Jackson Hole

He had not been expecting a letter, but it was such a pleasant surprise. Ricky couldn't remember the last time he had heard from Tommy. He grabbed his pipe and sat in his favorite rocking chair, skimming over the letter. Memories came flooding back as Tommy's sentences ran on about missing what he called "home." Jackson Hole was what these boys had called home. Tommy made mention of Allen too, he was third wheel behind all the childhood memories. Come to think of it, some kids in their class called them "the three stooges." Ricky, Tommy and Allen had grown up goofing off together. They had fond childhood memories of fishing, catching fireflies, and collecting crawdads down by the local swimming hole. That was our favorite place to go until that last visit we made.

Our curiosity got the best of us that day, when we discovered what looked like a river stemming from the swimming hole. A little further down there were little streams that crawled out into the wooded area, and dumped into a larger body of water more like a pond. After a few hours of swimming and chatter about where we thought those streams would leave to, we couldn't wait any longer. We were growing from boys to men, and we had every right to explore. We knew our mothers would worry because supper was soon and it was getting darker earlier as it neared the month of September.

"Look Ricky, say it isn't so. Look how far that stream goes," Tommy was pointing as he was talking with his back turned to us. Tommy always was the most curious out of the three of us. We were only twelve, but Tommy had the determination of a man and just had to find things out for himself.

"Tommy, I don't think we should go any further, we have never been this far before. I don't think we should do it, let's turn around." Allen agreed with me as he stared blankly beyond the swimming hole. It seemed dismal, and the stream was wrapping around the trees. There was almost a fog settling now that it was getting dark. Tommy screwed his nose up at me, and let out a huff. He leaned in close to my face and widened his eyes as if to create some suspense.

"You scared Ricky? Come on, we are going to be teenagers and you still don't have a sense of adventure in ya. Don't you wanna get outta this town someday? It's just the woods, it's just water." Tommy had his arms crossed, snickering at me and Allen. We didn't budge. "Scaredy cats, fraidy cats, scaredy cats, fraidy cats", we could hear it echo as he jumped over rocks here and rocks there.

"Tommy, do what you want, we'll just sit right here like two bumps on a log and wait for ya." Allen and I spread out our towels and stretched out over two boulders cooling our sunburn. Neither one of us realized how long we had been outside with our bare backs exposed to the hot sun.

"Okay, don't say you weren't invited." Tommy was bellowing over the rocks and we could see he was near the pond. Tommy was probably about a half mile out, but he kept looking back over his shoulder to see if we had changed our minds Suddenly, it was silent except for the sound of the water running over the pebbles and the katydids. Allen lay back against the rock, falling asleep snoring when we both shuddered at the sound of Tommy screaming. Allen bolted upright nearly falling back into the water.

"Ricky, Allen come quick! Get me outta here!" We jumped at the sound of Tommy's screams and ran toward him. He was running right at us with his arms flailing around, and his legs nearly falling off. I don't think I had ever seen Tommy move so fast in my whole life. Most of the time, he was the last one, the straggler when we were trying to get somewhere on time.

"Tommy Jones, what in the sam hill are you yelling for? The dead will wake if you don't quiet yourself down." No sooner had I said that when Allen and I realized there was something floating in the water. Tommy was pointing in the direction of a man's body floating in the pond. I stopped suddenly with Allen still running a few steps behind, and he ran right into me knocking me to the ground. We tumbled over each other, over rocks and mud when I realized I could see my reflection in the water. Allen landed on my back, his head perfectly resting above mine. "Say it isn't so Tommy; say it isn't a dead man floating in the pond!" We stood up quickly backing away from the water.

"What are we gonna do? Are we going to have momma call the police?" Tommy was shaking like a leaf, but Allen had a puzzled look on his face. He had a look on his face of shock, fear and disgust. Before I could speak, Allen was grabbing the corpse by his flannel shirt and turning it over in the water, like a log. He reached into the water, grabbing a piece of torn flannel from the sleeve and the body started to rotate evenly without effort. Allen suddenly let it go shivering, and backing away from the water's edge.

"Allen, are you sick in the head? I can't believe you would go and touch a dead man's body!" Allen started to turn green like he was gonna lose his lunch. I heard laughter in the background. I turned around to see Tommy laughing so hard he was in tears. Tommy reached down and grabbed that piece of torn flannel from the sleeve, and turned that body right over.

"Tommy, what's wrong with you? Are you sick or something? We just found a dead man's body and all you can do is laugh? Have you lost your marbles?" He was bent over holding his sides as he continued to laugh. He was laughing so hard he was coughing and his face was turning red. He started walking toward the body, and grabbed it by the head of its hair. As he turned it over, I could see it had the face of a mannequin.

"You guys are so gullible, it's a dummy you dummies! I can't believe you thought I would touch a dead man's body!" Tommy sure was giving himself a chuckle. He was laughing hysterically while Allen and I just looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief. We sat down next to the mannequin, looking at the fine work of art Tommy had put together.

"Tommy Jones, you are gonna pay for this!" Allen and I took off running after him full speed ahead. We thought something terrible had happened, but it was just another Tommy Jones prank at the swimming hole.

I smiled as I read the rest of that letter. Those were the days when we were young and "the boys of summer". Too bad I haven't seen Tommy and Allen since our ten year reunion. They sure would love this cabin I built right by the water's edge at Jackson Hole.