letters from an empty trailer
the Valley of Decision
chapter twenty-eight
Draino had no idea how well his plan was working, or if it even was? He certainly didn’t know how much pressure Red was under, and If he had, he might have been more careful and guarded. From his point of view, it was laughable. He’d never fall for it in a million years. Just as the people working for Reds Oil thought it was a huge joke, thrown together by drunken men losing their minds. Either way he had played his hand and was committed. The River was now well up into the clearing and rising daily, it was only a matter of more heavy rain to send it into full flood. The rains kept them stuck inside, and the drinking became worse. In the terrible isolation they both knew that stuck in this confined space together that eventually someone would break. Somehow Draino knew that if his plan had any chance of succeeding the drinking had to stop or at least toned down. His worst fear was Red getting the drop on him and catching him off guard drunk. They decided to break the monotony and try and visit Tao. He and Ryan left at first light, both loaded down with guns. For they both dreaded and hated the jungle. When they finally found his first blaze, they hacked it out larger and unmistakable. The river hadn’t submerged this part of the forest yet, and the ground cover he had hacked with his machete on the way in, made the going a bit easier. When they came upon each blaze they hacked it out wider. At one point it looked for a minute that they had lost the trail. It was where Draino had become lax in his trail blazing. They were going to give up and return when Ryan suggested he stay put, while Drano searched ahead for the blaze. They kept in touch by calling to one another, until Draino called out that he had found the blaze. Ryan filled in the missing blazes, until he could see Draino. They must have looked to the natives like blind folded children feeling their way around? Just as if the natives were suddenly plunk down in Times Square. Eventually they came to the clearing but the field was full of ankle high sloppy water and vacated. Everything in the huts was gone, they had taken everything with them. Draino tried to go to the river, but was stopped half way there, by the deeper rising swampy water. It began raining hard again so they stepped into his old hut. And he remembered his ordeal and friendship with Tao. “To bad,” said Ryan. “I was looking forward to seeing the little guy again.” Draino stepped out into the rain and fired off a round into the air. Then stepped back inside again. “You think they’ll come?” asked Ryan. “Let’s wait a bit and see.” replied Draino. After waiting a half an hour, and the rain steadily increasing they headed back to their freshly hacked jungle trail. After a few minutes, Draino ever cautious, stood quiet, Tao had taught him to do this. He thought he’d heard something behind him. He had, it was Tao and Natty. Just about to continue on they heard “Cane, Cane,” coming from back in the clearing. It was Tao's voice. “Over here.” yelled Draino!” Walking quickly back. Just as he was about to break through into the clearing Tao appeared. Tao ran and threw his arms around Drainos waste. He was wearing the most impressive leopard skin, wrapped around his little shoulders. It was clear they loved and missed each other in their strange friendship in the jungle. Tao released him and yanked on his arm to get Draino to follow him. Draino held fast and Tao nearly yanked his little arms out of there sockets. “Cane you see, you see, come!” Yanked Tao harder. “Won’t hurt to see what he wants?” said Ryan rubbing the boys head. Tao jerked away still not sure about Ryan. Ryan chuckled, and understood. Draino followed Tao into the clearing and there stood Natty smiling. Draino held the mans frail shoulders and said hello Natty. Natty mumbled and smiled, and they quietly touched foreheads for and minute. “Cane.” yelled Tao again excitedly from the entrance to the River path. “I’ve already been down there,” he said walking over to the boy. But followed him anyway. When Tao got to the edge of the creeping water, he slowly waited in, poking the muddy waters, with the blunt end of his spear. Waving for them to follow, every few feet he’d poke about with his spear. Draino, now completely soaked through said this better be good and walked into the muddy waters. Ryan followed. Natty disappeared back into the clearing and disappeared. When they got near to where the river bank actually was, Draino was stunned to see the high-powered motor launch half sunk and tangled in vines. The very boat the three crew members had stolen, but there was no sign of them. When Draino got to the boat the river was waste high. He grabbed the boats bow line and pulled away as much jungle he could. After short struggle they got it into the shallows. Once secure Ryan pried open the small cabin door and returned with a bailing can. Within an hour of bailing the boat it was floating high again. Ryan was eventually able to start it and Draino lifted the boy into the boat. Ryan backed it out while Draino and the boy fended off vines and branches. Out into the main river they carefully headed up stream dogging heavy up-rooted trees, and debris. The leopard skin couldn’t keep the boy from shivering, Draino sent the boy into the dry cubby up under the forward deck to escape the rain. But he was back out within minutes. Drano sat up on the bow fending off all manner of junk with the boats pole. It was slow and tedious work, but they arrived in half the time it would have taken them to walk there overland. If the river had been clear the trip would have been only a matter of minutes. “Its only got half a tank left, won’t get very far on that?” announced Ryan. “We’ll fix that soon enough.” replied Draino. “Ryan felt hope for the first time in years at the helm of the powerful boat. And started to allow himself the luxury of dreaming about his farm again. He felt like a real human being once more. And actually, hummed a tune on the trip back to the container. Loud enough for Draino and the boy to hear. That secretly lifted Draino’s spirits as well. To the Taser, Draino’s nickname for him, it was just another adventure on the river. They fastened the boat to some heavy fines as the craft could only float a few feet into the clearing. They had to wade the rest of the way. Slowly moving it forward every day, they were finally able to moor it to the landing, that now served as a dock. The Tasers antics brought relief to the sad men living in the container for a while and were probably Drainos and Ryan’s best days in the Jungle. That was until Natty and the naked native, paddled up in a dug-out canoe, bringing gifts of yams, and taro root. Which was their tradition in the rainy season and took the taser away. And just like that they were alone again. Draino said nothing but inwardly he sank into a deep depression, mixed with a terrible hate. Ryan was able to express his feelings outwardly and stave off depression. They had decided that one would sleep in the boats comfortable cubby, while the other slept up in the container. They drew straws every long evening for the cubby. Draino secretly like it, so he could finish reading the tattered old Bible, his only relief from the Jungle. He was beginning to see why the old evangelist separated Paul’s section of the Bible from Romans to Philemon. When it was taken out, the rest of the Book was God dealing with his people the Jews with the law. And since the Jews rejected Christ, Paul’s book was only for the grafted in gentile. They were saved by the gift of grace, not by works. Christ did all the work of salvation on the cross. There was nothing you could do to receive salvation. So all this crap about getting baptized, repenting, tithing, and On Ryan’s third straight win, he was awakened by the boat being bumped and jarred. When he opened the cubby door a sliver he could just make out in the weak and gray morning light a huge python curled up in the back of the boat. He slowly closed and locked the door, alerting the giant snake, which slithered up and began smelling all around the cubby door. Ryan couldn’t stand it any more. He could hear it trying to get in and began yelling up to Draino. Almost with in seconds there came a loud bang and a heavy thud. “Keep your fucking pet quiet down there, for fuck sake, and like I told you before never take your gun belt off.” Ryan, was lucky the cubby door opened inward, because the dead snakes size would have barred his escape. Draino had shot it square between the eyes. ‘An amazing shot on a moving target, in a matter of seconds.’ Thought a bewildered Ryan. What Ryan didn’t know was that Draino was sitting in the open doorway, above him with a gun pointed up under his throat at the very second the snake arrived. The snake symbolism was missed by Draino. ‘This has to be my lowest point in the jungle yet’ thought Draino shaking. He had never before contemplated suicide. That thought was so foreign to him that he began to wonder if he was losing his mind? The killing of the mammoth snake was the turning point in his desire to live and get out of the jungle. He wasn’t aware of it at the time, but later came to see it. He kept wondering if a rotten murderer like himself, could still get into heaven? Ryan, never again took his gun belt off. And began taking heed of everything Draino suggested or said. He began to realize that his new partner was a very complex and dangerous and damaged man. Drainos motto was, never trust anyone or anything ever! And Ryan adopted it because he wanted to see his dream come true, and the only way that was going to happen in his mind was sticking with Draino. The water rose so that the dock became a wash, and a perfect resting place for all sorts of birds and animals. A half-drowned peccary climbed onto the deck one afternoon. Draino and Ryan couldn’t bring themselves to kill and dress it. Nervous of the two men standing above it, and after a short rest jumped back in and swam into the jungle. A strange and beautifully colored kingfisher, began using the container and dock as fishing platform, and would entertained them both for hours with his fishing skills. The radio crackled one morning, but the words were disjointed and garbled, coming through in eerie low and high-pitched hollow sounds. And made them feel as if they were living in a rocket ship on the moon. They had decided earlier in their plan that there was the possibility that the other end could hear them even though they couldn’t hear on their end. Draino decided to use that odd feature of the radio to his advantage. At these times they would only speak to each other from per-arranged scripts. This time the plan worked, although they didn’t know it at the time. It took great strength of mind to keep the subterfuge going, with such heavy odds stacked against them. Inwardly, they never believe their plan was working, not even once, but they did it anyway. Their plan was simple, to hold strongly to the ruse and only speak to each other as if their plan was really happening. They wanted head office to think, that they didn’t know that they were listening to their little play. They always thought that they were speaking with head office, never in their wildest dreams did they think they were talking to Red himself? Red could actually hear them talking, thinking that they didn’t know he was listening. The voices were so distorted on either end, that Red hadn’t a clew he was listening to Draino. Their script went off as planed. Ryan would say, “the stupid buggers, don’t know what their about to looses out on, no skin off my ass?” Draino would answer, “I don’t think we can stall these natives much longer, I think they’re going to leave?” “Ya.” Replied Ryan, “That Red guy must be a real dumb ass? If this ever gets out, he’ll be the laughing stock of the world.” Replied Ryan. That sent the other listeners with Red into fear. As they all stepped back, looking at each other behind Reds back. They all starting to wonder if this Cancer cure nonsense wasn’t really real? Even if it didn’t work they enjoyed insulting Red, and it kept them active and entertained. They enjoyed holding power over the radio as well. Red was livid but kept his cool and showed know emotion. “Those fuckers are either drunk or out of their stinking minds?” He yelled. “Turn that shit off!” Red wanted to be convinced, and this was it. Even if it were not true, Red decided it had to be checked out anyway. But he could see that the crew were now starting to be convinced. So, he set a plan in motion. One by one, the crew started disappearing. And one day, the foreman’s body was found spinning around in an eddy of the muddy waters. This began to terrify Les Dickout, and he strongly let it be known that he thought the men out in the jungle were going nuts. Secretly he began to wonder himself. He thought about the possibilities of it being true, and for the first time began to see how high the stakes were and why Red was so interested? Red needed to get out their and had Billings look into helicopters with pontoons, and whether or not they could safely reach the sight, and return? The part had come for the boat, but they were having difficulty navigating the swollen river. And if it weren’t for Reds threats, they would be back home by now. Billing told Red that the copter could reach the clearing, but could only take one man, with extra fuel strapped to the pontoons. Red was delighted but fearful at the same time, because of his abject fear of the jungle. He personally phoned the hanger and tried all ways and angles to allow another person to come. Every attempt of Reds was rejected. Its either that or someone has to stay at the clearing, until the rainy season was over. Red offered the moon to his two men, but they both rejected is offer. One a little less so, Red consecrated on him, and after more incentives were added, he agreed. They were to leave in two days, at eight in the morning, baring any unforeseen weather issues. They would arrive later the same day in the early evening. Red made a fatal mistake, he announced his intent and time of arrival over the radio. His last message was “keep them there!” He had taken the bait.
Dan Ger