Melt Down

HEAT

Chapter 8 - Part 1

It was a glorious sunny day and warm on the water. Fill paddled his kayak slowly toward the opening in the mangrove.

The interviews with authorities continued, as Fill and Jenade were questioned over and over, as various jurisdictions looked for clues to what happened to the woman, the 2 ambulance attendants and the ambulance itself after the incident at Barnhill's.  After a week now, the FBI and CIA had concluded that this smacked of something that was very professional and therefore of intense interest.

Fill had had his own intense session with Jenade and all it yielded was some incoherent story about a drifter, Lou, living on an abandoned boat in the mangrove. Jenade had indicated that Fill could see the mangrove opening from his cottage backyard - just get a line of sight on the cell phone tower and kayak for it.

That is what Fill was doing at the moment. White Ibis flew overhead, Osprey dove for fish and curious pelicans drifted around Fill thinking he might be the source of fish or something edible.

Fill approached the mangrove and saw the opening immediately and paddled into it. It was quite wide and meandered a bit but after a minute on his right was the remains of an old sail boat - mast gone, but otherwise seemingly ship-worthy - encrusted with oyster shells, but looking not too bad.

Fill could see pillows and blankets piled on the rear deck - so someone indeed was using the boat as accommodation. Fill paddled upstream above the boat, turned himself around and paddled back. There would be no easy way to board the boat from the kayak - to do that Fill would have to first get out of the boat, walk partially into the mangrove and then climb in from the mangrove side.

Just as he was making up his mind on how to do that, Fill felt his kayak lurch and then lift, and soon he was 2 feet above water level on the back of a 1/2 ton manatee. The kayak balanced for a few seconds and then slid off into the water. 

As the kayak righted itself, the manatee literally melted in front of Fill's eyes - just like hot lard in a frying pan - just like wax liquefying - but the eyes melted last - and Fill would never forget - they were filled with fire - the manatee had flames for eyes - Fill screamed and hundreds of buzzards took to flight - they watched Fill closely - anything screaming that loudly must be dying.

Fill set a record paddling home - he needed to join Jenade at happy hour - he needed more info from Jenade - much more - and he needed a drink - a large one ...