Joe knew when he didn’t return home in a reasonable amount of time, Frank would start to search for him. He also knew Frank would never find him out in the middle of nowhere, as far from Steven’s house as he could possibly get and still be in Bayport. Joe knew he had to at least get out to the main road.

‘Easier said than done,’ he thought scowling.

Joe pushed aside the self-doubt that was bubbling up inside. Rather than getting sidetracked thinking about all the mistakes he’d made that had landed him here, Joe focused on what he needed to do to get out to the main road, taking it one step at a time.

Slowly rocking himself side to side, Joe tried to gain just the right amount of momentum. Too little and he’d be lying on his stomach, kissing the ground all night. Too much and he’d end up on his back with his hands pinned underneath him. While the thought of rolling onto his side seemed simple enough in theory, the reality proved to be much different.

Each movement, however slight, caused the throbbing in his ribs to increase. At one point he rolled onto a rock jutting up from the ground, sending a searing pain through his side. After several more starts and stops, Joe felt himself rolling up onto his side. For one brief moment he panicked, as he almost rolled onto his back.

‘No! No! No! Stop!’ He let out a small desperate cry and then held his breath, balancing precariously on his hip.

‘YES! I did it!’ Joe allowed himself a few seconds to bask in his victory before he tackled step two – getting his arms in front of him.

Joe started to pull his knees to his chest and stopped almost immediately, hissing in pain. ‘Oh, man that HURTS!’ Giving himself a moment to catch his breath, Joe tried again…and again…and again. By the time he had maneuvered his hands in front of him, almost fifteen minutes later, he was sweating despite the chill in the air. His ribs were throbbing incessantly now, sapping his strength and his self-confidence.

Reaching up, Joe tried to push the blindfold up and off his head. Unfortunately Jonathan had tied the cloth so tightly, Joe succeeded only in scratching the side of his face when his fingers slipped. The blindfold remained securely in place and Joe remained in total darkness.

Unable to see, Joe’s plan to get out to the main road was disintegrating rapidly. As his frustration with himself grew, Joe was sinking into a well of self-pity. He shivered wondering how cold it would get that night.

‘Frank never gets himself into trouble like this!’ Joe fumed, disgusted with himself. ‘Why didn’t I listen to Frank? Why wouldn’t I let him help?’

Joe thought of all the times he felt inferior to his older brother and knew this would be another one to add to the list. All he had wanted to do was prove himself, on his own, to Frank and his father.

It suddenly dawned on Joe that they had never done or said anything to indicate they thought he was ‘less’ than Frank. In fact both his parents went out of their way to celebrate Joe’s accomplishments just as enthusiastically as they did Frank’s. It never mattered to them that Joe excelled at athletic activities rather than educational pursuits as his older brother did. Nor did it matter to Frank.

As for school, Fenton and Laura only asked that Joe do his best, not that he try and be a carbon copy of Frank. It seemed the only one who thought Joe’s best wasn’t good enough, the only one who thought he didn’t measure up to Frank, was Joe himself.

Joe understood he should have accepted Frank’s help as soon as he offered it. But Joe had wanted to prove himself; prove he could take care of Steven on his own without Frank’s help.

‘And all I did was screw up – AGAIN!’ Joe thought miserably. ‘By the time this is over, no one will want to be seen with me! Not Frank or Chet or Iola… Iola…’

Joe could still feel Iola’s arms around his neck, her lips pressing against his.

‘She believes in you!’ Joe reminded himself. ‘And she’s expecting you to take her to the dance tomorrow.’

With a new shot of confidence, Joe refused to be Steven’s victim again. Gingerly, Joe drew his knees towards his chest. Wincing as the throbbing in his ribs increased, Joe reached down and fumbled with the knots in the ropes that bound his ankles. It took several frustrating minutes, but eventually the rope fell away.

Extending his hands forward slightly, Joe rocked back and forth a few times, gaining enough momentum to leverage himself to his hands and knees. Awkwardly, Joe walked his hands in until he was balanced on the balls of his feet. Taking a few seconds to steady himself, Joe slowly stood up.

Once he was upright, Joe stayed completely still, trying to visualize his position on the ground in relation to the dirt road they had used to get to the field. Concentrating, Joe moved a little to his left. Slowly, he took a few tentative steps forward, arms outstretched in front of him to ward off any unpleasant collisions. Gaining confidence, he continued forward, using his arms to guide him away from the outstretched branches and low-hanging limbs of the trees that lined the perimeter of the field.

In less than a minute Joe felt the terrain changing. He smiled even as he stumbled and almost fell on the rutted dirt road. The uneven path, strewn with rocks and potholes, and the trees and bushes along the sides of the road forced Joe to slow down considerably. This allowed plenty of time for his body’s aches and pains to remind him of their presence.

With no frame of reference as to time, Joe had no idea how long he’d been stumbling along the dirt path. His confidence and determination were slipping and he began to question just how good his plan was when he thought he felt something change.

As the uneven dirt path under his feet turned to gravel, Joe breathed a huge sigh of relief. While this road wasn’t heavily traveled, at least he was now out in the open. Eventually someone would pass by him.

Unsure of just how close he was to the road, Joe took a few more tentative steps forward. He figured it would be just his luck to get out of the woods in spite of being blindfolded and tied up, and then not have ventured far enough to be seen from the road. Determined not to spend the night in a ditch by the side of the road because no one could see him, Joe took two more steps and felt hard, solid ground beneath his feet.

Tilting his head back so far his neck hurt, Joe tried to peer out from underneath the blindfold. Reaching up, he awkwardly pushed the tight piece of cloth up a fraction of an inch. Looking down, Joe thought he saw the very edge of a yellow line. Unsure if it indicated the shoulder of the road or the line dividing the center of the road, Joe decided to take a few steps back to safety. Before he could move, a car came around the bend and startled him. Joe froze, like a deer caught in the headlights. As the glare penetrated the blindfold, Joe knew he was about to be run down and prayed the end would be swift and painless. eHhhhh