I arrived at the tree house that Verns older brother, Billy had built for him when he was 7. We had all helped a little bit.
Once... Twice... Three times I knocked. A small click came from inside and the hatch opened. I lifted myself up and saw the boys, well, without Vern, playing cards. No hey, no hi just "Hey, how do you know if a French man's been in your back yard?" Chris asked.
"Dude, I'm French, alright?" Teddy said.
"Your trash cans are empty and your dogs pregnant.". Chris, Gordie, and I burst out laughing for a minute.
"Come on you guys I'm French, okay?".
Chris knocked, Gordie took his last draw. "Twenty-nine." Chirs said.
"Twenty- two." Teddy said.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Gordie yelled as he threw his cards down.
"Oh! Ol' Gordies out! Ol' Gordie just bit the bag and stepped out the door! Ee-Ee-Ee!" Teddys laugh sounded like someone hammering in a rusty nail. He actually was in fact, the craziest guy we hung out with. His glasses, his burnt ear, everything about Teddy was "special".
"Screw." Gordie said.
I laughed a little.
Chris dealt the cards again. The boys had hardly began their game when a knock came on the hatch.
"That's not the secret knock!" Gordie said.
"Aww I forgot the secret knock!" a whiny voice said.
"Vern." we all said.
Chris lifted up the hatch and our chubby friend Vern lifted himself up.
"Oh.. Oh man you guys are not gonna believe this... Oh man this is so boss!.." Vern sat himself down.
"Oh god you guys! Wait'll you hear this... Wait'll you hear this!" he was sweating buckets and panting like a mad dog. "God.. Hold on.. Let me catch my breath.. I ran all the way from my house...".
"I ran all the way hoommmeeeee!" Chris sang.
"Doo wap! Doo wa oohh!" we joined.
"Just to say I'm sorrreeee!".
"Sooree oohhh!".
"You know what, forget it, I don't have to tell you guys nothin'." Vern said.
"Okay okay you guys, sh! What is it man?" Chris asked.
"Great! Okay you guys are not gonna believe this! Sinc..."
"I ran all the way hooommmee!".
"Screw you guys!" Vern looked disapointed.
"What is it man?" Chris said quietly.
"Okay can you guys camp out in my back field tonight? I mean, and tell your folks that?" Vern said quickly.
"Yeah, I guess so..." Chris said. "But my dad's on another mean streak you know?". Chris, the toughest, strongest, and the leader of our group had probably the worst life of all of us! Usually Chris would come in every week with a new burn or scratch. It was all because his father had gotten to drunk the night before.
"You've got to man! Sincerely! You are not gonna believe this! Can you Teddy?".
"Whatever, Vern-o.".
"Gordie?".
"I'm in.". I always felt so bad for Gordie, his older brother, Denny, had died in a jeep accident 4 months ago. His dad practicaly only cared about Denny. So Gordie would take every chance he could to get out of the house.
"What about you Lyn?" he asked.
I thought for a minute, but answered with a small "Yeah..".
"So what're you going on about Vern-o?" Teddy asked.
"I knock.".
"What? You freaking liar you aint got no pad hand! You didn't deal yourself no pad hand!" Teddy complained.
"Make your draw!" Chris said smartly.
Teddy took the first card off the deck, Chris leaned back for a pack of Winstons, Gordie had gotten into a magazine, and I was just to hot to care about anything!
"You guys wanna go see a dead body?" Vern asked.
We all looked at Vern. "W... What?" Gordie asked.
"Well, I was under my porch digging, you know?". We understood right then, Vern had buried a quart jar of pennies under neath his front porch and had drawn a "treasure map" to find it. Well, knowing Vern, you know he had already lost it. So now, Vern had been digging through his front porch for 9 months, man. 9 months.
There was a long, silence. Finally, Teddy decided to break it. "I know the back Harlow road! It comes through a dead end right by the Royal River! My dad and I used to go fishing for cossies out there!".
"Could a kid even get all the way out there?" Gordie asked. "I mean, it's really far.".
"Yeah, Brower must've just followed the train tracks all the way out in to Harlow!" Chris said.
"Yeah, then the train came along and.." Teddy smacked his fist into his palm. "El' Smacko.".
"Hey.. Hey you guys! I bet if we found Browers body, we could get in the paper!"Chris said.
"Yeah yeah we could even be on TV!" Teddy said excitedly.
"Sure!".
"We'd be heroes!".
"Yeah!".
"Gee you guys... I'm not so sure about this..".
"Well, why not?" Gordie asked.
"Billy'll know I already found out." Vern said.
I spoke up for the first time in the last 10 minutes.
"They're not gonna find out. Because it'll be us guys that find him. Not Billy and Charlie Hogan."I said. "You could probably get a metal on you Vern.".
He smiled, showing his bad teeth. "You think?" he asked.
"Yeah!".
His smile faded once again. What this time?
"What're we going to tell or folks?" he asked.
"Exactly what you said. Me, Chris, Gordie and Teddy will tell our parents that we'll be sleeping out in your back field. You tell yours that your gonna spend the night at Teddys. Then, if it takes long, we can say that we decided to take a hike and just got lost. Were rock solid until tomorrow night." I said.
"That's a plan and a half man." Chris said, and he gave me some skin.
"But if we actually find Brower, then Billy'll know we didn't camp out." Vern complained.
Teddy grabbed his shoulders. "No ones gonna care! Because everyone is goin' to be so jazzed, no one will care if we did lie or not!".
"Sure! Well my dad'll hide me anyway but it'll be worth a hiding!"Chris said.
"Heck yeah!" Teddy said.
"Were gonna do this... Teddy, you in?".
"Why wouldn't I be?".
"Gordie?".
"I'm in.".
"Lynda?" Chris looked at me.
I paused and just stared at him, lost in his big blue eyes.
"Wait whoa! Snap out of it girl! You guys are just friends!... For now!" I thought.
"Yeah, sounds cool.".
"Vern?".
He sort of just, looked at us, with these OH JEEZUS CHRIST DON'T MAKE ME GO! kinda way.
"Vern-o?" I said slowly.
"You guys I...".
"Come on Vern-o!" Chris said. He put him in a headlock.
"Vern-o! Vern-o come on Vern-oooo!" we chanted.
"Yeah alright... Alright.." he said.
"Woo hoo yeah!" we all shouted.
"So it's all set!" I asked.
"Completley! We'll leave sometime this afternoon." Gordie said.
"Great!".
We all went back to the card game, but we were all so excited about going to find this kids body, we couldn't take it.
I looked at my cards, then to the boys, back to the cards, back to the boys.
"Okay! You know what! I can't stand this!" I said as I threw my cards down.
"You wanna leave now?" Teddy asked.
"Heck yeah!" I said.
"Agreed!" Gordie said.
We put our cards up and all climbed out the treehouse.
After saying a quick see you later, we sped off towards our houses.
