This is the continued story of Simon’s Journal.
I would highly recommend you read the first volume of this story, Thirteen Days
before you begin this novel.
The following narrative is nearly a complete work of
fiction.
Any similarity to actual individuals living or dead is completely
unintentional.
If reading a coming of age story about boys wearing diapers and exploring their
awakening sexuality is offensive or illegal in your area, then might I suggest
you go read War and Peace or something equally stimulating.
Simon's Journal
Volume II
Thirteen Nights – After the Crusade
Written by
Danny
Author of Thirteen Days
PART 1 – Thursday, March 04, 2004 – Hazards in a Winter Wonderland
I’m not sure how long I had been asleep. All I really know is that I was dreaming about that man with his rusted out and primer painted van. I kept seeing him with a big gunshot hole in his head, which I could see all the way through, but he wasn’t dead. He was driving his van that seemed to have a mouth, with fangs on the front of it, and it kept trying to chomp down on my diapered butt whenever it would get close enough. I was screaming and running but no matter how fast I ran, I didn’t seem to get anywhere.
What made it worst was that all of my friends including Peter and his gang as well as all the Panthers were all sitting in bleachers watching the whole time and laughing at me. They were chanting my name “SIMON! SIMON!” as if saying it enough times would cause me to stumble and fall into the waiting jaws of the monster van. Just when I thought I could not run anymore, when I was sure the man and his van were going to finally catch me I woke up screaming.
“Simon!” mom said holding tightly to my shoulders. I opened my eyes to see her and dad both leaning over me looking as scared as I felt.
“You were having a nightmare!” mom said and as if she had given me permission too, I started to wale like a new born baby.
They both sat next to me and held me as I screamed and cried for quite a while. I have no idea just how long, because my eyes were so filled with tears that I couldn’t see much farther then mom’s face, which was only a few inches from mine.
They both kept trying to hush me by saying such things as, “It’s okay! It was just a nightmare, you are okay.” However, I didn’t feel okay; I had never felt so ‘not’ okay in my life and all I could seem to do was scream and cry.
I really don’t remember doing so, but I must have cried myself back to sleep because when I awoke again it was 4:17 AM. Having tossed and turned so much while dreaming, my covers had all been kicked off and were bunched up, partly at the foot of my bed but mostly down on the floor. I managed to roll myself out of bed only to find that I no longer was wearing the double thick cloth diaper dad had pinned on me after my bath yesterday. I was now only sporting a single thick cloth diaper and clear-blue snap on plastic pants.
By the time I had my sheets and covers sorted out and back on my bed, I was too cold and awake to be able to fall asleep again so I decided I’d try to tire myself out again by journaling. I was also hoping that if I forced myself to think about other things then I would be able to think about my nightmare, which seemed to now want to replay in my mind, I mean now that I was awake again.
After getting my electronic journal, I climbed back into bed and sat Indian style while facing and resting my e-journal on my pillow. I was able to pull my blankets up over my head, like a makeshift tent, to keep me warm while I wrote. The glow of my e-journal’s screen was light enough to see by.
After about a half-hour of writing, my hand started to get tired and I thought about going to my regular computer so that I could type out my thoughts but the idea of leaving my now warm cocoon seemed unthinkable. Then I remembered about the accessory kit, for my e-journal, dad had bought me at the computer show.
“Now what the heck did I do with that?” I thought aloud.
Relinquishing myself to the idea that I’d have to once again allow my body to be ravaged by the cold night air, quick as I could, I flew out from under my covers to my desk. I searched every drawer and didn’t find it. I then went to my closet, still nothing; I even looked under Jamie’s bed and still could not figure out what I did with it!
“Where is it?” I groaned clutching my arms around myself in a failed attempt to hold in some of my bed heat. I was standing on my tiptoes to keep the bottoms of my feet off the cold floor as I danced from one foot to the other.
“Hey?” I said aloud as the revelation hit me that I wasn’t wearing pajama’s anymore either! I did the cold floor dance over to the hamper and found it was empty. “I’d had the notion that maybe the other diaper had leaked all over my pajamas and I just wanted confirmation of that idea but it was left unanswered.
I turned back around and from across my darkened room I saw a glistening from under the corner of my bed near the leg of my headboard and recognized it at once as the plastic bag from the computer and electronics show.
With only a couple ballerina type leaps, I was by my bed, seized the bag and jumped back onto my bed with a ceremonial, “Burrrr!” as I once again thrust my blankets over my head.
Though not as warm as it had been before, my fabric cocoon did offer some warmth and did not take long to heat up again.
“I hate it when manufactures seal everything in plastic display cases!” I groaned and started to bite the plastic to get it opened.
It took some effort but I eventually had the plastic display case ripped into several pieces and had the contents sprawled across my lap. Lifting the edge of my blanket, I tossed the clear plastic pieces out into the cold as if banishing them to a frozen fate!
There was a folding keyboard that plugged into my e-journal and as soon as I did plug it in, a little message popped up in the middle of the screen that said:
P5437/104 Keyboard attached
|
I suppose I could have taken the time to examine the other items that came in the package but all I cared about now was the keyboard. Therefore, with a little more care, I lifted the edge of my covers, reached out with my left arm and gently deposited the other things on my night table before retracting my arm back into the warmth.
With the new keyboard already attached, I started typing and wasn’t just a little surprised at the fact that I’d not had to do anything other then plug it in to make it work.
“I got to remember to tell dad just how cool this is tomorrow!” I said as I went back to journaling, only this time typing out my thoughts rather then writing them longhand on the screen.
I’d been typing joyfully away when I felt more intense warmth and it took me a second to realize that it was inside my diaper.
“Hey!” I snapped at my diaper-engulfed boyhood. “Stop that! You have to stop doing that! I have to go back to school in a few days and you can’t just let go of my pee anytime you darn well feel like it!” Had anyone been around at that moment and heard me talking to my penis, I would probably have ended up in the loony-farm for sure!
Visualizing, I clamped off the flow of pee and said, “You know better then that! You know you are supposed to do that in the toilet!”
And then thinking about going back out in the cold again I surrendered, “Okay, but this is the last time! Do you hear me?” and I released my muscles and let the stream flow until I was once again empty and comfortable.
I went back to writing, my brain jumping between thinking about what I was writing and relishing in the extra warmth between my legs.
Around 6:30 a.m., when sleep started to take me again, I once more forced myself to venture out into the icy wastelands of my room, leaving behind the warmth of my covers. After putting away my e-journal and before returning to bed I decided to peek out my bedroom window to see if it had stopped snowing sometime in the night. What I saw astounded me and left me in a state of awe.
The world as I knew it no longer excited. It had been blanketed in what looked to be at least a couple feet of snow. Every tree and bush was filled with so much snow that branches seemed to be bowing low under the weight. All the houses across the street had snowdrifts that looked much deeper. “Everyone will have a hard time getting out of their front doors this morning.” I said as I noticed that the wind must have been coming from behind our house, because the snow didn’t seem to be as deep up close to the front of ours as it was with the houses across the street.
My warm breath against the cold glass caused it to fog and I had to wipe it away with my hand to still be able to see. The glass was so cold that it felt like tiny fairies were biting at my fingers.
“That’s it!” I said. “The end of the world has come and I’m the last remaining soul alive!”
I wiped the glass clear again, “The second ice age has come during the night and encased the planet in snow and ice!” I giggled softly, “The horror! THE HORROR!”
Leaving the glass fogged this time; I quickly found my robe and pulled it on before leaving my room and going to the sliding backdoor to look out. However, when I got there, I could not see. Our back porch was completely filled with snow that was higher then I was tall. Snow had blown all the way up under the back porch roof and was pilled against the back door until only about a foot or so was still able to be viewed out of at the very top. I’d pulled one of the kitchen table’s chairs over to the door and was standing on my tiptoes looking out but at that height and angle I couldn’t see anything other then the fact that our entire porch was filled with snow.
After getting down from the chair I went to the kitchen window and using a spatula from the drawer so that I could reach, I pulled open the curtain enough to see that, that window was complete blocked with snow too.
“Wow!” I said dropping the spatula on the counter and racing back to tell mom and dad that we were snowed-in.
I knocked softly at first on their bedroom door and when there was no answer I knocked a little harder. Given the time of morning and the fact that it was a weekday I was surprised that neither was up yet.
I lifted my hand to knock on the door once more when there was an explosive sound that came from outside. It sounded like a bomb went off and I jumped in the air and spun around when it occurred.
As the sound reverberated, in that instant the only two sources of light where I was standing, the hallway nightlight and the light coming from my bedroom, both went out. Abruptly in a flurry of fabric, flesh and carpet I found myself lying on the carpeted hallway floor with someone lying beside me growing and moaning.
“Simon is that you?” I heard dad’s rough morning voice ask through the total darkness.
“Yea!” I said and then cried out, “Dad you’re crushing my arm!”
I felt the weight of his body lift off my right arm, instantly relieving me of the pain. “Don’t move!” he said and from inside the bedroom I heard mom cry out, “What happened? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, I just tripped over your son!” dad growled back at her.
“Is he okay?” she cried next.
“I’m fine mom! As long as dad doesn’t fall on me again!” I said and then shouted, “Dad that’s my hand!” when I felt dad nearly stepping on my fingers.
“Well move it then!” dad barked.
“But you said not to move!” I yelled back.
“Simon, stop arguing with me and tuck your arms and legs in before you make me fall and hurt myself again.” Dad yelled.
From back in their room, mom must have heard him because she said, “You did hurt yourself then?”
Sounding angry dad shot back at her, “Honey! Would you please give me a few minutes to find out what is going on?”
There was complete silence after that, except for the sound of dad’s muffled footsteps on the carpet. In another place and time, I would have thought it interesting that I could actually hear the sound of the carpet being crushed under dad’s feet.
Within minutes, I saw the glow of a light coming from the direction of the kitchen and getting brighter as it got closer.
“You all right?” dad asked as I was getting to my feet and shielding my eyes from the retina burning of the flashlight.
“Yea I’m okay, what do you think it was?” I asked and from right behind me mom asked, “Are you alright sweetheart?”
“He’s fine.” Dad said still sounding quite irritated with her.
I heard mom make a noise that sounded like she was trying to twist a chickens head off.
“Here!” dad said handing me a flashlight, “Go back to your room and stay there until I tell you, you can come out.”
I did as he said without question, went to my bedroom window and looked out. Aside from the slight morning sun that was trying to get through the layer of cloud cover, there were no lights at all anywhere. Every house and streetlight looked completely dark, at least as far as I could see form my window.
From elsewhere in the house I heard mom exclaimed, “Oh my goodness!” and I figured she’d just tried to look out either the backdoor or the kitchen window.
Dad’s reply to mom’s exclamation was, “Just be glad we don’t live on the other side of the street, else we’d not be able to get out of the front of our house.”
I leaned to the edge of my window and saw the front storm door swing open and then closed again but no one came out of it. I figured dad was making sure it opened.
“I can’t believe it! Not at this time of year!” came mom’s voice again.
“Must have kept this up all night!” I heard dad say softer and I figured mom must be closer to him now.
“Oh my goodness gracious!” I heard mom exclaiming again and not able to stand it anymore I went to my door and shouted out. “Can I come out now?”
Mom answered, “If you can find them, put on your slippers first!”
And then dad added, “You’d better get some clothes on too, it’s going to get cold in here!”
I quickly found my slippers and raced out to the living room. Both mom and dad were standing by the front door looking up the hill of our street.
“That’s what I thought it was. Look up there by the Murphy’s house; see the transformer?” dad was saying to mom.
“Oh my, it’s all black!” mom said and then the two of them came back inside and closed the door.
“What is it?” I asked excitedly, “Did Russia attack? Is it a Martian invasion?”
Dad looked down at me and said, “Where do you come up with these ideas?”
“Television!” Mom asked for me.
“The transformer blew, probably from all the ice.” Dad said. “Looks like we’re going to be without power for a while.”
“Well we have plenty of candles for light and . . .” mom’s voice trailed off as she was thinking and then as if someone flicked a match inside her head, she said, “Oh, I could heat water using that fondue pot.”
“Actually I think it’s out in the garage.” Dad said, “but what do we need hot water for?” he asked.
“Coffee!” mom said turning to go to the kitchen with a flashlight in her hand.
“Oh yea! Must have my coffee!” dad said finally smiling.
“Why didn’t you get up for work today?” I asked seeing he was standing before me wearing nothing but a pair of plaid boxer shorts and his bathrobe, which was not tied shut.
“My boss called late last night and said he was closing the office for today since the snow was already nearly 8-inches deep around nine last night.” He said pulling his robe closed and tying the matching plaid belt to keep it closed.
“What’s everyone think of Pop Tarts and coffee for breakfast?” mom asked from the kitchen. She then came back around the corner and for the first time I realized she was only wearing a nearly see-through nightgown.
I quickly covered my eyes and shouted, “MOM GO PUT ON SOME CLOTHES! GEEZE!”
I heard dad laugh and mom said, “Oh yea!” and whooshed past me.
“She’s gone!” dad laughed.
“Dang!” I said uncovering my eyes!
“That reminds me!” dad said.
“What?” I said.
“I meant to talk to you last night about the recent decline in your grammar.” He said shining the light right in my face, causing me to have to shield my eyes.
“Sorry!” I said suddenly realizing what he was saying.
“Consider this your last warning about it!” he said.
I only nodded my head.
“Okay then!” dad said before adding, “Now go get dress . . .” but he didn’t finish his statement. He’d shined his flashlight on the front of my plastic pants which seemed to almost beam like a blue neon light. “Actually, I think we should get you changed first!”
I covered the front of my diaper with my free hand and felt my face get hot with embarrassment. “You’d think I’d get used to this by now.” I thought to myself as he led me back to my room, shining his light ahead of us.
When we reached the point in the hallway where dad had fallen over me, I saw in the small section of wall between mom and dad’s room door and the hallway bathroom door that there was a sizable whole in the drywall.
“Whoa, what happened there?” I said shining my light on it.
“That is where my elbow went through the wall.” Dad said.
I spun around to shine my light on him, “Are you okay?” I asked with genuine concern.
“I’ll live, I ‘spect.” He said, “Drywall’s not as hard as elbows, thankfully!” he said jokingly.
Shining my light on the hole again, “Gee-whiz dad, that would of hurt me!”
Before turning into my room dad called to mom throw there closed bedroom door, “Honey, I’m going to get Simon cleaned up and into a dry diaper!”
“God did he have to say it like that?” I continued thinking.
Back in my room, I used the flashlight dad had handed me to find my own smaller and lighter weight flashlight that I’d placed on my desk. I sat the other on my nightstand after clicking mine on. The beam of light was not only brighter, but sent out a wider beam of light. After I found the edge of my bed, sat down and awaited dad’s return from my dresser. I shined my light over in his direction, “Thank you!” he said trying to gather the things with one hand and hold his light with the other.
“This is kind of fun!” I said.
“I’m glad you think so.” He said back.
“How long you think the power will be out?” I asked as he deposited the diapering supplies on my night table.
“Given the amount of snow out there, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was for the better part of the day.” He said crossing to my window and opening my curtains wide.
“Is your room always this cold in the mornings?” he asked.
“Pretty much!” I said.
“Going to have to do something about that!” he said as soft light seemed to flow in like a warm spring wind blowing and as long as I didn’t look out the window, I could hang on to the idea that it was a warm bright sunshiny day. Unfortunately, I did look out the window from where I sat and could see that it was once again snowing but not quite as hard as it had been when I’d gone to bed last night.
“More snow?” I complained.
“Funny how you pray for snow when you know you have to go to school.” He said joking again.
I gave him a half smile as he came back over, clicking his flashlight off, “Don’t think we’ll need these until later today, better save the batteries.
From outside my window there was an odd sound that I couldn’t seem to form into a mental picture. “You hear that?” I asked.
“Yea!” dad said going back to my window. “Someone’s already out on a snow mobile!”
“Really?” I said getting up and joining him at the window.
“Whoa! That looks like fun!” I said watching as the driver, who looked to be kind of short from our vantage point. The rider stopped several houses up the hill from ours. It appeared that the driver of the snow mobile was talking to someone in that house, then waved and went to the next house.
“I’ll be right back, stay here!” dad said to me and quickly left my room.
A moment later I saw our storm door fly open and dad step out onto the front porch. With my window closed, I could not hear what was being said but I did finally recognize the person on the snow mobile because he came right up to our house and pulled off his helmet. It was BJ!
I through my robe back around myself and raced to the front door, “BJ!” I shouted past dad and interrupting whatever it was BJ had been saying. It wasn’t until later that I realized what it was I’d heard him saying as I’d made my way to the door.
“Since they caught the man they said I could come out.” Is what I had heard him saying to dad.
“Simon, get back inside!” dad said, “You’re going to freeze out here!”
“Hi Simon!” BJ said with a smile.
“I think we’re all set here but thanks for checking on us!” dad said giving BJ a wave, “You want to come in and warm up a bit?” dad asked him.
“No thanks! I’ve only been out here for a few minutes.” BJ said pulling his helmet back on. “I’ll stop back by later if that’s okay though!” he asked.
“Absolutely and thanks again!” dad said and I added, “Yea, see ya Beej.” which was my nickname for him.
Back in the house again, “Alright, back to your room with you Frosty the Snow Child!” dad said playfully trying to kick me in the backside.
“Dad, I want one of those!” I said and then asked, “What’s he doing anyway?”
“He’s going door-to-door to check and see if anyone needs anything.” Dad said.
“Wow that’s pretty cool!” I said.
“I think so too!” he said as we reentered my room.
Mom came back out of her room fully dressed except she was also wearing her big pink fuzzy slippers. “Did I hear you say BJ was here?” she asked.
“Yea, he’s going door-to-door on his snow mobile.” I answered for dad.
“Oh that’s so sweet!” mom said, “Why didn’t you invite him in?”
“We did!” I answered again, “But he only just started!”
“Oh, alright then. I’m going to go see about making coffee by candle! She said with a funny sort of expression. When I looked back over at dad he was looking at the spot mom had been standing and was shaking his head.
“What?” I said.
“Nothing, lay down!” he said and the way he said it I could tell he was only playing like he was being mad at me right then.
“Yea, yea! I know the procedure!” I joked back.
As I was climbing back on my bed, he gave my backside a swat that made more noise against my plastic pants then anything else.
“Hey!” I complained.
Dad once again pinned me into a double layer of cloth diapers before re-snapping the blue plastic pants over them. However, before he pinned them on he did an extra good job of washing me with the wipes and I figured the extra attention was because I couldn’t take a bath. I don’t know a lot, but I do know that our water heater runs off electric and if the electric is out, we don’t have a lot of hot water except what is in the tank. I learned that last summer when a storm came through and knocked out the power and I had gone and taken a shower and used up all the hot water.
As dad helped me get dressed, I thought about the fact that dad seemed to not mind me being in diapers as much as mom seemed too. I came to that conclusion because dad always seemed to diaper me heavy where as mom seemed to want me diapered light. I on the other hand, wasn’t sure how I liked it. Mostly I liked being diapered, what bothered me was the idea of going back to school on Monday.
“Guess what?” mom asked as dad was helping me put on my socks. I turned my head to see her standing in the doorway to my room.
“What’s that?” dad asked.
“The phone’s not working either.” She said.
“Because there’s no electric love!” dad said.
“The phone doesn’t run on electric!” I said.
“Ours does!” dad said pinching my toe.
“Ouch!” I complained.
Dad looked back over to mom and all she said was, “Oh!” and left again but dad called after her, “You can use your cell phone!”
There was no answer from her and without thinking; I asked dad, “You and mom fighting about me?”
“Who says we’re fighting?” dad asked slipping my right foot into my shoe.
“You are, aren’t you?” I asked again.
“Don’t you go worrying yourself about it. We’ll work things out!” he said sliding the other shoe onto my left foot.
I wanted to tell him that I am not just a little kid and that I am part of the family and when they fight, it hurts me just as much as it does them! Instead, I clammed up and said nothing.
Back in the kitchen, “How’s the coffee coming?” dad asked of mom.
Mom turned around and I could see something silver sitting on the counter. It took us both a few seconds to realize that it was the fondue pot.
“Oh you found it!” dad said.
“It was in the pantry after all!” she said, adding, “I’d say in about a half-hour you’ll have your coffee!”
“Wonderful!” dad said. “In the mean time, I think I’ll go get dressed myself!”
With dad gone, I thought I’d try my luck at getting some information out of mom. I waddled over to the kitchen table, sat down and asked, “So, are you and dad fighting about something I done?”
Mom didn’t answer but shot me a look that told me perfectly clearly that I’d better just shut up and mind my own business.
In due time, dad was back and the three of us ate our Pop Tarts and dad drank his coffee, which I could tell by the face he kept making every time he took a sip, that it wasn’t very good coffee, but he didn’t complain; not even once.
I had a glass of orange juice with my Pop Tart and while I ate, I was doing some thinking, which eventually formed into an idea, which then formed into words. “Dad, how do Eskimos walk on the snow?” I asked.
“With snowshoes!” he answered.
“Kind of like tennis rackets?” I asked.
“You’re not using my tennis rackets to strap to your feet!” mom interrupted.
“No!” I said, “That’s not what I meant. I mean, they are like that right?” I asked directing my question back to dad.
“Yea, I guess they are something like that.” He said popping the last bite of his Pop Tart into his mouth.
That was all I had to say to get dad thinking and I could tell he was thinking because he got that faraway look in his eyes and was rubbing his whiskered chin.
After a couple minutes he said, “I think we can fashion a couple pair of snow shoes and venture out to dig ourselves out to the garage and the snow blower.”
Mom only rolled her eyes back in her head, got up from the table and took all of our cups to the sink.
Within maybe an hour’s time, dad and I had managed to use things from around the house to throw together a couple pair of makeshift snow boots and tied them to our winter snow boots using belts.
Now there was no way mom would have let us open the back door. The snow was sure to just fall right into the house so instead we went out the front door and made our way around the house and to the garage.
It was so eerily quiet outside. About he only sound to be heard was the sound of kids out playing in the snow somewhere in the distance.
The way our house and garage sets; the snow had sort of blown between them up onto the back porch and had the walk door to the garage nearly covered. However, only about half of the garage door was blocked and since it went up and down, all dad had to do was click the button and the door opened right up.
Something I found both interesting and funny was, when the garage door opened I expected all the snow that was piled against it to fall into the garage but it didn’t. Instead, it sat there like a great glacier wall.
“That’s really cool!” I said.
“Yea that is kind of neat.” Dad said back.
After taking off his makeshift snowshoes he went to the back of the garage and with a lot of shifting of other things, managed to get the snow blower up to the front of the garage. However, getting it started proved to be a bigger challenge. Dad and I worked at it for what seemed like an hour before it finally started. I jumped up and down cheering when it roared to life and dad started plowing into the snow at the lowest point.
He had only made it a few feet when BJ came tooling up on his snow mobile again. Instead of turning off the snow blower, dad only idled it back enough that we could hear BJ talking loudly.
“Hey!” he said extending out a cup of coffee to dad. I seen on the side of the cup that it said, ‘7-11’ and I guessed BJ had gone all the way up to the corner store just to get the coffee!
“BJ you are about the most wonderful boy I know!” dad said with a smile as he gratefully took the coffee!
“Yea, I remember you drink coffee too! My dad was a serious grump this morning until I got him some!” he had said with a big smile!
“Hey Simon! You want to go for a ride?” BJ asked.
“DAD, CAN I?” I said jumping up and down.
“Take off those snow shoes!” he said.
“Hey, that’s a really cool idea!” BJ added as I unfastened them from my boots. I started to climb up the snow to get to BJ but dad stopped me.
“Hang on!” and he took my snowshoes and using one of the belts strapped it onto my back and buckled the belt over one of my shoulders and under my other arm.
He then lifted me up and helped me to get on the snowmobile behind BJ.
“Be careful and do not get hurt, either of you!” dad yelled over the idling blower.
BJ took it slow at first, until we were well out of site and then really opened it up. We were flying over the snow and jumping the snowdrifts. It was an absolute blast!
“We got to go up to my house for a minute!” BJ yelled back to me.
“Okay!” I yelled back.
A few minutes later we were at his house, his father was also clearing the snow from there drive way with a snow blower.
“Hey there Simon!” BJ’s dad said when he saw me climbing off the back of the snow mobile. “Wow you are looking a lot better then BJ had described!”
“Yea, I’m doing tons better!” I said brushing the snow from the fronts of my pants legs and remembering that I was, quite amply, diapered. Thankfully, my coat seemed to hide any signs, but to stay safe I didn’t do any undue bending or walking around.
BJ got off too and went up to his dad and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “They give you any trouble?” BJ’s dad asked him.
“Nope, but she did say she was going to ask you about them the next time you were in there.” He said before coming back to climb aboard the snow mobile again.
“We’re going to go riding for a while if that’s okay?” he asked.
“Got enough gas?” his dad asked popping a cigarette into his mouth.
“Yea, I filled up while I was there!” BJ answered and then said to me, “Hope on!” so I did and held onto him as we took off like a rocket.
We road on up his road, down another and then over to the park where we had to stop and turn back; a tree had fallen right across the entrance to the park and had it blocked. However, that was not the bad part; the bad part was that it had also falling across someone’s car.
“Oh that’s not good!” BJ said.
“Yea that’s not good at all!” I said back.
“Mind if we stop to see if they need anything?” he asked.
“Good idea!” answered.
He tooled up to within a couple feet of the front door, their house didn’t have a porch and was positioned in basically the same direction as my house was so the snow was only a couple feet deep but was still up against their storm door.
“Go ahead and knock!” he said to me and I reached out and pounded my fist on the door. A moment later, an old man opened the door and was holding a can of beer.
“Hi-ya mister!” BJ said. “We seen your car and well we are just out seeing if there is anything people need since they can’t get out because of the snow.”
“What about my car?” He said and then saw the tree lying across it. “Oh holy . . .” and a string of cures words came out of the mans mouth that made both BJ and I flinch.
The old man was shouting and threw his can of beer out into the snow while still cursing. BJ leaned back, turning his head slightly and said, “Guess he didn’t know about the car!” I couldn’t help but giggle at his comment but I had the common sense enough to know to at least turn my head away so as not to offend the elderly man.
After listening to the man rant and rage for several minutes a younger lady came to the door looking very offended by the mans colorful language. BJ once again explained the reason we had knocked and she thanked us for stopping and letting them know about the car.
A second later we were once again flying across the snow and eventually ended up at the top of Tater’s street. From our vantage point, it looked like no one had been out of any of the houses as we sat atop the hill looking down.
“Wanna see how fast we can go down this hill?” BJ asked and I gripped my arms around him tighter and shouted, “Go for it!”
That was all the incentive BJ needed and we were rocketing down the street. Even if someone had been looking out of Tater’s house, they never would have known it was us; we would have looked like a blur shooting past.
Going down the hill so fast was a great thrill but it didn’t scare me. What did scare the life out of me was the fact that when we got to the bottom of the hill we were going so fast that we shot right across the street. Of course the probability that someone was coming either way was doubtful given that none of our roads had been cleared yet in our plat, but still a snowplow or a 4-Wheel-Drive truck could get through easily enough.
We continued racing around the neighborhoods not really carrying where we went. About the only thing that seemed to effect our direction was when we’d see a particularly good mound of snow to jump.
It wasn’t until we’d come to the end of a dead-end street that BJ slowed to a stop. He pulled off his helmet and turned off the engine before saying, “Wanna give it a try?” However, I hadn’t heard him because something else had seized my full attention.
“Simon?” BJ called my name but I still did not answer, “Hey man you alright?” he tried to turn on the seat but I had a death-hold on him from behind.
He brought his elbow back into my chest, which thankfully my armor protected me from but it was enough to snap me out of my trance.
“What’s up with you?” he asked.
“Th-that house!” I said nodding my head toward what I recognized to be the very same house I had hid in only yesterday.
“What? You mean crazy, old-man Peterson’s house?” he said, “Don’t tell me you are scared of that old fart?”
“I met him yesterday.” I said not knowing what I was saying.
“You what?” he shouted and stood up, dismounting the snow mobile.
I looked up at him. “You saying you talked with him?” he had lowered his voice to a near whisper. “Don’t you know who that is?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“That’s old man Johnson! They say he killed his whole family and ate their bodies!” BJ was ranting.
“WHAT?” I said realizing the ridiculousness of what he had just said, “That’s not true!”
“Simon! I’m telling you! It’s 110 percent true! Everyone around here knows it!” he said.
“No way!” I said looking back at the house, but even I wasn’t so convinced by my comment.
“What did he say to you?” BJ asked.
“N-nothing, I mean well, nothing really.” I said not wanting to tell BJ about yesterday.
“Man Simon! You got some seriously good luck! I’ve heard that he’s tried to trick people into coming into his house so that he can eat them!” BJ said.
“C-can w-we g-get out of here?” I said unable to hide my fear any longer.
Now BJ knows me well and knows that I stutter worse with I’m scared or excited and normally he’s really good about getting me calmed down so that I stop stuttering. So, this time he just said, “You got it man!” and jumped back on the snow mobile.
We were gone in a flash and didn’t stop until we were nearly at the bottom of my street. “This here’s were they said on the news that, that guy that was kidnapping all those kids killed himself yesterday.
“D-did they find the kids yet?” I asked.
“Na, my dad doesn’t think they ever will. Least not alive!” BJ said.
“So you want to go home now or you want to go riding some more?” he asked.
“What do you say we go back to my house and warm up a bit?” I said.
“Alright, sounds good to me!” he said gunning the engine and aiming the front end up my street.
Next Installment:
Chapter 5 – PART 2 – Thursday, March 05, 2004 – Treasures for the Taking
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