Throw Down Tuesday - NaNoWriMo2015 Edition #1

For the month of November, I'm doing Throw Down Tuesday a little different. I'm sharing what I've written for NaNoWriMo every Tuesday in the month of November. So, here's what I have so far!

Day 1

In 1856 Sharp Shield was found on the side of the road in Putnam County, Florida by the now defunct Holy Trinity Sisters of Mercy. He was a scrawny thing of about 7, but in about 10 years or so he grew into the most eligible bachelor that the county had ever seen. The sisters put him to work in the cabbage fields and he saved every penny that came into his hands. He was big and strong with coal black hair and penetrating green eyes. At 17 he had saved enough to buy a small cottage and some land in the cabbage fields in East Palatka over by the river. On his 18^th birthday he kissed the sisters goodbye, moved to his own little farm, and set to looking for a wife.

He would find a partner in Niecy Granger, a poor but good girl from the south end of the county. She was strong and well suited for life on a cabbage farm. Before long the two of them were raising a son, Beau who would later inherit the farm when Sharp finally breathed his last. Although Beau favored his mama with auburn hair and blue eyes, he was a big and well-built man like his father who enjoyed tending the earth. It was Beau who named the farm Cypress Estates after the great trees that lines the river’s edge.

Where Sharp had made a farm, Beau would turn Cypress Estates into an Empire. He bought out several of the smaller cabbage farmers and one or two of the potato farmers as well until he owned a majority of the land on his side of the river. Most of the river people were in his employ, but he was a kind a fair employer who paid good wages so no one complained.

Beau’s son Hadley maintained the business throughout his reign, but it was his son, Rhodes Shield who had the great vision of building a mansion at Cypress Estates. Prior to the building of the mansion house the family had all lived in the small farm house that Sharp Shield bought on the property in the beginning and no one much complained. There was far too much work to be done. Rhodes wasn’t like the rest of his kin though. He had little interest in farming. He liked entertaining. By the time he took over the farm it was 1984.

Construction on the Mansion, which Rhodes planned to call Herlin Hall, after his mother’s maiden name, took the better part of four years and only because the family insisted did he leave the original farm house standing. He might have liked to have razed the thing in the name of progress, but his mama said she and the ladies historical preservation society had a vested interest in keeping the home intact and he couldn’t very well say no to his mama so he honored her request. The house was on the other side of the property anyway and couldn’t be seen from Herlin Hall no matter which window you looked from.

A massive construction, Herlin Hall’s most striking feature were the bank of massive windows that overlooked the river in the Florida Room. They were easily twelve feet high and ran the entire length of the room. The view was breathtaking, especially at sunset, when the vermillion broke the sky to pieces. It was in this room that Rhodes threw his lavish parties and it was here that all the trouble began.

On April 1, 1988 Rhodes had been living at Herlin Hall for less than six months. At around 10 pm he and his friends were carousing in the Florida Room after having come from a party at the south end of the county. The next day was the annual Catfish Festival and traditionally the night before was an evening filled with alcohol and debauchery. Rhodes had killed a six-pack of Budweiser on the drive from Crescent City and he was now hitting the Jack Daniels hard. But everyone was having a good time and they were all excited about going to the parade in Crescent City in the morning.

            In the morning, when the party was getting ready to make the trip back to Crescent City, Harley Quitman, Rhodes’ best friend since grade school was nowhere to be found.

            “I wonder where he got off to,” Rhodes’ asked his girlfriend, Selena, who was sitting on the edge of the couch in the Florida Room brushing her long blonde hair.

            “I dunno, Rhodes. I ain’t seen him since last night. Maybe he decided he needed to go home to sleep it off.”

            “Maybe. You recken we ought to call him?”

            “Nah.”

            “You’re right, we’ll catch up with him this afternoon.”

            Selena, Rhodes, and her friend Crystal grabbed another six pack of Bud and headed to the car. Selena saw it first. She let out a stifled scream and ran back in the house.

            “Woman what is wrong with you?” Rhodes said, but then he saw what provoked such a reaction from her. Standing between them and Rhodes’ Mustang was a 12 foot alligator. As they began to retreat back into the house it started to make it’s way toward them – not exactly charging, but not walking at a leisurely pace either.

            Rhodes and Crystal turned and ran as fast as they could back into the house and slammed the door shut behind them.

            “Did you lock it?” Selena shrieked from the stairs.

            “What do you mean? He ain’t gonna-“ but before Rhodes could finish his thought they heard the alligator scratching at the door.
            “Lock it!” Crystal screamed.

            Rhodes gingerly approached the door and turned the deadbolt. Then he turned back to the girls. “Let’s go upstairs and get the gun. Hopefully it’ll go away.”

            The three of them headed upstairs to the front bedroom that overlooked the front door. Gun in hand, Rhodes leaned out the window. “Be careful!” Selena implored.
            “Hush woman! I’m fine.”

            He looked down to find that the gator was still at the door, pawing at the threshold.
            “I wonder why it wants in so bad.” He mused aloud.

            Rhodes aimed the pistol downward. “I’m gonna shoot at it and see if I can kill it.”

            “What if you miss?” Selena asked.

            “I ain’t gonna miss.”

            Rhodes pointed the gun. Sweat broke out on his brow. He did not want to be held prisoner in his own home, especially not by some overgrown lizard. This gator had to go. He fired. The gator roared and began to run off in the direction of the water. Rhodes sat in the window looking dumbfounded.

            “What happened?” Selena asked. “Did you get it?”

            “I don’t understand.” He replied. “I hit it. It ran off. But I hit it.”

            “Do you think it’s safe to go out and get in the car?” Crystal asked.

            “I don’t know.” Rhodes replied. I’m gonna call Jerry and Leland. They got better hunting gear’n I do. I think we’s goin’ gator huntin’.

            When Jerry and Leland arrived they were armed to the hilt and raring to go. While it wasn’t gator hunting season it was perfectly acceptable to hunt an aggressive gator out of season. So long as the game warden didn’t catch wind. And some gator tail fingerlings would taste mighty good on the grill tonight.

            Meanwhile, no one had been able to get a hold of Harley Quitman and they had begun to fear the worst: That the gator had gotten him. There was no evidence of this, but there was no evidence that he was at home sleeping it off either. What’s more, his car was still in the yard and his keys were still on the counter. If that gator had killed Harley it just had to go.

            Rhodes was livid about this development. How could this be happening at Cypress Estates? At Herlin Hall? He’d never even seen a gator on the property before. Although, to be fair, he’d never spent a whole lot of time out on the property in the first place. He’d always been more of a homebody. For all he knew there were gators all over the place and he’d just never bothered to notice. Maybe that was the problem. They were offended and they were going to make him notice their presence once way or another.

            To be honest, he wasn’t even all that much of a good ol’ boy though he faked it remarkably well. A disappointment to his father, he had no interest in hunting, the outdoors, cabbages, potatoes, farming in general, or any of the other trapping of the provincial life afforded him. He had really wanted to go to business school and do something else with his life, but as the only son of the only son of the only son of the only son that wasn’t really an option. He envied and despised his sister with her fancy education and all her options. She was living in New York. Herlin Hall was the consolation he bought himself.

            He was interested in money. Stocks and bonds. Trading. He especially liked futures trading. His portfolio had paid for more of Herlin Hall than family money had although most people thought he’d drained the Shield family coffers to build it. That was one thing he had in his favor. He was not draining the family. He made his money work for him. He was like his great great granddaddy in that way. He kept his pennies to himself and made them work for him. The parties he threw weren’t lavish, they were just frequent. With as much money as he had floating about, what was a little alcohol amongst friends and lovers? It felt like the least he could do?

            But now this gator had come along and it was a problem he couldn’t reason away or buy off. He would have to man up and get rid of it the old fashioned way. He just hoped that the friends he had when things were good would be there for him when things got tough.

Day 2

It should be noted that while Rhodes was not particularly fond of farming, he was not altogether bad at it. Rhodes was a good employer and like those who came before him, he took care of his employees as well as he took care of his own family. Herlin Hall was not meant to be a thing of conspicuous consumption – he had planned in the fullness of time to have employee luncheons and conferences in the long, open Florida Room as well. It would be a meeting place for all the people who were of the most importance in his life to gather in comfort. Before the family had to rent out space at the agricultural center if they needed to have employee meetings or training and there was just no sense in that. Not with the magnitude of their operations.

Rhodes hoped that he could find a worthwhile successor from one of the local agricultural colleges. It would break his mama’s heart to let the farm go like that, but he would stay on in a managerial capacity. He was 24 years old and wanted to go to college himself. The farm became his when his father, Hadley, had died three years ago. With nothing more than a few classes at the local community college under his belt, Rhodes took over every aspect of running the farm. The plan had been for him to continue his education at the University of Florida, but he would have been expected to major in Agricultural Science rather than Business like his sister. Maybe it was better that he hadn’t been able to finish.

The employees of Shield Farms had no idea how their employer felt about his station and they all loved him. Most of them had been around since Rhodes had been a little boy while some of the newer workers had gone to school with him. He did his best to remain down to earth and humble and as a result everyone liked him despite the socioeconomic disparity that existed between him and the people who worked for him. It didn’t hurt that he continued the holiday traditions of providing a free turkey to every employee at Thanksgiving, and a $100 bonus at Christmas – a practice started by Beau Shield.

Rhodes’ mother, Emery Herlin Shield knew nothing of her son’s distaste for farm life and she could not figure out for the life of her why the boy didn’t hurry up and get married. She was not fond of Selena, mostly because she had a Yankee’s way about her. Any woman who would spend the night with a man without a ring on her finger was nothing but trash in Emery’s mind. But Rhodes was still young and maybe he was sowing his wild oats as the old timers used to say. She hoped within the next year or so a good woman would come along and make an honest man out of him. She wanted grandbabies after all and time was a wastin’. Although she couldn’t imagine raising grandbabies in that huge new house the boy had built. Maybe he’d come to his senses once he got married and move back into the farm house. That was the real reason she’d protested its destruction. That, and the fact that she couldn’t see moving after having lived there for close to forty years. A body does get used to a place.

            As Rhodes tramped through the swampy riverbank with Jerry and Leland Comber keeping his mother in the dark about the gator was in the forefront of his mind. She had warned him about building the house so close to the river, although her concern had been erosion. The last thing he wanted was to hear an “I told you so,” lecture from his mother on this point. He wondered why he hadn’t already heard from her concerning the pistol shot that rang out across the property when he’d shot at the beast earlier that morning. He thought for a moment.

            “Jerry, you don’t think that thing could’ve made it up to my mama’s house, do you?”

            Jerry looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t know why it would want to.”

            “Me neither. It was just a thought.’

            They continued on their way. Soon they came upon what was left of Harley Quitman. The gator had torn him limb from limb and mauled him, but it looked as though he was mostly intact.

            Rhodes couldn’t help but throw up in the bushes when looking at the remains of his friend in such a fate.

            “That gator ain’t hungry,” Leland said. “It didn’t eat not none of him.”
            “Maybe it didn’t like the taste.” Jerry replied dryly.

            Rhodes looked up from his retching long enough to shout, “What the hell is wrong with y’all? Can’t you see he’s dead? That gator had done killed him? I don’t think this is very funny.”

            “You’re right.” Jerry apologized. “I think we better head back before we end up the same way though. We got a body on our hands now, we’re gonna have to call the law.”

            The three of them trudged back to the house with heavy hearts. Rhodes had hoped that Harley would turn up safe and sound and that this gator business would be resolved quickly.

            When he walked through the door, Selena threw her arms around his neck.
            “Oh, Rhodes! You look like hell! What happened? Did you get him?”

            “No, baby.”

            She dropped her arms to her sides. “Oh no.”

            Leland and Jerry collapsed onto the couch as Crystal walked into the room. Everyone looked at her, but no one said anything.

            “Crystal,” Rhodes began.

            She forced a smile. “He was out there, wasn’t he?”

            “Yeah.”

            “The gator?”

            “Yeah.”

            She forced another weak smile before turning on her heel and leaving the room. Selena ran out behind her and the men could hear her cried echoing throughout the house.

            Rhodes looked at Leland and Jerry.

            “So, who do we call, the police or fish and wildlife?”

            “I reckon you oughtta call the Sherriff’s office,” Leland said.

            It wasn’t twenty minutes before Cypress Estates was awash in blue flashing lights. Both the sherriff’s office and fish and wildlife showed up. There was no hiding this from his mother at this point and she was positively scandalized by the news. Everyone was blaming Rhodes for something. He was being questioned about Harley’s death like he was responsible and the game warden wanted to know why he’d shot at the gator.

            “Bacause the damn gator was tryin’ to get into my house is why!”

            “Now Mr. Shield, there’s no need to yell,” said the game warden. “Can you tell me one more time what happened? I find it extremely hard to believe that the animal was trying to breach the threshold of the premises. They aren’t typically that aggressive.”

            “I’m telling you it was. You can ask either Crystal or Selena. They saw it too.”

            While Selena confirmed what Rhodes said, Crystal was beside herself with grief over Harley’s death and therefore useless.

Eventually, the coroner took what was left of Harley away and all the law enforcement left the property leaving Rhodes, Jerry, Leland, and the girls in the same exact situation they were in before. No one believed them about the gator and no one seemed remotely concerned about their safety.

“I don’t want to stay here tonight.” Selena said.

“I’m not staying here tonight,” Crystal said as she started gathering up her things.

Rhodes thought for a moment. “Crystal, let Selena stay with you tonight. You shouldn’t be alone. Jerry, Leland, and I will stay here tonight and see if the gator comes back.”

“Are you sure?” Selena asked.

“Yes. And while you’re at it, take mama with you. Just in case.”

“Are you insane? Your mama ain’t gonna go nowhere with me.”

“Fine, call up to the spa in St. Augustine and see if they have any rooms. I don’t want her staying here until this mess is sorted out.”

After some prodding, Emery was convinced that a few days at the spa was just what she needed and she willingly went with Selena and Crystal. Once they were gone, the men set to work. Jerry and Leland went home and came back with bear traps, shotguns, and most importantly, and video camera to film the creature trying to breach the threshold so that their killing it would be a justifiable homicide. The set out the traps just before sundown and then they went into the house to wait.

While they waited, they began to drink and listen to some records. Rhodes was quite fond of music and his pride and joy was a tube amp stereo he inherited from his father. Music was the thing that they had most bonded over. He loved to play Hank Williams Jr. records on it, but that was as close to good ol’ boy as he ever really got. As the night wore on the Budweiser flowed and the music blared. The three men were having such a good time that they had nearly forgotten about their gator problem altogether except for when they toasted “To Harley!” and raised their beer cans high.

From time to time Jerry, the only smoker of the group, would go out on to the long porch that overlooked the river for a smoke. It must have been on one of these smoke breaks that it happened, for at some point the door was left open. This would not have mattered if the only menace were mosquitos, yellow jackets, or horseflies. These things are annoying but in no way inherently deadly. But on this night, these men had set out to defeat a foe much greater. Their senses and vigilance dulled by way of too much drink and revelry while the carelessness of one smoker let the door stay open - and that is how the gator got into the house.

Day 3

Rhodes saw the thing first and let out a scream that was inaudible over the din of country music. It was the look on his face that alerted Jerry and Leland that something was amiss. When he saw that he had their attention he pointed toward the doors of the Florida Room and that was when they saw the gator, it’s mouth agape as though it were trying to cool itself.

Jerry and Leland scrambled for their shotguns which were woefully out of reach at that moment. The gator who’s senses were not dulled by fatigue and alcohol was faster than the men and scrambled to block the path between them and their firearms. It was mocking them, preventing them from their only means of dispatching it.

Rhodes could not believe what he was seeing. He wondered how the beast had made it’s way up to the house without getting caught in one of the bear traps they’d set out. It was like the thing was smarter than a normal gator. Maybe it was smarter than they were.

“What are we going to do?” he asked, he voice rising in panic.

“We gotta get to them gun.” Jerry said.

“You got any ideas how the hell we’re gonna do that?” Rhodes asked, looking at the gator.

“Somebody’s gonna have to make a break for the shotguns.” Jerry replied.

“Great. A suicide mission.” Rhodes said. “What are we gonna do? Draw straws?”

“I’ll do it.” Leland said, walking forward. “I’m the fastest.”

Jerry grabbed his arm. “Lee, you ain’t gotta do this.”

“Sure I do. We gotta get this thing outta Rhodes’ house. I owe him one.”

Jerry raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“That’s between me and Rhodes. Don’t you worry about that.”

Rhodes couldn’t believe that Leland hadn’t even told his twin brother about their secret. He was glad, but still surprised.

Leland crouched down and eyed the table where the shotguns lay. If he could sprint over to them, he could hop up onto the table and them leap back over to the relative safety of the other side of the room. The reality of the situation however was that no part of the room was really safe because the gator could choose to make a break for them at any moment.

He took a deep breath and sprinted for the guns. The gators turned his head, but didn’t seem very interested in what Leland was doing. Leland grabbed the guns and then in one deft motion jumped up on the table and lept back across the room. At the same time, the gator decided that it was bored with the room and sauntered out the door.

The men were flabbergasted.

“What the hell do you think it did that for?” Leland asked as he tried to catch his breath.

“I have no idea. You think we ought to try and go after it?” Rhodes asked.

“No.” Jerry replied. “Go lock the door. Turn on the porch light. Then I think we best go to bed and look at the video in the morning. At least then we can take that to the game warden and plead our case.”

But they wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night, for as soon as they turned on the porch light they found the gator, all twelve feet of it, lounging on the porch, as though it owned the place.

“What is it doing?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“Never.”

It was at this moment that the gator decided that it wanted to be back inside the house really badly as it began ramming the glass doors. The men, being wise, had enough sense to exit the Florida Room and lock themselves in an upstairs bathroom. It wasn’t long before they heard glass shattering and the gator was once again in the house.

Rhodes looked at Leland.

“You don’t think it can climb the stairs, do you?”

“It might be too slick.”

Jerry looked at the other two men. “We have guns. Why are we huddled here like cowards. Why don’t we try to shoot it again?

Leland looked at Jerry. “At this point I’m a little afraid of riling it any more. We haven’t done anything to it yet and it’s already broken the door down. What’s it going to do if we start shooting at it?”

“Still, hadn’t we ought to try to kill it?”

“Alright, let’s go. But Rhodes, you stay here. Ain’t no sense in all of us getting ate by some gator. And how’d your mama take it?”

Rhodes stayed in the bedroom while Jerry and Leland went to the top of the stairs to confront the gator. He felt like a coward doing it, but he knew that Jerry and Leland were much better equipped to take on the creature than he was. He’d been hunting a few times with his daddy, but if his previous encounter with the gator had taught him anything it was that he wasn’t a particularly good shot. Of course it could have been that this gator was just particularly hard to kill.

Jerry and Leland were gone for minutes that seemed to drag on like days when Rhodes finally heard some commotion from the bottom of the stairs. There were two shotgun blasts and a scream. Before he could decide what to do, he heard Leland calling for him.

“Rhodes! Call an ambulance! The gator’s got Jerry!”

Rhodes mind began to race.

He didn’t know whether or not to run down stairs and so he grabbed the bedside phone and called 9-1-1, all the while wondering how in the hell the gator managed to get ahold of one of them.

By the time the law and the paramedics arrived at Herlin Hall, Jerry had lost a lot of blood and everyone was wondering if he was going to make it or not. He was probably going to lose his leg in any case. When he and Leland had descended the stairs the gator had been lying in wait for them just out of view and poor Jerry’s foot was the first to hit the ground. It had waited for them. Leland got off two rounds at it before it slunked out the way it came, but not before it laid waste to Jerry’s leg.

Now they were officially at war with the beast.

Two days later Buckley Wolf arrived uninvited and unannounced at the dock of Herlin Hall in an air boat. He brought with him a change of clothes, a shotgun, and various harpoons and hooks on heavy lines. He was a massive man with broad shoulders, dark skin, and waist length black hair. When he got off the boat it was easy to see that he stood at least six and a half feet tall. He wore great black work boots that laced halfway up his powerful calves, jeans, and faded blue checkered flannel shirt. His chestnut colored eyes were bright as bright as his smile. It was apparent that he was some sort of Indian.

“Seminole” he confirmed, when Rhodes questioned him about his origins. “I come from the Res down south. Heard about your gator problem and thought I could lend a hand.”

“You heard about my gator problem on the Res?”
            “Word travels fast. That and my daddy sent me. He used to do business with your daddy.” He smiled.

Rhodes ears perked up at this. “Who’s your daddy, son?”

“Hansford Wolf, sir.”

“Well, I’ll be. He was a good man.”

Leland looked him up and down. “Just how old are you son? We aren’t lookin’ for any thrill seekers. This is serious business. One man’s been killed and my brother’s on his way to dyin. What are your qualifications?”

“Well, sir, I’m 21 years old. I’m not a thrill seeker. I’ve been hunting and trapping in South Florida with my Daddy since I was about 12 years old. Just last winter I was helped bring down a gator that was causing quite a disturbance in Collier County. You can call down there and ask the Sherriff for a reference if you’d like. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to vouch for my qualifications. The Sherriff’s Offices of Hendry, Lee, and Glades Counties will vouch for me as well, if you'”

Leland sucked his teeth. “Right. But you said helped. Where’s the rest of your team?”

Buckley smiled. “I tend to work with the locals. I reckon y’all are my team if you’re who’re going after the gator.”

“Right,” said Leland. He looked at Rhodes. “Could you give me a moment to confer with Mr. Shield?”

“No problem.”

Leland led Rhodes out of Buckley’s earshot and quietly asked, “What d’ya think?”

“I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice. He seems like he’s on the level. Anyway, there ain’t nobody else offerin’ to help – that’s for damn sure. The police are too damn scared.”

Leland sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Ain’t nothing worse can happen than what’s done happened, I reckon, right? And that gator’s gotta go so’s your mama can come home. You talk to your mama?”

“Yeah, she’s fit to be tied, although I do think she’s enjoying her little vacation. And don’t even get me started on Selena. She’s fit to be tied.”

Rhodes motioned for Buckley to come over to where he and Leland were standing. “Alright son, we’re much obliged that you’re offering your services. What do we need to do?”

“Well, Mr. Shield, I’m going to need to see the house and the property and then we’re going to rest until night fall. That’s when the creature is most active isn’t it? Night?”

“Yes. I’ve never seen it during the day.”

“Good, we should have no problems then. Let’s get started shall we. I’d like to get in a good nap this afternoon. I have a feeling that we are in for a hell of a long night, gentlemen.”