Missing in the Pines

By Randy Stonehouse

This story is about four grade school kids being bullied by older boys. The leader of the bullies whose named Tom, starts to become violent. The police try to put and end to his rein of terror over the town, but to no avail. The four boys take matters into their own hands to stop him once and for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randy Stonehouse
• Release date: Apr 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463395646

Randy Stonehouse

About the authorRandy Stonehouse has travelled most of Canada’s provinces as well parts of the States. He has worked as a general labourer, service technician, professional driver of heavy trucks, a driver trainer as well as owning his own business as a contractor repairing restaurant equipment. He always love’s a good book and his favorite author is Christopher Pike especially the earlier books that were intended for teens. Randy Stonehouse resides in Hamilton, Ontario where he and his wife have settled down for over twenty-five years. He started writing books as a way to express his thoughts and ideas and to challenge himself to share his stories to other people through his books.

Book preview

Prologue

This is a story of four middle school grade kids that became friends. The four boys were always being bullied by three older boys. The one, the leader was especially mean and would pick on two of the boys for no reason at all. The story takes place in a small town where everyone knows everyone. The four boys decided to take matters into their own hands after the bullies attacked one of them. This story tells you how they overcome the attacks and took matters into their own hands, with the help of one of their uncles.

Prologue

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

About the author

Books by the author

Missing in the Pines

Chapter one

This story is about four young boys, all from different backgrounds but became the closest of friends. The first boys name was Jerrold, at eleven years of age he had endured abuse that no one would have endured in all their years. He was known as the strong silent type. He was always polite and avoided trouble even if it was standing right there in front of him.

Jerrold was soft spoken and for an eleven-year-old he stood five foot seven inches tall. He was not allowed to participate in any kind of sports and was seldom coming to school with bruises and scrapes all over his body. There were rumors going around that his dad, who was the local drunk would beat the hell out of him every day.

The next boy was Raymond. Also, an eleven-year-old but with a totally different upbringing. Raymond stood around four foot eleven inches tall and from the looks of him he was well fed. He was shy and was always the target of the school bullies. Every day when the last school bell would go off Raymond would sneak around searching the halls to avoid the bullies. Some how they would always find him.

The third boy was named Braxton. Now Braxton was the smart one. He was always a straight A student, and everyone wanted him as their friend. He was always thinking up new ideas and put them into action. He was just five foot three inches tall and thinly built. He wore glasses which made him look more mature for his age. He always had a backpack which was loaded with some of his tools he used daily.

The fourth boy was Marco. Now this kid had connections, his dad ran the local gang. His dad would take him along as he dealt out punishment to those who would cross him. At eleven years of age he stood five foot five and lanky looking. But he did know how to use brass knuckles and some other weapons that his dad was proud to show him. With his black hair long and shaggy, he fit the profile of a gangster. No one in the school including the teachers ever talked cross to him in fear of his father’s retaliation.

The story starts at the beginning of the school year. The three boys were in the same class except for Raymond who was in another class. At the last bell of the day, once again Raymond was sneaking around the halls, hoping to not be the subject of the bullies’ abuse. All four boys would be going to middle school next year and they couldn’t wait for the year to be over. All the boys lived within three blocks of each other but only two have ever been over to the others home to hang out.

Once again Raymond was caught by the three bullies. The bullies were fourteen years old and when together they would act out against the younger kids. This time they forced Raymond into the bathroom and started beating him up. Luckily the janitor went in and caught the boy’s red handed. The janitor was a rough elderly man who would deal things his way. With his mop in one hand he let go with a fury of hard swings striking the bullies several times. The janitor motioned Raymond to get out of there while he fended off the three kids.

The next day Raymond walked by the principle’s office just as two police officers were placing handcuffs on the janitor’s wrist. The janitor looked towards Raymond and gave him a wink. The bullies were Tom, Jeff, and Terry. They were all thirteen years old and came from homes where they were beaten for looking the wrong way. Since they were raised in a home where insults and hitting occurred daily, they in turned took out their aggression on the weaker kids.

Tom stood almost six foot and was very strong. He was the leader of the bullies. His mom died years earlier and his dad was a drunk the would smack him around just for the fun of it. Deep down inside Tom believed that his dad held him accountable for his mom dying.

Jeff was almost the same height as Tom but was a skinny kid. He looked like he was malnourished but ate like a pig. He was what the kids called a stoner. He always had pot on him. He always followed what Tom told him to do even though he knew it was wrong. His parents were from the time of hippies and would buy Jeff his pot. They never gave him any attention and raised him as if he was an independent allowing him to come and go as he pleased.

Terry was a smart kid that was five foot seven inches tall. He had the brains of the three of them but still followed whatever Tom told him to do. This was mostly out of fear of Tom taking out his aggression on him. He was the one that would get the abuse if Tom was caught beating on some kids or called to the office for shit, they did. It was always Terry’s fault if they got caught or blamed for what they did. All three of them were always called to the principle’s office for something. Tom loved to beat on Raymond. Every time he would get hit by his dad; he would use Raymond for releasing his anger. If Raymond was not at school, then Braxton would be the one for them to beat up. The problem was that Braxton even as small as he was, would always try to out think Tom and his goons.

It was the last day of school in the small city of Alderbourgh and as usual Tom was on the prowl for Raymond. Tom knew that when he got home his old man would beat the hell out of him for his failing report card. Raymond on the other hand had met up with Jerrold, Braxton and Marco at the end of the school grounds. Braxton was sporting some new bruises on his face from taking Raymond’s place of Tom’s anger.

Jerrold asked, Braxton, what the hell happened to you?

Braxton replied, Tom couldn’t find Raymond, so he took it out on me.

Raymond looked down at the ground then said, I am really sorry man, I snuck out of school early, so he couldn’t find me. The four boys got on their bikes and headed over to their hiding place. There was a growth of pine trees just out of the city limits. The growth of trees stretched out for about fifteen acres and about three acres deep.

The growth was thick, and no one ever went there except the four boys. They had made a fort deep inside which was invisible from the road way. The boys spent most of their time there skipping rocks on the small creek and catching frogs. Their fort was made from broken tree branches and some wood that they got from the skid factory in town.

It was in every sense their sanctuary away from the abuse from Tom and his followers. They would go there every day right after school and hung around till it was time to go home. Even on summer break they hung out together. And as always, they had to keep Tom and his boys from catching them. The only one Tom never touched was Marco. Tom’s old man knew Marco’s dad and knew what would happen if he touched him.

One Monday morning the four boys went to the local grocers. The grocer was hiring kids to deliver groceries for the seniors that were shut in or couldn’t carry the bags home. It wasn’t much money, but the people always gave the boys a tip. It was easy work for the summer, just a couple of hours a day and they enjoyed talking to the customers. Most of the customers would have lemonade or iced tea waiting for the boys when they arrived.

The boys liked three of their customers and tried every week to get them on their delivery list. The three customers were war vets and would take the time to tell the boys of their stories of when they were in the war. It seemed like every day they had to hide from Tom. One time they saw Tom at the hospital’s emergency room. Apparently, his old man took out his rage on the kid, breaking his left arm and splitting his head open with a baseball bat. It was later that they found out Tom’s dad did what he did after finding Tom’s report card hidden in his dresser.

The four thought well at least we don’t have to worry about getting beat up by Tom for awhile. But they were wrong, even with a cast on his left arm Tom and his goons would chase the boys. Several weeks into the summer break, Raymond was walking his bike home because of a flat tire. There was an old abandoned house with the windows broken out of it two blocks away from Raymond’s home. It was still early in the evening when Raymond walked by the place.

As he walked by the house, he heard some noise from behind him. Suddenly, he felt two arms wrap around him and forced him onto the ground. He was turned over onto his back and there standing over him was Tom and his goons. A second later everything went black for Raymond.

Several hours later Raymond opened his eyes and found two ambulance men placing him on a gurney. He was sore all over and realized he couldn’t move his left arm without severe pain. One of the men used a small flashlight as he shone the light over Raymond’s eyes.

A moment later the police were there with Raymond’s dad. His dad was yelling at the police, When are you guys going to stop these little bastards beating on my kid? The police officer tried to explain that they know all about the beatings, but Tom’s old man would tell the cops that maybe if the kids weren’t such pussies, then they wouldn’t get beat up all the time.

Of course, the cops went over to Tom’s house, but it was always the same response. Tom’s old man didn’t care about the law except the one