“I saw a couple in the garage,” said Ben.
“Two,” replied Jack. “There’re two bikes in there and one of them is my dad’s. Plus, I’m not exactly able to ride a bike right now,” Jack motioned with his injured arm.
“Well Ben can ride yours and I’ll ride your dad’s,” said Stephen. “I’m taller than I look… Long legs.”
“What am I supposed to do?” asked Jack.
“How should I know — I’m not your cruise director,” said Stephen. “Jeez, can’t you be alone for a while?”
“Hey man, if it’s not something we can all do, then we’re not going to do it,” said Ben.
“Relax friend,” said Stephen, “that’s what I’m saying.”
“No you weren’t!” Jack burst out. “You just said I should stay here alone!”
“That’s not what I meant,” countered Stephen. “You are tightly wound, son.”
“Fuck this,” said Jack. He turned away and stalked to his house. Jack went inside without looking back.
“Wow, what do you suppose that was about?” asked Stephen.
Inside, Jack went right to the kitchen where a calendar was posted on their cork-board. Friday, July sixth was circled and his mom’s handwriting announced “J — Dr.” Jack was instantly relieved; he hadn’t realized his freedom from the sling was so close. Bolstered with this new knowledge, Jack was able compose himself and go back outside.
When Jack came back to the campsite, Stephen and Ben were nowhere to be found. Jack looked in the tent and took mental inventory of their gear. Nothing seemed to be missing, it was unlikely they had gone far. Unwilling to seem needy, Jack grabbed his knife and a branch. He squeezed with his knees to hold it. He proceeded to carve the branch into a spear. After a few seconds, Jack was interrupted by a distant voice.
“Help!” It sounded like Ben, but it wasn’t an alarmed call — it was almost matter-of-fact.
“Ben?” shouted Jack.
“Help,” he heard. Jack started off in the direction of the voice. When he crossed from the yard into the trees, a figure burst out from behind a large maple. Jack spun and defended with his right hand. Until he saw it reflect the leaf-dappled sun, he had forgotten that he still held the knife.
“Holy shit! Watch it!” yelled Stephen. Ben appeared directly behind Jack an circled around him at arm’s length.
“Jesus, he’s trying to stab someone,” accused Stephen.
“I’m so sorry, I forgot I had the knife out,” stammered Jack.
“Sorry, my ass. You’re a psycho,” replied Stephen.
“It was just an accident, could have happened to anyone,” said Ben. “Serves us right for tricking you, Jack — sorry.”
“That’s okay, no problem. I really didn’t mean it,” replied Jack.
“I know — no problem,” said Ben. “Right Stephen?”
“Yeah, yeah, just kidding man,” said Stephen.
“How’d you do that anyway — sound so far away like that?” asked Jack as they walked back to the campsite.
“What do you mean?” asked Ben. “Sound like what?”
“I heard you yelling ‘Help’,” said Jack.
Ben slowed down and looked at Jack — “Yelling? Jack, we weren’t yelling anything.”
“Seriously?” asked Jack. “Guys, I seriously heard someone yelling for help. It sounded like you, Ben, but not you.”
“Jack, I’m totally serious — we didn’t hear a thing,” said Ben. Jack looked back and forth between Ben and Stephen and shuddered slightly.
“True story, Jack,” added Stephen. “We didn’t hear a thing. Unless… Wait a sec, did it sound like ‘Help Me!’?” Stephen reproduced the voice perfectly and he and Ben started to crack up.
“Oh, you guys are assholes,” said Jack. “Both of you, total assholes.”
“Man, you really bought that,” laughed Ben. “Bought and paid for.”
Their laughter was infectious and Jack started to smile.
“Help! Help!” Jack mocked and began to really join the laughter. “It’s funny, all you have to do is try to sound like a girl, and you sound just like Ben,” he said to Stephen.
“Good one, son,” laughed Stephen.
Ben pretended to be offended, but couldn’t keep a straight face. Finally having something in common, they replayed the event dozens of times; laughing and cracking each other up as they sat at their campsite. Jack dug some cokes out of the cooler and they sipped soda and talked about what to do with the day.
They all agreed that they should check the weather and then plan a big hike if the weather was favorable. Ben and Jack gave Stephen the rundown of the places they’d been and where the unexplored trails were to be found.
“I should’ve brought my laptop,” said Stephen. “Do you get wireless out here?”
“Yeah,” began Jack, “but we have a pact.”
“No internets,” decried Ben. “Not at the campsite.”
“Whoa, really?” Stephen was surprised. “What’s with that?”
“We tried that once,” said Ben. “What’s the point of camping if we all just sit in the tent all day and surf?”
“It’s true,” added Jack. “It’s really all or nothing. We just check email like every two days when we have dinner with my parents, and cellphones don't even work in this area. We're in a valley or something.”
“Well, that’s gonna be tough,” said Stephen. “Sounds downright retarded if you ask me, but I guess it can’t be that bad. So how are we gonna check the weather then.”
“We can do that,” replied Ben. “But then we just get in and out.”
“That’s right,” added Jack. “On and off.”
“You guys are like those Pennsylvania Dutch people — I saw them on a field-trip,” said Stephen.
“Ya,” said Ben.
After some more discussion and a weather-check, the boys packed sandwiches and headed into the woods. Ben and Jack had been making small improvements to the trail each time they hiked and it was a well-groomed path all the way to the power-lines. Ben took the lead and pointed out all the false turns and dead-ends they had created to throw off imagined pursuit.
Stephen thought they should add some traps to the path, but was vetoed by Ben and Jack.
“We thought of that, but little kids sometimes come out here,” said Jack.
They gave Stephen the grand tour of the woods bordering the neighborhood and popped on to the power-line cut at the top of a small hill. The clearing stretched east and west and the hill afforded them an excellent view. A large rock was selected as their picnic table. They opened their packs and unloaded provisions for lunch.
“Oh man, that’s good,” said Stephen through a mouthful of sandwich.
“The best,” agreed Ben.
“Remind me to thank your mom when we get back,” added Stephen. Jack focused on Stephen. “No, seriously,” he continued, “it was nice of her.”
“Yeah, okay, that’s cool,” said Jack.
Ben pointed out thunderheads building to their west.
“What happened to hot and dry?” asked Jack.
“They’re only right like half the time,” said Ben. “As long as it’s nice tomorrow. I like fireworks.”
“There’s hardly any bugs here, we were getting killed by them down south,” said Stephen.
“It’s been a good year — not too many bugs at all,” Jack boasted.
“Well, there was that one up your mom’s ass when we went hiking that time,” chuckled Ben.
“Hey!” said Jack. “Not cool. I told her we would keep her up-to-speed is all.” He paused. “That was when that guy was still out there.”
“What guy?” asked Stephen.
“One of the kids who lived down the street from Jack got abducted,” said Ben. “We saw the cops come and
