Decisions

“Chicken!” Damian taunted his best friend.

“I’m not a chicken dude, it’s just I don’t have a rich dad that gets me out of trouble every time I do things like this. I’m just trying to be the sensible one,” replied Jack not so happy that Damian had succeeded at hurting his pride.

“Chicken!” he repeated, knowing there was no need for the use of a better argument. “I promise that if you do this with me, it’ll be your turn the next time to choose what you want to do, no matter how boring and I’ll even go with you to a museum if that’s what you want”

“Ok, let’s spend the night at the graveyard if that’s what you want,” said Jack after letting out a huge sigh.

“Way to go man!” replied Damian full of joy.

To this day, no one was still sure how they had become friends. Being so different and all. I guess it had to do with the fact that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That one time when that bigger kid Joe, had practically mopped the floor with Jack at almost the end of their freshman year and Damian had taken his mother’s Taser gun with him to school, had been a real catalyst. Joe had tried to bully Damian too when they had just entered high school, being a rich kid and all. I guess Joe had expected to find no resistance from his new victim. Joe had been wrong. “Rich doesn’t mean soft” Damian said after punching Joe square on the nose causing a copious hemorrhage.

“Ok, when do we do it?” asked Jack

“It has to be today!” said Damian excitedly, “it is Halloween, duh.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” Jack rolled his eyes. “What are we going to need?” asked jack.

“A flashlight, some snacks, a sleeping bag or blanket, and I’ll bring the beers and the cigarettes,” Damian expressed along with a mischievous smile. “It’ll be fun”

“But I don’t have to drink, right?” asked Jack innocently.

“You don’t have to drink, but I’m sure you will,” thought Damian as he just nodded. Damian had always found the way to persuade him to do things that could get them in trouble. In his mind, he wanted to make him strong like him so that no one ever stepped all over him again. The bottom line was, in his own little way, he really cared about his friend.

That night, Jack lied to his mother, another habit he had picked up from his friend.

“We’re going to watch some scary movies and have a few snacks in his bedroom mom, we’re not kids anymore as to go trick or treating. At least you don’t have to worry about us being out in the streets ma,” Jack said as he hurriedly walked out the door in order to not let his mother look him in the eyes as he said it.

They met around the corner from Damian’s house and Damian opened his back pack giving Damian a sneak peek of the “treats” he had brought. “From my father’s bar,” he explained winking at Jack.

“Well, I just might have one or two,” said Jack. Damian was delighted to hear that.

Jumping the fence was easy for such young boys even if Jack wasn’t the athletic type, since the only exercise he did was in PE class. Still his built was that of a runner, slim but solid. Damian on the other hand was a little shorter but more muscular since he did do a lot of weight training.

“Here,” Damian said handing out a beer to Jack as they made their way into the graveyard looking for the ideal spot to camp.

And then as if this were a haunted house and everything was controlled by special effects, a heavy fog came upon them. This made Damian feel a little excited and Jack a little scared. They kept walking looking for that special space and then they found it. A pair of nice little graves that seemed more like a garden than tombs. Soft grass covered them and they had flowers all around.

“Wow!” expressed the both of them at unison.

“I really doubt there will be a more suitable place than this one dude,” said Jack

“I agree.”

They set out camp and they got ready to have some fun. Then out of the same curiosity that characterizes every human being, they started reading the names and dates of death of the graves around them. Some very old, some just recent.

Amused by the discussion of how they thought each of these people had died, they overlooked the names on the graveyards they were camping on. Jack and Damian. No last names, just Damian and Jack.

“Dude, this is real creepy, look at that,” Jack said pointing at the two graves next to each other.

Damian shivered and stood there wide eyed. Not when he saw the names on the tombstones, but when he saw the dates.

“October 31^st, 2034,” Damian finally blurted out.

“What?” asked Jack puzzled as he hadn’t noticed that little detail.

“Man, that’s 15 years from now, look at the dates on the tombstones.

Jack started laughing “Dumbass people, ha ha, they put the dates wrong.”

Damian relaxed a little and started laughing as well.

After that, it was all drinking and fun, telling stories and reminiscing about these last three years in school since they were now seniors. The one or two beers Jack had said he was going to have, magically transformed into six. Not being used to drinking, that made him pretty buzzed.

More beers and more cigarettes followed these and if they had paid attention to the graves, they would have noticed that the dates on there, now read October 31^st, 2028.

“I dare you to get on top of that cross and jump to the next one without falling,” said Damian all of a sudden.

Completely encouraged by the alcohol in his system, Jack accepted the challenge, of course without success since he hit the floor with a thud falling on top of his right arm.

“You dumbass,” laughed Damian uncontrollably as Jack moaned. “C’mon man, get up.” He urged.

But jack didn’t get up. Not only had he landed on top of his arm, but also on top of the beer bottle he was holding, breaking it and wounding him badly.

Damian couldn’t believe his eyes as he saw the blood gushing out the open wound when he tried to help him up. Fear is a real bad adviser and the first thought in his mind was to get the hell out of there. He knew his dad wasn’t going to get him out of this one. He ran back to the place where they had set all their stuff down and started raising camp. Somehow, as if the stone had called out to him, he looked. The two tombstones read, October 31^st, 2019. Terrified at this sight, Damian dropped everything he was trying to take with him, started walking away from the grave, tripped on a rock and fell in an open grave, breaking his neck.

If only they had taken the right decisions, the living stones would have kept their word.