Dog Tags

Ch. 2: Dead Body

"Oh, man, you guys aren't gonna believe this. This is so boss. Oh man, wait'll you hear this. You won't believe it. It's unbelievable. Let me catch my breath, I ran all the way from my house" Vern rambled on.  Once the boys familiarized the phrase 'I ran all the way from my house' with a song they burst into song, not letting Vern get a word out. "Okay, forget it I ain't gotta tell you nothin'" Vern said as he crossed his arms.  Elle was still looking at her magazine as she smirked in amusement at the stupidity. Vern's words seemed to shut the boys up, "Alright guys, alright. What is it man?" Chris asked, pretending to sound interested. "Okay great you aren't gonna believe this, sincerely" Vern said as he got ready to tell his story before the guys burst into song again. "Screw you guys" Vern said with defeat evident in his tone. Chris finally gathered all of the boys attention "What is it?" Chris asked. "Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean if you tell your folks we are puttin' a tent out in my back field?" Vern asked with excitement in his voice. "Yeah" Teddy said without a doubt, Elle kind of felt bad for him, he didn't even have to 'ok'  it with his parents, they didn't even care if he was gone or not. "I think so. Except my dad's been on a mean streak. You know, he's been drinkin' a lot lately." Chris answered. "You got to man, sincerely! You won't believe this! Can you Gordie?" Vern turned his attention to the boy next to Elle. "Yeah, probably" Gordie said. "What about you Bird?" Vern asked, diverting his attention to the red head sitting in the corner quietly. "Mom will be fine with it I'm sure. It's just Al' we have to worry about" Elle said as she sat up. Teddy rolled his eyes at mention of Elle's brother, he hated Alvin, and Alvin hated him, there was no real reason for them to hate each other but Teddy didn't like the idea of not having Elle around when that was all Alvin tried to do was keep her away from them. Elle zoned out as Chris and Teddy started to fight over who won their game of thirty-one, but Vern's sudden words caught the girl totally off guard, "You guys wanna go see a dead body?". Everyone froze in place and looked at the young boy, Teddy and Chris' cigarettes were on the verge of falling out of their mouths. Vern seemed to notice everyone's loss for words so he took it upon himself to speak, "Well I was under the porch diggin' y'know..." he began as he told the children about how he heard his brother Billy and a friend, Charlie Hogan talking about how they had found the body of Ray Brower on Back Harlow Road. The children had all followed the Ray Brower story very closely since he was a boy around their age. He had gone out to pick blueberries three days before and nobody had seen him since.  "I know the Back Harlow Road, it comes to a dead end by the Royal River. The train tracks are right there. Me and my dad used to fish for cossies out there." Teddy said as Vern finished telling his story. "Jesus Christ man, if they would have known you were under there they would have killed you" Chris exclaimed as the other four nod in agreement. "Could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow? That's really far." Elle asked. "I think so, he musta started walking on the train tracks and followed them the whole way" Chris answered. "Yeah, and after dark the train must have come along and... el smacko" Teddy said while driving his fist into his palm. Elle shivered at the thought of this. "He asked to borrow a pencil once" Elle thought out loud. She wasn't one to cry, but the thought of Ray made her want to, he was always so sweet and gentle, he would never hurt a fly. Teddy leaned closer and put his arm around Elle and rubbed her shoulder, noticing her sudden mood change. "I bet you anything if we find him we'll get our pictures in the paper" Chris said, Elle could practically feel the tension diminish from the air. "Yeah! We could even be on TV!" Teddy exclaims, letting go of Elle and pumping his fist into the air in victory. "Sure! If we find the body and report it we'll be on the news" Chris exclaims again. "We'll be heroes!!" Teddy exclaims, his scratchy voice raising. "I don't know, Billy will know how I found out" Vern said, hanging his head low. "He's not gonna care, because it's gonna be us guys that find him, not Billy and Charlie Hogan in a boosted car. They'll probably pin a medal on you Vern" Elle persuaded. Chris shot her a grin, knowing Vern couldn't deny. "Yeah, you think so?!"Vern exclaimed, his voice refilling with enthusiasm. "Sure!!" Gordie agreed. "What'll we tell our folks?" Vern said, his voice dropping again. "Exactly what you said. We all tell our folks we're tenting out in your back field. You tell your folks that your sleeping over at Teddy's. Then we'll say we are hangin' out at the drag races tomorrow. We're rock solid 'til dinner tomorrow night" Gordie explained. All of the surrounding kids were amazed at how neatly laid out Gordie's plan was. It took a little more convincing for Vern but in the end  they were all on the way to their houses to pack for the adventure. "Hey mom" Elle said as she came through the front door. "Hey sweet heart" Eileen's sweet voice rang out from the kitchen. Elle swung with her hand on the corner of the wall to face her mother, "Do you know where my sleeping bag is?" Elle asked. "It should be in the spare closet" her mother said, nit turning away from her dishes in the sink. "Thanks" Elle said as she made her way upstairs towards the spare closet to grad her sleeping bag. She grabbed the old sleeping bag out of the closet and a canteen that was her brother's and then headed down stairs. " Hey ma I'm going to-" she stopped short of her sentence when she noticed Alvin leaned up against the counter eating an apple. "I'm - I'm just going outside to play" Elle said, trying to play it off so her brother wouldn't be suspicious. "With a sleeping bag and my canteen?" Alvin asked suspiciously while throwing his apple away and walking towards the frightened girl. "Y-yes" Elle stuttered out , trying to stand her ground, but al the wanted to do at this point was crawl into a hole and disappear. Out of nowhere Alvin grabbed Elle's hand with deathly grip, "Your going to hang out with those boys aren't you?" He said through his teeth, his grip getting tighter by the second. "A-Alvin!" Eileen called to her son who yelled at her to shut up. "Alvin please stop, that hurts" Elle said though tears, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. The boy seemed to realize what he was doing and let go immediately, almost coming out of a trance. Elle took her chance at this, she ran as far as she could away from that house down the street until she ran into Gordie.