There

For Three Word Wednesday. Prompt words entice, savor, chance.

There 

They asked me

Where’d you see

him last, voices

modulating

in that grave tone

of adult concern.

So I took them, 

neighbors and neighbors

friends following me

a few hundred yards

down the creek bank

to a place we’d often

go, Wes and I,

to swim or fish or

sneak a smoke.

Once we’d even

talked our parents

into letting us camp

overnight; with enough

supplies for a two-week

stay we took our fill

of liberty, staying up

till dawn and savoring

a breakfast of bluegill

and granola bars.

We walked,

as the first stars

began to wink, past

the old campsite,

past the trees that

opened up as if by

chance. I pointed

to an enticing spot

where waist-high water

plunged

into our deep

swimming hole:

There,

I said, this much

the truth. I had

seen him there

three hours ago,

after we’d catfished

and puffed half

a pack of Marlboros,

and jumped

from the old green oak

into the rain-swelled current—

There.  But I

didn’t tell them

how we’d hurled

hurtful words,

and worse,

and how he’d stood

in the reddening water

and cried.