Stand by Me

I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being.

It happened in the summer of 1959,

a long time ago,

but only if you measure in terms of years.

I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock.

There were only 1,281 people,

but to me it was the whole world.

(ON RADIO) It's the Bossman Bob Cormier here.

It's a beautiful Friday morning in Portland.

It's 90 KLAM degrees and getting hotter.

Up the ladder with another platter,

it's Bobby Day with Rockin' Robin.

It's boss.

Hey, how do you know a Frenchman's been in your backyard?

I'm French, okay.

Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant.

Didn't I just say I was French?

I knock.

Shit.

Twenty-nine.

Twenty-two.

Piss up a rope.

Gordie's out, Ole' Gordie just bit the bag and stepped out the door.

Come on, man, deal.

Teddy Duchamp was the craziest guy we hung around with.

He didn't have much of a chance in life.

His dad was given to fits of rage.

One time he held Teddy's ear to a stove and almost burned it off.

I knock.

You four-eyed pile of shit.

The "pile of shit" has 1,000 eyes.

What? What's so funny? Come on.

I've got 30, what have you got?

Sixteen.

Go ahead, keep laughing.

You're down to your ride, pal.

Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend.

He came from a bad family and everyone just knew he'd turn out bad.

Including Chris.

That's not the secret knock.

I forget the secret knock. Let me in.

Vern.

Come on, you guys, open up.

Oh, man, you guys are not gonna believe this.

This is so boss.

Oh, man, wait till you hear this. Wait till you hear this.

You won't believe it. It's unbelievable.

Let me catch my breath.

I ran all the way from my house.

Come on. You guys, listen to me, 'cause this is boss.

Okay, forget it.

I don't have to tell you nothing.

Hold on, you guys. Hold on. What is it, man?

Okay, great, you won't believe this, sincerely.

Screw you guys. Forget it.

What is it?

Can you guys camp out tonight?

I mean, if you tell your folks

we're gonna tent out in my back field?

Yeah, I think so.

Except my dad's kind of on a mean streak.

You know, he's been drinking a lot lately.

You got to, man. Sincerely, you won't believe this. Can you, Gordie?

Yeah, probably.

So what are you pissing and moaning about, Verno?

I knock.

What?

You liar! You ain't got no pat hand.

You didn't deal yourself no pat hand.

Make your draw, shitheap.

You guys want to go see a dead body?

Well, I was under the porch digging, you know?

We all understood what Vern meant right away.

At the beginning of the school year

he had buried a quart jar of pennies

underneath his house.

He drew a treasure map so he could find them again.

A week later, his mom cleaned out his room

and threw away the map.

Vern had been trying to find those pennies for nine months.

Nine months, man.

You didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Jesus Christ, Billy. We gotta do something.

Why? Who cares?

We saw him. So?

It ain't nothing to us. The kid's dead

so it ain't nothing to him, neither.

And who gives a shit if they ever find him? I don't.

But it's that kid they were talking about on the radio.

Brocker or Brower or Flowers, whatever his name is.

The train must have hit him.

Big fucking deal.

We had all followed the Ray Brower story very closely,

because he was a kid our age.

Three days before, he'd gone out to pick blueberries

and nobody had seen him since.

I think we should tell the cops.

You don't go squawking to the cops

after you boosted a car, you idiot.

They're gonna want to know how the hell we got way out on Back Harlow Road.

Now they know we don't got no car.

It's best we just keep our mouth shut, and then they can't touch us.

Look, we could... we could make an anonymous call.

They trace those calls, stupid.

I seen it on Highway Patrol and on Dragnet.

Yeah, right.

I just wish we never boosted that goddamned Dodge.

I wish Ace had been with us.

We could've told the cops we was in his car. Well, he wasn't!

Are we gonna tell him?

We're not gonna tell nobody.

Nobody, never. You dig me?

I know the Back Harlow Road.

It comes to a dead end by the Royal River.

The train tracks are right there.

Me and my dad used to fish for Cossies out there.

Jesus Christ, man,

if they would have known you were under there, they would've killed you.

Could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow?

That's really far.

Sure. He must have started walking on the train tracks

and just followed them the whole way.

Yeah. Yeah, right.

And then after dark, a train must have come along and...el smacko.

Yeah.

Hey. Hey, you guys,

I bet you anything that if we find him,

we'll get our pictures in the paper.

Yeah, we could even be on TV.

Sure. We'll be heroes.

Yeah.

I don't know. Billy will know I found out.

He's not gonna care.

'Cause it's gonna be us guys that find him.

Not Billy and Charlie Hogan, and the boosted car.

They'll probably pin a medal on you, Vern.

Yeah, you think so?

Sure.

What'll we tell our folks?

Exactly what you said.

We'll all tell our folks we're tenting out in your back field.

You tell your folks you're sleeping over at Teddy's.

Then we say we're going over to the drag races the next day.

We're rock solid until dinner tomorrow night.

Man, that's a plan-and-a-half.

But if we do find that kid's body over in South Harlow,

they'll know we didn't go to the drag races. We'll get hided.

Nobody will care

because everybody's gonna be so jazzed about what we found

it's not gonna make a difference. GORDIE: Yeah.

Well, my dad will hide me anyway, but hell, it's worth a hiding.

Shit, yeah. Let's do it. What do you say?

All right. Gordie?

Sure.

Vern?

I don't know.

Vern.

Come on, Verno.

Vern. Vern.

Come on, Verno. Come on, Verno.

Okay. Okay.

All right. All right.

Too cool, too cool! Very cool!

Very, very cool! Yes!

I wanted to share my friends' enthusiasm, but I couldn't.

That summer at home, I had become the Invisible Boy.

Mom, do you know where my canteen is?

Mom?

It's in Denny's room.

Oh.

In April, my older brother, Dennis,

had been killed in a jeep accident.

Four months had passed,

but my parents still hadn't been able

to put the pieces back together again.

Hey, Gordie, I got something for you.

This, my friend, is for you.

But, Denny, this is your Yankee cap. No, this is your Yankee cap.

It's a good-luck cap. You wear that cap

you know how many fish we're gonna catch? How much?

A bazillion. A bazillion fish.

And it looks good on you, too. Just like that.

Hey, Moe, I'm going blind.

Hey, don't start with me, porcupine. Come here, give me a hug.

You found it.

Huh?

You found it.

Yeah.

Why can't you have friends like Denny's?

Dad, they're okay.

Sure they are. A thief and two feebs.

Chris isn't a thief.

He stole the milk money at school.

He's a thief in my book.

It was almost noon as we set out to find

the body of a dead kid named Ray Brower.

Right here's cool.

Hey, Chris.

Thanks a lot. Sure thing.

Gordo. Hey, man.