Disclaimer: Believe it or not I don't actually own any of the characters from the film 'Stand By Me' or the novella 'The Body' by Stephen King on which it is based. Even the characters I have made up were probably subconsciously lifted from elsewhere :O.
Thanks for the reviews! I think Piekie has a point about the pacing of the story and, although I was planning this chapter from the beginning, I hope it's a good change of gear. Apologies for the lack of dialogue, mind!
Chapter Five:
The sun had fully set now, and it was relatively quiet as they sat by the campfire surrounded by darkness. Gordie and Kate had moved closer together and were chatting to each other in hushed voices about nothing terribly important. Jack looked across at Chris and saw that he was lying flat on his back with his hands behind his head. He seemed peaceful but at the same time in deep thought. Jack decided not to disturb him even if he could think of something to say that didn't sound boring or stupid. He wanted to just sit and watch him for a while but he thought better of it.
"I'm just going for a walk down to the river" he said, standing up. He was glad they didn't ask why because he wasn't entirely sure himself; he just wanted a place to think away from the others.
Jack walked very slowly through the trees, all the while looking at his feet making sure not to trip on any sticks or roots. His eyes soon adjusted from the brightness of the fire to the darkness of the night and he was able to go a little quicker. Not that he was in any rush. As he progressed further through the woods, the rustling of leaves on the trees began to give way to the trickling sound of water in the distance. Gradually the number of trees dwindled and Jack eventually stepped out onto a flat grassy area that led right down to the river. There were various large rocks dotted about the bank, so Jack picked one right by the water and perched himself on top.
It was then that he noticed the moon for the first time. It wasn't visible at the campfire due to the trees, but it was as big and bright as he had ever seen it. Its glow bathed the scene in a pretty blue light which, together with the gentle sound of the river, provided a very soothing setting indeed. In contrast to this peaceful backdrop, the inside of Jack's mind was buzzing with activity. He came to try and clear his head but he couldn't even find a good place to begin. It had been a manic couple of days and he genuinely didn't know what to feel at that moment. Moving to a new town would have been stressful enough on its own but there were so many more things to consider on top of that. He was frustrated with his Dad, pleased for his sister and most of all confused about Chris.
So he decided not to think about himself at all for a while.
Instead he just observed the scene around him and tried to breathe it all in. Even with the steady rhythm of the water moving it was a remarkably still night. The longer he looked around the more little things he noticed that he would have otherwise missed, like how the moonlight reflected off the water creating little dancing shadows on the rocks or how he could hear the odd grasshopper somewhere far off in the distance if he listened carefully. It was beautiful, he thought. Jack felt at that moment that he could nearly understand everything his English teachers at school used to say about the books he had to read. For the first time he came close to comprehending how poets and artists viewed even the most trivial matter. He almost had a complete understanding of something that was truly abstract; intangible but there nonetheless.
And then as quickly as this complex realisation came, it was crushed by the absurdity of the situation he was in. What the hell am I doing? I'm fourteen years old! He was still just a kid really and yet there he was sitting on a rock by the river in the middle of the night trying to contemplate some profound truth about the world around him. If anyone had been watching him they would have thought he was mad because he began to laugh out loud at how silly he felt. That's always been my problem, he thought. Always trying to find meaning in the most insignificant things, always trying to be a grown up. He supposed that his Dad was probably to blame for that although not entirely. Jack liked to pretend that being gay didn't make him feel any different but that wasn't strictly true. He often felt that it stopped him being care-free and casual with regards to friends and relationships. I shouldn't be here; I should be back at the fire talking nonsense with my friends.
So when his thoughts drifted back to the problems he had been so preoccupied with earlier on, this newly acquired frame of mind made them seem so clear in his mind. So what if he sometimes felt nothing but real hatred for his father, and so what if he got upset occasionally because he couldn't be completely honest with him? Who doesn't have some problems with their parents? He had Kate, and that was more than some people had.
Then there was Chris; the boy that made him second-guess everything he was going to say, the boy who had probably occupied ninety per cent of his thoughts since he met him. At first Jack struggled to remember why this was a problem but when it did come to him it temporarily threatened his new light-hearted outlook on life. I'm gay and Chris is not. It can't happen. That's all there was to be said, he concluded. He had spent hours on end worrying about losing a friend he had only just made. Hours on end wishing for something more when what he had now was so damn good. Just enjoy the present, Jack. Make the most of the time you have now. He had made up his mind. They were going to be friends and Jack wasn't going to overthink every little thing anymore.
Well, that was the plan, and he genuinely did think he could do it. But as he had learnt in one of those English classes, 'the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry'. He had contented himself with being nothing more than friends with Chris Chambers, but at that moment God or fate or something or someone else that Jack would never understand intervened as he heard a voice behind him. A voice he had not known for long, but one he would know anywhere.
"Jack…is it okay if I talk to you about something?"
I once heard that you can die if you have too many reviews. I don't buy that. Come to think of it, they may have been talking about bananas instead… Review if you like but please no bananas!