Stand by me / Teddy

Pt 4 Lollipop

"Hey we're back here with the bossman bob cormier from the racks on stacks it's the best on wax it's the chordettes with lollipop" the radio man says.

"I love this song" I say to Teddy and Vern and we start dancing as we walk down the tracks.

"Lollipop, lollipop Lollipop lollipop Oh lolli lolli lolli, lollipop, lollipop Oh lolli lolli lolli, lollipop, lollipop Oh lolli lolli lolli, lollipop *POP* ba dum dum dum" we make the popping noise with our mouths and continue down the train tracks.

"Do you think mighty mouse could beat up superman?" Vern asks.

"What are you cracked?" I ask.

"Why not? I saw the other day he was carrying five elephants in one hand!" Vern replies.

"Boy you don't know nothing, Mighty mouse is a cartoon, superman is a real guy, who in a cartoon could beat up a real guy?" Teddy explains, Vern goes quiet.

"Yeah... it would be a good fight though" Teddy sighs at Vern's response.

I turn around to see where Chris and Gordie are, Teddy and Vern follow suit.

"Why'd they stop?" I ask.

"Come on you guys, let's get moving!" Vern calls out

"Yeah by the time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore" Teddy says, I run back to Chris and Gordie and we start walking "Hey are you guys ok?" I ask.

"Yeah, how far do you reckon we have to go?" Gordie asks.

"Still a long way, we'll set up to stay somewhere in a few hours" Chris replies.

"We better get moving then" I say.

We stop as we approach a bridge, we look at it for a while assessing our options, Vern looks back the way we came from and then speaks "Anyone know when the next train is due?"

"Could go down to the route one thirty-six bridge" Chris suggests, that idea would be good if the bridge weren't so far away.

"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, we go across here we can get to the same place in ten minutes" Teddy reasons.

"Yeah I'm with Teddy it'll take hours to get there and back and it'll waste all our energy too" I say.

"But if a train comes there's nowhere else to go" Vern says.

"No there isn't, you just jump" Teddy says.

"Teddy, it's a hundred feet" Chris says.

"Yeah Teddy" Vern agrees.

"Look, you guys can go around if you want to, I'm crossing here, and while you guys are dragging your candyasses half way across the state and back, I'll be waiting for you on the other side relaxing with my thoughts" Teddy says.

"Snuggling up to Andie you mean?" Gordie asks, I don't know why Gordie said that but for some reason I wasn't mad.

"You wish" Teddy says and walks onto the bridge the rest of us follow. I look back to see if all the others are following and see Gordie crouching with his hand on the rail.

"Hey Gordie don't worry, I'm sure the next train isn't due for a while" I say, he gets up and walks with the rest of us.

We all walk silently across the bridge, I can tell by the silence that we are all slightly scared, even Teddy who made himself up to be fearless before we got on the bridge, but especially Vern who is crawling on the tracks because he is scared of falling and unfortunately Gordie is stuck ambling behind him.

I'm about halfway across the bridge between Gordie and Vern and Teddy and Chris when I hear Gordie yell "Train!" I look back and see a train coming. I look at Gordie and see him struggling to get Vern up off the train tracks. I sprint back and try to lift vern up with gordie and we get him up but just as we start running he falls again, I grab him and yank him as hard as I can, he is holding on the the tracks and has given up, Gordie is yelling at him to get up and once he lets go we sprint as fast as we can. I can't hear anything as I force my legs to go faster with each step, I don't know how close the train is but I know it's coming at us fast. We are getting close to the end and we all dive off the end of the tracks and roll down the hill. I sit covered in dirt, wheezing from lack of breath as the train passes on the tracks above us, once it does, Teddy and Chris look down at us.

"Hey, at least now we know when the next train was due" Chris says. I roll my eyes and try to help myself up by putting my hand down but pain takes over my shock.

"Shit" I wince holding my wrist.

"What's wrong?" Gordie asks.

"I don't know but my wrist hurts a bit, I must have landed on it when we jumped down" I explain.

I walk up the hill rubbing my wrist.

"Let me have a look" Teddy grabs my hand and examines my wrist.

"Doctor Teddy to the rescue" I say.

We sit around a campfire, not too far from the train tracks, roasting lumps of meat on sticks over the fire. I had fashioned the wide strap from my canteen into a bandage and wrapped it around my wrist for support.

"Man, that was the old time train dodge, too cool. Vern, you were so scared you looked like that fat guy abbott costello when he saw the mummy" Teddy laughs.

"I wasn't that scared" Vern says.

"Vern" We all say.

"No really, I wasn't, sincerely" Vern replies.

"Ok, then you won't mind if we check the seat of your jockeys for hershey squirts, will you?" Gordie asks.

"Oh screw" Vern says.

"Vern you better turn yours over" I say, seeing that Vern's meat is about to fall.

"This is the way I like to do it" he says, just before his meat drops into the fire "Ah man!" We all start laughing "Ah no man you got anymore Gordie?"

"Sorry Vern" Gordie laughs.

"It's not funny what am I supposed to eat?" Vern tries to pick up the meat from the fire.

"Why don't you cook your dick?" Teddy says.

"It would be a small meal" I laugh

"Aha! Screw you guys I got it" Vern succeeds at retrieving his food.