The Saga, Part 7 -- Alone in the Dark!
The sun was shining brightly through the bones of the trees, and the forest was eerily silent around the well field, as I made my rounds. Every hour, I had six wells to measure,three of them up in the surrounding hills and underbrush, and three samples to collect and analyze. It took thirty minutes from the first measurement to the last analysis, and then, I had a thirty minute break before I had to go again. I was already tired, but there was no choice, the early test data, and its accuracy,is the most critical for the hydrogeologic analysis.
About 5:30 pm, I left to go to the gas station to get something to eat. Woe is me, by the time I got there, it was closed. We're in NYC, for heaven's sake, I thought to myself. This is the city that never sleeps! But I had to get back for the next set of measurements.
After the next set of measurements at 6 pm, I set off driving, for 15 minutes in one directionno place to eatand came right back. It was all houses and estates, with a few shuttered shops. It was dark by then, and the woods had taken on a somewhat menacing air. It was absolutely black in the woods, with no lights but the well house lights. My flashlight pierced the night, but didn't spread the light around and climbing over and under brambles to get to the monitoring wells was a little inconvenient. The paths weren't well-traveled, so to speak. There was a bramble with full-fledged thorns by one of the monitoring wells, and I had already tangled with it twice. Dang thing would NOT let go.
After the 7 pm measurements, I took off for 15 minutes in the other directionno place to eatagain more houses and estates, and came back. Looked like peanut butter was it, all the snacks had been eaten. By this time, it was pitch dark. The trees rustled in the darkness, and there was absolutely no other noise, besides the HMMMMMMMM of the well. There was nothing to drink but stone cold coffee, or the water fresh out of the well, from the sampling tube, and which might, or might not, be salty. By this time, I was getting pretty desperate for a bathroom, but of course, there was nothing remotely resembling a public restroom for miles around. Well, these woods are so dark; no one will see me, so Thankfully, I had some Kleenex in my purse. I dug a little hole with my boot heel up by one of the monitoring wells to bury the remainder.
I broke out the peanut butter, and ate the last of it off the end of my pencil. Peanut butter is the staff of life , I thought. I can keep going for hours on peanut butter . I made the 8 pm measurements, carefully noting each one, and analyzed the samples as quickly as I could. The thief was beginning to be a painit was heavy reeling in 90' of line and trouble to neatly coil it each time. I drove the Cadillac back to Well #2 to sit for a while. The HMMMMMMMM of the well was beginning to get annoying, and it was quieter there by Well #2.
My watch 'beeped' at me, and I made the 9 pm measurements, and collected the samples, again. It looked like we had plenty of reagents for the analysis for tonight, but would have to get some tomorrow. I lay down in the back seat of the Cadillac to stretch out a little. Then, I heard a car.
A car? There is supposed to be no one back here, but me. I sat up quickly and peered out the back seat window. Who is it?
A large black car eased up the lane with the lights off. Who on earth IS it? They pulled up between Well #1 and Well #2, about 300 feet away from my big car, and stopped. My face was plastered to the back window, and I started to shiver. What do they want?
A man got out and shut the door of his car. A man with a very large, black fedora set very correctly on his head, and bulky overcoat. He was smoking a cigarette, because I could see the arc of the ember as he smoked. He stood by the car and smoked, quietly. He didn't seem to be doing anything, just looking. Oh no , I thought. This is a wooded area. This is a wooded area in New York City . They always find bodies in wooded areas. What if this is The Mob?
I ducked down to the floor of the car and hid there, shivering. Finally, I heard the door of the car slam, and got up to see. The car slowly backed down the lane, turned around at Well #1, and pulled out of the driveway slowly and quietly.
As soon as the car left, I got out of the Cadillac and raced for the well house. Light seemed to me to be a good thing to find at that particular moment. But, as soon as I got there, I realized there was only one way in and one way out of that well house, and the pump motor didn't offer a whole lot of hiding places. So, I raced out back to the car. Oh no, the first place they would look was in the back seat of the car! Right at this moment, the air was rendered by a scream of un-earthly proportions! "SCREEEEEEEEEK!"
I nearly fainted. Staggering, I dropped my flashlight, and took off, running up the hill to the monitoring well with the brambleat least I knew where it was. There were no houses around; no place to go, but hide in the bushes. "SCREEEEEEEEK!" At this, I fell and began to claw my way through the underbrush on my hands and knees. I knew I was making an ungodly noise with all the leaves and underbrush, but I had to hide! My heart was pounding in my chest, and I had to get up there to that well and that bramble. I could hide in that bramble, maybe. A rabbit, scrambling for cover, and I, were one and the same...
I clawed my way up the hill to the well in a panic, and scooted up under the bramble, up against the trunk of the bush. "SCREEEEEEEK!" Oh no! Are they killing someone down there? Is some poor soul being murdered right here? Just then a HUGE white owl, swept by, its wingtips brushing the bramble I was trembling under. Startled, I screamed, "EEEEEEEK!" The owl landed in a branch down the hill, and turned its huge yellow eyes on me.
Oh, it is just an owl.
It takes a while for adrenaline to wear off, and my heart pounded steadily, and my hands shook, but I was slowly starting to calm down. Then, my watch went off, beep beep beep! I started at the noise, and caught my hair in one of the thorns on the bramble. Tearing loose, I got out from under the bramble, and stood by the monitoring well, trembling. Finally, after a bit, I was able to take a measurement, and pick my way down the path to the other wells. On the other side of the woods, the owl "SCREEEEEEKed" again, but at least I knew what it was, and felt a little silly for having been so frightened. We have lots of owls back home.
Methodically, I measured Well #2, collected a sample, but could not pour it into the test tube because my hands were shaking so badly. I found my flashlight on the road beside the car, and walked up the path on the other side, to the other monitoring well. I got back in the car, and drove down to Well #1, measured it, collected the sample but left it for later. I walked through to the path for that monitoring well, and measured it. By now, my heart was back in its groove and I was somewhat calmer. Then, I drove back up to Well #3, took a measurement, and collected a sample. I got a drink of water from the well. I washed off my hands, brushed off my clothes, and straightened up a bit.
Back at the car, I sat in the driver's seat and thought; there is no place to go. There is no one to call and no phone to call them with. The woods are probably safer than the well houses, so I can go there. Ok. I went back to the wells and completed the analysis, (my hands weren't shaking so badly), and stayed down at Well #1, where I could watch the lane, just in case they came back. I locked all the doors to the car and was sitting in the driver's seat, when the same car, or one just like it, pulled to the end of the lane, stopped, and drove away. Who IS this?
Beep beep beep. Time for another round. This time, as I made my rounds, I noticed that my clothes were covered with mud and bits of things, and that I had a whole slew of scratches on both arms from clawing my way through the underbrush. I stopped again at Well #3 to get cleaned up a little better, taking off my coat and washing the blood from my arms. There was one particularly nasty scratch, with the briar still in it, near my wrist. I picked the thorn out, and pulled my sleeves down.
I drove back down to Well #1, where I could keep "watch", and decided to change clothes. I had a nice clean outfit and it was time to be getting it on. I went to the back of the car, which was facing the gate, and opened the trunk to find my carry-on bag. I was rummaging for it, when I noticed three boys, walking up the lane. Only they didn't look like any kind of boys I had ever seen. One of them had blue spiked hair. The other had a shaved head, and the third sported a Mohawk. All three were dressed in leather jackets with spikes and studs and had chains hanging from their pockets. Their boot heels clicked on the gravel, and they had a "street smart" way about them.
While this may not be at all frightening today, back in 1982, the only people that remotely looked like that at home were the characters in the movie, "Mad Max". They looked like street toughs and three street toughs together can be a bad thing. Again, there was no place to hide, and no time to do it. I jumped in the trunk of the car and pulled the lid down until the light clicked off, holding the latch so I wouldn't get stuck in there. There was a tiny slit beneath the edge of the trunk, and I glued my eyeball to it.
Presently, the boys came up by the car and remarked, "What's this doing here?" I was under the lid of the trunk, listening, barely breathing, and trembling with fear. They stopped. "The door is open!" My heart stopped, thinking they meant the lid of the trunk. But, they walked down to the well house and, although I could not see them, I guessed that they went inside.
I stayed in the trunk, holding the lid and the latch mechanism, and waited, barely breathing. I hoped that none of them would drink the silver nitrate reagent. After a while, I could hear their boot heels on the gravel, and hear them talking and laughing with one another. They stopped by the car to light a cigarette, and I prayed that no one would sit on the trunk. Just then, my watch went off again. Beep, beep, beep. I grabbed my watch and tried to stifle the noise, without letting go of either the lid or the latch.
One of the boys asked, "What's that sound?" The other two shrugged, and they walked away from the car and back down the lane to the street. I waited for a long while, until I was fairly sure that they were gone, opened the lid carefully, and slowly climbed out. No one there. I leaned against the car, and looked at my watch. It was only 11:10 pm. I still had a long night ahead of me.
Thanks for coming by!
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It didn't help that I had grown up with "The Untouchables" on TV, had watched "The Godfather", and "The Valachi Papers"...
That owl just about did me in. Which was stupid-- I've seen hundreds of owls, but then, maybe not that closely! And the punks-- Sigh, I was terrified!
Thanks for coming by to see me!
Excitement... that can be problematic .
Heart attack producing, at times...
I was terrified . Worn out and with an over abundance of imagination!
Geez , all that anxiety over an owl ? What would have happened if you has seen a landshark ?
Dowser,
The reason you couldn't find food is because actually Great Neck is Nassau County which is a bedroom community of NYC. It's the burbs, and everything back then would close at around 9, if you were luck.
By the sounds of it, you were by the Kings Point Navel Academy, which is very much in the middle of no where. But your feelings about the mob... I will make you feel better... you were not wrong. Long Island is full of mafia. I even lived next door to a Gambino. So, who knows what goes on in the middle of no where. A very understandable fear.
As for the kids, they were probably harmless. That happened a lot here. They were bored.
Humm.. seems like you had a long night ahead of you. I almost feel badly for you, if it wasn't 30 years ago, LOL!
LOL! If I saw that, and not known what it was, I probably would have dropped dead...
Poor kitty! But how funny! (I torture mine sometimes, too...)
AHHHH! So THAT's why I couldn't find anything... 15 minutes in either direction yielded nothing... But wait, my shopping woes did not end there, by any means!
Oh my gosh... Once the friends found out who I was, they were nice to me-- VERY nice. (I had no idea, though, what was going on at that particular moment...)
The kids probably WERE harmless, but I wasn't used to seeing kids dressed at all like that in 1982. Now, that's nothing! But then? Different story... They looked about 16-18 years old, strong, and very tough. That they also resembled Mad Max characters didn't help...
The night was not yet over, but it got better...
Much love, Perrie!
I forgot to say thanks for your explanation-- that makes me feel better, on all counts. It was beautiful there, for sure! Even in late winter...
I just love that pic! He is just too cute!
That's my best boy tomato, Pharaoh! I adore him-- he is MY kitty. He is fat, squishy, and has soft fur...
He is also amenable to most things...
I'll post the video of "The Making of a Cat Movie Classic" -- a video 'short' about what we went through to get him in a cockpit, so he could look like Tom Cruise.
He looks like a big lover! I love a kitty like that.
I look forward to seeing your video torturing him, LOL!
I'm uploading as we speak! Oh my, poor baby...
This was before I learned to cut and paste, so I made all of my own props... The helmet was made out of a balloon and paper machet'd, and I can't spell that. ANYWAY, he was one unhappy kitty, even with liberal applications of catnip!