Grand Canyon

In a late summer heat in June. Jackson was going through the rounds in his head how everything happened. How could a joke between three of his friends go so horribly wrong. No-one really knew the kid they bought with them, his gang was what you called 'menace'.

Jackson liked to think of himself the leader of this so-called gang so at the chance of every opportunity that arisen he would be the second to say things like"hey," yeah...wait".. "Yeah! that was my idea." Sort of deal and most of the time everyone at Oakland High would get sick of it.

 Clara was always the one whose attention he would try and get by flexing against his new sports car out, by the parking lot most morning's before school started.

 Which she always felt was so obnoxious and self conceited but being the polite raised girl she was, she just smiled with him and she was cordial. Not enough that he would get the wrong impression but enough so she could walk into class without being bombarded by him all the way to the school corridor.

Clara was popular sure, but she wasn't one to know it. Everyone liked her because well.. she was the only real person there, who chose to show kindness rather than rudeness. Also being with the fact, that her father is now a pastor but she begged when they moved to northern Arizona that she would have a normal life and that she would always believe in Christ till the day she died.

She just wanted to be a normal teenage girl and get to know what it felt like since he joined the mission. Ron loved their father-daughter time way too much.

Clara needed to be around girls her own age as she didn't have her mum there anymore to guide her through the certain rounds of puberty, that a young woman was supposed to go through.

She would cringe at the thought of her father trying to take that role.

When she started oak Highland high. Jackson had never seen a woman so beautiful and tried his best to show her, he was all for her. She had blond wavy hair which she always wore in a scrungie. Little to no makeup just enough to bring out her eyelashes,rosy cheeks and round lips. She never wore a skirt because of her father. So the rest was a mystery to the boys here at Oakland. While all the other girls were wearing skirts practically up to their thighs to get attention, wraping their skin coloured tights around them to help keep them up that length.

Jackson being the rich guy that he was with dark hair,muscles and a sports car. Would get attention by other girls. Partially, most girls who were looking for a cruise around and for abit of action shall we say. A piece of eye candy for a girl to show-off to another girl type of thing. As Jackson HAD biceps.Yes, even for a young teen he had a strict workout regime. People would joke that he looked like a character from Dragonball Z.

 What people didn't know was his family life wasn't exactly as perfect as he made it out to be. Working out was his distraction. Of how his parents would tell him he was a failure and what is he going to do with this life. Getting yelled at most times by his father whenever he walked in the front door. So, he would often avoid home after school driving out to the grand canyon most evenings to look at the vastness of the the view thinking isn't there more to life then this!! Knowing in himself that when all his studies where done he was going to get out of this place and start a fresh further down in the south.

The rest of the so-called gang he was going to have to leave behind.

Their was a group of four of them. Rodney, Jasper, Billy and himself. They would be a bunch of hooligans between themselves. Jackson couldn't understand why he chose these acquaintances but he did, they were funny and eventful to be with,at least. Till school finished.

Jackson thought about this while thinking about the kid whose name he always forgot about. Whenever he would hear it.

Considering Toby, the name of the kid, would keep trying to join his gang by doing crazy stunts in front of them to show that he had what he takes and they should give him a shot. Jackson just found it hilarious and would call all the boys just to sit and gawk at him. Walking away even if he was left on the floor by the sidewalk bruised up, from trying to jump off a high ledge from part of the school building. It was really sad to watch that he would only walk away if Clara wasn't there. Otherwise he would go over to him and make himself useful by going to the school nurse with him. Usually carrying him over his shoulder to show how strong he was.

Not knowing that Clara just cared about Toby like she did most people since her mum died.

"Toby, ...one of these days your going to kill yourself."

After she would say this. He would promise her, he would be careful next time...we'll, Everytime, considering that he felt like ending his life due to peer pressure of his antics sometimes. Hoping it to be true.

Toby had no friends and was so lonely. He didn't feel as though he had a good future ahead of him because his family were from a far part if the way in a trailor park. He hated always going to school with old beaten up clothes that would smell of damp, from his parents always forgetting to air them out. Moth eaten holes through the side of them from lack of care. Toby perserved for the time being. This was his life. The tailor park was his home. Arizona was his state. He just needed a few friends to be goofy with to help life go along just that little bit easier. 

Until one day it was too late.

This was thanks to Jackson and his gang getting him all rared up to do the ultimate stunt imaginable. Just him and them.

In the early start of May.

Toby... died. 

The depth to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, it is 6,000 feet deep, which reaches its deepest point. It holds the fifth position on the list of the deepest canyons. Going the course to the bottom of the Grand Canyon might last you up to 12 miles or 16 km, depending on how much trail you choose. Nearly five million people visit the canyon annually, but as we later learned, only about one percent of them hike all the way to the bottom, The chosen route being the South Kaibab trail. 

Toby took this route un-experienced, without help and no guide. Just him. The gang looked on and watched as he started to go in.

None of them thought he would actually try to go all the way to the bottom. 

But he did and failed. 

Falling 4,000 feet from where he was. 

He cracked his skull and his body lay all the way down at the bottom.

The only ones who could see him were the Indian tribes in Supai Village which is located at the base of the Grand Canyon within the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

His gang members had no idea what had happened to him. Just that they had seen him roll all the way down.

Jasper and Billy suggested they bolt. Jackson was still caught in shock and Paul was egging him on to come and continue with the rest of them. All the gang were being driven by fear at this moment.

Jackson was dreaded with murder!

........

They would go on for weeks after this searching for Toby..

It took at least a day before the parents even bothered to call the police.

Jackson... Turned silent after this.

The gang barely saw eachother anymore.

And, People were suspicious but not so much so that anyone of the school suspected anything.

Which takes us back to Jackson looking out on the vista of the grand canyon Ona late summer evening in June.

It had been four weeks since Toby died. They still hadn't managed to find him, his body that had now been buried by the Indians 6,000 below in the Supai Village

The only ones that new

Never said a word...

Just a silent secret among themselves.

Like the very old famous saying goes: "It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt."

In this case it was... Death.