DEDICATION This book is dedicated to all the folks that have lived in the area of Henry County, Alabama that is called "Beat 5" and is especially dedicated to Herring, one of the characters in this book. Herring went on to be with the Lord on January 30, 2006. He was 56 years old when he left the time restraints of this world and joined up with the Lord in a time warp that will last forever because there are no time restraints in Heaven. Prologue For 44 years the story of what happened to two of the Beat 5 Boys has been kept a secret. They were sworn to secrecy 44 years ago and now that the time has past the story is told. The Beat 5 Boys are all of the boys between the ages of 13 and 19 that have lived in a part of southern Henry County, Alabama called Beat 5 over the past 100 plus years. This story is about two of those boys that lived during the 1960's and the great adventures that changed their lives. Be prepared to lose sleep as you follow these boys every step of the way in their "Adventure of the Swirling Waters". Chapter 1 The Routine Fishing Trip Bradley was one of the Beat 5 Boys and Herring was the other and they lived about a mile from each other. Every summer, when school was out, they really liked to go fishing in the Big Abbey Creek, that was just north of their homes. This was a creek like no other. You could fish, swim with clothes on or without, have fun and enjoy life as a young adventurous boy or girl. It was on a Saturday morning in early June of 1963 and Bradley decided to see if Herring wanted to go fishing. On the walk over to Herring's house, Bradley had to travel down a dirt road, traveling North for about a quarter of a mile and then he would turn back Southwest on a paved road for about 3/4 of a mile. While he was walking down the dirt road, he was humming a tune that he did not know the name to or why it had popped into his mind. He admired the scenery on both sides of the road and watched as a deer crossed in front of him, just beyond a small bridge that crossed a branch that ran northeasterly to the Big Abbey Creek. This branch was where Bradley and Herring would seine up their minnows to use as bait for their fishing trip. They had almost all of their fishing equipment stored in a little hut at the mouth of this branch where it ran into the creek. Bradley crossed the small bridge and was soon on the paved road and made good time down the paved road to Herring's house. Herring was still asleep so Bradley tapped on his bedroom window to wake him up. Herring came to the window, opened it, and said, "I'll be out in just a minute." About two minutes later, Herring jumped out the window, closed it, and they were on their way fishing. On the way to the creek the two boys talked about what each had done since school had been out. They both agreed that nothing that they had done compared with going fishing on the Big Abbey Creek. They arrived at the creek, got the seine from the little hut, caught enough minnows for the both of them and proceeded to wade out into the creek. Bradley had also brought along some crickets to use for catching brim or perch. The way Bradley and Herring fished the creek was to wade down the middle of the creek and flick their fishing lines from side to side when they spotted a good fishing spot. Herring was leading the way and Bradley was bringing up the rear, just far enough back so that his fishing line would not interfere with Herring. They had been fishing for about ten minutes when Herring hollered, "I got one, a big one." He played it a little while and pulled the nice fish in close, then held it up and showed it to Bradley before putting it into his fishing sack. By the time they had gotten to the first bend in the creek, the Beat 5 Boys had caught three catfish each. All the good fishing holes in the Big Abbey Creek had been named, such as the Bloodsworth Hole, the Lucky Hole, the Norton Hole, the Grace Eddy, etc. Well, the Beat 5 Boys were coming up on the Norton Hole and they were thinking about taking a break on the sandbar that was on the west side of the Norton Hole. The Norton Hole was in the second bend of the creek as you traveled East from where the branch entered the creek. The creek flowed east from the branch to the first bend, then turned and flowed south to the Norton Hole, then turned and flowed east again. It was at this second bend in the creek where the Norton Hole was and they had just arrived. The Norton Hole was over your head in the deepest spot so you would have to know how to get around it while you fished it. Herring made his way to the sandbar and Bradley joined him. From where they were at on the sandbar, they could see on down the creek around the bend and they could see up the creek toward the first bend. As they sat there on the sandbar, Bradley noticed something. He looked up the creek and then he looked down the creek. He could not believe his eyes, so he looked again and once again for the third time. Bradley jumped up and hollered, "Herring, look up the creek. What do you see?" Herring said, "Water, what else?" "Now look down the creek," Bradley said. Herring did as requested and once again said, "All I see is water." Bradley said, "Look up the creek and then down the creek and tell me what the difference is in the amount of water, up or down." Herring looked up the creek, then down the creek, and Bradley noticed that Herring did a double take and a triple take on the looking. About that time, Herring jumped to his feet and said, "I see what you are talking about. There is not as much water down the creek as there is up the creek. In fact, it looks like about half as much down the creek as up the creek and it's the same width across in all places, so something real weird must be going on." "You can say that again about something weird going on," replied Bradley. The boys became all excited and began running from one end of the sandbar to the other and looking and talking about what the possible reason for this was. After about the third or fourth trip across the sandbar, Bradley said, "I think I see what is causing all this to happen. You see that spot in the Norton Hole where the water is swirling in a counterclockwise direction?" "Yeah, but what does that mean?" Herring asked. Bradley began to explain, "In science, we learned that water, when being drained into a hole, would swirl counterclockwise because of the rotation of the earth." Herring said, "I'm glad someone was listening in science class, maybe you just learned that last year, you know you are a couple of years ahead of me in school." Bradley said, "I think that we have a hole under the Norton Hole and about half of the water is draining into it. We got to investigate this and make sure." The boys had brought along some rope, so Bradley said, "Herring, get that rope, come over here and tie your end around your waist and stay on the sandbar, and I will tie the other end around my waist and wade out into the swirling waters." Herring tied his end around his waist and stayed on the sandbar as Bradley waded out into the swirling waters. Just before Bradley made it to the swirling waters, the water was already over his head and he had to move his legs up and down to keep afloat. He used his hands and arms to move himself closer to the swirling waters. As he entered the swirling waters, he lost control of his movements and he began to holler, "Herring pull me back." But it was too late, the swirling waters were too strong and they sucked Bradley under, pulling Herring in behind him. They fell through the swirling waters for what seemed like ten minutes. Continues... |
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