Cypress Stump

"Thanks for the lift, Pete." Bubba got down from the cab of the pulp wood truck, "See you tomorrow."

"Nah, got nothing tomorrow, but we'll start cuttin' that new place on Thursday, pick you up at 6:30."

"Kay."

He walked across the worn pavement and through the door of the Dew Drop Inn Bar and Grill. He stooped to scratch behind the ears of Daisy, the Black and Tan that Donna, the barmaid bred. Donna reached in the cooler for a Pabst Blue Ribbon, popped the cap off, and set it on the bar in front of the chair Bubba occupied most nights until closing. "Hungry?" She'd given up asking him to wipe the clay off his boots before he came in, she just swept the floor after closing and let it go.

"Yeah, lemme have a burger, Donna."

Donna yelled through the window to the kitchen, "One burger, Trey."

She turned back to Bubba, looked at the empty bottle and reached for another beer for him. "When are you and me going to go out and have some fun?"

"You know Daddy don't give me a night off much and then I got to see my kid." Her excuse for all the local men that hit on her, and they all did. Her thoughts were more along the lines of No way in hell even in your wet dreams you smelly fuck. She dressed to encourage it, but really to encourage the tips their fantasies would generate. Her skirt was short to show off her legs, and her top was one size too small to stretch the buttons and cause the small gap between her breasts. Her bra peeked through sometimes, just enough to keep the horny regulars hoping.

Bubba was on his third beer as the bar started to get some customers and they ordered food, mostly hamburgers, to go with the normal beers that quenched their working-class thirsts. The Dew Drop had a reputation for the best hamburgers in the eastern half of the county, but the atmosphere and usual cliental kept most of the residents of the town of 2,300 away, Most preferred getting worse food from the McDonalds on the outskirts of town. Ian McCooke had bought the property on both sides of the highway, along with his brother, when they moved toward the coast from the foothills where they'd grown up with the rest of their Scots-Irish family. Donna and Trey were his two children, both in their thirties, both divorced.

The property consisted of the Dew Drop, which sat in the center of the U shaped Jefferson Davis Motel. Both had seen better days before the Interstate had gone through 15 miles to the south, and then, as if to seal the fate of the small community, a bypass had been built that took most traffic to the other side of the town and past the Walmart. Ian McCooke believed something was against him in the town. He'd sold the motel to Pavas Patel a few years before, but kept the Coleman Plantation Mobile Home Park across the road for the meager rents and sales it produced. Bubba rented one of the trailers.

Bubba moved from the bar to a booth with two of his friends from high school. They would spend the rest of the evening talking of the greatest accomplishments of their lives, all behind them. This was Bubba's night to brag.

"Sunday night, I got me some. I didn't believe it, but them two twins Lila and Layla come down the road and started flirting with me. They was both wearing Daisy Dukes and some kinda tee shirt they'd cut off so there wasn't much but a tube left of it and they'd put on some of they Momma's perfume and lipstick. They looked right slut like."

"Bubba, how old are those twins? I remember them on tricycles."

"Dunno 'xactly, But they was both talking dirty to me and making like they wanted to git it on. So I said Y'all come on in the trailer here and we'll have some fun. So they do, and then one of them, Lila, goes in the fridge and gits three beers and hands them around and they get to drinking them with me. I was thinking they too young to drink, but they took 'em themselves. Then Layla, or the other one says Lets get what we came her for and she shucks off her clothes right there, and starts tugging on my shirt to get it over my head. The other one says I'm scart, but Layla says don't be, and sorta pulls me back toward the bed. The scart one just watches and when Layla pulls my jeans down and lays back on the bed with them legs open she runs out the door. But I got to going, and she's real tight and making noises and shit so I put my hand over her mouth so she don't get the neighbors annoyed. Then we're all done and she gets up and puts her clothes on and says Thanks Bubba and runs out the door. My sheets was a mess. Blood all over them. I reckon she was a first timer."

"Damn, Bubba." It was a non-committal statement from Donnie Ray.

Donna was at the booth with three more beers and had heard most of the story. "Those twins are only fourteen. Are you outa your fuckin' mind?" She set the beers down an walked away shaking her head.

Bubba wiggled his fingers one at a time as he counted. "Shit, that ain't but seven years younger than me, what's wrong with that? My momma's fourteen years younger then my daddy."

His companions said what passed for good night and left, Bubba finished his beer and then the other two that his friends hadn't touched. He left two twenties on the table and staggered out the door, and across the street toward his trailer. There was one light in the middle of the row of twenty house trailers, all without wheels, ten on each side of the road. He hadn't bothered to check the mailbox for anything, he hadn't bothered for the entire week because he'd never made it home sober enough to find his mailbox key since Sunday. He stumbled up the cinder block steps and through the door. He never locked the door. He didn't have anything to steal and he'd only lose the key if he did. He thought about getting a beer from the refrigerator, but couldn't quite remember where it was so he sat on the sofa and passed out.

Bubba'a leg exploded in pain. He woke with start and sat up. Two bright eyes were shining at him in the darkness blinding him. He smelled grease, motor oil, transmission fluid, body odor but his brain was too foggy to sort it out.

"Tape him boys." The creature with the two eyes spoke and one eye moved. Something trapped around his head covering his mouth and someone grabbed his hands and held them together. A tearing sound accompanied a feeling of tightness over his wrists. Too late, he started to struggle against whoever it was he couldn't see. Someone pushed him back down on the sofa and someone grabbed his legs. The tearing sound again and this time it was his legs that couldn't move apart. Something sticky pulled the hair on his legs when he tried to move.

"Pick him up and let's go."

Bubba was picked up, he couldn't tell by how many arms. He sensed rather than saw himself being carried out the door of his trailer to the road. He could see a pickup there and he was loaded into the back. Someone got in with him and kicked him. "Lay still, boy."

The doors of the pickup closed, the engine started and it began to move. There was a hard bump as it crossed over the culvert an onto the highway. Bubba noticed his leg still hurt. He looked down at the deepening bruise. His companion noticed the gaze and laughed. "You lucky I missed yo' balls, boy. Now lay still."

Bubba moved his eyes and saw the aluminum baseball bat in his companion's hand. He looked vaguely familiar. He looked around as they went under street lights. He could see a large roll bar bolted to the bed of the truck with lights on the top of it. He was laying on a plastic bed liner. There was a chain, and a hi-lift jack and a few other tools against the side of the truck. He couldn't make out anything else before they left the outskirts of the town and the lights stopped. He had no idea of the time but it was still full dark. The truck picked up speed.

There were lights follow them, At a dip in the road he could see two sets behind them, both looked to be pickups. The first one, at least, was pulling a trailer with a boat attached. He didn't see anything else other than the tops of pine trees along the road until they slowed and turned off. He caught the top of the sign for Larry's Bait and Tackle that marked the dirt road leading down to Eight Mile Pond. The Pond was a favorite fishing spot for some locals and Larry kept a few jon boats at his boat ramp that he rented for two dollars an hour or five dollars a day, bring your own motor, oars, or paddle, or he'd rent you those and life jackets at the store. It mostly worked on the honer system and people just left the money in the box on the side of the store.

The road was rough and Bubba bounced and hurt in the back of the truck. Eight Mile Pond got its name because it backed water eight miles up Catfish Creek. The beaver dam had been there since before the War of Northern Aggression, and escaped distruction because it was only a beaver dam and not some man made structure. There were now three beaver lodges up from the damn and all three families worked at maintaining the dam. Larry tended to float small logs and branches down to dam to help the beavers after particularly bad storms when the Pond had flooded. The ramp was at the widest part of the pond, and most fishermen didn't venture far from the main body of water up into the creek as it wandered through the cypress and tupelo that thrived in the shallow water.

The pickup stopped at the ramp and the others followed down nearby. The one towing the boat trailer turned and backed down the ramp. Bubba noticed a square stern canoe in the back of the other truck. His square steered canoe. A car was parked there, also. The doors opened and the men got out. Bubba smelled the grease and oil again. They came around and dropped the tail gate. One of the men grabbed his leg and pulled him out and they stood him up in the headlights.

Bubba recognized the leader. Short, skinny, and in coveralls that were spotted and stained. He ran a small garage where he fixed peoples older cars and trucks. Bubba couldn't remember his name, but did know him as some of the white trash from the town. Bubba never got the irony of thinking of someone else as white trash. The man waved at the car and the doors opened. A man, a woman and two girls got out. Bubba recognized the twins. Shit was his only thought.

"Is this the fella that done that to you?"

"Yeah, Unc Henry, that's the one." It was Lila that spoke, the one who had run away. Layla stood beside her, silent.

"Okay, y'all gwine and git home, we'll teach this sumbitch to go givin' you clamidah."

Bubba wondered what clamidah was and who'd given it to who. Maybe he meant the clap but Bubba didn't have that because it didn't hurt to pee. Lila looked triumphant and glowered at him. Layla met his eyes and looked sad. Her lips moved but Bubba couldn't tell what she said. The family got in the car and it drove away.

"Cut them panties off'n him and put him in the boat."

A click sounded behind him and he felt something cold run down his back. Then his boxers were pull off of him. He was lifted and carried down to the boat on the ramp and put near the bow. Another jon boat towing his canoe was already running and led the way toward the opening of the trees that marked where the main body of the creak entered the pond. They had large flashlights lighting their way.

Soon they entered a stand of tupelo that hid everything behind and in front of them. The channel was barely visible leading upstream. Upstream was more of a notion than defined by any flow of water. The pond was still. Bubba didn't have a good idea of the distance they went, he'd never ventured this far to where the trees, now mostly bald cyprus, closed in around them, branches arching over the watery path. In clear spots he could see the sky turning a paler shade of black, and fewer stars visible. He was sure he was going to die in the swamp.

In a small clear spot in the creek the boat pulled to one side around the stump of a cypress tree that had been cut off about two feet above the water.

"Git him up there."

Hands grabbed him, lifted him out of the boat and set him on a cypress stump. They held him in place like he was sitting on a chair with no back. The older man that was leading the group picked up a hammer and a nail. "Hold him still, now. Boy, you hold that dick of yourn outta the way less'n you want it smashed. That wouldn't bother me none."

"What?"

" Pick your dick up before it gits smushed, Ain't none of my boys gonna touch that thang."

Bubba didn't know what else to do, so with one of his taped together hands, he picked himself up. The younger men on either side moved his knees apart. The older man took the nail and placed it dead center on Bubba's scrotum and then drove it through with the hammer. Bubba screamed. He kept driving until the head of the nail was down on the skin of the scrotum.

"Alrighty, boys, that's our good deed for the day. Let's git outta here and let this boy have some peace."

They let him go and Bubba swayed back and forth, almost fainting. He caught his balance and watched the boats disappear among the trees. He looked at his hands, duct taped around the wrists. Then he looked at the nail in the middle of his scrotum. He was bleeding, but not much. The pain was still there. He moved his knees together just slightly. He bent forward and looked at his ankles duct taped together.

He tried not to panic. He screamed into the duct tape.

Once the pain in his crotch had reduced to a dull throb, Bubba relaxed his body and slumped. He nearly lost his balance, but recovered without putting any strain on his delicate attachment to the stump. He tried pushing the tape away from his mouth, wetting it with spit, but it didn't work. He gently worked at his wrists to see if he could loosen the tape, but that didn't work either. He used his hand to try and pull the nail out of the stump but it didn't move.

The sky had turned to the pale blue of a clear dawn. It reflected off of the still water. A ripple disturbed the water and Bubba followed it to its center and saw two eyes and a snout watching him. He dug out his memory and it told him the distance between the nose and the eyes was the length of the alligator in feet. Looked like 8 inches, so the gator was about 8 feet long. Big, but probably a female off her nest, not likely to jump on the stump to attack him. He watched the gator watching him. The gator submerged and then disappeared in the brown water. Bubba thought At least I have company.

As the sun rose higher he heard a hawk call overhead, looked up and watched it circling lazily overhead, looking for a meal. The hawk kept his attention for a quarter of an hour before it dove to catch something. Bubba couldn't see since it was below the tops of the trees.

The sun continued its path through the sky and Bubba began to feel the burn on his skin. His face, neck, and arms were tanned from working outside every day, but his shoulders and back were starting to redden and burn. When he glanced down at his thighs, they were also beginning to burn.

At last the sun went below the tree tops leaving him in shadow and the burn subsided a little bit. The pain in his back from sitting for so long caused him to try moving from side to side and back and forth always being careful to avoid falling off of the stump and leaving parts of him behind.

As night fell, the noises changed. There was the occasional splash of something jumping or diving in the water. He worried about what that might be. An owl hooted in the tree next to him for what he thought was a couple of hours. Frogs made their various mating calls, some deep from the bull frogs and some small from the tree frogs.

He jerked awake. He had no idea how long he slept. He wasn't even aware of falling asleep. The first light started to give shape to the trees around him. He could see color start to reflect from the sky onto the water. He was hungry and thirsty. His throat ached. But the pain in his scrotum was gone. His legs and ass were sore from the stump. He started to think this was a lousy way to die.

Something caught his eye moving behind him to the right. He turned and looked and watched a large moth caught in a spider's web. The moth struggled, but was trapped. The large black and yellow garden spider, after feeling the vibrations of the captured prey, walked slowly over the web to the moth. Then mounting on top of it, bit it and killed it. The spider then began sucking the juices from the hulk of the moth.

The sun reflected from the surface of the water like a mirror. The intensity seemed magnified on his legs where he wasn't tanned. His back and chest continued to broil. Something rippled the surface of the mirror. Bubba squinted into the glare seeking the source. He found it. A snake was swimming across the pond about fifty feet in front of him. He watched as it held its black head above the surface and curved its body through the water. He tried to figure out if it was a black snake or a cottonmouth. He couldn't tell in the Sun's reflection. Then there was a splash, larger waves circled out from where the alligator had grabbed the snake. The alligator disappeared below the water and the mirror calmed and began to cook his skin again.

There was almost no sound around him. Softly,from behind him, he heard the dip of paddles in the water. He turned to look over his shoulder. A tandem kayak approached him and the source of his trouble was paddling it. Layla was in the front and Lila in the rear. It paddled up close, and Layla kneeled up on the deck.

"Hey, stupid, you're going to flip us." Lila yelled at her.

"Just chill." Layla reached up and grabbed the tape on his mouth and pulled. It hurt as it pulled out his whisker stubble.

"Ouch!" Bubba looked at them with some degree of fear.

"Look here, big bad man got his balls nailed to a stump." Lila laughed. She was clearly proud of this.

"Bubba, I didn't have anything to do with this." Layla told him quickly.

"What?"

"It was all Lila. She told Daddy and he went and got Uncle Jim Bob. I didn't say nothing to no body,."

"Shut up, stupid." Lila swung the paddle at Layla, hitting her on the shoulder. Then back paddled to get away from the stump and Bubba. "You don't look like you're ready to fuck any girls now, big boy. You'll be out here in the swamp for a long time. Your balls will rot off before you get off that stump." Lila laughed.

Layla's eyes looked at him. She mouthed something, but he couldn't make it out.

"Somebody's coming, lets get outta here." Lila started paddling.

"No, wait." Layla tried to stop her.

"We'll get arrested if they catch us. Or Daddy will tear us a new one."

Layla picked up her paddle and started paddling, looking back over her shoulder at Bubba as the disappeared in the trees.

When they were gone, Bubba could hear the sound of an outboard. He listened. Hoping. It went past on the other side of him from where the twins had disappeared. He yelled, but the trees and the sound of the motor kept him from being heard by the driver. He didn't even see the boat go past.

Bubba listened carefully and the buzzing whine of the outboard multiplied. There were others. He began to crane around an look for them. He prepared to yell when they got close enough. There was hope.

He began pulling at the tape on his wrists with his teeth and slowly loosened it up. After a long time working on it, he got one hand free and pull the tape from his other wrist. He looked at his now hairless wrists.

The sound of the outboards had faded up stream.

Fatigue was overtaking Bubba and he started to nod off in the sun. He was burnt but he could bear it for now. His mind was too fuzzy to think of a way to get off of the stump although he tried.

A bird screamed. Or so he thought when it brought him out of his daze. He looked around the circle of sky visible to him. A hawk circled overhead once then disappeared. He was alone again.