The Water Queens (Keeper of the Water) Read Free Page A

blubber like a fool, becoming more pathetic as the gator slowly stalks toward him. I can’t keep my eyes off the rippling water. I’m tempted to jump overboard and do whatever I can to help. But the sound of weak laughter behind me snaps me out of it, anger making me grow stronger where love made my knees weak.
    “Who cares about him?” Jack gurgles. “Let him die so he can save the rest of us.”
    As if the thought of losing John again isn’t awful enough, thinking about Jack surviving makes me want to be sick. The feeling is a reminder that I can’t be weak for the first time in my life. I struggle to my feet and spot an arrow on the boat’s floor. I want to use my bow to shoot it but the arrow sticking out of me makes that impossible. Instead I take aim at the gator and throw it with all my strength, hoping to at least scare off the beast. The arrow hits my intended target but weakly bounces off the gator’s hard scales.
    The gator is getting closer to an easy meal and I’m almost out of options to stop it. But the answer finally comes to me from an unlikely source – and an unlikely song. Jack quietly hums the theme song to the movie Jaws. My hatred for him finally gives me a solution, one that should seem awful in my mind. But not a single part of me feels the slightest bit of guilt for what I’m about to do. I’ve had to suffer the results of my actions in the past and so will Jack.
    Even though he’s my father’s son, I grab Jack by the arm and drag him toward the back of the boat. The effort sends shockwaves of pain through my body. He has no strength to fight but moving dead weight is just as physically draining. His cries of pain spur me on, not to mention that the gator is less than fifty feet behind John and quickly approaching.
    “What are you doing, you stupid b- ”
    I accidentally bump into the arrow in his chest and he groans.
    “Be careful with me until we reach the water,” Jack says breathlessly.
    “I need help… quick…” I say, inching him closer to the side of the boat.
    “No, no help,” Jack groans. “Get your hands off me.”
    My mother’s eyes are closed, as are Amelia’s; luckily, I see both of them still breathing. Just when I think I’m on my own – that I’ll never have enough time – Amelia opens her eyes and struggles over to us. Without needing to be told what I’m doing, Amelia grabs Jack’s feet and we’re able to lift him off the floor. It’s still a struggle to move him – and Amelia looks to be in as much agony as I – but we reach the back of the boat, where the gator is only a few feet behind John.
    Jack is the last one to figure out what we’re doing. But when he does, he begins to wiggle in our grasp. The struggle makes it more painful for all three of us, but Amelia and I hold on.
    “Put me down!” Jack yells.
    His wish is our command. We only have the strength to swing him once before tossing him overboard. Amelia is weaker than me and her forward momentum nearly pulls her over the side. I grab hold of her, mashing both of our arrows. We collapse to the boat’s floor in agony, my breath literally ripped from my lungs. Somehow, my ears register a thud followed by a man’s scream. I suddenly have an awful vision in my mind of Jack’s body landing atop John, giving the gator a two-for-one special.
    Amelia remains still but I crawl to the side of the boat, peering over to see that Jack had landed atop something: the gator. John continues pushing the boat with a new sense of urgency as we both listen to Jack’s pathetic cries. He tries to hold onto the back of the beast but his fancy fighting moves don’t work so well in his current condition. The gator rolls a single time and when he emerges from the water again, Jack is gone. The gator disappears back underwater and an explosion of red suddenly stains the surface.
    I start paddling again but that doesn’t last long before I watch John fade beneath the surface. When he doesn’t immediately