The Feet of God

90 - NO REST FOR THE WEARY

The beams of light shining in the trees bounced up and down and left and right, tilting with every groove on the narrow dirt path.  Finally a yellow Jeep emerged and pulled into a clear space by our little campsite.

In the moonlight I saw a large man haul himself out and head straight in our direction.

“I’m lookin’ for some ex-carnies in need of friends.  That’d be you?”

His strawberry hair and gingerbread beard glowed amber in the firelight.  He had a chubby face and big cheeks, like ripe red apples, and big white teeth in his capacious toothy mouth.  He sorta looked like what you’d imagine Santa might look like at around age thirty.  He had on blue jeans and a white T-shirt under an old beat-up leather jacket.

Able seemed cautious.  “We weren’t never near no carnies, in fact, hate the freaks, but we’re expectin’ to meet up with some friends of friends.  You them?”

“I’m cousin Cleet’s second-cousin, if that’s what you mean.  I understand you’re fixin’ to spread some good news down Florida way, am I right?”

“That’s the plan.  We’re gonna spread it amply thereabout, with an impact that’ll make folks sit up and take notice.”  The leader extended his hand, “I’m Able.”

The blond man extended his hand, “Roger.”

I detected a grin as the bear named Roger wiped his beard.  “Cousin Cleet sent me to find you guys along this way, and help out any way I can.  I’ll take you to a safe place where you can clean up and rest.”

We immediately started to break camp.  But there wasn’t much of a camp to be broken down, aside from extinguishing the roaring fire I created.  Baker and Charlie kicked the loose dirt around the fire pit, and they pissed on it for good measure, and they fired off some ass-biscuits just for fun.  Roger jumped back into his Jeep and waited.  Able headed for the trailer truck while the other two headed for the van.  I kneeled there, tied to a tree, waiting for someone to cut me free.  But nothing was happening, so I figured I’d speak up.  “Hey?  Hey!  You just gonna leave me here?”

Everyone looked at me, then all eyes focused on Able.  He squinted, and I saw him blink two or three times like he didn’t remember who I was.  Then, for whatever reason, he told Charlie, “Untie him from the tree.  But keep him bound.  Put him back in the back of the van.”

I was hustled to the back of the van, tied up but not terribly uncomfortable, and we continued to head deeper into the woods.  The ruts and debris in the road path was pretty terrible.  We bounced along at ten or twelve miles an hour, but hours later things started to smooth out and we finally made it to a real paved road.

I was exhausted as the sun rose up and we passed through a gate and headed toward the center of a field where there stood three huge crosses flashing in red and pink neon.  A nearby sign read: The Corpus Christi Nature Preserve.

I got a sick feeling to my stomach.

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