I waited for an opportune moment at school during recess. One of the best things about being at a school where they had kindergarten all the way through eighth grade is that all the classes still got recess. At my old middle school, there'd only been grades six through eight, and there hadn't been any recess. See, the thing was, I knew that I couldn't get Jay and Alex both to come to Great Grandma's house. The last time I'd tried that, Jay had run off. He really didn't like Alex. But at school, there wasn't anywhere for him to go. I mean, he could leave the conversation, but I had a better chance of getting him to stay.
So we were at recess, and, as usual, I was with Jay, talking about the second graffiti decoding I'd done, and he was kind of irked that I'd done it without him, but that didn't really matter. I had told Alex to come find me at recess, because I wanted to talk to him about something, and when I saw him walking our way, I got nervous.
"Why's he coming over here?" Jay asked, spotting Alex.
"Just stay, please," I begged him. "I want to tell him about the hidebehind."
"What?"
"Please, Jay. He's almost here. Just stay."
Alex was within earshot, now. He didn't wave or call out or anything; he looked around, as if checking for someone else. I wondered with a slight sinking feeling if he was embarrassed to be seen with me. "What's up?" he said when he reached us.
I looked from him to Jay, who was glaring at Alex suspiciously. "I want to tell you something . . . about what happened to me that night."
Alex looked a little uncomfortable. "You sure?"
I turned to Jay for moral support, but he said nothing. So I just nodded. "Yes. Not lots of details. You know the story about my Grandpa, and that kid named Jimmy that disappeared?"
"Everybody knows that one."
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure my Grandpa was right—that a monster got him."
Alex's face was hard to read. "Why do you think that?"
"Because . . . because it's what found me in the woods, that night."
"You saw it?"
I chewed my lower lip, considered what exactly to say. Jay was just no help at all; the look on his face could've turned a dog to stone. So I just came out with it. "No. But this monster—I'm pretty sure I found what it is. It's this thing called the hidebehind, because you can never see it. It lurks around in the woods and eats people's intestines—after it gets them to its lair—anyway, it just . . . it's a . . . a real thing, Alex. It's a real thing." I was losing steam. The mood felt dark, with Alex staring silently at me, thinking who-knew-what, and Jay standing somewhat apart, scowling. All I heard for a second was the sound of other kids, and it struck me how entirely crazy I must have sounded. I added, "Maybe I am losing it, huh?" and tried to smile.
"You think it's a joke, Rob?" Jay had caught a look at my expression, and I quickly wiped my face clean. "There's nothin' funny about this, cause if it is chasing you around, Rob, it is probably going to get you eventually."
I groaned.
He went on. "I'm just saying, because there's nothing you can do to catch it; all you can do is try and avoid it, and even that's unrealistic."
"You sure your Grandpa wasn't just making stuff up, about a monster?" Alex asked suddenly.
I had no answer for him. "When I was left in the woods, I know something was there, but whenever I tried to look over my shoulder and get a glimpse of it, it's like it would dart around me . . . so I just quit trying to see it and ran." I shuddered at the memory.
"What's it been doing for all this time?"
"Huh?" I asked.
Jay narrowed his eyes on Alex. "What're you talkin' about?"
Alex started to say something, then paused and thought, and finally said, "So this . . . this thing—it killed a kid a long time ago. And now, it's after you. So . . . what has it been doing for the last fifty-or-whatever years? It's not like people around here have been killed or disappearing. Nobody else ever claimed to encounter that monster—it was just your grandpa. So if there really is one, it doesn't make much sense that he went away for all that time and just now came back."
"Use your imagination, dumbo," Jay retorted. "Maybe it moved for a while. Maybe it only needs to eat every fifty years. Maybe it's after Rob cause it never got his grandpa. There's all sorts of reasons. Monsters don't make the same kind of sense all of us do."
Before Jay could get even more irritated with Alex, I blurted, "The second word from the graffiti was car."
For a wonderful ten seconds or so, they were both quiet, staring at me.
Alex brightened up a little. "Ok! Good! So the newspaper thing helped?"
"Yes. And here's what I think. I think all this weird stuff is connected . . . maybe. I don't know what blanket and car mean; I'm not really sure they mean anything at all. But if we see what was on that rock, well . . . maybe it's like some kind of puzzle that only makes sense with all the pieces, you know?"
"Ok, yeah. But what's with the monster, then? Why did I need to know that?"
"Because," I started. "I wanted to let you know that that's why I . . . I don't really want to go back in those woods. That if we are going to do this, you should know what's potentially out there. And that's why I want him to come, too."
"Want who to come?" Alex looked left to right.
I started to say Jay's name, but I realized that, as before at Great Grandma's, he'd left the conversation. A quick scan of the playground did not reveal his whereabouts. Frustration boiled in me. "Whatever."
Alex regained my attention. "Let's go look at that rock this weekend, ok? Broad daylight. If there is something out there, it won't bother us."