Off to his right, a Marine Patrol boat was pulling alongside him. A man on a bullhorn shouted at him to shut down his engine. Mitch picked the radio microphone he’d dropped when he heard the helicopter coming at him.
“I’ve already told you to keep your distance! No boats! No more god damn helicopters!”
A voice came over the emergency channel. “Mr. Roberts, if you stop your boat, we can negotiate.”
Mitch looked at the two Marine Patrol boats on either side of him trying to keep him boxed in.
“I don’t see any kind of protective gear on anyone around me. Didn’t you guys learn anything today?”
“We’ll pull the boats back if you slow down,” said the voice.
“Every time I slow down, people try to kill me. I’ve told you what I need, for your sake and mine.”
“We’re considering it.”
Mitchell knew it was a waiting game. Sooner or later they’d try to use a high-powered rifle to take out the engine or just wait for him to run out of gas. After that, he’d be metaphorically and possibly literally dead in the water.
He needed something to bargain with. He could threaten to kill himself, but he wasn’t sure if they’d take him seriously having realized he’d had an escape plan the last time he said he would do that. Mitchell thought about that for a moment. He was still an unpredictable element to them. There was something to creating a bluff that they’d be afraid to call him on.
He also knew that he had the public watching what was happening. Mitch looked down and saw one of the spent flare guns. He picked it up and slid it into the zipper of his diving suit.
“Let me ask you a question. Do you believe me now that there is something medically going on with me that’s making people attack me?” he asked into the microphone.
“We don’t know what to believe. If you stop your vessel, we can talk about it.”
“That’s not a helpful answer. I’ve already told you what I need in order for me to stop this boat.” Mitchell looked up to his left and saw the orange and white colors of a Coast Guard helicopter. He remembered how they’d stop go-fast boats like his.
“If anybody else shoots at me today…”
The voice interrupted. “Nobody has shot at you today.”
“Did I imagine gunfire on the bridge? Is this bullet hole in my suit a hallucination?”
“The bridge was unfortunate.”
Mitchell was shocked at how hard it was to get through to these people. “Yes. It was unfortunate. Unfortunate because it was your fault.”
“We’re going to handle things differently. Please power down your vessel.”
“Here’s what I’m going to do. If you do the simple thing I asked for, which quite honestly is not asking for much and is just as much for your safety as mine, then you will have my surrender when I think it’s safe.” Mitch held up the flare gun. “If you guys insist on handling this wrong and doing something like trying to shoot my engine or me on live television, I’m going to straddle the gas tank on this boat and shoot a flare into the leak the helicopter made.”
“Mr. Roberts,” the voice interrupted.
“I’m not finished! Here’s the best part. That explosion is going to send me into a billion tiny little parts all over the Intracoastal. Maybe nothing will happen, maybe everyone around for a hundred miles will get to breathe in a little Mad Mitch.
“Maybe I’m not the suicidal type like the last guy said, but I know I’d rather go out by my hand than yours. I’ve told you what I want.”
There was a long pause. Finally, the voice came back on. “All right Mr. Roberts. Just let us have your assurance that you won’t try to hurt anyone.”
“I’m not the one who needs to make that promise. But I will. I’ve acted as open and ethically as I could. I beg of you to do the same.”
“Agreed.”
The Naked Man in the Forest was in a different place. He didn’t know where to look for the face of the Earth Mother. The trees and the plants were different. This wasn’t his familiar spot. Of course it was all part of the Earth Mother. He just needed to be able to see that.
He dropped a half tab of the blotter and waited.
He jerked his head to the side when something scurried through the brush. He hoped it was Earth Mother. Instead, it was just an armadillo. Just an armadillo? He felt shame for denigrating one of her creatures. It was a thing of light, not a thing of dark like him.
The Naked Man in the Forest scratched a huge welt into his leg for thinking that he was special. He looked down at the red mass of his testicles and penis. Hadn’t he learned his lesson already from the poison ivy? This time it was going to be worse. He’d failed the Earth Mother. For the first time, he feared her eggs may be in danger.
He had come far away from them and wasn’t able to protect them. All because of that damn man. That horrible man shrouded in darkness. Because of him he was sure the Earth Mother was going to make him pay.
Wind blew through the clearing and the Naked Man felt a cold breeze on his back. She was here. But she wasn’t showing herself. This was bad.
“Earth Mother,” he pleaded. “I’ll do anything you ask. Anything.”
I know, my child.
Her voice was sweet. He began to turn his head to look behind him where the voice came from.
Do not turn around!
The words came out like thunder claps. The Naked Man in the Forest froze.
The eggs. Protect my eggs.
Her voice was sweet again.
“Why can’t I see you right now, Earth Mother?” He began to wail.
I don’t want you to see how angry I am right now. I don’t want you to see my face and forget that I ever loved you.
Loved?
“What can I do, Earth Mother?”
Are my eggs ready?
“Yes, Earth Mother. They’ve been ready.”
Then go to them. Stop this man if you can. But go to my eggs. I may have you bring them to him.
“Bring them to this man? I don’t understand.”
The entire forest shook with her fury. Tree limbs snapped and a cold wind stirred up a tornado of dead leaves.
DON’T QUESTION WHAT I ASK OF YOU!
The Naked Man in the Forest buried his face in his hands.
When you came to me, you were lost. You were confused about the things you did. You didn’t understand what was light and what was dark. Who showed you?
“You did, Earth Mother,” he whimpered.
Who told you what to say? Who told you what to do? Who told you about my eggs?
“You, Earth Mother. Everything I owe to you.”
Then if I tell you to bring my eggs to this man, then that is what you will do.
“Yes, Earth Mother. Yes.”
He felt her presence leave the clearing. He sat alone, naked. “Loved,” she had said. She said she had loved him, as in the past tense. All because of this horrible man.
He put on the Otherself’s clothes. He would do what she asked. He’d try to bring the eggs to this man. But she hadn’t said anything about trying to stop him before then.
She would love him again. She would love him when she saw that the eggs were his responsibility. That he, The Naked Man in the Forest, not the horrible man or his Otherself, was the one to see to it they were hatched.
He heard a twig snap behind him as he put one leg into the Otherself’s pants. He turned his head and saw an athletic man with cutoff shorts and a tank top whistling at him. The Naked Man in the Forest froze. He’d never been seen changing back into the Otherself.