Shadows of Caesar's Creek (6 page)

Jerome said boldly, “Bring on all your ghosts and shadows and spirits. We're the Black Dinosaurs We're not scared of anything”

Rico joined them as they stood and marched to their tent, but he looked scared. They could hear Noni and the girls laughing behind them.

“Dumb girls” Rico said. “They got Noni to protect them, though.”

“We don't need anybody, mon,” Ziggy boasted. “She was just trying to scare us. That's what you're supposed to do to kids on a campout”

They crawled into their sleeping bags, which fit snugly into the tent. Each boy had a flashlight. “Ready to zip the tent?” Jerome asked.

“Ready, mon”

“Let her zip” added Rico.

“Now, flashlights off” commanded Rashawn.

The darkness was almost total. They could see faint shadows from the light of the fading campfire. The light of the moon cast an eerie glow.

“You scared?” asked Rico.

“Not really,” Rashawn replied, but his voice was a little shaky.

“Me neither,” said Jerome. “I just hope there's no bugs crawling around inside this sleeping bag”

“Where's the arrowhead, Rico?” Ziggy asked.

“Right here in my pocket. You know,” Rico added, “I wish we could do one of those manhood tests Noni talked about.”

“Like jumping naked in a frozen lake, mon? You must be nuts”

“No, I mean like going on a night hike or searching for secrets in the stars.”

“We
could
go on a hike tonight,” Rashawn suggested quietly.

“Noni would never allow it,” Rico declared.

“Noni would never know” Rashawn replied excitedly. “We'll wait until she's asleep.”

“You mean sneak out, mon? Awesome”

“We'll get in really big trouble”

“Only if we get caught”

“How could they catch us? We'll be back in an hour”

“Let's prove we're men, and not boys”

“It's dark”

“We've got flashlights.”

“What about the bugs?”

“We'll take bug spray.”

“Let's do it”

“Yeah, mon Let's do it”

They whispered excitedly for the next hour, listening for the sounds from the girls' tent to disappear. They planned to walk down to the beach by the lake and sit in the moonlight, pretending to be Shawnee boys on a night journey. If Noni woke up and found them, they decided to tell her they had gone out to go to the bathroom.

The night finally became silent. Rashawn unzipped
the tent and listened. They could hear insects and frogs, but the girls' tent was quiet. They waited another half hour, just to make sure, then slipped quietly, one by one, out of the tent and down the path to the lake.

The night air was chilly, and Rashawn wished he had taken his mother's advice and brought his coat. The moon glowed huge and bright, lighting the water. As the four boys sat on the banks of Caesar Creek Lake, they thought silently of Indians, and adventures, and secrets of the past.

“This is cool” Rashawn exclaimed.

“Awesome” added Jerome.

Ziggy wore his long, purple, many-pocketed coat. He and Rico walked down the beach, scuffing their shoes in the rocky sand, and almost bumped into the canoe they had discovered earlier.

“Look, mon” Ziggy exclaimed.

“I wonder if it's any good,” Rico wondered. “It's probably full of holes.”

They called Jerome and Rashawn over to help them inspect the hull of the canoe. They shone their
flashlights all over it, and it looked faded but surprisingly solid.

Together they pushed and pulled it right side up. It was about fifteen feet long. Two seats had been nailed across it, and two paddles were tucked neatly on each side. Inside the boat was a flat wooden board. Hand-lettered on this plank, in faded white paint, were the words
BOAT FOR SALE.

“It looks like it's been waiting for us, mon,” Ziggy remarked. He climbed in.

“Maybe we better not,” Rico warned.

“What harm could there be?” Rashawn said. “We're only gonna sit here on the beach for a minute.” He climbed in next to Ziggy.

Jerome got in next. “Come on, Rico” he called.

Rico climbed in next to Jerome, grinning in spite of himself.

“Indian scouts, out looking for trouble” Jerome announced. They picked up the paddles and pretended they were paddling the boat as they checked for enemies in the distance.

“Let's see if it floats,” Rashawn said suddenly. He jumped out of the canoe. The other boys jumped out too, excited because they had all had the same thought. “Come on, help me push it into the water”

Rico didn't want to, but he helped anyway. With a huge push from the boys, the canoe slipped silently into the black water of Lake Caesar and started to float away from the shore.

“Catch it” shouted Jerome. “If it floats away, we'll get in trouble” He ran into the water and reached for the canoe, but he couldn't hold it alone.

“Jump in, mon” yelled Ziggy. Rashawn grabbed for one other side of the boat as Jerome steadied the other side. Both boys pulled themselves into the bottom of the boat.

Ziggy jumped in next. Finally, Rico, who didn't want the other boys to tease him, jumped in as well. The four boys looked around.

The boat had drifted thirty feet from the shore. Slightly wet and really excited, the boys grinned with pleasure as the small canoe rocked gently in the night breeze, drifting away with each rock of the
waves. The moon still shone brightly, lighting what looked like a path on the water.

“I feel like a Shawnee boy” Rashawn said with a smile.

“On a night challenge?”

“Maybe, but this is pretty easy,” Rashawn boasted.

“We better get back, mon,” Ziggy suggested with regret. Rico was glad that someone else had said what he'd been thinking.

“Where are the paddles?” asked Rico.

“Uh-oh I think we've got a small problem—no, make that a
big
problem,” Jerome said softly.

“What's wrong?”

“We left the paddles onshore”

THE BREEZE HAD PICKED UP, AND AS THEY LOOKED
back at the beach, the boys saw that the canoe had drifted almost a hundred feet from the shore. They could see in the distance the tiny faint glow of their campfire. All around them rippled the dark, silent water.

“What are we gonna do?” Rico worried. “I knew this wasn't a good idea”

“We can't swim back to shore,” said Jerome. “It's too dark and the water is too deep.”

“What if we call for help?” Rashawn suggested.

“Who's gonna hear us, mon?” Ziggy moaned. “Now I really
do
have to go to the bathroom”

The canoe bounced on the water, drifting the four friends farther and farther away from camp, and safety, and even the girls.

“Do you think Noni will get up and check on us?” Jerome asked.

“Yeah, but even if she does, where will she look for us in the middle of the night?” Rashawn answered with defeat.

“Maybe she knows about the canoe and will notice it's gone, mon. Not to worry—not to worry” Ziggy kept repeating, but he sounded worried anyway.

“And maybe she won't notice at all,” cried Rico. “We may drift here all night”

“What would Tecumseh do?” asked Jerome. “If this was a night challenge, a young person would have to be brave and think of a solution, right?”

“Right,” agreed Rashawn. “But I don't feel very brave. I'm cold, and I wish I had listened to my mother and brought my coat.”

“Hey, I got an idea, mon” Ziggy said suddenly.
“What about this ‘Boat for Sale' sign? We could use it as a paddle”

“Good idea, Ziggy” said Jerome. “Rico, you said you knew how to paddle a canoe, right? Do your thing, man”

Rico picked up the plank and dipped it slowly into the water. He pulled it through the water as his father had shown him. But the canoe barely moved.

“What's wrong, Rico? Why aren't we moving?” Rashawn asked.

“When I was with my dad, it was much easier,” admitted Rico. “And it was daytime. And he was doing most of the paddling.”

“Let's take turns, then,” suggested Jerome. “Let me try.”

Jerome tried paddling with the plank and agreed that it was much harder than it looked. The little canoe bobbed on the water, turning and moving a little as each boy took a turn, but it was no closer to the shore. They could no longer see even a dim spot of their campfire, and the moon had disappeared behind the clouds. Blackness surrounded them.

“We're lost.”

“In the dark.”

“In the middle of a lake.”

“In the middle of the night.”

“Not to worry, mon” Ziggy said suddenly. “I have an idea”

Ziggy started digging though the many pockets of his purple coat. “I know it's in here somewhere,” he mumbled. Finally, he said with a shout of joy, “I found it”

“What?” they all wanted to know.

“My umbrella, of course” He showed them a tiny yellow and green umbrella, which, folded up, was only about five inches long.

“What good is that going to do?” asked Rashawn. “It's not raining.”

“I know, mon. But look” Ziggy pushed a button on the handle and the tiny umbrella stretched out to a full three feet long. “We can use this as a second paddle As long as I don't push this second button to open it up, we'll be fine,” he explained.

Ziggy dipped the umbrella into the water and
said to Rico, who was holding the plank, “Let's do this together, mon. Dip, push the water, up—dip, push the water, up—dip, push, up—dip, push, up.”

Rico nodded in agreement, and for a few moments the sound of the two makeshift paddles splashing together in the water made them all feel better. But
the canoe still wasn't moving toward the shore as
they wanted. In fact, it seemed to be going in circles.

“It's not working, Ziggy,” Jerome complained.

“I've got it, mon” Ziggy shouted. “The problem is that me and Rico should be sitting next to each other, not like this That way, we'd be rowing together and we could get this little boat back to camp. Let me just move over next to—”

“NO, ZIGGY” they all shouted. “DON'T STAND UP”

But it was too late. In his excitement to change places, he stood up, and the canoe started to rock. Ziggy lost his balance, fell forward, and accidentally pushed the button that made the umbrella open with a
whoosh
The open umbrella bumped Rashawn and knocked him overboard with a splash. Ziggy tumbled in after him, screaming. He grabbed the side of the canoe, pulled it too far, and Rico and Jerome joined them in the chilly water as the canoe tilted, filled with water, and sank with a gurgle and a thud.

The four boys were good swimmers, but the darkness and the
sudden tumble into the water made everything really scary. Ziggy was screaming and splashing, trying to find the sunken canoe.

“Help I'm drowning It's dark out here Where are you guys?”