The Dam At Otter Creek
Ianto was panting as his shoes slipped in the mire and he was forced to his knees again, the mud covering him so much that he didn't really care. At least the storm had eased to fat drops of cold regret. He let his hands sink into the mud as he hung his head and struggled not to cry.
He sat and looked back down where the white sheet was barely visible, sinking into the deep of the water. He seemed to watch forever until it was gone and then his name being repeatedly spoken had him shaking from his revere and he turned to look up, taking the offered hand and levering himself back up onto the grass embankment of the dammed creek.
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"Mama?"
Ianto stood, a gangly ten year old with glasses on the end of his nose looking at the carnage that had been wreaked on his home.
Things were smashed, there was food everywhere and Ianto knew without a doubt that his father had come home drunk and gone off on one again. The food had not been hot enough, or maybe too hot. Either way it met the wall and his Mama now knelt sobbing as she tried to hide her bruises form him.
This was not right.
Just another night in the Jones household.
He swore that one day he would stop him, one day this would end.
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Ianto sat on the grass and looked up at the starlit night…well…morning. About three? Just after? He looked at her nightgown, mud on the hem and he sighed as he rose and pulled the blanket around her more, "You've freezing, we gotta get home and clean up before she comes home and sees."
Ianto rose and grabbed the branches he had pulled into the yard to strap the body onto, using his pocket knife to remove the straps that had held it like a three way tripod stretcher thing they had called a litter, something he had seen in a western and it had worked, making it easy for them to pull him to the creek and then roll him in. Ianto pulled the branches down glad the leaves still attached had helped hide the grooves in the mud from the two branches that had held his dead weight to the ground.
This rain pouring down would make sure that by daylight there would be no proof of what they had done, what they had achieved and by the time she got home to ask where he was they would be clean, warm and ready to lie to their graves that they had no idea.
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"Shit. He's not breathing."
"Da?" Ianto poked him with his foot, the knife in her hand still dripping blood on the floor. He looked at her and then motioned at the knife, "Clean it, wash it. Now, put it away. Go."
She moved without a second thought, obeying him as he knelt and touched his father again, knowing he was dead. Dead as a door nail, dead as his little dog Da had kicked to death once. Dead. Gone.
Gone.
"What time is she due home?"
"In the morning with the number eight bus. About ten" she replied shakily rubbing her face, "She will come in and look for him."
"Then he never came home from the pub" Ianto said as he rose, "Fetch a sheet, we need to get rid of him. A plain white one like everyone uses on the block."
"Where? Ianto, where will we put him?"
Ianto seemed to think for ever so long and she wondered if he was gonna break then he shrugged, "The dam. That dam the men made down at Otter Creek, I walk it every day, we can…if…maybe. I will go see if there are any branches still there frmm the path they cut last week, I can build an Indian Litter to pull him."
"Oh gods, I killed him. I didn't mean to but I knew he was hurting her and….oh gods. Ianto, what will we do?"
"Keep it together" Ianto replied calmly, "I still need that sheet, and some rope. Go."
They worked though the next few hours as he built the litter, then they rolled him in the sheets and pulled him to the deep side, rolling him in and Ianto knew he would never be found, even if he was the sheet was so loosely there that they could argue he might have caught up in someone's clothes line when attacked by another drunkard or someone he owed money to and that's how he fell in, so many on the estate leaving their washing out at night along the back of the housing units.
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"Will this work?" she sobbed wringing her hands as he reached out to calm her and he looked her in the eye. "What do we do now?"
"We will go home and clean up, we will have a bath and get dressed warm like we just got up. She will come home and we will say he never came home. In a few days the police will probably come and we will say we never saw him. No one will care, he was nasty, bad and cruel. He can't hurt her now and she will never know what we did, she can never know what we have done for her tonight." As he spoke he squeezed her hands and she nodded, her teeth chattering with cold.
"Come on now, hot bath for you while I clean the kitchen up, then I will take your water while you start some bread and put our clothes in the washer. The smell will cover the funky smell of our clothing" he said with a firm squeeze then he led her back towards their home.
"Do you think this can work?"
"Yes, but she must never know" he turned one last time to look at her, drawing himself up to show the man he would become, "Mama, Rhiannon must never know."
"Yes love."
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"The Dam At Otter Creek" - Live
when all that's left to do is
reflect on what's been done
this is where sadness breaths
the sadness of everyone
just like when the guys
built the dam at otter creek
and all the water backed up
deep enough to dive
we took the dead man in sheets to the river
flanked by love
deep enough to dive
deep enough to dive
be here now
we took him three and three
in a stretcher made from trees
that had passed in the storm
leave the hearse behind
to leave the curse be here now