By the Creek (6 page)

David got dressed and gathered his things. Instead of going right back to the house, he followed the path on his side of the creek back along the field until the path petered out and the vegetation got too thick. Leaving the wooded area, he headed across the open hayfield toward home. He needed some time to think about his feelings for his friend, which seemed to be getting stronger no matter how much he tried to control them, but he had to do something about them. Benjamin was his friend, and while he wasn’t sure what these feelings meant, especially the ones that took over when he was alone in bed, and in his mind, Benjamin came to him and kissed him….

David reached the back of the house and walked around to the front, intending to enter through the garage. The sight of a black buggy there with a horse in front of it surprised him. Watching as the animal tossed its head but made no move, David entered through the garage door. He heard his mother talking softly, as well as a man with a deep voice. He couldn’t make out what they were saying. After he put his wet things in the laundry room, he walked through the house, following the sound of the voices to the living room. He saw a large, bearded man with a hat like Benjamin’s on his lap.

“So you’ll speak to him,” the man said, and David heard his mother agree.

David walked to where his mother sat stiffly on the edge of her seat. “Who is this?” David asked, looking at the man. When he looked up at David, he knew instantly that it was Benjamin’s father. He had the same eyes and features, although not nearly as pleasant as Benjamin’s.

“Benjamin is my son,” he said stiffly. “And I stopped by with the intention of speaking with the man of the family.”

“That would be me,” David replied with equal stiffness. “What can I do for you?”

Benjamin’s father stood up, towering over David in his black clothes. “I’ll thank you to stay away from my son.”

David was shocked. “He’s my friend, and we were just swimming. We didn’t do anything wrong,” David protested a bit weakly and looked to his mother for support. “All we did was go swimming and talk.”

“Benjamin is about to become a man and he needs to spend his time with his family and on proper pursuits,” Benjamin’s father said. “I don’t cotton to him spending time with the English, especially not after the way he’s behaved since he’s been spending time with you.”

“All we did was go swimming,” David repeated.

“That isn’t all you did. You caused my son to lie and sin in the eyes of the Lord. He never told us he was going swimming with you, and if he had, we would have forbade it. So by not telling us where he was going and who he was seeing, Benjamin was lying by omission, and I will not have that. You caused my son to sin, and that cannot be condoned. So I’ll ask you again, stay away from my son and don’t go talking to him. He shan’t be cutting through the field any longer.” Benjamin’s father placed his hat on his head. “Good day to you, ma’am,” he said, and David watched as he let himself out.

The door closed quietly and David could hardly believe what had just happened. He’d lost the one friend he had here. But there was more to it than that. He’d left many friends when they’d moved, but losing Benjamin felt worse than all of them combined.

“I’m sorry, David,” his mother said, and he nodded, feeling a bit shell-shocked. He sat in the chair by the window and watched as the buggy slowly turned around in the driveway and headed out onto the road. He couldn’t watch any longer and turned to look at his mother.

“I know you liked him, but you’ll make more friends.”

He knew she was trying to put the best face on things that she could. At least she wasn’t saying “I told you so.” David nodded and went to his room without saying anything more. He felt like his heart was breaking, but that couldn’t be. He and Benjamin were just friends. There were so many things he didn’t understand, and they all seemed to be happening to him at the same time. He flopped down on his bed, bunched up his pillow, and buried his face in it. He told himself he wasn’t going to cry, but that didn’t mean he had to be happy about what had happened, either. Life sucked—it really and truly sucked. Just when he’d made a friend, something had to happen to take him away. It wasn’t fair.

“I’ll have dinner ready in about an hour,” David’s mother said, and he nodded but didn’t look up at her. “It will be okay.”

“I know, Mom,” David lied. How could he explain that he’d told Benjamin most of his deepest thoughts and Benjamin hadn’t laughed at him or said he was ridiculous? Granted, he hadn’t told him the big one, but that was okay. Benjamin had listened, and he’d told David things, stuff that seemed important. Benjamin had even told David he’d thought of leaving the community so he could see the world. He knew that was a huge secret for Benjamin, and David had treasured that admission for what it was—a declaration of trust. And now he was gone from his life. David knew Benjamin would never openly defy his father. He was too sweet and way too good to do that. No, Benjamin was gone for good, and David knew he needed to accept it.

He told himself that twice before he started punching his pillow in complete frustration. This was ridiculous. He and Benjamin hadn’t done anything wrong, and he was going to find a way to see Benjamin, somehow. Not that he had any ideas, but still he ruminated on it until his mother called him for dinner. He joined her at the table, and they ate in near silence. Afterward, David cleaned up the dishes and joined his mother in front of the television until it was time to go to bed.

T
HE
following morning, David kept an eye on the house across the street, desperate to see if he could see Benjamin, but he never did. Finally, in the afternoon, he walked across the field and down the path to the swimming hole, where he sat on a log and waited. This was his only chance to see Benjamin, the only place where his friend knew he would be. David waited for the rest of the afternoon. The sun danced on the water the way it usually did. Creatures moved around the forest floor, and at each sound, David jumped and looked across the water, hoping to see Benjamin, but he didn’t come. David knew Benjamin’s father was probably keeping a close eye on him, but he’d hoped Benjamin would somehow be able to come to see him, probably for the last time. He had so many things he wanted to tell his friend, but Benjamin never stepped into the clearing, and David eventually walked back home.

Chapter 6

D
AVID
pulled his car into the driveway and parked as best he could. The wind had picked up again and snow was drifting across the driveway. Everyone at school had been talking about how this was the worst January for snow that any of them had ever seen. They were also talking about how great it was to have so many snow days. School had been let out early, and it had still taken David a long time to get home. He’d called his mother, and she had asked him to stop at the store on his way home. David had had just enough money to get what she wanted. He set the grocery bag on the counter, then began putting things away, thankful to be home, off the roads, and out of the weather.

Once he was done, he called his mother. “Mom, I made it home okay,” he said when she answered her phone.

“Good.” The relief in her voice was palpable. “They’re going to let us out in the next few hours, and I’m going to come right home. I’ll call when I leave.”

“Okay,” David said as he looked out the kitchen window. The field behind the house was a blanket of white, and the trees on the far edge were visible only as shadows.

“Get your homework done,” she reminded him, and David grunted, rolling his eyes. He always did his homework, and he wasn’t sure why she felt the need to remind him.

“I will, Mom,” he said in his ever-suffering teenage voice. The high school here was easier and much less competitive than the one he’d left. David had always been a good student, but here he was easily sitting at the top of his class.

“Did all your friends get home?” his mother asked.

“Yes. They texted while I was driving. I answered them while I was at the store, and I need to tell them that I made it home. Drive safe.”

“I’ll call you when I leave the office,” she said again before hanging up. David hung up as well and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, then texted Lynn and Carol that he’d made it home. He got quick responses from both of them and replied before shoving his phone back into his pocket. He’d made a few friends in the five or so months he’d been in his new school. They definitely weren’t like the friends he’d had before he moved. He’d been very close to the friends he’d left behind. The thing that shocked him was how quickly he’d lost touch with them all. Still, he’d made a few friends.

His cell phone rang, and he fished it out of his pocket. “Hi, Carol,” David said happily. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she said a bit breathlessly. David had quickly learned that Carol was hugely dramatic and great fun to be around. “My mother’s being a douche, but what else is new.”

“What’s she want you to do?” David asked with a smile.

“Look after my little brother, the dickwad. She’s home, and I still gotta watch him,” Carol groused. “The perils of having a little brother,” she added for melodramatic effect.

“So give him some Legos and let him play on the living room floor while you watch
General Hospital
,” David told her, rolling his own eyes.

“The dickwad only plays Legos when you’re here. The rest of the time he bugs me.”

“Come on, Stewart’s a great kid,” David said with a smile, “though he does seem to get a kick out of bugging you.”

“Tell me about it,” she said as she heaved a sigh. “I gotta go before my mother has a cow.” She said good-bye and hung up. David placed the phone on the counter and went into the living room with his books. He turned on the television and spread out on the floor to get his homework done before his mother got home. Not that there was a big hurry—if this storm was like the others, school would be canceled tomorrow, and probably Monday as well, because it took a long time to clear the country roads. Thankfully, their road was pretty major, but some of them took a real long time to get plowed.

David half watched a rerun of
Gilligan’s Island
as he finished up his assignment from chemistry class. He loved this kind of work, and while many of the other kids avoided the subject because it was tough, David loved it. He was just working through one of his reaction problems when he heard a sharp rap on the front door. He got up and was about to open it when the sound came again. David pulled open the door.

“Benjamin,” David said in surprise, pushing open the screen door and ushering his friend into the house. “What are you doing here?” David asked. He closed the door and saw Benjamin shivering.

“I didn’t know where else to go. Papa and I were out this morning cutting some wood. With all these storms, we’ve been going through more firewood than we expected—everyone has—so Papa and I were going out to try to cut some more. There are some trees over there that were dead. We cut one down, but as the tree fell, Papa collapsed, and I don’t know what’s wrong. Since we were closer to your house than ours, I came here. Can you help?”

The question had barely crossed Benjamin’s lips but David was already moving. “Let me get some warmer clothes on and I’ll be right back.” David rushed to his room, shedding his jeans along the way. In his room, he pulled on long underwear and then a light pair of pants before tugging on his biggest pair of jeans. Next, he pulled on a sweatshirt and then grabbed his heavy coat, gloves, and a hat. He rushed back to where Benjamin was waiting, turned off the television, and then locked the front door. “I need to get my boots. Come on.” David was already heading toward the back door. He stepped into his thick boots and pulled open the back door, then led Benjamin out through the garage to his car.

Benjamin stopped when David walked toward the car. “I’m….”

“Come on, there may not be much time in this weather.” David yanked open his door, and after a few seconds, Benjamin did the same. David had the car started and was ready to go by the time Benjamin had closed his door. He cranked the heat and slowly backed down the driveway and onto the road. “Where is he?” David asked, and Benjamin pointed.

“We had only planned on cutting the wood, and once the storm died, we’d haul it back,” Benjamin explained. “He’s right over there.”

David pulled the car off the road to a spot that the wind had blown clear. After pulling on his hat and gloves, he got out and popped the trunk. Benjamin got out as well and met him at the back of the car. David pulled out the emergency blanket his mother had insisted he keep in the trunk and handed Benjamin his extra coat. “We’re going to need to keep your dad warm,” David hollered over the wind. He slammed the trunk closed and motioned Benjamin forward.

Benjamin began trudging through the snow. David followed, sinking up to his knees. He hoped it didn’t get much deeper or they’d barely be able to move. “He’s right over there,” Benjamin yelled, and David nodded, hurrying forward as he saw a dark form on the snow.