Look Me in the Eyes

Chapter 15: The Trek Continues

     I woke up the next morning, but not to Chris telling me that it was my turn to stand guard. Teddy was making loud puking noises.

      "If you don't shut up, Teddy, I'll punch you so hard that you'll be puking for real," I grumbled, opening one of my eyes to look at him. He stopped momentarily.

      "I'd like to see you try, Merrill," he teased. When I made a motion to stand up, he ran over to Vern, hiding behind the pudgy boy. He knew full well that I could carry out my threat; Johnny had taught me how to throw a few punches, and Teddy had more than once been my practice dummy when he got on my nerves.

      I wasn't able to get up, however, because Chris, who was still fast asleep, had a tight grip on my waist. I pulled at the arm around me, wiggling around.

      "Chris," I said, trying to wake him, "Chris, wake up."

      "Wake sleeping beauty with true love's kiss," Teddy smirked, letting out one of his strange laughs.

      "I swear, Duchamp, when I get out of here, I'm gonna get you," I told him, glaring at the boy with Buddy Holly glasses. This time, he didn't take my threat so seriously.

      "Come on, Teddy, leave her alone," Gordie demanded, rolling up his sleeping bag. I noticed almost immediately that he was wearing Denny's cap.

      "What are you gonna do, Lachance?" Teddy questioned, rolling up his sleeping bag as well.

      "Would you shut up, Teddy?" A groggy voice asked from beside me. Chris had finally awoken. Seeing the grip he had on me, he moved his arms, allowing me to stand.

      "Sleeping beauty wakes!" exclaimed Teddy, "Hey Annie, does that make you the beast?"

      "Wrong fairy tale, shitheap," I snickered, helping Chris to his feet. Our eyes met and after several seconds, he sent me a charming grin. I felt the corners of my lips turn up involuntarily. His hand lingered in my grip for a second longer than necessary, but I had no complaints. The boys seemed oblivious to our silent good morning.

      "Who cares," Teddy shrugged it off, "Let's just go. Going this slow, we'll only find a pile of bones!"

      I didn't know why Teddy was so eager to see the body, but I had to agree that we needed to get going. If we didn't start walking soon, it would be dark before we got back. Johnny would be mad when he heard that we didn't actually stay at Vern's anyway; showing up at midnight was the last thing I needed to do.

     

     As we started our trek to the Royal River, Gordie pulled out some blueberries that he had picked before the rest of us woke up. They didn't make a great breakfast, but they would have to do.

      "Geez, Gordie," Vern complained, "Why couldn't you get some breakfast stuff, like uh, Twinkies and Pez and root beer?"

      "Sorry Vern, I guess a more experienced shopper could have gotten more for your seven cents," Gordie responded. The sarcasm was so thickly laced into his words that he actually sounded serious.

      We goofed off as we went along, trying to balance on the edge of the tracks as we walked and pushing each other off. We were having a blast; the amount of fun that we were having on our journey to find Ray Brower's dead body was enough to make me feel a bit guilty. It managed to distract me from my growling stomach, however, so I pushed the guilt into the back corner of my mind.

      It was over an hour before we stopped. I wasn't quite sure why we had halted. The tracks continued on for miles ahead of us, and the only other thing visible was open field. Chris turned to his right and looked out at the field, which turned into a dense wooded area after a mile. Just over the tops of the trees, I saw a river: the Royal River.

     "Lady and gentlemen," Chris spoke up, "The Royal."

      It wasn't the kind of site that you see in National Geographic, but it was still a nice one. Everything was quiet and serene, as if no one had ever gone this way before. The tall grass hadn't bee trampled down anywhere, letting us know that it had been untouched all year.

      "Gosh, the tracks go way out," Teddy said as he craned his neck. I looked myself, but found that I was unable to see an end to the tracks; they seemed to go on forever, until even my young eyes couldn't see them anymore.

      "We cut across this field right here we'll be there in an hour," Chris told us.

      "I think we should stick to the tracks," Vern stated, obviously not liking the idea of cutting across the field.

      "I say we go across the field," Teddy spoke up. I wasn't sure if he actually wanted to, or if he had just said it to annoy Vern.

      "Gordie? Annie?" Chris asked, looking over at us.

      "The sooner we get out from under this sun, the better," I replied, not liking the way that my shirt was clinging to my sweat-glazed body. I wiped my hand across my forehead to get rid of the beads of perspiration that had formed at my hair line. I probably looked like a mess right now, but I wasn't too concerned.

      "Yeah," Gordie agreed. He seemed out of it, but I decided not to say anything in front of the others. Although in a less excited way than Teddy, finding Ray had become almost like an obsession to Gordie.

      "Let's go," Chris decided, beginning to run down the sloped field. Gordie and I quickly followed him. I looked back after a moment to see if the other two were coming.

      Holding up his bedroll like a machine gun, Teddy exclaimed, "Take no prisoners!" After making a sound that resembled a gun, he quickly made his way down the hill to catch up with the other two.

      "Hey, you guys! It's a lot safer if we, uh..." Vern trailed off, seeing that no one was listening to him.

      "Come on, man!" Teddy shouted. I heard Vern begin to run after us, followed by a thump, and then more running.