Predators – New Short Fiction

In the stagnant heat the osprey beat its wings, glided and circled. Below the river sparkled like snake scales winding through town to the bay. Beside the river clambered a man.

The osprey tilted its neck and inspected the man. Flesh on the jumbled boulders of riprap. Only too big.

Atop the riverbank beside the riprap a broad gravel path wound with the river. The man traversed the boulders. The path beside him would soon diverge from the riverside to meet with the paved grid of city sidewalk.

At this juncture the man paused and looked down the gravel path to town. But he turned and kept on across the rocks. Beside him coniferous forest rose on the upland.

The osprey broke its circle and glided out over the bay to the island, to the blackberry thickets and the rabbit warren.

When the man paused at the juncture where the gravel path curved toward the town, he looked along it into the first square block, where his girl Adalley lived.

At least he thought she was his girl. The night before had been one of angst; she hadn't called when he arrived home from work, as she usually did, and when he had called her an hour or so later than when they normally spoke, she hadn't answered.

Now her mom's old Plymouth Reliant with the missing hubcap was parked in its usual spot in their driveway. At ten on Friday morning, Addie was probably in school.

Continuing on the riprap toward the bay, the man bristled at the thought of her at school, with all those high school boys ogling her. She always dressed scantily, which he himself enjoyed, but the thought of sharing her, even with staring teenagers, enraged him.

And what had she done last night if she wasn't with him? Probably gone out with her friends, and some of her friends were guys. And what had she done with them? There was one guy, Justin, one of those three-sport athletes who wouldn't amount to much after leaving high school, but who now was handsome and fit, a cool senior. He hung out in her crowd. The man tightened his fist as fear fed his mind's eye and he saw her, somewhere in the night town with Justin, alone. They walked close, and arriving to rest on the park swings, his hand went to her exposed midriff. She didn't push it away; instead she held the swing back with straight legs and tilted her head for a kiss.

Along a secluded spot on the riverbank, with the birch and maple trees on the upland blocking any view of town, the man stepped down the riprap and trod right next to the mudflat. The smaller rocks there were covered in green algae, still dripping tidewater. His vision had filled with images of Justin and Addie making out in the park. His foot slipped and he went down on his knees in the glistening mud, which gave way like quicksand.

In their trailer Addie lay on her bed tracing circles around her floating navel ring. Her skin around the new piercing was red and swollen. So tender.

She tingled at the thought of showing Rick her new adornment. Her belly already seemed to be his favorite part of her. But she wouldn't go tonight while it was still irritated. Maybe Saturday.

In the kitchen beyond her hollow wood door her mom clinked and clattered dishes in the sink. “Addie,” she called, “are you doing okay in there?”

“Fine, mom.” Her mom was so chill. That morning, when Addie told her that she didn't feel like going to school, her response had been to simply dial the school and get her excused. She wasn't the kind to trap her in a schedule just for the sake of the schedule.

Goodness. Her navel was so swollen. She smiled thinking of Rick's cooling kisses, his hands cupping her waist. Maybe she would go see him tonight anyway.

The door rattled when her mom knocked. “Honey, did you happen to talk to Rick about the water?”

“Yeah, mom.”

“And?”

“He said he could pay it.”

“Oh. Good.” Her door popped and snapped as her mom leaned on it. “Before they shut it off?”

“Yeah. Monday, maybe.”

“Oh, good.” The door rattled. “Hey, do you want egg salad sandwiches for lunch?”

“Yeah, mom, that's fine.”

The mudflat slanted from riverbank to water, smooth as a taut sheet, except where Rick had splattered and churned trying to get free.

He had struggled so much that his legs felt like jelly, and the only thing he had accomplished was to sink further. Now the mud sucked on him at waist level; its rotten egg smell smarted his eyes. Barely able to move, he quit, waiting on his muscles to recover. Splatter crusted on his arms and face.

Addie will never believe this, he thought, and pain like a scream pierced his neck.

The sun climbing overhead toward noon did not reveal any prey. The osprey had alighted on the branch of a standing dead tree. Soon it fell swooping and flapped and climbed its way back to the sky. Underneath its white belly sunlight spangled off the water where the mouth of the river met the bay.

Following the river, the osprey spotted the man stuck in the mudflat between the woods and the river. It circled and surveyed the woods and riverbank. Quiet. Absent of other humans. Or any threat. Tightening its circle, it came to hover directly over the man.

It crooked its wings and dropped, talons first.