Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Jude by The Beatles, nor do I own the book, The Body by Stephen King. And NO I also don't own Stand By Me the movie based on the book The Body.
I live in Castle Rock, Oregon.
Nothing much to do but hang out with your friends. And that's
exactly what I did.
I went to the tree house where my friends
were. Chris Chambers, Gordie LeChance, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern
Tessio. I didn't have many friends who were girls. Most of them
stopped hanging around me since I became friends with Chris and
Teddy.
As i entered, Chris, Teddy, and Gordie were playing card
games.
"'Sup Jude," they greeted.
"Hey, guys."
I
sat next to Gordie and opened my book.
I lied down next to him
while he played cards.
I know Gordie LeChance since my sister used to go out with Gordie's brother, Dennis. My sister, Jane, used to bring me over there all the time to hang out with Gordie. That's how I became friends with him and his friends. But after Dennis died Jane brought me there ALL the time. She talked to Gordie's mother for days on end. During those talks, sometimes Gordie and I would go into Dennis's old room. We became real close. Like brother and sister close. We looked at the prom picture of Dennis and my sister.
Jane and I dont really look alike. Just the long raven hair. We are half Asian and half British. Black hair, and brown eyes that were deeply outlined with blue edges.
Teddy Duchamp was downright crazy. In a good way I guess. I feel reeaaall bad for him though. His dad is in Togus. He looks like his dad, brown hair and brown eyes. Teddy wears glasses though. But all the same, Teddy is a fun guy. He's pretty funny even though he can be gross.
Vern Tessio was in one word, clueless. He was always paranoid and scared. But he was a nice kid who did nice things but he just wasn't the smartest person.
Chris Chambers was my favorite out of all of them. We are both a year older than Gordie, Teddy, and Vern. 13. Whoopie. I guess I kinda like him alittle more than a friend. But he's cool. He's pretty much an Outsider. He comes from a really bad family. And everyone calls him a thief. It's a little true but I would never call him that. He's protective of me sometimes. But so are Teddy and Gordie. Vern just draws a blank.
In the tree house, Chris and Teddy
were smoking and laughing over Gordie's play hand. I noticed that
Gordie already quit while he was ahead.
There was a knock from the
floor door.
"That's not the secret knock," Gordie answered
not looking away from his magazine.
"I forgot it." The voice
said.
We all exchanged looks.
"Vern."
Chris and Teddy removed the table
from ontop of the floordoor and moved it aside for Vern to come up.
"Oh, man. Oh,man. You can't believe this!! I ran all the way
here from my house—"
"I ran all the way home, just to say
'im sorry…'" Chris interrupted with Gordie and Teddy
singing backup. I snickered.
"Guys, im serious. Fine, I ain't
tellin you nothin."
Chris laughed and shushed Gordie and
Teddy.
"Kay, Vern what is it?"
"Okay, guys, you won't
believe this. Sincerely—"
"I ran all the way
home..."
Vern was officially annoyed. And so was I.
I
rolled my eyes, "Vern, spit it out, what is it?"
"Can you
guys camp out tonight? I mean if you guys tell your folks that you
guys are gonna tent out in my back field?"
"Sure."
"Yeah,
I guess."
I was already bored with the conversation so I turned
my attention to my book.
Teddy glanced back at Vern from his game.
"So what are you pissing and moaning about Vern-o?"
I looked
at Vern. He looked around nervously. But didn't answer yet.
"Haha,
I knock." I heard Chris say.
"What?! I don't got yourself a
pat hand!"
Gordie, like me, tuned out everyone else.
Until
Vern said, "You guys want to see a dead body?"
At that, he had
everyone's attention.
I got up from my place and went and sat on
the floor and leaned against Chris's leg.
We listened to his story about how he heard his brother talking about how he found to body of that Browers kid by accident after his brother boosted a car.
We talked about that Browers kid for a moment. He was our age. Then Chris got the sudden idea to find the kid's body and turn it in to the cops so that we could get our names in the paper for being heroes. The Browers kid probably followed the train tracks to the end of Backhollow Road. Teddy thinks the kid died from getting hit by the train.
"Yeah we'll go and find it. But
how?"
Gordie answered, "We'll just say what you said, we'll
tell our parents that we're gonna stay over at your house. And
you'll say that you're staying at mine. Then we'll say that
we're going to the race track tomorrow. So we'll be solid until
tomorrow night."
Everyone nodded and agreed. Except for
me.
"What about me?"
Gordie thought for a second.
"Well, just ask Jane to cover for you. Tell her to tell your
parents that she's taking you camping at the beach or something."
I
thought for a second. "That could work."
My sister agreed to lie to my parents for me. She wanted to stay over at her friend's house anyways. I didn't tell her that we were going to find a dead body. But I told her that I was just going to camp out at Gordie's. I grabbed my canteen, sleeping bag and an extra set of clothes. And a dollar just incase.
Later that day, I spotted Gordie
walking through town with his camping stuff. I ran up to him.
"Gordie!!"
He turned. "Hey Jude."
We walked side by
side and then we saw Chris in the back of a truck. "Hey guys," he
got out and thanked the driver for the ride. "Guys, you wanna see
somethin?"
"What is it, man?"
Chris smiled. "Come
on."
He dashed and led us around the corner to the back of a
diner. He ran fast, I found it hard to run in jeans. I was glad I
wore a skirt since we'd be trekking around everywhere. And it was
hot.
Once we got to the back of the diner, he pulled out a .45
gun. He handed it to Gordie.
"You wanna be the lone ranger or
the sisco kid?"
Gordie pointed it forward at a trashcan and
pretended to shoot with it.
Chris turned to me and said, "Cool,
aint it?" He slung an arm around the back of my neck.
I
half-smiled. "Yeah, sure."
Gordie pretended to shoot again.
"Is this thing loaded?"
"Does it look like I'm an idiot?"
he told him incredulously.
Gordie pulled the trigger for real.
BAM
The bullet hit the trashcan in front of
us.
"JESUS!!" we yelled. And Chris pushed me in front of him
telling me to run.
Gordie was already ahead of us.
"Gordie
did it! Gordie LeChance! It was him!" Chris shouted while laughing
and pointing ahead of us.
When we turned another corner we
stopped. Chris and I were laughing but Gordie wasn't looking too
happy.
"That was a mean trick. You knew that gun was loaded…"
I
tuned them out again but they made up. And we were walking but then
we saw Ace and Eyeball.
Ace took Gordie's hat. Which Dennis gave
to Gordie. Chris then called Ace an asshole. I was watching from
behind Gordie. Eyeball and Ace paid no attention to me. Which was a
good thing. Ace used to like my sister and is still trying to get
with her so they just ignore me for the best. I saw Ace gave Eyeball
Gordie's hat. And grabbed Chris's shirt back and pinned him onto
the ground face first. He picked up his lit cigarette and threatened
to dig the burning embers into Chris's face if he didn't take the
'asshole' thing back.
"Stop it! You're hurting him!"
"Let
him go! Don't hurt him! Stop!"
"Take it back."
"Okay!
I take it back, I take it back!"
With that said, Ace lifted him
back up. Chris had this scared looking glare on his face.
Ace
faced Gordie and Chris again. "Now I feel a whole lot better about
this. How about you… Good."
They walked away. Eyeball still
having Gordie's Yankee cap on. We watched them go and I put a hand
on Chris's shoulder. He lifted his hand and put it over mine. He
took it and we hooked arms. Gordie was still staring at them, but
Chris told him to let it go. Gordie fell back into step with us and
we walked over to meet back with Teddy and Verne.
