The Bodies Left Behind

Lewis reached into his inner pocket and took out a pack of Camels. He smiled like a cookie-stealing schoolboy. “I meant to give up smoking last week.” Then he ripped open three cigarettes and sprinkled the tobacco into Hart’s palm. “Mix it all up.”
    Hart thought this was crazy but he was feeling even more light-headed. He did what he was told. With the knife Lewis cut the tail off his shirt. “Put that mess on the wound and I’ll tie it.”
    Hart pressed the black-brown wad onto the punctures and Lewis tied the cloth around them and helped him put his glove back on.
    “It’ll sting. But you’ll be fine.”
    “Fine? I just got bit by a rattler.”
    “It was pretty much a dry bite.”
    “A what?”
    “Snake was a rattler, yeah, but a massasauga. They control how much venom they let go. They’re small and don’t have a lot, so they conserve it, use it on prey so they can eat. For defense they don’t use much. Just enough to scare off a threat.”
    “Well, scared the shit out of me. I didn’t hear it rattle.”
    “That’s only if they sense you coming. You surprised him as much as he surprised you.”
    “No, not quite,” Hart muttered. “I feel faint.”
    “You got a little venom and you’ll feel funny some. But if that was a wet bite your hand’d be twice its size and you’d be screaming already. Or out like a light. I know we’ve gotta move but it’s better you just sit still for five, ten minutes.”
    Hart had been in fist fights, he’d faced down people with weapons when he’d had none and he’d exchanged bullets from time to time. But nothing had shocked him like that snake.
    This is my world. You’ll see things that aren’t there and miss things that’re coming up right behind you.
    Hart took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “That’s a rush for you.” He was almost enjoying the giddy sensation. He looked down at his hand, which had stopped stinging now. “How come you know all this, Comp?”
    “My dad and me’d go hunting. Same thing happened to you happened to him. He explained it all what to do. Then he switched my bare behind for not looking where I was going and stepping on the nest.”
    They sat in silence for a moment. Hart wished that Lewis had pocketed one of the vodka bottles. He wouldn’t have minded a jolt right about now.
    Hart remembered that Lewis’s mother was in a home. “Your father still alive?”
    “Yep.”
    “You see him much?”
    “Not really. You know, things happen.” Lewis grinned, looked away and said nothing more for a moment.He started to say something. But didn’t. They looked around at the wilderness, the wind shuffling leaves, the faint lapping of the lake.
    “I was thinking, Hart.”
    “Yeah?”
    “When we take care of them and get back home? You and me, we could do a job together. I was thinking with my contacts, guys in my crew, and your, you know, the way you plan things and think, we’d be a good team. This thing tonight, we just fell into it. It happened fast.”
    “Too fast,” Hart muttered. To put it mildly.
    “I know some people in Kenosha. There’s money there. Illinois money, Chicago money. So how ’bout it? You and me.”
    “Go on.”
    “I was thinking of this place outside of town, Benton Plastics. You know it?”
    “No.”
    “It’s on Haversham Road? Big fucking place. Sell shit all over the world. On payday they have this big-ass check-cashing truck. The guard’s this lazy asshole. We could walk up and clear twenty, thirty thousand. If it was early on Friday morning. How ’bout that?”
    Hart was nodding.
    Lewis continued, “I’d get all the information. You know, like reconnaissance.” He patted his shirt, felt the cigarettes but it was like he was doing it from habit. He wasn’t about to light up out here. “I’m a good listener. Everybody talks to me, tells me all kinds of shit. One time this guy and I were bullshitting and he mentionsthe name of his dog, along with a bunch of other stuff. So, guess what? I boost his ATM card and the dog’s name is his PIN. I cleaned him out. I got that just by talking.”
    “That was pretty slick.”
    “So, whatta you say?”
    “You know what, Comp? I like the idea.”
    “Yeah?”
    “We’ll look at the details. And put together a plan. Do it right this time.”
    “A hundred ten percent.”
    “One ten. Now, I’ve rested enough. We’ve got unfinished business. And our girlfriends could be calling in the cavalry right now.”
    “You feeling okay?”