Help me! I am a girl lost and alone. I do not know who I am or where I am. Please find me. When the woman awoke, she did not know much. She knew her head hurt and her body ached. She knew there was blood streaking the side of her face, obscuring her vision. She knew the sun was beating down on her, hot and ruthless. But she did not know how she had gotten here, in this sandy, desert hell. She did not know where her injuries had come from. Most importantly, she did not know who she was.
Read an Excerpt from Arid Sea
She did not think she had five minutes to spare. In five minutes, her sister would be gator chow. She looked back to the spot where she last saw Pearce. She was swimming for all she was worth, with the gator hot on her heels. Pearce was a good swimmer. As Fay watched her sister make a valiant attempt to stay ahead of the gator, she recalled an observation Charles Darwin, the evolutionist, once made. “He who hesitates is… lunch.”
Fay grabbed the remaining speargun and prepared to swim to her sister’s aid. Preparing to leap from the boat; she spotted a shark. A giant bull shark hovered about three feet back and about five feet below the boat’s stern. Pearce was heading directly away from the gator’s jaws into the waiting bull shark. Were these two creatures working this area together? The gator herds Pearce toward Jaws Junior, fish and reptile split the profits? Out of the frying pan and into the fire, as they say. In this case, out of the fire and into the inferno.
Fay needed to think fast. She pointed the speargun at the shark. And after shoving the gun and into the water, she fired. She must have hit the fish as the speargun ripped from her hands and disappeared into the water. This was not a good move on her part. Now there was an angry alligator, a wounded bull shark, and a blood trail in the water. Blood attracts more sharks.
Fay lunged for her dive knife and prepared to leap from the boat into the water. She noticed a large boat bearing down on her location. It was Mountain Mama. Game Warden Jerry sat on the bow with what appeared to be a high-powered rifle strapped across his back and a road flare in his right hand? No, not a road flare; it was dynamite.
From nowhere, her two new supermen, Warden Jerry and Sheriff Virgil arrived on the scene to save the day and rescue the damsels in distress. When Mountain Mama roared past her, she saw Sheriff Gus at the helm. He smiled and waved as he headed toward Pearce and the alligator.
Jerry lit the dynamite and prepared to throw it at the alligator. It might have been a firecracker? She did know it was illegal to shoot an alligator, whatever it was. Perhaps blowing one up would be, okay? Jerry would know the law. She supposed the explosion would scare the gator away. If all it takes is throwing a noisy object at an alligator, she knew two little dogs who would serve the same purpose.
Pearce seemed to tire. She abruptly stopped swimming and turned to confront the oncoming gator. As she lifted her dive knife above her head to strike at the approaching gator, Mountain Mama coasted up beside her. Sheriff Gus grabbed Pearce’s outstretched arm and plucked her from the water. Almost one hundred and fifty pounds of tea brown woman, dead weight! It was most impressive. She did not believe Pearce even knew why she suddenly flew from the water and landed in Virgil’s boat. But there she was, safe and sound.
There was an explosion, and the excitement was over. This, of course, meant the engine would now start. Fay twisted the key and… bingo! The engine fired. She scurried to the bow, pulled anchor, returned to the helm, mashed down on the throttle, and headed for Mountain Mama, which now drifted about one hundred yards away. As she pulled alongside Deputy Doug reached out and grabbed Sparky’s deck rail. After securing Sparky, he helped her aboard.
Except for time spent in military service I live in the Pacific Northwest with my legal-beagle son K-K. and seven large tropical fish from the Amazon River. I am a second-generation Seattleite (that's what they call those of us who dwell in the shadow of Mr. Rainier). I have had the opportunity to travel our planet many times over. My stories are created from my memories of my personal experiences, the places I have visited, and the people and friends I have known.
Arid Sea sounds like an interesting read.
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