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Where the Crawdads Sing Chapter 65: Cheaters and Lions
October 30, 1969
Men are carnivores.
They grow to have sharp canines and incisors to rip and tear. They take the meat from the bone and swallow it whole. Many of those who thirst for blood become keystone species, fundamental to the control of an ecosystem. Through predation, they control everything from the birds in the sky to the shape of the rivers. Their need for meat is never-ending. Their bloodthirst never quenched.
“It’s never enough.” Kya laughed bitterly to the wind.
Kya thought of the books Tate had lent her, where Lions were so often characteristed as masculine - tough, muscular, and solid. She thought it ironic books neglected how nature seems to prevail against all odds. Defiant cheetahs hide their prey from ravenous lions. Cheetahs, portrayed as feminine and cowardly, are built to run and hide. Kya knew from biology this to be a far more nuanced art. Cheetahs held a reclusive kind of danger. Cheetahs knew how to prey, hide in the wild, use long grass and low-hanging trees to hide and use as vantage points. Where lions are brutal, Cheetahs are strategic. A gazelle can be bullied into submission by a lion but it can’t hide from an attack it doesn’t know is coming.
Kya peered down from the fire tower, gripping the cold metal rungs, feeling the sharp bumps of iron beneath soft fingers. The marsh’s green face peered up at her, its familiar details insignificant beneath her. The sound of weight distributing across corroded metal brought her attention back as she watched the head of Chase Andrews appear to rise from the base of the fire tower.
“Kya,” he said as he strode to her quickly, his voice hopeful. Kya held her ground and took in a breath. He peered down at her from where they stood, chests almost touching. “Kya I’m so sorry,” he said, voice insistent in its pleading. “It won’t happen again, I promise. Thank you for giving me another chance.” < /p>
Kya gave a soft half-smile, tears prickling in her eyes. She lifted a shaking hand, to his collar bone and Chase swallowed hard as she traced her finger across the shell necklace she had given him and hummed softly.
Taking this as a sign of forgiveness, Chase’s hand snaked around her waist to grasp the small of her back. He peered down into Kya’s eye and moved to press their lips together as he had many times before.
“No,” Kya said and pushed against Chase’s chest. The shape of the shell indenting against her hand. Chase looked at her, betrayed.
“Kya.” He said, more assertively now. “What more do you want from me?” Kya said nothing, he shook his head with annoyance, his fists scrunching open and closed. “I wasn’t… I wasn’t thinking straight, Kya you gotta believe me.” He shook his head again, looking down, eyebrows scrunched. “When you left, I was so upset. You’re all I can think about Kya and what do you think that leaves me with?” he looked at her again, clasping her hands between his, his grip tight. “I’m nothing without you Kya! If you leave me, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Kya held his gaze. “Does your engagement to another woman mean nothing to you?” Chase opened and closed his mouth, breaking Kya’s gaze. “Kya it’s not like that, I told ya that. Life isn’t as easy for me as it is for you in the marsh. “Chase said and Kya let out a bitter laugh. She nodded along incredulously; her eyes drawn. “Of course.” She scoffed “Damn the thought of Chase Andrews mingling with swamp trash.” Chase gripped Kya’s hands in his and pulled Kya to stumble forward. “Kya you gotta understand. They would have wanted to change you. They wouldn’t appreciate the swamp or your lifestyle, y’know that. “
Kya stood there, motionless. She didn’t say anything, didn’t argue. Chase looked at her, and her face devoid of a response and he grew desperate.
“Kya.” He gritted out roughly, desperation and anger growing. “Kya you’re nothing without me, ya hear me? No one will take you seriously. I can give ya a life you never had. I’ll break off my engagement. Kya you’d be as good as dead without me!”
Kya hummed again in amusement. All her life she had gotten by on her own, what was a man to tell her her worth? Shaking her head incredulously she stared transfixed at the gap of floorboards behind him.
“Some female insects eat their mates.” Kya mumbled “Overstressed mammal mothers abandon their young, Chase, did you know that?” she said, a warning in her tone.
“For f*ck’s sake Kya can you not with this shit again? Look at me.” He said and grabbed her roughly by the jaw, angling her face up, forcing her to look him in the eyes Kya swallowed hard but didn’t break. She brought a hand to hold his necklace in her palm. “How many times have I given you what you wanted Chase”. She said blankly, voice almost a whisper.
“What?”
“How many times” she said again, and pulled at the necklace in her hands till Chase grimaced and was pulled forward by the force of it. “Have you pushed” she said, shoving him back by the shoulders “And I’ve said no. And you’ve pushed again.” She said and shoved him back until Chase’s feet hit the edge of the railing, and he peered back anxiously at the marsh beneath him.
“Kya,” he said, uncertainty slipping through his rough tone. “Kya stop, you’re scaring me.” She pushed her forearm against him, tipping him slightly over the railing. She bared her teeth, anger swirling inside her.
“Why should I? You never listen when I tell you to stop.” Chase looked at her once more, his pupils dilated, a bead of sweat dropping from his forehead falling to the chasm of marsh below. She sighed and moved back. Chase, remembering himself, straightened with a cough and brushed his clothes down. Kya made room as he moved away from the railing, turning to face Kya the open gate behind him. He took in a heavy breath, his thick chest puffing out like a lion's mane. He towered over her, his breath falling heavy and shaken, as he lifted an arm to wipe away the signs of a struggle.
She was starkly reminded of her father, muscled and tall the figure of power. Brutal, bullying, taking. She thought of her mother: loving, frail, broken. Of purple bruises blossoming beneath her bloodstained dress. She looked upon the face of the man she thought she would marry and determination set in her bones. “I knew yer wouldn’t do it Kya” Chase’s last words huffed out with a laugh broken by the air pushed from his lungs. Kya knew anatomy, had studied it well. She knew how weight was distributed on a human, and she hooked her leg behind the ankle as she pushed him roughly by the shoulders. He staggered backwards, his foot slipping as he stepped into the nothingness of the open gate behind him. His head made a sickening thud as it hit the edge of the rusted trapdoor and his body fell fast towards the marsh below which accepted him with open arms.
Kya looked down at the lifeless body of Chase Andrews beneath her and smiled. Finally, she was no longer prey.
For once it was a cheetah at the top of the food chain.