The Bindlestiff Mystery

Chapter 5: A Lead and Bad Influences

The entire week flew by, school was out for summer break. I hadn’t visited Ben the entire week. I felt bad because maybe he thought I didn't want to help him anymore. But, I still wanted to find out who he was. Help him find his family, so I spent every afternoon after school at the library looking through old newspapers. I found nothing.
If I could find something to help Ben out, then I’d go talk to him and cheer him up a bit. I looked all afternoon until I finally came across something interesting—a small article in the paper about a family in Dalesburgh looking for their lost loved one. A guy named Lloyd Cramer went missing on September 23, 1960. My heart raced. Could Ben be Lloyd Cramer? I wrote down the information and started home.
I felt someone kick the heel of my foot, so I spun around.
Mark laughed. “Did I scare ya?”
“No.”
I walked on, preoccupied with what I had found.
He walked faster to catch up and walked backward in front of me. “Guess what? It’s all set up. Tonight is the night, my friend. “ He smiled. "There's a party in the woods." He nudged my shoulder, "You should sneak out and join us."
“Mom would kill me! Anyway, you’re all talk. Melissa Darnell said that Julie is just using you to make Tim Wilcox jealous, so good luck.”
“She’s full of it. Julie’s up for it.”
I stopped. “Mark, we’ve been friends a long time, and I’m just telling you what I heard because I don’t want you to get you to get hurt.”
He chuckled and took a drag of his cigarette. “Me, hurt? That’s funny, but okay, I listened, but I think I know Julie pretty good.” He patted me on the back. “Thanks for being Caleb, the nice guy.”
We walked along about a block in silence, and then Mark asked, “What were you doing in the library? No school, knucklehead.”
“I guess I can tell you.” I motioned for him to come closer, and we stopped in front of the hardware store. “I made friends with Be... I mean the hobo.”
“What! Are you crazy?”
“He’s real nice, and he's only a hobo because he has amnesia. “
“No way, he’s lying. He’s just a dirty old bum getting sympathy from a nice kid.”
“No, really. This story about a missing guy was in an old paper. I think hobo might be this missing guy, Lloyd Cramer.” I showed him the information I had written down.
“This guy’s been missing longer than we’ve been alive. Surely, they found him by now, Caleb.”
“Maybe not, Besides, I’m gonna go talk to him tonight and tell him what I found.”
“Your mom’d shit if she knew you as talking to that old bum.” He laughed. “Hell, she doesn’t even like me, and I smell better.” He smiled.
“Ha ha! He doesn’t stink, and he’s a nice guy.”
“Yeah, right.” Mark rolled his eyes. “I gotta go, getting things set up for tonight.” He slapped my back. “Be by tomorrow to fill you in all the details.” He wiggled his eyebrows and jogged off.
****
Mom stayed up later than usual, so I had to wait until I was sure she went to sleep before sneaking out. I was so scared of walking out into the night alone anymore, and I kinda of liked it. I mean, why should I be afraid? Nothing ever happened in our little town.
The closer I got to the bridge, I was careful not to make any noise. I wanted to see what Ben was doing before I went over. Using a tree as cover, I peeked around. He sat in front of the fire, staring off into the flames.
I walked up. “Hey, how are ya?” I set the backpack down in front of him.
“Good.” He opened it and took out the food I brought. “Thanks, I’m starving.”
“Welcome.”
“Go ahead, have a seat.” He ate half a peanut butter sandwich in one bite and chased it with Tab. “Sorry about the other night, kid. I was feeling down and I, well. You’re a good kid, and I’m sure you got a good family too.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it.” I pulled the paper from my pocket. “I found something at the library today.”
Ben kept on eating, nodding his head.
“It is some information about a guy missing in Dalesburgh from September 1960.”
Ben continued to eat.
“His name is Lloyd Cramer. Sound familiar?”
Ben stopped and looked over at me. “Yeah, it does.”
My heart raced.
“The Lloyd fella’s family came and looked at me, when I was in the hospital but said I wasn’t him. I had the same build and all, but he had brown eyes, and mine are more hazel so, I’m not Lloyd. ”
“Oh, well... I thought—“
“Thanks for trying, kid.”
“Well, don’t you remember anything at all?”
“I do have dreams about this girl.” He tipped up his can of Tab before he went on, “I’m pushing her on a tire swing, and she falls off and I wake up. That’s it.”
“That’s not much to go on. It may not even be real.”
“She calls me a name, something I can’t quite make out.” He closed his eyes and snapped his finger a few times. "It's like Bricky, or Booky or something like that, so that doesn’t help either.”
“It’s okay. I’ve lived like this for a long time now. Guess I’ll continue, not knowing.” He finished drinking his Tab and nudged me with his elbow. “So, how’s that girl you’re crazy over?”
I shook my head. “I’m not crazy over her, and besides, I guess she’s at a party with my friend right now. They're all over on the other side of the woods. Some kids are getting together to celebrate the last day of school.”
“You’re not going?”
“No, my mom would kill me! This group drinks beer and smokes, so my mom doesn’t like me hanging around with them.”
Ben patted me on the shoulder. “Well, you’re a good kid, and I’m sure your mom wants to keep away from bad influences.” He snickered, “But here you are visiting a bad influence like me. I drink alcohol, and if I had a cigarette, I’d smoke it!”
Ben stood up and glared over toward the other side of the woods. “I think you best go home. It’s not a good idea to be around folks like me.”
It was late, so I did as he suggested, but on my walk back, I couldn't help but feel he wanted to get rid of me for some reason. Maybe he had gotten a hold of some more bourbon or something.
I was just about to step onto my back porch when I heard sirens blaring. I saw the red and blue lights heading toward the party. Someone must’ve called the cops to break up the party, so thank God I wasn’t there.
I sat on the steps watching a couple of cop cars fly by, and just as I was about ready to go in, I heard someone whisper my name. My hair rose on the back of my neck, as I turned toward the voice. It was Mark.
“Mark, what’s going on?”
He bent over to catch his breath. “I ran here when we heard the cops coming.” He took a few deep breaths. “I think that old lady down the road called them on us for partying, so we all scattered.”
“Where’s Julie?”
“I don’t know?” Mark sat down on my steps and lit a cigarette. “We got separated when everyone scattered.”
“Should we go look for her?”
“I’m sure she’s fine. She wasn’t far behind me, and she probably ran to Teresa’s. Julie told her mom she was spending the night there.” Mark looked up at me. “Let me stay here, okay? I can’t go home.”
“Okay, but you have to leave early before my mom gets up. She’d kill me for having you stay over without asking. “
We crept inside and snuck into my room, As we got settled in for the night, I couldn’t sleep without asking Mark one question. “So, did you do it?”
Mark rolled over and glared at me. “We were making out real heavy until the cops, and believe me she was into it, but no, we didn’t.”
I rolled toward the wall and drifted off to sleep, smiling
****
It felt like I had just fallen asleep when I heard my mom banging on my door. "Caleb! Come out there! The police need to talk to you."