Stand By Me

As the adventure went on I couldn’t help thinking what would happen if Ace found out. But I really have to think. Pressman won’t call Ace I know it.

*Ace And The Gang*
“Shit. I’m out.” Ace said sitting back down.
“Shouldn’t have gone for a wooden one.” Eyeball said sipping his beer. Ace turned to him.
“Tell me something I don’t know asshole. Billy you’re up.” Ace passed the bat to Billy who didn’t look to sure.
“Naw. I don’t wanna play no more.” He said putting the bat down.
“We only played three innings. That’s a nonofficial game.” Eyeball said.
“Hey, Ace…” Charlie began. But before he could continue Billy punched his arm. Ace looked back at the two.
“What’s with you homos? You’ve been acting psycho all day. Now if you don’t mind I would like to finish this game before I start collecting my goddamn social security.” Billy took the bat.
“Let’s play ball!” Ace said. That will take a bit.

Meghan’s P.O.V
Now we were a way long way from the junk yard. I started to think less and less about Pressman. I was pulled out of my thoughts when Chris stopped and announced the Royal.
“Gentlemen, and lady. The Royal.” Chris looked at us. Teddy was first to comment.
“The tracks go way out of the way.”
“If we cut through here, we’ll save an hour.”
“ I think we should stick to the tracks.” Vern said. I guess he wanted to take the safer route.
So another fork in the road. We voted and it looks like we were cutting through the Royal.
Vern protested, but as we began running down the hill he yelled.
“Hey! Wait up!” I looked back to see Vern falling and rolling down the hill.

We were walking through mud up to our ankles. It felt like walking through cement.
“I hate this short cut.” Vern said and Teddy was first to mock him.
“I hate this short cut.” Teddy said in a mocking tone. Vern threw his hand in Teddy’s face. Teddy flinched.
“You flinched! You flinched!” Vern was so excited. But then again Teddy had to take the fun out of it. He punched Vern twice. Vern now looked like a lost puppy.
“But, you flinched.” Teddy smirked.
“I know two for flinching.” Poor Vern. I just shook my head. Ahead of us was a swamp. Shit! Was all I could think.
“How are we supposed to get across?” Vern did have a point. It looked deep.
“We use you as a raft.” Teddy said. At this Chris broke a branch off and stuck it in the water.
“It’s not deep. We can walk across.” We took three steps in and sank. It was deeper than we thought.

(Fast Forward)
After the leaches and Vern flipping out on Teddy, we walked on. I could tell when Gordie got up, he was going with or without us. I grabbed my things and caught up to Gordie. He look determined to see the dead body. The rest of the guys caught up to us. Once we were back on the track for some odd reason I shouldn’t go any farther. I pushed that thought out of my head and kept walking. Ahead of me Vern and Teddy were discussing Mighty Mouse and Superman. Behind me Gordie and Chris were talking about his writing. I tuned out both conversations without realizing it. I was snapped out of my trance as Teddy yelled back to us.
“Come on! By the time we get there the kid won’t even be dead anymore!” With that Gordie, Chris, and myself ran and caught up to Teddy and Vern. We kept walking. Passing over the bridge where Gordie and Vern almost died was behind us. We still walked along. I didn’t know what I was doing I only came to when I bumped into Chris when Gordie stopped.
“Hey Teddy, is this the Back Harlow Road?” Teddy looked around and nodded yes. Chris and Gordie would take one side, Vern and Teddy would take the other. I couldn’t move.
“Meghan? Hey!” I snapped my head up to see Chris holding onto my shoulders.
“I’m fine.” That was the automatic response I gave. Chris knew.
“You wait here ok?” I just nodded. The boys looked on both sides of the tracks. To my surprise Vern had found the body of Ray Brower.
“There he is! Look! Look! I see him!” The guys walked over to where the body was I was walking as slow as I could. I stood at the top of the hill. Chris was comforting Gordie. Vern an Teddy went to get branches to make a stretcher. I slowly walked down to see the body. The kid wasn’t sleeping. The kid wasn’t sick. The kid was dead. The train knocked Ray Brower out of his keds, like it knocked the life out of his body. Only a few minutes had passed, but it felt like eternity. I dropped to my knees. I just waited. But what was I waiting for? That’s when I heard the sound. The sound of anger.
“What the fuck do you know about this?” It was Ace. Fucking great. I could feel his eyes burning holes through my body.
“Meghan, get in the car. Now.” He didn’t sound as angry as I thought. I stood up and looked to Chris. He nodded. I turned around and got into the passenger seat of Ace’s car and waited. I heard the gun shot, but it didn’t even register in my mind. A few minutes went by until Ace got into car. He made Billy and Charlie get in Vince’s car. No one took the body. Ace began to drive and I sat there. I don’t even know why. It wasn’t the first dead body I had seen in my life. So, why now?
“You could’ve been killed. You know that?” Ace talked the whole way home. I didn’t say a word.

It was around dusk when Ace pulled into the driveway. I got out and just walked into the house. Aunt Becky was working the night shift again. Ace took it easy on me for the now. Tomorrow was the first day of school. The second I hit the pillow I fell asleep. I hated dreaming. See, after the car crash I had seen the bodies of my parents. No one really knew that. The doctor said I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There was one thing only very few people knew. I was in that car with my parents. So why didn’t I die?