Colin was surprised at how heavy the shotgun was. No one was going to understand until it was all over, but he couldn\u2019t just do nothing. He dragged his sister\u2019s wagon into the house and left mud tracks on the dining room\u2019s white carpet. He\u2019d get it for that, but he had to do something.<\/p>\n
Mom would have to understand.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you going?\u201d His mother stopped cleaning the potatoes in the sink and wiped her forehead with the back of her purple gloves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look like a mad scientist with those things on,\u201d Colin said and smiled. \u201cTom and I are going to skip rocks on the pond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom nodded. \u201cStay out of the water, okay?\u201d She tossed the spud and caught it. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re not back in an hour I\u2019ll come looking for you. Deal?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDeal.\u201d The pond was just over the hill in the back yard and Tom\u2019s parents lived next door. She was giving him plenty of time. The last time she\u2019d come looking for him and he wasn\u2019t where he said he was, he\u2019d been grounded for a month. He took her seriously. \u201cBack in an hour.\u201d He set the timer on his plastic watch and held his wrist up to show her.<\/p>\n
Mom blew him a kiss and he slid the back door open, closed it then bounded off the porch.<\/p>\n
Tom was waiting for him. \u201cDude,\u201d he said. \u201cReady?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep.\u201d Colin slapped his buddy on the shoulder and they set off down the trail to the pond. Which wasn\u2019t really a pond as much as it was a sink where water collected after rains. It was a depression at the edge of a long field that had once grown corn. There was a manmade basin above it where runoff also collected, with culverts that emptied into it. Neither of them understood it much, but Colin\u2019s Mom had told them this at the beginning of summer and they had respected her instructions to not play on the basin or in the culverts.<\/p>\n
They climbed the edge of the basin and walked around to their right then turned left to follow the ridge. \u201cThis one over here,\u201d Tom said and pointed. \u201cLook at it. Dry as a bone. Just like always.\u201d<\/p>\n
The culvert, taller than all the others, was nearly twice Colin\u2019s height, and bone dry while all the others showed traces of water or still draining. Last night\u2019s storm had been a doozy. Mom had dragged Colin and his little sister Maia to the basement at one point. \u201cYou think we should go in there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHeck yeah,\u201d Tom said. \u201cI want to know where it leads. Don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Their sneakers didn\u2019t make any sounds in the metal tube and Tom\u2019s headlamp (a gift from his grandmother at Christmas) gave enough light that they didn\u2019t have to use the weak light on Colin\u2019s watch to try and see. The tube turned and they followed it. \u201cLook,\u201d Colin said and grabbed Tom\u2019s arm. \u201cThere\u2019s light ahead.\u201d He kept his voice down but it was hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight,\u201d Tom said and turned off the headlamp. He pulled it off and stuck it in his pocket. \u201cWe need to let our eyes adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d Colin peered into the murk and saw the light getting brighter, slowly but surely. He checked his watch. Half an hour to go before his deadline. Maybe forty-five minutes before she came looking. There was time. \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
They crept down the tube, both keeping one hand on the side to steady themselves. There was no water anywhere and the tube curved gently to their right. It was getting brighter, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s that trippin\u2019 on my bridge?\u201d<\/p>\n
The voice was gravel on gravel, like the orcs in The Two Towers. Colin froze. \u201cWe should get out of here,\u201d he said and reached out for Tom.<\/p>\n
Who was five, now six, steps ahead of him and walking into the light. He looked over his shoulder at Colin. \u201cYou\u2019re not scared are you?\u201d He smiled and continued around the bend.<\/p>\n
Petrified with fear, Colin couldn\u2019t move at all. He was rooted.<\/p>\n
Then he heard Tom\u2019s yelp and a scream. Then Colin could move.<\/p>\n
He ran back the way they\u2019d come as fast as he could.<\/p>\n
Daylight blinded him as he climbed out of the culvert, and he could barely catch his breath. \u201cTom,\u201d he said over and over. \u201cTom.\u201d<\/p>\n
He needed to get help. Mom would know what to do. He ran home.<\/p>\n
But no one was there. When he called out there was no answer. He dashed through the house, looked in every room, opened every door. \u201cCrap,\u201d Colin said. He picked up the phone but there was no dial tone. There had been trouble all summer long with this and he\u2019d overheard his parents talking about it over dinner. They argued about doing away completely with a land line but Mom had objections that she never said in front of the kids and Dad always let it drop.<\/p>\n
Who knew what was happening to Tom down there? Colin couldn\u2019t leave his friend like that. He had to do something. He knew where Dad\u2019s shotgun was, even how to load it. Dad had shown him and then admonished him to never touch the weapon. \u201cNot until you\u2019re in middle school,\u201d he said. \u201cThen we\u2019ll do the hunter\u2019s safety course and you can learn properly about guns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thinking on it now, though, Dad must\u2019ve known that Colin would need to know how to load the gun. Knew that Colin would get in a fix and need it for some reason. He went to the closet and dug in the back until he felt the soft case Dad stored the shotgun in. He pulled it out, then unzipped the case. There weren\u2019t any shells loaded. Diving back in on the other side of the closet, Colin accomplished his task.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
The wagon bounced and jostled along behind him as Colin ran. It tipped over and the gun fell out. He was within sight of the pond, so he took the gun and dragged the barrel on the ground behind him as he ran. When he climbed back into the culvert, the barrel banged on the metal and Colin cringed and kept going. He shouldered the shotgun and used his free hand to follow the tube. His eyes adjusted to the darkness as he walked.<\/p>\n
When he saw the light, he stopped and listened. No voice, no sound that might have been Tom drifted down to him. Steeling himself, Colin stepped into the light.<\/p>\n
And an empty room.<\/p>\n
The ceiling was high, the walls far, far apart. A red door in the opposite wall had chains on the bar. \u201cTom?\u201d Colin took a dozen steps into the concrete room and looked all around. Nothing. The bare room gave absolutely no indication as to its use. He turned and turned and had no idea what to do.<\/p>\n
Colin called out. \u201cTom!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s that trippin\u2019 on my bridge?\u201d The voice echoed off the concrete and Colin looked wildly around – waving the shotgun as he turned – until he saw a tiny speaker in the upper corner of the room. He relaxed.<\/p>\n
\u201cColin!\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom was standing next to the red door, waving to him to come over. \u201cColin, this way!\u201d<\/p>\n
His friend appeared unhurt. \u201cWhat happened to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on and I\u2019ll show you.\u201d Tom kept on waving to him. \u201cYou won\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colin lowered the shotgun. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Mom wasn\u2019t home\u2026 I\u2019m not sure where Maia is, either. I should go home. You should, too.\u201d Something wasn’t right with Tom.<\/p>\n
He walked toward Colin. \u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d he said. \u201cYour mom will understand.\u201d Tom held out his hands like he was surrendering or something.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Colin said, narrowing his eyes and raising the shotgun. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think she will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colin was surprised at how heavy the shotgun was. No one was going to understand until it was all over, but he couldn\u2019t just do nothing. He dragged his sister\u2019s wagon into the house and left mud tracks on the dining room\u2019s white carpet. He\u2019d get it for that, but he had to do something. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,422],"class_list":["post-4754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-becky","tag-flash-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}