Hidebehind

Fourteen

I told Jay on Monday what Grandpa had said.

"I know!" he cried. "Everybody knows that old story. I was trying to tell it to you, but you didn't care."

"Whatever. He said some monster got his friend—some monster in the woods out past the farm."

"Everybody knows that old ghost story. Two kids went camping—one didn't come back. The other kid says it was a monster, but it wasn't. At least, it probably wasn't."

"You never said anything about a monster before!"

"They never found his bones; a monster would have left bones."

I thought about this for a minute, assuming Jay's version of things was correct. "Well, not all monsters eat people. I mean, if it was a monster, maybe it just did something that killed him. It wouldn't have to eat him to kill him."

"But that's what monsters do."

"How do you know? You ever seen one?"

"No, but neither have you."

"True."

We were sitting outside. It was lunch recess. That was the only time I saw Jay during school. "I'm not even saying it was a monster," I affirmed. "I don't even believe in monsters." In spite of my words, a chill went up my neck as I remembered the way I'd felt in the woods, before Luther's house. "Anyways . . . don't you think there'd be some sort of records about it? Wasn't it ever in a newspaper or something?"

Jay shrugged. "I don't know. Probably."

I made up my mind to find out.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Jay and I glanced up from our perch on the cement steps of the gym. Three boys from my grade stared down at us; one of them was Alex, whose sister was Maisie. Not sure whether I was expected to reply, I didn't.

"None of your business," retorted Jay.

I winced. "Um,. . . thinking about old ghost stories and stuff."

Alex raised his eyebrows but to my surprise, he sat down beside me and said, "Yeah? Like what?"

Jay squinted his eyes at me and shook his head like he didn't want me to tell, but I pretended I hadn't seen him. "About that one where the two kids went camping in the woods and one didn't come back." I didn't mention that one of them had been Grandpa.

"Sure he did," one of the kids with Alex said; he was a guy with a head shaped like a block of wood and big teeth. He was in the grade under us, so I didn't know his name. "He came back as a ghost. I heard say your grandpa might've did it."

I chewed my lip.

"Might be why he went crazy," said the short boy next to him named Chuck. "Everybody knows that story."

"Naw. He went crazy cause he's stuck with that old crazy lady," said blockhead boy.

"Might not be," said short Chuck. "Might be he felt real guilty about things. Or might be he just acts crazy to cover up what he did. Insanity defense, maybe."

By that point, I was feeling kind of like a squirrel was rooting around in me. I didn't know that people thought those things about my grandpa. I didn't know what to say; I just felt embarrassed and wished I had paid attention to Jay's head shake.

"Aw, shut up," Alex said. "That's not nice to say stuff like that about his grandpa right in front of him." He scratched his dark straight hair and looked about to say something but stopped for a second. Then he opened his mouth again and said, "Hey I can take you to where it happened."

I was confused for a minute.

"No thank you," Jay spat venomously. "We are just fine right here."

Alex ignored him.

I found my voice. "Wait, you mean to where the mons—I mean, to where they were camping?" My shoulders got cold.

"Yep," Alex nodded expectantly. "What do you think about that? Maybe Saturday? In the afternoon?"

"Yeah! Definitely!" More excited than I wanted to appear, I toned it down with a, "I was going to go find it myself sometime, anyway."

When Alex left with the other two guys, I watched them walk away. I still missed my old friends back home, but maybe Alex wasn't so bad for a new one.

"What'd you do that for?" Jay asked.

I'd almost forgotten he was there. I turned and looked at him; he was frowning at me like I'd done something wrong. At that moment, I just didn't feel like talking with a sixth grader. Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "I want to see it."

"It's just some woods."

In spite of myself, I told him, "You can come with us, if you want."

"No," he answered right away. "I don't like those guys."

"Oh." That was about all that could be said, and at that moment, the bell rang, so I turned and walked back into the building by myself.