Millions of Miles

This story was published in Oregon East Magazine in 2011.

“I’m not scared Kevin, I know I can beat you,” I fired at Kevin, the shorter-than-average kid standing next to me with his hands on his hips. Not only was Kevin short he was real skinny—he always had been. I’ve seen Kevin eat an entire pizza to himself and not gain a single pound! To just say it, Kevin was everything I wasn’t. He was small, fast and girls at school would actually talk to him in the hallways between recess, and during lunch Kevin’s mom always packs him Lunchables and Mountain Dew. He was also my best friend.

“Ha!” Kevin shot back, “I’ll believe it when I see it, buddy.” Leaning his head back he rolled it slowly and rhythmically from shoulder to shoulder. He extended both arms away from his sides and smoothly raised them above his head, grabbing the fingers on his left hand with his right. After lowering his hands to his side, Kevin did a couple little hops, just like he did before every race.
I knew I wasn’t going to beat Kevin, but we’d been walking for what seemed like hours and I just wanted to get to camp where mom was bound to have hotdogs ready to eat. I figured I could coax Kevin into a race back to camp, this way I wouldn’t have to admit to him I was hungry. I mean, I know we all have to eat, but I just feel like a fatso every time I say I’m hungry. I know everyone laughs to themselves on the inside.
Camp Elk Hide was smack-dab in the middle of a whole bunch of trails. They went on forever! Dad even pointed out a sign when we pulled into camp this morning that said in big red letters, “A million miles of trails.” That’s a lot! I don’t think I’d ever be able to walk on all of them in my entire lifetime! Kevin and I had followed only one trail—this was how we knew how to get back to camp. Mom and Dad were okay with us wandering around. Even if we hadn’t told them where we were going, they’d probably just be back at camp arguing anyhow and not notice we had gone. They didn’t use to argue so much when I brought friends home to play, but as they got used to my friends, especially Kevin, it didn’t matter that there was company.
This was the first time that mom and dad had ever let me bring a friend along. Mom and dad and Steph and I had gone camping once before, but it was only for the weekend. I wanted to go for the whole spring break, but mom had to work so we couldn’t go longer. This is my first time at Camp Elk Hide too. The camp we went to last year was Lloyd Foster Creek.
The trail we’d be following seemed to be never-ending. I hadn’t brought my best shoes and my feet were starting to hurt. The trail looped up and around, all through the forest; it went down by streams, up rocky hills and at one point we even had to climb over a log that had fallen.
“What happens when I win? What do I get?” Kevin spouted as he finished the last of his stretching.
“I don’t know,” I thought for a second, “the first hotdog?”
“Psh, I’m not even hungry,” Kevin said, mocking me.
“What if I get there first?” I boasted.
“That wouldn’t ever happen in an infinity years, and you know it! You know what?” Kevin paused, “I don’t care what I get when I win. Let’s race, come on. It’s not like you’d actually do it.”
We both stepped up to a line across the trail that Kevin had drawn when I first proposed the idea. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. I rustled the dirt under my right shoe until I could feel the ground below.
“One, two, three and we go, or one, two, three, go, go?” Kevin asked.
“One, two, three and we go on three,” I said not looking to Kevin to answer him.
“One, two, three go. Gottcha.”
We both stood there for a moment, like runners in the Olympics waiting for the guy to shoot his gun.
“Who’s gonna count?” Kevin said, breaking the silence.
“I don’t care,” I replied, “you can if you want.”
Kevin began to count, “One…”
I thought about shoving Kevin over and taking off. I knew it wouldn’t give me much of a head start, but it was one option.
“Two…”
I could also fall so far behind that Kevin would feel bad and come back for me. After all, neither of us knew how far camp was. I know that’s what he’d do. Of the two scenarios it would be the one that would most likely be happening.
“Wait,” Kevin stopped. “I have an idea,” he said turning towards me, “loser has to punch Steph!”
The idea was an awful one. Steph was my older sister. She’d just turned 17. She wanted to bring her boyfriend camping with us, but mom said she couldn’t. She also doesn’t like me much. Mom and dad had their anniversary last week and they were gone for the whole night and Steph had her boyfriend over. When mom and dad got home they asked me if Conner had been over. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to tell the truth. They spent the whole time in the basement, though. Steph told me she was gonna hit me if I didn’t go to bed and then when I was in bed I heard talking and I knew it was Conner. She’s been real mad at me ever since and keeps calling me a tattletale.
“No way! That’s suicide!”
“I thought you said you were gonna beat me? What do you have to worry about?” Kevin said as he positioned himself to race again.
“Well I am going to beat you,” I said in an obviously nervous voice.
“Ready? One, two…”
We both took our marks.
“Three!” Kevin yelled, and we took off down the trail.
Even after the first few paces I could already tell that Kevin had a lead and was going to keep it. After the first long straightaway the trail veered to the left and then back to the right around a couple dead tree trunks. As I rounded the corner I could feel my side starting to hurt. I pushed hard on the spot and hurt and it help for a moment to take the pain away. Kevin was nowhere in sight. There was no way I was actually going to hit Steph. I think Kevin knew that, but he also knew that if I had beaten him, with the help of a miracle or something, I was going to make him hit Steph.
I had made sure to pay attention to the trail when we were walking it. After all, I didn’t want to get lost. I knew that after the straight part I was on the trail would turn left; go up the side of a real steep hill to the viewpoint, then back down to camp—at least I thought. That long bend to the left was coming up. I was pretty sure camp was directly in front of me—it would make sense. With a slight hesitation, arms crossed protecting my face from the branches of trees, I kept on going straight, leaving the trail. I bobbed and weaved through the trees, hopping the fallen ones and constantly checking for solid ground.
My side ached and so did my feet. I could only estimate how far camp would be using the shortcut, but I knew if I was going to beat Kevin like I said, and make him punch Steph, that I had to go as fast as I could despite how tired I was or how much it hurt.
Stepping to the left to dodge a hanging tree branch, I could feel my foot land on soggy, slipper ground right away—but there was nothing I could do. I could feel my ankle roll as I fell forward. I quickly took my hand from my arching side and threw it in front of my face. I slowly caught my breath, laying there on the soft, spongy moss. One, two, three, I thought as I brought myself to my feet. My shirt was coverd in mud, but my pants not so much. Trying to brush away what dirt I could by pounding my hands on my thighs I heard the ‘clink’ of my belt unbuckling. Before I could lift my shirt to look at the buckle, which I had assumed had broken because mom buys all my clothes at Wal-mart and they always come apart, my pants hit the ground. Quickly, I scampered to get my pants back to my waist, even though I realized there was probably no one around. The belt had broken and there was no way to keep my pants up without holding them. This was another one of mom’s shopping techniques, she says that if she buys clothes that are a size or two bigger than what I wear that I’ll be able to wear them for a really long time because I’ll always grow into them. That was until I stopped growning, which was when I assumed she would buy my actual size.
I put a little weight on my ankle and it seemed fine. I was good to go—just because I fell didn’t mean I was going to give up that easy. I tried first holding my pants up with both hands—one on each side. After the first few branches I took to the face I decided that I needed some sort of protection. I pulled by belt tight and gripped the front of the pants as I ran. But after a few seconds I stopped. Turing back in the direction I came, I noticed nothing looked familiar and the trip ahead didn’t look any better.
Had I turned around? Am I still going in the right direction? I began to panic.
“Kevin! Kevin, can you hear me? Kevin!” I yelled, hoping he would hear me, wherever he was. I stood in silence, listening for a response. I tried to listen through the squeaking birds and the trickle of the creek, but there was no response.
I thought about turning around and going back the direction I’d come. I’d reach the trail again and then continue the long way up to the viewpoint. As I turned again I realized that if I wasn’t going in the right direction then turning directly around wouldn’t put me back out at the trail.
“Kevin! Help! Can you hear me! Kevin! Hey!” I yelled again as loud as I could. Again there was no response. But I had to do something; I just couldn’t sit there. Listening hard again for Kevin, I began running in the direction I had been, which I was about fifty-percent sure was the direction of camp.
I walked about, what I figured was four lengths of the playground, which was about the length of a block. I began to lose hope that camp was ahead. I stopped again and thought to call for Kevin, but I figured it would be no different than the last time.
“Ehh… EHHhh… Awe…”
“Ouh, Ohhhah… Oh!”
The noise spooked me. Listening closely I could tell it was coming from just over the small hill in front of me. I squatted down and duck-walked around the hill, trying to be as quiet as possible.
“Ahhh, oh, yes, ahh…”
“Yeah, ahh, uhk…”
The sound grew louder. At first I thought it sounded like two animals fighting, but as I peered my head over the hill I could see a pair of shoes and socks. As I peeked a bit more I could see a blanket and a girl’s arm suddenly smacking the ground and gripping the blanket. I was saved I thought for an instant, but as I stood I saw two people on top of each other. At first I thought he was hurting her and I about cried out, but just as I was about to I saw the couple start to turn over. I wasn’t too sure what was going on, but I was pretty sure it was what people called “doing it.” I didn’t know how it was done though.
I ducked back down. I peered up again and saw that the two had moved around. Now the girl was on her stomach and it looked like the man was sitting her butt.
“Dennis?” it was Steph. “What are you lookin’ at over there?”
There was the trail, just a few steps away, and there was Steph. I stood fast to my feet and tried to run to her, but as I went to take my first step I forgot that I had to pull up my pants. I slipped again and fell right on my face.
“Did you hear something?” I could hear the girl ask from over the hill.
“Yeah, what was that?” I could hear the man’s voice too, it was very deep and easy to hear. It sounded a lot like my teacher Mr. Wilson’s. He taught me in second grade and then now, in third grade he’s also my teacher. He’s my favorite teacher, and I think it’s because I like his voice. He’s never loud with us, but he can really make you feel bad without having to yell at you.
Before I could get to my feet, Steph was helping me up. As he stood me up, my pants around my ankles, he asked, “What are you doing over here? Kevin came back to camp all crying saying he couldn’t find you.
“Hey, what the fuck man? We’re you watchin’ us?” The man with Mr. Wilson’s voice appeared and he looked nothing like Mr. Wilson. He had put on underwear and was in the process of putting on a T-shirt as he came over the hill.
“What?” Steph answered him. “Nah, I was just getting my brother.”
“What’s happening?” I could see the girl holding a shirt over herself as she peeked around us.
“We got a Peeping Tom,” the man with Mr. Wilson’s voice said.
The girl began to dress very fast. Steph turned my head away. “Oh my God, I’m sorry! You are going to be in so much trouble when I tell mom!” Steph said with a smile on her face.
“What do you have to say for yourself, son?” Mr. Wilson’s voice asked.
I reached down and pulled my pants up. “Is the camp close?”
Both Steph and the man stared at me.
“It’s just down the trail, stupid!” Steph laughed. “I’m going to take him back to camp. I am so, so sorry for this.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” the man said.
“Pervert!” I heard from the girl as we walked away.
We walked for a little while in silence before Steph stopped me. “Kevin came back to camp crying. He said he couldn’t find you.”
“We were racing, I got lost. Does Mom and Dad know?”
“They drove into town because mom forgot the hotdogs. They’ll be getting back soon.”
“Are you going to tell mom?” I asked, after a long quiet.
“I don’t know,” Steph said, and started walking towards camp.
When we got back to camp I found Kevin, who was in his tent crying. I could hear the sobs from the road.
“Kevin?” I asked entering the tent, sure to get a response this time.
“Dennis!” Kevin snapped up from his sleeping bad and wiped his eyes. “Where did you go? I went back to find you once I got so far ahead and couldn’t find you.”
“I took a shortcut, or, I guess what I thought was a shortcut.”
Just then I could her Dad’s pickup pull in. I ducked out the tent and saw them pull in to the camping spot.
“Come on, Kevin!” I ducked out of the tent and ran to mom. “Did you buy som—”
“Oh my God, mom!” Steph cut me off.
“What, dear?” mom asked pulling the hotdogs out of the plastic bag.
“I caught Dennis in the forest with his pants down watching a couple have sex!” “What?” Dad looked up from table he just sat down at.
“I think he was jacking off!” Steph added.
“No I wasn’t! She’s lying!” I yelled.
Steph mouthed the words, ‘no I’m not,’ as she shook her head slowly.
Dad stood up from the table and him and mom walked away whispering to each other.
“I was not!” I yelled again.
“You’re going to grounded,” Steph sung as she danced around.
“I didn’t do anything though!”
Steph turned to me and bent down, whispering in my ear. “When you told mom that Conner stayed over, I told her that I caught you watching us and jacking off.”
“But I wasn’t!”
Steph smiled and sat down at the picnic table.
After a few moments mom and Dad came back. It looked like mom was crying.
“Pack up your things,” mom said while crying, we’re going home.
“Yes!” Steph chimed in from the end of the table, jumping up to begin gathering his stuff.
“Kevin, I’ll call your mom and let her know we’re dropping you off.”
“But we just got here this morning!” I cried. I could feel the tears starting to come on and fill my eyes.
“You and your father are going to have a talk when you get home young man,” mom said in her ‘You’re in trouble’ voice.
It only took us about an hour to put everything in the back of the pickup and take down the tents. As we loaded into the car, Kevin in the back of the cab between Steph and me, I started to cry. I didn’t know if I was in trouble or what I’d done, and I certainly didn’t look forward to the talk with dad when we got home.
As we pulled away from the campsite and on to the main road, everyone was silent. Only the sound of Steph’s music from his headphones made any noise. I looked out the window at the forest and the trees. In big read letters a sign read, “hundreds of miles of trails.” I guess my number was off from before. Either way, hundreds of miles or millions of miles, someday, I thought, someday I’ll come back and walk them all.