Stand By Me

chapter four; Train Dodge

"Any of you guys know when the next train is due?" Perry asks as we look at the long stretch of tracks. "We could go down to the route-136-bridge," Jesse offers and Lee scoffs.

"What, are you crazy? That's five miles down the river. You walk five miles down the river you gotta walk five miles back. That could take till dark. If we'll go across here we'll get to the same place in ten minutes," he reasons.

"Yeah. But if a train comes there's nowhere to go," Perry practically whines. "Well, there isn't? You just jump."

"Lee, that's ahundred feet," Jesse says, studying the bridge. "Okay. You guys can go round if you want. I'm crossing here. And while you guys are dragging your candy-asses half way across the state and back I'll be waiting for you on the other side, relaxing with my thoughts," he says with a relaxed sigh.

"You use your left hand or your right hand for that?" I ask him. "You wish."

We decided to cross the bridge since Lee had a point. I check the rails, seeing if a train was in its way. I felt no vibrations, so I follow carefully.

There were open slots between the wooden planks, se we were watching our steps. Well, Perry opted on crawling and to my dismay, I was behind him.

We get about halfway when the ground below my feet began to shake a bit. I turn around, and there's that familiar black smoke. With wide eyes, I yell, "TRAAAAIIINNN!"

"Oh shit," Perry crawls faster. I grab him, "Go man, go man! Get up, Pez!" I stand him up, but he just drops like a sack of potatoes. "Dammit! Get uuuup! Go man! We're gonna die!" I look back to see the train is coming dangerously close.

"Shit, Pez, Get up!" He finally stands and we haul ass to where Lee and Jesse were.

"Faster! Run faster! MOVE YOUR ASS!"

I could barely hear the train over my own racing heart. I was basically stepping on the back of his worn keds, "Dammit! Goddammit! Go! Go!" We're so close. Just a few more feet.

When I see a dry area, I push Perry and fall after him. He hits his head while I scraped my elbow. Groaning, we sit up to see our friends looking down at us.

"Hey, at least now we know when the next train was due," Jesse humors, but I didn't laugh.

———
"Man. That was the old-time train-dodge. Too cool. Pez, you were so scared you looked like the fat guy in Abbot and Costello the time he saw the mummy."

It was dark out, and we all sat around a fire that Jesse made, cooking our meat over the flame.

"I wasn't that scared!"

"Sure, Pez," Jess says, turning his stick to evenly roast his dinner. "No, really, I wasn't. Sincerely!"

"Okay. Then you won't mind if we check the seats of your Jockeys for Hershey-squirts, will ya?" Lee teases and Perry sucks his teeth, "Oh screw."

"Perry, you better turn yours over."

"I like doing it like this," he says as one side chars while the other is still raw. Literally a second later, it fall off the stick and into the fire, causing us all to laugh.

"Oh man! You got any more, Jason?" He whines, trying to get his food.

"Sorry, Pez," I laugh. "It's not funny, what am I supposed to eat?"

"Why don't you eat your dick? It'll be a small meal," Lee asks, earning a brief glare and more laughs. He manages to get it back on the stick.

"Ha! Screw you guys I got it!"