Different Seasons - Stephen King [174]
We sat under the tree for a while, shooting the shit like we always did-who had the best ballteam (still the Yankees with Mantle and Maris, of course), what was the best car ('55 Thunderbird, with Teddy holding out stubbornly for the '58 Corvette), who was the toughest guy in Castle Rock who wasn't in our gang (we all agreed it was Jamie Gallant, who gave Mrs. Ewing the finger and then sauntered out of her class with his hands in his pockets while she shouted at him), the best TV show (either The Untouchables or Peter Gunn-both Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and Craig Stevens as Gunn were cool), all that stuff.
It was Teddy who first noticed that the shade of the ash tree was getting longer and asked me what time it was. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see it was quarter past two.
'Hey, man,' Vern said. 'Somebody's got to go for provisions. Dump opens at four. I don't want to still be here when Milo and Chopper make the scene.'
Even Teddy agreed. He wasn't afraid of Milo, who had a pot belly and was at least forty, but every kid in Castle Rock squeezed his balls between his legs when Chopper's name was mentioned.
'Okay,' I said. 'Odd man goes?'
That's you, Gordie,' Chris said, smiling. 'Odd as a cod.'
'So's your mother,' I said, and gave them each a coin. 'Flip.'
Four coins glittered up into the sun. Four hands snatched them from the air. Four flat smacks on four grimy wrists. We uncovered. Two heads and two tails. We flipped again and this time all four of us had tails.
'Oh Jesus, that's a goocher,' Vern said, not telling us anything we didn't know. Four heads, or a moon, was supposed to be extraordinarily good luck. Four tails was a goocher, and that meant very bad luck.
'Fuck that shit,' Chris said. 'It doesn't mean anything. Go again.'
'No, man,' Vern said earnestly. 'A goocher, that's really bad. You remember when Clint Bracken and those guys got wiped out on Sirois Hill in Durham? Billy tole me they was flippin' for beers and they came up a goocher just before they got into the car. And bang! They all get fuckin' totalled. I don't like that. Sincerely.'
'Nobody believes that crap about moons and goochers,' Teddy said impatiently. 'It's baby stuff, Vern. You gonna flip or not?'
Vern flipped, but with obvious reluctance. This time he, Chris and Teddy all had tails. I was showing Thomas Jefferson on a nickle. And I was suddenly scared. It was as if a shadow had crossed some inner sun. They still had a goocher, the three of them, as if dumb fate had pointed at them a second time. Abruptly I thought of Chris saying: I just get a couple of hairs and Teddy screams and down he goes. Weird, huh?
Three tails, one head.
Then Teddy was laughing his crazy, cackling laugh and pointing at me and the feeling was gone.
'I heard that only fairies laugh like that,' I said, and gave him the finger.
'Eeee-eeee-eeee, Gordie,' Teddy laughed. 'Go get the provisions, you fuckin' morphadite.'
I wasn't really sorry to be going. I was rested up and didn't mind going down the road to the Florida Market.
'Don't call me any of your mother's pet names,' I said to Teddy.
'Eeee-eee-eeee, what a fuckin' wet you are, Lachance.'
'Go on, Gordie,' Chris said. 'We'll wait over by the tracks.'
'You guys better not go without me,' I said.
Vern laughed. 'Goin' without you'd be like goin' with Schlitz instead of Budweiser's, Gordie.'
'Ah, shut up.'
They chanted together: 'I don't shut up, I grow up. And when I look at you I throw up.'
'Then your mother goes around the corner and licks it up,' I said, and hauled ass out of there, giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went. I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?
Different strokes for