Page 33 - Demo

33Several hours passed with the two of them drinking rum and talking about many things. %u201cIt looks as if your lover from the stars isn%u2019t coming,%u201d Martha said.Carla felt bitterly disappointed. She stood up and said, %u201cOut there somewhere, it might see me. Maybe, if I actually go into the waters. It might smell my biology and come.%u201dMartha looked at her and said, %u201cThat%u2019s a very dangerous idea. For one, you%u2019ll like get covered with leeches, or worse, bitten by any number of nasty things.%u201d%u201cGators?%u201d Carla asked.Martha shook her head. %u201cNo. They don%u2019t like this stretch of water. I%u2019ve rarely seen them here. I think it%u2019s too deep for them. There%u2019s a lot of crayfish, but mostly small ones. I sometimes fish for them to make a supper. The gators prefer a proper meal not tiny appetizers.%u201dCarla shrugged. %u201cNot a problem then. I%u2019ve often gone swimming in the swamp many times. Nothing bad happened before. The swamp loves me. The night is terribly hot and stuffy. The waters are always cooler.%u201dMartha watched Carla walk off. She saw her reach the edge, wade in and swim out. She knew it was a very rare sight. Most normal people took great precautions not to fall into the dangerous waters. A cloud passed over the moon and there was insufficient light to see her.Carla swam in the dark. Martha was right about the crayfish. One of them had taken a fancy to her breast when she dived under close to the bottom to wet herself completely and cool down. The thing had nipped her and was hanging onto her now. It concerned her little. The tiny pain was insignificant and she can open its small claws when she got out.Suddenly, she was no longer in the water, but above it%u2014several Swamp Tramp