STAND BY ME: Chapter 2
Chapter 2
A JAR OF PENNIES
We all knew about the story from the radio, of course. We listen to the radio all the time, mostly to music like Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. When the news comes on, we usually stop listening. But this story is different. Ray Brower is our age, and he comes from Chamberlain, a town about forty kilometers from Castle Rock.
Three days before Vern came to the tree house, Ray Brower went out to pick wild strawberries. He took one of his mother’s buckets and walked into the forest. When night came and he did not return, his mother called the police, and they began to search for him.
But after three days, no one found him. From the radio, we understand that they are not going to find him alive. Sooner or later, they will stop looking. They are already searching in lakes and deep pools. They are sending divers down into the water.
Things are different now. Today, this kind of thing cannot happen easily in south-west Maine. There are many suburbs all over the state. There are many roads and highways. Even if you walk into the forest, you will find a road sooner or later. But in those days, it was different. You could walk into the forest, lose your way, and die.
Vern Tessio is under the front of his house, digging in the dirt. Before I explain what he hears, I need to explain why he is digging there. And before that, I should say something about Vern and Teddy. They have the same level of intelligence. That means that they don’t have much intelligence. Vern’s brother Billy is even worse.
Four years earlier, when Vern was eight years old, he buried a jar of pennies under the house. He called that dark space his cave. At that time, he was playing a game of cops and robbers, and he hid the pennies from the “police.” He drew a map to remember where the jar was and put it in his room.
After some time, he forgot about the jar. Then one day, he wanted to go to the cinema, but he did not have enough money. He remembered the pennies and went to find the map. But his mother had cleaned his room. She had thrown away the map with some old papers and magazines. She used them to start a fire in the fireplace. So the map was gone.
Since then, Vern has searched for the jar many times. The money was only a few dollars, but in his mind it became more and more important. Sometimes he imagined there was much more money in the jar. But he never found it.
We sometimes told him that his brother Billy probably took the money. But Vern did not believe us, even though he did not like his brother. He never asked Billy about it. Maybe he was afraid that Billy would laugh at him. So Vern is digging again on that Friday morning. While he is under the house, he hears the screen door open and close above him. He stays very quiet.
He hears Billy’s friend Charlie Hogan speaking. “Jesus Christ, Billy, what are we going to do?” he says. Charlie is one of the toughest boys in town. He is in the same group as Ace Merrill and Eyeball Chambers. So when Vern hears him speak like that, he knows something is wrong.
“Nothing,” Billy says. “We’re not going to do anything.” “But didn’t you see him?” Charlie says. “It must be that boy from the news - the Brower kid. The train must have hit him.” “Yeah,” Billy says. “And you puked. It’s a good thing the girls didn’t see him. They would tell everyone. Do you think they noticed anything?”
“No,” Charlie says. “Marie doesn’t like the Back Harlow Road anyway. She thinks it’s scary. But it’s bad that we stole that car. Now we can’t tell the police. They will ask how we got there. And I puked on my new shoes. Did you see him? He was just lying there.” They finish their cigarettes and start to leave.
“Are we going to tell Ace?” Charlie asks. “No,” Billy says. “We’re not going to tell anyone.” When Vern is sure they are gone, he climbs out and runs all the way to the treehouse to tell us what he heard.
