Desert Moon

Chapter 16

"We can't drive in front of my house," I begged Smith, "she'll recognise your truck."

"Then what can we do?" Smith asked.

"Park somewhere at the end of the street" Elliott suggested, "then we'll walk down until we know we can go through people's backyards. If anyone asks why we're on their property, I'll come up with an excuse."

"It's getting dark." George said, "what if we get shot or something."

"This isn't that bad a neighborhood. We'll be fine."

Smith did just as Elliott suggested and we began walking down my street. Even though I had been there just the day before, it was oddly nostalgic to me, like it was something that lived exclusively in my childhood. We were about three houses away from mine, and then we stopped.

"We can cut through these three backyards," I said, and we dashed behind the house, and I thought I saw a porch light come on, but nothing happened. We bolted down the three backyards until we got to my own.

"Look, there's the work van," Elliott pointed at my stepdad's van. "We can get the ladder down, I don't think they can see us from any windows, we've just gotta be quiet."

We went over to the van and Jamie held me up on his shoulders so I could untie the ladder, and George and Smith did the same, Smith being the one doing the untying. Elliott, somehow, was able to climb to the top of the van without any help. They carefully slid the ladder down so we could grab it, and we carried it to the backyard.

Elliott and George eased it against the side of the house underneath my window, and the two agreed to stay at the bottom to keep the ladder steady. Smith climbed to the top first, and then me, then Jamie. He was about to open my window.

"Psst Smith," I called to him, but hushed, "is my door open?"

"Your what?" he called back.

"My bedroom door. Is it open?"

He peered into the window, squinting. "It's cracked open, but just barely."

"Okay, good. We've gotta be quiet."

Smith pushed my window up and it made a loud creaking noise. Each one of us froze.

"Did you hear that?" I heard my mother's voice asked. My heart stopped. I was petrified.

"Probably just the wind." my stepdad assured her. There was silence for a long time, so Smith slowly began to open my window.

"Okay, we don't have much time" Smith said, "tell me what all you need, essentials really, and you guys can pass it down."

"Okay" I said, frantically thinking of all the things in my bedroom I could need, "backpack!"

Smith climbed through the window and momentarily came back with my backpack and handed it to me. I looked inside to make sure everything was there, and as far as I could tell, it was. I passed it down to Jamie, and he passed it to Elliott, for her to set it on the ground next to her.

"Uhmm... clothes" I told Smith, "anything, really."

This one took him a bit longer, and the way he executed it was unexpected. He appeared to have pulled out one of my drawers and filled it with appropriate numbers of shirts, jeans, socks, and underwear, and I guess he caught on to the fact that we couldn't exactly pass a drawer around when we were standing on a ladder, because he just dumped it out the window.

"Dude!" Elliott said loudly.

"Shhh!" I said, "if Mom hears us, we're dead."

She walked over and managed to get all of my clothes in a pile and put my backpack on top so nothing blew away.

"Anything else?" Smith asked me.

"The blanket, on my bed. The handmade one. That's all."

"We have blankets at my house," he said.

"I know but I need that one. I like the way it feels."

"Fine" Smith said, and he passed the blanket down to me and carefully climbed out of my room. He closed my window, and one by one we got off the ladder. We had Elliott stay behind with my things while we put the ladder back on my stepdad's van. We all scrambled to grab my things, carefully making sure not to leave something behind, and dashed down the three backyards we crossed and down my street until we got to Smith's truck. We were all out of breath.

"Thanks guys, you didn't have to do that for me," I said.

"Hey man, that's what friends are for," Jamie said, and he grabbed my shoulder in a friendly manner.

It was moments like these when I knew, not only was I lucky to have a group of friends, I was lucky that this was my group of friends. I couldn't ask for anyone better.