American Tropic Read Online Free PDF Page B

rubber suit stretched tight and painted with luminescent white skeleton bones. A rubber skull mask covers theface and head. The skeleton rises out of the dark water onto the hard gravel road. A coiled rope is slung over its shoulder. The skeleton peers out from deep black eye sockets to see if anyone is watching. It reaches back down and hefts from the swamp’s mud-suck of water a heavy object wrapped and tied in a canvas tarpaulin. The skeleton slowly moves along the road, the gravel crunching beneath its rubber feet as it drags the heavy object behind. The skeleton stops and bends its head back, its skull face staring up to the top of the tower’s point.
    In the blue light of a full moon, the skeleton continues dragging the object toward the tower.

    S harp morning sunlight glares off the pyramid-shaped wood tower surrounded by mangrove swamp. A tour bus travels on the gravel road leading to the tower. The bus’s high black rubber tires kick up a cloud of white dust. The bus rolls to a stop in front of the tower. The side of the bus is painted with bright green words: FLORIDA KEYS ECO-AWARE .
    Ecotourists step out of the vehicle with eager purpose. Slung around the necks of the men and women are binoculars and cameras. They wear fashionable shorts and green T-shirts emblazoned with DON’T FOOL WITH MOTHER NATURE . They aim their cameras at the wooden pyramid tower.
    The last person out of the bus is a tour guide with atight expression of righteousness etched on her youthful face. She motions for the group to gather around her. The tourists snap to attention at her words. “Many years ago, a real-estate tycoon had a grand scheme. He wanted to drain this mangrove swamp and build a city here. But first he had to eradicate the mosquito population that swarms by the billions from this swamp. So the clever developer built this eighty-foot-high wooden tower to house thousands of bats. The plan was that at night the bats would fly out from the tower to eat the mosquitoes. It seemed like a good idea at the time, an army of bats gobbling up bloodthirsty mosquitoes.”
    The ecotourists groan their disapproval of the developer’s scheme.
    A thin young man wearing a green silk bandanna tight around his forehead speaks up. “Are the bats still inside? I’d just like to—”
    A ruddy-faced Australian cuts off the question with his thick accent. “Hell, mate, if the bats are inside, all the bloody buggers will be hanging upside down asleep. Maybe Count Dracula is in there with them. Spoookyyy.”
    The thin young man looks nervously at the tower. “That’s not funny, dude!”
    The guide raises her hand for quiet and continues her story. “The developer’s grandiose mosquito-eating scheme didn’t work. The bats flew away and never returned. The guy went belly-up, lost all his money, and slunk back to where he came from.”
    The ecotourists give a congratulatory cheer.
    The Australian chimes in. “Bloody hell, that served the greedy grubber right.”
    The guide looks out across the surrounding fetid mangroveswamp of tangled tree trunks and branches. “The Florida Keys are a one-of-a-kind unique and fragile environment which we all must respect and protect. What is the lesson that I’ve been teaching you on this tour?”
    The ecotourists chant in unison: “Don’t fool with Mother Nature or Mother Nature will fool with you!”
    The guide beams her approval. “Let this tower stand as a living lesson to all those who want to come to our paradise and try to rip it off.”
    The ecotourists pump their fists, shouting, “Don’t fool with Mother Nature!”
    “Good. Now, let’s take a closer look at this tower and witness one man’s folly.” The guide leads the group across the crunchy gravel road. She stops beneath the tower’s base of massive wooden support struts. She beckons the tourists to gather around. “At one time this was the highest structure in the Florida Keys between Miami and Key West. The tower could be seen