DAN'S PAPERS, February 19, 2010 Page 16 www.danshamptons.com
32-Foot Eel
(continued from page 12)
“No he won’t,’’ Dr. Wreckson yelled back at her. “He’s our friend.’’ But Jennifer held tight and Dr. Wreckson could go no further. The eel now focused his full attention at the pair, glaring at them and rising up into the sky about 15 feet in a kind of arching motion, which sent the fishermen’s net flying over his back and off to the side. The baymen, holding tightly to the the ends, were pulled up with the net to come crashing down on the sand with great force. “You’re hurting him!’’ Dr. Wreckson shouted at them. “I’ve seen enough,’’ the Corporal from the National Guard said from the back of the beach. “Lock and load and prepare to fire.’’ “No, no,’’ Dr. Wreckson shouted, turning around. At this point, fear apparently took hold of his daughter Jennifer and she let him go and fled back into the crowd crying and sobbing. The eel shrieked again but Dr. Wreckson walked bravely forward toward him. He held out his arms and looked up at the eel. “Nobody is going to hurt you,’’ he said. “We are your friends. We come in peace.’’ The eel looked down at Dr. Wreckson and a drip of saliva formed at the corner of his mouth. The baymen, all six of them, were moaning and groaning from their injuries only a few feet away by this time, but seemed unable to crawl away. The fire chief saw what was about to happen. “Don’t shoot,’’ Chief James shouted to the National Guardsmen. “You’ll hit the baymen.’’ “I can reason with him,’’ Dr. Wreckson said. And then he began talking in some very strange language. He made a series of clicks and hisses.
The eel cocked its head to one side. Now James ordered the firemen to roll several panels of turkey wire out flat on the ground between Dr. Wreckson and all the onlookers. “Get those long battery cables,’’ he shouted to an Assistant. “Electrify the wire. That should protect the crowd. And if he comes forward at least we can stun him.’’ Dr. Wreckson turned back to the crowd. “See?’’ he shouted. “He just wants somebody to talk to him.’’ And at that moment, the giant eel leaned forward, opened his mouth and from behind, with a sickening crunching sound, ate Dr. Wreckson in one gulp. Jennifer screamed. “Lock and load, lock and load,’’ the Colonel kept repeating. Sweat streaked down the Colonel’s face from under his helmet. And now the eel came toward him, making some sort of eerie cackling sound and slithering right onto the turkey wire. “Hit the switch!’’ James yelled. Instantly, the firemen started the fire trucks and electricity surged into the wire and into the eel. The eel jerked backwards, and then pulled himself up to his full height again, this time shrieking in pain. Now the police fired dozens of canisters of tear gas at him, many of which struck the eel and fell to the ground, belching out great quantities of smoke. The baymen lying near by coughed and sputtered. The eel sneezed. “Keep it going!’’ James yelled at the firemen. They gunned the truck engines. The shriek began again after the sneeze and lasted for a long time, the eel’s body shaking and quivering and a greenish glow forming around it.
Pretty soon there was the smell of something burning. The eel fell over. Dead. Now the paramedics ran forward, running past the Giant Ecuadorian, and they reached the baymen, injured and coughing, and quickly dragged them to safety. Meanwhile, Chief James ran to the eel, smoke still pouring out of him, and he pulled up short. The eel was still breathing. “He’s not dead,’’ he shouted back up the beach. “He’s just knocked unconscious. Get the firehoses. Tie him up. Quick, before he wakes up. And lets get some paramedics down here to do some mouth to mouth.” Working with the precision that years of drilling have trained them for, the firemen had the eel trussed and tied in a matter of minutes. And the paramedics, also working quickly, worked to revive him. Soon the eel let out a soft groan. Now they lifted him up, and as he wriggled slowly, carried him over to a flatbed truck where they set him down, folded him over three times so he would fit, and lashed him in. Then they drove him away. By the time the eel awakened, he was in a railroad boxcar filled with water on a siding of the Long Island Rail Road just to the east of the Bridgehampton Station. He is there today, four days later. “The eel is up and eating,’’ County Environmental Officer Witkiss said. “He doesn’t seem to be aware that he has eaten Dr. Wreckson. And we would like to get him out of here, to the University of Missouri Department of Amphibian Studies, which has promised to
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