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The road, lumped upward with tunneling roots and...
10:20 PM, Monday, May 3, 2010
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The road, lumped upward
with tunneling roots and broken down to gravel and
potholes in some places, continued to bend inland,
and now it had also begun to climb
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We crept along, mile after slow mile, with the
leaves and branches slapping and whackingI kept
expecting the road to break down entirely, but the
thick interlacing foliage overhead had protected
it from the elements to some degree, and it never
quite didThe banyans gave way to an oppressive
forest of Brazilian Peppers, and there we saw our
first wildlife: a huge bobcat that stood for a
moment in the rubbly remains of the road, hissing
at us with its ears laid flat, then fled into the
underbrushA little farther on, a dozen plump
black caterpillars fell onto the windshield and
burst open, spreading gummy guts that the wipers
and washer-fluid could do little to clear; they
only spread the remains around until gucci g watch looking out
through the windshield was like looking out of an
eye with a cataract on itI got out, opened the trunk,
and found a little supply of clean ragsI used
one to wipe the windshield, being careful to don a
pair of the gloves Wireman had found - I was
already wearing a hatBut so far as I could tell,
they were only caterpillars; messy, but not
supernatural
942
"Not bad," Jack said from the open driver's-side
window"Now I'll pop the hood so you can check
the-" He stopped, looking beyond meThe road was down to little more than a
path, cluttered with old chunks of asphalt and
overgrown with Creeping OxeyeCrossing it about
thirty yards up was a line of five frogs the size
of Cocker Spaniel puppiesThe first three were a
brilliant solid green that rarely if ever occurs
in nature; the fourth was blue; the fifth was a
faded orange that might once have been redThey
were replica watches rolex smiling, but there was something fixed and
weary about those smilesThey were hopping slowly,
as if their hoppers were almost bustedLike the
bobcat, they reached the underbrush and
disappeared into it
"What the blue **** were those?" Jack asked"Leftovers from a little girl's
powerful imaginationAnd they won't last much
longer, from the look of themLet's ride while we can
He began to creep forward againI asked Wireman
what time it was
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We were able to ride all the way to the gate of
the first Heron's RoostI never would have bet on
it, but we didThe foliage closed in one final
time - banyans and scrub pines choked with gray
beards of Spanish Moss - but Jack bulled the
Mercedes through, and all at once the undergrowth
drew backHere the elements had washed the tar
away completely and the end of the road was only a
rutty memory, but it was good enough for the
Mercedes, which louis vuitton miroir handbags jounced and bucketed up a long
hill toward two stone pillarsA great unruly
hedge, easily eighteen feet high and God knew how
thick, ran away from the pillars on either side;
it had also begun to spread fat green fingers down
the hill toward the jungle growthThere were
gates, but they stood rusty and halfway openI
didn't think the Mercedes would quite fit
This last stretch of road was flanked on both
sides by ancient Australian pines of imposing
heightI looked for upside-down birds and saw
noneI saw none of the rightside-up variety,
either, for that matter, although I could now hear
the faint buzz of insects
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Jack stopped at the gate and looked at us
apologetically"This old girl ain't fitting
through thatWireman paused to look at the ancient,
lichen-encrusted plaques fixed to the pillarsThe
one on the left said HERON'S ROOSTThe one on the
right said EASTLAKE, but below it d
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