running up that hill - bill D.

zero.  disappearance of georgie denbrough

1988 DERRY MAINE LOS ANGELS

my little brother had gazed out into the storm. Nervous, eager, sweet.

"Sure I won't get in trouble, Bill?" georgie asked me as i sat back up on my bed surround by tissues and newspaper and finished creasing on the paper boat

"D-don't be a w-wuss. I'd come with you if I w-w-weren't d-d-dying." i said while coughing

"You're not dying!" my brother said as he made a smiley face on the window and stood up

"You didn't see the vomit coming out of my nose this morning?" I stated as i threw a Kleenex at Georgie.

"Now g-g-go on, get the wax"

"..In the cellar?" george questioned

"You want it to float don't you?" I asked him

Hesitant. Scared, even. Resigned, he looks over at the walkie talkies laying on the shelf. Grabs one and goes.

Georgie hurries downstairs, catching a glimpse of their mother in the parlor playing piano, an earthy beauty transported to another world while she plays.

George's stomach sinks as he comes face to face with the cellar-- the only thing between George and the monster in the basement of his imagination.Flinging the door open, George ventures his arm into the dark void. He gropes around and finds the lights switch. Nothing. George snatches his arm back. The dark basement glares back at him, taunting. One... Two...
Walkie crackles. Georgie jumps, startled.

"C'mon! H-Hurry up!" Billy said over the walkie

Georgie scrambles down the steps to the cellar she. looks through junk as fast as he can: a broken flashlight, turtle wax, a bag of colored balloons.He grabs the box of paraffin near the back of the shelf, and hurries back up the stairs as we quickly track towards him, about to pounce. The door slams in our face.

I melted a chunk of paraffin with a match in a ceramic bowl, then dipped my finger into the hot liquid and smears the wax along the sides of the boat.

"There you go. S-She's all ready,CaCaptain." I said as we both grinned the room filled with cheerful brotherly love

George kissed Bill on the cheek, startling him.

"Thanks, Billy!" georgie said smiling

"D-Don't forget to put on all your
rain stuff before you go out or mom'll blow a circuit." i stated I looked to the rain-lashed window, piano still playing.

Holding his boat, George exits through the Front Door. Once more, the Walkie in his Slicker's Pocket crackles to life

"Be careful." I said threw the walkie

George stops and looks up at me threw the window looking down on him. Georgie gives a little wave.

A dead traffic light sways overhead, its black lenses gazing back at a boy in a yellow slicker and red galoshes George races down the street past dark houses after his paper boat bill had made him, which sluices along a gutter swollen with rushing rainwater toward the intersection.
Angle on the dripping street signs: WITCHAM & JACKSON.
Rain taps on George's hood sounding to his ears like rain on a shed roof, a comforting almost cozy sound. The buckles of his galoshes make a merry jingle as he goes.