blackbird • stanley uris

nine.

Deeper Meanings

We all started getting dressed and threw ourselves onto our bikes. We cycled down the street following close behind Ben. He suddenly skidded to a stop and dumped his bike on his lawn. He quickly ran away from us and into his house, leaving the door open for us. We all walked into his house hesitantly and followed the banging sounds where we found Ben in his room.

"Woah, woah, wow!" Richie repeated as we all seperated to stare at some piece of information on Ben's walls.

"Cool, huh?" Ben said chuffed with himself. Richie walked towards a wall and started reading the information.

"No, nothing cool. There's nothing cool." Richie stopped at an old news article. "Well this is cool, wait, no it's not." He said once he read what the article said.

"What's that?" Stanley asked pointing at a random list. I walked over to were he was and tried to understand what he pointed at.

"That? That's the charter for Derry Township." Ben replied. I looked over to Stanley confused. "Derry has a charter?" I questioned. He just sent me a lopsided smile and shrugged his shoulders again.

"Nerd alert." Richie joked playing with his glasses.

"No. Actually it's really interesting. Derry started as a beaver trapping camp." Ben said in a daze.

"Still is, am I right?" Richie raised his hand in hopes of a high five. I turned around and slapped his hand with mine just before Stanley could swipe Richie's hand away.

"Ninety-one people signed the charter that made Derry." Ben continued. I looked over to see if Richie was going to make another inappropriate comment but instead I found him staring at Ben with interest. "But later that winter, they all disappeared without a trace."

"The entire camp?" I asked gobsmacked. All the boys glanced over to me and Ben nodded his head.

"There were rumours of Indians..." Ben trailed off his line of thought. "But no sign of an attack. Everyone thought it was the plague or something." I felt my hands begin to shake again with fear, a comforting hand held mine and gave it a small squeeze. I glanced over to Stanley and gave him an appreciative smile.

"But it's like...one day everybody just woke up and left. The only clue was a trail of clothes leading to the well-house." Ben finished. We all stood silently soaking in this information and trying to give reason to it.

"Jesus. We can go on "Unsolved Mysteries"." I laughed at Eddie's terrible joke and watched as Richie stared at me with eager eyes hoping I would accidentally snort.

"Let's do it. You are brilliant." Richie continued with the joke. I saw in the corner of my eye Stanley rolling his eyes at their childishness. As Ben turned away the boys started bickering about God knows what.

"I don't know." Richie gave Stanley a pointed stare. "Maybe he's just trying to make friends, Stanley."

"Where was the well house?" Bill asked putting down a piece of film he was looking at. All attention in the room got sent to him. I quickly glanced over to Beverly to see if she was okay, her silence was unsettling.

"I don't know, somewhere in town I guess." Ben answered. "Why?" He asked curiously. I slowly began to walk over to the two boys, completely forgetting that me and Stanley's hands were still connected causing him to be dragged over also.

"Nothing." Bill mumbled. There was a look in his eyes that told me there was a deeper meaning to his question but I did not dare pry into it.

A/N Short chapter! I promise the next one will be longer. Currently studying for my prelims so don't know when I'll find time to write.

Til next time,
-I x