The Fort

by Aric Davis

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Text copyright © 2013 Aric Davis

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Design & Illustration: © mecob.org

  Cover Photographs:

  © Stephen Alvarez/Getty

  © Doug Garrabrants/Getty

  © Visuals Unlimited, Inc.

  /Victor Habbick/Getty

  © Sung-Il Kim/Corbis

  Published by Thomas & Mercer

  PO Box 400818

  Las Vegas, NV 89140

  ISBN-13: 9781611099393

  ISBN-10: 1611099390

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2012920543

  For Scout

  CONTENTS

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  1

  The fort was made out of scrap wood that had been harvested from Stan Benchley’s old deck by his son, Tim, after the deck had been torn down to be replaced by a patio. Tammy Benchley, Tim’s mother and Stan’s wife, had decided in what Stan decided mid-project was a fit of madness that her husband could install a patio without professional help. Stan, a teacher by trade and a man who very much valued his summer vacations, found the task to be much harder than his wife had told him it would be. The weather was hot as well, and it quickly became clear to Stan that he would be suffering in the heat of the sun for nearly the entire summer, digging out the earth, replacing it with pea gravel, and slowly leveling the stone patio pavers. By contrast, Tim and his friends Scott and Luke had their project finished much faster.

  The fort was roughly twenty feet off the floor of what the boys thought of as the forest, and what most adults in the area thought of as the “eyesore.” The base of the fort was made by attaching scrapped four-by-fours to three trimmed pine trees growing within a few feet of each other. The boys were able to place these boards by building ladders into the trees using pieces of cut-up two-by-fours, also scrapped, of course. Using the four-by-fours as their attachment point, the boys slowly made the floor of the fort out of more scrap two-by-fours, measuring, cutting, and then attaching each floorboard to the tops of the four-by-fours.

  The first of the three trees was the thickest, and rather than build the fort over the base of a difficult-to-create A-shape, the boys used this larger tree to span as near as possible to the width of the other two. This early step in engineering, suggested by Tim’s dad, made the shape of the fort’s floor closer to a trapezoid than a square, and helped utilize both the strengths and the positions of the three trees to maximum advantage.

  The walls of the fort had been kludged together from a mixture of four-by-fours and a forgotten stack of treated plywood that had been left to rot after a project from another summer, a period Stan Benchley still referred to as the Year of the Shed. The plywood had windows sawed into it at heights appropriate for the boys to look through, and allowed incredible sight lines into the rarely trespassed patch of trees.

  When it was finished on June 29, 1987, the fort’s floor was eight feet by ten feet, give or take an inch or two. Three separate ladders led up to it, one up each tree, and walls a foot taller than the tallest boy—Scott, five feet, five inches—stood to protect them. Windows with crude shutters had been cut into the walls, and a roof was over their heads to protect them from the elements. The roof and walls were afterthoughts, but it was hard to tell, due to the unlikely but really quite skilled construction work done by the three boys.

  At the point of the fort’s completion, summer break was only a month old. The Detroit Tigers were finally gaining ground in the standings after another shaky start, the Red Wings were awful as usual, but Steve Yzerman was starting to become a presence on the ice. The Pistons had done better, only to be eliminated in the playoffs by the Boston Celtics, and the Lions’ season wasn’t being mentioned by anyone but the most die-hard fans. Not that the boys cared about much of that, of course. Summer felt like a living, breathing thing, especially only a third of the way through. It was something to be respected and enjoyed, before its evil sisters, fall and school, came back to haunt them.

  On this Monday afternoon, Scott knelt in the fort, controlling his cheek weld on the rifle the way Luke had assured him snipers in Vietnam did. During the last weeks of school, Luke had read a book about Carlos Hathcock, legendary sniper of the Vietnam conflict, and Vietnam had been the game ever since, especially since the fort was completed. Next to Tim, Luke held a Daisy air rifle that had been pumped to maximum capacity, not quite powerful enough to break skin, but enough to hurt if one were shot with it. On the other side of Tim was Scott, currently aiming out the window. The rifle’s stock was stuffed into his shoulder, and his nontrigger hand was across his chest and supporting the stock from underneath, the way Scott had seen his stepdad do with his deer rifle.

  “You got him lined up?” Tim asked. “He isn’t moving. Take the shot!”

  “Negative,” said Scott. “Still scanning the area for other VC.” Scott was scanning for North Vietnamese soldiers in black pajamas, but all he was really doing was moving the barrel of the rifle in every direction that kept it from pointing at the target the boys had borrowed from Scott’s stepfather’s range bag.

  “You see any?” Luke asked in a serious voice, and Tim responded in kind.

  “Negative on that, Command. Aside from our target, the area appears clear of VC,” Scott said in a slow whisper. “I’m going to take the shot.”

  “Steady on that rifle, Staff Sergeant,” said Tim. “The President wants that man dead.” Scott gave Tim a look, and Tim shrugged back at him. Finally, Scott laid the front blade of the sight on top of the center of the bull’s-eye, aligning it between the blades of the rear sight. He was breathing even more slowly now, just as his dad and Hathcock, the sniper from the book, had agreed was important when shooting. He slowly eased back the trigger, making sure not to jerk it, and the rifle fired.

  Scott and Luke dove to the floor of the fort while Tim tried to get the binoculars to focus on the target. Finally, Tim joined them on the floor. “These binoculars still suck. We’re going to have to go down there to see if you got a kill.”

  All three boys shouldered air rifles before descending down the same ladder, one after the other. After all, there could still be VC in the area, regardless of reports. They walked silently to the target, and when they got there, Scott spit in disgust.


  “Another miss?” Luke said. “Are we really going to do this all day? We should all get to shoot a couple times and then go look.”

  “Won’t work,” said Scott. “We won’t know who shot what. I risked getting in a lot of trouble by taking that target, and we’re not going to waste it like a bunch of stupid babies.” He looked at his friends, first Tim, and then Luke, to make sure they were taking him seriously. “Besides, half the fun is in pretending that we’re really snipers. It wouldn’t be as cool if we shot it a few hundred times. That would be like, World War Two machine gunners, or something. We’re playing sniper.”

  “You’re right, dude,” said Luke. “Sorry. But last time I checked, only queers were last ones back to the fort.” He said it as he took off at a gallop, his air rifle bouncing on his back. His friends bounded after him, all of them laughing and the forest vacating life around them as they crashed through the brush, quite unlike the men they had been pretending to be.

  2

  Tim emerged from the woods into his backyard, a ten-minute walk from the branching of trails that led to the fort and the boys’ three homes. His dad was sitting on a folding chair, sitting in front of the still-very-much-in-progress patio, and nursing a beer that was sweating condensation faster than it was being drunk. There was an empty folding seat next to his father, and Tim plopped into it, the late-afternoon sun over the peak of the house instantly beginning to roast his face. Tim moved the chair forward a foot and slouched down. Problem solved.

  “Your mother means to kill me,” said Stan. “Or at least wants me to suffer. I’m not sure yet which. It may be both. Has she told you who she plans to marry when the insurance money runs out?”

  “Not yet, Dad. Is it that hard? ’Cause it looks super easy.”

  “Oh, fruit of my loins, you are beyond lucky that I recall and respect the sanctity of a boy’s summer vacation. By all rights, you should have a transfer shovel in your massively blistered hands right now, and you should be moving that enormous pile of rocks in the driveway into this hole. We may avoid church, son, but you should thank God just in case. Trust me. You are very lucky.”

  “It’s not like I’m the only kid,” said Tim. “Becca’s not helping either.”

  “Becca and Mom are currently discussing terms of war.” Becca was fifteen, and things had been moving toward a serious conflict. Tim wasn’t sure exactly why she and his mom hadn’t been getting along, only that he didn’t expect them to start getting along anytime soon, and he figured boys were at least part of the problem. “And because of that, us menfolk are much better off out here. You can either move rocks or compliment my ability to drink a beer. Choose wisely.”

  “Looking good, Dad.”

  “Damn straight.”

  Tim leaned back in the chair, enjoying the warmth, but even more so, the freedom. As much as his dad griped about the patio, Tim had a feeling his old man was enjoying the freedom from work as well, even if he had ended up with a different sort of work.

  “So what were you and your buddies up to today?”

  “Shooting at a target with our air rifles.”

  “Vietnam?”

  “No.”

  “Yes,” Stan said, then took a drink of beer. “Which is fine with me, by the way. Just don’t let Mom catch wind of it. You know how she feels about that.” Tammy’s older brother, Mike, had been killed in Khe Sanh in 1968, when she was sixteen. There was a photograph of a smiling Uncle Mike that hung on the mantel. In the picture he was drinking a Budweiser and leaning on a Huey helicopter. Looking at the picture, Tim had wondered on more than one occasion if there wasn’t some version of Uncle Mike in some parallel universe who hadn’t gotten killed.

  “I know. I won’t.” Tim thought about asking a question about Uncle Mike, steal some cool factoid about his ever-smiling mystery uncle, but decided to change the subject instead. “How much longer do you think the patio is going to take?”

  “It’s still June, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “Longer than June.”

  “I’ll get a shovel,” said Tim as he stood to walk around the house. He couldn’t see it, but behind him, his dad was smiling.

  The gravel seemed almost magical: no matter how much of it Tim and his dad moved, the pile always seemed to be the same size. Tim mentioned this to his dad, saying that he was pretty sure they were stuck in a time warp. His dad didn’t respond, and Tim took that as an agreement that yes, they had been abducted by some alien entity that loved to watch men move wheelbarrows full of stone. Finally, after about an hour and six loads of pea gravel, Tim’s mother stuck her head out the front door of their ranch-style house with an announcement that dinner was done.

  “All right,” said Stan. “We’ll be right in. Go wash up, buckaroo. I’ll dump this last load.”

  Tim did not need to be told twice. He put the shovel back in the vertical rack where the yard tools were kept, then ran inside to wash his hands in the kitchen sink. It was hot in the house. Bearable due to a brilliantly devised series of fans set up by his mom every year, but still hot. Tim walked through the kitchen and sat at the dining room table, across from a furious-looking Becca.

  “What’s shakin’, Bacon?” Tim asked his sister, who stole a glance at their mom in the kitchen, saw that she was busy doing something, and flipped her younger brother the bird. Bacon was an old nickname for Becca; a very young Tim had called her Beccan for several months, and their parents had found it hilarious. Becca had too, until a few months ago. Now, Tim said it either to annoy her or as a genuine mistake of habit.

  A few moments later Stan entered the kitchen, washed his hands, and sat at the table with his children. Tammy was close behind, with an enormous bowl of salad.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” she said as she set the bowl down in the center of the table. “It’s too hot to cook anything in here, and until that patio’s done, your father can’t grill. There’s some incentive for you, Stan. As soon as it’s done we can have some steaks.”

  “And if I say I like salad and no longer want to grill, thus meaning I no longer require a patio, can we leave it as is?” He said this slowly, stealing looks at his children. Becca was even smiling, despite herself.

  “Trust me, Stanley,” Tammy said just as slowly, but with a wicked smile, “you want to have a patio. Especially now that you’ve started. Besides, I saw you and Tim working out there—you’re at least halfway done.”

  “Half of half, maybe,” said Stan, piling his plate high with Caesar salad. “There’s still a long way to go.”

  “Dad, can I go to a movie?” Becca asked in a sweet voice, but before he could answer, Mom broke in: “I said you may ask your father after dinner.”

  “What movie?” he asked.

  “Why does that matter?”

  Tim’s eyes were already darting between the participants of what was likely to be a violent but short-lived skirmish.

  “Tell him,” said Tammy. “Then tell him who else is going.” She was smiling again, even more evilly, Tim noted, than when Dad had jokingly suggested that the patio project go on hiatus.

  “Full Metal Jacket and The Untouchables, at the drive-in,” Becca sighed, eyes focused on her still-empty plate. “And a bunch of people are going. Jammi, Molly, Tara, Tracy, Stacey—lots of people. It’s going to be cool.”

  “Tell him who else,” cooed Tammy, between bites of salad. “Because as much as I hate the idea of you seeing a couple of R-rated movies with all of your polite, well-mannered, and utterly gracious girlfriends, all of whom I’m sure are saving themselves for marriage, I really love the idea of that deadbeat—”

  “He is not a deadbeat!” Becca nearly shouted. “Tyler is cool, and didn’t even ask me to go. He’s just going to be there, it’s not like it’s a date or anything.”

  “Which is good,” snapped Tammy. Tim forced himself not to smile as he ate. “Because as it has been made quite clear to you on numerous occasions, you are not going to be dating anyone.
Not Tyler Cranston, not Harrison Ford, not anybody.”

  “Heard some great news, Mom,” snapped Becca in an exact replica of her mom’s tone. “It is now the 1980s, and everyone is dating. Even babies like Tim go on dates if they’re not too ugly, or busy playing with their loser buddies.”

  “Twelve-year-olds are dating?” Tim asked. That was news to him.

  His question was ignored, however, as his dad stood, dumped salad on his daughter’s plate, and sat back down. “Becca, eat.” To demonstrate, he stuffed a forkful of salad between his lips, chewed, and continued. “And she did say it wasn’t a date, Tam.”

  Tammy rolled her eyes at her husband, who pretended not to notice. “So if it’s not a date, what is it?”

  “A gathering of friends,” said Becca, her voice all but dead.

  “And will this gathering of friends be consuming alcohol or smoking pot?”

  Becca rolled her eyes. “None of my friends do that. They’re not idiots. Besides, Tyler has to stay away from all that stuff, or he could lose eligibility for football. Even the people that do that stuff don’t do it around him, just because it wouldn’t be fair for him to lose his chance at a letter.”

  “When would you be arriving home?” Stan asked.

  “When the second movie is done.”

  Stan Benchley made the sound of a buzzer going off. “Not good enough,” he said, pointing at a clock that was hanging on the wall over Becca’s head. “Those run on hours and minutes, not movies. When does this all start?”

  “Seven thirty.”

  “Who’s driving?”

  “Jammi.”

  “She has her license?”

  “Got held back in first grade because she needed glasses and they didn’t figure it out until too late.” Becca chuckled into her fist. “They thought she was retarded.”

  “All right,” said Stan, between bites. “Mom gets last approval on clothing and makeup; you’re home not one second after my clock, not yours, says midnight; and you make good choices. You were raised right. Don’t make me into a bad guy for letting you do something a little grown up.”