Richie had taken the tuba from a guy in the parade. He was playing it off key as the guy tried to get it back. The guy finally yanked it back, causing me to laugh. "What the fuck dude?!" Richie said. The guy just walked off, with his tuba.
"Oh my gosh! That was funny!" I burst out laughing again. I held onto his shoulder and walked with him as he walked to where everyone was by the wall. "Hey guys, what are you talking about?" I said, after my laugh attack was over.
"What they always talk about!" Richie shot back. He was probably irritated at my laughing.
"I actually think it will end!" Ben crossed his arms. "For a little while, at least."
I stood up straight, putting two and two together and figuring out what they were talking about. "What do you mean?" Beverly asked him.
He paused before explaining. "So I was going over all my Derry research... and I charted out all the big events. The iron works explosion of 1908, the Bradley gang of '35, and the black spot in '62. And, now kids being... I realized. This stuff seems to happen every-"
"Twenty-seven years." I spoke low, but loud enough for them to hear.
"So, let me get this straight. It comes out from wherever to eat kids for like, what- a year? And then what, it just goes into hibernation?" Eddie said, trying to wrap his head around all of it.
"Maybe it's like... what do you call it. Cicadas! You know, the bug that comes out once every seventeen years." Stanley flexed his fingers on his knee. He sat on the back rest of the bench.
"My grandpa says this town is cursed. He says that, all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. And evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry." Mike said.
"But its can't be one thing! We all saw something different." Stan looked down to Mike.
"Maybe... or maybe it know what scares us most and thats what we see." Mike added, looking between all of us.
"I-I-I saw a leper." Eddie stuttered. "He was like a walking infection."
"But you didn't!" Stan squinted at Eddie because of the sun behind him. "B-because it isn't real. None of this is. Not eddies leper, or-or Bill seeing Georgie, o-or-or the woman I-I keep seeing." He tensed up.
"Is she hot?" Richie smirked.
"No richie!" Stanley raised his voice. "Shes not hot! Her face- is all messed up. None of this makes any sense! They're all like bad dreams."
"I don't think so! I know the difference between and a-a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike said, looking at Stan.
"What'd you see? You see something too?" Eddie spoke up.
"Yes." He let out a shaky breath. "You guys know that burnt-down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding in the door, trying to get to me. But it was too hot." He glanced up. "When the firemen finally found them, the skin on their hands... had melted down to the bone... we're all afraid if something."
"Got That right!" Richie said, turning around as a firework when off behind him.
"R-Richie. What are you afraid o-of?" I set my hand on top of his. He looked at the clown on the stage behind up, it held a balloon animal out towards us. We turned back around as he shifted his glasses, taking a shaky breath.
"Clowns."
We pinned the map on the wall. Eddie was setting up the slideshow projector as mike closed the garage door. Ben handed Bill a disk and bill put it in the projector. Bill lined up the projection up with the map. We all sat or stood behind the projector.
