dwindling away. That gothic residence looked as though it belonged on a dreary English moor, secreting a gloominess that seemed out of place in the wet sunshine of this August morning.
The tiny figure of an old woman stood in the overgrown backyard, a baby in her arms. She waved to the departing boat. Only Steve and Kim waved back.
The petite blonde sitting across from them lunged for the stern and emptied her guts in orange-green ropes into the wake.
Kim reached over and rubbed her back.
'You okay, honey?' she asked.
The blonde nodded but was sick again.
The old man glanced back from the cockpit, grinning.
'All right there, Miss?' he called out over the groaning motor.
'I’m
The old man laughed and yelled something about 'sea legs' that was lost in the wind. The blonde returned to her seat and leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder. Kim and Steve looked away, back toward Ocracoke, quickly fading into nothing but a green smudge on the horizon.
They crossed the inlet, whitecaps just a few hundred yards east where the ocean and sound ran together. Fifty yards off starboard, thousands of cormorants congregated on a temporary shoal. They scattered as the boat passed by, filling the sky, squawking, some divebombing fish in the shallows.
Now Portsmouth loomed. Steve squeezed his wife’s arm and pointed to the approaching island. Kim nodded blandly as the abandoned structures of Portsmouth Village
came into view amid the scrub pine.
The blueness of the sky had begun to wane, to drown in its own heat and fade into an indistinct whiteness that was neither cloud nor sky, but a veil of humidity that is the fate of most afternoons in a southern summer.
The boat continued shoreward, as would a passenger ferry bound for Haulover Point. But before they’d neared the dock, where tourists are unloaded for their ventures into the ghost village, Luther turned the boat and guided it around the soundside of the island.
They were close to shore now, and as Steve stared into the impenetrable thicket, Kim fell mesmerized by their fellow tourists. The man and his wife seemed oblivious to the island and the sound. They stared out across the water, listless and burdened. She started to speak to them, but the boat turned suddenly and headed up a creek into the interior of the island.
Pines crowded the banks. She could smell them.
The creek narrowed.
The boat slowed.
Drifting now, a sappy branch passed overhead, and she reached up and pinched off a cluster of pine needles.
The motor quit.
Only the soft liquid rip of the bow slicing through the water.
In the darkgreen distance, she saw where the creek ended. There was a small dock at the terminus, a rustic shack behind it.
She slapped the side of her neck, came away with a bloodsmeared palm.
The first mosquito had found her.
Kim glanced again at the woman on the opposite bench, curious as to why tears meandered down her face, and her hands had begun to tremble.
# # #
Rufus tied the boat to the moorings and stepped down onto the dock. He offered a hand to the young woman, helped her out of the boat, and then her husband.
'You two should go on ahead,' he said. 'There’s a slough back there.'
He waved toward the dense foliage behind the shack.
'Straight through those trees. Tide’s out, so it’s dry now. You follow that a ways, and you’ll come out on a tidal flat. Trek across the flat for a mile and a half, scramble over the dunes, and you’ll find yourself on a deserted beach that’s just as pretty as a picture.'
'You going to show us—'
'We’ll be right behind you, but you might as well get a head start. It’s quite a hike.'
'What about the ghost village?' Steve asked. 'We really want to—'
'We’ll take you there, too, so don’t you worry. It’ll be part of the loop we do.'
The young couple set out down the dock, past the shack, and into the pines. We all watched them for a moment, making slow progress as they bushwhacked their way through the brush, glancing back now and then to see if we were coming. When they’d disappeared into the thicket, Rufus looked back into the boat at Vi and me. Grinning, he reached into his pocket and tossed me a key.
'Opens the shack,' he said. 'I think you remember it, Andy, but don’t worry—no grizzly trap this time. Just a pump-action Remington under the bunk bed and a box of shells on the table. On account of your limp, you might want to get a move on.'
I struggled to my feet.
Vi was bawling again.
'Let’s go,' I said.
She shook her head.
Grabbing her under the arm, I tried to muscle her to her feet, but she collapsed across the deck. I knelt beside her and whispered into her ear, 'Vi, walk off this boat with me. Whatever you have to do to steel yourself up for this, now’s the time. They’ll kill your baby.'
She wiped her eyes and looked up at me, then nodded, came to her feet.
We stood there, gazing at Rufus.
He said, 'We’ll come help you carry them back when we hear the gunshots.'
I started toward the dock, but Rufus held up his hand.
'Wait. Wanna tell you something. I’ve lived out on these barrier islands going on forty years now. Seen a few folks try to do what you’re about to do and fail. Let me tell you this. If you haven’t shattered those values, if you’re still seeing this world through good and evil glasses, it’s going to be hell out there. These are the Outer Banks. The fringe of America. Fringe of thought. Most people aren’t hard enough, pure enough to exist out here. It’s uncomfortable. They’d rather live inland. Safe from the sea. From themselves. But this is where the action is. I hope that isn’t lost on you.'
Rufus stepped forward and gave us each a hand down onto the dock. We could hear the doomed couple thrashing about in the thicket.
I glanced at Luther. He stared at me, eyes black and smoldering.
I started limping along up the dock.
We reached the shack. I unlocked the door and stepped inside, told Vi to fetch the shotgun from under the bed. It was right where Rufus had said it would be, a twelve gauge with a twenty-eight inch barrel. She set it down on the table as I tore open the box of shells.
'Double-aught buckshot,' she said. 'My God, this is going to be messy.'
I slid four shells into the chamber, the stench of gunpowder filling the shack.
'Ever handled a shotgun?' I asked.
'My daddy owned several. Taught me to shoot when I was fifteen.'
I handed her the weapon.
'Part of me,' she whispered, 'wants to say
'We’d die and your child would die.'
I glanced out the window.
Luther was perched on the bow, aiming a high-powered rifle with a scope at me through the glass.
'Look out there,' I said. 'We’d be dead the second we started for the boat.'
Vi sat down in a chair, sighed long and deep. She sweated through her thin white T-shirt.
'Ever kill someone in the line of duty?' I asked.
