Letter to Belinda (53 page)

*     *     *

Chris continued to drift down the river, but the seepage was getting worse, in spite of the fact that he was bailing out water non-stop. It was just a matter of time before he took on enough water that he would sink. He hoped he could stay afloat long enough to make it around the next bend in the river, because then he would be in sight of the Presbyterian Retreat, and the river would get shallow as well. He stepped up his dipping, as the glow of fires could be seen around the bend. The glow of bon-fires, and lots of people.

*     *     *

Joey drove his dad’s truck from the New Slab, down to the next possible place to access the river, which was the Presbyterian Retreat. They saw several church buses as they entered the Retreat property. He turned off his headlights as he found a parking place, so his lights wouldn’t distract the story telling.

There were several different bon-fires scattered across the river bank, each with thirty to forty kids gathered around them. Earlier they had cooked hot dogs and marshmallows, but now they were in the story-telling phase. Different story tellers would go around to each group, and tell their specific tale, and then rotate, until each group had heard all the tales. After all the scary ghost stories, the evangelists would tell one final tale, which was their pitch of Jesus to the youths, which was the reason for this whole Retreat.

An usher for the event approached them. “You guys are a little late. You missed the food. They are telling the ghost stories now.”

“We’re not here for that.” Joey said. “We’re here to pick up our brother. He’s floating down the river, and we need to meet him here.”

“Is he fishing?”

“No, not exactly. We need to get a boat out here too. Can we do that?”

“As long as it doesn’t disrupt the program.”

They heard screams from one of the bon-fires down near the river, which soon became a chorus of screams.

“Wow. Must be a really scary story those kids are hearing!” the usher said. “Wait a minute, everyone is running this way! Something is after them! Something is coming out of the river! Oh my God! What is that?”

Joey and Calvin knew what it was. It was ‘Lazarus’ with mummy wrap dangling from his arms, as he rose up out of the river, like the creature from the black lagoon. Before him, a tsunami of fleeing and terrified kids simply bowled over everyone and everything in their path, as they stampeded back to their buses. Some adults tried to calm them, and reign them in, but other adults were out-running the kids to get out of there. Joey and Calvin dodged the fleeing masses, and went toward the river to meet their brother.

Chris was laughing so hard that his sides were hurting. “Did you see how scared those kids were? That was great!” He stopped to cough, and laugh some more.

“We’re just glad to see that you’re okay.” Joey said.

“Yeah!” Calvin said. “We thought you were dead!”

Chris stopped laughing. “By the way, what was the big idea, dumping me in the river like that? It wasn’t part of the plan, and it messed up dad’s casket!”

“We didn’t dump you in the river! The casket slid out of the truck up on Turkey Ridge, and slid down the hillside to the river! We’ve been chasing you ever since!”

“Man! What are the chances of that happening? And how did I slide out of the truck, with the tailgate up?”

Calvin became defensive. “Hey! I know I put the tail-gate up! It wasn’t my fault!”

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was,” Joey said. “We’re going to have to hustle to get home before curfew. Mom will ground us if we’re late.”

“What about the casket?” Calvin asked?

“Ain’t much left of it.” Chris said. “It sank in the shallow water over there.”

“We need to get it home and repair it, if we can.”

“There’s no repairing that! But we don’t need to junk up the river either. Come on, and we’ll get it. Where is Cory?”

“In jail.” Calvin reported.

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope! Gone to jail in Arlington for speeding.”

“Sounds like I missed all the fun!” Chris said. “Here’s the casket. It floated well, until I shot the pipes at the New Slab, then it started taking in water. I couldn’t bail it out fast enough.”

They picked up one end of the casket, allowing the water to run out, then turned it up-side down to carry it. “Okay men! To the truck!” It was a strange sight, the three of them carrying the beat-up casket up out of the river, and toward the parking area. Three hundred kids watched them, as the Presbyterian youth director confronted them, demanding to know what was going on, as they toted the casket in toward the truck.

“This is totally unacceptable! You disrupted our entire event! I have already called the police, so you boys just stop and wait right here!”

“Hey, I’m sorry, but we didn’t mean to break up your event. It was an accident, and we had to get our brother out of the river.”

“Put that box down right here!”

“No, we’re going to put this heavy casket in the back of that truck, then we will stop to rest.”

“Okay, put it on the back of your truck, but don’t go anywhere, because the police are on the way!” He left them to try to salvage the rest of the event, as the boys went to the truck, and slid the casket in.

“Now we’re in for it! We’ll be in jail right beside Cory!”

“Get in.” Joey said. “That guy is no policeman. He can’t hold us here.”

“But . . .”

“Get in, Calvin, we’re leaving!”

No one tried to stop them, as they started the truck and headed for the exit. They bounced down the access road, then burned rubber as they hit the black-top highway.

“Slow it down!” Calvin said. “That’s what got Cory arrested!”

Joey slowed down just as they passed a car in the curve.

“That was the police! They’re going to the Retreat to arrest us! Good thing we left when we did!”

“Are they turning around?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Just to make sure, I’m taking a short-cut!” Joey said. He whipped off the road onto a gravel road.

“Where does this go?” Chris asked.

“It goes to the Blue Hole, but out the other side, it hits County road 54, near Eddingstown. It really is a short-cut, and it will throw off the police, if they come back looking for us.”

“But is the road passable?”

“Not for most cars, but this truck has 4 wheel drive. We’ll make it. And good news, guys, we’ll also make the curfew, if we don’t stop along the way.”

*     *     *

Janice and Rebecca were in the living room talking over the TV. Janice was explaining what the police told her.

“So after they finished questioning me, they said I was free to go, because my story was consistent, and Penelope’s was full of holes. They said they asked her the same questions over and over, and got different answers every time. And besides that, a witness came forward, an old woman who lived across from Deason, and confirmed my story, that I just dropped her off and waited for her.”

“So now they don’t consider you to be a co-conspirator in the crime?”

“No, they think it was all Penelope. And now I hear from my lawyer, that there might not even be a case against Penelope, because he thinks it was a case of self-defense. Of course, I will probably have to testify at her trial, and when I do, your dad will find out all about this. But that’s okay, because by then, it will be water under the bridge. I just don’t want him, or the boys to find out about it before then.”

They heard a truck drive up.

“Is that the boys?”

“Yes, I think so. They stopped in front of the garage.”

Janice looked at her watch and shook her head. “They got here with less than two minutes to spare. Can you believe that?”

“They are unloading the casket into the garage.”

“I guess your brothers are pretty well behaved. They get into trouble sometimes, but usually they are good about doing what I tell them. I feel bad about being so strict with them sometimes, but they are just like their dad. Give them an inch, and they will take a mile.”

*     *     *

Out in the garage, the boys were hoping their mom did not come out to greet them, because they didn’t want her to see the condition of the casket, or that they had used their dad’s truck without permission. They quickly carried the casket to its previous location, and covered it with an old blanket.

“That’ll never work!” Chris said. “Anyone can tell that the lid is missing!”

“Well, what happened to the lid? If we can find it, we can lay it on top, at least.”

“It sank in the river when the hinges broke off.” Chris said. Calvin laid a few boards across the top. “We need something rounded to put on the boards, to give the illusion that the lid is there.” They conducted a quick search of the garage and found a piece of corrugated tin that could be flexed around to look like the casket was intact.

“That will work, unless someone looks under the blanket.”

“Well, let’s hope it’s years before anyone looks under the blanket.”

“I’m going to put the truck up,” Joey said, “Before she realizes it isn’t Cory’s truck.”

They gathered before entering the house, to make sure they had their story straight, in case she was up and had questions. As they entered the kitchen, their mom complimented them on making the curfew. Joey intentionally avoided his mom, because he had a lot of briar scratches. She asked, “Did you hear any good ghost stories at the Retreat?”

“Yeah!” Chris said. “The kids at the Retreat were pretty scared!” And that was the truth. They hurried on to their room, to avoid more questions. Apparently she had not heard about Cory’s arrest. Once in their room, behind closed door, they relived in the adventures they had. Chris told about scaring the two old men in the boat, and shooting the tubes at the New Slab, and then the real biggie: terrifying all those little kids at the Presbyterian retreat. Calvin told about Cory’s arrest. Joey told about the two old men he had scared away from their camp, but they did not make the connection that it was the
same
two men that Chris had scared on the river. And of course, all this had happened after a very successful, but short-lived, night of scaring people with the casket and ‘corpse’. The thing that amazed them all was the way the casket slid out of the truck, and then slid all the way into the river, and then floated away! It was
way
more adventure than they had planned for, and the amazing thing, so far at least, was that they had pulled it off without loss of life or limb, or letting their mom find out. This was an evening that they were never going to forget. It was a classic adventure that was destined to be told and re-told to their kids and grand-kids, for years to come. Of course, future generations would doubt that it was true. But then, it had just happened, and they could hardly believe it. They couldn’t wait to tell Drew about it when he got home. Nothing he was doing in England could be
this
cool!

*     *     *

Thursday Travis had been scheduled for two book signings in London. The first was at 10 in the morning at Waterstone’s Booksellers, in Trafalgar Square, and the other was at Blackwell Books, on Huntington Street. He was envious of the others in his tour group, who were having a free day in London. They were dividing up into four or five groups, and going separate ways. His mom, and Mrs. Parker were going back to see more of the British Museum. Others were going with Nikki to a shopping plaza in North London. Drew, Audry, and two other girls were going to use their passes, to ride the subway all day, and see the entire city. Any of these things were preferable to sitting in a bookstore signing books. But Travis realized that with success, came sacrifice. He rode the subway with Drew and the girls to the Trafalgar Station, then parted ways.

“Stay out of trouble, and have fun,” he told Drew as he got off the train, to the admonition of the recording to
‘mind
the
gap’
.

“Isn’t that an oxymoron, Dad?” Travis didn’t understand the question, until the doors had closed and the train was moving. But Drew was smiling as they wisked out of sight. “Oh, yes. I guess it
is
an oxymoron!” he said out loud.

He was half expecting to see the chaos of another pot legalization rally, as he emerged from the subway at Trafalgar Square, but today things were back to normal. There was no evidence that this had been the site of such a rally just the day before. Even the streets were clean swept and spotless. The only tell-tale sign of the previous days activities was a huge fake joint in the mouth of one of the huge bronze lions.

He had seen the Waterstone Booksellers store the day before, so he knew exactly where to go. He had learned from the previous book signings to be there 30 minutes early, because that was what was expected, so he walked in the door at 9:30. There were few people in the store, so he had hopes that this would bean easy gig. He found the store manager, and was shown where he was set up. There were a few people already in line, so he sat down and began. He enjoyed the lighter crowd, because he could spend more time actually conversing with his fans. After 20 minutes the last customer in line had just left, and someone sat down at the table next to him. It was Angel.

“I see you have learned to arrive on time.”

“Yes, an old dog can learn new tricks, eventually.”

“You are hardly an ‘old dog’. I came by your hotel to give you a ride here, but you were already gone.”

“Yes, I like taking the subway.”

“But you never know what crazies you will run into there.”

“Not as many of my fans here, which is good. I don’t like being treated like a rock star.”

“Just wait. This is early morning. The noon hour will bring the crowds you are used to. But that is good, it will give us time to talk. Did you and my father have an interesting discussion last night?”

“Yes we did. Have you not talked to him?”

“Only briefly. He just told me that the two of you had agreed in principle to most of your concerns. He says he will have a contract ready for you tomorrow, but there is no rush to sign it. He wants you to take it home with you, and let your lawyer look it over before you sign. Lord knows, you don’t want to get stuck with a bad contract, like you did with that Canadian con-man. Any questions or concerns you have about the contract can be worked out by e-mail. He is excited that you seem so inclined to work with us.”