"Bessie" by Deborah Cullins Smith

     Chelsea dangled her feet in the icy cold water of Johnson’s Lake and squealed with delight.
     “It’s c-o-o-o-old!” she shrieked, giggling.  Her big brown eyes danced merrily.
     Danny grinned at his buddy, Karl, who squatted in front of a small hibachi grill and flipped burgers.  Both young men sported swim trunks and muscle teeshirts, bronzed biceps proudly proclaiming their status as rising stars in high school sports.  The Kirk Douglas cleft in Danny’s chin deepened as he smirked at Chelsea.
     “Shouldn’t put your feet in that lake,” he said, shaking his head and trying not to laugh outright.
     “Oh, p-u-leeeeeze, don’t start that stuff,” scoffed Jessica, rolling her brilliant green eyes and flipping her long blond hair with a toss of her head.  The head toss/hair flip was Jessica’s trademark, and the maneuver never failed to captivate the male population, a fact Jessica was well aware of.  She had the movie star perfection of body and face that turned heads and was, at this moment, lazily sunbathing in a hot pink bikini.  The boys appreciated the view.
     “What stuff?” asked Chelsea eagerly, eyes glowing with curiosity.  She sensed a tall tale in the making.
     Chelsea had just begun to date, and it was a heady feeling to be double-dating with the high school ‘in crowd’.  She’d carried a secret crush for Karl for months before he noticed (finally!) the stars in her eyes.  She was screaming and cheering on the front row of the bleachers when he scored the winning home run in the first baseball game of the season.  He fell into the deep well of those soft brown eyes.  Intrigued, one date led to another.  She was delightful, though gullible, and Karl enjoyed her company.  Of course, the fact that she was cute as a button hadn’t hurt either!  The star baseball player had to be seen with one of the best looking girls at Johnson High!
     Let’s see just how gullible she is, thought Karl.  He continued aloud.  “Bessie.  You’ve heard about Bessie, haven’t you?”
     Chelsea shook her head, eyes wide.
     “You’ve never heard about Bessie?” Karl said in mock consternation.  “She came down from Lake Erie a few years ago.  Killed three people up there, then moved down river when folks started huntin’ her day and night.  She settled in this here little pond of ours and hasn’t moved away since.”
     “Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiight,” laughed Chelsea.  “Sure.  And I suppose she’s related to the Loch Ness monster?”
     Danny grinned and popped the top on a soda can.  “Why not?” he said.  “Stranger things…”
     Jessica socked Danny in the shoulder, knocking him playfully backwards.  He flopped back, moaning as if mortally injured.
     “Can we say, ‘urban legend’?” she said, rolling her eyes again.  “Kid’s stuff – campfire horror stories – right up there with the story about the serial killer on the loose with a hook for a hand – so don’t go parking or he'll get you!”
     "I love that story!" protested Chelsea with a laugh, to which Jessica just rolled her eyes.
     Danny curled his fingers into a makeshift hook and crept towards her like a hunter stalking a squirrel.  She laughed and pushed him backwards again.  Danny was stocky, ruggedly handsome, and had a streak of sexy mischief that always seemed to attract the beauties among the female population.  His audacity kept every relationship far from the shores of boredom.
     Chelsea leapt up from the end of the pier and pranced back toward Karl, flopping on a blanket near his feet.  Her eyes sparkled with morbid fascination.  “What’s it look like?” she asked.
     Chelsea didn’t have Jessica’s willowy figure or porcelain-perfect features, but she was petite and attractive in her own right, exuding a naïve sweetness that made Karl’s pulse rate climb.  Since they had begun dating, his grades had gone up, too.  She had been editing his English essays, which helped immensely because she caught all his punctuation and spelling errors.  He decided she was a handy gal to keep around.
     Karl laughed at Chelsea’s wide-eyed curiosity.  “Well, I don’t really know too much. Most people who see Bessie don’t live to tell about it.”
     “Oh, come on!” Chelsea’s laugh echoed merrily across the silvery surface of the lake.  “You must know something.  Does it look like Bigfoot – big and hairy, or is it more fish?  A shark maybe?”
     Suddenly a shadow fell across the campsite.  Chelsea looked up and shivered just a touch as the sun slid behind thick clouds, and dark shadows lengthened on the lake.
     “Oooooooooooooooh,” Danny made eerie moaning sounds at Jessica.  “Old Bessie doesn’t like to be talked about!”
     “No,” said a strange male voice, crackling with age, “she don’t.  And you’d do well to remember that, laddie.”
     Karl spun toward the voice, as Danny jumped to his feet, both young men taking a defensive stance.  The girls jumped up as well, and slipped closer to their boyfriends, eyes wide as saucers.
     Crazy Ned Barker.

     "It ain't me you gotta be afeard of," he said, shuffling forward and taking no notice of their obvious distrust.  "Them burgers is smellin' good, young man.  Better watch out for the bears, or you might just have to fight 'em for your food!"  The old man cackled.  "Truth to tell, I wouldn't mind one m'self," he added, peering at the little grill and smacking his lips.
     Karl and Danny exchanged glances while the girls clung to their arms.  Jessica whispered to Danny loudly enough for Chelsea and Karl to hear.  
     "Let's just send him away empty-handed.  He gives me the creeps."
     "Wait!" argued Chelsea.  "Maybe he'll tell us about the lake monster.  Might be a little healthier for us if we know what's out there."
     Again the old man cackled.  "Little lady's got a good head on 'er shoulders.  Ya' orter listen to that'un."
     Karl and Danny exchanged looks again.  Now Karl was irritated by Chelsea's curiosity, no longer finding it amusing.  Still, the old man was harmless.  What could he do to two of the best sports jocks in Johnson High?
     Karl nodded and Danny shrugged with a grimace.  "Sure, old man.  Pull up a seat.  We got enough to share."
     Old Ned brushed off a stump with his dirty gray felt hat and plunked down heavily, scrounging in the pocket of his stained workpants pocket for a crumpled pack of papers and a dirty leather pouch of tobacco.  The teens watched with revulsion as he proceeded to roll his own cigarette, sprinkling the tobacco generously across the paper with yellow fingers and thickly crusted nails.  Jessica shuddered and looked away when he ran his tongue over the edge of the paper and carefully sealed the seam shut.  The old man looked up to see them staring, and he waved the cigarette in their direction.
     "Ya'll want one?  I got more fixin's," he said with wide-eyed innocence.
     Jessica turned green and shook her head.
     "Er….  uh…  no, thanks," stammered Danny as Karl turned back to the grill and gave it his undivided attention.  "Athletes don't smoke," he continued, gesturing nervously with his hands.  "C-c-cuts their wind."
     "Cuts their wind…. cuts their wind…" the old man muttered.  Then his eyes lit up.  "Oh, you mean ya' can't breathe good.  'Cuts the wind.' Yeah, I see what ya' mean.  That's good, young man, that's good."  He cackled, though they weren't sure why.
     Chelsea plucked up a smidgen of courage and timidly slipped to the ground facing their strange guest.  She remained on the blanket near Karl, but her intentions waxed strong.  She wanted to know, and the thought of Alice's insatiable curiosity flitted across her mind.  Would she, too, be plunged down a rabbit hole?
     "Mr. Barker, have you seen 'Bessie' yourself?"
     "O' course, lassie," he said, smoke from his home-rolled weed wafting in front of his face.  "Cain't live on the lake and NOT see her from time to time.  She's got free range o' these waters."
     "Well, I've lived here in Johnsonville all my life, and I've never seen any sea monster or man-eater," sneered Danny.
     The old man's eyes gleamed.  "Well, sonny, if you'd seen 'er, ya' prob'ly wouldn't be standing here talking to me.  Bessie's tetchy about folks sniffin' 'round.  So's you might want to show a little respect."
     "My Dad and I fish this lake all the time," Danny persisted.  "Don't you think we'd have had some small inkling of a 'monster' in the vicinity?"
     "Been fishing lately?"  The old man smirked.
     "Last weekend," replied Danny, raising his chin defiantly.
     "How many d'ja catch?"
     Danny's face reddened.
     "Just what I thought," the old man cackled, coughing roughly.  "Nothin' a'tall!"
     "Did, too," retorted Danny, "caught me two little ones."
     "Oooooooooh, little ones," the old man laughed mockingly.
     Danny's expression darkened.  Chelsea jumped into the conversation, tossing out a lifeline to salvage the moment before Danny had a chance to antagonize the old man further.
     "Mr. Barker, tell us about Bessie," she pleaded, soft brown eyes lit with interest.  The old man tore his taunting smirk away from Danny's angry bravado and gazed at the earnest young woman whose eyes held no guile, no pompous superiority, only intrigue and curiosity.  Old Ned's face softened a bit at the naïve young girl.  None of the rest were too keen on allowing him to stay, but this one…  she was different.  She tried to be courteous, and kindness poured forth from a tender heart.
     "Humpfh…" Old Ned cleared his throat and pointed out toward the huge lake surrounded by dense patches of fir trees and berry bushes.  Squirrels chattered at them from tall branches and the sweet songs of whippoorwills tried to out-sing the stringent caws of the crows and blue jays.  "Old Bessie, she likes backwoods spots like these.  Places where she can remain hidden lessin' she wants to be seen.  Long, she is – some 30 feet or so from tail to snout.  Blends in with her surroundings, changes colors like a chameleon."
     "Then it's a snake?" asked Chelsea, while Jessica and Danny snorted in disbelief.
     "Well, it's reptile-like, I'll grant ye that," he said with a shake of his shaggy gray head.  "Long snout, rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, hind feet are shaped like paddles so she swims right well, and amber golden eyes that'll score straight through to your soul and scare ye witless.  Once ye're frozen with fear, that long neck reaches out and wham!"  His listeners jumped as he clapped his hands together with a sharp crack that echoed over the lake.  "Ye've just become supper."  He took another pull on his cigarette and smiled at their shocked faces.
     "A 30 foot killer reptile in this lake?" scoffed Danny.  "Not bloody likely."
     "But, Danny, you said Bessie was real," said Chelsea with a frown.  His antagonistic superiority was getting on her nerves, and she hated rude behavior of any kind.  Even Karl was showing a lot less respect for the elderly man than she would have suspected, though he did hand the man a hamburger and a soda from the cooler.
     "It's an urban legend, Chels," said Karl quietly.  "We were trying to see just how much of it you'd buy before you caught on.  The old man heard our conversation, and he must have decided to see how gullible you'd really be.  But none of it's true."
     "You lied," she stated, looking from one teen to another.  "Just to make a fool of me."  Her eyes clouded with tears, and she ignored the hamburger Karl held out to her.
     "No sense being a baby about it," chided Danny rudely.  "Surely you didn't believe that there was really a monster of some kind in the lake, did you?"
     "Come on, Chelsea," said Jessica, with the head toss/hair flip, and another roll of the eyes.  "Everybody knows that these tales are just campfire stories to scare little kids.  I told you it wasn't true.  You should have listened.  You walked right into it."
     Chelsea gave her a long measured look, then wordlessly pulled on her sneakers and yanked the laces with swift, jerky movements.
     The old man watched her quietly, then slapped his knees with the palms of his hands.  "I thank ye for the lunch, youngsters.  Guess I've 'bout wore out m' welcome.  I'll just be moseying on along.  But ya'll be careful 'round the water's edge.  Bessie don't like visitors much."
     Chelsea refused the proffered food and stubbornly continued to gather her belongings into her large tote bag, which she slung over her shoulder.
     "Chels…" Karl reached for her elbow, but she jerked away from his hand.  She looked out across the smooth surface of the lake for only a moment.  Somehow the shine had faded out of the day, and gloom had settled over the lake in its place.  How could I have been so blind, she thought.  I've been nothing to them but a figure of ridicule, someone to laugh at, to make fun of.  I don't belong here.  I don't belong with Karl.
     "Where do you think you're going, Chelsea?" asked Karl wearily.
     "Home."
     "You planning on walking?"
     "No, I figure Bessie will come out and give me a ride on her back," retorted Chelsea bitterly.
     "Oh, good grief!" exclaimed Jessica, turning away in disgust.
     Karl followed her a little way down the road, but she wouldn't stop, wouldn't look at him, and wouldn't allow him to touch her at all.  Finally he gave up and returned to the camp, fuming with rage.
     "Crazy old man!" he spat, following with a string of vile epitaphs.  "Everything was fine until he showed up.  She knew it was all a joke, but that crazy old loon got her believing his tall tales."
     "Look, forget her," said Jessica.  "She's just a little kid.  What on earth were you doing with her?  Diana Colches has been dying to show you how much fun she can be."  Her eyebrows twitched in amusement.  "Why don't you run by and see if she's free for the day?  And maybe the night?"
     Karl shot her a dirty look, but then he thought it over and roughly pushed thoughts of Chelsea from his mind.  What was he doing with a green kid like that?  He was captain of the soccer team, the best high jumper in the school's history, and all-star quarterback.  He reached down into the food basket and tossed his car keys in the air.  He winked at Danny and Jessica.  "Be right back.  Save me a couple of burgers."
     Their laughter followed him all the way down the path.


     Chelsea strode the path, angry tears making two thin streaks down her face.  Her mother had told her to be careful of the popular boys like Karl and Danny.  But she hadn't believed her mother, preferring to listen to the soft sound of Karl's sweet voice in her ear, his warm lips on her neck.  Now she knew they had played her for a fool.  She'd never liked Jessica, with her superior attitude and movie star looks.
     A figure stepped out of the woods ahead of her, and she gasped in surprise.  Ned Barker.
     "Hey there, Missy," he said softly.
     "I think I've heard enough stories for one day, Mr. Barker," she said, stepping backwards away from him, pain rolling from her eyes in palpable waves.
     "Never lied to ye," the old man said.  "Yer foolish friends may find that out the hard way.  Bessie's out thar all right.  You remember that, Missy.  And you stay away from the lake tonight.  Don't go changin' yer mind and runnin' back to that smart aleck punk with his fancy grill."  Old Ned paused for a moment then he added softly, "Yer too good for the likes o' him, Little Miss.  And you remember that."
     Then he was gone.  Vanished into the thick foliage and dense trees.  Chelsea shivered, staring into the woods for some sign of the old man.  She heard a rustling sound, and something like a sigh.  Then she realized that not one birdcall was audible.  The squirrels had stopped their chittering, and they no longer jumped from tree trunk to tree trunk.  Just then, the sound of tires on gravel and a car horn from behind her caused her to spin in relief.  Karl stuck his head out of the window.  
     "Come on, Chels, there's no use you trying to walk back to town," he said roughly.  "I'll take you home.  Your Dad will kill me if I let you walk all that way."
     "Figuring Diana Colches will be waiting for your call?" she asked bitterly, as she climbed into the front seat and slammed the door.
     "No…  of course not…  how…?" his voice trailed off in shock.
     "I overheard her and Jessica in the girls' room last week," Chelsea muttered.  "Frankly, I thought you had better taste."
     Karl seethed, gritted his teeth, and sped down the road, spitting gravel in all directions.

     Chelsea was safely at home, racing tearfully to the seclusion of her room.  Diana curled up next to Karl, nuzzling his neck seductively, and Karl wondered why on earth he had ever remotely fallen for a simpleton like Chelsea Simpson.  His mustang convertible raised a choking cloud of dust as he sped back to the small campfire by Johnson Lake.  The sun was setting low over the lake, but Diana didn't seem to be much of a sky-watcher.  For a fleeting moment, Karl thought of Chelsea.  She would have been gazing at the pink-tinged clouds against the azure to navy backdrop, and her breathless awe would have left him speechless.  Irritation creased his forehead, then Diana nibbled at his earlobe, and Chelsea was swept from his mind.
     He slammed on the brakes, and they screeched to a stop, the path winding its way down to the pier.  Giggling, Diana grabbed her bag and Karl grabbed two or three blankets from the back seat.  His evening was going to take a completely different course, and testosterone was starting to do his thinking for him.  They ran nimbly down the path, with Diana squealing as she leapt over roots and stones toward the warm flicker of the campfire.  The blankets were rumpled and there was no sign of Danny and Jessica.
     Probably just went for a swim, or a walk in the woods, Karl thought.  Their absence didn't seem to bother Diana in the least!
     They spread the blankets back out and raided the cooler for bottled water and some of the leftover hamburgers.
     "So what made you come back for me?" Diana asked archly.
     "Just thought you might enjoy the sunset out here," Karl shrugged indifferently.  He did NOT want to discuss Chelsea right now.  "Want to go for a dip?"
     "Aren't you afraid of the beast?" she asked with a laugh.  "I heard we have our own Loch Ness monster right here in our lake!"  Her laugh crashed discordantly on Karl's ears.
     "Yeah, some old guy dropped by our camp earlier and told us some cock and bull story about a serpent named Bessie."  He shook his head in disgust.  "Old panhandler!  Just wanted a free meal."
     Diana giggled.  "Oooooooh, so that's why little Chelsea Simpson ran back home to Mommy…."
     "Knock it off, Diana!" Karl said more sharply than he'd intended.
     Diana sulked, pulling herself away from his muscular torso.  He looked at her pouting profile in the dusky moonlight.  She was beautiful like Jessica, but only in that same superficial way.  Her long black hair hung in silky waves down her back, and he wanted to bury himself in those soft strands, wanted to forget about the deep brown, trusting eyes of Chelsea.
     "Sorry, Di," he muttered, running his fingers over the cuff of her shoulder.  "I don't want to think about sea monsters, or crazy old men, or Chelsea Simpson.  I don't want to think about anything but you tonight."
     A smile curved her full, painted lips. She leaned into his embrace as he pulled her down on the blanket, and covered her mouth with his own.
     A shrill feminine scream ripped the peaceful evening, followed by another yelp, which cut off abruptly.
     "That was Jessica!" cried Diana.
     "Stay here!" Karl ordered.  He was already scrambling to his feet and racing through the dense trees, flashlight in hand.  If Jessica was in trouble, so was Danny.  Karl thrashed through the undergrowth toward the sound of the screams, his heart hammering against his ribs.  An irrational fear rose in his mind – fear of a monster coming up from the water to attack his friends.
     Bessie is only a figment of an old man's imagination, he told himself.  It's not real!  It can't be real!
     Diana screamed his name over and over, sobbing with each cry, but she remained at camp, too terrified to follow.
     Suddenly Karl stumbled into a clearing and fell head-long to the ground.  His palms tingled from the impact, then slid in something sticky and wet, and he landed flat on his chest and belly.  Karl staggered to his feet and looked about frantically for his flashlight, which had flown from his hand when he fell.  It spun crazily in a pool of red stickiness.  He could see his surroundings now, by the shaft of moonlight streaming through the leaves in the clearing.  He looked down in horror and saw his chest covered in blood, his feet standing in a muddy quagmire of blood, the bushes and foliage spackled in blood….  blood everywhere.  
     Karl's eyes widened, and his stomach lurched.  Then his mind shut down when his gaze followed the flashlight's beam.  He saw now what he had tripped over.  A human leg from hipbone to calf, with a small fragment of dark swim trunks – Danny's trunks.  To the right, a female arm and part of a hot pink bikini top, now stained with red.
     Karl froze, his mind overloaded by the gruesome scene.  He couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't respond to Diana's frenzied cries.  He heard a rustle in the underbrush behind him, but was too slow in his response.  A sharp thump slammed into his head, creating a shimmer of flashing dots before his eyes.  He hit the ground and instinctively rolled to avoid a second blow.  He fully expected to see Bessie, the monster of the lake with the razor sharp teeth dripping in blood.
     He stared through bleary eyes at the stooped figure of Ned Barker.
     "Ned?!" he questioned incredulously.  "But why…?"
     He never finished the question.  Ned's shovel came down, edge first, in the middle of his chest, crushed his ribs, and punctured his lungs.  Another blow to the neck ended his life abruptly.
     Old Ned cackled.  "So ye don't believe in Bessie, do ye?  Well, I reckon everyone else will from now on."  He slung his shovel over his shoulder and slipped through the forest to deal with the pretty girl at the campsite with the long dark hair.  This one wasn't going anywhere.


     Sheriff Datweiler surveyed the bloody scene with a shake of his head.  No body parts had been recovered, but four teenagers were missing, and there were two crime scenes covered in blood.  He's brought in the County Crime Scene Investigators, and hoped they'd find enough DNA evidence to bring closure to the frantic parents.
     The primary investigator brushed past him with his case, shaking his head in negative response to the unasked question.  Sheriff Datweiler shook his head sadly, knowing that the mystery of who –or what—had caused their deaths would undoubtedly remain unsolved for many years.  With the absence of remains, the youths would remain on the books as missing, presumed dead.

     Old Ned waited until the police had collected their gear and left the premises.  He'd been questioned extensively and he's stuck to his story – 'that Bessie must have got 'em.'
     "Comes up out of the lake to hunt at night," said the old man with a sad shake of his grizzled head.  "Been powerful hungry lately.  Too bad for them kids.  They was decent youngsters.  Shared a hamburger with me t'other day."  Another shake of the gray head.  "Too bad, too bad."
     "Uh-huh," nodded Sheriff Datweiler.  "Old Bessie, you say?"  He closed his notebook with a deep sigh.  Poor old fool's gone 'round the bend, he thought.  Talking to sea monsters now.    
     The legend of Bessie grew.  The lake would have to be declared off limits, but the Sheriff also knew with certainty that youngsters would enter the forbidden grounds when dared by their peers.  More would disappear, but their bodies would never be found either.

     Ned whistled a merry little tune as he rolled a wheelbarrow full of bloody body parts down the path towards the lake.  Killing the disrespectful teens had brought a slight twinge to his conscience, but it hadn't lasted long.  After all, it was for a good cause.
     She was waiting at the water's edge for him, her huge scaly head raised above the surface of the lake expectantly, golden eyes gleaming in the fading sunlight.
     "Here ya' go, Bessie, old girl," said Ned cheerfully as he flung Danny's thigh at the 2,000 pound creature from another age and time.  "Bet yer hungry, Bessie.  Sorry 'bout that, but I had to wait til those fellers left the forest.  Leastwise ye got the first three or four bites that night.  'Nough to hold ye over til I could get back with the rest anyways."  He chatted sociably with the giant serpent as he shoveled a bikini-clad chest and tossed it toward the water's edge.  Bessie picked it up in her massive jaws and munched as sedately as a cow grazing in a pasture.
     "Yep," Old Ned continued the one-sided conversation.  "You cain't run after these youngsters anymore, and ye cain't chew 'em up 'lessen they're chopped up some.  An' I need you to pertect me in the woods.  Works out pretty good, huh, old gal?"  He coughed a little and dug another limb from the wheelbarrow.  "Yep, them fishies are a'right when there's nothin' else to munch, but a little bit of human now and then, now that's a treat!"
     As he cackled again, Jessica's golden curls did their last hair flip, as her head was tossed toward the monster's waiting jaws.