Walking on the Tracks Chapter 10
After our traumatic experience at the train tracks, the guys and I headed down to the forest to camp for the night. "Man that was the ultimate train dodge" Teddy chuckled as we all sat around the warm campfire roasting marshmallows on sticks "Vern you looked so terrified! Like that fat guy when he saw the mummy!".
"I wasn't that scared" Vern protested shaking his head. "Vern!" we all said raising our eyebrows in disbelief. "No, sincerely I wasn't" Vern repeated, "okay then you won't mind if we check your jerseys for hockey pucks won't ya?" I asked Vern sarcastically to which he replied "go screw!".
"Hey Vern, you better turn yours over" Chris said referring to Vern's one sided overly cooked marshmallow. "This is the way I like to do it" Vern curtly said but his marshmallow soon slipped off his stick and split into two. We all laughed as he poked at it sighing in annoyance. "You got any more Gordie?" he asked shaking his head. "Sorry Vern" Gordie laughed grinning.
"It's not funny! What am I supposed to eat?" Vern asked angrily as Chris and Teddy doubled over in laughter. "Why don't you cook your dick?" Teddy chuckled, "it'd be a small meal!" Chris added before bursting into a hard laugh. "Ha screw you guts I got it!" Vern snickered as he managed to gather up his mushy marshmallow.
Soon the night began to fall so Chris got out the Winstons he swiped from his dad. We all settled down under the electric stars as we puffed on our long awaited cigarettes. "Nothing like a smoke after a meal" Vern smiled with his cigarette between his fingers. "Yeah, I treasure these moments" Teddy added causing us all to stifle a laughter. "What? What I'd say?" Teddy asked us as we shook our heads.
"Hey Gordie, why don't you tell us a story?" Chris asked.
"Oh...uh... I don't know..." Gordie shrugged looking down at this shoes. "Oh come on" said Chris. "Yeah Gordie" Vern said "not one of your horror stories though because I'm not up for that right now". "Why don't you tell us one about Sargent Steel?" Teddy suggested. "Well the one I've been thinking about is kinda different, it's about this lie eating contest..."
I still remember that story about Davie "Lardass" Hogan and his revenge on all those who ever teased him. It still makes me chuckle to this day. Even Though Teddy wasn't really a fan of the ending I still think it was one of Gordie's best. I wonder if he's published it yet?
After that we talked well into the night. The kind of talk that seemed important before you discovered girls.
"Okay, Mickeys a mouse, Donald's a duck, Plutos a dog...what's Goofy?".
"If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That's easy, Pez, Cherry flavoured Pez there's no doubt about it".
"Wagon Trains a really cool show but have you ever noticed that they never get anywhere?".
"He can't be a dog he wears a hat and drives a car".
"I knew the 64 thousand dollar question was fixed, there's no way anyone can know that much about opera".
"Man that's weird,what the hell is Goofy?".
Deep into the night a high piercing howl echoed around the forest awakening us all from our sleep. "What was that?" I asked looking sharply around at the still trees. "It's that Brower kid, his ghost is out walking in the woods" Teddy had to comment. "Don't say that!" Vern whimpered. The sound came again sending icy chills down our spines. Chris had his gun held tightly in his hand, "maybe it's coyotes?". "It sounds like a women screaming" said Gordie as the howls came closer and closer. I gotta admit I was fucking scared that a bunch of blood thirsty wolves were gonna spring from the bushes and rip us apart to pieces.
"It's Brower's ghost" Teddy repeated getting up.
"Hey Teddy sit down" Chris said firmly. "I wanna see the ghost" Teddy argued starting to walk away but the loud chilling howls caused him to jump right back cursing. "Maybe we should stand guard" Vern smartly said. "Yeah that's a good idea" I agreed.
"Give me the gun" said Teddy "I'll take the first watch".