Disenchantment 5

I felt the warm exhalation of breath on the back of my neck.

This all happened quickly, but looking back, it really seems like I had a lot of time to think about it while it was actually happening. It seemed that I actually felt the fight or flight instinct kick in. It was like it was almost a conscious choice that I made a mess of. Instead of choosing fight or flight, indecision seemed to prompt me to attempt both at the same time, in a sort of panic.

I had had both hands on the branch, both feet planted in the slippery mess of the ascent. I immediately, it seems now, threw back my elbow with my left arm while pulling up with my right arm and placing one foot in front of the other underneath me. I could have easily fallen and I’m glad that I didn’t.

What’s strange is I felt a strong physical object behind me. I mean strong. Yet, it disappeared as soon as I came in contact with it, like slamming your elbow into a brick wall, which hurt, but suddenly gave way in less than a second, similar to elbowing a massive boulder, but for some reason the force of your elbow breaks the rock. It was initially a very hard, immovable object, then it seemed to just disappear. I did hit my funny bone, and that extraordinarily weird nerve sensation you get did occur, some pain, but not quite pain, just that very uncomfortable, nerve stimulating feeling, spiked with agony.

At the same time, I was still moving upward, and I didn’t stop. After the initial elbow jab, I was using both hands and both feet to climb, to get the hell out of there. I guess that I was able to keep myself composed enough to do it. Also, the slimy surface of the incline stopped several feet up, and I felt the rough concrete beneath my feet, no longer slick. There came a point when the tree branch was only going to continue pulling me in a vertical direction, so I took advantage of the hard, solid ground under me to go forward, letting go of the tree and using my hands to help me climb up.

After the incline, I hit a solid, vertical wall, but it was only about eighteen inches high and I was easily able to stand fully erect and get up and over it. Attempting to listen, I couldn’t hear a thing, only silence greeted my ears with a somber mystery and loneliness.

Feeling the tree around me, I went forward in the opposite direction of the wash. I must have been moving a little too fast, but I was slightly jarred when I hit the chain link fence. At least it created that clankily thin metallic sound that disrupted the silence.

There certainly wasn’t any sort of fence to prevent me from getting into the drainage ditch, but of course there was when I tried to leave, so that was odd. I felt my way along it, an eerie feeling having my back to the wash and whatever creatures were there. The sound of the metal moving as I disrupted its lack of mobility was comforting to me in what would have otherwise been an empty silence.

I finally found an area where there was no fence, a lack ofoppostion, that I later learned was a hole in the fence. I pushed through and felt a lot of vegetation that seemed to want to actively prevent me from continuing. I f I had met that much resistance on my way into the wash, it surely would have disallowed me to fall in. Pushing hard against the shrubs and tree branches, I finally go through to empty space again.

After I did, I was able to see the ever-so-faint glow of the streetlight again, illuminating a section of road and earth off in the distance. Looking to my right, I saw a very faint object, slightly reflective, Perry’s Honda.

Getting up some courage, as I allowed my heart rate to slowly diminish its rapid beating, I called into the darkness, “Perry?”

I was greeted with silence, or almost silence. At that point, I could hear a very low sound, as if the crickets had started chirping again, off in the distance. It wasn’t close, but it was almost as if the real world was beckoning me to return, to leave the wash and get back to reality where things were normal and crickets chirped.

“Perry!” I yelled it that time, my voice cracking with a brief but sharp pain as I realized just how dry my throat was.

Nothing. The near silence continued.

I walked over to the car, as it was only maybe ten feet away, and felt my way along to the driver’s side door after initially making contact with the trunk area. It felt good, a real, solid, and familiar object I was able to touch.

I expected as much when before I did it, but still couldn’t help but to feel dejected when I saw no sign of Perry. Upon opening her door, the entire inside of the car was flooded with light. It actually hurt my eyes as they had become used to the absolute, or near absolute darkness. The soft white, and usually dim, light bathed the entire interior of the car in a soft glow. Perry wasn’t anywhere in the vehicle. I also noticed the sound, bing, bing, bing, bing, the brainless safety feature of the car letting the driver know that the door was open while the keys were in the ignition of the vehicle.

The car had been turned off, but the keys were right there, in the ignition as if less than patiently waiting for someone to start the vehicle and drive off. Lying on the driver’s seat was Perry’s cell phone and a bottle of water. I immediately grabbed the water and greedily swallowed the contents, only then realizing just how thirsty I was. I had become dehydrated due to my earlier alcohol consumption, and also probably due to the recent activity and yelling, not to mention the unbearable heat that we have been having a lot of lately. The warm, almost hot, water felt great, but the bottle was probably only one-eighth full, and was soon gone.

I tried again, “Perry!” Nothing. “Perry, baby, where are you?” Only the ever so faint sound of the nocturnal insects answered my call.

The flashlight function on her phone! The thought suddenly broke into my mind, temporarily removing thoughts of Perry and water. I grabbed her phone and quickly keyed in her password, then went to the tools section and turned on the flashlight.

As I wandered off into the darkness again, I realized that the light emanating from her phone was dim. It was the best I had at the time. I noticed the tree that had been the primary thing that seemed to have invited me into the ditch earlier. It was willow-like, and but only about twenty feet tall.

I walked back to the tree and realized there was an easily identifiable fence running parallel to the wash. Near the tree, there was a section missing, sort of. It wasn’t exactly cut, but just seemed to melt into the ground, as though it had been cut years ago, then laid on the ground for the earth and the elements to slowly swallow it up over time. There was about a five-foot section that was just...not there. A good four feet of that section was covered with branches from the tree and some other, smaller shrubs, only allowing about a foot of easily ventured-through space. My luck it seemed, I had just happened to have wandered through that small entrance in the pitch blackness.

It took a few seconds, I suppose, to gather up my courage, but I did it. I took a deep breath and went back through the small entryway.

The edge of the wash was only a few feet away, and I leaned over it and shone the light down into the expanse. I noticed the slime first. If the wall of the wash was about twenty-five feet down, the slime was only covering the bottom third of it, maybe only eight feet of it. It was a greenish brown sludge.

Initially, I only briefly glanced at it, trying to see further into the darkness beyond. However, the light wasn’t very bright and I could only barely see a few feet beyond the bottom. It just so happened that the slime wasn’t everywhere. It came up off the floor of the wash in a semi-circle, maybe about twenty feet in diameter, although it was difficult to tell in the dim light, almost a perfect half circle. Eventually the movement caught my eye.

Yes, it was moving. As I was straining to see farther off, beyond the limited light from the phone, the movement drew the attention of my line of sight. Catching the reflection of the minimal light, I suddenly noticed it. It was as if a wave started at the bottom, then slowly went to the top, lifting an inch or so off the surface. I wasn’t sure I really saw it until I paid close attention. It happened again. Starting at the bottom, it lifted up near the bottom, and came up all the way to the top, like waves in the ocean. It repeated again a few seconds later. It was a little startling, and certainly unusual. I wracked my brain for a physical reason it could be doing that.

It occurred to me then what it was doing, or seemingly doing. I paid close attention to the next wave, and sure enough, once the wave was over, it didn’t sink back, that inch or so of ground it had covered, was now part of the diameter of the thing.

Every little wave propelled it up a little farther. It was climbing! It was slowly making its way up and out of the wash!

That was it for me. I’d had enough of that. I love my wife, but it was all too much. I never thought of it as giving up on my wife, but it was more like I was out of options, not able to complete the task by myself, best thing to do. It wasn’t giving up, necessarily, but more like calling for reinforcements.

I went back to the car and dialed nine-one-one.

*****