Created By

tece26

Rate this Story

Embed

1. Annalyn ran into the field screaming in righteous indignation. “Joey! Sammy! Wait for me I’m coming with you!” She panted as she climbed a chain link fence bordering the lake. “Common guys!” The end of her call ended in more of a whine than she had meant it to sound.
   
   At ten years old, Annalyn was as much a boy as they believed her to be. Her two best friends, Joe and Sam always included her in whatever mischief they were about to create and often benefitted from the fact that no one ever wanted to punish Annalyn. She had a way that just made it seem cruel to punish her for doing what kids do. But today, they wanted to be alone. They were two years older and more and more the last few months they had wanted to go off and do whatever it was boys did.
   
   She pulled herself up the hill slipping on the wet ground, and made it to the top in enough time to see Sam looking over his shoulder as he waved her on. She grinned knowing Joey would yell if he knew Sam was going slower so she could follow, but Sammy always did let her have her way, even if he would never admit it. She slid down the snow on the other side of the hill not caring about what her granny would say later. Joey was hiding something and she was not going to let the fact that she was a girl stop her from knowing what that was.
   
   At the bottom of the hill she slowed down and listened. Joey was talking and she strained to hear as much as she could before she was discovered.
   
   “I took what I could. A little here a little there. I’ve been stashing it here cuz no one ever looks here, and I figure by the time spring comes around and after my thirteenth birthday I’ll be set.”Joey was standing at a small opening in the side of the mountain looking over a stash of canned foods and bags of chips, bottles of water half frozen in the snow and some clothes that were meant for warmer weather. In his hands he held a stack of folded bills and coins.
   
   “Wow Joey! Where did you get all that money?” Annalyn said before she remembered she hadn’t technically been invited on this outing.
   
   Joey spun around and glared at her, shoving the money into his pants pocket. “Lynnie! What are you doing here?” He quickly pulled a tarp over his stuff and started securing it with rocks.
   
   “I wanted to play, you never want to play anymore Joey.” Annalyn said as she stepped closer to Sam.
   
   “I don’t play anymore Lyn, I’m almost thirteen I have bigger things to worry about now.” He had calmed down and absently started to rub his right side. He did that when he was thinking about something big. It was the rib he had broke two summers ago. At school he had told everyone he had fallen, only Sam and Annalyn knew the truth. That his father had come home drunk again, and that Joey had had the nerve to be there at the time. “Listen Lynnie, you can’t tell anyone okay? Promise me you won’t. I have to leave as soon as I can. I’ll go find my mom, but when I go you can’t come here or they might follow you. That’s why I wasn’t gonna show you. You have to promise me.”
   
   She looked up at Sam, “You knew he was going to do this?” Her voice had risen a little. “You knew and you didn’t tell me?”
   
   “I did, kind of.” Sam held her by the shoulders and faced her, “I let you follow us didn’t I?” He whispered it but Joey still heard.
   
   “You let her follow us?”
   
   “Joe she would have found out anyway, we never kept her away before.”
   
   “I trusted you so you could tell people not to worry not to tell them where to find me!” His face was turning red as he tried to understand. “Can I trust either of you not to blow this for me?”
   
   Sam stepped forward and Joey hit him “I can’t trust anyone!”
   
   Annalyn covered her face. She had never seen Joe hit anyone before, although she knew he would be the one to do it if any of them ever got in a fight, but she never thought it would be Sammy. She started forward when she heard Joe curse and saw he was bleeding as well. “Joe stop please! I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” She stepped closer looking down at Sammy and placed her hand on Joe’s shoulder.
   
   He turned so fast and hit her she didn’t have time to back away. The back of his hand connected to the side of her head and for a moment she was blinded with pain. When she could see again, she turned and ran through the trees, not caring where she was headed.
   
   ***************************************************
   
   “NO!” Joe took off after Lynnie. Chasing her as far as he could but the beating he had taken that morning from his old man slowed him down some. And his Lynnie had always been the fastest of them all.
   
   “Lynnie! I’m sorry! Where are you?” He looked down to follow her tracks and saw a drop of blood.
   
   Was it his? No, damn, he had hurt her. He had made her bleed. He quickened his steps and calling out, “Lynnie! I didn’t mean to hurt you you have to know that. I didn’t know you where behind me, you touched me where he beat me this morning. I’m not like my dad I’m so sorry!”
   
   He heard her scream again just ahead of him and he started to run. It was a scared scream that made his heart miss a beat.
   
   He followed her footprints around a corner and saw nothing. There was nothing there, but he heard her scream again. Her feet had stopped forming prints about two feet in front of him, he saw where she slid on the ice, and he knew. He got down on his belly and scooted to the edge of the drop off. There she clung to the side of the mountain digging her fingers into the cold hard rock and trying to get a hold of something solid with her feet.
   
   “Oh God Lynnie! Hold on! I’m going to get you hold on!!”
   
   He reached down and could just barely reach the tips of her fingers.
   
   “J J Joey…” Lyn stuttered shaking from the cold and fear. “I can’t. I can’t hold o o onnn!” She cried
   
   “Don’t cry Lynnie.” Joe said calmly, scooting forward even farther, “Just grab my hand, real quick okay? Let go of the rock and grab me.”
   
   “I can’t! What if I miss?”
   
   “It doesn’t matter Lynnie I won’t miss okay? I will get you.”
   
   Lyn looked up at him, tears blurring her vision. This was her Joey, one of her closest friends. She knew he never meant to hurt her. She quickly reached out her hand but went to fast to connect with Joe.
   
   “Try it again Lyn! Common!”
   
   She reached out again focusing this time on his hand and grabbed a hold. And this time it was Joe who screamed.
   
   Sam had doubled over from the hit because it had been unexpected and Joey was used to fighting his dad, defending himself. His head didn’t clear right away until he heard Annalyn scream. When He looked up she was running off and Joey was chasing her. “Stop! Joe just leave her.” But he was still winded and wasn’t heard above the wind.
   
   He straightened up and followed after Joe. He was just catching up when he heard Annalyn scream again and Joe took off faster than he had ever seen him go. Still winded it took him a little longer to reach the drop off. When He saw Joe he was screaming and struggling on the ice to stay above the edge. Blood covered the snow around Joe and that was when Sam realized Joe must have gotten a beating that morning. It was taking all he had to hold onto Lyn.
   
   He snapped out of his stupor when he saw Joe loose it and start to slide over the edge. Lyn screaming terrified and Joe a horrible mix of pain, fear and defeat.
   
   He jumped, sliding a bit on the ice and grabbed on too Joe as he went over. Grunting from the effort, he managed to hold on with a clumsy hold until Joe got a hold of the mountain.
   
   “Get Lyn.” Joe gasped, “She is scared and losing it I can wait. Lyn Grab a hold of Sam.” Sam dug his toes into the rocks as best he could and reached over for both of his friends.
   
   “Joe I got Lyn, Grab My other hand!”
   
   “No! I’m too heavy, we will all fall. Get Lyn up first.”
   
   “Comon Lyn, “Sam grabbed her with both arms and started pulling her up. “walk with me use your feet.” Sam yanked and pulled Annalyn up the edge and collapsed with her at the edge. She scrambled back a few feet and stood up.
   
   “Joey!” She began to cry, “Sam save Joe!”
   
   Sam went back onto his belly and once more reached over the side. “Joe grab on now!”
   
   Joe looked back up at him with a pained look in his eyes. He reached up about halfway before stopping. “I can’t move my arm any higher Sam. I think he hurt it really bad this time.”
   
   “You will be fine! We can go to the hospital in a minute just hold on now.”
   
   “I can’t reach Sam. I really can’t”
   
   Sam scooted even farther, hanging half off the edge himself. “Joe, now come on you have to hold on. Tighter!”
   
   Joe took hold of his arm but his grasp was weak. Sam began to pull back, felt Joe slipping. “Joe man! Help me here! Joe! Joe!” But the harder Sam tried to hold on, the faster it seemed Joe was slipping away. “NO JOE!!!” He saw the look of hope on his friends face disappear and be replaced with a look of acceptance, then Joe let go and fell.