Ghoul

Jason and I will do it by ourselves. Those shitheads stole my bike and left it on the train tracks. It's payback time, man.'

'Don't forget,' Steve reminded him, 'I'm the one who found out about this in the first place. Wasn't for me, we wouldn't even know about it.'

Ronny and Jason didn' t reply. Secretly, Ronny knew that Steve was right, and that pissed him off, because he hated it when he was shown to be wrong about something. He was the leader, damn it, and they should listen to him without question. And Jason stayed silent because he knew better than to go against Ronny, even when it came to something as innocuous as agreeing with Steve in this case. Last time he 'd done that had been last Christmas, when the three had vandalized the widow Rudisill' s front yard nativity scene. Even though she ' d lived alone, her son came over every November and decorated the outside of her house for Christmas. He hung lights from the gutters and shrubbery and set up a small plywood nativity scene, complete with plastic lightup statues of Joseph, Mary, the Wise Men and the shepherds, several animals, and the baby Jesus himself, lying safe in a wooden manger stuffed with straw from Luke Jones 's farm. People would slow down in their cars as they drove by, stopping to gawk in appreciation at the displayuntil the three boys had put a stop to it once and for all. To this day, Jason couldn 't have told you why they did it or what sparked the idea. They' d been sitting around in their fort in the woods behind Ronny 's house, smoking weed and snickering over a crude cartoon in a Hustler magazine, when Ronny had suddenly suggested it. They' d waited until after dark and then raided the nativity, smashing Joseph and a plastic lamb, tossing Mary and one of the Wise Men out into the road, and stealing the baby Jesus, which they' d later hung from a tree along Route 116. During the rampage, right about the time Ronny was heaving the statue of Mary over his head, Jason had suggested that it was wrong, and that Mrs. Rudisill had never done anything to them, and that maybe they should stop. That little mutinous outburst had resulted in Jason being frozen out of the group for almost a month. Ronny and Steve were his only friends, and while it sometimes felt as if Ronny was the general and he and Steve were merely soldiers, he didn 't like being lonely, being an outcast. So now he said nothing. Like tonight, for example. Yes, Steve had been the one to overhear Graco and his buddies. He' d been out hunting squirrels with his old man 's Mossberg.22 (illegally and out of season, of course) in the woods bordering the graveyard when he' d come across Timmy Graco, Doug Keiser, and Barry Smeltzer. Steve had hid behind a tree and eavesdropped on their three adversaries, and after they'd left, he' d looked inside the shed for himself, confirming what they suspected. They 'd first heard the rumor about the three boy's underground clubhouse last winter, but so far, they' d been unable to confirm its location, or even its existence. But while Steve had finally done that, he' d delivered the information to Ronny and then conceded. Ronny called the shots. This raid was his idea. Steal their stuff. Trash the rest, including the fort.

Jason's mother had once asked him (after he, Ronny, and Steve had gotten in trouble for throwing rocks at cars) if he' d jump off a bridge if Ronny told him to do it. 'No' had been his sulking answer.

But the truth was something different.

Yes, if Ronny ordered him to jump off a bridge, Jason probably would, if reluctantly, do it. What he wouldn't do was talk back or disagree with him until they were on the way down.

'So are you going home or what?' Ronny asked Steve.

'No, I'm staying. I want to see this fort, too.'

'Gotta tell you,' Ronny admitted, 'I thought the whole thing was bullshit. Keiser told Andy Staub, who told Erica Altland, who told Ramona Gerling, and she told Linda Paloma, who told me when we were making out behind the shop class.' Jason interrupted. 'Linda's hot. You made out with her?' Ronny nodded. 'Yeah. She's got nice tits. Let me feel them. But I didn't really believe it when she told me. Didn't think those three had it in them. Graco's a runt, and Keiser' s a fat sack of shit. Only one of them with any meat on his bones is Smeltzer.'

'The hole is huge,' Steve said. 'Wait till you see it. Fucking massive, man! Must have taken them forever to dig it, though. Keiser' s titties must have been jiggling like JellO

while he worked that shovel.'

'Well, after tonight, they'll have to dig another one.' He laughed, and Steve and Jason dutifully joined him.

They reached the fence line and climbed over it. In the darkness, they didn' t notice the old stovepipe jutting from the ground less than ten feet away. Had they seen it, they might have investigated and learned of the underground fort 's true location. Instead, they crept through the cemetery toward the utility shed.

They weaved between the tombstones, keeping an eye out for headlights or anyone else, but the graveyard was empty. An owl hooted from somewhere to their left. Crickets chirped in the grass. A tractor trailer rumbled by in the distance, rocketing down Route 116 to parts unknown.

Jason suddenly stopped.

'You guys hear that?' he whispered.

'What?' Ronny turned around, annoyed.

'Sounded like… sounded like a woman screaming.'

'It was a fucking owl, dipshit.'

Jason shrugged. 'Maybe. Yeah, I guess you're right. Just sounded weird, is all. Like it was coming from under the ground or something.'

Ronny started walking again. 'Dude, you need to listen to Nancy Reagan.'

'Nancy Reagan?'

'Yeah. President's wife.'

'I know who she is. But what did she say?'

' 'Just say no to drugs.''

Steve laughed at Ronny' s joke, eager to score some points over Jason. When their backs were turned, Jason shot them both the finger. Then he hurried to catch up, trotting along behind them.

He noticed that several of the graves had a sunken look, as if the dirt were collapsing in upon the coffins beneath the surface.

'Smeltzer's old man is really letting this place fall apart,' Jason observed. 'Frigging shame.'

'What do you care? You ain' t got no family buried here.' Ronnie plucked a fistful of wilting flowers from a graveside vase and threw them into the air, scattering them. 'You don 't even go to this churchany church, for that matter. And besides, Mr. Smeltzer's a drunk. Everyone knows that. He's a loser, just like his son.' Chuckling, he grabbed the vase and flung it skyward as well. It soared over their heads and then plummeted back to the ground, shattering on a bronze memorial plaque.

'Dude,' Steve whispered. 'We're gonna get caught, you keep making noise like that.'

'Nobody's gonna catch us. It's after midnight. Everyone's asleep.'

'You never know. Someone could be watching.'

'Whatyou worried God is gonna get pissed?'

'It just don't feel right.'

'Shut up. Let's go.' Ronny kicked a plastic wreath like it was a football and then stalked forward again, leaving destruction in his wakeuprooted flags, scattered floral arrangements, broken glass. Jason and Steve nervously followed. But when Ronny stopped at a sagging tombstone and began to push against it, they quickly joined him despite their misgivings. It was easier that way. The three managed to push it over, and then jumped out of the way.

'Look at that,' Ronny said. 'Damn thing sank right into the ground. Spot must be muddy.' Steve shined the flashlight on the spot. 'It looks dry.'

'Then why'd the ground give in so much?'

'Maybe their tunnel goes all the way out here.'

'No way.' Ronny shook his head. 'There's no fucking way those three wimps dug all the way out here. Reiser' s a fat piece of shit. Graco might weigh a buck oh five, soaking wet. The two of them couldn 't do ten pushups if their lives depended on it. And Smeltzer didn't dig it himself.

I'm telling you, the ground must be soft from rain or something.' Afraid to disagree, Steve cast a nervous glance upward and noticed that the storm clouds were growing denser and darker. They looked swollen, heavy, as if they were about to fall out of the sky. He kept it to himself, rather than risk another round of ridicule from his friends.

Ronny started humming Judas Priest's 'Breaking the Law' and Jason accompanied him on air guitar. Both of them whipped their heads back and forth, their long hair flying like windtossed straw.