A River in A Forest

A Story by Eric Vienneau

A story about a group of boys on quest retrieve their stolen items from a rival group of boys.

We nearly scraped the shore when we swung around the bend, but we kept our rows true and strong, and we watched as the sun danced in our waters.
From behind me I could hear the long wheeze of Bill, and beside him Dale undid his grey wool shirt to let air in, and His chest gleamed strong in the morning sun.
The water sprayed into our faces when ever the waves raised us then let us dip back down again with a splash. Jim looked behind the boat constantly, down the river, past the trees which glowed green above the summer soil which covered the forest a dark brown like chocolate. I i assumed he was thinking about the Langston camp only a mile from the river. He slapped the water furiously with his ore, splashing Bill behind him.
"Watch it!" He said.
"Hey! Send some of that water over here I'm burnin up Jim!" Dale yelled over the rough current racket. His skin was red and tough as leather from days of walking ahead of the group and scouting while the rest of us carried the canoe above our heads on the plains. Under the canoe it was chilly and there was a strong scent of incense still clinging to the wood from the makers house. It smelled like cocnut and flowers. We bought it in town from a big man with rings on every finger. Red rings, and blue, where they pressed hard on his skin, it was red and callused. We saw him often, but never interacted with him until that day. We got the canoe for cheap, and left the day after.
"What the hells the matter with you?" Bill asked furiously as he stopped and rested while the current pushed us slowly along. I stopped to rest too like the other because one mans effort wouldn't get us anywhere.
"You're all a bunch of cowards! Thats whats wrong." Jim slapped the water again spraying Dale.
"Ohh keep it comin', I'm burnin up." Dale laughed with his eyes closed to the blue sky. Dale had always been careless, and everything we did was a joke to him. His idea of adventure revolved around action and fun, while the rest of us focused on the more serious side of adventuring. Jim was especially mad because we had just fled from a fight with the Langston's. There camp was heavily guarded, but all the same, We crept up to the camp at dawn hoping to retrieve our stolen items. The fight didn't go well, and we had to run for our canoe that waited for us in the river. Dale laughed the whole time as if it were a game.
"I say we go back." Jim said contorting his body to look behind us.
"I agree." I confessed. They had my bag of books i carried everywhere with me, and most were given to me by my baby sitter when i was five. They stole them while we slept.
My father gave me a few from his personal library, but when i saw the amount of Langston's i was scared and never thought about all the memories i was fleeting from. All the worlds i loved to explore, and all the beautiful lines that agreed so well with me. Im not sure exactly what Jim had stolen from him, but i could guess from his growing red face, and his clenched fists it was important to him.
"That a boy! Come on lets turn around." Jim boomed. Dale stayed quiet, smiling and staring at the sky through squinted eyes. At seventeen His beard was rather large and it was speckled with water droplets. Bill looked at Jim angrily, and he seemed to shake in his boots.
"You're just a reckless! and if Andy here agrees with you, then you're both reckless, and i have no clue why the hell I'm here with you guys crazy fools!" He said.
"Don't you want your stuff back Bill?" I said, now surging with thoughts of revenge. Jim had that affect on me since i met him back in town. He drove me to sneak out at night, to look up girls skirts, and he convinced me that going on this here adventure was a good idea. So far, the only thing it gave us was stolen possessions, and i'm sure not letting that slip. I silently viewed to myself on that canoe that i wouldn't be scared the second time we tried to get our stuff back.
"Of course i want my stuff back, but not enough to die for it." Bill said. Jim slapped him in the back of the head playfully, and used his greatest tactic to convince Bill to be brave.
"Alright its settled then, lets turn around and try again." Jim said smiling. Bill froze suddenly and turned around slowly to Jim, shaking violently now.
"Uhm, i didn't agree to this."
"Yeah you did."
"Uh, no i didn't
"Sure you did, come on, lets go."
Bill argued for five minutes before just agreeing with Jim to get him to shut up, and with that defeat, he craved a win, which motivated him to win against the Langston's. Dale didn't need convincing. He was in his own world and would do anything if it posed a chance for action and fun. So we turned around when the water calmed and attempted to head back up stream, but the current was too strong. We went to shore and walked wandered along shore, trying to catch out breathes. He decided to leave the canoe And walk back to the Langston camp.

At home, we all lived with out parents because we're all seventeen, and most of our days in the summer consisted of going to the lake at the edge of town and staring into the forest, wishing we could go on an adventure. That was when we were twelve, and for the first year we did not know who Bill was. He was elsewhere, doing other stuff. For the next four years, each summer, we worked out beside he lake, and swam, daring to go farther out each year. But the threat out fathers had given us about going out too far still lingered in our naive minds.
"You go out too far Andy and you wont be aloud to go out with those friends of your anymore!" My father said to me. The thought of never being able to hangout with my friends again frightened me until i grew old enough to be independent. When we reached seventeen, Jim had a marvellous plan to run away from town for a month and live in the forest. The thought was exciting but scary. I remembered hearing storied about bear attacks, and hunters, and hermits. My father gave me a book about a hermit that loved beside a well, and all the little boys that drank from the well would get knocked out, and the hermit would keep them in his basement. Forcing them to work for him when he needed them, but when he didn't need them, they only had the darkness of the empty basement to entertain them. It stuck with me when i read it, and of course, i thought it was a true story. I was young and stupid.
Eventually, Jim convinced all three of us to go with him and i lied to my father saying that i was going hunting with Bill and his father.
It was an unfortunate coincidence that the Langston brothers decided to go hunting the sake time we decided to go on an adventure. We hated them ever since we fought over who was aloud to swim in the lake.
The Langston's consisted of Mark, Oswald, Chip, Dan, Dough, and Stan. Mark and Oswald were fourteen, Chip was fifteen, Dan and Dough were seventeen, And Stan was nineteen. Stan was always the scary Langston. We never bothered with them when he was there. He was always carrying a knife on his belt, and a bald line going through his eyebrow made his grey eyes even more sinister. Black hair like crows, and muscles like armour, standing taller than a house it seemed, and his boots always caked with red mud like blood. We never bothered with the Langston's when Stan was around.

When we went onto shore and abandoned our canoe, we began walking towards their camp. The sun was getting lower in the sky making a purple tint across the west. The sun barely filtered through the trees where we walked, and it was growing colder under the shadow of the trees, before we knew it, we had to wrap ourselves in fur blankets from out packs.
Dale went ahead of us looking around for squirrels and deer with his fathers rifle pressed to his shoulder. He looked like a bear with the fur blowing lightly in the breeze, the salt in the air was strong and i felt immersed in the earth. I didn't feel like a man, but i felt human. Not superior to anything but myself, and all the animals thought of me as their own. I felt guilty carrying my man made rifle at my side. It was like cheating. But i felt safe with it and i would not dare abandon it. Also, my
father would skin me if i abandoned it.
"Bill watch out!" Dale yelled turning around . Bill gasped and turned around, he shot blindly and the bullet landed in a tree. The shot echoed between the trees, to accompany Dales wild laughing, and some birds flew out over the trees like a cloud of black, the batting of wings growing farther and farther.
"Dale what the hell!" Bill rose to his feet quickly, pinning Dale up against a tree. He unsheathed his knife and put it to his neck.
"You wanna get us all killed!"
I took Bill hand slowly, and lowered it. It was not a shock that he had held the knife to Dale's throat. When you messed with Bill in any way that made him vulnerable, he got really mad. He almost drowned Jim one time when we were swimming in the lake and a few girls came out of the bush down the shore, Jim pulled Bills trousers down, and he seemed to even laugh when his head was dunked under water.
So when i lowered his hand he dropped the knife and it stuck in the soft dirt. He walked briskly to the river and sat on a large rock beside it. He watch the purple glow of the sky turn pink, and a loon was making songs from some lake somewhere. It made me warm as i listened to it. Dale still leaned against the tree, looking to the ground, probably feeling down.
"I didn't mean to make em so mad." He said. Jim sat down on the dirt and pulled jerky from his pack.
"Don't feel bad Dale. He's always been like this, you know that."
"But he put a knife to me." He stared now at the hole in the tree that Bill shot.
"You never pissed him off like that before, but i have and i know he's just being a baby." Jim said, talking like a wise old man. I sat down beside him and told Dale to sit too. We would be there for a while and it was getting dark.
"Really Dale, don't feel bad. Whats an adventure without some joking around?" I said.
"Yeah i guess. I just. I just never realized how sensitive he is." Dale looked at Bill's black silhouette, letting the river touch his trembling hands. "He's hasn't been out much has he."
"Actually. He's been out more than any of us. Thats why he's so sensitive and cautious all the time." Jim stated, gnawing on the tough jerky, then washing it down with rum that he stole from his father. I tool a drink too and so did Dale.
"How do you know that?" I asked. I was pretty shocked that Bill had apparently done more than any of us. I always thought of him as a coward, and we all made fun of him all the time.
"Remember when we first met him?"
"Yeah." We had met him a year after us three became friends, and he was mysterious, but he had a fun side of him too. We were thirteen.
"Well, he told me all about the first thirteen years of his life one night, outside the dance house. You guys were too busy flirting with girls inside. Remember? It was the towns young people dance.
"Anyways, him and i had no luck inside, and he was in one of those moods where you want to tell someone everything about yourself. I guess he wanted to feel clean, and forgiven maybe, i know i get like that all the time." He stopped talking for a second because Bill stood up. He just end up walking down the river farther away from us. It was now dark so we delayed the story to build a fire. We found twigs and used some ripped up paper and it was bright in a few minutes of playing with the flint and steel.
"As i was saying, he sat me down and told me all about how back in Oregon, where he lived, he was beat daily by his father when he was young because he couldn't kill cows and pigs for meat. His father had been a drunk right, and he had arthritis or something, but that was his excuse for not doing all the farm work, so it was left to Bill. He eventually had to kill an animal, but they never had a gun so he had to slit its throat. I guess that really messed him up.
"But what really scarred him was one night he decided he was sick of getting beat on and killing animals so he ran away. He ran away from his father for three days, living in the forest, and his father chased after him. He stopped talking and didn't say anything else cause you guys come out. I guess after that he just moved here, his father now ain't' his real father."
"That ain't' his real father?" Dale asked.
"No." We were silent. Watching the flames jump into the air, and the sparks kiss the trees above. Its strange when you think you know someone, then you find out you didn't at all. I thought about Bill differently after

I woke up at dawn. Bill had joined us sometime in the night and apologized for over reacting, and Dale apologized too.
I looked out to the river where a deer was drinking the water, his eyes large and black and his fur was beige. I stood slowly, keeping my eye on its tail. My body was tense from the cold, and i wrapped my body tightly with my blanket. My jaw chattered and i could feel my hairs stand on end, i felt fresh and alive. There was a pink line on the horizon being blocked by the tree trunks but the light wrapped around. The rest of the sky was a dim blue and became black in the west. I avoided large sticks, but the twigs were too small to avoid and i snapped a few. The deer didn't seem to hear so i kept on, not taking my eyes of of his tail. He drank for an awful long time, his nose must have gotten cold. His feet were in the water too and he faced out camp. He stopped drinking and looked up at me. I stopped and it ran away through the bush. I returned to camp where Jim was stirring and i kicked his side. He jolted up, cursing under his breathe at me. I did the same to Dale and Bill, but i more tapped Bill than kicked him.
"Come on, we got to keep walking." I said. They woke up after rolling from side to side, begging to sleep for just a bit longer, but i stood over them all prepared and waited. They packed their things and we stomped the last embers of the fire out. We left when only half of the sun peered over the horizon. The light made rays like walls, long and fading farther into the forest. We walked through them, and Dale pretended he had powers that allowed him to walk through walls. We followed the river, searching for any signs that the Langston's were wondering around. We saw a few foot prints but they looked old, but we were still cautious. Dale got excited when the air filled with the smell of breakfast fires. Succulent meats roasting over open fires, and he swore he could even smell rich coffee and fruit. We knew we were close.
As we walked slowly, looking into the forest for their camp, Bill slowed.
"Maybe we should wait." He said.
"Wait for what?" Dale asked.
"Till they finish breakfast.."
"I'll steal their goddamn breakfast, we are out here hurting our teeth eating stale jerky." Dale rushed ahead, jumping on rocks and pointing his gun in all directions.
"No, he's right." I said. Jim nodded his head, and motioned us to sit on the rocky ground.
"It's not right, let them enjoy they're breakfast." Jim said pulling jerky from his pack. I reached into my pack, looking for a book to pass the time but my hand found nothing.
"You all are a bunch of suckers." Dale said plopping on the ground. He kept his hands tightly around the rifle. "If we're gonna just sit here we should go back a bit or something, one of them could be walking around here." Dale said. We shrugged him off and kept eating. Around five minutes later, the river started to make noises when the breeze picked up and then i heard a heavy breathing. Everyones head was down, And they were silent, trying to role cigarettes. I looked up from my trance when i heard the breathing. I thought for a second it was the river but then a sudden grunt came from behind me. Everyone shot their heads up and scrambled for their rifles. I turned around to a rifle staring me in the eye. Behind it was seventeen year old Dough. His blonde hair was messy, and he had cracked yellow teeth. He was definitely the ugliest Langston.
He then pointed his gun at Dale who was the only one with his rifle on him. Bill, Jim, and mine were propped against a tree ten steps away from us. Dale aimed at Dough.
"Put the goddamn gun down Dale!" Dough yelled. It hurt my ears and i kept my eye on him. I felt a little bit safer that the rifle wasn't pointed at me, but it was right over my head. Just a quick move and a pull of the trigger and i'm dead like my mother. So i stayed still.
"You put the goddamn rifle down Langston." Dale said calmly. He raised, keeping the rifle cocked at Dough. They both breathed heavily, but Bill did most of all. Jim just stared at his half rolled cigarette in his lap. He knew better to keep still too.
"You know i got all my brothers back in camp, you stand no chance, put the rifle down now!" His voice echoed along the river.
"You stole our stuff, and we're coming to get it you son of a b***h!" He spit when he yelled. Dough edged away, towards the trees and Dale turned with him, keeping his aim. My muscles tensed as i watched. It was the first time i had been in a situation like this.
"Where you going? I ain't done with you." Dale said.
Dough suddenly ran for the trees, thrashing through the bushes. Dale ran after him, and the rest of us just sat there. After five minutes we stood and jogged to our rifles. We aimed into the trees, waiting for Dale to come back. After ten minutes of waiting, Dale came out of the forest holding Dough's hands behind his back. Dough struggled to break free from his hold and cursed him.
"Shut up!" Dale kept saying. We took him down the river into a clearing. With some rope we tied him up to a tree and tied a bandana around his mouth. We got Bill to watch him. Jim, Dale were arguing about what to do.
"We could threaten the rest of them. Use him as a hostage." Dale suggested.
"Ahh that wouldn't work, there's a lot of them, and i know for a fact Stan will fire at us without hesitation."
"No he wont't"
"He will Dale. This isn't all fun and games."
"Well it should be! This is stupid, let the fool go! Im sick of fighting." Dale threw his knife at the ground, and Dough stared it in horror.
"Sick of fighting? You just beat him up and tied him up."
"I was protecting my own life boys, i just want to have a normal adventure. What ever happened to that? We're kidnapping people now." He said pointing at Dough.
"Don't you want your stuff back?" I asked. I really meant, "don't you want to help me get my stuff back?" But i never said it.
"At this point. I could care less about my stuff. Its just a pack of cards and bag of marbles. Its not worth my life."
"Seriously, you think these boys will kill us?" I said.
"Of course they will. But i don't care, i want my stuff back, i did when i made us turn that canoe around, and i do now." Jim stared at Dale who was losing his old joy. He was happy when we were sailing and when we were walking, just us four.
"Fine." Dale said. "I'll get the stuff back. But only cause i care about you guys, and it might be fun, who knows."
"Thats a boy! Come on, lets go." Jim said, picking up his rifle and walking to the camp. Bill grabbed dough and pushed him with us, and we smelled the fire again, but we didn't care if they were eating breakfast now or not.

The smoke rose from the centre of the clearing. It was a large clearing, and the Langston's were spread around the camp, butchering what they recently hunted. They had two horses with them that pulled a wagon. The sun was high in the sky and penetrated through the trees, and it was hot on our heads. There was smoke surrounding the entire clearing, and we held in our coughing when we got close. Dale pointed his rifle at doughs head. He could be scary, and forceful when he wanted to.
"Yell out to them."
"What?" Dough said.
"Stop stalling and yell out to them. Now." His voice was firm and raspy, and it crept through his beard into Doughs trembling ear. Dough leaned forward leaning on a tree and in a hesitant, very childish voice said, "hey guys!"
The Langston's had not heard, and kept working through the haze.
"Louder." Dale said.
"Hey guys!!". The Langston's looked all around them for the sound of their brother. They peered into the shrubs and lofted their big straw hats they are known so well for wearing. The smoke blocked their view; and We waited until they finally saw Dough standing awkwardly between two trees entering into the clearing. It was Oswald who spotted him and told the other brothers. We all his behind the trees while Dale hid behind Dough with his rifle stabbing his back. I heard some muffled talking and then Dale pushed Dough forward violently. They fell into the clearing and i heard a crack, and Dough's childish cry. I poked my head out from behind the tree and saw the Langston's pointing their rifles at Dale, who was on top of Dough pressing the rifle into his head. I stumbled into the clearing, pointing my rifle at the Langston closest to me, and Jim and Bill did the same.
"Give us our goddamn stuff back Langstons!" Dale growled. Stan pushed his way forward from behind Oswald and Mark. He had a pistol and a knife. His eyes were sharp in the afternoon sun, as well as his muscles which were caked in fresh blood. Running from his black stained hands to his chest, the blood of their kills gave him a murderous, maniacal look. He was grinning at Dale.
"What the hell do you plan on doin' boy?"
"Im no boy Stan. Don't call me that." Dale had his teeth clenched. Dough's sobs softened, and it was then that i realized his broken leg. It pointed to me, mangled and bloody. The bone must have tore through his skin. I almost retched at the sight, but kept my composure, because At a time like this i couldn't show any weakness.
"Just let him go Dale.. And i won't have to kill you." Stan stared like a cat. I didn't know how Dale was handling that stare.
"Go to hell. I'll kill you before you me."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah." No break in his voice. Dale was angry, and i could tell it was taking a lot just for him to not blow poor Dough's brains out.
" then why don't you fight me! Like a real man?" Stan yelled. His voice boomed through the forest as if he announced his rule over the land. It was silent then. I could see Dough trembling, and Bill's breathes were as strong as the wind. Jim stayed quiet. I scanned the camp for where our stuff could be when Dale pointed his gun at Stan, and with a quick squeeze, the air filled with smoke, and then a thud. Everyone was quiet. I had ducked to the ground, covering my head. I looked up and saw Stan on his back. He was feeling his body all over, trying to find the wound. But there was none. Dale began to laugh. We all looked at him like an animal, as he rose from his place on Dough, and threw his rifle into the bushes. Stan had stood and pointed his rifle again.
"What the hell happened?" Stan asked, scared because of his near death experience.
"My gun ain't got no ammo." Dale said laughing. He unsheathed a knife. "Lets fight like real men Langston. Knife and knife. No rules. To the death. Come on!" He said and began to run at Stan.
He cocked his rifle and threatened to shoot. Dale slowed.
"You too scared huh?"
"No." Stan said. He hesitated, then threw his rifle away. Dale smiled, but i could see him shaking. Stan pulled a knife from his pocket, covered in blood, but now that Dale had actually threatened Stan, and had actually shot at him, ammo or no ammo, he looked helplessly weak.
From where i was on the ground i could see Dale from the corner of my eye standing over Dough like some barbarian. All the stories i heard about hero's never matched up to him at that moment. Bill was half behind a tree still pointing his rifle at the Langston's, And Jim was looking at Dale in shock.
"Lets go Langston."
Stan grunted, squinting in the sun and wiped the thick sweat from his forehead, blood and dirt trailing behind. His face looked painted like an Indian.
I was watching Stan in the quiet of the forest, the fires in the clearing sizzling and the smoke blurring my vision, but the sounds of the animals were all but gone. Save for the vicious breathing of Dale which sounded like its own kind of animal. He threw the knife he held over me and into a bush. It got enveloped by the sticks and leaves quickly and disappeared.
"Come on." Dale said. His voice shaking.
Stan stared at him with wide eyes despite the sun. They glowed blue instead of grey and his body had sunken into itself so that his muscles were hidden. Dale stared at him, wiggling his fingers at his side. Stan held onto the knife tightly, looking at the ground. The other Langston's had dropped their rifles to their sides and watched, it reminded me of an old western shootout except Dale was unarmed and Stan held a rusty skinning knife. It was very unfair, and i watched Dale's helpless body with not even trees around him to hide behind.
"Come on." He said. Stan stayed quiet and motionless.
"Come on!" Dale yelled, and it echoed through the clearing, awaking the animals. They yowled all over the wolves, and the birds sang loud. Even the trees rustled after a long time of stillness.
Stan stared at the ground, then, like a man done with business, he put his knife into its sheath on his waist. He breathed in, his chest rising and falling quickly. He turned away. Not looking anywhere but the stamped out ground.
"Get there stuff." He whispered in his familiar voice.
"But Stan." Mark said.
"Get there goddamn stuff." Then he walked into the forest out of sight. I saw him slightly in the forest between the trees running his hands through his hair, and looking up to the sky. He looked like man stripped of everything.
Mark and the other Langston's searched camp for our stuff. Their faces were tough and stern but they would not do anything to us. Not after Stan left.
I had risen and stood with the other guys. Dale was still staring at the spot Stan had. Jim got back his stuff, and so did Bill, Dale did not have anything, and i got my bag of books. Familiar in my hands and on my back, the corners poking me as of asking me to read them. I promised that i would again, and again.

We traveled back along the river the way we came, stopping for a night of sleep, and then moving on. We eventually found the canoe we left behind and put it into the water. We drifted for a while and swing around another bend, almost scraping the shore but out rows were strong, stronger than before. The sunlight was dancing in our waters. The waters we felt we owned, and why not? No one was around. In the canoe beside each of us was the possessions the we need to get through life. What we believed in.
We all believed in something different. For Dale, it was an adventure. A chance for him to live, and to embrace the beauty that is nature. For Jim, it was his mothers necklace that was his only memory of her. One that would last forever. One nobody would ever be able to take from him. For Bill, it was the walking stick his father gave to him. The walking stick he took as a sign that his father truly did love him. That everything he did, he was sorry for, and that he may use that when finding him again. For me ,it was my books. They taught me about love, and about life. My many lives.
But there was one thing we all believed in. Something we all needed to in order to get through life. It sat beside us all in that canoe but it took up no space. It only filled our lives with an escape. Kept us drifting down the river to wherever it was we ended up. We would swing around more bends, but our rows would always be strong, as long as we believed they could be. We drifted along, in the late summer sun, with the forest surrounding us and the cool from the river. We watched the animals creep out of the forest. We watched the sun set, and the sky turn pink. We kept our rows strong. And We believed in always being young.

© 2016 Eric Vienneau

Author's Note

ignore grammar problems, and I love feed back.

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Reviews

barleygirl

It's pretty hard to ignore the typos in this piece, since there's just about one per line. It looks like you've allowed spellcheck to make corrections without overseeing what was going on. There are many wrong words that the reader must think about for a moment to figure out what it's supposed to say. Then there's a break in the action of the story. If this hadn't been a superbly-told story, I would've given up reading.

The thing I like best about your storytelling is that you use a balanced amount of action & physical descriptions, as well as showing us what's going on in the character's minds. On an adventure piece like this, it's rare to get so much insight into what motivates the characters. This is done seamlessly, so that it doesn't interrupt the action. My second most favorite thing about this story is the way you use plenty of description using all the senses, very sensory telling, but not so much that it slows down the action.

So, your storytelling is strong thru-out, but I really didn't feel that the premise of the story was all that strong. I honestly didn't care if they got their stuff back or not -- not a strong enuf motivator to justify all the stuff these guys are going thru in this story. But becuz the adventure itself was so well told, it didn't really matter. Plus, you gave us so many glimpses into their mental motivations coming from other things in their lives, this made the action believable & understandable. If you keep telling stories like this, your ability to make them tighter & tighter will develop naturally.