The face’s mouth looked at me like split cloth with a void centered in the middle. Hair, ragged and chaotically pulled in all directions was long, brown, and dry. I could smell her, it, the body. The eyes, I would never forget the eyes. They just stared at me as if I was the one to move first, begging me to move to help. Help that would never come. I was stuck there looking at her face, smelling her rotten fish odor. I tried to move again, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get my arms to move. I had landed next to her face. Her body was covered in mud and her neck continued under the mud, only her head was on the surface, which had started to rot.
“Tom! You over there?” I heard in the distance. I heard it ringing in my ears. I scratched my shoulder, the twigs had started to irritate my skin through my shirt.
“Uh, ih, uh,” I tried to breath, feeling it never fully satisfied in my lungs. I pushed up, my throat trying to handle my heart attempting to push into it. My body was shaking. I couldn’t stop staring into her pleas for help. To help her escape.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. The world started to move sideways around me, and my limbs, feet, and hands tingled. I was going to vomit all over her face, my stomach was ready to push up its contents through my mouth. And so, I leaned over toward the dry land. And I did, I vomited hard. I felt it push up out of my mouth, filling my nose and throat with the rancid taste of bile.
“You okay? We’re coming to get you.” Simon said.
“No, no. I’m coming to you.” I said as I finally pushed up and over to see them on the other side of the bush. I pushed up and over to catch them before they could see the shrieking head. I crawled and stood up, wiping my mouth.
“I’m coming,” I repeated. Walking toward Simon, who was wading in the slow-moving stream.
“You okay, man? You look sick.”
“Yeah, just need to get some water. I’m going to head toward the truck.” I said.
“Yeah, not catching anything anyway.” He said. We both waded to the opposing shore and climbed up and out. We walked over to the bank where Felipe was fishing.
“Anything?” He asked.
“No, man. Nothing. You?” Simon said to him. Felipe opened his cooler of water and showed 5 brookies and one rainbow. They were big, too. Great size.
“Hey, you okay?” Felipe asked me. His face seemed to be sliding around, unable to hold still on his neck. I needed to get control.
“Yeah, yeah. I just got dehydrated, that’s all.”
“Yeah, you look bad, man. Get some water. And stop scratching yourself, you’re only going to irritate your dry skin.” Felipe said.
“Yeah, yeah. Okay.” I said. I stopped scratching my arm, I didn’t realize I had been scratching it. I stumbled toward the truck.