“How the fuck would I know?” JP said. “You’re the only one of us who takes the bus.”

When we left the path and stepped onto the road, JP flicked his cigarette and then cupped it in his hand to hide it from oncoming cars. “Oh yeah, David,” he said. “We have to come back down here tonight to the boulder. Have to show you something. And Tyson, you’re coming. No crying about it again.”

“Show me what?” I asked over Tyson’s declaration that he never cries.

JP turned to face me. He lowered his voice to a whisper.

“A pugwagee.”

“Get out of here,” I said. “Really?”

“Swear to God,” JP said. “We were down at the boulder and we saw it far away in some trees. Right, Tyson?”

Tyson nodded.

“See? Even Tyson knows what he saw. I basically have to drag him through here at night to get to your shed.”

“Yeah,” I said. “About the shed—my mom knows you two have been going in there.”

“How does she know?” JP said. “We go late.”

“Crows were talking, she said.”

There was a pause and we stood. “I don’t know what’s scarier,” JP said, “the swamp lady or your mother.”

We laughed and kept on going.

“But for real,” JP said. “We saw one and chased it.”

“You chased it?” I laughed in disbelief.

“Yeah, but we were so far away that it was gone by the time we got to where we saw it. I’m surprised Tyson followed me.”

“I wasn’t waiting there by myself,” Tyson said. “I had no choice.”

“Well, Tyson,” I said. “Now you’ll wake up to the swamp lady and a pugwagee. You can cook them dinner.”

“Don’t forget the tobacco,” JP added.

On the side of the road we stood, staring into a path that could bring you about anywhere. The last glimmers of day covered the rez roads, but the trees shrouded the path in darkness, a tunnel of never-ending night.

“Let’s go before it gets too dark,” JP said.

He stepped into the path and I told him to wait. “Where are we even going?” I said.

“I don’t know,” JP said. “Let’s go all over the place.”

I followed his shadow into the woods.

. . .

That night, we waited in the same spot where JP and Tyson had said they saw the pugwagee, behind my house in the woods at the giant boulder. We sat quietly, but all we saw were tree shadows under the moon while mosquitoes pricked us.

After we quit waiting, I went home. Frick’s truck was in the driveway. I hadn’t seen him since I got back.