” asked Jed.

  “Well Sher,” said Nonette, reaching into her duffel bag and coming forth with one of those gator-killing tools, “it’s getting darker by the minute. When we stop fo’ the night we better make ready. Not long afta dat dis bastard comes a calling.”

  “So what’s the plan?” asked Jed.

  “Well, dare ain’t no plan. If we lucky, we got gator stakes for suppa. If dat gator’s lucky, games over. But, destiny calls, Sher. All we can do is open the door when it comes a knocking.”

  As the sky darkened Jed found a clear spot on the bank and pulled over to tie off. Nonette stepped off onto the bank with her Daddy’s tools and began practicing with them one at a time. Jed watched Nonette from the boat. She reminded him of a martial arts expert as she practiced her moves. Mrs. Ford checked her gun and readied for the fight. Sitting on the side rail of the boat toward the stern her eyes scanned the surface of the bayou looking for any sign. Jed stepped off the boat to join Nonette about the same time she was just coming back on board.

  “No, Sher, the time is getting close. I can feel it. When dat sucka strikes he’ll be too fast for us on the ground. Our best vantage point is in the boat,” said Nonette.

  As darkness fell the sounds of the bayou filled the air. It was hard for anyone to imagine that anything as evil as the creature could be lurking about in the night, disturbing the peacefulness and serenity.

  Suddenly the creature was in their presence standing on the back of the boat. It appeared without a sound in sheer silence. Even the chirping of the insets ceased and the air went still. Mrs. Ford was the first one to see the monster towering some eight feet from head to foot. With quick reflex action she raised the barrel of that big gun and fired. The bullet pierced the side of the beast deeply but not fatally. The blood sprayed with a splatter as the beast let out a blood-curdling scream. With one swipe of its front leg the huge clawed hand swept Mrs. Ford completely off the boat, slamming her into a tree on the bank and knocking her unconscious. As she hit the ground the gun in her hand fell beside her on the bank.

  Nonette was the next one up to challenge the monster. Swinging the mace above her head she sprang forth and with one final swing she released it around the head of the beast. The chains wrapped around the gator’s head several times, holding the jaws shut. The spiked balls at the end of the chains sank deep into the thick skin. The more the monster struggled to remove the chains the deeper the spiked balls sank into its flesh, securing it all the more. Nonette fell back to regroup.

  Then with the spear in hand Jed lunged forth. He was intent on trying to sink it deep into the monster’s belly. As he made his move the beast swung violently around and moved to the right. So instead the spear entered the upper thigh, passing all the way through, sticking into the deck of the boat and for the moment pinning the monster to the deck. Again the beast screamed. Jed then pulled back.

  Nonette jumped forth, swinging the saber in hand, hoping to confuse the beast until she could position herself to sink it into the monster’s chest. As she made her approach she slipped in the blood on the deck, falling to one knee. By that time the beast had pulled the spear out of its leg and, swinging the spear, the saber was knocked out of Nonette’s hand. Nonette looked up and cringed to see the huge claws of the beast grab her and lift her into the air. Reaching down at her side she pulled the twelve-inch hunting knife and as the beast pulled her in closer she plunged the knife into its neck. Badly hurt but still rampaging, the monster sank its claws deep into Nonette’s body. Pulling her pistol from its scabbard she quickly got off several shots into the monster. Her head then fell as blood spurted from her mouth and body. Nonette died a good death. The beast threw her over the side of the boat into the bayou.

  Jed had picked up the saber and positioned himself. As the beast turned, dazed and confused, Jed plunged the huge sword into its chest with all his strength. It sank deeply and Jed knew that the wound was mortal. With one final screaming roar the beast fell over the side of the boat face down onto the bank, dying but still scratching and clawing. Afraid the monster might get up again Jed picked up the spear and plunged it into the middle of the creature’s back. As the monster made one last violent quiver, the very tip of its tail grazed Jed right above the eyebrow, making a very small scratch, a scratch that normally would not have even fazed him. But this scratch hit Jed like a ton of bricks. His head was spinning as he fell to his knees.

  After a few minutes he was able to momentarily shake off the effects and get back to his feet.

  Jed wanted to take a good look at this fierce beast, so using the spear still sticking up out of its back for leverage, he turned the monster over. As he turned the beast over on its back he could see in the moonlight that there were some markings scratched in the sand. Jed climbed back on to Gator Boy and switched on the spotlight. He was stunned to find that the marks he had seen in the sand turned out to be handwriting that read the word, Marcus. His ears were ringing and his head was spinning. He put his hands over his ears as the tormenting noise grew louder and louder in his head, finally collapsing there on the bank of the bayou. Looking up at the stars he suddenly realized that his thoughts were the creature’s thoughts, and even more strange, Marcus’s thoughts. The entire history of the beast, and that of his father instantly became known to him.

  Marcus was out on the bayou fishing early that day. The fishing was good and by midmorning he was pulling in his last net full. As he opened the net, dropping the catch on to the deck, something bright fluorescent green caught his eye squirming around in the catch. Searching around among the catfish he found a baby alligator. This gator was not like any other he had ever seen. It had red glowing eyes and shiny green fluorescent skin.

  “Well, look what we got here. Ain’t nobody ever seen the likes a you, little gator,” remarked Marcus.

  As he went to stroke the baby gator on the back the thing attacked him, snapping down and holding on to his finger. As Marcus pulled that little gator off of his finger it broke the skin. Even though it was only a tiny cut, it hit him like a freight train out of hell. Instantly his head was spinning and he fell to the deck of the boat. He screamed, wrenched in pain as his body began going through some horrible changes. Suddenly he realized that he was something less than Marcus, but also something more as well. He felt himself becoming the gator, realizing that although he was something less than the gator he was also something more. Neither beast nor man but the best of both.

  The complete metamorphosis took many days but the end result seemed at first to be a fierce alligator not only with some physical qualities of a human, but equipped with a working human intellect.

  Unable to speak, he watched in torment from the shadows below the porch as his family went through the torture of losing him, helpless to their plight; or
his own for that matter. As time passed and the metamorphosis evolved, his human traits were somehow being slowly absorbed into the very essence of the beast he had become. He began to loose control of his actions, overpowered by the instincts of the beast that by then had nearly completely consumed his humanity.

  Jed now knew that the baby gator, Marcus, and the monster were now part of him. Horrified, he realized that he would undergo the same changes that Marcus had.

  While still in possession of his human intellect he realized that no one should ever come into contact with the carcass of the beast. Using ropes from the boat and rocks, he weighted the carcass, sinking it deep in the depths of the bayou. Shocked by the outcome of this nightmare, Jed in resignation now taking on many gator characteristics slithered away into the dark water of the bayou.

  As morning dawned Mrs. Ford awoke on the bank of the bayou. There was no sign of anyone around. There was blood splattered all over the boat and on the bank. She waited for hours, calling out to Jed and Nonette, eventually realizing their fate.

  Having watched Jed drive the boat for the past few days she was able to get it started and under way. She slowly began the long journey back up the bayou to try and find Jed’s family.

  More than a week had passed and Ronny had been released from the hospital. Momma, Lena, Judy, and Ronny were all sitting together on the porch of the Gadon house, when the silence was broken by the sound of a boat approaching. Momma smiled and jumped up in excitement when she realized that it was the familiar sound of Gator Boy’s engine. They were all surprised to see a strange woman driving the boat, and their hearts sank deeper in shock to see the blood splattered mess.

  “Hello in the house,” hollered out Mrs. Ford. “Is this the Gadon residence?”

  Momma answered, “Yes it is,” as they all ran down to the dock.

  “Where’s Jed and Nonette?” they all asked at once.

  Not having eaten in days, Mrs. Ford stepped off the boat and collapsed on the dock. Ronny, who was still weak, caught her and with everybody’s help they were able to get her up to the house. It took Momma two days to nurse Mrs. Ford back to a healthy enough state to communicate what had happened. Everybody sat around in shock and near disbelief listening to the story Mrs. Ford had to tell. Hearts fell and many tears were shed before acceptance, the last part of the grieving process, set in. It took many days before the depression over the losses they all has survived began to subside.

  Now a month had passed and although everyone was still in a daze over his or her tragedies, the hysterics were subsiding. Momma had accepted Mrs. Ford into the family and offered for her to stay on indefinitely, being that she had nowhere to go and no one to go to. She felt some kind of a connection to her because she had spent those last days with Jed and Nonette and they all shared the common bond of having lost someone dear to the beast.

  It was evening on the bayou and the members of this newly formed family were all sitting out on the porch, head in hand, when the silence was broken by Momma saying,

  “Well, we gotta come up with something, y’all. Money’s running out and dare’s five a us now.”

  Lena said, “Don’t worry, Momma, I’ll go back to cutting hair. People on the bayou still need dat.”

  Then Judy and Ronny chimed in. “Momma, we been tinking about dat too. We know dis bayou like the back a our hand, and we still got Gator Boy. All we gotta do is start fishing dese waters again an’ we’ll make a living. We been hearing all up an’ down the bayou dat the fishing ain’t too bad now, an’ we plan to make a go of it,” they said as Momma nodded in agreement.

  “I still can’t believe Jed’s gone. He promised me,” said Lena, leaning over the porch rail as she looked up at the stars.

  Listening from the shadows in the water below the porch a sad pathetic figure looked up. As tears rolled down its deformed face he could see the moonlight shining in Lena’s hair. For Jed realized that in some bizarre way, he had somehow kept his promise to Lena. He had come back to her. As he looked up at the stars, fleeting memories of the way things were between them flashed in his mind, yet somehow, seemed now nothing more than an obscure dream. The torment within his head was tearing his mind apart. Was he human dreaming of being an alligator? Or was he an alligator who had once dreamed of being human?

  The shimmer of a ripple in the moonlight caught his eye as the pathetic creature glanced over to the name on the boat, “Gator Boy.” The cold blood in his veins ran even colder to realize the mocking paradox. For that’s exactly what he had become. “Gator Boy.”

  While still in control of a great deal of his human nature he knew that there was a trip, a final journey he was compelled to take. As he slowly and reluctantly swam away down the bayou, he turned his head for one last look. Then turning back he disappeared into the night.

  As Gator Boy made his way down bayou he began reliving the horrors he had caused. Thoughts of Louis, the two police officers, the two boys in the small boat, and the disaster at the gas pier, were fresh in his mind. He could even taste the flesh of the victims he had devoured. The human within him screamed out in torment while the animal he had become felt a pride in the death and devastation he had caused and wanted more. His human side felt an urgency in this thing he must do. As he left his community he put all of those thoughts out of his mind, focusing on making his way down bayou as quickly as possible.

  Passing through the town where he had collapsed the bridge and eaten that boy, he felt a sense of shameful pride in what he had done.

  As he came to the bank around the bend past where the bayous meet where he had taken a bite out of the man fishing he laughed and cried at the same time in a sense of hysteria.

  Coming up on the Au-Dessous de le Arbre day camp he felt pleasure and sorrow for devouring David Ford and the bus driver, and terrorizing the busload of kids. He hated the memories but could not stop thinking about them fondly, as though watching a horrible thing occur yet not being able to take your eyes off of it.

  Entering Lake Fausse Pointe, he still felt the thrill of the numerous kills he had made and the horror he instilled as he devoured one fresh young victim after the other. He dry heaved and a sense of nauseating satisfaction over came him as he continued on his journey.

  Quickly leaving Lake Fausse he continued onward to where he had eaten several pigs and bitten a man’s head off. While ignominy consumed him, at the same time he felt a peacefulness as the battle within him; the fight between good and evil continued.

  He came upon the tree where he had killed the boys who were swimming, and although in his heart he was screaming mea culpa, his mind laughed with evil fulfillment.

  Thoughts of Delacroix Fontenaux were confusing. He felt no remorse even on the human side. Delacroix was, after all, responsible for the death of Nonette’s father, and the pain he had put Nonette through. So the feelings in his heart said to hell with Delacroix Fontenaux.

  The fire was still smoldering where the truck had burned at the ball field, the site of his last attack. The smell of dried blood that had spilled from the many kills he had made was still in the air. The memory of that experience was, on the one hand, a horror unthinkable while on the other hand it instilled a sense of self-greatness and triumph.

  The last stop on this stroll down nightmare lane brought him to the site of the final confrontation. He cried uncontrollably at the death of Nonette. This great and wonderful woman had touched his life as a man, and still had him enthralled as a beast. After he could no longer stand the pain the creature, knowing that the only way to stop the madness was to break the cycle, dashed further down bayou as fast and as hard as he could, continuing through the basin to where the bayou poured into the Mississippi River. There he waited for his chance.

  Several hours passed while he was waiting and part of him wanted to go back, as Marcus had, to the ones he loved. But there was no history of the death and devastation when the beast had first consumed Marcus. Jed knew all the while that if he went back, the beast wou
ld soon take over the man and the killing would eventually start again when catfish no longer satisfied the hunger.

  Finally, what he had been waiting for appeared in the distance. Making his way out to the middle of the river he began swimming straight toward his destination. Wonderful thoughts of himself as a man with Momma, Lena, and Judy, and Nonette flowed through his mind as he drew closer and closer to his destiny.

  Every emotion within him peaked and his heart felt full to bursting as he swam harder toward fate. Love, remorse, contentment, and regret, were immeasurably surging through his body as simultaneously he experienced the full spectrum of human emotion.

  Gator Boy closed his eyes and swam with all his might toward ultimate tranquility. This would guarantee peace for those he loved back on the bayou, peace for all of the victims of the beast, and mostly peace in his own heart.

  Now swimming hard, Gator Boy closed his eyes as he dove to the bottom of the keel of a giant ocean liner making its way out to sea and swam directly into the propellers. As the beast was chopped to pieces, the shining spark of Jed’s consciousness rose up, leaving the monster’s chopped up carcass sinking to the bottom of the river below to rot. Jed’s immortal soul shot upward toward the heavens. He began to feel a peace and happiness, and a joy beyond description, and his heart overflowed with endless and undying love, as there at the threshold of the light were Marcus, Louis, and Nonette to greet him with opened arms.

  At that very moment a star twinkled in the heavens and a warm and gentle breeze blew across the porch where his loved ones sat as a feeling of melancholy contentment touched their hearts.