I was sixteen going on seventeen the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959, a long time ago, but only if you measure it in terms of years.
I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only 1281 people, but to me, it was the whole world.
This particular morning I was sitting in the tree house playing 'Thirty' with Chris and Teddy. None of us could have anticipated that very soon, we would be on the journey of our lives.
Drawing a card, Chris looked up and asked us, "Hey, how do you know a Frenchmen's been in your backyard?"
"Hey, I'm French, ok?" Teddy replied.
"Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant," Chris concluded, taking no notice of Teddy's defense of his heritage. Immediately, he looked at me and we burst into laughter.
"Didn't I just say I was French?" Teddy wondered aloud.
Again, ignoring Teddy's comment, Chris rapped his knuckles on the small wooden table. "I knock."
"Shit!" Teddy whispered.
"29," Chris smirked over the table.
"22," Teddy sighed, admitting defeat.
"Oh, piss up a rope!" I threw my deck on the table, sending Teddy and Chris into hysterics. I picked an old magazine from the ledge behind me and ignored them.
"Georgie's out! Ol' Georgie just spit the bag and stepped out the door!" Teddy exclaimed, continuing to laugh his unusually creepy hyena laugh.
"Come on man, deal," Chris said to Teddy, clearly bored with teasing me. Teddy just blew a smoke ring at Chris and smirked.
Teddy Duchamp was the craziest kid we hung around with. He didn't have much of a chance in life. His dad was given to fits of rage. One time, he held Teddy's ear to a stove and almost burned it off.
Teddy rapped the table twice. "I knock."
Chris looked at him accusatorily. "You four-eyed pile of shit!"
"A pile of shit has a thousand eyes," Teddy countered.
Chris and I looked at each other again and laughed. Seriously, the things Teddy came out with were just crazy.
"What! What's so funny? Come on, I've got thirty! What have you got?" Teddy demanded.
Still chuckling, Chris managed to say, "16."
"Go ahead, keep laughing. You're down to your last ride, pal," Teddy challenged Chris as Chris dealt the cards again.
Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend. He came from a bad family and everyone just knew he'd turn out bad. Including Chris.
Suddenly, there was a knock from below. Chris sighed, moved the table and opened the trapdoor. Our other friend, Vern Tessio emerged, clearly excited.
"Oh, man! You guys are not gonna believe this!" Vern panted, as he climbed through the door. "This is so boss! Oh, man, wait 'til you hear this! Wait 'til you hear this! You won't believe it! It's unbelievable! Let me catch my breath…I ran all the way from my house."
Chris, with a gleam in his eye, turned to me and Teddy and burst into song, "I ran all the way ho-ome! Just to say I'm sor-ry!" Teddy and I happily joined in. We could vaguely hear Vern saying, "C'mon guys! C'mon!" Then, "Okay, forget it. I don't have to tell you nothing."
Chris silenced us, and in mock concern he asked, "Hold on, guys, hold on. What is it Vern?"
"Okay, great, you won't believe this, sincerely-"
Once again, "I ran all the wa-ay ho-ome!"
"Screw you guys!" Vern huffed.
"All right. What is it?" Chris smirked.
"Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean, if you tell your folks you're gonna tent out in my back field?"
"Yeah, I think so," Chris replied, dealing another round. "'Cept my dad's kinda on the mean streak. You know, he's been drinking a lot lately." He said this as if it didn't bother him, but I only knew that it secretly did.
"You've got to man! Sincerely! You won't believe this! Can you, Georgie?"
"Yeah, probably," I answered, absentmindedly, still absorbed in my magazine.
"So what are you pissin' and moanin' about, Vern-O?" Teddy asked, frustrated.
Then, Chris announced, "I knock."
"You liar! You ain't got no pad hand!" Teddy accused in response to Chris' laughter. "You didn't deal yourself no pad hand!"
"Make your draw, shit heap," Chris challenged, laughing as he looked at Vern.
Suddenly, I heard Vern's voice break through my attention. "You guys wanna go see a dead body?" He had my attention. Apparently, he had Chris and Teddy's, too.
I slowly put the magazine back on the ledge, felt Chris' eyes upon me, and listened to Vern's speech. "Well, I was under the porch diggin', you know…"
We all understood what Verb meant right away. At the beginning of the school year, he buried a jar of pennies underneath his house. He drew a treasure map so he could find them again. A week later, his mum cleaned out his room and threw away the map. He had been trying to find those pennies for nine months. Nine months, man. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Anyway, we listened as Vern told us how he overheard his brother, Billy and Billy's friend, Charlie Hogan who were both members of the town gang, The Cobras, talking about a dead kid named Ray Brower that they had found way out on Back Harlow Road and their indecision about whether or not to say anything to the cops or not. They decided not so say anything, purely because of a stolen car that they had boosted. They had enough brains to know they would get busted for it.
As Vern finished his story, we were all awe-struck. I mean, who wouldn't be at that age? It was the promise of adventure.
"I know the Back Harlow Road," Teddy exclaimed. "It comes through a dead end by the Royal River. The train tracks are right there! Me and my dad used to fish for Cossies out there!"
"Jesus Christ, man! If they would've have known you were under there, they would've killed you!" Chris said to Vern.
Suddenly, I had a random thought. "Could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow? It's really far," I asked, scratching my chin.
"Sure," Chris answered me. "He must have started walking on the train tracks and followed them the whole way."
"Yeah, yeah right," Teddy agreed. "And then after dark, a train must have come along-el smacko!" He punched his fist into his hand, imitating a hit.
"Yeah…"Chris trailed off, amazed. We were all briefly lost in our own thoughts, until Chris had an idea.
"Hey. Hey, you guys. I bet you anything that if we find him, we'll get our pictures in the paper."
"Yeah, yeah, we could even be on T.V!" Teddy exclaimed.
"Sure!" Chris agreed.
"We could be heroes!"
"Yeah!" Chris exclaimed again.
Vern looked reluctant. "I don't know. Billy will know I found out."
"He's not gonna care," I told him, "'cause it's gonna be us guys that find him, not Billy and Charlie Hogan and the boosted car."
When he didn't look convinced, I added, "They'll probably pin a medal on you, Vern," knowing it would suck him in.
I knew I had success when Vern lit up and said, "Yeah, you think so?"
Chris looked at Vern, and then said with sarcasm that only I could pick up, "Sure!"
The Vern remembered something. "But what'll we tell our folks?"
"Exactly what you said," I replied. Looking at Chris and Teddy, I said, "We'll all tell our folks we're tenting out in your back field," then pointing at Vern, I continued, "you tell your folks you're sleeping over at Teddy's. Then we say we're going over to the drag races the next day. We're rock solid until dinner tomorrow night," I concluded.
Chris nodded, impressed. "Man, that's a plan and a half." We skinned it, which was Chris' widely known trademark in our group.
'But if we do find that kid's body over in South Harlow, they'll know we didn't go to the drag races. We'll get hided!" Vern argued.
Reaching over to Vern, Teddy said, "Nobody will care! 'Cause everybody's gonna be so jazzed about what we found, it's not gonna make a difference!"
"Yeah," Chris agreed. "Well, my dad'll hide me anyway, but hell, it's worth a hiding!"
"Shit yeah!" Teddy exclaimed.
"Let's do it!" Chris decided, excitement in his blue eyes. "What'd you say?"
"Alright!" Teddy relied,
Chris looked at me. "Georgie?"
"Sure," I smiled.
Looking at Vern, Chris asked, "Vern?"
"I don't know…"
"Vern," Chris goaded.
"C'mon, Vern-O!" Teddy joined.
"Vern!" Chris continued. Then he pounced, grabbing Vern and wrapping his head in a headlock, and rubbing his knuckles on Vern's cropped hair, in a fashion typically associated with a "noogie". Teddy, wanting to join in on the fun, began by pinching Vern's chubby cheeks.
"Vern! C'mon, Vern-O!" They chorused together. I smirked, watching the boys wrestle. This sort of thing happened every day with Chris and Teddy. It's what I loved about them.
"Okay, okay," Vern conceded, which sent Teddy into whoops of "Cool! Real cool! Very cool! Very, very cool!" and Chris into a series of "Whoo"s and punches of the air. I rolled my eyes at the two. If we were going to see a dead body, maybe it should not have been a party…