"We don't have to do it," Nick told her.
"We said we would."
"That doesn't matter."
"They'll say we chickened out. Not that I give a rat's ass what anybody says, but… I don't know, if there's a real live actual corpse — "
"A live corpse?"
"Okay, a dead one. It'd be sacrilegious to mess around with it."
"Not to mention gross."
She laughed softly. "Yeah, that too." She looked at him again. Her eyebrows lifted. "What do you think?"
"Let's forget it."
She shook her head a bit. "This is really weird. I mean, we both know there's nobody under here. So what're we afraid of?"
"I don't know."
With the edge of her trowel, she brushed the small pile of soil back into the hole. She patted it down. "There you go, Digby. Rest in peace."
They stood up. Julie brushed dirt and pine needles off her knees. "I guess that's that," she said.
"Guess so."
They returned to their packs. Nick watched her crouch down to put away the trowel and close her pack. Like before, he stared at the way her T-shirt clung to her back.
I'm a chicken, all right, he thought. If I weren't a damn chicken, I would've kissed her.
Do it now.
No. I can't. I just can't.
"That's quite a scar you've got there," Flash said, taking a trail cookie from the bag in Karen's hand. The scar was a pale horseshoe on her forearm. "How'd you pick it up?"
"A car accident," she said. She looked away quickly, and offered a cookie to Benny, who was sitting at the other end of the fallen trunk. "Want to pass them around?"
Benny took the bag. "Was it a bad accident?" he asked.
"Very bad," she said.
Benny got up from the log, and gave cookies to the others sitting on the ground against their packs. There was an uneasy silence. Flash bit into his cookie and chewed. Obviously, he shouldn't have mentioned Karen's scar. "I've got a couple of doozies myself," he said. He started to tug his shirt out of his pants.
"Arnold," Alice said in her warning voice.
Ignoring her, he pulled up his shirt. He stood up and turned so Karen and Benny could see the small puffy crater in the flesh just above his hip. Karen wrinkled up her nose. Benny looked impressed. "That's from an AK-47 bullet I caught in 'Nam." He turned around. "See there? That's the exit wound."
"How'd it happen?" Benny asked.
"Well, your dad and I were on a strafing run when I caught a SAM. A surface-to-air missile. Knocked me right out of the sky. I hit the silk — ejected, you know — and found myself behind enemy lines." His head suddenly felt light. He let his shirt fall, and took deep breaths, fighting the dizziness. "Anyway, I spent nine days alone in the jungle. working my way south, dodging pa — " He blinked. Benny's silhouette was surrounded by a brilliant blue-silver halo. Shit, he thought, I'm gonna… He staggered backward, sat down heavily on the log, and lowered his head between his knees.
"Are you all right, honey?" he heard through the loud ringing in his ears. Alice. "I knew he shouldn't get started on that. He tries to put on that it was a big adventure, but — "
"Stop," he mumbled.
"Well, you shouldn't have brought it up."
He felt a hand on his back. "Here." Scott. "Drink some water."
Flash nodded. The ringing faded. He raised his head, and blinked. His vision seemed okay again. The girls, beside Alice, were staring at him with wide eyes. Alice was frowning. "Just a little dizzy spell," he said. "Probably the altitude." He took the canteen from Scott, nodded his thanks, and drank a few swallows of cold water.
"Maybe you'd better lie down," Alice suggested.
"I'm fine. Think I'll just. " He gave the canteen back to Scott and stood up. He still felt shaky, but the dizziness was gone. Walking carefully, he made his way to the shore of the lake. He stepped out on some low, flat rocks. Crouching, he dipped his hands into the chilly water and splashed his face.
Damn, but he'd made a fool out of himself back there. Should've known better.
He heard the crunch of footsteps behind him. Scott stood on a rock to his left. "You okay?"
"Shit."
"What was it, the sweats?"
"Yeah. Happens now and again. Shit, you'd think fifteen goddamn years'd be enough to get over it. The damn thing's fucked up my whole life."
Scott tossed a pebble into the water. It made a soft plip. "I guess none of us got out of it unscathed. I have plenty of bad times myself, and I wasn't even shot down."
"God, I used to love to fly."
"You were one of the best."
"I'd probably be a captain, now, like you, if. You know what really gets me? It's all in my head. All in my fucked-up head, and there's not a thing I can do about it. Like there's some damn stranger inside here." He tapped his fingertips against his temple. "Just hiding in here, scared shitless, and every once in a while he has to pop up and let me know he's still at the controls." Flash forced a smile. "Could've been worse. I'd been a grunt, I might be scared to walk."
Scott smiled. "Always a bright side."
They stood up, and turned away from the shining lake. As they walked back toward the others, Flash saw Nick and Julie coming up the trail. "Dig him up?" he called out.
"Sure did," Nick said.
"Boy, was he a mess!" Julie added.
Flash sat down on the log and watched the two approaching. Nick's hand was out, closed as if he were holding something.
"He was all dismembered," Nick said.
"What?" Karen asked, looking stunned.
"All cut up in little pieces."
"That's not amusing," Alice said.
Nick and Julie smiled as if it were. Nick stepped in front of the twins, who were resting against their packs with their legs outstretched. "I brought you girls a souvenir," he said. "One of Digby's fingers."
"Nick!" Alice snapped.
"Catch, Rose." He made an underhand toss. His sister shrieked as a finger-sized object fell on her lap. Julie cracked up.
"Nick!"
"You creep!" Rose yelled, and hurled the stub of wood back at him.
Heather started to laugh. Everyone laughed except Rose and Alice. "Really juvenile," Alice said, scowling.
"So," Flash said, "what did you really find?"
"Nothing," Nick told him. "We decided to leave the thing alone."
"Poor Digby's been through enough," Julie explained.
"You didn't find out what's buried there?"
"I guess we'll never know," Nick said.
Julie nodded. "One of life's unsolved mysteries."
Flash looked at Scott and shook his head. "Our kids, I'm afraid, are a couple of chickens."
Scott grinned at him. "As my pappy used to say, 'Better a chicken than a ghoul.' "
Chapter Twelve
Must we?" Alice complained. "Why don't we play cards instead? Do you play bridge, Karen?"
"Not very well, I'm afraid."
"I want a story," Rose protested.
"Me, too," said Heather.
"You girls were frightened out of your wits last night."
"It was neat.'"
"Too windy for cards," Arnold said. He broke a dead branch over his knee, and placed both pieces on the fire. "I'm for a story."
Alice sighed. She didn't want to be a stick in the mud. On the other hand, she certainly didn't want a repeat of last night's shenanigans. The story itself hadn't bothered her. Not much anyway. But her idea of fun did not include being startled from a half sleep by the hysterical screams of her daughters. "It's all right with me," she said. She stared across the blazing fire at Nick. "No funny stuff tonight. Promise?"