STAND BY ME: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

THE TREEHOUSE GANG

When the night has come,
And all the land is dark,
And the moon is the only light we'll see.
No, I won't be afraid,
No, I won't shed a single tear,
Just as long as you, just as long as you stand by me.
Won’t you stand by me…

The most important things are the hardest to say. People feel ashamed of them because words make them smaller. When the ideas are in your mind, they feel big and endless. But when you say them, they sound simple and ordinary.

There is another problem. These important things are very close to your heart. They are like secrets. You want to protect them. You are afraid other people may use them against you. It is hard and painful to talk about them. And when you finally try, people often look at you in a strange way. They do not understand what you mean. They do not understand why you almost cry when you speak.

I was twelve years old, almost thirteen, when I saw a dead human being for the first time. It happened in 1960, a long time ago. But sometimes it does not feel like a long time. Sometimes it feels very close.

Especially at night. I sometimes wake up from a dream. In the dream, I see him again. I see the cold hail falling into his open eyes.

We have a tree house in a big tree above an empty field in the town of Castle Rock. It is our club, but it has no name. There is a building there now. It’s a supermarket. And the tree is gone. Things change. Progress. Five or six of us come there often, and some others come and go. Sometimes we let them join us when we play cards, especially if we need more players.

We built the treehouse ourselves. The walls are made from old wood. The wood is rough and full of holes. We cover the holes with paper. The roof is made from a piece of metal that we stole from the dump.

We were always careful when we went to the dump. Because the manager there has a dog. They say that the dog likes to kill kids. So when we stole that roof, we moved fast. One day we also found an old screen door. It was rusty, but it keeps the flies out. When we look through it, everything always looks a little dark, like sunset.

The treehouse is not only for cards. We also go there to smoke cigarettes and look at magazines. Under the floor, we built a secret space where we hide our things, in case a father of one of the boys comes to visit.

That summer is very hot and dry. The newspapers say it is the hottest summer in many years. The grass is dry and brown. It is a Friday morning in September, just before school starts again.

Teddy, Chris, and I sit in the treehouse. We play cards, complain about school, and tell the same jokes again and again. One of Teddy’s favorite jokes is “How do you know a French person was at your house? Your garbage cans are empty and your dog is pregnant!” He likes to tell that joke even though his family came from France a long time ago.

We feel bored. It’s too hot to do anything. We take off our shirts. We do not want to sweat on them too much. The card game is slow. No one cares much. “I have twenty-nine,” Chris says. “I have twenty-two,” Teddy says. I throw my cards down in anger. “Oh, go jump off a bridge, Teddy,” I say. “Ha-ha! Gordie lost! Gordie lost! That was the worst card hand ever!” Teddy says meanly. Then Teddy laughs his unique Teddy Duchamp laugh. 

“Eee-eee-eee!” His laugh sounds like an old nail being pulled out of an old piece of wood. His laugh is loud and strange. Teddy is different from other boys. He cannot see well, so he wears thick glasses. And he wears hearing aids to help him hear better. Sometimes he does not understand what people say. And his answers are strange. People think he is older than he is. But he is almost thirteen, like us.

But the worst thing about Teddy is his ears. When he was younger, something very bad happened. It changed him. When he was eight years old, his father hurt him very badly. Teddy had broken a plate in the kitchen. His father got angry and took him to the stove. The stove was very hot. The metal was red. He grabbed Teddy by the hair and pushed his head down. He held one side of Teddy’s head against the hot metal. 

Teddy screamed. He tried to move, but he couldn’t. His father held him there for about ten seconds. Then he pulled him up. Then he pushed him down on the other side. It burned both of Teddy’s ears. Very badly. After that, Teddy’s ears never looked normal. They were damaged. They look like balls of melted wax now. That is why he cannot hear well.

A neighbor heard Teddy’s screams. She went over to see what was happening. She saw Teddy and his ears. Teddy’s father pointed a gun at her. She ran home and called the police and an ambulance. After that, Teddy’s father sat down with his gun. He acted like he was in a war. The ambulance arrived and the police arrived. Then the ambulance took Teddy to the hospital. The police took Teddy’s father to a prison. They put him in a mental hospital after that. He is still there. 

But Teddy still loves his father. He talks about him with pride. He says his father was a World War II war hero. He visits him every week. He never talks about the abuse by his father. He does not talk about what happened. 

Teddy acts brave. But sometimes he is not careful. He takes big risks. He runs in front of trucks. He waits until the last second. Then he jumps away. The trucks almost hit him. The drivers shout. But Teddy laughs. We feel scared when he does this. He cannot see well. One day, he may not move in time.

“I win!” Teddy yells. He has won a card game against Chris. “You four-eyed piece of shit!” Chris shouts. “This pile of shit has a thousand eyes!” Teddy says. Everyone laughs.

I pick up a magazine. I start to read.

Then we hear a sound. Someone is climbing the ladder to the treehouse. There is a knock on the trap door in the floor. “Who is it?” Chris asks. “It’s Vern!” a voice says. He sounds excited. I open the door. Vern climbs inside.

He is sweating a lot. He is breathing fast. “Wait ‘til you hear this,” he says. “What?” I ask. “Let me breathe,” he says. “I ran all the way here from my house.” “That’s crazy,” Chris says. “It’s too hot for that.” It is crazy. Vern’s house is more than three kilometers from the treehouse.  “This is important,” Vern says. “You won’t believe it.”

“Can you camp out tonight?” he asks. “At my house.” “Maybe,” Chris says. “And you?” Vern asks me. “Probably,” I say. I know I will be able to go. My parents do not watch me much now. My brother was called Dennis. He died in a car accident a few months before. He was twenty years old. After he died, everything changed for me. My parents were very sad. They did not see me anymore. I felt alone. Like I was invisible.

“What’s going on, Vern?” Teddy asks. Chris plays his cards. We continue the game. Then Vern speaks again. He looks at all of us. “Do you guys want to see a dead body?” he says. Everyone stops and stares at him.