Phil Cohen pulled up in front of the old style farmhouse and parked. Getting out and looking around, he was surprised not to see Biff’s car there yet. He’d been running late and was sure he’d be the last to arrive.

“Hey Cohen,” a cheerful voice sang out from behind him, and the sandy-haired teen turned and smiled at Chet as the bigger boy walked towards him from the barn.  “Glad someone showed up!”

“What do you mean?” Phil demanded, slamming the car door shut and hearing it lock.  “Isn’t Biff coming?”  He was pretty sure that Joe wouldn’t be, since Frank would only be getting out of the hospital this morning.  And by mutual consent the friends had all decided to wait until the evening to drop by and visit – they’d let him get some rest first.

“Yeah, he called me almost an hour ago to say he was bringing Joe, but as of now, they haven’t shown up yet.”  Chet’s voice held a note of concern.  Joe’s house was only about twenty-five minutes’ drive from the farm, and they should have been here by now, if they left when Biff said they were going to.

“Did you try calling them?” Phil asked, his own brow furrowed in concern.  He’d just traveled the same route Biff would have taken and never saw any sign of them.  So it was unlikely that they had broken down.

“Iola’s in the house calling Frank now.  I figure it’d give us a better ETA if we knew when Biff picked up Joe.”

Phil nodded, it made sense.  “And Frank might know if they were planning any detours. You never can tell with those two!!”

Chet had to laugh at that – big-hearted, his friends were; punctual, they were not!

Just then Iola opened the screen door and walked out onto the veranda; her face was marred with a frown.

“What’d Frank say?” both boys demanded, hurrying towards her.

“He said that they left almost an hour ago,” Iola admitted and shook her head.  “But that doesn’t make any sense, unless they had somewhere else to go first.  Frank didn’t think so, though.”

“Hmmm,” Phil frowned, “Maybe they dropped by to see Tony.  Mr. P’s isn’t open yet, but Tony’d be there doing stock stuff.”

That was plausible, so Iola hurried back into the house to make the call.  Neither boy believed it, though – why would Biff and Joe drop by the pizzeria at this hour in the morning instead of coming directly out to the farm, like they’d agreed to?

* * *

“Ouch!” Joe winced as he released his seatbelt and fell face first onto the roof of the upside-down car.  Beside him, Biff had already done the same thing and was crawling out of the shattered driver’s side window.  Although only sixteen, Biff was a big fellow and for a couple of tense moments it looked like he might get stuck – but then he did get out, and hurried around to the other side of the car to help his best friend.

“Cover your face!” Biff yelled, seconds before he put his boot through Joe’s window, barely giving the other teen enough time to turn away.

“You could have given me a chance!” Joe groused as he painfully maneuvered around and then slowly out the window, wincing as he cut himself on a shard of glass.  “This really sucks!”

“You’re telling me,” Biff snorted, “My dad is going to kill me!” He helped Joe stand up and the two boys appraised each other for damage; all things considered, they had gotten off nearly unscathed, with a few bruises and cuts but nothing broken, and neither had lost consciousness during the roll or afterwards.

Looking at the car, they realized just how lucky they were.

“Man, my chest hurts,” Biff groaned as he pulled his shirt away from his body to take a look at the nasty seat belt bruise forming there.

Joe didn’t say anything although he knew exactly how Biff was feeling, as his own chest was just as sore.  He shook his head and sighed.

“What?” asked Biff as he dabbed at a cut on his cheek.

The younger boy snorted, “Frank’s never going to let me live this down!  This time I didn’t even get as far as the Mortons’ without something happening!!”

At that Biff laughed, “So this is your fault? I guess I should have known better than to give a ride to a little trouble magnet like you!” And then he groaned, as laughing hurt right now.

“Serves you right,” Joe muttered unsympathetically, and then eyed the embankment the car had rolled down.  “Let’s get up to the road. We stand a better chance of being seen up there.”  He started the climb up, his body angry at every step.

Biff started to follow before turning around and looking at the undercarriage of the car.  At least the wheels had stopped spinning. He shook his head and climbed after his friend, even as he quipped, “You think?”

* * *

Frank hung up the phone and frowned.

“Is something wrong?” Lily asked from behind him, and he turned and looked at her. He was still in disbelief at this turn of events.

“That was Iola…Iola Morton,” he added and Lily nodded.  “Joe and Biff were supposed to go and give the Mortons a hand on their farm this morning….They left an hour ago but aren’t there yet.”

Lily’s face wrinkled in concern.  “Oh dear. I hope nothing’s happened to them.  Your brother seems like such a cute little kid – in a puppy dog way.”

Frank couldn’t help but laugh, as he could just imagine all the colors of the rainbow Joe would turn if he could have heard Lily right now!

And then the girl moved across the living room and picked up her purse.

“You’re leaving?” he blurted out before he could stop himself, but she just smiled.

“I figured you’d want to go check up on your little brother, and my car’s out front….You’re recuperating from a head injury so I thought I’d better drive!”

Frank just stared at her and before he even realized what he was going to say, the words just came out: “You are amazing!”

Lily smiled and blushed under the compliment.  And as she headed towards the door, he caught her soft words, “Amazing enough for you, I hope.”

* * *

“Tony hasn’t seen them either!” Iola said as she hurried out of the house, her concern turning to full blown alarm.

Chet and Phil traded looks.

“We should go look for them,” Chet said, and Phil nodded, but asked:

“Where, though?  I never saw them when I was driving here.”

“Maybe they went off the road or something…” Iola put in, shivering as she felt a sudden chill. The boys looked at her, paling at the idea.

Without another word, they were heading for their respective vehicles.

* * *

“Dad’s going to kill me,” Biff moaned again, ten minutes later when they finally got back up on the road and he looked down at his wrecked car. The embankment was steep and recent rains had made it a difficult climb up the muddy incline.

“Maybe…it’s…not too…bad,” Joe gasped, bending over to try and catch his breath.  He’d actually ended up climbing up the bank twice; when he got halfway up, the first time, he lost his purchase and slid back down – narrowly missing Biff, who was too unbalanced himself to stop him.

“It’s upside down!” Biff wailed, not quite as winded as Joe and a whole lot less muddy!

“So the roof is dented,” Joe straightened up after he’d recovered a bit, and tried to cheer his disconsolate friend.  “Tow it up the bank, bang out the dents and it’ll be good as new!”

Biff turned around and looked at him in disbelief.  “Do you actually believe that??”

Joe went as close to the edge as he dared – not really too anxious to have to climb back up again if he slipped, again – and peered down at the car.  He looked back at his friend and then plastered on a phony smile as he clapped his friend on his back.  “Sure I do.  Now come on, before this mud hardens and I need to be chipped out of my clothes!”

The muscular teen looked at his friend, started to say something but then grinned and burst out laughing. “You do kind of look like a mud monster!” he admitted.  And it was true.  Joe was basically one big walking mud paddy with piercing blue eyes, which were right now glaring at his friend.

“Fine, laugh, but you can explain to Frank why I look like this!”  Biff’s face paled, and Joe continued, gloating as he started to walk along side the road, “He would have used his own body to slow down my descent!”

Biff’s sputtering reply was lost amidst the first clap of thunder.

The boys looked at each other and Joe scowled, “You have got to be kidding!  It’s going to rain on us, now?!”

Minutes later…it did.