did it, you did it! Gordie did it!’ He bugled. ‘Hey, Gordon Lachance is shooting up Castle Rock?
‘Shut up! Let’s get out of here? I screamed, and grabbed him by the shirt.
As we ran, the back door of the Blue Point jerked open and Francine Tupper stepped
out in her white rayon waitress’s uniform. ‘Who did that? Who’s letting off cherry-bombs
back here?’
We ran like hell, cutting behind the drug store and the hardware store and the
Emporium Galorium, which sold antiques and junk and dime books. We climbed a fence,
spiking our palms with splinters, and finally came out on Curran Street. I threw the .45 at
Chris as we ran; he was killing himself laughing but caught it and somehow managed to
stuff it back into his knapsack and close one of the snaps. Once around the corner of
Curran and back on Carbine Street, we slowed to a walk so we wouldn’t look suspicious,
running in the heat. Chris was still giggling.
‘Man, you shoulda seen your face. Oh man, that was priceless. That was really fine. My
fucking-A,” He shook his head and slapped his leg and howled.
‘You knew it was loaded, didn’t you? You wet! I’m gonna be in trouble. That Tupper
babe saw me.’
‘Shit, she thought it was a firecracker. Besides, ole Thunderjugs Tupper can’t see past
the end of her own nose, you know that Thinks wearing glasses would spoil her pretty
face.’ He put one palm against the small of his back and bumped his hips and got
laughing again.
‘Well, I don’t care. That was a mean trick, Chris. Really.’
‘Come on, Gordie.’ He put a hand on my shoulder. ‘I didn’t know it was loaded, honest
to God, I swear on my mother’s name. I just took it out of my dad’s bureau. He always
unloads it He must have been really drunk when he put it away the last time.’
‘You really didn’t load it?’
‘No sir.’
‘You swear it on your mother’s name even if she goes to hell for you telling a lie?’
‘I swear.’ He crossed himself and spat, his face as open and repentant as any choirboy’s.
But when we turned into the vacant lot where our treehouse was and we saw Vern and
Teddy sitting on their bedrolls waiting for us, he started to laugh again. He told them the
whole story and after everybody had had their yucks, Teddy asked him what Chris
thought they needed a pistol for.
‘Nothin’,’ Chris said. ‘Except we might see a bear. Something like that. Besides, it’s
spooky sleeping out at night in the woods.’
Everybody nodded at that. Chris was the biggest toughest guy in our gang, and he
could always get away with saying things like that. Teddy, on the other hand, would have
gotten his ass ragged off if he even hinted he was afraid of the dark.
‘Did you set your tent up in the field?’ Teddy asked Vern.
‘Yeah. And I put two turned-on flashlights in it so it’ll look like we’re there after dark.’
‘Hot shit!’ I said, and clapped Vern on the back. For him, that was real thinking. He
grinned and blushed.
‘So let’s go,’ Teddy said. ‘Come on, it’s almost twelve already!’
Chris got up and we gathered around him.
‘We’ll walk across Beeman’s field and behind that furniture place by Sonny’s Texaco,’
he said. ‘Then we’ll get on the railroad tracks down by the dump and just walk across the
trestle into Harlow.’
‘How far do you think it’s gonna be?’ Teddy asked.
Chris shrugged. ‘Harlow’s big. We’re gonna be walking at least twenty miles. That
sound right to you, Gordie?’
‘Yeah. It might even be thirty.’
‘Even if it’s thirty we ought to be there by tomorrow afternoon, if no one goes pussy.’
‘No pussies here,’ Teddy said at once.
We all looked at each other for a second.
‘Miaoww,’ Vern said, and we all laughed.
‘Come on, you guys,’ Chris said, and shouldered his pack. We walked out of the vacant
lot together, Chris slightly in the lead.
10
By the time we got across Beeman’s field and had struggled up the cindery
embankment to the Great Southern and Western Maine tracks, we had all taken our shirts
off and tied them around our waists. We were sweating like pigs. At the top of the
embankment we looked down the tracks, towards where we’d have to go.
I’ll never forget that moment, no matter how old I get. I was the only one with a watch
– a cheap Timex I’d gotten as a premium for selling Cloverine Brand Salve the year
before. Its hands stood at straight up noon, and the sun beat down on the dry, shadeless
vista before us with savage heat. You could feel it working to get in under your skull and
fry your brains.
Behind us was Castle Rock spread out on the long hill that was known as Castle View,
surrounding its green and shady common. Further down Castle River you could see the
stacks of the woollen mill spewing smoke into a sky the colour of gunmetal and spewing
waste into the water. The Jolly Furniture Barn was on our left And straight ahead of us
the railroad tracks, bright and heliographing in the sun. They paralleled the Castle River,
which was on our left. To our right was a lot of overgrown scrubland (there’s a
motorcycle track there today – they have scrambles every Sunday afternoon at two p.m.).
An old abandoned water tower stood on the horizon, rusty and somehow scary.
We stood there for that one noontime moment and then Chris said impatiently, ‘Come
on, let’s get going.’
We walked beside the tracks in the cinders, kicking up little puffs of blackish dust at
every step. Our socks and sneakers were soon gritty with it. Vern started singing ‘Roll Me
Over in the Clover’ but soon quit it, which was a break for our ears. Only Teddy and Chris
had brought canteens, and we were ail hitting them pretty hard.
‘We could fill all the canteens again at the dump faucet,’ I said. ‘My dad told me that’s a
safe well. It’s a hundred and ninety feet deep.’
‘Okay,’ Chris said, being the tough platoon leader. ‘That’ll be a good place to take five,
anyway.’
‘What about food?’ Teddy asked suddenly. ‘I bet nobody thought to bring something to
eat I know I didn’t’
Chris stopped. ‘Shit! I didn’t, either. Gordie?’
I shook my head, wondering how I could have been so dumb.
‘Vern?’
‘Zip,’ Vern said. ‘Sorry.’
‘Well, let’s see how much money we got,’ 1 said. I untied my shirt, spread it on the
cinders, and dropped my own sixty-eight cents onto it. The coins glittered feverishly in
the sunlight. Chris had a tattered dollar and two pennies. Teddy had two quarters and two
nickels. Vern had exactly seven cents.
‘Two-thirty-seven,’ I said. ‘Not bad. There’s a store at the end of that little road that
goes to the dump. Somebody’!! have to walk down there and get some hamburger and
some tonics while the others rest.’
‘Who?’ Vern asked.
‘We’ll match for it when we get to the dump. Come on.’
I slid all the money into my pants pocket and was just tying my shirt around my waist
again when Chris hollered: ‘ Train!’
I put my hand out on one of the rails to feel it, even though I could already hear it. The rail was thrumming crazily; for a moment it was like holding the train in my hand.
‘Paratroops over the side!’ Vern bawled, and leapt halfway down the embankment in
one crazy, clownish stride. Vern was nuts for playing paratroops anyplace the ground was
soft – a gravel pit, a haymow, an embankment like this one. Chris jumped after him. The
train was really loud now, probably headed straight up our side of the river towards
Lewiston. Instead of jumping, Teddy turned in the direction of which it was coming. His
thick glasses glittered in the sun. His long hair flopped untidily over his brow in sweat-
soaked stringers.
‘Go on, Teddy,’ I said.
‘No, huh-uh, I’m gonna dodge it’ He looked at me, his magnified eyes frantic with
excitement. ‘A train-dodge, dig it? What’s trucks after a fuckin’ train-dodge?’
‘You’re crazy, man. You want to get killed?’
‘Just like the beaches at Normandy!’ Teddy yelled, and strode out into the middle of the
tracks. He stood on one of the cross-ties, lightly balanced.
I stood stunned for a moment, unable to believe stupidity of such width and breadth.
Then I grabbed him, dragged him fighting and protesting to the embankment, and pushed
him over. I jumped after him and Teddy caught me a good one in the guts while I was still
in the air. The wind whooshed out of me, but I was still able to hit him in the sternum