Deception Creek by Terry Persun Page A

until the bar stopped. He lifted. The shingles pulled loose.
    *     *     *
    Jack heard Alice scream the second he got out of the car. He ran over the bank and fell face front into some underbrush. He was not at the path.
    A second scream came and he was on all fours grappling to get to his feet. Blackberry bushes had already torn at his face and hands, and as he pushed through them, the thorns pulled at his pants as if trying to hold him back.
    He was a powerful man in anger and in fear. When he saw Alice and William all pain left his bleeding body. All thought and logic escaped out an imaginary back door inside his mind.
    Jack leaped over and plunged through the thicket, landing on the creek bed blind with rage. He kicked William’s head, his boot so close to Alice she must have felt its breeze, smelled the scent of earth on its sole.
    William toppled to his side and attempted to get up. He grabbed his pants in the back with one hand and raised them over his butt.
    Jack stepped over Alice’s surprised face and bulging eyes and kicked at William again. This time William blocked the kick with his hand, but a terrible crack snapped at the thick air and he howled in pain.
    Alice screamed, even louder than she had before, for Jack to stop.
    He heard her, but the words never registered. Jack still saw William hunched over Alice. Still saw how oblivious William had been to Jack’s presence.
    Jack kicked once more, then grabbed William’s shoulders and hauled him to his feet.
    â€œStop it!” Alice continued to scream.
    Jack hit William over and over until William went limp and fell into the water. His head hit a rock. He rolled over and attempted to lift onto the hand that didn’t have the broken wrist, but Jack bent over and hit him again in the face.
    The driver of a passing car must have seen the fight, or heard Alice’s banshee-like screams. A tall man in a loose flannel shirt headed down the bank zigzagging with the path.
    Jack continued to hit William. His strained breathing burst out his mouth in guttural bursts with each swing and contact.
    Alice never stopped screaming.
    The man from the road ran into the water to pull Jack off William.

Chapter 8
    B illy’s legs shook as he lowered himself down the ladder at the end of the day. He left work tired and aching along his shoulders and thighs. His tongue almost stuck to the roof of his mouth. He thought of Jack’s jar of water and became extremely thirsty. Bending to look at himself in the side mirror of his truck, Billy came face-to-face with his blue-collar double. Black grunge streaked his face and gathered at the folds of his neck. When he lifted his hand to wipe sweat from his forehead, a black palm appeared. He had removed his gloves while working with Hillman.
    Billy wiped his hands on a towel he kept stashed behind the seat, then jumped into the truck, started it, and took off. Passing Scott’s truck, Billy stopped and yelled. “I’m going to the library, but will stop by long enough to shower.”
    Scott gave Billy the thumbs up.
    Billy waved and pulled away. Scott often went for a drink with some of the others on Friday, but Billy didn’t feel a need to stick around. He took the shortest road out of town, speeding most of the way, passing other cars whenever possible. The sun, still hot, headed for the mountains, pushing shadows out of trees and signs. Pitching those strips of darkness across the road like lines Billy needed to cross in order to find his way home. Cross this line, they said, then cross this one.
    He felt guilty about his attitude towards his mom. She had, after all, kept him, rather than abort him. She had raised him as well as she knew how. How could he fully understand how such a young girl would feel in that situation? The trauma of rape, pregnancy, the parents of the father begging her to keep the child for their ownselfish purposes perhaps. Then having to raise