Chapter Text
The first time I saw a dead body I was 12 going on 13. It was in the summer of 1959, which is a long time ago if you measure it in years. I was living in a small town called Santa Carla. There were only 1281 people, but to me it was the whole world.
“Hey, how’d you know a Frenchman has been in your backyard?” David asks Teddy as the radio played Bobbie Day’s ‘Rocking Robin’.
“I’m French, okay?” Marko replies casually.
“Your garbage cans are empty and your dogs pregnant.” David says, taking a drag of his cigarette.
“Didn’t I just mention I was French?”
“I knock.”
“Shit!” We were playing some form of game. I never really knew how to follow it but I was getting good at pretending I could.
“Twenty-nine”
“Twenty-two”
“Piss up a rope!” I interfere, groaning.
“Dwayne’s out. Oh, Dwayne just bit the bag and stepped out the door!” Marko says with a huge smirk plastered across his face.
“Come on, man, deal.” David sighs with an impatient look.
Marko Thompson was the craziest guy we hung around with. It was sad to think about but he didn’t really have much of a chance in life. His dad was given fits of rage. One time, he held Marko’s ear to a stove and it almost burned off.
“I knock.” Marko smugly laughs.
“You pile of shit!” David throws his head back.
“I’ve got thirty, what have you got?”
“Sixteen.”
“Go ahead, laugh, I’d turn you right down.”
David Powers was the leader of the group and my best friend. Everyone knew he’d turn out bad, he came from a bad family after all. Even he knew he would turn out bad.
A knock is placed gently on the other side of the treehouse door.
“Knock the secret knock!” I sound annoyed. Well no wonder, this has been happening all year and Paul still can’t remember it.
“I forget the secret knock, let me in!” Paul’s muffled voice comes from underneath.
“Paulll” David, Marko and I all say in sync.
“Come on guys, open up! You’ll never believe this. Oh man, wait till you hear it. Its unbelievable! Let me catch my breath first, I ran all the way from my house.” Paul says climbing through the small door. Marko, David and i all shoot each other a look before all joining in and singing…
“I ran all the way home. Just to say I’m sorry, sorry oh… can’t…”
“Come on guys, listen to me.” Paul tries to interject as we continue to sing. “You know what? Forget it. I’ll tell you nothing.”
“Alright, guys, alright. What is it, man?” David says instantly making the singing die down.
“Okay, great, you wont believe this sincerely!” Paul replies, the excitement in his voice increasing.
“I ran all the way home..” We all start up singing again.
“Screw you guys.” Paul huffs.
“What is it?” David asks, shutting down the music again.
“Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean if we tell our folks we are camping in my backyard?”
“Yeah.” We reply in sync again.
“I think so. My dads kinda on a mean streak though. He’s been drinking a lot lately.” David says hesitantly.
“You have to man! Sincerely! You can, Dwayne?”
“Probably.” I reply subtly.
“what’re you pissing and moaning about, paul? “ Marko asks, not looking up from the cards.
“I knock.” David smiles.
“What! You liar!” Marko’s jaw drops.
“Make your draw, shitheap.” David flicks Marko in the head.
Marko slaps his hand away.
“You guys wanna go see a dead body?” Suddenly the atmosphere changes as Paul asks this question. “I was under the porch, digging, you know..” Paul explains.
We all knew what Paul was talking about right away. At the beginning of the school year, her buried a jar of pennies under his porch. He drew a map so he could find them again but his mom threw out the map. Paul had been searching for these pennies for nine months. Nine months, man! He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Earlier…
“Jesus Christ, Cop, we gotta do something.” Emerson quietly and quickly says. He’s obviously panicking.
“What, who cares?”
“We saw him.”
“Saw, the kid is nothing to us. And he’s dead so it’s nothing to him either. Who gives a shit if they ever find him, I don’t.”
“It was the kid they were talking about on the radio! A baker, a brower, flowers, whatever his name was! The train must have had him.”
“Big fucking deal.”
We had all followed the Ray Brower, story very closely because he was a kid our age. Three days before he had gone out to pick blueberries and no one had seen him since.
“I think we should tell the police.” Emerson sighs.
“You don’t go squawking to the cops right after you boosted a car, you idiot. They’d wanna know how we’d got way on the back Harlow road. Now they know we don’t got no car. We best keep our mouths shut.” Cop replies clearly stressed, now also.
“We could make an anonymous call?”
“They trace those calls, stupid. I’ve seen it on highway patrol.”
“Alright; alright. I wish we never boosted that car. I wish Max was with us. Then we could tell them it was his car.”
“Well he wasn’t.”
“Are we gonna tell him?”
“Don’t tell anybody. Never, you hear me?”
End of Flashback
“I know the Back Harlow Road! It comes to a dead end by the river! The train tracks are right there! Even my dad used to fish for cossies out there!” Marko excitedly said. I almost feel bad for Marko. Hes lived a fucked up life and has gone through things no 12 year old ever should have. He gets excited over the smallest amount of knowledge he can offer.
“Jesus Christ, man, if they had known you were under the porch they would have killed you!” David turns to Paul.
“Could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow? It’s really far.” I add.
“Sure, he could have followed the train tracks the whole way.” David replies.
“Yeah, yeah. And then when it got dark a train must have come and o-smacko!” Another thing that makes me feel bad for Marko is the way he never knows when he’s being insensitive.
“I bet you anything if we find him we would get our pictures in the paper!” David says jumping to his feet.
“Yeah, we’d even be on TV” Marko also jumps up. I can’t help but feel terrible about this. This kid had died and we were all here practically celebrating.
“Sure!”
“We’ll be heroes!”
“Yeah!”
“I don’t know, Cop would know how I found out.” Paul says looking at the ground.
“He’s not gonna care because it will be us who find him. Not them. They’d probably pin a medal on you Paul.” I shoot him a reassuring look.
“You think so?”
“Sure!”
“What’ll we tell our folks?”
“Exactly what you said. We all tell our folks we’re tenting in your backyard. You tell your folks you’re sleeping at Marko’s. Then we say we are going to the drag races the next day until dinner tomorrow night.” I smile at my plan.
“That’s a plan and a half.” David fist bumps me.
“But if we do find the body they’ll find out we didn’t go to the drag races and we’ll get hided!” Paul is clearly bothered by this.
“Nobody would care. We’d be heroes.” Marko smiles.
“Yeah, my dad would hide me anyway, but hell it’s worth a hiding!” David says instantly making me feel pity for him.
“Shit yeah!” Marko exclaims
“Let’s do it what do you say?” David confirms it.
“Alright.” Marko says quickly.
“Dwayne?”
“Sure.”
“Paul?”
“I dont know…”
“Paulll”
“Come on Paul!”
“Paul!”
“Paul!”
“Come on Paul!”
“Alright.” Paul gives in.
I wanted to share my friends enthusiasm but I couldn’t. That summer I had become the invisible boy at home.
At my house
“Mom, do you know where my canteen is? Mom!” My mother ignores me.
“It’s in Denny’s room.” My dad eventually replies for my mom.
In April, my older brother Denny had been killed in a car crash. Four months had passed by my parents still hadn’t put their lives back together.
Flashback
“Dwayne; I’ve got something for you. This, my friend is for you.” Denny smiles as he places a cap on my head.
“This is your Yankee-cap.”
“No, no. This is your Yankee-cap. It’s a good luck cap. You know how many fish we will catch if you wear it?”
“How many?”
“A zillion. A zillion fish. It looks good on you.” He pulls the cap over my eyes.
“Hey, I’m going blind!”
“Don’t start with that, porcupine. Come here give me a hug.”
End of Flashback
“You found it.” My dads voice suddenly erupts around the room.
“Huh?”
“You found it.” He repeats.
“Yeah.”
“Why can’t you have friends like Denny’s?” My dad asks rather aggressively.
“Dad, they’re okay.” I defend them.
“Sure they are. A thief and two feebs.”
“David isn’t a thief.” I will defend David until the day I die.
“He stole the milk money at school. He’s a thief in my book.”