CHAPTER 47
Sonya woke when the car crashed through bushes and vines and bumped over a small ditch.
“What happened?” she yelled, her eyes now wide open and panicked.
“I guess this is not an off-road vehicle,” Dmitri said with a shrug.
“Did you fall asleep too?”
“No, I just wanted to hide the car,” he said as he opened the door, which crunched through vines and the immense, dense weeds that grow everywhere in Florida.
He hopped onto the hood and jumped down on the other side of the car. Sonya had cracked her door open and was now looking at Dmitri like he was nuts.
“Don't worry, the snakes here rarely bite people,” he said, yanking her door open. “But the alligators aren't so nice.”
Dmitri took Sonya's hand and led her back to the dirt road, which was only about 15 feet away. He dragged foliage in front of the car until he was satisfied that it was hidden.
“If teenagers find this, they will have fun,” he said.
“Where the hell are we, Dmitri?”
“You'll see.”
Sonya slapped at a mosquito on her neck and glared at Dmitri. It was sweltering hot, the late afternoon sun beating down onto the tangle of trees and plants, which blocked any breeze.
“Did we drive to the Amazon jungle while I was napping?”
“You can't drive to South America, silly.”
“Ugh, I know that, jerk.”
“Let's take a walk. Only ten miles to go.”
“Ten miles?! Are you kidding me… Oh, right, of course you are, har har.”
They walked farther down the road for a few minutes, until it dead-ended.
“Now what? Are we lost? Did you crash the car and now you're pretending you drove it into that mess on purpose?” she said, annoyed.
Dmitri didn't respond. Instead, he grabbed a fallen tree limb and lifted it up, revealing a short path that led down to a canal. Sonya shook her head with exasperation and ducked under the branch Dmitri held up for her. He followed behind.
In the water, tied to a wooden post, was a small motorboat. The boat was made of rusty metal, with hard seats, and it had collected so much rain, it was sunk halfway down in the water.
“My yacht, your Majesty,” Dmitri said with an elegant bow.
“I'm far from being a queen, and I don't need luxury. I just hope this thing doesn't sink or get knocked over by a gator.”
“You think I haven't wrestled alligators before?” Dmitri said, changing his grin to a sneer.
“Really? Oh, I didn't know. I mean...”
“Gotcha, sucker,” Dmitri said, grinning again. “An alligator would tear me in half. Are you crazy? Some of them around here are over 12 feet long.”
Sonya's face went pale again.
“Do you know how alligators kill large animals, like humans?”
“Uh, they bite. Let’s get out of here.”
“Biting is only the beginning, like foreplay. They don’t just chomp you to pieces like a shark. After a gator grabs you in its jaws, it drags you underwater, then spins around until it breaks your spine. It’s call a death roll.”
“Great. Now can we go?”
“That’s not all. Next, the alligator stuffs you under something. I don’t know, maybe a log or some branches, or in the muddy bottom of the lake. It’s like a refrigerator, to store you, except instead of keeping you fresh, your body rots. Gators prefer their meat softened up a bit. A few days later, they eat you.”
If Sonya had eaten breakfast, she might have vomited right then. She stared into the murky water of the canal.
Dmitri leaned down and slammed the edge of the boat several times, so it rocked back and forth, splashing out some of the water. He grabbed the aluminum rim with his free hand and lifted the boat until most of the remaining water spilled out.
“Let's ride out,” he said, stepping into the boat and extending his hand to Sonya.
She sat down on the narrow bench seat near the front of the boat, facing back toward Dmitri. He jerked the rip cord to start the engine. It sputtered and died.
“It's broken. So can we go back to the car and drive someplace? I don't think Indiana Jones had a broken arm.” Sonya said.
He yanked the cord again. And again. It wouldn't start.
“Maybe you should just paddle with those big hands of yours. At least with the good arm,” she said.
“Usually, I come straight down here from Tampa in my other boat. You never saw it, no? It's bigger. I keep this one here for situations like this, in case I need to get to the island by car.”
“Why didn't we take your other boat down here?”
“Take a guess. It's in a marina where a few people I'd rather not run into also keep their boats.”
Dmitri was irritated now too, not by the inconveniences of the wilderness but by Sonya's bad attitude. He yanked the cord one more time.
Vroooom!
“I was just teasing you,” he said. “I could have done that anytime I wanted.”
“Yeah right.”
“You never believe me. Okay, that's fine. This thing is faster than it looks, so hang on.”
“Oh I'm sure, it's a real racing boat, like one of those on MTV, a million dollar banana boat or whatever they're...Ahhhhh”
Dmitri laughed hysterically as he opened the throttle and Sonya fell over, almost toppling out of the side of the boat. Once she was seated again, she picked up a dirty rag from the bottom of the boat and slung it at Dmitri.
Now she cautiously crept toward the middle seat, facing forward so she didn't have to look at Dmitri and his childish smile.
The bastard could have killed me. If I'd fallen into this swamp, an alligator would've eaten me, she thought.
Within minutes, they were out of the canal and into the open water. Sonya's face brightened when she saw the shimmering waters of the gulf and the red sun descending toward the horizon.
There were no mosquitoes out there, or snakes, and there was plenty of breeze. Still, she didn't say anything to Dmitri. She didn't even want him to see her smile.
But she stole a few glances at him, over her shoulder, as he manned the engine and steered the boat.
They were heading toward an island, which was dense green except for a small white beach.