Memories of a Life That Never Happened

Chapter 35 - Good Fellas

Chapter 35

Good fellas

This time, as Theo advanced through the woods, Mica was not at his side. She was, in spite of that, very much in his mind. Her liveliness. The implausible body her soaked dress failed to keep from his sight and his desire.  

Alone, thinking of her was easier. Absent-minded, Theo dallied through the trail, paying little attention to the path and everything else in it. He had forgotten all about the forsaken village when he heard something. A laughter in the distance, deep in the forest. He pressed his eyes and even sheltered them from innocuous moonbeams. Theo scanned past the shadows of dark trees and bushes. There it was again. A dry, unpleasant laugh, unlike those he had just shared with Mica. Looking at the sound's direction, he spotted a dim light again and doubted it was a firefly. 

In an unintentional act of courage, Theo crossed the thicket between the trail and the dense forest. Keeping an ear out for odd noises, he moved forward. The bushes were so dense that their twigs scratched his arms and snagged his shorts. It was the jungle's silent warning, urging him to go back. Theo failed to heed to it.  

What he did was pray there be no snakes, because they recurrently populated his nightmares. He dreaded them more than sycophants and books with lousy endings. 

About five minutes into the tangle of shrubs, he found himself on a clear track. It was so narrow that only someone paying serious attention would discern it. Firmer and less slippery than the trail, it was carpeted by leaves and gravel. If anything, it was an easier track. The further he went, the clearer he rumbles got. The trees spread thinner until they dissipated to reveal some sort of dwelling in a clearing. Through a small door with strange, ragged edges, shone a weak, unsteady light.  

"Slow and steady. Slow and steady," Theo breathed to the heart rapid-firing against his ribcage.  

Taking large, careful steps, he approached the glade's fringes. Like shadows of sleeping giants, he discerned the contours of four rounded huts. The hamlet in front of Theo gave him more shivers than its Shakespearian namesake ever did.  

Inside the closest hut, he heard the voices. He could not tell how many. More than one, no doubt. All male. 

In an unexpected turn of events, good judgment won the battle against curiosity and Theo decided it was time to retreat. He swiveled, perhaps faster than he should. Frightened by his sudden move, a bird swooped away to a safer place. Theo, just as scared, let out a brief but very audible cry. 

When his hands flied to cover his mouth, it was too late. The light inside the cabin blacked out and the voices silenced.  

"Shit!" he mouthed, crouching to hide behind the bushes. 

Even in the dark, he could discern the outline of someone peering out the door. A second person came out and, counter clockwise, they started to walk around the hut. Very silently, Theo squinched down on the ground and kept as still as a corpse. 

He was as good as blind. In his line of sight, there were nothing but twigs and leaves. But if Theo could not see past the foliage, he could hear. He listened to the dry leaves crunching under one's feet and he knew. Whoever they were, the seekers were getting closer. The idea of springing up and running for dear life crossed his mind, but as the footsteps stopped and then ebbed away, it was thankfully discarded.  

For as long as it took him to regain confidence, Theo just stood there. On the ground, flat on his stomach, he fought the itch to whisk off the bugs crawling over him. Then, with eyes wide open, he raised slowly, screening the woods for any sign of human life. There was no more light in the hut, no more voices. Whoever was there seemed to be gone. 

He made his way back to the main path as fast as he could. Now Theo looked forward to the minute he would cross the iron gates again. It took him only a few minutes and Theo could glimpse the stretch of main road ahead. But at a stone's throw away from the end of the trail, a cold hand seized his arm. The crude touch of these bony fingers sent a chill reverberating through his body. Half-startled, half-terrified of dying, Theo jerked.  

As he pivoted, he met a pair of blazing eyes. Any courage he had left vanished faster than a wild hare. Unsettled, Theo took him a few seconds to recognize whom he was dealing with. The boy gripping his shoulder was one of the party crashers. The boy with the scar. Behind him stood his equally unpleasant friend. 

"Look what the cat dragged in, Macumba." The boy's tone hit Theo cold and menacing as a blade.  

Macumba did not bother respond. Instead, he uttered what sounded like a dog-cough laughter.  

"While good fellas get booted out o' his daddy's do, this one right here sacks all that fancy shit for a hike in the woods." 

As a peace sign, Theo held out his hands. "I was on my way back. My parents are expecting me." 

The boy stuck out a thumb toward Theo, glancing sideways at Macumba. "Can you believe this guy?"  

With a careless step, he came face-to-face with Theo. The awful stench of sweat, grease and something else that Theo failed to identify infested his nostrils.  

"Out here. Alone," he said. His breath made rotten eggs smell of roses.  

Following his friend, Macumba closed in. "I like his watch, Flaco."  

Theo took a step back. "I went to the beach with some friends." He gestured to his clothes. They were almost dry, save for the areas below his armpits and in his crotch, where shorts and underwear overlapped. "New Year's ritual."  

"Friends, huh? I ain't seeing no one here."  

Defiantly, Flaco's bony finger speared Theo's chest. "All o' yo rich kids got imaginary friends?" he mocked. 

Confidence was everything Theo could not afford to lose at that time. After all, he had been stupid enough to wonder off, at night, in the middle of the jungle. And yes, alone. Even worse, he chose to snoop around unknown territory when no one knew where he was.  

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Theo scoffed. "Three of us are heading home. Five lingered on the beach a little more. For all I know, may friends will catch up to us anytime now. If you keep me here a while longer, you might get the chance to say hello. And tell my friends how you feel about them." 

Flaco's turned around to look at the path, then to Macumba. Not at all convinced by Theo's bluff, they laughed.  

Then, a shout they did not anticipate carried through the air.  

"Theo!"  

With a smile so big that it almost split his face in two, he recognized Alan's voice. "Here they are," he said. 

Everyone, even Theo, looked toward the end of the trail. 

"You take care. There's plenty of accidents going round. You dig?"  

As silently as they came, the boys disappeared into the woods. Theo strode the last of the trail, where he met a very disturbed Alan looking for him. 

"Alan!" Theo ran toward his friend and hugged him. "You just saved my life, man!" 

Alan, however, seemed furious and pushed Theo away. 

"Where the hell have you been?" he snapped. "Your dad's breathing on my neck, asking me where you were. I looked everywhere for you. This is not how I planned to spend the night. I was supposed to be making out with Virginie right now."  

"Alan..." Theo shook his head and the weight of his stare silenced Alan. "You'll never believe what I'm about to tell you. You literally just saved my life. You have no idea what just happened!" 

With that, the anger in Alan's face faded into preoccupation. 

"I'm listening," Alan said a bit calmer. "This better be good."  

"It is," Theo promised and, as he hooked an arm around Alan, they started back to the party. Going back to boring safety never felt so good.