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26 Ağustos 2022, 11:52
*
???Tale as old as time ???, well, Boy Scout stories are at least as old as Nifty Archives, and probably timeless. This is my quick take on the genre. *The following story is for adults and contains references*of sexual contact between tweens, and*an*adult male. There is, of course, a power imbalance in these dubious relationships, and considerations of legality*and morality are paramount in our lives.
If you find the subject objectionable, then read no further. All the characters, events and settings are the product of my overactive imagination. Feel free to respond.
If you would like to comment, contact me at ail.
Will you join your fellow authors and readers to support Nifty? To contribute discreetly *to the continuing operations of the Nifty Erotic Stories Archive website using a credit card or other methods of donation, go to fty/donate.html*
Leave No Trace 7
Nocturnal Movements
Sten and Stephen sit at the table near the stern, puzzling out the map. They are both Google Maps kids and the old school map is missing helpful pins, directions. ?The top of the map is always north ? how is that supposed to help? ? well Sten, the sun rose on the channel side of the island and set somewhere across the lake. So actually,? Stephen rotates the large map and stares at the map. ?Actually, I?m not sure what lake we are on,? he ends in frustration. ?It just sort of seems we are pointed in the right direction,? Sten replies.
?We?re on this lake,? Denys points at one of a thousand.
?Why that one?? Stephen asks ? ?Well, this one has a football shaped island ? So does this one, and this one, and this one ? How many lakes did we pass through??
Sten is hemmed in by Cubs. Lech still cons the pontoon boat away from the island and toward what everyone agrees must be the way they entered the lake. Denys, Ade, and David are bent over the table, trying to decipher the map Alistair silently handed Sten. Little Bernie latched onto Stephen as soon as his feet hit the deck. Mike and Ronald are sitting in some private conference, heads together. Joey sits on the deck avoiding everyone. Alistair settled beside him, but Joey is ignoring this as far as Stephen can tell. ?Sten, maybe Joey knows.?
As soon as Joel reached the pontoon boat, his relief evaporated. He was picked last, and no boy misunderstands what that means. There were some reassuring smiles, but he feels he has no place here. Joey settled at the bow; not on the bench, but on the deck where he would not be noticed. It is no comfort that Alistair has sat (too close) beside him.
Alistair took the map package from his day pack and sort of pie-in-the-face slammed it into Sten?s chest, and then he plopped himself beside Joey; and then he took Joey?s hand. Joey pulled away from that, but now they are sitting with their fingers touching between them. None of them, not Lech at the wheel, the Cubs crowded around Sten, Mike and Devon, certainly not Sten Clemensen, none of them have a clue what me and Alistair know! Joey thinks resentfully. Joey watches the boys arguing over the map.
Sten threads his way between the cluster of Cubs and brings the map to Joey. Otter is pretty confident, but he is pretty transparent too. The hero has a perplexed look on his face that he makes no effort to hide. Joey eyes him with as much disinterest as he can muster. Joey would have used his height to dominate the moment. Sten sits down beside the thirteen-year-old and just lifts the folded map in his hand with a sort of helplessness. ?Joey, do you know where we are??
Well, Joey is not that sure he does, but he is not going to say that. Projecting strength is in his nature. He hates the vulnerability he felt with Vili. He always feels like Alistair always looks: weak and like a girl. Joey silently holds his hand out to take the map. It is unwieldy, folded out, so he turns around and flattens it on the bench where the wind won?t catch it. Sten kneels beside him. Joey looks the map over. We?re on this lake, he points decisively at a spot. ?I was watching them talk about it. Vili diyarbakır escort (http://www.bayanmap.com/k/diyarbakir-escort) wanted to keep going up this big river here. Your Packleader said we had gone too far. He was ready to stop. Yeah, this is the island near this little river.?
?Where I found the pontoon boat and Howard.?
Joey looks at Sten. ?Vili, I think, I think I don?t want to talk about that right now.? Sten?s eyes slide away. ?So where are we going??
Joey has a sharp retort in mind. The modest landing where the boat rental was is clearly marked on the map. The only road snakes off away from it. Joey holds it back. Whatever Lech might have told Otter, the boy beside him is the only Cub on the boat who seems to hold nothing against him. Ronald and Mike are even avoiding him. ?Whatever! I don?t need those dicks, anyway!? Joey concludes. He points the landing out. They plot a course that weaves through the lakes with their connecting channels. Sten tries to remember if there are dangers they should avoid. The two boys talk it out, the differences between them momentarily forgotten. ?We should have two guys on the bow watching out for rocks or tree trunks floating in the water. Like you were doing.? Joey suggests. This gets a serious nod from Otter.
Joey settles back beside Alistair on the deck. He does not look at the boy, but when Alistair?s finger touches his hand, Joey presses his palm down on the tentative offer. He pulls it away again and shakes his head in disgust. Joey subsides back into his black mood.
?We?re on the right track. Look, see,? David points toward the channel?s shore. ?When we came through, I remember there was a big metal boat tied to the tree.? Joey shakes his head in disgust. He already told Otter where to go. Sten asked the other Scouts to be the lookouts on the bow. At least the Hero*followed that advice.
?We should stop here and forage for food,? Stephen suggests to Sten.
?We have meat, some stuff,? Sten counters.
?Yeah, but we should cook something on the shore.?
?We can?t keep going in the dark,? Lech adds. ?These guys don?t have sleeping bags ? or tents ? we need a big fire tonight ? can?t do it on the pontoon with all these guys.?
They tied the pontoon boat up in the same spot that David recalled the aluminum fishing boat being left. If the three Scouts had any illusions that the previous tenants left no trace of their presence, they were quickly disabused. There was scattered garbage and no thoughtful pile of firewood and kindling.
Most of the boys thought gathering firewood was their necessary contribution. Stephen and Sten went their separate ways to gather whatever edibles they could find. Ronald and David took their bows and began a fruitless stalking through the forest. The garbage left behind made tinder for the new fire. Joey and Mike checked some empty beer cans. The liquid in them smelt like cigarette butts. A wider search uncovered a near empty 26 of Canadian Club. The two Scouts passed it back and forth. Joey handed it to Alistair for a sip.
Supper was a melange of different things Sten and Stephen found. They ate from what they had and then simply passed around the stainless spoon that Ade brought along. Joey was silent when the boys started asking questions about the path ahead. He let Sten answer.
Nobody walked too far from the bonfire after dark. Rock Paper Scissors decided who would get the sleeping bags. They stayed on the pontoon boat with all the boys who feared to leave its symbolic safety. Sten thought that was a good idea. He was not the only one with nightmares of the pontoon boat drifting away. Lech and David stayed aboard. David because he won with Rock; Lech because he was Master of the boat.
Joey left the crackling comfort to relieve himself. He knew Alistair was following. The two had been set apart in a way Mike and Ronald ignored. Joey wanted to tell Denys and Lech that whatever they planned to say, he was okay with that. He did not know how to do it. Perhaps nobody wanted to share what happened on the island. What Joey knew of Otter?s düzce escort (http://www.bayanmap.com/k/duzce-escort) time alone came from Lech. Sten has said nothing. When someone asked if Lech?s stories were true, there would be an awkward pause and Sten would nod. ?You lived with a freaking black bear?? Sten nods and stares into the fire. ?That?s Howard?s shirt and knife ? I found them on the boat.?
Joey picks a sacrificial tree and urinates. A step or two away, Alistair tugs silently on Joey?s shirt. ?Crap! Just leave me alone!? Joey snaps at him. The eleven-year-old boy draws him to a tree. Alistair fumbles with Joey?s pants, and then turns around, He yanks his own pants down, exposing himself. They come together in the shadow of the tree in an inarticulate need that surfaces before its natural time.
?What are they doing?? Even a tween excused from the island antics understands what he is seeing.
Stephen answers, ?Leave them alone.? The ten-year-old has no knowledge of Joey?s history with Vili; the secrets of the church basement are still sealed in Joey?s and Alistair?s silence. The month of nocturnal movements in the tents, Stephen is privy to that. Sten flashes a row of teeth at Stephen, then turns his curiosity back to the unlikely coupling.
?Joey?s a bully,? Sten observes. He knows there is something mutual in what he is watching. It is just, Alistair would be an obvious victim. The sex he is seeing, Sten does not label it in any way. His balance may not tip to girls, or maybe it will, or maybe it will never tip. Eleven is a fluid, self conscious, narcissistic age where Gay and Fag are almost disassociated from their primary meaning. An eleven-year-old might say Pussy without thinking of a girl at all. ?You?re like me,? is paramount in Sten?s eleven-year-old culture.
?I guess the Den is finished,? Stephen comments. He is not worried about a Cub Scout Den.
Sten looks at him, ?there are still the others.? He is thinking of the younger boys in their Den who did not come on the trip.
?We don?t have a Den leader anymore. We don?t have a Pack leader.?
Sten nods. He looks back at Joey and Alistair, doing porno for an anonymous audience. Still watching the two boys in fascination. He has just begun his own stirrings. Stephen takes him one more step to comprehending the itch that must be scratched, Sten reassures Stephen, ?We?re friends, aren?t we? You know. I suppose after this, our parents won?t be keen on Scouts, but don?t you think we could still get together??
Stephen is ten. He feels the passion of a boy who weeps when his best friend moves away. His mother gate keeps sex the way she regulates his diet. Unfortunately, there is nothing chemical (okay, there is) or GMO about Stephen?s drive for intimacy with a friend. Unfortunately, the island has been distressingly carnivorous. ?You promised me a Teen Burger,? Stephen reminds Sten. Stephen nods. He can get around his mother about that. It is warm beside the bonfire, but it is warmer around Sten.
He Can Make it Back
They leave in the morning after the pot has been scraped clean by the hungry boys. Joey is the last to leave the shore. Everyone forgot to check that the fire pit was cold. Joey places a green fern in the center of the ash and charcoal stubs. He resents the way the boys look to Sten. Lech knows the boat, Stephen thinks of food for the hungry boys. Joey is the only one who knows the way, or is responsible about policing the campsite, but Otter the Hero*is in charge. It is so stupid, Joey sneers to himself. Sten just asks for help, listens to the things other people suggest, smiles; most of the time he isn?t doing anything! But he lived a month in the forest by himself, Joey knows. He has to give the boy that one.
The second lake is short and then they are on a winding river with sandbanks they need to avoid. The pontoon is pushing against the current. ?I?m worried about the gas,? Lech mentions to Stephen and Sten quietly.
?I never thought of that,? Sten replies.
?What should we do??
?What we have to,? Sten grins distributing his edirne escort (http://www.bayanmap.com/k/edirne-escort) confidence in them all.
There is not much to do as they travel into the next lake. The three friends worry about the fuel supply and look anxiously to the sky or hope a boat comes down the river. Mike and Ronald have discovered Sten?s barbecue and wood supply. The other boys sit their watch at the bow or play silly games about the boat. Joey watches and Alistair sits beside him.
Denys is on the bow watch. ?Give Otter another one for thinking about using empty bottles to keep the meat dry,? Joey decides. He is grateful for the food that the four boys brought with them. As little as it is, the boys graze on meat-bits when they are hungry. Joey watches Denys finish off a bottle. The Cub just tosses it into the lake.
Stop the boat! Joey bellows. ?You stupid little prick! What are you doing?? Joey launches himself over the side of the boat, and that does prompt Lech to put the motor in neutral. Joey is swimming off toward where the plastic bottle floats on the surface. He grabs it and begins swimming back to the stern ladder.
?Should I back up, maybe?? Lech asks Sten.
?No, I think he can make it back without our help,? Sten answers.
Joey climbs up dripping. He walks right up to Denys. ?Jeez, Joey, it?s just a bottle,? Denys tells him.
?Just a bottle? You fucking idiot. It?s important. We store food in this bottle. You better not have tossed the cap away. We are not home yet, you duffus. Everything, I mean everything, is important.? Still angry, Joey turns on Sten. ?You still have some fishing line, some hooks??
?Sure.?
Joey turns on the watching Cubs. ?Well, you heard Otter; stop fiddling with your pricks and put some lines in the water.?
Stephen points toward Mike and Ronald. ?Can you talk to them??
Joey turns to his fellow Scouts. ?Stop dicking with the fire! This piece of shit is made of wood, if you didn?t notice.? Joey stamps over to the table at the stern. He plants himself firmly there. Sten pulls his pack out and starts organizing a few fishermen. ?Use some sticks for poles,? Joey snaps again. Stupid little kids will cut their hands if they are lucky enough to hook something other than their neighbor. Sten slides an appreciative grin Joey?s way. Joey looks back stone-faced. And fuck you for making me feel better, Joey thinks.
Sten Amongst the Others
?Well, will you look at that!? The pilot exclaims.
Jerrik Clemensen has been gazing at the forest that stretches off to the horizon. He promised his son that they would share some epic canoe trip together into the northern wilderness. Now all he wants is to sit across from Sten at some silly fast food restaurant and watch him stuff his face with junk food.
?There?s your boat!?
Bernie Barr?s mother is in the seat beside the pilot. ?It?s a pontoon boat, but how do you know?? When the disturbing news surrounding Vili Ja?a ?itnik leaked to the national press, twelve grieving families went ballistic. The search had never ended, but now Provincial Ministries could not allow the search to continue in its underfunded, undermanned pace.
?That?s Cardinal?s old boat. I recognize it,? the pilot assured the parents.
Jerrik leans forward between them to take a look. ?This is not the lake,? he knows as soon as he says this the comment is not useful. He sees a square of yellow on the water. ?Your going to take a look, aren?t you?? If the pilot was perpetually annoyed at the man, he was willing to reach over, open the door, and push the woman out. He felt that way before they left the ground.
The nose dips and the Barrows Bearhawk goes down. The plane zips by the pontoon boat and then he is gaining elevation. Jerrik caught a glimpse of boys screaming wildly on the boat?s deck. ?Did you see him, did you see him?? Bernie?s mother orders the men. The pilot is banking around for another look.
Jerrik Clemenson has eyes for just one boy. He sees Sten amongst the others. Jerrik is shouting at the man, ?Put it down, put it down!? He pounds his palm against the pilot?s seat?
?Stop fucking with my seat!? The heavy man complains. He drops the float plane into the water.
C"est fini
I have written a variety of short stories and novellas. You can follow this safe link to my Body of Work.
???Tale as old as time ???, well, Boy Scout stories are at least as old as Nifty Archives, and probably timeless. This is my quick take on the genre. *The following story is for adults and contains references*of sexual contact between tweens, and*an*adult male. There is, of course, a power imbalance in these dubious relationships, and considerations of legality*and morality are paramount in our lives.
If you find the subject objectionable, then read no further. All the characters, events and settings are the product of my overactive imagination. Feel free to respond.
If you would like to comment, contact me at ail.
Will you join your fellow authors and readers to support Nifty? To contribute discreetly *to the continuing operations of the Nifty Erotic Stories Archive website using a credit card or other methods of donation, go to fty/donate.html*
Leave No Trace 7
Nocturnal Movements
Sten and Stephen sit at the table near the stern, puzzling out the map. They are both Google Maps kids and the old school map is missing helpful pins, directions. ?The top of the map is always north ? how is that supposed to help? ? well Sten, the sun rose on the channel side of the island and set somewhere across the lake. So actually,? Stephen rotates the large map and stares at the map. ?Actually, I?m not sure what lake we are on,? he ends in frustration. ?It just sort of seems we are pointed in the right direction,? Sten replies.
?We?re on this lake,? Denys points at one of a thousand.
?Why that one?? Stephen asks ? ?Well, this one has a football shaped island ? So does this one, and this one, and this one ? How many lakes did we pass through??
Sten is hemmed in by Cubs. Lech still cons the pontoon boat away from the island and toward what everyone agrees must be the way they entered the lake. Denys, Ade, and David are bent over the table, trying to decipher the map Alistair silently handed Sten. Little Bernie latched onto Stephen as soon as his feet hit the deck. Mike and Ronald are sitting in some private conference, heads together. Joey sits on the deck avoiding everyone. Alistair settled beside him, but Joey is ignoring this as far as Stephen can tell. ?Sten, maybe Joey knows.?
As soon as Joel reached the pontoon boat, his relief evaporated. He was picked last, and no boy misunderstands what that means. There were some reassuring smiles, but he feels he has no place here. Joey settled at the bow; not on the bench, but on the deck where he would not be noticed. It is no comfort that Alistair has sat (too close) beside him.
Alistair took the map package from his day pack and sort of pie-in-the-face slammed it into Sten?s chest, and then he plopped himself beside Joey; and then he took Joey?s hand. Joey pulled away from that, but now they are sitting with their fingers touching between them. None of them, not Lech at the wheel, the Cubs crowded around Sten, Mike and Devon, certainly not Sten Clemensen, none of them have a clue what me and Alistair know! Joey thinks resentfully. Joey watches the boys arguing over the map.
Sten threads his way between the cluster of Cubs and brings the map to Joey. Otter is pretty confident, but he is pretty transparent too. The hero has a perplexed look on his face that he makes no effort to hide. Joey eyes him with as much disinterest as he can muster. Joey would have used his height to dominate the moment. Sten sits down beside the thirteen-year-old and just lifts the folded map in his hand with a sort of helplessness. ?Joey, do you know where we are??
Well, Joey is not that sure he does, but he is not going to say that. Projecting strength is in his nature. He hates the vulnerability he felt with Vili. He always feels like Alistair always looks: weak and like a girl. Joey silently holds his hand out to take the map. It is unwieldy, folded out, so he turns around and flattens it on the bench where the wind won?t catch it. Sten kneels beside him. Joey looks the map over. We?re on this lake, he points decisively at a spot. ?I was watching them talk about it. Vili diyarbakır escort (http://www.bayanmap.com/k/diyarbakir-escort) wanted to keep going up this big river here. Your Packleader said we had gone too far. He was ready to stop. Yeah, this is the island near this little river.?
?Where I found the pontoon boat and Howard.?
Joey looks at Sten. ?Vili, I think, I think I don?t want to talk about that right now.? Sten?s eyes slide away. ?So where are we going??
Joey has a sharp retort in mind. The modest landing where the boat rental was is clearly marked on the map. The only road snakes off away from it. Joey holds it back. Whatever Lech might have told Otter, the boy beside him is the only Cub on the boat who seems to hold nothing against him. Ronald and Mike are even avoiding him. ?Whatever! I don?t need those dicks, anyway!? Joey concludes. He points the landing out. They plot a course that weaves through the lakes with their connecting channels. Sten tries to remember if there are dangers they should avoid. The two boys talk it out, the differences between them momentarily forgotten. ?We should have two guys on the bow watching out for rocks or tree trunks floating in the water. Like you were doing.? Joey suggests. This gets a serious nod from Otter.
Joey settles back beside Alistair on the deck. He does not look at the boy, but when Alistair?s finger touches his hand, Joey presses his palm down on the tentative offer. He pulls it away again and shakes his head in disgust. Joey subsides back into his black mood.
?We?re on the right track. Look, see,? David points toward the channel?s shore. ?When we came through, I remember there was a big metal boat tied to the tree.? Joey shakes his head in disgust. He already told Otter where to go. Sten asked the other Scouts to be the lookouts on the bow. At least the Hero*followed that advice.
?We should stop here and forage for food,? Stephen suggests to Sten.
?We have meat, some stuff,? Sten counters.
?Yeah, but we should cook something on the shore.?
?We can?t keep going in the dark,? Lech adds. ?These guys don?t have sleeping bags ? or tents ? we need a big fire tonight ? can?t do it on the pontoon with all these guys.?
They tied the pontoon boat up in the same spot that David recalled the aluminum fishing boat being left. If the three Scouts had any illusions that the previous tenants left no trace of their presence, they were quickly disabused. There was scattered garbage and no thoughtful pile of firewood and kindling.
Most of the boys thought gathering firewood was their necessary contribution. Stephen and Sten went their separate ways to gather whatever edibles they could find. Ronald and David took their bows and began a fruitless stalking through the forest. The garbage left behind made tinder for the new fire. Joey and Mike checked some empty beer cans. The liquid in them smelt like cigarette butts. A wider search uncovered a near empty 26 of Canadian Club. The two Scouts passed it back and forth. Joey handed it to Alistair for a sip.
Supper was a melange of different things Sten and Stephen found. They ate from what they had and then simply passed around the stainless spoon that Ade brought along. Joey was silent when the boys started asking questions about the path ahead. He let Sten answer.
Nobody walked too far from the bonfire after dark. Rock Paper Scissors decided who would get the sleeping bags. They stayed on the pontoon boat with all the boys who feared to leave its symbolic safety. Sten thought that was a good idea. He was not the only one with nightmares of the pontoon boat drifting away. Lech and David stayed aboard. David because he won with Rock; Lech because he was Master of the boat.
Joey left the crackling comfort to relieve himself. He knew Alistair was following. The two had been set apart in a way Mike and Ronald ignored. Joey wanted to tell Denys and Lech that whatever they planned to say, he was okay with that. He did not know how to do it. Perhaps nobody wanted to share what happened on the island. What Joey knew of Otter?s düzce escort (http://www.bayanmap.com/k/duzce-escort) time alone came from Lech. Sten has said nothing. When someone asked if Lech?s stories were true, there would be an awkward pause and Sten would nod. ?You lived with a freaking black bear?? Sten nods and stares into the fire. ?That?s Howard?s shirt and knife ? I found them on the boat.?
Joey picks a sacrificial tree and urinates. A step or two away, Alistair tugs silently on Joey?s shirt. ?Crap! Just leave me alone!? Joey snaps at him. The eleven-year-old boy draws him to a tree. Alistair fumbles with Joey?s pants, and then turns around, He yanks his own pants down, exposing himself. They come together in the shadow of the tree in an inarticulate need that surfaces before its natural time.
?What are they doing?? Even a tween excused from the island antics understands what he is seeing.
Stephen answers, ?Leave them alone.? The ten-year-old has no knowledge of Joey?s history with Vili; the secrets of the church basement are still sealed in Joey?s and Alistair?s silence. The month of nocturnal movements in the tents, Stephen is privy to that. Sten flashes a row of teeth at Stephen, then turns his curiosity back to the unlikely coupling.
?Joey?s a bully,? Sten observes. He knows there is something mutual in what he is watching. It is just, Alistair would be an obvious victim. The sex he is seeing, Sten does not label it in any way. His balance may not tip to girls, or maybe it will, or maybe it will never tip. Eleven is a fluid, self conscious, narcissistic age where Gay and Fag are almost disassociated from their primary meaning. An eleven-year-old might say Pussy without thinking of a girl at all. ?You?re like me,? is paramount in Sten?s eleven-year-old culture.
?I guess the Den is finished,? Stephen comments. He is not worried about a Cub Scout Den.
Sten looks at him, ?there are still the others.? He is thinking of the younger boys in their Den who did not come on the trip.
?We don?t have a Den leader anymore. We don?t have a Pack leader.?
Sten nods. He looks back at Joey and Alistair, doing porno for an anonymous audience. Still watching the two boys in fascination. He has just begun his own stirrings. Stephen takes him one more step to comprehending the itch that must be scratched, Sten reassures Stephen, ?We?re friends, aren?t we? You know. I suppose after this, our parents won?t be keen on Scouts, but don?t you think we could still get together??
Stephen is ten. He feels the passion of a boy who weeps when his best friend moves away. His mother gate keeps sex the way she regulates his diet. Unfortunately, there is nothing chemical (okay, there is) or GMO about Stephen?s drive for intimacy with a friend. Unfortunately, the island has been distressingly carnivorous. ?You promised me a Teen Burger,? Stephen reminds Sten. Stephen nods. He can get around his mother about that. It is warm beside the bonfire, but it is warmer around Sten.
He Can Make it Back
They leave in the morning after the pot has been scraped clean by the hungry boys. Joey is the last to leave the shore. Everyone forgot to check that the fire pit was cold. Joey places a green fern in the center of the ash and charcoal stubs. He resents the way the boys look to Sten. Lech knows the boat, Stephen thinks of food for the hungry boys. Joey is the only one who knows the way, or is responsible about policing the campsite, but Otter the Hero*is in charge. It is so stupid, Joey sneers to himself. Sten just asks for help, listens to the things other people suggest, smiles; most of the time he isn?t doing anything! But he lived a month in the forest by himself, Joey knows. He has to give the boy that one.
The second lake is short and then they are on a winding river with sandbanks they need to avoid. The pontoon is pushing against the current. ?I?m worried about the gas,? Lech mentions to Stephen and Sten quietly.
?I never thought of that,? Sten replies.
?What should we do??
?What we have to,? Sten grins distributing his edirne escort (http://www.bayanmap.com/k/edirne-escort) confidence in them all.
There is not much to do as they travel into the next lake. The three friends worry about the fuel supply and look anxiously to the sky or hope a boat comes down the river. Mike and Ronald have discovered Sten?s barbecue and wood supply. The other boys sit their watch at the bow or play silly games about the boat. Joey watches and Alistair sits beside him.
Denys is on the bow watch. ?Give Otter another one for thinking about using empty bottles to keep the meat dry,? Joey decides. He is grateful for the food that the four boys brought with them. As little as it is, the boys graze on meat-bits when they are hungry. Joey watches Denys finish off a bottle. The Cub just tosses it into the lake.
Stop the boat! Joey bellows. ?You stupid little prick! What are you doing?? Joey launches himself over the side of the boat, and that does prompt Lech to put the motor in neutral. Joey is swimming off toward where the plastic bottle floats on the surface. He grabs it and begins swimming back to the stern ladder.
?Should I back up, maybe?? Lech asks Sten.
?No, I think he can make it back without our help,? Sten answers.
Joey climbs up dripping. He walks right up to Denys. ?Jeez, Joey, it?s just a bottle,? Denys tells him.
?Just a bottle? You fucking idiot. It?s important. We store food in this bottle. You better not have tossed the cap away. We are not home yet, you duffus. Everything, I mean everything, is important.? Still angry, Joey turns on Sten. ?You still have some fishing line, some hooks??
?Sure.?
Joey turns on the watching Cubs. ?Well, you heard Otter; stop fiddling with your pricks and put some lines in the water.?
Stephen points toward Mike and Ronald. ?Can you talk to them??
Joey turns to his fellow Scouts. ?Stop dicking with the fire! This piece of shit is made of wood, if you didn?t notice.? Joey stamps over to the table at the stern. He plants himself firmly there. Sten pulls his pack out and starts organizing a few fishermen. ?Use some sticks for poles,? Joey snaps again. Stupid little kids will cut their hands if they are lucky enough to hook something other than their neighbor. Sten slides an appreciative grin Joey?s way. Joey looks back stone-faced. And fuck you for making me feel better, Joey thinks.
Sten Amongst the Others
?Well, will you look at that!? The pilot exclaims.
Jerrik Clemensen has been gazing at the forest that stretches off to the horizon. He promised his son that they would share some epic canoe trip together into the northern wilderness. Now all he wants is to sit across from Sten at some silly fast food restaurant and watch him stuff his face with junk food.
?There?s your boat!?
Bernie Barr?s mother is in the seat beside the pilot. ?It?s a pontoon boat, but how do you know?? When the disturbing news surrounding Vili Ja?a ?itnik leaked to the national press, twelve grieving families went ballistic. The search had never ended, but now Provincial Ministries could not allow the search to continue in its underfunded, undermanned pace.
?That?s Cardinal?s old boat. I recognize it,? the pilot assured the parents.
Jerrik leans forward between them to take a look. ?This is not the lake,? he knows as soon as he says this the comment is not useful. He sees a square of yellow on the water. ?Your going to take a look, aren?t you?? If the pilot was perpetually annoyed at the man, he was willing to reach over, open the door, and push the woman out. He felt that way before they left the ground.
The nose dips and the Barrows Bearhawk goes down. The plane zips by the pontoon boat and then he is gaining elevation. Jerrik caught a glimpse of boys screaming wildly on the boat?s deck. ?Did you see him, did you see him?? Bernie?s mother orders the men. The pilot is banking around for another look.
Jerrik Clemenson has eyes for just one boy. He sees Sten amongst the others. Jerrik is shouting at the man, ?Put it down, put it down!? He pounds his palm against the pilot?s seat?
?Stop fucking with my seat!? The heavy man complains. He drops the float plane into the water.
C"est fini
I have written a variety of short stories and novellas. You can follow this safe link to my Body of Work.