If You Were Here
Chris Chambers hadn't spoken to his friend Gordie LaChance in nearly ten years, so it was weird that he would come to mind in the parking lot of an Allen's. He saw four boys with tier allowances clutched in their hands running into the restaurant to buy burgers and fries and cokes.
Seeing the friends and their camaraderie took him all the way back to the summer of '59. Chris wondered if the four boys that had just ran by had ever found a dead body. He chuckled at the absurdity of it and entered the restaurant himself.
He saw the four friends already at the front of the line, laughing nervously about talking to the teenage cashier and horsing around. It almost made Chris want to look up his old friends in the phone book, but he didn't want to interrupt their new lives; besides, he was pretty sure Teddy was in jail. He pushed the thought out of his mind and concentrated on his own wonderful new life.
His beautiful wife Katherine would be waiting at home for him with his three year old son, Gordon. He smiled and looked up at the menu board.
Just ahead of him, two men, both probably in their twenties, began getting into a heated argument. Something about one owing the other money. Chris tried to ignore it, shaking his head and concentrating even harder on the menu board.
Eventually, one of the guys pulled a knife out of his pocket. People shrieked and moved towards the far walls of the restaurant; everyone was scared. Everyone but Chris.
Part of him felt like he owed it to Gordie for saving him from Ace's knife all those years ago.
Boy do I wish he was here now.
Gordie always had such a way with words; certainly he would be able to talk some sense into these two guys.
But he wasn't there, and Chris knew that he had to take Gordie's place. He put a hand on the shoulder of the guy holding the knife. He looked up at Chris with steely gray eyes.
"Listen, I know you don't know me, but..." Chris began, but the man's look told him to stop.
"This ain't any of your business," the guy with the gray eyes muttered. Chris stood, shocked, as the two men wrestled each other to the floor. He hadn't had any other plans aside from talking to them. Someone behind the counter was calling the police, but Chris knew he had to do something.
Gordie wouldn't have stopped. Teddy wouldn't have either. Vern probably would've run away, but that boy was scared of his own shadow, for the love of god.
Chris pried the man with the gray eyes off of the other. He attempted to hold him backs but the man was struggling to get out of his grip.
"Hey man, I already told you: this ain't any of your business!" But Chris held on.
"You're crazy!" he shouted. "Get the hell off that guy! You wanna get yourself killed?" Then, before he could stop himself, Chris cried "Come on, Teddy!"
No one else heard it, but the words echoed in his ears. He could hear the shriek of the train's whistle. He could see Teddy standing confidently on the tracks whispering "Just like the beach in Normandy" under his breath.
This momentary flashback distracted Chris just enough so that he did not notice the knife coming towards his throat.
All of a sudden, he was on the floor. The two fighting guys ran out of the restaurant yelling "Oh, shit! Oh, shit!"
Chris knew he was dying; he knew no one could save him. He just relaxed with a smile in his face, watching his life flash before his eyes, but not in the way he expected.
He did not see his dad drinking. He did not see his mother crying. He did not see his brother screaming at him every time Chris caught him with a girl. He didn't not see the hundreds of beatings and hidings he had received over the years.
He saw himself on his wedding day. He saw himself in college. He saw himself and Gordie graduating high school together, Vern and Teddy coming up for one last conversation with cigarettes for everyone. He saw him and his three friends battling the Cobras and finding the dead body and everything else that had happened that summer before junior high.
He saw Gordie smiling at him. Chris knew he had done the right thing. He just wished he had been able to share the moment with the friends he had when he was twelve years old.