Up There: Voyage 7—the Bayou - Brok3n Engines

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Up There: Voyage 7—the Bayou - Brok3n Engines

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Voyage 7—The Bayou

The sisters had come through again. Having Anita convince Fred that he had been unfair to Jack—that worked! Fred had, after all, been unfair. And it didn’t diminish Fred. (John, now 12 years old, was a little proud of this use of the word “diminish.”) John particularly liked this conversation:

“Jack led two people to me in secret?” Fred asked, alarmed.

“No,” said Anita. “I don’t think that’s exactly right. Seph and Angie are parts of Jack’s spirit. Wherever he is, they are. It’s the same as saying that wherever you go, your spirit goes.”

Jack gave her a hard look, and nodded. “True enough. But my spirit don’t show itself to other people.”

It showed that Fred, despite saying ”don’t” when the correct word was “doesn’t”, was capable of subtlety. (“Subtlety” was another word John liked.)

And they had given him a good start for a new story, without boxing him in.

Jack came alone. He still didn’t know where he stood with Fred, and didn’t want to spook him with too many strangers.

“Jack,” Fred said. “Thanks for coming.”

“Fred,” Jack replied. “Good to see you again.”

“I have a favor to ask—a big one,” Fred said. “But before that, I got to say I’m sorry.”

Jack looked puzzled at this, although he thought he understood where Fred was going.

“Your young friend Anita visited me.”

Surprised, Jack said “Anita was here?”

With the usual popping sounds, Angie and Seph appeared on Jack’s shoulders. “We told her how to come here,” Angie said.

“But it was her idea,” said Seph.

I bet you didn’t exactly discourage her, did you? Jack thought in their direction.

“So, true that you didn’t know she came to me?” Fred said.

“I did not.”

“Or her father?”

“I’m certain Rodriguez would have forbidden her if she had told him of this intention.”

“She has grit as well as brains, that one. Reminds me of another kid who came to me alone years ago. A fatherless boy who lost his Dad to the bottle.”

Jack was uncomfortable. He knew exactly which boy Fred meant. To change the subject he asked, “Why do you live here alone, Fred? Are there no other Marsh-wiggles in America?”

“There are,” Fred replied. “Well, not Marsh-wiggles exactly, but water people who ain’t human, the way I ain’t.”

“Any of them friends of yours?”

“Well, Jack, maybe you ain’t noticed, but I ain’t a real friendly type. I like to be by my lonesome.”

Jack laughed. “Well, Fred, now that you mention it… Maybe I have noticed, a little.”

“You was always a solitary kid yourself, Jack. Why I’m a bit perplexed to see you with so many friends around now.”

“Me, too. If I’m honest, Fred. I followed a map I found in my grandfather’s old house. I met these new friends on the voyage.”

“Oh, we’ve always been around,” Angie said.

“Maybe a good thing,” Fred said. “Marsh-wiggles is natural loners. Humans not so much.”

“And these other non-human water people?” Jack asked. “Who are they?”

“Some call ‘em frog people. They live in swamps and creeks and bayous. Family of ‘em in trouble in a place called Blue Bayou. They say they been there hundreds of years.”

“Any of them friends of yours?”

“Nope. They don’ like me, Jack.”

“Huh,” said Seph. “They don’t like you, Mr Congeniality? Why is that, I wonder?”

“They don’t like you?” Jack asked. “Why?”

“Well, Jack, they a tight little family. Not so little, truly. They maybe fifty of them, all brothers and sisters and aunts and cousins. Little frog people, about so high.” He held his hand four feet above the ground. “I’m different—not family. I’m big and scary, like a human. Years gone by, humans hunted ‘em. They don’t forget.”

Angie looked appalled.

“What kind of trouble are they in?”

“Human trouble.”

“Not being hunted again!” said Jack.

“No. Worse than that in a way. Being driven out of their home. Survived hunting, they did. They won’t get past this.”

“Who’s driving them out?”

“Developers. People with money wanna drain their Bayou and build something there. Shopping center, apartment blocks, a golf course—I don’ know. Doubt they even know theyselves—just know they can sell it for a bunch.”

“Who owns Blue Bayou?”

“I don’t know that, either. Not the frog people. No more than I own this bit of marsh.”

“How can I help?”

“You can go there and look into it. It’s a human problem—maybe you can do something about it.”

“Yeah! Of course!” said Seph, with an ear-piercing rebel yell. “To the battle!”

Jack looked at her in annoyance. “Well, you know Fred, the only thing that beats money is money, and I don’t have a lot of that. I’ll do my best. Where is it? Can you take me there?”

“Gulf Coast, Louisiana. You can sail there in the Devil.”

That evening Jack sat at the kitchen table with the Rodriguez family. He had told them of Fred’s asking for help.

“What does he need help with?” Felipe asked.

Jack explained about the Blue Bayou frog people.

Linda asked, “Fred doesn’t know who owns the Bayou?”

“Fred is a wiggle who lives alone in a shed in the Awcomin Marsh. He doesn’t know that kind of stuff.”

“And he doesn’t know what these developers plan?” she continued.

“No.”

“We can find out. There will be public records, and we can do a title search to find out who owns the property.”

“Mi madre es abogada, Jack,” Anita said.

“Your mother is an avocado?” said Jack, nonplussed.

Seph and Angie laughed.

“¡Abogada!” laughed Linda. “It means lawyer.”

“La mejor abogada en Buenos Aires,” Felipe interjected.

“Best lawyer in Buenos Aires,” Anita translated with pride. “It’s true, Jack!”

“Also, I have a connection to Louisiana, Jack,” Linda continued. I graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, then with a doctorate from Tulane—that’s in New Orleans.”

John remembered that when he introduced Linda in “Rounding the Horn,” he had said she spoke only a little English. That wasn’t consistent with her having studied in New Orleans. Oops!

Well, perhaps it was OK. These stories were told mostly from Jack’s point of view. Perhaps when he first met her, Jack thought Linda didn’t speak English well. Now he knows she graduated from a law school in New Orleans!

“I noticed another word, Linda,” Jack said. “You said ‘we’ can do a title search. Are you volunteering?”

“Of course,” Linda replied. Anita and Felipe chimed in eagerly.

Felipe observed “The Devil will be crowded with the four of us and Fred.”

“I don’t think we’ll see much of Fred on the Devil.” said Jack. “Fred has his own way of moving through water.”

Worried that there was no time to lose, Jack and the Rodriquez family determined to set sail the next day.

That morning, Jack went to Fred in the Marsh and told him of their plans.

“Something I’d like you to take on the Devil for me,” said Fred. From his shed he retrieved a belt and a long leather sheath with a handle sticking out one end.

“Fred, is that a sword?” Jack asked.

“A light saber,” said Fred. “Yes, a sword.”

“Wicked cool!” said Seph, appearing with a pop on Jack’s left shoulder. Angie popped on to the right, frowning, but saying nothing.

“You know how to use that thing?”

“I did once. Been many years.”

“You really think we might need it?”

“Sure hope not,” Fred grimaced. “Better have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”

“Roger that,” said Jack.

“If you need me, hang a red cloth from the starboard gunwale.”

Blue Bayou was located near a small Gulf Coast town of that name, a little east of New Orleans. Jack tied up the Sea Devil to a public mooring in the little harbor. Linda went ashore to do what she could at the courthouse and to call a lawyer friend in New Orleans.

Jack hung a red flag from the starboard gunwale. Several hours later Fred climbed on board.

Anita said, “Mr Paxford, Ananta has something to say.”

Ananta’s head rose from the harbor. She looked at Anita and said, “Do I have to?”

“Yes, Ananta. It’s important.”

“Mr Paxford,” she said, “I was wrong come to your home in the Marsh without an invitation.”

Her eyes shifted to Anita, who nodded.

“And I was wrong to try to attack you. And I want to help you save the frog people.” She breathed out.

“Can’t say fairer than that,” Fred answered. “Can I count on you not to eat anyone, or lose your temper with the frog people, or with anyone who wants to hurt them?”

Ananta looked puzzled at that, “I thought we were going to fight the people who want to hurt them?”

“We are,” Jack said. “But if we hurt anyone, we’ll get the frog people in trouble. We have to fight with words and laws.”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

“Yeah,” said Jack. “It’ll be a learning experience for all of us.”

Fred said, “One thing you all gotta understand. They don’t like me, and they feared of humans. They have reason. We help ‘em, if we can, because we feel better in ourselves so. They ain’t gonna trust us or thank us. Win or lose, we get nothing.”

Jack nodded. Ananta gave a long, slow blink to show understanding. “Comprendido,” said Felipe. “Linda is a lawyer, She understands doing her best for a difficult client.”

“Where’s my saber, Jack?”

Jack retrieved it from the cabin, and Fred belted it on.

Fred said, “I’ll walk with you to the Bayou and introduce you to Nana Lis.”

As they walked through town, Linda joined them, looking like a real lawyer in business dress and carrying a briefcase.

“We arrived just in time,” she said. “Jason Lord is moving into the Bayou today with a team and a swamp excavator.”

“Jason Lord?” Felipe asked.

“He’s the current owner of record. Bought the land just months ago.”

“Can we do anything?” Jack asked.

“Already have,” Linda said. “I explained the situation to my friend in New Orleans. She rushed it to a judge and got a TRO.”

“Translation, Linda,” said Felipe.

“Temporary restraining order,” she said. “It’s a legal order that forbids them to proceed. I have it here in my case.”

“Does that mean we won?” Jack asked.

“No. It’s a small, temporary victory. It means that we convinced a judge that we might possibly win someday, and that the excavation could do irreversible damage to the frog people if it proceeds. And it’s only for a day or two—that’s what ‘temporary’ means.”

“But that’s huge!” Jack cried. “I take your point. It’s not victory. But it means someone who matters thinks we have a chance.”

Seph raised a fist in salute. Angie just smiled.

“Yes. We will have our day in court,” Linda agreed.

When they reached the Bayou, Fred called, “Nana Lis, are you here?”

A small frog like person rose from the Bayou. She said, “Fred Paxton! And four humans! That’s all I need to make my day perfect!”

Fred waved toward the humans, saying, “Friends, Nana Lis is the Granny of the frog people here. She in charge here, if anyone be.”

Nana Lis saluted Fred ironically. “Why are you here? Why does the devil send you to me on this cursed day?”

“Word reached me. Man name of Jason Lord want to drive y’all out of this Bayou?”

“Il est là!” Nan Lis, pointing up the Bayou. While she plunged into the water, Fred led the humans upstream to where she had pointed. On the bank there stood a small crowd of the frog people, shouting what sounded like French curses at a team of humans on a dirt road that passed near the Bayou, with some heavy equipment.

Linda spoke to Nana Lis. “Is one of those gentlemen Jason Lord?”

“Ain’t no gentlemen,” Nana Lis said, “but that the one you speak of,” and pointed at a small rat-like man.

Linda stepped up to him. “Mr Jason Lord. I will ask you and your team to vacate this property.” She handed a document to him. “That is a court order forbidding your presence here. You are trespassing.”

“Like Hell!” he said, intense. “I own this land.”

“Your ownership has been called into question.”

“Who questions it?” he shouted. “These vermin?” he gestured at the frog people.

Fred, anticipating trouble, stepped to Linda’s side.

Lord continued, “They’re animals. We destroy them, and there’s no dispute.”

Silently, Jack called to Seph and Angie. They popped into existence on Fred’s shoulders.

“Ananta,” Jack called. “Show yourself to Mr Lord.”

Ananta’s giant head rose from the Bayou and stared directly into Lord’s eyes.

“Merde!” he called and pulled a pistol from a shoulder holster.

At that there was a loud metallic SHING! as Fred, with inhuman speed, drew his saber.

His saber tip a millimeter from Lord’s throat, Fred hissed, “You will lower that gun, or this blade goes through your throat faster than you can aim your pop-gun. You drew on me. I got the right to kill you.”

Lord tried bravado. “Do it and you’ll hang for murder. Your blade is at my throat—no judge will admit a plea of self-defense.”

“You kin look up from Hell and tell you self that. You dead already time a judge look at me.”

Lord’s hand faltered. Quicker than thought, the flat of Fred’s saber slapped the gun into the Bayou.

“Could you have stopped that bullet?” Jack silently asked Seph and Angie.

“Of course,” Seph said. “Probably,” said Angie.

Lord shouted to his team. “Pack up! We’re done here for the day.” Looking daggers at Linda, Fred, and Nana Lis, “I’ll be back. You think you won. This isn’t over yet.”

Lord and his men left, the frog people jeering at them.

Nana Lis did not jeer. She said, “He’s right, you know. This ain’t noways over.”

“Thank you!” John told Alice and Stephanie at the end of the summer. “That was a really good way of bringing Fred and Jack back together.”

“That was Steph’s idea,” Alice said. “Where are they now?”

“They’re in Louisiana, in a place called Blue Bayou,” John answered.

“Isn’t that a song?” Alice asked.

“Yeah,” said John. “I stole the name for our story.”

“Did they solve Fred’s problem, whatever it was?” Steph asked.

John started pacing nervously. “Not completely,” he said. “They have a legal problem. I don’t know anything about law. But I know it’s slow. If there need to be trials and stuff, it could take months or years to solve.”

“That’s a big change!” Alice said. “Before this it has just been travels and fighting.”

“Yeah,” said John. “It would have been easier to just leave out the legal fight, to have a simple fight that Jack and Fred and Seph and Angie and the Rodriguez’s could win. But that wouldn’t be right. If there was a fight and people got hurt, the frog-people would in the end be worse off.”

“The frog-people?” Steph said. “Is that like Marsh-wiggles?”

“Not exactly. You’ll see,” John said. “So here it is. I’ve landed our characters in a pickle, and I’m relying on you two to get them out of it.”

Steph grimaced at him, and put her hand to her chest. “We are honored, sir!”

Alice and John laughed at her.

“Well, you know, Steph,” John said, “if you two weren’t so good at this, I wouldn’t expect so much of you.”

John was a little embarrassed after saying this. Was it too much? But the sisters didn’t seem embarrassed. He hoped they wouldn’t try to compliment him in turn.

They seemed to understand how he felt.

“We’ll do our best,” said Alice, solemnly.

Fred had told the humans that the frog-people wouldn’t thank them. He was right. Nana-Lis never thanked any of the humans. Fred had also told them the frog-people wouldn’t trust humans. In this he was mostly right. Nana-Lis didn’t trust men.

Nana-Lis had been impressed when Linda walked up to Jason Lord and told him to get off her property. And she had made him do it, too! Fred helped, but it was Linda who made that connard Lord fuck off. Fred said so hisself.

What’s more, Nana-Lis knew that the fight wasn’t over. She needed help—she needed Linda’s help.

Linda and Nana-Lis had long conversations, walking by the Bayou. Nana-Lis told Linda how the frog-people had lived there for hundreds of years. Everyone in the town knew they were there—they would sometimes buy and sell to them.

Linda told Nana-Lis about complicated legal things like the doctrine of laches and adverse possession and squatter’s rights. Linda said these things might mean that the frog-people were the real owners of the Bayou. Nana-Lis was smart, and Linda was good at explaining.

Linda promised to fight for the frog-people for as long as it took.

There was an old house on the property. The frog-people had no use for it, and it was in bad repair. But Felipe thought he could make it livable, if the frog-people helped him. They did, and Felipe, Anita, and Linda moved in.

Ananta lived in the Bayou.

As a scientist, Felipe was fascinated by the frog-people. He was happy to stay and learn from them while Linda did her legal magic. Nana-Lis made friends with Linda, Anita, and Ananta. She tolerated Felipe for Linda’s sake.

Nana-Lis still didn’t like Fred or Jack. She made it clear they were not welcome at the Bayou.

“We should leave, Fred,” Jack said one day. “We’re not needed here, and I’m bored.”

“Me, too,” said Angie. “Me three,” said Seph.

“Where to?” Fred asked. “Back home to Rye?”

“I’m thinking of sailing to Snake Island again,” Jack said. “I could bring Melusine word of her daughter. ‘Course you can go back to the Awcomin Marsh if you want. You don’t need the Sea Devil to take you there.”

“You’re right, Jack,” said Fred. “But—maybe I’m gone crazy in my old age—I kind of have an urge to go adventuring with you. Interested in another hand for your voyage?”

Up There: Voyage 7—The Bayou - Previous chapters

Afterword

The cover image is a phase portrait of :

Equations defining a complex function f(z)

This represents Fred holding the point of his sword to Lord’s throat.

A phase portrait is a visualization of a complex function introduced by Elias Wegert in Visual Complex Functions: An Introduction with Phase Portraits.

Previous chapters

Blue Bayou, Linda Ronstadt and the Muppets

Brok3n Engines

Up There: Voyage 7—The Bayou - Brok3n Engines