The Quarry
"Are you sure it's safe, Matt?"
The two boys stood at the north edge of the old quarry, peering down at the still blue-grey water nearly a hundred feet below. Sticks poked up through the surface here and there, suggesting an alarming lack of depth, not to mention an old rusty shopping cart laying on its side.
"I dunno," the boy continued. "I think I'd need to land in water at least as deep as a grocery cart, maybe more." He examined his own height quickly, determining with almost complete certainty that, yes, he was probably taller than a sideways shopping cart.
"Well, yeah," reassured the other boy, Matthew. Both of them were eleven years old, though he was older than Thomas by only a few weeks. More often than not, Matthew was the unofficial leader between the two. His hair was normally already very pale, but today sunlight almost seemed to shine right through it. "Of course it needs to be deeper. That's why you jump right there." Matthew pointed directly below them, to a patch of water that was devoid of any detritus, smooth and uninterrupted, approximately a dozen feet wide in every direction. The area in question even appeared deeper, the water holding a much darker tone in colour, more of a blackish blue.
Tommy leaned over the edge just a hair more to get a better look at the potential landing zone, then quickly backed up again. He still wasn't sure it would be a good idea. Not taking his eyes off the water, he asked his buddy the same question he'd already asked several times earlier.
"You jumped from here, right here, just yesterday?" asked Tommy.
"Yup. Honest Injun," replied the older boy, right hand up by his head.
Tommy examined his friend once more, re-affirming that his buddy looked completely unscathed from the jump. He had no reason to distrust his pal, with whom he'd been best of friends for as long as he could remember.
At Matthew's interminable insistence, the boys had a sleepover at Tommy's house the night before. Oddly, it seemed to Tommy that his buddy was either in trouble with his parents or just didn't want to talk to any adults that night. Matthew asserted that Tommy should ask his mother to then inform Matthew's mother that they would be having a sleepover at Tommy's. Thomas' mother thought the request a little strange, but after she spoke with Matthew's mother and that she was fine with it, it was all set. As well, whenever either of Tommy's parents came downstairs to check on them, Matthew would head to the bathroom so he could avoid them. It was strange behaviour, but hey, boys were strange, and Tommy never brought it up.
It was early Saturday afternoon, and the boys had been adventuring outside since early that morning, Matthew pressing that they should take advantage of the beautiful weather and pack themselves breakfast and lunch for a day of adventure in the woods south of town. They'd headed off just before eight that morning before Thomas' folks had even gotten out of bed. Tommy left them a note just before leaving so his parents wouldn't be worried.
Tommy was a few feet back from the cliff's edge, struggling to peel off his t-shirt which clung to him like a sweaty rag. He dropped the red shirt onto the dusty ground, then undid his shoe laces slowly, his mind and body trying to buy time that his pride wouldn't sell back. He still wasn't sure he should do it.
"I'm still not sure I should do it," Tommy said, hopping on one foot while trying to pull off his left sneaker.
"I promise, it's the easiest thing in the world," Matt reassured him. "You just jump, then let gravity take over. It's Just like jumping into the wave pool, just, y'know, a bit higher up. I promise, the jump won't kill ya. You'll land in nice soft water before you know it, and you won't feel a thing."
Tommy now stood by Matthew's side, wearing only a pair of old cutoff jean shorts, examining the landing spot once more. He was hoping he might spot a twig or something poking out right in the middle of the dark water patch which would instantly put a stop to this whole silly jumping business.
"Okay, here goes," Tommy said. He lined up the landing spot once more, backed up a few steps to where he felt it would allow him adequate time to dial in the correct amount of speed, then took off toward the edge before he could change his mind.
"Gee-e-eronimo-o-oooOOAIIIEEEEEEE-!"
Tommy flew off the cliff's edge in a fabulously uncoordinated flailing of limbs, screaming until it felt as if his heart had leapt into his throat, blocking his windpipe. Matthew watched his lifelong pal plummet nearly a hundred feet before he touched the water, then raced down to greet Tommy at the bottom.
Thomas' fall was a terrifyingly paralyzing moment for the young man, but other than a very quick nip of intense pressure he experienced as soon as he hit the water, he felt fine. Tommy was already standing on the quarry's low embankment when Matthew caught up to him.
"Woweee! That was a rush!" exclaimed Tommy in charged excitement. He looked up the cliff where he'd hucked himself off of just moments before, then down at his blonde-haired friend, then back up again. "Holy frickin' shit!" Tommy wasn't much for swearing, but if ever there was an appropriate moment in his life, this was it.
"Pretty cool, huh?" said Matthew. "Okay, let's get going-"
Tommy interrupted him. "What? Why? That was amazing! Let's do it again! This time we'll jump at the same time." Tommy was already starting the hike up to the top, trying to grab hold of his buddy's arm as he went, but apparently missing and grabbing nothing but air.
"Uhh," Matthew started, not moving. "This is, uh, the kinda ride you only take once, I think."
Tommy turned around and stared at his friend, who looked positively sheepish. Matthew stood there head down, hands clasped together in front, his left foot digging into the sandy soil.
"What are you talking about, Matt?" inquired Tommy.
Matthew didn't make a sound, only lifted his finger to point at the exact spot Tommy had just broken into the water a mere minute earlier. Tommy turned to look, at first not seeing it, then seeing something all too familiar. The realization washed over him like cold honey, chilling his spine and numbing him still at the same time. He was looking at himself, only it wasn't really himself. He was staring at a bloodied pile of broken limbs and mottled skin, a pair of blood-stained cutoff jean shorts in the middle of it all. It was a corpse; his corpse. And it lay there in no more than two inches of water.
"Wha...howhu...fah..." Tommy sputtered. It was a bit of a shock, naturally. He turned back to his companion. "But...what's all..." Tommy waved between himself, his mangled, unmoving body, the cliff, Matthew, himself again, all in a dumbfounded effort to convey his thoughts, which roughly translated to How in the Holiest of Fucks is this happening right now???
Matthew simply shrugged, nodding his head solemnly for the benefit of his good pal who was obviously going through a tough time at the moment. "Yeah, same thing happened to me yesterday. Bummer, right?" Then he perked right up, clapped his hands together once, then stretched his arms open as if welcoming Tommy to the neighborhood for the first time. "But isn't this great? Now we're ghost buddies! Check this out." Matthew stuck his fist into Tommy's chest, which went clean through, then pulled it back out dramatically, pretending to clutch a still beating heart in his hand. Tommy just stood dumbly, still emotionally paralyzed from the idea that he just died. "Nah, I'm just kidding, buddy ol' boy, I didn't pull your heart out. It's still over there with your corpse," Matthew assured him, pointing to Tommy's remains. However unhelpful, this did seem to snap the younger boy out of his daze.
"YOU FUCKING KNEW I WAS GONNA DIE?!?!" shrieked Tommy. "You asshole!"
Matthew thought his pal was taking it rather well. It took him nearly the entire previous evening before he'd even realized he was dead.
"Well, yeah," said Matthew, undeterred. "But, y'know... ghost buddies!" He went to punch his friend lightly on the shoulder amicably, failing miserably; his fist dissolved harmlessly into Tommy's shoulder, neither of them feeling a thing.
"I...I can't believe this is really...how could you..." Tommy muttered incoherently, stumbling around as if he might collapse from overexertion. Which he probably couldn't, already being dead and all. Tommy sat down on a nearby flat rock, wondering if his butt was actually making some kind of ethereal contact with the stone or if his ghostly form was just making it look like he was sitting on it. He gazed at the ground between his feet, unsure how to mourn the loss of a life he'd most certainly never get to enjoy again.
Matthew could sense that his friend really needed a moment to himself, really needed some time to grieve for his own death. Matthew felt it like an undeniable basic instinct, to leave him be. Matt told his instinct to shut up. He sat down next to his best friend of eight years, floated an arm around Tommy's weightless shoulders, and tried to reassure him best he could.
"Haven't you ever wanted to sneak into the girls' locker room at the end of gym class?"
Tommy stared down, unblinking.
"How about R rated movies? We could sneak into as many as we want, and you'll never have to pay for another movie, ever! Shoot, we could make our own ghost movies."
Tommy tried to stave off a quick chuckle, but he couldn't help it. The noise bubbled to the surface like sticky tar, and it made Tommy feel better. Just a bit.
"You know the best part?" Matthew chimed on. "We'll never have to pay bills, working some stupid job when we're older, or even take the smelly bus to school ever again!"
Tommy then thought of the class jerk, Brad, who haunted his thoughts almost incessantly between September and June. He would never again be able to bully Tommy on the ride home after school. Tommy then thought about maybe dishing out a wee bit of haunting himself for a change. He visibly perked up at the idea.
Matthew smiled. He knew his buddy would be okay.
"You said the jump wouldn't kill me, you freakin' liar," Tommy stated.
"Well, it's true, isn't it?" defended Matthew. "It was the landing that did you in."
Tommy couldn't argue with him there. "I should still tell somebody on you for killing me, you dink," Tommy said without much conviction.
"Oh yeah?" sneered Matthew. "Who ya gonna call?"
At that, Tommy and Matthew both exploded into fits of uncontrollable laughter, doubled over in a gentle ache which, they were both glad, was still a feeling that transferred over to the bodily challenged.
"So," Tommy said, feeling much better. "What do we do with that?" He pointed to his crumpled form in the middle of the shallow water.
Matthew waved it off as he turned to head towards home. "Meh. A coyote will drag it off into the woods sometime. That's what happened to me, pretty much; a stray dog came by soon after and hauled my corpse off into the woods. In fact, it gave me the idea to see if you would jump too, since there was no dead body at the bottom to change your mind."
Tommy nodded as they floated up over the embankment. "Yup, that probly would've given me second thoughts, I'll admit."
They headed back north towards town, both feeling pretty good, friends even into death.
© 2015 Biography of a Nobody
The two boys stood at the north edge of the old quarry, peering down at the still blue-grey water nearly a hundred feet below. Sticks poked up through the surface here and there, suggesting an alarming lack of depth, not to mention an old rusty shopping cart laying on its side.
"I dunno," the boy continued. "I think I'd need to land in water at least as deep as a grocery cart, maybe more." He examined his own height quickly, determining with almost complete certainty that, yes, he was probably taller than a sideways shopping cart.
"Well, yeah," reassured the other boy, Matthew. Both of them were eleven years old, though he was older than Thomas by only a few weeks. More often than not, Matthew was the unofficial leader between the two. His hair was normally already very pale, but today sunlight almost seemed to shine right through it. "Of course it needs to be deeper. That's why you jump right there." Matthew pointed directly below them, to a patch of water that was devoid of any detritus, smooth and uninterrupted, approximately a dozen feet wide in every direction. The area in question even appeared deeper, the water holding a much darker tone in colour, more of a blackish blue.
Tommy leaned over the edge just a hair more to get a better look at the potential landing zone, then quickly backed up again. He still wasn't sure it would be a good idea. Not taking his eyes off the water, he asked his buddy the same question he'd already asked several times earlier.
"You jumped from here, right here, just yesterday?" asked Tommy.
"Yup. Honest Injun," replied the older boy, right hand up by his head.
Tommy examined his friend once more, re-affirming that his buddy looked completely unscathed from the jump. He had no reason to distrust his pal, with whom he'd been best of friends for as long as he could remember.
At Matthew's interminable insistence, the boys had a sleepover at Tommy's house the night before. Oddly, it seemed to Tommy that his buddy was either in trouble with his parents or just didn't want to talk to any adults that night. Matthew asserted that Tommy should ask his mother to then inform Matthew's mother that they would be having a sleepover at Tommy's. Thomas' mother thought the request a little strange, but after she spoke with Matthew's mother and that she was fine with it, it was all set. As well, whenever either of Tommy's parents came downstairs to check on them, Matthew would head to the bathroom so he could avoid them. It was strange behaviour, but hey, boys were strange, and Tommy never brought it up.
It was early Saturday afternoon, and the boys had been adventuring outside since early that morning, Matthew pressing that they should take advantage of the beautiful weather and pack themselves breakfast and lunch for a day of adventure in the woods south of town. They'd headed off just before eight that morning before Thomas' folks had even gotten out of bed. Tommy left them a note just before leaving so his parents wouldn't be worried.
Tommy was a few feet back from the cliff's edge, struggling to peel off his t-shirt which clung to him like a sweaty rag. He dropped the red shirt onto the dusty ground, then undid his shoe laces slowly, his mind and body trying to buy time that his pride wouldn't sell back. He still wasn't sure he should do it.
"I'm still not sure I should do it," Tommy said, hopping on one foot while trying to pull off his left sneaker.
"I promise, it's the easiest thing in the world," Matt reassured him. "You just jump, then let gravity take over. It's Just like jumping into the wave pool, just, y'know, a bit higher up. I promise, the jump won't kill ya. You'll land in nice soft water before you know it, and you won't feel a thing."
Tommy now stood by Matthew's side, wearing only a pair of old cutoff jean shorts, examining the landing spot once more. He was hoping he might spot a twig or something poking out right in the middle of the dark water patch which would instantly put a stop to this whole silly jumping business.
"Okay, here goes," Tommy said. He lined up the landing spot once more, backed up a few steps to where he felt it would allow him adequate time to dial in the correct amount of speed, then took off toward the edge before he could change his mind.
"Gee-e-eronimo-o-oooOOAIIIEEEEEEE-!"
Tommy flew off the cliff's edge in a fabulously uncoordinated flailing of limbs, screaming until it felt as if his heart had leapt into his throat, blocking his windpipe. Matthew watched his lifelong pal plummet nearly a hundred feet before he touched the water, then raced down to greet Tommy at the bottom.
Thomas' fall was a terrifyingly paralyzing moment for the young man, but other than a very quick nip of intense pressure he experienced as soon as he hit the water, he felt fine. Tommy was already standing on the quarry's low embankment when Matthew caught up to him.
"Woweee! That was a rush!" exclaimed Tommy in charged excitement. He looked up the cliff where he'd hucked himself off of just moments before, then down at his blonde-haired friend, then back up again. "Holy frickin' shit!" Tommy wasn't much for swearing, but if ever there was an appropriate moment in his life, this was it.
"Pretty cool, huh?" said Matthew. "Okay, let's get going-"
Tommy interrupted him. "What? Why? That was amazing! Let's do it again! This time we'll jump at the same time." Tommy was already starting the hike up to the top, trying to grab hold of his buddy's arm as he went, but apparently missing and grabbing nothing but air.
"Uhh," Matthew started, not moving. "This is, uh, the kinda ride you only take once, I think."
Tommy turned around and stared at his friend, who looked positively sheepish. Matthew stood there head down, hands clasped together in front, his left foot digging into the sandy soil.
"What are you talking about, Matt?" inquired Tommy.
Matthew didn't make a sound, only lifted his finger to point at the exact spot Tommy had just broken into the water a mere minute earlier. Tommy turned to look, at first not seeing it, then seeing something all too familiar. The realization washed over him like cold honey, chilling his spine and numbing him still at the same time. He was looking at himself, only it wasn't really himself. He was staring at a bloodied pile of broken limbs and mottled skin, a pair of blood-stained cutoff jean shorts in the middle of it all. It was a corpse; his corpse. And it lay there in no more than two inches of water.
"Wha...howhu...fah..." Tommy sputtered. It was a bit of a shock, naturally. He turned back to his companion. "But...what's all..." Tommy waved between himself, his mangled, unmoving body, the cliff, Matthew, himself again, all in a dumbfounded effort to convey his thoughts, which roughly translated to How in the Holiest of Fucks is this happening right now???
Matthew simply shrugged, nodding his head solemnly for the benefit of his good pal who was obviously going through a tough time at the moment. "Yeah, same thing happened to me yesterday. Bummer, right?" Then he perked right up, clapped his hands together once, then stretched his arms open as if welcoming Tommy to the neighborhood for the first time. "But isn't this great? Now we're ghost buddies! Check this out." Matthew stuck his fist into Tommy's chest, which went clean through, then pulled it back out dramatically, pretending to clutch a still beating heart in his hand. Tommy just stood dumbly, still emotionally paralyzed from the idea that he just died. "Nah, I'm just kidding, buddy ol' boy, I didn't pull your heart out. It's still over there with your corpse," Matthew assured him, pointing to Tommy's remains. However unhelpful, this did seem to snap the younger boy out of his daze.
"YOU FUCKING KNEW I WAS GONNA DIE?!?!" shrieked Tommy. "You asshole!"
Matthew thought his pal was taking it rather well. It took him nearly the entire previous evening before he'd even realized he was dead.
"Well, yeah," said Matthew, undeterred. "But, y'know... ghost buddies!" He went to punch his friend lightly on the shoulder amicably, failing miserably; his fist dissolved harmlessly into Tommy's shoulder, neither of them feeling a thing.
"I...I can't believe this is really...how could you..." Tommy muttered incoherently, stumbling around as if he might collapse from overexertion. Which he probably couldn't, already being dead and all. Tommy sat down on a nearby flat rock, wondering if his butt was actually making some kind of ethereal contact with the stone or if his ghostly form was just making it look like he was sitting on it. He gazed at the ground between his feet, unsure how to mourn the loss of a life he'd most certainly never get to enjoy again.
Matthew could sense that his friend really needed a moment to himself, really needed some time to grieve for his own death. Matthew felt it like an undeniable basic instinct, to leave him be. Matt told his instinct to shut up. He sat down next to his best friend of eight years, floated an arm around Tommy's weightless shoulders, and tried to reassure him best he could.
"Haven't you ever wanted to sneak into the girls' locker room at the end of gym class?"
Tommy stared down, unblinking.
"How about R rated movies? We could sneak into as many as we want, and you'll never have to pay for another movie, ever! Shoot, we could make our own ghost movies."
Tommy tried to stave off a quick chuckle, but he couldn't help it. The noise bubbled to the surface like sticky tar, and it made Tommy feel better. Just a bit.
"You know the best part?" Matthew chimed on. "We'll never have to pay bills, working some stupid job when we're older, or even take the smelly bus to school ever again!"
Tommy then thought of the class jerk, Brad, who haunted his thoughts almost incessantly between September and June. He would never again be able to bully Tommy on the ride home after school. Tommy then thought about maybe dishing out a wee bit of haunting himself for a change. He visibly perked up at the idea.
Matthew smiled. He knew his buddy would be okay.
"You said the jump wouldn't kill me, you freakin' liar," Tommy stated.
"Well, it's true, isn't it?" defended Matthew. "It was the landing that did you in."
Tommy couldn't argue with him there. "I should still tell somebody on you for killing me, you dink," Tommy said without much conviction.
"Oh yeah?" sneered Matthew. "Who ya gonna call?"
At that, Tommy and Matthew both exploded into fits of uncontrollable laughter, doubled over in a gentle ache which, they were both glad, was still a feeling that transferred over to the bodily challenged.
"So," Tommy said, feeling much better. "What do we do with that?" He pointed to his crumpled form in the middle of the shallow water.
Matthew waved it off as he turned to head towards home. "Meh. A coyote will drag it off into the woods sometime. That's what happened to me, pretty much; a stray dog came by soon after and hauled my corpse off into the woods. In fact, it gave me the idea to see if you would jump too, since there was no dead body at the bottom to change your mind."
Tommy nodded as they floated up over the embankment. "Yup, that probly would've given me second thoughts, I'll admit."
They headed back north towards town, both feeling pretty good, friends even into death.
© 2015 Biography of a Nobody