I Won't Be Afraid Just As Long As You Stand By Me

Chapter 8: What the Hell is Goofy?

     The boys and I marched on for a few more hours, with Chris in the front, Teddy, Vern and I in the middle, and Gordie taking up the rear. Eventually, we all stopped, looking at the dilemma in front of us: the bridge.
     It was a bridge built for trains, and that's all that would fit on it; if you were walking across and a train came, you would be toast.
     "Any of you know when the next train is due?" Vern asked, craning to look as far as he could ahead of us and behind us.
     "We could go down to the Route 31 bridge," Chris suggested. It wasn't a bad idea, but I was tired and sweaty, and the less walking I had to do the better. I knew the others felt the same, especially Teddy and Vern.
     "What are you, crazy?" Teddy questioned, "That’s five miles down the river."
     "He's right," I spoke up, "You walk five miles down the river, you have to walk five miles back. That could take until dark."
     "We go across here and we could get to the same place in ten minutes," Teddy added.
     "Yeah, but if a train comes, there's nowhere to go," Vern stated. He was right.
     "Yeah there is, just jump," Teddy told him simply. That I definitely did not agree with.
     "Teddy, it's a hundred feet down," I said, shaking my head.
     "Yeah, Teddy," Chris and Vern agreed with me.
     "Look, you guys can go around if you want to. I'm crossing here," Teddy informed us, "And while you guys are dragging your candy asses half way across the state and back, I'll be waiting for you on the other side, relaxing with my thoughts." Just as he was about to start walking, Gordie spoke up for the first time.
     "Do you use your right hand or your left hand for that?" I quietly laughed and saw Chris doing the same.
     "You wish."
     When Teddy took his first few steps on to the bridge, it was silently agreed between the rest of us that we would do the same. It would save time and energy. I looked back and saw Gordie bend down, placing his hand on one of the tracks.

     Teddy was in the front with Chris a few planks behind, while Vern was quite a ways back, crawling on his knees with Gordie right behind him. I was in the middle, thinking to myself. What would we do once we found Ray? What would happen after school started in September?
     I was pulled from my thoughts by a small splash. I immediately looked back at Gordie and Vern, worried. Turned out that Vern had only dropped the comb, which he had put in his breast pocket.
     I was about half way across, when suddenly Gordie's voice cried out, "Train!" I looked back and saw smoke above the trees, followed by the front of the train and the loud sound of the train's whistle. I began to run, watching my feet as they stepped on each plank.
     I saw Teddy and Chris reach safe ground on the other side. They were screaming for us to move our asses. I pushed myself forward, panting as I went. I was nearly to the end when my foot slipped into one of the wide spaces between the boards. I tumbled down, but I was up as quick as I went down.
     When I reached the end, I scurried off to the side with Teddy and Chris. I was only then that I realized just how much my leg hurt. I ignored it for the time being though and watched Gordie and Vern run for their lives. Just as the train was about to knock them off their feet, they jumped off to the side, leaving my line of vision.
     As soon as the train passed, the tree of us ran to the other side of the tracks, finding Gordie and Vern lying on the ground, covered in dirt, panting and coughing.
     "Hey," Chris spoke up, "At least we know when the next train is due."

     After that bit of excitement, we continued walking, but with each step my leg grew more and more painful. I tried to hide my limp, but I could see Chris and Gordie both look back at me every so often. They knew that I would tell them if I thought it was real bad. I figured it would just be a temporary thing, like when you step on your foot the wrong way and it feels better after a while, so I didn't say anything.
     We decided to stop for the night. The boys piled up some wood and Chris and Gordie built a fire while I get the food out. I gave each of them a stick with some hamburg on it, along with a bun and a coke each, then took some for myself as well.
     We were sitting down, holding our meet over the fire when Teddy suddenly laughed.
     "Man, that was the ultimate train dodge. Too cool," he grinned, "Vern, you was so scared, you looked like that fat guy in Abbott and Costello when he saw the mummy."
     "I wasn't that scared," Vern denied. I had heard his screaming, even over the train whistle and the sound of my own thoughts; so yes, he had been that scared.
     "Vern," we said simultaneously, waiting for him to admit the truth.
     "No really, I wasn't, sincerely," he tried to tell us, but we weren't buying the act that he was selling.
     "Okay, than you won't mind if we check your jockeys for Hershey squirts, will you?" I retorted, raising one of my eyebrows.
     "Go screw," he shot back, making us laugh.
     "Hey Vern, you better turn yours over," Chris warned, referring to Vern's meat, which was about to fall off the stick.
     "This is the way I like to do it," Vern insisted. Not a second later, it slid off the stick and into the fire. "Aw man! No man, you got anymore, Liza?" He picked through the fire with his stick, trying to retrieve his supper. Teddy let out one of his crazy laughs, getting enjoyment out of Vern's failure. I, too, was laughing, along with the Chris and Gordie.
     "Sorry, Vern," I told him, barely able to calm myself down to speak.
     "That's not funny," he hit Teddy's arm, "What am I supposed to eat?"
     "Why don't you cook your dick?" Teddy laughed.
     "It'd be a small meal," Chris responded, making another round of laughter start between the four of us. Vern finally smiled.
     "Ah-ha! Screw you guys," he pulled his stick out of the fire, revealing a very crispy looking heap of meat, "I got it!"
     
     After we were finished eating and the sky had turned dark, the boys and I each lit up a cigarette. Chris had swiped them from his Dad's stash and had brought them along. I very rarely smoked, but given everything that had happened today, I decided that I had earned it.
     "Nothing like a smoke after a meal," Vern said, taking a drag on his Winston. I nodded, lying down on my back with my side facing the fire, staring up at the stars that peeked out around the top of the trees. Chris was sitting near my head, while Gordie was by my feet.
     "Yeah," Teddy agreed, "I cherish these moments." He sounded like a cheesy kid from one of those badly made romance films, making me crack up. The others did too, except for Teddy. He didn't understand why we were laughing. "What?" he asked us, confused, "What did I say?"
     We just shook our heads and he shrugged, looking at the fire as he took another puff.
     "Hey Gordo, why don't you tell us a story?" Chris suggested, looking across the flame at him. I turned and lay on my side, propping myself up on my left elbow.
     "Oh, I don't know," Gordie hesitated.
     "Come on, Gordie," I agreed with the idea, "I love hearing your stories, they're great." I saw him faintly blush at the compliment. I meant it; Gordie's stories could take you to a completely different time and place. You could see them playing in your head like a movie. The others made sounds of agreement.
     "Not one of your horror stories, okay?" Vern told him, "I don't wanna hear no horror stories. I'm not up for that, man."
     Teddy suggested one about an army sergeant stealing his men, but eventually Gordie decided to tell us one about some fat kid named Davie Hogan, but everyone called him Lardass. Vern kept interrupting, but we finally shut him up and Gordie told us the story.
     He told us about a pie eating contest and how Lardass puked on everyone for revenge for teasing him, making them all puke as well. It was gross, but also pretty funny. Vern and Teddy had a little dispute about the ending, but I liked it. Chris did, too.
     I took out the small hand-held radio from my bag and turned it on. We all sat up and talked for a while more about pointless things, like what animal Goofy was, what food we would eat if we could only have one kind for the rest of our lives, and the sixty-four thousand dollar question that was on the radio every week.
     Not one of us mentioned Ray Brower, but I knew we were all thinking about him.