Bee led the way toward the nearest equipment shed. She ran inside, past a couple of tractors and straight out the back. Donna followed and I came last. As I ran out the rear of the shed, I looked down, my eyes drawn instinctively to a black shape at my feet.
I almost screamed but realized instantly that the snake was too skinny and too long to be a cottonmouth. It was a black racer, a type of snake we protected because it was a great rodent eater.
Even though I knew Lenny was close behind, I stopped. A black racer is as fast as greased lightning and almost impossible to catch with your bare hands. When I looked more closely, I saw a cedar shingle that the wind had torn off one of the roofs. It had hit the snake right behind its head and killed it.
With a crazy idea lighting up in my head, I grabbed up the snake and ran after Bee and Donna. The snake hadn’t been dead long. Its muscles were still loose, and it coiled naturally around my arm. Up ahead Bee and Donna had come to a barbed-wire fence and didn’t know how to cross it. Bee saw the snake, but she was smart enough not to ask. Donna was looking in all directions, still too close to panic to notice.
“That way,” I said, pointing. I knew where there was an easy place to get under just ahead.
The wind had died enough so that I could hear Lenny cursing behind us as he splashed along the flooded ground. He had almost reached the equipment shed, and I knew we had to hurry. If we could make it through the fence without him seeing how we did it, we might be in the clear.
We ran a few more yards, to a spot where the ground dipped into an indentation, so the lowest strand of barbed wire was a foot or two off the ground. The dip was filled with water, but Bee had already figured it out. She dove onto her belly and rolled through the water. For a second she completely disappeared but then came up on the other side of the wire and got to her feet.
Donna hesitated for a second, but then she got flat on her stomach and rolled into the water and out the other side.
Lenny was in the shed, checking behind the tractors and mowing attachments to make sure we weren’t hiding. “You in here, girls?” he shouted.
I threw myself down as soon as Donna was out of my way and rolled into the water and out the other side. Once I was on my feet, I tucked the arm with the dead snake under my T-shirt and followed Bee and Donna into the swath of trees that stood behind the sheds. We quickly hid ourselves behind the ancient live oaks and tangles of wild grapes and thick wrists of honeysuckle that grew in tight profusion.
Right where we squatted a small hole in the undergrowth allowed us to peek back and see the equipment shed and part of the fence line. I could just make out Lenny. He was standing outside the back door, confused.
After a few seconds he balled his hands into fists. “I’m gonna start killin’ your parents. You don’t get back to the house right now, the first one dies in five minutes.” He held up one arm that I guessed held his wristwatch. “I’m counting!”
Donna let out a moan. I took a deep breath and did a gut check. I really, really believed that Lenny wouldn’t take the risk of killing four people if he knew he had three witnesses running around in the woods. If I was wrong, I would never be able to live with the consequences, but if I was right, we had no other choice than what we were about to do.
“Donna,” I said. She had mud, sticks, and leaves in her normally perfect blond hair, and a big smear of dirt along one side of her face. Her clothes were soaked, torn, and filthy; her eyes bloodshot. She looked perfect for what we needed.
“Donna,” I repeated. “You were right before. You have to go back. It’s very important.”
“Me?” Her eyes grew huge, and once again tears started to spill down her cheeks.
“You need to go back inside the house.”
“Just me?” She looked at me like I had just threatened to cut off her arm. After a second she began to shake her head in tiny little movements that made me wonder if she was having a fit. “Sneak in?” she squeaked.
“No. You’re going to go in the front door and let Lenny and Possum know you’re back. You have to scare them, so I want you to start out by screaming.”
“Why?”
“Because when you run into the house they need to think you’re running away from something really scary.”
Donna gave me one of her looks. “I’m not going to start screaming.”
“You have to. Do it now.”
She rolled her eyes to tell me what an idiot I was; then she let out a scream that wouldn’t have frightened a mouse. “There.”
“It has to be louder and a lot scarier.”
“That’s as scary as I can make it.”
“Then I’m going to help you.”
With that I pulled out my arm from under my shirt and held out the snake.
The scream Donna let loose could have shattered glass.
“Get away!” she shrieked.
I kept the snake close to Donna’s face, moving my arm fast so she couldn’t tell it was dead.
“Get away! Get away! Get away!” she screamed, the words separated by guttural howls that made it sound as if she were being ripped to pieces by some horrible monster.
I waited a few more seconds; then I pulled the snake away and threw it behind me.
“Okay, okay,” I whispered. “Quiet.”
Donna was sucking in huge, shuddering breaths, her eyes flooded with tears, snot running all over her lips and chin. She was an absolute wreck and looked so pathetic that for a few seconds I was swamped by a huge wave of guilt, but it lasted only until I saw that Donna’s scream had worked.
Through the snarl of branches I could see that Lenny had come back out of the equipment shed again and was standing on the other side of the barbed-wire fence. His mouth was wide open, and he was waving his pistol around as if he feared that whatever horrible creature had just eaten Donna might suddenly burst out of the trees and try to eat him. After another second he started backing toward the shed, keeping his gun aimed at the trees until he disappeared through the door. I smiled.
“You did great,” I told her.
Donna shook her head. “You were going to let that snake bite me,” she squeaked in a barely audible voice.
“The snake was dead. Besides, it’s not even a poisonous snake.”
Donna took that in, and for a second her fear seemed to fade and I caught a glint of anger in her eyes. “You tricked me?”
“Only to make you scream. We needed Lenny to hear you.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s important for when you go back to the house.”
“I’m not doing it.” She spoke with more force this time, and I actually felt a glimmer of hope that the old Donna was coming back.
“Yes, you are. It’s the only way to make sure we get your parents and everyone else out safely.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ll explain it to you,” Bee said.
It was everything I could do not to throw my arms around Bee and give her a big hug. We hadn’t ever talked about this part of the plan, but she knew where I was going with it. In fact, knowing Bee, she was probably ahead of me.
Donna looked back and forth between us, then settled on Bee. “It’s really the only way?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Come on,” Bee said as I stood and started back toward the equipment shed. “We don’t have much time. We’ll explain it to you on the way.”