Half of Paradise

“How in the hell can you tell it’s a boat?” Gerard said.

“I know it’s a boat.”

“I can’t hear nothing,” Tereau said.

“I’m going ahead to take a look,” LeBlanc said.

“You stay here. Me and the boy will go,” Gerard said.

“I reckon I don’t need nobody to tell me what to do.”

“We need the gun here,” Gerard said.

“Tereau’s got a rifle in the wagon.”

“I ain’t carrying it this time,” Tereau said.

Gerard touched Avery on the arm and they moved up the road past LeBlanc.

“I don’t like nobody telling me what to do,” LeBlanc said.

“I ain’t telling you nothing,” Gerard said. “I’m just asking you to watch the wagon.”

They walked on out of sight. The road continued in a straight line between the gully and the levee. Directly ahead was the cove where their boat was moored in the willows. The cove was about fifty yards wide, but the entrance was a bottleneck formed by sandbars, deep enough for small craft to enter and too shallow for anything larger. The river was swollen from the rains, flowing swiftly down to the Gulf. Avery and Gerard left the road before they got to the landing, and worked their way around the edge of the cove to where it met the river. From there they could see the willow trees, the cove, and the river without being seen. They went through the brush until they reached the river’s edge where the backwater rippled over the sandbar that formed one side of the bottleneck of the cove. They squatted in the sand and looked out through the reeds.

“There ain’t nothing here,” Gerard said.

“Look over yonder.”

“Where?”

“Just out from the sandbar. It’s an oil slick,” Avery said.

“It could have come from upriver.”

“It’s not spread out enough. A boat has been here in the last hour.”

Gerard spit a stream of tobacco juice into the sand. “Let’s get further downriver. Maybe we can see something.”

They worked back along the shore away from the cove. They kept in the shelter of the trees and didn’t speak. The frogs and crickets were loud in the marsh. Gerard walked ahead, not making any sound. They arrived at a small inlet that washed back through the trees. They waded into the water until it was around their thighs. Gerard stood with his hand on a tree trunk, looking out over the river.

“I can’t see a goddamn thing,” he said.

“Maybe they went on past us,” Avery said.

“Let’s go back to the other side of the cove. If there ain’t nothing there, we’ll load the boat and get out of here.”

“There’s another slick.”

Gerard looked at the metallic blue oil deposit floating on the water. He raised his eyes and studied the opposite bank.

“Sonsofbitches,” he said. “They’re hid back in the shadow against the bank. They must have cut their engine and floated downstream to wait for us.”

“What do you want to do?” Avery said.

“There ain’t no way to get my boat out as long as they’re sitting there.”

“Sink your boat and go back on foot.”