This ain’t one of those touristy stories you hear so much of. There’s no wide sandy beaches, no purty girls in bikinis, and no muscle-bound jocks on surf-boards. No, the people in this story ain’t never seen nary a one of those fancy beaches, cause they live deep in the swamps – way back in the Everglades and about as far away from anything as you can get.
The heroes of this here story is a boy by the name of Luke and his little brother, Jedadiah, ‘cepting they aren’t very heroic. But they are the subjects of this here story. I guess the hero in this story is a fellow with no name…. Wait a minute! I’m getting ahead of myself. I need to start at the beginning.
It all started with Luke going on the lam, after his pappy caught him stealing chewin’ tobaccy. When he realized that his pappy was after him, Luke lit out of their homeplace as fast as his legs could carry him. And when Luke saw the belt in his pappy’s hand – well, he ran even faster to get deeper into the swamp before his pappy could catch him.
When his lungs were about to burst for want of oxygen, and his legs had turned to rubber, Luke cut off runnin’. He figured Pappy probably gave up followin’ him about twenty or thirty minutes ago. But not wantin’ to take any chances, he scuttled down into a tangle of mangrove roots to hide while he rested. As his lungs and his legs began catching up to him, Luke took out the plug of tobaccy he had stolen and bit off a big chew.
A smile covered Luke’s face between chewin’ and spitin’ out tobaccy juice. He was thinking about how comical it would be if he were a jay sitting up in a tree watching his pappy cuss, and holler and getting all red in the face.
Luke had just spit more juice between his teeth, when he heard a twig break no more than a few feet behind him. He froze in fear. Nothin’ moved anywhere – ‘cepting a dribble of tobaccy juice runnin’ down Luke’s chin.
“He couldn’t have caught up to me yet,” Luke thought to himself. “Pappy ain’t near as spry as he used to be.”
Whisky and cigarettes had taken a lot out of his pappy.
“It can’t be Pappy,” Luke thought, “but somethin’s behind me.” His muscles tensed, as he readied to spring out of hidin’ liked a flushed bird.
“Ya gonna give me some of that there chew?” a voice said.
“Jedadiah! I oughta knock you to kingdom come! What are you doing followin’ me all the way out here? You better not be leadin’ Pappy to me!”
“Pappy? He gave up chasin’ you before he reached the edge of the clearin’.”
“You better be right!”
“I know I’m right! Cause when he realized he wasn’t catchin’ you, he turned and came after me!”
“What’d he come after you for?”
“Darned if I know – just meanness, I spouse. Anyway, I wasn’t about to wait around there to find out! So I lit out after you.”
“You know we can’t go back,” Luke said.
“Yeah, I know. It’ll take a couple of days for the whiskey to erase his memory.”
“I ain’t never goin’ back,” Luke insisted.
“Never?” Jedadiah asked. “What you gonna do for food and a place to sleep?”
“I’m gonna live off the things I find here in the swamp. Pappy’s been doin’ that all his life. I figure I can too.”
“You’re gonna end up just like Pappy then.”
“No I’m not!” Luke shouted. “I ain’t nothing like him! I got a plan!”
“What kind of plan can you have? You stopped going to school three years ago,” his brother said.
“You don’t need to go to school to better yourself,” Luke insisted. “I got a plan that’s gonna make me rich over night.”
“You’re lyin’.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
“Prove it!”
“OK, wise guy. Remember that Injun that killed the guy at the bait store?”
“Yeah,” his little brother agreed. “You gonna start robbin’ bait stores like him?”
“No, that would be stupid. There ain’t no money in them bait stores! I’m gonna go after the big money.”
“Where you gonna get big money, livin’ out here in the swamp?”
“It just so happens, Mr. Know-it-all, there’s a $25,000 reward for the Injun that killed that guy. I’m going to catch him and claim the reward.”
“The police have been lookin’ for him for more’n three weeks, and they haven’t found him yet, not even with their dogs. So how are you going to find him?”
“The police don’t live in the swamp. I do. And,” he added, “I know where I would hide if people were lookin’ for me. I thought of it while I was runnin’ from Pappy.”
“Where?”
“Crane Island,” Luke answered as he took another big bite of his plug of stolen tobaccy.”
“Gimme some of that too,” Jedadiah said while reachin’ for the plug. He took a bite, chewed a bit, and worked it over into his cheek just like his big brother. “Crane Island would be a good place to hide out, but how are you gonna capture this guy? I don’t think he’ll agree to just go saunterin’ into the police station with you and give himself up.”
“I got my skinnin’ knife,” Luke answered, “and I got a plan that’ll give me an edge.”
“It better be a big edge,” Jedadiah said, “cause I heared that was a big Injun.”
“Actually, it’s a double edge. First, I’m gonna sneak up on him. He’ll be listenin’ for police with dogs. He won’t be listenin’ for a sneaky 14-year old swamp boy. And, second, I’m gonna lash my skinnin’ knife to a straight branch to make it into a spear. That way I don’t have to get up so close to him.”
“I’ve got my skinnin’ knife too,” Jedadiah said. “If I lash it to a branch too; that would give us a triple edge.”
“Us?” Luke asked.
“Yeah,” Jedadiah volunteered, “for half the reward money I’ll help you.”
“No way! I’ve got plans for that money!” He paused to spit. “I’ll give you a hundred dollars and no more!”
Jedadiah thought for a few seconds, and then finally said, “Aw, what the heck, I can’t go home, and I ain’t got nothin’ better to do. Besides, it would be a hundred dollars more than I’ve got now. Let’s go!”
So the brothers set out for Crane Island.
After a couple hours of walkin’, wadin’, duckin’ under branches, climbin’ over roots and logs, the brothers approached Crane Island.
“We better cut some branches for our spears,” Luke said, pointin’ to a couple of sturdy young trees. As they worked to cut the branches, Jedadiah’s dropped into mud as he made the last cut. He picked it up from the mud, lopped off all the small branches and twigs with his knife, and walked over to a pool of water to wash off the mud.
“That water looks deep. Better not go near it,” his big brother warned.
No sooner were the words out of Luke’s mouth, than that water exploded like a bomb had been set off. And a huge set of jaws reached out and clamped down on Jedadiah’s leg. He screamed in pain, and struggled to escape!
Luke leapt at the huge alligator with his just-completed spear. With all his strength, Luke plunged his knife into the monster – once, twice, three times, four times! It made no difference, that gator was determined to drag Jedadiah into the deep water and certain death! Ten times, eleven times, twelve times the knife plunged into the dirty green hide – but with no effect! His brother was almost completely submerged when Luke made one last desperate thrust at the big gator’s eye! He plunged deeply and twisted the blade with every once of his strength! And, just as suddenly as Jedadiah had been caught, he was set free!
Luke grabbed his brother and dragged him up to safety. A trail of blood marked Jedadiah’s path from the pool of deep water to the tree under which Luke laid him. Jedadiah screamed in pain and fear.
“How many times have me and Pappy told you to stay away from deep water,” Luke shouted at his brother. “You know that’s where the big gators hide waitin’ for some fool to come close enough to grab!” As he looked down at shredded pants and the shredded muscles of his brother’s leg,” Luke started cryin’ with fear. “How many times have we told you! How many times! Now what am I going to do?”
Even as he yelled at his brother, Luke ripped his own shirt off to bandage the bleeding leg. Then he tore at a nearby vine to make it into a tourniquet. But when he started to tighten it, it broke. He raced to find another, bigger vine. This one held as he tightened it around the bloody leg.
“I’ve got to get you to a doctor!” Luke shouted. “But how am I gonna do that? Were you thinkin’ about how I’m gonna do that when you went down to that deep water? Were you, huh!”
Luke knew he shouldn’t be yellin’ at Jedadiah, but anger was the only way he could keep the fear from freezin’ him stiff. He was so scared, but he had to keep movin’ – for his brother’s sake.
Then he remembered how his pappy had made Injun travois to carry deer carcasses in from the swamp. He used his brother’s shirt and the branches that formed their spears to make a travois for Jedadiah.
But Luke didn’t have his pappy’s strength. He hadn’t moved Jedadiah more than two hundred yards, than buckets of sweat poured off him, and Luke was pretty much done in. He knew there was no way to pull his brother all the way to the closest road – cause it had to be at least ten miles away. He cried and cussed, yelled and cussed some more, and all the time kept tuggin’ on the travois that held his brother, who now was just whimperin’ as he was bumped over roots and drug through swamp water.
Still miles from the road, Luke collapsed in the mud. “Why did I let you follow me out here?” Luke muttered to himself. “There ain’t enough whiskey in the world to make Pappy ever forget this. And me – how am I ever going to forget this? God, why did I ever let him come? It’s my fault that Jedadiah is going to die out here! God, don’t let him die!”
Just then Luke realized he wasn’t alone. He looked up, and saw a big, tall, dark man standin’ over his brother.
“He’s going into shock,” the man said. “You need to get him to a medical facility right away.”
“You’re that murderin’ Injun!” Luke shouted. Then he realized that his spear was part of his brother’s travois, and he had no idea where his skinnin’ knife was – probably layin’ on the ground back there where that gator had attacked Jedadiah.
“He is going into shock,” the man said again.
“You ain’t gonna murder us!” Luke shouted as he jumped to his feet.
“I am not a murderer, and I am not an Injun. I am a Seminole,” the man said. “But there is no time to discuss my ancestry, because that boy is going to die if he does not receive immediate medical attention.”
“The only way you are going to kill him, is by killin’ me first,” Luke threatened.
The man reached out his hand and caught hold of Luke. Then he threw Luke to the ground, and bent over and picked up Jedadiah. The man threw Jedadiah over his shoulder like a sack of feed, and took off runnin’ through the swamp.
“You put my brother down!” Luke screamed.
The man stopped, and turned around and said, “The road is that way.” He pointed in the direction he had been runnin’. “And medical help is that way too. Are you coming or not?”
Then he turned back and started runnin’ again. This time Luke started runnin’ after the man carryin’ his brother.
Even with the man carryin’ Jedadiah, Luke had a hard time keepin’ up with him. After about a mile, the man stopped. He put Jedadiah down on a patch of dry ground, and got a cup of water from the swamp that surrounded them. He gave the water to Jedadiah to drink. And just as Luke’s lungs were beginnin’ to catch up with him, the man picked up Jedadiah and took off runnin’ again.
The man continued to rest about every mile, and each time he gave Jedadiah more water to drink. And the last couple of times the man started drinkin’ too.
At one of these rest stops, Luke could hear dogs barkin’ in the distance. “Those are police dogs,” Luke said to the man. “They’re lookin’ for you. If they find you they’ll tear you to pieces, and if the dogs don’t get you, the cops will shoot you on sight.”
“Guess I’ll just have to take my chances,” the man said as he lifted Jedadiah once again to his shoulder. And once again he started off through the swamp, with Luke strugglin’ to keep up.
The barkin’ kept getting’ louder and louder, and soon Luke spotted dogs comin’ at them from the right. A big blood-hound was in the lead, and he was runnin’ full-throttle right at the man carrying Jedadiah. Luke took aim at the dog, poured on speed he didn’t know he had, and tackled that dog just before it could lunge at the man. Luke and the dog went sprawlin’ into swamp water, and knocked two other dogs off their feet too. Luke held the big blood-hound down, and grabbed for the other dogs who were all gathered around him and barking in confusion at him.
The man with Jedadiah kept runnin’ right toward police with rifles aimed at him. “This kid is hurt!” the man yelled. “Alligator attack! He needs help! Fast!” The police stood with rifles still pointin’ at the man runnin’ full-tilt toward them. And now the dogs took up their chase again. They were slowly gainin’ on the man with Jedadiah, and Luke was runnin’ with all his might right behind the dogs.
“He’s telling the truth!” Luke yelled over the dogs’ barkin’. “My brother’s hurt! Gator got him!”
Slowly, ever so slowly, the rifles were lowered. One of the police officers took out one of those silent whistles and blew it, and the dogs let off the chase. Luke ran right through the dogs as they just stood wondering what was goin’ on. “The Injun’s helpin’ us,” Luke yelled between gasps of air, “Gator attack! My brother’s hurt!”
The man ran up to the closest officer, then stopped. He lowered Jedadiah to the ground. Other officers surrounded him, rifles still ready if needed.
One officer bent over Jedadiah, and took out his radio. Then four of the officers picked up Jedadiah and started quickly toward the road with him. The other officers fell in around the man, and motioned for him to head to the road as well. Luke and the dogs followed them all.
By the time they got to the road, an ambulance was there waitin’ for Jedadiah. “That’s not the murderin’ Injun you’ve been lookin’ for,” Luke said to the officers as he walked toward the ambulance. “He saved my brother’s life. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
“We know,” one of the officers said to Luke. “It just came over the radio. The guy we’ve been looking for just got caught trying to rob another bait store up in the next county.”
Luke jumped up into the ambulance next to his brother. As they started closin’ the ambulance doors, Luke yelled, “He ain’t even a Injun. He’s Seminole!” The siren on the ambulance drowned out any other words, as the ambulance sped Luke and Jedadiah toward the help that would provide Jedadiah with a full recovery. Although he never did go near deep water again.
Questions for Meditation, Discussion or Preaching
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
