The Dangerous Kind & Other Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

he spread his forces into the woods.
    “On both sides of the trail, Joey? You aren’t even sure which side of the trail you were at?” His eyebrows met in the middle.
    “I got turned around in the woods. Every tree looks like every other tree. Even if I had a cell phone up here, all I could say was I’m in some trees and there’s a rock and there’s the sky.”
    Chief’s laugh was gruff but he clapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll find your brother.” He turned to tell the searchers to spread out. “No more than five feet between you, slow ‘n steady!” The small army swept the forest floor, their string of white and yellow lights bobbing. I was sure we weren’t even a quarter of the way to Jason and his deer. I felt queasy at the prospect of finding him. Dick, Rich and I took turns shouting so we wouldn’t go hoarse. They both said not to worry. They were never this nice when Jason was around.
    “A head wound can bleed a lot, but that’s only because it’s a head wound,” Dick said. That satisfied him that Jason would be okay. Rich said Jason’s chances of having a heart attack were near impossible. When I reminded him our mother died young of a bad heart, he went quiet for a long time.
    The searchers were methodical and the thick terrain made for slow progress. It was close to eleven before some people headed home. They promised to come back and look again at dawn. There were murmurs Chief Rose should call in a helicopter with an infrared camera. I wondered how long it takes a body to cool. I did not want animals to get at the corpse. However, now that my brother was an it, I didn’t want to see the body, either. When I thought we were getting close to the body, I shouted to Chief Rose. “He couldn’t be this far up!”
    Rose consulted his map. He said we should go back but send the searchers deeper into woods on either side of the trail. A single groan rose up among the searchers but hissing whispers silenced the complainer. The reaching trees and thorny brush scratched and marked the would-be rescuers and the temperature had plummeted since the sun went down.
    I wondered if I should just rent the house out at first or sell it outright. Would selling it too quickly look suspicious? The eulogy would be brief. I would be a tragic figure for the third time. I’d say, “My brother died on the last day of Indian summer.” Then I’d hop into the truck and head south. My future was always waiting to the south and the I-95 would be my time machine, helping me escape to a new beginning.
    I told Rich and Dick I was hungry and thirsty. Someone at the bottom of the trail brought up wrapped sandwiches and coffee from the Poeticule B&B and the Bay Diner, but when it arrived I found I couldn’t eat. My nerves killed my appetite. Everyone else was shivering from the cold, but for me, it was the excitement. I had finally achieved escape velocity and my father’s insurance money was my rocket fuel.
    We turned back. It was over. Someone else could find the body tomorrow.
    Then two shots boomed behind us. There was a brief delay and then a third shot. Intent on being the first to get to my brother, everyone ran. Community and concern brought them out into the cold night, but competition for bragging rights and heroism were on the line now.
    “Up to the left!” Rich yelled. “We’re coming, buddy!”
    “Jason?”
    “Jason!”
    A would-be rescuer to our left let out a startled cry and we heard a splash. Another searcher fell into the water trying to pull out the first. We crashed through the bushes. One spot at the base of a pine brightened to white as more people with flashlights bore their way into the circle. My brother, the new boss man, lay in the center, draped over the dead deer.
    I dragged my feet but Dick and Rich were irresistible forces pushing me forward. The circle broke open to let me in and I saw Jason, a shivering ghost awash in bright white light as the flashlight beams played