Sunday, November 12, 2006

Excerpt

He fell fast, grabbing frantically at anything, catching nothing. He hit bottom, sprawled onto the ice, and stopped with the black channel of rushing water scant inches from his head. The tumble of water was loud now, louder than the wind, than the idling car above, than the laughter that trickled down to him. On his belly, he thought he should turn over to better perceive the situation. He carefully extended one hand and began to raise himself and the ice cracked with the sound of a large tree limb coming loose from the trunk.

Frigid water sucked him down and held him, wouldn’t tell him which way was up, banged him against rocks and ice and whirled him around. Then the current subsided and he knew he had gone deeper. He paddled his arms and kicked his legs but felt nothing and didn’t know if he’d moved. He closed his eyes against the cold and wished for air, even a single subzero gust, just a chance to fill his lungs. His lungs burned and his chest heaved as if by reflex; he had to clamp his mouth shut to keep from sucking in water. Then, as acrid bile was rising in his throat as if to force his jaws open to swallow the river, his foot struck a rock.

He stalled in the current; the rock was ahead of him. Water pushed from behind and began to raise him. He knew which way was up. His head popped into the air and he began to inhale but couldn’t move his feet and the water pushed him back under again, face first. His feet came loose and he was moving with the water, near the surface. He could feel cold air on the back of his head. With a weak flop of one arm he rolled over in the water, coughed mouthfuls of puke onto his cheeks, and convulsively sucked in air with panting, shallow breaths.

Rocks dragged across his back and stopped him from moving. The rushing water dizzied him. He raised himself to a sitting position and belched and puked until he was empty. Tears squeezed out of his eyes and turned slushy on his cheeks.

Gil tried to stand, slipped on the smooth river rocks, and fell down with a splash. Dragging himself forward, he reached a shelf of ice and crawled onto it. He crawled until he reached a rocky bank and crawled up it until he reached the top. He looked around and recognized nothing, as if he had been dropped out of the sky into a foreign city. Then, slowly, he began to recognize landmarks he’d known his whole life: a bridge, a park, the tower of a defunct railroad depot. He had come a long way in the water.

No comments: