"Sit down and be quiet," somebody said loudly and rudely from a few feet behind us, so we moved off, Willie folding his blanket as we headed off the green and into Main Street.
"We were all here together watching the display when he said he had to go—I was afraid he might—well, I had Letty on my lap, so I just told him to run along home and use the privy there. He didn't come back right away. At first I didn't worry, but then—well, he was gone so long, I went home to see what the trouble was, and he's nowhere around. I—I can't locate him."
"Don't worry, Mr. Hewitt." Willie sounded like somebody's mother. "We'll find him, sure."
Pa smiled a sort of crooked thank-you. He held out the lantern. "Here, you boys take this. I can manage."
I took the lantern from him, not knowing what else to do. It was a dark night except when an exceptionally large display lit the sky momentarily. "Where should we look?" I asked, half scared about Elliot and half grumpy to be pulled away from the fireworks.
"I'm thinking I'd better head up toward the quarry," Pa said. "God forbid—"
I jammed the lantern handle back into his hand. "You take the light, then," I said.
"Yeah," said Willie. "You'll need it worse than us. Anyhow, I can get one when we pass my house. We'll look around the crowd. He's likely ran into a pal and is just setting here watching the show." You could tell how hard Willie was trying to buck Pa up. He knew good and well Elliot didn't have any pals except maybe his friend Jesus.
"Perhaps..." Pa said. "But it probably makes sense to look around here first. Thank you, boys." With that he hurried off in the direction of East Hill Road—the one that passes the cemetery and ends up at the quarry, which is about a fifty-foot-deep hole in the ground lined with nothing but granite rock. I shivered, as both Willie and me watched until the dark swallowed Pa up.
"Where you think Elliot is?" Willie asked.
"How should I know?" I snapped. It was hard enough having a brother like Elliot without having him disappear in the middle of the Fourth of July fireworks, worrying your pa half to distraction.
We looked around the crowd as best we could, but people didn't take kindly to us peering down at their blankets. Soon Willie said, "Let's go home and get another lantern. Then we can see what we're doing."
We headed toward Willie's house. His aunt was already asleep. Fireworks or no fireworks, the woman kept absolutely regular hours. Willie and me tried hard to tiptoe and whisper, but before we were three feet inside the door, I stumped my toe on the cat's water dish, sending it clanking across the wood floor.
"Who's there?!"
"Just us, Aunt Millie."
"Why aren't you in bed, William?"
"Me and Robbie got to help Reverend Hewitt look for Elliot. He kinda wandered away during the fireworks. I come to fetch a lantern."
She mumbled something from her room down the hall, which we took as permission. Willie got the lantern from the pantry. He waited until we were safely outside to strike the match and light it. The sudden sulfur smell of the lucifer match brought to mind Reverend Pelham's spare-no-details description of Hell. I shook myself to be rid of such a thought.
We tried to think of all of Elliot's favorite places, the general store being top of the list because that's where all the candy is. There was no one near the darkened storefront. No Elliot peering into the front glass window or sitting on the edge of the porch, swinging his legs. We went back to the fireworks just to make sure he hadn't returned, but they were over and the crowd was breaking up. People started to wander down the street in both directions, heading home.
"Should we find your ma?"
I shook my head. "She'd only worry," I said.
We tried the livery stable next. Only old Rube Wiley was around, but he hadn't seen "head nor hair of no one with less than four legs" since the concert began hours before. "I'd help you look, boys, but all that banging has made these horses skittery as brides the day before the wedding."
We walked to the south end of Main. Then we circled behind the houses on the west side, next behind the houses on the east side. We checked the green once more to make sure Elliot hadn't somehow returned. All we found was a blanket and a wicker basket that someone would be hunting for come morning.
"Better try the railroad tracks—and the creek," Willie said.
Lord have mercy. Surely Elliot wouldn't go to the creek in the middle of the night. Surely he had more sense than that! I followed Willie back up Main and then down Depot Street. We swung the lantern around the platform and down the tracks. Then we crossed them, recrossed Main, and walked along the North Branch at least half a mile.
"He wouldn't have headed for the pond, would he?"
"Nah! He ain't a total idiot!" I was talking too loud, trying to outyell the thought of Elliot floating facedown in the middle of Cutter's Pond.
"C'mon, Robbie. Nobody's calling nobody nothing. I'm just trying to think of everything."
"I know," I said. "Let's go check ar
ound the stone sheds. If he ain't there, we'd best go home. Why, he's probably there right now, safe and sound, while you and me is running around looking for him like crazy men."