Jeff beamed. “Think of crossing the finish line. It’s going to be the best thing I’ll ever do in my life.”
Fear washed over me. What if I was the one who couldn’t finish? What if I let Jeff down?
Chapter 16
Jeff’s Diary
by Jeff Alexander
I’d like to welcome Colorado Springs readers to my column. My name is Jeff Alexander, and I’m like any 13-year-old kid, except I have cancer. This weekend is the biggest of my life because I’m riding 200 miles in a bike hike with my friend Bryce. A store donated a special bike we can ride together, and we’re really looking forward to it.
By the time you read this, I’ll be on the road, pedaling my feet off and breathing the fresh Colorado air. You can’t begin to understand how excited I am. I’ve been waiting and hoping for this for months, and now it’s finally here.
The great thing is, lots of people are sponsoring me for 25 cents a mile or even a few dollars a mile, and all the money goes to cancer research. In the hospital kids just like me are fighting for their lives, but you’d never know it. They’re really neat people who just have something wrong with them.
I’ve learned a lot over the past few months about what’s important, what’s not important, and to make every day count. I believe God gives us life for a reason, and when we get sick, he can use that too. (If you don’t believe in God, that’s okay. I just hope you give him a chance, because he really loves you a lot.)
People ask me sometimes what it’s like to not know how much longer you’re going to live. My dad let me see part of the movie Braveheart once where William Wallace says, “Every man dies; not every man really lives.” Whether I die in 50 years or 50 days, I want people to say that I really lived.
So if you see a lot of bikes and people wearing the same blue and red shirts, slow down and wave. We’re just people who want to really live and help others do the same.
Chapter 17
I found out that Darren Baldwin works at the RadioShack in Red Rock, in a little strip mall near some restaurants. Before dinner I rode my ATV close to town and walked the rest of the way.
The sun, which is almost always out where we live, was staying up longer. Kids rode bikes on the middle school parking lot, trying to jump over a wood ramp they’d set up. Others played baseball behind the school.
The RadioShack sat between Red Rock Donuts and Spotless Dry Cleaners. A sign read Summer Blowout Sale. The store was packed with electronic gadgets, remote-control cars, TVs, batteries, computers, and every cable and plug ever invented.
An older man behind the counter looked over his glasses and asked if he could help me.
I felt like I should buy something, especially if I was going to ask questions. I touched the battery display. “I need double As for my CD player.”
He came out from behind the counter and recommended a package. I looked at the price and gulped, then grabbed the smallest one. “Darren working today?” I said.
The man’s eyebrows went up. “As a matter of fact he is. Darren?”
Darren ducked as he came through the low-hung door. He was thin and had a fair complexion, with freckles and white skin, and sandy red hair. His long arms reminded me of a jazz piano player I had seen on TV.
I introduced myself and said, “I hear you’re a friend of Gunnar Roberts.”
“Known him since we were kids. Why?”
“I’m trying to help find him. Any idea where he could be?”
Darren looked at the manager, and the man must have nodded or something because Darren relaxed. He pointed to a stool in the other room, and I sat. A computer lay on a workbench with lots of tools spread around. “Haven’t talked with Gunnar for a few weeks,” Darren said. “It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“Went to a Rockies game. Sat in the Rockpile and tried to get a tan. I just got burned.”
“He didn’t say anything about leaving?”
He shook his head. “We talked about our jobs, girlfriend stuff.”
“He has a girlfriend?”
“Taryn broke up with him. He said she was really ticked.”
“Ticked enough to hurt him?”
He shrugged. “Never thought of that.”
I wrote down her name, and Darren told me where she lived. He chuckled. “You a junior detective or something?”
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that . . . “You think Gunnar could have done something to himself? Was he that upset about this girl?”
He frowned. “Kill himself? Nah. He was squirrelly, always has been. But he wouldn’t do anything like that.”
“What do you mean, squirrelly?”
“He’d go off for a couple of days, and we wouldn’t know where he was. Take his dog and hike or go up in the mountains four-wheeling, I guess. He never told me what he did.”
“He have problems at work?”
“Didn’t like his job, but he needed the money for car payments. He always talked about winning the lottery.”
The store manager moved around behind us, and Darren shifted in his chair.
“I’d better go,” I said, standing and moving to the front counter. Darren followed and took the money for the batteries. “Any idea where he might have gone in the mountains?”
He shook his head.
“Was his Jeep muddy when he came back?”
He thought for a minute as he handed me my change. “He kept that thing spotless. I don’t ever remember him coming back with dirt on it.”
I thanked him and left. I looked back as I walked through the parking lot and saw Darren watching me through the window.
Chapter 18
The next day was Jeff’s dad’s turn for a surprise. Just as Jeff and I were hitting the driveway on the bike, he pulled in front of us, hopped out, and grabbed something from the backseat. “These just came in. Try them on.”
“Dad, we already have helmets,” Jeff said.
“Not like these,” he said.
They looked like regular helmets, except they had little microphones. “You guys won’t have to yell at each other during your rides with these.”
We pulled the helmets on and flicked the switch for the microphone. I could hear every word Jeff said, even when he whispered.
We thanked his dad, and as we pedaled away I said, “Pretty neat, huh?”
“Dad’s having a hard time.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t want me to do this bike trip until Mom convinced him. I guess he’s entitled to have a hard time, though. Dad’s gotta let go of me a lot sooner than most.”
Jeff talked about his dad until we reached the Santa Fe Trail.
“Ready to kick up some dust?” I said.
“Hit it,” Jeff said.
We flew down the trail all the way to the Air Force Academy. The ride back was harder, especially for Jeff, but we made it in our fastest time yet. The trip was a little farther than we’d ride our first full day.
We stopped to have a drink. Each day I was feeling stronger, and my rear was getting used to the seat. Jeff went into a jiffy toilet and kept his helmet on. We found we could walk a long way away from each other and still talk through the microphones. I asked if there’d been any weird people at his house helping the family.
“That Denise girl is strange,” he said. “I don’t know why she comes over. She doesn’t want to be there—either her parents make her or she thinks bringing food to sick people will help her get into heaven.”
“How often does she come?”
“Every few days. And then there’s the lady who cleans our place. Mom says her family’s pretty poor. She takes one look at me and starts crying. I just go to my room when she shows up.”
Chapter 19
I met Hayley at Red Rock Lake, about halfway between our houses. We sat in the gazebo and fed the ducks bread crumbs. The lake’s been fed by an underground spring, and they’ve neve
r had problems. But this year something must have happened to the spring because the water level keeps going down. They finally decided to just drain the whole thing.
I told Hayley what I had found out from Darren. She pulled out her cell phone and called information for the number of Gunnar’s old girlfriend, Taryn. She wrote it down and handed it to me.
“Before we call, I need to know if you’re serious about finding your cousin.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because it took you a while to even tell me about it. And some things bother me about this. He left without his dog. Didn’t tell his mother anything. Told the people where he worked he would be right there and then didn’t show up. There’s a chance that something really bad happened.”
“Knowing is a lot better than not knowing.”
I dialed Taryn’s number, and an answering machine picked up. I asked her to call me and left my home number.
Hayley walked to the water’s edge and rooted around in the mud with a stick. She held up a chain with something on the end of it. “An old watch!” she shouted.
I took a closer look. “Somebody must have dropped it out of their boat years ago.”
“This thing could be worth lots of money.”
“Maybe.”
The sun glinted off the lake’s surface, and something moved in the water, a huge fin passing in front of us. We stepped back.
Hayley said, “Let’s come back tomorrow and look for coins and stuff. My dad has a metal detector.”
“I have to watch Dylan tomorrow,” I said.
“Bring him along.”
As I walked back to my ATV I turned to take one more look at the lake. Something yellow, submerged in the deep end, cut through the murky darkness and caught the sunlight. A cloud passed and it was gone.
Was it just the sun playing tricks?
Chapter 20
I beat Ashley to the ringing phone after dinner, but it was for her. I went to my room to study a map of the roads and trails Jeff and I would take on the bike trip.
I’m not what you’d call a spiritual giant or anything, but I try to read something from the Bible every day and pray. To be honest, during the school year it’s hard to get up early, and in the summer I want to sleep in. I feel guilty about it, like if I don’t spend time with God he’ll hate me and give me some disease like Jeff has. I know that’s not true, but still . . .
I opened my Bible to Proverbs. Mom told me once that if I read one proverb every day I’d be as wise as Solomon. I said, “Who’s Solomon?” Now I know, of course.
There are 31 proverbs, so sometimes I read the proverb that’s the same as the day of the month, but this time I just found the nearest one. It was the 17th proverb and I stopped at the 17th verse: “A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.”
I felt like a brother to Jeff. Everything I had gone through with my dad dying had prepared me to be a better friend than I would have been otherwise.
I copied the verse onto a small sheet of paper and read it over and over. The best thing I could do for Jeff was try and find his missing stuff. I wrote a list of suspects and tried to think of my next move. I was about to pray when Ashley came in.
“Who was on the phone?” I said.
She frowned and plopped onto my beanbag chair. “Gunnar’s ex-girlfriend. I thought she could help figure out where he might be.”
“She didn’t give you anything?”
“Said they broke up a month ago. She was tired of being strung along, and he wasn’t ready to move out of his mom’s place.”
“Sounds like she was more serious about him than he was about her.”
Ashley stared at the ceiling. “Yeah, but she did say she talked with him a couple weeks ago and he acted weird.”
“Weird?”
“She called about something she had left at his house, and Gunnar sounded scared and said he’d call her back. He never did.”
“What could he be scared of?”
Ashley shrugged. “I’ve got a bad feeling. I wonder if anybody will ever see him alive again.”
Chapter 21
Mom dropped Dylan and me at Hayley’s house, and we walked to Red Rock Lake. I told Hayley what Taryn had said, and I could tell it upset her. I had made a mental list of all the things I thought could have happened to Gunnar, from being robbed or kidnapped to hurting himself. I hoped he would turn up at his mom’s house and apologize for scaring her, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
Dylan tagged along as we walked down to the lakeshore. He was interested in the metal detector.
Hayley winked at me and tossed a coin on the ground behind Dylan. “Want to try it?” she said.
His eyes lit up, and he grabbed the thing so fast I thought he would tear it apart. She helped him hold it, and when the thing beeped, he almost came out of his skin. He held up the quarter like it was a billion dollars, and I couldn’t help laughing.
Hayley explored a sandy place at the end of the lake, swinging the metal detector from side to side. She found fishing lures on old logs exposed by the receding water. When she got a strong beep, Dylan and I helped her dig up a gun.
“Wonder why this is in here,” Hayley said.
“Looks really old. I’m not sure we’ll ever know.”
She found a 1963 class ring from Red Rock High School, two knives, a tackle box, and several coins as we walked back and forth along the bank.
Suddenly I looked around and couldn’t see Dylan. I figured he had moved up to the playground, but when I got there, I didn’t see him.
I heard a scream and looked across the lake. Dylan was waist-deep in mud and sinking.
Chapter 22
While Jeff’s mom took him to a doctor’s appointment to get final approval for going on the bike trip, his dad unlocked the trophy-room door for me. He was leaving for work and asked if I would mind letting in the housekeeper when she arrived.
He paused. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your helping Jeff with the bike trip. To tell you the truth, I wish he’d stay home and rest.” I could tell he was fighting tears.
“I’ll take good care of him,” I said.
“I know.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s just so hard not knowing what’s going to happen with him after that.” It seemed he had more to say, but his voice caught.
“Mr. Alexander,” I said, “Jeff knows how much you love him.”
He nodded and hurried out to his car.
The trophy room looked almost bare with so much stuff gone. A glass case, like you see in jewelry stores, had empty baseball and basketball holders inside. What was left were things like a signed CD from a female singer Jeff hated and things like that.
The window was locked, and there was no other way into the room. The closet had a few games on the shelf and some old suitcases, but nothing else. An opening led to the attic, but I wondered who would know about that or want to go to all that trouble. I locked the door and left the room.
The doorbell rang and I let in the housekeeper, a thin woman with dark hair. She carried supplies in a plastic bucket.
“I thought only rich people had housekeepers,” I said, smiling. She said she had found out about the Alexanders at church and was donating her services every two weeks.
“Have you ever cleaned the trophy room?”
She shook her head. “They told me not to bother with it. Never been in there.”
Chapter 23
I ran toward Dylan with Hayley right on my heels. What would I tell Mom about his clothes? When I got to him and saw how deep he had sunk in the mud, I forgot about the clothes.
“Hang on, Dylan!” I screamed, slipping on the bank. I went down hard, then scrambled up again.
Dylan was pale, his eyes huge, big tears running down his cheeks. He flailed, and the mud inched toward his chest.
“Don’t move!” Hayley said. “Stay really still and breathe.”
Dylan cried harder.
I jumped into the mud to try to yank him out, but I sank past my knees. When I tried to move I sank farther, still a few yards from Dylan.
“Take this!” Hayley said.
She reached the metal detector to me, careful to stay on the bank. I tried to lift my left foot, and my shoe came off. I creeped forward enough to get the metal detector to Dylan’s hands, but suddenly I was up to my waist in the quicksand.
“Grab it!” I yelled.
Dylan reached and pulled and the detector went under. He sank farther.
“Stop!” Hayley shouted. “Don’t move any more or he’ll go under.” She hurried toward the road.
Dylan whimpered and tried to stand straight. I let the metal detector sink and moved slowly toward him, but the muck was so thick it sucked my right shoe and sock off.
My heart raced and I tried to calm down. “Why’d you come out here?” I said.
“I saw a shiny thing,” he said. “Ashley, I’m sinking.”
“Just stay still,” I said.
The longer I was in the mud, the more desperate I felt. The stuff looked like the clay you play with in first grade, only it didn’t smell good. I inched forward, sinking even more, until I could reach Dylan. He lunged, missed my hand, and sank farther. I made one last attempt and grabbed his hand. I pulled him up, but that made me sink to my armpits. Dylan came out without shoes, socks, or pants.
“Hang on, Ash!” Hayley said, running back toward us with yellow jumper cables. A young woman came over the hill behind her. As soon as she spotted us she said a bad word, and I knew we were in big trouble.
Hayley stood on the edge of the bank and threw one end of the cable to me. It slopped in the muck and I snatched it. “Get him out first,” I yelled, wrapping the cable around Dylan’s chest.
Hayley and the woman pulled him across the top of the mud, his little behind jiggling as he bounced along. If I hadn’t thought I was about to die, it would have been funny.
Grave Shadows Page 3
