Supper seemed to drag on and on, and the after-dinner chores were just insult on top of injury. Still, well before the designated time of seven, I was on my way to the junkyard on Southwest street with my backpack filled with anything I guessed I might need, naturally including my Walkman and Junk Genie offerings.
Unsurprisingly, the whole stroll was a proverbial trip down memory lane for me. In fact, I’d wager ten to one that all of us headed to Southwest street that evening felt the same. I spent the entire walk recalling the countless times I’d made the exact trip in my youth, the near-daily trek to our summer hideout. It was so ingrained in my blood I could’ve walked it blindfolded.
Admittedly, I wasn’t walking very quickly, so by the time I reached Southwest street, the sun was already painting the sprawling junkyard a subdued orange hue. I’m no artist, but I wager if I could capture how my childhood playground shone that evening, you’d be able to understand my feelings.
Unfortunately, my leisurely pace meant that everyone else had already arrived, so seeing the literal flotsam and jetsam of Jacob’s old gang dampened my mood a touch.
“You’re late, Theodore.” Yvonne called out from her perch on top of an old washing machine.
So, we’re back to Theodore again. Figures.
“This nerd is the guy we were waiting for?” Martin scowled. “What a gyp.”
“He’s one of the two we’re waiting for.” Yvonne corrected sweetly. “And really, if you get your wish, what’s it matter if a couple others get theirs too?”
Martin moodily spat in my direction, but made no response.
“Actually, I got something to say about that.” Brodie cut in, hiking up his pants as he rose. “If we all get a wish, I got no issue with you. No sweat off my back. But me’n the rest,” He pointed a hammy thumb at Michael and Martin. “We’re thinking there may be only one wish per group. If that’s the case, you’d better not even think of trying to take it for yourself. If you do, we’ll make you wish your momma stayed single.”
“By that, Brodie means we’ll come to a group decision about the wish.” Michael followed up quickly, stepping in front of his friend. “If we only get one wish, we can easily put our heads together and come up with something that benefits us all, okay?”
“No complaints here.” I nodded.
“I wouldn’t worry about that.” Yvonne waved the idea away lazily. “There’ll be enough wishes to cover everything we need.”
The group breathed a collective sigh of relief as a large portion of the tension eased up. Suddenly we weren’t rivals, guarding our back and looking for a way to stab each other’s, we were fellow passengers on the train to fame and fortune.
“Actually, this is a perfect time to bring up a key point.” Yvonne declared, breaking the silence. “Through means I don’t intend to discuss, I have a general idea of what all of your wishes are, even if you don’t know it yet, which is actually why I gathered you all here today.”
Baxter shot a worried look at me, which I did my best to ignore.
“Hey, where do you get off telling us…” Martin started.
“Jacob Schwartz.” Yvonne declared, instantly cutting off any backtalk. “How many of you know where he is now?”
“Um, the next town over, right?” Baxter ventured. “By now, he’s probably working or in college.”
“Actually, he’s a missing person.” Yvonne replied, drawing a collective gasp from the group.
“The hell?” Martin yelled, smashing his fist into a nearby microwave oven. “How’d none of us hear about this?”
“Did any of you actually look into Jacob after he left town?” Yvonne asked quietly, silencing us again.
“I see.” She sighed. “Well, I expected as much. As to the details, he vanished two years ago around the last days of summer break. His grade went on a camping trip in the mountains, and he and a half-dozen other kids never came back from it. Some witnesses say they just walked into the woods that night and were never seen again.”
“I can’t believe it!” Brodie slumped to the ground. “Jacob is…gone?”
To my surprise, I could actually see tears pooling in his eyes.
The others were similarly affected. For a short moment, all differences and distinctions faded as the boys shared a genuine moment of sorrow for their lost hero.
But not me. I now fully understood what Yvonne’s wish would be, and in doing so, I believed I understood my own.
“That is why I’ve been gathering people to hunt the Junk Genie.” She declared, leaping down from her perch. “Whether it’s one wish or seven, I think I speak for all of us when I say I know what our first will be.” She smiled.
“Hell yeah!” Martin slammed his fist into his palm. “I don’t care if I don’t get a wish, let’s bring back Jacob!”
“Here here!” Michael grinned.
“Damn straight.” Brodie wiped his eyes.
Baxter and I exchanged smiles. This was starting to get good!
“And now that we have that out of the way…” Yvonne smiled, passing through the ranks of boys as she approached the edge of the junkyard. “Don’t you suppose it’s about time you joined the rest of us, Alex?”
“I’d really rather not, your asinine natures might be catching.” Alexander Regis shot back, stepping out from behind a corner.
“What’re you doing here, Alex?” Brodie smirked. “I thought you didn’t believe in “fairy tales”?”
“I don’t, actually.” He replied, undaunted. “I’m simply looking for Victor. This was where he was last seen, after all.”
“Suuuuure.” Brodie sneered. “Well, as long as you’re here, you might as well join us. I’m sure you’re as eager to see Jacob again as the rest of us.”
“Well, yes, but for a different reason.” Alexander shrugged. “I just want to challenge his intellect again. He always bested us when we were younger, hence why he was so idolized. I’ll prove that while he peaked in high school, I’m still improving daily.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, nerd.” Martin scoffed. “Even back then, Jacob was twice the man you’ll ever be.”
“I guess we’ll see.” Alexander smirked back, undaunted. “Now, are we going to get this farce underway or not?” He turned to Yvonne. “That is, unless you have another of your lackeys hidden away somewhere who has yet to join us?”
“Why Alex, what a thing to say!” She batted her eyelashes innocently at him. “I’m just lucky all these wonderful boys looked up to Jacob so much, and just happened to find out about the Junk Genie too. Isn’t Fate such a funny thing?”
“And I’m the Queen of England.” He scoffed. “Just get on with it.”
“Love you too, Alex.” She blew him a kiss. “All right boys, it’s just like the legend you heard; place your three most precious objects on the ground as an offering to the Junk Genie, and we’ll start!”
As one, we reached into our pockets and bags, pulling out various trinkets and memories. I suppose it was fortunate we were just kids, so none of us had anything like a car or a penthouse to offer. As it was, our earthly fortunes were small enough to fit in our collective trousers and satchels.
For me, I had brought an autographed baseball my late grandfather had given me, my still-sealed Make It Big album by Wham!, which marked the first album I ever bought for myself (I naturally bought two copies), and finally, a small pocketknife, worn with age.
To the untrained eye, the last may seem out of place, but it was by far the most precious thing I owned. Years ago, when every kid was collecting box tops to send away for their own jackknife, these precious little trinkets became a symbol of status among us. You weren’t a true man unless you had a blade of your own, it seemed.
And naturally, Jacob was the first to have one.
Unfortunately for me, my parents didn’t seem to understand the sheer necessity of buying 24 boxes of baking soda. No matter how many sales pitches I ran by them, they failed to grasp what a bargain it was to enter the privileged inner circle of jackknife owners for the small entry fee of two dozen boxes.
However, when I told Jacob about my predicament, he just laughed. “The measure of a man’s got to be more than having the latest fad.” He assured me, and to prove it he gave me his jackknife.
His very own, his symbol of power, his proof of being the coolest kid in the whole damn town.
And you know what? He was right.
Somehow, he didn’t lose one iota of charisma for giving up the knife. In fact, once Jacob didn’t have a knife, it suddenly didn’t seem like such a big deal to the other kids either.
It was a powerful lesson, one I carry with me to this day. Fortunately, even if I lose the knife, that’s one thing that will stay with me. So without any hesitation, I offered up the last of my treasures.
Looking across the yard, I could see the others were undergoing similar flashbacks as they idly toyed with their precious offerings, before gently setting them down in the dirt. To my left, I noticed Yvonne had somehow obtained a polaroid photo of Jacob, and had included it among her offerings. I idly wondered how much such a priceless relic would go for, before I realized the real deal would be appearing before us soon. Plenty of opportunities to get a new photograph after that.
Hefting my backpack in hand, I went and sat it down next to the exit. I had no idea what would happen to our offerings, but I didn’t want the rest of my albums to be taken along with Make It Big.
“All right, that about does it then.” Yvonne rose to her feet, striding past us, further into the junkyard.
“Hey Alex, looks like you brought your three treasures after all.” Brodie snickered at him. “What happened to just being here to look for Victor?”
“I’m just following along as a lark.” He shrugged. “It’s not as if my belongings are going to be magicked away or anything. I’ll collect them on my way home after finding Victor.”
Brodie snorted, but said no more.
Up ahead, Yvonne had pulled some odd form of carved wood mask from her purse, and had donned it. Made of an unusually smooth grain of wood, it appeared to be some form of twisted theatrical mask, tall and oval-shaped, with slitted eyes and rounded mouth. Turning her back to us, she faced the now darkening junkyard.
“Yumekuzu-sama, Yumekuzu-sama, the first to be it is you!” She intoned in a voice serious enough to keep us from commenting.
Something somewhere shifted. It was almost imperceptible. A quarter-degree in temperature, a slight brightening of the evening sky, a sudden quieting of the crickets around us.
And turning around, our offerings had vanished, along with the exit to the junkyard and the entirety of Southwest Street. Only piles of trash and discarded appliances could be seen in all directions, bathed in the orange light of an invisible sun.
“Okay.” Yvonne nodded to herself. “The game’s begun.”
And with that, she dashed off into the junkyard.
*******
For a long minute, everyone simply blinked at the empty ground behind us. For once, even Brodie and Alexander didn’t have anything to say. Maybe deep down, none of us actually expected anything magical to happen. Even now, my mind was running a mile a minute, trying to figure a scientific explanation to this.
But no plausible answer surfaced.
And then the counting started.
“One-Mississippi.”
The voice was one of those universally appealing, universally suspicious voices. The kind usually reserved for snake-oil salesmen and reality-TV hosts. I made you feel warm and comfortable like an easy chair in front of a fireplace, while spiders of doubt crawled up your back, warning you not to sink any deeper, something was amiss.
“Two-Mississippi.”
I blinked. No matter how I turned to try and place the voice, it was no good. Like a floater on your eye, it always hung just behind and to the side of you, changing positions as you turned to look.
“Three-Mississippi.”
Without understanding the purpose, I understood the meaning. A game of hide-and-seek had started. The identity of the hiders was obvious, but that wasn’t the real question here.
Who was the seeker?
“Four-Mississippi.”
“What the hell? Who are you, bastard? Don’t make me come over there!” Martin was spinning back and forth, his knuckles white as he made fists with his hands, searching for a target. “Damnit, where the hell is he?”
“Hey nerd, what’s the deal?” Brodie grabbed Baxter by the front of his hoodie, lifting him up to his tip-toes. “Where’s our genie?”
“I-I-I dunno!” Baxter stammered, his knees knocking together. “The legend never mentioned this. I’m just as scared as you!”
“Who’s scared?” Brodie pushed Baxter backwards, sending him crashing to the dirt. “OK, so what do we do now, guys?”
“Why don’t we simply play hide and seek?” Alexander offered. Somehow in spite of the strangeness of all this, he remained completely collected.
“The hell, man.” Martin scowled. “I thought you didn’t believe in superstitious stuff.”
“I don’t, really.” Alexander shrugged. “On the other hand, I don’t think any of us have an explanation of what’s going on. However, the one thing we do know is that a game of hide-and-seek has apparently started. So, perhaps we should go find hiding places before the countdown runs out, and see what happens from there.”
“You want me to go hide from some dumb prank like this?” Martin scowled even deeper, clenching his fists.
“If the worst thing to come of all this is that we fell for some childish practical joke, I think that’s an acceptable resolution.” Alexander returned.
“Twenty-four Mississippi.” The voice continued.
“Okay, okay, lets go with that!” Baxter cut in, his eyes darting back and forth jitterily. Turning, he made ready to dash off further into the junkyard.
“Wait, let’s not do that just yet.” Brodie collared him, pulling him back to our circle.
“Let me go! Let me go, danggit!” Baxter struggled weakly against Brodie’s grip. “We’re all gonna frickin’ die, man!”
“What’s the plan, Brodie?” Michael asked, ignoring the whimpering Baxter.
“Ever seen a horror movie?” He asked, rhetorically continuing without waiting for a reply. “Everybody runs off on their own, and one by one they get hunted down to the last man.”
“I’m listening.” Alexander nodded.
“There are six of us here.” Brodie explained. “I say we break up into three groups of two. That way we split up so we’re not all grouped together, but we’re still not alone. We can watch each other’s backs, ‘n all that.”
“Sounds good.” I spoke up for the first time. “We should divide our strength equally too. I’ll go with Michael, Martin can go with Bax, and Brodie with Alex. That way if it comes down to a fight, we won’t have all the heavy hitters in one group.”
I was lying through my teeth. Frankly, I just didn’t want to end up with Martin, Brodie, or Alex as they’d use me as a decoy without a second’s thought, and Baxter was just a liability.
“Sounds good to me.” Alexander nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Damnit, you mean I get stuck with this nerd?” Martin grumbled. “Whatever, let’s beat it, Bax.”
I turned to Michael. “Ready to go?”
“Sure.” He grinned. “We’re gonna feel so dumb when we find out this was all just Yvonne’s prank.”
“I hope so.” I smiled back thinly. Then, we turned and started running back into the seemingly endless maze of trash heaps, washed red by the still invisible sun.
“Forty-eight Mississippi.” The voice continued, somewhere out of sight.
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