over to me.
They approached me, a first grader.
“Hey, you want to go on a hike with us. It's to the coolest place.” Tommy suggested to me.
“I have to go home, “I replied to them.
“Okay, we'll go over to your house. Then ask your Mom if you can go hiking with us. Hey, first I got somethin' to show you on the other side of the school. Someone stashed like fifty bucks, and buried it.”
“I don't know. I'll miss my bus.”
“We take the same bus. We won't miss it. C'mon, you won’t regret it.”
They went to the back of the horseshoe shaped school. Tommy led them to spot in a corner. He started digging with a broken piece of wood. The topsoil felt harden with bits of grass. Then the under soil lay soft and darker. He scrapped and scrapped with a hint of insincerity. After ten minutes he stopped digging.
“Man, it ain't here,” exclaimed Tommy, “Somebody must’ve gotten it before us.” He stood up and tossed the wood.
“I really need to get my bus;” I reiterated to them.
The boys and I raced back to the front of the school to a vacant parking lot. All of The buses had left school.
“I missed my bus," I moaned at my situation," I gotta call my mom. She's gonna be mad.”
“Don't bother the office. Everybody there’s gone home now. My uncle's house is very close. You can call her from there.” Recommended Tommy to me.
“But I think I better call now!”
“If you keep calling you mom, Soon, everyone's gonna think you are a pain in the ass. Then they'll blame you for all the things that go wrong around you. C'mon, it's better to call from my uncle's."
They started walking on a two lane highway. Almost immediately the highway was surrounded by woods. There were no sidewalks, no buildings. A steep hill left no room for boys to walk so they walked on the highway.
Soon a light blue station wagon stopped next to them. The lady, who was driving, leaned over to the passenger door and rolled down the window, “Hey boys. This is a very dangerous road. You need to go back to school and call your parents.”
“Okay” Said Tommy. The car pulled away. “Fuckin' bitch.” Tommy and Danny laughed as they looked me I was confused by them.
“Hey, “Tommy changed the subject, “I got something to show ya at the cemetery. It's just over here.” We already had gone a mile and half on the dangerous highway. Cars were constantly whizzing by us.
We ran in the small country cemetery with me trying to keep up with them.
We fell to their knees at a tombstone. “Hey, Frank, look at this gravestone Silas Hawkins 1698-1771. That's my great, great; I don't know how many fuckin' great, grandfathers. My family's been in Wayland for centuries; when it was all farms and shit. Now all these rich newbies are crowding up everything and shit. You're rich, ain't ya?
“No.”
“Your dad wears suits for one of those big corporations in Boston.”
“I don't know.”
“All the newbies do, my grandfather sold his farm to make new houses for you all, But don't worry. Danny and I will make you one of us; so you won't be a rich stuck up newbie, alright?”
“I guess.”
“Fuckin’ A” He laughed and shook my hand.
They continued their hike. A mile later they left the highway. They came upon and walked on a path through the woods.
“I thought we're going to your uncle's house to call my mom.” I complained to them.
“This is how to go to my Unc le's house. We're almost there.
“It’s so far. I shoul d've called from school.”
“Hey Frank, do you watch Batman?" ignored Tommy," It’s so
Alex Richardson, Lu Ann Wells