Saucer in the Dunes

39 Weenie Roast

The rest of that week, things got even stranger. Mr. Ronson had already accused the Creek of digging up his property. The only thing was that the Chief was with my dad, and they were planning the reservation's drainage and water treatment systems—no way he could have done all that digging and sifting alone anyway. The Sheriff was at a loss for who, what, or why anyone had done that to his store. Mr. Ronson had refused any Creek into the store until someone took responsibility.

Men had already begun working to put the dirt back and shore up the foundation. Ronnie got sick with a stomach bug, and it had passed it around to everyone but me, thank goodness. Who wanted to be sick to their stomach in the summer, or any time for that matter?

I got curious about the trail Kema said he had found and went into the woods behind our house to see if I could find it myself. I brought the knife Dad let me borrow and wore blue jeans instead of shorts because of the briars. It was scary and quiet, and I didn't think I would find anything, but I did, and sure enough, it looked just like the path behind our house. It continued for who knows how long. I had to fight the sudden urge to follow since I was alone and pretty much chicken to go alone.

Our weenie roast was still on, and I hoped and prayed Ronnie would be well enough to come. Jimmy and I had all the things to give back and had put them in my closet. We still needed Ronnie's stuff. Jimmy also said that his sister had been in trouble for having Tik over and for going with him to the Dairy Queen down the road in Albertsville. She said they were just friends, but her boyfriend didn't believe her and tried to start a fight. Jimmy thought it was funny, but I bet Tik had felt like we felt on the reservation that afternoon. I kind of felt sorry for him.

That Friday afternoon, Mom asked me to stay home and help her get ready for the Saturday party. Dad and I borrowed picnic tables from three of the neighbors, and Dad brought two long folding tables home from work, and of course, we had our picnic table too.

Dad had me line up our lawn chairs and spray them down with the hose. There were plenty of places to sit, which wouldn't be a problem, I didn't think. Mom had made two or three huge bowls of potato salad that were in the refrigerator. She had brought home tons of potato chips and about five packs of chocolate chip cookies. It was going to be awesome. The whole top of the fridge was stacked with hotdogs and even some hamburger meat.

Jimmy came over and helped me with all the chores Mom made up for me as she went. She did that when she got in a hurry sometimes. Dad said it was better to put my nose to the grindstone and keep my mouth shut until it blew over. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant, but I had an idea. I would see over the next few years that he was right too.

I also decided to show Kema everything I had copied in the library. I bet Ronnie that he would want to see it and that he might know where the place in the diary was and the strange-sounding buried bodies under the piles of stone. I had everything together in a manilla folder Dad gave me; I even put our list of things we needed for the camping trip to see if he thought we had everything we needed.

To my surprise, Ronnie was the first to show up; even more surprising was his mom coming with him. She seemed a little older than my mom; at least she looked like it, but they got along really well. She pretty much took over for Dad on the grill, and she and Mom got all the food ready. They just about pushed everyone out of the kitchen, which was fine by me because I was sick of doing chores. I was also getting hungry.

Dad had started three grills and put a ton of hot dogs on. It wasn't too long before the neighbors started walking up slowly but surely. Everyone brought food too! You should have seen the deserts. There were cakes, puddings, pies, and tons of other food that Mom hadn't counted on. Mrs. Bass rounded up some more tables and did what she did every day: set up food for everyone and poured drinks into the tons of red Solo cups stacked in the kitchen.