“What happened then?” I asked.
“The older boys liked picking on kids and getting them to do stupid things just for laughs. I wanted them to like me.”
I could hear Karen sniffling beside me, but I couldn’t look away from Barry.
“One afternoon, they told me to meet them at the abandoned quarry outside town after classes,” he continued. “They wouldn’t say why. They just kept calling me a ‘chicken’ whenever I asked.”
“I wanted them to like me.”
“But that’s one place that all the kids have been warned to stay away from?” I interjected.
“Yeah. And I was terrified. I didn’t want to go alone.”
Barry hesitated.
“That’s when I saw him, your son. He kept to himself a lot at school. Kids gave him a hard time sometimes. I figured he wouldn’t say no if I asked him to come with me.”
The room suddenly felt smaller.
“That’s when I saw him, your son.”
Karen covered her face.
“He thought I’d become his friend,” Barry whispered. “When I told him we had the same name, he smiled as if it meant something special.”
I felt my throat tighten.
Barry’s voice began to shake. “After school, we walked out to the quarry, and when we got there, the older boys were waiting. Three of them. They told us if we wanted to prove we were brave, we had to climb along the rocky edge above the water.”
“The older boys were waiting.”
Karen gasped.
“The ledge was narrow,” Barry said. “Loose gravel everywhere. One wrong step and you could fall straight into the quarry lake. I panicked.” Barry closed his eyes. “I took one look at that drop, and I ran. I didn’t even think. I just ran all the way home.”
“And my son?” I asked.
Barry’s voice cracked. “He stayed.”
Karen sobbed harder.
“He probably thought he had to prove something,” Barry said, sadly.
“I just ran all the way home.”
My hands began to tremble. “What happened to him?”
“I didn’t know for years. The search started the next day,” Barry continued. “Police everywhere. Helicopters. People asking questions.”
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