We're All In This Together - Chris Chambers Fan Fiction

three

"You guys wanna go see a dead body?"

At that moment, everyone went quiet. They looked around the room at each other, and their faces were whiter than a ghost and their eyes almost popped out of their heads. Gordie had reached over to the little radio that was playing and turned it off. 

"What?" Max breathed out. Vern leaned in and said,

"Well, I was under the porch digging, ya know?" Of course, Max didn't know what he had meant, so Chris had told her that Vern buried a quart jar of pennies under his front porch and drew a treasure map to find them later. Unfortunately, his mother was doing some cleaning in his room and accidentally threw out his map. He had been digging for nine months trying to find them.

Vern then told that while he was digging, he overheard that his older brother Billy and his friend had boosted a car and accidentally found the dead body, or Ray Brower, down near the back Harlow Road. Max was confused again on why there was a dead kid out in the woods, so Gordie told her that three days earlier he had went to go pick blueberries, and he'd been missing ever 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 exclaimed.

"Jesus Christ man, if they would've known you were under there they would've killed you," Chris said poking at Vern's arm. 

"Why would you even hide pennies in the first place?" Max asked, now engaged in the conversation.

"Oh I don't know, I thought it would be fun pretending I was a pirate or something and searching for buried treasure," Vern admitted. 

"Could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow? That's really far," Gordie asked itching his chin. 

"Sure," Chris said, "He must've started walking on the train tracks and just followed them the whole way."

"Yeah, yeah right! Then after dark, a train must've come along, el smacko!" Teddy said hitting his hands together to show the collision. 

"This is crazy," Max muttered, putting a hand on her forehead. 

"Yeah," Chris said, "Hey, hey you guys, I bet you anything that if we find him we'll get our pictures in the paper!" 

"Yeah, maybe we could even get on T.V.!" Teddy cheered. 

"Sure!" Chris exclaimed. 

"We'll be heroes!" Teddy cheered again.

"Yeah!" Chris cheered also. 

"I don't know, Billy will know that I found out," Vern said.

"He's not gonna care," Gordie started, "'Cause it's gonna be us guys that find him, not Billy and Charlie Hogan with the boosted car. They'd probably pin a medal on ya Vern." 

"Yeah, ya think so?" Vern asked, staring to light up a bit.

"Sure!" Chris replied. 

"What'll we tell our folks?" Vern asked.

"Exactly what you said. We'll all tell our folks that we're tenting out in your back field, you tell your folks you're sleeping over at Teddy's, then we say we're going to the drag races the next day. We're rock solid until dinner tomorrow night," Gordie explained. 

"Man, that's a plan and a half!" Chris said and the two rubbed hands with each other.

"I don't know if that'd work for me though," Max said, "My mom probably wouldn't want me tenting out with four boys."

"Then tell her that you've made a new girl friend and she invited you to stay the night at her place, then maybe say you two we're going to the mall or something the next day," Gordie said.

"that doesn't sound too bad, plus she'll be working anyways and won't have time to make dinner, so she won't have to worry about that. Okay that sounds cool," Max said. 

"But if we do find that kid's body over on Harlow, they'll know we didn't go to the drag races, we'll get hided!" Vern retaliated. 

"Nobody will care! Because everybody's gonna be so jazzed about what we found, it's not gonna make a difference!" Teddy said. 

"Yeah! Well, my dad will hide me anyway, but hell, it's worth the hiding!" Chris thought out loud. 

"Shit, yeah!" Teddy shouted.

"Let's do it, what do you say?" Chris asked.

"Alright!" Teddy replied.

"Gordie?" Chris said.

"Sure," Gordie decided.

"Max?" Chris asked again. she thought about it for a second then said,

"Why not?" 

"Vern?"

"I don't know," he said. 

"Veeern," Chris said dragging out his name.

"Come on Verno!" Teddy shouted.

"Yeah Vern, you told us the story, you can't back out now!" Max added.

"Vern," Chris said before putting Vern into a headlock and started rubbing his head with his knuckles. Teddy joined in by pinching his cheeks. 

"Come on Vern!" 

"Come on Vernoooo!" 

"Come on!" 

"Okay okay!" Vern finally gave in. Chris, Teddy, and Max cheered while Gordie grinned. 

"Well let's get packing, okay? Let's all meet at the beginning of the tracks in an hour," Chris decided.

Right then and there, Max knew that she was about to have the adventure of her life.