‘Morning,’ he said. He started to step around her.
‘Say, aren’t you Wildman? The wrestler?’
‘Sure am,’ he said, halting and smiling down at her.
She rose to her feet. ‘I’ve seen some of your matches. You’re really great.’
‘Thanks. Do you go to Belmore? You don’t look familiar.’
‘I’m a frosh,’ she lied.
He nodded. ‘And you’ve seen me at work, huh?’
‘I sure have. I love to watch wrestling. Especially you. You’re so quick and strong. You’ve got a wonderful body.’
His eyes roamed down Cora. ‘You’ve got a great body, yourself.’
‘I used to wrestle with my brothers. I always won.’ She grinned. ‘Think you could take me?’ it’s sure tempting.’
She got down on her hands and knees, looked over her shoulder at him.
‘Are you kidding?’
‘Do I look like I’m kidding?’
‘You asked for it.’ He peeled off his T-shirt and draped it over a bush beside the trail. It blocked Abilene’s view. She slipped sideways. Peering around the bush, she watched Wilde sink to his knees beside Cora. He hunched down against her back and hooked his right arm across her belly.
‘On the count of three,’ Cora said.
‘Nobody’s ever gonna believe this,’ he muttered.
‘Let it be our little secret.’
‘Man, this has to be the weirdest come-on I’ve ever seen.’
‘Maybe I just like to wrestle.’
‘Yeah. Right.’
‘Three,’ she said, grabbed his wrist and dropped flat, pulling him down on her back.
Abilene darted out, threw herself onto Wilde’s back and jammed a pillowcase over his head. As he writhed beneath her, she looped a short length of rope around his neck to keep the pillowcase on. Finley stepped into the trail in front of her, taping. Vivian rushed in from the side, grabbed Wilde’s left hand and snapped a metal cuff around his wrist.
‘Hey!’ he yelled. ‘What’s… Get off! Goddamn it, what the fuck is…?’
‘Okay.’ Helen’s voice.
Abilene rolled clear. She saw Helen on the trail behind Wilde, tugging at the rope she’d looped around his ankles. Vivian, the other cuff in both hands, was stretching Wilde’s left arm. His right was still trapped under Cora.
Cora twisted out from under him, bringing the arm with her. Twisting it so hard that he cried out in pain.
Dropping a knee onto his back, she shoved the arm up behind him. She held it there while Vivian lunged forward, sank to her knees, and bent his left arm back. She snapped the other cuff around his right wrist.
‘Weirdest come-on you’ve ever seen,’ Cora said.
‘Cunt!’
She punched the side of his head through the pillow case.
While Finley taped the scene and Helen clutched the rope, the others lifted Wilde to his feet.
‘I get it,’ he said. ‘This is a gag. Right? Who put you up to this? Janke?’
Helen tugged the rope.
His legs leaped out from under him. Hands cuffed behind his back, he couldn’t catch himself. He slammed the trail chest-first. His breath huffed out.
‘Let’s see if you still think it’s a gag,’ Cora said, ‘when you’re sucking water at the bottom of the creek.’
‘Hey! No. Come on.’
While Helen kept the rope taut, Cora and Vivian and Abilene rolled him off the trail. To the edge of the embankment above Benedict Creek.
‘Come on! This isn’t…!’
They pushed. He yelped with alarm as he began tumbling down the slope. He cried out with pain as bushes and rocks scraped his bare skin.
The girls hurried after him.
He flopped into the creek
A moment later, the girls jumped in.
Abilene cringed. The water was awfully cold. But it only came up to her thighs.
She helped Vivian and Cora hold their captive under the surface.
‘We’ll see how long he can hold his breath,’ Cora said.
Helen laughed.-‘Half an hour, do you think?’
‘Maybe even longer.’
‘I wish Maxwell was here to see this.’
‘Shhh. No names.’
‘Do you think he heard?’
‘Doubt it.’
‘We’ll let you-know-who see the tape,’ Finley said.
‘Maybe we’d better let him up,’ Abilene said.
‘Rather not,’ Cora said. But she pulled Wilde up by the rope at the back of his neck. He gasped, making whiny sounds. The front of the pillow case, clinging to his face, puffed out and sank in as he fought for breath. His chest heaved. He had goose-bumps. His arms, chest and back were blotchy with red smudges that would soon turn into bruises. His skin was scratched, scuffed, gouged, ridged with pale welts, even tinted in places with grass stains. His blue shorts hung low and crooked below his hips. The waistband of his jockstrap showed.
Cora hooked a forefinger under it, drew it back like a slingshot and let go. The elastic snapped him. He flinched.
Helen laughed.
‘Okay, stud,’ Cora said. ‘Let’s go.’
When they tried to lead him upstream, they found that he couldn’t walk with the rope hobbling him. Abilene crouched into the water, found the rope around his ankles, loosened it a little, and slid it up to his waist. There, she tightened its slipknot against his spine.
His legs suddenly free, Wilde tried to make a break. He shouldered Vivian aside and rammed Cora with his other shoulder. Helen yanked the rope. He flopped backward and submerged. Abilene plunged a hand down after him and held his face under until Vivian and Cora returned and pulled him up by his arms.
After that, he behaved as they guided him up the creek.
Finley preceded them, wading backward, the camera to her eye.
Soon, they came to the Shady Lane Bridge.
Shady Lane traversed the park. Once, it had apparently been open to traffic. But that was long ago. Now, both ends were blocked by permanent barricades. The road, with its bridge over Benedict Creek, was reserved for pedestrians. It was not heavily traveled, especially on weekdays.
In the shadows under the bridge, they climbed ashore.
Vivian, Cora and Abilene held onto Wilde while Helen pulled the loop up his back. She cinched it tight between his shoulder blades, then drew the rest of the rope out from behind his cuffed hands. She flung its end over a support beam of the bridge, caught it, tugged until the rope pressed into his armpits, then tied it to the slipknot between his shoulders.
‘That oughta keep him for a while,’ Cora said.
‘Why are you doing this?’ he gasped.
‘Because you’re such a sweetheart.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Finley told him. ‘Somebody’ll find you sooner or later.’
‘Maybe one of the bums who sleeps under here at night,’ Abilene added.
