Dec 9, 20175 min read

21 The Woods – Kevin and Jesse (1985) by LV Gaudet

The boys are rummaging around the house for stuff to throw. Kevin finds his baseball and bat, setting them by the back door.

“You going to hit it out of the yard?” Jesse picks up the bat and ball, making as if to toss the ball in the air with one hand and try to swing the bat and hit it.

“Put it down. You know how Mom is about that stuff in the house. Come on, stop messing around and help me find stuff.”

Jessie gives the ball a toss in the air, trying to catch it with one hand, misses, and the heavy ball hits the floor with a loud thud.

Kevin turns and gives him a reproachful look. If Mom was there, they’d both be in trouble. He frowns. Mom isn’t here. They might never see her again to give them trouble. Tears burn at his eyes, and he rubs them roughly, pushing the tears away. I’m the man of the house, I can’t cry. I have to hold it together for Jesse.

He continues the search. They pile their treasures at the door until he decides they have enough. It’s an eclectic pile including the bat and ball, a Frisbee, a shoe, a couple books and toys, a few of their dad’s tools, and other assorted items.

The boys stop and look down at their collection, satisfied they have enough for their experiment.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Kevin says.

Jesse swallows and looks at his brother nervously. “I hope we don’t make the woods mad,” he thinks.

The boys start hauling their loot outside to the back yard.

“Let’s bring it around the side,” Kevin says when they get outside with their first armloads.

They make a pile at the side of the house, on the other side from where they tried to make their escape earlier, ending up somehow in the woods with no idea how they got there.

They return to the house for another armload each, then stand for a long moment staring off beyond their yard, their treasures scattered at their feet.

“Reginald McDonnelly,” Kevin says.

“What?” Jesse looks at him.

“The house across the street. Reginald McDonnelly. We all always thought he was some kind of stuck up jerk with a name like that. I mean, who has a name like Reginald? I never liked him. He was strange. I saw him, you know, just sitting in there, staring out the window. Watching us play in the street, me and the other boys. He just sat there, not moving, like he couldn’t or something. It was creepy. Creepy Reginald McDonnelly, the Rennie-aldi McDummy. We caught him outside alone once on the other side of town. We beat him up, with sticks and rocks. He crawled and whimpered on the ground like a beat dog, crying. He never begged us to stop, you know. We told him, just beg Dodgy Doggie McDonnelly, beg like a dog, beg us to stop. He never begged, not once.”

“Did you feel bad after?”

“No. Maybe. Yes. I felt bad. I couldn’t admit it to the guys. I’d look weak. I couldn’t admit it to myself. It would only make me feel worse.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because, what I wouldn’t give to be able to just walk over there right now, knock on old Creepy Dodgy Doggie Reginald McDonnelly’s door and say I’m sorry. What I wouldn’t give right now to cross that street and beg him to forgive me.”

“He moved away.”

“I know.” Kevin rubs each of his eyes once with his coat sleeve, hard, trying to rub away the tears burning there. He looks down at the junk laying around them.

“Okay, let’s get this started.” He stoops down and picks up a shoe.

“Wait,” Jessie grabs his arm, holding him back from throwing. He closes his eyes, just standing there.

“What are you doing, Jessie?”

“Praying.”

“Praying for what?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how to pray for something like this. I thought, now I lay me down to sleep, but I don’t want to sleep. I’m scared to sleep.”

“Just open your eyes.”

Jessie opens his eyes, looking at Kevin. “Say something, Kevin. Please?”

“Fine.”

Jessie closes his eyes again.

Kevin thinks. “I can’t think of anything.”

“Maybe it’s the thought, maybe it doesn’t matter what you say?”

“Okay, here goes.” Kevin thinks again. “Please God, let us live through this and get the Hell out of here.”

“You cussed. I don’t think prayers work if you cuss.”

“Shut up, let’s just do this.”

Jessie opens his eyes and watches Kevin pull his arm back, ready to swing.

“Wait.”

Kevin groans. “What?”

Jessie covers his eyes with both hands, taking a deep breath and holding it. “Okay, go,” he mumbles around his puffed out cheeks, trying not to lose the air he’s holding.

Kevin throws the shoe. It flies through the air, plopping in the snow on the ground ahead.

“What happened?” Jessie mumbles through his puffed out cheeks and puckered closed lips.

“Nothing.”

Jessie pulls his hands away, looking around and letting the air escape. “What do you mean nothing?”

“Just that. Nothing. Look, it’s just lying there.”

“We got further than that on the other side of the house. It’s still in the yard.”

“I know. I’m just testing for now, throwing it so it lands in the yard. Next one I’m going to throw further.”

Kevin picks up another item and throws it. It flies through the air, plopping into the snow a little further than the shoe did.

“It’s still in.”

Kevin nods. “You try one.”

Jessie looks at him fearfully.

“Come on, nothing happened. I think it’s just us maybe that can’t leave the yard.”

Jessie looks around at their feet, picks something, and throws it. It doesn’t even reach the shoe.

“Really? Is that all you’ve got?”

Jessie tries again, flushing at his brother’s taunting. He takes a few steps forward this time and he launches the object. It lands further, closer to the edge of the yard.

The boys spend the next while throwing stuff closer and closer to the edge. Finally, Kevin throws the baseball a little too hard.

“It’s outside,” Jessie cries excitedly, “Kevin, it’s outside the yard!”

Kevin frowns uncertainly. Is it really? Or is the edge of the yard further than he thought? It’s hard to tell with the snow. He stares at the baseball.

“Let’s try poking stuff though.” He bends down, picking up the broom. Holding it by the tip, the other end sagging down to the ground, not strong enough to hold it straight out, he slowly advances towards the edge of the property, gingerly poking the broom ahead.

“Not too close,” Jessie warns, anxious about Kevin moving forward.

Tense, Kevin steps closer to the ball, reaching out as far as he can without dropping the broom, jamming it forward. Finally, he tosses it.

“Now that definitely went out of the yard.”

Kevin looks around for something else to try.

“Jesse, bring me your bike.”

Jessie looks horrified. “Why my bike?”

Kevin puffs out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, then bring my bike.”

Jessie scurries off, coming back with Kevin’s bike. “Now what?”

“We push it through.”

“That means getting closer.”

“I’ll take the front, you take the back.”

Together, they roll the bike one tentative step forward, then another.

“Almost there,” Kevin says. His voice is tight with strain. “Get ready. When I say ‘go’ we run five steps and only five, got it? We’ll count them together. Any more than that and we risk getting too close to the barrier. Five steps and we push the bike through with all we’ve got and let it go.”

Jessie stares sallowly at the invisible barrier before them, trapping them here.